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December 2007

November 2007

The Simpsons Game Review At AMN

Matt Groening My work with The Simpsons Game is complete and my review of the game has been posted over at AMN.  In the end the game wound up feeling like another lazy Wii port from our friends at Electronic Arts just as I'd feared.  The real reason to play this game is to see all of the new animated material from The Simpsons writing staff.  There's actual animated clips that move the story along, and it's animation that looks like it was produced alongside The Simpsons Movie.  Honestly, that's the best aspect of the game.  Well, that and the many references to The Simpsons universe itself and gaming in general.

Springfield's game store (SequelStop) boasts posters of Bonestorm and Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge, while Kang and Kodos bring advertising billboards to life and incite a dolphin attack led by King Snorky as part of their invasion plot. Halfway through the game the Simpsons access "the game engine", the factory where video games are made. Parodies of Mario, Donkey Kong, and Sonic the Hedgehog turn up, while posters on the wall of the factory hype games such as Mega Moleman X and Need For Speedo (featuring Homer in scandalous swimwear). Entire levels poke fun at World War II shooters (Homer and Bart join Grandpa Simpson and his Flying Hellfish squadron), Japanese games (Milhouse appears as Katamari Damacy's King of All Cosmos), and Grand Theft Auto (in which Marge and Lisa clean up the gameworld and make it a nice place to live). Matt Groening turns up as an end-level boss who attacks by tossing character sketches that come to life at our favorite family. Fans of Groening's other famous soon-to-be-revived animation project should not miss this boss fight.

Fans of the series really need to at least rent this one and slog through the tepid gameplay to see all of the gags and clips.  Not a devotee of Homer J. Simpson?  Sit this one out.


New Ghostbusters Game Comes Back Around

GhostbustersUPDATE: Variety has more information including word that William Atherton (Walter Peck of the EPA) have signed on for the game along with other cast members from the films.

Remember earlier this year when Dan Aykroyd said in an interview that he was working on a new Ghostbusters video game?  Well, it's almost time for us to get a look at that game.  Game Informer has the story about this new adventure for the Sony PlayStation 3, PS2, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, and PC.

Harold Ramis, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd are getting back together and revisiting their roles to make a sequel to Ghostbusters 1 and 2 – in video-game form, and we’ve got the first details. Both Aykroyd and Ramis are teaming up for scriptwriting duties and are going far beyond just the typical licensed add-your-voice-to-the-game-you-had-nothing-to-do-with formula. And no, this has nothing to do with the Ghostbusters Zootfly video demonstration that floated around the internet in January.

I have no idea how they convinced Bill Murray to return to the franchise considering his disdain for any kind of new Ghostbusters project.  Here's hoping they get this one right.  I really want... need, even... this game to be fantastic.  When do we get to see the first screens of the game?  They'll probably have to be careful when they do release that material to make sure the screens don't overlap.  As we all know, crossing the screens would be bad.


Amazon To Offer $79 Wii, $139 PS3, $99 Xbox 360

WarioHold onto your wallets, gang.  Amazon.com is about to offer a major sale on game consoles (among other things).  How does a Nintendo Wii for $79 sound?  Or maybe you'd prefer the $139 Sony PlayStation 3?  How about a $99 Microsoft Xbox 360?  Here's the catch though: only 1,000 people will be able to buy at the low price and you have to vote for the offer for which you want to be eligible.

Step 1: Vote. Browse our six rounds of great products, and vote for the ones you’d like to buy at an amazing discount.

Step 2: Check back. Come back on each round's buying day to see if you were randomly selected to get a deal on the product you voted for in that round.

Keep in mind: You're only eligible to be offered a deal on the products that you vote for. You may vote in all six rounds on the same day if you like. You cannot change your vote. You must return to this page on the buying day for each round to find out whether you were randomly selected to be offered a deal on the product you voted for. If you're offered a deal, be sure to check out soon, as the offer is good for a limited time only.

I put in for the cheap PS3.  I have a lot of concerns about the PS3 when it costs $399, but it's amazing how those doubts disappear when the console costs only $139.  Good luck to us all!


Nintendo Discontinues Wi-Fi Connector

Nintendo Wi-Fi ConnectorGood riddance to flaky trash.  According to a message at the company's online store, Nintendo has discontinued the Wi-Fi Connector for the Wii and DS.  As you'll recall, this is the little USB gizmo that acts as a link between the two game machines and the Internet using a Windows PC as a bridge.  Despite the early promise of the accessory, it ultimately ended up being an unreliable add-on that dropped connections all too often and, at least in my experience, at times refused to function outright.  Farewell, Wi-Fi Connector.  You won't be missed.  No, wait, now that it's discontinued that means that the connector is now a highly sought after collectible.  And to think that I gave mine away a month or so ago.  I could have held out for overpriced eBay money!


Xbox Live Gets Own "Virtual Console" Service

Xbox LiveMicrosoft is celebrating Xbox Live's fifth anniversary by rolling out some downloadable favorites from last generation.  Yep, Microsoft is hopping aboard the Virtual Console/PlayStation Network express of offering up older games from days gone by, games from a simpler time when Halo ruled the sales charts and everyone wondered why Crash Bandicoot was still around.

More interestingly, the company has announced that with its latest Xbox Live update launching December 4th, Microsoft will kick off a new "Xbox Originals" campaign that will see the release of downloadable games for 1200 Points ($15) each.  Thus far confirmed titles include Halo, Psychonauts, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge and Fable, with "a growing catalog of Xbox games to download and own over the coming year."

I think this is a great idea and I'm actually surprised Microsoft hasn't set this kind of thing up before now.  Ever since the Xbox 360 hit stores (and even a little before that) the company has done its darnedest to bury the original Xbox console in a shallow grave in favor of its successor.  Meanwhile, the Sony PlayStation 2 lives on even as the PS3 tries to take the spotlight, while Nintendo's Wii is totally backward compatible with GameCube games without the need for software patches from the mothership.  It's good to see Microsoft finally come to terms with its original Xbox denial or whatever has been going on at the home office.  We know you like the 360, guys, but let's not forget your roots!


Wii To Drop MP3, Pick Up AAC

Wii photo channel

UPDATE: It's not as bad as we thought.

When I first heard about the impending update to the Nintendo Wii's Photo Channel I was fairly indifferent to the idea.  After all, in the past year I've used the Photo Channel just once when I showed my E3 photo album to my grandparents.  That's really been about it for Photo Channel usage, so imagine my mild surprise when I found out that the channel can play MP3 files as background music.  Neat, eh?  Don't get too comfortable with the idea though.  Next month Nintendo will issue an update that will remove MP3 playback in favor of AAC files.

The Wii console will replace MP3 compatibility with the ability to play AAC files, which provide a greater sound quality than an MP3 of the same size. This new compatibility will work with MP4 audio files in the .m4a format. Additionally, you can now choose to have the songs play back in a random order. For Wii Console owners without the AAC file compatibility, you can download the updated version of the Photo Channel from the Wii Shop Channel starting in early December 2007. Please note that once you download the updated Photo Channel (ver 1.1), you will no longer be able to play MP3 format music files.

This doesn't sound too earth-shattering, but now I'm wondering if this change is limited to just the Photo Channel.  What about games like Excite Truck that support custom soundtracks via MP3 files on a SD card?  This change won't break that feature, will it?  I'll convert my power truck '80s rock driving tunes to AACs if I must, but if this change nukes my ability to custom jam to Excite Truck then I will be most furious in that "make a lot of noise, then do nothing" sort of way.  I'll skip updating the channel if in-game MP3 support is at risk, but what happens when/if this format change is rolled into a mandatory Wii system update?


Simple Wii Storage Space Solution Is Super

Wii consoleChances are your Nintendo Wii is rapidly running out of free storage space thanks to save game files and meaty Virtual Console downloads.  Nintendo has said time and again that they're not planning any kind of external storage solution and that players should empty their Wiis of downloadable goodness when the space runs out since purchased downloadable content can be downloaded again for free.  AMN's Cameron Brown has a better idea, however, and it involves making the Wii a little more self aware [note to self: insert Skynet joke here].

The solution is for Nintendo to take their fridge analogy seriously—to take it to the next level and make it intuitive. The Wii system should be updated to work behind the scenes, so it can clean your fridge out for you—to be your very own personal refrigerator maid. When that new download of Majora's Mask maxes out your memory, the Wii knows to toss the Donkey Kong Country game you haven't played in months. DKC will still show up in your channels, but the next time you click to play, you'll just need to wait a few moments for it to automatically re-download—no return trip to the VC store necessary—and Tecmo Super Bowl gets shuffled off the system memory to return some other day.

Brilliant!  This sort of thing sounds like how my television's DVR works.  Old stuff gets tossed if it goes stale, although in this case the games would be invisibly retrieved when needed again somewhere down the road.  This is such a simple idea I can't believe it hasn't been pitched already (or if it was, it wasn't pitched very loudly).  How about it, Nintendo?  Think you're up to the challenge of implementing this idea?


Weekly Poll: Why Mii?

Weekly Poll for 11-05-2007 I'm glad to see Mario take the top spot in last week's poll.  In an age where gritty heroes like Master Chief seem to get most of the media attention, it's great to see timeless heroes like Mario continue to reign supreme.  That may be overstating things a bit, but this is my site and I'll rationalize the results however I like. 

*cough*

Moving on, we're coming up on the first anniversary of the Nintendo Wii's release and, with it, the first anniversary of those lovable little Mii characters.  In fact, Nintendo has just launched the new Check Mii Out channel for Wii in which gamers can send their Miis off to compete in popularity contests.  How do you feel about the Miis?  Do you use them for anything?  Do you build new Miis just for fun, swap 'em with your friends, and root for them in Wii Sports?  Or do they collect digital dust in the back of your Wii's closet of storage space?  Let's hear your thoughts.


The Super Mario Carney Story

Mario and LuigiWhile reading the comments over at Metafilter about yet another "history of Super Mario" article that everyone seems to be doing this week for some strange reason, I came across this sweet story about video games, carnivals, and the eternal quest for a higher score. 

Talk of Super Mario Bros. always brings a smile to my face. If it weren’t for those games, my childhood would have been a lot less exciting. I grew up as a carney. My parents were carneys and my grandparents and great-grandparents were carneys. My father was a concessionaire who sold food at fairs all over the U.S. and Canada. He sold popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones, candied apples, funnel cakes, and fiddlesticks to name a few. We lived a very nomadic sort of life, traveling around the country in an Airstream for six months out of the year. We actually lived on the fairgrounds in Winnepeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and Regina during the summer.

While on the road, I had not much else to do aside from the opportunity to read. Eventually, this habit was accompanied by playing video games in my trailer. We didn’t have any television channels but did have a t.v. So I played and played and played my NES for hours. I became very skilled at a number of different games. One in particular brought me a little more fame however.

It's a little something fun for your Friday afternoon from someone by the name of Cyrena.  Enjoy!


Where All The Matts At?

Bionic CommandoStephen Totilo at MTV's Multiplayer blog is asking the hard questions this week.  Specifically, why are so many new gaming characters named "Nathan" these days?

How could developers of three games — Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Resistance: Fall of Man and the new Bionic Commando all go with the same character name? Could they be drawing from a common well-spring of inspiration? Were they trying to start a beef among studios? By asking them all about each other, is that what I was doing?

Apparently the folks behind Uncharted were considering "Matt Drake" as a backup name for hero Nathan Drake.  Now Matthew is a terrific name for a hero (and believe me, I should know), but as I think about it, I'm having trouble coming up with many famous fictional Matthews in gaming, television, or movies.  So far all I've been able to come up with are Matt Parkman (Heroes) and Matthew Brock (NewsRadio).  Are there any other notable fictional Matts out there in the land of pop culture?