Vidya Game News – November 17, 2016
– Polygon has released their massive video game gift guide, which is neat to read just to catch up on all of the cool stuff you didn’t even know existed.
– The new Daytona USA game, confusingly called Daytona 3 Championship USA, has some trailers out now.
– To hype the (incredibly hard to get) NES Classic, Nintendo has interviews with the developers of Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 here. And hey, check out our episodes for the first and second games of that series!
– In a fun feature, Polygon’s Owen S. Good tallies up how much it would cost to just buy an NES and all of the games on the NES Classic, instead of paying the prices online for it.
– From Motherboard and other sites, a guy is shooting for 2017 for the release of Tanglewood, a new Genesis game programmed on an authentic development kit.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Mentioned prominently in last week’s show was WWF No Mercy, which was released on this day in 2000 by Asmik Ace and AKI. It’s still considered to be one of the gold standards for wrasslin’ video games.
– The ole Xbox was released on Nov. 15, 2001. That old chestnut didn’t sell well in Japan, and ultimately came out behind the PS2 in America, but it established a firm beachhead in console sales for Microsoft.
– Three days after the Xbox came the Gamecube. Again, it finished behind the PS2 in the sixth generation console wars, but it had some very well-received games, like…
– The Metroid series is kind of a big deal in November. In 2002, both Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion had concurrent releases for the Gamecube and GBA. The sequel to Prime came out on Nov. 15, 2004. (And hey, check out our episode on Super Metroid here!)
– On November 16, 2004, Valve released Half-Life 2. The incredible FPS was followed by sequels, Episode One and Episode Two, and then NOTHING. The third installment will never come out because Valve clearly hates us now.
– Dragon Quest VIII, the first of the series to drop the “Dragon Warrior” name for an American release, came out for the PS2 on Nov. 15, 2005. It was a solid effort, although not as long and deep as previous efforts from Enix.
– In 2006, the PlayStation 3 came out. It was a swell system, but it ceded the control of the market that the PS2 and PSX had established because of a high initial price and lack of third party support. (And by the way, the PS4 came out on Nov. 15, 2013, so Sony likes to push them consoles out in the holiday season.)
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – October 28, 2016
– Kyle Orland has a good interview with Sid Meier, of Civilization fame, for Ars Technica. You can read it here! And check out our Civilization show here.
– Speaking of Orland, he had a cool link in his weekly newsletter to an older piece about how insider leaks happen. (If you’re not subscribing to Orland’s weekly newsletter yet, you should! That is, if you love vidya games.)
– On Engadget and other sites: A prototype for a SNES version of Rayman has been found.
– In honor of Halloween, Justin Carreiro of The Young Folks has a look at Maniac Mansion. You can listen to our show on it here! Also, Ryan Gibbs of The Young Folks once talked SimCity with us here.
– Pokemon Sun and Moon, which release Nov. 18 for the 3DS, are Nintendo’s biggest pre-ordered games of all-time, per a release by the company published on Polygon.
– Nathan Grayson of Kotaku summarizes some of the issues hitting up mod support for Sega games on Steam here.
– The USgamer team ranks all 30 games in the NES Classic here! Games we’ve covered on YPB: Bubble Bobble, Castlevania, Punch-Out, Tecmo Bowl, Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2.
– On Polygon and other sites this week… The official Sega employee song from the 1990s.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– The PlayStation 2 came out on October 26, 2000. It was pretty popular.
– In 2002, a little game called Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came out. It was pretty, pretty, pretty popular. Almost exactly two years later, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas came out, and it was also pretty, pretty, pretty popular.
– Another lil game, Fallout 3, came out on October 28, 2008. Again, it was pretty popular.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – September 22, 2016
– Ohmygodness: A mock 1996 infomercial for the upcoming Sonic Mania Collector’s Edition is incredibleeee.
– From PopSugar and a bunch of other sites, Laurie Hernandez did a routine based on DuckTales on Dancing With The Stars. You can see it here! And check out our episode on DuckTales here!
– Game Rant has an article on the six biggest gaming breakups, in “honor” of Brad and Angelina.
– Nintendo News and other sites note that The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 is now available on Steam.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Divine Divinity from Larian Studios came out for the PC in 2002. The action-RPG was well-reviewed when it came out, and it remains a bit of a cult classic.
– On Sept. 23, 2002, Star Fox Adventures was released for the Gamecube. It was the first game to take the series in a weird, non-space sim direction. (And hey, check out our episode on the better, original game and the N64 game!)
– On the same day, Tekken 4 came out. Namco’s fighter was considered very good.
– Capcom’s Mega Man 9 was released for the Wii in 2008, followed shortly by the Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. It was a well-received continuation of the series, the first game in 11 years.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – May 26, 2016
– The best read of the week, and one close to my heart, is a long piece from Ernie Smith of Tedium on commercial mascots and their video games. Featured prominently are the Noid and M.C. Kids, of course, along with other lesser known items like a Doom-engine Chex game.
– Hardcore Gamer’s Marcus Estrada has a neat, informative little piece on the Doctor V64, which was a knockoff Nintendo 64 development kit. Read about it on their site.
– Live in Arizona, and want to play classic video games? You’re in luck! The Daily Courier has a business profile on Black Box Gaming, which allows you to lounge and play vidya games. Read about the cool little store here, in a story by Max Efrein.
– Now on Merchoid! Nintendo-themed bikinis.
– Boooo: Sounds like an automated FOX filter to take down their content on YouTube “accidentally” took down a clip of some dudes playing Double Dribble. Why? Well, because Family Guy used that clip in an episode. And, the show didn’t credit the brothers either. Read about it on IGN.
– Alan Young, the voice of Scrooge McDuck on Duck Tales, has passed away.
– Nintendo has released some trailers for its latest Kirby game, Planet Robobot, for the 3DS. Check them out via Siliconera here! And give a listen to our past episode here!
– These dudes tagged us on Twitter, so how can I not give them a plug? There is a music remix project for The Guardian Legend, which we’ve covered in the past. To check out their tracks, go here!
– I forgot to post this last week, but it’s still a really good read! From Eurogamer’s Wesley Yin-Poole, the rise and fall of Lionhead, creators (in a way) of Fable and headed by Peter Molyneux.
– Also from Eurogamer: Keith Stuart has a fun piece on how he was blacklisted from early Sega releases, even though he was running a magazine about the Dreamcast.
– Ron Gilbert, the creator of Maniac Mansion and Money Island, wants to buy back the IP from Disney. The mouse acquired the titles after buying the Star Wars empire for $4 billion in 2012. (And hey, check out our Maniac Mansion episode!)
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Historically, May 26 hasn’t been especially great for games, but the first installment in the inFamous series came out on this day in 2009. The Playstation-exclusive series combined open-world gaming with superhero powers, and it was generally well-received.
– The NES version of The Lion King came out only in Europe on May 25, 1995. Yes, new NES games were still being made in 1995! Although, this was indeed the last release for Europe. It’s probably for the best, as Westwood Studios’ effort wasn’t all that good.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – November 19, 2015
“It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.” – The Legend of Zelda.
– A cool project by a programmer dude is detailed on AtariAge, as he modified Dark Chambers into a version of Gauntlet that works on the Atarti 2600! Read about his work here.
– Confirming earlier trademark and copyright work, this week Sega confirmed that they are making a new Valkyria Chronicles for the Playstation 4, and remastering the old games as well. Sega Nerds had a translation of the Famitsu article. The third game never made it to the U.S., so it’s unclear if the new game or the remastered games will either.
– Two big Nintendo items this week. There will be a female Link, Linkle, in 3DS game Hyrule Warriors, per Twitter. Also, per almost every site on the Internet, the original Pokémon games will be getting re-releases.
– Neat advertising stuff, as Gamezone has an article by Samantha Bishop on the cool, old Kay Bee Toys flyers that got posted on Flickr. And from Tech2, they have the six worst gaming ads of all-time.
– Robyn Miller, the composer of Myst, has signed on to provide the music for Obduction. It’s a new graphical adventure that is clearly influenced by Myst.
– Cool Kickstarter project: an illustrated history of game controllers from 1972 to 1989. Check out the project from Player One Books here.
– Very important business from The Chicago Sun-Times, as Chicago Bulls player Tony Snell claims to have loved playing as Michael Jordan in NBA Jam. Say what? Everyone knows Jordan wasn’t in the game! He is probably confusing it with NBA Live 2000, which was the first basketball game in ages to actually have Jordan.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– In 2000, Banjo-Tooie came out. The sequel to Banjo-Kazooie, it was also well-reviewed. The platformer was the second-to-last game that Rare did for Nintendo, before becoming a developer for Microsoft.
– Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was released for the PC in 2003, a few months after its initial release on the Xbox. It was an excellent RPG developed by BioWare.
– Not quittteee this day, but on Nov. 18, 1998, the Game Boy Color came out. It’s a popular day for Nintendo releases, because the Wii came out on this day in 2006.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – November 5, 2015
“I like video games, but they’re really violent. I’d like to play a video game where you help the people who were shot in all the other games. It’d be called ‘Really Busy Hospital.’” – Demetri Martin.
Shameless plug: Distant Arcade is a neat retro gaming site that Steve’s old reporting buddy Andrew Martin runs and writes for. Give it a click, would you? Steve also wrote a piece on Battletoads for the site back in the day. And oh yeah, the rest of the news links:
– A new Micro Machines game will be released on mobile platforms, according to Patrick O’Rourke at Mobilesyrup. The original racing game was one of the classics for the NES, although surprise surprise, it was hella hard.
– There was a really cool classic find this past week, as Cameron Koch of Tech Times posted the original press release for the NES.
– On the Fallout 4 release date of Nov. 10, Nuka Cola Quantum by Jones Soda will be available at Target. See a picture here.
– A formerly unreleased Swedish SNES game, Dorke and Ymp, is coming to Steam, per Chris Priestman at Siliconera. It looks like a puzzle platformer with a vibrant art style, although a bit awkward to play.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back is now an adult, as it came out 18 years ago.
– In 2003, The Return of the King came out for the PC, PS2, Gamecube and Xbox. It was way better than past YPB game The Lord of the Rings for Super Nintendo.
– It was only eight years ago, but Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came out. In 2013, Call of Duty: Ghosts came out for the 360, so the series kind of likes November.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – October 22, 2015
“COMMUNISM IS A LIE. DEATH IS A PREFERABLE ALTERNATIVE TO COMMUNISM. DEMOCRACY IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.” – Liberty Prime, Fallout 3. Fight the red scourge by enjoying this capitalistic vidya game news!
– Good news for Todd Brisket! The Sega Genesis version of Duke Nukem 3D is now available.
– On Digg, an amazingly “so bad it’s awesome” commercial for the Atari 5200. It features some legitimately hot, way too enthusiastic babes in bikinis! Check it out here.
– Pretty much every major tech site had some sort of piece on the 30-year anniversary of the NES, but Mashable had a neat retrospective on the 18 launch games for the system. Among them: Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Wrecking Crew and Clu Clu Land.
– Nintendo has opened up its development process slightly, and it’s also quietly sending out development kits for its next system, according to several different websites.
– From many different sites, but created by Sports Illustrated’s Cauldron, it’s the Colts bizarre fake punt recreated in Tecmo Super Bowl – view it on YouTube.
– There could be a new Valkyria Chronicles game in the works, as Sega has registered the name Valkyria of the Battlefield with the Japanese patent office.
– My Parents’ Basement is a new restaurant open in Avondale Estates, Georgia. For a review, click here, and the restaurant’s website is here.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Grand Theft Auto 3 was released 14 years ago on the PS2, which was followed by PC versions in 2002 and Xbox in 2003. It was the first REALLY good game of the series, and as of 2011, it had sold more than 17 million copies, in addition to being the best-selling game of 2001.
– Fallout: New Vegas came out on Oct. 19 in 2010, but it’s close enough to include right here, especially since there weren’t many other significant games released on Oct. 22. Also, Fallout 4 comes out on Nov. 10. (Speaking of, the “PipBoy edition” went back on sale yesterday, and supplies lasted for five minutes, per Polygon.)
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Your Parents Basement 