Vidya Game News – July 7, 2016
– Polygon has an awesome full-length feature on where Blizzard’s Starcraft: Ghost went wrong.
– Also from Polygon, a good, long read by Colin Campbell on an Atari artwork book.
– A translation for Wizardry Gaiden IV has been released, according to the folks at ROMhacking.net. Check out this “new” SNES game here!
– Hadlee Simons at Gearburn has a look at five failed handheld systems.
– From various websites, Stephen Colbert attempts to eat a Hot Pocket quicker than a guy completes Super Mario Bros. 3. Video here!
– As expected, Nintendo shut down a Kickstarter project for an NES coffee table book.
– The latest video on Cracked from Cody Johnston is about how Christopher Nolan stole his ideas from DuckTales. No word yet from Todd how this infraction ranks on the DuckTales scale.
– From TechTimes, Paul Rudd has barely aged since starring in SNES commercials back in the day.
– Also on TechTimes, Chinese companies are constantly making bootleg games with all the Nintendo characters.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– On July 10, 2001, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec came out for the Playstation 2. The effort from Polyphony Digital set a new standard for realistic racing games. The sixth installment came out in December 2013 to glowing reviews for the PS3, and Gran Turismo Sport is due out in November as a PS4 exclusive.
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 17, 2015
I am Error. Read these news stories.
– Hey, what are the odds? Shortly after our episode on Tecmo Bowl, it was released for the Wii U shop. Clearly, we’re influencing companies!
– In mixed news, depending on where you stand on Square Enix doing yet another remake… Final Fantasy Adventure, which is actually the first game in the YPB-covered Secret of Mana, is getting a remake for the Vita and smartphones. Siliconera has an article here. It is keeping the same story from the original, but upgrading the graphics and what not.
– Mashable has a sponsored story on some racin’ games from the past. Pre-2000, they focus on F-Zero, Micro Machines, Mario Kart 64, Gran Turismo and Crazy Taxi, and I’ve played four out of five of those splendid games!
– From the AV Club, a piece by John Teti on how Super Mario Bros. is the loneliest Mario game.
– There were a bunch of articles released this week about the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. But as Frank Cifaldi points out in an older piece for Gamasutra, the actual release date of the game in the U.S. is up for debate. Time.com also has a cool slideshow on the evolution of Mario’s look.
– Of all places, USA Today has a good, long oral history on some of the Playstation’s development, on the anniversary of its launch 20 years ago. It’s by Mike Snider, and you can read it here.
– Speaking of the Playstation, Nathan Birch at Uproxx has a good collection of some of the trivia on the device, like that Crash Bandicoot was hated by the Japanese portion of the company and that the system worked better upside down.
– There are now Sega-inspired kicks, although I agree with the comments, that the boxes look cooler than the shoes.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Depending on what source you use, Kingdom Hearts was released today or yesterday in 2002 for the PS2. While it wasn’t my cup of tea because of its reliance on button mashing and a stupid AI, the presentation values (graphics and sound) were top-notch for the collaboration between Disney and Square.
– Some game called Grand Theft Auto V came out for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Although it’s only two years old, it’s kind of a big deal, to the tune of 54 million copies and counting.
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 