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 – 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 