Vidya Game News – September 13, 2018
It is back to school time for the kiddos, but really, it is also a prime opportunity for y’all to read some vidya game news too.
- Going to be in Toyko anytime soon? From Nintendo Enthusiast’s John Dunphy, a new Kirby-themed cafe will be opening there. Read more here. And, we reviewed his initial Game Boy game for Episode 24. And hey, if you’re in Yakima, Washington, there is a new game-themed bar.
- From Polygon and other sites, classic fighting game series Samurai Showdown will be revived for the Playstation 4, and likely other systems. Read more here.
- A re-release of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is coming for the Switch and PS4, per Kotaku and other sites. No word yet on how they will do the gameplay. When it originally came out, it required four GBAs to do multiplayer, which went over about as well as you would think.
- Also from Kotaku and a bunch of other sites, the Switch port of Gone Home will have classic SNES cartridges in it.
- Sega Mega Drive shoot-em-up Steel Empire is now available for the PC / Steam, 25 years after its initial release. Read more over at PC Gamer.
- Mega Man 11 now has a playable demo out, per Polygon. We covered Mega Man 2 for Episode 30, and it was the first guest appearance for Friend of the Show Hawk!
- Game Informer has a good, long read on the upcoming Fallout 76, a game the SBBs are hyped for.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
- In 1992, the home console versions of Mortal Kombat came out. We reviewed the show for Episode 118.
- Rock Band 2 is now 10 years old! You can find plenty of copies of it, and the plastic instruments, for a variety of systems at pretty much any Goodwill or consignment store. Also from 10 years ago is the Dragon Quest / Warrior IV remake for the DS.
- Sweet Baby Boy favorite FTL: Faster Than Light turns 6 today. It is still a spunky, fun game, and it frequently retails for less than $10 now.
- Grand Theft Auto V came out 5 years ago, and amazingly, it is still incredibly popular thanks to its initial quality and because of the continued support Rockstar has provided it.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. When possible, we attempt to link to original sources for all reporting, and we don’t typically link to stupid multi-page galleries. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – November 24, 2016
A short one today, because it’s Thanksgiving, after all!
– The Ringer had a cool retrospective on Tecmo Super Bowl, because it’s the 25-year anniversary for the game. Check out our show on the game here!
– Also on The Ringer, their podcast network now has a vidya game show! It’s called Achievement Oriented, and they had Jennifer Hale on to talk about the vidya game voiceover artist strike.
– From Polygon via Variety, the Mortal Kombat movie reboot might be directed by Simon McQuoid. Read more here.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released in 1992. It added Tails as a secondary character, as well as the “dash” ability thing when you’re in a ball, which was actually hella helpful.
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 13, 2016
– Biggest news EVER possibly: The Socks the Cat game for the SNES is probably going to get a release, once it hits its Kickstarter goal! Yay! Read more here. Second Dimension and Tom Curtin, a gaming historian and collector, managed to secure the rights.
– On Kotaku, they have a news item on an NES replica that’s in the shape of a Zelda chest. And, oh, by the way, it has a wireless, floating Tri-force. Read more here!
– Stuff has a cool feature on the history of Nintendo handhelds, including the Game and Watch.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Mortal Kombat 3 was released for the Genesis and Super Nintendo today in 1995, after its release in arcades on April 15. Its story is completely insane, but hey, it has more buckets of blood, like the previous games in the series.
– Pokemon Gold and Silver came out on October 15, 2000. They sold a billion copies.
– WWF Raw was released for the PC on October 14, 2002. Because it was the last WWF game on the PC until 2015, it was a popular when it came to mods, even though Anchor’s effort received middling reviews when it came out.
– Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne was released October 12, 2004. It was the first game of that series released in the U.S. by Atlus, and it immediately became a cult classic, bought by about 20 people who all happened to be game critics.
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 7, 2016
– Visiting Portugal anytime soon? You might want to sleep in this Super Mario Bros. themed Airbnb room, then! Story comes courtesy Thrillist. And, check out our past episodes on SMB1 and SMB2!
– Fans are desperate for Nintendo to release some info, any info, on the upcoming NX console. So much so that they’re now speculating a Papa John’s news release could be about the console. Polygon pokes fun at the phenomenon here.
– Nintendo executives and ads sales people might be losing their collective minds though, judging from this (really loud) commercial for new colors on the 2DS. Starring Luigi!
– Gamasutra has a really good blog entry from John Szczepaniak on the dark side of the Japanese gaming industry’s work practices. I found that article in The Game Beat Weekly, which is Kyle Orland’s awesome weekly email about the gaming industry. Subscribe to it here!
– From Geek.com, a Commodore 64 has been running an auto shop for 25 years. Read more here!
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– MORTAL KOMBAT! … was released in the arcades on October 8, 1992. The gory fighter from Midway Games was hella popular, thanks to its mixture of Street Fighter 2 mechanics with bloody combat.
– Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber came out for the N64 today in 2000. Quest’s follow-up to their earlier games was a bit more accessible than the originals, but still just a niche title that’s now a cult classic. (And speaking of, Tactics Ogre came out on October 6, 1995 for the SNES in Japan.)
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 – August 20, 2015
On the East Coast, it’s been too damn hot to do anything but play vidya games, and to read about vidya games. Here are some of the highlights from the past week:
– Holy smokes, the Mortal Kombat movie is now 20 years old! Hollywood Reporter has an awesome oral history of the movie, by Aaron Couch. The biggest ‘trivia’ aspect is probably that Cameron Diaz was initially cast as Sonya Blade, before being replace by Mrs. Pete Sampras after breaking her wrist.
– As mentioned on many sites and on the Playstation Blog, there will be a nifty Playstation 4 bundle available in November that will come with a Star Wars theme and a Darth Vader chest panel. Included are the latest Star Wars Battlefront game and four classic games, like the Super Nintendo’s Super Star Wars.
– The Sega Blog has a multi-part interview with Sega staff on today’s release of 3D Gunstar Heroes. It’s an upgrade on the cult classic from the Genesis era.
– From Kotaku Australia, Kevin Wong tries to defend Mario Is Missing. It’s a #hottake to me, since I’ve played it and not been impressed.
– Freelance artist Brooke Luder apparently did some pitch work for Crazy Taxi 4 and The Sonic Classic Collection, which is summarized here at the Sonic Stadium. You can find Luder’s portfolio here.
– Sega will be releasing Puyo Puyo Quest in the states, under the title Cranky Food Friends: A delicious drop and match RPG. The news was on Pocket Gamer and other sites. If it looks and sounds familiar to you, it’s because it came to the U.S. way-back-when as Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine.
– A neat roundup from Marc Morrison on 411Mania, in The 8 Ball column, which has the top eight worst 2D platformers, mostly from the eight and 16-bit eras. Some of the selections aren’t surprising, and they’re mostly correct: Home Improvement, Captain Planet, Bebe’s Kids…
Who has the largest Nintendo collection in Australia? Sam Crowther possibly, according to WA Today.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– The only game of real significance released today, short of updates to sports games, is One Must Fall: 2097. It was a cool fighting game for the PC, which featured fightin’ rowebuts that you could upgrade. Man, August can’t get over soon enough…
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 – July 23, 2015
The original box art for the Sega CD version of Night Trap.
Man, July is almost over! Where does the time go? Quicker than the final quarter in a game of NBA Jam! Anyway, here is this week’s news post:
– Dave Voyles is a sturdier man than most, since he’s taken on the technical challenge of turning the infamous Night Trap into a playable online game. For more information, check out his post on Gamasutra.
– There is an awesome new documentary project on Kickstarter, called Insert Coin: Inside Midway’s 90s Revolution. If the project hits its goal of $75,000, it plans to cover all the games of the era: Smash TV, NARC, WrestleMania, and of course, NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat.
– On past episodes, Steve has mentioned how much he liked the book Console Wars by Blake J. Harris, which really covers the rise and fall of Sega. The Mary Sue’s Dan Van Winkle has an interview with Harris here. (And hey, if you want to buy the book, don’t forget about our Amazon link!)
– From Chris Arrant of Newsarama, details on the deal between Atari and Dynamite to publish items on the gaming company’s deep back inventory of items.
– The latest effort from Honest Trailers? The Super Mario Bros. movie!
– A United Kingdom company is now offering retro game mural wallpaper.
– Via Riley Little of Game Rant, a dad has turned his child’s nursery into one with a Mario Kart 8 theme.
– Business Insider has an unwrapping of the new $500 Nintendo Entertainment System. (Warning: Video will autoplay!)
– David Nield of Motoring Research has a list of the best retro tech of the 1990s, which includes the Super Nintendo and the Game Boy Color, amongst other devices like beepers, point and shoot cameras, and Nokia phones.
Box art for Max Payne.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– In 2001, Max Payne came out for the PC. According to Wikipedia, the three games in the series have now sold more than 7.5 million copies. It was known for introducing Matrix-style “bullet time” to games.
– And since it’s July, almost nothing else came out. Womp womp womp.
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 