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 20, 2016
– Today has a crap-ton of current video game news. Nintendo says they’re releasing information on their new console, the NX, for realies this time at 10 a.m. EST. Likewise, Rockstar is releasing a trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2 at 11 a.m. EST. What a time to be alive! (UPDATE: The RDR2 link has been updated with the trailer, which looks awesome, and the NX is now called the Switch, and most of the trailer is about friggin’ controllers.)
– From ESPN property FiveThirtyEight, the world record speedrun for Super Mario Bros. continues to go down. And hey, check out our first ever episode, which was on that game!
– Wired.com has translated a really good interview with Miyamoto done by a Japanese publication. Read it here!
– Did you ever wonder to yourself: “Hey, what if the Swedish Chef loved vidya games? And then he hacked passwords for them?” Well, you’re in luck! Bisqwit has a cool video on passwords for River City Ransom on YouTube here. Listen to our past show on that game here!
– The Chicago Tribune has a review of “Merge,” which is a play about the early years of Atari.
– The Verge, via a Nintendo social media account, post a treasure trove of old systems they found in a warehouse.
– Paste’s Jason D’Aprile has a good, long interview with Rand Miller of Myst fame. Check out our Myst episode with Jovial Jackee here!
– A very British dude, Daniel Ibbertson a.k.a. Slopes Game Room, has the complete history of the Shinobi series on YouTube.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Shining Force 2 came out for the Genesis at some point in October 1994 – the exact date is seemingly lost to time. The Shining Force series is Sega’s version of Fire Emblem, in that both tactical RPG series were ignored and not properly promoted for the longest time. And, well, Sega has kind of ignored it except for more Japanese releases.
– Konami released Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation on October 21, 1998. You can listen to the sweet baby boys and Dale talk about it here!
– Also in 1998, Xenogears came out. It tends to get a bit too much hype, but it’s still a pretty solid PSX RPG by Square. It tends to get more fame because of programming and localization issues.
– Borderlands came out for the PS3 and 360 today in 2009. The first-person shooter from Gearbox Software mixed RPG elements into a first-person shooter, and it had a distinctive art and humor style. It’s sold more than 4.5 million copies.
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 15, 2016
– Aaron Couch of The Hollywood Reporter has a good, long interview with Darkwing Duck creator Tad Stones, which you can read here. Among the revelations? The show wasn’t a spin-off of DuckTales, as instead, it took place in an alternate dimension. And by the way, check out our DuckTales episode here.
– The AV Club’s William Hughes spoke to Myst creator Rand Miller on his favorite puzzles, and how that game almost became a Disney ride. Read it here! And listen to our Myst episode here!
– In a good interview with MCV’s Alex Calvin, Sega’s European boss Jurgen Post admits that the company was pushing out too much crap during the Wii-era.
– From Polygon and other sites, Blizzard’s Chris Metzen is retiring. He was serving as the senior vice president of story and franchise development, and joined the company in the early 1990s as an illustrator and animator. He was responsible for expanding the lore of Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft.
– And speaking of Blizzard… One of its low lights, the cancelled Warcraft Adventures, has made its way to the Internet. Check out our show on the actual Warcraft series here.
– Did You Know Gaming covers Super Mario World this week, via Nerdist.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Animal Crossing came out today in 2002 in North America. It was yet another blockbuster series established by Nintendo.
– Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance was released on Sept. 16, 2002 for the Gameboy Advance. It was fun! It mixed the classic gameplay with RPG elements.
– A Dragon Quest IV remake, Chapters of the Chosen, came out on Sept. 16, 2008. It took the gameplay of the original, but included manual control for the later chapters (yay!), but also gave everyone weird accents (boo!). New this week is a remake of Dragon Quest VII for the 3DS, which turns it into a much better, playable game, per Attack of the Geek’s Dean James.
– FTL: Faster Than Light came out on Sept. 14, 2012. No, it’s not a classic game, but it’s hella good! You definitely need to play it if you like games.
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 8, 2016
– So! Nintendo, as usual, has been aggressive pursuing fan games using their characters, with the latest target being a mash-up of Mario and No Man’s Sky. Those developers responded by turning it into DCMA’s Sky. You can read more on Polygon here.
– From The Dreamcast Junkyard, a great series of articles on their hunt to find a legendary barber from some commercials.
– The Couch Potato over at New Castle News has a fine personal essay on his experiences with Super Mario Bros. 3, the Super Nintendo and other gaming stuff. Read it here.
– Reddit and YouTube deliver this week with Midway’s pitch video to the NBA for a little game called NBA Jam. You can check out the video here, and listen to our episode on Jam here!
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– A little deep, story-driven game known as Final Fantasy VII came out for the PlayStation on September 7, 1997. The indie darling sold a ton of copies, and it’s wildly recognized for popularizing RPGs outside of Japan. (And by the way, the PlayStation itself came out on September 9, 1995.)
– Parasite Eve, an oft-mentioned favorite of Steve, came out September 9, 1998. It was an odd action RPG with guns that spawned an incredibly underrated sequel, and an iffy PSP game with a completely indecipherable plot.
– Also from 1998: Spyro the Dragon! The little purple dragon started doing like, dragon stuff, on Sept. 10. By Insomniac Games, it was pretty popular with a wide range of gamers, including more casual folks.
– 9/9/99 for $199! The Sega Dreamcast came out on Sept. 9, 1999. God, it was such an awesome little system, but Sega eventually lost its stomach for the console business. It had a strong start that it ceded as hype for the PlayStation 2 ramped up.
– Ready 2 Rumble Boxing by Midway came out in 1999 for the Dreamcast, and then later for the N64, PSX and Gameboy Color. The colorful boxing came made people more nostalgic for better boxing games, but it sold well.
– Also for the Dreamcast in 1999: Soulcalibur! The fighter from Namco featured a heavy emphasis on weapons, and it was highly rated at the time and in ensuing years as the series continued.
– Final Fantasy Tactics Advance bastardized a great PSX game, but, well, it came out this day in 2003 for the Gameboy Adance. Some people like it. Those people are wrong.
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 2, 2016
– IGN’s Alex Osborn has a great interview with Peter Moore, talking about why Sega failed as a hardware company. Understandably, the Saturn was seen as a turning point.
– From Mattel, via Polygon, Hot Wheels versions of Nintendo characters are coming soon! They actually look pretty nifty, so, congrats Nintendo. Thank you for successfully taking more of my money.
– Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey is available on Netflix as of Sept. 1. You can listen to our episode on the horrible vidya game here!
– Chris Schilling of VICE writes about how the Nintendo DS was his deepest love, when it came to vidya game systems.
– From noted video game journalism outlet InStyle, Christina Aguilera’s daughter had a Mario-themed party for her second birthday.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Command and Conquer, the first title of that popular series, came out on Aug. 31, 1995. The PC game from Westwood Studios became a staple of online RTS duels for years and years. It sold more than three million copies, and the series has sold more than 30 million units.
– An awesome character known as Crash Bandicoot had his initial release for the Playstation on Aug. 31, 1996. More on him Monday though.
– On the other end of the PSX spectrum… Released on Aug. 31, 1996, Beyond the Beyond terrorized Steve as a teen. He loved turn-based RPGs, but one of the main “features” of the game by Camelot Software was lugging around a cursed character for several hours. Fun, fun, fun.
– Guitar Hero 5 from Neversoft came out in 2009. It was the second-to-last hurrah for the series, as it was already starting to slowdown before Warriors of Rock came out in 2010.
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 26, 2016
– Celebrating its birthday this week? The Super Nintendo! Aaron Couch from The Hollywood Reporter has a good piece here, which features some good stuff from Blake J. Harris, the author of Console Wars. Over at SB Nation, Marc Normandin and others write about their four favorite sports games for the system.
– Cool graphics from Video Game Densetsu, as they collected some old Sega pixel-making.
– The new Toejam & Earl game, Back in the Groove has picked up an appropriate publisher: Adult Swim! Read more from Michael McWhertor on Polygon. Our episode on the game is here!
– Boing Boing and a bunch of other sites had a link to a hamster finishing a Super Mario Bros. level.
– From a couple different sites, an Epic Donald game was considered at various points.
– Obduction, a spiritual successor to Myst, has gotten a good review from PC World and from Polygon. And hey, check out our episode on Myst here!
– Nintendo has acquired JESNET, a console distribution company in Japan, for $46.5 million. It’s seen as a sign of the big N ramping up console production for the NX.
– On Cinemassacre this week! Mike and Bootsy play Where’s Waldo, a notoriously crappy game. And, Mike and James have a showdown, the U-Force vs. the Power Glove.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Today was a good day for games. First, Ecco: The Tides of Time came out for the Genesis. It was the sequel to the first game, and the hottest dolphin game of 1994.
– A little game called Goldeneye came out in 1997! We covered that awesome, FPS from Rare on a past episode here.
– Super Mario Sunshine came out for the Gamecube on Aug. 26, 2002. It’s 14 years old! God, it feels like it came out yesterday.
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 12, 2016
Today’s roundup is a day late because Steve has a case of OLYMPIC FEVER. It’s unclear if he contracted it from the waters of Rio, or some other way. Without further ado though, the links!
– Anddddd it’s gone. Nintendo Power has been removed from the Internet Archive, per Polygon.
– Band of Savers has a very important article posted: “10 Things Duck Tales Taught Me About Money.” And, check out our old episode on the vidya game!
– Nintendo Everything has a translation of an interview a Nintendo official did about the NES Classic Edition. Apparently, the save states are going to be more integrated and extensive than originally thought, and there will be several new visual modes for the games.
– Fun times, as Entertainment.ie has a screenshot quiz on SNES games.
– From Mike Diver at VICE, a Top Ten list of Sonic games.
– The AV Club has an insanely long roundtable on the camera in Super Mario 64.
– Unsurprisingly, a fan remake of Metroid 2 was quickly taken down, according to Twinfinite.
– Kotaku has a look inside Smash Hell, the server where Nintendo banishes spammers and others.
– Shack’s Arcade Corner on Amazon looks at Black Tiger, a past YPB game! [WARNING – The first is a video link!]
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Hint for next week’s show: August 13 marked the 25-year anniversary for a slew of SNES launch games, namely, F-Zero, Pilotwings and Super Mario World. And hey, the SNES itself came out! Good times, good times.
– System Shock 2, one of the biggest cult classics ever on the PC, came out on August 11, 1999. It was designed by Ken Levine, and developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios, but a sequel has been caught in rights snafus for 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 – August 4, 2016
– Holy hell, get at this treasure trove before Nintendo takes it down! Thirteen years of Nintendo Power have been put on the Internet Archive. The covers alone are awesome. Read them alllll here. (Note: Some sites say that Nintendo has authorized the posting, so mayyybeeee they’ll stay up longer than a hot minute.)
– Matt Grosinger of Nerdist has a ranking of all the songs in Mario Kart 64, from worst to best.
– The 54-acre former home of Atari in Beverly is now looking for tenants, per Banker and Tradesman.
– Hardcore Gamer is doing a week-long retrospective on the Metroid series, with the topic of this article being Metroid Prime’s incredible music.
– To the surprise of almost no one, the developer of the new Ghostbusters video game that didn’t tie into the old series OR the new one didn’t have a successful release. Fireforge has filed for bankruptcy, claiming $12 million in debt, only three days after launching the game. Read more on Kotaku.
– Chris Reed at Entertainment Cheat Sheet has a pretty neat list of 10 games millennials have forgotten about.
– Polygon’s Michael McWhertor has eight minutes of Sonic Mania gameplay posted, and shockingly, it doesn’t look bad! Check it out here.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Doom 3, the first attempted reboot of the series by id Software, came out on Aug. 3, 2004. While it wasn’t really followed-up by id, the more story-based game got good reviews, and it was pretty fun!
– Konami’s Silent Hill 3, a direct sequel to the first game in the series, came out for the PS2 on Aug. 5, 2003.
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 28, 2016
– Nintendo is mining its past heavily for the Christmas season, as in addition to the NES Classic Edition, they also plan to come out with the Playing With Power: Nintendo NES Classics retrospective book on 17 games. Read more on the Prima Games site here.
– Hey, Sega also licensed their systems for new productions years ago! Except, according to Polygon, they kind of suck.
– From Geek, the Retroist has a fun feature on misleading Atari 2600 box art.
– Surprisingly, the new Ghostbusters game is just as bad as the old one, according to Brett Makedonski of Destructoid.
– On IGN and a bunch of other sites, a wireless receiver is now available to use PS4 and other current gen controllers on the SNES.
– Jason Schreier of Kotaku has a good retrospective on Final Fantasy III for the NES.
– Surprisingly, Honest Game Trailers tackles the awful Superman 64 this week.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour came out in 2003 for the Gamecube. It was the second game in the Mario Golf series and well-received during its release.
– Pokemon Crystal came out on July 29, 2001 for the Game Boy Color. Seemingly, Nintendo is the only company releasing good games in the dog days of summer…
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 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.
Your Parents Basement 