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 9, 2015
Holy crap, a Nintendo Playstation!
First, some important show-related news! You can now support us whenever you’re making a purchase on Amazon. Got something to buy? Do it via this link, and we’ll get a cut of your sale, at no extra cost to you. It can be for any goods, even non-vidya game stuff, and we’d definitely appreciate it! (Let us know if you make a purchase, and you’ll get a shout-out on the show. ❤ )
Surprisingly, even though we’re now in the dog days of summer, it was a great week for news. The biggest of which…
– A prototype of the 1991 collaboration between Nintendo and Sony on a CD-based system has been unearthed [right]. Polygon’s Brian Crecente had a good interview with the guy who found it, and that’s also where the picture comes from. That system eventually became the Playstation. (And to hype that Amazon thingy once again, there is an awesome breakdown of the rise and fall of Sega, and how Sony’s Playstation factored in, via Console Wars.) Some folks online aren’t convinced the prototype is real, but no one official has come out strongly to refute it.
– Speaking of failed Nintendo projects, Jon Fingas from Engadget details how Project H.A.M.M.E.R. became vaporware over the course of six years of painful development.
– Have you ever played Missile Command, Centipede or Asteroids and thought, “Man, wouldn’t this be cooler as a graphic novel???” … Okay, me neither. But hey, Dynamite Entertainment has you covered, via an article from UK Wired’s Matt Kamen.
– A neat feature, if you like readin’, from Matt Gander at Games Asylum. In “We’ve Got Issues,” he covers the Dreamcast magazine wars of the United Kingdom.
– I must begrudgingly give credit to Food and Wine’s millennial section for featuring “the ultimate bar setup for Nintendo nerds.” It includes Mario pipe shot glasses, Legend of Zelda ice cube trays and NES Zapper bottle openers.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– The Wizard’s Castle was released in 1980. Like many other games “featured” in this here blog in July, well, there really wasn’t much to choose from in terms of releases. However, the awesome CRPG Addict has an exhaustive review of the game available. It should not be confused with the wonderful Home Movies episode “The Wizard’s Baker.”
– Cryptic Studios was incorporated in 2000. They’re the makers of popular online multiplayer games City of Heroes and spinoff City of Villains.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games.
Your Parents Basement 