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Capcom’s early 2009 release calendar a star studded affair
By Stephen Munn | January 5, 2009
Cry sequelitis all you like, but Capcom’s got something in each of a number of their key franchises rolling out in the next six months. There’s some Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Dead Rising, and Bionic Commando action coming your way, and some of that’s even coming to Wii, even if it may not be the one we really wanted.
Street Fighter 4 is coming February 17th to PS3 and 360. As disappointed as I was that the whole game doesn’t look like Okami as the original trailer seemed to imply, I still think there’s a lot of potential for some great fighting here. Unfortunately, I can’t help but wonder if there’s anything that can be done with the Street Fighter format to give it legs beyond what it was already doing 15 years ago. As interesting as it is, I’ll be waiting and trying before I consider a buy.
February 27th will bring the Wii edition of Dead Rising, subtitled Chop Till You Drop, which is still adorable. The game was expected last year, so I’m hoping the delays mean we’ll see more zombies in the game than the screens out there are showing *cough 6 killed cough*. Dead Rising on 360 was legendary for its swarms of zombies, and the idea that there might be so many fewer on Wii makes me think I’d be better off waiting for a PS3 version.
Resident Evil 5 is something of a legend at this point. In addition to being perhaps the game with the biggest shoes to fill of this lot after the incredible Resident Evil 4, it’s brought out a great deal of ongoing discussion on one of our older articles here at Aeropause. And for the record, I have the opposite opinion of whatever yours might be. Look for this one on PS3 and 360 on (dun dun dun!) Friday the 13th… of March! I’m glad to hear this, because the people at work keep asking me when it’s coming out. Now I have an answer.
Other games mentioned without release dates are the amusingly named FLOCK!, a download-only animal herding puzzle game with UFOs for PSN and XBLA and a bike-racing MotoGP game for Wii in March. They talk about Bionic Commando as well, but they keep the date on that one wide open. Like, six months wide, so we’ll see if it hits in that timeframe or not. It’s due for PS3 and 360 and I think it looks pretty slick.
Windows versions of the PS3 and 360 games are expected at a later date. Press release follows.
Topics: Nintendo Wii, PC, PS3, Playstation Network, XBOX 360, Xbox Live Arcade |
Enjoy this article? You may also like:Aeropodcast #64: Airlab 2021 FirePeaks V
By Joe Haygood | January 5, 2009
Joe, Fourhman and Stephen are back for another rousing podcast full of game discussion and TV nostalgia. After discussing our games, and some of the New Years events that we held, we talked about the upcoming year and what might be in store for gamers in 2009. Check out our thoughts, predictions and needs for the new calendar year.
Our community corner stacks in a lot of questions, including our three favorite titles for a desert island stay, favorite TV shows, forum icons, and another marry/boff/kill question that is a little less controversial than last week. In the news, we have stories around Sony’s definition of beta, a Skate 2 demo coming and two big celebs join the WiiFit crowd.
This week our bumper music comes from some of the great TV shows we recommended, including Airwolf, Sealab 2021, Firefly, V: The Series and Twin Peaks. The podcast is put together by the Aeropause Mixmaster, Stephen Munn, and his twin turntables of steel.
Download the podcast from here or subscribe to the podcast using one of the services below: Also make sure to review us on iTunes.
GTA IV Wrecks a Pixar Classic
By Joe Haygood | January 5, 2009As will be mentioned in the podcast that will be posted sometime in the next 12-24 hours, I have finally put together another video using the Grand Theft Auto IV video editor. While it is not my best work, I had a funny moment happen in the game that I decided to put to good use. Hope you enjoy, and for those that can’t get enough of her, the “harder to get caught” woman is my credits signature now.
Review: Ninjatown (DS)
By Joe Fourhman | January 4, 2009
When you sift a real time strategy game down to the husked grain, you find a tower defense game. Enemies storm in of their own accord; your planning and money management determines what automated forces will repel them. Ninjatown (DS, SouthPeak Games) wisely works within the DS’s abilities by focusing on this core, rather than trying to graduate all the way to a fullblown RTS game. Ninjatown is a simple, accessible tower defender that adds variety and charm by leveraging basic Year One DS showpieces like yelling into the microphone.
One thing I’ve been wondering. Does Ninjatown’s relentless cute factor help or hinder the game? As in: I’m about to describe how great a game this is, but will you ignore it anyway because the imagery resembles a seven-year-old internet meme? You could easily pitch the graphics under a Domo-Kun Kitten Eater license. Or worse, some half-buried branch of the Sanrio family.
That distinctive look comes from designer Shawn Smith, known to the gaming universe from several years in editorial at Electronic Gaming Monthly. He left the games journalist scene for a go at making boutique plushies. Being able to turn his appealing sewn doodles into an actual video game - and a good one at that - sounds like the harried promise of a gaming dev Babe Ruth at Smith’s sickly bedside. “Sure, kid, we’ll make ya a DS game. You just get better soon, ok?”
Nintendo’s list of pre-registered games that will net you coins
By Stephen Munn | January 3, 2009
I contacted Nintendo about my Club Nintendo confusion the other day and they gave me a little bit more information on the matter. All Nintendo published games from December 2008 on are eligible for coins. In addition to that, games from the list below are eligible for coins. This is supposed to be a complete list of games from before December 2008 that you get coins for when registered (and then you have to complete a survey). Have a look for yourself. Then help me figure out why Mega Man 9 and Dr. Mario Online Rx aren’t on the list.
Games released prior to December 2008
Many games released prior to December 2008 can be registered; however, of those games, only select Wii, Wii Shop Channel games, Wii Channels, and Nintendo DS games will qualify for surveys. See the list of games that can be registered and qualify for surveys below:
Topics: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Retro, Wii Shop Channel, Wii Virtual Console, WiiWare |
Enjoy this article? You may also like:I guess I just want to show up Stephen
By Joe Fourhman | January 3, 2009
Stephen covered the weirdness of Club Nintendo’s coins program last week, but my coda to his story is quite different. As you can see, my years of buying and registering Nintendo games has turned into over 1000 coins. About twice what Stephen tallied! Suck it!
As Stephen discovered, the new system really only cares about first party Wii and DS games. In my to-do list of 27 surveys, I had only one WiiWare/VC appearance… a 10-coin post-play survey on Tetris Party. While I do not have as many VC games as Stephen, it is indeed odd that Nintendo doesn’t want to reward those who have spent good money on first party WW/VC purchases.
Out of my collection, I received survey points for every first party Wii game and most DS games. My guess on the missing older DS games is that Nintendo is only awarding coins for games that still have a chance of selling. Animal Crossing: Wild World, Mario Kart DS, even Super Mario 64 still have legs at retail… while early DS also-rans like Warioware: Touched and Yoshi Touch-n-Go do not. That doesn’t explain Elite Beat Agents getting me coins, however, unless they’re polling for a long deserved EBA sequel.
Whether Nintendo will retroactively add in credit for various VC games remains to be seen (safe bet? they won’t), but right now it’s new-at-retail or nothing.
Lips Review (Xbox 360)
By Joe Haygood | January 3, 2009
After sitting in the shadow of Sony and its Singstar franchise, Microsoft has finally brought their own karaoke to market in the form of Lips. While Lips provides a fun filled party atmosphere, and a savvy platform for future content, the single player will find themselves grasping for more to do with their $70 purchase.
Lips is, for lack of a better description, a karaoke game, but it adds a few wrinkles to the mix to separate it from the crowd. Upon loading the game, you are presented with the main screen where you can select songs and sing them using a conventional karaoke format, where a pitch bar is above each word, and a pitch meter follows along to let you know if you are on, above or below pitch for each segment of the song. It is a tried and true formula that has worked in Singstar, Karaoke Revolution and just about every karaoke machine in the land.
CNet explains why PS3 is losing, thinks Wii Sports is online
By Stephen Munn | January 2, 2009
In a recent article on CNet’s “Negative Approach” blog called “Why the Wii and Xbox are killing Sony’s PS3″ by Dave Rosenberg, there are a number of interesting points made, but few of them are new. This is not special or important at all, but what is amusing is the list of factual errors in the article, the most glaring of which is not the unwillingness to call the Xbox 360 by its own name rather than that of its predecessor, follows.
Minimal modern touches (i.e. social features)
The Wii makes your goofy little Mii character come alive by connecting consoles online. Xbox Live has a community and marketplace. Playstation Home is compelling but empty, which should even out over time. But, the competition is so far ahead, Sony needed to do something much bigger and better.Personally, I thought the social stuff was a little stupid until my nephew destroyed me in Wii bowling while playing 3,000 miles away. Now I get it.
No, he still doesn’t get it. Miis have nothing to do with connecting consoles online, and social stuff on Wii is not a little stupid. What’s stupid is that Rosenberg thought that he was playing Wii Sports Bowling online with his nephew, when in fact he was playing with an AI controlled opponent who was using his nephew’s Mii. There is no online play in Wii Sports.
In his favor, I find the argument that games take too long to start on PS3 surprising, as I’ve never heard that complaint before. I do find that some games take a long time to start up, but it’s not something that makes me “curse the machine” as he claims.
Source: CNet
Contest reminder: LittleBigPlanet / 007 Quantum code giveaway ends soon!
By Joe Fourhman | January 2, 2009
Just a reminder, our Multi-plat Holiday Bonus Code Contest is about to end! This is the last weekend you can pepper our forum with your entry to win one of two pre-order bonus codes… either the God of War pack for LittleBigPlanet or the exclusive multiplayer maps for 007: Quantum of Sillyname.
This contest ends on January 4, so we’ll be selecting the winners very early next week! Head to this forum page for the rules and to see the ridiculous Haygood’s-balls-related entries that other Aeroreaders have already submitted. Shame, shame on them.
Additionally, don’t forget to send us your Best of 2008 nominations. This will be your last chance to push your 2008 fanboy favorites out there for everyone to complain about!
Wavebird grey-market prices ridiculous; in other news: sky is blue
By Jeremy Yerby | January 2, 2009
Why did Nintendo axe the Wavebird again? For those of you who missed this news when it dropped almost exactly a year ago, Nintendo will no longer manufacture the wireless GameCube pad as of, well, the very beginning of last year. This news slipped past me completely unnoticed since, well, I was mainly rocking my games on the 360 and only occasionally played my Wii. However, over the past few weeks, I have begun a hot new love affair with my Wii. I’ve always had somewhat of a soft-spot for Nintendo but what really has me playing it the most right now is the holiday season has had many friends and relatives over, some gamers and some not, and the Wii really is the star of the console spotlight when it comes to entertaining more than one person in a room.
We’ve had many rousing games of Mario Kart Wii (finally got all the characters, something I’ve been putting off for forever) and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and I even rekindled my addiction to Animal Crossing. However, all this added Wii activity and hosting several players at once made me dust off my old Wavebird controller because I ran out of Wii-motes. Little did I know the Wavebird was good for something other than VC and GCN games. Its the ideal way to play several of the system’s best games. I know, I know, most of you already knew that, sue me.
So I only have the one Wavebird, and not really thinking about it I strolled over to Walmart and GameStop, only to be disappointed in my hunt for another. I had thought that maybe Nintendo stopped making them, but the abundance of wired GCN controllers made me doubt that. Why on God’s green earth would they continue shipping those controllers with the absurdly short cords but not the Wireless Wonderland that is Wavebird? A quick search on eBay and my heart sunk: I saw one Buy It Now for the Sealed Wavebird priced at $115. Surely a price gouger, right? Well, I found that price to be pretty typical for the once $34.99 pad. Ugh.
The absurdity of this really baffles me. Surely someone at Nintendo plays with the system from time to time and realizes the Classic Controller is crap… I just must make sure my current Wavebird lasts a really long time I suppose.
