via Computer and Video Games


Finished New Super Mario Bros. Wii? Defeated Bowser and collected every gold coin? Pah. That's merely a "decent" achievement, says Nintendo.

You're no expert until you can finish level 1-1 in 44 seconds, or get 20 extra lives from a single fireball spat from Yoshi. Those and several more feats listed on a New Super Mario Bros. Wii Challenges website.

Nintendo has set a bunch of challenges from time trials to technique and multiplayer challenges, and divided them up into three difficulties. There's some cool ones on there, like getting through levels without scoring a single point (so even coins and mushrooms are the enemy), or Goomba combo-stomping.

Should be good fun if you want more out of the already brilliant platformer. It's a shame, in the age of Achievements and Trophies, that Nintendo is doing it this way instead of just building these challenges into the game itself.


Full details here from Nintendo ...

via IGN


As the (still completely unfounded) speculation about a possible PSP Phone continues to travel in circles around the internet, it has been alleged that Nintendo was at one point considering its own foray into the mobile phone sector.

Pocket Gamer carries word from “a development source” that in the early 2000s an R&D project jointly run by Nokia and Nintendo was established at Nintendo’s Kyoto HQ.

The project supposedly progressed as far as board level, where Nintendo execs were presented with a concept. Which they rejected. In the subsequent years Nokia went on to launch the ill-fated N-Gage and Nintendo debuted the not-so-ill-fated DS.
The requirement for mobile phone users to sign up to a contract has always been seen as a big barrier for platform holders, but the huge success of the iPhone proves that – despite the failure of N-Gage – gaming machines and mobile phones can co-exist. ...

via IGN


Now, this is the kind of office prank everybody wants to come back to. When SEGA's Aaron Webber went on a three-week vacation, his mates pitched in to turn his cubicle into the Green Hill Zone. Using cardboard, print-outs of classic Sonic the Hedgehog assets, and a little Astroturf, Webber's workplace was transformed into a 3D 16-bit wonderland.

Really, you should check out the video. The detail in the modeling is pretty amazing, such as the dropping paper fronds of the palm trees and the actual ramps Sonic blasted across during his first Genesis adventure. There's even a spinning sign from the end of the stage, which turns from Robotnik to Sonic as the Blue Blur blasts by it.

Webber's a total good sport about it. When he's welcomed back to his office, he even pops on a Sonic hat (like the one you get if you pre-order Sonic Colors) and sits right down in the middle of the Green Hill Zone. Hey SEGA, how about releasing the papercraft plans so fans can make this at home?


...

via Computer and Video Games


Bungie brainstormed 150 mission ideas for Halo Reach, before wittling them down to around 20 or so, creative director, Marcus Lehto has revealed.

Speaking to CVG, the Bungie man said that some of the missions in Reach the studio's been waiting "ten years" to pull off.
Lehto explained that although there are a set number of objectives in the studio's final Halo, players can approach them in an abundance of ways.
Bungie is of course set to launch its final instalment in the Halo series on September 14. The developer released a brand new Halo Reach trailer earlier this month - check it out and try not to be excited. ...

via Eurogamer


Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux has said he has high hopes the next instalment in the Fable series will be the biggest, best and most lucrative yet.
So how does Molyneux intend to boost sales this time around? Why, by making the game more accessible to a wider audience, of course.
Fable III is out on 29th October. ...

via IGN


John Carmack took the stage at his annual QuakeCon keynote address to show off a little pet project of his. And what would that be? Rage running on the iPhone. What he showed is simply a tech demo that he created. It runs on an iPhone 4 -- and it looks fantastic.

The demo revealed a first-person view, with the player exploring an indoor environment typical of what you'd expect in Rage. The textures look great, though naturally the polygon count and animations have been reduced. Still, "Rage is going to be 100s of MBs," as a download according to Carmack. And he claims the tech is scalable, so that "it runs great on a regular 2G iPhone."

Now, what was shown wasn't actually a game, and it didn't appear to have a very interactive environment. "This is just my tech demo. We're in the process of bringing it into the game framework."

Carmack wants this to be a glamorous game that people show their friends as way of proving their iPhone or iPad is the best, and the plan is to make it affordable enough for everyone to do that. "We're going to do it as a smaller, cheaper title."

"This will be the first Rage title to come out, it should be out this year," said Carmack. Another Rage game for iPhone/iPad is said to be coming out around the time that the console and PC version of Rage launches in 2011. ...

via Gamepron


Everybody knows that there’s a certain risk one takes when playing addictive, engrossing games when you’re meant to be doing something else. The prevalence of awesome games on the iPhone hasn’t helped that risk – as a Philippines police officer has learned.

Five inmates recently escaped from a police precinct in Cagayan de Oro City, snatching up the officer’s keys where he’d left them while playing a quick few levels of Plants vs. Zombies. Apparently, the convicts had no trouble getting the keys and gaining their freedom – although four of the five were recaptured shortly after.

It is not known whether the police officer suffered any sort of disciplinary action – but I’m guessing he’ll be getting his next gaming fix some time when he’s not on the clock. ...

via Computer and Video Games


We could see gaming and communicating beautifully merged in the form of a PlayStation phone as early as October, according to reports.

According to Engadget sources, Sony Ericcson is working on a phone using Google's Android platform for release this year.

A trademark for a Sony device labelled 'PlayView' - which sounds very phoney/gamey indeed - was unearthed by CVG in June and now there are more mumblings about a Sony cross between a Captivate phone and a PSPGo.

The exciting bit is that the phone will apparently include side-slider gaming controls instead of a QWERTY keyboard.

"The D-pad is here, but instead of the small joystick, the device will have what was described as a 'long touch pad' for analog controls, along with standard PSP buttons and shoulder buttons," according to Engadget.

Also attributed to the phone is a large display, between 3.7 and 4.1 inches with WVGA or better resolution, a 5 megapixel camera and a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU is "likely".

The phone is mostly black with some silver highlights, and the gamepad area is white / silver in color, claims the source.

The device will apparently be running Gingerbread (Android 3.0) and there will be a new section of the Android Market specifically for games.

Way back in May the words of Sony Australia boss Michael Ephraim suggested that the PSP2 will actually be a smart phone when he said, "The handheld space is very crowded, not just in the games category but also with smart phones and so on."

We've left SCEE a message. ...

via Joystiq


Industry analysts have already weighed in with their thoughts on Kinect's $150 price point -- now we're hearing from one of them on how well he thinks the gizmo will sell. The answer: really well, actually.

Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital has crunched numbers and deduced that Microsoft is manufacturing the motion sensor at a rate of two million per month, and believes that four million will be sold by 2011. That figure doesn't purely represent stand-alone sales, however. "The mix of Xbox 360 shipments for the holidays will be more heavily weighted toward the Kinect bundle," Sebastian believes, which is why he's upped his sales forecast from three million units in calendar Q4.

Interestingly, the analyst points out that sales of PlayStation Move, which launches roughly six weeks earlier on September 19 and "without as much 'buzz' as Kinect," could offer a better picture of how Microsoft's motion control offering will perform after it makes its bow on November 4. ...