via Computer and Video Games


Mario Kart Wii has sold over three hundred thousand units in its native country of Japan, reports are suggesting.

According to gaming website Jeux France, the title has racked up the sales after being out for just over twenty-four hours.

If true, it would mean Mario Kart has already beaten Wii Fit - which sold 250,000 in first week - but not Super Smash Brothers. Brawl that somehow racked up half a million sales on its first day.

Of course, Jeux France doesn't indicate how it knows this, so we might find out that only an elderly pensioner and a four year old girl bought the game yesterday. Based on the amount of people we've seen online though, we doubt it. ...

via Computer and Video Games




A recent poll on parental guidance website What They Play has shown its readers are far more offended by sex in videogames than violence.

When asked what they'd find the most offensive in a videogame, a staggering 37% of readers answered 'a man and woman having sex', with a further 27% saying it would be 'two men kissing'.

The answer of 'A graphically severed human head' only claimed 26% of the vote, whilst bad language came bottom, taking only 10%

Considering how much the human race despises the act of procreation, it's a wonder any of are here at all.

Image courtesy What They Play ...

via Eurogamer


A new version of Game Boy Color classic Toki Tori is to be released as a WiiWare download.

According to developer Two Tribes, the update "improves the original on every front". You can expect a new look, improved content and a control system involving the Wii remote. There's no word on how much it'll cost.

For those who aren't familiar, Toki Tori is a puzzle game that looks like a platform game. You have to use items such as the Telewarp, Freeze-o-Matic and InstantRockTM to plot your way through levels.

The WiiWare service is up and running in Japan, and will launch in the US on May 12th. Nintendo still hasn't said when it's coming to Europe. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Sam & Max developer Telltale's shoved out first screenshots and trailer from Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, its WiiWare game that we reported on yesterday.

The game will be released in five episodic instalments, with the first to hit in June. According to Telltale, each episode plays out like an extended cartoon and feature "comedic" plots that must be uncovered, which is tied into puzzle and adventure-style gameplay.

It's added that each episode is crammed with "time-wasters" to "keep players poking around in the world, including Strong Bad emails to check, prank phone calls to place, and mini-games..." and that WiiConnect 24 features are included.

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People is also to be released for PC. Oh, and it's based on some web-based cartoon series that we'd never heard of - but you can get a taste of it here.


Screenshots
Trailer ...

via IGN


Colour us surprised, as this week the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console not only receives four new titles, but each one is a certified gem with two classics culled from the Commodore 64's back catalogue and two from within the dusty annals of the Master System.

California Games is first up, and having made its first appearance back in 1986 it still retains much of its charm in its reproduction of the bright and breezy past times of the West coast of America. Impossible Mission is another Commodore 64 title heralding from space date 1986, a randomly generated action platformer, that if we rightly recall involved a lot of cartwheels. But manly cartwheels, you understand.

Wonder Boy is the fondly remembered arcade platform title from SEGA, showing up on the Virtual Console in its Master System form that managed to stay largely faithful to the original. Our excitement is reserved, however, for Fantasy Zone, the surreal free-roaming shooter that introduced the world to Opa-Opa. We'd love to spout our love for the game to you here, but someone's already beaten us to it.

They're all available for approximately £3.50 each, or precisely 500 Wii points.


Virtual Console European Releases, August 31

Commodore 64 - 500 Wii Points

• California Games (1987)
• Impossible Mission (1984)

Master System - 500 Wii Points

• Wonder Boy (1986)
• Fantasy Zone (1986)

...

via Eurogamer


Infogrames bossman David Gardners has said he reckons between 2 and 3 million copies of Alone in the Dark could be shifted once the game launches this June.

"We want to stop losing money," he told Reuters. "This management team's number one goal is to get a business plan together that gets us to a break-even level."

Gardner wouldn't say how or when it plans to do this but it'll probably involve former Sony big deal Phil Harrison, who was recently appointed as president.

And Alone in the Dark, of course. The PC, Wii, PS2 and Xbox 360 versions are out in Europe on June 20th, with a PS3 offering "to follow".

You'll find all manner of AITD-related screenshots, videos and previews over on the gamepage. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Square-Enix is developing a new RPG based on the manga comic and recent anime series Soul Eater, it's emerged.

According to Japanese website Game Watch, the game is being developed alongside the anime series, which premiered in Japan just last week on April 7.

Soul Eater is set in the Shinigami technical school for weapon meisters. The story revolves around three groups trying to turn a "human weapon" into a "Death Scythe" by collecting souls of ninety-nine evil humans and one witch, which sounds perfect for a RPG full of grinding. The game is being developed in conjunction with the series.

Unfortunately, Square-Enix Europe had no information on whether Soul Eater was on its way to Europe at the moment, so we wouldn't hold our breath for a release over here.


Screenshots ...

Porgress on the upcoming homebrew game for Dreamcast.

...

via Games Industry


Newsweek's games writer, N'Gai Croal, has expressed his concerns over the imagery depicted in the trailer for Capcom's forthcoming title Resident Evil 5, a trailer for which was shown at E3 last year.

"Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game," was his first reaction to seeing the trailer, he said in an interview with MTV Multiplayer.

"It's like when you engage that kind of imagery you have to be careful with it," he went on to explain. "It would be like saying you were going to do some sort of zombie movie that appeared to be set in Europe in the 1940's with skinny, emaciated, Hasidic-looking people.

"If you put up that imagery people would be saying, 'Are you crazy?' Well, that's what this stuff looks like. This imagery has a history. It has a history and you can't pretend otherwise.

"That imagery still has a history that has to be engaged, that has to be understood. If you're going to engage imagery that has that potential, the onus is on the creator to be aware of that because there will be repercussions in the marketplace."

The Resident Evil 5 trailer shows protagonist Chris Redfield in a small, poor and dusty village, the location of which isn't specified but is strongly reminiscent of certain third world countries.

Redfield is the only white character portrayed in the three minute trailer, while all of the zombies are made up of black inhabitants, who Redfield proceeds to try and kill - both male and female.

But Croal's argument isn't with the fact that the zombies shown were all black - it's the general treatment of the subject material that's he's concerned with.

"The point isn't that you can't have black zombies. There was a lot of imagery in that trailer that dovetailed with classic racist imagery," he said.

"That's the whole thing where only Chris Redfield appears to be human before they turn into zombies; the humanity of other people is in question. It's like you barely see their faces, he doesn't really interact with them, he sort of walks through this thing and it's sort of, 'Is he there? Is he not?'

"It's a very strange thing, and it taps into sort of this very racist iconography. I think that's the only way I'm describing it. I'm not saying that was their intent. But it seems that a lot of people who were up in arms about the trailer couldn't see that and didn't want to engage it.

"I think, again, the point is not that Capcom can't or shouldn't make a zombie game set in what appears to be an impoverished country where the majority of residents are black.

"I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is that if I was Capcom, I wouldn't have suggested to put out that trailer. I would have said, 'You know what, this has tremendous capacity for being misunderstood, and we want to signal that this is not what you might think it is' - and they didn't do that."

Initial reaction to the Resident Evil 5 trailer was mixed, with some people expressing unease at the content, while some gamers dismissed any racist connotations.

The game is set for release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms later this year. ...