via kotaku


Golf is the kind of sport that is really only meant to be played as a video game. Joining country clubs, reserving tee times, wearing ugly clothes, and carrying fifteen pounds of metal for a whole day looking for a ball smaller than the palm of my hand somehow doesn't beat out staying in bed and ignoring items that need to be returned to Ikea on my weekend schedule.

Right now, all the jazz is focused on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07, but for those who like a little more fantasy on the course (dolphin sand dunes, uh, yes please!), there is a glimmer of hope that Nintendo will offer one of their famous Mario golf games for the Wii in some way shape or form after some of their new trademarks were posted for Joy Mecha Fight, Wii de Yawaraka Atamajuku, Mini Mini Daikoushin!, Brownie Brown, and of course, Mario Open Golf.

Although I desperately want Mario Open Golf as a regular game, there is the possibility that it will only be released as a VC game since it has already been confirmed for it in the European, Austrailian and New Zealand on their Wii Shop channels. ...

via kotaku


Golf is the kind of sport that is really only meant to be played as a video game. Joining country clubs, reserving tee times, wearing ugly clothes, and carrying fifteen pounds of metal for a whole day looking for a ball smaller than the palm of my hand somehow doesn't beat out staying in bed and ignoring items that need to be returned to Ikea on my weekend schedule.

Right now, all the jazz is focused on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07, but for those who like a little more fantasy on the course (dolphin sand dunes, uh, yes please!), there is a glimmer of hope that Nintendo will offer one of their famous Mario golf games for the Wii in some way shape or form after some of their new trademarks were posted for Joy Mecha Fight, Wii de Yawaraka Atamajuku, Mini Mini Daikoushin!, Brownie Brown, and of course, Mario Open Golf.

Although I desperately want Mario Open Golf as a regular game, there is the possibility that it will only be released as a VC game since it has already been confirmed for it in the European, Austrailian and New Zealand on their Wii Shop channels. ...

via kotaku


Golf is the kind of sport that is really only meant to be played as a video game. Joining country clubs, reserving tee times, wearing ugly clothes, and carrying fifteen pounds of metal for a whole day looking for a ball smaller than the palm of my hand somehow doesn't beat out staying in bed and ignoring items that need to be returned to Ikea on my weekend schedule.

Right now, all the jazz is focused on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07, but for those who like a little more fantasy on the course (dolphin sand dunes, uh, yes please!), there is a glimmer of hope that Nintendo will offer one of their famous Mario golf games for the Wii in some way shape or form after some of their new trademarks were posted for Joy Mecha Fight, Wii de Yawaraka Atamajuku, Mini Mini Daikoushin!, Brownie Brown, and of course, Mario Open Golf.

Although I desperately want Mario Open Golf as a regular game, there is the possibility that it will only be released as a VC game since it has already been confirmed for it in the European, Austrailian and New Zealand on their Wii Shop channels. ...

Heres the top 30:

Here are the top ten for the week of April 2nd to the 8th.

01. Naruto: Shippuuden Narutimett Accel (PS2) - 75,453 / NEW
02. Gundam Seed: Rengou vs Z.A.F.T Portable (PSP) - 58,751 / NEW
03. Yoshi's Island DS (DS) - 47,566 / 629,459
04. Pro Baseball Spirits 4 (PS2) - 40,891 / 82,052
05. Musou Orochi (PS2) - 36,168 / 515,803
06. More English Training (DS) - 34,933 / 84,645
07. Wii Sports (Wii) - 30,807 / 1,315,931
08. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball Portable 2 (PSP) - 29,944 / NEW
09. Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ (PS2) - 29,638 / 202,850
10. Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village (DS) - 27,833 / 392,135

11. Case Closed! Detective Trainer (DS)
12. Word Puzzle Mojipittan DS (DS)
13. Pro Baseball Netsu Stadium 2007 (PS2)
14. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
15. Wii Play (Wii)
16. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (PSP)
17. Rakushou! Pachislo Sengen 5: Rio Paradise (PS2)
18. Tamagotchi's Splendid Rainbow-venture (DS)
19. Mario Kart DS (DS)
20. Digimon Story: Sunburst (DS)
21. More Brain Age (DS)
22. Animal Crossing Wild World (DS)
23. Pro Baseball Spirits 4 (PS3)
24. Dragon Quest Monsters Joker (DS)
25. SimCity DS (DS)
26. DS Kageyama Method Electronic Kanji Drills (DS)
27. Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Goku Legend (DS)
28. English Training (DS)
29. Common Knowledge Training (DS)
30. Super Robot Wars W (DS) ...

Via Insert credit

Something I like to do in that magical time in-between quitting my job and actually leaving my job is look at stupid crap on the internet. It's harmless, zen-like fun that once in a while produces interesting finds, which I link to people on my buddy list with text like "haha this is awesome!"

One of my favorite archives of stupid crap is MercadoLivre, the Brazilian online auction site that is now affiliated with eBay. I like to look at their video games section because, as it turns out, I enjoy video games. A lot of the games stuff is imported from America, and that's boring. But there's some neat bootleggy crap too, and that's where the fun is!

Today I discovered, via several MercadoLivre merchants, that the Phantom System is easily available in Brazil! You may remember the Phantom home console, the pay-to-download streaming game console ready for launch since about 2003. I was about to link you to WhereIsPhantom.com, which was a pretty awesome blog for awesome Phantom and Infinium Labs news, but it's dead, and the domain forwards to an advertising portal now. I am sad, as indicated with the following emoticon:



Anyway. The Phantom may be hilarious vaporware in the United States, but it's enjoying healthy sales in Brazil, and if you'd like one, MercadoLivre has you covered. Here is a close-up photograph to study before making your purchasing decision. As you can see, they've abandoned the pay-to-download service for the Brazilian market, and have instead opted for a cartridge-based interface. Currently available titles include Galaga and Falling Block Game. The Phantom comes with one controller, which looks a bit awkward, though I do admire Phantom System's innovation in design.

With its high level of software piracy, Brazil seems an odd choice for a test market. But given Phantom's history, nothing surprises me anymore. Godspeed, Phantom System! ...

Last month, Uk-based SCi Entertainment announced it would be opening a studio in Montreal, Canada, which would be developing four new games for next-gen systems. And the Eidos and Lara Croft parent company is not the only one jumping ship, the Financial Times reports.

According to a survey undertaken by Tiga, the UK trade association for game developers, there were 400 independent game studios in 2001--but the figure has now more than halved to 150.

Initiatives from countries such as Australia and Canada, which offer enticing incentives for game companies relocating to those regions, are clearly working, as many international gaming companies have moved in--which may account in part for the drop in UK studio numbers.

In Australia, in the state of Victoria (home to the city of Melbourne), the local government is offering A$375,000 (approx $310,462) over two years to locally based game developers, and in Canada various incentives are offered, including grants and tax breaks.

Other reasons for the drastic drop in the number of British game companies include businesses closing, for example Argonaut and Warthog, or takeovers by big boys such as Microsoft, which bought Lionhead Studios a year ago.

via gamespot ...

via gamespot

Source: Greek gaming site Contra.gr.

What we heard: Before the lights dimmed at Nintendo's press briefing at the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo, the audience was already excited. However, when Shigeru Miyamoto took to the stage, the crowd, as they say, went wild.

Adding to the excitement was the fact the legendary game designer was in a full tuxedo with tails. Using a Wii remote, he conducted an orchestra of Mii avatars performing a symphony on a gigantic screen, evoking thunderous applause. Later, the game, titled Wii Music, was demoed on the E3 show floor, and reportedly appeared in European Nintendo release schedules as coming out sometime this year.

However, four and a half months into 2007, the exact release dates of many high-profile games, such as Super Mario Galaxy, remain unknown. For Wii Music, though, the window may have closed somewhat. According to an interview on Contra.gr partially translated by a Joystiq reader, a Greek game executive pegged Wii Music as arriving at the "end of the year." He said the game would allow players to conduct the entire orchestra as well as control individual musicians. Players can reportedly create their own songs which "might" be sharable with others via the WiiConnect24 online service.

The Contra.gr interview also apparently reveals a new hybrid game/network service called the "Health Pack." It claims the game will act as a personal trainer of sorts, guiding users through specific exercises. It will also apparently collect "biometric" data which will then be uploaded to an as-yet unannounced Wii Health channel. According to the story, said data will then be uploaded to "hospitals" contracted by Nintendo to provide "checkups." Summaries of the checkups would then be sent back to the Wii user WiiConnect24.

The official story: When contacted by GameSpot, Nintendo of America reps claimed to have "no information" on either game and declined comment.

Bogus or not bogus?: Given its obvious mass appeal, a holiday release date for Wii Music is a no-brainer. As for the Health Pack, the notion certainly fits into Nintendo's current Wii-as-workout messaging, most recently evidenced by the company's donation of the scarce console to YMCAs. Also, if the "checkups" are simple physical fitness assessments of weight-height ratios--which can be easily entered via a few data points--such a service is perfectly plausible. ...

via slashdot

GameDaily is reporting on comments made by God of War designer David Jaffe. In an interview with Geoff Keighley, Jaffe has stated that he believes Blue-ray should have been removed from the PS3 so that the console could be sold at a lower price point.
"Jaffe didn't outright label it a mistake either, but he's the first Sony employee (to this editor's knowledge) to even question the need for Blu-ray. SCE Worldiwide Studios President Phil Harrison and other Sony executives have repeatedly stressed the importance of the Blu-ray format, not just as a next-gen movie format, but as a game disc format that provides game developers with plenty of storage space to build highly detailed game worlds without the need for multiple discs." ...

via slashdot

Yesterday we discussed the mighty expensive Guitar Hero II downloadable content. Some readers had serious complaints, and their views jive with a lot of other commentators out there. Prior to an event related to the game Joystiq had the chance to sit down with Microsoft's Major Nelson, who attempted to frame the conversation and point out the difficulties associated with this project:
"I used to work in the broadcasting industry and in music for a long time and I know that content is not linear. It's not like you go to iTunes, and you're buying the same thing. There's testing that's involved, and there's also licensing involved. There's a lot of elements involved. When there's music involved, that brings up a lot of licensing issues ... You have to consider the Leaderboard. People like to say it's the same [as on the PS2], but the licensing is not the same. You have to re-license it. It's a different platform. While on the surface it may look fairly simplistic, and people are saying 'XYZ should be done,' but we're not Red Octane. I work for Microsoft, and we're just the conduit at this point." ...