Over at Edge Online, they've reprinted a recent 'Time Extend' magazine article on Capcom's P.N.03, and it raises some interesting questions on the neglected title.

The intro notes: "To some, poor sales are almost a guarantee of probity – a coded message that invites the initiated to come inside and get devotional. Look at Beyond Good and Evil, say, or Jet Set Radio Future: they didn’t hit the sales jackpot, but they struck a deep chord with certain players all the same. What’s odd about Capcom’s P.N.03, then, is that unlike other games that vanished at the point of retail, there are few people willing to speak up for it."

But, as with so many perverted gamers who delve deeper, there's a bold claim: "Maybe it’s because P.N.03 is awkward. Its controls make it awkward to play. Its commercial failure makes it awkward to track down in the shops. Crucially, the skewed challenge it presents makes its peculiar appeal very awkward to explain. This is a game that confounds on many fronts." Will anyone else admit to a 'peculiar' attraction to P.N.03 in public? Feel free to do so in the comments, if so.

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

It's been a little while since we covered the PlayStation Museum, and the site that's the "culmination of years of research and dedication to the Sony PlayStation" has been adding more neat, obscure material.

A recent exclusive is screenshots and a review of Battleship for PS1, in which you "Experience the thrill of heart pounding naval action amid the surging spray and deafening explosions of real-life combat" - an odd, unfinished and unreleased conversion, but fun to poke at.

Other obscureness which denizens of GSW may appreciate include a comparison of Slap Happy Rhythm Busters, checking out the differences between an unpublished U.S. prototype from THQ and the final Japanese version - "subtle differences like different options available, between match conversations, health bar, and more."

Posted by Simon Carless at 8:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Poking around on Google News will only bring you pain - that, and a wonderful website article called 'The Purpose Driven Life Takers' on talk2action.org, which links Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life, to the previously GSW-covered Christian RTS game series by Left Behind Games.

Talk2Action claims: "Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians... you are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren."

Well, firstly, the game is based on the best-selling books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, which, though we haven't read, are pretty sure that they don't advocate killing Jews and gays, even if we find them personally a bit scary. Secondly, Rick Warren doesn't really seem to have much to do with this, as the commenters note: "The international director of Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Church, Mark Carver, serves on the Advisory Board of the corporation created to develop and market the video game?!? That is some-kinda cheap guilt-by-association!"

Most of all, we don't really know what's going on - but Jack Thompson is quoted extensively (yay!), there's some GREAT illustrations, and the conclusion to the piece claims: "In the one hand, this video game is anti-American, because it endorses roving death squads engaged in faith-based violence without any regard for Constitutional law. On the other hand, the video game is anti-Christian, because it argues that the Kingdom of God can be advanced by using the methods and tools of the kingdoms of this world, namely guns and bombs." Christians, stop smiting Christians, already!

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So, we got a nice note from one of the producers of the One Life Left radio show (which also has a MySpace page, inevitably), and is, as he explains: "...professionally produced and going out on London's Resonance 104.4fm, on Monday afternoons. Our contacts allow us loads of exciting guests to talk to and the opportunity inherent has got us loads and loads of fun contributors, from (gambling) tips to cooking to lexography."

But wait, there's more: "One Life Left is scattered with brilliant regular minifeatures, including: Bedroom Oding / Odds On O'D / Professor Game & Doctor Watch / Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right LA Start / Derek Williams' Free Market Economy / Uncle Charles, Uncle Charles: Is Gaming Cool Yet? / and more. To find out what they are, you will have to listen."

Co-presented by ex-Edge editor Ste Curran and featuring a seemingly endless parade of far too trendy glitterati guests such as Kieron Gillen (the Hunter S. Thompson manque of the NGJ set) and even 1UP Zine's Raina Lee (clearly the Kim Gordon of the video game zine world), this is clearly worth checking out. Unless you're a muppet. Are you a muppet?

Posted by Simon Carless at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Good ol' SirBruce has updated his MMOG Chart again, up to v20.0 (!), and he notes of his latest additions: "This is a major update, with updated numbers for many games, most notably World of Warcraft, Eve Online, RuneScape, and most of NCSoft’s titles. I’ve also added three new MMOGs to the tracking data: Tibia, The Matrix Online, and Dungeons & Dragons Online."

The charts themselves, focusing on the rampant success of World Of WarCraft, and now with separated-out charts for Asian PCU figures, seem to be the main focus (though there are still some kinks in there with games released in both territories, like WoW and Lineage II). But we focus more on the obscure analysis - we had no idea that as of the beginning of 2006, Ultima Online "had about 130,000 subscribers worldwide, with about 70,000 of those in Japan" - more JP subscribers than Western? Wacky.

Also, SirBruce's extended E3 2006 MMO report is one of the best pieces of reportage we've seen from the show - he comments: "Picking a clear winner this year was quite difficult. Nearly all of the titles had something in particular going for them. I was also impressed by the graphics in almost every title; it seems technology and tools have progressed to the point that even a small MMOG title can have excellent graphics." Most interestingly: "The titles that fellow MMOG players seemed to be impressed with the most were Tabula Rasa, Huxley, and Age of Conan" - not what we would have guessed.

Posted by Simon Carless at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Continuing GSW's wish to be the only website ever to link to the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer weblog, we note a new review of uber-obscure Japan-only 3DO title Autobahn Tokio, which the blog's author claims may be a seminal early 3D racing game.

He explains: "Autobahn Tokio is actually Ridge Racer meets Gran Turismo meets Battle Gear or Initial D. After Ridge, before Polyphonic, before anyone thought an AE86 was cool there was Autobahn Tokio on the 3DO. It's red car verses yellow car, hinting towards real racing dynamics and the recognisable cars of Gran Turismo or Initial D."

Although the game itself is 'not great', apparently, "Moving onto the tracks, particular the night city one, these are undeniably Gran Turismo. The night city mode is Special Stage Route 5, the mountain route is Grand Valley Speedway and the forest route is Deep Forest Racing Way. Of cause GT didn't make it to the PS1 for another 4 years after Autobahn Tokio was released. I don't care what anyone says - they, the 3DO ones, are the originals... the circuits are fairly short but eerily familiar." Hurrah for 3DO-based conspiracy theories!

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since it's my hometown, I'm rather intrigued by August's ZeroOne San Jose Festival, billed as a happening that "will transform San Jose into the North American epicenter for the intersection of art and digital culture by showcasing the world's most innovative contemporary artists."

Seems pretty highbrow, but we note some game-related content of some neatness sneaking in there, especially ARG-like content for the 'Interactive City' part of ZeroOne, such as 99 Red Balloons from Jenny Marketou and Katie Salen, "a game in which players must master the art of public persuasion by convincing non-players to enter the game and play."

According to the description: "Players take on the roles of Spy Fairies, each armed with a large helium balloon and wireless camera, which record the game play as the Spy Fairies work to collect as many followers as possible before time runs out... Footage from the Spy Fairy cameras is beamed back to the game Headquarters, where the progress of each Fairy can be tracked onscreen." It's all incredibly The Prisoner, isn't it? Yay!

Posted by Simon Carless at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Former GSW blogger Tony Walsh has spotted an interesting new article on avatar-based marketing in the Harvard Business Review, and he likes what he sees.

Walsh comments: "The extensive article is detailed but easy to digest, leading readers new to virtual worlds (specifically, Second Life) through the basics and nuances of avatars, covering some of their current and potential relationships with marketing efforts. What most impresses me is the degree of research Hemp's apparently done, and the fact that he covers the potential for avatar-marketing failures."

The full article expands on this further, noting: "This new marketing landscape and audience come with all kinds of pitfalls. There are technology constraints. Stagecoach Island moved from the technology platform on which Second Life is built to the platform underlying Active Worlds, another virtual world. The Second Life platform required too much computer hardware capability of users, according to Collins, the Wells Fargo marketer." Definitely good to see realistic weighing-up of issues as well as advantages, here.

Posted by Simon Carless at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Courtesy of Game-Science, there's information on Sony's new PlayStation Signature merchandise series, some _extremely_ high-end lifestyle tie-ins.

As is explained: "In a move to push the PlayStation brand into a lifestyle brand, in which the PlayStation means something beyond games, Sony announced the release of "PlayStation Signature" lifestyle items in Japan, which includes various items for the PSP and for upscale people in general. Most of the items will be available from 14 June, at the PlayStation Square in Sony's headquarters in Tokyo."

A Japanese-language Impress Watch article has lots of pictures of the line - we particularly like the super-custom 'EMILIO PUCCI X PLAYSTATION Signature PSP Case (each one unique)', but at 33,000 yen ($294), you could buy more than one PSP for the same price.

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Excellent import-centric blog SiliconEra has posted about the new Z-rated game list in Japan, where the official rating system just changed: "Now there are two distinct ratings for “M” type games. A game gets a “D” rating if it’s made for gamers 17 years old and the “Z” rating is for game is for adults only (18+)."

Most interesting, though, it the list of games that now merit a Z: "Currently only a few games landed the infamous Z rating and they are: Driv3r, Max Payne, killer7, Grand Theft Auto Double Pack, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Grand Theft Auto III, The Getaway, The Getaway: Black Monday, Berserk, Simple 2000 Vol. 61: The Oneechanbara, Simple 2000 Vol. 80: The Oneechanpuru."

Well, Western-created games really _are_ doing well on that list, aren't they? Or 'well', I guess we should say - though the disgusting Grasshopper Manufacture and the D3 folks from Japan also sneak on there - dubious congratulations go to them.

Posted by Simon Carless at 3:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First spotted this a couple of days ago, but looks like cable channel VH-1 has started the VH1 Game Break weblog, yet another video game-themed weblog to add to a long list (including, ahem, GameSetWatch itself, which is obviously waay at the top of your list, right?)

One particularly notable thing about this blog, though - it just added Jay Bibby of Jay Is Games to its blogger list, joining Village Voice columnist Harold Goldberg, so it looks to be a fairly entertainingly diverting read for alt.games and intelligent linkage fans.

The latest item of interest is a review of Russian Flash title Warp Forest from Bibby, noting that it's " a rather odd combination of action and puzzle elements that will challenge both sides of your brain." Mm, both sides of the brain.

Posted by Simon Carless at 1:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over at the Guilded Lilies weblog, there's an an excellent post on the book modding project for The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, including an interview with modder Phoenix Amon.

The latest book mod, simply enough, is "to replace all of the 300+ in-game book jackets (that are a little ho-hum) with dynamic looking cover", and Amon, female herself, has some interesting comments about how gender may affect modding wants in games.

She suggests: "I don't think there's any type of mod that universally appeals to women rather than men, but there are probably some types that fill gaps more often noticed by women. For instance I think when NPCs in a game lack any form of personality, women will be more likely than men to be bothered by it. Mostly, though, I think mods make games more fun for individuals by allowing them to tailor their own experience."

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Publisher Majesco really hasn't had much to crow about recently, what with a financial meltdown precipitated by the financial flops of Psychonauts and Advent Rising - certainly nothing to justify having the company's NASDAQ symbol be 'COOL', haw.

But, on the way back to the budget bargain basement, the firm has struck a quirky chord, judging by its press release on DS game Cookin Mama's reception at E3: "Cooking Mama was awarded several honors including: "Most Innovative DS Design of E3 2006" from leading video game website IGN; and GameDaily's "Nod Award," which called Cooking Mama "a fun DS game that uses the stylus to near perfection."

The title, which was originally published by Taito in Japan, is ripe for an Iron Chef license, if you ask us: "Playing as a female chef, you have to prepare the food (slicing the vegetables, slicing the meat), then cook it on the stove. With touchscreen play, you can do things such as shake the skillet for an omelet and dip tempura in the oil." But those Alton Brown licensing fees are probably steep, so we'll settle for a decent translation, eh, Majesco?

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Something else we missed from last week - an excellent Clive Thompson column on Second Life/GBA's Tringo at Wired News, in which Thompson explains "the story of a game that became a hit -- inside another game."

You may have heard the story before - the game was created within Second Life, and was licensed by Donnerwood Media - it's now available for Game Boy Advance thanks to the reliably wacky budget publisher Crave Entertainment.

Thompson's conclusion contains the neatest comments,t hough: "Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Tringo's already-kooky history, though, is that it shows a new way for games to be born. Many of today's best online games are moddable, which means players can reshape reality into something new. So why don't we actively encourage them to create new casual games? An online environment is a terrific prototyping lab: You can quickly make something, hand out copies to other players, and discover immediately whether your invention is any good."

Of course, this depends if the people playing Second Life (or any other prototyping platform) are actually demographically accurate for your final target market - but it's conceptually smart.

Posted by Simon Carless at 8:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From last week, we spotted a post on celebrity 'coolstuff' blog BoingBoing that deals with 'an open online book from Hacker Manifesto author McKenzie Wark entitled GAM3R 7H30RY (gamer theory).

Well, that's GR3AT (great), but how does it work? Apparently: "The Institute designed a web site that would enable McKenzie to engage with readers before the book is fully cooked, to see how a larger conversation might impact its development. Each individual paragraph has its own comment stream allowing for fine-grained response to the text."

Of course, with slightly insane hypertextish-wanderings comes an incredibly highbrow section on Katamari Damacy which starts: "Sisyphus, founder of Corinth, father of Odysseus, founder of the Ismithian Games, is best known for a most cruel and unusual punishment, meted out to him by the Gods." Can you see where he's going with this? Grumpy commenter Toad claims: "Any real editor would have sooner pointed out this manuscript’s ridiculous, hopelessly obtuse, faux pretensious pandering to the video game community."

Eh, we disagree - but we _are_ the video game community. And the walrus. Also - an entire section on State Of Emergency? We just ejected our false teeth right into our afternoon tea.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Now we're running with our new 'fast and loose' GSW style (do you like it? More posts, less OCD linkage!), we figured we could link to the latest issue of The Escapist Magazine, which deals with the game/work nexus (see 'Office Mode' in Defcon for a great recent example!)

The site's PR explains: "Have you ever gotten in trouble for playing games at work? The Escapist staff knows all too well not only the life of those who play games at work, but also those who play games for work, and the sometimes fine line between. The Escapist takes a look at how games affect life in the workplace in issue 47: “Office Space.”"

All the articles seem fun, but Cat Rambo's piece on putting MUDs on your resume is the most sharply written: "Over the next few years, this overlapping of the game and business world would occur over and over. I'd apply lessons in conflict management or negotiation I learned in MUDs to resolve situations, and the next day find myself in a management class thinking how best to use the material on the flash cards in front of me to steer my coders down a particular path." We've all kickbanned our co-workers, so we know just how that works.

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks to some silly promotional people, we got links to the two latest videos from Jack Black's Nacho Libre 'confessionals' - both of which co-star director Jared Hess, and actually discuss video games - here's the links - Episode 16 - 'Search for the Missing PSP' (.MOV), and Episode 17 - 'Thanksgiving' (.MOV).

Specifically, it's explained to us: "Jack Black loves video games. He does NOT love losing his beloved PSP handheld... check out this behind the scenes footage from the set of Jack's new comedy "Nacho Libre," in theaters June 16. Jack Black and director Jared Hess (Nacho Libre, Napoleon Dynamite) discuss Jack's missing PSP, how the Nintendo DS compares to the PSP, Thanksgiving food, and the Neverending Story."

Check out the 'Thanksgiving' movie, in particular, for Black explaining that his DS does not make up for losing his PSP: "That's how spoiled I am - Nintendo DS, that's all I got?", expostulates Black, before hurling his DS across the room (see picture!), and then commenting woefully: "Yesterday I actually had to read some of a book." We know, it hurts.

Posted by Simon Carless at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

According to our sister site, Gamasutra, Nintendo has decided to brand and in some cases re-brand more "accessible" DS games with its new "Touch Generations" label.

The company explains that the brand "will include titles that anyone can pick up and play, even with little or no experience with video games", and that the move "represents one of the many ways that Nintendo is making it easy for new demographics of people to be introduced to video games." In addition to its newer titles such as the Brain Training series, the brand will also be applied to long-time favorites Nintendogs, Tetris DS, and True Swing Tennis.

While I can understand the drive to let consumers know which games are more family-friendly, I feel this move may end up muddling a market already saturated with ESRB ratings and other age-specific warnings. So this is a Touch Generations title, does that mean an 80 year old can play alongside her grandkids? Wouldn't the ESRB "E for Everyone" label pretty much cover this?

The idea has merit, but all we have from Nintendo so far are buzzwords about demographics and "pick up and play." Only time will tell if the Touch Generations branding takes off in the US.

Posted by chasem at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In an interesting twist on an old classic, Iranian students are developing a war game featuring American military forces as the antagonists.

The game is meant to be a protest of Western involvement in Iran's nuclear development program, and focuses on US troops in Iraq. The story will be based around a "Commander Bahman" infiltrating "enemy" territory to capture Iranian nuclear scientists who have been imprisoned by the US Army.

While the 2007-slated game is making waves for being anti-American, it's also true that we've used a lot of middle-eastern and arabic archetypes to play the "bad guys" in our war games for some time. Heck, our Army unabashedly uses a video game as a recruitment tool, and very few people are talking trash about that. While I feel that the development team may be skewing current events a bit, this is no worse than, say, Atari's Terrorist Takedown or Play It Ltd's America's 10 Most Wanted.

The point, I suppose, is that you don't get to be where the US is today without pissing some people off. We end up casting our video game "bad guys" wherever they would historically fit; for example, no one would complain if the enemies in a game about the Vietnam War were, let's say Vietnamese. Somewhere, and sadly in an increasing number of places around the world, we're the "bad guys" to someone. This game is going to be a fictional account of what would happen if America kidnapped Iranian scientists and sparked a war; it's not telling people to grab a gun and kill the nearest US Marine. It's all about context, folks.

Posted by chasem at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

While poking around the NeverWinter Nights official forums in search of commentary on the apparent cutting of support for the first NWN from struggling publisher Atari, we ran into something much better - a call for help!.

Specifically, 'syrath1001' asks his fellow forumgoers: "A few weeks ago, I started noticing some changes in my wife's behavior. She just doesn't seem to be that interested in me anymore. Sure, we go out and she holds my hand, but the warmth isn't there like it used to be. We live together, so I fear this breakup might be particularly hard for me. I'm not worried about her feelings since I'm convinced she's cheating on me."

He continues, in a distressed tone: "One day, she left her MSN on. While I was playing in the first chapter of SoU, she received a message from someone I haven't noticed on her list before, saying "hey sweetie! xoxo". By the time I was able to click the box closed, I was killed in 2 shots by a kobold."

But here's the crux of Syrath's issue: "My question is this: should I stick with my pure rogue or should I multiclass some fighter levels for more survivability?" Wow, tough call! [A few replies later, Syrath reveals his solution - an excellent one!]

Posted by Simon Carless at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Excellent shoot-em-up weblog Shoot The Core (which is run by The Postman, who contributed a shmups section to my Gaming Hacks book, incidentally!), has posted a detailed review of Japanese PC dojin shooter Zen-Ichi.

Posty notes: "Along with some of the regular features shown in doujin shmups today such as a replay option, choice of different ships with different abilities, and a crazy scoring system, ZI also is one of the rare titles that has two player simultaneous action! That should be enough to generate interest from any shooter fan, but when you dig deeper into what Zen-Ichi has to offer, you'll find an excellent manic shmup that lures you into improving "fever mode" combos and defeating a completely EVIL final boss." Hot stuff!

The game itself is listed on the Z page of The Postman's awesome PC Shooter Database, alongside a host of other titles. Can anyone else recommend some overlooked dojin shooters?

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, here's the dumb/amusing story of the day - according to the Associated Press: "A security guard at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant was so absorbed in playing a hand-held video game that he failed to see an inspector approach during a surprise inspection."

Bizarrely, Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty commented: "The issue is not the guard's use of the video game. The real issue is that his complete absorption in the game distracted him from noticing the repeated approach of our inspector. And that shows why this procedure needs to be changed and these video games disallowed."

Sooo... if the game had been less addictive, it would have been fine? Oh, and please suggest the games the guard could have been playing in the comments, of course, this is very important.

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

['Parallax Memories' is a regular weekly column by Matthew Williamson, profiling classic '16-bit' games from the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and other seminal '90s systems. This week's column profiles Chunsoft’s roguelike: Fushigi no Dungeon 2: Fuurai no Shiren]

What-like? Roguelike.

Wandering around in a world of hash marks, peroids, and number symbols may be familiar to the longtime gamers here. Entering a room and encountering the letter "D" could cause you to sweat after running though ASCII hell for days. This game would either have been Rogue itself, or a roguelike. When Enix commissioned a spinoff of the Dragon Quest series from Chunsoft, the result was a strange Super Famicom roguelike based on Torneko, the chubby shop keeper of Dragon Quest IV.

Chunsoft is a small development company - so small that they don't even have a Wikipedia entry (remedy this!). Their first game, that commission for Enix, was Torneko no Daibouken: Fushigi no Dungeon (Torneko's Great Adventure: Mysterious Dungeon ), but this article is not about the tubby salesman. This is about their first non-commissioned creation: Fushigi no Dungeon 2: Fuurai no Shiren (Mysterious Dungeon 2: Shirin the Wanderer). Released December 1995 in Japan only, Shiren uses a roguelike structure to create a hellishly difficult action role-playing hybrid.

The Impasse Valley

Shiren the Wanderer is firmly entrenched in Japanese culture and mythology. In a rain hat and cloak made of grass, Shiren attempts to reach the dwelling place of the Golden Condor at the summit of Tabletop Mountain, beyond Impasse Valley. He isn't the first to attempt this, and the designation “Wanderer” refers to “the men endlessly seeking this place.”

Death is a major theme of the game. Traversing the dungeons (and forests, towns, mountains, etc.) will lead to death in a multitude of manners which are all recorded on the high score chart. The game teaches you how to deal with this, or rather you slowly learn how to approach and survive the multitude of ways to die. It's notable and initially frustrating that when you die, you lose everything: money, equipment, and even your levels of experience.

There are cushions in place to dull the pain these hundreds of deaths. At certain points you can relinquish your equipment to have it return to warehouses throughout the game. There are towns where you can continuously upgrade your equipment in preparation for a run-through in the future. You can also enlist certain characters to aid you in your Wandering. And perhaps most importantly, the levels are randomly generated every time you enter them, without any of the problems that have plagued random levels from other developers (i.e. unreachable areas, impassable walls, blocked exits).

A Talking Weasel

To keep playing to reach the eventual end is only the original goal. The people in the towns through which you pass remember what you did when you were there previously. While you may die and restart and die and restart, the towns keep going, and visiting them will uncover new surprises about them and their progressing stories. Eventually, you begin look forward to your returns to these towns and start to live for the journey, and not just the destination.

Unfortunately the few Chunsoft games that have made it outside of Japan have been unsuccessful. The company's games are like climbing a mountain: unless you're strong enough and smart enough, you'll fall. Picking yourself up and starting again from the bottom, and maybe reaching that next ledge, are what these games are about. The concept seems foreign to most gamers these days, who are used to having their hands held by game designers, and for whom losing all their “progress” (sad, superficial, numerical progress) is like a slap in the face.

This fall, though, Chunsoft’s Pokemon Rescue Team games are coming out in Europe and the US for both the GBA and DS. I am greatly anticipating these Chunsoft roguelikes, and recommend that you don't let their “children's game” trappings steer you away or lull you into a false sense of security.

[Matthew Williamson is the creator of The Gamer’s Quarter, an independent videogame magazine focusing on first person writing. His work has been featured on MTV.com, 1up.com, Chatterbox Radio, and the Fatpixels Radio Podcast.]

Posted by Matthew Williamson at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Over at FiringSquad, we spotted an interview with Introversion founder Chris Delay about the firm's upcoming PC indie title Defcon.

The absolute best thing about the interview is Delay's description of the seriously subversive Office Mode: "We're very excited by Office Mode. The basic idea is that a group of work-mates can start the game up in the morning in Office Mode, playing over their local area network."

He explains: "The game takes place entirely in real-time (you can quite easily end the world with nuclear conflict in 8 hours) and each player controls one territory, e.g. North America or Russia. You can hit the Panic key (press escape twice) which immediately removes the game from the screen and places a discreet icon in your system tray." It's like the fake spreadsheet key in those '80s PC games!

Posted by Simon Carless at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The ever-trusty Edge Online has posted an interview with Bandai producer Uchiyama Daisuke on the new phase of the .hack PlayStation 2 'network RPG' series, and some interesting points are raised.

Daisuke comments of the 'relative' U.S. success of the game: "I always thought that, in the US, people liked simple stories like in Hollywood movies. The American hero wins at the end after a fight and save the beautiful woman or the world. I was sure that the first .hack would fail, that people in the US would find it too difficult or disorienting."

Yet he concludes: "People understood what we wanted to deliver. And in the end it sold more than 700,000 copies in the US." Of course, this was over quite a few titles, but hey, for iterations using the same engine, it really _is_ quite impressive - a sign of episodic success to come?

Posted by Simon Carless at 4:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The VintageComputing.com site, which is run by RedWolf of 'Game Ads A-Go Go' GSW column fame, has posted a rather fun scan of Sonic merchandise, seemingly dated to the Sonic & Knuckles era.

As RedWolf notes: "My favorite items are the “2 Dudes with Atti2udes” t-shirt and the sleeveless Sonic & Knuckles denim jacket. Real classy stuff." Stuff like this doesn't end up on eBay too often, unfortunately - or fortunately?

Posted by Simon Carless at 1:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over at his personal weblog, Manifesto Games co-founder Greg Costikyan has interesting comments on PC casual/indie games, specifically commenting: "In general, I think a lot of developers are failing to remind downloaders enough, and therefore having fewer conversions (to paying customers) than they otherwise would."

So, we get Greg's top issues, which are actually pretty smart, and tie in well with Xbox 360 Live Arcade standards: "The first thing a player should see when he starts the demo is a screen that provides an opportunity to buy the full game, with a link directly to a purchase url... The last thing a player should see when he quits out of a demo is a full screen describing all the cool features he gets in the full game--and again, with a live link to the purchase URL." Plenty more hints if you click through.

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The ever-vigilant Press The Buttons has spotted lots of new information on classic SNES platformer Plok!, thanks to the new 'Zee-3' website from the Pickford brothers, creators of Plok!, now-defunct indie developer Zed Two (Wetrix), and an insanely large amount of other games going back over 20 years.

As PTB's MattG notes: "Surprisingly, Plok's creators still own the rights to the character.  John and Ste Pickford have launched an archive of material detailing their many many games, and fortunately for Plok fans everywhere there is a special archive devoted to the little guy.  Marvel at unused concept art for future unrealized marketing endeavors, thrill at the unreleased coin-op prequel Fleapit, and hope someday for a new proper Plok adventure." Awesome stuff!

The site also has info on the Pickfords' new game, 'Naked War', which is "a fun strategic battle game for 2 players over email", and perhaps a spiritual successor to the lumpen but intriguing Future Tactics, also by the Pickfords - though in using play by email tactics, Naked War reminds of another set of famous UK brothers, the Gollops, and their title Laser Squad Nemesis.

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

[Our Blazing Destiny is a new weekly comic by Jonathan "Persona" Kim about our society, cultural postdialectic theory, and video games. But mostly the latter.]

So, as promised, we have a replacement comic for the saintly Shmorky's strip, and it's from Persona, whose work you may have spotted in The Gamer's Quarter and elsewhere. And here's Persona himself to explain the premier instalment of what we're hoping will be a lovably random enterprise:

"The first 'Our Blazing Destiny' comic features the new Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer and all the terrifying Raiden-ness that erodes up from it. I mean, did you see the size of that boy's robo-crotch now? He could take out a Metal Gear with that monster!" Ahem.

[Jonathan "Persona" Kim is sometimes a character animation student at the California Institute of the Arts, other times a ninja illustrator, but in his heart, a true comic artist looking for his destiny in the sea of stars. His path on the torrid road of comics include a quarterly manga on The Gamer's Quarter and his website on the internet drawing hub Mechafetus.com.]

Posted by persona at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Courtesy of the British Gaming Blog, there's a round-up of the top ten Game Boy Advance games ever, which seems oddly relevant at this time in history, as the writer acknowledges: "While many of you will toss your consoles aside and bring in your new DSes and PSPs to play on, there will always be those who do not forget these classic consoles and their games, but honour them."

Of course, the best thing about Game Boy Advance games is that you can play them all on the DS, and the countdown even sports some of the recent GBA titles you might have accidentally skipped, like Game Freak's under-rated Screw Breaker ("a simple play style that was easy to learn, but tough to master.")

What's possibly most interesting is a vaguely controversial overall #1 game - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga ("mixed traditional Mario platform timing with RPG elements to provide what we think is the best.") So let's open things up to the floor - what's missing from the top ten of all-time Game Boy Advance titles, and what should _really_ be number one?

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Game theorist Jesper Juul has posted an update on his official weblog linking to extracts from his new MIT Press book Half-Real.

As we've previously mentioned, Juul's keynote at this year's Serious Games Summit @ GDC was possibly the most listenable and practically relevant talk we've heard from anyone who could be labeled a 'game theorist', and Half-Real looks to continue that interest.

As for the name of the book, the preface explains: "A video game is half-real: we play by real rules while imagining a fictional world. We win or lose the game in the real world but we slay a dragon (for example) only in the world of the game."

And the introduction (PDF link) notes amusingly of early game regulation/censorship (in 1457, golf was banned in Scotland because "it was felt that it kept young men from practicing archery". So there.) Anyhow, go poke around, already.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've been checking out the official ChinaJoy 2006 website, for the massive and pre-eminent Chinese video game trade show being held in Shanghai from July 28th-30th, and interestingly, a button labeled '2006 Miss ChinaJoy' on the site links to an official ChinaJoy cosplay competition, with lotsa contestant pics.

The choice of a 'beauty contest' style moniker for the competition is distinctly odd. But we, at least, find this interesting because we only tend to see U.S.-set cosplay competitions, or the Japanese cosplayers hanging out at TGS or Comiket, and seeing the Chinese physicality applied to cosplay is actually a refreshing change that highlights what the rest of Asia like cosplaying (Final Fantasy titles, mainly!)

For example, this seems to be one of the leading competitors, and the whole portfolio showcases the intriguingly ethereal look of many Chinese cosplayers. [Oh, and if anyone can translate and tell us more about the competition and the winners, go right ahead.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

['Game Mag Weaseling' is a weekly column by Kevin Gifford which documents the history of video game magazines, from their birth in the early '80s to the current day.]

One thing you should be aware of as you read this column is that the United Kingdom loves its magazines. Loves them. Especially computer and/or game mags. Pretty much every major PC or game system over the years enjoyed at least two or three monthly mags dedicated exlcusively to it in the UK, with more popular platforms like the Amiga or PlayStation getting a good six or seven at once. Even systems you never imagined anyone could write 70 or 80 pages of editorial a month on, like Philips' CD-i and Commodore's last-ditch CD32 console, got magazines in Britain. In fact, at one point in the mid-1980s, there were three consumer-targeted computer mags in the UK that published weekly -- Home Computing Weekly, Personal Computer News, and Popular Computing Weekly -- each one with its own reviews, news coverage, and type-in programs for every 8-bit computer under the sun.

The Internet's slowed down this torrent of print media down over the years, but there are still far more mags in the UK than in America -- and while the idea of any new game mag launching in the US is pretty much unthinkable at this point, new titles are still hitting UK newsstands. How can they keep this up? Simple. Since distribution costs are smaller in the UK (because it's a smaller country, of course), publishers can keep magazines at circulations that would make their US counterparts pass out and still make a profit. (The usual make-or-break circulation for a UK mag is a little less than 20,000 copies a month; meanwhile, in the US, Ziff Davis Media cancelled GameNOW in 2004 when its circ dropped to "only" 80,000.)

How easy is it for a magazine to make money in England? Here's an example. I went to the UK in the spring of 2004 to cover some game or another, and while I was there I made it a point to buy every single game magazine on the stands that month. It nearly bankrupted me. I wound up going to a single shop and spending over 70 pounds on magazines -- and that was after I decided to skip over the strategy-only titles. I wound up discarding most of them before I moved cross-country, but one I saved just because it amazed me so much that it existed at all.

This is the last issue (March 2004) of the Official UK PlayStation Magazine. What? But certainly OPM must still be publishing in the UK. And yes, you're right -- the officially PlayStation publication in Britain, more correctly called Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine, is still coming out and is in fact the UK's top games-only magazine. This, on the other hand, was the Official UK PlayStation Magazine. As in, PlayStation One.

In the US, the Official PlayStation Magazine did the sensible thing and incorporated PS1 and PS2 coverage into one magazine. Across the pond, meanwhile, Future Publishing figured they could make a bit more money by keeping the official PS1 mag going while launching a separate official PS2 mag...this despite the fact that after 2002, there really wasn't a whole lot going on with the old PS1, except for crappy budget games, and even those petered out by '03.

So how do you fill up a 100-page magazine with virtually zero advertising with coverage for a system that's been legally dead for nearly two years? Editor-in-chief Ryan Butt's solution: Get silly. OPMUK's final issue has a whopping two reviews (for XS Junior League Soccer and Ford Truck Mania, which is given a pity score of 7/10), a few pages' worth of capsule game lists, a feature on the 108 greatest PS1 cheats, and a primer on the PlayStation 2 for all those avid magazine-reading gamers who somehow didn't know what a PlayStation 2 was by 2004. The rest of the magazine is pure fluff -- 2 pages on the editorial staff, 2 pages covering a typical month of the magazine, a spread with character art you can cut out to "make your own OPM funeral" with, and an Operation-type game where you get to pull out all the bits from erstwhile editor Dan Curley. It's all remarkably well-written and amusing, which is the really surprising thing here because the readership had to have been in the four-figures by this time.

As it turns out, Future Publishing (the biggest UK game-mag publisher around) does this sort of thing all the time. The best example I can think of offhand is Commodore Format, a mag launched in 1990 devoted to the Commodore 64 computer. Launching a C64 mag in 1990 seems silly enough already, but amazingly, the mag survived...and survived...and survived, publishing 61 issues before finally closing in October 1995. 1995! Who the hell was using a C64 in 1995?

And this is exactly why the UK magazine scene is so neat. If you can find a few thousand people interested in reading PS1 coverage long after everyone's ditched their PS1s in the closet, then you can -- and what's more, it may just support itself in the long run. In the US, magazine overheads are too high to allow anything like that. (In fact, US mags didn't really experiment at all until the Internet forced them to in the early 2000s -- good for readers, but arguably a case of too little, too late.)

[Kevin Gifford breeds ferrets and runs Magweasel, a site for collectors and fans of old video-game and computer magazines. He owns enough magazines to smother himself with should the need arise, and his secret fantasy is for someone flush with game-publisher stock options to give him a monthly stipend so he can spend a year researching their full history and finishing the site. In his "off" time he is an editor at Newtype USA magazine.]

Posted by Kevin Gifford at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Probably the only unmissable indie-related article every month is the 'Indie Game Monthly Round-Up' from GameTunnel, and - good news, the May 2006 edition is now online.

Looks like the overall game of the month is the excellent puzzler Eets, which actually recently posted its postmortem on GSW sister site Gamasutra, and received an overall 9.0 score.

Reviewer Mike Hommel commented of the title: "A really solid and original puzzle game. The emotions work out as a really interesting aspect to the puzzles, and the physics-y nature of it all makes the puzzles a little more lenient and freeform than you get in more tile-based puzzles." So yay!

Other well-rated GT titles included The Odyssey: Winds of Athena ("Instead of controlling your units, you try to steer them in the right direction by modifying their environment"), and Bone: The Great Cow Race ("...does a good job of using 3D graphics while retaining a warm Disney-ish painted look.")

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those wondering what former 1UP staffer and current Microsoft community manager Che Chou is working on, turns out he's the community liaison for Forza Motorsport 2, the Xbox 360 racing sequel announced at E3, and coming out this Xmas.

Thus, he's running regular weblog updates on Forzamotorsport.net, and there's some pretty interesting stuff out there - for example, a trip to local exotic car dealership Park Place, where "a quest for exotic autos and soggy wet hamburgers", always a good combination, resulted. It's actually interesting to see (as with Ivan Sulic and Hellgate London) ex-journos being hired purely to provide community support and articles for single, high-profile games - and it's pretty neat.

[Oh, and while we're here, another fun third-party Forzamotorsport.net story is a chat with PGR art director Kiki Wolfkill and fame design director Chris Novak (hey, Project Gotham Racing 3 guys - sneaking onto the Forza site!), who "barnstormed the 425-hp British exotic through 5,000 miles of American countryside" in the 2006 Tire Rack Cannonball One Lap of America - neeto.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back to the always fun Speed Demos Archive after a little hiatus, and this time they've added a speed run of SNK Playmore's Metal Slug 5, which, while maybe not the best of the series, is good fun to check out for wacky bosses and classic 2D fun.

The run, by Mike Uyama, is played at hardest difficulty with no deaths (wow!), and there's lots of good tactics-related discussion in the text submitted with the run, but Uyama notes at the end: "I'm satisfied with this run, I don't think there are more than 30-40 seconds worth of mistakes/bad randomness. I don't think I'll touch this game again even if there is a lot of room for improvement because it is the worst out of all the Metal Slug games. Hopefully I will have a successful run of Metal Slug 3 someday."

Luckily, if you don't like that version of the game, there are also runs of the first Metal Slug, of Metal Slug 4 (also called "the worst of the Metal Slug series"), and for Metal Slug X, one of the best MS titles - lots of blasting action to enjoy!

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, the title of this GSW post is the title of a new Slate article by Luke O'Brien, subtitled "And why that's bad for gamers", and dealing with the state of indie in gaming.

O'Brien has some fair points, such as :"In today's movie business, it's possible for an indie film like Napoleon Dynamite to become a sensation. Saw, which cost a mere $1.2 million, grossed 100 times that amount. That just doesn't happen in video games." Basically true - the barriers to producing and the variable sale prices for smaller budget games seem to have precluded such a major phenomenon as yet.

But other parts of the piece are rather meanspirited - claiming that classic creators are burnt out and solely working for the big boys, for example, with Sid Meier having "spent most of the last decade updating his previous hits at a company owned by Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive" - the acquisition was only recent, and saying Garriott "never produced another breakthrough like Ultima" rather underplays the importance of Ultima Online as a pioneering MMO, if that's not included in the statement.

And so, we reach the same old 'cultural crossroads' conclusion, which is as untrue as it ever was: "If the big studios stay in charge, it may return to its former status: the pastime of teenage boys and middle-aged nerds at gaming conventions." How about Nintendo's Brain Training, the casual game explosion, EA's moves toward developing original IP, the strides with games like Guitar Hero? I'm bored of this article, so why do people keep writing it?

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Andy Waxy.org Baio, who created now Yahoo!-owned events site Upcoming.org and is quite the gamegeek (and a GSW chum!), made the trek down to E3 earlier this month, and has posted his impressions of his 'E3 Underdogs 2006' at his personal site.

He does note, interestingly, that in finding the downtrodden: "This year was particularly hard. Partly because I spent most of the day waiting in line to see the Nintendo Wii, but also partly because the entire gaming industry is getting so weird."

He continues: "In catering to the casual gamer and trying to differentiate from the competition, every platform and publisher is spending serious money turning former underdogs into big-name titles... I was surprised to see games like Loco Roco and Viva Piñata with huge marketing efforts by Sony and Microsoft. (What hath Katamari wrought?)"

But some of the Baio-approved 'under rug swept' titles include our favorite Elite Beat Agents, Guitar Hero II, which Baio is parading around at work "(I won't be happy until I get Jerry Yang and David Filo to battle it out on "Bark at the Moon.")", and one title not really mentioned by GSW thus far, Elebits for Wii ("Part hide n' seek shooting game and part physics simulation, Elebits uses the Wii controller as a gravity gun to ransack ordinary household settings to find and capture cute little characters.") Neeto!

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've been meaning to post this for a while, but well worth checking out (though not strictly legit) is the Sonic The Comic Archive, an almost complete scanned archive of every single Sonic The Hedgehog and Sega-related comic book published thoughout the '90s.

The handy info page explains it best: "STC is a comic based on the adventures of Sega's flagship mascot Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as including strips of many other famous Sega characters such as; Ecco the Dolphin, Sparkster and Streets of Rage. STC was produced by two companies over its 8 year and 223 issue life span."

We love Sonic, but our favorite bit is the special comics section, which includes such wackiness as an 'Eternal Champions' special edition comic, and a poster mag starring the Street Of Rage characters. Yay, Sega, yay! [Via #ic.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Our dear friends at Schadenfreude Interactive, last seen discussing game designs featuring renegade beekeepers with amnesia, have returned to sister site Gamasutra with a brand new column, 'Waiting For Hasselhoff'.

The feature "chronicles audio engineer Alex Voll mit Aalen's Beckettian odyssey, waiting for David Hasselhoff to arrive and craft voiceover for the firm's award-winning Cthulhu Karts series", and the lines he must speak are rather astounding: "A borean terror gnaws at my vitals as, before me, a many-tentacled creature waves its dire glaucous flag. Am I courting madness with this karting madness?"

We won't give away the ending, but suffice to say, the path of the Hoff does not run smooth, and Voll mit Aalen is obstructed, among other things, by German death metal band Moribund Impetus, who, he relates. "leave the studio a mess. Someone has left a pair of leather chaps behind an amplifier. I sigh and place them in the Lost & Found cabinet beside the Ottorino Respighi-shaped Pez dispenser, a deflated inflatable pig, and a cucumber wrapped in aluminum foil. This job is not as glamorous as I expected it to be -- some days I just feel like a janitor with a copy of ProTools." Working in games isn't as fun as we thought!

Posted by Simon Carless at 7:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Several smartypants are pointing out that Three Rings CEO Daniel James, the creator of Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, and a jaunty piratical hat-wearing presence at any conference or gathering you care to mention related to the game industry, has started a weblog, 'The Flogging Will Continue'.

The latest post, 'Burning Flipside, and the relevance of Burning Man to MMOs' has some interesting discussion on the future of MMOs and recreation. James comments, comparing the Burning Man experience to 'the Vegas experience': "The analogical contrast between Second Life and expensive content-driven theme-park MMOs like World of Warcraft is obvious."

He argues: "If humanity has a future (i.e. if we don’t blow ourselves up, or devour ourselves in green or grey goo), then I believe we’ll largely live lives of leisure. How will fill that leisure time will be profoundly important. As a creator of leisure, a builder of (virtual) leisure cities, I would much rather people spent most of their time at a virtual Burning Man than Vegas. That said, Puzzle Pirates is more Vegas than Burning Man. Heck, we’ve even got Poker. Clearly I have some work to do!" [Via Broken Toys.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Over at the War & Video Games blog, there's an informative post on the 'deadiniraq' art project, which, as is handily explained, was created by Joseph DeLappe: "He's been logging onto America's Army under the name dead-in-iraq, and choosing not to fight. Instead, he just types in the names of American military casualties."

Blogger Ed Halter has compiled some of the more eye-opening reactions to this virtual protest, for example: "Don't be surprised if there's a book deal in this. "My Noble Online Protest", by Joseph "surrender-monkey" DeLappe, coming soon to a B&N near you", or, indeed: "Couldn't he do something more original than name all the dead?"

There's also an excellent GameSpy article on the concept, noting: "One of the reasons DeLappe has specifically targeted America's Army is because he has some personal issues with the game itself. During our interview, he calls it "a tax-payer funded propaganda and recruiting and advertising tool for the Army."" Which... it is?

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

You knew about Virtua Fighter and that tennis one, sure. But did you know about EXTREME HUNTING 2: TOURNAMENT EDITION? Well, it's made by Sega Amusements USA, which is based in Elk Grove Village, IL - won't be too many more elk there for long! But anyway, it strongly appears to be an atomiswave game (just look at them robust screens), and is a tournament edition, meaning you can be ranked against other people who wear hats and plaid in public, should you so choose.

Check out some movies, where you'll find you can injure a bear then try to shoot it as it escapes! Then you can shoot fish in the water! Or even poorly animated squirrels! All the while listening to twangy, poorly constructed hillbilly music (and I know my hillbilly music, I worked at a folk music club). But don't forget, there are also frightening mystery animals - will it be a vicious bunny? Possibly a rabid duck? Maybe even a diabolical titmouse! You've got to play to find out!

The game was announced some time ago, but should be coming out in 'early summer, 2006.' which sounds a lot like now! You might think I was joking with the whole demonic animals thing, but just check out this quote from the tips section: "Keep a look out for the MONSTER ANIMALS, or the largest animals in the spot." The bold and caps are their own. Those frightening animals, wandering around in their natural habitat - frankly they're just asking for it! So, just wait til it comes out, then you can slouch behind a man with a red, impatiantly waiting for your turn. Will that man ever finish? The khaki pants brigade can't be kept waiting around! [X-post from IC.]

Posted by bsheffield at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Somewhere round the edges of art, retro gaming, and music, there lies Sebastian Tomczak and his multitude of circuit hacking projects, the latest of which performed an insanely detailed Vectrex/Atari 2600 symphony at an event in Australia the other day.

Our minds boggle at what was going on, but to try to explain it in less than three pages: "The idea behind Black Dog White Dog is to have a 'visual score' written on the Vectrex Logo program...The Vectrex is then filmed via a video camera, which is on its side to compensate for the machine's unique screen dimensions."

But wait, there's more: "Connected to the TV was a set of twenty-four light dependent resistors (whose resistance lowers the more light is presented to them), each replacing certain buttons in one of four 'recreated' Atari 2600 CX50 control pads. These four matrix sets where plugged into two Atari 2600's each running a copy of Paul Slocum's Synthcart."

So basically, the Vectrex's visual output was controlling Atari 2600 music through light sensitivity, and: "Both Ataris had had a direct audio modification performed on them. The audio from the left Atari was played directly through a Marshall guitar amp. The right Atari was through a Behringer bass amp." Wow. Check out Little Scale and the Milkcrate homepage for more on the many and varied circuitbending projects on display here. [via Xir!]

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Holy canole, is it a GameTap time of the month again? We got an email from the 'all you can eat' subscription gaming service (which we still heart) with its schedule for new game additions over the next month, so thought we'd pass them on.

Today, the 25th, looks like we're getting MegaRace 3 ("Strap yourself in for this fast and futuristic combat racer"!), an amusing sequel to the over the top '90s franchise - as well as the Neo Geo MVS version (we think!) of Bust-A-Move, aka Puzzle Bobble - always fun.

Then, appearing on June 1st, we have Super BurgerTime ("It's rarely been seen but it's finally here...the 1990 sequel to BurgerTime!"), and June 8th sees Rolling Thunder 2