The culprit is Rittai Kakushi E Atta Koreda (3D Hidden Images: Found It!). This nifty little DSiWare game, just released in Japan and that goes for only 500 DSiPoints (around US$5), uses the DSi's camera to track the user's face and eye position to generate the illusion of 3D without the need for any special glasses. As the video shows, the effect is quite impressive.
At the Nintendo Media Summit, Nintendo announced that Metroid: Other M will be released on June 27th! They have also updated the official site with a couple of new goodies so be sure to check it out here!
Our COO and dear friend, Mark Beaumont, passed away this morning. This sudden loss has left us with deep sadness. Our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. We will remember him for his humor, passion and commitment to Capcom and our industry. He was a great leader and visionary and his spirit will carry on in everything that we do. Please join us in memory of Mark.
Thank you for your attention and ongoing support of Capcom.
I know, this is a Nintendo blog. Fear not, my big-N-lovers; this is STILL Nintendo-related news... It just so happens that the company involved is one of Ninty's biggest competitor: Sony. The Japanese Electronics manufacturer filed for registration of a patent for a universal remote controller for gaming consoles.
According to the patent registration, the controller will be LCD-controlled (cue in comparisons with the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad's interface, please) and will present the button layout according to the console it is being paired with. Yes, that includes all major three: PS3, XBox 360, and Wii. The patent mentions 'popular gaming consoles', so it might even include Classic Controller buttons or PS2 ones, but that's just me speculating. The device would also have rumbling and audio output capabilities.
A game console controller includes a hand-holdable housing and a touch sensitive liquid crystal display (LCD) on the housing. The LCD is caused to present, depending on what type of game console a user has selected, a controller key layout for a first type of game console or a controller key layout for a second type of game console. A key layout includes plural keys selectable by a user to input commands to a game console.
Nintendo did it again! As if they were honoring our N+ monthly theme, Nintendo has been strong this month when it comes to filing and winning lawsuits to fight piracy. This time they won a AUD$500,000 settlement with Australian tech distributor RSJ for selling R4 flash carts.
As you may remember, Nintendo recently won another lawsuit in Australia against the guy who posted New Super Mario Bros. Wii on the Net one week prior to its official release. Well, once again in Australia, they sued RSJ for distributing R4 flash cartridges, forcing the distributor to pay Nintendo AUD$500,000 in fines, as well as ceasing the distribution of such devices and relinquishing all stock to the authorities. They also filed similar complaints to brothers Patrick and James Li, who must now pay AUD$100,000 in penalties, too.
Now, a while back an Australian judge had ruled that flash carts were not illegal since they allowed the use of legally-acquired homebrew and were not used to copy or pirate games... R4 carts, however, were deemed different for this particular case since they are PC-compatible and are therefore easily used for copying games and playing pirated copies downloaded off the Net.
Ubisoft sent out a press release today revealing some details about their upcoming Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, along with a couple of images they claim to be actual Wii screenshots. Forgive me if I sound skeptical, but these images seem a little bit too polished and high-res to be Wii screenshots. Alas, the benefit of the doubt is given until proven wrong; after all, some of the details they reveal is that they use "advanced technologies" that utilize the full graphic capabilities of the Wii.
A few keypoints are that the game is going to have a 15-hour main story, with even more game time if you find unlockables, alternate paths, and side missions. Also, they say the gameplay has been built from the ground up exclusively for the Wii, and that the Prince's abilities to manipulate the sands will come in handy for now different levels will have different paths to follow depending on how well you use your powers and use certain acrobatics to access these hidden paths. They also promise elaborate puzzles (please, oh please do deliver!).
The game will be out in the US on May 18th. Via IGN.
This is for all of us puzzle lovers out there: Don't you find that we are missing really good puzzle games on the Wii? Or in any other console for that matter! I, for one, wish there were more games like those brain-busting adventures of yesteryear in consoles today.
Why did they stop making games like 'Zork: Nemesis' (or any other title in the Zork saga), 'The 7th Guest' (whose sequel has been taken by the fans and in all these years the game is obviously not finished), 'King's Quest', 'Myst' or 'Phantasmagoria'? I still remember playing hours on end trying to decipher the puzzles in '7th Guest' or figuring out where to go next in 'Zork'; I miss that in today's games.
If you, like me, go ga-ga for games like these, then read on after the break and tell us what you think: is the puzzle genre lacking good installments, or do you feel otherwise?
Hop into your time machines, kids! Let's go all the way back to December, 1991 and find a freshly published copy of Nintendo Power... What do we find inside? The letter of one Jimmy Peterford to Nintendo Power describing his dream Nintendo console. The thing is, he mentions Super Mario Galaxy.
The letter came from Glenn Clove, New York and although he describes what would be his dream console (and to be fair, many of the features he describes did seem far-fetched at the time, but very possible nowadays) he also mentions that such console would include Super Mario Galaxy, a game that Nintendo did not release until 2007, 16 years after the letter was published. Spooky, huh?
Now, for the geek analysis. 512 bits would be enough to display 1.34x10^154 colors (waaaay more than 27 million), so he got THAT one wrong. However, he wasn't that distant from current displays, that can actually display millions of colors (even more if you go to true HD). Any game from any console ever made? Cue in 'Virtual Console', please. A miniature band that could play whatever you wanted? OK, he didn't get this one so right, but we do have MP3 capabilites...so it counts. A special chip to make your own games? Cue in homebrew (sadly, also piracy). A 27-button controller? He couldn't be more wrong... Actually we're DECREASING the number of buttons. He did get the price pretty close, though... He's in-between the original release price and the current one for the Wii...
...can become the same man's huge treasure; or in this particular case, woman's. eBay user lace_thongs35 (yeah, please omit the obvious comments about her suggesting nickname) sold a NES system with 5 games on US$13,105. Yeah, you read right. One NES and 5 games for over thirteen THOUSAND dollars.
Last week she was cleaning out her attic or something, and suddenly found herself with a working NES console and 5 games; all of them useless to her... until she put them up for auction. In the first hour of the auction, the 'bundle' had already reached $6000. By Wednesday, when it closed, the package topped 13,000 dollars.
The reason, however, was not the NES (we all love the old console, but not THAT much). The rare treasure she was about to throw away was a VERY rare copy of Bandai's Stadium Games, released in 1987 and, apparently, a very highly sought-after collector's item. But that's not all; the game was IN IT'S ORIGINAL CARDBOARD BOX, and THAT alone is valued at US$10,000. Yup. Apparently, no more than 10 copies like this one are thought to exist.
Makes you think twice before ever throwing stuff out, huh? Source
Maybe it's the lack of Nintendo news lately, maybe it's just that the guys at IGN have A LOT of free time on their hands (ergo, pointing out their lack of girlfriends thereof), but they set off to create fictional dating profiles for a few videogame characters. I must admit, some of them are funny...
Visit their site for a few laughs (and see if you could date one of them!)
MegaMan 10, Capcom's blue robot will be hitting the download services console-wide next March, and the Wii's service, WiiWare, is going to be first.
Capcom has announced that MegaMan's current-gen 8-bit newest installment will be available for download on March, right on time to say 'farewell' to the Winter. The WiiWare version will be the first one to be released, being slated for March 1st. PS3 users will have to wait a few more days, for their version will be available until March 11th. XBox 360 owners, however, got the worst date, having to wait an entire month; their version is released on March 31st.
At the Nintendo Media Summit, Nintendo announced that Metroid: Other M will be released on June 27th! They have also updated the official site with a couple of new goodies so be sure to check it out here!
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