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Casual
Make GameStop’s Activity Book for them, win $500
By Joe Fourhman | August 27, 2008
This is probably been at the GameStop DEAR GOD DON’T YOU WANT TO PREORDER SOMETHING counter for a while now… it’s a very nice Activity Book featuring a AAA lineup of E-rated games. High quality paper, lots of nice full color character art. The actual puzzles are pretty lousy and the interior cover looks like a low-res screenshot of GameStop’s website (complete with blue underlined “links”), but overall it’s a great timekiller for the little gamer in your life. The activities feature predictable E-rated suspects like Pokemon, Wall-E and Mario Kart… but also manage to go a tad obscure by including games such as Boom Blox, Harvest Moon and Samba de Amigo. It’s all to promote gamestop.com/playground, “a fun and safe website for kids entertainment.”
But here’s the mcguffin: the book details a national (US only) mail-in contest with a pretty sweet prize: a $500 GameStop Gift Card. Four runner-ups each win a $100 GameStop Gift Card. All you have to do is come up with a activity for a future activity book (which may or may not be printed), based on an E-rated game. Not a bad payoff for stuffing some Pikachu stickers in an envelope and calling it a matching game. Entries must be postmarked by September 12, 2008, so hurry it up!
There’s no shame in participating even if you lack children.
Why sure, I’ll cover Babysitting Party
By Joe Fourhman | August 22, 2008
I’m actually kinda diggin’ these screenshots.
This is Babysitting Party, coming to Wii sometime this year. The publisher? Ubisoft, the company that has already smelled blood in the water by releasing a zillion games like Just Imagine: Paralegal and Petz Dragonz (which was retitled “Lair” for the PS3 version). But hey, this is how they’re funding Beyond Good & Evil 2, so hush your mouth.
But this isn’t another bash-on-casual post; this is just to show you Babysitting Party’s info doc. Without any editorial comment.
25 Reasons for Gamers to Shake Their Head in Disgust
By Matthew Kellar | August 7, 2008
Games Radar has an amusing piece detailing the 25 of the things non-gamers do when presented with a videogame to annoy seasoned veteran gamers.
My favorite:
#2 Look who’s talking. If you spend most days building kitten orphanages and serving hot soup to homeless rainbows, then yes, you can tell us that gaming is “a waste of time.” If you sit on the couch instead - watching sports, voting for reality television or browsing celebrity gossip blogs - then please shut your hypocritical mouth.
Is Nintendo unwittingly nailing gaming print mag coffins shut?
By Stephen Munn | August 1, 2008
The story of gaming print magazines being in for a rough time is nothing surprising. With publications like Games For Windows Magazine foundering not long ago, it’s old news. Generally, it’s understood that all things being equal, though they are closely tied, 1up.com will scoop EGM’s print magazine every day of the week. Print is just too slow, and exlusives need to be held too long for them to be a normal event.
A couple of years ago, I allowed my GameInformer subscription to lapse, even abandoning access to their “premium” section of the site, GI Unlimited. This was because of a lack of any noticeable coverage of Nintendo’s platforms. Admittedly, this was at a time where there was not much to talk about on the Gamecube, but even with the Game Boy Advance dominating all other platforms, there was almost no mention of it. Whether this was on the assumption that the magazine’s audience didn’t care about the system or not is up to speculation.
I’m seeing this same trend now, as EGM has less coverage of games coming for Nintendo’s platforms every month. However, unlike last generation when I saw this as a sign that Nintendo was struggling, now I see it as a failing by the magazine, and I’ll tell you why.
The Mummy: Chariot Chase Down Viral Game
By Shane | July 29, 2008
The next chapter of The Mummy movie due out on August 1st called The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor – which I confess I enjoy as a popcorn flick, has a fun viral game on their site called Chariot Chase Down. Emperor Han is trying to escape and you’ve got to maneuver your way through the track while firing weapons at Emperor Han’s chariot.
Check out the game here. You’ll need to enable pop-ups for the site.
Thanks, Jane.
Is it fair to rate all Wii games using our system?
By Stephen Munn | July 29, 2008
Some amount of squirming has been taking place for some time now over the perceived quality of Wii games as compared to Xbox 360 or PS3 games as measured in gaming site reviews. It’s not an easy subject to approach as someone who’s part of the business (or part of the problem, depending on how you look at it) but let me see if I can unroll this and you can make your own decision.
Nintendo’s much-applauded adoption of a “blue ocean” strategy, an attempt to target their Wii console at a much broader audience than their previous systems and ideally, the competition, has clearly paid off for them handsomely. In fact, Wii has enjoyed continuous popularity among much of the public for most, if not all, of its lifespan. Naturally, whenever something appears in gaming that isn’t for one specific fanboy, whether than fanboy owns the system or not, that fanboy tends to stomp their feet and scream angrily. A great example is High Voltage software’s Dora the Explorer game that was announced for Wii at this year’s E3. The comments I’ve seen on the announcement are astonishing. Did these people buy every Dora game to this point, and they don’t like that it’s not mature enough for modern gamers? Has Dora been taken in a direction you don’t approve of? Should it have been a first person shooter? Hey, wait a minute, that’s a great idea.
Before I get too absorbed in what could happen to Swiper the Fox in a Dora FPS, let me get back on track.
Five games with useful features for co-dependents.
By Joe Fourhman | July 18, 2008This is not one of those Games Your Girlfriend May Enjoy articles. You can Google that on your own; somebody publishes one of those every other week. This is a look at five recent games with interesting and unique optional features, designed to allow a second player to participate in some helpful fashion without necessarily “playing.” The key criterion here is that the second player doesn’t HAVE to do anything, but what he or she does do is compelling and useful for the main player… and fun for both.
These games are largely single-player affairs that allow other people to get involved, without the often-crushing responsibility to play the game correctly in order to continue. The neat trick is that this allows parents or children or other non-gamers access to the complete experience without any sacrifice in the gameplay or presentation… and more importantly, without requiring intense gaming skills. (Although the list will get more complicated as we get near the top!)
#5 Zack & Wiki: Search for Barbaros’ Treasure (Wii, 2007)
Zack & Wiki is a puzzle game sort of like all those cool closed-room Flash games. Everything you need to complete the level is found inside it, it’s just often a matter a figuring out the proper sequence of events.
While Player 1 is controlling Zack, other Wii Remotes can jump in to provide assistance via John Madden’s favorite discussion method, the telestrator. By drawing directly on the screen, the other players can direct P1’s attention, suggest items to examine, and draw naughty words in mid-air. Also, it makes a neat magic marker squeaky sound.
Nintendo Fails to Throw Hardcore Gamers a Bone: Press Conference Wrapup
By Matthew Kellar | July 15, 2008
Nintendo’s press conference is over and many a gamer probably feel a little underwhelmed at this point. Many predictable announcements were made and some surprises were delivered, but the hardcore among us might find their plates a little empty in the coming months.
New iPhone Games: Bubble Bash and Others
By Shane | July 10, 2008Gameloft just released 6 new titles for the iPhone and iPod Touch including Bubble Bash:
On the Apple App Store launching today, Gameloft will release 6 games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Here’s a rundown of the new titles: Brain Challenge, Bubble Bash, Chess & Backgammon Classics, Platinum Solitaire, Platinum Sudoku, and Diamond Twister.
President of Gameloft, Michel Guillemot:
“We’re delighted with the broad appeal of the applications we’ll have available on the Apple App Store at launch,” said Michel Guillemot, president, Gameloft. “Our best-selling titles have been specifically redeveloped and revamped to leverage the revolutionary features of the iPhone, and we are confident that iPhone owners will enjoy this new experience in gaming.”
Each game will use the accelerometer, touch screen and showcases enhanced graphics for the large iPhone screen.
Slim Jim: Spicy Side
By Shane | June 23, 2008Slim Jim (no not the lock pick) rather the beef jerky, has created a pretty cool online virtual world to promote their product. You can create your own character and challenge other users to rumbles, trash talking, or just hang out in Spicy Town where you can break mailboxes, spray paint walls, and collect Slim Jims to unlock new spicy moves. Sounds like GTA: Slim Jim to me!
Here’s a video of the site, or you could just go there.
Spicyside.com from Spicy on Vimeo.
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