New Games |
- Happy 11th birthday, JC Denton!
- Dtoid store: Pre-order the 4 Bosses Street Fighter shirt!
- Get your Nintendo (and non-Nintendo) fan art here
- Fans bring Xenoblade to #1 on Amazon, internet goes wild
- Shut up! The Black Eyed Peas Experience is happening?
- I need these Game Boy games on the Virtual Console
- Free App of the Day: Death Rally
- Contest: Win Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon!
- Sell and buy used games (gasp) & get entered to win a 3DS
- Review: Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (iOS)
- Feedback! What do you think of Dtoid contests?
- Xenoblade reconfirmed for NA, Last Story confirmed for EU
- These women are offended by Duke Nukem Forever
- Ocarina of Time music played with the Ocarina of Time
Happy 11th birthday, JC Denton! Posted: 26 Jun 2011 02:00 PM PDT Today marks the 11th anniversary of Deus Ex, the greatest game of all time and a product of the '90s that blew away PC gamers and future developers when it was released. While its non-linearity, immersive world, and narrative approach were revolutionary and hugely influential for a first-person game at the time, it's not exactly remembered for having the best voice acting. What better way to end the weekend than a recollection of some of the finest moments in Deus Ex? Happy birthday, JC! And thanks for the memories. And because we're now less than two months away from Deus Ex: Human Revolution: |
Dtoid store: Pre-order the 4 Bosses Street Fighter shirt! Posted: 26 Jun 2011 01:00 PM PDT The Destructoid Store is branching out into videogame-inspired clothing territory! We're starting with our Street Fighter inspired design celebrating the fearsome first four bosses from Street Fighter II. And yes, we're going with the English names for the bosses! The new shirt is on pre-order for $18.95 and will go to print in a few weeks. Be sure to check out the rest of our store where we have a bunch of shirts on sale and we have stickers, patches and beanies too! P.S. Do you own a Destructoid shirt? Take a picture of yourself wearing it and send it our way! |
Get your Nintendo (and non-Nintendo) fan art here Posted: 26 Jun 2011 12:00 PM PDT Fan art alert! Artist Zac Gorman has a web page dedicated just to Nintendo fan art, and it's pretty incredible. His animated comics are particularly stunning. As his style is a little on the cartoony side, you might expect his work to have a more lighthearted bent, but there' plenty of heavy drama here, peppered with some autobiographical and editorial stuff too. For instance, Mr Gorman doesn't seem too impressed Nintendo's recent redesign of Pit from Kid Icarus, and when it comes to the Wii U, he's more excited by the idea of a new Earthbound game than a new controller. He's a man after my own heart. On the other side of the fan-art spectrum, we have the latest project by Destructoid alumni Ashley Davis. Entitled No Mario's Allowed!, her new site is all about putting lesser known game characters in the spotlight. So far she's covered Hudson favorites Bomberman, Bonk, and Master Higgins. It's a fitting partial eulogy for the company, who's loss of an American branch was one of the gaming industry's worst causalities of 2011. I'll be keeping a close eye on both of these blogs, as they are both updated on a regular basis. Fans of quality fan art would do well to bookmark them both. |
Fans bring Xenoblade to #1 on Amazon, internet goes wild Posted: 26 Jun 2011 11:00 AM PDT It looks the vague report from Nintendo customer service that Xenoblade (also known as Monado: Beginning of the World) is still slated for release in the United States isn't confirmation enough for some people. A group of fans, calling themselves Operation Rainfall, is working hard to make sure that Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower are all released in the Untied States. It looks like a little organization and planning can go a long way, as the group has already helped to get Monado to the #1 spot on Amazon.com's gaming pre-order list, beating out Ocarina of Time 3D and the Call of Duty: Black Ops PS3 bundle . They've also found the support of the game's developers, like Soraya Saga (writer of Xenoblade/Monodo) and Mistwalker (creator of Final Fantasy and The Last Story) via twitter, on Nintendo's Youtube page, and lets not forget that letter writing campaign from a little while back as well. The one place that Operation Rainfall hasn't made much noise yet is twitter, so if you want to follow them and help get that going yourself, feel free. Nintendo might not make a ton of money by releasing The Last Story or Xenoblade in the U.S., but it would do wonders for their reputation in the gaming community. If they can afford hiring Beyonce and Helen Miren to sell their games, they can afford to take the risk on this display of good faith to gaming's most loyal and dedicated fans. |
Shut up! The Black Eyed Peas Experience is happening? Posted: 26 Jun 2011 10:00 AM PDT No way! Ubisoft is getting it started by following up Michael Jackson: The Experience with The Black Eyed Peas Experience for Wii and Kinect. That's right, a motion control game centered around the currently all-male pop sensation famous for their excellent Super Bowl halftime show. It doesn't look like Ubisoft is meeting anyone halfway here. I gotta feeling that it's going to make a lot of tween girls go "Hey mama! I want this!" Because they want to rock their body and go boom boom pow with their humps. Sorry about that mental image; that was the dirty bit. So yeah. Lightgun roulette anyone? Ubisoft bringing The Black Eyed Peas Experience to Wii [GoNintendo] |
I need these Game Boy games on the Virtual Console Posted: 26 Jun 2011 09:00 AM PDT With the 3DS, we are finally getting Game Boy games on the Virtual Console. Unfortunately, Nintendo is still pulling the single-title-a-week nonsense that we've suffered for the past few years on the Wii. And since we're so early in the console's life, all we'll have to look forward to in the foreseeable future are pissant, first-generation, Nintendo-published titles. Oh boy, guys. Alleyway. Gotta get me some o' dat. The Virtual Console ought to be a retro repository that defines both an era and the individuals who grew up in said era. That's why when I considered what old games I'd personally want on the 3DS, I tried to strike a balance between familiar favorites and dark horse picks that speak to my unorthodox values. They may not be the most popular of choices or the most likely of seeing release, but their appearance would do more to spark my enthusiasm than safe bets like the Pokémons and Kirbys of the world. Konami knows that the first Castlevania on Game Boy was a huge misstep, hence the re-imagined update, Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, on WiiWare. With history effectively rewritten, it would be best for Konami to skip Castlevania: The Adventure entirely and release its superior sequel. Everything from its predecessor is improved, from the faster pace to the greater variety of environments. To top it off, Belmont's Revenge features hands-down the best soundtrack in the Game Boy library, bar none. It may be tricky to murder the undead while headbanging to chiptune thrash metal, but who ever said being a badass would be easy? What could be better that killing Dracula? Why, being Dracula, of course! Okay, so technically Kid Dracula is Drac's son, but at least he respects his father! He's not a backstabbing prick like Alucard! Kid Dracula is a non-canonical spin-off from the main Castlevania franchise that sports a chibi aesthetic. This game goes above and beyond other Castlevania titles -- you've got roller coaster rides, robots in outer space, and boss battles against Klansmen and Jason Voorhees. If that's not the most amazing thing ever, I dunno what is! Believe it or not, Catrap has been discussed on Destructoid in the past. It's a puzzle game in which you take on the roll of a catboy and catgirl as they climb ladders, push blocks, and punch ghouls in the face. If you screw up and make a room impossible to solve, you can rewind time and try a different approach. Catrap was doing time travel long before Jonathan Blow started writing Manhattan Project fan fiction! I received this game the same Christmas I got my Game Boy, and it was always a staple in my travel pouch. I especially loved creating devilish puzzles in the construction mode and testing the mettle of my hapless friends. Would it be touch much for Nintendo to incorporate level sharing should Catrap appear on the VC? Probably. Dammit. What better way to celebrate the upcoming release of Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D than with this little companion piece? Metal Gear Solid for the Game Boy Color brings back the top-down view of the MSX originals while incorporating elements of the PlayStation games for a best-of-both-worlds flavor. It may have ditched the open-world style of it's brethren for a level structure, but hey! It's a much better Virtual Console candidate than the red-headed stepchildren released on the NES, that's for sure. The less said about those, the better. Do you what there aren't a lot of? Games based on the Peanuts franchise! I know, right? Unbelievable! Here is Snoopy's Magic Show, a puzzle game that finds Snoopy rescuing Woodstock's extended (and possibly inbred) family from bouncing balls of death. Then you do it 119 more times. You may laugh, but this game is addictive! It's pure Joe Cool with no Charlie Brown, Linus, or Lucy in sight. Screw those big-headed weirdos and their pre-teen drama! The Ninja Turtles games on Game Boy are nothing special, with the exception of Radical Rescue. Why? Because it's an open-world platforming adventure in which each character possesses abilities needed to reach new areas. That's right! It's Metroid with Ninja Turtles! How cool is that! While every other Turtles game that's ever been made has either been a beat-'em-up or a fighter, this one stands alone. This is how you get creative with an intellectual property! Give the people something they wouldn't expect! See that gator? Fuck that gator! Revenge of the 'Gator is a pinball game. No big deal. Those puppies are a dime a dozen. However, when your ball falls down the drain in this game, that gator asshole swallows it up like a damn glutton. He is my childhood nemesis, my El Guapo. And I will not rest until I have my shot at revenge! I'm calling you out, fucker! Duke Nukem on the Game Boy Color is a return to the franchise's sidescrolling origins. This one's for Randy Pitchford. I just thought he could use a reminder of what a good Duke game plays like. I'm cheating by filling this slot with two games, but it's Mega Man, so shut your dirty mouths. The first and third Mega Man games on Game Boy were decent but nonetheless watered-down experiences that only made you want to play their NES cousins. As for Mega Man II, just... no. But the fourth and fifth entries? Why, they may very well be the best games in the entire Classic series, and I say that without a hint of irony. Mega Man IV still features enemies from the NES games, but it packs so much extra, like a shop system and badass cutscenes featuring Mega Man taking on a castle-sized battle tank on foot! The non-Robot Master bosses are also far more detailed and sinister-looking than the cutesy big-eyed designs of the past, and their battles are set to an equally sinister yet totally amazing fight track. And then there's Mega Man V. The bosses are named after planets in our Solar System, Dr. Wily builds his own Death Star, there's a shmup level in outer space, and Mega Man has a cat that turns into a buzz saw. Also, any game that has the balls to show the stalwart hero getting beat down hardcore in the opening cutscene is worth at least a few minutes out of your day! What the hell is that? In 1992, a company known as Fabtek was planning on releasing the Work Boy, a keyboard peripheral that attached directly to the Game Boy. It would be used with a suite of business software that would turn the Game Boy into a PDA. You'd be able to store banking info, schedule appointments, and auto-dial your telephone (by holding the Game Boy speaker up to the phone's mouthpiece like a damn fool). So why do I want this on the Virtual Console? Certainly, there is no practical reason. Even if I was in the market for a portable organizer, smartphones take care of that need just fine. But who said I needed a practical reason? As a child, I was only allowed to play videogames on weekends, so I was always on the lookout for some kind of loophole. I remember seeing the Work Boy advertised in Nintendo Power and noting the picture of the adult male in his suit and tie, tapping away at this contraption with purpose. He's using the Game Boy and he's doing important adult work? My seven-year-old mind figured that if I could get my hands on a Work Boy, I could convince my mother to let me use my Game Boy during the school week, ya know, for important school work. It's not just for games, mommy! To the best of my knowledge, the Work Boy was never released. What better time than now to fulfill a childhood dream by rescuing the code and releasing it on the VC as a long-lost piece of Nintendo history? Who cares that it isn't "fun"! Nintendo releases fifty bazillion of those damn clocks on DSiWare, so it's not like they have any strict policy against non-entertainment software! How would you operate the Work Boy suite without a keyboard? The touch pad! Duh! Or what about that keyboard that came with the Pokémon typing game on DS? Knowing Nintendo's track record with peripherals, it'll never be used for anything else ever again. Might as well get some use out of it, even on something that a paltry handful of people would appreciate solely for the kitsch value. [Header image from flamecondor's blog] |
Free App of the Day: Death Rally Posted: 26 Jun 2011 08:00 AM PDT Death Rally (iPhone & iPad) is free today. Remedy is saying it's a short promotional campaign, so you better get on it right now! Go grab it here. I paid $5 for it at the time and it didn't disappoint, even though it was expensive as hell for a mobile game and it dropped in price a week later. Beside being an all around great game, it's also not very large (82.8MB) compared to other big name iOS titles. [Thanks Wolfy-Boey!] |
Contest: Win Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon! Posted: 26 Jun 2011 06:45 AM PDT The bugs are taking over the planet in Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon and it's up to you and your team to stop the invasion. We have five copies of the game to give out before the July 5 release date for either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. To enter, we want you to take the images in the gallery below and create your own bug invasion with a photo editing program. Take a picture of the Earth, other videogame worlds -- anything is good so long as you use at least one picture from the gallery below. Feel free to include real bugs in your creation too! The best submission will get a copy of Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon AND a copy of the ultra rare retail version of Earth Defense Force 2017. Four runner-ups will each get a copy of EDF: Insect Armageddon. You have until June 30 at 11:59PM CDT to enter and contest is open to US residents only. Good luck! |
Sell and buy used games (gasp) & get entered to win a 3DS Posted: 26 Jun 2011 06:40 AM PDT Destructoid is proud to bring you the laziest way possible to buy and sell games. We've partnered with Glyde and created The Destructoid BUY AND SELL GAMES THING. Why you should try it: you'll get way more money selling with us than trading in your games at retail stores. Unless Jim's coming over you can turn those seven copies of Dynasty Warriors into cash, people!
Selling is easy Unlike eBay, selling doesn't take 30 steps and photography. It works kind of like Netflix: Buy or sell something and the pre-paid mailers (pictured above) do all the work. Its almost too easy. Try it!
Our prices may surprise you Dare to compare! We're usually cheaper or the same price as the big guys. Plus, when you buy a game on Dtoid you might be helping another community member buy their next game. Try listing a game and see.
BONUS: Try it and you're entered in a drawing to win a Nintendo 3DS We're so confident you'll like our shop that we're giving away a virtual raffle ticket each time you list and sell a game (or) purchase a new or used game between now and July 30th. Destructoid earns a small commission for each transaction, which helps us pay for prizes and tacos. Plus, you make more dough for your games than at those strip-mall pawn shops. You know what I'm talking about.
Nintendo 3DS Contest rules: 1) You must either complete a purchase (buy something!) or list and complete a sale (sell something!) 2) You must be in the United States (sorry, we're working on this. Caramba.) 3) Winners will be selected by our partner at random and announced on our contest page and contacted over email with the address you have on file. If you do not respond within 10 days the contest resets and you forfeit your prize. You'd be surprised how often this happens. Its amazing. Good luck!
Want our game deals in the mail? Ok, we'll write some. We promise to not bother you unless we have something dirt cheap going on, and we'll never share your contact information anyone. In fact, we use a third-party service to manage and keep your email safe.
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
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Review: Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (iOS) Posted: 26 Jun 2011 06:00 AM PDT Sonic the Hedgehog is still driving a car. Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (iOS) Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is essentially a port of the console versions of the game, albeit with a few tweaks to make it work on a touchscreen device. As with most racers on the iOS platform, acceleration has been taken out of the hands of the player, with vehicles automatically driving. The player's main job is to steer their racer using tilt controls. All-Stars Racing does a pretty good job of utilizing these controls, and I'd say it's actually one of the more refined racing games on iOS. SEGA has been known for some rather disappointing mobile ports, but it has to be said that All-Stars Racing works very well indeed on your iDevice of choice. As well as steering, players can touch a red "button" to brake and reverse or a larger yellow "button" to drift. Drifting is the key to success in All-Stars Racing, as once you let go of the yellow button, they'll get a short speed boost which can prove essential to winning a race. Like all good "kart" style racers, there are a number of power-ups to help players along the way. Some of them, like the boxing glove projectile, are fairly useless while homing rockets, traffic cones, and vision-distorting rainbows can be deadly when used efficiently. When lagging behind, a lucky racer might also find an All-Star power-up, which gives them a unique method of catching up to the other racers -- Sonic can become Super Sonic, for instance, while Ryo Hazuki will temporarily trade in his motorcycle for a forklift truck. There's plenty of fan service on offer, with characters such as Sonic, Billy Hatcher, Beat, Ryo and even an adorable Chu-Chu Rocket mouse available to race. While not quite the celebration of SEGA's past that SEGA All-Stars Tennis was, there's still plenty for fanboys to dribble over. As both a port and a game in and of itself, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is a pretty damn good portable racer and will easily provide some quick entertainment that's easy to jump into. That said, a number of courses do hold the game back. Any track based on House of the Dead, for example, is simply too dark to enjoy on a mobile screen, especially since there's no in-game option to raise the brightness. These tracks also seem fond of pitfalls and walls which are almost impossible to see in the darkness. A few later courses rely on gimmickry and traps a little too much, and some are just a mess of poor design, with dead ends and winding layouts that can only be navigated through trial-and-error. It needs to be said that the game is missing some characters as well, with the likes of Ulala, Knuckles and more strangely absent. While there's still enough content to justify the asking price, the omission of some popular SEGA characters is a little disappointing. For the most part, however, All-Stars Racing is a fun game that looks beautiful on the small screen and has a range of solid music. With the ability to spend "SEGA Miles" on new courses and racers, there's also plenty of content to uncover for those who get into it. For five bucks, you get a rather high quality game with a potential couple hours of gameplay. Despite the moments of frustration, it's a fun little game that works surprisingly well for a mobile SEGA port. That's good enough for me! |
Feedback! What do you think of Dtoid contests? Posted: 26 Jun 2011 05:00 AM PDT For the last year and a half, Destructoid has been pretty consistent with all the free crap we've given away. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goodies involving everything from consoles, games, accessories to even stuff like passes to E3. Well we want to know what you think of them! What's your favorite way of entering these giveaways? We've had a range of different type of contests, such as simply leaving a comment, editing a photo to much more. What's your favorite way of entering any of our giveaways? What were some of your favorite contests you've entered in the past? What are some of your favorite contests you've entered on other websites? Tell us in the comments! Check out our contest page to get a good look at all our past contests in case you can't remember.
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Xenoblade reconfirmed for NA, Last Story confirmed for EU Posted: 26 Jun 2011 02:00 AM PDT [Mini Update: People seem to think this story is "wrong" because Nintendo is sticking to a story it's spun before. That's as well as may be, but it's on Nintendo's head. The fact is, Nintendo customer support reconfirmed the game's North American release. If Nintendo of America doesn't want to fulfill that promise, that's on Nintendo's head. Furthermore, I invite Nintendo to refute the claim of its rep by saying "Xenoblade is not confirmed for a North American release." I'm not going to do that for them. Nintendo has confirmed that it will definitely be releasing the long-awaited Wii roleplayer Xenoblade in North America, where it will have its old name, Monado: Beginning of the World. This is at least according to a Nintendo customer support response given to one of our readers, Jonathan. Xenoblade was already confirmed for Europe, but Europeans have something extra to gloat about -- they'll be getting The Last Story in 2012. That's what Nintendo France said, without any ambiguity: "Xenoblade will arrive after the holidays on Wii, like The Last Story in 2012." Right now, the Wii has four potentially exciting games it could localize from Japan -- The Last Story, Xenoblade, Pandora's Tower and Earth Seeker. That Nintendo has dragged its feet with any of these titles for so long, while the Wii stagnates and does nothing, continues to confuse me. Typically, not even the most stupid company gives up on their current console with a little under a year left to go before their next one launches. Nintendo appears to be acting turbo-stupid in this instance. |
These women are offended by Duke Nukem Forever Posted: 26 Jun 2011 12:00 AM PDT College Humor's sister site, Dorkly, got some women to play through Duke Nukem Forever. I was pissed off for all the same reasons too. |
Ocarina of Time music played with the Ocarina of Time Posted: 25 Jun 2011 07:00 PM PDT The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's soundtrack is pretty, well, timeless. There are plenty of covers based on the soundtrack, but it's not often that you hear an assortment of the songs getting covered on an ocarina ... of time. オカリナでゼルダの伝説 時のオカリナ [Niconico, via Sp0rsk's YouTube -- Thanks, rj! ] |
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