All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

As video games get bigger and bigger, video game budgets get bigger and bigger, too. But what's games have the biggest budgets? The sticky part of video game budgets is that some developers will not...

I know that many of you have been waiting and waiting for Picross 3D to finally see release. Picross is an extremely addictive game, especially when it’s converted into digital form. Now we’re getting a version of the classic game that adds in a third dimension. I love me some Picross, but [...]

The Nintendo DSi LL, (DSi XL in the West) is the latest addition to the hugely successful Nintendo platform. "LL" is the Japanese equivalent of "XL", or "extra large". But is bigger really...

Isn’t it nice to finally have a release date for Sin and Punishment: Star Successor? Just like many of you, I feared that Nintendo was shoving this game further and further away from an actual release. Thankfully that isn’t the case, and now we know that Sin and Punishment: Star Successor will be [...]

click to score a larger version Treasure can do no wrong in my book. (It's self-published and titled Treasure Only Makes Awesome Games.) Its successor to the great N64 import Sin and Punishment finally has a release date and apt subtitle for the States, Star Successor, and I can safely say that my playthrough of the game's first level today was nothing compared to this guy's. Buy hey, I'm not complaining. I got to play Sin and Punishment: Star Successor -- and it's sharp-looking, smooth-moving and brimming with bullets (both incoming and outgoing). My experience was much like the one JC had at E3 last year, only I suspect he wasn't playing with an extremely bright LED camera light channeling the intensity of the sun into his eyes.

I still managed to build up a respectable multiplier and not botch the timing of sending missiles back to their sender using my melee attack. That's worth something, right?

...in case you were wondering if a jeans pocket could hold the DSi XL. (I'd mention that I've been sitting on this photo for a few weeks due to Nintendo embargo restrictions, but you'd accuse me of...

Monster Hunter 3 is a hard game to put together impressions for. This is a title where you really need an ample amount of time to sit down and learn just how the entire game works. It’s not like you just jump into epic monster battles and start swinging away. There’s a [...]

click to enlarge For no apparent reason, the Wii version of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands wasn't playable at today's big Nintendo event in San Francisco. I take that back -- it was playable, just not by anyone whose paycheck doesn't have an Ubisoft logo on it. Still, I watched and learned as a live demo was given. And hey, it looks solid so far. (Well, except for ... I'll tell you in a sec.)

The game looks like a mash-up of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and the most recent (and more simply titled) Prince of Persia, featuring the environments of the former and the saturated color palette of the latter. It also runs really well; it's locked at 60 frames per second. What doesn't look so hot: The stiffly animated Prince himself. Given the fluidity of the action, we expected his movements to be, well, more fluid.

Said to have been in development for two years now, the game seemed to make good use of the Wiimote for performing fantastic feats with the Sands of Time. Much like in Super Mario Galaxy, players will be able to aim the Prince's magic independently of his movement -- using the cursor to place "sand rings" anywhere on walls to be traversed, "sand columns" to reach new heights and a "sand sphere" that lets the Prince hover in-between leaps, planning his next move. The result looks to be a lot more freedom in how levels can be navigated. I just hope the Prince ends up looking cooler while sand-magic-ing his way through them in the final release.

Team Ninja's take on Metroid doesn't just give the game a new look, it changes Metroid's entire perspective, literally, and gives voice to a heroine we've never before heard speak. Following ten...

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It's been a little more than three years now since we picked the original Super Mario Galaxy as one of our top 10 games of 2007. Which, of course, meant we liked it. A lot, in fact. So a sequel to the game was welcome news, even if it didn't really look all that different. Truth be told, after playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 today at Nintendo's Q1 Media Summit, I can say it isn't that different. But sometimes that's a good thing -- especially when you're talking about the video game equivalent of comfort food.

I specifically played two worlds during my demo today with the intent of focusing on two of the new game mechanics in SMG2. The first being the drill bit power-up, which quickly wowed me with the nifty new level designs it has inspired. The other, Mario's lizard pal Yoshi, really is a space-faring plumber's best friend.

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There's a lot I want to tell you about the 45-minute demo of Metroid: Other M that I played today, but I know what everyone is wondering and will just get it out of the way: The game is really impressive; it's really fun; it's totally Metroid. It was only the beginning sequences of the game, but if everything Nintendo and Team Ninja have managed to deliver in this short span holds up for the entirety of the game, it's going to be really good. (Also: This is in no way a re-skinned Ninja Gaiden -- just making sure that's said.)

My demo began with the game's opening cinematic, which is fully CGI and recounts the ending of Super Metroid, to which Other M serves as a direct sequel. It sees Samus in a showdown with Mother Brain (realized by Team Ninja as a mammoth bipedal monstrosity with one huge eye) before the bounty hunter awakes in a medical bay wearing her Zero Suit. It's narrated entirely by Samus (as promised, Other M is the first time we hear her voice -- and it's, well, just all right) and leads directly into a tutorial disguised as a "diagnostic" of her armor and recollection of how to kick ass.

Left to Right: DSi XL, DSi, DS Phat Perhaps it was no coincidence that Nintendo stopped by New York City to show off the Nintendo DSi XL, one day after Apple made its not-so-earth-shattering iPad announcement. Like the iPad, the DSi XL is a larger version of an already successful handheld device, but unlike the iPad, the DSi XL promises no added functionality, nor does it alter the electronics landscape in any way. It is, quite succinctly, a bigger DSi.

One can't help but question why the device exists in the first place. To whom does the DSi XL appeal? Certainly, its gargantuan size makes it stand out as the least portable handheld system we've seen in quite some time, taking a completely opposite approach to that of Sony's PSP Go. Thanks to its larger screen size, it takes up even more space than the original DS Phat -- strange, considering one of the primary complaints held against the Phat was its unwieldy girth.

What the XL excels at (sorry!) are games that require extensive use of the stylus. The massive stylus that's included with the system is easy to handle, making earlier stylus pens feel cheap and flimsy. The larger screen real estate makes it easier to draw on the system, perfect for intense Pictochat sessions or a round with WarioWare DIY.

The moment of truth has arrived. Does it deliver? Resident Samus Aran fanatic Matt Casamassina has the answer in these detailed impressions.

It's here in San Francisco and fully playable. And play we did at Nintendo's Media Summit.

Are you prepared to have your socks knocked off... or draw a comic strip depicting it?

Hop in your space tank and take it cruising around the galaxy.

The incredible Photo Fighter X is heading to the US. First look at the English version at the Nintendo Media Summit.

Are you prepared to have your socks knocked off... or draw a comic strip depicting it?

Are you prepared to have your socks knocked off... or draw a comic strip depicting it?

Check out these awesome gameplay videos straight from Nintendo Summit 2010.

Pure action shooting on Wii from the kings of action shooting at Treasure. Our impressions from Nintendo Media Summit.

After millenniums of evolution, Nintendo is sending you back to the primordial ooze.

Check out these smashing gameplay clips straigh from Nintendo Summit 2010.

It's amazing.

This feels right.

A Japan-only GBA game's coming back as a WiiWare title. Our look at the version at the Nintendo Media Summit.

Point, draw and then platform your way through a whimsical world in this soon-to-be-released WiiWare gem.

Trippy, psychedelic, and twisted -- literally -- platforming for WiiWare.

Part racing game, part blowing stuff up, Black Rock Studio's Split/Second hits May 21, Disney Interactive Studios announced today. The game is due out on the PC for $50 and Playstation 3 and Xbox...

I think I might want to beat the third PW game though. I actually just got around to beating the second one today. I never really bought any of the sequels until like 2008 and then I put Just For All down for quite some time because I got stuck on it for some reason. I really don't know what it was now, I had almost no problems getting through it this time.

Either way I'm probably going to go pick up both Miles Egdeworth and the final PW game some time this week and get some mother *crag*in' investigatin' on.

But *crag* that Apollo Justice shit. *crag* it straight to hell.

What is it with Capcom and ruining its great GBA series with reboots?

Megaman Battle Network anyone?