Until now, one of the cooler premiums available from Club Nintendo, at least in my opinion, was a DS game that featured recreations of all their classic Game & Watch titles. But Japanese Club Nintendo members who’ve reached the Platinum level will now be rewarded with an actual Game & Watch handheld game allowing them to enjoy all the excitement of Ball which was Nintendo’s very first G&W title released way back in 1980 according to Kotaku. And here’s to hoping this is the first in a series of Game & Watch re-releases, and not the last.
I usually consider myself to be a bit of a tech head, but now and again something comes along which makes me realise how low I really rate on the universal scale of geekery.
The latest blow to my sense of nerdy self worth is SurfaceScapes, a project dreamt up by students at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Centre, which aims to create a proof-of-concept for playing tabletop role-playing games on Microsoft’s Surface Table.
Basically, this provides players with a digital environment, which they can interact with using real objects (such as painstakingly detailed miniatures), and also provides automated calculations and visual and audio feedback for actions performed by characters in the game. If that takes your fancy, then watch the video and allow the nasal voiceover to explain things far better than I ever could.
So far, only Dungeons and Dragons is up and running on the prototype system, but fortunately for those whose proverbial boat is not floated by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson’s magnum opus, the team say it could be expanded to other games in the future.
Any time I’ve enjoyed a game of air hockey on a real table, the puck still manages to find it’s way off the table on many occasions. So while I applaud the clever design of this portable version of air hockey, where the fan is integrated into the puck itself allowing it to float across a table or any flat surface, I can see it losing its novelty when you have to go pick it up for the 37th time in the first 3 minutes of a game.
But for just $14.99 from Urban Outfitters you get the puck, 2 paddles and a set of nets making it a cheap and easy gift. Just don’t let the giftee rope you into playing.
I’ve played a number of PSP titles, and it’s always interesting to see how a developer gets around the limitation of having only a single analog stick to work with. It can provide some significant obstacles, but generally they overcome them. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for LucasArts and Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron.
This latest installment in the Battlefront series places you in the boots of a clone trooper who was created from the DNA of a Jedi Master. I’ll admit that playing a cloned Jedi does have its appeals, but the game never really follows through on this. You’re simply another trooper with skills moderately better than the rest. There’s also a story of two brothers on separate sides of the battlefield, which doesn’t end up being nearly as interesting as one would hope.
You don’t have to be a smoker who grew up gobbling white dots and ghosts to appreciate these retro gaming themed Zippo lighters. You could also be a pyromaniac who really enjoyed Dig Dug as a kid, or someone who can never get enough Galaxian who also happens to prepare a lot of birthday cakes. The Zippos are available in four different versions including Pac-Man, Xevious and the aforementioned Dig Dug and Galaxian, and can be pre-ordered from NCSX for a mere $108.90.
Good news for sedentary sports fans with frustrated aspirations of grandeur. Thanks to the wonders of technology (and UK-based firm Real Time Race) they should now be able to take part in some of the worlds biggest sporting spectacles. Well, kind of.
The basic concept is designed to allow gamers to take a virtual place in real environments and events – all with naught but an internet and web browser enabled device.
Real Time Race says the technology could be applied to “skiing, mountain biking, equine eventing and water sports etc,” but that sounds a bit pants, and fortunately they’ve been focusing on motor racing so far.
Prior to a big race, the track environment will be captured by a Google Streetcar-alike vehicle, which along with 360 degree cameras sports a gizmo on the back which fires lasers all over the place to work out how far away everything is. The data is then processed and makes its way to a browser where it should play something like a conventional video game map.
The (real) cars participating in the race will also be captured, as well as fitted with navigation systems which transmit their position on the track, allowing couch-bound speed freaks to test themselves against the best in the world.
The technology still appears to be in the proof of concept rather than “actually fun” stage, and the car handling and physics are woeful, but it does seem rather promising all the same.
If you can stand the massive and utterly gratuitous use of exclamation marks and apostrophes, you can read more and download a demo here.
Borderlands sets you down on the desolate planet of Pandora. Here is a world that few people would ever want to set foot on, save for the prospect of treasure. It has been rumored that a vault lie hidden somewhere in the vast wasteland which contains riches beyond measure. Treasure hunters, mercenaries and even large corporations want to get their hands on whatever is contained within.
The world of Pandora seems like a barren wasteland, yet the art styling makes the landscape seem rich and exciting. The prominent black lines and shading remind me very much of a comic book, while at the same time it feels like something entirely different. The overall landscape doesn’t change much from zone to zone, but each has its own characteristics that makes it seem unique.
Well it’s officially official. The whole Wii accessories fiasco can now be upgraded to an epidemic with the release of the special edition of Baby and Me which comes with an actual doll. With the Wiimote strapped to the little plastic bundle of joy gamers will be able to interact with the baby’s on-screen counterpart in a variety of different ways including:
Your baby reacts by giggling, gurgling or crying through the Wii remote
Ten Baby Mode games including feed baby & send baby to sleep
Eight Play Mode games including rattle, catch, clap & balloons
Balance Board support: rock baby to sleep, burp baby, teach baby to walk
Customise baby with new clothes, accessories and playrooms
And if you can’t find the special edition, since they’ll no doubt be flying off the shelves, the standard version of the game includes a holster so you can strap a Wiimote to an existing doll of your choice.
These days it seems like everything has a digital camera in it. Okay, maybe not everything, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone that doesn’t own at least one device that functions as a camera. Of course if you aren’t using a dedicated camera, the lack of an optical zoom can limit your shots. Then again, that’s what crazy accessories are for.
Nyko has announced that they will soon be offering cases for your DSi which will let you attach an 8x zoom lens. I suppose if you carry your DSi everywhere, and enjoy taking a lot of pictures, this might be worth looking into. Sure, you’ll look like a dork, but at least your snapshots will look a little better. Not to mention the $25 price tag certainly can’t be argued with.
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By Andrew Liszewski
