Gamedrop

Crackberry! Now More Addictive.

Big ass mobile games publisher, Gameloft announced Monday plans to dive deeper into development of games for Blackberry smartphones. Since controlling a game with a keypad mostly sucks, it'll be cool to see how they use the trackball on the Blackberry Pearl and Blackberry 8800. It'll also be cool to hear about execs getting canned for playing Centipede in board meetings.

Wii Work the Squared Circle

Intrepid Gaming-Age.com reporter Tony "Matlock" Barrett recorded this video, as THQ debuted its WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 for the Nintendo Wii.

Please note the game's ultra cool controls, where you actually raise your hands to pick up an opponent and then thrust your hands down to slam him to the relatively unyielding video canvas.

Stare ye, in wonder...

 

Will .tiff Make Cooking Mama Proud?

When I first encountered the almost psychopathically kawaii glare emitted by the female chef mentor in Majesco's Cooking Mama: Cook Off for the Wii, I had little to no understanding of what a 'cooking' game could possibly entail.

Lacking the culinary skills to begin with (hey, I'm a college-kid and subsist on ramen and quick-dials to the pizzeria), it took me a while to adjust to slicing, dicing, and meat grinding.  But with a little practice, I'm no longer culinarily (is that a word?) challenged. Hey, Cooking Mama herself said that I was, “Wonderful! Better than Mama!”

In fact, I have been entered into the Cooking Mama's Cook Off gaming competition to be held this Saturday, March 31 at the Nintendo World store in Rockefeller Plaza.  Will I aptly make the G-Hole crew proud and become a virtual iron chef?  Shall I be utterly owned by a Cooking Mama obsessive who can mince polygonal shallots effortlessly?  Only time will tell. Though I hear they're serving complimentary deserts at the event, so there's no question I'll be partaking.

The Dark Knight Returns… in Lego Form

I loved Lego Star Wars and its sequel; both games blasted their way into millions of homes with their blocky, tongue-in-cheek take on the Star Wars films. So when I heard that Warner Bros. signed a licensing deal with Lego to make a Lego Batman game, my tiny lil' heart was filled with pure joy. Traveller’s Tales, the developer of Lego Star Wars (and the not-nearly-as-good Bionicle Heroes) has also been tapped to work on translating the Dark Knight into cutesy, Lego form. Not much else is known, except that Lego Batman is slated for release in 2008 on multiple platforms. I wonder how they’ll do the story: Will it be based on comic book lore, the good films (Batman , Returns and Begins), the okay one (Forever) or the really, really bad one (Batman and Robin)? Either way, I’ll totally play it and love it.

Music Games Get On The Band Wagon

I have no musical talent whatsoever. I’m tone deaf. Even my heartbeat has no rhythm (I should probably have that checked out). But I'm a gamer and can still fullfill my pop star dreams with all the music games coming out lately. It seems like since the insane popularity of Guitar Hero, a dozen different publishers have jumped on the music game bandwagon. That's just fine with me. I'm looking forward to Jam Sessions (DS, Ubisoft) an acoustic guitar sim that lets you create music instead of just following the rhythm. There’s also two new beat-making games, Traxxpad (PSP, Eidos), which lets you record your own voice to add to the mix and Beatarator (PSP, Rockstar) that'll include samples by hotshot hip-hop producer Timbaland. Plus, I can continue pretending I know how to play a guitar when Guitar Hero 80's Edition (PS2, Activision) drops in June. And SingStar Pop (PS2, Sony) will feed my karaoke addiction when it comes out in the late spring. Not to mention the mystery project in the works between EA and Harmonix/MTV Games (developers of Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution). There’s widespread speculation about this game: Will it be Drummer Hero? Band Hero? Keyboard Hero? Well, I'm an MTV intern, and I’ve seen and tried out an early build of this mystery game (heh, gotta love the perks!). Obvious conflict of interest here, but I can only say that it’s really, really, really cool and my rock star aspirations will be virtually satisfied well into next year.

Suduko 'Til You Puko!

I hereby declare sudoku an epidemic; en route to some game demos Tuesday, we noticed the taxi driver was playing the game while weaving through midtown traffic. Scary, sure. But it may get worse.

The New York Times reports today* on sudoku csar, Maki Kaji - the man responsible for triggering the phenom. His magazine, Nikoli lets readers submit and refine game concepts and he's got some 250 more brain blasters ready to publish.

Like auto manufacturing, consumer electronics and videogames, suduko originated outside Japan. They've just managed to improve upon the concept brilliantly, subjecting the whole planet to the sublime pleasures of frustration with numbers.

*as in last week

Dirk the Daring with Eyeball Tentacle Creature ON BLU-RAY!

There are key titles in gaming’s past that simply cannot be ignored, if only for the fact that they pushed the technological envelope for all future games. One if the most influential titles to do so was Dragon's Lair.

For those of you that might not know, Dragon’s Lair was the first disc-based arcade game that, for 1983, blew away everything that it stood next to in the arcade. In many cases, it was played so much that the hardware inside broke down. For its time, the game was visually stunning; as for the plot, it's the standard sob story that you've heard many times before: Someone's kidnapped the princess and you, the dashing knight, must save her.

Either way, as time has passed Dragon’s Lair began to fade into obscurity (despite having T.V. shows, and Xbox games). But hark! Up ahead, an even newer, flashier disc-based technology will help you save the still-kidnapped Princess Daphne. In other words, Dragon’s Lair will soon be coming out on Blu-ray for all to play in eyebleed-inducing HD running at 1080p. It will also be the first game to use new Blu-ray Disc Java-based technology. Sweet.

 

This momentous occasion was marked with the giving of swag. Digital Leisure Inc. sent along some pretty great stuff, so check out the pics after the jump.

Blair's Long Gesticulating Game O' The Week

This Friday, March 23rd in the Year of Our Lord 2007, long-delayed PC game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is finally being released a mere 983 years since its first appearance in the public consciousness. Historically, when a company takes almost a millennium to release a game, said game ends up being as interesting as a tour of Paris Hilton's brain. However, in the case of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the only thing that really feels dated is the graphical quality. Now, I could spend all day -- or all blog if you will -- convincing you to check out this game, but I'd rather let the experts sell ya on it. So for now, take a look at this tour of the game courtesy of the award-winning (Emmy, Oscar, Grammy, SAG Award, People's Choice Award, Nobel Peace Prize, Harvard's Hasty Pudding Award, and The Myrtle Beach Annual 3rd Grade Spelling Bee Award -- just to name a few) videogame show The G-Hole and decide for yourself. Buh bye.

Exclusive Review: Earth Defense Force 2017

Budget titles have always had a bad reputation. Gamers tend to view them as cheap games, rushed out by the publishers to quickly turn a buck on unsuspecting parents (who may not have the $60 to buy the newest titles for the kids). However, within the last year or so, we have truly seen the tides turn in terms of budget games -- Rockstar’s Table Tennis and Atari’s Test Drive Unlimited for Xbox, the Metal Slug Anthology for the Wii and Okami for the PS2. These games should already be in your collection; not just because they're easy on the wallet, but also because they are really good games that offer hours of quality gameplay. Fortunately, frugal Xbox 360 owners now have an additional budget title worthy of to be added to this batch: Earth Defense Force 2017.

Do Not Mess With The Lord

Here's to criminal stupidity: A group of cretins recently burglarized a Texas property. The dim bulbs in question vandalized a series of cabins there, stealing more than $5,000 worth of booze. And they photographed themselves doing so. A digital camera was found at the scene, one showing the perpetrators in their revelry. Oh, and here's the neat twist: The cabins are owned by one Richard "Lord British" Garriott, the man responsible for the classic Ultima series and, more recently, Tabula Rasa. Read the story here.

Oh, and this picture was taken shortly before the burglary at this year's Game Developers Conference. Garriott was on hand to show off Rasa in action...