PlayStation Eye Support in echochrome: Lousy Idea, or the Lousiest Idea?
echochrome holds a special place on my Playstation 3, the only game in my trophy collection to have 0% of the trophies collected. It’s not that I don’t like the game, I really do, I just apparently haven’t succeeded in it enough to warrant any of the meaningless iconic awards. The quicky art-puzzler does, though, succinctly sum up everything I love about the Playstation in one frustratingly challenging piece of beauty that would likely never have been published anywhere else.
Word broke today of an impending update to the downloadable game, one that brings support for cloud sharing of user-created stages, weekly corridor challenges, the curious sounding invisible quiz mode and Playstation Eye support.
Wait, what was that last part? Continue reading »
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Tags: derrick sanskrit, echochrome, flower, noby noby boy, playstation 3, playstation eye, psn, rag doll kung fu, update, webcam, wipeout, youtube
Trailer Review: Critter Crunch on PSN
Developer Capy already had a hit on their hands with unique puzzler Critter Crunch, the award-winning mobile phone game ported to the iPhone for the App Store’s launch nearly a year ago. If Lumines and Tetris have taught us anything, though, it’s that addictive portable puzzle games are still awesome on a big screen at home, and so we have this trailer for Critter Crunch’s hi-def debut on Playstation Network. Continue reading »
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Tags: 1080p, capy, critter crunch, derrick sanskrit, iphone, ipod, lumines, mobile phone, playstation 3, psn, puzzle, tetris, trailer review
Bionic Commando is Love: T-Minus One Week
This morning, I got to work and an envelope was sitting on my desk. I opened it. Then I saw this inside of it:
Then I was all:
And, well, after that… after that was private.
We’ve waited twenty-one years for each other. The bond of true love transcends decades and distance and now, once again, Bionic Commando and I will swing across the roof-tops declaring our undying devotion to the world. The game’s official release date is May 18th, which means that you’ll be able to walk into a store and buy yourself a copy twenty-four hours after that. Last summer, I wrote one post a day the week leading up to Bionic Commando: Rearmed’s release on Xbox Live Arcade and PSN. I’ll be doing the same for Radd Spencer’s rebirth for the next seven days.
To kick things off, I’d like to discuss the recent multiplayer demo released on XBLA.
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Tags: bionic commando, capcom, grin, john constantine, nes, playstation 3, psn, Radd spencer, XBLA, xbox 360
Dat’s Swagtastic: The Path USB Drive Is Delicious and Tempting
There’s just something about having something to hold. I just can’t help myself. To hell with you iPod, sucks to you Kindle, and to you, PSN, Virtual Console, and Xbox Live Arcade. Give me a box and a disc and a cartridge, cover them in glorious art that makes my imagination seethe with elaborate details that the works they portray can’t possibly live up to. Give me Zelda in gold, give me Turok 2 in black, Maximum Carnage in violent, 90s-blood red!
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Tags: auriea Harvey, ipod, john constantine, kindle, legend of zelda, maximum carnage, psn, tale of tales, The path, turok 2, virtual console, wiiware, XBLA, xbox live
Marvel Vs Capcom 2, I’ve Missed You
Marvel Vs Capcom 2 and me, we go way back. The Dreamcast was the first console I ever bought with my own real money, the player two controller the first thing I ever owned on store credit (and I swear, I will pay that back some day). The two-player game that necessitated such bad judgment was, naturally, Marvel Vs Capcom 2. And the Japanese version, too, even though that version had that idiotic arcade-only character unlocking system and there wasn’t an arcade cabinet within 1,000 miles able to accept my sweaty little VMU. The alternative was to wait for the US version. It wasn’t an alternative at all.
I am being 100% honest when I say I spent my prom night with that exotic jewel. When I got to college, the American version—hey, I had to unlock B.B. Hood somehow—became my most consistent and reliable lover. I’ve invented tournaments and drinking games based on its button-mashing bounty. It is my fighter. It is mine.
You probably know that Capcom is making it a downloadable game, that they gave it to Backbone to do something Backbone is notoriously uneven at—tarting up a classic game in high def. A demo came out today, so I did what I had to do: make sure they did right by my baby.
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Tags: backbone entertainment, capcom, dreamcast, joe keiser, lots of p, marvel vs capcom 2, psn, XBLA
Trailer Review: PixelJunk 1-4 Revealed, Name Pending Your Input
A lot of people (myself included) expected a grand unveiling of Q Games’ fourth title in the PixelJunk series of HD 2D PSN games at GDC last month. Didn’t happen.
This morning, however, Q Games mastermind Dylan Cuthbert proudly announced on his Twitter the PixelJunk 1-4 Naming Contest. The game appears to be just about complete from this new trailer, the only thing the kids at Q are missing is, well, what to call their game. Trailer just after the break. Continue reading »
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Tags: derrick sanskrit, dylan cuthbert, pixeljunk, playstation 3, psn, trailer review
Whatcha Playing: Earth Day Edition
April 22nd, the day we all take off from work and gather at our local mosques and synagogues to solemnly pay respects to our mother Earth on the anniversary of her creation… or something. So do your part and take your game time today away from blasting zombies and chainsawing aliens in half, instead playing games all about helping mother Earth. Here are the four games that I’m playing for Earth Day:
Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol for Nintendo DS
Rather than cleaning up a house and helping with domestic troubles, this Chibi-Robo has been tasked with turning a barren field of sand into a lush flourishing public park. Like SimCity, you get to design your own world, laying paths and streams, rocks and hills, even benches, fountains, clock towers, statues, and mini-games to your liking. The nicer your park, the more visitors it gets each day. You also have to befriend local toys (including Molly Mapletree, seen above) to help you build up your park and battle smoglings who aim to pollute all the beautiful nature you’ve brought to the park, but the majority of gameplay is planting flowers. It’s actually a lot more fun than it sounds, thanks to the charm and playfulness found in all Skip-developed Nintendo games. Continue reading »
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Tags: bonsai barber, chibi-robo, derrick sanskrit, earth, eden, flower, nintendo ds, pixeljunk, pixeljunk eden, playstation 3, psn, skip, whatcha playing, wii, wiiware
John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself. 
Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.
Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.
Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines.
Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.
Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.
Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.
