Noooo!: Cave Story Wii Delayed
The Bad News: Cave Storyfor WiiWare has been delayed until “sometime after E3.”
The Good News: Everything else.
In my heart, I knew that the Cave Story remake wouldn’t make its initial release date for the end of May. In addition to a graphical overhaul and a new soundtrack (both of which you can forgo—and even mix and match), Pixel’s revamped masterpiece will include “DLC, time attacks, new weapons and enemies.” I wouldn’t regret the opportunity to throw money at a straight port of the game, but I really have to appreciate the care Nicalis is taking with this.
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Tags: cave story, nadia oxford, nicalis, pixel, wii, wiiware
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
Bit.Trip Beat’s Worrysome Bug Fix (Plus a Peek at Bit.Trip Core)
Opinions around here are mixed on Gaijin Games’ debut title Bit.Trip Beat for WiiWare. Some of us love it. Some of us don’t. What’s generally agreed upon though is that it was incredibly frustrating to beat either of the first two levels without ranking a high score and coming back later to find the game had not saved our progress. I personally thought this added to the charm of a classically hardcore challenging arcade game, but some people out there found it prevented them from playing anything after the first stage.
Well, Alex at Gaijin Games has released a solution to the problem… a save file. Continue reading »
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Tags: beat, bit.trip, core, derrick sanskrit, gaijin games, save file, wii, wiiware
This Week’s DSiWare is a Pile of Suck
Due to a faulty L button on my two-and-a-half year old DS Lite–possibly the first piece of Nintendo hardware to ever fail on me–I found myself the proud, new owner of a DSi last Wednesday. I didn’t originally see myself owning Nintendo’s revamped DS at any point in the near future, but being without a working DS and a digital camera made the $170 price too hard to pass up. Yes, I realize the camera could be better–but having a lousy camera is better than having no camera at all.
Of course, there are other features on the DSi to get excited about, but the new DSi Store is clearly not one of them. So far, the vast majority of titles offered on Nintendo’s portable download service have just been tiny chunks of already-existing games, instead of anything worthwhile and new. And this week’s releases? An Animal Crossing clock and calculator. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Nintendo was trying to make me feel bad about my recent purchase.
Continue reading »
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Tags: bob mackey, dsi, dsiware, nintendo, virtual console, wii, wiiware
Freaktastic Fanart: Happy Birthday, Pixel!
It’s Pixel’s birthday! Let’s give a round of applause to the one-man band that put together Cave Story, the most well-rounded, well-balanced, and charming freeware platformer of all time.
In honour of Pixel’s womb ejection, Nicalis.com posted some sexy Cave Story fanart by Adam Atomic. It was drawn with love.
Incidentally, Nicalis.com confirms that the Cave Story remake will be hitting WiiWare sooner than later. The projected release date is the end of May, with extensive play testing being the reason for the game’s heart rendering delays. If you’ve never spent time with Quote, Curly, Sue, the Puppies and King (he will cut you), be prepared for a rollicking good time.
View Adam Atomic’s awesome work behind the jump.
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Tags: cave story, freeware, nadia oxford, pixel, wii, wiiware
Console Funny Money Weakens Further
Last week, I was excited to hear about the opening of the new XBox Live Arcade Store on Amazon.com; console “funny money” (in this case, Microsoft Points) has been a constant annoyance this generation, mostly due to the fact that it complicates purchases which almost always leave you with an unusable balance in the end. Getting to buy software titles with actual money shouldn’t exactly be a novel concept.
It’s only been ten days, but Microsoft’s gumption caused the unthinkable to happen: Nintendo has decided to make WiiWare shopping far less irritating by beginning to offer these titles on Amazon.com (thanks to Gamasutra for the news tip). So far, the only one available is the amazing World of Goo, but the mere existence of this WiiWare game on Amazon.com could mean a lot for the future of Nintendo’s digital distribution.
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Tags: amazon, bob mackey, virtual console, wii, wiiware, world of goo
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.
