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    Hands-on: Tony Hawk Ride

    September 9, 2009 - 10:15am


    Hi. I'm Joystiq writer Griffin McElroy, and those are my feet. They're attached to my shins, which attach to a long sequence of other appendages which stop at my brain -- which at the very moment this image was taken, was likely in a confused, panicked state. It's a reflex reaction I usually turn to when placed before an alien video game peripheral, although in most cases, it quickly subsides, and is replaced with a steely determination to figure out how it works.By the time I'd reached the end of my brief hands-on session with Tony Hawk Ride, I had only just begun to deconstruct the hardware's machinations, and started determining how to deftly manipulate it in order to do sweet tricks. I was making progress in this endeavor when the demo came to a halt, but I'm still not sure my mind had completely wrapped around how I was supposed to manipulate the device. Is that indicative of the peripheral's weakness? No, I think it can be entirely chalked up to the fact that skateboarders move in mysterious ways.

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    Rage of the Gladiator monster elicits sympathy

    September 8, 2009 - 5:45pm

    The latest enemy to be introduced in Ghostfire Games' intriguing WiiWare arena combat game Rage of the Gladiator is the least humanoid creature we've seen yet: "Ixthid," a creature with not only six arms, seve eyes and seven mouths, but six eyes inside six mouths. That seems really impractical. In fact, he doesn't appear to have any throats or anything -- just eyeballs in the back of his mouths. When he eats, he just ends up cramming food right into an eye, which is futile, painful, and really unsanitary! There's no mystery as to why this guy is angry.
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    We predict that Europe will receive a new Wii channel tomorrow

    September 8, 2009 - 4:30pm

    Yes, we can accurately predict that a new Wii Channel will be available in Europe tomorrow, but only because Nintendo announced it. Nintendo has dug into its archive of Japanese Channels and dusted off the Today & Tomorrow Channel, which offers daily horoscopes for every Mii on your console, as well as astrologically-determined compatibility tests and lifestyle tips.You know who else didn't predict this? Nintendo of Europe. A spokesperson said last year that there were no plans to localize this channel. Maybe there were plans, but the Nintendo rep didn't know how to correctly interpret the signs.[Thanks, Kevin!]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Japanese Nintendo downloads: The Soldier of Argos

    September 8, 2009 - 3:30pm

    Two weeks in a row and no WiiWare in Japan. Did Nintendo of Japan hire someone on from Nintendo of America's WiiWare team? Whatever happened, the total absence of WiiWare throws attention on the two Virtual Console Arcade titles available today.Rygar finally arrives on Virtual Console, giving gamers the opportunity to try the original, much more linear version of the classic NES game. It's joined by Dragon Spirit, the epic tale of a warrior who is transformed into a dragon, and then transformed again into a two-headed dragon, while being shot at by hundreds of flying monsters.

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    Finally, a real Okamiden trailer

    September 8, 2009 - 2:30pm

    Following last week's heartbreakingly brief teaser video, Capcom has released a new, more satisfying trailer for Okamiden. Somehow, between last week and today, the company seems to have taken care of the framerate issue that was previously apparent. The new footage is silky-smooth, looking a lot better than a 3D DS game would seemingly have the right to. It demonstrates that between the Celestial Brushing and the self-contained fighting sequences, the game hasn't changed much in its transition to DS. Which means that this is basically the Okami sequel that we all wanted. Except so much cuter. And, of course, not developed by Clover, which is admittedly troubling.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Mega64 goes into the ring with Punch-Out!!

    September 8, 2009 - 11:00am


    Admittedly, the connection to video games in the Mega64 video we've embedded after the break is threadbare at best. Sure, it's a take off on Punch-Out!! in theory, but it's basically just a guy yelling at people (not that we have a problem with that). Even though it's a bit of a stretch, we're happy that we get to post it, if only so you can watch as it devolves into madness at the end. Madness.

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    Super Mario's Wacky Worlds should have stayed buried

    September 8, 2009 - 12:00am


    Well, here's an unexpected treat for your Labor Day: A peek at a Mario game you've probably never heard of and almost certainly will never touch, Super Mario's Wacky Worlds. If the video we found at Unseen64 is any indication, it's likely for the better. Created for the ill-fated Phillips CD-i by Novalogic, SMWW took Mario out of the Mushroom Kingdom (bold!) and plopped him in real-world locales like Egypt (puzzling!). Though touted as a successor to Super Mario World, it seems this would have been lucky to have been a successor to Hotel Mario.

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    This Week on the Nintendo Channel: If you haven't played it, it's new to you

    September 7, 2009 - 4:31pm

    Don't have the whole Labor Day holiday off to play games? Why not take a tiny break from your work to play a tiny portion of a video game -- provided you're within distance of a Wii? There are some new demos up on the Nintendo Channel if you haven't bothered to download any DS demos in the last couple of months. (That's our polite way of saying the demos are old. And that is our extremely rude way of explaining an obvious statement.)Video-wise, more real people are getting their Layt on, and another Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story video is available. We don't remember there ever being an announcement per se, but that's coming out next week. Amazing! Check the list after the break.

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    Amazon pops Space Bust-a-Move's price

    September 7, 2009 - 1:30pm

    If you haven't picked up Space Bust-a-Move, Taito's DS bubble-buster with online play, you may want to rush toward this deal like a bubble launched by a dinosaur. For its Deal of the Day, Amazon has marked down Space Bust-a-Move to just $12.98, which seems ridiculously low for a game that just came out July 28.Sure, it'll be just like any other Bust-a-Move game, but this one's on the DS, a distinction shared only by, uh, two other games. Okay, let's try that again: Sure, it'll be just like any other Bust-a-Move game, but this one supports the Arkanoid paddle controller.
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    Minor graphical effects missing in Wii Metroid Prime

    September 7, 2009 - 12:30pm

    It turns out the word "damn" isn't the only thing missing from Metroid Prime Trilogy. This YouTube video (after the break) demonstrates a few minor, but nice, graphical effects that seem to have been excised from the Wii release of the first Metroid Prime -- specifically, the ripple effect when Samus moves around in water, and the Ice Beam's freezing condensation, which used to gather around the gun when charging Ice Beam shots. At first we thought the effects might have been a casualty of the process of cramming three games onto one disc, but this video shows that the Japanese version of Prime on Wii, which had a Wii disc all to itself, also lacks the freezing effect (skip to the last thirty seconds to see). So what happened? It could merely be a glitch, or the result of a hasty port. It's certainly nothing to get too upset or burn your Trilogy disc over. Just kind of ... odd.

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