Late Night Consoling

Microsoft today announced this week's Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays release, the enormously anticipated arcade conversion Paperboy. Excitement has been riding high for the title since it was announced to be hitting Xbox 360 last month, and responses from the Shack community have been enthusiastic to say the least. "My frothing anticipation for this game increases," stated user jake2000 when contacted by Shacknews.

Shacker not work safe pointed out how the release fits into his long term investment in the console. "I'm pretty excited," he said. "Paperboy (the simulator) really makes me glad I bought the premium 360 package."

User Frozen Pixel could hardly contain her enthusiasm. "I can't wait for Paperboy on Live Arcade!" she exclaimed. "I can finally re-live my dream job of avoiding break dancers, bees, fire hydrants and oversized house cats--oh, and delivering papers too!"

Nostalgia was the order of the day for some Shackers. "Paperboy was a great game when it was made more than 15 years ago," commented user haiku.

One was more reserved. "I hope the achievements are easy," admitted user rudds.

Paperboy will be released for Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday, February 14, for 400 Microsoft Points ($5).

After being unveiled for GameCube without warning during last year's E3, Intelligent Systems' platformer/adventure/RPG Super Paper Mario made a strong impression on gamers and press before being dropped into a media blackout just as abrupt as the game's initial announcement. Since then, it has been widely assumed that the game left the now essentially deceased GameCube format to move over to Nintendo's new Wii, though the development status of the game has been a complete unknown. Today, Nintendo sent out a brief note confirming that the game is indeed now a Wii title, and revealed that it will be hitting North American retail shelves fairly soon, on April 9, 2007.

Super Paper Mario is essentially a 2D platformer, but with numerous mechanics taken from other games, including Intelligent Systems' own Paper Mario series of RPGs. The world shifts between 2D and 3D environments, and smoothly animated characters are interchanged with enormous blowups of classic Mario sprites, all set against an oddly geometric backdrop. It's going to be an odd one. Coinciding with the announcement, Nintendo released some character art; also feel free to browse the previous screenshots.

Electronic Arts today announced that it has acquired online karaoke community SingShot Media, a MySpace-like karaoke hub allowing internet users to record and share karaoke versions of songs, as well as maintain a community proifile, compete in contests, and comment on and rate others' tracks. As for the reasoning behind the acquisition, EA stated that the deal will "accelerate EA's efforts in community-building and promoting user-generated content through a unique music platform."

There was no mention made of any plans to extend any of SingShot's services into a retail console or PC karaoke video game, though SingShot will become part of the publisher's EA Sims Division. Today's press release noted that SingShot's technology "can be applied to several different community projects within EA."

"We are thrilled to bring the SingShot team into EA," said EA executive VP and general GM Nancy Smith. "They are tremendously talented, technically adept and true experts in developing user-generated communities through music. We see a bright future for the technology and each of these individuals within EA."

Nintendo's weekly Wii Virtual Console update brings three new titles this week with, unusually, all three hailing from the original NES. The one most likely to strike a chord with gamers is the fondly remembered (or, in many cases, maddeningly remembered) Greek myth-inspired platformer Kid Icarus (1 player). Experience being turned into an eggplant again for 500 Wii Points ($5). Also up is Kirby's Adventure (1 player), HAL Laboraory's followup to the original Game Boy title Kirby's Dream Land. Steal enemies' abilities for 500 Wii Points ($5). Finally, this week brings a platformer of a more vertical sort, the sort-of-cooperative Ice Climber (1-2 players). Steal back your eggplants, which probably don't relate to Kid Icarus, for 500 Wii Points ($5).

Game Informer chats with Factor 5's Julian Eggebrecht about the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, what it's like to work on a new IP, the company's upcoming Lair, and why Eggebrecht is disappointed in many Wii developers.