Late Night Consoling
Over the holiday weekend, GameSpot posted an article appropriately titled The History of SNK. SNK is a company that has a had a long and rocky history in this industry, and as someone who could never afford to buy his way into that fan base, I found it to be a great read, filled with all kinds of stuff I didn't know. Aside from the historical article itself, there are two interviews in here: one with Chad Okada, the so-called GameLord from those SNK ads way back when (jeez, I totally remember those and one with Ben Herman, the current head of SNK NeoGeo USA, who talks about the future of the company (and says that SCEA's reluctance to approve 2D games is why you'll see Metal Slug 3 on Xbox but probably never PS2). It's an exceptionally long article (over 30 pages...they're short pages, but it's still quite long) but highly recommended. On a related note, 1UP has posted an article looking at the state of the arcade industry in this country. They try to be somewhat optimistic about the future of arcades in this country, but I just can't see it. Nobody's saying that we'll see another golden age like the early 80's, but the days of arcade machines being ten times more powerful than home systems are long gone. The only games with any kind of future are the ones like Dance Dance Revolution, although even then, the hardcore players will just buy a high-end dance pad anyway. Like many of you I'm sure, I grew up hanging out in dingy arcades, and it's sad to see arcades become so obsolete...but the last time I was at a big arcade in Times Square, I was surprised by how many of the games were really old. It would seem that arcades in this country have become a nostalgia thing instead of the cutting-edge (if dark and sleazy) places they once were.
| No WiFi at PSP Launch? PSP Insider has posted some details on the PSP that they received from someone who participated in a Sony focus group on the upcoming handheld platform. There's nothing too specific here, but it sounds like cross-platform game support (similar to what Nintendo's doing with the GBA) is in the works for PS2/PSP games, and most importantly, some features may not be available at launch, including WiFi and MP3 support. Whether or not there's any truth to that remains to be seen...Sony did launch the PSX without MP3 support (although it's been announced as a feature that will be added in an upcoming firmware update) but WiFi isn't a software issue...it seems weird that Sony would launch the system or even send out SDKs to developers without that all-important networking component. Then again, it took Microsoft a year to get online support active in the Xbox, so we might see a similar issue with the PSP, where the hardware's in there, but until the network's up and running it's effectively useless. |
| Sammy Chief Becomes Head of Sega Continuing their assimilation of the company, Sammy's Hajime Satomi has assumed the role of chairman of Sega. As of today, the former president of Sammy becomes the chairman, while the previous chairman of Sega slides down to vice chairman. |
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| Midway, Sega TV Games Announced It looks like those retro all-in-one TV games that were all the rage last year won't be going away any time soon...Radica today announced plans to release an all-in-one Genesis gamepad that plugs directly into your television and contains seven games, including Sonic the Hedgehog (throw in Shining Force and I'm there). Also, JAKKS Pacific, the leader in this new part of the industry, has announced plans to release a Midway all-in-one device, which will feature many of the games in the recent Midway Arcade Classics collection, including Joust, Defender, SMASH TV and Robotron along with Mortal Kombat among others. With a list like that, it's going to be difficult to cram the right design into that controller...as anyone who played crappy ports of them to older systems will tell you, SMASH TV or Robotron without two sticks totally sucks. |
| iQue Goes Multiplayer, Release Outside of China? Import shop Lik-Sang has a news item up today reporting on Nintendo's iQue, the customized all-in-one console system Nintendo has released exclusively for the Chinese market. There are two big stories here: the first is that a multiplayer adapter or "Family Pack" has been announced, which will allow up to four players to play Mario Kart, Wave Race and other multiplayer-enabled games simultaneously. But also interesting is the suggestion from a Nintendo source that plans may be underway to release the system outside of China. No countries are named, but it's very doubtful it'll come out over here. Instead, it's much more likely that piracy-laden countries like Russia may see it instead. Thanks Planet GameCube for the tip. |
| Way of the Samurai 2 Announced Capcom announced today that Way of the Samurai 2, the sequel to the game published here by Bam! Entertainment in '02, will be released in North America this Summer. Like the original, it's developed by Acquire, the studio also responsible for the Tenchu series. |
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| Tomb Raider Catfighting Computer and Video Games has posted quotes from the current issue of the UK magazine EDGE in which Adrian Smith and Jeremy Heath-Smith, the former co-owners of Core Design (who have since left to form Circle Studios) have some harsh things to say about their former overlords at Eidos. Accompanying these quotes is a statement from Eidos, in which a representative calls the pair a couple of bloody wankers. Okay, not really. But it's not too far from the truth. |
| Rise, DRIV to Interview Also at Computer and Video Games tonight is a Q&A with Jim Wallace, the producer of Rise to Honor, the Jet Li-starring game that shipped to retailers today, as well as an interview with Martin Edmondson, the creative director at Reflections on their upcoming title DRIV3R. As you can probably guess, these are a bit more civilized than the above quotes. |
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| Red Ninja Q&A HomeLAN Fed has conducted a Q&A with Melissa Miller, the producer at VU Games on the upcoming action title Red Ninja. Among other things, she provides some background info on the game and how it got off the ground. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
| IGN has an article up in which they compare Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes to the original MGS, along with details on the storyline in Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution and new media from Custom Robo and CVG has new media of their own from MGS: TTS. |
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| GameSpot has new previews of Resident Evil Outbreak and Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain, as well as new details from SingStar and new media from LifeLine, Games Are Fun has new shots from Armored Core: Nexus, GameSpy has a new preview of MLB 2005 and CVG has new footage from Transformers: Prelude to Energon. |
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| Team Xbox has posted new footage from Sudeki. |
| Pocket.IGN has the first shots from Sonic Advance 3, as well as new shots from Sabre Wulf and F-Zero 2 (as this sequel is apparently going to be called outside of Japan). |
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| GameSpot has new shots from ESPN Major League Baseball (PS2, Xbox), GameSpy has new shots from MVP Baseball 2004 (GC, PS2, Xbox), CVG has more shots from Burnout 3 (PS2, Xbox), GameInformer goes hands-on with Fight Night 2004 (PS2, Xbox) and IGN has screenshots from the Mega Man Anniversary Collection (GC, PS2). |
