Last night was Demo Night IX. For those who don’t know or might have forgotten, Demo Nights are when a bunch of local game creators in the New York (and New Jersey) area all get together to show off what they’re working on to their peers. And it was pretty neat, as they generally are. I’ll be filing a report for Gamasutra in a bit, but I will mention right now that perhaps the best of the bunch is something everyone out there can play this very second! It’s called WikiPaths, and it’s something that many of us already engage in, and that’s play six degrees via Wikipedia, but in a more structured format. Give it a spin!
Oh, there was also this pretty rad looking ARG that combines the mini golf and the iPhone, but that’s not available as of yet. Moving on, another thing I was going to pass a head’s up on was my latest review for Americurry, but once again, I’m gonna have to revisit the place that I went to yesterday due to camera issues. Not that mind all that much, though once again, I really need to get something semi-professional.
At least it works well enough when there’s plenty of natural light. So how about some pictures of super cool shirts that I got instead? Been a while…
… Believe it or not, given my penchant for silkscreened shirts and the such, I had never purchased anything from Etsy up until now! Anyway, they’re from Mad Made Monsters, and as you can tell from the second shirt, they’re based in Seattle. Along with how they’re super cool, of course. But check out how they came to me…
… It’s not silkscreened, that’s completely hand-done!
Time for two more pics…
… Yup, it’s the latest installment of Nurse Nurse from the always amazing Katie Skelly! And I’m not just saying this cuz she’s my gf and all, but this latest installment is quite seriously the best work she’s ever done, dead f’n serious. Be sure to stop by our table at MoCCA next weekend to pick one up, along with whatever equally awesome stuff that Hilary will also have available! Oh, and the latest issue of the zine, naturally.
Speaking of stuff going on in the city, I was also hoping to pass along the schedule for the upcoming New York Asian Film Festival, but apparently there’s been a slight delay. Though if you check out the past couple of posts, you’ll find some info regarding the potential line-up, including a guest appearance by Lau Ching-wan(!!!) and the sequel to Tokyo Gore Police, Tokyo Gore Night!
… I’ve already asked Hilary to procure another flask of vodka, to help make the sequel go down as smooth as the original. But yeah, 09 edition might quite possibly the best one yet, which is saying a lot. And as noted last time, later tonight is the midnight screening of The Room, but in the meantime, here’s my end of the week round up of noteworthy game related news, pics, and vids!
- E3 is now just two days away, but I’m kinda not feeling it. Granted, I’ll be like everyone else come Monday, constantly refreshing NeoGAF thoughout the week, but aside from a few game announcements and updates, there’s not much I’m that excited for. In fact, like many others, I’m somewhat afraid of what’s to come, that being possible news of the next round of consoles, more than likely from Microsoft, since the Xbox 360 is technically the oldest of the bunch. But as so many others have stated, they’ve barely scratched the surface in regards to it’s capabilities, and same obviously goes for the PS3.
The one game everyone?s talking about the most is, not surprisingly, whatever the next Metal Gear title might be. Another new face recently popped up over at the countdown site, which appeared to be Raiden at first, but now whom most believe to be Sunny. And I do enjoy Leigh Alexander’s theory that you’ll still be able to play Big Boss as well, in some kind of dual timeline set-up. But you know, I’m a pretty big Metal Gear fan and all, yet I’d honestly prefer something different Kojima and crew. Maybe another ZOE, Snatcher, or Policenauts, ANYTHING else other than MSG yet again. Kojima did such a great job tying up every loose end from the entire series in part 4, so to add even more stuff on top might be a recipe for disaster. Though I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority on this one…
- Well the big new story from yesterday was how adult games, specifically any title that depicts any sort of sexual violence, otherwise known as “rape simulators” by certain folks in the media, were set to be banned in Japan. But then came word earlier this morning that there is actually no such ban going into effect, along with how it was all just wishful thinking on the part of the media.
I’m not gonna lie and state there wasn’t a tiny sigh of relief upon hearing the good news that some ame in which hapless school girls get rapped by space tentacles would not be yanked from whatever shelves in Japan as originally feared. Because as offensive and depraved as some titles like the overly talked about Rapelay might be, people have the right play whatever the hell they want, period. And anything that not only prevents people from accessing whatever form of media, but also impedes upon its creation and distribution, is just plain bad news, regardless of any negative societal stigma. Once again, I just love how Rapelay was just another stupid game, like so many others of its kind, that hardly anyone knew or cared about, plus an old one at that. Until some political watchdog group decided to shed light upon it, who with help from everyone else out there eager to make a buck by making headlines, made it this now well known and highly sought after things. Good job idiots.
- Here’s a chat with the creator of Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy, Keita Takahashi that’s an absolute must read, mostly because in order to ensure that he wasn’t bored during the interview, which in turn would have made the whole thing a chore to read as well, Mathew Kumar and Christian Nutt gave the guy paper and colored markers to doodle with…
- The new Metal Gear isn’t the only game that’s getting a lot of attention today; surprisingly, No More Heroes 2 is getting a lot of buzz. Mostly due to this absolutely kick-ass trailer. The thing I love is how Grasshopper Manufacture, if they had decided to do the sequel on the 360 or PS3, they would have been totally justified. But they’re sticking with the Wii!
- Sticking to the Wii for just a sec, remember me gushing over Muscle March? It’s a game that has lots of people hot and bothered, as well as praying for an eventual American release. Which will probably never happen, though according to Chris Kohler it’s just as well, cuz it apparently blows big time?!
- Guess who is my favorite publisher at the moment? It easily has to be XSEED. Why? Because they’re bring both Fragile, that animu looking ghost hunting game that I first made mention almost a year ago for the Wii and Yuusha 30, that WarioWare crossed with a RPG title for the PSP that I’ve also been talking about for some time now are both heading to America! I was always hoping for an eventual release for the first one, but never expected in a million years for the second, which will be called Half-Minute Hero, or something like that. Sure, okay!
- Meanwhile, over on the PS3 side of things, and sorry to keep bring up old entries, but remember my mention of Mainichi Issyo, which was part Animal Crossing, part social network game, part news reader? Well it would seem that the white cat whose quietly served as Sony’s PlayStation mascot for some time now (he had a PSone game that I heard was insanely fun, but it’s been impossible for me to get my hands on it due to lack of information, such as the title) has been replaced by… Misato Katsuragi?!
- And this one sorta came out of nowhere; Mega Man is going to be in another new game, and wearing his 8-bit threads once again, but for a shump? And an underwater one at that…
- While on the subject of the Blue Bomber, here’s the latest Mega Man 2.5D trailer. Sorry, but the Paper Mario infused gameplay looks a bit too cumbersome for my tastes, though the two player mode on the other hand looks fairly interesting.
- Roy Blakely, who runs a neat little site he calls Kotowari just posted links to web comics featuring Disgaea 3 and Devil Summoner. And they look pretty awesome!
… Unfortunately, unless you understand Japanese, you won’t understand what the hell is going on, though here’s hoping that Roy might find the time sometime soon to translate the Devil Summoner one at least.
- Adam over at Attractmo.de posted this on Twitter, and it’s just too awesome not to share: some shirtless guy’s video review of Shadow of the Colossus.
- They’re not pixels but “dots”; SNK released launched a 2D Dot Graphics Gallery to help illustrate the creative process behind KOF XII’s ultra detailed sprites (though you’ll probably need this if you again don’t understand Japanese).
Meanwhile, over at Sankaku Complex, there’s a slightly more comprehensive look back at everyone’s favorite, Mai Shiranui. She’s still not in KOF XII last I heard, but you just know she’ll pop up eventually, more than likely as a DLC character for the home release.
- Moving over to yet another famous fighting femme fatale for just a sec, check out this collection of Cammy figures from over the years.
- And this Resident Evil designer Licker statue is both look cool and rather disgusting…
- I’m pretty sure a while back I made mention of a line of classic Sega coin-ops, made bite-sized. Well, here’s a closer look at them, via some toy and figure show in Japan recently (which one, I don’t know, since there seems to be about one a week at this rate).
- Last time I brought up the Mosh Amp, along with the PainStation. Well, here’s another “brilliant” fusing of performance art and video games, Dance Dance Immolation. Basically, you DDR while being someone shoots a flamethrower at you. Interesting…
- Via Brandon Boyer’s neck of the woods, did you know that there’s a Rhythm Heaven iTunes visualizer? Well now you know! I guess I must be lucky, since mine has yet to crash once…
- I gotta admit, this made me chuckle…
- Meanwhile, Simon Parkin at Chewing Pixels (one of those blogs that I don’t visit nearly enough) just started a new series in which he visits the working environments of various game creative types, starting off with the office of NanaOn-Sha! And as expected, it’s about as cool as one could imagine…
… Though if it’s cooler than Masaya Matsuura’s pal Rodney Greenblat is open for debate.
- I will pay good money for one of these Servbot mugs…
- And remember that episode of Futurama where they parody Space Invaders? Someone made an entire game out of it!
- Oh, and there’s not just one but two new NES games out there to give a spin! Though only one is in a proper cartridge format.
- Speaking of the NES, Tiny Cartridge has always been on-top of the chiptunes scenes, and constantly highlighting the ROMs that Pulsewave and like love to distribute as flyers. And now one can finally make their own!
- It’s also the place to go for the latest in Made in Ore news, and the latest must-play microgame is from… the creator or Kirby and Smash Bros?!
- I’m fairly certain that the big surprise regarding Nanashi no Game (aka The Game with No Name) is indeed a sequel, which was just revealed in Famtisu. Oh well. Though the news of there not only being a cursed RPG but platformer as well is fairly intriguing. How about a cursed shump for part three? Way too obvious a joke, I know.
Yet the real star of that particular entry has to be this…
- So EA’s planning on a Walden Woods game?
- And finally, something that’s not entirely game related, yet relevant to my interests and still very much worth sharing. What happens when an uber otaku dork decides to give it all up? It’s called “graduating” and here’s what that looks like.
EDIT: Here we have a better assortment of pics…
- EDIT: BTW, this just in… EGM is coming back?!?! Whoa.
