Gamertell

News broke this week that Resident Evil writer/director/producer extraordinaire Paul W.S. Anderson wouldn’t be opposed to making a fourth chapter in the film series. According to MTV’s Multiplayer blog, he’s been in talks with Sony about the possibility of making zombie magic happen yet again.

From the post:

“Right now, the hold up for Anderson is coming up with the right story. If that falls into place, another “Resident Evil” movie may be on the table.”

Just in case the film does get made, I have a few suggestions for the filmmakers…

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We have two new games and some additional dlc for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as King this week on Nintendo’s downloadable services. On the WiiWare front, we have Magnetica Twist, a presumably addictive Zuma clone, and Neo-Geo classic Fatal Fury 2. All titles are available on the Wii Shop channel, with a fresh batch arriving every Monday at 9 AM Pacific time. Wii points can be purchased at a rate of $1 for 100 points. On the VC count, the new game brings the North American total to 233.

Nintendo’s descriptions:

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Title: Daigasso! Band Brothers
Price: $48.90
System(s): Nintendo DS
Release Date: December, 1, 2004
Publisher (Developer): Nintendo (Nintendo)
ESRB Rating: N/A. CERO Free (All Ages)
Pros: There’s a great variety of JPop, anime, World, classical and video game music to play. The controls are easy to adapt to. There’s single cart multiplayer for 2-8 people. The song editor is fun. Loads of replay value.
Cons: The sound quality sounds dated, you’ll need a guide to get started for making songs
Overall Score: 8/10

Since Daigasso! Band Brothers DX was recently released in Japan (on June 26, 2008), I figured it would be a good time to take a look back at the original Daigasso! Band Brothers.

The game is a cross between a music simulator and a music game, where people could play music with the face buttons. Pressing the wrong button, or failing to make a note sharp or flat with the shoulder buttons at higher difficulty levels, will cause the wrong note to be played. The goal is to successfully complete a song while keeping time with the beat and pressing correct buttons.

Click through for the full review…

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After a slower game-movies news week, I decided it was time to resurrect the lame game movie night. You can check out older installments, but every lame game movie night is a double-feature review of two videogame film adaptations. This week, I survive the horror of Resident Evil’s two sequels: Apocalypse (2004) and Extinction (2006).

Resident Evil: Apocalypse begins with a quick recap of the last film – Alice (Milla Jovovich) was an employee of the umbrella corporation, makers of the deadly, zombifying T-virus. She goes into the nightmarish Hive to investigate, only to find a horde of undead. She survives, along with one companion – he gets thrown into the “Nemesis program” while she gets bolted to a table for some kind of medical study (and genetic augmentation). Then we begin the second film proper, in peaceful, happy Raccoon City, which has the misfortune of being just above the Hive. Faster than you can say “corporate irresponsibility”, the T-virus gets out again, and the Alice finds herself in yet another survival horror situation.

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Two retro games and one WiiWare title are up for downloading this week. I haven’t heard too much about the sole new game - Gyrostarr, other than the fact that it’s a spacey shooter, but it does look rather intriguing. Also - Alex Kidd in Miracle World was awesome back in the day, and it’s more than worth a peek if you’re nostalgic.

All titles are available on the Wii Shop channel, with a fresh batch arriving every Monday at 9 AM Pacific time. Wii points can be purchased at a rate of $1 for 100 points. On the VC count, the new games bring the North American total to 232.

From Nintendo’s press release:
WiiWare

Gyrostarr (High Voltage Software, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone—Mild Fantasy Violence, 700 Wii Points): Gyrostarr challenges you and up to three additional players to pilot your ships through a series of twisting, turning technoplasma tracks while battling a variety of deadly alien foes at ever-increasing speeds. While fighting and maneuvering, you must collect enough energy to activate the ancient warpgate at the end of each track. Succeed, and you can journey to the next, even deadlier track. Fail, and the gate will slam shut, destroying your ship. Enhance your ship with weapon pickups, coordinate attacks with your friends to fire powerful combined blasts and use your grapple to snag energy and pickups in the midst of combat. Control your ship with the Wii Remote controller, Nunchuk controller or Classic Controller™, or use the “paired” control system that allows two players to use a connected Wii Remote and Nunchuk or Classic Controller at the same time. Offering 50 levels of intense action, powerful pickups, high-speed bonus levels and mayhem for up to four players, Gyrostarr is a killer arcade challenge.

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Wow! Important Importables falls on the Fourth of July this year! So I figured this week’s column should focus on some fun, Japanese gadgets that you can buy online now, and have in time for the Fourth. You know the kind of things I’m talking about. They’re the items that you look at and go, “That is so cool! Why don’t they have these in (country you live in)?”

But these aren’t just any gadgets or toys. These are things that are perfect for enhancing your summer experience. Every summer has a few days where you’re absolutely stumped as to what to do. While the items I suggest might not totally revitalize your day, at the very least they’ll be a cool discussion starter. 

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It isn’t uncommon for one or two big titles to be released on the same day or within a few days of each other, (Example: Grand Theft Auto IV and Mario Kart Wii.) but more often than not, publishers will avoid this and scatter dates so their games will get the attention they deserve. Apparently the Japanese DS game publishers wanted to cause a free-for-all June 26, 2008, because five highly anticipated games are being released at once. Six, if you’re excited about Simple DS Series Vol. 39 The Shouboutai (Fire Fighters).

So let’s go over Bleach: The 3rd Phantom, Bokura no Telebi Game Kentei, Daigasso! Band Brothers DX, Jigsaw World and Disgaea DS, the five major titles being released in Japan…

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It’s a decidedly awesome week on the Wii’s downloadable services, with two quality-looking WiiWare titles: Cocoto Fishing Master and the retro styled Block Breaker Deluxe; and the excellent Samurai Shodown (NEO-GEO) on the Virtual Console. Happy downloading!

All VC titles are available on the Wii Shop channel, with a fresh batch arriving every Monday at 9 AM Pacific time. Wii points can be purchased at a rate of $1 for 100 points. The new game brings the North American VC count to 230.

From Nintendo’s press release:

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Let me tell you a little thing about zombies. They’re evil, undead, unstoppable and they really like brains. If there’s anything videogames have taught us over the years, it’s that zombies are not your friends, and any sane person will have a zombie apocalypse survival plan handy in the event that the dead walk the earth.

The most obvious place to gather incriminating evidence is the Resident Evil series, built around the foundation that zombies are the product of evil, corporate-greed induced scientific irresponsibility (the T-virus, manufactured by the Umbrella corporation). But zombies have been an (evil!) part of the videogame landscape long before RE landed in the US, bad dialogue intact, in 1996. The Castlevania and Doom series each had their share of zombie enemies through the years, Beast Buster was a 1989 arcade game set in a city overrun with the undead, the entire House of the Dead series (which hit the scene around the same time as Resident Evil) has always been about…

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Title: Pump It Up: Zero Portable
Price: $39.90
System(s): PSP
Release Date: October 15, 2007
Publisher (Developer): Andamiro (Studio 9)
ESRB Rating: N/A
Pros: 117 songs, English language option, cool background videos playing while you play, online ranking, PSP wallpapers you can earn. Different arrow options.
Cons: The cool background videos are too cool, and often distracting. Also the control scheme takes getting used to. Unlocking can be tedious since you must earn points.
Overall Score: 7/10

If you take away anything from this review, let it be that Pump It Up: Exceed Portable and Pump It Up: Zero Portable are pretty much interchangeable. If you own Zero Portable, you don’t need Exceed Portable. These two PSP titles aren’t like DDR entries, where there’ll be different songs, patterns or mechanics. Instead, Zero Portable is more like Exceed Portable 2.0 rather than a whole new game.

This means that almost everything I said in last week’s Exceed Portable review carries over to this week. Sure, there are a few differences, and those differences are what this review will focus on. This review will essentially help you decide which Pump It Up Portable would be best for you. 

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