[Now Salivating Over| Mario Kart - DS]

JeuxFrance has released some vids from the Nintendo conference in Paris today.

Mario Kart DS looks amazing. Probably the best graphics on the systems so far. Kirby looks awesome too. Nice sprites and parallax scrolling. It looks like once you know how to control Kirby the game will get really cool. Check out these videos!

Kirby DS Videos Page
Mario Kart DS Video

source: JeuxFrance

[Now Playing| Mario 64 Mini Games - DS]

Looks like Nintendo is getting back into the sports market. Not only are they offering Mario Baseball, in collaboration with Namco, but not we have Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball. Made in collaboration with Exile, the team who worked on the World Series 2K games, this should be a quality game. This is great news! In order to have a place with the mainstream gamer, sports games are essential.

Its an interesting announcement though, seeing as how Nintendo has been aligning themselves with EA lately. I hope that it wont stop them from making other sports games in the future. Here is the press release for the game:

More…

[Now Going| To Saw Logs]

Looks like someone got their issue of Nintendo Power early (well, we already knew they were out early with the Need for Speed scans) and it has Starfox Assualt in it. Looks pretty good. Of course, NP gives it a good score so Im not sure how good the game really is. Ill wait for confirmation from a few sources before I run out to get this. I hope its good though, as Starfox 64 was one of my favorite games on the N64.

NP Scans

The site above also has lots of pictures of Starfox artwork. Fox is a pimp. I wont comment on the rest of the cast…

And one publicity shot for the road:
Team Starfox

[Now Doing| Color Theory Homework]

Here is some very interesting stuff from a developer working on DS games. He was working on Sprung and its very cool to see what he has to say.

Fluffy’s blog

And here is a page someone setup with a few of the entries all in one. There is tons more on Fluffy’s blog, but this page is formatted better and was made in case Fluffy has to take his stuff down.

Second source

source: TheModGodsandDsLinux.org

[Now Doing| Color Theory Homework]

Not a lot of gaming news lately, but here is a roundup of what there was:

Nintendo’s profits are down for the year, due mainly to the value of the yen and the fact that Nintendo has sunk a lot of money back into R&D costs:
Nintendo Profits

Remember how I was talking about Nintendo at Sundance? Well, they auctioned off three special edition DS’s for charity and made a ton of money while at Sundance:
DS for charity

People are finally starting to get Yoshi’s Touch & Go in Japan and we are seeing some reviews:
Andrew Alfonso Playtest

Also, EA has been in the news a bunch, pushing their weight around and laying off poeple. Im not even going to bother reporting on them unless it is something interesting, like this video. This is footage of the Gamecube version of Fight Night 2, with Little Mac as a playable character and Super Punch-Out!! as an unlockable.
Nice bowl cut, Mac!

Finally, if you havent had the chance to play Feel the Magic, you can test it out online:
Feel the Magic Demo

[Now Doing| Color Theory Homework]

Wow, its been a long day. On wednesdays I have a class at 9am and then another at 6pm. The problem is that in traffic it would take me and hour to get home and an hour back, so its not really worth going home in between. I did get to go to the pool and swim some laps though, so that was cool.

I also stopped by my local comic shop, called Oxford Comics. Its the ‘big’ comic shop in Atlanta. Not only are some of the employees working comic people, but there were tons of comic ‘celebs’ around today. One of the ladies that works there is a professional inker. Adam Hughes girlfriend was there. Tony Harris’s studio mates were there. Plus, they were all taking with a bunch of other people who Im assuming work in the industry because of the conversation they were having. It was cool. Too bad I had to get back to class.

I actually met Adam Hughes at work one day. Except, I didnt realize who he was until he was leaving. I work at an art store and he came in with his girlfriend and bought some pencils and paper. I should have chased him down, but Im sure Ill see him again since he lives around here.

Supposedly someone in Japan saw a copy of Nintendo’s documents for their sharholder meeting. In this document it talked about the Revolution, or according to this, the ‘Nintendo 21.’ Heres what was leaked:

- Name of machine is “Nintendo 21″
- planned for release at end of 2005
- medium is 2-sided 8cm disc, 5.4GB capacity, in a shellcase
- includes “Home Game function” which uses IEEE protocol to locate and communicate with other Nintendo 21s in the vicinity
- “Home Game function” is free, connect the AC adaptor and the machine talks to nearby Nintendo 21s and “Nintendo Home”s (? could be Form instead of Home - katakana is vague). Save data is stored on the main unit and affects other machines over the network.
- “Nintendo Home” machine is like a base station that will be put in many places and uses the PHS network for communication (popular mobile phone network). Will connect to handheld game machines and supports “Home Game function”, also sends latest info from Nintendo.
- “Nintendo Home” is being jointly developed with Kyosera.
- controller is like GC controller but “rubbing” is possible - e.g. you can control movement in a game by rubbing the controller/buttons. Also the controller has a slot.
- The whole controller is pressure sensitive. So rubbing can be done with the buttons or via grip.
- Digital outputs included

Haha. Here is the picture that the guy drew from memory after seeing the documents:
I draw pretty

I have to say that the server idea for a system is something I could see Nintendo doing. And while Im afraid of a ‘rubbing’ controller…I could see them doing this too. Im certainly holding off judgement on this news, but still interesting none the less.

[Now Reading| Colors - Magazine]

Yeah, Sony rules. They care so much about their customers. They are always right, and damn you if you say otherwise.

Go read this article about what Kutaragi said about the defective PSP’s. Hilarious.

Gamespot article

[Now Reading| Colors - Magazine]

Looks like Take-Two might be the only rival to EA in the sports arena soon. Not only did Sega sell its sports division to Take-Two, but rumors are also suggesting that Take-Two has purchased the rights to the MLB license for the next seven years. It looks like this is going to be a future pillar of gaming; companies buying up properties for exclusive content. I think its a terrible idea and will eventually stagnate the market. Can you even fathom it? Seven to fifteen years playing the same companies sports game? Are they going to even have to update the games very much?

Well, at least one good trend may have already started: bargain priced sports games. That I can live with. Although, its probably part of the reason for all of this.

[Now Reading| Colors - Magazine]

Its always nice to see Nintendo doing a little public marketing. They are sponsoring the 2005 US Open Snowboarding Championships in Vermont. Not only that, but they will be offering a $5000 Nintendo DS Best Trick Award during the half-pipe finals. As to be expected, Nintendo will have playable systems at the lodges there. Hopefully, they put some cool games on. Im sure 1080 would be a good bet.

Nintendo will also have a presence at the Sundance film festival this year. The interesting part is that both of these events Nintendo and Motorola are teaming up together with the advertising. Possible relationship, or simply a beneficial marketing opportunity. Hmmm.

source: Gamecube Advanced

[Now Reading| Colors - Magazine]

You guys know Im not a big fan on IGN, but seeing as how they are the number one gaming source outside of print, sometimes you just have to deal with them. Dont worry, I wont link to them. Close your eyes and avoid the rest of this post if you want to IGNore!

More…

[Happy B-Day Matt]

Apparently this video is from Nintendo of Europe. Im not sure if its real or not. There is a lot of DS footage in there, but Im still not totally convinced. It would be nice though to see Nintendo with a more mature advertising campaign. They did it with the DS over here so I guess we will see.

DS Video at gba.n64.europe

[Happy B-Day Matt]

Well, it looks like Demasked might actually be….something. And it might be released….sometime. Ok, so there isnt a lot more to talk about, but it sounds like we may know something in a few weeks and possibly the whole deal at E3.

Chad over at Warpipe held an IRC chat recently. Here is the summary from Phan on the Warpipe Forum:

What we know of Demasked in general

Chad said that it WAS online. We also know that this service will rival Microsoft. We also know that all you need is a DS. This service is free.

What we still don’t know of Demasked in general

We don’t know how it will connect. We don’t know whether demasked is a program or what for the DS. We don’t know when Demasked will be released.

What we know of Chorx

Chorx will help out the DS online experience. They were created by Tushar Singh. They are small and come in different colors. They also don’t like complicated technology stuff. We know that that pink thing sticking out of the WarpPipe is indeed a Chorx. We know they are coming in a few weeks (before Demasked). Chorx are free too.

What we don’t know of Chorx

How they help out the DS online experience. We don’t know how or why they were created. We don’t know what they look like. We don’t know how we interact with them.

What we know of WarpPipe and other companies

Chad made it clear that he is not in complete charge of Demasked. He said that other companies have a lot of control in this project.

What we don’t know of WarpPipe and other companies

We don’t know who is completely in-charge of Demasked

Here is the full transcript

[Happy B-Day Matt]

The first pics of Need For Speed Underground for the DS have surfaced. Looks pretty slick. These screens make it look a bit better than Ridge Racer or Asphault, but I bet the real test will be seeing it in motion. I do love the fact that games are getting to use the whole screen though. All the other crap can now be on the second screen.

The use of the touch screen still seems cheap though. I wont fully respect EA’s DS games until they make a Madden where you can draw your own plays on the touch screen. That would be awesome.

Magazine Scan on Warpipe Forum

[One Year Older]

Tomorrow is my brother Matt’s birthday. He will be 23. He was my best friend for many years and I am finally starting to like him again! Haha. Ok, so I always liked you Matt, but you were a little rotten pain for quite a few years.

Happy birthday Splat. Love ya.