OLLY MOSS’S MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GEAR
As long as he keeps making them, I’ll keep posting them: the latest in Olly Moss’s Videogame Classics mines Solid Snake by way of Saul Bass, adding a sly visual wink that crosses Snake’s nasty (but practical) habit with the franchise’s exclamatory trademark.
That’s four down and five to go — I’m really going to be gutted to see the series end.
Olly Moss’s Videogame Classics [Flickr]
Previously:
Olly Moss brings a touch of class to Black Mesa – Offworld
Olly Moss's Penguin-inspired Videogame Classics covers – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Olly Moss
SUPER MARIO EXTREME: THE CORRUPT EDITION
Cory Arcangel, eat your heart out: YouTube user LightningWolf3 is coming after the 8-bit art-glitch crown with a playlist 39 videos strong that consist of little more than Game Genie super corrupted versions of the various NES Marios.
The one above is his “most violent corruption” and the most curiously mesmerizing to watch, and surprising in that it appears still quite playable. Nintendo’s been fairly forward in playing off its legacy with different SMB subversions (the circular tiltable version in WarioWare: Twisted springs to mind), but this makes me crave a remake as mindmelting as Space Invaders Extreme.
Super Mario Corrupted Zone [YouTube, via n0wak]
Previously:
Super Mario Land: the drunken edition – Offworld
Super Mario in real life – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
FALSE IDOLS: CANINE SHAMUS & HYPERKINETIC RABBITY THING IN RESIN
I’ve made a promise to myself to willfully ignore the fact that Symbiote Studios has apparently created the first officially licensed anime-and-vampire-fang-styled statuette of infamous and now IGN-employed PSP-licker Jessica Chobot, because their new resin statue of LucasArts/Telltale adventure superstars Sam & Max is so gorgeously done that there’s nothing that should rightfully spoil this moment.
More photo details of the toy here and Symbiote’s order page is over here. The company has apparently flown under my radar but still sold out of a superdeformed six inch toy set of the gumshoe-duo as well, but promises a re-up in Q2 of 2009.
Sam and Max Statue [via Plastic and Plush]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
REACT BRINGING EA CLASSIC ARCHON TO IPHONE, MAKE M.U.L.E. NEXT?
As Raph Koster noted in December, there are good things afoot for fans of Electronic Arts’ classic C64/8-bit computer chess-like board/strategy game Archon, with a resurgence planned for PC, consoles (likely Xbox Live Arcade), and now, React! Games has announced, a new version planned for the iPhone.
React says the game won’t be a simple port of the original computer version, but will include wifi multiplayer, worldwide leaderboards, selectable AI difficulty, and “an additional surprise game mode” for its single player game, and hints at further accelerometer functionality.
The dev hasn’t shown off any full-screen mockups of the iPhone game in action apart from a title screen (the above image is from a 2003 PC mockup, and from the developer’s blog, it appears work has only really been underway since the start of the new year), but the site’s gallery shows some promising work done in converting all of its game-piece characters into full 3D.
Now, if anyone else is willing to snatch up long-forgotten classic EA designs, no matter what anyone says, I do think a console/portable/iPhone re-up of Dani Bunten’s landmark multiplayer game M.U.L.E., particularly one using Niklas Jansson’s ridiculously well done concept art, would be an instant contender for game of the year.
REACT! GAMES ANNOUNCES ARCHON FOR THE IPHONE [Archon Classic]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
NINTENDO PHOTO PRINTING SERVICE MOVING TO EUROPE?
And more potential Wii channel jealousy: Though trawling trademark/patent databases is never a sure bet for anything, Siliconera notes that a recent check netted the site a new ‘Wii Photo Print Channel’ trademark filed in Europe, and speculates that the company is considering a local service on par with the Digital Camera Print Service it launched in Japan last July.
The Digital Camera channel offers individual photo prints, two types of bound photo books, and, most fantastically, a set of 30 business cards that I’ve been coveting for nearly a year now, so hope’s obviously running high that plans are steadily moving westward.
A Picture Points To Nintendo Opening A Photo Print Service Channel [Siliconera]
Previously:
State your business (and your friend code) with Mii cards – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
MORE BANJO HEADED TO XBLA IN APRIL
One of 2008’s most pleasant surprises was just how approachable and engrossing Rare’s N64 original Banjo Kazooie felt on its Xbox Live Arcade release — it ended up being one of my year’s most played XBLA games.
Now, in an expected but still surprise announcement, Rare has updated their ‘Banjo Blog’ with news that a similarly hi-rez version of its sequel, Banjo Tooie, is headed to the service in April, “appropriate since Easter is the designated time for hunting multi-coloured eggs.”
Fans of the original will also be happy to hear that, finally, the game’s original “Stop ‘n’ Swop” feature will be properly implemented, saying “the Stop ’n’ Swop items collected in Banjo-Kazooie will ‘magically’ appear in Tooie, resulting in… well, you’ll just have to find out.”
Banjo-Tooie Release Date & Screens + Top 7 Custom Contraptions Award Info [Rare]
Previously:
Qu'est-ce que c'est Banjo? – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
FITTER, HAPPIER: NINTENDO EXTENDS WII FIT SERVICE TO HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
Though I honestly find its exercise routine too broken up to feel genuinely satisfying (and have for some time instead been recommending — in all seriousness! — Respondesign’s PC/PS2/Xbox app Yourself Fitness), there’s great potential for harnessing and expanding on Wii Fit‘s connectedness to push it into essential territory (competing against friends? local/national challenges?) that to date has gone underserved.
But it appears in Japan, at least, Nintendo’s making good — andriasang files a translated story saying the company is partnering with NEC, Panasonic and Hitachi with a new Wii channel that will send a user’s Wii Fit data to the professional health industry to receive ‘health instruction’ and connect with a recently launched NEC ‘mobile health service.’
The site also says the new ‘Wii Fit Body Check Channel’ will connect with DS pedometer-enabled health app Aruite Wakaru Seikatsu Rhythm DS (which already has been used to transfer Miis for portable personality) to share mobile and local exercise data — here’s hoping all this interconnectivity makes its way stateside soon.
Nintendo teams with electronics makers for Wii Fit health services [andriasang]
Previously:
Wii Fit tops 2008 Japan Media Arts Festival games entrants – Offworld
Miyamoto, Spore awarded Jim Henson Honors – Offworld
Expose the Wii's hidden Mii-transfer menu. – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
PAINTING VARRIGAN CITY RED: FAN-MADE MADWORLD AD
It’s apparently been too long since I last checked in with NeoGAF’s ongoing challenge collecting fan-made magazine ads for Sega/Platinum Games’ upcoming duo-tone Wii brawler MadWorld — I’d missed ‘geek’s fantastic paint-by-number photoshoppery that says everything an ad needs to say about the game (check back to my first half of 2009 Wii/DS outlook for more MadWorld specifics).
MadWorld “magazine ad” challenge [NeoGAF, via GamOvr]
Previously:
Nintendo's Wii/DS outlook: The Offworld view – OffworldMS Paint the games of 2008 – Offworld
Treasure hunt: m0dus/orotio's HD Gunstar Heroes PS3 theme – Offworld
Ye olde anagram game challenge – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
OLLY MOSS BRINGS A TOUCH OF CLASS TO BLACK MESA
The latest in Olly Moss’s Penguin-inspired Videogame Classics series distills Freeman’s essence, rightly, as a game about “crowbars and teleporting.” My favorite part (having briefly moved away from the N64 now) is the top-left iconography showing the platform where the game originated.
One of my most heartfelt 2009 wishes: that Moss continue this as a regularly updated set.
Half-Life [Olly Moss’s Flickr Videogame Classics]
Previously:
Olly Moss's Penguin-inspired Videogame Classics covers – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Olly Moss
MOTHER 3 MUSICAL TOE-DIP INTO BACH, VIVALDI, SATIE… BATMAN, SPACE INVADERS
Following on his earlier excellent breakdown of cult Game Boy RPG Mother 3‘s battle music time signature trickery, Dan ‘Cruise Elroy‘ Bruno has posted another deep look at the game’s musical selections from a historian’s perspective, spotting allusions, lifted selections, and other peculiar references.
Particularly notable is the game’s “Ode to Ancestors: 8th Movement,” a medley of parts of Beethoven’s 5th, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, “Hallelujah” from Handel’s Messiah, and “Spring” from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, which Bruno calls “such an absurd juxtaposition that I can’t help but laugh at it every time I listen,” its overt references to Neal Hefti’s Batman theme, and an 8-bit subversion of the Pig Mask Army’s leitmotif.
As before, it’s fantastic, MP3-supported stuff — Bruno’s one of the few that seems both qualified and passionate enough to take us on these smart sonic journeys.
Mother 3’s musical allusions [Cruise Elroy]
Previously:
