I've been excited about this game for quite some time. I'm a big fan of Super Paper Mario for the Wii, and although this game does not feature the goodness of a 2D sprite in a 3D world, I anticipate it will impress in different ways. The game does feature backgrounds that, according to Wikipedia, "visually simulates 3D computer graphics", similar to New Super Mario Brothers for the Nintendo DS.
The game also features multiplayer modes similar to that found in the Nintendo DS. While I have played the DS version and found the multiplayer to be adequate at best, the up-to-4-player experience you get in the Wii version is at the very least amusing to watch, but it should provide for fun gameplay. Just check out the three Yoshi's in the below clip.
The following review did point out that, in the case of multiplayer, the game does compensate for players that are, well, bad at the game, even allowing the good players to continue playing and postpone saving the character until further along in the level (think Rock Band but maybe without that 10 second timeout). Anyhow, be sure to check out this Ars Technica game review for more.
If there's one thing Nvidia brings to the table, it's the ability to bring power to mobile platforms. Just look at the Ion (for Atom-based systems) and the Tegra (for mobile devices like the Zune). Both bring H.264 hardware acceleration and and the potential for light gaming to traditionally weak mobile platforms. While I will admit that Microsoft still has some work to do to improve the experience of gaming on the Zune, it has potential to truly bring the Xbox360 a companion mobile gaming device (and mend their relationship with Nvidia along the way).
Check out this video with demos of PGR Ferrari Edition and Vans Sk8.
I really enjoy watching video game related shows. I think that I may enjoy it even more than playing the video games themselves. A well done segment on a video game can take me back to the past and well that is what these video game tv shows do. They take you back to two different times in video game generations. Starcade was during the eve of the video game crash and Video Power was riding high on the upswing of the NES. It is surprising that the crash didn't happen sooner than '83. Starcade is still fun to watch, but it is dated even more poorly than Video Power, in my opinion.
I remember that when I grew up, MTV used to still play a lot of music videos. It was around the time when the Real World was just debuting and during the infancy of Beavis and Butthead. But, MTV still played music videos for about 20 hours a day rather than 0 hours like they do now. Music videos were sometimes even premiered on broadcast television. I remember watching "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mixalot on FOX (I think) and they kept making this big deal about it and even had promos for the music video. Anyway, all I am trying to say is that more TV shows should have their own music videos as well as theme songs with words that our catchy. While NBC's "The Office" does not have a theme song with catchy lyrics, they do have a web video that they just made of a music video called "Subtle Sexuality". I challenge you not to check it out.
Apparently Joe Pesci (GoodFellas, Home Alone) retired from acting in 1999. I honestly haven't missed him. He retired from acting why? Because he wanted to pursue his music career. I am not sure if that was the best move. He put out this classic in 1998. Thanks to ATN for uncovering this pile of garbage.
