Harley Quinn's Revenge Is Batman: Arkham City's Bad New Ending 
High Scores And Egos: There's Always A Bigger Doodle 
The Last Moments Of GAME 
How Bad User Interfaces Are Ruining Video Games And Other Wonderful Things 
She Tried To Make Good Video Games For Girls, Whatever That Meant 
The Story Of Doodle Jump: Brotherly Love And Digital Snacks You may have noticed: the name Wii both looks and sounds like wee. And yet, over a year after it’s launch, it’s taken this long for me to get to write a story about somebody pissing on their Nintendo console? Shame on you. All of you. Except for 4 year-old Ellis Emsley, of Fleetwood, Lancashire in the UK. Because when he and his six year-old brother were fighting over their new Wii, which they’d somehow got hold of over Christmas, he didn’t resort to sulking. Didn’t shed a tear. No, when his big brother wouldn’t stop hogging the console, he promptly marched into the living room, dropped his drawers and pissed all over it. The family are now left with one inoperative Wii (hopefully not pictured) and one triumphant four year-old. Boy wees on Wii in revenge attack [Metro, via Go Nintendo]
File this in the “hmm, interesting” folder of your mind’s desktop. Sony’s polling its customers in the Asian market for ways in which they can improve their PC/PSP PlayStation Store. One of the selectable responses is “Monthly subscription plan (1 price for unlimited download)”. Interesting idea. Would you be happy paying a set amount each month, ala GameTap, for unlimited access to the store’s PSP and PS1 games? I sure as sugar would. Well…as soon as anyone outside Japan starts getting decent PS1 games, that is. Sony considering a subscription service for the PlayStation store? [Siliconera]
Rock Band on Wii? It’s a total “no brainer.” Sure, you might need a couple of brains to design, code, test, license, manufacture and market the thing, but beyond that? It practically creates itself! But why hasn’t it happened yet? The game has already appeared on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2, so why isn’t EA betting on the little white horse? While Harmonix’s own Alex Rigopolus has said the Wii has “enormous potential for music games” and rumors have pointed to EA itself interested in such a product, it has yet to materialize in physical or announcement form. GamePro got the update from EA themselves today, who decided to decline confirming that it exists and opted not to announce Rock Band Wii via the magazine.
Look, it’s an inevitability. You can bet money on it, given that EA likes money and a Rock Band port is one of those things that will make money. This theory has worked pretty well for me so far, but I’ll update the logic on this should the thing fail to pan out.
Rock Band Wii? EA says “no” (for now) [GamePro]
And by surprise us, we mean surprise us by being good. Approaching clever, even. Unlike the rest of Valve’s shirts, which are God-awful. Why the turnaround? Perhaps it’s because we all love Portal so much. Perhaps it’s the fact these shirts weren’t designed by Valve’s off-the-shelf shirt-design-a-bot, but rather by Portal’s creators, Kim Swift and Realm Lovejoy. It’s probably both. There’s a companion cube, cake and GLaDOS shirt to choose from, with detailed pics (click for bigger versions) after the jump.
To: Luke From: Crecente Re: Happy New Year!
I’m a big fan of road trips, especially ones involving my wife and son, but I think I may lay off them for a bit. This latest was a bit wearing. We drove from Denver to Moultrie, Georgia, 24 hours of driving, hung out for a week and then did it in reverse. I don’t mind the driving that much, in fact I like it. But blogging from the road can really stretch my patience thin. Mostly that’s because of the molasses slow connection I have to endure and the tiny laptop I write on while traveling. I can’t wait to get him and hit my two LCD screens at my desk. It will be heaven.
What you missed: Winner of the $US 2K Shopping Bot Contest Kotaku’s 2007 Pointies Crysis 360 Listed on Austrian Site Sony Bringing Skype to PSP Kevin Smith’s Clerks Wii Takahashi Amends Mass Effect Review Cell Phones Get a Nunchuk Hail to the Chimp Cosplay Invades Iowa Caucus
While I’m a casual fan of block-busting arcade games like Breakout and Arkanoid, I’m a much bigger fan of clothing label Mishka, maker of fine t-shirts. Fellow Kotaku Tower inhabitant Luke Plunkett has more than once suggested that I attempt to seek a sponsored endorsement deal from the company in an attempt to offset the outflow of cash that goes in the Brooklyn-based company’s direction. So far, no dice. While the brand generally focuses on things like metal, horror movies and He-Man, it’s first video game related tee goes for an Arkanoid vibe. Yes, that Vaus at the bottom, tackling the label’s Bear Mop logo… which has exploded in a very un-Arkanoid fashion. For those carrying on to the Mishka web site, keep in mind that it can be NSFW at times, so browser beware.
Mishka Online Exclusives [Mishka NYC]
Hudson and Natsume’s Omega Five was originally scheduled to hit Xbox Live Arcade sometime in November, but that’s obviously come and gone and we’re without the game. It looks like Xbox 360 owners may finally get the side-scrolling shoot ‘em up as early as next week, as Console Monster indicates a January 9th release date. It was certainly one of my highlights at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, so I’ll be first in line. No solid word on pricing yet, but the Forgotten Worlds-esque shmup looks like it’s worth the scratch.
January 9th Arcade Release Revealed [360 Monster via Destructoid]
Movie to game adaptations—and vice versa—should generally be approached with great caution, as they tend to suffer the transition from screen to screen. While there are exceptions to the rule that games based on movie licenses, for lack of a better word, suck, these are few and far between. The Godfather from EA was a surprisingly serviceable video game extension of the classic movie franchise and Goldeneye 007 is nothing short of a classic console shooter. However, as 2007 was regarded among many as possibly the best year ever for gaming, its movie licensed gaming fodder was historically terrible.
From godawful schlock like Balls of Fury for the Wii and Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer for just about everything to phoned in barely adequate fare like Beowulf and Ratatouille, it wasn’t a banner year for movie licensed games. Some, like Transformers and 300 for the PSP, performed just well enough to not be embarrassments for buyers, but 2007 was filled with missed opportunities that could have made great games out of great movies.
I’ve picked five of my favorite candidates for Missed Movie Licensing Opportunities Of 2007, all of which are after the jump.
Valve may not have handled development duties on the contentious PlayStation 3 version of The Orange Box but it now seems more than willing to address whatever issues owners of said version are having. An official feedback thread on PS3 specific complaints has been opened to allow players to “suggest changes and tweaks” giving additional hope that a patch is in the works and will fix not only surround sound issues, but make for an allover better experience for those playing Portal and Half-Life 2 with a SIXAXIS.
The most prominent complaints, unsurprisingly, come in the form of frame rate stuttering and loading times. Connectivity reliability and support for achievements are also common requests, but those with thoughts on the matter should head over to the official forums and make your voice heard. Rock the vote and all that.
[PS3]Orange Box Suggestions / Tweaks & Bugs / Issues [Steam - thanks, hatchetforce!]
We’re not lacking in stellar Line Rider clips, but now that the Far Side calendars at Kotaku Tower read 2008, it’s time to start posting Line Rider clips anew. The good news is this—this particular clip is of the official commercial version of the former Flash-only toy. The bad news, however, is that someone forgot to retain the charm and simplicity of the original that made it so endearing. Those responsible have also added enough hooting and hollering to make the mute button your best pal. Oh well, it had a good run.
