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video games (Page 115)

The next Nintendo president has finally been decided!

Meg Murphy
Sep 14, 2015
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On July 11 this year, the video game industry lost a very important and much loved figure when Nintendo‘s president Satoru Iwata passed away suddenly. For the past two months, the Kyoto-based company has been in the process of finding a worthy successor to head the company going forward—no mean feat when one considers the size of the shoes Mr. Iwata left behind.

But now, without further ado, we introduce to you the next president of the world-renown gaming company!

Japan
(big announcements • nintendo • Satoru Iwata • Tatsumi Kimishima • video games)

Mario mod goes on violent rampage in Grand Theft Auto V【Video】

Cara Clegg
Sep 11, 2015

The vibrant Grand Theft Auto mod scene is what keeps the game alive long after people have completed the campaign, making sure gameplay never grows stale and providing plenty of laughs for both the players involved and the viewers of the resulting videos. There are already hundreds of mods available for the latest entry in the franchise, Grand Theft Auto V, and a few creative Nintendo-based ones have been combined to create this surreal video of Nintendo’s Super Mario behaving badly in Los Santos.

This isn’t the Mario that Nintendo wants you to see.

Internet
(Grand Theft Auto • Mario • Mario Kart • modding • nintendo • Rockstar Games • video games)

Miyamoto: Pikmin 4 is ‘very close to completion’

Anime News Network
Sep 10, 2015

Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto revealed in an interview with video game news website Eurogamer that the Pikmin 4 game is “very close to completion.”

Global, Japan
(news • nintendo • Pikmin 4 • Shigeru Miyamoto • video games)

Pokémon finally comes to iPhone and Android as the augmented reality game Pokémon GO 【Video】

Casey Baseel
Sep 10, 2015

There’s a pretty big gap between the life of an in-world Pokémon trainer and a real-world Pokémon player. Whereas your in-game avatar is alternatively journeying to new lands or patrolling old stomping grounds on his quest to catch ‘em all, you yourself can experience the games’ wonders without ever leaving your couch.

It looks like all that’s about to change, though, because the newest installment of the franchise, Pokémon GO, is not just a smartphone title for iPhone and Android, but an augmented reality game that requires you to get out and search the real world for Pocket Monsters and other trainers to battle.

Global, Japan
(anime • mobile games • nintendo • Pikachu • Pokemon • Pokémon GO • Smartphones • video games)

Nintendo will delete your Mario Maker course if it’s boring, can make a buck off it if it’s good

Casey Baseel
Sep 10, 2015

Nintendo’s Super Mario Maker, which allows you to design your own levels for the beloved video game hero, is really a game that could only be properly realized now, on the 30th anniversary of the franchise. Three decades as the platforming gold standard means there are multiple generations of gamers intimately familiar with the series’ building blocks, ensuring an ample supply of would-be creators and players who can really get the most from the system’s ins and outs.

Just as important is the modern digital infrastructure for sharing user-designed stages. Super Mario Maker would have been a flop on hardware that requires physical media, but in our modern Internet age once a completed course has been uploaded to Nintendo’s servers, anyone in the world can play it.

Well, anyone in the world can play it if it’s good. If it’s not, then Nintendo will just go ahead and delete your creation.

Global, Japan
(Mario • nintendo • Super Mario Maker • video games • Wii U)

“Coincidentally” named video game handhelds allow you to play 8, 16-bit Nintendo games on the go

Casey Baseel
Sep 10, 2015

In the realm of technology, it’s a fact that everything gets smaller and more powerful as time goes by. “Minicomputers,” for example, used to be as big as a refrigerator, but now the smartphone you have in your pocket has far more processing power, and even that slick piece of tech is only as big as it is to accommodate its display screen.

The same thing happens with video game hardware. When new systems launch, they’re sizeable boxes, but after a couple of console generations, suddenly they can be shrunk to handheld size, like what’s happened with these two portables that play Nintendo Famicom and Super Famicom cartridges.

Japan
(cool • handheld video games • nintendo • technology • video games)

Where have we heard Metal Gear Solid V’s iDroid voice before? When we last rode the Shinkansen!

Evie Nyan
Sep 9, 2015

The release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has been met with as much excitement and frenzy as you might expect from the latest instalment of a legendary video game franchise. But while most players are preoccupied with riding D. Horse around, frolicking in cardboard boxes and puzzling over the intricate story, it’s a certain voiceover that’s had us scratching our heads. Where on earth have we heard *iDroid‘***s soothing tones before? Oh, that’s right – on the Shinkansen!

Voice actor and vocalist Donna Burke is a veteran of the video game industry, lending her vocal cords to multiple games including MGSV and Silent Hill, and she ALSO provided the English-language spoken announcement that’s broadcast on the bullet train to help foreign visitors navigate their way around Japan!

Australia, Global, Internet, Japan
(donna burke • iDroid • Konami • Metal Gear Solid V • shinkansen • Silent Hill • video games • voice actor)

Camera crew visits the abandoned town that inspired Japanese survival horror game “Siren”【Video】

KK Miller
Sep 9, 2015

Back in 2003, the world was introduced to the first Siren, a survival horror video game which told the story of a mysterious secluded village caught between time and space. Like the best games of its genre, the setting played a pivotal role in captivating the player, sucking them into an eerie atmosphere made all the more scary by the tremendously creepy town.

It turns out that the fictional town of Hanuda is based on an actual town in Saitama Prefecture, just north of Tokyo. Life imitates game as a camera crew heads to the abandoned town, just like how a crew did in the third Siren game. Take a look at the footage they captured after the break. If you aren’t too afraid…

Japan
(abandoned • Saitama • Siren • survival horror • video games)

Couple weds in a dreamy, Final Fantasy-themed wedding ceremony【Video】

Krista Rogers
Sep 9, 2015

Ever wondered what a wedding planned around your favorite video game franchise would look like? Newly married couple Grace and Chris have an answer to that question in the form of the following video taken at their stunning Final Fantasy-themed wedding ceremony filmed in Hawaii!

Japan, USA
(Final Fantasy • Final Fantasy IX • hawaii • video • video games • Wedding)

Super Mario Bros. creator explains how and why he designed World 1-1 of the 8-bit classic 【Video】

Philip Kendall
Sep 9, 2015

Ahead of the launch of Mario-themed level-building game Super Mario Maker, video game industry legend Shigeru Miyamoto sat down with veteran game designer Takashi Tezuka to take questions from journalists and show off its features.

Before leaping into the level creation proper, however, Miyamoto took a few minutes to talk about the creative process that is involved in building a Super Mario level, talking his audience through the steps he and his team took when creating the original Super Mario Bros., and explaining why World 1-1 of the game—for many their first ever brush with Mario on Nintendo’s 8-bit system—was built the way it is.

You’ve no doubt cleared this level countless times by now, but you may not have realised the hidden genius and careful planning that went into the positioning of every block, pipe, and pit of doom.

Global
(level design • nintendo • Shigeru Miyamoto • Super Mario Bros. • Super Mario Maker • video • video games)

Life Is Strange is coming to Japan, gets new voice cast & dubbed trailer 【Video】

Evie Nyan
Sep 8, 2015

The last few years especially have seen a notable increase in the number of western-developed narrative-driven video games. Notable entries include Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and of course Game of Thrones, which deliver their respective stories in downloadable chunks once every few months, leaving players itching to play the next episode and find out what happens.

Telltale pretty much cornered the market on this genre until French development studio DONTNOD Entertainment released the absolutely captivating five-part supernatural high school story game Life Is Strange. The game has been a surprise hit, selling over a million copies to date, with players falling in love with the endearingly complex characters, time-travelling mechanics, mellow game atmosphere, and killer soundtrack. In fact, the game has done so well for itself that publishers Square Enix have decided it’s time Japan got a piece of the photo-snapping, heavy decision-making, time-rewinding fun for themselves. Yep, Life is Strange is being released in Japan, and it’s getting an entirely new Japanese voice cast, too!

Check out the reveal trailer to hear Max, Chloe and the rest of the characters speaking Nihongo!

Europe, Global, Internet, Japan, USA
(life is strange • localization • Square Enix • video • video games • voice actor)

“It’s the Japanese! Run!” – Overseas gamers tired of playing Splatoon with Inklings from Japan

Casey Baseel
Sep 4, 2015

Online console gaming has been thriving for over a decade now, and ostensibly it should have brought gamers from all over the world into contact with one another as competitors and co-op teammates. In practice, though, regional differences in preferred genres, aesthetics, and overall play styles have meant that Japanese and Western gamers haven’t crossed paths all that terribly often.

At least until Nintendo released Splatoon this year for the Wii U, that is. Combining the team-based shooter Western gamers have so embraced with the colorful quirkiness that their Japanese counterparts have always been fond of, Splatoon’s popularity is bridging the oceans. This is giving overseas Inklings a chance to play with gamers in Japan…or to complain about them online and devise strategies to avoid them.

Global, Internet, Japan
(nintendo • Splatoon • video games)

Fed up of romance sims? Buddhist-themed visual novel coming to Android and iOS

Cara Clegg
Sep 4, 2015

There’s already a whole bunch of dating sim titles aimed at both men and women available to play on your phone or tablet. But for those who are fed up of sappy, cliché boy-meets-girl stories there’s a new addition to the growing range of visual novels available on mobile platforms that is set to tell a unique story focusing not on romance, but on the Buddhist religion.

Japan
(Buddhism • mobile games • Thailand • video games • visual novel)

P.T. easter egg discovered tucked away in Metal Gear Solid V 【Video】

Cara Clegg
Sep 3, 2015

With Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain now available, gamers are hunkering down to complete Hideo Kojima’s final Metal Gear outing, and the last couple of days have seen a flurry of uploads to YouTube and gaming sites from players wanting to show off their discoveries in the huge open world.

One such discovery has people lamenting the cancellation of Silent Hills, the horror game that was at one time to be Kojima’s next project, all over again. Despite Konami’s attempts to erase its existence by removing it from the Playstation Store, P.T., the playable teaser for the cancelled game, can’t be wiped from gamers’ minds that easily, and apparently not from the company’s latest hit, either.

Global, Japan
(Easter egg • Hideo Kojima • Konami • Metal Gear Solid V • P.T. • Silent Hills • video • video games)

Little Big Planet 3 offers Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain costumes

Anime News Network
Sep 3, 2015

The official U.S. PlayStation blog revealed on Tuesday that Sony‘s Little Big Planet 3 game is offering a Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain-themed costume pack for the game’s characters. Buyers who purchase the costumes as a complete set will also receive a Box Costume for the character Toggle. The costumes can also be purchased separately.

Global
(Anime News Network • costumes • cute • Little Big Planet • Metal Gear Solid V • video games)

Did video game developer Capcom just give Street Fighter V’s “shockingly ugly” Cammy a face-lift?

Casey Baseel
Sep 3, 2015

The fighting game community is pretty psyched about Street Fighter V. Even though the title isn’t scheduled for release until early next year, developer Capcom has been regularly updating gamers with a series of preview videos highlighting its cast. So far, there’s been a dearth of new characters, but long-time fans of the series have been happy to see the challengers they know and love rendered in the game’s updated art style.

Well, most of them have been happy. A vocal group of dissenters, though, are the disgruntled gamers who’ve been grumbling that Cammy, Street Fighter’s pigtailed pugilist from the U.K., doesn’t have a particularly attractive face in her reveal video (one displeased commenter even went to far as to call the character “shockingly ugly”). But now new images of Cammy have been released, and it looks like she may have gotten a face-lift months ahead of the game’s actual release.

Canada, Japan, USA
(Cammy • Capcom • Street Fighter • Street Fighter V • video games)

If Nintendo made a smartphone, it might look something like this 【Video】

KK Miller
Sep 2, 2015

Sony has been in the mobile business full force since its merger with Ericsson in 2001. Microsoft partnered with Nokia in April 2014 and there have been phones bearing the Microsoft’s logo since November of that year. Notice a name missing from this short list?

Nintendo has never been in the mobile business and for years they refused to even consider games for cell phones. However, that hasn’t stopped Nintendo fans mocking up and dreaming of a mobile phone made by their beloved game company. Most have been hilariously bad, but a recent design by the tech website Curved has plenty of good things going for it.

Internet
(cell phone • concept • mobile phone • mock up • nintendo • video games)

Virtual reality Totoro? Project Morpheus team looking for artist with “Studio Ghibli” style

Casey Baseel
Aug 31, 2015

After more than a year since the last film from anime production house Studio Ghibli, the paint is rapidly drying on the writing on the wall. At the very least, it looks like animation fans are in for a long wait before the next Ghibli movie, and it may turn out that When Marnie Was There ends up being the last theatrical feature we ever see from the company co-founded by Hayao Miyazaki.

Still, that doesn’t mean that other artists, perhaps working in other mediums, won’t carry on the beloved anime studio’s spirit. As a matter of fact, if you’ve got the necessary video game production skills, that someone could be you, as a U.K.-based Project Morpheus team is looking for an artist to help add a Ghibli-like aesthetic to its game.

Europe, Global
(anime • playstation • project morpheus • Sony • video games • virtual reality)

Seijiro Nakamura as Chris Redfield? Resident Evil stage play’s cast is entirely Japanese

Casey Baseel
Aug 28, 2015

I’m never really sure what I should call the zombie action series that began as a hit PlayStation game in 1996. Resident Evil, its internationally used name, is a lot more colorful than Biohazard, its Japanese one, but only the first of the many games takes place primarily in a home. What’s more, the source of the trouble is science run amok, not dark magic, so the “evil” part seems a touch melodramatic.

On the other hand, there are now five films in the franchise, with a sixth on the way, all of which are produced in English and usually come to Japan only after already premiering overseas, so score one point for Resident Evil.

But in the case of its upcoming stage adaptation, set to open in two months, I really think Biohazard is the most appropriate name, because it looks like every single member of the cast is Japanese.

Japan
(Biohazrd • events • plays • Resident Evil • video games • zombies)

Nintendo fans, get your sewing machines ready! Official Nintendo fabrics now available to buy

Scott Wilson
Aug 28, 2015

Have you ever wanted to lounge around in your own pair of Legend of Zelda pajama pants? How about snuggling up with a Mario Kart or Donkey Kong pillow? Well now thanks to Jo-Ann Fabrics, all of your Nintendo-related craft dreams can finally come true!

The U.S.-based arts and crafts retailer is now offering more yards of Nintendo-themed fabric than you can shake a Master Sword at. From Mario to Donkey Kong, Zelda to Pokémon, they have it all. Who says fully-grown adults can’t make their own homemade Pikachu PJs?