InFormers: Robots in the News

1. Remy has a new gallery, and it’s all about Convoy (Optimus Prime) gettin’ down in his new Music Label form!

Assorted Mushrooms

1. A car whose wheels turn for easy parking? Took them long enough to implement such a no-brainer idea.
2. Seen those Garfield strips where they edit out the thought balloons, and so you can only see or “hear” what you would if you were really there? Those are pretty funny.

   Someone tried the same thing with The Wonder Years. It’s not nearly as entertaining, and shows just how much of that show hinged on a disembodied voice talking to God-only-knows.

3. Bump in the Night: Sometimes it’s best to just not get involved.

Video Power

1. Over at Press the Buttons, Matt takes a look at the “rarest eReader card ever” from E3 to promote Kirby: Right Back At Ya’! for a prize.

   More interesting to me, personally, is an earlier write-up he has about Super Mario Bros. 3′s lost eReader levels. Having played some of these, I have to admit that the eReader did add a nice bit to an already classic title. However, there is no doubt that many never got the chance to even see these levels, and with the generally accepted failure of the eReader, may never get the chance.

   Personally, I would like to see that changed. Nintendo has released Player’s Choice versions of Super Mario Advance, Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World, Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island… but not Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3.

   It is my conviction that not only should Nintendo make the fourth and final Super Mario Advance a part of the Player’s Choice line, but they should do so in the most compelling way possible: by including the missing levels, items, enemies, features, and so forth in the cartridge. I realize that this would obviously take more work than any other Player’s Choice version of a game released to date, but there is precedent for such things to occur; Devil May Cry 3 from Sony’s Greatest Hits line, for just one example.

   It may be unrealistic, but, I think that offering a great game at a new price point with extra content is a natural, if not nearly inevitable decision at this point, despite the GBA format. Furthermore, there are those of us who have bought the game three times over already: the NES original, the SNES remake, the GBA version, and odds are they’ll release the NES game on the Virtual Console sooner or later, so what’s one more version?

   I’d buy it if it meant I’d get all the eReader bonuses, including the ones that weren’t even released in the US yet due to the shortcomings of the eReader’s sales. Hell, I’d even pay a little extra for it. Is there anyone else with me?

   I mean, after all, there are people who WANT to buy The Lost Levels…

2. I try to give Sony credit. I admit, I was down on them before a lot of people were, largely for my own reasons. Then they made disliking them easy to do, “cool” even. Me, I did and still do try and give credit where credit is due.

   But they just make it so… damned… difficult!

   Furthermore, despite seemingly being relegated to just the 40GB PAL model of PS3, Joystiq clearly feels that removing the backwards compatibility is a huge mistake.

3. While Soul Calibur III may not have been all that great, it’s still a neat little series, and Legends and IV will still aim to please. Fortunately, one area that the game is always pleasing in is the ladies, as Game Daily is quick to point out.

   Personally speaking, I favor Cassandra and Sophita.

4. Hmm, interesting. Rather than a longer game, Itagaki is looking to make Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword a game you can enjoy playing through multiple times.

   I don’t think I mind that.

5. Hudson talks a little about how they’re going to fit those Turbo CD games onto the Virtual Console.

   Hmm, I wonder if SEGA might follow suit…

6. Little doubt you’ve seen Microsoft’s “Believe” ads for Halo 3, but have you been to the website?

   It’s a pain in the ass to get into, but totally worth it. It lets you navigate the massive diorama and take screenshots for wallpapers and stuff. It’s quite impressive. Thanks to emerald084 for pointing it out to me.

7. Kotaku and MTV dig deep to find out just why the hell Chibi Robo: Park Patrol is an exclusive to Wally World.

   The conclusion drawn? “Nothing about this adds up.”

8. Mr. Parish looks back at a good many XBox 360 games from the Live Arcade which he has missed for a very special edition of the Retro Roundup.

–LBD “Nytetrayn”

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 6th, 2007 at 7:36 pm and is filed under Points of Interest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.