fortytwo points

MCVUK.com Tells Us Which Game is Really Best, At Least In Sales

The Market for Computer and Video Games site brings us interesting news today. The only unit figures I ever want to hear are the sales ones and they have just announced the 5 top selling games of 2008. The numbers are generated from the reports of the three leading providers of consumer information which include The NPD Group and Enterbrain Incorporated. Not surprisingly, the consumers have chosen the Wii as their market leader.

The Escapist Reviews Moon: "Buy it if your curious, not if you want a complete FPS"

Tom Endo of The Escapist has just dropped his review of Nintendo DS FPS curiosity Moon, developed by Renegade Kid. I had high hopes for this isolated space shooter and found this quote especially enlightening:

"Moon's fatal flaw is that it divides itself between the action-adventure and FPS genres - and neither genre gets the full attention it deserves. A small number of robot enemies, all of whom look the same and require roughly the same strategies to defeat, sparsely populate the environments, Dispatching them still provides some fun, since the game uses the proven stylus, D-pad and shoulder button set up that worked so well in Metroid Prime: Hunters. The adventuring is confined to some intermittent puzzles you solve with a remote-controlled moon car. But Moon mostly involves a lot of walking between empty rooms and corridors. Imagine Doom with fewer and less varied enemies and a remote control moon car, and you've got a fairly good approximation of Moon's gameplay."

I had hoped for better than that but it still seems worth a trial. Check out the intro movie for Moon below.

-Unfather

Bit.Trip: Beat Shows Us The Future of Block Bumping

WiiWare is finally getting something worth mentioning. The Bit.Trip collection is a series of five rhythm-based games that meld both old and new game design philosophies with the mystical power of chiptunes, a fact which has probably either instantly gained or lost your interest. The first to be released is Bit.Trip: Beat, which I have decided can best be described as "Pong Fights Techno". Perhaps a video is in order:

As you can see, the idea is that you use your cute little paddle there to deflect oncoming debris and when you do it produces primitive noises in a manner that some may confuse with a popular medium known as "music". The better you do, the more difficult it becomes until you either beat the level or suffer an epileptic seizure. Boss battles of some sort have also been promised.

Joystiq claims to have done some horrible, nasty, morally reprehensible things to get this trailer so please do watch it, otherwise that rape shower is going to be for nothing. You might see Bit.Trip: Beat sometime this February, but there has not yet been an official release date. Looks like fun.

-Unfather

Not Really News: DJ Hero Confirmed, Again!

Gamesindustry.biz reports that Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has confirmed the development of the long-rumored-but-already-assured DJ Hero game. during an interview with CNBC. Allowing players to take over the turn-tables in a manner similar to popular rhythm games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, this is a long-awaited evolution for people like me who quite frankly are sick variations of rock.

You can see the video for yourself, here. In addition to this pleasant surprise Kotick also discusses the apparent stability of the games industry, all while assaulting our eyes with that 'fro. Rumors suggest a summer '09 release for DJ Hero.

-Unfather

A Real Taste of Combat in Deadly Creatures

G4.com has just posted this video of upcoming Wii-xclusive Deadly Creatures and it gives us an excellent idea of exactly what we'll be playing when it is released this coming February:

Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper have accepted roles as a pair of hillbillies that are in search of gold, but little else is known about the story other than "it's dark". Players may take the role of a tarantula or a scorpion as you combat other wild vermin like snakes and and rats on your mission to do whatever bugs do. It's clear that a lot of effort has been put into making the controls as intuitive as possible in an attempt to emulate the motions of the wild creatures, and I hope they succeed.

You can visit the official game site at http://www.deadlycreaturesgame.com/. Let's hope this one rocks, because the Wii could use it.

-Unfather

"Hyaaaahhhh!"

DLC WMD: The Latest Shovelware To Bury Your Money With

It's a real love-but-mostly-hate relationship between downloadable content and I. The thought of developers using it as an excuse to not properly finish their games concerns me and while not everyone will partake in the temptation, some might. Thankfully there is a good selection of worthwhile content out there to justify the potential evil.

However, as I have feared, there is also quite a lot of crap. Today we honor that crap by making it stand up in front of the class and explain itself to us, regardless of who started it. It's safe to say that you should avoid this junk unless you fall into a very small subsection of people who are in particular need of a way to dispose of money.

Virtual Disappointment: Video Games That Shouldn't Have Sucked

A lot of promises are made before a games release, and its easy to get caught up in the hype of your favorite franchises. Millions of dollars are spent every year to convince us that every product on the market is the best when more often than not, that is most definitely not the case. But sometimes we ourselves are to blame forgetting caught up in the rhetoric and bullet points whispered to us by attractive PR people.

What this image is leading up to will definitely disappoint fans.

I have collected a list of some of video gaming's saddest disappointments and why they failed to live up to expectations. Of course, a few of these are simply opinion rather than historical fact, but I'm not big on ordered lists and must apologize. Let us know what you think were some of the biggest disappointments you've had to suffer as a gamer in the comments section and we'll see if we can't pick a winner amongst these runner-ups.

Considering Mini Ninjas: Too Cutesy?

Today IO Interactive announced development of its new 3rd-person action/adventure game Mini Ninjas, to be published by Eidos Interactive. Starring archetypical ninja Hiro and his friends as they quest to restore harmony to the land, it is, as has been frequently noted, quite a departure from the Hitman series.

Most apparent as always, are the graphics. Cartoony to the extreme with an entirely Eastern theme, the games characters suffer from the same bloated head syndrome Nintendo's Miis do. Expressions and animations are exaggerated, as well. Take a look at the unfortunately gameplay-free trailer:

I can't stand teaser trailers but thankfully there's an excellent selection of screenshots at Kotaku. Youthful artistic styles often suffer criticism from the elder more jaded gamers, as it is assumed that these games will deal with childish themes or be too easy. But there have been many titles throughout the years that have looked childish and have dealt with adult themes. Before we start calling our bets before there's even a gameplay video, let's take a look at some of the mature games that have had kiddy graphics.