Gamasutra's Christian Nutt recently chatted up Tim Schafer, creative director at Double Fine, and thankfully the bulk of their little tête-à-tête focused on the developer's soon-to-be-released trick-or-treat RPG, Costume Quest.
Unfortunately, neither Nutt nor Schafer reveal in the interview (read it here) the general length of this Halloween-inspired game. Will it take two hours to "beat" or will it take 20? That's the only question I'd like to have answered at this point. (Well, that and what's the girl in the pink (below) supposed to be dressed as?)
Anyway, Costume Quest will hit PSN and XBLA next week carrying a price tag of $15 (or 1200 Microsoft Points). I'd pick it up in a heartbeat if I owned a PS3 or an Xbox 360, but since I don't I'll do what I usually do in such circumstances and obsess over screenshots and videos of the game until something else catches my attention.
You know how I said, a few posts ago, that I spent a good chunk of last weekend surfing the web? Well, some of that time was spent perusing 101videogames.wordpress.com (aka "101 Video Games That Made My Life Slightly Better").
Why isn't this blog devoted to discussing, say, the 101 best video games of all time? According to its authors, such lists are often dreadfully dull. Plus, they say, "there’s plenty of entertainment to be had away from the recognised canon of ‘top games.'"
As such, the games that have been and will be written about on 101videogames.wordpress. com are those "that raised an involuntary smile, that inspired unexplainable devotion, that made us laugh out loud… in other words, [they're] games that made our lives slightly better."
I like that premise so much that, starting early next week, I'm going to pen a series of posts about "10 video games that made my life gayer" (with "gayer" being used in the old-fashioned sense, as in happier or merrier).
Don't worry if your reaction to the headline above was, "Taisen Puzzle what?" Although the folks at Konami have produced at least 10 Taisen Puzzle Dama games in the last decade-plus, they've yet to release one of them outside of Japan.
That's too bad, as the Taisen Puzzle Dama titles--which could be described as not-so-distant cousins of Compile's Puyo Puyo games--are some of the best puzzlers around, in my humble opinion. How so? Well, all four of the Taisen Puzzle Damas that have found their way into my collection are chock-full of addictive gameplay, toe-tapping music and wacky-as-all-get-out characters.
Don't take my word for it; check out the following video (of the series' first title) and decide for yourself if Western puzzle-fans should feel at all slighted:
Each of the Taisen Puzzle Dama titles released for the original PlayStation and the Saturn can be picked up for between $5 and $20 via ebay, so if you have an import-enabled 32-bit system and you enjoy a good puzzler I'd definitely recommend purchasing one.
The always-on-the-ball staff over at 1up.com recently scoured their browser bookmarks to compile a list of what they believe to be the 101 best gaming sites on the web.
Thankfully, all of those sites (and then some) can be found, in alphabetical order, along the right side of this blog (under "other great sites for gay gamers").
Artist Ashley Anderson is a man after my own heart. I mean, we both like art and we both like video games. Oh, and we both like Pac-Man--as evidenced by this rather spooky piece:
This isn't the first time the Atlanta-based artist has been inspired by Tōru Iwatani's most famous creation. Early last year, for instance, he conjured up the following (titled, appropriately enough, "Cherry Ghost"):
Speaking of Pac-Man, the folks over at Namco-Bandai recently sent out a number of new screenshots of their upcoming PSN/XBLA release, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX. See them in all of their neon-hued glory here.
As you can hopefully discern, the one on the left was used to promote Hudson's Lords of Thunder while the one on the right was used to push the TurboGrafx-16 and TurboDuo systems as well as a whole slew of HuCard and CD releases.
Anyway, here's a link to the "classic" Lords of Thunder video, and here are some links to the similarly cheesy--er, classic--"TurboDuo Game System and CD Software" video. (It's been divided into three segments. Here's the first, here's the second and here's the third.)
I don't know about you, but I spent way too much time this past weekend surfing the web. Specifically, I spent too much time scanning a retro-gaming site called videogamesarerad.com.
Although there's a lot to like about this blog, which has been around since late 2007, I'm most fond of its posts about Famicom pirate carts (such as 8-bit "ports" of Dragon Quest VII and Final Fantasy X-2).
Oh, and the site's random features--like this one, which focuses on the Nintendo Vs. System--are pretty "rad," too.
Actually, I canceled it on Friday, but it was easier to say "just" in the header above.
Anyway, you're probably wondering why I canceled my pre-order for this Final Fantasy spin-off. Honestly, it has nothing to do with my interest--of lack thereof--in the game. Rather, it has to do with me deciding to spend that $34.99 on something else.
As for what that "something else" is--well, let's just say it has to do with one of the things mentioned in this recent post.
All that said, I will buy Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light before the year wraps up. Mark my words!
The folks at Capcom USA recently took to the streets of New York City in an attempt to raise awareness about the release of Okamiden.
Will the following poster prompt New Yorkers to run out and purchase a copy of this chibi-fied Okami sequel when it's released stateside in late March? I'm not sure, but who really cares when it's so darn cute?
I especially like the part (on the right) that reads, "Likes: the sun, painting [and] peanut butter."
Yep, I'm gay. And I like video games. Old Japanese games and systems are my favorites--the Famicom, PC Engine, original PlayStation and GameBoy, especially--but I like plenty of newer ones, too. If you have similar interests and you don't mind perusing a blog that's got the word gay in its name and is practically slathered in pink, you'll probably enjoy your time here. I'm also on Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter, by the way. Oh, and my Switch Friend Code = SW-5852-5514-6897.
