If you own a Mac, by now you've become used to the idea of watching on the sidelines while your PC pals have all the fun. They burned all those strictly legal backup games for their Dreamcasts with the slightest of ease, threw all those marvelous Psyvariar II and Ikaruga parties which you weren't invited to, while you tooled around in some dark closet trying to perfect your command line prompts, waiting for the coach to throw you in during the last inning out of pity. It's hard to be a lazy Mac user. If you want to take advantage of all the recent exploits you have to actually, ya know, work for it. 

Which is why I rejoiced when I discovered the fine folks over at Nullriver Software had already integrated the recent 360 dashboard update with their Mac compatible media-streaming software, Connect360. This means sane people have absolutely no reason to blow $299 on an Apple TV. How does it feel to no longer play second-string to all the loud, proud Vista users? Within a day or two, the cavalry had already arrived for the downtrodden game enthusiasts who happen to bat for the other team. I've tested the updates to Connect360 myself over the last few days and it's one of the rare times when I actually didn't pine for the sprawling, virus-ridden yesteryears of owning a PC. Upon downloading this nifty program, I promise you that I did not immediately torrent episodes of Battlestar Galactica to watch effortlessly on my large TV. That would have been morally wrong. I suggest that you refrain from such reprehensible activity yourself, for the sake of deceny. Because, really, DivX and Xvid are the perfect codecs for sharing footage of your daughter's softball practice with strangers over the internet. That's what you're using it for, right?

By the way, apart from functionality, what's sexier, a Mac or a PC? Wait, stop! But it was only a joke ...

[Pew, pew, pew, Kotaku. Much love.]

 

How does it feel to pay a hundred smackers for a 360 Wireless Network Adapter, when the teensy little Wii comes with a free Mitsumi 802.11b/g wireless module, right out of the box? After absconding from the Amazon warehouse with my Red Gleaming Death Machine this year, I became slightly perturbed when I discovered I had to plop down an additional Benjamin to keep a mess of tangled wire out of my living room. The knowledge that these 360 adapters often provide lousy connections kinda pours lemon juice on the wound, doesn't it? 

Good news has come to light for all you high rollers who threw out the cash for the 360 WiFi adapter. Those rapscallions over at Household Hacker claim you can boost your connection and reduce latency with a roll of tape, aluminum foil, and an empty chip bag. I know, right? Too good to be true? Stick your ear to the ground and you'll already hear whispers of cooler-than-thou techies claiming this trick is a fraud. Anyone have an adapter you're willing to test this trick on? Let us know how it works out for ya. Worst case scenario, it could cost you a wasted half hour and your pride. If it works, though ... you could be smoothly gliding through a pingless jungle paradise, popping the heads off of civilians in East Timor, executing mission commands and propping up the Suharto regime, flanking and rolling and jiving, or whatever the hell it is you kids do in your Tom Clancy games these days. 

The most important issue here is: Why does a bag of chips drastically improve a cheap technology you're already turning a $70 profit off of, Microsoft? And secondly, is Angus MacGyver a gamer? Because this hack just smacks of his backyard, "Just Folks" ingenuity. I hear this trick works particularly well if your conscience is haunted by a fatal gun accident that killed one of your closest friends when you were a child.

If you've had your ear to the ground, then you're probably aware of the feisty diva of gossip and news who splashed onto the videogame press scene this year. Surfer Girl Reviews Star Wars has quickly become one of my favorite blogs to visit. After breaking the news on three major titles this year (LA Noire, Prince of Persia 4, and Brutal Legend) many of us quickly became glued to her site, waiting for further predictions. And she's certainly delivered, giving us pithy hints on future Wario titles, and glimmers of hope on Beyond Good and Evil 2. Better yet, she's interspersed her multitude of insider tips with passionate asides on current political issues of human rights, torture, and imperialism.

Surfer Girl shrouds herself in secrecy though. She's stated she plays an insider role in the industry, but all attempts at discovering her identity are quickly rebuffed. Message threads on the Internet have proliferated rapidly, metastasizing into a giant smorgasbord of speculation, attributing her writings to everyone from Jade Raymond on down to Peter Moore. As her tips and ponderings multiply daily, her readership can only wait to see if the house of cards she built will stand firm. So far she's gotten a lot of things right. Can she sustain the pace as developers churn forward? Will her incisive whispers materialize into real games we can play?

Hit the jump for the coy and entertaining interview Surfer Girl was gracious enough to provide us. She also interviewed me in return for her site, which you can view here. And seriously, please check out her blog. It'll keep you pleasantly puzzled for days.

view full story + comments

If you want it, here it is, come and get it, but you better hurry cause it's going fast. Rumors about the purported release of Super Mario Galaxy are scorching the internet tonight like a California wildfire. In particular, the GameFaqs' thread on the cosmically inclined plumber's new adventure is poppa loppin' with hot tips on where you can pick up your own copy, today. Best Buy seems to be your best bet at the moment with beleaguered retail foot soldiers neither caring about nor understanding the policy of street dates on high profile titles.

Unfounded rumors like this happen every time a big game slouches toward the Bethlehem of our entertainment centers. But I do recall an incident in recent memory in which Toys "R" Us let some copies of Bioshock trickle out early to meandering misanthropes with the insistence and skill to properly badger their employees. I'm tempted myself to stay up all night and go blow my Christmas shopping money just so I can snag a copy. Sorry, family. Looks like coal in your stockings again this year. You know I love you, right? Who can blame me when there's a new Mario game to play ... in outer space!

What do you think? Is all the hullabaloo true? Are you going to assault your local electronic stores in droves when they open this morning, or are you too busy with your nose to the grindstone inside the aperturistic  delights of The Orange Box? If you succeed, please share your triumph with us. Pics or it didn't happen.

[Via GoNintendo] 

 

I came, I saw, I con … spiracy theoried? My debut on Attack of the Show has arrived and, as expected, I came off like a raving lunatic. All part of my plan, you see. My plan that will continue to unfold in my dark closet where I cross out the eyes of presidents with a red Sharpie, crying like an unloved baby while smearing my naked body in peanut butter and reciting ancient Masonic rites. What on earth am I talking about? Just watch the clip above.

I would like to retract one small error. You know, the egregious one about Abraham Lincoln's political career. Just goes to show, you can't always trust the research you read off of Wikipedia ten minutes before you stumble into the studio, high as a kite off of a wicked Diphenhydramine and Kolikodol cocktail. And you heard me right, Destructoid selected Stephen Colbert as the presidential candidate that best represents our political pursuit of happiness through interactive entertainment. Although his application was denied yesterday by the South Carolina Democratic party, we're hoping he'll pick himself up by the bootstraps and soldier on.  You know us, we love an underdog.

We also talked about videogames on the program, but who cares about those? If G4 ever invites me back, it'll be on the odd day when they need "wacky guy" filler. I'll be happy to oblige. Before I get put out to pasture, did I ever mention I love everyone here at Destructoid? From the dedicated Community Bloggers on up to our amazing staff. And God. And Jesus. And the Bible.

G4TV's Attack of the Show asked me to stop by as a guest on their Week In Review taping this evening. Apparently, our lovely Chad and Colette couldn't make an appearance because the craft services table at G4 hasn't been up to snuff lately. Chad's incessant demands for an entire ice cooler devoted to mackerel for his pet dolphin didn't ingratiate him to anyone. Colette pitched a temper tantrum when a lowly production assistant spilled her bag of Chocobo greens in the parking lot. Can you really blame them for holding such high standards?

While I am nowhere near as cuddly, charming or intelligent as our awesome cohorts, I do love the Destructoid community with a passion. I will do my best to avoid embarrassing you for knowing me. You can catch me at  7 p.m. ET, Friday evening, where we'll talk about Destructoid's love for Stephen Colbert and our mutual hatred of bears. I can't promise you I'll remember to comb my hair, zip my fly and wipe the Kool-Aid stain off my lips before I stagger into the studio in an opiate induced haze. I do promise, however, to click my heels and think about my Dtoid pals while I publicly pontificate. Any last minute words of advice?

Koji Igarashi leads a busy life. When he's not breathing new energy into neglected classic games like Rondo of Blood, he's touring the world, fedora poised perfectly atop his head somewhere between arch-ironic and humble sincerity, vampire-whip in tow. After helping create one of modern gaming's undeniable classics, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, he could have thrown in the blood-stained towel and called it a night. Unsatisfied with simply resting on his laurels, he's plugged ahead, creating a safe-haven for 2D gamers, with his perfected platformers and intricate worlds filled with subterranean cults and blood-sucking mythology. He's also been hard at work brainstorming ways to execute the game's leap onto next-gen consoles, while avoiding the pitfalls of Castlevania 64 and the PlayStation 2 iterations.

When I get the opportunity to meet people I admire, I do my best to keep a stoic facade, no matter how much my inner southern belle giggles with excitement. However, when our star photographer Charlie Suh and I ran into Iga-san backstage at the Video Games Live concert, we broke down and had a tiny cry fest. If you've ever seen Steel Magnolias then you've got a good idea of the histrionics involved. It was shameless. Good news is we managed to squeeze in an interview with the laconic legend. I pulled myself together enough to get some hints for you guys about the upcoming change in the game's art style, as well as the next evolution in the series.

Grab a tall glass of orange juice and hit the jump to read our miserable pile of secrets.

 

view full story + comments

view full story + comments

[Hey all, Linde here. I know it's been awhile since I've been regular with the BBL updates, but what with review crew and Podtoid and all, keeping it up to date has been kinda tough. But rather than let the ol' column fizzle and die while I tend to other responsibilities, I thought I'd give it to Destructoid and let the rest of the staff share their favorite bargain bin finds with you as well. Shaking things up is always groovy, yeah? We'll have someone new doing the column every week. Same rules apply, though: the only games we'll be featuring will be the best games at the absolute lowest cost.] 

I’ve probably got some ‘splaining to do. Pictured above you’ll see the hobo I picked up yesterday at the local train tracks. He said he knew a lot about classic arcade games from his younger vagabond days, so I invited him along to help me write this week’s Bargain Bin Laden. Taito Legends Vol. 1 and 2 are both so amazingly cheap that I had some spare change after my purchase. With the extra money I decided to treat “Ringworm Ricky”, as he proudly calls himself, to some vegetarian pizza. Periodically, my altruistic side gets the best of me and I’ll place down the old Dual Shock and try to make the world a better place. "If I can save one life, I’ve saved the world entire." That quote’s from Mahatma Gandhi (I read books by him in public so people will think I'm a good person).

Both Taito Legends collections are jammed with an amazing array of games. We’re talking over 60 full-length, arcade perfect ports spanning two discs. If you do some smart shopping you can pick both of them up together for under $20 brand new! At least half of these games completely rock and stand as loving bookends to an arcade culture that’s already slipped down the memory tube. Come join me and Ringworm Ricky after the jump, where we get down to the brass tacks of why you need to own at least one of these.

view full story + comments

When thumbing through the pages of The Ultimate History of Video Games, by Steven L. Kent,  I came across a striking statement from Howard Phillips about Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. For those of you not old enough to remember Howard Phillips, he served as Nintendo's most visible corporate spokesman during the late 80s. The man knew how to dress -- his red bow tie and perfectly coiffed 1950s hair style gave off the air of a dapper cross-breeding between Tom Wolfe and Orville Redenbacher. He appeared in a wacky series of comics called Howard & Nester that ran for three years in Nintendo Power. The comics spoofed the current games released each month by plunging Howard and his spunky sidekick, Nester, into parallel dimensions of NES titles like Golgo 13, StarTropics, and Solar Jetman. Their humorous contributions lightened the magazine's often jingoistic cant and they quickly became quintessential projections of Nintendo's American image.

Here's what old man Howard had to say about this week's Virtual Console release:

"There were . . . things in the Japanese Super Mario 2 that made it not so palatable. At the time, I didn't really know if Miyamoto had driven these changes or not, and it made me question whether he just lucked out to begin with."

He goes on to state that the game contained elements that were,

"classically un-Miyamoto, in that [they were] random and out of the player's control. Maybe Miyamoto was depressed at the time he made Mario 2 . . ."

Well, Howard, you were dead wrong. The Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 is long overdue for a re-evaluation and just might qualify as the pinnacle of the entire series. Hit the jump for my rebuttal to Howard's nonsense and let me know if I'm full of it, or if you're tempted to agree.

view full story + comments

 

 

I like to think of myself as a member of that special breed of videogame connoisseurs who actually enjoys it when games dole out cruel punishment. There's something perversely delightful about missing that ledge jump for the eighteenth time in Ghosts N' Goblins, cursing in joy as Arthur plummets to his bedeviled doom once again, decked out in his birthday finery. My video game shelf reads a lot more like Venus in Furs than I'm Ok You're Ok. The harder the better. I don't say this to brag, because anyone who's seen me play knows my skills aren't up to snuff. I'm just a glutton for abuse. 

That's why I couldn't contain my excitement when I had the opportunity to meet with Tilman Reiff, co-creator of the infamous PainStation, at Wired's NextFest last week. Thanks to the general litigious nature of Americans, we may never get the chance to experience the delightful bite of the PainStation's Bouquet-o-whips on this side of the great Atlantic. I don't know about you, but I'm about to buy myself a plane ticket to next year's Leipzig, just so I can swing by Tilman's headquarters in Cologne to play this puppy for a hot minute.

Tilman Reiff has toiled away in his mysterious underground cavern in Germany for the past decade, surrounded by beakers of alchemic potions and Tesla coils, consistently pumping out some of the most innovative videogame-slash-art hybrids to grace our chaotic new century. Tilman makes up half of the multisensory artifact team, //////////fur////. Together with his partner Volker Morawe, Tilman has helmed several wickedly inventive devices that draw attention to the manner in which we relate to our games, our machines and each other. Some of the highlights of his career as a mad scientist gamer include: the Legshocker, a peripheral that simulates the feeling of being kicked in the shin while playing FIFA matches;  His Master's Voice, adorable robot balls that find themselves strangely attracted to the sounds of human singing; and ////furminator, an immersive, virtual reality pinball gizmo. Nintendo may have even ganked the idea for the Balance Board from them.

Hit the jump for my heated interrogation with Tilman and his thoughts on games, art and the PainStation's legacy.

view full story + comments

File this under W, for "way cooler than Sea-Monkeys." Japanese electronics scholar Satoko Moroi has created what amounts to a real life version of Electroplankton. After spending hands-on time with her art installation, Sound Flakes, in which colorful light projections bounce off one another to create music, I was instantly reminded of the wonderful memories I created with Toshio Iwai's DS sleeper hit. 

Sound Flakes functions in essentially the same way as Electroplankton. You use a motion sensor ladle to swirl colorful protozoa around a pool of water. As the creatures bounce into each other, they emit distinct musical tones based on their color. If you scoop up a single specific animal, it begins to dance, and a sound loop pattern begins. The fun comes from the constant state of flux the music moves through. By turning on the faucets that encircle the pool, you can pour out new light molecules to play with. When you scoop up multiple sound flakes at once, it adds layered textures to your song. The flakes also seem to react to each other in different ways as they collide.

Within a few minutes of play time, I had already created hundreds of moments of instantaneous and fleeting art.

view full story + comments

Last Wednesday, the illustrious Greybush called some of the Destructoid crowd over to Redwood Shores for a little meet and greet at EA Headquarters. We got to see Peter Moore in the flesh, kicking some serious PR ass. We previewed some games, shook some hands, played a lot of Rock Band, ran up a monstrous room service bill, all while making a general nuisance of ourselves. You wouldn't expect anything less of us.

The folks at Electronic Arts did everything in their power to ensure that we had a comfortable environment in which to sample their products. They showered us with drinks while fire swallowers performed live for our personal entertainment. An army helicopter descended from the heavens, with hunky enlisted men shimmying down repel ropes. Elaborate buffets were spread by attractive waitresses and then devoured by bloggers. Never in my life had I attended such a Bacchanalian press event held for the sake of videogames.

You know what I have to say to all of this? Ethics, shmethics. Strong professional relationships are built on mutually calculated back scratching. That's why CTZ and I were particularly pleased to experience Electronic Arts put this maxim into very personal practice. Hit the jump for our review of the latest development in embedded journalism technology, EA's new multiplatform game: Massage Parlor.

view full story + comments