Playing on the Go

Joystiq illustrates it best this week with the above illustration, going to show you that Madden Football is soon to be available on every console known to man. It’s probably even available on things other than consoles. In fact, you can probably purchase Madden 08 for your refrigerator, should you choose to do so. Making the spectacle better is the fact that, apparently, Madden is actually really good this year. The PSP incarnation closely resembles that of its console elder brethren, but the DS version is actually worth a look as well. For instance, it includes a paper football mode. Seriously.

Beyond that, here follows the rest of the handheld releases for this fine week.

PSP:

* Dungeons & Dragons Tactics

Nintendo DS:

* Luminous Arc
* Rune Factory: Fantasy Harvest Moon
* Operation: Vietnam
* Heroes of Mana

(This post will begin a regular Friday feature, which will appear here obviously each Friday unless there is “megaton news” going on. As part of our title includes the phrase “on the go”, we’ll take a look at just where you can take said gaming while you are on that go. This Friday feature may include looks at where handhelds are being played, sold, or whatever. It’ll be a little different than what you are used to on most gaming blogs, but I’m hoping you’ll enjoy it.)

It’s a slow day, so let us take this opportunity to allow ourselves a look into the cradle of our little subset of civilization which rests within the land of the rising sun. We’ll take a little visit to Sofmap in Akihabara, Japan.

We’ve previously discussed at length the indisputable evidence that shows how many PSP owners are easily classified as vampires. However, it would seem that there are other dark creatures who would play the system as well. This fact is evidenced by a petition currently circulating by fans who want to see a PSP version of Resident Evil. Be they eternally damned and undead, it doesn’t matter. They want this game on the hand held.

However, as the petition itself points out, this actually is possible via a PSN Network download of the original Resident Evil. However, they don’t seem to be satisfied with this due to the lack of and possibly price of the PS3. Plus, you know, they are zombies.

[image via pspfanboy]

residentevil, psp

This post is to be classified under rumors, but the rumors only begin at a line where facts and speculation meet. And in this case, there’s much more fact than speculation.

The crudely drawn figure that you see before you is part of a patent application from Nintendo, filed just recently. It describes a hand held gaming device that responds to motion controls, much like the Wii. The official wording of the approved application describes the unit as “a simulation program provid(ing) simulation such that a state of a game space is changed related to at least one of the amount and direction of the change applied to the housing”. More easily stated, responding to movement. While the above application figure shows an old Game Boy unit, it’s more than safe to assume that this exists simply in a place holding capacity and a real system, should it prove to exist, would look entirely different.

Keep in mind that this isn’t earth shattering in a way that would provide immediate results. You in all likelihood won’t be seeing this in a retail environment anytime soon. It should be noted at this point that the patents for the technology related to the Wii were filed even before the Gamecube was released. However, this is quite possibly a very early hint and interesting look into what lays before us after the DS has had its day.

Hit the link for the full patent information straight from the U.S. Patent Office.

nintendo, nintendods, patents

Pretty self explanatory. Check the video out for yourself.

Obviously, this is just an emulator that has been given the work over to play nice on the iPhone. Nothing more. So don’t expect to play online or download ROMs via the iPhone itself. It’ll still take a good bit of work and a little bit of magic to get everything to work right. But this is an awesome first step.

The coolest part is the touch screen NES pad on the bottom of the screen. Seriously, that’s just awesome. If you’re adventurous and want to try it out for yourself on your $600 bundle of joy, you can find the code and related instructions here.

nes, mods, iphone

In what I can only apologize for not doing sooner, I’ll be starting a new weekly feature this week that will appear here every Monday. As you can tell from the title, it’s pretty self explanatory.

Also self evident is the arguably biggest handheld release of the week, Tomb Raider Anniversary. If you’ve not sought out the title and own a PSP, it might be high time to do so. Especially if you weren’t around during the late 90’s when Saturday Night Live was still cool and everyone was doing the Macarena. Also sure to be big this week, despite the fact that the game certainly has little inherent quality, is High School Musical for DS.

PSP:

* Tomb Raider Anniversary
* Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars

Nintendo DS:

* Pet Alien
* Chameleon: To Dye For
* Mega Man Star Force: Dragon
* Mega Man Star Force: Leo
* Mega Man Star Force: Pegasus
* High School Musical: Makin’ the Cut
* Glory Days 2

nintendods, sonypsp, psp, tombraider, highschoolmusical

In what could potentially be the first few flakes of an avalanche, Electronic Arts is beginning to cut off online support for comparatively recent PSP titles. Starting on September 1st, online support for the following games will no longer exist.

* FIFA Soccer 06
* FIFA World Cup 2006
* Fight Night Round 3
* Madden NFL 06
* NBA Live 06

It would seem that such a non-committal level from the coordinators of third party servers would go to support the rationale for servers existing on a first party basis such as with Nintendo’s WiFi Connection or the 360 iteration of XBox Live. Having third parties carry the slack seems to eventually lead to this scenario in which players dedicated to prior versions of their favorite franchises are left out in the cold when the server load is no longer profitable to said third parties. As Jerry Seinfeld would say, “…that’s a shame”.

Additionally, Need For Speed: Most Wanted will permanently go offline on November 1st. The cut off seems to apply to other older games on PS2 and Xbox as well, be sure to check the full post to see if one of your favorite games has been cut.

[via kotaku]

Due to all of the madness that was E3 as well as some personal items on my side (I’ve been moving), I’ve had to delay the announcement of the winner of the previously mentioned banner contest for quite some time. After all was said and done, I unfortunately received only one banner submission. But the one that I did get was a pretty good one…

Magdalena sent this one in to me a while back, which more than gets the job done. It should be seen in the heavenly graces of the top section of the site in the next day or so. But should any of you still like to send in a banner to be featured on this site, please don’t hesitate. Feel free to send me a submission in to danielhorton[at]gmail[dot]com. Remember, the banners should be in either .jpg or .gif format, must be under 50k and have a pixel count under 728 x 90. I’ll even go as far as to guarantee that any submissions will be featured on the site.

Thanks again, Magdalena!

Apparently, Square Enix can’t get enough of DS remakes of popular old games. And considering that they keep cranking them out, neither can consumers. They’ve just started a Japanese teaser site advertising the three new titles for that region. These games are incredibly popular in Japan, but have only begun to gain that same sort of power here in the States over the past few years. Don’t be too shocked to see them test the waters by releasing a translated version of the game here.

nintendods, dragonquest, squareenix

A recent posting at a message board that I frequent begs the question. Can and will the newly redesigned PSP bring about new sales for the quickly fading system? Further investigation on the same message board thread would go to show that the majority of users say yes. But by looking deeper into said thread, that majority seems to be infatuated with the system by way of homebrew. Which would seemingly go to show that perhaps the system is popular, but in ways that Sony doesn’t primarily intend.

My hypothesis is that there are two main audiences that Sony should focus on. Whether they have already or not is up to debate, but these are the groups that are actually pushing sales of the PSP at a modest pace, despite the fact that game sales and publications are slow. The first are the comparably uneducated when it comes to consumer technology. These are the parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents who will buy their kid the latest and greatest technology simply because of that. The actual technical specifications or products available for the system are irrelevant, simply because little Johnny across the street has one and their brat kid doesn’t. The second group are the tech elite. These are the guys who buy a PSP for a few Final Fantasy games, but then spend the rest of their time with the system experimenting with homebrew.

Now, Sony has done the smart thing to do when it comes to business and has forced the issue on the first group. However, they’ve severely neglected the second. Anti-homebrew measures via firmware upgrades have caused annoyances for the homebrew community, but it stops there. Further attempts at blocking this sort of modification simply creates challenge for the community that does little more than tempt them into doing what Sony claims is impossible. Why not embrace this? Why does Sony continually intend to shoot themselves in the foot by playing a game of tag that they can never win? Despite the fact that they continue to try to bar this activity, promises of homebrew push sales. More so than a redesign does.

The redesign will ultimately give PSP sales at least a slight push. Consumers are infatuated with sexy technology. Why do you think so many people buy a new iPod each year, regardless of the fact that what they have is fine? The new PSP is sexy, which will do just that. For a time. Should Sony intend to truly drive sales in the long term, they would do well to focus more on the tech elite crowd and pleasing them instead of pushing and pulling on a game of tug of war that gets them nowhere.

psp, redesign, pspslim, playstation, sony

While not exactly earth breaking, I wasn’t exactly expecting any shocking announcements concerning any of the hand helds at Comic Con, but indeed it seems as if that has happened. Keep in mind that this game announcement is much deeper than it would seem on the surface, and portrays something that might be far more than what it seems. During a panel at the convention this past weekend, Rare announced that they would be returning “home” to develop and publish (in connection with Microsoft) a Viva Pinata game for Nintendo DS.

To the layman, this may possibly seem like so-so news, and possibly even good business on both the sides of Nintendo, Rare, and Microsoft. But to the veteran who has been around during the SNES and N64 days, this could be seen as a monumental first step. Not only for future Rare or Microsoft published games to appear on the Nintendo DS, but also other possibilities such as Goldeneye on the Wii Virtual Console or even the fabled Halo DS. Matt Casamassina of IGN has still yet to back up his big talk of said game, but you probably will hear himself singing his own praises soon after this announcement.

rare, microsoft, nintendo, nintendods, vivapinata

[image via joystiq, story via shacknews]

The second podcast that I’d like to feature here is DS:Life, which is quite a bit different than what had previously been featured. While not containing the high production values and glam of an NPR podcast, DS:Life is much more narrow in focus. Which in this case, is a great thing. The podcast crew here takes a much more smaller approach instead of the broader ones presented in other gaming podcasts. Here, the crew often takes on topic or game and spends the entirety of the program on it. It’s also more intimate in how they allow for a toll free number that listeners can call to leave comments or questions.

Currently, they seem to be experiencing technical difficulties and haven’t updated with a new show since the release of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. In the meantime, be sure to sample them out.

nintendods, podcast, pokemon

As pointed out just a few days ago, the Nintendo DS is selling like crazy. I’d normally insert some ambitiously witty comment here to help demonstrate how well the handheld is truly selling, but there’s nothing that can be said to fully explain it. Should the sell rate continue as it is, there shall be no man, woman or child on the planet without the Nintendo DS. Okay, well maybe that is stretching it a little, but you get the idea.

But here’s the thing. If you were to ask any DS owner who has also been a loyal Nintendo customer of many years as to how Nintendo is utilizing the system and its capabilities, they would likely prefix the answer with the “under” qualifier. While the company has at times tried new things with the system such as DS Download Stations, the DS Browser, and a downloadable kiosk at Seattle Mariners games, the system hasn’t had the extras that past Nintendo portables have. The Game Boy Color actually had a digital camera and a printer that you could buy. It was cheap technology, but technology that was far ahead of the curve at the time. Sadly, Nintendo has yet to really explore truly innovative ideas with the system.

Nintendo fans aren’t really looking for true innovation, however. Plow around on the web concerning the subject and you’ll quickly find that what is most commonly demanded is an equal of the DS Download Station in Wii form. Or a way to play Wii Virtual Console games on the DS. During the early stages of the introduction of the Wii, Nintendo vaguely hinted at these sorts of possibilities. But aside from that, there’s been no indication of when to expect such a thing or even if it will actually exist someday. Given the enormous sell rate of both the Wii and the DS, you’d think that this would be inevitable. The combination of the PSP and PS3 is able to do exactly this. Yet, the combination of DS and Wii is only around three hundred dollars less than that, meaning that the package will already be guaranteed to exist in more homes already. Plus, you’d think that if such a feature were available, Wii owners without a DS would be compelled to purchase one.

To sum it up, it needs to happen. And pretty soon. Nintendo loyalists are getting pretty antsy about getting this type of service, and frankly, Nintendo is running out of reasons to not do it. Nintendo is obviously one to innovate and surprise, given the Wii. But hopefully the company will not forget to think outside the box with the hardware already available to consumers.

nintendo, nintendods, nintendowii

Yes, you can actually own what quite possibly is the greatest hardware mod ever achieved. That sucker is on eBay, and as of this writing, still has a few days to go before the auction is over. As of now it’s going for a cool $1,200, but expect that amount to go much higher. Much higher.

The seller and modder goes on about the project…

“The PSP console itself was airbrushed with a deep metallic bronze in an 18-step process and then strategically tarnished to create a battle-worn armor look (like the chest plate worn in the game!). The hand-sculpted war dogs and omega symbol that grace the back were copper leafed, antiqued, and heavily clear-coated.

The real chains and edge trim that surround the system were also copper leafed and aged. The face buttons were custom-made after-market copper replacements and are TOP quality. Finally, truly one-of-a-kind crystal-clear RED shoulder buttons specifically made for this project flank each corner.”

That’s a lot of love for one PSP. Just like the lot of love that Kratos is uniquely famous for.

ebay, psp, godofwar

[via ebay]

In news that is news, but not really new news since it is in the form of old news, the DS and Wii continue to own the entire industry. Both systems are selling well, but the figures for the DS are absolutely astounding, according to the NPD. Substituting hyperbole and, well, just plain hype, take a look at the figures below for yourself.

* Nintendo DS: 561.9K
* Nintendo Wii: 381.8K
* Sony PSP: 290.1K
* Sony PlayStation 2: 270.7K
* Microsoft Xbox 360: 198.4K
* Sony PlayStation 3: 98.5K

Step back and ponder on this, if you will. Consider the Nintendo DS, a system over two years old with admitted horsepower limitations and no new top tier games until October 1st. Not only is is selling doubly that of the Playstation 2, but it is also selling at least five times as much of the Playstation 3. And more than twice that of the Xbox 360. To sum it up, the thing is un-freaking-stoppable.

[via joystiq]

[image via barkertrax@ flickr]