Community

• DS Daily: Forced Stylus
  Is touching always good when it comes to DS games?
• DS Daily: Addicted
  Might as well face it.
• The DS Life: Motherly Love
  At first, it kinda looks like the baby's got a DS for a head.
• Pirate Gaiden: Dragon Sword
  What happens when you pirate a ninja?
• Stare along with us at the limited-edition red DS Lite
  Who knew -- the DS looks good in red too.

Features

• DS Fanboy Review: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2
  Critical analysis, I choose you!
• DS Fanboy Review: The World Ends With You
  The review ends with a very high score.
• DS Fanboy Review: Rondo of Swords
  Atlus's latest soon-to-be-rare strategy game.

News of note

• Nanashi no Game looking more and more like a creepy Hotel Dusk
  Creepy and self-referential!
• Dragon Quest VI already trademarked in U.S.?
  It'll probably be out within the next couple of ... years ...
• Moon footage is out of this world
  Bang! Zoom!
• Windy x Windam: Fighting Game of the Unemployed Ninja
  Izuna? In my fighting game? It's more likely than you think.
• Nintendo Island shows up in Second Life
  What are they doing there? Probably avoiding work like everyone else.

Wideload Games' Hail to the Chimp consistently delivered laughs to its audience of journalists at EIEIO. Being that the event was a large party, it was the perfect venue to try out a party game. The crowd got almost as boisterous during the gameplay sessions as they did later that evening, when the event metamorphosed from a video game press event into a concert.

The "concert" portion of the event was also the first chance I had to talk about the game with Wideload's Senior Producer Jon Krusell. He was kind enough to yell over the din in order to discuss the thought process that led naturally into a party combat game about animal presidential elections, his theories about the lack of comedy in games, and his revolutionary Robot Jox-based political platform.

As Firefly Studios explained it, most dungeon games put the player in the role of a psychopath who enters a dungeon to slaughter thousands of subterranean creatures and steal their gold. Dungeon Hero is totally different. In Dungeon Hero, your character is -- well, okay, a psychopath who enters a dungeon to slaughter thousands of subterranean creatures and steal their gold. But those subterranean creatures have their own stuff going on, and that jerk hero is neither the shining exemplar of humanity nor some brooding antihero. He's mostly just a big dumb guy who fights a lot. And as such, he is manipulated into becoming the hero of some of the dungeon's inhabitants.

I'm a big fan of the Super Dodgeball games, and of the Kunio series in general. I played tons of dodgeball on the NES and GBA, and I've been watching the development of the DS game with more than enthusiasm. So when I first heard about the Xbox Live Arcade Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball, I was very curious about a non-Technos take on the sport; what would Blazing Lizard do to distinguish their game from what seems like the final word in dodgeball games? Besides filling it full of Internet memes, of course.

Surprisingly, Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball has very little in common with Technos' masterpiece. Aside from the fact that pudgy characters throw balls at each other, the two games play almost totally differently. They might as well represent two totally different sports.

Not being much of a "next-gen" follower (sorry!) I had a vague belief that Wideload's Hail to the Chimp was a downloadable game. I was, then, surprised to find it a full-sized (but budget-priced) release. Developer Wideload Games used the retail-game budget to create not only a unique party game, but also a hilarious audiovisual experience that doesn't really have an analogue on modern systems.

Hail to the Chimp's menu interface is the GRR News Network, with pompous anchor Woodchuck Chumley (seen above enjoying some... hot coffee ... with Bean the Sloth) onscreen authoritatively intoning ridiculous stories, while the menu options take the place of all the ubiquitous TV news infoboxes and text clutter. Wrapping the game inside this TV-station premise allows Hail to the Chimp to have something resembling a storyline, and also provides the opportunity for the funniest aspect of the game, which I'll get to shortly.

It's true. The game's title character may be velvet in some way, but the luxurious fabric does not figure into Violette Summers' ensemble. Instead, she alternates between skin-tight leather and a diaphanous, lingerie-like hospital gown. It's definitely more of a video game in that respect than a solemn tribute to Violette Szabo.

Why the hospital gown? The events of Velvet Assassin are framed as flashbacks remembered by a dying Summers, who is lying in a hospital bed as the game starts. She recounts her former missions behind enemy lines. This method of storytelling actually ties into the gameplay in a rather bizarre way.

It's been a long time since we first heard about TimeGate Studios' Section 8. Based on the "not even pre-alpha" game on display at this year's EIEIO, it's going to be even longer before we see a final game. It's currently slated for the third quarter of next year on Xbox 360 and PC. But developer TimeGate Studios – they did the F.E.A.R. expansions, if you'll recall – did give a short gameplay demonstration, and revealed one of the major facets of the Section 8 experience.

The game's name comes from the nickname given to the future 8th Armored Infantry, of which your character is a member. This group consists of soldiers who have volunteered to wear a super-powerful armored suit (awesome!) and be launched into combat from space. The joke is that you would have to be crazy to volunteer for that, so the squad is informally called "Section 8" after the military code for a psychologically-motivated discharge.

What stands out more than anything about my experience with Legendary at EIEIO was that it was the game during whose demo I got to be warm. I had waited outside in brutal cold and rain for the demo session to start, and the Legendary demo took place inside a Games4U "Mobile Game Theater" -- essentially a trailer full of seating, TVs, and, most importantly, heat. It was great. That's not even a snide way of saying that the game wasn't any good -- it was just really, really cold outside.

Legendary puts the player in the middle not only of a war between the White Council and the Black Order, but also an invasion of fantasy creatures triggered by the player character's own inadvertent opening of Pandora's Box. The only weapon against these monsters: the signet that once locked the box, now merged into protagonist Charles Deckard's hand. Oh, and also a bunch of guns and stuff.

Despite being the centerpiece of SXSW Interactive's game-focused ScreenBurn Festival, the ScreenBurn Arcade has yet to achieve the expansive grandeur of other conventions' expo floors. The entire floor was enclosed within less than half of the Austin Convention Center's convention space. Most of the real estate in there was taken up by just a few exhibitors. The Championship Gaming Series held a draft at ScreenBurn, and had a large, flashy area of their own on one side of the floor, with constant bouts of Dead or Alive 4, Forza 2 and other games taking place.

Wizards of the Coast had one of the largest installations directly in the middle of the floor, with space to play board, card, and miniature games -- as well as, of course, space to buy said games. The relative size of the booth actually made it seem more important, and almost drove me to buy some Magic cards or something.

Many of the booths were playing popular released games -- GameTap, of course, had a selection of classics, and Guitar Hero III and Rock Band were mainstays. The only booth I could find that was demonstrating any pre-release games was Gamecock, who brought the demos of Pirates Vs. Ninjas Dodgeball, Hail to the Chimp, Insecticide, and Legendary from EIEIO, as well as Dementium.

The most popular booth in the Arcade was not really game-related: Austin Laser Art offered laser etching of cellphones and other items, and had conventiongoers waiting over an hour for the chance to burn their expensive stuff.

ScreenBurn is just in its second year, and we're certain that the festival and the Arcade will continue to grow in size and popularity. This year, however, it was a great place to play some Rock Band and lose at Dead or Alive 4.

Multiverse cofounder Corey Bridges' talk at SXSW Interactive may have had the title "Virtual World and Game Development: Rise of the Indies," but it soon became clear that "Rise of the Indies" was a nicer spin on "Fall of Publishers." The talk turned out to be surprisingly inflammatory as Bridges predicted the death of the traditional video game industry in favor of near-universal adoption of virtual worlds. "Video game publishers are dead. They're walking corpses. They just don't know it."

Bridges has the track record to back up wild predictions, having been right about things like graphical web browsing, online mail-order DVD rental, and, uh, computer security (by association, as in he was involved with each of these early on). To see this person attached to an MMO development platform is basically troubling for people who would like to continue ignoring MMOs.

In this panel, a group of Austin-based game developers set out to discuss the unique Austin game development community, moderated by journalist (and Joystiq contributor) N. Evan Van Zelfden. In the course of the discussion, a bit of neuropsychology and hilarious anti-MMO (and pro-MMO) vitriol also came out, along with a lot of reminiscence.

According to Junction Point's Warren Spector and NCSoft's Dallas Snell, the Austin game development scene, as well as its current MMO focus, have their origins in, uh, Origin. The Ultima developer moved in Austin in 1986 from New Hampshire, and many companies spun off from ex-Origin personnel. Spector was hired at the company after time spent teaching at UT and working at Steve Jackson Games, and then a stint in Wisconsin at TSR. Snell was at Origin during the 1986 move.

A panel of game publishers, analysts, and investors met at this SXSW presentation to discuss the numbers and trends involving the female audience for casual games. For this talk, "casual games" comprises mostly web games and downloadable shareware games, and not, say, Wii party games or console downloads.

Parks Associates' Michael Cai began with some charts. According to the data, female gamers heavily prefer computers to consoles: female gamers spend an average of 70% of their gaming time on computers, versus male gamers' 56%. Female gamers make up 62% of the casual game audience, and this group, especially those age 13-17, play more sessions per month. There is less diversity among genres for female gamers as well: across age groups, puzzle and card games are the most popular casual games.

Augmenting their usual Internet-based strategy of giving people free games to lure them into a subscription service, GameTap treated SXSW attendees to a party at Austin's Parkside restaurant Saturday night. Along with the laptops set up for free play of a selection of classics, partygoers were treated to fancy hors d'oeuvres (ceviche, croquettes, uh, tiny hamburgers), drinks, and excellent DJ-provided music. Also, projected logos that only shone directly into my eyes a couple of times.

It should be noted that these pictures were taken soon after the beginning of the party. It was already picking up as I left. There were still plenty of people in Parkside enjoying the crowd, the food, the beer, and the Metal Slug. If more parties had Metal Slug stations, well, I'd go to parties.

What's better for attracting people to your booth than a fake guitar? Apparently nothing! Walking around SXSW's ScreenBurn Arcade, I began to notice that I was seeing a lot of Guitar Hero III and Rock Band setups. The guitars and drums are a lot showier than most game controllers, and are thus a lot better at getting attention than other games. I understood the power of these two games.

But that doesn't mean I didn't find it a little weird that groups who had basically nothing to do with Guitar Hero III or Rock Band were featuring it at their booths. I was also amused by the number of booths that featured guitar games, compared to the total number of booths in the ScreenBurn Arcade. It almost seemed like these two games outnumbered not-music games.

I didn't actually need to hear anything to get the story here. The interview crew were wearing shirts featuring the title question (which I really thought would show up in the picture, but just trust me), and they cornered this Spartan from the 405th Infantry Division. What does green mean to you, guy dressed like the Master Chief?

I felt very lucky to witness this convergence. Such a perfect meeting is like a lol-ar eclipse.