This Super Meat Boy Commercial is Deliciously 90's

Super Meat Boy is one of those games I feel like I've been hearing about for years but has never quite come around. The quirky art style, colorful characters, and punishing platforming are a recipe for success. Every time the latest Super Meat Boy news leaks, I felt like I was being teased and led on. I just want to play the game already!

Well, the time has just about come, as the indie gem with Newgrounds roots is right around the corner, less than a week from release. A talented individual has decided to take the marketing for Super Meat Boy into his own hands, creating an hip and egdy (for the time) 90's retro commercial. I hope these throwback commercials continue their popularity, because they're awesome.

This home-brewed ad is the last straw for me. I need some Meat Boy in my life. In case the thought of playing as a Meat Wad (no relation) is a little repulsive to you, the developers got your back. Somehow, they've managed to squeeze in tons of characters from other indie games, such as Tim from Braid, Ninja from N+, Gish, Alien Hominid, and a Castle Crashers Knight, each with their own special powers. 

Oh yeah, replay value and multiple ways to take on the platforming. Team Meat knows what we like, and they're going to give it to us come October 20th.

NYCC10: Look Ma, No Controller! Our Kinect Adventures

Standing off to the side, we watched a couple play Kinect Adventures' River Rush while the possibly coked out Microsoft PR guy barked out commands and directed traffic with an unstable energy. He was a cool dude. 

After almost being bored to death watching the team in front of us jump in place for the duration of the River Rush gameplay, without the very important peripheral mind you, it was our turn. I asked Honkey (this was the emcee's name, no lie) to let us get a crack at something a little more exciting. Unfortunately, Microsoft was limited to what they could let us play due to sponsoring (go figure) so we were stuck with Kinect Adventures, Kinect's very own Wii Sports. Like Wii Sports, there is nothing special to be seen, but it gives you the gist of how the system works.

Team OBG had it's go at Rally Ball, a type of brick-breaker and soccer mash-up, that was a decidedly more exciting mini-game than River Rush. After a crash course in the controls, wait, what controls? Keeping 6-8 feet in front of the screen, leave the space of about one person between each other, and getting more points for using your head (such is life), we were ready to Rally Ball! 

My reflexes were as responsive as a cat's, my movements as calculated as a ninja's, my strikes as precise as a surgeon's. If only the Kinect were able to detect them that way. Unfortunately, every move we made was a split second or more delayed on the screen. So while I was reacting to the ball at just the right time, my avatar was swinging and missing, badly. That ain't good.

Once we took the lag into account, we got ourselves into a groove, albeit it a silly looking one. We were using our arms, legs, and yes, even our heads for extra points. I'll admit it was fun, but that's it. Kinect Adventures, like Wii Sports before it, is the girl (or guy) you hook up with for a night of anonymous fun. No long term potential at all, sorry. And that kind of sums up how I feel about Kinect in general. Milo looked awesome, until they dragged the poor kid into a back alley and offed him. Though even if Milo persisted, how long would you see yourself playing it? Me, not long at all. You gotta impress us, Kinect. Make believers of us, don't expect us to drink the Kool Aid. 

Here's a protip, start off by making a zombie Milo game. I'm with that. 

NYCC10: X-Men Arcade, No Quarters Necessary

One of the fondest memories from my childhood was taking vacation with family down to Florida, where the local pristine and hi-tech arcade was home to the much sought after 6-player X-Men Arcade. A world of difference from the local arcades I haunted in Queens New York, which were mostly found in the back of pizza stores and comic book shops. Even then, the best we had were Sunset Riders, Street Fighter: Rainbow Edition, WWF Superstars, and a Neo Geo 4-in-1 cabinet. Don't get me wrong, I loved the ghetto games of my ghetto arcade in the back of the ghetto pizzeria, but damn son, I get to play as Wolverine with five other people? That's what I'm talking about.

When the trailer for X-Men Arcade started rolling at Marvel's Saturday morning video game panel at New York Comic Con, and I realized what it was, my childhood came rushing back. I remembered taking family trips down south, swimming in the pool with with girls more mature than I, being fascinated with their boobs, playing Simpsons Arcade, Tekken, and of course, X-Men Arcade. I also remembered just how much I hated this particular game. Well, hate is a strong word, it was more like I was at odds with it. 

I loved X-Men, and I loved arcades, so it's obvious that the joining of the two would be a dream come true for a snot-nosed punk in the early 90's. And it was for a while, until I couldn't beat it with the quarters allotted to me by my father. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how many people who teamed with me, I could never conquer this damned game.

I remember coming close once, really close. I must have spent around five bucks to get to the point I was at, me and one other kid holding it down long after the rest of our team had succumbed to renegade mutants and mutant hunters. The level was epic, the enemies were vicious, and the life was draining quickly. Magneto was the next boss, I could feel it! Boy, was I wrong.

I don't remember the stage, or the boss, but we beat it, and him. Only to move on to the next stage, and die, quickly. Well, I died. My compatriot valiantly fought on, lasting a good 5-10 minutes after me, but he met his inevitable end as well. Dejectedly, we sighed and bid our final farewells as our parents dragged us off, back to the real world.

X-Men Arcade is an awesome throwback to the arcade glory days of my, and probably your, childhood. Unfortunately, Konami says nothing new will be added, so don't expect to be playing as Bishop via DLC. Yes, someone will still be forced to play as disco reject, Dazzler. Not it, I've got infinite dibs on Nightcrawler. That was my man! All things aside, this is an excellent re-release. With six player drop in online support, the fun of the original will be upheld, and you'll be able to save your quarters for laundry. 

So Marvel, what's good with the re-release of Captain America and the Avengers?

NYCC10: In Depth With Captain America: Super Soldier

We got a chance to chat with Morgan Roberts, a producer at Sega of America, who was kind enough to demo Captain America: Super Solider and give us some insight into its development.

Morgan was playing a pre-alpha build of the game, which is a stage before in depth testing and finalizations. Even in this early point of its development, what we saw had tons of promise. Be forewarned, the video is lengthy, which speaks volumes for the product on the floor, complete or not. The pre-alpha demo had to have been a good 6 to 8 minutes, which is better than a lot of demos on PSN or XBLA marketplace. 

Good stuff. Captain America: Super Solider is definitely one to keep your eyes on. 

Prepare Yourself for the Sensory Barrage of Vanquish

About two weeks until Sega unleashes the craziness known as Vanquish onto the unsuspecting world. Throw ya' gunz in the air if you're excited! 

In an effort to train your senses to fully process Vanquish in the millisecond your reflexes will require for you to survive, here are two recent trailers for Platinum Games' latest; one showing you what you're up against, the other flossing the transforming weapons system you control. Now that is some beautiful fragging right there. I'd shed a tear if I weren't too busy disintegrating Russian death machines and smoking a cigarette. Damn, Sam Gideon is a bad ass.

An Amazon pre-order is supposed to net you three exclusive in-game weapons, but I don't see them advertising that deal anymore. I'll have to get to the bottom of this.  Stay tuned.

Fez Still Exists, Still Looks Amazing

Way back when, I saw a trailer for a game that looked absolutely incredible. My goldfish memory had since long forgotten about said game, without any updates, screenshots, or trailers the indie title may have well been dead. 

Last night, the fleeting memory of this once forgotten bit of indie amazingness kicked down the the door of my inner cortex, where it had been held hostage, and proceeded to slap the taste out of my mouth repeatedly. And I loved every second of it.

Fez is not dead, thankfully. Developers Polytron are still hard at work finishing it up, being perfectionists I guess. When can we expect a release? Sometime in 2011 hopefully, but honestly, who knows. Are we willing to patiently wait? I dunno about you, but you bet your ass I am. Git 'er done, Polytron!

Side note: Polytron has released some Fez 8-bit musical dopeness to tide us over. They care!

A Farewell to Kingmakers

Riding the rising popularity of the check-in app, Fable III standalone mini-game Kingmaker is set to release for your smartphone. Kingmaker, in similar fashion to Fable II's Pub Games, is a nice way to earn some in-game cash before the game's release.

You choose a fictional Albion alignment, Rebel or Royal, and proceed to run around your city, smartphone in hand, dropping virtual flags around territories to claim them for whichever faction you've aligned yourself with. It's like Foursquare, except you won't get laughed at when both your Facebook and Twitter account proudly announce you have become the mayor of the porta-potty on Bleecker Street. Instead, for claiming territories, you compile gold that can be transfered to Fable III and used to purchase armor, weapons, and player customization options.

Sounds like fun for us boorish Americans, right? Lionhead Studios doesn't think so, so they've decide to keep Kingmaker as a European exclusive. Do they not realize the check-in craze here in the States? You got people killing each other in the streets for that Foursquare mayorship, son! The New York Times, in all its prestigious glory, wrote a two page article on the battle for mayorship of a freaking alleyway. Shit is going down, this is serious business! We can't get any Kingmaker love? Okay Lionhead, I see how it is.

A Look at the Fall 2010 Xbox LIVE Update

The new Xbox LIVE update will go out to day for the masses who applied to partake in the beta. For those of you who didn't, in your face suckas!

Not all is lost for you however, as you can see some of the differences in this video of terrible, terrible quality I've thrown together. So if the tragic quality doesn't make your eyes bleed, I hope this flick will be of some interest to you. Here's a quick overview of the update's features:

• Complete dashboard redesign
• Tweaked avatar design
• ESPN3 live streaming and on demand sports (where available)
• Updated audio codec for improved voice communication
• Kinect support for gaming and motion/voice control ala Minority Report
• Netflix search function (finally!)
• Zune looks pretty

Of course all these changes are not without some drawbacks. Upgrading to the beta means you can't communicate in party chat with anyone who is still on the old dashboard. Game chat should be no problem though. Codec compatibility issues? Also, most of your avatar marketplace items and game rewards won't appear on your likeness, probably until the the update is out of beta and available to the general public. So until late October, prepare to have a little less personality. Hope you weren't trying to impress anyone of the opposite sex, good lookin'.

Overall this is a step in the right direction for Xbox LIVE. The tweak to the voice comm is a huge help, and ESPN3 is going to be pretty popular I'm sure. What do you think of the changes, do we have a winner, or did Microsoft DmC this one?

Side note, does anyone want to contribute to the OBG video capture fund? Anybody? Ho-kay.

Screen Talent, Voice Talent, and Fable III

As you and I both know, video games are a big deal. A multi-kajillion dollar industry that employs some of the most talented, behind the scenes people in the world, who work toward releasing a product that is both more original and more fun than the box office and television combined. It's only a matter of time before video games become more popular than both. Just don't say it'll be more popular than Jesus, that's a kiss of death. 

As video games expand outside of the gaming subculture, the general public is becoming increasingly aware of gaming's artistry, influence, and revenue generating prowess. I don't know if actors can be considered as general public, to half the world they're these awe-inspiring figures of lavish tastes, who must be followed, photographed, gossiped, and generally gushed over. Eh, fuck it, actors are general public, they get no special treatment from me. Unless they're gamers, then they're awesome.

But I digress, video games are on the radars of most sensible actors, and why not? While the pay and treatment may not be as rewarding as working on a big budget Hollywood flick, the workload is no doubt significantly less demanding. Voice acting can be a legitimate source of exposure and coin in between films. Millions of people around the world will be playing this game Mr. hot-shot actor, they will hear your voice for hours on end, and once they complete that game, depleted yet content, they will return to the warm glow of their computer monitor and proceed to illegally download purchase your best works, which they remember fondly after helping you rid the world of an ancient evil pact forged by zombies and ninjas. And you did it all while being between films, your belly swollen with the nectar of your most recent film release, Final Apocalyptic Justice VII: The World Warrior. Job well done.

So it's no surprise that developers are able to recruit well known actors as voice talent, with the once respectable clip of cross-over stars now beginning to rise as the success of the games industry continues to climb skyward. The latest example of this is illustrated by Fable III of all things, enlisting the talents of well respected English actors Stephen Fry and Simon Pegg, along with borderline legends Sir Ben Kingsley and John Cleese. Impressive recruits, and for these who happen to be video game talent first timers, a classy and deep project to tie themselves to, and make losing their game acting virginity a rewarding and enjoyable experience. 

While there may be no competition for the classic video game voice actor, it's definitely good to see the medium I love so much garnering respect from those whose craft is classic acting. With Hollywood becoming an uninspired remake machine, and TV stooping as low as jacking Twitter accounts to turn into prime time television, perhaps the games industry will continue to entice popular actors to lend their credibility, so that mainstream media will truly understand the legitimacy that game geeks like you and I are already aware of. Now we just need to figure out a way to get the politician's heads out of their asses, and stop their unadulterated hate. 

Eleven Minutes to Hold You Over Until All Shadows Day

It's no secret here that I love the Castlevania series, but I'm not without my doubts for the latest entry, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. While all the press release videos made me pound my computer desk with overjoyed rage, behind the scenes gameplay videos didn't really stir me the same way. They looked bland and without personality. 

The seven-plus minute trailer from Tokyo Game Show rested my concerns regarding the characters and the storyline. What at one point I thought may have been too influenced by western fantasy such as The Lord of The Rings, I was starting to see was truly Castlevania at its core, regardless of whether or not it was borrowing from Tolkien or Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Today, Konami brings us a new trailer, that is more epic in both scope and length than the nearly-short-film that premiered at TGS. Yes, eleven minutes of details, narrative, and most importantly gameplay. One month, two trailers, nearly twenty minutes of footage. That's a lot of Castlevania to tease as pre-release hype. Yet we have no reason to fear, as there is supposedly twenty hours of gameplay in Lords of Shadow, so a measly twenty minutes ain't no type of spoiler for us, nope. 

This eleven minute behemoth preps the potential player for what to expect on October 5th, or as I've come to call it All Shadows Day, because I will be sitting at home, shades drawn, candles lit, smoke in the room, playing Lords of Shadow all day. What was once considered skepticism and cautious optimism has grown into full fledged excitement. Watch the trailer, and if you don't feel the same way, then you ain't no friend of mine, friend.

All Shadows Day looms, stay tuned for the review.