It’s good when Sonic blokes talk about Sonic, even if they’re making the possibly not good Sonic Unleashed. Some bloke whose name I can’t be arsed to pronounce called “Akinori Nishiyama”, (who isn’t even English, as far as I can tell) is producing the aforementioned Sonic title, but was recently quizzed by some Kotaku bloke (yes, I’ve been on Kotaku today, can you tell?) regarding future Sonic games.

He asked if there was any possibility of new Sonic games being like Street Fighter IV, as in, 2.5D completely (instead of that nasty 3D stuff), like maybe, if they, like, did a remake of old Sonics for download.

The SEGA man said this -

Nishiyama: There’s always the possibility. Whether it would be viable remains to be seen, but having a new game – or even a remake of the GBA games, which we now can’t use [thanks to the DSi] – would certainly be possible. If we made one, would you buy it?

Me: [nods]

Nishiyama: Really?

Me: [nods]

Nishiyama: [laughs] Great! One of our ideas has been that on older consoles, you may have had only 16 colours. One thing we could do is make a game like Mega Man 9; do a new Sonic, but in an old style.

Obviously “Me” is not me, it’s Luke Plunkett, of Kotaku.

I would be well down with new Sonic that looks old, I mean, I’m down with old Sonic that looks old, so why not? Do it, SEGA, pretend it’s the 90s and make fantastic games again!

Here’s the original article that I stole all this from.

I dunno about you, but I can think of few things cooler than a wooden games console. This may indicate that I have some problems in my life, but we’re not here to discuss those.

Some bloke has made a contraption called the DuopV1. “What does it do!?” you whisper tentatively, as a tear slides gently down the contours of your face.

I’ll tell you, you whimpering fool.

It plays actual real NES and SNES games! Imagine that shit, sir! Can you buy one? Probably not, but just to know that one exists is enough to make sleeping at night that little bit easier.

Source: TechEBlog

Okay, I’m going to delve deep into the realms of geekdom here, because I must. Once, in the 80s, I was a child, and I watched Transformers the Movie a lot, and it had an amazing “hair metal” soundtrack. This mainly involved men screeching at alarmingly high pitches and guitar solos that lasted for ages.

It was hugely enjoyable, and ridiculous.

Someone over at Kotaku also has fond memories of these great times, and would like to bring a little bit of that nostalgia into the modern world through the magic of videogames, namely: Guitar Hero or Rock Band (or both).

He was so hell bent on this crazy dream that he actually emailed Stan Bush (a bloke what did some of the songs from the film, like) about it, and instead of being laughed at or shot, her got a reply! Look -

Hey Michael,

Yes, it would be wonderful to get “The Touch” in either one of those games. I’ve written to Activision, but wasn’t able to get anywhere on it. I’d really appreciate any help.

Thanks,

Stan

That’s pretty superb, in my book. Here’s the song/video, by the way. Revel in it.

I’m not sure if there’s some kind of campaign to actually get this in one of the games or not, but I’m sure you’ll find out somewhere in the original post.

If you know me, (and you do), then you’ll know that I love Psychonauts. I love it a lot, for billions of reasons. I will list none of them here.

Instead, I will show you a thing that I have just played on the Double Fine site (the guys that made Psychonauts, keep up!), it is this – Tasha’s Game.

It’s a flash game, which would normally mean it’s a bollocks game. On closer inspection however, this is pretty fun. You wouldn’t pay money for it or anything ridiculous like that, but hell, they’re not asking you to. Try it out, play it to the end. There’s a huge unforseen twist in the storyline.

Oh, it’s a 2D platformer, and you put platforms down to aid you in your quest, and you can go back in time (a bit like in Braid, except not at all like that in the slightest).

Did I ever mention that Braid was an astounding pinnacle of gaming wonderment? Seriously, buy it. I know you haven’t. Just do it. Jesus. It’s a tenner. It’s out on the PC soon so you won’t have any excuse then, and if you make one up I’m going to come to your house and shout at you continuously until you buy it, or one of us dies. Or you call the police. Or if you’re bigger than me I might not come round in the first place.

The threat is there, that’s basically what I’m saying. Keep it in mind.

I keep feeling like I should apologise for not posting much this week, but then I remember that I owe you nothing, I’m doing this for free, and you can fuck off. Cheers, see you next time!

I can’t apologise enough for the title. I really can’t. I’ll punish myself later. Not like you’re thinking though. You’re a sick freak of nature, aren’t you? Jesus. What’s wrong with you?

Earthworm Jim is out on the Virtual Console today! It’s overpriced, it will take up valuable memory blocks on your Wii, and it won’t be as good as when you played it on your Mega Drive millions of years ago, but man, Earthworm Jim is one of the best games ever made. Ever. In the world.

Earthworm Jim 2 is even better! But that’s not out today on the Virtual Console. Instead, you get Shining Force II, which I’m assured is also an excellent game by a somewhat overzealous fan of RPGs that I know.

I’ll post some news later, news you’ve probably read elsewhere! That’s just the kind of guy I am.

Flippin’ heck, they went on an announcement fest today, those Nintendo blokes.

My personal favourite announcements: Klonoa Door to Phantomile is coming to Wii. How cool is that? Not very? Piss off then. Klonoa is ace. AND – Sin & Punishment 2, anyone? I cocking love Sin & Punishment.

Anyways, as for actual “exciting news”, have some of this:

Nintendo have announced the DSi, which looks a lot like the DS, if I’m honest, except you have to buy it again. It has bigger screens, an SD slot, and a built in camera. How very superb. It’s making me want to shell out £100, I swear. It’s going to have a built in browser, and it’s own downloadable software shop thing where you can save stuff to an SD card. Out in November in Japan, Spring 2009 in the real world (England).

Speaking of saving to SD cards, the Wii will allow you to download directly to them as of Spring 2009 in Japan, dunno about here. That means people can finally stop whining about not having enough shitty flash memory space. Thankfully I realised I was wasting my life downloading VC games so I never managed to fill up my Wii, but this solution is definitely what we were all after. No buying an overpriced Wii branded hard drive! Whoo!

No High Definition sequel to the console announced yet though, so that rumour may have been a load of tosh.

The new games and what have you can be seen in this video:

Here’s a list of every game on there.

Once again, most of this guff was nicked from good ol’ Eurogamer.

Two posts within moments of each other? What the hell is wrong with me?

Just thought I’d nick this from Eurogamer (it’s not like I can go out and get my own news, now, is it?).

Sounds like Nintendo may be planning on unveiling a new Wii model tomorrow, complete with HD graphics, a focus on backwards compatability (good, I like that), and a larger amount of space to store your crap. Nice. It is allegedly scheduled for 2011, so plenty of time for them to get that aforementioned motion sensing technology sorted. No excuses this time, guys!

Not the most exciting of titles, but very much to the point I’m sure you’ll agree.

If you’re a normal person, you’ll probably be wondering what the tits “Tatsunoko” is. I had to look it up on that Wikipedia joint, which says they made all kinds of Japanese animated things like Speed Racer, and the wonderfully titled Samurai Pizza Cats. Regardless, Capcom have got some beef with these people, and are “having it out” with them in a new Vs game.

It was announced for the arcades a while ago, and now has surprisingly been announced for Nintendo’s Wii. I like it when proper games are announced for the Wii, it makes me feel less like I paid good money for a novelty children’s toy to insult me with countless mini-game encrusted bollock fests.

Not sure if it’ll get out of Japan, but let’s hope so, eh? If there’s one thing we all need, it’s more outlets to beat the living crap out of each other without being sent to prison.

News shamelessly robbed from the excellent Insert Credit.

There was a time when I would have struggled not to have sordid intercourse with my screen having seen Sonic doing stuff in a new game. Now? I sit nonplussed.

Thing is, this doesn’t look bad, I just can’t seem to get excited. Maybe it’s because I’m 22, and not 10? Maybe it’s because however many good DS games come out, playing the DS automatically makes me feel like some kind of housewife dabbling in games for the first time? Or maybe it’s because Sonic has done nothing but hurt us all for the last decade, causing an instinctive mistrust of everything bearing his face?

I think it’s mostly because it has Shadow in it though. I fucking hate you, Shadow.

You may have seen this elsewhere, you may not have. Either way, I am posting it here.

I’m not sure whether to be angry, amused, or something in the middle. “Angermused”?

“Soulja Boy”, (some rapping bloke), has this to say about the excellent Braid:

I guess he’s enjoying it, at the very least. I only wish I got so excited by Braid’s rewind mechanic. I just thought it was really cool, I didn’t piss myself with joy. I feel I may have missed out somehow.

I think I’m going to get drunk and play through it again, maybe that will work.

By the way, if you haven’t bought Braid yet: sort it out, yeah? It’s really good.