'Night Game' trailer looks pretty

Take a look at Castle Crashers, Braid and World of Goo. They're made by indie developers and I like them. Does that make me pretentious? Yes. Here's another pretentious indie developed game that I'm interested in: Night Game for WiiWare. Check it out.

'Mr. Driller World,' or, you still win, Japan

In a predictable turn of events, Mr. Driller World was released in Japan today for WiiWare. I'm a huge sucker for puzzle games (see also my recently played copy of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix), so I hope that eventually, Mr. Driller World heads to the States. Here's a video of the game.

PSP Cool Game Remake Overload

Today at the Destination PlayStation event, Sony announced a few new games for everybody's favorite (or possibly second favorite) portable device, the PSP. Here's a list, courtesy of the boys over at Joystiq.

1) Assassin's Creed for the PSP.
2) Madden '10 and Tiger Woods '10
3) MotorStorm Arctic Edge
4) LittleBigPlanet
5) Rock Band Unplugged

The shocking part is that I'm sort of excited about all of those things. It almost makes me want to get a PSP.

Oh, and they're releasing a Lilac PSP Hannah Montana bundle. Yay?

Super Nintendo controller for Wii, or, you win again, Japan

There's something thoroughly unsatisfying about playing Super Mario World with a GameCube controller. It just doesn't seem fair to be holding such advanced technology over the plumber's head.

That's why I'm jealous of Japan (yes, the entire country) for having access to this incredible controller. Behold.

No fair. I want to be able to play with my old Super Nintendo controller! Come on Nintendo! Why must you always make a grown man resort back to his days as a 5-year-old.

If you have a Japanese Wii and want to spill $75, head this way. Otherwise, keep pouting and perhaps Nintendo will do as you command (unlikely).

Cheap stuff for gamers, readers, watchers and listeners

My Xbox 360 is only a fairly new addition to my electronic family. Thus, my collection of games is pretty skimpy. Aside from Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and BioShock, everything else in my collection I'd borrowed from my brother.

On the other side of the spectrum, I had a wide variety of Wii games. Most of them I beat long ago, never to be played again. Of course, there are a few mainstays in the collection that will never leave, namely Super Mario Galaxy and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Perhaps the greatest thing to happen to my video game collection is Swaptree.


Here's how it works: you pick a bunch of stuff that you want. Then you list a bunch of stuff that you're willing to get rid of. Finally, the website will lead you to trade directly (or through a three-way trade) with someone who has what you want. The only cost is a couple dollars for shipping.

Here are some examples of my recent trades:

1) WarioWare: Smooth Moves for Halo 3
2) Burnout Paradise for Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution
3) Super Paper Mario for Left 4 Dead

But it doesn't have to work that way. You can trade your copy of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" for a used copy of "Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly." Perhaps you'll trade your old copy of Office Space for a used copy of The Buddy Holly Story.

Swaptree is cheap, effective and addictive. I'm a little worried about running out of stuff.

Oh, and don't try to swap those 30 copies of Shark Tale you found in a garbage can on 10th Street. Nobody will ever take you up on those. Do you seriously blame them?

New this week: Lost & Damned Street Fighters edition

It's finally here: February's equivalent to Christmas. No, not Valentine's Day. Nobody cares about that. I mean the week where they finally release one of the only games that I'll spend a substantial chunk of my paycheck on.

Street Fighter IV, 360/PS3 (02/17) - I'm not sure how many hours in my lifetime I've spent playing any game with the Street Fighter moniker attached. The number is probably embarrassing. Honestly, Capcom needs to stop taking my money, though. They keep producing excellent work. With Mega Man 9 already in the can and with Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5 and Bionic Commando all coming out soon, where's all this money supposed to be coming from? Street Fighter IV looks like an excellent addition to the franchise and I am nothing short of excited to get my hands on it. Here's the trailer, but please excuse the terribly written dialogue.



Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, XBLA (02/17) - This is the first of two Xbox 360 exclusive expansions for GTAIV. You play a biker in a gang and you get more music and achievements. This is excellent news for those who rushed in to finish that game after it initially came out.

Awesome speakers for nerds

Although I shamelessly found these speakers at Offworld, it should be noted that they're totally awesome.


Unless you're bulbous and yellow, the iBoo looks like an excellent way to charge and listen to your iPod. They eyes serve as speakers and the iPod serves as a cute little robot ghost jockey. Now just grab some bobbing cherries and pretzels to run around your room and you're good to go.

Some excellent Xbox 360 deals this week

I don't mean to alarm you, but there are deals going on this week that are so outrageous, they could well be a matter of national security.

OK, so that's an enormous overstatement.

Still, take heed that Geoffrey Giraffe is selling a 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscription for $29.99. In the meantime, Old Man Amazon is offering Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned with three months of Xbox Live Gold for free.

Even if you already have a subscription to Xbox Live, this could save you money on your next 12 months before that subscription runs out. So bust out the wallet, money bags! Times are tough! Microsoft needs that money!

'Red Dead Redemption' out this fall

In the pitch meeting for Rockstar's 2004 game, Red Dead Revolver, someone must have run in the room and just said, "Guys, I've got it: Grand Theft Auto with cowboys!" Everybody then jumped in the air with bags of money in their hands and took part in a freeze frame.

Well, at some point last year, the same guy ran in again and said, "Hey, remember Grand Theft Cowboys? We're making another one!" And everybody did the same thing.


In all seriousness, though, Red Dead Revolver was an excellent game for the PS2 and Red Dead Redemption, which Take-Two Interactive announced will come out this fall for the 360 and PS3, could very well be a great follow-up. This one features an open-world environment (you know, like Grand Theft Auto IV, except with cowboys).

'Wolverine' game trailer debuts

I'm not really looking forward to the upcoming Wolverine film starring Hugh Jackman since X-Men 3 really left me cold. Still, as with all comic book movies, it begs the question: how will the video game hold up?

Normally, the answer is "poorly," which is unfortunate. The last good game based on a comic movie that I played was probably the first and second Spider-Man games. Still, the trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine looks pretty cool. Check it out.