It’s only natural that gamers don’t exactly love seeing celebrities at the VGAs. The general sentiment amongst fans is that they prefer the focus to be on the actual games rather than silly, scripted skits. At the 2009 VGAs, a number of celebrities once again made appearances, including Mike Tyson and much to the dislike of gamers, the cast of Jersey Shore. However, Geoff Keighley defended having celebrities at the show on the latest Major Nelson podcast, noting:
“And yes there were celebrities, but one thing I’m really proud of related to this year’s show is that all the celebrities there pretty much had a connection to the gaming industry. I mean there was an exception or two like the Jersey Shore cast which was there because they were the topic of the moment…I can’t tell you how many people at the after party, gaming industry executives would come up to me and their wives would be like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you had the Jersey Shore cast there, that’s fantastic.’ So it was something that as you said for guys like you and I it’s a little bit of a non sequitur, but it makes sense for the bigger, larger entertainment picture that we’re trying to build with this show.
But you know gamers I think in the past have always complained that it’s like ‘Oh, well why do have these celebrities that don’t have any link to gaming?’ You look at this year’s show, almost everyone there had some kind of link to the gaming industry, whether it was Mike Tyson who was in Fight Night, or Tony Hawk, or Olivia Wilde who is in the new Tron game, or Jake Gyllenhaal who is doing the Prince of Persia film. Everyone was there for a reason and I was really dead-set on making sure that the talent had a link to gaming and we got rid of a lot of the fluff. It was talent that had a link to gaming, it was great world premieres, and then the awards that mattered. And I think that’s a formula that works better for this industry. I’m sure there are people that are going to complain and say ‘Oh, you didn’t need Snoop Dogg in there performing’ or ‘You didn’t need the cast of the Jersey Shore.’ You gotta give us a few things in a few areas where we can make it entertaining to a more mainstream audience… “
December 18, 2009 – Beverly Hills, CA – EGM Media LLC, publisher of leading independent video game magazine “Electronic Gaming Monthly,” announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Time/Warner Retail Sales & Marketing to handle newsstand marketing and sales for the title when it returns to bookstores, newsstands, and other retailers in March 2010.
“Time Warner Retail is the preeminent player in the single-copy field so it should be no surprise that we have selected them to represent the print version of the publication,” said Steve Harris, publisher of Electronic Gaming Monthly and president of EGM Media, LLC. “The fact Time/Warner Retail’s relationship with the title goes back nearly twenty years made this an easy decision and one that will immediately benefit our efforts.”
This information comes from Monster Games president Richard Garcia and Nintendo’s Hiro Yamada…
“In Vs. Excitebike, you could play local two-player mode with horizontal split-screen. (You must know your games really well given that the game was launched only in Japan as a Famicom Disk System game!)
We wanted to add local multiplayer to this game as well. But as you can see by playing the game, the player can jump so high that they leave the screen for a while. If we split the screen horizontally, the player can jump off the screen for an even longer time whenever they do a big jump. We couldn’t split the screen vertically, since it is important in this game to see down the track to plan your moves. Instead of being fun, split-screen was just stressful. We finally decided that it would be best if multiplayer gaming was restricted to Wi-Fi mode.”
WiiWare
TV Show King 2 – 307 blocks
Pallurikio – 188 blocks
Eco Shooter: Plant 530 – 114 blocks
Happy Holidays Christmas – 60 blocks
VC
Super Smash Bros. – 123 blocks
Ninja Gaiden – 32 blocks
DSiWare
Dragon’s Lair – 127 blocks
Hot and Cold: A 3D Hidden Object Adventure – 127 blocks
UNO – 66 blocks
myNotebook: Green – 32 blocks
High Stakes: Texas Hold’Em – 24 blocks
Thanks to PlayStati0nNetwork for the news tip!
This is another part of Nintendo Power’s “250 reasons to love Nintendo” in their latest magazine. The list is in no particular order.
– Spread Gun (Contra series)
– Master Sword (The Legend of Zelda series)
– Bionic Arm (Bionic Commando)
– Mega Mushroom (New Super Mario Bros.)
– Metal Blade (Mega Man 2)
– Raccoon Suit (Super Mario Bros. 3)
– Options (Gradius series)
– Vampire Killer (Super Castlevania IV)
– Smash Ball (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)
– Golden Gun (GoldenEye 007)
– Chainsaw (MadWorld)
– Ice Beam (Metroid series)
– Mario’s butt (Mario series)
1 1 CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 INFINITY WARD ACTIVISION ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
5 2 FIFA 10 EA CANADA EA SPORTS ELECTRONIC ARTS
4 3 WII FIT PLUS NINTENDO NINTENDO NINTENDO
2 4 WII SPORTS RESORT NINTENDO NINTENDO NINTENDO
3 5 ASSASSIN’S CREED II UBISOFT (MONTREAL) UBISOFT UBISOFT
7 6 MARIO & SONIC AT OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES SEGA SEGA SEGA
6 7 NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII NINTENDO NINTENDO NINTENDO
9 8 FORZA MOTORSPORT 3 TURN 10 STUDIOS MICROSOFT MICROSOFT
10 9 MARIO KART WII NINTENDO NINTENDO NINTENDO
8 10 JUST DANCE UBISOFT (FRANCE) UBISOFT UBISOFT
