I've Been Waiting Fourteen Years For THIS South Park Game

A little late to this news - found it while reading the "bigger" news about the South Park RPG...

I sometimes feel like 'genre' is an unappreciated thing in game design, particularly when it comes to licensed properties. How many times have you seen a movie/TV/comic tie-in game turn out shit because it's been saddled with some half-baked "innovative" design build when a perfectly serviceable title could've been had by dropping the characters/setting into a "basic" genre setup? The NES "Batman" is still the best Batman game (Arkham 1 comes close, Arkham 2 is NOT as good as Arkham 1); and it doesn't really re-invent the wheel - it's just a VERY well-polished NES-era platformer... BUT WITH BATMAN! The SNES "Star Wars" games were, when you get right down to it, "Contra with Star Wars characters"... and they were AWESOME!

So why, then, has it taken 14 fucking years for someone to put the "South Park" kids exactly where they've always belonged? Namely, a South Park side-scroller!?



So... yeah. It looks like "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" (which, given the number of games borrowing the style, seems to have done for the 'party platformer' what the original did for 'regular' platformers) ...BUT IN SOUTH PARK. Brilliant! Genius! Inspired! Especially the brief glimpse of being able to play(?) as "The Coon" right there at the end.

WTF, though!? - why didn't they just make this instead of the shitty shooter back in the 90s? When haven't there been like TEN of these already? It seems like the easiest call anyone could've made!?

Hulk (Incredibly) Smash Modern Warfare!

There's something pointedly "now" about the idea that FilmCritHulk - the eccentric movie-blogger who pens lengthy, deeply-academic yet immensely readable articles on film and film criticism in the "voice" of The Incredible Hulk - got probably his biggest "boost" in terms of internet publicity for a piece not on films but on video games.

In the wake of said piece, Hulk has scored a (well-deserved) high-profile gig on Devin Faraci's (must-bookmark) site BadassDigest. Now, Hulk once again turns his eyes toward gaming with an AMAZING piece breaking down the (de)evolution of the "Call of Duty" games and, in doing so, making a dozen or so absolutely vital points about problems (but also high-points) of the modern games industry as a whole. It's a MUST READ - and no, NOT (only) because he gives your's truly an extremely gracious shoutout.

Episode 61 COMING SOON (UPDATED!)

UPDATE! Episode 61 will debut for all audiences NEXT WEDNESDAY 12/7 at 10pmCST/11pmEST. ScrewAttack ADVANTAGE subscribers can get an early look TOMORROW at the same time. Remember, if you sign up for ADVANTAGE select "The Game OverThinker" as your show of choice so that your subscription supports THIS show :)

I don't have an exact date/time for Episode 61 yet (other than to say YES, this one will be available one week early for Advantage subscribers) but it's coming very soon. Until then, here's a new trailer currently running on YouTube that contains a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery teeny-tiny tease at upcoming episodes:

Is "GameGadget" The OPEN-SOURCE Platform We've Been Waiting For?

...Probably not, but I like the idea.

"Blaze" is a Europe-based gaming outfit that mostly specializes in making gaming peripherals and those dedicated all-in-one consoles and handhelds pre-loaded with retrogames that you see on mall kiosks around the Holidays. Now, they've thrown their weight behind a still-somewhat-mysterious concept called "GameGadget" that seems like the logical next-step from that particular business model: An open-source, Linux-based handheld (it looks like a plus-sized GameBoy Micro) that aims to be the "iPod of games."


Thus far the press-release from last week and images are the bulk of what's been revealed, but the basic idea is that the device (which DOES appear to have an SD slot) will interface with a proprietary version of the App Store, which Blaze/GameGadget is heavily angling for rights-holders to classic games (pre-PS1, most likely) to fill with their product. The press release makes a BIG deal out of this being a way for publishers to re-monetize their retrogames without much (or any) additional investment. They're also courting small/upstart developers to make new titles for the format, which they claim it's "fully compatible" with SDL and DirectFB.

I LOVE everything about this... except for the fact that it's being put out by a company without much of a profile otherwise - something that's going to involve a lot of back-and-forth between a dizzying number of (theoretical) partnerships needs some muscle behind it, or at least would seem to from my perspective.

I've maintained for awhile that something LIKE this - an everything-in-one-place app store for classic games - would be both a game-changer and an industry-saver; and it's INCREDIBLY frustrating that the main thing preventing it has been Apple's ridiculous resistance to having buttons on the various iDevices - which has severely kneecapped the variety of games most smartphones can (properly) run. Imagine carrying around every Atari/Spectrum/C64/NES/SNES/Genesis/TG16/NeoGeo/Arcade classic you ever loved - plus new stuff in the "golden age"/mobile style - to be there whenever and wherever you needed them? BLISS. Absolute bliss... and also a vital way of keeping The Classics alive and readily available to new generations without the cumbersome extra work of buying/maintaining used equipment and/or murkily-legal emulation. No more game design students walking around without a proper background in the origins of the medium on account of having been born after said origins were easy to get? THAT'S how you save the future of video games, my friends.

I would love, love, LOVE to see something like GameGadget swoop in and either A.) be wildly successful and put a giant dent into Apple's goal of iPhone becoming "The AllGadget" because of their silly button-phobia; or B.) be just successful enough to scare Apple/Android/etc into getting over their silly button-phobia and making one to compete. I'm just not sure GameGadget is actually the thing to do it.

BUT! The thing (apparently) comes out early next year, so we'll see. A man can dream, after all...

Desert Bus Has Begun!

The great folks at LoadingReadyRun have begun their yearly "Child's Play" charity drive, wherein they play Desert Bus - one of the worst games ever made - for your amusement. You can watch the live feed and donate HERE.

I'm scheduled to call in and shoot the breeze with them LIVE at 11am PST (2pm EST) on Monday the 21st, so tune in for that as well.

Happy Birthday to Shigeru Miyamoto

The greatest video-game designer of all time was born today in 1952. Bow your heads and take notice.

EPISODE 60: "NINJAMAGEDDON" (aka "The Mailbag Show")

Episode 60 can now be viewed by EVERYONE here! Did you're questions make the cut? Watch it and find out!