General gaming

General gaming

Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Delivers an Expectedly Strange Experience

Posted: 28 Aug 2012 05:15 PM PDT

WayForward has a made a name for themselves over the past few years by delivering titles that flow with the blood of retro gaming. Contra 4 and A Boy and His Blob are obvious examples of modern games that built upon the foundations of titles released during the 8-bit era. Even more recently was Aliens: Infestation, which explored the sci-fi staple through the guise of an adventure heavily inspired by the Metroid series. Strange inspiration, considering that Metroid itself drew heavily from the Alien film franchise, making it a sort of cyclical system of influence. A similar kind of paradox exists within the upcoming Adventure Time game set to hit both Nintendo handhelds this fall. And yes, it's full title is Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!

A quick crash-course for those unfamiliar with Pendleton Ward's amazing cartoon: Adventure Time is the simple story of a boy and his dog. Granted, Jake the dog is magical talking beast who can stretch like Mr. Fantastic and change sizes like Ant-Man, and Finn the human is living every kid's fantasy by actually residing in a world ripped straight out of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. The two buds explore the Land of Ooo, which may or may not be a post-Apocalyptic America, and spend their time finding mathematical loot, saving algebraic princesses, and battling the evil Russian Ice King. If you're a fan of the show, then all of that made perfect sense to you. If not, I'm sorry for the string of nonsense that just spewed from my fingertips.

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So the story in Adventure Time: HIKWYSOG (yep, not actually going to be using that acronym again) revolves around exactly what the title suggests -- the Ice King, for some strange reason, steals Finn and Jake's garbage. Thus, the two of them embark on a quest to rescue their beloved trash. It's obviousl from the start that the development team at WayForward are huge fans of the show. Aside from the fact that they were watching Adventure Time DVDs and quoting along while I was demoing the game, the entire package is filled with characters, locations, items, and nods to the earlier seasons of the cartoon. Some of these even play with the hardware itself, as your bottom screen is occupied by BMO, the pair's talking handheld gaming system who acts as your map, inventory, status screen, and quest log.

Gaming Communities: At the Playground

Posted: 28 Aug 2012 03:19 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF AUGUST 27 | COMMUNITY IN GAMES

Gaming Communities: At the Playground

Cover Story: A look back at the rumors and personalities of our youth.

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he elementary school playground is a place where children gather during recess to partake in the unending bliss of childhood exuberance. Four-square is played, tetherballs are knocked back and forth, hundreds of different variations of tag unfold, and the day's video game rumors are laid out to be discussed. The children often gather at one spot in the playground, one that was perhaps not planned as a spot of meeting, but became one through the spontaneous order that arises from the chaos of school-aged children. Like a gathering of rabbis discussing the intricacies of the Torah, the kids will present to the group rumors and facts about the world of video gaming. Once the statements have been offered, murmurs of approval or disapproval will begin to bubble up from the brief silence. Or perhaps the somewhat level background noise of the playground will be pierced by the disbelieving "NUH UH!" of a heretic who refuses to believe that there's a world in Super Mario Bros. called Sky World, and in it Mario flies on a mushroom rocket.

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Diggs Nightcrawler Proves That Wonderbook isn't Just for Kids

Posted: 28 Aug 2012 01:42 PM PDT

When Sony introduced Wonderbook during E3, I wasn't impressed. Don't get me wrong; I immediately thought the concept was great, but as someone who's not at all interested in the Harry Potter universe, that Book of Spells live demo that never seemed to end just looked like an overproduced -- and very condescending -- version of those free iPhone games I would never bother downloading.

Relying on a popular IP to present Wonderbook to the public for the first time may have been a winning marketing move, even if the game itself looks very dull, but it doesn't show respect for a device that has been in the works for almost seven years now, and certainly has a lot more potential than that. Luckily, another Wonderbook title made its debut during Gamescom -- Diggs Nightcrawler -- and did a great job not only of showing more of what the device can do, but also of proving that Wonderbook can be an interesting experience for grownups and kids alike thanks to its possibilities for enhanced storytelling.

In Far Cry 3, Nothing is Ever Black Or White

Posted: 28 Aug 2012 12:54 PM PDT

The first-person shooter genre has always shared a complex love-hate relationship with the public. On one hand, first-person shooters come under frequently criticism for their repetitive plots, their banal violence, and all the other tropes that comprise their genetic make-up. On the other hand, they make money. For every person that calls out the unflinching "sameness" of the genre, 10 others are ready to line up in the cold for the next installment of Call of Duty.

Unsurprisingly, open-world FPS Far Cry 3's producer Dan Hay doesn't have a problem with FPS games. He likes them. He also thinks that they may well be a little purer than most games.

Tag Mode: Nintendo's Near-Miss Brush With Community

Posted: 28 Aug 2012 10:35 AM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF AUGUST 27 | COMMUNITY IN GAMES

Tag Mode: Nintendo's Near-Miss Brush With Community

Cover Story: Before Street Passing, Nintendo's DS family created silent bonds between gamers.

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hen Animal Crossing: Wild World arrived way back in 2005, I found myself completely hooked. I would spend an hour every day gathering fruit, running menial errands for my airheaded animal friends, arranging the garden just so, and occasionally ransacking the orchards of friends over wi-fi. And every day, I would head to work via train with my town's gate open, the little "communication" light on my Nintendo DS blinking dutifully in the hope that someone would be doing likewise. Surely, in a tech-oriented city like San Francisco, other people would be hooked on the latest big game for Nintendo's portable. (It seemed a surer bet back in the days when only guys with executive haircuts and shiny suits carried smartphones.)

Sadly, that blinking light lit up to indicate a tag only once in all the weeks I cast about for interaction. I opened my system eagerly, excited to see who out there I had anonymously corresponded with... only to discover it was our news editor at the time, Jane Pinckard, who (like me) went to work each day hoping to make the acquaintance of passing Animal Crossing addicts. Her trawling, as with my own efforts, only netted a nibble once, in the lobby of our office as the two of us arrived at work at the same time.
Posted by Shri Krishna

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