The founding of a nation is pretty significantand well worth getting excited about. The best way to display said excitement is, of course, with massive, colorful airborne explosions, a.k.a. fireworks. Tomorrow night, towns across the USA will be putting on fireworks displays, big and small -- but why should you have to wait for it to get dark? The games you'll find after the break will let you get all explode-y from the comfort of your living room, without the charred mess and frantic 911 call. So, put on your favorite patriotic tune (it's "The Stars & Stripes Forever" for us) and make with the clicking!
The E3 2009 media briefing in Los Angeles, California, fields announcements on Super Mario Wii, Metroid: Other M, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Wii Sports Resort, and Wii Fit Plus.
"Working on the Nintendo Wii was a pretty exciting thing for us. We were excited about the unique controls and what they brought to the gamer," explains Steve Papoutsis in this new dev diary. Extraction, the Wii-exclusive prequel to Dead Space, as with many Wii games, takes advantage of multiple control modes, depending on whether you use the Wii Remote or Zapper. Either way, the game utilizes some clever Wii-specific tricks, like switching to alt-fire by simply turning the controller on its side.
The footage showcased in the latest dev diary highlights some of the best visuals we've seen on Wii so far. One of the co-op segments highlighted in the video combines puzzle-solving and monster-blasting in a rather smartly designed (and terrifying) way. Even worse, the two players will have to switch off during the puzzle as enemies continue to jump in. With so many clever ideas being thrown about, Extraction may have a shot at making us all scream in terror.
Break out those tattered jeans and torn up flannel, because Guitar Hero: World Tour is getting a new DLC pack for the punk in all of us. Dubbed the Epitaph Punk-O-Rama Track Pack, the download features three tunes from three separate well-known Epitaph artists. It may be a bit more on the mainstream side of punk, but they’re good tracks nonetheless.
We often want to play SNES, but our busy up-and-go lifestyle of blogging for Joystiq doesn't allow it. Thankfully, a modder over at Retroactive.be came up with a solution: the portable SNES you see above. Sure, it's not our first time seeing such a mod, but it is definitely one of the most stylish. Why, we haven't been so blown away since we've seen this same mod made out of wood!
Head past the break for a video showing off the device, then hit up our gallery below for some other impressive retro mods.
The retailer pricing of DJ Hero found recently -- $120 bucks! -- has some folks wondering why Activision may have upped the price for its usual game-plus-peripheral combo. The company has offered an explanation answer to Eurogamer, saying, "We believe that DJ Hero will provide tremendous value for our consumers by delivering an all-new interactive music experience with over 100 individual songs that are highlighted in over 80 unique mixes, a wide variety of ..."
...
Sorry, we nodded off there for a minute. Between the $250 for The Beatles: Rock Band and another $120 for Tony Hawk: Ride, we're up late a lot, worrying about affording all these plastic game controllers -- and a bigger house to put them all in.
We just told you that Konami's faux-retro Gradius Rebirth was added to the PAL WiiWare shop. If you've been playing for the past hour or so and have already moved on to dreaming about Konami's other WiiWare retro reinterpretation, you'll be happy to hear that Konami has announced a European release for Contra Rebirthas well, to be expected this August. This also gives North American readers cause for some measure of optimism.
In addition, Konami will release its top-down racer, Driift, later this month as DRiiFT MANIA. "DRiiFT MANIA" is also a condition in which someone is compelled to spell things with two lower-case i's.
Nintendo of Europe’s Hanabi Festival returns, bringing with it, of course, import games! Fantastic stuff is available this week on Virtual Console: Pulseman, a Mega Man-style platformer from a pre-Pokemon Game Freak, and Ogre Battle, the legendary strategy title from Yasumi Matsuno’s Quest.
This week’s awesomeness extends to WiiWare, with both Bplus’s Bit Boy!!, the maze action game that shuffles between various levels of retro, and Gradius Rebirth, which settles at the 16-bit era. And on DSiWare, the Mario calculator and clock apps arrive. Roll your eyes all you want, but they’re surprisingly delightful. Details after the break.
Nintendo also announced Hanabi Festival titles you can expect in following weeks: Bomberman ‘94, Kirby’s Dream Land 3, Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II, MUSHA, Detana!! Twinbee, and the NES Smash Table Tennis!
Three games to light up your 4th originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
XBL / $5.49 PSN):
