See you in 2010

We out. Again. And by “we,” I mean me. Sorry for the slow news day; busy at work, rough day at the office, “blah, blah, blah.” There wasn’t really anything important going on today anyways, was there?

This should be the last holiday for a while. Once New Years Eve rolls around the nonstop festivities finally come to a close. Updates will resume on Monday, naturally.

Brace yourself peeps, 2010 cometh and it’s going to be a fucking huge year in gaming. Best clear out that backlog while you still have a chance, time’s ticking.

For those curious, I will indeed be doing a Game of the Year of sorts but I’m debating on how to handle it. There are still a number of high quality games I haven’t even touched, and I’d hate to neglect them for that reason. At the same time, I don’t want to take too long to run the GOTY awards either.

We shall see. Maybe they begin to rollout next week? Maybe.

See you in 2010. Be safe and game hard.

Castle Crashers sale makes way for Battlefield 1943

Another day of good deals over in Xbox land as Battlefield 1943 is up for grabs for the same low price Castle Crashers was yesterday. $7 or 560 points will score the download only title on XBLA.

Upon seeing this I was tempted to spend some points because it’s definitely a good deal, but then I remembered all the other games I’m playing, one of which is a little known war shooter called Modern Warfare 2.

I simply can’t imagine myself playing this title for more than an hour, and DICE hasn’t exactly supported the title properly. I mean, no map packs? Really?

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Nacho average N64 game

Sometimes good games die young, which is to say they get outright canceled. I mostly go to Unseen64 for all of my canned game information, but this time superannuation provided the goods for Nacho64, an unreleased N64 game.

Apparently it was shown in demo reel form, but I’d honestly never heard of it until today. While it’s nothing to gawk over when compared with our current consoles (duh) it’s an extremely impressive graphical feat considered the N64’s prowess.

It chugs a bit, but that’s the norm with great graphics on the N64, unfortunately. Nacho64 looks like it would’ve been a charming little title and the music is super catchy. It’s sad seeing this really. The demo captures the feel of what great N64 titles were made of back in the day.

Intel looking to put chip in Wii successor?

At this point, I have to question the purpose of a Wii HD. We know Michael Pachter is clinging desperately to his prediction, but we’re getting deep into the life cycle of the Wii and unless Nintendo offered some form of backwards compatibility, most of the library wouldn’t even take advantage of it.

Now let’s not get crazy, I would buy one, but wouldn’t it just be better to focus on bringing HD to the Wii’s successor?

Hiroshige Goto is knee deep in next generation reporting, this time shifting his research from Sony to Nintendo. Goto says Intel is in contact with Nintendo trying to strike up a deal to use its upcoming Larrabee processor, Andriasang reports.

Looking at the timeline of when the rumored Wii HD could hit, and when this new processor would be viable for a Nintendo platform, Goto says Intel is likely looking for it to be in a Wii successor, not a Wii HD.

It’s mostly speculation so don’t read too far into it, but it’s interesting – I’m a sucker for next gen talk every gen.

Small knights, small price; grab Castle Crashers for 560 points

You may be extremely late to the party, but go pick up Castle Crashers if you haven’t already; it’s going for 560 points today only.

It’s never wise to question me, mortals, but if you just have to know, Castle Crashers is a terrific sidescrolling beat ‘em up on XBLA. It’s made by the dudes behind Alien Hominid and it provides hours of co-op gaming goodness.

The visual style is unique and it’s what every modern brawler should aim to be. Basically, it’s the exact opposite of the recent Turtles in Time remake.

No time to waste. Go. Buy. Now.

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A different form of Metal Mario

Zelda went rap and now Mario goes metal. While this clip doesn’t have the flow of Jay-Z backing it, it’s pretty damn hilarious to see Mario faux headbanging.

The splicing of the dudes actually rocking the song out and Mario hopping through Bowser’s castle is pretty brilliant, and the end is fucking awesome – watch it all the way through.

Guilty Gear creator intends to create new entry for PS3, 360

BlazBlue is a solid fighter, but no doubt many still hold out hope for a new iteration of the Guilty Gear series. Ark System Works business development director Tomo Ohno gave a little hope in a recent interview, discussing the matter with NowGamer – just don’t expect a BlazBlue crossover anytime soon.

“Personally I don’t like that idea,” Ohno said. “What we can say about Guilty Gear is that it is not dead yet. It has not ended. The producer/creator of Guilty Gear, Daisuke Ishiwatari, his comment for this meeting was ‘I have the full intention to create Guilty Gear for PS3 and 360.”

So new Guilty Gear confirmed? Not quite.

Siliconera reports there are issues on the business side of things regarding who owns what between Sega and Arc System. Hopefully it gets sorted out in a hurry, HD Guilty Gear would be fantastic.

Somewhere, Quick Draw McGraw is smiling

Game of the Year 2010? Maybe.

Fast Draw Showdown is coming to WiiWare, and it’s the rootinest, tootinest game that ever did exist. It’s one of the 90s many completely awesome and not at all cheesy and terrible FMV-based light gun shooters. Fast Draw is a port of the 1994 arcade “hit.”

Not buying what I’m selling? Watch the trailer up top – epic.

Another work in progress clip of La-Mulana

Nicalis could have some big WiiWare hits on their hands if they could ever manage to put anything out. A Cave Story remake has been in the works for a ridiculous amount of time, Night Sky still hasn’t been released and La Mulana seems to be crawling along.

Better late than never I suppose, I just hope the games are worth it.

Nicalis is throwing us more scraps with a work in progress look at La Mulana – expect the game to release sometime between now and Diablo III.

It looks good, but release the fucking game already. Better yet, release a game.

First North Star gameplay clips send hype south

The first Fist of the North Star Musou gameplay videos have surfaced online and they’re decidedly less cool than the trailer posted yesterday. The action on screen is tame and the sound effects seem cheapo. And where the hell is the music?

I t could still be a fun romp, but romp isn’t exactly the word I’d use for these early clips. More like a slow paced puncher with blood explosions that try to make it seem exciting. It doesn’t work.

Hype deflated.