News Archive
Star Soldier R
Hudsun have announced another chapter in the Star Soldier series, to be released on Nintendo's new Virtual Console channel "WiiWare". Star Soldier R will contain revamped graphics but retain the vertical shooter's traditions, including the 2- and 5-minute "Caravan" modes.
Screenshots from Famitsu look superb, and they hint at some sort of new combo system too (see the top-right corner of this screeny). Due to arrive around May in Japan.
In other Wii news, Sega has revealed they plan to begin releasing Master System games for the Virtual Console, with the first (Sega's Fist of The North Star, otherwise known as Black Belt in the UK - a game I used to whittle away hours playing as a nipper), arrived on 26th February in Japan.
Wiiloader
Datel have released a Freeloader disc for Wii. There are actually 3 different versions of the disc, one for each region which in itself might seem a little overly-fiddly. But the main problem is that the disc is obviously liable Nintendo's firmware updates, which in theory could render the software completely obsolete. As such, but many importers are holding back.
Early impressions are positive though, and if all goes well on the firmware issue (or if someone comes up with an alternative method to prevent it) it may yet become as indispensable to Wii as it was to the GameCube.
Mini November Update
Quick updates if you haven't subscribed to the RSS feed:
- A review of Radiohead's seventh studio album, In Rainbows
- Sega Classics Collection has been covered in the Retro Special
There's also some little updates to the Portfolio and Downloads sections, so feel free to Snoop Dogg around.
Motorcross Challenge [GBA] + GameWave DVD videos
Motocross Challenge is a homebrew GBA game that's had it's share of ups and downs. Developed by the team at DHG games, the game found a publisher, only to then have them drop the game at the last moment. Thankfully, the team has decided to put the game out on the internet, and the ROM can be downloaded for absolutely free. It's a charming mix between Excitebike and cult favourite Motorcross Maniacs-style gameplay - worth checking out.
Elesewhere this issue: YouTube videos! Fointy Pinger points you in the direction of superplay videos with a difference - all from the now-defunct Japanese mag, GameWave DVD. Hover your mouse over each link to see the descriptions:
Mario Kart 64 / Metal Gear Solid / Pikmin / Puyo Puyo Sun / Super Mario 64 / Super Mario Bros 2 / Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 Plus / Winning Eleven 3
Fighting Stick Wii
Purveyors of fine console arcade sticks and controllers over the years, Japanese manufacturer HORI have been busy working on a lovely looking arcade-style stick for Wii. Although the Nintendo's own Classic Contoller has a very nice D-pad, this stick will be an essential purchase for those looking to get the best out of their Virtual Console games, especially for shooters and the current crop of Street Fighter II games. It's due to arrive in Japanese stores in late August, but there's no news of this appearing in the UK anytime soon.
"All your seven dreams..."
Smashing Pumpkins, (the most wonderful and glorious alternative band of the 90's, ever) have announced the release date of their long-awaited reunion album, to be titled "Zeitgeist". Initially (for the moment anyway) set to headline the Pinkpop Festival in Landgraaf, some other tour dates have been pencilled in and around Europe in the summer (no US dates right now), but I'm also told they may play in the UK this year too.
After a 7 year absence, their 7th album will be released on the 7th day of the 7th month of 2007: 07/07/07. In't that clever? It's almost like an event, something to anticipate, something to feel happy and excited about :). Whatever sound the new (old?) Pumpkins return with, (even without Iha and D'arcy), it's going to be interesting to hear what Billy has come up with.
Visit their horrible MySpace page for further details.
Wii Virtual Console gets Ne(o)w games.
Nintendo have confirmed its intentions to expand its Virtual Console catalogue this summer with MSX games - first mentioned a year ago - with Aleste being one of the first games to arrive. Most interestingly though, is the confirmation of Neo Geo conversions. Quite how these will translate well to the Wii's classic-style controller is still up for debate, but it's an exciting prospect, nonetheless.
The catch (what, you thought there wouldn't be one?): these games have only been announced for Japan, and it would be a surprise (particularly in the case of the UK) if any of them become available for download elsewhere. The advantages of importing a Japanese Wii are becoming more and more obvious by the day...(still haven't got one though).
For the latest news on UK Wii Virtual Console downloads, check out the excellent Virtual Console Archive.
Konami and Capcom Goodness
After the success of Gradius Portable on PSP, Konami have announced a further 3 retro-collections, again for Sony's handheld system. Parodius, Salamander and TwinBee will all get their own "Collections", each containing 5 titles. The Parodius one in particular stands out (I've always enjoyed Parodius more than Gradius, anyway) and the TwinBee compilation will be worth snapping up too - another great series. Either would be perfectly suited titles for handheld fun, and should take pride in any PSP collection, methinks.
Capcom also have another retro collection coming up, this time with a sequel to Capcom Classics Collection. Essentially the PSP's Capcom Classics Remixed but with one or two extra games, Capcom Classics Collection 2 will ship for PS2 in February here in the UK, but although the Konami games will also arrive sometime early in 2007, it's possible they will stay Japan-exclusive - at least for the time being anyway.
Bullet Hell GBA
Takayama Fumihiko's BulletGBA dójin game has been updated recently from the previous version(s), and now contains proper levels, a high score mode and a really smart replay feature. You'd do worse than to download both versions: BulletGBA is a neat little practice game for bullet patterns from a host of popular shoot-em-ups (you play it vertical style, obviously), whereas Vulkanon is a proper 'ardcore bullet-death shmup. Lovely stuff.
Or, if you're after something different, why not download the new demo for Qwak GBA, a cute platform collect-em-up.
Elsewhere in this shmup super-special edition of Fointy Pinger you'll find:
- A review of Japanese shooter Radirgy GeneriC for the GameCube!
- An RSS feed so you can keep up-to-date with erm... updates (I think it works anyway)!
- A nerd-countdown to the UK launch of Wii at the bottom of every page!
10 reasons why Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting on Xbox360 is shit
If you're going to re-release the greatest 2D beat-'em-up of all time and finally allow gamers the world over to play each other, why not "do a Capcom" and completely mess it up, just for laughs like?
Rife with technical inaccuracies and limitations (the Super "not-even-a-coin-op-port" Nintendo version outperforms it tenfold), Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting (available on Live Arcade now) also requires you to wrestle with one of the most unsuitable control pads ever made for 2D gaming. This could have been one of the best things ever, but it's just...wrong.
1) The fucking horrible Xbox360 D-pad
2) The horrible Xbox360 buttons/triggers
3) Pervasive lag and infrequent connection errors
4) Incorrect/distorted SFX
5) Slow game speed (it's not really Hyper Fighting at all)
6) Having to listen to Live users say they "wish they'd done Alpha 3 instead"
7) Ryu's Cyclone Kick is wrong
8) Weird space at the top of the screen where the high-score and running scores should be
9) Ugly graphic-bleeding on HDTV's (if you're one of the 1% or whatever it is who have one)
10) Western boss names (OK, nitpicking slightly)
...Ah, I'm just being a miserable, whiney twat, aren't I?
Time Trumpet
Satirist Armando Iannucci is back on TV this week and for the next six weeks with a new program called Time Trumpet. The year is 2031, and with contributions from Ant and Dec, David Beckham and Charlotte Church, the show looks back at the absurd changes the world has gone through in the past 25 years. It easily looks like it's going to be the best thing on TV and it starts on 3rd August and continues every Thursday on BBC TWO at 10:00pm.
Updates
There is a new review (OutRun 2006) and the Retro Special has been updated with a review of the excellent Taito Legends 2.
Click here to go to the news archive.
bitGenerations (GBA)
Proving the Game Boy Advance (probably the best gaming thing ever in the world, of all time) isn't quite finished yet, Nintendo are due to release an interesting new series of games called bitGenerations. These weird and wonderful titles will be sold at a "budget" price (around £10) due to their simplicity; 3 games will be released on 13th July (dotstream, BOUNDISH and DIALHEX), with another 4 titles arriving two weeks later.
Making use of simplistic graphics and classic 4-bit SFX, the collection promises to merge sound and music with some very retro-styled gameplay. Odd perhaps, but I'm sold already.
The team that bought us the brilliant Made in Wario series have also confirmed they are working on another GBA game: Rhythm Tengoku. Apparently, you have to follow the on-screen actions to the beat of the music, but various weirdness takes place that is said to distract the player from their rhythm. Obviously, it's going to be ace. Cheers to kea_ for showing me this.
E times 3
Of all the games showcased at E3 this year, one title has got me more excited than anything other. And it isn't going to appear on any of the "next generation" systems, either.
Super Paper Mario (highlight to zoom, right) for the GameCube uses the graphical style of the Paper Mario series and combines it with classic 2D platforming action. The result looks incredible, and if the controls and level design are also up to the standard of the visuals, this could well be the GameCube's own Yoshi's Island.
Visit the official website for screenshots and a video clip, as well as details of another new Nintendo GameCube game on the way: DK Bongo Blast.
In other gaming news, two new interesting titles have been announced for the Nindendo DS: Point Blank (which is actually already out in Japan) and Project Hacker. The latter looks very interesting, with a comprehensive anime-styled storyboard and sneeky gameplay, involving hacking and downloading information. Despite being a Japan-only game so far, it's got to be a title worth looking out for.
Fointy Pinger is back
After a few technical problems with hosting, the site is now back up and running properly again.
Extra special thanks and kisses to kea_ for hosting the site for the past year. Plus thank you to flp for his patience and helpful advice.
Dreamcast lives on (again)
Radilgy (or Radirgy/Rajirugi as it is also know as - the name is fairly strange and so the Romanised translation is still unclear) is released in Japan on 16th February for the Dreamcast. It's another shooter from Chaos Field developers Milestone, but the twist with this title appears to be the graphics: they're cel-shaded. Wo-hoo! Go to the official website to see more. There are also rumours that the game is to be ported to the GameCube and PS2, presumably depending on the success of the DC release.
Also, Under Defeat from G-Rev is due out on the Dreamcast on 23rd March. It looks similar to the excellent Zero Gunner 2, and if Border Down (also by G-Rev) is anything to go by, this should be very good (and hard).
Nintendo DS news
At the recent DS Conference 2006 in Japan, it was announced Nintendo have teamed up with the Opera web-browser developers to release (yeh), a web-browser for the DS. Nintendo also plans to make a TV tuner for the system.
Obviously both of these stories are really boring, but it does give me the chance to show a picture of the new, re-designed DS lite. Sweet.
Game music/artwork/advert resource
Galbadia Hotel hosts some interesting game soundtracks you might not have come across elsewhere, including the wonderful Jet Force Gemini soundtrack, Timesplitters, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!, Lumines and plenty of others. The site also throws in a large selection of TVCM's, animé and manga artwork and MIDI files for good measure. OverClocked ReMix is also great for alternative re-mixes and interpretations.
The games come out to play
After a pretty middling Christmas, the beginning of 2006 will play host to a lovely big pile of great PAL games that are worth looking out for. It's going to be an expensive few months, what with...
- Shadow Of The Collossus - (PS2)
- We Love Katamari - (PS2)
- Sega Classics Collection - (PS2)
- Taito Legends II - (PS2/Xbox)
- Rainbow Islands Revolution - (NDS)
- Trauma Centre: Under The Knife - (NDS)
- Wario Ware Inc.: Twisted - (GBA)
- OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast - (PS2)
- Lemmings - (PSP)
...all on the way between now and April, man.
Winter update
In the last update from me to Fointy Pinger for 2005, I've tweaked around with the styles to make things a little more easy on the eye (it was a bit too light before) and also added a fully CSS-driven drop-down menu for the navigation bar, so refresh your browser a few times if you can't already see the changes. Updates then: three new pieces in the reviews section and a new download in the download bit. However, if you have anything that you want to submit to the site (a picture, a review of a DVD, CD, gig, or anything else), email it to me and I'll put it up straight away.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess hype
With the latest Zelda likely to be the final 3D console version of the game as we know it, director Eijo Aonuma has hinted about the efforts and features being put into Nintendo GameCube's swansong, due out (sometime) in 2006. Apparently:
- The game uses the largest development team than any other game in the series
- Link and the other characters will have motion captured animation
- The content is larger than Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time (the total play time is over 100 hours)
- Many new features and creative elements are present in the game that were originally to be used in the next generation Zelda title
With all the talk of boring "next generation" machines and bloody HDTV's, this title alone, on the humble Cubey, is still more anticipated by me than any hype the rest of the industry is artificially trying to muster for any other game or system.
"You were all born yesterday" - Microsoft (1up agree).
I don't tend to read any other gaming sites apart from the ones on the right of your screen, but I realised I'm probably not missing much when I stumbled accross this odd piece, which made me chuckle.
In what seemed like a responce to Microsoft's hillarious marketing bullshit spin, monkey-typed webshite 1up.com asks "Can you hear your wallet crying yet?" for the Xbox360 and it's mostly bland launch line up. By their reckoning, the PSP had a superior launch line up to the Super Nintendo, as did the PS2 to the GameCube launch, conviniently leaving out any consistant facts that might have helped support their argument. As well as declaring Sega's infamously limp 128bit launch as the best of all time, the GameCube launch was apparently "an accurate indication" of the console as a whole: "a disappointment all around." As dissapointing as the thought someone probably got paid to write this? Keep trying.
That's well brown
Yes. Finally, the Nathan Barley DVD has arrived. Play.com is your usual best bet, so get spending, yeah? Also, trashbatdotcock has been updated to coincide with the release, and there are some new downloads on the site, including some well weapon wallpapers and videos.
The brainchild of Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris, Nathan Barley is their latest comedy assault on society; a satirical parody of the Hoxton-finned, style obsessed world of the new media. Nathan Barley is 26. He is a webmaster, guerrilla filmmaker, screenwriter, DJ and in his own words, a "self-facilitating media node". He is convinced he is the epitome of urban cool and therefore secretly terrified he might not be, which is why he reads Sugar Ape Magazine - his bible of cool.
Feel The Magic 2
The sequel to Feel the Magic is relased in Japan on 20th October. Akachan wa doko kara kuru no? (Where do babies come from?) is the subtitle... make of that what you will. It's still likely the game will feature lots of fruitless endevours and rival dudes competing for the heart of your true love, but this time, there's a decidedly snowy, ski-mountain theme.
Check out the official Sega website for game details, story and events. There are also a few mini games on there too.
Stylesheet switcher
I've included a stylesheet switcher* for the site now, so feel free to play around with it at the bottom of every page and choose your favourite style to view Fointy Pinger. Isn't that nice?
Unofficial Rez Soundtrack
In mentioning the stylesheet-switcher, you 'may' have noticed the style copied from UGA's seminal "Rez": SEGA's mini site for the game can be found here. And on the subject of Rez, some nifty fellow has managed to record the audio tracks from the game into mp3 format, which also includes the excellent options screen and ending music that was missing from the official soundtrack. Basically someone has just played the game with the SFX turned off, but it sounds pretty good all the same. Download the motherfucker here.
Special Thanks
To kea_ and flp for their help.
Adam & Joe DVD - Series 1-4
play.com have the Adam and Joe DVD for sale at a nice and cheap price, so pick it up today! This DVD is packed full of the best bits from series 1-4, plus a whole host of extras, sound bites and a mini documentary thrown in for good measure. Sure, it really could have done with being spread across two disks, as it really struggles to cram in all of the best bits of the show, but maybe if enough people buy it, a second DVD will be put into production. Maybe.
Fointy Pinger is live
Fointy Pinger is online! This site is going to be home to demonstrations of my work, videogame musings, reviews and links, plus a whole host of other pointless crap.
