Canadian success waddles onto DS

By David Wylie

Canwest News Service

The march of Canada’s colourful penguins has continued all the way to the top of video game sales charts.

The journey to the release of Disney Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force for the Nintendo DS is a fairy tale success story.

In 2005, three Kelowna, B.C., residents decided to launch a virtual world in which penguins are used to represent community members. All were parents who wanted a safe place online where their kids could interact with others.

Word of Club Penguin spread quickly, gathering millions of users before the popular site caught the eye of Walt Disney Co.

Captivated by Club Penguin’s ability to attract and retain users, Disney bought the icy online paradise – designed for kids aged six to 14 – in 2007 for $350 million US.

Now, 18 months later, Club Penguin’s success continues to snowball with the newly released DS game, which is currently one of the best-selling North American titles for the hand-held console.

Blogs are dead? But I just got one…

In with the Tweet out with the blog

Actually this one’s not new, just seems that way because I haven’t posted in so long.

I was reading the latest Wired magazine (Thanks Megan for renewing my subscrption!), and there was a thought-provoking article by former Wired senior editor, Paul Boutin, about the death of the blog.

Boutin argues the blog is passe because mainstream news sources are now dominating and it’s near impossible for a grassroots writer to appear high up in a Google search. The new mediums for lesser-knowns are Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.

Nintendo out of tune, out of touch

The more I hear about Wii Music, the more I want to throw up.

Rock Band = cool: You get to play drums.

Guitar Hero = cool: It has great tunes and the guitar is awesome.

Wii Music = crap: You use the Wii remote to simulate playing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on the flute?

Win this cool Xbox! … if you’re an American

Rant time.

Rarely do I enter contests. I just don’t have the patience to fill out ballots or deal with the annoying follow up spam. However, I was prepared to make an exception to win this sweet Xbox 360.

The contest was advertised on Xbox’s website here.

Only one catch…

Nintendo’s epic fail quote of E3

Xbox 360 graphics

Vs. Nintendo Wii graphics

So we know by just looking at the DS and the Wii that Nintendo could care less about graphics, but get a load of this quote from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.

“Players no longer seek more gorgeous graphics.”

Huh? Nobody told me I wasn’t seeking gorgeous graphics. Actually, that’s not true. I’m not seeking them, I expect them. Microsoft and Sony can deliver new tech alongside excellent HD graphics, so why can’t Nintendo?

I mean I love the Nintendo franchise and all, and their Wiimote has added a new twist to video games, but that kind of quote drops the industry back a decade.

Just compare the top two images. Which one would you prefer?

I think my Xbox is sad

The life of a gamer has its ups and its downs.

Some weeks, it feels like I just can’t play enough to satisfy my hunger for achievements and urge for beating games. But I’ve found that over the past few weeks, I haven’t had hardly any desire to pick up my controller or pull my PSP out of my backpack.

I realized how little I’ve been playing yesterday when I checked bungie.net for the first time in weeks.

My soft spot for Gamespot

I’ve never been disappointed by a game that Gamespot said was fantastic. In fact, I respect Gamespot’s reviews so much that I’ll check the site before buying a game.

When they gave Assassin’s Creed a 9.0, I bought it — and I hated it for the first few hours. Still, I persisted and can now happily say it’s one of my favourite games ever. I bought Rock Band because of that site. And reluctantly bought Guitar Hero 3, as it got a bit of a mediocre review (I really wanted the wireless guitar).

I say all that so I can relate my utter sadness I felt today w

hen I finally got around to checking Gamespot’s review of Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift for the Nintendo DS.

They only gave the game a 7.0 and my threshold for buying a game is usually at least and 8.3 from their critics.

However, I saw something on the site that made me go “hmmm.”

The annoying case of the missing cases

EB Games, this rant is for you.

I like the concept of trading and buying used games.

However, I hate when those games don’t have their instruction book. I hate it even more when used games don’t have their instruction booklet or their original case. Sure playing the game is the best part. But I also like displaying my games, and I like reading the instructions (usually while sitting on the toilet… I know, TMI my couch sipping a nice civilized cup of cappuccino).

You can picture my horror stricken face while browsing used PSP games in one of the Ottawa EB Games stores today, and seeing about half of the used games don’t have cases or instructions. That’s not even the worst part. I find it downright silly that the store doesn’t give a discount for games that are in the cheesy EB Games makeshift cases. I mean used games are usually only about $5 cheaper anyways, so if the game is missing its aesthetic appeal, why buy it for the minimal discount?

I can’t imagine EB Games pays people the full trade-in value for games without instructions or cases — I wouldn’t know because I always take care of my cases and instructions — so why sell them for full price?

Just seems like a rip off.

Oh, and as a postscript and disclaimer, I have had issues with EB Games in the past.

Neighbourly love in the key of G(aming)

I just spent a good chunk of the night playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero with my next door neighbour.

First, I went over to his place and played drums (shameless plug: I’m pretty dang good on the drums at exaggerating ). We played on his PS3, which I still say is inferior to the 360 because the frame rate is so slow that the notes are actually shaky as they approach — making hitting the drums even tougher to time. If you’re reading this neighbour, I’m sorry . . . but it’s still true.

Then we came over to my place and played Guitar Hero: Legends of Rock for a while. He’s super good at guitar. Maybe I should recruit him to help me get the Rock Band world tour achievements that I still need.

But the thing that struck me is we hardly ever hang out. We’ve played catch and we’ve played golf. Still, what really connected us was the gaming — in particular Rock Band. He calls it a great family game because they all play together. I agree. My wife and I play together.

The music games are such good social connectors. They do video gaming a real service, helping to debunk the prevalent myth that gamers hang out in their (mother’s) basement by themselves all day and button mash.

Play Value podcast one of the best available

Everybody loves free stuff.

When I bought an iPod, the first thing I gravitated toward was the podcasts. They’re all free, and some of them are truly extraordinary.

Among those I’d call the best of the best is a gem from ON Networks. It’s called Play Value and gives a deep insight into the history of video games. I especially enjoyed Atari vs. Nintendo.

Here’s the website. I’d highly recommend you either watch them on the web, or download them to your iPod, Zune or whatever you young people own these days.