Skullkids News

Mr Pants 2000

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:41:24 +0100

So I'm hosting Chris Allcock's Mr Pants 2000 apparently?

Click here!

Forgotten Videogame Heroes Part 5

Thu, 27 May 2010 11:32:02 +0100

There are two things in the world that you can be sure of, and only two things.

Thing the first is that videogames in the 1990s were generic platformers starring generic characters. There was nothing else. It's a bit like how these days everything is a brown God of War clone. The second thing is that every single Olympic mascot ever is awful. Just take a look at the ones this year.

Surely these two could meet in some kind of hideous unholy matrimony. Someone, somewhere, would have the idea that what the world really needs is a platforming game about an Olympic mascot.

For the 1996 Olympics, the mascot was Izzy. Izzy's initial design proposal was "a tear-shaped blob with rings on his arms", which is the laziest thing ever. Officials needed a little more though and so Izzy was born after a little modification. Here he is!

So now what we need is a videogame. Cue US Gold, who really badly wanted to publish such a monstrosity and hired Alexandria Inc to develop it. And by "develop" I mean "follow the book of 1990's platforming game design" to the letter.

Released on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Super Nintendo, Izzy's Quest for the Olympic Rings was the most generic thing ever made. And oddly, it wasn't completely trash. Generic though, oh yes. It even did that thing where they shoehorn a story in. This time it's something about 5 evil fiends hiding the rings so that Izzy can't take them home.

The font was pretty awful, though. Olympics? Oh well we need a Greek font, then.

Platforming was a fairly standard affair, but being based on the Olympics there had to be a few twists to the formula. And there were! Sort of. Firstly, Izzy had *two* jumps. Not content with just having a standard Mario jump, he also stole Sonic's spinny jump. Landing on enemies would kill them, but using the Mario jump would also hurt Izzy. I'm not sure what lesson this is supposed to bring across to the player, but I never jump on my enemies without spinning now.

The other little gimmick was that you could morph into various Olympic related guises. Archer, glider, baseball player... All the most popular sports were covered. But still, it's no Plok.

Here's a YouTube video, as is traditional for these updates.

Will Izzy return? No. But expect this year's generic silver blobs to show up in a game somewhere, probably on the iPhone.

Oh Boy

Thu, 27 May 2010 10:50:43 +0100

I should really update this!

There's a Pok�mon event on Saturday at the NEC, so I'll grab some PICTURES and make some VIDEOS then stick them on YOUTUBE and POST them. It will be a grand update of what will no doubt be a terrible event!

Nintendo Presents: Crossword Collection

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:19:14 +0000

While randomly browsing recent Nintendo press releases, I noticed one inclusion I had not really seen mentioned elsewhere. So consider this an EXCLUSIVE possibly, though I honestly can't be bothered to check around too much. The Google search box is just up there, even, and yet I'm too lazy right now to even fill that in.

Called Nintendo Presents: Crossword Collection, it's apparently a collection of crosswords presented by Nintendo. One of the selling points is that it comes on a dinky DS cartridge in a similar fashion to every other DS games. Another is that you can write over your previous answers if you change your mind.

Anyway, I emailed them as the PR had no box art attached and I wanted to show some. The lovely Steph replied within just 10 minutes and sent me this:

Click it for the nice hi-res version!

Oh, and it's out on the 18th December exclusively in the UK. Hoorah.

Mario RPG for Europe

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:54:19 +0100

Yep, only 147 months after the US release, Super Mario RPG finally shows its face in our fair region. I was terribly excited about this when I was 14, and the wait wasn't too bad. I mean, I've not died of old age! So well done Nintendo on another timely EU release.

It's 900 points on the Wii's Virtual Console, which is £6.30 in real money. Which isn't bad!

PART FOR NERDS ONLY BELOW

This marks the first chip-based game to hit the Virtual Console. The SA-1, in this case, which functioned as a faster CPU. Faster means from 3.58 MHz to a massive 10 MHz. It also featured memory mapping stuff, new DMA modes, built-in CIC lockout (for piracy!) and could do simple compression

WotLK Cinematic

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:44:52 +0100

A bit of wee just came out.

Odd Email

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:38:53 +0100

I was sent this email. I think it is Hylian.

YES, ZELDA, I WILL HELP YOU.

Major Idiots: Part One

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:55:23 +0100

Yeah I know, no Pokemon update on Saturday. That's because it would have been short to the point of being crap. Forgot to charge the camera, for one thing! And then there was no interaction on account of Darkrai being sent wirelessly automatically. Nice ice cream cart in Milton Keynes, mind.

Anyway! Welcome to the first of a new feature I call Major Idiots. In this, I point out the twats in the comment section of Major Nelson's news posts.

So without further ado, here's some highlights from This week on Arcade: Galaga Legions.

Matthew M G makes a valid point:

and BTW, Major--could we have someone look into getting Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on XBL as a downloadable Xbox Original?

Twat. Yes, I'm sure Larry will get right on that for you thanks for bringing it up here!

Anon 13, who decided to even hide his name because he's such a coward, brings up the following:

Can we plz get cheaper hdd's?

I'm pretty sure he's just JUICED LIKSPRUC and had forgotten to log in, who then posts immediately after:

How about a cheaper Hard drive!!

Just to drill the point home, he posts once more:

Cheaper hdd's plz?

I'm sure you convinced them, JUICED! CARNAGE RULES, another bellend who thinks the epitome of cool is to have their handle in caps, disagrees though:

Cheaper Hard drives??? Is a hundred bucks too much for you guys?

Yeah, fucking cheap losers.

Modern Warfare 2

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:26:44 +0100

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

The biggest launch title of the year will be in stores soon. Modern Warfare 2 is infinity wards latest and greatest game. This is a continuation to Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare, and modern warfare 2 weapons. Activision stated in its quarterly earnings report that pre-orders for the game had broken a company record: Modern Warfare 2 will be released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC platforms.

Things

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:42:09 +0100

Things I am excited about right now:

Bionic Commando remake on XBLA tomorrow.
UK Darkrai Pokemon event on Saturday.
Too Human being nearly out.

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Expect another update on Saturday detailing our wonderful adventure to catch a legendary Pokemon, cutting through paths of 12 year olds.