Infendo
Does Japan unfairly shun American games?
While on the topic of Japanese games, Game Trailers tries to answer the following question in round table fashion: Does Japan unfairly shun American games? In the video clip, analyst Michael Pachter asserts that no Western game has sold more than a million copies in Japan, whereas several Japanese games have done precisely that here in the US. Assuming his facts are right, he’s got a point. ...
Nintendo is Japan’s 2nd most valuable company
This may surprise some people and not others, but Nintendo is the second most valuable company in Japan right now, just behind automaking behemoth Toyota. Reuters: Nintendo Co Ltd roared past Canon Inc to become Japan’s second most valuable tradable company behind Toyota Motor Corp this week as investors bet demand for its Wii and DS machines will remain strong into the critical year-end sho...
4,000 Mii Parade video
Our old friend California HurBoy is at it again, this time documenting his Mii Parade’s growth to 4,000 goofy looking characters. How many Miis are in your parade?
Major Japanese contributions to video games
I wrote an article for GamePro last week in which I documented the major Japanese contributions to video games since the birth of the medium. Here’s a relevant snippet for Infendo Nation: 1889 – Nintendo is formed in late September by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards which are used for several popular Japanese games. Over the years the company will transform into on...
Nintendo Spotting: Wii car finishes 2nd edition
Some cool pics of NASCAR’s new Wii car, driven by Greg Biffle, can be found over at bits, bytes, pixels and sprites. And it means absoltuely nothing in the grand scheme of things, but… Luckily I had the Nintendo Wii car to cheer on! (There was also a Halo 3 car but it spent the 1st half of the race at the tail end and the 2nd half in the garage). What made the race work out so well is ...
Virtual Console Monday – Kirby’s Avalanche, Streets Of Rage 3, and Legend Of Hero Tonma
New stuff for Virtual Console today: Kirby’s Avalanche – SNES Everyone’s favorite round, pink hero takes a break from swallowing his enemies to put your brain to work in this fast-paced puzzle game. Are you good enough to help Kirby become the avalanche king? Streets of Rage 3 – Genesis Just when you thought the world was safe from the Syndicate and its shady leader, Mr. X,...
It’s time to retire game rankings
I doubt they realize what they’ve done. The couldn’t possibly, unless it was some kind of grand satire experiment where they themselves were trying to epitomize — using a mirror — what was wrong with their medium. A certain web site today gave Halo 3 (which I am 100% positive will be amazing for a Halo game) a perfect score. They weren’t the first, and certainly won&#...
Infendo Radio #75 is standing in line for Halo 3
Infendo Radio #80 #75 comes to you this week from the parking lot at its local video game shop while waiting in line to buy Halo 3. Seriously? Well, there’s only one way to find out … Radio Feed iTunes Feed MP3 Enjoy! Podcast: Play in new window | Download (31.5MB)Subscribe: Email | RSS
Nintendo releases for the week ending September 29th
Hot off the manufacturing line come the following new releases this week: DS Math Play Spelling Challenges and More! Animal Genius Cocoto Kart Racing Crayola Treasure Adventures Race Driver: Create & Race World Series of Poker 2008 Kurupoto Cool Cool Stars Arctic Tale Wii Bratz: The Movie Balls of Fury Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party Dave Mirra BMX Challenge Dewy’s Adventure Dragon ...
TGS Hands (and feet)-on impressions: Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party
Okay, so I play a lot of DDR. I have to bike probably a couple of miles just to get to the closest game center that has a DDR machine and I still sometimes go three times a week. Obviously I was excited to hear that there was going to be a DDR release for the Wii, but I didn’t get my hopes up too high, especially when I found out the game was being showcased at TGS in the “Kids Corner....
TGS Hands-on impressions: Arkanoid DS
I’ll be honest: as Mac user I’ve always felt a certain affinity for “Arkanoid,” or “Breakout,” since it was originally written by Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple computer. Nowadays you can play some version of it on any platform from cellphone to RCA-cable contraption, but for the true Atari experience you do need the original dial.
TGS Hands-on impressions: Cooking Mama 2
I’ve never actually played Taito’s original “Cooking Mama” for the DS, but since the series has sold over a million copies world wide, a sequel is inevitable. Since I always wanted to try out the franchise, I was excited to test a Cooking Mama 2 recipe, and the game was a true pick-up and play experience. It was fun and easy to prepare ingredients for a batch of tempura, bu...