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Epic quickly nerfs the new 'Fortnite' SMG after complaints
The v5.10 Fortnite update that brought back our beloved Playground mode also added something else -- this new gun. Unfortunately, the "high capacity, fast firing Compact SMG" was just a little too overpowered, and many high-profile players quickly complained that it made the game a race to get the SMG so one could chew through their enemies (and their buildings, as the starting and max health of many materials dropped at the same time). While Epic has been up front about wanting to make the endgame more exciting and less focused on build-offs as it pushes for esports viability, this particular tweak may have gone too far. As a result, the company quickly lowered the accuracy, range and damage done by the new gun and existing SMGs. Check below for the (now-live) adjusted SMG values, and a few clips of the gun at work as it existed prior to the nerf.
On sale at Amazon -- Nine cheap games for Nintendo lovers [update 5]
The "Nintendo Icon" Amazon Gold Box has gone live, so it's time for those of you who can shop at Amazon.com to get your credit cards at the ready. With nine different deals on the table today, you might just find something that appeals to you.The "Deal of the Day" is Super Smash Bros. Brawl for $25.99, which really leaves you with no excuse not to buy it. The lightning deals are where the excitement is always at, though, and there are eight of them that will cycle throughout the day. Before we get into what's on the list, we must say that the sales are slightly disappointing. Maybe it's just us, but we wish Amazon had included more second-party titles. After all, such games are considered "Nintendo Icons," too. There's one title in particular that we feel is sorely missing -- but we digress.To see Amazon's hints for the eight lightning deals, just click past the break.
Gamefly sales continue to tempt us
Gamefly is having a sale on some of its used-but-in-great-condition games again, also offering free shipping to spice up the deal a bit. As always, we're passings these savings along to you, while picking out a few we think are worth highlighting for their respective prices: Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire for $12.99 Dewy's Adventure for $14.99 NiGHTS for $14.99 Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law for $14.99 Manhunt 2 for $14.99 Victorious Boxers: Revolution for $15.99 Soulcalibur Legends for $15.99 Bleach: Shattered Blade for $17.99 Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for $27.99 Super Mario Galaxy for $36.99 Click on the picture or "source" link to see the full list of Wii games, but keep in mind that you might be able to find some of them cheaper elsewhere.
Boxart Battle: Super Mario Galaxy vs. Pop!
Balloon Pop!'s U.S. boxart was never the most eye-catching piece of work, a mistake that 505 Games was determined not to repeat when it launched the game in Europe last week. In place of Balloon Pop!'s forgettable NTSC art, the PAL edition features a shot of the game's hero hurtling through space beneath brightly colored letters, passing a lush planetoid covered in greenery on his way.And if that all sounds extremely familiar, that's because it totally is, as one NeoGAFfer recently noticed. Whether intentionally or not, Balloon Pop! -- or just Pop! as it is known in Europe -- sports boxart that is eerily similar to that of this other game called Super Mario Galaxy. There's even a damn mushroom!Suffice to say, Nintendo's crack legal team have been contacted. In an office located somewhere beneath Redmond, Washington, they wait. Suits pressed. Teeth bared. Preparing to feed.%Gallery-4735%%Gallery-15750%
The hidden emotional depths of Super Mario Galaxy
Cory Barlog may have sneered at what he deemed to be Super Mario Galaxy's "vapid story," but game researcher and designer Douglas Wilson couldn't feel more differently. Writing for GameSetWatch, Wilson argues that Galaxy is not only the first Mario title to produce an engaging story, but that it addresses human tragedy more expertly than most other games.To illustrate his point, Wilson draws on the story told by Princess Rosalina, whose life story is recounted throughout Galaxy. Although this narrative thread starts life as the kind of standard fare you'd expect from a Mario title, Rosalina's tale quickly becomes tragic, as she recalls how she realized her mother had passed away -- or, as she touchingly puts it, is "sleeping under the tree on the hill." Sad face.As Wilson points out, this surprisingly poignant turn of events creates a pretty weird dichotomy. After all, Galaxy is a game where you fight a giant piranha plant in a diaper.
Super Mario Galaxy mod reaches for the stars [update 2]
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/mods/Super_Mario_Galaxy_Wii_mod/'; Mamma mia, that's a nice mod. We'd expect no less from the ever-so-incredible Morpheon Mods crew, who've put together quite a nice collection of Wiis for us to gawk at. The Super Mario Galaxy theme of this particular mod, though, helps it rank as our favorite of the bunch.The LEDs are a nice touch, especially the ones in the back-lit marquee, and we approve of the various sounds they've rigged to the console. We also like the twinkling stars effect -- simply awesome. All in all, it's a stunning mod that can be yours if you have deep pockets, since it's up for auction on eBay. This is one auction that we won't mind seeing skyrocket, however, since a portion of the profits will be donated to Child's Play!%Gallery-20580%[Update: The eBay auction has been removed, for unknown reasons. If the item gets relisted, though, we'll be sure to update the post again with the new link!][Update 2: Yay! The auction was relisted and the eBay link above has been fixed. Or, you can just click here.]
Demystifying the physics of Super Mario Galaxy
As we've already established, we're not science people ('D' grade at GCSE Science, thank you). Bring up a subject such as photosynthesis, or the properties of sulfur dioxide, and it's likely you won't get much of a reply, short of us standing there and saying "buh?" like some slack-jawed, mouth-breathing farmhand.In other words, Gamasutra's article on debunking the physics found in Super Mario Galaxy never stood a chance of entering our enfeebled brains and staying there. Oh, it definitely interested us, but terms such as "unit vector" and "collision mask" quickly appeared to make us feel like absolute thickos again. What we did pick up from the feature was that gravity can only exist in the real world on spherical surfaces, and that the laws of physics themselves were twisted to accommodate Galaxy's zany world of misshapen planetoids.If you're one of those people who feels confident conducting conversations about "surface normals," give it a look.%Gallery-4735%
Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 2/18-2/24
Super Smash Bros. Brawl hung onto the top spot last week, but not by much. For the first time, the king of Nintendo fighters was actually close to the game behind it, with a lead of less than 10,000 units. Considering that Brawl has dominated for a month and is already over the million mark, though, we're not surprised to see a little less dominance from the title.A lot of new software was released last week, which finally caused Super Mario Galaxy to fall out of the top thirty. Winning Eleven: Play Maker 2008 was the Wii's new game, debuting at the number six spot. Family Ski also managed to jump up five spots, despite the plethora of new titles.On the hardware side, the Wii continues to reign in first place. The PSP and DS aren't too far behind, but the Wii is outselling the PS3 4:1 with the help of Brawl.You can check out the listings and sales numbers -- they're posted after the break.
Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 2/11-2/17
The Wii extended its hardware lead over the PSP this week (which dropped to third), as Smash Bros. continued to dominate in software. Family Ski fell out of the top ten, but still shows some legs at spot sixteen.Predictably, Nintendo's big games (i.e., games with "Wii" in their titles) are still doing well on the charts. Super Mario Galaxy, which has been in danger of falling out of the top thirty, managed to hang in tough despite the big load of new releases littering the chart. The Wii also had the second best showing of games this week, with six in the top thirty (the DS was first with fifteen). With the exception of Namco Bandai's Family Ski, though, they were all first party titles.The hardware and software numbers are listed for your perusal after the break.
Wii Warm Up: 2D remakes
Yesterday's popular video demonstration of how Super Mario Galaxy would look on the SNES made us wish there really were 2D remakes of the 3D games we love. Wouldn't it be totally rad if Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 was recreated as a top-down shooter in the style of Medal of Honor: Infiltrator (GBA)? Or if Super Paper Mario was, uh ... Okay, so that example doesn't work.What 3D titles, old and new, would you want to see turned into a 2D project?
Hardware shortage hinders Super Mario Galaxy sales
If you've been keeping a keen eye on monthly NPD data, you might have realized that Super Mario Galaxy sales have been dipping in the U.S. And by dipping, we mean plunging.Before you have a stroke, or perhaps get your fighting gloves on, just look at the numbers. While January's Galaxy sales were by no means modest (172,000 for the month), they were a huge drop from December's (1.4 million) and November's before that (1.12 million). The game also fell from it's comfy position at second place, ending up in the sixth spot for January.So, what gives? Is it just a matter of holiday madness (not to mention, other games stepping up), or is there more to it than that?Fortunately, there are analysts around to figure out this kind of thing, so that we don't have to. Jesse Divnich from the simExchange logically reckons that the low sales for Galaxy correlate to the low sales of Wii hardware. Because Wiis have been in such short supply, people haven't been buying them, and thus haven't been buying Galaxy either.Damn that hardware, always keeping Mario down. Hopefully once Nintendo stops diverting Wiis to Japan, we'll see Galaxy rise again. Yet, by then, there will be only one thing on the minds of Wii owners -- you guessed it, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Although Galaxy won't be able to compete with the new game, we hope there's enough room for both to succeed in the charts.%Gallery-4735%
What if Super Mario Galaxy was on the SNES?
digg_url='http://www.digg.com/nintendo/What_if_Super_Mario_Galaxy_was_on_the_SNES'; While we really enjoyed seeing Super Mario Bros. on the Atari, the 2600 doesn't have nearly as much charm as the SNES. So, why not envision something more modern, like Super Mario Galaxy, on one of Nintendo's most beloved consoles? Why not, indeed.As fans of Super Mario Galaxy, we really enjoyed this SNES-make of the game from Techeblog -- so much so, that we wish this hack was actually playable. As a bonus, the video uses a great remixed version of the power-up music from Mario 64 (and beyond).We're enjoying this trend of making Mario games retro (or, in the case of Super Mario Bros., more retro), and hopefully this won't be the last of these hacks.See also: What would Super Mario Bros. look like on the Sega Genesis? What would Super Mario Bros. look like on Atari?
Another Week In Japan: Hardware and software numbers 2/4-2/10
We had a nice little surprise on the Japanese sales charts this week, as Family Ski showed that it has some legs. Debuting at spot twelve last week, Namco Bandai's title inched its way up while other new titles fell, claiming eighth place. As for Brawl, the game was predictably unable to maintain its outrageous first week sales, but still sold well and took the first spot convincingly. Some regulars made their return to the top, like Wii Fit and Wii Sports, while others fell off the chart completely, like Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games.The Wii also continues to reign as the top seller in hardware, selling more than triple the amount of PS3s. The PSP, however, is trailing closely at its heels. All in all, we think it was a good week for the Wii, but take a look for yourself after the break.
Another Week In Japan: Hardware and software numbers 1/28-2/3
As we informed you yesterday (and predicted last week), Super Smash Bros. Brawl ripped up the Japanese sales charts. Selling an incredible 820,000 copies in a mere four days, that's not a game to be messed with.Some other Nintendo titles didn't fare as well, however. Super Mario Galaxy nearly fell out of the top thirty this week. Brawl, it seems, is starting to cannibalize Galaxy's sales. Wii Fit's streak as the number one game also ended with Brawl's success. Not only that, but Wii Fit was pushed to number five by the plethora of new games released last week. Most of the other Wii games got knocked down, too, like Wii Sports, Wii Play, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, and Mario Party.Family Ski represented the top third-party Wii game this week, ending up at number twelve. That's not too shabby, especially considering that the game was rumored to have poor first-day sales. Oh, and did we mention that the Wii was the top seller in hardware, for the second week in a row? We wonder how long Brawl will be able to keep it at the top.The full hardware and software numbers are listed after the break, as usual.
Super Mario Galaxy's unsung star talks player experience
When most gamers think of that sense of amazement the certain parts of Super Mario Galaxy seem to invoke, they attribute that moment to the Miyamoto touch, a direct result of the imaginative developer's attention and care. While it's a natural assumption to make, one shouldn't forget about Yoshiaki Koizumi, the director behind the critically-acclaimed platformer!In a recent interview with Next-Gen, Koizumi championed the importance of surprising players: "If you think about games only as a thing that you interact with, you're missing the possibility of immersion. The inspirations that I tend to draw on for that all come from real life itself. Hiking on a mountain and seeing a cave and thinking about what's inside -- it's that sense of wonder and excitement I want players to feel."Well, we certainly had a lot of that with just the Gusty Garden Galaxy!%Gallery-4735%
Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 1/21-1/27
Let's face it: the Japanese sales numbers for the week of 1/21 are just foreplay. What we really want to know is how Super Smash Bros. Brawl did, although rumors are coming in that the game sold a whopping 500,000 copies in its first day. All this hype even catapulted the Wii above the DS in hardware sales last week, according to the numbers released by Famitsu. We think the Wii will hold the top spot in Japan for at least another few weeks, while it basks in Brawl's glory. The Wii may have made a stir in the hardware charts, but all's boring on the software front. Wii Fit shows us its well-toned legs by remaining at the number one spot, and Super Mario Galaxy has fallen out of the top ten once again. Wii Play also slipped a bit, losing some of its former dominance. To see the Japanese hardware and software figures for last week, look no further than after the break.
Warning: Be wary of offensive Wii games
If you frequent video game blogs or boards, you've probably heard about the Fox News debacle that was sparked by the "pornography" in the game Mass Effect. Wired decided to poke fun (or jab sarcasm) at the alarmist network, pointing out a few other games that should raise hysteria among the stick-up-their-butt crowd.And no, we're not talking Manhunt 2 or the newly announced Saw games. We're talking about the really dangerous games, like Super Mario Galaxy, Endless Ocean, and Geometry Wars (as well as some games from other consoles).We won't spoil the whole feature, but to steal an excerpt, this is why Fox News should fear Geometry Wars: "Geometry is math. Math leads to science. Science leads to lies. Thus, Geometry Wars directly indoctrinates our children into the evolutionary lie that we're all descended from homosexual monkeys. Naked homosexual monkeys. We recommend instead the game Intelligent Design Wars, which is just like Geometry Wars, except that the credits read, "We don't know who made this. (But it was probably God.)"We couldn't agree more. Won't someone think of the children?
Newsflash: Many people own Wiis
The Wii might not taste as delicious as a hot cake (results pending), but it certainly sells as good as one. After less than fifteen months since its release, the Wii has sold over 20 million units worldwide. Through rigorous scientific calculations, Nintendo Wii Fanboy has decided to officially quantify that total as "a lot." Most of these units were sold in the past nine months, causing Nintendo's profits to nearly double in that time.Nintendo has also reported that 6 million of those Wii units were sold in Europe. The top selling software in the continent includes Wii Play (selling 2.3 million copies), Super Mario Galaxy (selling 1.3 million), Mario Party 8 (selling 1 million), and Twilight Princess (selling 1.3 million).Not too shabby, Nintendo.[Via press release]
Another week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 1/14-1/20
We already know that the Wii is doing well in Japan. How has the hardware and software been shaping up against other consoles and games, though? Let's take a look at last week's sales to find out.The Wii continues to flip-flop positions with the PSP, this time ending up on the more favorable side of the coin. Regaining the second place spot with 76,000 units sold, the Wii only dropped 6,000 units from last week's numbers.Wii software continues to do well, too -- at least concerning "Wii" and "Mario" games. Wii Fit sales in Japan were even greater than DS handheld sales. Super Mario Galaxy also ended up back in the top ten, in part because of consistent sales, and in part because a few DS games lost steam. Some other Wii games didn't make the top of the charts, like Trauma Center: New Blood (which sold 3,100 copies last week in its debut). Check out the actual sales numbers and rankings for hardware and software after the break.
Wii Warm Up: 'Fess up to your gaming non-achievements
We've all got them: those classic games that we just never got around to completing, or, in some cases, playing.For his part, this blogger has only ever completed two -- TWO!! -- Zelda games (Link to the Past and Twilight Princess), and only made it through one-third of Super Mario Bros. 3. I have played other Zelda and Mario titles of course, sometimes for scores of hours each, but just never quite found the time to finish them. As for Super Mario Galaxy, that was left to collect dust a month ago, with only 21 stars obtained, and 99 still missing.I am not proud of these facts. But I am coming clean now, and it feels good! So put any concerns about your precious gamer cred to one side, and tell us: which gaming classics have you either failed to complete, or not even tried? It'll be our secret. By which we mean, the entire internet's secret.
