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Watch the first teaser for CBS' 'Star Trek: Picard' series
CBS has offered the first real peek at its upcoming Star Trek: Picard series with a minute-long teaser trailer. It doesn't offer much in the way of detail beyond a look at some vineyards, a case of Chateau Picard wine and a noticeably older Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). It seems as though he's leading a peaceful lifestyle, but there's almost zero chance Picard's world will stay that way for long.
I built a vibrator at SXSW
Crave is trying to open up the conversation about female sexual pleasure. The company sells beautifully designed vibrators in a range of styles, from the $60 stainless-steel Bullet to the $150 Duet, a discreet and powerful vibe packed with a variety of pulsing combinations. There's even the Vesper, a slim, stainless-steel vibrator that dangles from a delicate chain and doubles as a necklace -- "designed for beautiful experiences in public and private," as Crave describes it.
Vizio's $250 soundbar hosts Google Assistant and Chromecast
Vizio may have been knocked by LeEco after its $2 billion buyout deal was cancelled, but the company's not going to fall into a grief-stricken funk. The home theater business has announced a new raft of soundbars that work with Google Assistant and come with Chromecast built in. Leading the pack is the SmartCast 36", which packs 5.1 wireless sound, the promise of crystal-clear dialog and a wireless subwoofer. Vizio had trouble with its soundbars working with Spotify via Chromecast in the past, so hopefully its remedied that issue. This new model is on sale right now, setting you back $250, while smaller options in the same range will cost less, obviously.
ESRB rates 'Mr. Bean' for Wii (note: it is 2010)
Here's a bad idea: making a cartoon in 2002 based on a TV series that ended in 1995, which relied entirely upon one actor's physical comedy skills, and featured very little dialogue. Here's a worse idea: making a Wii platformer in 2008 based on that animated series. The worst idea yet: Taking that 2008 game based on the 2002 cartoon of the early-1990s TV show about the near-mute man, and then releasing it in another country where that character isn't nearly as popular. Oh, and doing that in 2010 or 2011. Crave is doing just that. The ESRB's description of Crave's new "Mr. Bean" game -- including use of cooking pans and bug spray as weapons -- matches up with the gameplay in Mr. Bean's Wacky World of Wii, meaning that those of us stateside will be able to take part in Mr. Bean's search for 1,000 cat biscuits. Because that's what the game is about. That has to factor into the quality of this idea somewhere.
Cartoon Network crossover fighting game hits 3DS this spring
Cartoon Network's stable of characters will make the jump to stereoscopic 3D this spring thanks to an agreement with Crave. The publisher announced a deal through which it would release an "action-packed battle game" on 3DS starring characters from various current and classic Cartoon Network shows, including Ben 10, the Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Lab, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and not Adventure Time. Developer Papaya Studios is also working on versions of the game for Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3 for release in holiday 2011, but without the appeal of new hardware, those aren't nearly as exciting!
Crave announces bowling for Natal
We're sorry if the above headline is misleading, but we feel we should inform you of two things. One, Crave has not announced a game show entitled "Bowling for Natal," so don't expect to see everyday schlubs competing for a Natal on daytime TV anytime soon. Two, what Crave has announced, according to Multiplayer, is a bowling game that will support Microsoft's Project Natal. More specifically, it's actually a Natal-ified version of Brunswick Pro Bowling, the PlayStation Move bowling title revealed earlier this year. While it was essentially inevitable that Natal would receive some kind of bowling game, we can't help but wonder how strange it will be to pretend to bowl without something to hold on to. If only there was some peripheral, something tangible we could use to enhance the experience. But wait, there is!
Move supported by 36 companies, 20 games this fiscal year
digg_url = 'http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/10/sonys-move-supported-by-36-pubs-and-devs-gets-20-games-this-fi/'; At Sony's special GDC event, Activision, Capcom, WB Games, Namco Bandai, Square Enix, Ubisoft, EA, Disney, Konami, Sega, Crave and Tecmo Koei all confirmed that they'll be supporting the Move in future versions of their games. Although that confirmation came in the form of a slide full of company logos and word from Sony vice-president of marketing and PSN that, "Virtually every third-party publisher" will support the new motion-control device. Sony's Jack Tretton went on to say that 36 publishers and third-party developers will support it, and according to a press release, "In fiscal year 2010, SCE Worldwide Studios will also release more than 20 games that are either dedicated to or supported with the PlayStation Move platform. While this same group of publishers will probably support Microsoft's Project Natal as well, it's good to know that everyone is onboard. But onboard how? Are they developing Move departments that will get every possible ounce of gameplay out of these things? Or do they mean support like backrubs and cookies? We aren't sure what titles will be supported just yet, but our team of Joystiqers are waving the Move about as you read this, and we'll have more news very soon.
Crave crawls back to ESA; PlayLogic, Koei join organization
The Entertainment Software Association announced today that Koei, PlayLogic and ... Crave Entertainment are "the three newest members" of the trade organization. Okay, Koei and PlayLogic are new, but Crave would fall under the Gamestop definition of "new."Crave left the ESA last year, but it appears that even the trade organization didn't notice in the midst of losing Activision/Vivendi, LucasArts and id. Oh well, Crave. Allow us to welcome you back to the ESA.
Crave responds to Baby Pals controversy
Crave sent a statement to GamePolitics regarding the bizarre audio sample in its Baby Pals DS game that seemed (to at least one parent) to sound like "Islam is the light". Doug Panter, the company's marketing director, confirmed the belief of rational folks: that the company did not slip an endorsement of any religion into its baby game. The licensed sound file, also found in Fisher-Price's Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo, is "a recording of a 5 month old baby babbling non-intelligible phrases," Panter said. "In over 200 hours of testing the product, no recognizable English words or phrases were discernible." He called the similarity between the baby's utterance and seemingly recognizable words "only coincidence as the baby recorded was too young to pronounce these words let alone a whole grammatically correct phrase".Now, with that out of the way, we look to Crave for an explanation of the Purr Pals box. Kittens in bread? That is deplorable.%Gallery-8860%
Is Islam the light for DS Baby Pals? [update]
Last fall, controversy about Fisher-Price's Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo doll rocked the local news circuit, when the doll was discovered to utter some kind of gibberish that sounded kind of like "Islam is the Light" if you were listening hard enough for things to be outraged about. The odd sound sample has been found once again by a concerned parent, this time in Crave's Nintendo DS game Baby Pals, previously known only for being kind of creepy-looking. In a fairly hilarious coincidence, Rachel Jones of Indiana found the offending utterance first in the doll, then later in a copy of Baby Pals she had purchased for her daughter. Baby Pals came out in October 2007, a year before the row about the doll."Not just my daughters' toys, but we have a son too," Jones told Terre Haute's WTHI News 10. "Now I feel like I need to listen to all of his little toys to make sure they're not saying it." Check out the news footage after the break, and watch as the virtual baby intones the phrase in question over and over again while being bathed. Of course, the ability of fake babies to exert absolute influence on real children through nonsensical endorsements of religion is well-known. Everybody knows that.If you listen to what is supposedly the original MP3 (provided by Fisher-Price, link goes straight to .mp3), it sounds much more like nonsense and less like some random attempt at indoctrination. We've contacted Crave to try to find out where it got the sample and hopefully solve this quirky mystery.[Update: In case you haven't seen our more recent post about this, Crave has issued a response explaining the origin of the sound file.]%Gallery-8860%
Real-time strategy -- you know, for kids
We're often critical of some of the children's games released on the Wii (one reason being, perhaps, that we're not the target market, but mostly because just how many pet sims do we really need for one console?). Crave seems to be taking a different route this time, though -- one that we can actually respect -- by coming out with Defendin' De Penguin, a real-time strategy game for kids. You can see this idea realized in the trailer above.In the title, you are trying to protect a penguin village from wolves and other vicious animals who keep eating the town's fish supply. The focus on cute penguins and (we assume) the difficulty are what makes this game "kiddie," but we still like the idea of a niche genre being developed for children. Considering that vein of thought, what other uncommon genres do you think should be made into kids game? Of course, we might like to see a few more RTS games geared toward us on the Wii, too, if that's not too much to ask.As for Defendin' De Penguin, it releases later this month for both the Wii and DS.
Purr Pals boxart needs more baking time
We hope that writing about this doesn't get it changed. We think this Purr Pals boxart is a treasure of lulz, and we want it to be like this forever. The cats may be attempting to draw our eyes upward, but we still can't ignore the typo on the bottoms of the box. Well, either it's a typo, or Purr Pals has more to do with Cooking Mama than Nintendogs.Perhaps Crave's decision to leave the ESA was less voluntary than we assumed -- could the organization have looked down upon the publisher's indefensibly controversial game content?
Crave leaves ESA, still showing at E3
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has confirmed this morning's GamePolitics report, which labeled Crave Entertainment as the latest company to leave the ESA; however, the publisher will still be showing at E3 next month. Crave is responsible for games such as World Championship Poker featuring Howard Lederer and other titles from the D-list (if last year's E3 showing was any indication). The ESA has released a statement (full text after the break), saying it respects Crave's decision to leave and that Crave representatives say the publisher still remains committed to the goals of the association. Although Crave walking out certainly counts as another publisher leaving the ESA, it feels more like a footnote in the wake of departures by Activision/Vivendi, LucasArts and id.
Hello Misleading Boxart!
Man, the boxart for this Japanese baby-care game (or whatever you call that kind of thing) is totally cute. We didn't think there was a way to get jaded non-little-girl gamers like us interested in seeing screens of a baby game, but publisher Brain Toys has done just that for Konnichiwa Akachan (Hello Baby). If the whole game were to look like this, it would be a confirmed Cute Overload.We have got to see screenshots right -- oh, no, it's Baby Pals. Oh, man, they got us to look at Baby Pals again. That's like the baby-game equivalent of the Rickroll. There hasn't been this much of a mismatch between boxart and a game's real appearance since Dragon Power.
Potential release dates for arcade classics and real classics
Gamefly's "Coming Soon" list has once again been updated, revealing titles and release dates that are probably true and definitely noteworthy. We've been waiting since GDC for an official release date for the Wii version of SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1, since SNK told us at the show that it had been pushed into Q4. The press release from SNK about the PS2 and PSP versions mentions that Arcade Classics is expected in October. Gamefly now says it's coming July 30th, which is in a much sooner Q! We're inclined to go with SNK's word, but release dates change!If you envy the WiiWare Yakuman Mahjongg game, you may be interested in Crave's Solitaire & Mahjong, which is apparently coming out on September 19th. It's on a disc, but it is at least (kind of) announced for U.S. release.
DS Fanboy Review: Napoleon Dynamite
Director Jared Hess has a 100% rate of movies turned into DS games. His latest film, Nacho Libre, was released in June of 2006; a DS game followed in October. Despite the fact that the movie featured the very video-game-friendly subject of wrestling, the game was not a major success, critically or financially.Nacho Libre the movie was preceded by Napoleon Dynamite, which was about the very non-video-game-friendly subject of awkward people standing around. Now, three years after the release of the movie, Napoleon Dynamite is joining Nacho Libre on the Nintendo DS. It is something of a victory for developer 7 Studios that the Napoleon Dynamite DS game works as a game at all, despite the handicap of being based on a movie with no action of any kind. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's a great game. In fact, Napoleon Dynamite is the very definition of a middle-of-the-road game. It isn't completely awful, and it isn't good. It doesn't inspire disgust and it doesn't impress. It's just kind of there.%Gallery-8037%
Baby Pals creeps the hell out of us
We presume we are supposed to find Crave's new baby-caring sim Baby Pals somehow entrancing, perhaps even -- shudder -- adorable. So why can't we stop thinking about that scene from Trainspotting whenever we see these screens? Angular, polygonal babies, eyes as dead as the night, somehow not ... quite ... right.If you haven't already guessed, Baby Pals gives players the opportunity to raise a sprog by taking care of the little one's every need. So you get to feed and dress your weird-looking virtual child, teach it how to talk, crawl and walk, and even play games with it, such as peek-a-boo and patty cake.Even more frightening than all of that is the thought that this, along with Ubisoft's Imagine Babyz, could sell a significant number of copies to pre-pubescent female DS owners. This saddens us. At best, Baby Pals and its kind are vaguely patronising. At worst, they're derivative, lazy examples of gender stereotyping. With damn creepy babies.%Gallery-8860%
Napoleon Dynamite screens are (insert catchphrase here)
When we received a press release containing Napoleon Dynamite screenshots, we immediately loaded up our Snark Guns with fresh supplies of venom and bile, ready to fire a wide spread of lulz out into the Internet. It's a licensed minigame collection! Based on a movie that came out in 2004! That should never have been made into a video game! It was going to be a rare opportunity to hate like we've never hated before. MORE LIKE NAPOLEON DUD AMIRITE, we were going to say.But our Snark Festa ended a little too soon when we saw the screenshots and realized that we sort of respected what Crave was doing with the game. Some of the minigames look a little iffy (like what appears to be dodge ball controlled entirely with the touch screen), and the whole thing seems to be too dancing-based, but damned if they didn't use an intriguing art style.The results aren't always the prettiest, but any game that uses a mixture of pencil-on-paper and photo collage is at least a little bit cool. Man, we wanted to be too cool for this game, but we just couldn't help it. And, uh, we kind of want to play a minigame about throwing food into a llama's mouth.%Gallery-8037%[Via press release]
Minimize your poker losses at Amazon
22 bucks for a poker game seems high to us, but we don't play poker at all. We understand, however, that other people tend to enjoy card games from time to time, and for regular poker players, this may be a steal. You can get World Championship Poker: All In for the cost of a replacement shirt and get your gambling fix in a safe virtual environment.Is it any better or worse than other poker game on Wii? We don't really know, since nobody seems to have reviewed it. We'd quote The Gambler here, but we don't know whether buying this game without an idea regarding its quality falls under "holding 'em" or "folding 'em." It seems like a "hold 'em."
Everyone on the Internet should buy Spelling Challenges
Well, this is a start to solving the Internet's problems. Next up: Learning the Difference Between "Your" and "You're" Challenges!We've received some screenshots of Crave's Spelling Challenges and More!, the spelling-based game show game with over 25,000 words to spell. We can see a sort of Jumble-style anagram game called "Mish Mash" and a "Bomb Blast" game that gives players a limited time to pick out a correctly spelled word from a group of horrible mistakes.The game uses a very simplistic, clean presentation that we find appealing. Not every educational game needs a charismatic floating head.%Gallery-4721%[Via press release]
