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iPod Games, You're Doing It Wrong

funnestipodever Like it or not, the iPod/iPhone has become a gaming platform. There are tons of statistics out there and I'm not going to bore you with them, but the fact is a lot of people are making games for the iPod and a lot of people are downloading and playing them. This post is not about educating the blog-reading public so much as a friendly word of advice to the game developers out there.

iPod game developers, remember what your platform is. No matter how Apple dresses it up or the media hypes it, the iPod is first and foremost a portable music player. The iPhone is just an iPod that also happens to make phone calls. So please, when you want us to play your games on our personal music players, do take care when shutting off our music.

Posted Apr 23 2009, 10:00 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments

Filed under: derrick sanskrit, de blob, edge, ipod, iphone, adventure, newtonica, aurora feint, radio flare, audiosurf, scramble, sway, rolando

Facts and Figures: Why Do Gamers Care So Much about Sales Charts?

I got to thinking today about why gamers keep such a close eye on sales figures. In a completely unscientific experiment, I determined that Kotaku dedicated just under 200 posts last month to sales figures. Comments for these posts generally range from 50-100, so obviously some people care about sales figures enough to argue about them in an online forum.

We at 61FPS haven't made much of an effort to keep our readers updated on sales figures, as there are plenty of other places that do. We are men and women of overwhelming spiritual integrity. As John argued in December, there is a time to talk about sales, when astronomical numbers threaten to bring about tectonic shifts in the industry. But for the most part, why are people so hung up on sales figures?

I think part of it is laziness. On a slow news day, NPD numbers allow bloggers to phone in a quick and easy post that requires almost no creative input and is guaranteed to piss a few people off. A quick copy and paste job does the trick. I think this is especially true when bloggers resort to regional sales figures. Why do most readers care about how Gears of War 2 is doing in England? If I were English I don't think this would particularly interest me anyway.

Posted Feb 05 2009, 11:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 5 comment(s)

Filed under: kotaku, npd, cole stryker, de blob, sales, gears of war 2, roundtable discussion, fanboys

Watcha Playing: de Blob

Sad but true, I haven't written a “Watcha Playing” post in ages because I haven't played anything since cracking open my copy of Rune Factory 2 at the end of December. Also sad: I've had de Blob for months, still wrapped in plastic, and finally started in on it this week. I haven't had enough time to get too deep into it yet but after polishing off a few levels I can say this is a pretty nifty little title.

Posted Feb 04 2009, 11:00 PM by Amber Ahlborn with | with no comments

Filed under: wii, amber ahlborn, watcha playing, de blob

Flower - A Zen de Blob?

thatgamecompany's long-awaited "Zen game" Flower is finally being released on the Playstation Network next week, having been originally teased way back at the Tokyo Game Show in 2007. So far the game has caused all who've witnessed it to find themselves unable to accurately describe what the "game" is, only that it is captivating.

VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi was recently treated to a demonstration by Creative Director Jenova Chen. While it is still nowhere near as telling as an actual hands-on experience with the game, it is most definitely insightful. Video after the break:

Posted Feb 03 2009, 11:59 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: playstation 3, derrick sanskrit, shadow of the colossus, psn, de blob, flower, thatgamecompany, jenova chen

de Blob Sequel Probably on the Way!

61FPS favorite de Blob has sold well enoug to justify a sequel. This is a fairy-tale story for indie publishers.

Posted Jan 26 2009, 04:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: cole stryker, de blob, thq, ign, gears of war 2, sequels

Derrick's Top 13 Games of 2008 - Part 3

Catching up? Read part 1 and part 2.

5 - The World Ends With You (DS):
The insanely ambitious action-JRPG probably makes the most use of all the DS hardware has to offer of all DS software with the possible exception of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, and even then The World Ends With You does it with so much more style and flair that the comparison seems woefully unfair. It's clear that Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts team put years of thought and research into what the DS could and could not do and the result is a game that breaks all expectations like so many angsty teenage hearts. It takes a truly great game to affect me outside of my gaming time, and much like Wii Fit got me thinking about jogging to the train every morning, The World Ends With You got me wearing pins on my bag for the first time since college, picking out just the right ones that may, someday, save my life in heated battle. Oh lord, did I love that dual-screened battle system...

Posted Dec 11 2008, 02:30 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: the world ends with you, little big planet, playstation 3, nintendo ds, derrick sanskrit, wii, top ten, super smash bros, world of goo, super smash bros brawl, de blob, eden, pixeljunk, echochrome, pixeljunk eden, braid, cubello, top 10 of 2008, cicus atari

OST: de Blob

A few weeks ago I brought a stack of my favorite Wii games to a friend's house to celebrate her new Wii. Boom Blox and WarioWare: Smooth Moves were crowd pleasers. Super Mario Galaxy delighted and disoriented. Smash Bros. Brawl was an all around hit. When de Blob was popped in, I insisted that we turn off the George Clinton on the stereo to properly enjoy the game and was promptly turned down, so I removed the game. I love me some P. Funk, but de Blob's progressive soundtrack is right up at the top of a long list of reasons to love what is quite possibly the best third-party game Nintendo's little white wunderbox has got, and to play it without listening to what it's got to offer is like trying to enjoy a BLT without the tomato, lettuce or bread. Yeah, bacon's still (really) good on its own, but there's so much more you're missing out on!

Posted Nov 24 2008, 12:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 3 comment(s)

Filed under: derrick sanskrit, wii, ost, de blob

Sega "Gets" the Wii

As previously stated, the Nintendo Wii is just about two years old now, well enough into its life cycle to no longer forgive developers for unfamiliar hardware restrictions and lazy ports (yes, I'm looking at you, Harmonix and Rock Band). Most people still look at the Wii as home of the goofy mini-game collection despite its having also hosted some truly unique and wonderful unloved gems like EA's Boom Blox, Ubisoft's No More Heroes, Capcom's Zack & Wiki and THQ's de Blob. There is one major game publisher, though, who seems hard-pressed to make the Wii completely awesome with a wide range of aggressive titles, and that publisher is (believe it or not) Sega. That's right, longtime Nintendo rival Sega. Kinda makes you wonder why the Dreamcast flopped...

Posted Oct 31 2008, 12:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: boom blox, derrick sanskrit, no more heroes, wii, madworld, the conduit, sega, sonic the hedgehog, zack & wiki, dreamcast, sonic unleashed, sonic and the secret rings, de blob, house of the dead, samba de amigo, nights, sonic and the black knight

Whatcha Playing: de Blob

Just a few short days ago, I was "Whatcha Playing" Secret of Evermore. That is, until de Blob arrived in my mailbox. It's a delightful romp through an increasingly complex and challenging environment, where just a few basic skills are utilized in clever ways. In short, this game is everything that Super Mario Galaxy should have been, but wasn't.

Posted Oct 08 2008, 06:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments

Filed under: whatcha playing, wii, cole stryker, super mario galaxy, de blob, platforming

No Alternate Soundtrack: de Blob

I can't stop playing de Blob. I've tried, honestly I have, but I'm convinced that de Blob will maintain control of my home console gaming time until LittleBigPlanet arrives and is likely for a powerful comeback even after that. Yes, as an art school graduate, I find a certain nostalgic rush in a game where the story involves splattering paint around a sprawling metropolis in order to take down an overbearing corporation with a military dictatorship over the land, and yes, the game's bright and enthusiastic roll-into-everything gameplay brings back the charm of the original Katamari Damacy, and yes, this game has easily the best art direction I've seen on the Wii since Super Mario Galaxy, but I'm not sure that those are what keep me coming back every day (though that is certainly enough, I imagine). No, what keeps me coming back, oddly enough, is the music.

Posted Oct 07 2008, 04:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: alternate soundtrack, derrick sanskrit, wii, katamari damacy, super mario galaxy, de blob

Handjobs for Homebrew: Mario Paint Composer DS

There's never been a better time to be an independent software developer. College students are designing original concepts that are then developed by established publishers into big games like Portal and de Blob. Small teams working in bedrooms or coffee shops are developing downloadable console games like Braid and World of Goo. And then, of course, there are the homebrew developers, releasing their software often for free or a small donation. Widely seen in less-than-100%-legal light, homebrew software is often a means of "hacking" the platform of choice to add functionality that had not originally been intended. While there's never any guarantee of quality when it comes to these things, there are some fantastic pieces of homemade software out there, and we hope to spotlight a few of them here on "Handjobs for Homebrew" (this is Nerve, I can say "handjobs," can't I?)

Originally demoed just about a month ago, BassAceGold's homebrew of the Mario Paint Composer for the Nintendo DS was released to the internet masses last week. There have already been a number of homebrew applications to add the painting and animation components of the Super Nintendo classic Mario Paint to the touch-screen handheld, but MPC emulates the feature that always seemed to me (and, apparently, the YouTube community) to be the most engaging element, its cartoonish music composition score.

For those who've never played Mario Paint, allow me to explain…

Posted Oct 06 2008, 01:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments

Filed under: nintendo ds, derrick sanskrit, portal, world of goo, korg ds-10, de blob, mario paint, braid, jam sessions, electroplankton, homebrew, lsdj

You Got Your Waggle In My Touch Screen Portable!

You may remember back in May when Activision CEO Mike Griffith stated that the next Tony Hawk game would be a Nintendo DS exclusive and "utilizes new technology not yet seen on the DS." According to a press release sent yesterday by Activision, that game is Tony Hawk's Motion, which proudly announces it will use the Motion Pack for accelerometer-based game control. That's great and all, but why is this the first we've heard of the "Motion Pack"? The press release casually mentions it as if it were some peripheral we were all already familiar with. All we can gather about it from the press release is that it adds an accelerometer - the same kind of gyroscope that's in the Wii remote and iPhone - to the DS.

Posted Aug 30 2008, 11:00 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments

Filed under: nintendo ds, derrick sanskrit, tony hawk, activision, de blob, iphone, hue pixel painter, motion pack

The Revolution WILL Be Colorized

It's easy to hate on third-party games for the Wii. A vast majority of them are quick and dirty ports or poorly constructed party games with a noticable deficiency in the fun department. Maybe that's why I get genuinely excited when a high quality third-party game comes along. Boom Blox was a blast (oh god, I'm sorry about that), No More Heroes was enthralling, SSX Blur was a great deal of fun after you took the time to relearn the controls. Unfortunately, none of those games sold particularly well. Let's hope that's not the case with the next Wii sleeper hit, THQ's de Blob.

Posted Jul 02 2008, 10:00 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: boom blox, derrick sanskrit, no more heroes, wii, katamari damacy, de blob, thq, third parties

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.