It started earlier this week with a Surfer Girl rumor. (Item #4, not #3 in which she says she likes me.)

The rumor stated that the Nintendo-owned Retro Studios, makers of some of the best-reviewed games of all time, was losing top employees and could be in trouble.

Then Shacknews reported yesterday that three top “Metroid Prime” Retro team members had just left the company, but said Retro was not shutting down.

Readers e-mailed me, asking if I could look into these reports. I checked with Nintendo PR for a Retro status update, figuring that the Shacknews report had brought things beyond the realm of rumor. Not so.

Retro fans, I don’t think you need to panic. But Nintendo’s not saying that. A spokseperson responded to my inquiry by nothing that “Nintendo doesn’t comment on rumor.”

So, if you’re a Retro fan, how do you find out if the studio’s doing okay? Your guess is as good as mine.

Wait ’til E3?

This year’s New York Comic Con proved what gamers have known for a long time - video games are a force to be reckoned with.

As the Convention has grown over the last three years, so has the gaming presence. Publishers realize that they can reach their key demographics, at least when that target audience takes a break from sifting through boxes of old comics.

Many game companies were at the Con. There were booths promoting upcoming titles, like “Iron Man,” “Metal Gear Online,” and even “Space Chimps.”

Numerous toy companies showcased their game figure lines for everything from “Kingdom Hearts” to the upcoming “Prototype.”

Sunday boasted a day’s worth of video game panels that offered insight into “Gears of War 2,” as well as the games industry itself.

There were even a very tiny handful of vendors offering games for sale. Basically, there was a little bit of something for everybody.

By no means is Comic Con the next E3, but it was very refreshing to see comics and games mingle for a New York crowd.

Hit the jump for many, many more pics from the floor. Read more…

It is over. Another Vs. Mode. Well, unofficially a Vs. Mode. Throughout the week Slate.com posted an exchange between four gaming reporters, myself included, about the year in video games.

And they posted a 20-minute podcast, which I’m really happy with.

Participants of the 12-part written exchange and the podcast were:

Slate’s Chris Suellentrop:

I hope that “Wii Play” does not become an Important Game that other companies copy. It’s a fun enough little game, but its minigames don’t have the exhilarating “virtual reality” feel of “Wii Sports,” a game in which you actually feel like you’re playing tennis, golf, and bowling. I haven’t touched a Wii title that’s lived up to the promise of “Wii Sports.”

The New York Times‘ Seth Schiesel:

For pure adrenaline, nothing this year compared to my first solo battle against another player in “Eve Online.” So there I was, minding my own business, flying my Rupture-class cruiser in a low-security star system called Klogori. All of a sudden, a Thorax blastership flown by a pilot from the then-powerful RISE alliance appears on my heads-up display. His railguns rip into my shields as I fumble to launch my attack drones and target my autocannons. We circle one another, dodging the asteroids tumbling about, as my ship’s Nosferatu modules relentlessly suck away the energy stored in his ship’s batteries and add it to mine. Soon, he can no longer power his repair systems, and I blow the Thorax to high-tech splinters. And none too soon. A few more seconds and it would have been me waking up in a cloning station.

Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal (who?):

We agreed that it was difficult because of the amount of time that it takes to play a game as compared with watching a movie, not to mention the fact that games also require a certain amount of skill to progress. That’s why the DS and the PSP have been a godsend for us New Yorkers. I would probably never have made it through all but the last level of Rockstar’s disappointing “Manhunt 2“—sheepishly tilting the screen away from underage subway seatmates, of course—if there hadn’t been a PSP version.

And me, Multiplayer’s Stephen Something-or-other:

So, how odd am I for spending 18 hours playing through “BioShock” this year? For going through “Metroid Prime 3” in 15? For spending far more than four hours each finishing “Ratchet & Clank Future,” “God of War II,” “Heavenly Sword,” “Call of Duty 4,” “Lair,” “Super Paper Mario“? How far into the frontier am I? And are the people who got turned on to games this year by quick-play champs such as “Wii Sports,” “Guitar Hero,” and, yes, “Desktop Tower Defense” ever going to get to these hinterlands with me?

All of the above is excerpted from the full Slate exchange. Plus, there’s the podcast, which will auto play at the link or can be downloaded through this one.

Wow, do these guys ever shut up?

UPDATE: For those interested in comparing scores, I’ve started a new group called on the Desktop Tower Defense” leaderboards called “GOTY” I’ll post any new scores there.

What are the top 10 games of 2007, as determined by one Stephen Totilo? (That’s me).

Over at MTVNews.com, we’re letting my opinion be known.

Yeah, I left “Assassin’s Creed” off. Sadly, I had to leave my beloved “Picross DS” off too.

My 10?

My number one is the free, browser-based “Desktop Tower Defense.” Seriously. Play it for free in your web browser right now.

You tell me why I’m wrong. But the fact is, I’m not.

Also charting are: “Crackdown,” “Halo 3,” “Rock Band” (ka-ching!), “Geometry Wars Galaxies” on the Wii and more.

Full list here.

(And for the record, this list does not reflect the judgment of MTV Games, the MTV Multiplayer blog, TRL or Tila Tequila)

What if I was wrong about Nintendo? What If a lot of us were?

As a reporter my job is to ask questions, observe and share my findings. In the process I develop an understanding of facts, a sense of the patterns I see. Sometimes, though, I realize what I think I’ve figured out is incorrect.

That’s how I’m feeling about Nintendo these days. I’m ready to chuck one of my main ideas about the Wii. I see a different pattern than I used to, a new understanding, one that suggests a much more radical aspect of the Wii than I had previously considered.

My old Wii idea: Nintendo’s console is a party console, destined to by full of party games — mini-games. Hence this blog’s running tally, in the right hand margin of total mini-games on the Wii.

My new Wii idea: Nintendo’s console is a party console, destined to mark the end of Nintendo-crafted single-player game designs. I fully expect the next “Zelda,” the next “Donkey Kong,” even the next “Mario” role-playing game to be designed in such a way that at least two players will be able to enjoy the main game mode simultaneously.

I’ve got sales figures, analysis of old games, advertising hints and more to back this up. Let’s see if you agree.

Read more…

There are things people at Nintendo know that they don’t want me to know.

There are things they don’t want you to know either.

Is it possible that such things include the simple, straight-forward details of a new high-quality Wii game that comes out in less than two weeks?

And, if so, is there method to such apparent madness or are Nintendo’s most hardcore games just being set up to fail?

At the Nintendo Media Summit last week in San Francisco I asked the company’s vice president of marketing in the U.S., Perrin Kaplan, about Nintendo’s apparent strategy to wait until the last minute to tell its customers about certain Wii games. We talked about the brief and deeply unpopular pre-release “Metroid Prime 3” hype campaign, comparing it to “BioShock” and “Halo 3.”

I’ll share that exchange in a moment, but first, let me tell you a story that epitomizes the issues. It’s a story from last Friday, a day after my interview with Kaplan, a day I tried to find out a little bit more — a little bit too much, it turns out — about “Battalion Wars 2.”

And what a mistake that was.

Read more…

What can you do in one hour of “Super Mario Galaxy“?

What could I accomplish, starting from scratch, and while pausing to jot down notes and — oh, what a bad idea — trying to snap photos?

(Note that Nintendo required that any photos include more than just the screen. I tried to show a tip of the Wiimote. And tried to snap photos while playing the game. Bad idea!)

This is how it went when I tried it on Friday morning in San Francisco at Nintendo’s summit for the company’s holiday Wii and DS games.

You are about to read a tale of inverted gravity, Wii remote shower caps, the helpfulness of a guy from IGN, lessons not learned from “Metroid Prime 3,” and how I figured out a way in “Galaxy” to cheat.

Read more…

Last week we ran an interview I did with Retro Studios, makers of the “Metroid Prime” series on MTVNews.com. I couldn’t fit all the best material and left some of the more hardcore-oriented questions for today.

I wanted to know why the didn’t open this game with the traditional Samus-loses-her-powers bit.

I wanted to know why they keep ending “Prime” games with collection quests that some gamers are vocally against. I asked about their relationship with the speed-running community that strives to break their games, their thoughts on whether top-level artists really want to make Wii graphics, and why one of the game’s gesture controls wasn’t working for me.

Oh yeah, and I asked them about that supposed “Metroid Dread” reference.

I grilled ‘em, people! But they were great sports, and they had a lot of smart things to say. Read on and see for yourself.

Read more…

Over at MTVNews.com I filed an interview with the developers at Retro Studios, the Nintendo-owned outfit behind the “Metroid Prime” series. Wii fans, “Metroid” fans and Retro fans… you’ll want to read this one.

I chatted with them for an hour about a week ago and had such an interesting conversation that I couldn’t fit all the good stuff into one news article. That means I’ll have more from them soon (on this blog, in fact).

A couple of choice excerpts for those without the energy to click through.

…”We’ll do crazy stuff,” ["Metroid Prime 3" art director Todd] Keller said. “You can ask any artist here what the first ‘Prime’ was about and they’ll say cracks. All we did was put thousands of cracks everywhere. For some reason at the time I was real big into cracks and everything had to be beveled. Every crack was custom. There is not one crack that was copied around. I made them chop up everything. We chopped up every stone that was unique on the game. Every pebble.” So what is “Prime 3″ about? “Texture detail.”

and

…”One of the things we’ve always been told by Nintendo of Japan is they say they appreciate us as a studio because we make games they can’t make,” [Retro game director Mark] Pacini said. “Their specialty is in the casual market. Their specialty is in the platforming and more traditional games.” But will Nintendo make Retro go that route too? “I’m really excited about what we’re working on next,” he said. “If people enjoy the kinds of games Retro makes, I don’t think they’re going to be disappointed about what we’re doing.”

Much more in my full “Metroid” Retro interview…

In yesterday’s third round of Vs Mode, Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal trashed the idea of 3D, first-person “Metroid.” Such games shouldn’t exist, he told me.

It was a strong opinion, one I already knew he held. My first temptation was to issue a strong reply.

I reject the idea that any game shouldn’t exist and that any idea shouldn’t at least be tried. But while I offered my own stern words about why I think “Metroid” has been successful in 3D, I thought it was also a good time to talk about the whole break between 2D and 3D gaming, how that affected those of us gamers who didn’t leave the hobby but learned (or consented) to shift our tastes.

N’Gai and I talk about a lot of things in our Final Round today, but if there’s anything I hope gets people speaking, it’s these words that I wrote:

What’s it like to watch a great 2D game series go to 3D, have the masses praise it, and yet see it abandon key aspects in the process? I’m trying to put myself in your shoes which don’t feel altogether unfamiliar. Do we praise this situation or shake our heads? Did no one notice what happened to the “Mario” platforming series? Should anyone mind? None of the three 3D “Mario” games I’ve played (”64,” Sunshine,” or preview versions of “Galaxy“) feels as combative as the old 2D games. This has bugged me. In the “Mario” side-scrollers I was always wading in enemies. I could jump from the top of one enemy to the next, knock down rows of them with Koopa shells, and blitz through a whole bunch while invincible with star power. “Mario” 3D games are desolate by comparison. There are barely any Goombas and Koopas to fight. How many do you get on the screen at once? How many do you see in the average game minute? Very few.
…
There’s a very real argument to be made that something was lost in the transition from 2D to 3D, which is what the Wii’s backers have been happy to talk about. While it’s worth exploring why the transition ruined things for some gamers, I think little has been discussed about why other gamers didn’t lose touch and what kind of tastes may have developed in those of us who stayed hardcore on both sides of the break. What do such gamers have to add to a discussion that so often deals only with the lapsed 2D gamers and the children of the 3D era, to say nothing of the outsider casuals?

The rest of our exchange is posted below, as it is on N’Gai’s “Level Up” blog. He and I will be back at it next month, in our first Vs. Mode dedicated to a handheld game. Read more…

If you’ve been following the exchanges this week between me and N’Gai Croal about “BioShock” and “Metroid Prime 3: Corruption” you may have noticed that he and I had some difficulties.

We had issues with the morality system in “BioShock” and in today’s exchanges explore some other ways the acclaimed game’s developers could have tackled them. For instance, I ask why not make it really hard to be “good”?

But if you’re anything like me you’ll find one sentence below that kind of wipes away all the other ideas. It highlights the “Metroid” problem we’ve had in this exchange. Here’s the comment, from N’Gai’s letter below.

He states:

…the reason that I haven’t gotten further in “Metroid Prime 3″ is that because while the game does many, many terrific and admirable things, “Metroid” is a franchise that should never have made the jump from 2-D third-person to 3-D first-person.

Yes, he said that. Click through for more.

(As always, these exchanges are also on N’Gai’s “Level Up” blog)

Read more…

Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal and I continue our debate about “BioShock” and “Metroid Prime 3: Corruption” in today’s second round of Vs. Mode. (Round 1 was yesterday)

And get this: today we actually talk about “Metroid” a bit. In fact, I said…:

…despite my gut instinct that “BioShock” is the better game (it’s more original, more thought-provoking, more heavily populated with awesome Big Daddies), I’ve been more thrilled playing “Metroid Prime 3.” Why? Because “Metroid” games deliver on the empowerment fantasy.

Ah, nothing like quoting yourself out of context. Read on to see what I’m talking about and why N’Gai has some big problems with the “bad” path in “BioShock.”‘

This post is mirrored on N’Gai’s “Level Up” blog. Vs. Mode continues later this week. Also, check today’s bonus Vs. Mode IM exchange, in which I get angry.

(MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!)

Read more…