Gaming
New Super Mario Brothers Wii Review: All the Classic Mario Goodness of Old; All the Mario Baggage of Recent Titles
For our six and a half loyal readers that wonder if we gave up, we didn’t. Sorry for the lack of updates. Various things like income-providing jobs, child abuse and World of Warcraft have kept us from updating the last couple of weeks. We’ll get back to movies soon (the seemingly endless 17-hour run time of 2012 was enough to scare me away from theaters for a couple of weeks), but I do now have a better-late-than-never look at Nintendo’s latest rehash, New Super Mario Brothers Wii. You may feel that me calling this a rehash indicates I feel dredging up the old 2-D side scrolling platformer back up to the console world is unwelcome. However that would be harsh. After all, if you’re rehashing a tried and true genre, you might as well do it with the best of the best.
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DragonCon 2009: Costumes and General Weirdness
One of the most phenomenal things about any Con is the vast amount of weirdness that comes out of the woodwork. Seemingly normal people use the occasion to costume themselves as their favorite fictional–or in some cases non-fictional– characters. In my years of going to cons I’ve noticed a distinct turn in this trend. As with this picture of the Flash and Superman, this supports my life long research into whether ANY human being actually looks good in tights.
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Video Clip: The IZ3D Gaming Monitor — Commonly Asked Questions
During my recent trek into the massive crowds at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, I happened to stumble on a demo of the IZ3D monitor which hit retail in the past few months. The demo was impressive and I had the chance to talk to Aaron “Warface” Rapp with IZ3D while he did some gaming on it with Left4Dead and World of Warcraft
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DragonCon 2009: Day One - Best Costume So Far, Initial Thoughts, and an Unexpected Gift from Above.
Day One - DK Pick for Best Costume: Sith Elvis!
Any of the literally dozens of loyal readers we have at Deviant Knowledge probably are at least aware of the the annual Labor Day idiocy that happens in Atlanta, GA each year called Dragon*Con. For those not familiar, formerly a smaller and more narrowly targeted affair, it’s now described on their own website as “the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US.” This year is my first opportunity to attend and after 14 hours on day one I was stunned by how huge and well run of a program this is so far. I’ve been to many cons over the years: GenCon, Star Wars Celebrations, several Trek, Doctor Who and general Sci-Fi cons and so far this seems to be about the most well-oiled of any of them–of course, hell is bound to ensue as the weekend hits.
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WiiWare Find of the Month: Swords and Soldiers Brings the RTS Genre to a 2-D Side Scroller
One of the saving graces for the Nintendo Wii in the console wars is the outstanding catalog of WiiWare titles along with the increasing catalog of classic titles in the Virtual Console world. I love the Wii, but I’ve made no bones about the fact that it has major shortcomings that it has had to overcome to attain its popularity. The innovative titles hitting the WiiWare section of the online shop are a huge plus. Of course, with every huge “plus” on the Wii comes a major “beware” factor, and this one is that the Wii’s severely limited on-board and expandable memory it doesn’t have the flexibility to allow downloadable demos of the titles, leaving it to idiots like me to gamble the money and let you know how the gamble turns out. This time, we have a phenomenally fun title that takes RTS gaming into the world of 2-D side scrollers. This combination of two genres we never thought would mix called Swords and Soldiers is a genuinely fun and addictive investment.
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Asteroids: The Movie
It’s official: Hollywood is out of ideas. Word is coming out now that Universal has won the rights (outbidding three other studios) to make a film adaptation of the video game Asteroids.
Yes, the one with the spaceship and the rocks made out of lines. 
Now, my question is not even “How?” but “Why?” They’ve already said they’ll have to create a plot from scratch since the original game, you know, didn’t have one, so why dump a bunch of cash on Atari’s doorstep just for the name Asteroids? Make your own asteroid-based film and just call it something else. “Maelstrom,” maybe. “The Corridor.” Hell, even “Giant Floating Rocks of Death.” I’m just saying that “spaceship shoots rocks” is not such an original idea that you had to buy the property to make the movie.
But I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised since two of Universal’s upcoming projects are big-screen adaptations of the board games “Battleship” and “Candyland.” Yes, “Candyland: The Movie.”
This is why I don’t go to movies anymore.
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Golf World Stunned as Photos of the Tiger Woods Assassination Attempt Surface on Wii Game Box!
The golfing world was shocked this month when the first photos of the assassination attempt on Tiger Woods surfaced on the box art of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, also known to unwashed hillbillies in Game Stop as Tiger Woods Oh-Ten. Okay, I actually caught myself about to say it, too. In any case, my first thoughts upon seeing the box art to the new Tiger Woods outing was “Back and to the Left, Back and to the Left.” Why would they put a picture of Woods being shot in the back of the neck with him grasping for the wound screaming in pain on the cover?
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Ghostbusters: The Video Game
I was a bit of a Ghostbusters fan in my younger days, so I was fairly excited for this game. Written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, featuring the voice talents of the original cast, utilizing the authentic sound effects, considered to be the unofficial third film in the trilogy, this game is the closest you can get to being a Ghostbuster.
Turns out, being a Ghostbuster just isn’t all that fun.
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Sony Motion Controller: Cooler, but Still So Very Unnecessary
Recently I wrote about Microsoft’s Project Natal, the full-body motion-tracking camera that will let you flail and wave to try and play video games. Now Sony has unveiled their motion controller with a fairly impressive, yet lengthy, tech demo.
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Project Natal: My Thumbs Work Fine, Thanks
One of the big stories to come out of this year’s E3 is Microsoft’s “Our Wii Is Bigger than Yours” throwdown to Nintendo in the form of Project Natal. Stealing the idea from Sony’s EyeToy failure, Project Natal is a camera that claims to offer full-body motion-tracking, as well as facial and voice recognition. So now instead of just waving your arms around to play games, you can jump around and flail your whole body! Awesome!
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