Rumor: Epic Mickey won’t be Wii exclusive

Joystiq caught on that 1UP caught on that Game Informer’s article on Epic Mickey no longer says exclusive to the Wii, removing the word exclusive from the article completely.

- Samuel Evans / StingX2

Ryo Hazuki (Shenmue) to appear in Sonic & Sega All Star Racing

New trailer reveals that Ryo Hazuki from the fan loved Shenmue series will return…in a racing game! It’s a start I guess! Ryo will ride a motorcycle and I gotta say the guy looks pretty sweet compared to whatever the fuck Eggman is riding in this trailer.

If you played Sega Superstar Tennis you might remember the specials characters had, the same goes here and in this case Ryo’s bike is swapped for a …forklift?

- Samuel Evans / StingX2

Source: Sega.com

GameDamage – Better than GameTrailers TV

I’m a huge fan of Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw – creator of the hilariously awesome “Zero Punctuation”. I was running through my daily browse of Kotaku and found that he’s shilling a TV show to major networks in hopes of becoming more than an Internet Game Celebrity – GameDamage.

Needless to say, I think it’s awesome. Hey Spike or G4 – give this a go!

-The BFG

Rocket Knight Adventures/Sparkster Sequel coming to XBLA/PSN/Steam no Wiiware

The Konami classic found on the Sega Genesis (and for Super Nintendo kids just Sparkster) is coming to XBLA, PSN and Steam but not WiiWare mid 2010. The game is in HD and looks like the games of old, and being a sequel one can only hope for ports of the other two to hit or be unlockable.

-Samuel Evans / StingX2

Fable 3 uses Natal, count me out

I’m very against Natal, it hasn’t been good for the Wii but the Wii at least has somewhat of a controller. Natal’s diagnosis that the 360 controller is the devil and must be staked through the heart is my issue. So Peter Molyneux told IGN this today:

“I am going to say it’s going to use a controller,” he continued, “But I’ve never said it’s not going to use Natal. And obviously what would probably happen if I started talking about this is you would see a little red dot appear moving on my forehead. And then as I would start to speak the words then there would be a shot, gunfire, and I would be assassinated.”

And that really kills my interest unless Natal is some side optional thing but even then as an achievement whore I’ll be pretty peeved at another game that uses dumb peripherals to give me unobtainable achievements. Fable 3 in the first place was very iffy for me after “Fable 2: Look I can’t Die But I get scars to show the consequen…oh you don’t care do you do?”

-Samuel Evans / StingX2

Undead Knights on the PSP-PSN store is quite a steal

As of writing this the demo currently gives you the full game, not just a demo. You can even take the game online, hop on this steal of a deal while you can!

Update: Fixed sorry guys

-Samuel Evans / StingX2

Do NOT update your Wii to 4.2

Word from NeoGaf is that Nintendo took a lazy approach to tackling pirates, bricking everyone’s Wii. There is no word from Nintendo on how they are going to handle this major screwup.

“System Menu 4.2 seems to be bricking non-HBCed Wiis. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve ever installed the Homebrew Channel or hacked your Wii, people who have never even heard of HBC are having these issues.

The problem appears to lie with an incredibly shoddily programmed update to boot2 of the Wii. boot2 is basically the area that “starts up” the Wii. According to the people who have developed HBC, the code for Nintendo’s updated boot2 is prone to making write errors, therefore making the possibility of bricking your Wii extremely high, whether or not you have ever hacked or modified your Wii.

Note: If you have already successfully updated to System Menu 4.2, your Wii is safe. The danger is only during the updating process.”

-Samuel Evans / StingX2

DSiware linked to your broken DSi

For those buying DSiware games or applications and have an issue with their system, you have been warned! Getting a new system means you cannot have access to anything registered to your broken DSi or old one. DSiware games as it stands now can only be transferred to a new system if you complain to Nintendo, send in your broken DSi and your new DSi.  What gets me curious about this is when people trade in DSi will you then have access to their DSiware content? It could make used DSi’s a goldmine in the future!

Source: 1Up

-Samuel Evans / StingX2

Super Street Fighter IV Turbo Ultra HD Remix Plus announced

Capcom has decided to release a new $60 version of Street Fighter IV with a bunch of new characters, some new ultra specials, and the classic bonus rounds found in Street Fighter II. So am I againist this? Actually not really, but I don’t think i’ll buy either. It may be a new 1000 Gamerscore i’ll never ever get, and have characters I loved from Street Fighter Alpha but I didn’t even buy the regular Street Fighter IV until it hit $20. Is this release worth it to the obsessed or those that never got around to it before? Yeah it is but for the dabber in Street Fighter like myself this is maybe a rental at best unless this also drops to $20 then we can talk Capcom.

Spring 2010 this will hit the PS3 and the 360 for $30 or $40, with T.Hawk, Deejay, and new lady Juri. The rumored characters Adon, Guy, Cody, Dudley, Ibuki, Makoto, and Hakan are as of now unconfirmed but considering there will only be 5 more characters the rumored list has indeed been proven wrong.

-Samuel Evans / StingX2

My choice words to Hollywood Corporate

I no longer have any fear of losing my day job. Today, though a series of events entirely devoid of emotion on the part of Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery, I found out in one month’s time that me and my co-workers at GameCrazy store 122429 will be losing our jobs.

For those not in the know by now, Hollywood Corporate is closing approximately 200 of it’s 600 GameCrazy outlets nationwide. The official press release reads this:

“Movie Gallery, Inc. is currently operating in an unprecedented consumer/retail environment. In order for us to continue to best serve our millions of customers across North America we’re addressing underperforming stores and ensuring that there is sufficient [return on investment] associated with each of these stores going forward. The vast majority of our stores will be unaffected by these efforts.”

My poor manager, Ryan, got a call two nights ago while we were working. It was our district manager, Adrian Castaneda. Adrian is an awesome dude – he is by far the best corporate boss I’ve ever had. Well, Adrian didn’t have any good news – our store was going to close. Knowing I was under a lot of pressure in life at the moment (and now even more so) Ryan decided to not tell me. He DID tell me that I’d need to come to work on my day off for a few minutes for a store meeting. I should have known something was wrong.

I got there yesterday and the store looked dead. Front door locked and gated, with a sign saying we’re still open and to enter from the Hollywood Video entrance. All the posters are gone from the windows. I get inside and all the promotional material is gone – stripped from the walls and fixtures and there are boxes everywhere. My heart sank as Ryan told me to come to the back, and he laid the news on me and my co-worker/best friend, Michael.

We were shocked – The video game retail industry is recession-proof. How could this happen?

Two words: TERRIBLE MANAGEMENT.

We’d been lied to – deceived and taken for a ride. Hollywood has been talking growth and revenue and all that jazz. Today it was doom and gloom – a terrible spin of PR talk and lies.

A 20 minute company-wide conference call was held. Of course, our phones were MUTED for the entire thing remotely – we never even got a chance to say a word. We expected an explanation of how and WHY things went horribly wrong, and we never got it.

Instead we were told that Movie Gallery was closing GameCrazy stores to keep the rental side afloat – that there was no money for us. Our CEO Sherif Mityas was on a call with us, explaining that services like Redbox (movie rental Kiosks) and Netflix are taking 90% of the video side’s revenue away from them. So, exactly why are they closing the part of the business that is viable? Everyone knows movie rentals are DEAD! Used game revenue is up! And our store was one of the higher revenue stores in our district!

Instead, we get the axe. I was in correspondence with our CEO after the gut-wrenching news today, and he had this to say:

“These Game Crazy stores that we’re closing are unfortunately tied to very bad Video stores – and so when we looked at which [stores] we could save, we had to assume that our bad Video stores were going to close soon and could we negotiate with the landlord to demise the space and just keep the Game Crazy… For the stores we’re closing, the GC side could NOT support itself even with reduced rent given its smaller sq ft – it would continue to lose money and drain our ability to fund other stores.”

So yeah, I understand the brand needs to be kept alive in order to stay profitable, but there HAD to be a better way to keep the company profitable than to close what will surely become it’s lifeblood in another two years!!

We’re not even being given the chance to move to another store. Even worse, is that if Sherif is to be believed, they’ll be making even more cuts to Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery stores in the coming months.

I don’t fault Sherif Mityas for making the decision that may or may not ruin my life. I’ve worked at GameCrazy happily for three years, and shopped there for five even happier. Now, I won’t be able to – not only did I lose my job today, but I lost my game store as well.