Well, it’s not much of a hint since the video turns into a dead giveaway ten seconds after it starts. Hey, at least you know what game toppled Super Mario Brothers as the best selling video game of all time.

Here’s an excerpt from Yahoo! Games’ Ben Silverman’s story “Wii Sports is best-selling game ever”:

According to game-tracking website VGChartz, sales of Nintendo’s pop-culture phenom Wii Sports have surpassed those of legendary Super Mario Bros., making the breakout Wii title the best-selling video game of all time. And it only took two years and two months to do it.

The data is based on cumulative worldwide sales figures ending the week of December 27, 2008, which indicate that lifetime sales of Wii Sports have exceeded Mario’s staggering 40.24 million units.

Hey, at least Mario still tops the charts, particularly the list of the best-selling video game franchises at 201 million.

For more Wii-related goodies, check out Wii News Daily, another great b5media Technology Channel blog.

Post from: EveryJoe

Super Mario Brothers dethroned as best seller

\r\n\r\nPretty little Lego spaceship, eh? It\’s actually a model of Samus Aran\’s gunship in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and is part of a collection of images on Flickr known as Metroid Quarantine. The collection of Metroid-related pictures is but the tip of the iceberg. The group also has a website known as (what else!) Metroid Quarantine, The Metroid Blog.\r\n\r\nGo check out Metroid Quarantine\’s other photos.\r\n\r\nOh, and if you\’re wondering what Samus Aran\’s gunship looks like in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, here\’s a reproduction:\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\nFirst image courtesy of Metroid Quarantine and paulishdog. Second image is from the Metroid wiki. Samus Aran and Metroid copyright belong to Nintendo.

Post from: EveryJoe

Metroid Quarantine: Samus Aran and her universe in Lego

Post from: EveryJoe

Monty Oum’s Haloid: Samus Aran versus Master Chief

Fortunately, there are old or classic games that do make the cut. Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, and The Sims series come to mind.

Armed with this information, I quickly scoured the Web and landed on the very site that lived and breathed machinima, Machinima.com. Riding on the hype of the recently released Max Payne movie starring Mark Wahlberg in the lead role, I’ve chosen for the viewing pleasure of Re:Retro regulars one of the best machinima using the game engine of Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, Only The Strong Survive by Riot Films.

Before you check it out, here’s a little backgrounder:

Mission OA-032. The Organization sends two assassins, Andy and Brown, to a deserted apartment complex. As they wait for their target to arrive in the courtyard of the building, Andy gets the feeling that Brown knows something about the mission that he doesn’t.

Only The Strong Survive is a prologue and introduction to the world of the Organization and Andy’s winding story of vengeance and betrayal. This chapter introduces the key event that propels the story into motion, as will be told in Only The Strong Survive II: Delusion and concluded in Only The Strong Survive III: Requiem.

After watching the clip several times, I’ve come up with several observations (to the guys at Riot Films, don’t take my criticism badly):

1) I find the scene where the supposed target and his bodyguards walk into the courtyard and position themselves neatly in the middle of an open area very unsettling. If I were Andy, I’d probably think, “How convenient … too convenient!”

2) When Andy leaped off the balcony to the cold stone pavement, I couldn’t stifle an “Ooomph! That must’ve hurt.” Same goes for Brown’s equally suicidal jump.

3) Is it just me or do all the guys in the film need corrective lenses? Either they’re all bad shots or the film should be renamed Only The Strong Lucky Survive.

It’s okay, guys. The film looks great. You’ve got me intrigued enough to wait with bated breath for the sequels.

Post from: EveryJoe

Retro Machinima: Only The Strong Survive using Max Payne 2 engine

So with that in mind, I’ve decided to start a new topic or category, Video games I want to play forever. It’s very literal. It will feature video games that I love and those that I want to keep playing until my computer conks out, or until my body crumples from exhaustion.

Without further ado, I present to you the Total War series on the PC:

Total War is a strategy game series developed by Creative Assembly. The games combine turn-based strategy and resource management with real-time tactical control of battles. On June 30, 2006, a box set of the first three Total War titles and their expansion packs was released. Called Total War: Eras, the boxed set also included several extra features and the Rome: Total War expansion Alexander, which had previously been only available through download.

When I first laid my eyes on the Total War series, via Rome: Total War, I wasn’t impressed. I found the game dragging and lacking in action. But that was just my initial reaction—a way of challenging myself to try out the game. Raymz Maribojoc, the friend who introduced me to the Total War series, was insistent. Thank the gaming gods I listened to him.

So, on a rainy evening around two years ago, I played Rome: Total War on Raymz’s, uhmm, office PC like there was no tomorrow. Upon my friend’s recommendation, I started the game playing the Brutii, one of three playable Roman factions in the game, the other two being the Julii and the Scipii. (The three factions are named after three great figures in Roman history, namely Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus, and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus.

Check out the details after the jump.

Each faction or house has a campaign to follow, mostly at the direction of the Roman Senate. Here’s a brief description from Wikipedia:

Rome: Total War (often abbreviated to RTW or Rome) is a critically acclaimed strategy game composed of both turn-based strategy and real-time tactics, in which the player fights historical and fictitious battles set during the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire (270 BC – AD 14). The game was developed by Creative Assembly and released on September 22, 2004. It is the third game of Creative Assembly’s Total War series.

The endeavors of the player involve a duality of turn-based strategy and 3D real-time tactical battles. The high-quality 3D graphics engine is able to render over thirty thousand men on a single battlefield. The strategic and tactical modes integrate such that the landscape for the battles is the same as seen on that particular spot on the strategic map where the armies meet.

The player takes a role equivalent to the head of one of the three great Roman houses at the time: the Julii, the Scipiones (known as the Scipii in the game) or the Bruti (called the Brutii). Each of these factions has a different set of attributes and initial objectives. After winning campaign as Romans (or using a simple mod) it is possible to play with other factions and take on a role similar to that of Hannibal, commander-in-chief of the Carthaginian armies during the Second Punic War or the Gallic Warlord Vercingetorix.

Prior to its release, a preliminary but completely workable version of the game engine was used in two series of television programs: Decisive Battles by the History Channel, where it was used to recreate famous historical battles, and Time Commanders by BBC Two, where teams of novice non-gamers commanded ancient armies to replay key battles of antiquity. The game engine was fine-tuned specifically for these TV shows by military historians for maximum historical accuracy.

Speaking of Rome, you might want to check out Google’s Ancient Rome 3D project. Sravan Bhamidipati of That Damn PC wrote about the Ancient Rome 3D layer in Google Earth and the LIFE photo archive late last month.

Cool, eh?

Now I’m looking for a full, updated version of Medieval II: Total War and eagerly anticipating the release of Empire: Total War. Yes, I’m going to play these games for a very long time.

Post from: EveryJoe

Video games I want to play forever #1: Total War series

\r\n\r\nSo who hasn\’t heard of The Three Stooges? You know, Larry, Curly and Moe? No? Doesn\’t ring a bell? Well, if you have no inkling who the three are, then you probably don\’t belong to the generation that watched the original black and white series or their voluminous re-runs.\r\n\r\nI watched a few seasons on the boobtube when I was younger, even the ones with Shemp in it. Yep, before Curly, Shemp was the one taking the beating from Moe, and sometimes Larry. Hmmm, before I go on to the gist of the story, let\’s take a closer look at The Three Stooges. Who were they and what did they have to do with television and video games?\r\n\r\n

The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid-20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. They were commonly known by their first names: \”Larry, Moe, and Curly,\” and \”Moe, Larry, and Shemp,\” among other lineups.\r\n\r\nThe act originally featured Moe Howard (played by Harry Moses Horwitz), brother Shemp Howard (played by Samuel Horwitz), and longtime friend Larry Fine (played by Louis Feinberg). Shemp was later replaced by brother Curly Howard (Jerome Lester Horwitz) in 1933. When Curly suffered a stroke in 1946, Shemp rejoined the act.\r\n\r\nThe Stooges\’ hallmark was physical slapstick comedy (yes, the ones where you see guys hitting one another) punctuated by quickly delivered one liners within outrageous storylines.

\r\n\r\nSo you see, they were more than ripe for the picking for video game developers wanting a shot at bagging part of the legacy left by The Three Stooges.\r\n\r\nCinemaware and Activision won the rights and released in 1987 a video game entitled, well, The Three Stooges, for the Amiga. Later, the game was ported to different systems, including the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Gameboy Advance. I played the game on the PC, a version released much later.\r\n\r\nThe game involves Moe, Larry and Curly playing mini arcade games derived from classic Stooges films. The goal is to raise enough money, $5,000 to be exact, to save an old widow\’s orphanage. The Three Stooges, according to many industry experts, was quite advanced for its time, featuring sampled speech (yes, the characters talk using the voices of the actors), and multiple endings.\r\n\r\nTo raise the dough, The Three Stooges need to play through several mini-games such as throwing pies at rich restaurant customers, competing in a cracker-eating competition, and pitting Curly against a giant of a man in a boxing match.\r\n\r\nI tried playing the game in a licensed online version … and found out that I suck at the mini-games I used to ace. Sad.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Three Stooges: Crazy retro gaming

For those who have no inkling of what stop motion animation is, here’s a short description from Wikipedia:

Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved by small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames are played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion animations, known as claymation, for their ease of repositioning.

Well, now we know that clay isn’t the only good medium for stop motion animation. There’s also Lego, patient men and women, and just about anything you can get your hands on as this video proves:

Post from: EveryJoe

Retro games in stop motion video

This video is a classic. Made by Guillaume Reymond of the Gameover Project, the video is no laughing matter as it uses stop-motion photography and a dozen or so men and women. Yes! Live human beings!

Go check out the video and tell me afterward if it doesn’t command respect:

Actually, Guillame Reymond and the Gameover Project aren’t the only ones who uses live humans to test weird ideas, such as emulating an old popular video game like Tetris. The Japanese are probably way ahead of them in terms of entertainment and ingenuity as this video proves:

Post from: EveryJoe

Tetris, according to Guillaume Reymond

Here’s the description that came with the video of the World’s Largest Tetris:

Take a Linux computer, a joystick-frequency radio, 10,000 Christmas lights, a building, and you have the biggest game of Tetris in the world. Here is the largest Tetris game made with lights in a building. Amazing!

The author of the video neglected to tell us how much they spent on their electricity bill.

Well, without further ado, I present to you (what else?) the LARGEST GAME OF TETRIS:

Check out Re:Retro’s other postings on Tetris.

Post from: EveryJoe

Playing Tetris on a building facade

\\\\r\\\\n\\\\r\\\\n\\\\r\\\\nThe Legend of Kage isn\\\\\\\’t a NES game, per se; it was actually released in the arcades in 1984 by Taito. The game was ported to several contemporary home computer systems, including the Nintendo Entertainment System and Nintendo Family Computer two years after the arcade version.\\\\r\\\\n\\\\r\\\\nHere\\\\\\\’s a short backgrounder on The Legend of Kage:\\\\r\\\\n\\\\r\\\\n

The object of the game is for a ninja named Kage to rescue Princess Kiri from mystical villains. Kage must fight his way through a forest and into a secret passageway that leads up a fortress wall and through the castle itself. Each time the pixelated princess is rescued, the seasons change, starting with summer, followed by autumn, and then winter.\\\\r\\\\n\\\\r\\\\nNo self-respecting rescuer is complete without an arsenal, of course. Kage is armed with swords and shurikens. Power-ups are also available in the form of crystal balls, which not only change Kage\\\\\\\’s clothes but also give him bigger shurikens and make him move faster; a scroll that strikes down all approaching enemies, and a pudgy butterfly that flits across the top portion of the screen during odd intervals.

\\\\r\\\\n\\\\r\\\\nGood news for those who wish to relive those ninja-tastic moments: first, The Legend of Kage\\\\\\\’s NES version has been re-released on the Nintendo Wii\\\\\\\’s Virtual Console in Japan; second, the arcade version has made a comeback via the Playstation 2 title Taito Legends 2; third and last, there\\\\\\\’s a 3D remake of The Legend of Kage in Taito Legends Power Up for the Playstation Portable.

Post from: EveryJoe

Itching for ninja action? Try The Legend of Kage