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May 18, 2009 2:50 PM PDT

Game video that'll burn in your retinas: Muscle March

by Scott Stein
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Sometimes a video is so fascinating, so hypnotic, so awe-inspiringly strange, that it just doesn't leave your head. It stays for days and days, over a whole weekend, while the mind reels at the possibilities. Namco-Bandai's Muscle March is just such a brain injection of oddity.

Japan is a lucky country. It gets titles like Muscle March for WiiWare, while we get to watch YouTube videos instead.

Witness the rainbow-colored bikini briefs and posing polar bears...almost like Punch-Out!!, if Punch-Out!! involved slamming your shirtless body through walls while on psychedelics. The style is reminiscent of the best parts of Katamari Damacy, while not being as completely incomprehensible as Noby Noby Boy.

This conversion of an arcade game (we'll say it again: Japan is a lucky country) hits WiiWare on May 26. We eagerly await a U.S. release. If the Wii had more games like this, perhaps it'd be considered a bit more of a "hardcore" platform. Ahem.

(Via CNET Asia)

September 28, 2007 7:10 AM PDT

Ms. Pac-Man's still got it

by Candace Lombardi
  • 1 comment
(Credit: Candace Lombardi/CNET News.com)
Cell phone on arcarde game machine.

Namco attached phones to arcade games to show off mobile gaming.

(Credit: Candace Lombardi/CNET News.com)

NEW YORK--It seems people like any excuse to play any video game.

While Halo III and Guitar Hero may be drawing a crowd at DigitalLife 2007, so were classics like Ms. Pac-man.

Namco had a large space at DigitalLife to remind gamers that video games of the '80s are now available for their phone.

Namco offers games like Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Mr. Do, Popeye, Snoopy and the Flying Ace, Galaga and even board games like Scene It?.

The games are available, regardless of your carrier, for the Palm OS, Windows Mobile phones, the iPod and the Sidekick, as well as others.

To show this off, the company had working cell phones attached to arcade machines for the corresponding game.

Do you think people would really flock to play games they've played hundreds of times before on a large screen, just to try it on a cell phone?

Apparently, lots of people love just that.

People did not seem to mind at all that they were standing at an arcade machine, yet playing on a 2-inch screen.

The Namco area has been drawing a crowd for two days, which I can only imagine will grow as the show is opened to the public.

Originally posted at News Blog
July 11, 2007 10:56 AM PDT

E3: 'Soul Calibur Legends' trailer

by Will Greenwald
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Use the Wiimote to swing Zeigfried's sword, Ivy's whip-sword, and Taki's ninja swords in Soul Calibur Legends, an action adventure heading to the Nintendo Wii. Instead of the tournament-fighting action we've come to expect from the Soul Calibur series, Soul Calibur Legends focuses more on quest-based brawling and exploring. Namco's hack-and-slash adventure hits the Wii this holiday season.

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