Nintendo's next console launches in just two days -- perhaps you've heard about it? We've seen plenty of hand-wringing about the future of the system, a perceived lack of hype for it, the changing nature of video games, and more doomsaying. Who knows what the future holds? Not us! But we certainly can look at Wii U in the context of the past -- and as it turns out, the console holds up pretty well against previous Nintendo system launches both in terms of actual price and day-one launch lineup. Please check out our massive Nintendo launch charticle and draw your own conclusions.

Notch's Tweet alone would pique the interest of Double Fine fans. Pychonauts' retail performance was so poor that mentioning it at this point, after Double Fine has produced so many other excellent titles, seems kind of cliché, meaning that all hope for a Psychonauts sequel died years ago. However, Notch didn't just tweet, Tim Schafer responded, "Oh wait. Hm. This is interesting."

Just over five years after releasing the Nintendo 64, and three days after Microsoft entered the home game console business, Nintendo released the GameCube in North America on November 18, 2001. Although it was more powerful than the PlayStation 2, released a year earlier, and priced at just $199.99, for the second generation in a row Nintendo didn't enjoy anywhere near the level of success Sony did.

Nintendo wasn't able to tout the GameCube as the most powerful system of the generation due to the Xbox's presence. It did have an edge over the PS2 horsepower-wise, and Nintendo finally left cartridges behind for its home consoles. But rather than opt to use DVDs like Microsoft and Sony, it opted for a proprietary optical disc format smaller than DVDs both in physical size and storage space. The system itself was incapable of playing DVDs -- a feature that did wonders for the success of the PS2 -- although Japan did get the Panasonic Q system that remedied that particular problem for its small number of owners. ]]>Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:16:00 PSTNEWShttp://localhost/news/rampage-movie-big-screenChris Pereira

Just because a game isn't a super-hot property right now doesn't mean it can't be optioned for a movie. Both Missile Command and Asteroids prove that, even if we don't know what degree of success (if any) they'll be met with upon being released in theaters. New Line Cinema is now looking to another classic game in Rampage as the source material for a new movie.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting Midway's arcade game will be adapted for a new monster movie. It'll be produced by John Rickard, a co-producer on several other New Line projects like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Final Destination 5, Horrible Bosses, and the upcoming Jack the Giant Killer. A story has yet to be written, as Rickard still needs to begin meeting with potential writers. ]]>Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:04:00 PSTNEWShttp://localhost/features/gamecube-xbox-defined-current-genJeremy Parish

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10 Years Later: How GameCube and Xbox Defined The Current Gen

PlayStation 2 may have dominated last generation, but its competitors set the stage for this one.

By: Jeremy Parish November 16, 2011

No one would challenge the claim that Sony's PlayStation 2 was the decisive victor of the sixth generation of consoles, that nebulous post-32/64-bit era that never lent itself to an easily applied label. Not only was the PS2 the best-selling contender last generation, it remains the best-selling console ever, having moved more than 150 million systems worldwide and an unbelievable 1.5 billion pieces of software. Combined, its competitors -- Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube, both of which debuted within days of one another back in November 2001 -- didn't even manage half of that.

The PS2 achieved a near-NES-level rout, dominating the market and forcing the competition to scramble to find other strategies. Yet where the NES had a clear successor in the Super NES, in many ways the PlayStation 3 feels like a follow-up in name only. Few of the series that defined last generation's most popular console have much traction these days, or else they've gone multiplatform. PS2 overwhelmed its rivals through a combination of perfect timing, a diverse but focused feature set, and a competitive price; PS3 blew what should have been a strong launch with a soft lineup and an excessively high price made necessary by Sony's desire to make it an all-in-one media center -- and in its quest to "only do everything," the PS3 has never really defined what it does best. Five years later, the system is hardly a failure; rather, it's essentially splitting the market with Microsoft's Xbox 360, which is a far cry from the total domination both of its predecessors enjoyed. Meanwhile, neither can hope to match the lifetime sales of Nintendo's Wii, the little white box that became a dark horse juggernaut.

Before Kirby's Return to Dreamland hit earlier this week, it had been 11 years since a core Kirby game was released on consoles. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards came out in 2000 and since then Kirby has been limited on consoles to Air Ride, Epic Yarn, and his appearances in the Super Smash Bros. games. That gap in between Kirby 64 and Dreamland wasn't created intentionally -- it was a by-product of HAL Laboratory working on several Kirby titles that ended up being canceled.

In a new Iwata Asks covering the Kirby franchise and the development of Dreamland, producer Shigefumi Kawase revealed how three new Kirby games were in development over the past decade, none of which ever came to fruition. As he puts it, "We spent 11 years... making and abandoning these three games." ]]>Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:08:00 PDTNEWShttp://localhost/features/mega-man-ruled-world-memorial-tributeJeremy Parish

Feature

When Mega Man Ruled the World: An Anniversary Tribute

A look back at the games that saved Mega Man... at least, for a while.

By: Jeremy Parish October 9, 2011

When the original Mega Man hit the NES in 1987, it was a revelation: The slickest, most open-ended platform shooter ever made. With only ten stages, it was short compared to standards like Super Mario Bros. and Wonder Boy, but what it lacked in length it made up for with replayability... not to mention sheer challenge. Its sequel, 1989's Mega Man 2, was even more spectacular. Together, the two games defined a genre and became high-water marks for 8-bit game design.

Sadly, a decade later, Mega Man had practically become a mockery of itself. The old-school sprites of Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X4 were comforting to gamers who weren't completely convinced that the PlayStation's chunky polygons should be an absolute replacement for classic game design; yet at the same time, the 2D Mega Man titles felt like relics, doing nothing to push the limits of technology or play mechanics. Mega Man had become iterative, where once he was innovative. Meanwhile, the Legends spin-off actually did introduce new ideas, including an early form of Zelda's Z-targeting and real-time story cutscenes with lip-synched facial animations, but it was largely dismissed by Mega Man fans and detractors alike: By the former for being too different from the older games, and by the latter for wearing the name "Mega Man."