Instead of making levels with friends, I recently decided to try playing alone and designing my own level. This is Sinister Den! It’s really not so sinister, but I have realized I like lots of jumping and bouncing at the beginning of levels apparently. And don’t worry, this bouncy part is only one section.
Be careful not to kill friends. Also, remember that coins can help guide you. There are no traps in the level. Trust the coins.
Super Mario Maker was released Friday. As the release date approached, I really thought I could resist. I know I just don’t care to devote as much time to playing games as I once did, but I cracked pretty quickly on Friday and bought a copy. Even if I barely play it, it’s more than just a game. It’s a celebration of 30 years of Mario and the culture surrounding those games.
I see it primarily as a social tool, so I designed my first level with friends. Here’s Anela, gem, and Antonio working on our level. We each took turns adding to it. The joy of Nintendo is how it brings people together and creates such rich culture around their properties. I knew gem would have fun with Super Mario Maker because we played it at SDCC this year, but what about Anela and Antonio? At least Antonio plays games and owns consoles, but I wasn’t confident Anela would have fun. However, they both did. Anela went crazy adding as many mushrooms as she could to her part of the level and then insisted I get those mushrooms when I played. Antonio and gem both set up traps in attempts to trick the players. There was a lot of laughter, so I think everybody had a great time. We’ve also been playing Super Mario 3D World. Like Super Mario Maker, even those who don’t play games often have had fun with it. Sure, Anela requests that we carry her through some parts, but she has as much fun, if not more, as the rest of us! Nintendo’s amazing at making their games accessible and enjoyable to people who don’t play games often.
Here’s our masterpiece – “Super cool friends Petanegemio.” It’s a majestic level! Okay, maybe not majestic, but I’ve played it a couple times, and I have fun when I do. Better than just enjoying some random Mario level, this one reminds me of my friends – Anela’s mushroom block maze, gem’s Money Zone of coins and trap (in which I totally fall in that video), and Antonio’s journey into the sky and trap (that I managed to avoid). It’s a masterpiece, at least to me.
“Mario Myths with Mr Miyamoto” helped push me into purchasing it. It’s such a simple video, but it helps accentuate the beauty of Nintendo and their games. It made me tear up just a little, especially the idea that it’s been 30 years since Super Mario Bros. Oh, and that hard hat Mario wears for Super Mario Maker. It’s so cute and representative of the game that’s a perfectly designed icon.
Super Mario Maker (and Super Mario 3D World and so many other Nintendo properties) are really works of art, beautifully created to bring people together accompanied by a soundtrack of their own laughter.
Thank you for the fun times Nintendo, Miyamoto, and all my friends who have played Mario with me!
Note: This review was originally posted at Game Boyz.
Flying over Stormwind on Azeroth, piloting a Jaeger, running with dinosaurs, and tearing off the headset after getting scared are all new experiences I had with the Immerse Virtual Reality Headset. This headset uses your smartphone and side-by-side video to show 3D content. While there are some imperfections, it delivers a fun experience limited primarily by what 3D content is available. After playing with it for a week, I’m very excited for the future of VR.
The headset
First, let’s look at the headset itself. The main body is plastic with a door that flips down. Inside is a bracket in which I placed my iPhone 6 before snapping it closed. There’s a small hole on the side so I can connect headphones, a strap to fit around my head, and foam where it fits against my face. The eyepieces can be adjusted left and right as well as forward and backward.
The 3D effect is generated due to half of the split screen video being shown to each eye. There’s a plastic divider that blocks the left eye from viewing the right side of the screen and vice versa. The slightly different angle in each half of the video is combined to create the 3D effect.
It’s fairly comfortable, but there are a few limitations due to the nature of the device. First, I’m unable to use my glasses in the headset. Luckily my eyesight isn’t too bad, so I could still enjoy it. I can’t say whether that’s good for my vision though, and I suspect it isn’t. Second, the screen divider didn’t quite touch the screen. This allowed each eye to get a slight peak at a sliver of the opposite side. When viewing 3D content, this creates a small, vertical strip on the very left and very right of your vision that’s incorrect. In addition, the quality of the image is limited by the resolution of your phone. Lastly, I wasn’t so sure about aspect ratios. When I viewed side-by-side 3D YouTube videos, the video itself is widescreen but split into two halves. Each of those halves is then not a normal video aspect ratio. While some videos still looked fine, some were obviously stretched.
Videos
I started my exploration by looking for 3D content on YouTube. This was accomplished by searching for “side-by-side 3D” or “sbs 3D.” A nice proof-of-concept was “World’s BesT SBS 3D POP OUT EffecTs EVER” that was filled with 3D effects. There were also a variety of trailers and even music videos.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t really a large catalog of 3D videos that were more than what I’d consider proofs-of-concept. Netflix does apparently have 3D content, at least from what I could tell doing a bit of research, but it doesn’t look like the iOS app is aware that someone could be using a device like this one. There was no 3D content on the Netflix iOS app. There are other choices for streaming video though, and pretty much every site had some appropriate videos. Of course, you can also just put your own videos on your phone. I was able to watch my own side-by-side 3D video files, and that was pretty cool! I just hope in the future that Netflix gives me the ability to watch them.
Apps
This is where I get most excited. These are all basically interactive films. Unlike the 3D video I discussed above in which the 3D consists of effects that seem to pop out, these videos allow you to look around by turning your head. It’s really cool.
First, there’s DinoTrek VR Experience. In this experience, you’re tagging along dinosaurs – running away from predators, soaring through the air, and looking for food.
Next, there are a couple neat videos in the Legendary VR app. First, I experienced (I used the word “watched” at first, but it’s more than watching) The Skies of Azeroth. Be sure to download it rather than selecting the “YouTube 360” option. This puts you on the back of a gryphon, flying over the human city of Stormwind in Warcraft’s world of Azeroth. Moving your head moves your vision, and you can look anywhere – behind you, below you, even at the gryphon itself.
The Legendary VR app also has Pacific Rim Jaeger Pilot. As soon as it started, I couldn’t help but exclaim, well, let’s just pretend I said “fudge yeah” because I don’t want to cuss in this review. It was amazing – short but awesome. To be honest, yeah, it was mostly proof-of-concept. But please, please, give me more. If you haven’t wanted to pilot a Jaeger, Gundam, Evangelion, or some mecha suit, you must be nuts.
Lastly, I’d like to mention Insidious Chapter 3. This VR experience corresponds to a film series with which I’m unfamiliar, but I can say that’s it horror. Less than thirty seconds into it I yelled “shoot” before pulling the headset off. Again, I cleaned up my language a bit. A VR headset certainly brings horror to the next level.
Final thoughts
While most of the 3D content floating on the web seems to be demonstrations, there is some really cool content. These 3D, 360 degree experiences are the exciting aspects in my opinion with regular 3D films being icing on the cake. I’m hoping that Netflix, my streaming service of choice, makes finding 3D content easier in the future. In the mean time, I’ll have to go hunting for my own 3D videos. Really, I just can’t wait to find more 360 degrees, immersive experiences. The ones I discussed above were so exciting, and I bet there are more great ones I haven’t yet found.
The Immerse Virtual Reality Headset is available for $39.99 from Sharper Image.
This review was based on a free review sample.
You can contact me at @TheUser on Twitter.
This is probably one of the most amazing games ever made, and I’ll never get to play it.
Realm Pictures put together a live version of a first-person shooter video game played over online the online chat services Chatroulette, Omegle, and Skype. The “player character” asks the chat partner what to do, and the unsuspecting chatter gets to take control. How come I never got something like this when I tried Chatroulette?
I love all the touches of FPS culture – finding better weapons, starting with a crowbar, needing to connect the battery. I especially love the HUD, the over-acted grunts and exclamations, the exaggerated recoil and reloads. It’s really a thing of beauty.
Source: Realm Pictures
Via: Engadget
Back in March, I mentioned wanting to come back to 9 Months In, a point and click adventure game about a pregnant woman in prison who claims to be innocent. I finally got around to playing it again recently and enjoyed it. Despite some minor flaws, I think it’s worth the hour or so to complete it. It doesn’t hurt that it’s free.
The protagonist claims to be innocent despite being convicted of attempted murder. She believes she was framed by someone because she made a lot of enemies working for the DA. When she finds her cellmate dead with signs pointing to her as the murderer, she investigates who could be setting her up.
Let me cut to the chase and say that I found out you can double-click to skip animations. I didn’t know that but read it in a forum. That would probably make things go quicker. The voice-acting also highlights the fact that it’s an amateur game. That’s okay, but I found it the weakest aspect of the game.
Anyways, I managed to get the end that hints at some interesting reveals, but with only 90 of 100 points, I didn’t earn the ending that actually revealed everything. I read some more information online that talked about the reveals – enough that I can infer it – but I didn’t actually find out exactly what was happening. Even when replaying the game, I didn’t get the 95 points needed.
If you choose to play it and want to try for the best ending, here are a couple hints. Don’t read them if you don’t want any spoilers.
Ready? Yeah?
Examine everything, and always tell the truth.
Chip’s Challenge has always been one of my favorite games since I first played it with my dad, grandpa, and uncle on the Atari Lynx. Chuck Sommerville made a sequel, but due to issues beyond his control, he wasn’t able to release it. Twenty-five years later, Chip’s Challenge 2 has finally been released.
It was released alongside Chip’s Challenge 1 on Steam and can be purchased in a $5 bundle that contains both games and the CC2 level editor.
It’s a tile-based puzzle game tasking you with helping Chip collect keys, unlock doors, avoid deadly traps, and plan how to retrieve important items that allow you to get past obstacles. Chip’s Challenge 2 appears very similar but adds a variety of a new game elements.
It’s probably too early for me to talk about it too in-depth as I’m only eight levels into the game. However, I’m having a lot of fun, and it’s almost unbelievable that I’m finally playing this gem of a game. It came at a time when I’m about to be extremely busy for the next week, but I’ll see if I can squeeze in a few levels while at my conference next week!
Congratulations, Chuck, on finally getting Chip’s Challenge 2 released! Go Bit Buster!
[Updated on 5/30/15. See bottom of post.]
bob’s game was successfully funded on Kickstarter one year ago today. Right now the official bob’s game site just links to the Kickstarter and we’re no closer to the game. What happened exactly? Let’s look at what Bob has said in the comments since it was Kickstarted.
bobsgame, 5/23/14: Thank you to everyone who pledged, you are all fantastic and I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to continue working on this game. For those who are wondering, it made it on the last day thanks to a very generous backer who has been following the project from the beginning.
His site noted that he was going on a 10 day meditation retreat.
bobsgame, 7/31/14: Hi, I realized during my meditation that the best course of action was to spend some time with my parents and then get an apartment for a year, so that’s what I’ve been doing. As soon as I’m settled in I will put up a registration form for backers to provide an address for the business cards and then ship them out. Thank you and sorry for the delay.
Backer, 8/1/14: You guys should relax a bit. lol He will give us updates when he has something worth letting us know about. Obviously, he didn’t feel like “spending time with family” would be a good update but some of you guys being impatient made him come here and post that. There was no ETA on the cards in the pledge rewards description so people who pledged to get those need to wait until they’re ready to be shipped. This game is obviously going to take time and there is only one person working on it, so give it time guys.
Gran PC, 8/2/14: There was no ETA? Wait, so what does the “Estimated delivery: Jul 2014” mean right under “Original business card blah blah”?
bobsgame, 8/2/14: Thank you for being understanding, Backer. GranPC is correct, I missed that shipping date. I’m very sorry for the delay, I’ll do my best to make up for it.
Massimiliano Luisi, 10/31/14: Progress so far?
bobsgame, 10/31/14: Working on stuff
bobsgame, 12/31/14: Happy New Year!
At this time, there was a Forbes article by Michael Thomsen about bob’s game. It noted that, at least at the time, “Pelloni claims his Kickstarter backers will be ‘reimbursed,’ and the game will be released in its current unfinished state as an open source bundle of files.”
– Bob’s Game Kickstarter To Be Refunded After Developer Moves On, Michael Thomsen, Forbes.com, 1/14/15.
bobsgame, 2/8/15: Everything is back on track, more or less.
Giroro, 2/26/15: I’m bored. Anybody know of any fun games to play?
bobsgame, 2/26/15: Go running
Gran PC, 2/27/15: Was the ‘welcome to “bob’s game”‘ text on top always animated? I swear it only started pulsing now.
bobsgame, 2/27/15: I didn’t change anything
Peter Anargirou, 5/23/15: Hi, Bob. The Kickstarter funding closed one year ago today. Any update? Thanks, and I wish you good luck!
And that’s it. Honestly, I only pledged $20. I already got $20 worth of enjoyment, but I do hope it reaches a more polished release of some sort, both for his backers’ sake and for his own sake.
I guess we’ll see. You can read my complete coverage of this strange tale here.
Edit on 5/30/15: Bob responded.
bobsgame, 5/24/15: I am turning into God.
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Peter (Devee)