Archive for 2012


April Fools – New Awesome ThinkGeek Products

Sunday, April 1st, 2012

No, this is not a paid advertisement, we just wanted to let you know about all of the neat and original new products that the gamer/nerd product megagiant ThinkGeek has unveiled today.  We’ll tell you about the gaming-related ones here, but you can go to thinkgeek.com to check out all of the other cool Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. ones too.

First off, as pictured above, there are Minecraft-themed Peeps called Creeps!  Peeps are one of my perennial favourite Easter candies (for those who don’t know they’re like sugar-coated marshmallows).  At $5 a case they’re significantly more expensive than regular Peeps, but they make up for it with their awesome look.  I want some even though I’ve yet to play Minecraft myself. Read on to find out about the other new products they’re offering.

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April Fools – Google Maps Expanding Device Compatibility

Sunday, April 1st, 2012

Google Maps is available in some form or another on most of the electronic devices that you can purchase these days.  Google, never satisfied with their ubiquity, has come up with a new initiative to start supporting retro devices with Google Maps.  The first classic device that they are going to support is arguably the best-selling electronics device of all time, the NES or Famicom.  With roughly 62 million units in the wild, there won’t be a shortage of people willing to try out Google Maps on their old consoles.  To compensate for the NES’ lack of raw processing power, Google says that they’re going to do the brunt of the calculations required on a very large array of computers and basically just use the NES/Famicom as a display device.  All you have to do is pop the cartridge into your console, connect a phone line (perhaps blow on the cartridge), and then you’re all set to use all of the features of Google Maps (including Street View) in a retro-chic way on your classic Nintendo system. Google was even nice enough to but a beta preview of this new functionality into the current maps.google.com, so head on over there and hit the “Quest” button if you want to check out what your town or some international landmarks look like in all of their 8-bit glory. 

As a proud owner of both an NES and a Famicom, I’ll probably buy a cartridge or two depending on the price if only just for the awesome retro-ness of it all.  You can see the announcement video for the Google Maps NES service after the jump (and yes, it’s one of the Youtube videos you get GP for watching!)

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History of Game Usagi April Fools

Saturday, March 31st, 2012

Game Usagi has always embraced April Fools like many fine tech sites across the Internet, but this year we’ve decided to commit ourselves to continuing to bring you hard-hitting news and reviews instead of sinking to wasting an entire day with jokes and frivolity.  Instead of our usual jokes this year we’ve decided to take a look back on April Fools past so we can remember bygone levity while looking forward to the future of… something.

Anyways, read on for a trip down memory lane.

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Future of Gaming: Durango and Orbis?

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

There’s a new rumour today that the PS3’s successor is codenamed Orbis.  When we consider this with the confirmed codename of Durango for the next Xbox 360 and the as-far-as-we-know final name for the Wii U, it’s going to be one funny E3 this year for video game system names.

The rumours currently peg the Durango and Orbis for a late 2013 launch, so it would make sense if they were at least announced in some form at this year’s E3.  How Microsoft plans to get around the Mexican state/Dodge SUV/Ford Truck association with their codename is anybody’s guess, but Sony isn’t far behind in the awkward codename choosing game.  Orbis already has 16 entries on Wikipedia for everything from a German municipality to a few different book publishers.  Perhaps the Wii U name isn’t sounding so bad now after all, considering the even less origianal alternatives.

Any way you look at it though, there’s going to be a lot of people looking very silly talking about the Durango Vs. the Orbis’ graphics pretty soon if all the rumours are to be believed, so start getting used to the names now or you’ll be left behind in the early 2000s with your silly names like Xbox and Playstation.

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Vindicating the 3DS: How Recent Games are Exploiting Stereoscopic 3D

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
When I first heard about the 3DS, I groaned. Were Nintendo marketing executives really riding the 3D craze, forcing a gimmick into a core console mechanic? The system’s name was like a punchline to a bad joke; it was almost as bad as when the Wii or iPad were first announced. Even worse, the ergonomics of keeping your head still at a constant distance from the screen were a human factors nightmare, a throwback to the old Virtual Boy.

Now, after three months of owning a 3DS, I am a believer.

Don’t get me wrong, at this stage stereoscopic 3D is not essential to play any game on the market. I am not even sure if it will ever be essential for gameplay, but with each subsequent game that I played I could tell that there was a future here. In 10 years, supporting stereoscopic 3D properly for gaming will be as important as having decent camera mechanics and up-to-date graphics. The operative word here, though, is “properly”. We don’t yet know how to leverage 3D in a big way, but we’re learning, and here’s how.

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The Original 151 Pokemon According To My Mom

Monday, March 26th, 2012

While she has never played any of the Pokemon games, my mom lived through my brother and I collecting Pokemon cards, playing the Game Boy games and Smash Bros., watching the Pokemon anime on TV, and going to the theatrical Pokemon movies.  She usually knows what we’re talking about when we discuss Pokemon, so we thought it would be amusing if we found how just how many of the original 151 Pokemon our mom could recognize from the sprite collection linked through the image above.  Read on to see what she named the original Kanto Pokemon, as well as any comments she made about them. 

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Top 10 Things Nintendo Should Do For 3DS Pokemon Games

Saturday, March 24th, 2012


The Pokemon Company and developer Game Freak have recently announced the upcoming Pokemon Black and White Version 2 games on Nintendo DS.  They follow the very successful Pokemon Black and White titles, which are the 5th generation of the core Pokemon RPG series.  As a dedicated fan of this series, I would surmise that these new titles are meant to satisfy our cravings while we wait patiently for the inevitable announcement of the next generation of the series on the Nintendo 3DS.  It is strange that Nintendo didn?t force them to develop for the previously struggling 3DS with a pair of titles guaranteed to sell gazillions.  Some people are rightfully disappointed that the next pair of core titles will be released on hardware less powerful than a modern graphing calculator, but as a fan I?ll play almost anything developed by Game Freak, as they consistently produce fun and addictive titles that always raise the bar in the series.

Like it or lump it, we?re going to have to wait a while longer for Pokemon Gen. 6 on 3DS.  Pokemon Black/White was an admission by Game Freak that their fans have grown up, and while these games did so many things right they didn?t take them quite far enough.  Now that the much more powerful 3DS is here, Game Freak has a huge opportunity to take Pokemon to the next level.

To get them started, I present here for the developers my top 10 suggestions of features and improvements that fans will expect to see in Pokemon Gen. 6:

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