Attack on Titan 3DS Coming to North America?

After a tremendous success in Japan upon release, Attack on Titan: The Last Wings of Mankind developer Spike Chunsoft has announced they are currently looking for a publishing partner to release the title in North America.

The game was launched via 3DS in Japan last year, selling almost a quarter of a million physical copies and more through the 3DS eShop.

The game was based on the original manga by Hajime Isayama and was then turned into a hit anime series through Wit Studio and Production I.G

Will you find titans be stomping their way to North America soon? Let’s hope so.

Study Shows Tetris Helps Against Addictive Cravings

UK researchers have found that playing a game of Tetris can help fight against cravings for people who have addictions.

The study was published in the scientific journal Appetite and was designed to test the Elaborated Intrusion Theory, which states that cravings are not just desire based but also visual. It was hypothesized that Tetris, being a highly visual intensive game can help reduce cravings.

A group of 119 college students were asked to describe their cravings before playing Tetris. Students who were able to complete the game saw their cravings reduce 24 percent more than those who were unable to do so.

Psychology professor Jackie Andrade of Plymouth University explained that anything visually stimulating would work in reducing one’s craving. “It doesn’t have to be mentally demanding,” she states, “but if it is, it has a better chance to block the craving.”

Watching television, for example, is said to possibly help curve these cravings as well, however it is the interactive nature of video games that demand one’s attention while making it fun at the same time.

 

Pokémon X & Y Toys Appearing in McDonald’s Happy Meals Next Month

Fans of the Pokémon X & Y video game are going to want to catch ‘em all at their nearest McDonald’s location starting next month.

The toys will be available among purchase of a McDonald’s Happy Meal and will come with 12 TCG cards including 11 from the Kalos Starter Set and one from Game Freak’s mascot Pikachu.

From Pokémon X & Y, fans can collect their favorite starters whether it is Fennekin, Chespin, and Froakie. Classic Pokémon favorites such as Blastoise, Venusaur, and Charizard will be available for collection as well. The toys are all compatible with the McDonald’s McPlay Power app, where minigames can be downloaded and unlocked.

The Amazing Spider-Man toys will make way for Pokémon X & Y toys starting May 23^rd and will be available until June 12^th.

MARIO KART 8 WII U PREMIUM BUNDLE ANNOUNCED

Nintendo has just announced that they will be releasing a Mario Kart 8 Premium Pack on May 30^th, the same time the game is scheduled to release.

The bundle will come with a black Wii U console with 32GB of storage as well as a black game controller and sensor bar. All of this along with the Mario Kart 8 disk included makes this bundle perfect for first time Wii U owners and Nintendo lovers.

The game itself includes an exciting collection of 16 classic courses that have been remodeled as well as 16 brand new courses to race on with zero gravity. Racers will find themselves speeding through the track sideways and upside-down as they try to cross the finish line in first place.

Not only will the game and bundle be released on May 30^th but also Yoshi and Peach fans will be thrilled to get their hands on new pink and green Wii Remote Plus controllers, featuring their favorite Mario characters.

The Wii U Mario Kart 8 Premium Pack is now available for pre-order, including on the Official Nintendo Online Store.

Nintendo Spends Easter at the White House

Yesterday, Nintendo made their way to the White House where they joined the National Park Foundation to play video games for the Easter Egg Roll event.

The event took place on the south lawn of the White House where games such as Wii Fit U and Wii Sports Club were available for visitors to play.

Being that these games require players to get up and move, they fit right into theme of the event which was “Hop into healthy, swing into shape” in hopes of improving the health and activity of all families. The games were also a great support for the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign, which also focuses on the health of children as they grow up.

Mario and Luigi were also to make their appearance at the event taking pictures and cheering on the visitors as they played the games.

The event was a great success and having Nintendo there definitely kept the visitors and families active the entire day.

Playing as a Black Character Contributes to Racism According to Recent Studies

A recent suggests being able to play as a black character in video games can promote or strengthen racist feelings.

“Playing a violent video game as a black character reinforces harmful stereotypes that blacks are violent,” says co-author of the study Brad Bushman. The research indicated that white participants who played as black characters in a video game are more prone to express greater negative thoughts toward African-Americans and in some cases have even associated them with weapons.

A group of 126 white university students who were 60 percent male were asked to play Saints Row 2 while being assigned an avatar of random race.

Players were asked a series of questions which brought about their views of African Americans after playing the game, and those assigned to an African American avatar were more likely to agree with the statement “African Americans would be as well off as whites if they only tried harder.”

Fight Night Round 4 or WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 were games assigned to another group of 141 white college students who were 65 percent female. Ethnicity of their character was also given at random and after playing, pictures of African Americans were more associated with images of weapons instead of harmless ordinary objects.

“If white people are fed a media diet that shows blacks as violent, they don’t have a realistic view of black people,” says Bushman.  He explains that it is the media that has control of how gamers perceive an individual of a particular race.

Oculus Rift Helps Elderly Woman Experience the Outside World

After watching her grandmother become weaker due to the effects of her cancer, game artist Priscilla Firstenberg used a development kit of the Oculus Rift to help her grandmother experience a virtual world.

Priscilla’s grandmother, Roberta, became confined to her home after becoming too weak to walk and enjoy hobbies because of her cancer. After becoming familiar with the newest gaming technology, Priscilla decided to reach out to Oculus VR and request their development kit.

Kevin Crawford, the company’s customer service lead responded to her request by saying,

“Unfortunately, we can’t send you out a brand new unit as we’re still trying to fulfill our backlog queue of existing orders, but, we have just received a few developer loaner samples back in the office…Keeping with the spirit of these specific Rifts, it only makes sense that we loan a working developer Rift to another game dev.”

The decision was unanimous and Oculus VR sent over the kit that very day.

Once received, Priscilla had her grandmother experience the Rift’s Tuscany Demo which allows players to experience a virtual villa. Her grandmother even got to experience her favorite animal, butterflies, as they flew around her.

All that seemed impossible became possible with the use of the Oculus Rift. Priscilla even developed a level for her grandmother which included butterflies, waterfalls, and a forest with fairies. Four weeks after her first use the virtual reality headset, Roberta Firstenberg passed away.

A video of her experience can be seen below.

 

No Plans for Star Wars to be on Disney Infinity

With all the excitement of Marvel becoming a part of the Disney Infinity family, rumors have recently been spreading about whether Disney plans to include Star Wars characters within the game as well.

The rumor started with the Disney Store posting a Darth Vader figurine on their official company Facebook page. The figurine highly resembles those used for the Disney Infinity game which then caused rumors to quickly spread and stir up all the excitement.

Disney eventually cleared the rumor by stating that they do not have any current plans at this time in including Star Wars characters in the game.

With the Disney Infinity character lineup continually growing, one cannot help but hope that Star Wars will be incorporated into the game. As of now however, players just have the excitement of the new Marvel character lineup coming to the game, which will be released in a press conference on April 30^th.

Same-Sex Marriage Causes Controversy in Tomodachi Life

Tomodachi Life is a new game that was released in Japan where players are able to import their Mii characters into the game and live their virtual everyday life. Players get to play minigames, make friends, eat, and even form romantic relationships, just not with Miis of the same-sex.

Ever since it’s release in Japan, Tomodachi Life has been highly successful in sales. At one time, the game appeared to once be able to support same-sex relationships, however Nintendo described this incidence as a “glitch” within the new game that was quickly solved. This being said, same-sex marriage within the game was no longer an option.

Nintendo UK commented on how the misunderstanding sparked:

“This occurred because they saw Japanese fans posting game screenshots of male and female Mii characters, where female Mii characters were designed and clothed in such a way that they looked male. Since these explanations were made in Japanese by the Japanese fans who posted the images, the Japanese people do not have such a misunderstanding.”

Because pictures of female characters dressed as men were posted, this caused outside countries to believe that same-sex relationship were possible within the game. However there was another glitch that also had to be addressed:

 “Second, a critical bug occurred in the original Japanese version of the game which made it impossible for the player to continue the game. When Mii characters were imported from a Wii console, or the previous game in the Tomodachi Collection series on Nintendo DS (which was only released in Japan), into the Nintendo 3DS version, it could lead to scrambled Mii data within the Nintendo 3DS version.

This could result in different Miis being randomly assigned to existing in-game relationships, such as already married Mii, or as just one other example, giving the appearance of same-sex relations. Because this bug caused the inability for the player to save the game data and continue the game, we released a patch.”

Scrambling of data after the import of a Mii character seemed to be another reason as to why many believed that this feature was originally included within the game. Even though Nintendo seemed to pretty much sum up the issue, it still was not brought up whether or not this feature will be possible within the game in the future.

We know that Japan’s version of Tomodachi Life has taken off the same-sex marriage feature within the game, but will that stop them from doing so for the UK or US version?

Nintendo seems to be taking a safe route within this controversy by avoiding this political and rights issue. This move may be criticized by those who strongly believe in incorporating a more current and fully inclusive quality of the game, but ultimately this approach may possibly be the smartest decision for company as of now.

New Mario Game May Be Coming to Wii U

Nintendo producer Yoshiaki Koizumi announced that the team is working on a new Mario game. The platform on which the game is expected to release for is still a secret according to Koizumi.

 “I can tell you though that we’ve already started approaching our next challenge,” explained Nintendo’s producer.

Not too much has been revealed about the upcoming game, however Mario fans definitely have something new on their way to look forward to.

Koizumi also mentioned how the team plans to incorporate a variety of new game mechanics within this game as well as future ones. The main focus for Nintendo however, is to incorporate more use of the game pad within upcoming games, including this one if it plans to be released for the Wii U.

Should we anticipate a release in a new Super Mario 3D world? Will the new game be released for the Wii U or the 3DS?  There are still many unanswered questions about this announcement but ultimately Nintendo believes this game’s release will definitely be worth the wait.