In this week’s edition, we learnt that Treyarch included not one, but two secret game modes in Call of Duty: Black Ops and Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto tells us how he really feels about Super Mario Bros. 3.
“Please State the Nature of the Musical Emergency”
There’s nothing all that special about a J-Pop singer performing in front of a few hundred people, but Hatsune Miku is no ordinary singer. Rather than a flesh and blood songstress, she’s a hologram with a computer-created voice. After finding success online, she performed her first “live” concert last year at the Animelo Summer Live festival. Hit the link for a video of one of her recent performances. (Link)
SMB 3 Not Up to Snuff Anymore, Says Miyamoto
Pretty much anyone who comes into contact with Super Mario Bros. 3 knows it’s a classic, but if you ask the guy who made it what he thinks of it, and he’d tell you it’s just embarrassing. Shigeru Miyamoto says that whenever he looks at SMB 3 now, he can’t believe that the standard for games was ever so low. He does acknowledge that it was a good game for its time, however, and said that if he were to do it again he wouldn’t change a thing. (Link)
Kinect Helps Father Play Games With His Autistic Son
John Yan’s son always wanted to play games with his dad, but thanks to his autism, was unable to get to grips with a control pad. That all changed with Kinect though, as Yan quickly found that his son had no problem playing with him once the pad was taken out of the equation. “The joy in his eyes,” Yan wrote. “As he was able to complete the tasks and move around in the menus is something I’ll never forget.” (Link)
World of Warcraft Mini-Pets Are Adorable and Altruistic
Following on from last year’s Pandaren Monk, which helped raise over a million dollars for the Make a Wish foundation, Blizzard is getting ready to offer World of Warcraft players the chance to do a good deed and score a super cute pet in the process. Blizzard will make a donation to an as yet unspecified charity with every purchase of the Moonkin Hatchling, who comes in both Alliance and Horde flavors. (Link)
Black Ops Packing Extra Zombies with an Side Order of Zork
When you shell out for Call of Duty: Black Ops you get a lot of game for your buck, or more accurately, a lot of games. Besides the single-player campaign, online multiplayer and the return of the zombie mode, Treyarch has added another zombie shooter in the same top-down style as the classic Smash TV, and if that wasn’t enough, it also tucked a full copy of text-adventure Zork in there as well. (Double Link)
