Universal Fighting System (UFS) is an incredible collectible card game made by Sabertooth Games. It takes licenses from fighting games such as Street Fighter, Soul Caliber, King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, and now Darkstalkers! This is a brilliant move for UFS, as Darkstalkers is as stylish and cool as fighting games come. Keep the videogame licenses coming, Sabertooth (Guiltygear anyone?)

A cool programer known as Notch has made a java version of Super Mario Bros with randomly generated levels.

Unfortunately, the games is rather simplistic and features little variety in enemies and powerups.  Still, it’s worth checking out as the control is spot-on despite the lack of a gamepad.

Give it a try: Super Mario Infinity

Or look at the MMORPG he’s working on Wurm

Today marks the release of Windows XP’s oft delayed successor, Windows Vista.  While the operating system has actually been on the market since November 8, 2006, that launch was more focused on business based usage.  There are four versions available for Vista, featuring more features for an expanding price.  Among the new features of the operating system are the new GUI (Windows Aero), a new shell, new search capabilities, the Windows Sidebar, DirectX 10 and various other new applications and features.

According to 4gamer, Korean developer Cyberstep is making Katamari Damacy Online for the PC. Initial reports are that it will take the vs. mode from the old Katamari games and make them online.

Sounds like a terrible plan to me since the old vs. modes were never all that fun. But apparently you will also be able to make your own island as well as collect and manage things including a house and pets. The game is presumed very early in it’s
development with a late 2007 release date.

Source: Insert Credit

Another Monday, another crop of Wii Virtual Console games being released on the system. Todays lineup has a nice classic spread of Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games. In fact, two of the games I mentioned last week finally got their release today.
New Wii Virtual Console Games – 1/29/07

• Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo 64 – 1,000 Wii Points)
• Contra III: The Alien Wars (Super NES – 800 Wii Points)
• Bonanza Bros. (Sega Genesis – 800 Wii Points)
• Comix Zone (Sega Genesis – 800 Wii Points)

Source: NOA Media Site

A new screenshot showcasing the Duke has emerged. The world is shocked that there is actual news on this games development. Status of the Prospector and his western level still being determined. Game to be released shortly after the next Evil Dead movie when they will be new one liners available for the Duke to say.

Source: Gamasutra

Thousands of gamers awoke this morning to find the familiar blue glow of the Nintendo Wii illuminating the darkness. Instead of a message from another Wii user they were greeted with an announcement from Nintendo. Today the Wii News channel is available, where full access and functionality is only a system update away.

Sporting a menu interface, the Wii News Channel provides a comfortable viewing experience. Users can view news based on a number of categories, or go to the globe, which is similar to the one used in the Wii Weather Channel. News articles from around the world can be seen and selected from the interactive map. Using Wii Connect 24, the news should be fed at a constant rate into the system, all of which is provided by the Associated Press.

World famous game developer Square-Enix has announced today that they are going to use Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 to help ease game development in the next generation. The Unreal Engine 3, showcased in Epic’s own Gears of War and the upcoming Unreal Tournament 2007, Mass Effect and Bioshock, seems an odd choice for Square-Enix, famous for the anime styled Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series.

Square Enix’s Taku Murata had this to say about the announcement:

The complexity of next-generation game systems featuring HD graphics and multi-core parallel processing poses a number of technological challenges to our game development. However, we can expedite our game development process significantly while allowing extra time and resources to be spent on game design and mechanics by establishing an effective technology platform. The technology platform for game development is becoming more important than ever. I’m excited to be partnering with Epic Games in such an important area.

While use of the Unreal Engine 3 will definitely help cut down the cost of game development and allow for easy cross-platform releases (Square-Enix has mentioned that they want to support more platforms this generation), one wonders what the fate of Square-Enix’s own White Engine will be?

Source: Square-Enix Acquires Unreal Engine 3

After the last year’s E3 and the news of Gamecube to Wii move, not much has been released about the latest game in the Paper Mario franchise. According to the latest Nintendo Power, in April 2007, gamers can look forward to a new Mario adventure. Controlling the classic plumber will be handled using the sideways Wii controller position (NES-style). Gameplay is a mixture of 2D and 3D platforming and players can switch between the two gameplay styles using the A button. In tradition with other Paper Mario games, extra damaged can be inflicted upon an enemy by performing the right action at the right time. In this case, actions will involves things like shaking the Wii controller. There will be other important uses for the Wii controller as will, raising the question of why it was even announced as a Gamecube title to begin with.

Source: Codename Revolution (Update 7)