Miyamoto Wants To Show Off Mario 3DS Game Soon

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While the 3DS is getting a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, there’s been surprisingly little news for a Super Mario Bros. game on the system. Shigeru Miyamoto, however, has confirmed that he’s working on a Mario 3DS game and hopes to show it off soon.

“In the interests of adopting new technology for the Super Mario Bros. tradition, I am now making a new Super Mario Bros. game for the Nintendo 3DS system,” said Miyamoto. “I want to show everyone as soon as possible what the new Super Mario Bros. will be like on the Nintendo 3DS.”

Source: Iwata Asks

Need For Speed Shift Franchise Shifted

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Need for Speed: Shift was an attempt to reinvigorate the racing brand with a more realistic style of driving action. While the title was a success, EA wants to align the game along the same terms as racing series like F1 and Gran Turismo 5.

“Shift is still part of the Need for Speed family but it offers a very different experience from our traditional Need for Speed action racers,” said EA’s racing and action business head Colin Blackwood. “With Shift 2 Unleashed, we aim to redefine sim racing so that fans get as close to the feeling of real racing as possible. Sim racers are proving very popular with consumers  F1 andGT5 have done great numbers. The game will still embody the core values of Need for Speed but we want to establish Shift as our clearly defined simulation racer.”

Need for Speed: Shift was a critical and commercial success when it launched in 2009. The sequel is planned for release in March; despite being only a few months after Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Blackwood believes that its different flavor will appeal to racing fans in a whole new way.

“Our Need for Speed strategy is to create the best racing and driving experiences for all racing fans,” said Blackwood. “With the original Shift we struck a chord with sim racers owing to the high quality and raw, edgy feel of real racing. The game performed very well at retail. The use of Shift as a franchise name is reflective of our desire to establish it as the best simulation racer in the market with its own unique, distinct positioning.’

Source: MCV

Mortal Kombat Rebirth Released On Accident

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Director Kevin Tancharoen got permission to make a series of shorts out of the Mortal Kombat concept video he released. As it turns out, the reason why it went viral was a complete accident.

“I am not the most technically savvy YouTube person,” Tancharoen tells Gamasutra in an interview. “What came out wasn’t the final product in my mind. I wasn t done yet. It was still in its rough phase, but I couldn t send a 2GB file over email, so my friend said I could create a private page on YouTube and sent it to him to review. It turns out it wasn t that private.”

“I looked on Twitter and saw MK was trending and thought ‘Oh God, did someone beat me to the punch,'” he said. “Once he knew it was his, he grew worried about rights he hadn’t secured yet. The actors could have quickly rebelled against me. Thank God people liked it, because it could have gone really bad.”

There will be nine episodes, about 7-10 minutes apiece exploring the backstory of the characters. Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon is working with Tancharoen on pre-production.

“We’re working together hand in hand,” he says. “I’ve got to admit, I had a little fanboy geek moment when I met him. I flashed back to when I was 12 or 13 and played the first game and was obsessed with it. He was very, very happy with the short. He knows it took liberties with the universe of Mortal Kombat, but was okay with that. It blows my mind.”

Tancharoen is not resting his laurels on just doing the short films, however. “The bigger thing for me, of course, is I want to translate this to a feature. I would love to tell the stories that lead the character up to a certain point, then have them merge together in a big 3D movie, he concluded.”

Source: Gamasutra

Black Ops First Strike: Closer Look

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Despite the almost constant stream of complaints you’ll hear about for Call of Duty: Black Ops’ online multiplayer, there are still millions of people playing it worldwide. Check out the new clips of Black Ops First Strike and check to see what many will be playing for the next few months.

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Video Games | Call of Duty: Black Ops | First Strike DLC Gameplay MontageXbox 360 | PlayStation 3 | Nintendo Wii | PC Games

Google Overtakes Nokia In Smartphone Race

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Research firm Canalys has revealed that Google’s Android has overtaken Nokia’s Symbian as the most popular smartphone platform in the last quarter of 2010, with 32.9 million Android-equipped phones in Q4 2010, compared with Symbian’s total sales of 31 million. Samsung, HTC and LG phones all did well with Android, while Nokia and Symbian did not fare as well.

“We have seen some strong products from a number of vendors,” said Canalys analyst Tim Shepherd.

Source: Yahoo! News {link no longer active}

Doodle Jump Makes Hop Into Movies

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Doodle Jump is the best selling iPhone game of all time and Universal Pictures is looking to leverage that. The movie studio has signed an agreement with developer Lima Sky to cross-promote the app in promotions for the upcoming live action/computer-animated comedy, Hop.

Doodle Jump will get a free software update that will allow users to play a secret Easter level within the game and play as Hop s leading character. This is quite remarkable for brothers Igor and and Marko Pusenjak, who created the app 18 months ago and have seen over 8.5 million iPhone users download the game.

Source: VentureBeat

Zelda: Skyward Sword Probably Not Out Before June 2011

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The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo’s biggest franchises and new entries are always highly anticipated. When it was announced that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword would be delayed until 2011, many hoped it would still be out by April, but hopes seem slim now that it will come out in the first half of the year.

“One of the Wii titles scheduled to be launched this year is, as you know, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword,” said President Satoru Iwata. “Last year was the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. This year marks the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda. Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo told me that he had a strong feeling that the new play control realized by Wii MotionPlus, which is now integrated into our Wii Remote as Wii Remote Plus, could significantly expand the comfort of the game play, especially when used in games like The Legend of Zelda.”

“His team is now entering into the final completion stage of the game, added Iwata. Talking about The Legend of Zelda franchise, what people called a masterpiece in the days of Nintendo 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been in the process of being remade for Nintendo 3DS, and this Nintendo 3DS version is expected to hit the market earlier.”

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time will not release on 3DS until June 2011.

Source: CVG {link no longer active}

Angry Birds Propelled To Rio

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Developer Rovio has announced that the there will be a movie tie-in with Rio. The 3D movie from the creators of Ice Age will see the Angry Birds game promoted along with the movie in TV commercials and other marketing, with the character Rio appearing in the new version of theAngry Birds game.

“We are like birds of a feather,” said Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio. “This gets us massive global visibility, as if we had made our own movie.”

“We think of how Mario has been around as a game character for more than 25 years and feel like we are just getting started,” Vesterbacka added.

Rio opens in theaters on April 15.

Source: VentureBeat