You go to a friend's house and you see that they're in the middle of something. So you grab a soda, sit down next to them and watch them as they start to play their game.

Now, one of two things will happen. One might be that they will see that you're bored when you're quiet for a time, they will stop their game, and you'll all do something together.

OR you might find that you've lost track of time and have gotten into the game on a completely different level than the person actually playing the game… and REALLY had a great time just watching them play. So, what are some games that you all have found yourself quite content being controller-less? Start the conversation in the comments area after you watch the video.

If there's a Kid Icarus reboot in the works somewhere at Nintendo, Metroid: Other M producer Yoshio Sakamoto, who worked on the original NES game, doesn't know anything about it. "I don't know personally about any project underway regarding Kid Icarus," Sakamoto told Kotaku, "but if so many of those people are interested in it and really want to see it on the Wii, they should really speak up."

It's not as simple as making a Zelda game with flight, apparently (that's our guess for what people want in a Wii Kid Icarus game). Sakamoto suggested that Nintendo has yet to hit upon the right design. "If we can find some sort of way to bring it to the Wii; a way to make the game for the Wii that makes sense, we would happily do so," he said. "But just keep in mind it may not be me making the game."

Nintendo's Sakamoto: No Wii Kid Icarus now, but possible originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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"I'm the voice of Guitar Hero 6," says KISS front man Gene Simmons during a video clip produced by Game On, a division of UK media site ITN. And that's all he says. The clip -- view it after the break -- has been removed from the context of what's assumed to be a full interview and essentially turns Simmons' statement into a gag line. Still, Simmons does appear to be the first "official" spokesperson to outright name the next iteration of Guitar Hero, albeit unofficially.

Activision previously dated a forthcoming Guitar Hero game for the "back half" of 2010. Presumably, that's "Guitar Hero 6" and the game Simmons will apparently star in. What? Activision didn't offer his crew a full-on Guitar Hero: KISS game? It's for the better, really, because all we want to do is get the digitized Simmons onstage and make him crank 'dat Soulja Boy!

Continue reading Gene Simmons: 'I'm the voice of Guitar Hero 6'

Gene Simmons: 'I'm the voice of Guitar Hero 6' originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Check out an expanded listing of the top 20 sales for the February 2010 NPD sales data (positions for Bioshock 2 (PS3), Aliens vs. Predator, MAG, and more).

"On Nick's Gaming View Episode #6, Nick covers this week's latest news including the announcement of a new PS3 exclusive and events including the recent God of War III footage. Nick also provides his impressions on MLB 10: The Show and talks about gamers wanting an opposing console to fail. Lastly, he discusses what really grinds his gears."

-TheGamerAccess.com

After delivering a GDC panel on his cinematic inspiration, we met with Metroid: Other M producer Yoshio Sakamoto to ask him about everything from collaborating with Team Ninja, lessons learned from Metroid Prime, the newfound focus on story in the Metroid universe, and whether or not he played Chair's Super Metroid love letter, Shadow Complex. Read on!

Can you tell us about the process of working with Team Ninja. Who does what design-wise and technology-wise?

Yoshio Sakamoto: The original design concept came from me, but then we went and assembled a team that could pull this off. And in this case it was people from Team Ninja, who we really thought was the best fit. But they've also provided a lot of core ideas that have influenced the direction of the game, particularly the director, Mr. Hayashi. So, as I mentioned in the speech today, it's not so much that we're dividing up tasks but collaborating as equals.

After E3 and the initial announcement a lot of people were making comments like, "Oh, it seems like they've dumped Retro for this series and they want to go with another developer," as if it was a big switch-off. But, in actuality, that is far from the case; rather, we just wanted to put together the best team that we could to make this project, which turns out to be Project M.

Continue reading Interview: Metroid: Other M producer Yoshio Sakamoto

Interview: Metroid: Other M producer Yoshio Sakamoto originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Editor-at-Large Matt Casamassina dishes the dirt on the behind-the-scenes murmurings at the event. I'm not impressed, I say. PS3 Move features almost no latency -- just one frame -- but that paper truth didn't seem to translate to reality as I played with the controller at Sony's event. Most of the stuff played like first-generation Wii efforts from third-parties. Natal, though -- the motion offering from Microsoft -- not so much. The same studio rep calls Natal a big, buggy mess. "It's sh*t," he adds, saying that it just doesn't work as promised. That it's slow and that the camera is imprecise, which he notes, is causing some major development woes.

Okay, so it isn't Rondo of Blood this week in Europe. Nintendo instead chose to inaugurate the latest Hanabi Festival with the pre-rendered Neo Geo shooter Ironclad and Lode Runner for NES. It's pretty novel in and of itself to have two Virtual Console games in a single week, not to mention a Neo Geo game! They're joined on Wii by the WiiWare version of Military Madness.

• Lode Runner (NES, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)
• Ironclad (Neo Geo, 1-2 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
• Nectaris: Military Madness (WiiWare, 1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
• Elemental Masters (DSiWare, 1-2 players, 800 DSi Points)
• Pop Island (DSiWare, 1-8 players, 500 DSi Points)
• Simply Sudoku (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• Simply Mahjong (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• 4 Travellers Play Spanish (DSiWare, 1-4 players, 800 DSi Points)

European Nintendo downloads: Ironclad, Nectaris originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lady Gaga was already announced for Rock Band's DLC update next week -- but she's bringing friends along. The pop sensation will be joined by some, ahem, actual rock bands.

Check out next week's full list of releases after the break.

Continue reading Rock Band Weekly Redux: Lady Gaga, Cartman, 3 Doors Down, Mute Math, The Subways

Rock Band Weekly Redux: Lady Gaga, Cartman, 3 Doors Down, Mute Math, The Subways originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Following last night's NPD report for February, Nintendo has issued a press release lauding the amazing selling power of its own products. In typical fashion, the gaming giant that got your grandma into gaming has managed to sell a ridiculous amount of DS and Wii systems in the U.S. -- 1.9 million in the first two months of 2010, to be exact.

As impressive as that 1.9 million figure is, Nintendo's ability to break its own records is even more impressive. In selling 613,000 DS units throughout February 2010, Nintendo has managed to set a new monthly record, besting the previous top-selling month of February 2009's figure of 597,000 units. It would seem that two things are certain in this life: we're all going to die one day and before that day comes, each of us is going to own nine DS systems.

With March 28 fast approaching -- that's the release date for the DSi XL -- Nintendo is hoping to further build on the success of its now six-year-old handheld. And, to think, even after all that time, the gif still hasn't gotten old.

Nintendo sells 1.9 million DS and Wiis through Feb. 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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