Video Game of the Week /‘Princess Bride Game’
‘Bride’ is a wonderful take on a modern classic
“Princess Bride Game” is an unpretentious kiddie/casual title, but also a brilliant, loving homage to the Rob Reiner film classic “The Princess Bride” (and the 1973 William Goldman novel on which it was based).
The game plays mainly as a point-and- click adventure — with some levels of running and jumping and bauble-collecting, as in the Fire Swamp — broken into five game types as chapters loosely based on the film’s plot, each with numerous levels of increasing difficulty for re-playability and continuing challenge.
First up is a day on the farm where Princess Buttercup torments Westley with “as you wish” tasks such as fetching carrots and washing windows. Then comes some death-on- the-line Sicilian trivia atop the Cliffs of Insanity, then it’s off to bop Rodents of Unusual Size in the aforementioned Fire Swamp, and so on, culminating with a gay old inventory management sim where you “have fun storming the castle.”
It’s all presented as a wonderfully drawn, cel-shaded cartoon and even goes so far as to include the voices of some key characters, including Robin Wright as Buttercup, Mandy Patinkin as Inigo and the irreplaceable Wallace Shawn as Vizzini doing his inconceivable prattle through rounds and rounds of multiple choice, battle-of-the-wits trivia.
Meanwhile, voice actors replacing the likes of Cary Elwes, Billy Crystal and Peter Falk do the franchise proud . . . although it’s clear nobody can replace the thick-tongued Andre the Giant.
You may find a few technical hitches with installing/reinstalling the game, and some of the trivia questions seem to assume you know the movie inside and out (conversely, other questions are absurdly kid-friendly, like “What color is his hair?”).
Plus, there’s the odd occasion where instructions and prompts fly counterintuitive to the task at hand. But none of that is particularly aggravating, just distracting. But for that, “Princess Bride Game” is mostly excellent.
‘‘Princess Bride Game’
Worldwide Biggies; Windows PC; $19.99
ESRB Rating: Everyone (6+) (comic mischief, mild cartoon violence)
Score:★★★★ out of 5
‘Blast Works’
Majesco; Wii; $39.99
ESRB Rating: Everyone (6+) (mild fantasy violence) Score: ★★★★ out of 5 Part old-school bleep-bleepbloop-bloop scrolling 2-D shooter, part anything-goes virtual hobby shop with a trunk full of pixilated wonder, “Blast Works” is a surprisingly deep and engaging game of, well, game design.
It allows you to create all aspects of a generic shooting game: your craft, your enemies, levels, events, background, the works. You can make a sci-fi shooter, a cartoon shooter, a lewd, crude, toilet-bowl shooter . . . if you can think it, you can probably make a game of it.
The user-created game is not a new concept — console titles have occasionally included “level editors” since way back when — but as 90 percent of the point of it all, “Blast Works” is much less restrained and more sophisticated than your average tacked-on component, despite the seeming simplicity of two-dimensional design. (It should also be noted that the public availability of source code of certain PC games long ago spawned a cottage industry of “modders,” whose custom modifications have been known to net complete, self-contained games that rival the blockbuster titles from whence their code came . . . the famed “Counter Strike,” for example. But “Blast Works” is not source code; it’s a graphic-user interface for game design.)
“Blast Works” also takes advantage of the Wii’s online capabilities by allowing you to upload your creations and download those of others.
The other 10 percent of the game is the actual playing of games designed, which is only fun because of the innate potential for absolute lunacy. Otherwise, it’s just a straight up, boring old shooter . . . albeit one with maybe a gazillion variations
on a theme, which is pretty cool.
Sick kids in hospitals get lots of Wii time
In an effort to help lift the spirits of seriously ill children and their families, Nintendo and Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation have committed to placing hundreds of new Fun Centers in hospitals across the United States and Canada this year.
The new Fun Centers feature a Sharp Aquos flat-screen television, a DVD player, a Wii system and a selection of family-friendly Wii games such as “Super Mario Galaxy,” “Wii Sports” and “Mario Party 8.”
Nintendo of America is manufacturing a total of 1,250 new systems in the first run. More than 30 hospitals featuring the new Wii Fun Centers are already dotting the map, with 500 of them expected to be placed in hospitals by the end of the year.
“Everyone who has spent time in a hospital knows how scary and lonely it can be,” said Paula Van Ness, CEO of Starlight Starbright. “Our Fun Centers transform the hospital experience for children, bringing enjoyment and laughter to an otherwise daunting experience. And as an added benefit of this new Fun Center model, the Wii technology can be used to encourage children to do physical therapy and motor-coordination exercises.”
Nintendo unveiling Wii Remote upgrade
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Wii Remote is getting in touch with its sensitive side.
Nintendo unveiled Wii MotionPlus last week at the E3 Business and Media Summit. The new accessory plugs into the base of the Wii Remote and will provide more intuitive motion controls. Wii MotionPlus is scheduled for release next spring and will come packaged with “Wii Sports Resort,” which will feature beach-themed activities such as Frisbee throwing and Jet Skiing.
The company also showed off music simulator “Wii Music” and the WiiSpeak room microphone, which will come with “Animal Crossing: City Folk.” Games announced for the Nintendo DS include “Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars” and “Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades.”
Sony to cut prices for some PS3 games
LOS ANGELE (Bloomberg) — Sony Corp. plans to cut the price of some video games for its PlayStation 3 console, a move aimed at increasing sales and attracting more customers.
The price for “Resistance: Fall of Man,” a Sony-developed title, and “Call of Duty 3” from Activision Blizzard, will drop to $29.99, Jack Tretton, the head of Sony’s U. S. games unit, said in a presentation at the E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles. The games typically sell for $59.99.
PlayStation to offer movie downloads
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sony is raising the curtain on a Play-Station 3 movie download service.
The company is launching a downloadable movie service, which features films from such studios as Disney, Fox and Warner Bros.
The standard and high definition videos can be downloaded to the console and transferred to a PlayStation Portable. Rentals will cost $2.99 to $5.99. Purchases will cost $9.99 to $14.99.
Sony also announced it will sell an 80-gigabyte PS3 model for $399 beginning in September. Among the new games revealed were “God of War III” and “Massive Action Game,” which will allow up to 256 players to battle online.
