This is why I played Metroid Prime Corruption for all of 15 minutes.

While watching the gameplay trailers for Capcom’s upcoming iPhone game MaXplosion, it looks like it should be a fun little game. There’s this neat exploding mechanic, you see, which your character can do 3 times in a row before needing a recharge. You use this mechanic to traverse standard platforming levels, blowing apart enemies foolish enough to stand in your way.

Of course there’s just this one niggling little problem. This game, a game wrapped entirely around one mechanic, was released in the summer of ’09.

To say this game resembles Twisted Pixel’s wildly popular and frenetically paced ‘Splosion Man is an understatement… there is no way the planning meeting for this game did not include the phrase “Just go make ‘Splosion Man.”

It gets worse too, as Twisted Pixel CEO Michael Wilford responded on his twitter page:

Best part is, we originally pitched @Splosion_Man to Capcom and they said no.

It’s rare to see anything truly original in modern gaming. Games borrow from one another all the time, and when something works it’s bound to get copied in some capacity. But it is rare to see a major developer unapologetically ripping off a well-known indie game in this way. Hopefully it sells well, and Twisted Pixel nets all the profits when the inevitable lawsuit is resolved.

UPDATE: Guess that lawsuit may not be so inevitable after all. Michael Wilford spoke with Joystiq this evening and shrugged off the idea of filing suit against Capcom:

“While I think the similarities are pretty nauseating, we’re too small to take on a company like Capcom,” said Wilford.

That, and we owe them one for inventing Mega Man, so we’ll let them slide. I just hope they’re not counting on the fact that indies can’t fight back. In general, anything that would take our focus off of making games would be a bad decision, I think. We just need to keep our heads down making the next thing so that Capcom has something to steal next year.”

Have you noticed a decline in the quality of games recently released? Are you left wondering where all the good games have gone every time you step into the electronics section of your local store? Do you wonder WHY it seems like we’ve been getting the same mindless gun-fight, breast filled game, time after time?

Hint: It’s Your Fault.

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I google imaged “cursed”, and this is what came up:

And I literally think nothing could be more apt. If you haven’t read the subtext (which would make sense because I haven’t really given any, unless of course you’ve read the title and can… I DIGRESS) level 20 is cursed. We tried recording last night, but Mix’s power didn’t come back until midnight.

And then, tonight… blessed tonight. Everything looked good until 5pm rolled around and all the freaky Illinois people got home from work and simultaneously fired up the internet porn, and Mix’s power went down again.

So, what does that mean for you, dear listener? It means:

Fall Damage Presents:

A Very Fally Breakfast

A one time only special engagement

With your hosts Aevan, Mixmoff and Dr. Scares, convening at the ripe hour of 10am CST on Saturday January 23rd, 2010.  Join us in our Chatroom and lets eat eggs together. Most likely it will look like this:

As Capcom has at least semi-officially closed the door on future collaboration with future developers, it’s now very clear how little margin for error exists in this generation of gaming development. After pledging to work with western devs in order to expand their sales in the western markets, Capcom’s failure to revive the Bionic Commando series seems to have caused the Japanese game maker to reverse course entirely.

It’s evident developers walk a tight rope in this generation. We complain of “sequelitis”, but once a winning formula is found it’s dangerous or even reckless to deviate from that success. A single failure can topple a small developer, and can cause even a powerhouse like Capcom to feel very uncomfortable.

Our pastime of choice has become big money, but that means developers are less and less likely to take the chances to truly innovate. Hopefully the burgeoning scene of indie and download-only games will keep us awash with fresh ideas to help propel the industry forward!

So a handful of days after a successful YLOD fix, my not-so-trusty PS3 has died yet again. This time I was able to disassemble, apply the fix, and reassemble by memory…. but it was to no avail. The blinking red light has been replaced by a unlit LED, and this machine has obviously pwned it’s last n00b.

In my opinion, the purported YLOD fix will work, but it’s a band-aid fix in many situations. Eventually a malfunctioning board will catch up to you, and a new machine is probably the only reliable fix.

So, Mixmoff has forced me into updating the general public about his vain attempt to get his PS3 working again. As you can see, he has managed to completely destroy disassemble the console fairly well so far, let’s just hope he can figure out how to put it back together and somewhat resemble what it is supposed to be. And maybe, just maybe, if you listen real hard, you might be able to hear anything he’s saying.

The amount of thermal compound used on the CPU and GPU in that refurb machine is beyond sickening. Considering I build and service PCs by day, seeing this just makes me want to take whoever thought that was a good idea out back and show them just what really happened to Old Yeller.

Just in time for the holidays, my 60 gig PS3 has just bit the bullet! After a sudden self-reset I am now faced with the dreaded Yellow Light of Death on the refurb model Sony sent me about 6 months ago.

Out of warranty, and disinclined to spend another $150 for a temporary refurb replacement, I will be attempting to fix this one myself tonight. Maybe I’ll even livestream the process tonight right here on Fall Damage!

The basic plan? Yank a million pieces out, wipe off the old thermal compound, heat the shit out of the motherboard, and apply new thermal compound. Yeah there’s some other more delicate steps in there, but I’m not one for delicacy. For $30 I may just be able to fix this beast yet. I won’t sit idly by while my recently purchased copy of PixelJunk Shooter goes unplayed!

I’ll keep you all appraised of my impending success or inevitable failure!

Originally, today was going to be the debut of an exclusive on-release review of Bioware’s new fantasy epic, Dragon Age: Origins. I had planned it out meticulously, right down to a prepared character-build. Unfortunately, there was one rather significant fly in the ointment:

Alas, poor Frankenbox, you served me well. You arrived broken, we fixed you; your drive malfunctioned, we replaced it; your fan got borked, we built a new housing out of washers. You were more machine now, than… uh, machine, twisted and evil. But at long last, the unutterably shitty firstgen Falcon chipset within you finally gave up the ghost once and for all. Considering I bought you for around $150 and you lasted for about three years, I honestly can’t say a bad word against you. Sleep now, my child… rest eternally.

So! The review is on standby: I’ve got a brand-spanking new 360 on the way with the shiny new Jasper chipset, which is reportedly free of all the unfortunate issues of the Falcon and Zephyr models. With luck, I’ll be able to put up my review over the weekend, and I apologize for the delay.