New 3DS XL Majora’s Mask Edition Available for Over $400 Online
In the wake of the New 3DS XL Majora's Mask Edition selling out virtually everywhere, many buyers have resorted to purchasing the special edition handheld via online auction sites and Amazon sellers.
This in turn has led to a dramatic cost increase for the New 3DS, with some bids reaching up to $400, twice the original $200 USD retail price.
Pre-orders for regular copies of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D are still currently available, although the Limited Edition bundle featuring a Skull Kid collector's figurine is also difficult to find. Major retailers such as GameStop, Amazon, and Best Buy list both the special edition New 3DS and the limited edition bundle as being currently unavailable.
JumpJet Rex: Control an 8-bit Dinosaur Who Can Fly
JumpJet Rex is all about messing with time. It stars a Tyrannosaurus Rex who wears a jetpack. He can ride a spaceship to a planet with a giant Game Boy building. For all of those paradoxes, the weirdest time dilation during my recent demo happened after putting down the controller. I thought I'd probably just hit 20 minutes of game time, prepped a few interview questions in my head, and picked up my phone to load up the recording app thinking I'd be out within a half-hour. Lo and behold, I had actually logged twice that time due to JumpJet Rex's “one more try” style, where my attempts to shave seconds off record time in a minute-long stage turns into a hour-long obsession. Fortunately, I kept those urges somewhat in check and saw a handful of other levels.
Hyperloop Transit System “Most Likely” Heading to Texas
SpaceX CTO and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to offer an update on his ambitious Hyperloop transit system, which intends to carry passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes.
According to Musk, the transportation vessel is getting a testing system, most likely in Texas, where student teams and companies can go to try out their pod designs. Engineering students at UCLA's SupraStudio, as well as a network of professionals Boeing, Tesla, and SpaceX are all involved in the project.
As for other Hyperloop plans, Musk also tossed out the idea of a Hyperloop student pod race, similar to design competition Formula SAE.
Will be building a Hyperloop test track for companies and student teams to test out their pods. Most likely in Texas.
Podcast: Marvel Movies, The Oscars & BvS
Welcome back to Keepin' It Reel! In this week's podcast, Jim Vejvoda and Chris Carle bring you the latest in genre movie news.
We discuss the latest movie news, including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Spider-Man's cinematic future, Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, Star Wars, Avatar 2 through 4, Ghostbusters, upcoming remakes, as well as our reactions to The Golden Globe Awards winners and today's Academy Awards nominations.
Finally, we wager whether reigning champ Taken 3 can hold off Blackhat, Paddington and The Wedding Ringer at this weekend's box office.
Download Keepin' It Reel, Episode 273!
7 Mods We Want to Play in GTA 5
Ever since Doom tore back the curtain of video game development, amateur programmers have dug into major PC releases, modifying the source material into new worlds. Mods stretch games beyond the wildest dreams of their developers, and GTA 5's immense world is a template perfectly suited to this kind of creative intervention. How will modders transform San Andreas? Here are seven mods we'd like to see.
Picture the mining boom town of San Andreas circe 1876. Complete with horses, stagecoaches, gunfights, saloons, card games, and speeding train reveries, GTA 5's Old West would invoke the best mythic elements of Red Dead Redemption and the spaghetti western tradition. And when you got tired of wandering the wastes as The Man With No Name, an Undead Nightmare mod would turn the scenario on its head again, adding swarms of flesh-hungry zombies to the mix.
These Are the Best Selling Games of 2014 in the US
Today, the NPD Group revealed December 2014's best-selling games. However, the group -- well-known for tracking retail game sales in the United States -- also revealed the top 10 best-selling games for all of 2014.
Here they are.
(As always, the hardware represented in parenthesis next to each game indicates the top-selling to worst-selling platforms for each game listed.)
- 1. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (360, XBO, PS4, PS3, PC)
- 2. Madden NFL 15 (360, PS4, XBO, PS3)
- 3. Destiny (XBO, PS4, 360, PS3)
The War Z Was a ‘Terrible Choice of Name,’ Says Producer
Despite having a "terrible" name and being pulled from Steam for misleading buyers, Infestation: Survivor Stories (formerly called "The War Z") has sold 2.8 million copies.
In a postmortem on Gamasutra, Infestation's producer, Sergey Titov, explains the mistakes he and the development team made when launching their open-world zombie game, and the success that came in spite of them.
"...The War Z was a terrible choice of name, as it naturally invited comparisons between our game and DayZ. We made a big mistake in not listening to the vocal minority of our community who thought the name was terrible...
Call of Duty: AW, GTA V Dominate US Sales Charts
Today, the NPD Group revealed what the top 10 best-selling games in the US were for the month of December, 2014. Without further ado, here they are.
(As always, the platforms shown in parenthesis next to each game are in order of versions sold per console, from best-selling to worst-selling.)
- 1. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (360, XBO, PS4, PS3, PC)
- 2. Grand Theft Auto V (XBO, PS4, 360, PS3)
- 3. Madden NFL 15 (360, XBO, PS4, PS3)
- 4. Super Smash Bros. (NWU, 3DS)
- 5. NBA 2K15 (360, XBO, PS4, PS3, PC)
Monument Valley Infograph Reveals Big Numbers
An infographic from Ustwo Games shows some big numbers for Monument Valley.
As of January 12th, 2015, the game has made $5,858,625 in revenue across Google Play, iOS, and Amazon and officially sold 2,440,076 digital copies.
The most money the team made in a single day was $145,530 on April 3rd, 2014, when the game first launched. Sales plummeted into May, but saw decent spikes after Ustwo released the game on Android.
The Apple Design Award, an iOS sale in July, and Google Play's Summer Sale also made for momentary increases in sales. Monument Valley hit one million sales around this time.
Going into August and the first month of fall, sales seemed to plateau, but the launch of its first expansion pack in November, Forgotten Shores, made for a sharp spike in purchases, as did its Apple iPad GOTY award and the arrival of Christmas a month later.
Breath of Fire Wii U Release Date Announced
Capcom has announced the Super NES classic Breath of Fire will arrive on Wii U Virtual Console next month.
The Capcom Unity blog announced the date as February 12. The release was originally announced last June, alongside 14 other Capcom classics that were to be added to the Wii U and 3DS Virtual Consoles. Those included several Mega Man and Street Fighter games, Final Fight, and Ghosts 'n Goblins.
The blog also mentioned that Street Fighter 2010, the NES precursor to the popular SNES fighting game, is coming tomorrow. Breath of Fire ranked as #43 in IGN's Top 100 Super Nintendo Games.