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If you’ve been paying attention to PAX PRIME, you might know that Telltale games is bringing a “Back to the Future” Delorean to the show; which is hardly a surprise if you’ve been following Telltale’s announcements.  If you haven’t been paying attention, here’s the skinny: Telltale is making a Back to the Future game, and they have the car to prove it.

What do we know about the game? Not a lot – we can safely assume that it’s most likely to be a point-and-click adventure game, like Sam & Max, Monkey Island, and Telltale’s other projects – and we based on a survey offered in July, we can rule out a re-telling of the films.  In the aforementioned survey, Telltale offered 4 scenarios:

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As brick-and-mortar Blockbuster stores close throughout the country, the formal rental Giant is focusing in on a new market: rent-by-mail gamers.   The new items have been added to the Blockbuster by mail library at no additional charge – have a “2 disc” plan? One or both of your rented-out discs can now be a video game.  Blockbuster’s rent-by-mail service comes at a lower price per month than the competition – about $16 per month for a 2 disc plan verses Gamefly’s $22.

No word yet on the availability of titles, shipping times, or Queue wait times, but a free trial is available for the curious.

The mouse and keyboard. Has a better FPS control setup ever been conceived? Rumors say no, but Splitfish makes a valiant attempt to split the difference and give PS3 owners the best of both worlds – the pressure sensitive control of a analog stick in place of keyboard WASD, and the precision aiming that can only be found in a mouse.  We got a chance to try the previous version of the FragFX at E3 2009, and came away with positive impressions – this year, Splitfish is poised to one-up itself.  From a youtube teaser:

Features
-super power saver features 50hrs playtime / 500hrs standby
-takes 1 AA battery in Fragchuck and Mouse
-Ultra response FREVOX2 – 2.4Ghz wireless communication
-Quick click R1 R2
-On the fly adjustable Mouse response curve
-On board button Swap
-Any button Macro programmable
-Any Button Rapid fire
-Multi platform compatible with PS3, PC and MAC systems.

Previous FragFX owners may take careful note of that battery size – AA: significantly more convenient and common than AAA batteries the Dual FX used.

The Shark looks like a good option for PC gamers gone console – but it’s PS3 only: rumors suggest that Microsoft feels the “mouse controller” gives players an unfair advantage.

Engadget is reporting that a Nintendo representative told Bloomberg Japan the retail price and release date of the Nintendo 3DS would be revealed on September 29th.

What does this mean?
It means that the rumor mill starts here! We can’t speculate too much based on this very small tidbit of information, but we can look at precedent: Nintendo’s most recent handheld release date announcement, the DSi.  The DSi was announnced to release in April of 2009, in February of the same year, – about a two month difference.

At best, we can hope for the same schedule, meaning an early December street date, or perhaps black Friday, if Nintendo is playing towards the American holiday shopper mentality. Of course, We could always fallback on the only other “release date” we have: March 2011, the end of the fiscal year.

Perhaps it wasn’t ready.  Perhaps it didn’t fit the message Microsoft was trying to send. Perhaps the Xbox team saw the Nintendo 3DS coming, and didn’t want to be outclassed – for whatever reason, Windows Phone 7 was unseen at E3 2010, and it’s a shame.

Windows Phone 7 is poised to be a few things – in addition to being the “Zune Phone,” and Microsoft’s attempt at an “iphone killer,” but also an effective “Xbox Portable,” a mobile phone where Xbox Live integration and mobile gaming is a priority.   We aren’t talking your run of the mill mobile avatar post-to-your-facebook Xbox Live integration either – Windows Phone 7 proposed something much more exciting: single session cross platform gaming. The idea is that one could be playing a game on their Xbox at home, continue playing the same game on their Window 7 Phone on the train ride to work, and finally beat the level on your work computer at lunch.  The same title, the same game session, across three platforms.

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Of all of the amazing 3DS demos Nintendo showed at E3, one of the most overlooked was a 3D port of the classic arcade shooter Xevious. It featured no new graphics or gameplay elements, levels, or power-ups – it was a direct simple port of a definitively 2D game, slightly tweaked for depth perception. The result? The game looked a little more fresh – the ground far below the aircraft… actually looked quite far away. A very simple tweak to a classic game lent it a new dimension – perceived altitude.

Xevious stands with Ocarina of Time and Starfox 64 as an example of something the 3DS is poised to be very good at – breathing new life into old games. Although a novelty to be sure, the added depth perception brings an excitement to games that may have grown mundane to long-time gamers. Aforementioned titles excepted, what classic Nintendo games should receive the 3D treatment? There are three major categories the Big N needs to cover to warm fanboy hearts:

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In a recent interview with GamesBeat, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata mentioned that while he couldn’t divulge pricing at this time, the Nintendo 3DS would not be sold at a loss to Nintendo.

From the interview:

SI: I have to refrain from talking specifically about the price point. What I can confirm is that, in terms of the production costs, it will cost more than the costs for the Nintendo DS today. Having said that, we believe we will produce enough value worthy of the production cost. We do not think we have to sell the products below cost.

This mirrors Nintendo’s pricing with the Wii, which launched as the only home console at the time to turn profit on hardware sales.

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Despite impressive tech demos at last year’s E3, Microsoft’s recently re-branded “Kinect” and Sony’s Playstation Move controller felt more dated than the “underpowered” Nintendo console they are trying to out-motion. What do we mean by dated? Obviously this has nothing to do with graphical capability or processing power – something on which both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 have a marked advantage over the Wii – but implementation. Playing Kinect and Move feel like playing the Wii 4 years ago.

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Nintendo stated during their E3 press conference that they had wanted to finish The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in time for holiday release, but decided instead to aim for an early 2011 release date to ensure quality.  What will they be working on with those extra months? According to Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma, it’s the games visual style.

Speaking of the game at an E3 roundtable, Miyamoto stated, “I think the art style is very unique. I’m a big fan of impressionism in the art world, so we’ve drawn some inspiration from that. The sky and the mountain you can see in the E3 demo have a definite Cézanne feel to them,” eventually finishing with, “if we had just used the same graphics from Twilight Princess the game would already be done.”

Why the revision? The answer may be different than you think.

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It’s an exciting time to be an older Nintendo fan – those of us that grew up with the Mario Bros. Samus Aran, and the Donkey and Diddy duo are getting the chances to relive our past experiences in wonderfully nostalgic recreations for our sidescrolling favorites. Nintendo most recent retro remake? Donkey Kong Country Returns, from Retro Studios (known for the Metroid Prime series). How does it compare? It looks familiar, and it feels familiar, but some small changes might surprise you.

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