Thursday, April 19, 2012

Review: 'Kid Icarus: Uprising' burns its wings

(CNN) -- When the Nintendo 3DS was introduced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2010, one of the announced games that drew the most favorable reaction was "Kid Icarus: Uprising." A follow-up to the original "Kid Icarus" title that came out 25 years ago, this new version offers updated graphics, classic boss battles and humorous dialogue that, unfortunately, quickly becomes cheesy and trite. The story harkens back to the original as the forces of Light battle the forces of Darkness with the player acting as the champion for Light. The angel hero, Pit, must set out once again with the help of the goddess of Light, Palutena, to defeat Medusa and end the threat to the human race. Players control Pit with the device's circle pad and use its stylus to aim and turn him....

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The future of gaming: It's now

(CNN) -- The future of video gaming is bright, according to four industry visionaries who spoke at a recent gaming event. Kellee Santiago, Ken Levine, Paul Barrett and Mark DeLoura were part of a panel discussion at the opening of a new Smithsonian exhibit, The Art of Video Games. Each has been successful in the gaming business and has great hope for what's to come. Barrett, the senior creative director for BioWare-Mythic, said people who are going to make games in the future are playing them right now. He describes this time in those gaming lives as their Golden Age. "What's interesting about my Golden Age is it is where I learned my prejudices about what games I liked and I don't like," Barrett said. "That period defined my understanding of games so that when I had the chance...