New Mini Mario Game Launched Through Amiibo in Japan
Nintendo has announced (via Nintendo World Report) that a brand new game, Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge, will be released through an amiibo promotion.
Starting Jan. 28, buying amiibo figurines from select Japanese outlets will also get you a free promotional code for Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge.
The new game appears to be in the style of the Mario and Donkey Kong series, with clockwork versions of famous Nintendo characters working their way through various puzzles and challenges.
Fantastic 4, Jupiter Ascending Earn Razzie Noms
Ahead of tomorrow's announcement of the Academy Award nominations, the Golden Raspberry (Razzie) Awards announced their nominees citing the worst movies and performances of 2015, and genre flops Fantastic Four and Jupiter Ascending earned several spots on their list alongside blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey and two films from Adam Sandler.
Fantastic Four earned five nominations: Worst Picture, Worst Remake/Ripoff/Sequel, Worst Screen Combo, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay.
But Fox's reboot of Marvel's First Family can take some solace in knowing that Jupiter Ascending, Pixels, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, and Fifty Shades of Grey all outdid it with six nominations apiece.
Modder Recreates Floating Bioshock Infinite City in Fallout 4
Bringing together two anachronistic, dystopian worlds in one, a modder has recreated Bioshock Infinite's city of Columbia in Fallout 4.
The modder in question, Girlplaysgame, used a mixture of Fallout 4's own settlement creation tools and her own Bioshock paintings mod to complete the effect. What's there is by no means a perfect recreation of Irrational's last game world, but it's eerily close in the ways that count.
Evidently, 99 percent of the settlement, first spotted by Eurogamer, is made from bog-standard Fallout 4 objects and tools. It's a testament not just to the tenacity of the modder, but the power of the game's creation tools when they're working properly.
Play as a Pigeon in Super Mario Maker Starting Today
Yamamura, the helpful pigeon from Super Mario Maker, gets his own costume in the game starting today.
Clear the latest Event Course in #SuperMarioMaker and unlock a Mystery Mushroom costume of Yamamura, aka the pigeon! pic.twitter.com/qkb3n4RvUp
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 13, 2016
Daredevil/The Martian’s Drew Goddard to Direct Good Place Pilot
Cabin in the Woods writer/director Drew Goddard (who also penned episodes for and is an executive producer on Marvel's Daredevil show, and wrote the film adaptation of The Martian) has been tapped to direct the pilot episode of NBC's Good Place.
As Deadline reports, this will mark Goddard's TV directorial debut.
Starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson and created by Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Parks & Recreation co-creator Michael Schur, Good Place follows Bell's character, Eleanor, on her journey to discover the true meaning of good and bad in an attempt to atone for her past behavior. Danson plays Michael, Eleanor's guide on her journey toward self-improvement.
How DC Heroes Will Play into NBC’s Powerless Comedy
At the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour today, I asked NBC executives Robert Greenblatt and Jennifer Salke a bit about Powerless, the DC Comics comedy pilot the network is working on, set in an insurance agency in a world where superheroes are a fact of life.
ABC and Marvel are simultaneously developing Damage Control as a potential series, which has a similar scenario (a comedy, set at a construction company inside the Marvel universe), but Salke would only say of the competition, “I can't worry about other networks' comedies, but ours is great.”
“Powerless is
Ben Queen, a writer we love who I'd worked with for many years,” Salke noted. “DC came in with a pitch and they're very committed to... This is a world where superheroes are not only just on green screen out the window of this insurance office, but they're also running into you on the street and wreaking havoc. The idea isn't that it's the creme de la creme of the superheroes. It's a world where there's a whole population of superheroes with all sorts of all challenges themselves. So you're seeing quite a range of characters in that realm in addition to our great, kind of grounded human ensemble.”
Metroid: Zero Mission Hits Wii U Virtual Console Tomorrow
Metroid: Zero Mission releases tomorrow, January 14, for Wii U Virtual Console.
According to Nintendo's official store page, the classic GBA title will be available for $7.99 and support off-TV play.
Metroid: Zero Mission released back in 2004 for Game Boy Advance and serves as a remake of the original Metroid, complete with updated visuals and improved gameplay.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Metroid franchise. So far, however, Nintendo has yet to announce plans to celebrate this milestone.
Will you be picking up Metroid: Zero Mission tomorrow when it joins Wii U's Virtual Console lineup? Let us know in the comments, and for more on this beloved GBA classic, check out IGN's glowing review.
Google VR Department Finally Has a Vice President
Google's new virtual reality division now has a head of operations, the company has confirmed.
The news comes out of Re/code, which specifies that the new VP is Clay Bavor. Bavor is the (now former) head of Google's apps division. The department that handles everything from Gmail, to Drive.
In his stead is Diane Greene, the senior vice president who once founded VMWare.
For Bavor and Google's part, not much has changed publicly yet besides the Bavor's Twitter bio. The company's VR solution still appears to be Google Cardboard, the "device" that retrofits smartphones into makeshift virtual reality headsets. Though one could assume that Bavor's takeover will mean something more official than the $10 bolt-on in the future.
Amber Heard Reportedly Up to Play Mera in Justice League
Amber Heard is reportedly up to play Queen Mera, wife of DC Comics superhero Aquaman.
The Hollywood Reporter specifies that if she makes the cut Heard will first play the regal Atlantean in The Justice League: Part One. There she will make her debut along with a great deal of other heroes that Warner Bros. intends to introduce to their cinematic universe.
The Walking Dead: Key Art for Second Half of Season 6
In anticipation of The Walking Dead's midseason premiere, AMC has released a sneak peek of what's to come. Check it out below.
The official key art is said to give us a look at the smaller pieces of a much larger world that the survivors will soon discover. Executive producer and showrunner Scott M. Gimple revealed that "in the new world,
find hope, possibility, tragedy, and the terrifying cost of change."
Last month, AMC unveiled a new trailer for the second half of the season, teasing the highly anticipated debut of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan. We can also expect to see Nikita and 24 star Xander Berkeley amongst the Hilltop residents.