At a lower price than you might have expected.

Ever since its announcement earlier this year, Rock Band has been the focus of endless speculation over how exactly it would be sold, when it would be out, and most importantly, for how much. While we've known the answer to the first question for a while, the price and release date were still up in the air. Online retailers were accepting pre-orders, with a ship date of November 20th, at $200; a pricey, but not unreasonable figure considering the contents of the bundle.

Fans will be glad to hear that the game will be in stores November 23rd at a surprisingly low price of $169.99. At that price EA/Harmonix is essentially selling you the peripherals and bundling the game with it for free. This is a very smart move; they stand to make more money on all the downloadable music they have lined up then they ever could by selling individual games. The more people they can get to buy the game, the larger the audience they'll have for selling people albums for $20 and individual songs for $2 a pop!

Still sucks about that wired guitar in the 360 version though…

[via Gamespot]

Now with some nifty online features.

For the five of us who have not been swallowed by the Halo 3 hype machine, I offer this tasty morsel:  the venerable Sega Genesis classic, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, is now available for purchase on Xbox LIVE Arcade for 400 points (or five dollars).

It is part of the SEGA Vintage Collection, which is essentially a way of saying that they are going all Square Enix with their library, but in a more economically reasonable manner.  While there is no online co-op mode, you can utilize the Internets to play the versus mode.

Classic games enhanced with some form of online multiplayer…  Are you paying attention, Nintendo?

Granted, Sonic 2 has seen several releases over the years.  However, if you suffered a deprived childhood, or if you didn't pick up Sonic Mega Collection a few years back (and shame on you if you didn't), go ahead and part with your points.  It's a small price to pay to experience blast processing in its arguably finest form.

And now, special "behind the scenes" insight that you couldn't care less about: I should point out that this isn't exactly "news," as it was released a couple weeks ago.  But when your day job encroaches on the twilight and seeks to also become your night job, these things happen.  Hopefully, I will soon have enough capital raised to open Andrew's Dildo Emporium.  From then on, as an independently wealthy entrepreneur, I will be able to bring you the latest and greatest in a more timely manner.

That's my roundabout way of saying I've been busy over the past couple of weeks, but everything is now back to normal.  If any non-Halo 3 news drops in the near future (unlikely), I'll let you know.

Gracias, SEGA.

Fans of the classic Dreamcast maraca game Samba de Amigo (myself included), who have been longing for a sequel for years, were given hope when a product listing for a Wii version of the game showed up on Gamestop.com. A couple months later Nintendo Power brings confirmation that the game is indeed heading to Wii in 2008.

For those unfamiliar with the game, it was played with a special Maracas controller which players would shake to the beat of the music. A sensor bar placed on the floor could detect the height of the maracas and part of the gameplay was shaking the maracas at the right height as indicated by the game.

The game was a tremendous amount of fun but had a number of strikes against it. First off, it was on the Dreamcast. Second, while the game itself was only $40, the maracas controllers were $80 a pop. If you wanted 2-player action it'd set you back $200. That's more than what the Dreamcast even cost at that point. Third, the motion sensor didn't work all that well at detecting the height you were holding the maracas, resulting in some frustrating gameplay when playing on higher difficulties.

(more…)

The Neo-Geo is reborn on every console on the market. 

If the impending releases of Neo Geo Coliseum and King of Fighters XI wasn't enough to get your SNK fill, the home of fighting excellence has announced a flood of titles coming to the US shores in the near future.

"We're pleased to once again be bringing fans more of the quality fighting and great arcade games they've come to expect from us," said Ben Herman, president of SNK PLAYMORE USA CORPORATION, "and with the addition of a number of downloadable console titles, SNK aficionados will have even more options available to them."

No kidding.  Here's the big list:

THE KING OF FIGHTERS COLLECTION: THE OROCHI SAGA (Wii, PlayStation 2, PSP)
METAL SLUG 7 (Nintendo DS)
SNK ARCADE CLASSICS Volume 1 (PlayStation 2, PSP)
SAMURAI SHODOWN ANTHOLOGY (Wii, PlayStation 2)
METAL SLUG 3 (Xbox LIVE Arcade)
SAMURAI SHODOWN 2(Xbox LIVE Arcade)
FATAL FURY (Wii Virtual Console)
WORLD HEROES (Wii Virtual Console)
MAGICIAN LORD (Wii Virtual Console)

In addition to these console titles, they've reaffirmed a selection of arcade newcomers:

THE KING OF FIGHTERS XII
KING OF FIGHTERS: MAXIMUM IMPACT REGULATION "A" 2
SAMURAI SHOWDOWN SEN (JAPANESE TITLE)

It's gotta be cheaper than 16 NeoGeo games on VC. 

Anyone who was considering purchasing individual NeoGeo games on Virtual Console for $9 a pop, you may want to wait a little while and see what games will be making their way on to SNK's recently announced NeoGeo Collection for the Wii. No specific titles have been mentioned but there are going to be sixteen of them, so chances are there'll at least be a few that catch your eye.

It should be interesting to see how they price this, since collections such as these usually sell for $20 and no more than $30. Quite a bit cheaper than the $144 that sixteen NeoGeo games would cost you in WiiPoints. And certainly much cheaper than the $3200 the games originally retailed for.

If there are 3-4 games on it you want, it's already paid for itself in that regard, and the rest are just gravy. I'm hoping there are at least a handful of games included that aren't 2D fighters…

[via GoNintendo]