If you've been around YouTube enough, you may have seen Matrix Ping Pong from the Japanese variety show called Kasou Taishou. Well, don't look now, but here we have a Super Mario Matrix skit that has our Italian plumber going through World 1-1 and meeting Bowser. But that's only half of the interesting things crammed in there - especially since one of the pipes becomes a portal to New York! Ha! See if you can spot Barack Obama! Weekend videos in the full article!

We don't know if you've already heard about this, but Matrix-creators Wachowski Brothers are currently developing a movie adaptation of the 1960s Japanese animated series Speed Racer.

We just got word that video game players will also get some 60s love as Warner Bros. Interactive is also planning to release Wii, DS, and PS2 titles based on the film. The Wii and PlayStation 2 build of Speed Racer is being developed by Sidhe Interactive.

The Wii and DS versions, furthermore, will be released in early 2008 to coincide with the film's release. According to Warner Bros., players will be able to take on the role of their favorite characters from the movie as well as get the chance to ride on their signature vehicles.

The Wachowski brothers said before that most of the original characters from the animated series will be retained (even mysterious arch rival Racer X) so players can expect that this game will be packed with a lot of adrenaline and "car-fu" action. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Development and Production Senior VP Samantha Ryan added:

Speed Racer is an exceptionally creative property and teamed with the Wachowski brothers' vision, it makes for action-packed racing gameplay. The game will capture the intensity of the racing in the film to give gamers and movie fans a chance to take the wheel after the experience the film.

Warner Bros. gave word that more details will be released as we get closer to the release date.

The hits just keep on coming with Day 2 of the legendary Mecca of videogames, E3, and this time it's Ubisoft strutting its stuff for all the videogaming world to see. We give you the facts and just the facts, directly from their exclusive E3 2007 Conference.

The little shindig of Ubisoft's started the crowd off with casual games - namely the MyCoach series, the Petz series, and the rather revolutionary guitar simulator on the DS, Jam Sessions. They then finished up with big three bombshells, all of which with the hardcore gamer demographic's name written on 'em. More about those three later, let's tackle the casuals first.

The full E3 update after the jump!

GameTrailer's montyoum was supposed to be working on the next episode of his own animated series. But things happened and instead he ended up working on a short CG animated film that involved Samus Aran, Spartan 458, The Covenant, and Matrix-esque feats of unnatural strength. Behold, "Haloid":

Yes. This is how Smash Brothers should've been.

For more detail on the creation of this film, and several other rants from the animator, feel free to click on our read link below. It should be helpful if for some unknown reason, the embed above decides to not load or something. It also has links to the guy's other stuff. Just in case you found this one cool.

This should be featured in The L Word or something like that. Sparking crotch armor! Oh the imagery!

You know what? I have REALLY got to start learning Japanese. Or better yet, somebody could invent one of those dentist chairs in the Matrix where you just plug in and download information straight into your brain. That way, I wouldn't have to spout the same old line whenever I post about stuff that's in Japanese.

Anyway, I may not be able to read what these images say (I do know that "nito-ryu" is "two swords style" thanks to a rather healthy dose of Rurouni Kenshin, though), but I do know one thing: these are images of the Wiimote controller positions in WarioWare: Smooth Moves. Okay, I admit, you don't need an Einsteinian IQ to know that. We also have three new pieces of character art, so check those out too. They're the ones in color.

---

Update: Commenter G-Han was nice enough to provide us with the translation to the these controller positions. Thanks, G-Han!

• Tsuna hiki (Rope pull)
• Tengu (Appears to be a supernatural creature from Japanese folklore)
• Nito-ryu (Fencing-teacher)
• Tetsu-arei (Dumbbells)
• Mawaryanse (Chauffeur)
• Kobozu (Small [unknown])
• Shotoku Taishi (Income, Crown Prince)
• Yubizumo (Thumb-wrestling)

   

More controller positions and character art after the jump!

Former Atari CEO Bruno Bonnell didn't get to finish his re-organizational plans for the company when he was replaced by David Pierce last September. It would be remembered that when Atari was suffering from heavy losses, Bonnell suggested that the answer lies in re-focusing their creative efforts on external studios rather than internal development. On the other hand, Pierce announced recently they are now ready to move on.

"With the sale of the Shiny development studio, we have completed the divesture of our internal development studios streamlining our development operations," explained Pierce. It's uncertain if the new guy is gearing the company towards a new direction or if the plans of the former leader was completed. Aside from selling Shiny dev studio, a good number of Atari studios had been sold off:

• Stuntman developer Paradigm Entertainment to THQ
• Reflections Interactive and its once-coveted Driver license to Ubisoft for U.S.$ 21.6 million
• Enter the Matrix studio Shiny Entertainment to Foundation 9 for only U.S.$ 1.6 million

Regardless of which path they followed, the plan seem to have paid off in some way as Atari announced its first profit in years (for the July-September 2006 quarter) at U.S.$ 311,000. Unfortunately, overall revenue is still down as it took a U.S.$ 28.6 million blow. With that mentioned, Pierce chose to see the brighter side of things as he said, "finally, we are realizing the results of our previously announced cost reduction plans as general and administrative expenses are down 31 percent."

Speaking of the same period, Atari's best offer could be the well-accepted Neverwinter Night 2 (PC) which was release at the end of last month. If plans continue to turn out well, other notable releases from Atari this fiscal year will include: Bullet Witch for the X360, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 for Wii and PSP titles Dungeons and Dragons: Tactics and HOT PXL.

Escapist Magazine is probably one of the best editorial mags for games out today, and it isn't even on paper. In their latest issue, Greg Tito talks about something many gamers might not think about, but probably acknowledge deep in their hearts: the contributions of science fiction in making great games.

The article basically talks about how many of the games we play today reflect particular influences from science fiction literature. For instance, the real-time strategy game genre is akin to Orson Scott Card's idea of a battle school in "Ender's Game". That is, if you can imagine zero-gravity laser tag between two teams of 40 kids.

William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, for their "Neuromancer" and "Snow Crash" books, respectively, brought to the minds of game designers the idea of immersive gameplay, of jacking into the "matrix" and becoming someone else entirely. If that sounds familiar, it's probably because MMOs, interactive worlds, and the "Matrix" movies brought it into public consciousness even more.

Many of the games we play now had to have a seed in the minds of its makers, a spark of creation that saw its light in the form of an established videogame. The author writes, "True creativity flows not from the mind of one man, but from a wellspring of dreams and ideas fed by the consciousness of an entire civilization." Hopefully, that means a time will come when videogames themselves will be the seed for innovations in writing. It's something to think about for the next time you play Halo, at least.

We've already seen the Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Red Steel trailers (and heard the interviews), and it's showcased just how much FPS-style games like these are going to rock with the Wiimote/Nunchuck attachment. Or does it?

N-sider just came up with an in-depth on the fire control style they're planning to use on the Wiimote/Nunchuck combo for games like the two we've mentioned above, giving a detailed description of how the game physics work, the problems they've seen, and what Nintendo could do to fix the said problems.

For the basics: In most FPS games for for the Wii, The Nunchuck controls your character's body movement and overall direction, while the Wiimote aims your gun. Now, to add a more "natural" feel to the gameplay, Wii titles like Red Steel and Metroid have added a "bounding box" system. Within the said box, you can aim freely without having to make any body adjustments in-game, much like the shooting-gallery style stages we see in arcade shooters.

But once you aim outside this box, the character automatically aims in that general direction - like how real shooters (Ex: cops, soldiers, SWAT) will change their body movement when a target's too off-angle for minor arm or wrist adjustments. The beauty in this system is that it tries to marry the free-style mobility of traditional FPS' with the Wiimote's light gun feel for more immersive play.

Note that we said "try"; while the idea's sound, there's still some problems. In the author's opinion, the bounding box is too large. How so? Because of the bounding box's size, there was a lot of aiming and shooting among players, but no real maneuvering or dodging - they just stood there and took the hits, moving only if the targets were off-boundary.

More details on this report after this jump!

Maybe you read last time that Mario Strikers Charged was exclusively shown in GC? Well, we've seen it!

What was the apex of the whole video? Was it Lahm playing the game? It was a nice touch for validity's sake, but we thought that Mario rising up to the sky and hitting that football hard was just so Matrix-like in effect. It reminded of the time we first saw the bullet-effect in the first Matrix, so cool.

Defending the goal post will probably cost you some calories as it requires you to hold up both controllers to try and block the ball from going in. You'll be seeing more physically fit gamers thanks to this game. We noticed something as well. Was that Browser holding the ball? Ain't that illegal? Is this "The Hand of God" Browser-style?

Overall, it looks like a fun game to play with friends on a Saturday night all the way to the wee hours of Sunday. Perfect fit for Nintendo's goal of making games interactive - literally.

Camp Hyrule, an online virtual camp held by Nintendo every year, is under full swing. Every year, Nintendo invites people to take questions from the campers. We had featured here at QJ transcripts of the chat with the Nintendo Senior Online Producer, Senior Vice President of Operations for Digipen, George Harrison, and the NOA Localization Staff. Now, we continue our Camp Hyrule updates with an interview with the NP Krew aka the talented (but not as talented as moi) writers of Nintendo Power Magazine.

For those overseas, Nintendo Power is the official magazine of Nintendo. Although there are a lot of responders again, it's a bit more organized than the Treehouse interview. They were a bit slower so not as much got asked, unlike that crazy George Harrison review in which Harrison used his Jedi PR abilities...

Click "Full Story" for the transcript. Please excuse gramattical errors as well as typos. It is a live chat.