Okachobi's Wii homebrew game, Paradroid, is a port of the original SDL Paradroid for the C64. This release nicely takes out the brew from the alpha stage, and therefore makes it eligible for inclusion in the homebrew browser. Full changelog and known bugs list are after the jump.


Download: Paradroid v0.4

Bloom effects? Who needs those? Mega Man 9's is all about the 8-bit action, and Capcom has released a load of screenshots and info about three of the rampaging robot bosses Mega Man will have to take down in this XBLA, PSN, and Wiiware title. Pretty 2D images available in the full article.

With all the concerns circulating violent video games, horror author Stephen King joins in on the discussion. Writing novels for more than four decades, he's one of those credible enough to speak about the matter. Instead of writing down what he believes in, King chooses to speak up his mind. Find out what he said in the full article.

Activist lawyer Jack Thompson has been on the case of violent games and their developers for years now, and he's provoked the ire of gamers time and again. We're looking back at some of the most memorable quotes he's ever dropped, and we've chosen the twenty best out of them all. See the full list of Jack Thompson's most memorable quotes right after the jump!

University of Southern California sociologist Karen Sternheimer notes in an article in the winter issue of the American Sociological Association's Contexts magazine, that while a lot of folks tend to hold video games responsible for the violent youth, they tend to ignore that as videogame play has skyrocketed, youth violence has plummeted.

In the ten years since Doom's release – the game often blamed for the infamous Columbine High School shooting – juvenile homicide arrest rates fell 77 percent. And now, students have less than a 7 in 10 million chance of being killed at school. Sternheimer notes:

It is equally likely that more aggressive people seek out violent entertainment. ...After adult rampage shootings in the workplace, which happen more often than school shootings, reporters seldom mention if the shooters played video games.

Sternheimer adds that in the end, placing the blame on videogames removes the culpability of the criminals. This is tempting for most, especially when white, middle-class boys who live in the suburbs of America are the culprits. Sternheimer writes:

When boys from "good" neighborhoods are violent, they seem to be harbingers of a "new breed" of youth, created by video games rather than by social circumstances. White, middle-class killers retain their status as children easily influenced by a game, victims of an allegedly dangerous product. African-American boys, apparently, are simply 'dangerous.'

As for previous studies that have shown that videogames did increase aggressive behavior, Sternheimer says that those don't offer much insight as to why only a few isolated kids, and not the millions of others who play the games, decide to pick up real weapons and shoot people.

If you're a but more curious about the subject, a copy of  Karen Sternheimer's article can be had via our "read" link below.

Two rumors: Rampage: Total Destruction for Wii and Rampage: Total Destruction for the DS. You can now cross out the first rumor on your list. Midway Games Inc., has now given word that they are indeed going to release Rampage for the Wii, scheduled to come out this winter.

"We are extremely excited to be bringing the mayhem of Rampage: Total Destruction to the Nintendo Wii," said Steve Allison, chief marketing officer, Midway. "With updated graphics and even more extreme monsters, fans of this classic arcade series, as well as new players, will have more than a handful this winter."

Rampage: Total Destruction can be a substitute for anger management courses. You control one of 40 monsters, including the initial George, Lizzie and Ralph, and eventually the unlockable crazy monsters hidden throughout the various 3D city environments, such as Sarah the Spider, Plucky the Chicken and Fifi the Rabid French Poodle.

Rampage: Total Destruction allows multiple players to compete or cooperate as they battle through the game. It is currently available for Nintendo Gamecube and the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system. One rumor down, only one to go.

I'm not sure how many of you remember the game that allowed you to wreak havoc on whole cities with three super-sized, destruction-thirsty beasts called George, Lizzie and Ralph. Fighting off annoying police helicopters, picking innocent people out of skyscrapers and crushing tanks with your feet was always a hilarious experience, especially together with a friend. Arcade gamers may recall it more fondly than home console gamers, since almost every port of Rampage to a console was a mediocre to abysmal effort. Which is kind of sad because Rampage is one of those arcade games that aged rather well, at least in my opinion.

Now the latest version brought to consoles was Rampage: Total Destruction for the Gamecube and Playstation 2. As usual, it received rather mixed reviews. Now it might step into the spotlight again.

It looks like Midway has decided to bring a beefed-up version of Total Destruction to the Wii. Admittedly, not every Wii game needs to make extensive use of the new controls, but Rampage is without doubt a game that could benefit from it. Puts the "Wii as a multiplayer-encouraging console" thing into a whole new perspective.

Also, it's rumored that a DS version of the game is also planned. Whether it'll make use of the touchscreen, we have no idea, but sources close to Midway have indicated that official announcements of the games might follow very soon.

As a Rampage fan I really hope that Midway now takes the chance to bring Total Destruction up to standards. It's finally time that more people can appreciate the game. And should they bork it up again, well maybe Nintendo should eventually decide to expand the Virtual Console line up to include select Arcade titles...