Mario to Blame for Turtle Massacre

[DPDarkPrimus]

Anti-game attorney Fred Johnson calls reptile deaths "avoidable" and holds Nintendo and its "pernicious plumber" responsible.

On Wednesday, tragedy struck Las Tortugas de Jesus, a sea turtle sanctuary in Akumal, Mexico, just south of Cancun. A vacationing 16-year-old teen entered the endangered terrapins' safe haven and began jumping on top of the nesting reptiles with both feet. 34 turtles were killed in the rampage, and 15 more were wounded. The perpetrator was uninjured.

"It was horrible," recalled witness Bruce Worthington. "I brought my family all the way from Wichita to see the loggerheads nest, as well as have a few strawberry margaritas. Everything was going fine. It was a serene scene. Then, out of nowhere, some kid entered the nesting area and began violently jumping on the turtles' heads."

The teenager, whose name is being withheld, admitted to local authorities that he was reenacting a scene from the game Super Mario Bros. In the Nintendo video game, an Italian plumber named Mario jumps on turtles, killing them, and then uses their carapaces as weapons.

"Life is like a video game," the teenager reportedly said before being dragged away by local police. "If I hadn't jumped on those turtles, they would've sprouted wings and could've kidnapped the princess. What then, huh? HUH?!"

"This must stop!" decreed crusading anti-game attorney Fred Johnson, who has long been a critic of the industry, saying multimillion-selling games such as Grand Theft Auto should be banned for causing violent behavior in a half-dozen teenagers. "Those creatures out there weren't just turtles. They were mothers. They were fathers, sisters, and brothers. How do you explain to their families what happened? That blood is on Nintendo's hands."

"He's a good boy," said the teenager's father, who declined to give his name. "He's active in school sports and made the honor roll last semester. I don't know what happened. Maybe we should have let him bring his Game Boy on vacation."

Officials from the local US consulate were also on hand to survey the carnage. "I've never seen anyone take out so many opponents so efficiently," consulate official John Sommerhalder said. "It's like he was trained. I haven't seen anything like this since Honduras in '85."

Brian Sanderson, a representative for Nintendo of America, said, "We at Nintendo would like to express our grief and condolences to the next of kin of the turtles lost in the tragedy. In no way do we condone the behavior exhibited by this young man. Nintendo's products are meant to be family-oriented entertainment."

Source

Make sure to check the source, it has a picture of the crime scene.

[Praxis]

And linked to on that page:

Woo to direct Katamari Damacy movie
Acclaimed Hong Kong director to adapt Namco's quirky game; The Rock signs on to play Prince of All Cosmos.

Just a few months after optioning the Metroid series, Hong Kong action director John Woo (the man behind The Killer and Mission Impossible 2) announced that he has begun filming a movie adaptation based on the Katamari Damacy video game. The film is currently targeted for a summer 2006 release.

Already attached to the project is wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who will play the lead character, the Prince of All Cosmos. "I'm a huge fan of the game and the lessons it teaches young kids about life," said Johnson. "Plus, my wrestling experience will help me handle a giant ball."

Katamari Damacy will be the third movie for The Rock based on a game, as well as his second collaboration with director Woo. Later this year, The Rock will star as a demon-blasting space marine in Doom, based on id's popular first-person shooter. He also recently completed Spy Hunter, based on the arcade classic, which was also directed by Woo. In it, the Rock plays Alec Sects, an ex-fighter pilot who rids the world of spies and the like in a high-tech supercar.

Like the PlayStation 2 version, the film version of Katamari Damacy will see the Prince being ordered by his father, the King of All Cosmos, to gather various items from the universe to get the fragmented cosmos back in order. He does so by rolling an adhesive ball that grows, snowball-style, as things stick to it. According to the Hollywood Reporter, John Travolta, who previously worked with Woo on Face/Off, is close to signing on to play the King.

While it will retain much of the visual style of the game, Katamari Damacy the movie will see the Prince taking on a much more action-oriented role. Instead of using his ever-growing ball to pick up innocuous objects, like candy, chairs, and trees, he will use it to absorb bullets and crush his enemies. In one climactic slow-motion scene inside a church, the sphere becomes a 50-foot-wide mass of assault weapons, flaming debris, and writhing henchmen who are caught up in its path. "Some aspects of the story changed in the adaptation process," Woo told the Reporter.

Katamari Damacy is currently being filmed in New Zealand and has gotten off to a rocky start. Shooting had to be suspended for two weeks after The Rock's long-flowing trench coat got stuck to the ball and dragged the actor nearly 75 feet, spraining his ankle. PETA supporters also caused a disturbance on the set after several dozen doves became stuck to the ball and were inadvertently killed.

Most disturbing.

[SAMAS]

You think that's bad?

EA announces Medal of Honor Street
Next-gen World War II shooter to feature Beastie Boys' voices, likenesses; "In your face, Hitler!" says Ad-rock.

Even though Medal of Honor: European Assault won't be out until later this year, today Electronic Arts announced the next installment in the series. Medal of Honor Street will combine the MOH franchise's World War II action with the "urban flava" of the Street sports series. Codeveloped by EALA and EA Canada, and published under the new EA War Big subbrand, the game will be released in spring of 2006 for "next-generation consoles," according to an EA press release. No rating or pricing information was released.

Click Here.

As the name implies, Medal of Honor Street will take the series in a new direction. The game will be set exclusively during the conflict's most intense city battles, including Stalingrad, Caen, and Berlin. It will also follow a squad of airborne paratroopers culled exclusively from top American metropolises, including Los Angeles and New York City.

To provide the appropriate urban authenticity, EA recruited popular hip-hop artists from each city to provide voice talent. Ice Cube will play the unit's hard-boiled sergeant, Ice-T will portray a stoic sniper, and the Beastie Boys will star as the "Dirty Trio," the squad's loose cannons. "Awww, yeah! This is gonna be suh-weet," said Beastie Boy Ad-rock in a prepared statement. "In your face, Hitler!" The game's script will also be penned by DJ Pooh, co-screenwriter of the comedy Friday and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Unlike the grim gunplay of previous MOH games, Medal of Honor Street's gameplay will take a more over-the-top approach. It will introduce NBA Street's "trick stick" functionality to combat, letting players perform balletic John Woo-like jumps through the air while firing multiple guns. The game will also award bonuses for trash talking Nazi opponents out in the open, which can be used later to perform turbo moves while storming enemy positions. "All that hunkering behind cover and crouching was getting old," said lead designer Damian Schmidt. "We wanted to liven things up a bit."

While the Street/MOH crossover may puzzle some, it made perfect sense to EA director of marketing Melissa Chodera. "With the massive proliferation of World War II shooters out there, we felt the next Medal of Honor game really had to stand out from the crowd," she told GameSpot. Chodera also downplayed concerns over historical discrepancies, such as the fact that US troops did not take part in many of the battles featured in the game. "Focus-group testing told us that most consumers find most WWII shooters far too depressing and drab. Medal of Honor Street's features, like its character-created and custom-colored uniforms, will provide an experience that's edgy and unique."