YPB: Vidya Game News – January 19, 2017

- Inexplicably, the director of Die Hard is back with his first project since 1990, and it’s… a trailer for Ghost Recon: Wildlands? Well, there is a long and tangled story behind that, but you can check out the (awesome) trailer here. Also, listen to our Die Hard Arcade show here!

- BOOOOM Shaka Laka! Some fans have updated the old NBA Jam: Tournament Edition ROM for the Super Nintendo. Now included are 2017 rosters, all the league’s new teams since 1993, and new secret characters. (Long live Harambe!) Download it here, before they get a cease and desist here. (And, listen to our NBA Jam episode here!)

- Speaking of NBA Jam-like properties… Honest Trailers and Screen Junkies has a takedown of Space Jam, which leads to an AV Club article. And hey, the game is bad too!

- Mark Wilson of Stuff has a good summary of the 3DO, along with a couple short reviews of decent games for the system.

- Kyle Orland has a piece on Ars Technica about how the illusion was created that Super Mario 64 and Portal were “run” on a Super Nintendo system.

- Via Game Informer, and popular on Facebook, there was once a Darth Maul game planned. And, it looked kind of bad ass! Like, a much darker take on the usual Star Wars stuff. And speaking of s’wars, check out our episodes on the SNES game and Rogue Squadron.

- On pretty much every news site, more information about the Nintendo Switch has come out. The good: Price tag under $300, a Zelda game out on release day! The bad: shortages are already being reported, all of the extra devices are overpriced, and Nintendo still has issues with online.

- Via the AV Club, Nintendo had some big band (as in jazz) performances at their Switch presentations. Listen to them here.

- From the Huffington Post, a new kitchen device can turn your radishes into Super Mario Bros. mushroom-shapes. Unfortunately, the Ravanello Radish Shaper still keeps them as radishes. Disgusting. Listen to our Super Mario Bros. episode here!

As always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.

Precise German shooting touch can't completely save Parks and Recreation

I love Ron Swanson almost as much as this puppy.

Detlef Schrempf was the marquee guest on this past week's Parks and Recreation, which seems totally appropriate for a town like Pawnee. This seemed like a one-off episode from the main plot, meaning, it had little to do with the continuity of the overall season, excluding the story with Mark and Ann. Basic premise of the episode: The recreation department is taking part in a 24-hour telethon, except that Leslie, in complete Leslie move, signs them up for the 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. time slot. Also, Leslie being Leslie, she stayed up the night before the telethon, and plans to stay up the night of the telethon, for a total of 48 straight hours.

This gives the recreation department an excuse to show off some cheesy, funny skills that wouldn't really fit in any other episode. You know, like Ron showing off (in a sleep-inducing way) how to make a wicked chair, and Jerry demonstrating his skills at classical piano. Predictably, Leslie was a nut, and Detlef managed to get waylaid en route to the telethon because Tom insisted on bringing him buy the strip club that he is part-owner of.

(An aside about Detlef Schrempf – I know him almost entirely as the white dude in NBA Jam who bombs 3-point shots. Therefore, imagine my surprise when I looked him up on Wikipedia and found out he is essentially the German basketball version of Forrest Gump. For example, he somehow managed to make three all-star teams. This was despite a shaky start to his career, because of being initially drafted by the Mavericks, as it took him starting for the Pacers for people to realize he was a decent NBA player. He was the first German player to reach the NBA finals, followed by Dirk Nowitzki, and he shot an insane percentage from 3 one year – 51.4 percent in 1994-95.)

Outside of a few brief moments between Andy and April, the only emotional development in the episode occurs between Mark and Ann. He is unsure about proposing to her, and Leslie convinces him this is a good idea – and that he should do it during the telethon. However, in the meantime, Ann comes up to her and says she is thinking about breaking up with Mark. As a result, Leslie frantically tries to distract Mark from proposing on television, and as a last resort, drops her pants on live television.

This whole part of the episode was very meh and cliched – I felt like I was watching a bad NBC sitcom from the early 1990s. Like, this is something that would have happened in Wings or Empty Nest or Blossom. It definitely detracted from an otherwise excellent episode.

Grade: B+

Around The Dial: Marcel's On Fire!

Some random news from the television and video game worlds...

- BOOM Shaka Laka! A new version of NBA Jam is going to be released for the Nintendo Wii! This is awesome news, because I loved the original Arcade version of the game, and I actually own a Wii. While this doesn't quite make up for me missing out on the initial release of Final Fantasy XIII (Damn my poverty!), at least I'll be able to play the update of the classic.

For screen shots and a video trailer of the new edition, check out Blast's coverage here, which is where I originally learned of this news. I'm hoping they keep all of the zany extras, like being able to play as Bill Clinton, in the game. And as the above YouTube video implies, on the early arcade versions, you could even play as Mortal Kombat characters! Sweet, eh?

- In television news, Marcel from Top Chef is getting his own reality show! As my friend Kristi said, I'm guessing that there won't be too much foam cooking on the show, but we can always hope, can't we?

For unknown reasons, the show is rumored to be landing on the SyFy Network. This makes almost no sense, but then again, they were also highly interested in the WWE's ECW and still do broadcast some WWE stuff. I guess when people aren't watching your crap like Mansquito, you feel the need to program differently, even if I agree with this Entertainment Weekly writer's take that the network's potential is completely unrealized.

But anyway, focusing back on Marcel. I could see this show being momentarily entertaining, but it won't have staying power if they're just some catering company doing wacky meals. Marcel isn't really that likable, but on the flipside, he is not a monster like Gordon Ramsey. I don't think he will be a good anchor for the show week-in and week-out, unless it becomes a bizarre sort of Top Chef affiliate, featuring a bunch of the ex-chefs from the show.

The picture of Marcel is from this story about his DWI arrest.