SUMODOWNLOAD

This is what you’d call a tragedy.

Jake Roberts, age 13, was found dead by hanging in his bedroom after his parents confiscate a game for the Nintendo Wii that he’d wanted to play. The kid was somebody that you’d describe as your classic geek: imaginative, friendly, and unfortunately, prone to bouts of judgement lapses when it comes to things like computer games. The parents were probably thinking that they were actually doing him a favor by trying to discipline him via taking extreme action.

Fat lot of good that did them, though. The kid hung himself with his tie, for the love of Pete.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I feel sorry for the kid, as well as his immediate family, despite my sarcastic tone of voice. But there are just two rather cold-blooded points that I’d like to bring up in this entire thing:

1. How did the parents bring the kid up? The way children react to extreme stress situations is reflective of how the domestic situation is like. Inasmuch as kids act and think the way they were taught to act and think by peers and family alike, shouldn’t Jake Roberts’ suicide be seen as yet another warning for parents who don’t know how to handle their kids and video games?

2.  This also brings up the question of self-discipline. It’s a no-brainer that video gamers tend to get addicted easily, and while cases likes Jake Roberts and those kids who died due to World of Warcraft are few and far between, there’s something to be said about a little bit of self-imposed temperance. This might sound strange, coming from Sumodownload, but games can’t be everything there is in life, right?

You know, the biggest thing that bugs me about this entire business is that the kid shares the name of infamous WWF wrestler Jake "The Snake" Roberts. I wanted to do a bit more research about Roberts’ suicide, but ended up slogging through dozens of Jake "The Snake’s" fan profiles.

Source: Daily Mail

The funny thing here is the fact that David Hayter, better known as the voice behind Solid Snake, actually has to rely on a petition to get dibs on writing the script for the proposed Metal Gear Solid theatrical presentation. You’d think that production folks would jump at the chance to have somebody from the game’s prod team working closely with somebody from the original MGS team, but apparently, the bigwigs over at Sony Pictures might have something else in mind.

If I’m not mistaken, this so-called creative input from the film industry is what’s giving the video game film niche a bad name. Some writer with clout but with very little emotional connection with the game itself decides to come up with a killer plot that, unfortunately, only stays a killer in the writer’s head. Now, MGS is what you’d call a cinematic game - truth be told, the appeal the first game had for me was the fact that it played and felt like a film - so if the film doesn’t add to the experience, it’d actually be worse than just a flop. It’d be a disgrace.

Let’s face it. MGS is a very tall order to fill.

If you read this thread, you’ll see a slight glimmer of hope, from no less than Solid Snake himself. And as mentioned by the good folks of Destructoid, as with all things growing on the Internet, it didn’t take too long for a petition to show up. Now the question is if the petition would make any difference.

Did anybody notice, by the bye, just how silly the petition’s name sounded like?

Source: Destructoid

If you’ve ever been to Newgrounds (who hasn’t? seriously), you’ll know that it’s a dumping ground for some of the best games around. Of course, it’s also a hive of some of the worst games and smut content you can find, so finding the really good games can take a while and some (some being an understatement) effort.

But then again, sometimes the effort is well worth it. Like Indestructo Tank. Or Dad N’ Me, the game I’ll be talking about in a few moments. What’s curious is that this game was developed by the good folks who created Alien Hominid. This is basically a side-scrolling beat-em-up featuring the child of (what could possibly be) a chainsaw murderer. Your job is to bully other kids, and what better way to do that other than punch, kick and throw the little runts into their untimely demise.

Anyway, enough talk. Here’s the game. Play and enjoy.

All content is courtesy of the good folks at Newgrounds, as well as the geniuses over at Alien Hominid.

The PS3 is enjoying a rare domination of hardware and software sales as Metal Gear Solid 4 ships out in Japan. Thanks to the limited edition MGS4 and regular MGS4 bundles, its pretty much in the bag for Sony.

With the release of upcoming titles such as Initial D Extreme, Siren and Soul Caliber IV, we might see a continued dominance in the next few weeks. I bet Sony execs are toasting right now…

US sales will be posted next week.

Image Source: Kotaku

Hardly two years since it’s release, and it’s been pretty much smooth sailing for the Nintendo Wii, thanks to the innovative design that generated an unprecedented favorable response from both the gamers and the developers in the console gaming community worldwide.

All that’s about to change with Nintendo’s decision to haul peripheral developer Nyko’s ass to the courts due to what could be the very first legal drama to hit the system.

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We all know that Itagaki was a "visionary" in the Japanese gaming scene, but did you also know that he was treated as a normal "salaryman"?

Hit the jump to read on.

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