Every week we do a quick wrap-up of some news items that may have slipped through the cracks. The wrap-ups will be shorter versions of our articles, lumped together to give you an idea of things you may have missed.

A Boy and His Blob – Reborn!

Those old enough to recall the days of the NES – pending that you’re not too old to remember those days at all – will have at least a vague recollection about a game involving a boy and his amorphous blob companion, to whom you fed jellybeans in order to transform it into various shapes. A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia was a side-scrolling action game with strong puzzle elements that was unique and challenging and won quite a lot of awards and attention in the late 1980′s. It had a small sequel, The Rescue of Princess Blobette on the Gameboy, but otherwise had no real follow up. That is until it was announced this week that Majesco would be publishing a sequel to the game for the Wii and instantly set off a fan alarm that I wasn’t even aware existed anymore. The visual aesthetic is artistic and inviting, and while very little information has been released, I’m excited to see what’s coming up.

Getting third parties to unleash platform specific titles has been quite a task for Nintendo, who have been given the gift of shiftless ports and half-baked ideas that just don’t seem to pan out. There has been a lot of great games offered by third parties, but nothing that has a specific Nintendo nature that carries the same kind of weight as A Boy and His Blob, and while it is not a franchise that most people will recall if they were not around during the era of the NES it offers that tinge of fan pleasing that seems to have been needed. It has rekindled a level of excitement, for me at least, and while I’ve read some speculation that it is a sequel, it seems to centre around the exact same story as the original, which would mean a simple re-imagining and reintroduction for those who never dabbled in the David Crane classic.

UK Developers need tax breaks – Where’s our bailout?

Although I wrote a bit about Tiga’s crusade for UK developers in a previous News Wrap-Up, they are making a more direct plea to the governing bodies in the UK to reduce taxes. Citing a survey done with a variety of developer studios, they indicate that tax issues were relatively high on a list of blights that is causing a decline in the industry. Where the UK used to rank as third of the top-game making nations, Canada has recently jumped ahead and South Korea is poised to, as well. A large percentage of developers got behind the idea of more tax breaks, and Tiga suggested something similar to the Film Tax Relief, a project that allowed movie studios a break that helped launch out films like Slumdog Millionaire last year.

In the current economic climate, especially one as turbulent as the UK, asking for government money seems like the business go-to action, and while this does come off as another grab at cash the amount requested doesn’t seem to be as much in retrospect. £150m is the asking price, a quarter of what film makers received through their relief program, and it would secure developers during a time when it cuts are abound. With Rare loping off some workers, Free Radical closing and then being purchased by Crytek, and other studios nervously tugging at their collars, Tiga wants to see the government take action. It doesn’t appear to be at critical mass for most studios at this point, with studios still able to make a big splash even during rough times (see: Media Molecule) considering the push for the arts and entertainment with other medium, it makes sense to see an industry that employs such a wide variety of talents and offers international entertainment exposure to get a little break while everyone else seems to be cashing in.

Study shows kids want M-Rated games

As the article at Gamasutra that pointed out the survey indicated, this is not likely to surprise you. Researchers at two Universities in support of the journal for the American Association of Pediatrics have banded together to prove that games with restrictive ratings are more appealing to children as young as 7 and 8, indicating that mature ratings on games act like “forbidden fruit”. The Pan European Game Information (PEGI), who are the European equivalent of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) are responsible for putting age recommendation labels onto games and it was their labels which were studied by the schools. The group warns parents to be aware of this effect due to the fact that games can contain objectionable content and have harmful effects on youth an adolescents. While the former is certainly true of most games that get any kind of mature rating, the latter just points towards a bit of political posturing and is another tally of a research study citing games has having harmful effects without anything to show for it.

Anyone who has been the age of 7 or 8 may not be surprised by this news, mostly due to the fact that with most media this is true. Children tend to transfix themselves on whatever their elders or idols would be attached to, and the idea of not being able to do something makes it all the more appealing. It’s the same “forbidden fruit” effect that kids sneaking into R-rated films, or insisting to their parents that Children of Bodom is Catholic Contemporary music. While I wouldn’t argue the merits that many games should probably not end up in the hands of children – since I doubt that it would be a positive influence for a child to see Kratos rip the wings off a griffin in case that child decides to mount the family budgie – it still is another bout of surveys that indicate a trait that many of us would consider common across all entertainment and aspects of life, not just games.