To the tune of Summer Nights…

Grease the movie, is getting a game
Call me psychic, but it will be lame
505 Games has secured the rights
with musical theater majors locked in their sights

If this girl gamer, had any say
This buh-bad idea would just go away
Tell us more, tell us more,
motion controls will be employed
Tell us more, tell us more,
ear drums will be destroyed

The Wii and DS, are just the thing
to lure in women who think they can sing
No point ponderin’ the why or the how
Though I’m wonderin’, “Where is God now?”

Gaming dreams, ripped at the seams
But oh, Reggie Fils-Aime thinks it’s alriiiiiight!

It seems we won’t be seeing any new suits for the multi-profession plumber in the next Super Mario Galaxy game.

Nintendodpad found from Miyamoto that Yoshi power-ups will take their place. From the trailer (check at 0:29), we currently have a speed boost and a balloon-like ability.

Aside from the power-ups, Miyamoto stated that Super Mario Galaxy 2 will have increased difficulty (Yay! The first one was a little too easy) and a “time slowdown effect”.

Having Yoshi is awesome, but if Nintendo plans to not introduce new Mario suits, hopefully they give the ones available more usage. Galaxy was a great game, but I couldn’t help but feel some of the suits didn’t get as much time for getting stars as they should. It’d be a shame to not use that flying suit more.

Hey PC gamers, you like keeping your money, right? Of course you do, all multiplatform titles get an instant $10 discount! This weekend, though, there are a few other deals worth mention that save a little (or a lot) more. Check ‘em.

To start out, Street Fighter IV for PC is among us, but not quite yet on the digital channels. Until then, you can pre-order the game for 10% via your choice of Steam, GamersGate, Impulse, or Direct2Drive. That puts you down for a total of $36 for everyone keeping score.

Also on Steam, you’re now able to enjoy Fallout 3 for a cool $25. Most would tell you that’s a steal, as it more than deserved its $50 price. For those of you wanting all the expansions, though, you may want to hold off until that $50 Game of the Year package comes out a little later this year.

For those of us seeking an alternative to the standard Japanese RPG fare, a remedy is on the way in the form of Risen. With coding and voice-over work completed, the Piranha Bytes-developed title is currently in the midst of its beta-testing phase. In our opinion, we’d say that would be a good cue to announce a release date. And publisher Deep Silver thinks so too, as it has revealed today that Risen will launch worldwide on October 2nd for the Xbox 360 and PC. Three months can’t come soon enough, as some of the trailers we’ve seen show us the lush environments that await us in the fantasy RPG.

Redesigning something as awesome as BioShock’s Big Daddy can be a daunting task or an utter blast. Sure it may be hard to break apart or dumb down something so cool, but the design process for the prototype Big Daddy, the protagonist for the upcoming sequel, makes it look like the folks over at 2K Marin had fun experimenting with the idea.

They say the idea was how to make him feel like a rough draft or work-in-progress. In the first game the Big Daddy was a walking nightmare, big and deadly. The hunched over prototypes bring that out well, but the standing straight ones feel more like a “rough draft.” Then we have some with and without the drill. The picture above is the nearest to final concept for the first Big Daddy. Then below we have some of the earlier drafts.

The Resident Evil film adaptation, and subsequent sequels, bore as much resemblance to the source material as a shark does to a chimpanzee. Two completely different species that should never meet unless at the hands of a master (ie a genius geneticist, but shark-chimps are something we’d like to not see in real life).

Despite the disregard to the game’s plot, characters and ethos in general director Paul W.S. Anderson is pressing forward with a fourth chapter in the cinematic adaptation of the game. Shock Till You Drop says that Anderson is apparently hard at work on the screenplay, aiming for a theatrical release by September 17, 2010.

Considering that Anderson destroyed the childhoods of fans of both Alien and Predator with his interpretation of Aliens VS Predator and has already cashed in on the hope of Resident Evil fans (admit it, all three films were terrible) there’s not much hope for the fourth chapter besides the fact that it might actually be the final chapter and thus end the pain.

Nintendo has always been accused of milking their franchises throughout their console life cycles, adding little more than a fresh lick of paint. Whether that’s true or not you can’t deny their conviction in sticking to the age-old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Nothing demonstrates this conviction more than a statement by his gaming godliness himself, Shigeru Miyamoto, during an interview with Nintendo Power. Gaming’s most beloved personality discussed development of the new Zelda title and revealed, “I don’t think it’s going to be that radically different.”

Zelda’s essentially been the same game since it debuted in 1986 but, in our opinion, that’s not a bad thing as each game bought with it a few new features and varying graphical interpretations. Of course we’d love to see a Zelda title try new and exciting ground but, having said that, we don’t want to see it be different just for the sake of being different. More to the point, Miyamoto created the Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Pikmin and F-Zero franchises and games such as Nintendogs (and Wii Music but we’ll ignore that) so if he’s cool with it, we’ll trust him.

Just on the heels of the stealth launch of Battlefield Heroes EA coupled with DICE slapped a release date on the much anticipated Battlefield 1943 — July 8 for Xbox Live Marketplace and the following day for PlayStation Network. The multiplayer-only game will be available for download for 1200 MS points from Live and $15 from PSN. There was no word on the future release date for the birth place of the Battlefield series, so PC players are left waiting in the dark. All we know is that it’ll be released some time in September.

BF 1943 is a redux of DICE’s original BF 1942 featuring the same gamplay in a much prettier Frostbyte engine. The players can engage in battle from the land, sea and air with destructible environments in the maps Wake Island, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. After players kill each other 43 million times a new map called Coral Sea will be unlocked for everyone to enjoy. For $15, players are basically getting the best maps from BF 1942 with no skimping on the gameplay, which is probably why it’ll be the best $15 you’ll spend this entire summer.

Despite upcoming broadcast programming, you probably don’t associate MTV with videogames (except for Rock Band, of course). Yet, the cable conglomerate does own a game studio, cunningly titled MTV Games, which is about to receive some major talent from the gaming world. Former THQ Vice President of Publishing Scott Guthrie will be joining MTV Games as Executive VP and General Manager, while David Cox, a senior director of sales and merchandising for Sony Computer Entertainment America, will be coming on board as Senior VP of Sales. The move will likely give credence to MTV becoming a bigger and more varied player in the gaming industry than just the music gaming scene. Let’s just hope they won’t be making any games featuring Heidi Montag, Pete Wentz, or any other undesirable MTV regulars.

Avast! Tales of Monkey Island will put into port in less than a week, hauling in the classic adventure gaming and pirate comedy. LucasArts and Telltale Games have sent out a brief gameplay video of the newest installment in the treasured series. The first episode, “Launch of the Screaming Narwahl,” is coming to PC and Wii with four more episodes on the horizon.

Guybrush, LeChuck, and Elaine are there in ye olde damsel-in-distress dilemma. The hero is cracking jokes and they look prettier than Spanish doubloons (and oddly similar to Sam & Max games). And of course, Guybrush screws up and everyone is going to die because of it. The voice actors are still savvy from their last voyage. If the video isn’t enough for you landlubbers, there are new screens to tickle your fancy. All in all the game seems seaworthy, so unfurl the main sails and set a course to the best monkey-infested island on the map!