Archive for January, 2008
January 31, 2008
Never let it be said that the success of the Cooking Mama franchise has gone unheralded. Between a pair of DS games and a Wii outing, the series has been the single biggest success story of Majesco Entertainment’s new casual gaming focus.
Last August Majesco boasted that the DS debut of the kitchen cooking game had shipped half a million copies in just under a year on the market. Last month Cooking Mama’s European publisher, 505 Games, announced that the first DS game of the series had broken the million-sales milestone across the pond.
Majesco today one-upped its European counterparts’ announcement with a sales update of its own. According to the publisher, the Cooking Mama franchise has baked up sales of 1.6 million units in the US. With 1 million of those games attributed to the original DS game, the remaining 600,000 are split between Cooking Mama: Cook Off for the Wii and the DS sequel, Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends.
Majesco will release a Wii version of Cooking Mama 2 in the US later this year.
January 31, 2008
Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed is THQ’s latest episode in its comic alien-invasion series but the first game in the series to make an appearance on the Nintendo Wii. One peek at the game’s subtitle is all you need to know regarding the game’s trademark sense of humor, but once you peel away the double entendres, you’ll see that bug-eyed “hero” Crypto is bringing some new firepower to the Wii for the game’s February release.
Just remember, they aren’t humans, they’re
January 31, 2008
One of the more sublime offerings for the PlayStation 3 is flOw, a downloadable game drawing its origins from a USC student’s graduate project. Not fitting into conventional genres, flOw’s primary appeal lies in its mildly abstract visuals and soothing ambient sounds that sharply contrast with the survival-of-the-fittest gameplay, in which players work toward ascending a microscopic food chain.
With flOw’s noncommittal gameplay, it comes as no great surprise that the game may now make its way onto the PlayStation Portable. Sony’s UK PlayStation site lists flOw as coming to the PSP this January, and an E for Everybody rating for the game has appeared in the Entertainment Software Rating Board’s online database, all but confirming a stateside release. However, despite the rating, Sony was unwilling to officially confirm the game’s release to If Its Games.
For flOw’s European debut on the PSP, the game is listed as a downloadable offering available through the PC-to-PSP store. The PSP version of the game will feature ad hoc multiplayer for four.
January 31, 2008
One of the first projects hinted at when Legendary Pictures CEO and 300 executive producer Thomas Tull and media mogul Bert Ellis secured $400 million in funding to form Brash Entertainment was a game tie-in to Lionsgate’s macabre Saw horror film series. Today, Brash officially announced that Saw will arrive on “next-gen platforms” alongside the next installment in the film franchise in October 2009.
Details on Saw have yet to be puzzled out, but Brash says it will be collaborating closely with Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures on the game. While it will tie in to the Saw universe, the game will have its own storyline that will attempt to fill in some of the backstory of film antagonist Jigsaw, as well as clear up some of the unanswered questions left by previous installments in the film series.
Brash has licensed Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 for Saw, though a developer has yet to be named for the project. Updates on Saw can be found on the game’s Web site, which also launched today.
January 31, 2008
Gameplay Footage
You might want to turn the sound down for this clip of PixelJunk Monsters in action.
Watch | Download
A first glance at PixelJunk Monsters may not be entirely impressive, but you shouldn’t let the game’s plain, cartoony presentation discourage you from checking out this surprisingly addictive and charming experience. This is strategy for the masses, and it makes up for a certain lack of depth with mesmerizing gameplay and just the right degree of challenge. If you’ve got $7.99 to spend in the PlayStation Network and an itch for something a little different, you’ll find plenty here to scratch it.
Those that played Desktop Tower Defense or the Defense of the Ancients mod for Warcraft III will have a pretty good idea of what PixelJunk Monsters is all about. Waves of monsters hike through the map on a predetermined path, and you must construct defense towers to take them out before they reach your village and kill the hula-skirted residents. To do so, you maneuver your little tribesman about the tree-laden level, turning trees into turrets and collecting the coins and upgrade gems fallen monsters leave behind.
It looks easy enough, but there’s a rewarding challenge lurking underneath.
It sounds simple enough, but there’s a surprising amount of strategy involved. Tower choice and placement is obviously a key consideration, but you also need to be conscious of how you use your upgrade gems. You can use them to increase the effectiveness of existing towers, or you can use them to unlock new towers or other enhancements. You can also upgrade towers by standing next to them, which makes your avatar dance a jig while the leveling bar slowly rises. Not that you’ll have a lot of time to do this, particularly in later levels, since you also need to skitter around to collect dropped coins and gems. Do you upgrade some cannons, or do you purchase that laser ground-to-air turret you’ve been hankering for? Do you let a couple of coins disappear in the corner while you dance around, or do you forgo your hip-shaking and explore the map, which could result in finding some random funds? This might be casual strategy, but you’ll still need to think on the fly.
Even early on, you’re not likely to win maps on the first try–and once you get to the harder ones, it’ll take you a good number of attempts before you can congratulate yourself on a job well done. Yet as difficult as it gets, PixelJunk Monsters has a laid-back vibe, and the ebb and flow of monster attacks can be oddly hypnotic. The tinkly elevator music that accompanies your strategizing tries to add to the relaxed atmosphere, but it gets as grating as the constant jingling of wind chimes. Luckily, the austere, colorful visuals remain appealing throughout.
A second player can grab a controller and join you on the same machine. Co-op play does reduce the challenge, but it’s also a blast to strategize with a friend. Yet whether or not a buddy joins you, you’ll probably have a lot of fun with PixelJunk Monsters. It may not look all that deep, but you’ll still squeeze a lot of enjoyment out of its 20 levels.
January 31, 2008
NewsFactor - If there ever was a science-fiction story that begged to become a video game, it’s Ender’s Game — and now that is becoming reality.
January 31, 2008
AP - A look back at the eight previous “Grand Theft Auto” video games:
January 31, 2008
AP - I spent large chunks of last year playing the same AAA video games everyone else played: “BioShock,”"Rock Band,”"Super Mario Galaxy” and so on. But if I actually kept track of my gaming hours, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that I spent just as much time enjoying the simpler delights of Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade.
January 31, 2008
In the latest issue of Famitsu Nintendo\’s Shigeru Miyamoto has said he is interested in making a Super Mario Galaxy sequel and that he\’s also thinking about the next Zelda title. Miyamoto also went on to say that if Wii Fit succeeds outside of Japan then they may end up releasing separate titles that make use of the Balance Wii Board. On the subject of the DS he spoke of a vision of supporting DS owners by setting up servers to create a play environment that\’s shared between the home and outdoors. He also hinted that Nintendo has plans afloat for DS users to be able to do a number of interesting things in public spaces.
January 31, 2008
Every gamer worth his or her salt really needs to know which gaming icon was originally going to be an armadillo, who the severed heads in the Pit in Mortal Kombat resemble, and which game Swedish pop band The Cardigans’ song “My Favourite Game” is about.
These golden nuggets of gaming trivia are among many more revealed in the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition, due for release on February 8 in the UK and March 11 in the US. The Gamer’s Edition is the first of its kind, an offshoot from the Guinness World Records series, an annual compilation of facts and figures, including the fastest time to eat a 12-inch pizza, most sheep shorn in eight hours, and the location of the largest collection of aeroplane sick bags.
In keeping with Guinness tradition, the Gamer’s Edition of its record book compiles similarly obscure (and often humorous) factoids. A semirandom sampling is listed below:
The Super Mario franchise is the best-selling game series of all time, having sold a total of 145 million units worldwide.
As of November 2007, 466 million Xbox 360 achievements had been unlocked since the service launched, putting the combined global gamerscore at 11 billion.
Shigeru Miyamoto was inspired to create the Zelda series after watching Legend, director Ridley Scott’s 1985 fantasy movie about a young man’s quest to prevent the Lord of Darkness from destroying daylight.
Bungie staff ate an estimated 20,000 pounds (in weight) worth of pizzas during their 36 months creating Halo 3.
Gamers playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion can expect to see 35,544 shrubs, 67,730 plants and mushrooms, 94,013 trees and logs, and 395,696 rocks.
The largest virtual beer festival takes place every year in World of Warcraft, when sworn enemies the Horde and Alliance get together for Brewfest, which lasts around a fortnight and features a huge selection of virtual beers for sale.
Sega considered an armadillo as its mascot, and Sonic the Hedgehog was originally called “Mr. Needlemouse.”
Tecmo, the Japan-based publisher of Dead or Alive, was originally a supplier of cleaning equipment called Tehkan.
The severed heads seen in the Pit stage of Mortal Kombat are likenesses of developer Midway’s staff, and include lookalikes of the creators of the game, Ed Boon and John Tobias.
There are an estimated 1,890 rooms to be discovered in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Tomb Raider heroine Lara Croft’s ample bosom was apparently the result of a design error by Toby Gard. He was playing with the dimensions of the character and accidentally increased her bust by 150 percent. Other members of the team said they liked the change, and the change was kept.
Alone in the Dark, released in 1992, is believed to be the first 3D survival horror game.
An early arcade prototype of Street Fighter had a novel control system with a punching pad rather than buttons. However, this model was soon declared unviable; gamers hit the pads so hard they damaged them.
The youngest pro gamer is known as Lil’ Poison and was signed by the Major League Gaming recruiters when he was just 6 years old. He started gaming at the tender age of 2.
The highest-ever Space Invaders score was 55,160 points, achieved by Donald Hayes on June 7, 2003.
The least-violent first-person shooter is Deus Ex, which can be completed by killing just three enemies.
The original Sonic the Hedgehog game has a limit of 9,999,990 points, and 23 people have scored this on the Xbox Live scoreboards.
There are a total of 20,000 lines of spoken dialogue in BioWare’s sci-fi role-playing game Mass Effect–the same as you could expect in about 20 movies.
The most number of games made in a single series belongs to Mega Man, which has a total of 46 games out there.
Twenty homing pigeons were spray-painted with the Virtua Tennis 2 logo and released during the Wimbledon tennis championships in 2003 to promote the game.
The most-popular location for extreme sports games is New York City, which has been the backdrop for games including BMX XXX, SSX Tricky, and four games in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series.
The Cardigans’ song “My Favourite Game” is actually about the game Gran Turismo, which the group liked to play on their tour bus.
The largest land-based game is The Elder Scrolls: Chapter II: Daggerfall, which has 163,492 square kilometers of space in which to jump around.
The biggest-ever funeral for a fictional object was a publicity stunt for Guitar Hero II that mourned the death of the air guitar. More than 80 people turned up for the event (including If Its Games UK’s own Guy Cocker).
For more interesting trivia tidbits, pick up a copy of the Guinness World of Records Gamer’s Edition when it hits bookshelves later this year.
January 31, 2008
The celebrity endorsements just keep coming for the Wii. British soap actors on Emerdale have been enjoying playing Wii sports in downtime and they\’re apparently hoping to take on rival British soaps in a Wii championship. It has also been reported that the soccer stars at Manchester United are really into their Nintendo Wii games. They even have tournaments against each other, but the players don\’t risk injuring themselves by playing too long.
January 31, 2008
Tecmo\’s spooky Fatal Frame series is coming to the Wii. The game was announced today and is called \”Rei: Tsukihami no Kamen,\” in Japan. Veteran of the series Keisuke Kikuchi believes the Wiimote and the horror genre is a perfect fit. There was not much info but Kikuchi also said that the key words for the game are memory, moon, and mask, and that the image color for the game is yellow. (Thanks daps83777)
January 31, 2008
A recent patent application posted at the European patent office site indicates that Nintendo designed various peripheral possibilities to showcase the Wii controller\’s potential, one of the whackiest is the goggles shown below. But that\’not all, there\’s Wii remotes in helmets, bike pedals, and even teddy bears!
January 31, 2008
Famitsu has revealed a new fashion training game for DS, complete with 200 fashion lectures for those who lead a busy, sociable lifestyle. It apparently will help users coordinate the perfect outfit for their desired occasion. You can create a 3D model that lets you try out jacket, tie, trousers, hair styles and shoe combinations. Also it suggests that in an emergency, you can quickly check that you are not making any fashion faux pas. The game will probably only be available in Japan.
January 31, 2008
Michael Pachter believes that Nintendo should un-bundle Wii Sports and sell the WIi for $199. He says that it would still sell a piece of Nintendo software to 80% of new Wii purchasers, and would end up effectively lowering revenues per console by only around $10. He believes this could keep the console going strong through 2008 and 2009.
;)