Archive for March 18th, 2008
March 18, 2008
Since the launch of Super Mario Galaxy in November, and for many even before that, Wii gamers have near-universally had one solitary thought on their minds: Brawl. With the game’s hype discharging more electricity than Pikachu, it comes as little surprise that Super Smash Bros. Brawl has become the fastest-selling Nintendo title in history.
Mario, I choose you!
The Mario Factory today said that Brawl has sold more 1.4 million units in the US alone, 874,000 of which were sold on day one. Driving that point home, Nintendo delineated that tally further, noting that the game has sold more than 120 units per minute between the game’s March 9 launch and March 16. In its home country, SSBB sold more than 800,000 units in its opening week, and to date more than 1.4 million copies of the game have been sold in Japan, according to stat-tracking service MediaCreate.
Featuring myriad classic characters from Nintendo’s and other publisher’s most venerated catalogs, Super Smash Bros. Brawl pits up to four fighters in a no-holds-barred deathmatch, with 41 different locales and 35 selectable combatants. In addition to single and local multiplayer modes, the game gives aspiring pugilists the chance to take the fight online for the first time using the Wii’s built-in Wi-Fi capabilities. Check out If Its Games’s previous coverage and full review for more on the critically lauded fighter.
March 18, 2008
Bliss Island is another game on the growing list of online freeware games ported to Xbox Live Arcade. Unfortunately, it’s not worth paying for Bliss Island because it has about as much to do with bliss as ketchup does with ice cream.
Don’t let the cute graphics fool you; these games require quick reflexes and a ton of patience.
The game has you playing as zwoophs, which are fuzzy Q*bert-looking animals that use precision puffs of air to create clouds. Apparently, cloud creating is awfully hard work, so the zwoophs take a day off each week to relax and play a few games. These games come in the form of seven poorly paced, frustrating minigames.
The single-player portion includes two modes. There is an adventure mode that forces you to complete each unforgiving minigame before moving on to the next, as well as a challenge mode that lets you play any of the games on one of the three difficulty levels. With only seven games, all of which are unlocked from the start in challenge mode, you can see all the game has to offer in less than an hour.
Each minigame has a simple one-button control scheme where the tap of a button shoots a small puff of air. This puff of air is used in various ways throughout the game. One minigame has you guiding fruit into the mouth of a furry monster, while another has you steering a zwooph through a treacherous obstacle course. A couple of them even involve some light platform-jumping. The game throws in a number of genres, but none of them is executed well.
The main culprit for the lack of bliss in Bliss Island is poor pacing. It can be fun racing a bumblebee around an island while dodging obstacles–but not for nine laps. The same goes for feeding a monster 50 pieces of fruit. Some of the minigames aren’t terrible; they just go on for too long. In addition to the pacing issues, most levels are irritatingly difficult. You’re only offered three chances to beat the five stages of each game. If you strike out, it’s back to stage one; no checkpoints, continues, or restarts. The minigames all have the feel of short Internet distractions padded and stretched in an attempt to create a fuller experience.
There are no options to play locally on the same console, but if you can find someone else with the game, you can play three minigames online, one of which isn’t offered in the single-player mode. However, the online games suffer from the same pacing and difficulty issues of the single-player version. So unless you’re into frustration with a friend, there’s no reason to explore the multiplayer.
Feeding these monsters can be fun for a few minutes, but the excitement fades after an hour.
The underwhelming graphics contribute to the feeling that this game doesn’t belong on the Xbox 360. A border surrounds the screen during gameplay, presumably to mask the fact that the low-resolution textures weren’t meant for a high-definition widescreen. The menu and instruction-screen illustrations look like the loud, in-your-face pictures seen on the back of generic cereal boxes. The sound effects and music are equally generic, like something you’d hear on a cruise ship commercial. As for achievements: With the exception of a few easy multiplayer points, most of the achievements require a lot of work and a surplus of patience to acquire.
Bliss Island is a game without an audience. Casual players will be turned off by the difficulty, while more hardcore players will scoff at the paltry offering of minigames and lack of customization. Don’t be fooled by the cheap 400 point price or misleading name. Bliss Island isn’t anywhere that you want to visit.
March 18, 2008
Baja California’s vast expanses of sun-kissed sand have long been a favorite for off-road racing. So it isn’t totally surprising, then, that the Mexican province’s name has been appropriated for an all-new PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game from THQ, publisher of the MX vs. ATV series. The title is being developed by Phoenix, Arizona-based indie studio 2XL Games, which was founded in 2005 by several of the founding members of Rainbow Studios (MX vs. ATV Untamed, Cars).
Like the recently released Burnout Paradise, Baja will be set in a vast open world containing many individual racing events. Unlike Criterion’s critically lionized racer, THQ’s offering will be set in 100 square miles of unforgiving outback, replete with mud bogs, steep mountains, and deep canyons. A variety of events will be available, ranging from vertical hill-climbing challenges to grueling circuit races, which can be played via four-player split-screen multiplayer capability or with up to a dozen players online.
“THQ is thrilled to bring something completely new to the off-road racing genre,” said THQ vice president of product development Richard Browne. He promised that the game, which is due out in August in North America, would also sport highly realistic vehicle physics while still offering easy-to-play arcade modes.
March 18, 2008
No More Heroes has been on the radar of many Wii owners for a while now and is finally making its way to Aussie retailers this Thursday. The protagonist–Travis Touchdown–lives in a motel in the city of Santa Destroy, California, and is a massive otaku fan–someone who’s obsessed with Japanese anime and manga. One day, Travis wins a beam katana in an online auction and decides to become a hit man. Naturally, when he runs out of money for video games and comics, he takes on more hits and eventually finds himself on a quest to be the number one hit man, ranked by the United Assassins Association Official Manual. No More Heroes features overly stylized gore and employs a simple control scheme. Players use the A button to swing the beam katana and the B button to perform hand-to-hand actions. Motion control is used during the finishing moves to slice enemies literally in half.
If wielding a blade won’t cut it, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2, the sequel to Ubisoft’s 2006 smash hit, is also out this week. While the game isn’t a direct sequel to the original, as events in the game occur before and after the original, the game features a definitive ending. On the multiplayer side of things, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 supports up to 16 players online on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Three new multiplayer modes have been added to the mix. First, team leader sees players getting their leader to the extraction point without being assassinated, all the while attempting to assassinate the other team’s leader. Next, team demolition is a classic attack-and-defend mode where one team attempts to plant a bomb while the other team tries to disarm it. Finally, total conquest sees two teams face off against each other, with each side trying to control three satellite dishes around the map while uploading data and defending captured points from attack. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 comes out on March 20 and will be available on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with a PC version to follow in the not-too-distant future.
This week’s new releases are listed below (list taken from retailer and publisher information–actual dates may vary).
March 20, 2008
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (PS3, 360)
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Hard Evidence (Wii)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (DS)
Downstream Panic! (PSP)
The Spiderwick Chronicles (Wii, 360, PC, DS, PS2)
Jumper: Griffin’s Story (Wii)
Battalion Wars 2 (Wii)
Brain Assist (DS)
No More Heroes (Wii)
Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (DS)
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (PS3, 360, PC)
March 21, 2008
SpongeBob’s Atlantis SquarePantis (DS, DS)
Bomberman Land (PSP, Wii)
Fishing Master (Wii)
March 18, 2008
This weekend saw the first major UK independent consumer video game event in years, as Play.com Live took over Wembley Arena to show off upcoming titles, including Rock Band (still not out in the UK!), Killzone 2, Ghostbusters, Far Cry 2, and This is Vegas, to the public.
Everyone at the event (or everyone who could be bothered to stand in line, anyway) got a free goodie bag, which included a Play.com booklet promising 5 percent off all the games at the event. This is where it gets interesting–the booklet also has release dates, which haven’t been officially announced yet for a number of high-profile upcoming titles.
Up first is Lionhead’s highly anticipated role-playing game Fable 2, which is set some 500 years after the first game and promises to be bigger and better. Fable 2, according to Play.com, will be coming out in the UK on May 30 with a 16+ PEGI rating.
One of the big disappointments of the event was the distinct lack of the rumoured hands-on premiere of Ghostbusters, The Video Game. Although gamers were treated to a huge inflatable marshmallow man and the Ghostbusters car, all that was on show inside was a trailer. However, in the booklet, the game has been dated for September 26, with an age rating of 12.
Other surprises in the book include a date for Prototype, an open-world game from Radical Entertainment, set in New York and starring a shape-shifter called Alex Mercer. This sci-fi action adventure has been given the nod for June 27, although the age rating has yet to be confirmed.
Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Conspiracy is next up. The game is tied into the popular film trilogy starring Matt Damon as elite secret agent Jason Bourne, which in turn is based on the best-selling novels following Bourne’s international antics. The Bourne Conspiracy is coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. According to Play.com, we can expect this title on June 27, though it appears to not have been age rated yet.
Ninja Gaiden II is next to be given a release date. If one is to believe Play.com, the Tecmo follow-up to the 2004 title will be with us at the end of the month, March 28, to be precise. Unsurprisingly, for a series known for its ultraviolence, it will be rated 18.
Two more games are given release dates–Iron Man (May 30, two weeks after the film is due to hit British cinemas), WALL-E (May 4, more than two months before the movie reaches UK screens), and Lego Batman gets slightly more pinned down to “sometime in September” with an age rating of 3 years old, which will no doubt disappoint those toddlers hoping to play the game.
On another Retail Radar snoop, UK supermarket chain Tesco has recently amended its games listings and finally dated Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Europeans–January 1, 2020.
Please note, while retailer listings frequently jump the gun on publishers’ product announcements, they should not be taken as final confirmation of a game’s release date or existence; nor should the absence of a listing be considered as proof that a game isn’t coming to a given platform.
March 18, 2008
In 2004, Tomonobu Itagaki and Tecmo’s Team Ninja revived the much-revered Ninja Gaiden 2D beat-’em-up series in a 3D action adventure for the Xbox. With an emphasis on technical prowess, intense difficulty, and pagoda-soaking gore, the Xbox version was subsequently given touch-ups with Ninja Gaiden Black and the PlayStation 3-exclusive Ninja Gaiden Sigma. This week, Itagaki’s Team Ninja is bringing the post-2004 Ninja Gaiden formula back to Nintendo’s platform with Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword for the Nintendo DS, a touch-screen-heavy rendition of master ninja Ryu Hayabusa’s travails. For a look at how well that formula translated, check out If Its Games’s full review of the game.
Also returning for another round this week is Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. (A PC version is expected to arrive later this year.) With Ubisoft’s Montreal studio promising an “explosive finale” to the storyline begun in the elite corps’ first terrorist-hunting foray into Sin City, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 offers new weapons, armor, and enemy AI, as well as an expanded suite of adversarial and cooperative multiplayer modes.
A number of platform exclusives also take to retail shelves this week. THQ’s hyperbolic annelids find pay dirt for the first time on Nintendo’s Wii with A Space Oddity, while Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection arrives on the PlayStation 2 in anticipation of Metal Gear Solid 4’s PS3 debut in June. In the meantime, the PS3 has a number of other games out this week, including Clap Hanz’s Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds and Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore. On the massively multiplatform front, Sega lobs Superstars Tennis onto the Xbox 360, PS3, PlayStation 2, Wii, and DS.
With no new downloadable games being added to Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday, Microsoft hopes to placate its digital download-enthused crowd with new downloadable content for Forza 2 as well as price cuts for Sierra Online’s Assault Heroes and id Software’s Doom to 400 Microsoft points ($5). Available this Wednesday for 400 Microsoft points ($5), the Forza 2 car pack adds 13 new autos to the game’s already-impressive 340-plus roster, including the Peugeot 207 Super 2000, Audi S5, 2008 BMW M3, Lamborghini LP640, and Ferrari 430 Scuderia. On the Wii’s Virtual Console, Nintendo is offering up Spelunker and Super R-Type for 500 ($5) and 800 ($8) Wii points, respectively.
This week’s new releases are listed below (list taken from retailer information–actual dates may vary).
MARCH 17, 2008
Dance! Online (PC)
Merv Griffin’s Crosswords (PC)
Spelunker (Wii VC)
Super R-Type (Wii VC)
Worms: A Space Oddity (Wii)
MARCH 18, 2008
Diary Girl (DS)
Fantasy Aquarium (DS)
GoPets: Vacation Island (DS)
Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds (PS3)
Lost in Blue 3 (DS)
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore (PS3)
Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection (PS2)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Wii)
Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends (PS2)
Sega Superstars Tennis (X360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS)
Singstar ’90s (PS2)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (X360, PS3)
MARCH 19, 2008
No announced releases.
MARCH 20, 2008
Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (DS)
MARCH 21, 2008
No announced releases.
March 18, 2008
AP - News from the virtual world:
March 18, 2008
AP - A federal appeals court on Monday upheld an injunction against a Minnesota law that targeted at children under 17 who rent or buy violent video games.
March 18, 2008
TechWeb - Surpassing both consoles, however, was the Wii as Nintendo shipped 432,000 of the lower-priced consoles, an NPD Group survey reveals.
March 18, 2008
Two new classic games have been added to the Wii Shop Channel, Spelunker (NES, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) and SUPER R-TYPE (Super NES, 1 player, 800 Wii Points).
March 18, 2008
According to the Official Nintendo Magazine UK, there will be no \”snaking\” in Mario Kart Wii. \”This has finally been scrapped, and now your speed boost is determined by how long you can hold the slide.\”
March 18, 2008
Satirical news site The Onion has written a comical article about video game violence. They blame the Wii for a rise effeminate violence and quote parents as saying Wii games \”are a prissy little menace to our society,\”. They also recommend two new ratings for games, P for Pansy and NP for Namby-Pamby.
March 18, 2008
Nintendo have announced today that Super Smash Bros. Brawl has become the fastest-selling video game in Nintendo of America\’s history. Since its launch on March 9, the game has sold more than 1.4 million units in the United States, including more than 874,000 on March 9 alone. It has sold at a rate of more than 120 units per minute between launch and March 16.
March 18, 2008
Toys\”R\”Us are currently running a buy 1 get 1 $20 Off on all Wii games. They are also running a buy 1 get 1 $10 Off on all DS games.
March 18, 2008
It’s been a while since the Red Alert side of EA’s Command & Conquer series made an appearance, and many of the game’s fans were probably despairing that the game would never rear its over-the-top RTS head ever again. Those fears were allayed last month when EALA announced that Red Alert 3 was most definitely in the pipeline. We spoke to the game’s executive producer, Chris Corry, about all things Red Alert 3, and while he didn’t spill too much information, he did have some interesting things to say about Xbox 360 and PC cross-functionality, moving traditional PC games to consoles, and their plans for naval combat in the new game.
If Its Games AU: Command & Conquer 3: Red Alert 3 will appear on the PC, Xbox 360, and the PS3. The series is best known for its PC roots–why focus so strongly on consoles now?
Chris Corry: The development of Red Alert 3 is being led on the PC, as all of our RTS projects are out of EALA. The RTS genre, and Command & Conquer in particular, was born on the PC, and that’s where you’ll find the full expression of the genre’s potential. The team is focused on making a great PC RTS as its foremost goal.
That said, we’ve had some real success on the console with The Battle for Middle-earth II and Command & Conquer 3, and we’re continually improving that experience (check out the new radial controls in the Xbox 360 version of Kane’s Wrath this summer). We passionately believe that the core compulsions of RTS can work in console games, and we’re convinced that as an industry we’re evolving toward something wholly unique, something that is likely to eventually look and feel like something quite different from the PC experience. Of course this will take some time and we won’t fully get there with Red Alert 3. But it is coming someday.
IIG AU: Will the three versions be different from one another in any way? Are you planning any exclusive features for the three versions?
CC: We aren’t getting into too many specifics about the console version of Red Alert 3 right now, other than to say we are continuing to work on improving the RTS interface. Stay tuned for more information soon.
IIG AU: You seem to have some more time-travel shenanigans in the game. Thematically, how does this game fit into the Red Alert universe?
CC: Red Alert 3 is no different from all of our Red Alert games; time travel and the unintended consequences that always seem to arise from it is the central theme throughout the entire series. As a developer, this licence to create alternate histories and universes gives us an incredible amount of freedom. We love letting our imaginations run wild and it helps us bring distinct, fun worlds to life.
IIG AU: What can you tell us about the strengths and weaknesses for each faction? Will there be significant differences from previous games?
CC: The Allies and Soviets are back and while they have each gone through some changes and have a lot of great new units and superpowers, they’re still similar to Red Alert 2–and that’s completely deliberate. We want them to feel familiar but we also know players are going to want a lot of new toys to play with.
Where we have a little more freedom for new, drastic changes is with The Empire of the Rising Sun. Japan was a terrific choice for us because of the country’s deep wealth of cultural and historical touchstones which we can build off of. They are going to be a technologically advanced faction that will pose a lot of problems for the Soviets and Allies. A lot of the new mechanics in Red Alert 3 (like transforming units) will be found on the third side.
IIG AU: How important is the single-player campaign to the Red Alert 3 mix? Will this game primarily be a multiplayer experience?
CC: Like all C & C games, the story-driven campaign for Red Alert 3 is going to be a key part of the experience, featuring over an hour of HD, live-action cutscenes. Each faction will have its own campaign with 8 to 10 missions each. And best of all you’ll be able to play through the story-driven campaign with a friend.
All of our missions are being designed around the idea that you
;)