Compatibility: Requires iOS 5.1.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
Description
“Oh man! That looks SUPER FUN!!” – Matthew
BUILD and defend your fortress on the edge of a mountain! Strengthen the defensive lines on the unique playing filed.
ATTACK: create fantasy characters, train and equip them and send to the fight; each character has unique fighting tactics.
DEFEND: build defensive weapons, install them in other fortresses and help to defend them.
MAP: a large map with 2 parallel campaigns and multiplayer online quests.
COLLECTION: craft magic amulets and evolve them by merging with other amulets to upgrade your features.
Come join us! We’ll find a cozy place for you high on the mountain edge in one of the five
locations.
CINEMATIC DYSTOPIAN PUZZLE PLATFORMER “MONOCHROMA” LAUNCHES ON STEAM, MAY 28TH
Begin Your Journey into Nowhere Studios Tale of Bravery and Discovery
Istanbul, Turkey, May 15, 2014 – Nowhere Studios today announced that Monochroma, its cinematic dystopian puzzle platformer, will launch on Windows PC, Mac and Linux on Steam on May 28th. In Monochroma players are transported to a dystopian state during the 1950’s, after two brothers witness a horrific crime committed by an evil corporation. Without cutscenes, text or spoken words, players must delve intellectually and emotionally into the story to help the brothers work together to progress past mind-bending puzzles and save the world from tyranny.
About Monochroma
Inspired by the developers’ childhood memories of moving from the countryside to urban Istanbul and the “Gezi Protests” of 2013, the most violently oppressed protest in modern Turkey, players discover the environment and follow the story through a carefully constructed black-and-white palette with splashes of red. As a result, the story is instantly understandable by players of all nationalities – without any localization required.
Spread over four chapters, discover vast ghettos built upon thousands of tenement buildings that reach into the clouds, a labyrinth of sewer tunnels, factories bellowing out industrial smoke and a city sized zeppelin hovering in the sky. The puzzles encountered in Monochroma are realistic and use physics to naturally blend with the environment.
Another Monochroma trademark is the relationship between the two brothers. Early in the game, the younger brother injures his leg after an accident, and must be supported by his older sibling. At times, the player needs to temporarily stop carrying him in order to solve puzzles. However he can only be placed near safe, bright areas—because like most kids, he’s scared of the dark. This gameplay mechanic defines Monochroma as a cerebral, methodical puzzle game that rewards players who are caring and brave at the same time. Being a responsible older sibling is mandatory—just as in real life.
About Nowhere Studios
A beacon of light in the Turkish games development region, Nowhere Studios was established in 2010 with the goal of bringing emotional and intellectual indie-minded games with top-notch production to players all around the world.
We have arrived back inside your earlobes at last! This week, Dustin Spencer and his sidekick Travis Bruno have come together to talk about gaming and such on another episode of CC Unplugged! This week, there are some burning topics that we pour gasoline all over, such as Tomadachi Life, Xbox, Mario Kart, and more!
So an extinguisher, tell your friends, and prepare to get UNPLUGGED!
Be sure to listen to our past CC Unplugged episodes here.
SPONSOR PLUG
Special Mention to our partners over at Razer, us here at Capsule Computers are geared by gamers, for gamers. Check them out on Twitter and Official Website.
Tales Runner Releases First Major Update with All New Content
The fun-filled MMO racer receives its first major upgrade with 13 new maps, a new character and more!
Torrance, CA – May 15, 2014 – OGPlanet is releasing Tales Runner first major update less than a month after launch. The update will unleash loads of new content to its players. This update comes with great excitement and joy for all veteran Tales Runner players as the highly anticipated and requested character Lily arrives. In addition to the release of this brand new character, Tales Runner will also be upgraded with 13 additional maps including the highly anticipated “Uncle Lizard’s Fury”, a new channel for “Professional” racers, a new Oracle system giving players free daily buffs, all new costumes and much more. To check out all this new content and to get in the game, go to http://www.TalesRunnerOnline.com!
Summer is right around the corner and to kick off this first major update, Tales Runner is hosting a variety of fun and exciting events with their RUN INTO SUMMER Calendar Event. Players are able to receive daily login prizes of 500 TR and numerous other fantastic prizes by meeting the simple event requirements. To learn more about this fun-filled event, check out the event page at http://tr.ogplanet.com/en/event/calendarevent.og.
Tales Runner’s Main Features:
Famous Fairy Tale Maps: Race through tracks based on your favorite Fairy Tales such as Jack & the Bean Stalk, Alice in Wonderland and many more.
Intense PvP: Compete against your friends and other opponents in intense PvP racing with up to 30 players in various game modes such as Relay, Co-Op or Team. Those up for a real challenge can try their luck at Survival Mode where it is truly survival of the fittest.
Challenging PvE: Play against various magical enemies and confront epic bosses from legendary tales. You better team up with a friend though, these bosses mean business.
Social MMO: Meet your friends in the Park and chat about your exciting races and victories or invite them to your farm where you can raise your pet and grow crops to sell.
Pet Racing: Raise and train your pet to become a four legged speed machine. Prove to your friends that you have the fastest pet by challenging them to an epic pet race.
Mini-Games: Take a break from the intense racing to play some fun and casual mini-games such as a Jeopardy style quiz game, fortune tellers and more.
Tales Runner Overview
Tales Runner is a wonderfully bright and cheerful racing game that you can play with your friends! Set in a world where your favorite fairy tales come to life, challenge your friends and take some friendly competition to the next level. With multiple game modes, quests and social features such as the community Park, Farm and chat, there is never a dull moment and always fun to be had.
Jump into this exciting and casual racing MMO that is like no other. Compete against friends, enemies and time itself as you race through tracks based off your favorite fairy tales, such as Alice in Wonderland, Jack and the Bean Stalk and many more. For those needing a break from the intensity of racing, hang out with friends in the Park and socialize with other players from the game or head to your farm to raise your pet and grow your crops.
Sign up and play Tales Runner’s at http://www.TalesRunnerOnline.com. Players can also join the friendly Tales Runner community on Facebook or on Twitter to stay current on all the latest Tales Runner announcements, updates, events, contests and more!
About OGPlanet
Headquartered in Torrance, California, OGPlanet is a leading publisher in North America and Europe of free-to-play, multiplayer, online games. OGPlanet offers a wide range of game titles, such as Uncharted Waters Online, SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online, La Tale, Heva Clonia Online, Heroes of the Realm, Red Stone, and soon Dizzel and Tales Runner. For more information, visit http://www.ogplanet.com.
NICKELODEON AND LIMA SKY JOIN FORCES TO LAUNCH GLOBAL, SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS-THEMED DOODLE JUMP APP!
Nickelodeon and Lima Sky have launched Doodle Jump SpongeBobSquarePants– a brand-new global mobile app inspired by the award-winning Doodle Jump app. In this 2D level-based jumper game, players take the role of SpongeBob, jumping up and through Bikini Bottom locales while trying to avoid infamous villains, including Man Ray and Dirty Bubble, swirling whirlpools, diabolical jellyfish, and more; with the ultimate goal of restoring order to the sea. Available now on iOS with Android coming soon, Doodle Jump SpongeBob marks Lima Sky’s first co-brand with an animated series for their iconic Doodle Jump game.
In Doodle Jump SpongeBob, the diabolical Plankton and his jailhouse crew have stolen the Krabby Patty secret formula. Players must traverse through 40 themed levels, unlocking new worlds and brand-new features as they advance in the game, encountering Bikini Bottom pals, Patrick, Sandy Cheeks, Mr. Krabs and Squidward. Throughout the game, users earn coins during play and by completing daily and weekly challenges, like Frogfish Beware, when players must defeat 10 frogfish within one week. They also use cool power-ups, such as Magnetic Personality, which gives players a magnetic charge that attracts all the coins on the screen. In Doodle Jump SpongeBob, players can purchase power-ups, including shields, vehicles and health, and costumes; and boosts including Head Start, that advances a player higher in a level using a submarine; all using coins collected during play or purchased through an iTunes account.
Doodle Jump SpongeBob is available worldwide in eight languages: English, Spanish (Latam), Spanish (Spain), German, French, Dutch, Portuguese and Italian.
Since its launch in July 1999, SpongeBob SquarePants has become one of the most beloved animated characters in TV history, and a global pop culture phenomenon. After almost 15 years on TV, SpongeBob is year to date, the number-one animated show with kids 2-11, as well as one of the most ‘liked’ animated series on Facebook, with more than 100 million fans. Over the past several years, SpongeBob has averaged more than 100 million total viewers every quarter across all Nickelodeon networks.
Doodle Jump is the endlessly fun “jump em up” that has been dazzling gamers of all ages since 2009. Cited by Apple as the #3 paid iPhone app of all time, it has been enjoyed by more than a hundred million fans and the brand has spread into the world of arcade games, toys, comic books, and even fashion. The combination of whimsical art style and addictive bouncing action has made the Doodler character a global icon.
*** $0.99 FOR A LIMITED TIME ***
About Nickelodeon Networks Nickelodeon, now in its 35th globally and 19th year in Australia, is a globally recognised and widely distributed multimedia entertainment brand for kids and family. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes both locally produced and global television programming plus consumer products, digital applications, theme parks, recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon Australia has been named Channel of The Year twice by ASTRA and won numerous industry awards. Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. channels air 24 hours a day, seven days a week and are seen in over 2.3 million households via Foxtel (Channel 701) and Fetch TV (Channel 146). Outside of the United States, Nickelodeon is a part of Viacom International Media Networks, a division of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), one of the world’s leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms.www.nickelodeon.com.au
About Lima Sky
Lima Sky, creators of the bestselling Doodle Jump, is an award-winning video game and app development studio. It was founded in July 2008 by Igor Pusenjak, a graduate and faculty at the MFA interactive design program at Parsons School of Design in New York, and Marko Pusenjak, a veteran mobile applications developer. As one of the world’s leading independent publishers, Lima Sky is dedicated to creating entertaining and innovative games across multiple platforms.
Australian games industry future bright despite government funding cuts
Sydney, 15th May 2014: The Federal Government has announced that as part of its savings measures in the 2014 Budget, it will cease the Australian Interactive Games Fund (AIGF) from 1 July 2014, thereby saving AU$10 million. The AIGF was announced in 2012 and was allocated a total of AU$20 million to be spent over three years.
“It’s unfortunate that this funding has been cut, but it won’t have a significant impact on the future of the Australian Games Industry,” said 30-year game industry veteran John De Margheriti.
“The scope of the AIGF was limited; it didn’t support new developers or larger studios working on big projects. Consider that the $20 million spread over three years falls well short of the average development budget for a current generation game of between US$30-100 million. A larger studio would be better off getting access to the 40 percent Producer Offset, currently only available for film production,” says De Margheriti.
Regarded as the father of the Australian Game Industry, De Margheriti has established several game studios, created the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE), the leading specialist games educator in Australia, and founded the Game Developer’s Association of Australia.
“These cuts won’t impact on the opportunities available for graduates coming out of AIE. The AIGF was not intended to support new developers without published titles. That’s why we created the Incubator Program which makes a range of funding available to these developers, even up to three years after they’ve graduated,” De Margheriti said.
In 2014, over AU$400,000 of grants and project funding will be awarded to teams in the Incubator. Next week, AIE will be announcing the first recipients of the AU$150,000 Post-Incubator Development Grant for teams that have graduated in 2012 and 2013. AIE’s Incubator Program mentors graduates through the process of creating their own studios and supports them to create new companies, innovative digital content and original IP.
“I’m excited about the future of the games industry in Australia. If we want a bigger slice of the US$70 billion global games industry, there needs to be a range of funding and investment options for developers at all levels. There’s a huge amount of talent and great ideas currently in development that I’m committed to supporting,” stated De Margheriti.
Puzzle platformers are everywhere these days, with indie game developers and the Steam Greenlight programme combining to provide a constant flow. This one is from Danish developers Osoa games, and maintains another trend; mechanics based on the manipulation of time.
Chronology had a bit of a rough ride to publish; the studio where it began life closed at the end of January this year, leaving a small group of developers to finish it off and release it as the first title from Osoa games.
Story
Chronology follows the adventure of the Inventor and Snail as they try and set the world to rights after “The Verve”, one of the Inventor’s projects, has a hand in destroying the world. Waking up with no memory of what has happened, the Inventor comes across a device that allows him to switch between the past and future. He stumbles across Snail, a somewhat irritating engineered mollusc that for some reason has the ability to stop time. The two must combine their abilities to solve puzzles and make their way to the lair of the Inventor’s mentor, the man responsible for manipulating The Verve into a destructive force.
The story is simplistic and of little consequence- which is fine in this sort of thing. What lets Chronology down is it’s lack of charm and humor. The old man and snail partnership is quirky enough to have some potential, but sadly the characters are one dimensional. Snail is at once whiny and endlessly optimistic, the Inventor just grumbles a bit and both end up spouting a lot of generic lines about not running from your past. It’s a real shame that the game stumbles in the personality department, because the gameplay is fairly solid and the puzzles quite enjoyable.
Gameplay
Time is at your mercy in Chronology; Snail can stop time completely and the Inventor can switch between the past and future. Snail can also squidge along vertical surfaces and act as a platform for the Inventor, who can jump and interact with objects. Players can switch between the two at the push of a button.
The combination of mechanics makes for some really interesting and tricky puzzles. The Inventor can water a plant in the past and watch it sprout into a platform in the future, and Snail can freeze obstacles or objects in mid air to allow the Inventor to pass.
There are some inventive puzzles to be found in the latter half of the game, combining all of the abilities to make for a decent level of challenge. If the difficulty and creativity had been on form for all of the game’s run time then Chronology would have been great, but the first few chapters are wasted on simple set ups and the whole thing can be completed in under two hours.
Given the myriad of games in this genre and price range Chronology just can’t compete. It’s mechanics are strong but there isn’t enough content to take on the likes of Constant C, another well designed puzzler that offers a similar length of core game but also adds collectibles and a time attack mode. The levels in Chronology exist solely of the route that gets you to the next level, and there’s nothing to tempt you back for a second go.
Audio & Visuals
Chronology takes its visual inspiration fro the work of Hayao Miyazaki, the master animator behind films such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. The influence is visible in the character design, with the little fez and huge mustache of the Inventor channeling some of the Miyazaki look. Snail doesn’t boast as much detail but makes up for it with a nifty reversing light! The backgrounds flick between the blue sky and industry of the past to the darker, wilder future, where strange bits of sentient plant life seem to have taken over. The cut scenes simplify the details of the backgrounds for a lovely hand drawn feel, and Chronology is certainly distinctive enough in looks to stand out from the pack.
The in game music suits Chronology’s atmosphere, but the only audio elements that stand out are the opening and closing themes. The twinkly start menu music has a catchy piano hook, whilst the end credits song, Crooks and Criminals by Stöj Snak, is a cool track to listen to even if it does seem at odds with the quiet nature of the game. The voice actor for the Inventor lacks warmth but that minor flaw is nothing compared to the irritation that is Snail, even the Inventor doesn’t seem to like he/she/it much.
Overall
Chronology is a sweet little thing that never realises its potential. The Miyazaki influence is evident in the artwork if not the quality of the characters and story, leaving it up to the gameplay to sell the title. The time freeze and time travel mechanics allow for some creative and tricky puzzles, but unfortunately the experience is cut short just as the they begin to pose a challenge. There is no reason to play the game again, and whilst it is a pleasant experience there are a lot of titles out there that provide more bang for your buck.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Icon Home Entertainment will be bringing the disaster epic Pompeii, starring Game of Thrones star Kit Harington, to 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital on July 23.
Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (the Resident Evil series), Pompeii is set in 79 A.D. and tells the tale of slave-turned-gladiator Milo (Harington), whose quest to save his love Cassia (Emily Browning) from being married off to the ruthless Senator Corvus (Keifer Sutherland) is hastened by the great city’s impending destruction. The infamous eruption of Mount Vesuvius is realised with stunning 3D visual effects, and with a cast rounded out by Carrie-Anne Moss, Jared Harris, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Jessica Lucas, Pompeiimay just be the popcorn flick to enjoy at home.
If you’re an avid anime watcher and you’ve been following the latest season of series’ you’ll be aware of one called “Hitsugi No Chaika” which is also known as “Chaika The Coffin Princess“. Well “Hitsugi No Chaika” is only six episodes in at this point in time and we’ve just gotten word from the series’ official website that a second season has just been confirmed to begin airing in October of this year.
The year is 1604. On the continent of Verbist, an age of war lasting for three generations finally ended with the fall of the northern nation, the Gaz Empire. In addition to legitimate knights and soldiers, the militant forces sent to battle included wizards, saboteurs, and mercenaries, totaling 620,000. What’s more, three airborne strongholds and massive numbers of magical weapons plus beast and dragon cavalries were added to the ranks, ending in the annihilation of the Gaz Empire, which had been deemed “the root of all evil.” – Crunchyroll’s Official Synopsis
This is great news for the show and its fans! Ichiro Sasaki – who is actually the author of the original light novel to which the anime is based on- mentioned a while back that the plan for the series was always to have it separated into seasons rather than have it as just one long series. “Crunchyroll” has been streaming the new anime ever since it first aired in Japan and will continue to stream it until it is finished so you can head over there now to check it out (click here).
The world as it is now is already a crazy and scary place for its inhabitants but just try to imagine, try to theorise or speculate about the different turns humanity could take with the introduction of a sub-supernatural, deathly powerful and highly unstable set of abilities obtainable by any and all human beings. Life as we know it would change drastically, would it not? “From The New World” is an anime series based off of an award-winning Japanese novel by the same name written by an author called Yusuke Kishi.
The series looks into a seemingly utopian future filled with flawless rules, teachings, beliefs and people but it’s always good to remember that perfection comes at a high price. The past has been sealed away and nothing but secrets, lies and dangers lurk under the misty veil of a dark shadow. This is “From The New World” and thanks to “Hanabee” I’ve been given the chance to review part one of the series, so follow me as we delve deeper into what looks to be one extremely intellectual piece of speculative fiction.
Story
Saki Watanabe is a young girl living in a time that sits a thousand years ahead of where we are now. The world has changed, developed, evolved and become quite a different place…almost a scary place. Taking place in Japan, “From The New World” follows the lives of Saki and her small group of friends as they grow into a state of dangerous curiosity regarding the world they now live in. The people of this “new world” all have the potential to become great psychics. They’re trained from a young age to harness their neural abilities, schools have changed to focus on the development of psychic powers and, along with that, so have the lives of the people.
Citizens of the “new world” seem to be quite happy with the way they’re “encouraged” to live their lives now, though they exist a thousand years into the future (from where we are now) it looks as though their newly-discovered powers have rendered higher technologies redundant shifting the modern style of living way back to that of the traditional style. After wandering off from a class excursion one day, Saki and her friends come into contact with a demon-like creature, on in which they’ve only heard of in stories and legends but this “thing” is nothing close to being a demon…it’s something very different, something they never expected and something that will change their lives forever.
Now understanding the truth of their existence, the children are thrown into a life of disaster and disarray the likes of which they would have never seen coming. Not knowing anything about this series before it actually showed up on my doorstep to review you can imagine how shocked I was when I began watching it and it proved to be quite a well-written and highly intelligent piece of anime brilliance. While the dialogue didn’t entirely live up to the way the actual story was written I still found the series to be quite intriguing.
Within the span of thirteen episodes (the entirety of the “part one” release) the series managed to change itself in a countless number of positive ways. The thirteen episodes are made up of small but interesting arcs all of which are pivotal points of the series. With each step forward in the storyline came a slight change in vibe that eventually lead to a climactic huge step forward into more strange but wonderful events. There is clearly a great deal of backstory that comes along with the series, it forced me into an speculative state wherein which I set there contemplating the world of the series trying my best to figure out the intricacies of it. Not a lot of series’ can do something like that to me.
Visuals
The one thing that stuck out the most about “From The New World” was the artistic style. The animation was great throughout the whole thirteen episodes obviously dipping in quality here and there but it truly was the artistic style that had me hooked. It is almost like the series has a misty filter over the top of every scene because it has a constant look of whimsicality almost like it came straight out of a storybook. I don’t believe it was simply a “misty filter” that made the series look the way it did. The overall design for the series looked sensitive, tender, even rippable like paper, which worked perfectly to mirror the mental states of the characters and, in fact, the world they lived in.
It may seem as though I’m looking far too deep into this but actually watching the series will prove to you that I’m not simply being far too descriptive. It’s more than that. For the most part the animation quality of the series was impressive with dialogue-only scenes seeing a minor dip in quality. It’s only small and can be overlooked but it’s still quite obvious. There were certain scenes throughout that made quite an impression on me with one of them being a huge change in artistic style going from soft and fluid in motion to being gritty and rough but brilliantly sequenced to make an impact. Unfortunately I was only given this series to review on DVD which I suggest be taken as a positive remark seeing as I would have preferred to have seen it on Blu-Ray so that I could appreciate the visual quality of the series a great deal more. Still though, even on standard DVD this series does make a good impression.
Audio
This is probably the only aspect of the series that I didn’t particularly enjoy. While the music is absolutely brilliant and the soundtrack does a good job at bringing gravitas to certain scenes, it was the voice acting that really brings the series down a few pegs. There is only a few voice actors and actresses that do a great job in “From The New World” while the others only serve to annoy and infuriate. Greg Ayres provides the voice for one of the young men of the main group (Satoru Asahina) and despite the fact that he is an accomplished and talented voice actor plays one of the most infuriating character types of all time; the know-it-all, bratty and overly confident troublemaker.
I’m not entirely sure whether or not the character he played was written with the intention of being annoying but that’s exactly how he came across, luckily for the series it had a few voice actors here and there that provided realistic voices to these characters, most notably Emily Neves who is the voice of the main character Saki. There were clear ups and downs when it come to the voice cast for “From The New World” but, as usual, it was also watchable in the original Japanese dub which features renowned voice actors like Yuki Kaji. The soundtrack was done extremely well and featured several different genres all mixed together to provide the proper energy the series needed to thrive.
Extras
“From The New World” part one came with no noteworthy extras but featured the usual Japanese promotional videos and clean opening/closing sequences.
Overall
Simply put; I had an absolutely wonderful time watching the first part of this series. It was full of substance, it was though provoking, it was interesting and it was brilliantly produced. This is the way anime should be! While the characters come off as annoying and one dimensional you soon see that they actually develop and change which, in turn, inadvertently keeps you watching so you can not only see the evolution of the story but these characters too.
I pray that more intellectual anime series’ like this continue to be developed and published because I really cannot get enough of it. This is the type of anime that gets an audience thinking so be aware of that before jumping into the series. It’s definitely not for those out there that are looking for all out action or full frontal fan service, “From The New World” is for the thinking anime audience so why don’t you think about going to buy it now?
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
