It’s that timeless battle: Robot vs Penguin People
The official site for the upcoming anime Daimidaler the Sound Robot (Kenzen Robo Daimidaler) has begun streaming its first promotional video. The series itself is an adaptation of Asaki Nakama’s manga of the same name and centres around the titular robotic weapons engaged in a battle for humanity.
The comedy centers around a high school boy named Kōichi Madanbashi who has Hi-ERo particles, the power source to operate the robotic weapon Daimidaler. With the help of Kyōko Sonan from the mysterious Prince Beauty Parlor organization, he stands up against the Penguin Empire that troubles humanity.
Director: Tetsuya Yanagisawa (Destiny of the Shrine Maiden/Shattered Angels) Script Writer: Takao Yoshioka (Senran Kagura/Elfen Lied) Character Design: Junji Goto (School Days) Production Company: GENCO Studio:TNK
With the staff of Highschool DxD back together, Daimidaler will certainly prove to be an interesting series…to say the least. Check out the video below and witness the great power of one heck of a secret weapon. Hint: It’s the robot.
simian.interface is a puzzle game developed by VestedInterest, and published by Chillingo, that draws its inspirations from modern art and cognitive psychological experiments. Originally made available for free last year as a browser-based title, simian.interface now makes its way onto iOS devices at a price point that is as minimal as its art design. It’s important to consider – before complaining that it isn’t free much like its computer version – that players could also pay what they want, starting at a minimum of $1.99, to download the game for PC/Mac (getting the soundtrack as a bonus). That being said, is it then worth investing any interest in simian.interfacefor mobile, especially for those who’ve already played through it on their home computer?
Gameplay
simian.interface couldn’t be any simpler to grasp. There are two methods of interaction available to the player: touch and tilt. Touch controls allow you to touch and drag at any point on the screen to rotate the play-space, but you’ll want to take advantage of your iOS device’s gyroscopic capabilities and play by tilting. It at least adds a simulated layer of difficulty to an otherwise easy game. The first three stages are in fact trials to help you get acquainted with the game. Identified as //mod_a through //mod_c, the puzzles therein are appropriately straightforward, mostly consisting of “get that box into that outline” scenarios. Once you graduate, you’ll be able to tackle //main, //dir and //sys. Each consist of 7 levels, much like the trials…
However, now they get a little trickier. Just a little. Soon you are required to rotate objects, complete more complex patterns and combine coloured cubes. In regards to the latter, this is necessary because the combination transforms the duo or trio (in most cases) into one white cube, which is the prerequisite for moving on. Blasting through the stages will only take you 20-35 minutes, but there are secrets hidden on one level from each. Once you discover them all, a final selection of bonus levels will reveal itself. Here, there are moving obstacles that create a fail state when touched, which is a nice element. If only this kind of creative addition wasn’t so infrequent. I am also disappointed that there are no additional levels since the original PC release in 2013, although the ability to add some is there with app updates (hopefully).
Visuals & Audio
VestedInterest did a stellar job of communicating that sense of being part of a sterile, experimental machine; embodying a poor lab-monkey who simply wants its next banana (or dopamine hit). The command line syntax that you would see and use in computer directories and the like goes a long way in achieving this. When it comes to the puzzles themselves, the minimalistic visuals remind of the spatial and cognitive psych experiments the developers were inspired by extremely well, while the use of colour makes it feel like a moving work of art. Unfortunately, those who are colour blind will not be able to enjoy this game to the fullest, or even pass certain levels. Oh and to continue a popular fad/meme of sorts, there is a cat virus that manifests in intermittent cat images. Random to say the least.
The music in simian.interface is written and performed by Note! – a popular artist amongst chiptune enthusiasts. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a massive influx of retro homages coming to market. It seems what was old is new again, as the trend continues to entice people beyond the initial nostalgic appeal. Familiar blips mark each line of square text as they pop up on the screen, and the chiptune music picks up in pace drastically once you make it out of the main theme that plays throughout the menu and trial levels. It’s a good example track for how chiptune music actually influenced modern electronica/dance. Ah, those good old synthesized drones and “drums”… they absolutelydo sound like drums, zip it!
Overall
simian.interfaceis a deserving IndieCade 2013 Finalist for its originality in art design and overall approach to representing the puzzle genre. However, all things considered, the experience is quite short and simple any way you slice it. And with this iOS port being months in the making, it is quite disappointing to see a lack of additions to the package beyond the obligatory touch and tilt control options. I am hoping the team is considering adding new levels in future updates, preferably some that are significantly more challenging, maybe reminiscent of the nature of the bonus levels. simian.interfacecouldn’t be fairly priced at any amount higher than $0.99, being a great mental exercise that will occupy up to an hour of your time, if you struggle to discover its secrets, that is.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
It has been revealed by Respawn Entertainment boss Vince Zampella on Twitter that the max player count for Titanfall will be six versus six. While some people have already begun complaining about the limited size of the online matches, Zampella went on to say that the limit was applied to help balance the game.
@MrClutch514@Respawn 6v6 is max player count. Turned out to be the best balance with ai for us.
He explained further saying that this twelve player limit only counts for human players as there will be numerous AIs running around the battlefield for both teams and each player can also bring forth a titan that they can pilot themselves, or set to follow them or guard an area. EA is currently planning on releasing Titanfall on March 11th for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC.
DayZ, the standalone zombie survival horror game from developer Bohemia Interactive, has already sold nearly 875,000 copies in Early Access on Steam. At $30, that’s quite a cash advance. It’s safe to say the ArmA II-mod-turned-full-game is highly anticipated. Development of the game still appears to have a long way to go, though.
The development team said in a recent dev blog that players should, “Please keep in mind that we do not expect to reach Beta status sooner than the end of 2014.” Over the course of the year, the team plans to work on server performance, stability, and security, along with gathering, crafting, and more complex interactions in the world.
With such an ambitious project, it’s probably no surprise to hear the game will remain in alpha for much of the year. Fans are probably still no less disappointed.
Adding yet another notch to Bones‘ belt is the upcoming anime series entitled Captain Earth. The series reunites director Takuya Igarashi and writer Yoji Enokido for yet another mecha series, following their collaboration on Star Driver.
The story begins when second-year high school student Daichi Manatsu suddenly spies a mysterious circular rainbow floating in the skies over Tanegashima island on television, on the evening before summer vacation begins. “I’ve seen that rainbow before…” Moved by intense foreboding, he heads to Tanegashima, the home of Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center, by himself. The mystery of his father’s accidental death. Memories of mysterious boys and girls he met during childhood. Daichi arrives at the island full of complex emotions, and as alarms sound at the center, he encounters the robot “Earth Engine.” Daichi is asked, “Are you the Captain?” The target is the mysterious all-mechanical lifeform “Kirutogangu” that is invading from Uranus. Now, when the stars in the skies are ablaze, the curtains open on their battle….
Director: Takuya Igarashi Assistant Director: Yoshiyuki Asai Series Composition: Yoji Enokido Original Character Design: Fumi Minato Character Design/Chief Animation Director: Satoshi Ishino Engine Series Design/Main Design Works: Shigeto Koyama Machine Good Fellow Design/Mechanical Design: Takayuki Yanase Mechanical Design: Shinji Aramaki, Takeshi Takakura Quilt Gang Design: Masaki Asai, Takeshi Yoshioka Concept Design: okama Graphic Design: Tsuyoshi Kusano Design Works: Masatsugu Saito Effects Director: Yasushi Muraki Art Director: Masaru Yanaka, Koji Eto Art Design: Takeshi Takahashi Music: MONACA/Satoru Kosaki Animation Production: BONES
Captain Earth is set to air in April, so there’s not to much longer to wait. To tide you over, check out the trailer below and prepare for some truly out of this world action. Go Earth!
The sequel to the 16-bit RPGAcross Age will be released on iTunes on January 16th, 2014. Across Age 2: Of Past, Present, And Future continues the series’ tradition of retro style 16-bit JRPGs. The game features four playable characters, a J-Rock soundtrack, and anime style cutscenes. The game supports the new iOS 7 controllers along with the traditional touch screen controls.
Across Age 2 follows a girl who has come from the future with a secret that risks the entire fabric of time. Players will travel to the past, present, and the future to repair the damage and save the world. The game will see separate releases for iPhone and iPad, with the former costing $3.99 and the iPad version costing $4.99.
Midnight City, the indie division of Majesco, is bringing two new indie titles to PC via Steam and porting one to consoles. Krautscape is a new racing game that fulfills the dream of countless of engineers everywhere, flying cars. Players will race through courses while balancing driving on the speed building pavement and flying through the air to avoid obstacles. Although the air may bring special power ups, driving on the ground is the only way to generate the much needed points. To make things even more complicated, the lead driver creates the track as the race is progressing, turning the game into a high speed version of Simon Says.
Double Dragon: Neon is a reboot of the classic Double Dragon beat ’em up series. The game has been revamped to improve the co-op experience. Players will rely on each other to share health, execute special moves, and revive your fallen comrade. The shop is open for business, allowing players to purchase special mixtapes to create deadly attacks alone or with a partner.
Finally, Slender: The Arrival is releasing new free content and making the jump to consoles. The new content will bring new levels featuring Slender Man’s previous victims. The content will be available for all platforms. Slender: The Arrival will be released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
War is a terrible thing but the idea of war makes for an incredibly high-octane gaming experience, it is obvious that game developers know this because games like Call Of Duty and Battlefield would have never been made had war within gaming been just as terrible as war itself. Games within the action/shooter genres have become extremely popular in recent years and so has the implication of MMO-style multiplayer options, you can see why the two blend so well together and it seems as though a company has finally brought all these gaming attributes to Mobile gamers around the world, I’d like to introduce you all to “Tanktastic“, a game that brings everything gamers like to a platform that is quickly become one of the most accessible of them all.
Gameplay
“Tanktastic” is a game that puts you in charge of your very own tank, it is a third-person shooter that also somewhat doubles as a tank simulator because of it’s fairly realistic movements, aiming mechanisms and driving mechanics. You play the game much like you’d play any action/shooter titles; you use your left “thumb stick” to move, your right “thumb stick” to aim and the “fire” button to…well…fire. Look, “Tanktastic” is actually an incredibly easy game to get a grip on though it does have a fairly large learning curve that you can work through at varying degrees, it took me a couple of straight hours of gameplay to fully understand everything but it was actually worth it because now I’m somewhat formidable as a player.
Like I mentioned earlier; it is much like your typical action/shooter but with a huge twist that seems like it wont work but it really does. Playing as a tank, a slow-moving machine of death, doesn’t actually sound that awesome considering players are so used to being able to dash around a battlefield, jumping over obstacles, sliding to cover, parachuting from helicopters and so on but you’ll find that “Tankstastic” does actually give you quite a high level of excitement, it’s not just all out action, it’s more strategic and it perfectly fit the game.
The fantastic thing about “Tanktastic” is that it’s not just a basic game, many other games would give you half of what I explained above and just leave it at that but this title gives you that and much more. Alongside the polished gameplay mechanics comes the additions of a fantastic amount of different tanks for people to use and a plethora of varied upgrades that can be unlocked and purchased to help make your tank as good as it can possibly be. There’s so much to unlock in this game and the great thing is that, because there is so much, the developers have allowed the acquisition of these upgrades to be spread nicely across levels.
You level up as you play the game, each time you go up a rank you’re awarded with a bit of extra money to throw around and some new tanks to unlock so, as you can already assume, the higher-ranked players have the more powerful tanks but the good thing about this is that you can only enter games where the other players are around the same level as you so you’re somewhat on an even playing field. Personally I like the idea of a levelling system like this, it gives you more incentive to continue playing despite not being the very best as you start off the game, those who persevere through the hard beginning are rewarded with some awesome playing skills by the end.
There are so many upgrades and customisable items for the tanks in this game, from different camouflage to different ammunition types, it is all there but the thing I really want to talk about is the large amount of tanks that are unlockable in the game, I know I spoke about it just before but I really would like to mention this: There IS a reason to try and unlock tanks, not only are most stronger than the tank you start off with but they all have different specifications to help when playing in team matches.
Some tanks are lighter and faster so they can zip around a “capture the flag” match without much issue but they’re easily destroyed which means you have to have good control of it to be a good player with it, some tanks are extremely sluggish but back unfathomable power that can take down other tanks in nothing but two shots but they’re easily outrun because of just how slow they are. The point is that the developers haven’t just given you 50+ tanks, they’ve given you 50+ ways to play and, yes, some tanks do the same sort of thing but it is up to you, the player, to change and customise it to suit your playing style. I just think they’ve done a fantastic job.
This game basically has everything you would want out of a game like this, some of them don’t quite hit the mark but you appreciate them being around for the most part: It has a live chat window that you can open up in game and use to talk to your team-mates, though it is only text-based and it can get a little tedious to stop mid-game and send a message, not to mention a lot of my team-mates while playing through this game spoke different languages so the whole team chat idea quickly went down the drain. At this point in time it only has five maps which vary in size, one or two are fairly small yet you almost get lost in the others so it somewhat evens out, I feel as though you’re more paying attention to what’s going on in-game than what map you’re on but it would still be nice to have a few more options.
I really hate to say this because I actually thoroughly enjoyed the game but there were problems that occurred time and time again which continuously kicked me out of games I was in and took me back to the main menu, it’s actually a bit of a big deal when it happened to me at least one or two times per gaming session, there’s nothing worse than being midway through a game and it cuts out BUT I will give these game the “benefit of the doubt” because I played this game both before and after they massively updated the game and they did so damn will with it that I can assume the next one will fix the little things wrong with the current version and build upon it.
Visuals
The capabilities of mobile devices are actually a lot higher than what the general public assume and “Tanktastic” is a true testament to that because of it’s extremely good-looking visuals. While it isn’t anywhere near perfect, nor is it anywhere near comparable to console games I have to say that I’ve played games that didn’t look quite as good as this game does and while there are still a lot of things that look rough around the edges, it still all adds up to a great looking game. I want to focus on the environments for the moment; they look great and some are quite vast but it is the layout of the environments that I was more impressed with. Because of the games realistic tank controls, some targets are harder to hit because of small environmental obstacles like crests or dips and they’re all very strategic places.
The way the tank moves is actually very impressive, not only do you leave tracks in the dirt as you plod along but your tank also rocks back and forth when you fire a round, it’s got some impressive little details and I can overlook the need for improvements with regards to environments simply because I’m so focused on how good the tank moves. The various tanks also look great, most of them are based on actual tank models and even the ones that aren’t still look as though they could exist somewhere, plus each of them is unique enough for you to be able to pick which is which without getting confused, there isn’t a great deal of design overlap. Obviously there are a few things that need work aesthetically but they can be overlooked, for the most part.
Audio
Now I have to say; there isn’t actually a great deal of audio within this game but the audio that is in it is actually fitting. Auditorally the big thing that stood out was the sounds of the in-game tanks, they were actually fairly spot-on and, while I don’t actually have that great of a knowledge on tanks, I assume this is close to how they would sound. The noise of the caterpillar tracks, the idling of the engine, the unloading of a round and the sound of the explosion it makes when it hits an enemy, they were all fairly on-cue and it added to the realism of the title.
While that is all good and well, there was a fairly huge lack of music within the game, there was one track that plays in the main menu and apart from that there really isn’t anything else which is somewhat unfortunate but, in saying that, I feel as though players would prefer to be able to hear what was going about on the battlefield so I’m going to say the lack of music was something deliberate rather than a mistake. I know I seem to be harping on this but I can’t help but feel so impressed with the way the tanks sounded and the actual hearing-based atmosphere of the battlefield, it was great!
Overall
“Tanktastic” is a brilliant game that brings the best parts of action, shooting and MMO-style gameplay to mobile devices which is something I think bigger devices like tablets really need. I will give one little warning to all those who are interested in this game: I wouldn’t suggest you play it on small devices, to really enjoy it you need a large screen because it allows you to both see more and to play a lot easier, I tried it out on both and iPhone and an iPad, guess which one I found more enjoyable? It’s quite an addictive game that almost forces you to continue playing so as to level up and become better, unlocking different tanks and different upgrades along the way.
Don’t let the fact that it is a free game deter you from a purchase, unlike other free-to-play mobile titles, this one doesn’t constantly berate you into giving it money, it’s entirely up to you how you play the game and whether or not you use real cash which is refreshing for a mobile game. “Tanktastic” is great for those of you who would consider yourselves “military enthusiasts” yet it’s also great for those of us who just want a fun game that we can both get deep into yet put down easily when it’s time to do so. It is a fantastic game that really will not disappoint so open up your mind to “Tanktastic”!
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Amidst the numerous other titlesBones is currently working on is the little spin-off series known as Soul Eater Not! As the name so subtly implies, the series breaks of from the Soul Eater franchise, shifting the focus to another group of friends who also attend Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA).
The Atsushi Ōkubo manga follows three girls in NOT (Normally Overcome Target) track at the Death Weapon Meister Academy, as opposed to the battle-oriented EAT (Especially Advanced Talent) students of the main series. Anime studio Bones returns for the new anime.
It would also seem that a rumoured cast listing for the tritagonists of the series is also making the rounds on Japanese Twitter and blogs. The proposed cast list has Haruka Chisuga (Kotoura-san’s first ending) as Tsumugi Harudori, Saori Hayami (Valvrave‘s Akira) as Anya Hepburn and Aoi Yuki (MadokaMagica‘s Madoka) as Meme Tatane. Masakazu Hashimoto (Tari Tari) has also been listed as director.
Keep in mind that these are just rumours at this point and the full cast and crew is far from revealed. Stay tuned for a more definitive list as soon as the news hits. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer below and get ready to see how the other half live. You know, the ones who don’t have to save the world on a daily basis.
It was inevitable really. I mean, Saints Row IV continues to go above an beyond in the hopes of breaking the crazy scale and have you ever watched an anime series before? Those things are insane. Awesome, but insane. So strap yourself in and watch in awe as these two worlds combine, albeit only briefly.
Finally, the fantasy of Eastern cultural happiness can be yours! Get hair defying the elements of winds! Slice many of the people of bad with Braver Sword! Kaiju-XL makes little of foes with speed and curiosity! Also dress up clothing changes any Street of 3 Holy Man a beholding wonder!
In addition to the awesome anti-Godzilla gun and sword that totally isn’t the Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII (didn’t you see the different name?), you’ll also receive a frilly pink J-Pop style dress and hero outfit that totally isn’t taken from Cloud Strife…who are we kidding? Ah well, you know what you’re getting into when you make the decision to play Saints Row. The Anime Pack is available now on Steam for the low, low price of $2.99. Thanks Deep Silver! So check out the screenshots below and take refuge in audacity…it’s the only way you’ll stay sane in this crazy world.
