Double Fine regains Costume Quest & Stacking publishing rights, partners with Nordic Games for retail release
Psychonauts, Stacking, Costume Quest to see retail release in North America and Europe in first half of 2014
San Francisco, CA and Vienna, Austria — November 26th, 2013— Double Fine Productions and Nordic Games have announced that Double Fine has reacquired all the publishing and distribution rights to its games Costume Quest and Stacking. Additionally, Double Fine has decided to partner with Nordic Games to bring retail release of Psychonauts, Costume Quest, and Stacking for Windows and Mac in North America and Europe during the first half of 2014.
“I am pleased that we have regained full control over Costume Quest and Stacking, following a daring and top-secret midnight raid on the Nordic Games headquarters in Vienna,” said Double Fine president and CEO Tim Schafer.
“We can’t wait to partner with Double Fine for this upcoming retail launch of three of its most excellent games,” said Lars Wingefors, owner and CEO of Nordic Games. “However, I feel compelled to point out that we were happy to transfer distribution rights for Costume Quest and Stacking back to Double Fine in an entirely non-secretive and heist-free manner.”
Nordic Games previously acquired the distribution rights to Stacking and Costume Quest upon the bankruptcy of former publisher THQ in early 2013.
“Double Fine is dedicated to controlling its own IP, and we will continue working to bring all associated rights back in-house whenever possible,” said Double Fine business development VP Justin Bailey, “no matter how many split-second security system hacks or painstaking tunneling operations we have to execute.”
“I just want to clarify, again, that we support the right of independent developers to control their own distribution, and we were pleased to have the opportunity to work with Double Fine,” said Klemens Kreuzer, Managing Director at Nordic Games. “No heists.”
Psychonauts was originally released at retail in 2005, but for years has been available only through digital distribution. The upcoming retail launch will mark the first time Costume Quest and Stacking have been available as physical releases.
END OF RELEASE
About Nordic Games GmbH
Nordic Games GmbH is a wholly owned publishing subsidiary of the Nordic Games Group AB. Founded in 2011, the Vienna/Austria based company Nordic Games GmbH puts great emphasis on its extensive game catalogue. The core portfolio comprises products and brands which have recently been acquired from JoWooD Entertainment AG, DreamCatcher Interactive Inc., THQ Inc., Atari SAS, and further IPs and trademarks will follow.
The company will pursue the long-term goal of delivering quality products that live up to expectations of gamers worldwide. For more information, please visit www.nordicgames.at.
About Double Fine Productions
Double Fine Productions is a San Francisco-based game developer that makes games with a focus on creativity, characters, and fun. Since its founding in 2000, it has produced the award-winning titles Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, Costume Quest, Stacking, Iron Brigade, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, Kinect Party, Middle Manager of Justice, Dropchord, and The Cave. Learn more about Double Fine at www.doublefine.com.
Overview
Chillingo are no strangers to bringing out unique games that few others would be reticent to touch. Now, Damp Gnat has brought out the sequel to Icycle, a puzzle platformer that has you cycling (literally, on a bicycle) through environments, simply trying to survive. How does the sequel, Icycle: On Thin Ice, hold up? Will you lose yourself in time playing it or should it have stayed in cryostasis?
Story
The world has ended. For all intents and purposes, the world we once knew is now no more. Dennis has survived, deep asleep in his cryogenic chamber. How did he get here? Where is everyone else? Where are his clothes? He’s awoken to an ice age, naked as his name day, and the only other thing available to him is a children’s bicycle. After a brief daydream, he sets out to explore and see what he can find in this forsaken world.
Gameplay Icycle: On Thin Ice is a puzzle platformer. You’ll controller Dennis as he rides his bicycle across the frozen landscape with nothing to aid him but an umbrella he found to slow his fall.
The controls are incredibly straightforward. You can move left or right and jump. In midair you can press and hold the jump button again to deploy your umbrella. That’s pretty much it. In terms of control, it feels mildly reminiscent of a Super Mario game.
Unlike Mario and his adventures, there are no enemies or powerups in Icycle: On Thin Ice. Literally everything has been destroyed. The only things you’ll have to worry about now are environmental hazards that stand in your way as you work to your next objective. Jagged icicles, heavy falling objects, ice flows that push you ever faster through increasingly tight spaces, and more stand to keep you from progressing. No goombas here, but Icycle is better for it.
The level design is fantastic. There are 20 levels to work through and each offers something unique. Nearly every level has a dynamic aspect to it that keeps you on your toes. The screen can change wildly in front of you, keeping the platforming interesting without ever feeling overbearing. It’s one of the game’s strongest elements. The levels also have multiple objectives, so there’s a significant bit of replay value in each level.
The game has a currency system, believe it or not. Dennis can collect ice blocks as he traverses the levels. These can be used between levels to buy various knick knacks and upgrades. Clothes are included in this (funny hats, shirts, and boots), but oddly enough, he’s never able to find pants. You can also upgrade your bicycle, umbrella, and even get a vacuum to help collect more ice blocks.
As with virtually every Chillingo game, there’s a pay element players can choose to use. You can purchase a huge bulk of ice blocks using real money. Even after playing through the entire game, though, I can confidently say it’s never really needed. You may want to circumvent the time it takes to earn everything, and that’s fine, but you never feel forced to spend money to progress.
Visuals & Audio Icycle: On Thin Ice has a wonderfully unique visual style to it. The colors are bright and vibrant, conveying a sense of whimsy amidst total desolation. The animation is slick and fluid, even on older hardware. There are some small, detailed animations you could miss on occasion, but seeing them adds a great sense of flourish and engrossment into the world.
The audio design in the game is fairly minimalistic, but it serves to feed the sense that you are alone in the world. There’s a total lack of music outside of the intro, but it’s in favor of the sound effects, which really convey the world well. The constant squeaking of the bicycle, the howling winds, and Dennis’s bewildered cries do a wonderful job of providing an audio landscape of a frozen apocalyptic landscape.
Overall
Overall, Icycle: On Thin Ice is a fun experience that’s well put together. The visuals are fun and vibrant and the sound design does an excellent job conveying Dennis’s plight. The controls are simple and responsive, the level design is interesting and fun, and the unlockables are amusing. Icycle: On Thin Ice is an amusing, engaging ride through the end of the world that anyone can enjoy.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Spelling Counts – Over 150 spells to add to your tome, allowing command over powerful enchantments, nasty hexes, and elemental forces
A Crass Menagerie – Hundreds of different mythical and magical beasts to deploy on the battlefield with distinct tactical uses, from giant rats and dwarven prospectors to werewolves with hats on them
Friendship is Magic – A multi-player experience as robust as the single-player experience, including PvP, Co-op PvE, and every combination in between
Warlock 2: The Playstyles – Fight your way through the shards to reclaim Ardania in new ‘Exile’ mode or dispatch opponents the old-fashioned way in ‘Sandbox’ mode.
Coming to PC in Spring of 2014, Warlock II‘s magical fantasy wargame gameplay can be seen in the first few screenshots featured in the gallery below. For more information, you can check out their official website here.
Thanks to Rockstar Games, GTA fans are being taken back to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas this December on their iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle and Windows Phone devices.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be making a classy entrance, with newly remastered graphics; dynamic and detailed shadows, greater draw distance, enriched colour palette, and enhanced character and car models. The updated version will encompass Los Santos, San Fierro, Las Venturas and everything in between for gamers to relive Grand Theft Auto history.
In terms of mobile gameplay, there will be brand new touch controls; contextual control options to display buttons only when needed and three different control schemes for driving and manoeuvring, as well as a reworked checkpoint system for easier progression.
With the overwhelming success of Rockstar’s latest Grand Theft Auto V, players can expect to see changes across GTA games; including the rebuilding of the original grand theft auto in 3D.
Stay tuned with Capsule Computers for more updates regarding the release of San Andreas next month!
Today, the upcoming free-to-play MOBA, Infinite Crisis, had another hero added to its ever-growing roster of characters from the DC Multiverse. That hero is none other than a really rather obscure character called ‘Mecha Wonder Woman’, a robot used for diplomatic purposes by Wonder Woman’s mother, Queen Hippolyta, the leader of the Amazon people.
Her character skills are as follows:
Implacable Judgement – Each basic attack places one stack of Judgement on an enemy. At three stacks of Judgement, they are consumed and the enemy takes bonus power damage. Glaive Storm– Launch a wide spread of chakram that deal attack damage to the first enemy hit, applying one stack of Implacable Judgement. Afterburn – Dash to a target location, leaving a trail of scorched earth that deals power damage to those who touch it. Celerity– A powerful attack speed boost. Place three stacks of Implacable Judgement on an enemy to increase its duration. Tempest – Mecha Wonder Woman blasts enemies with a cone for 2 seconds, dealing attack damage per second that scales with power and attack damage
Judging by these abilities and the fact that Mecha Wonder Woman seems to have some of the highest attack and lowest health in the game, it is fair to say that she will almost certainly be played as a glass cannon nuker. Usage of her Afterburn ability and a good team backing you up will be key to success with this hero since she can be easily picked off if found out of position. If you manage to keep her alive long enough for her to get some stacks of Implacable Judgement on a hero though, she could be a deadly and valuable asset in any team fight. Make sure to check out the video below to see Mecha Wonder Woman in action and to learn a little more about this awesome new hero.
Infinite Crisis is currently being developed by Turbine Inc, the developers of D&D Online and Lord of the Rings Online. It will be published by Warner Bros at an undisclosed date on the PC platform.
After successfully making its way to PC and Mac devices earlier this year, Games Workshop’s 1989 Warhammer 40k board game, Space Hulk is finally making its way to Apple iPad. The 3d, turn-based strategy game developed by Full Control aims to recreate the classic board game experience for both single and multiplayer.
Set in the isolated corridors and tomb-like chambers of an ancient vessel, players will control a squad of fearless Space Marine Terminators in a battle for survival through a robust 12-mission single player campaign. The campaign is based on the classic “Sin of Damnation,” from the 3rd edition of the board game. Not only that, but there is cross-platform play between all three versions of the game, so you and your friends can battle it out no matter where you are.
Space Hulk will be hitting the App Store on December 5th for 9.99. Will you be downloading this one, or do you have a physical copy of the game sitting on a shelf somewhere? Let us know in the comments below and as always, stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Space Hulk news as it becomes available.
InnoGames presents New Animated Trailer for Forge of Empires
Hamburg, November 26, 2013. InnoGames just launched a new marketing campaign for its strategic browser game Forge of Empires. The campaign features a fresh high-quality trailer with vibrant 3D characters and a storyline ascending through the ages of time. The campaign comes shortly before the launch of the game’s iPad version and in the midst of the holiday season. The spot will be released on major television channels around the globe; Thus far, InnoGames has plans to run the spot in ten languages, including English, German, French, Portuguese and Italian.
Forge of Empires is a browser-based strategy game in which players, tasked with leading a city to prosperity, can research new technologies, build impressive historical buildings and enlarge their sphere of influence through military campaigns and skillful dealing. The game has recently been awarded the title of “Best Browser Game 2013” at the German Computer Game Award (Deutscher Computerspielpreis). Besides the browser version, a full app for iOS and Android devices is coming soon. Forge of Empires reached more than 10 million registered users and is playable in 23 languages.
With about 110 million registered players, InnoGames is one of the world’s leading developers and providers of online games. Currently, the Hamburg-based company employs 280 professionals from more than 20 nations. InnoGames has scored major success with games such as Tribal Wars, Grepolis and Forge of Empires.
Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning Developer:Marvelous AQL Publisher: Marvelous AQL Platform:Nintendo 3DS Release Date:September 19, 2013 Price:$30.00 – Available Here
Overview
It is the 15th anniversary of the Harvest Moon series of games and with it comes a release that boasts that it will be a new beginning for Harvest Moon, a series that has been defined by its simple and almost completely unchanged formula. What we have here isn’t exactly a new beginning for the series, but it is a step in a new direction. The thing is, Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning really just takes its time in taking that much need step forward. But if you are patient enough, you’ll watch this game grow into something truly special.
Gameplay
The core formula at the heart of the Harvest Moon franchise is one that has been largely unaltered since the series inception. With Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning that formula remains in tact for the most part. The difference here however is that the tried and true formula is expanded upon in subtle yet important ways that take the series forward in a way that feels natural and satisfying.
Starting off slow the game forces you through a hard slog of a tutorial followed by in-game weeks of menial tasks with very little in the way of actual progression. The early parts of the game feel painfully slow at times due to being text heavy and gameplay light. Thankfully after that difficult slog passes things begin to move forward and more options become available to you, bringing out the real Harvest Moon charm rewarding players for the slow start.
Once things kick into gear you’ll be tending to crops and your animals like a true Harvest Moon veteran. The game like previous installments of course focuses on building up your farm, which requires daily attention and tending to. In the beginning this can be done a little too quickly but soon enough it becomes quite a hefty task once your farm expands exponentially.
Interestingly enough, Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning isn’t simply about building up your farm, but it also focuses on building up your town. As you progress your farm, more customization and farming options will open up to you, as you implement these features more and more people will return to your town and it will once again become a prosperous town like it once was.
It is in the journey of rebuilding the farm and town that you see where Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning takes a step in a new direction. While previous games focus almost exclusively on expanding your farm and ultimately finding a wife, Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning brings exploration into the forefront, giving new locations for the player to discover and gain resources from. It adds some extra layers to the gameplay that makes for some great fun. However what really makes Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning so special is the way in which it rewards players for there tiresome efforts. The more effort you put into your farm, the more you are rewarded with customization options and other abilities along the way.
The game does struggle a little in the story department, but that has never exactly been Harvest Moon’s strongest or even most important facet. The plot is simple at best and serves the purpose of setting up the game quite well, but it is nothing Harvest Moon fans haven’t seen before.
What Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning ultimately brings to the table isn’t change or a new beginning, but a nice improvement upon the basic formula that has echoed throughout each and every Harvest Moon game to date. It isn’t a leap forward into new horizons but this is a nice solid step into some expanded territory for the series and in that regard it is a success.
Visuals and Audio
The graphics for Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning are vibrant and brimming with life but at times ring a little hollow with some of the charm of previous installments being lost in this Nintendo 3DS exclusive. Some textures are simply flat with no sense of depth, which is an odd contrast given the consoles 3D feature. The palette can lean a little to much to the brighter side of the spectrum at times leaving some portions of the visuals with a plastic vibe that feels somewhat artificial. It is a mixed experience aesthetically, but still a decent first go round making it specifically for the 3DS.
As for the score, it is as fluffy as you’d expect from Harvest Moon and at times quite quaint. The musical composition are well conceived all around with some memorable tracks to boot. For the most part the soundtrack amplifies the gameplay by giving it a playful child-like wonder and an atmosphere of glee that fits Harvest Moon just right.
Overall
What Marvelous AQL have done with Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning is not exactly revolutionary but it is a pleasant enough game that builds upon the series’s successful formula in logical ways opening up the series to some new ideas. Fans of the Harvest Moon series will no doubt find themselves rekindling their love affair with the series once more with Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning. It is without a doubt the natural progression for this series which has been defined by its insistence on staying the same.
It should be said that this is easily the biggest and best Harvest Moon title to date. It has everything you’d expect from a Harvest Moon game and even more to boot. Whether it is farming crops, tending to your silly little animals or wooing a lovely lady, Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning is the definitive Harvest Moon experience. This isn’t really a new beginning for the series so much as it is the pinacle of it. Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning is Harvest Moon at its very best. Well what are you waiting for? A new moon is rising and its time for a brand new harvest.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Today Viz Media has announced that fans of Pokémon can expect the next movie, Pokémon The Movie: Genesect And The Legend Awakened to be released in North America on December 3rd. The release will be on DVD only and will cost $19.97 and it will also include a special Pokémon trading card in every print while supplies last. The manga adaptation for the movie will also be released on the same date and will cost only $9.99.
Pokémon The Movie: Genesect And The Legend Awakened follows Ash, Pikachu, and their friends as they have to rescue a city’s power grid after a group of Genesect start to make their nest there. To make things worse, Mewtwo appears and the leader of the Genesect takes issue with its presence. We recently reviewed the English cinematic version of the movie and that review can be found here.
Zetman: The Complete Series Studio:TMS Entertainment Publisher:Viz Media Format:Blu-ray, DVD (Reviewed) Release Date:November 5, 2013 Price: $44.98 – Available Here
Overview A number of the most popular anime series have been adaptations of manga series and while many of them are the result of the immense popularity of Weekly Shōnen Jump. There is a problem with adapting a manga to an anime however, the pacing. The Zetman manga has been running weekly since 2002 and featured 17 volumes by the time its anime adaptation was created. With such massive amount of material to try and cover and only thirteen episodes to work with, does Zetman manage to tell an impressive story with its limited length?
Story Almost everyone has wanted to be a superhero at one time in their life. Whether it is to protect people close to them, save the innocent, defeat criminals, or simply have a superpower of some kind, superheroes are often shown as being true and just, with no faults. However the real world is far from simple and the minds of men with too much money and no moral compass can create nightmares.
In a modern-day version of Japan with enhanced technology, an organization once manufactured human/animal hybrids called ‘Players’ to fight against one another in an underground arena where people of power could gamble away their money while the creatures tore each other apart. One day however, the Players manage to escape from their restraints and brutally slaughter every member in attendance and nearly the entirety of the staff that manufactured them.
Only a few people lived through this disaster, one of which happened to be the head scientist that manages to steal a child away from the organization. In an effort to give this child a normal life, the boy is raised as Jin Kanzaki, a normal human child except for raised circle on his left hand. Except for living the life of a homeless person, Jin protects those around him and helps those in trouble while also being friends with a rich brother and sister named Kouga and Konaha.
After disaster strikes and tears away the only person in Jin’s life, it is revealed that he possesses a great power that makes him the perfect weapon to defeat the Players, even if it means that he must leave the normal life of being a human behind. After numerous time skips, we find that although many Players are content with living amongst the humans, a rogue element has begun to organize, leaving Jin and Kouga, now gifted with a suit that grants him the power needed to fight the Players, to put an end to their plans.
Now, it is very obvious from the beginning that Zetman is rushing things as numerous developments come at the viewer at full-speed with little time to recover. Surprisingly though, despite the blistering pace that the story moves at and the numerous time-skips, the main story comes together in a hap-hazard way that requires the viewer to pay full attention to the series or a crucial detail could easily slip past, since a number of small but important pieces of information are dropped so quickly that you can blink and miss them.
There is an issue as far as character development goes. While Jin and Kouga are given proper time to develop, as they are the key players in this story, all of the side-characters in the series are given little explanation or even fleshed out. There are numerous times that a character, often Hanako or Konaha, will act in a certain manner towards Jin that is simply out of place considering there has been no build up as to why they should act that way until later in the series.
Where the story really shines in Zetman is the contrast between Jin and Kouga and watching them learn what their own sense of justice is. Jin has always lived a hard life with everyone taken away from him and with his powers he may vow that no one close to him will ever be hurt again and he will go to any method to put a stop to those trying to harm people. On the other hand, we have Kouga, a rich boy who has idolized superheroes since a young age and wants to believe in justice above everything else. Where Jin’s hard life and connection to the Players drives his development, Kouga is tested and tried throughout the series as his sense of justice is called into question numerous times as he must make life and death decisions, where other lives are hanging in the balance.
Thanks to some intense fights there is plenty of action to be had, but as mentioned before thanks to the rushed storyline, while it might come together partially, each development that occurs in Zetman feels like it has been cut and shortened simply to accommodate the short run time. That being said, Zetman: The Complete Series does manage to offer a solid ending, though viewers may feel like the ending is a bit too familiar to a certain western film that was released a few years ago at this point.
Visuals While there are some issues with consistency during a few fight scenes, Zetman feature some rather incredible looking character designs and even better looking fight sequences. A lot of attention to detail has been given to the way that each character’s facial expressions and the monstrous Players that have to be defeated are quite a sight.
It is worth noting that Zetman is a rather bloody series and although the first episode does feature a minor bit of censorship, the series is uncensored meaning that there is plenty of blood being spilt here but nothing that really pushes the bar. There is also mild nudity but it mostly circumstantial and isn’t played off as a standard stereotype.
Audio With Zetman, Viz has provided both the original Japanese voice track as well as their own English dub of the series. The original cast does a great job handling the characters but the English voice actors also pull the series together well enough that viewers could easily go either way on this series depending on the viewer’s preference.
As far as the series’ soundtrack goes, the fight scenes feature some decent background music but most of the dramatic or dark moments are only given weight thanks to the animation techniques as the music is largely forgettable here. The opening theme for the series is “Dots and Lines” by You Hitoto featuring Mummy-D which works well with the series and is a great opener while “Tomeru,” also by You Hitoto, is a generic ending theme.
Extras The bonus features for Zetman: The Complete Series are a bit sparse, with a clean opening and ending theme being the standard inclusions and a four and a half minute interview with the series creator Masakazu Katsura at New York Comic-Con padding out the bonus content. The interview is worth checking out as Masakazu mentions a few differences between the manga and the anime.
Overall Zetman: The Complete Series is something that in the end, only feels like a complete series thanks to a decent enough ending on the final episode. It is clear throughout the series that there are pieces of the story cut away to fit into the episode limit and while Jin and Kouga are developed well enough to accompany the story, it doesn’t make up for the rushed pacing. There are still plenty of twists and turns to be had though and plenty of action in this dark super-hero series that takes a closer look at what it means to be a hero.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
