Some more details for Criminal Girls: Invitation were revealed recently. For those who don’t know, this version of the game is an enhanced version of the PSP version originally released by Nippon Ichi Software back in 2011.
The game will feature two new playable characters in the form of the purple-haired Himekami and an unknown silver haired girl. There will be a new scenario in the game that will focus on the crimes and the past of these two new girls and various other graphical upgrades have been made as well. As for the game itself, Criminal Girls: Invitation is set to be released in Japan on November 28th on the import friendly PS Vita. As for an NIS America localization… only time will tell.
PopPace, the massively multiplayer game publisher, have planned on releasing Wrath of Gods, their browser-based action RPG, along with Kingcraft Rush and Gods Rising this month.
Wrath of Gods brings players into the midst of almighty wars between Gods and Devils, and onto the “Road to Being a God”, with various dungeons, thrilling PVP Guild Wars and fierce PVE competition against highly intelligent monsters and bosses. In order to conquer the world, players must customise and enhance the power of their characters; classes ranging from Warrior, Rogue, Mage or Priest. There are different systems within the unique style of gameplay, including; Lord System, Mount and Rune System, Gem Inlaying System and VIP System.
Don’t want to miss out on the Wrath? Stay tuned with Capsule Computers for more news and updates in the days ahead for Wrath of Gods.
The game developer Rebellion has announced Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 for the PC. It will be released by the end of the year. The first game was said to be a gamble, and on its release day in February 2013 the game “made its money back”. The original Zombie Army is an FPS with four player co-op; a spin off of Sniper Elite V2.
Rebellion is also debating whether or not to release on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. With this sequel they plan to focus on and heighten the demonic, nightmarish tones of the first game. With the amount of money they made from the first game, they should be able to make a really good quality game with this sequel, and I can honestly say that I am excited for Zombie Army 2.
“Doctor Who” fans had several reason to be excited while at Atlanta, Georgia’s Dragon Con, one of the most enticing ones though would have to be the fifth doctor himself, Peter Davison. Headlining not one, but two panels himself as well as co-hosting a celebration of the last fifty years of the show with Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy, Mr. Davison shared a plethora of stories and experiences from his life as the Doctor as well as his other works.
One of the panels was particularly special because this writer not only got to attend, but they had people get up and participate in the panel to get a unique twist on the standard questions he is usually asked. He shared secrets of his craft as well as kept the room in stitches with his humor which was prevalent the entire time. He revealed some secrets from behind the scenes of his TARDIS, including that his natural humor was all but banned from his persona due to wanting a direction shift from the humor of the Fourth Doctor Tom Baker into a more serious sci-fi show as well as the fact that his role in “Spamalot” was due to one word (his talent probably didn’t hurt either). He also talked about recording some upcoming audio adventures as the Doctor and sang his praises for upcoming 12th incarnation Peter Capaldi whom he says is an amazing actor. Mr. Davison, in a bit of a surprise statement, said that he believed that American drama shows have surpassed his native country’s entries in the genre.
As a gracious guest and showman he treated all his fans, including this lucky person, with respect and his full attention no matter who was speaking with him. His musical talents were also brought to the forefront during the “50 Years of Doctor Who” panel as a surprise treat for the audience which saw him playing guitar while Sylvester McCoy played along on the spoons for a truly unique experience. Dragon Con was without a doubt a more fun place with Peter Davison there, and only helped boost excitement for the past as well as future of “Doctor Who”.
Yen Press have just released details of their English language release of the popular Watamotemanga series, which they will be releasing under the completely translated title of No Matter How I Look At It, It’s You Guys’ Fault That I’m Not Popular.
Along with the cover-art for their first volume release of Watamote, which can be seen to the right, they have given a solid release schedule for the series. Volume 1 will be released in October 2013, Volume 2 in January 2014 and rounding it up with Volume 3 in April 2014.
Stay tuned for further details on the English release of the No Matter How I Look At It, It’s You Guys’ Fault That I’m Not Popular manga as it comes to light.
Heroic Age Studio:Xebec Publisher: Madman Format : DVD Release Date: 21st August 2013 Price: $59.95 – Available Here
Overview
We live in an age where “mech” Anime titles are coming from here there and everywhere, every production company wants their own version of Gundam or Evangelion and most times they just don’t hit the mark, Heroic Age is a series I wouldn’t exactly consider to be part of this generalization, while it seems like just another “space mech, galactic war” Anime it is actually much more than that very deep below the surface and had it been produced and released with the kind of animation technology we have in this day and age it would’ve been so much greater and infinitely more popular. Allow me to explain more.
Story
Heroic Age has, as I mentioned above, a seemingly generic story; there’s a young man named Age on an abandoned planet who is as close to a neanderthal as someone living in the distant future could possibly be, he was raised by what seems like the broken AI of a wrecked space vessel and really that’s all he is at the very start. Enter: The Iron Tribe. Don’t be fooled though, they’re not running out of bearskin tents with sharp rocks attached to long sticks, no they actually reach Age’s planet through space travel because while they’re called the Iron Tribe they are essentially humans who have mastered future technologies, or, present technologies for them. Now the universe consists of a few different tribes; the Iron Tribe, the Silver Tribe, the Bronze Tribe, the Golden Tribe and the Heroic Tribe. The three lowest tribes – being the Silver, Iron and Bronze – are in constant war throughout the universe, they basically just want the other Tribes wiped out so that they can rule the universe. There is a lot to talk about so bear with me.
The Bronze Tribe are, basically, giant insects that just breed and kill so that’s their justification for attacking the other Tribes, the Iron Tribe continue to get attacked by the other two Tribes so they fight back which justifies THEIR place in the war…the Silver Tribe, who are basically the same as the Iron Tribe seem to believe they are of higher power and, for the most part of the series, wish to envelop the universe. So you’ve now got your setting, let’s head back to Age for a bit. The Iron Tribe find Age alone on his planet, the Bronze Tribe engages the Iron Tribe with the poor boy in the middle, after certain events transpire which leads to the destruction of the already fairly destroyed ship Age calls his mother, the young boy explodes in anger and turns into a bio-mech called Bellcross who is a spirit that inhabits the body of Age, the spirit is called a Nodos and it seems like the Silver Tribe has four more of these all-powerful beings.
The Nodos are a gift given to a handful of people across the universe by the Golden Tribe, they are the spirits of the Heroic Tribe that are given to the people as part of a prophecy. The entire series revolves around the battle between the Nodos’ and the Tribes that are using them. The awesome thing about this Anime is that it is actually based on the mythological story of Hercules. As strange as that sounds, that’s what makes this Anime one that is more than meets the eyes. All, or at least most, of the names in the series are based directly off of the names of certain characters in the story of Hercules.
Age himself is the embodiment of Hercules and each of the people whom have the powers of Nodos must go through twelve labours, those labours directly correlate to the twelve labours from the Hercules story that he had to overcome to earn his Godly powers, much like in the Anime. It is extremely interesting and I believe that the real treasure of this series comes from the fact that it was based on mythology in such a way that you can notice certain things but it doesn’t shove the correlation between series and myth in your face, it doesn’t treat the audience like morons and I quite like that. It’s not all mythology though, we see a lot of military action taken place, a lot of relationships built and broken while a 26-episode war takes place. I feel like the pacing of the story was actually done really well, every episode gave you a reason to continue watching and, while some scenes were quite boring, that wasn’t the overall vibe you got as a viewer.
Visuals
This title is a re-release, the original series was released in 2007, six years is a very long time especially for Anime and the technology that helps create it. I say that because, visually, this Anime is nothing to look at twice which is unfortunate because, “had it been made in this day and age” like I said earlier, it would’ve been an incredible series like no other. The animation fluctuates throughout the series, sometimes it’s quite boring with still figures floating across the screen yet sometimes the animation bumps up to such a degree that you forget you’re watching an Anime made in 2007. The costume design is quite nice on some of the characters, though most are just very basic military uniform. The standard military mechs are very basic and their designs fall behind with the introduction of the Nodos.
Bellcross’ design is actually extremely good, it’s not so much a mech as it is a giant, reptilian creature covered in hard-core armour. It makes for a good looking protagonist. The other Nodod, I feel, didn’t hold up to the standards of Bellcross. The visuals were bearable but it’s hard not to compare this series to the ones that are being produced now in 2013 and while we shouldn’t make a comparison I feel like it’s inevitable. It also doesn’t help that the series takes place, mostly, in space so most of the time you’re just seeing basic, boring, empty space. The space battles are quite good but with the use of lasers it looks more like a Pink Floyd concert than a space battle, that’s not saying it’s a bad thing though, it makes for a cinematic war.
Audio
The music within the series was all orchestral, all of it, and while it fit the series like a glove I feel like it got a little boring and somewhat forgettable. Fact is; I can’t think of music that could have suited it better, an orchestral score and space-based stories seem to fit together in the best possible way so I really can’t take away points for that, it’s more of a note than a “con”. The voice acting was much like the visuals; they fluctuated. Some characters were fantastic and showed emotion like you wouldn’t believe, other characters were dull and boring. I would have to say that there were better voice actors and actresses cast for generic soldier roles than main character roles and I’m not saying that in a sarcastic way either, they held up really well. The sound effects were fairly good, one thing I have to note is that sometimes the sound effect didn’t really match up to what was going on, example; a ship warping through space makes a sweeping “boom” sound followed by a…”twinkling” sound. It just didn’t fit at all.
Extras
The extras for this release were actually really disappointing, there was practically no extras considering it only came with the bare minimum and usual extras that come with an Anime release. It was just the Textless opening and closing theme songs and some trailers for other Anime titles. It’s not necessarily a bad thing because, like I said, this is the norm for a lot of series’ but I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more. Maybe if there was a video explaining the links between the series and the Hercules legend, a lot of the audience would’ve watched that and connected more with the series.
Overall
The series is great! While a lot of little things, as well as a couple big things, let the release down I don’t think that it should be overlooked in any way. Age is a big deal for this release, being a 2007 release being brought out again in this day and age…the odds are against it, but if you can look past that like I did and enjoy the story alongside the characters than I highly suggest this one. Obviously if you’re just a fan of incredible visuals than maybe this isn’t the one for you but if you are a fan of looking into the core of a series and figuring out all it’s got to give than I think this is the one for you.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
News has come through BS11 that the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventureanime series is slated to be rebroadcast in the Fall 2013 anime season on the 5th of October, roughly a year since the anime debuted.
If the broadcast runs through to next year, it raises the question, could the series continue on into Part 3 of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure series? Given the way the second season of the series concluded with a teaser of Part 3 protagonist Jotaro Kujo, it seems likely that an anime adaptation of the third part of the series is inevitable.
What do you think? Will we be seeing Part 3 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure animated by next year? Sound off in the comments section eblow with your thoughts.
The Mighty Thor is coming to our phones and tablets!
It seems like forever since we last saw Gameloft‘s teaser trailer for Thor: The Dark World, but now Gameloft has unleashed an official trailer for the movie tie-in game. This isn’t the first time Gameloft has worked with a Marvel superhero with both Iron Man and Spider-Man also getting mobile adaptations as well. Coming to smartphones and tablets this November, Thor: The Dark World’s gameplay appears to have various similarities to previous Gameloft titles such as Dungeon Hunter and Hero of Sparta, but I suppose we’ll have to wait and see for the final result.
Check out the the trailer for Gameloft’s Thor: The Dark World below!
Welcome back for this week’s iOS Game Suggestions. If you missed last week’s, or are new to the suggestions, click on the link below and check out what cool games you should be picking up for your iOS device along with the introduction on how the suggestions work. (suggestions 1 has how it all works)
A great week on iTunes! As always, it started slow and but ended with a bang! There are many must-buy games this week in all departments, FREE, 99c and over 99c. This week I’ve suggested a total of 13 great quality titles. Make sure you check them all especially… Call of Duty: Strike Team, 2K Drive, Rooms Of Memory, Giant Boulder Of Death, Gods VS Humans just to name a few.
Break down below :
7 – FREE Games
2 – $0.99c Games
4 – Over $0.99c Games
As always for this week’s suggestions are all new titles that you should take a look at and consider spending your hard earned iTunes cash / time on. Well the Free games just below certainly should all be given a shot as they won’t cost you anything!
For The Cheapskates – FREE GAMES
MASTERABBOTT’S FREE GAME PICK OF THE WEEK!
Giant Boulder Of Death – Price : FREE – Publisher – Adult Swim (When a boulder holds a grudge, no one survives. Bowl your way down the mountain and destroy everything in your path. Crush villages, cars, yetis, golden cows, crush everything! From the creators of Robot Unicorn Attack 2 and Monsters Ate My Condo!) on iPad & iPhone. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
Rooms Of Memory – Price : FREE – Publisher –Chillingo (Seek out the professor’s trinkets and uncover the Bellows’ family secret. Explore the grounds of Bellows Manor after the professor mysteriously disappears. Piece together his scientific legacy to unravel the mysteries of his vanishing…and more!) runs on iPad & iPhone. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
Supermarket Management 2 – Price : FREE – Publisher –G5 Entertainment (The long-awaited sequel to Supermarket Management has just hit the shelves!
Do you have what it takes to run a busy supermarket? Now you have a chance to show everyone! Become the manager of a small roadside shop and end up as the owner of a competitive grocery chain in this addictive time management game) runs on iPad & iPhone. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
Wordly – Price : FREE – Publisher –Scopely (Claim as many letters as you can by finding words, rule the board, and beat your opponent! Awesome features include: Play dozens of games at once with friends and family anywhere in the world. Enjoy riveting single-player action in Wordly’s challenging “Play the Greats” mode, where you’re pitted against historical greats such as Shakespeare, Einstein, and Count Dracula) runs on iPad & iPhone. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
Robo Quest – Price : FREE – Publisher –Pocket Gem Publishing (Reunite Kye with the love of his robot world – embark on this endless platform shooting quest! After watching his girlfriend be snatched away by an evil green villain, Kye sets out to get her back. You maneuver Kye through RoboQuest, the 2D side-scrolling/shooter game. ) runs on iPad & iPhone. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
Fishdom 2 – Price : FREE – Publisher – Playrix(Fishdom fans rejoice! Get ready for the highly anticipated match-3 sequel to the original Fishdom. Swap colorful tiles and earn money to create the aquarium of your dreams. Let your imagination run wild as you unlock and decorate 4 uniquely-themed tanks. Feel like setting up a ranch, travelling back in time to Ancient Egypt or recreating Merworld in your tank?) on iPad & iPhone. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
Pearl’s Peril – Price : FREE – Publisher –wooga (Get swept back to the romantic and sordid 1930’s along with our trailblazing heroine, Pearl Wallace, ace pilot and world explorer. Travel the world, uncover a global conspiracy, and navigate a chilling mystery you wont soon forget!) runs on iPad. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
For The Bargain Hunters – 99c Games
Stickman Downhill – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – Robert Szeleney (Experience ultra realistic and fast paced action packed downhill biking in stunning environments. Choose from more than 15 different bikes, including full suspension bikes, retro bikes or even electro bikes. Bike in various different locations, ranging from tracks in deep forest to mountain tracks high up in the air. All bikes are unique designed with stunning realistic physics. ) runs on iPad & iPhone. BUY NOW
Alphaman – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – The Awesome Game Studio (In Alphaman, players will have hours of endless, educational fun as they explore with Alphaman across eleven different maps such as Classic, Garden, Fire, Alien Spaceship and more to find letters and earn rewards for correctly spelling the words.) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
For The Millionaires – All games over $0.99
MasterAbbott’s over 99c Pick Of The Week!
Call Of Duty: Strike Team – Price : $7.49 – Publisher – Activision (Call of Duty®: Strike Team delivers an all-new, first-person and third-person Call of Duty® experience built from the ground up for mobile and tablet devices. Fully customize your squad’s loadouts and abilities before leading them into combat in diverse gameplay environments. Call of Duty®: Strike Team features the revolutionary ability to dynamically switch from run-and-gun first-person view to reconnaissance and coordinated squad attacks in third-person view.) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
2K Drive – Price : $7.49 – Publisher – 2K Games (Buckle-up and get ready for the most immersive automotive experience to ever hit your iPhone & iPad. 2K Drive provides you with a variety of experiences to test your driving skills – including licensed cars, real locations and dozens of exciting challenges in an authentic world rooted in motoring culture.) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
beHEXed– Price : $1.99 – Publisher – BBG Entertainment (beHEXed will inspire you! You have to solve many different puzzles. Solve each puzzle by placing all different puzzle pieces (Poliamonds) inside the marked playing area. Do not overlap puzzle pieces and be sure that the whole playing area is covered.) runs on iPad. BUY NOW
Gods VS Humans– Price : $1.99 – Publisher – Microids (Protect the Heavens and be respected by humans! Humans are building a tower to reach the Kingdom of the Gods! Embody one of these divinities to foil their attempts. But, be careful not to kill them with your special powers, because your survival depends on their devotion! ) runs iPad. BUY NOW
There you have it folks these games should keep you busy for quite some time well until next week at least. I’ll be back next week for another dose of iOS goodness, in the meantime if you would also like to suggest your own suggestions, please feel free to share them in the comments section below or in the iOS forum section on the site here.
Rayman Legends is a direct sequel to the critically acclaimed 2011 platformer Rayman Origins. Despite its many delays to ensure a simultaneous release on the PS3 and Xbox 360, Rayman Legends has finally been unleashed and is available on pretty much every popular platform going. Once more you find yourself in a wonderful world full of colour and exploration. Employing many of the same game mechanics as Origins, you and a group of comrades you will need to jump, punch, and glide your way through progressively more challenging levels and puzzles to restore balance to the land.
Story
100 years after Rayman’s triumphant victory over The Magician in Rayman Origins he is awoken from his slumber by an old friend. To his horror while he has been sleeping, The Magician has been getting stronger and all of the teensies and princesses in the land have been captured by The Bubble Dreamer’s nightmares. Setting off with his ragtag group of adventurous friends, Rayman must find and defeat the source of this evil once again to save the weird and wonderful world of Rayman Legends.
Gameplay
Unsurprisingly, Rayman Legends stays true to most of Origins’ gameplay because there is no need to fix what isn’t broken right? Once again you and up to 3 other players have to fight your way past formidable enemies, over challenging obstacles and more often than not through each other. In order to get the negatives out of the way first I feel the need to point out something that I personally think is a fatal flaw with recent platformers that is rarely done well. I can see the appeal of wanting to play games with your friends and I play a lot of FPS games, MOBAs, and MMOs with buddies and have a whale of a time, but platformers just feel like committing social suicide to me.
Playing Rayman Legends with a group of friends just reminded me why I never play Risk, Monopoly, or Munchkin with people I actually want to hang around with. “JAMES, STOP KILLING US ALL! WHY ARE YOU RUNNING AHEAD!?! WHO KEEPS PRESSING B AND CRUSHING US ALL! I NEED A RES!” I can’t be sure that it isn’t just me being an evil person in platformers, but in every mode other than Kung Foot the amount of rage building in the room was ridiculous. Why I feel Rayman Legends is fatally flawed in this respect is that at least in Super Mario Bros U there is someone actively trying to kill/help you so the blinding fury of a thousand suns is being directed at a willing scapegoat instead of tearing your family apart. Unfortunately Rayman doesn’t have this feature in the Xbox 360 version and it suffers as a result, but upon playing it single player my perspective of the game was less clouded by blood-tinted lenses.
For me, platform games live or die depending upon a few key factors. The first of these is the fluidity of movement and Rayman Legends has nailed this to a tee. Still keeping your characters feeling limited within the established bounds of the universe, you are able to move in all of the ways that feel familiar in the world of Rayman going back as far as Rayman Advance on the GBA. Having played literally days of Rayman Advance I was glad to see how faithful the mechanics were despite the extra polish and different visual perspective which I will cover later.
The second thing that is essential in a modern platformer is challenging puzzles that actually make you think. Upon completing the first few levels of Rayman Legends I will openly say that I was genuinely bored. If it weren’t for this review I might have put the game down there and gone to play DOTA or something that actually required me to think. To its credit though, a few levels later the difficulty starts to ramp up quite considerably and while it never became “hard” as such, it sat nicely in the region where it wasn’t a picnic, but you’re not tearing out your hair, or your friend’s vital organs… Which was a positive…
Audio & Visuals
Maybe the most important thing about the platforming genre that is held paramount more so than in any other genre, even in the graphically intensive FPS genre is aesthetic. A game can be as fluid and challenging as it wants, but if it isn’t a joy to look at then it will flop and that is one of the most interesting things that the indie revolution has created in this strangely popular genre. Certainly there is one thing that is undeniable about Rayman Legends and that is that it is absolutely gorgeous. Every element from the most insignificant of plants to the most in-your-face boss mob looks like it has been painted by hand and everything just screams Rayman. It brings out everything wonderful about the old and new sides of the franchise while just being quintessentially more beautiful than every other platformer on the market.
Bringing back most of what Origins created, the world still has what I tend to refer to as the “omniscient eye” perspective. Essentially, this just means that the camera has been brought back far enough that you can see much more of what is around you, allowing for more convoluted puzzles that would otherwise be extremely difficult to solve. As a fan of the old Rayman games this felt weird to me at first, but what was refreshing is that the game doesn’t just rely on smashing you into pits of spikes any more and the perspective is partly responsible for that.
In all honesty this game feels like it is the aesthetic peak of what the franchise can achieve without reinventing itself completely again. The magnificent art culminates with the ever-changing background music that is just ridiculously bouncy and happy to make what can only be called the definition of Rayman. Rarely do you ever see a franchise get to the point where you think, “They’ve nailed it. This is exactly what I wanted from this game.” All too often games fall over one or two minor things and it stops them ever reaching their full potential. All credit to Ubisoft, you might have made some very hit and miss games in the past, but you are a magnificent inferno of gaming awesomeness right now; keep it up!
Overall
If you’re a fan of platforming then look no further, Rayman Legends is the game for you. I personally would like the game to be a tad more difficult, but that is mainly because I’m a glutton for punishment when it comes to this kind of game. Each level presents a new set of challenges and a seemingly endless amount of exploration that will leave you feeling extremely satisfied with your purchase despite the steep price tag. Hell, if you have a group of friends to play with then Kung Foot is worth about half the price by itself. Easily one of the most fun party games I’ve played on the 360 and a lot more entertaining than anything in the god awful Raving Rabbids series that’s for sure. Rayman Legends is about the best platformer you can buy, pleasing newcomers to the franchise and veterans alike. It is silly, the plot sounds like a drug trip, and you may end up killing your closest friends playing co-op, but through all of that it is a truly monumental gaming experience.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
One of the panels was particularly special because this writer not only got to attend, but they had people get up and participate in the panel to get a unique twist on the standard questions he is usually asked. He shared secrets of his craft as well as kept the room in stitches with his humor which was prevalent the entire time. He revealed some secrets from behind the scenes of his TARDIS, including that his natural humor was all but banned from his persona due to wanting a direction shift from the humor of the Fourth Doctor Tom Baker into a more serious sci-fi show as well as the fact that his role in “Spamalot” was due to one word (his talent probably didn’t hurt either). He also talked about recording some upcoming audio adventures as the Doctor and sang his praises for upcoming 12th incarnation 
Yen Press have just released details of their English language release of the popular 
