It seems that a Ubisoft image have been leaked out teasing many unannounced games.
A collection of game logos has been leaked out to the Japanese forum A9VG.com with many of games not being yet officially confirmed. It is believed that this image was of the preparation for the upcoming Ubisoft Digital Day 2013 press event, where new under-development video games are announced by the developer. Ubisoft has yet to make any statements on the image, however many gamers are convinced that it is legit.
Some of the games listed has already been announced with titles most of you would of already heard about such as Watch Dogs, The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, Trials Frontier, Panzer General Online, Might & Magic: Duel of Champions and Poptropica: Forgotten Islands. The title that most catches my interest is Assassin’s Creed, one of Ubisoft most successful game series. I am keen to know if they are just updates and side games, or if we are perhaps looking at a seek-peek of the next game of the series.
The unannounced games that has everyone jumping are:
Licensed games are always to be approached with caution in this day and age, especially for movie tie-ins. Sadly, Turbo: Super Stunt Squad doesn’t do a very good job of breaking any of the stigmas and stereotypes associated with tie-in games, and in fact actually emphasises them. Slow and sluggish controls, visuals and menus that look like they were ripped from a PS1 game, all coupled with an odd choice of game genre make Turbo a hard sell, even for die hard fans.
Gameplay
Turbo (the film) is about a snail who’s dream is to be a racer. Through the course of the movie he gets his wish granted and before long he is speeding around racetracks like you wouldn’t believe. It would have made sense for the developers to make a racing game based on this concept, but instead they oddly chose to avoid what was expected and instead offer up a Tony Hawk inspired offering, where the snails are doing jumps, flips, grinds and other tricks through several different stages.
The game is broken up into different stages, each reminiscent of locations and settings from the film. These stages are set up much like many trick-game stages, with convenient ramps, grind-rails and jumps scattered around the place. As you play through the levels, you will be given objective to meet and obstacles to clear, which in return earns you unlocks. These unlocks come in the form of more characters to play as, and more stages to trick your way through.
The stage layout is actually quite nice for a game like this, with many of the stages being very vertical in nature. The tricks spots and ramps are well spaced out and give you a lot of room to move. Some problems to arise from the verticality of levels however, as a simple mistake at the wrong point higher up can cause you to plummet back down to the beginning, forcing you to climb all the way to the top once again and in many cases completely costing you any objectives you might have completed.
There are a bunch of different snails to choose from, and are differentiated by their characteristics such as Speed, Agility etc. The problem is that there is hardly any noticeable difference when actually playing. For me anyway, they all handled almost identically with the exception for their unique special moves.
I mentally debated myself back and forth whether or not I would mention this part, but Turbo plays really slowly. All of the characters feel like they are taking forever to get from point A to point B. Even when in the air doing tricks or other maneuvers, they feel like they are just lagging along. It is hard to say if this was intentional because they are snails, or if it is just a mistake, but in a game like this, the speed and agility is really required to get any enjoyment. Aside from normal movement speed, the way that Turbo and his pals execute tricks is equally as tedious and slow. It takes a lot of enjoyment out of games when they are moving at a (pun intended) snail’s pace.
The tutorial segment, which introduces you to the ways and means of controlling your snails is also incredibly drawn out and slow, with many of the instructions not clearly presented to you. It is a small thing, but since this game is targeted towards a younger audience, things like this can quickly spiral into being game breakers.
Visuals & Audio
As soon as I loaded up Turbo, I thought that I must have accidentally put in a PS1 disc. The font on the screen was almost identical to that from the 1990s, even including the blur and pixellation. The on-screen text actually began to hurt my eyes after looking at it for a short time. Aside from it being almost painful to look at, there is not much to the game’s presentation.
The levels as I mentioned above are designed nicely, but their overall appearance leaves a lot to be desired. A lot of the textures used in the game are out-dated, and are not of a high quality. The same can’t be said for the snails though. The game’s characters; are all really well done. They all retain their characteristics and appearances from the film, as well as carrying over a lot of their charm and quirks. The snails really do pop and come to life on the screen, which is a double-edged sword as it makes the lack of detail and polish in the settings even more noticeable.
The audio suffers from many of the same problems as the visuals, with many of the music tracks sounding bland, dull and repetitive. However, much like the way the snails bring some life back to the game’s visuals, the voice acting does the same for the audio. The voice acting on the snails is actually quite impressive for a game such as this. While the characters don’t always sound like their movie counter-parts, it is sometimes so close that you will find yourself saying “wait, WAS that Samuel L. Jackson? Nahh It wasn’t.”
Overall
There is a definite air of caution among movie tie-in games, especially on the console scene. History of quickly made, cheap games being used to make that little bit more money have tarnished their reputation. Sadly, Turbo doesn’t do anything to rectify the wrongs of the world, and in fact just reinforces those stereotypes. It wouldn’t be fair to talk down on this game just for fitting in with its cohorts though, but it is the lack of polish and dare I say it; love that make this game stumble out of the blocks. Turbo feels like an out-dated, sluggish and unresponsive cash-in, with visuals ripped straight from the 90s. The charm of the snails and some rather impressive voice work save it from being a total disaster, but even with their charm there isn’t much to go on here. The game is definitely geared towards children, but with its problems, I think that even kids who are die-hard, obsessed fans of the film and its lovable band of misfits will be put off.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams has now made a splash on all major consoles – and will finally see the Rise of the Owlverlord DLC pack hit the Steam version on September 26th thanks to Black Forest Games. Those who pick up the add-on through pre-order will also receive a special edition Team Fortress 2 hat, along with a 20% discount. Owlverlord includes seven new levels, a fresh new boss, and is only $4.99 as it is, so this is a great deal for anyone looking to enhance what was already a great experience with two awesome protagonists (Check out our review here).
Or maybe you wanted to know what this pack will bring to the platformer? Check out the details below:
More Levels – Seven challenging new levels.
More ease of play – New tutorial level to help beginners to get started.
More Story – New narrative loading screens.
More Sound – Additional tracks from Chris Hülsbeck, Fabian del Priore and Machine Supremacy.
More collectibles – 19 New achievements and gallery items to collect.
Meet the new Boss – The mysterious Owlverlord, commandeering his army of minion owls aboard a flying fortress in the skies.
With a new game on the horizon, Shantae fans already had a reason to be excited – and now the newly announced multi-platform Kickstarter has us even more pumped for the future. Yes, WayForward have been very busy, but Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is one product that looks fantastic. Much like previous titles, this follow-up will be a 2D platformer, featuring new mechanics and techniques for the famed half-genie to utilize.
Today, a new trailer was released to show off those new abilities and much more, which you can check out below. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is coming to the 3DS eShop later this year, so stay tuned and we will bring you even more coverage for the game as it nears our handhelds.
We have 2 copies of Iron Man 3 on Blu-Ray courtesy of Disney to giveaway. To win simply leave a comment below answering the following question and we’ll pick 2 lucky winners:
We’ll pick the two lucky winners on the 14th of September. Make sure you use a valid email when you register/post your comment so we can email you if you are one of our winners.
**SPECIAL NOTE**
Competition is open to AU Residents only, one entry per person per household.
K-ON! The Movie Studio:Kyoto Animation Publisher:Madman Format: DVD, Blu-Ray – Reviewed on DVD Release Date: 21st August 2013 Price: $29.95 – Available Here
Overview Everyone remembers school. The friends, the teachers…homework. OK, so not everything was fun, but we still look back on it fondly. Something that K-ON! series and K-ON!! sequel tried to remind us of (reviews of which may be found here, here, here and here…there’s quite a bit). Unfortunately, not everything can last forever, as the girls of After School Tea Time are finding out. With one week until they graduate, the girls set off for one last adventure, an encore to their high school years. But what happens when the Light Music Club ventures international?
I wanna rock!
Story Graduation time is here and the girls of Sakuragaoka Girl’s High Light Music Club are all set to go to college. All except one, underclassman Azusa. Being younger than the rest of the girls, she will be a student of Sakuragaoka for a little while longer and the new president of the Light Music Club. Knowing that they won’t all be together after graduation, the girls decide to get Azusa a present, to remember their time together. Accidentally, Yui knocks over Mustang, Azusa’s guitar, and causes it to make a sound which she interprets as “song”. With a sign from Mustang, the girls resolve to write a song for Azusa to memorialise their time together. Unfortunately, their lack of skill hiding secrets results in Azusa becoming suspicious, causing her to imagine all manner of terrible outcomes. Not much later, the girls hear that other school clubs are taking graduation trips to celebrate, the girls decide to take one of their own. Naturally, each girl wishes to go somewhere different but after some disagreement, some trickery and help from a turtle, they settle on a destination: London. England. In Europe. The girls gather up their luggage, instruments and all, and set off for the birthplace of the British Invasion.
With five days to spend, the girls waste no time exploring the sites of London…Once they manage to get in a taxi. After heading to the wrong hotel, the girls make their way across London, taking the city in. After seeing a sushi place, they decide to see what a Japanese restaurant is like in England. Due to some misunderstandings and a complete lack of communication, the Light Music Club winds up on stage. Naturally, they’re a hit. Unfortunately, they leave hungry. The girls later learn that they mistakenly took their gig from another Japanese band. The next day, they receive a call asking them to perform in a Japanese Culture Festival to be held in Jubilee Gardens. After some debate, the girls decide to accept the offer and play. The Light Music Club don their school uniforms and play on an outside stage, in the view of the London Eye.
At least Mio stayed awake. Wait a minute…
The end of the film sees the girls playing one last concert before school, under the protection of Sawako. The girls also finally manage to play Azusa her song, leaving behind one last present as everyone goes their separate ways. With Azusa’s graduation in one year, the girls wonder where their next trip will take them.
Being a slice of life anime, K-ON! The Movie deals with some of the more mundane elements of travel, such as Yui shorting out an appliance by failing to use a power converter. Language also plays a big part in the story since, as Japanese school girls, the Light Music Club knows very little English. Fortunately for them, situations resolve themselves and the trip is a success. The overall story is a classic graduation story. Fearing leaving what they know behind, but also excited by the possibilities of the future, they decide to have one last encore performance. The story focuses more on the relationships between the girls, rather than a complex plotline, staying true to the nature of the series, focusing on music and friendship. What else could you want?
Merry old England
Visuals K-ON! is…cute. Like, it-doesn’t-look-like-these-girls-are-old-enough-to-graduate cute. They bounce, they run, they fall. They are all very energetic and the visual style helps back this up. The animation itself is very fluid which produces a sense of flow. This style also blends very well with the music, adding a vibrant visual element to compliment the soundtrack. The characters themselves also appear rather soft. The defining lines of characters are not overly dark and often round out rather than meeting at points. This style suits the characters overall cute and innocent personalities.
Outfits are also an important element of the visuals. Just as in the series, the girls tend to go through a few costume changes over the course of the film. Though this is true of the time spent around London, it mostly applies to when they are performing their musical numbers. This further emphasises the visuals during their songs, keeping up with the music itself. However, despite there being a few outfits during the film, the girls tend to default to their classic school uniform, at one point turning down brightly coloured ninja costumes to retain their Sakuragaoka garb.
One more, he wasn’t looking at the camera
With London being one of the main focuses, and defining elements, of the film, a great deal of attention was given to the cityscape. Big Ben. The London Eye. Even places like Earls Court and Heathrow Airport. Each of these landmarks makes an appearance and their representations remain true to life. These locations, whilst also consistently in the background, are depicted during the many sight seeing montages of the film. With a soundtrack and some quick cuts, the girls travel around London, at one point even walking across the famous Abbey Road. These montages also include a number of different angles. A scene will sometimes show only the girls’ legs as they walk or even blur out certain characters, akin to a camera focusing. Even the classic night to day fast forward transition was used at one point. This adds a sense of variation to the visuals, keeping it interesting and adding a sense of flow.
Another visual element to note is the written text shown whilst in London: It’s English. Correct English. While this may not seem like a big deal, it shows that a great deal of attention was put into the details, preventing poor, or humorous, misspellings and mistranslations.
This looks familiar…
Audio What it’s all about. From rock to punk, jazz to swing, K-ON! runs the gamut of musical styles. They also throw in a bit of speed metal, courtesy of the former Light Music Club band Death Devil. During their various London montages, the girls are accompanied by some of these archetypal musical sounds. Trumpets, guitar, keyboard, even bagpipes at one point. This adds to the over all worldwide music theme that lies at the heart of the film. Just as in the anime series, the film also features an opening and ending theme. “Ichiban Ippai” serves as the opening whilst “Singing!” plays during the credits, complete with music video.
Being a K-ON! film, the Light Music Club also plays a few songs over the course of their London adventure. Regardless of the dub listened to, the songs remain their Japanese originals. The songs “Gohan wa Ozaku” and “Fuwa Fuwa Time”, from the series, can be heard along with “Tsubasa wo Kudasai”, modified to be Azusa’s song. These songs are all subtitled so that English fans can still fully enjoy the songs and understand the lyrics.
You sing one song and suddenly everyone wants a piece of you
The film also contains both a Japanese and English audio track. As it is a major component of their travels, the Japanese dub clearly represents the language barrier of five Japanese schoolgirls in an English speaking country. Each British character speaks in actual English, as opposed to it being implied. When confronted with this, the main characters struggle through their sentences of fragmented English, often giving up or failing to understand what they said. The fact that two different languages are actually used, adds to the realism of their London holiday. However, this fact doesn’t exactly pass over to the English dub. Since they already speak English, the scenes where the girls supposedly don’t understand English can become a little confusing. The characters will also sometimes use one or two Japanese words to represent this, though its not common. Each resident of London is also given a British accent, in order to substitute for the two language present in the Japanese dub.
Test, test. One, two, three, four, rice
Extras K-ON! features a long list of extras, a number of which feature the voice actresses for each member of the Light Music Club. An interview of the cast, conducted by Minami Tanaka, delves into the process of Japanese dubbing, as well as seeing how well voice actors know their tongue twisters. Also featured is footage of the premiere of K-ON! The Movie, showcasing a press conference of the cast and the appearance of a double decker bus. More questions, footage of a live concert by After School Tea Time and a rundown of the K-ON! series also features. Director Naoko Yamada’s sightseeing and ‘scenario hunting’ in London is also shown. The extras also feature the promotional Japanese trailers, teasers and television spots for the film, along with trailers for other anime films. Finally, a textless version of the film’s opening “Ichiban Ippai” and closing “Singing!” are also included.
One more time!
Overall K-ON! The Movie is…fun. A slice of life story about five friends and their last trip together before graduation separates them. Being a K-ON! movie, music is important, to both the plot and the film itself. Jazz, rock, j-pop, it’s probably in there somewhere. This definitely makes for a lively and varied soundtrack, staying true to the idea that it’s a film about a music club visiting a city of musical history. The animation is also very fluid, especially considering that the visuals feature fairly normal subject matter. Combined with the music, it creates a very upbeat and free atmosphere. All in all, K-ON! The Movie is the series on the world stage. While fans of the show will definitely enjoy the film, others may find the slice of life style a little bland. The film also does assume that the audience already knows the characters. That being said, it’s a fun, cute story about five friends and the time they spend together.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
September 19th cannot come soon enough as Phoenix Online Studios will be ready to release the concluding episode to their action adventure thriller – Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller. In Episode 4: The Cain Killer, Erica will be nearing the justice she desires for her brother Scott’s death. Now that the serial killer has been exposed, you would believe an easy man hunt is in order? Who else might get in the way? Will another person close to Erica be kidnapped?
All questions lead to a dramatic conclusion, and the video below “The End Begins” only enhances this direction. Stay tuned for the coming review of Cognition Episode 4 – The Cain Killer!
Yesterday XSEED Games began teasing a new announcement over on their Twitter page and after a few reveals, many people were sure it had something to do with The Legend of Heroes series and it turns out that is exactly what was being teased.
Today the company has announced that they will be publishing The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC (Second Chapter) to the PC and PSP sometime in 2014. While the first game in the series was originally released on the PSP back in 2011, the company has also revealed that the first game in the series will also be released on the PC this Winter.
Why are they planning on doing this you ask? Because the events of Trails in the Sky SC occur immediately after the events of the first game, giving PC players a chance to catch up on the game’s story before the sequel is released. Interestingly enough, XSEED is not translating the game themselves, it is instead being translated by a company called Carpe Fulgur.
Ken Berry, Executive Vice President of XSEED had this to say about bringing Second Chapter overseas:
“We are pleased to finally give the fans what they have been requesting so fervently for over two years. There’s been a constant demand ever since we released the original The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, and we are extremely grateful for our partnership with the passionate localizers at Carpe Fulgur to finally make it a reality.”
A tongue-in-cheek trailer has been released for Devolver Digital’s Shadow Warrior reboot, showing off copious amount of blood, guns and katana action. Check it out below!
Developed by Flying Wild Hog (Hard Reset), the first person shooter has a list of under-appreciated features, while poking fun at a certain other game’s touted fish physics.
Shadow Warrior is carving its way to release on September 26 for the PC while Steam is offering 15% off on pre-orders. Here is last month’s trailerin case you missed it.
So yesterday Atlus USA released one of their older titles on the PSN as a PS2 Classic. That title happened to be Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity which was originally released back in 2005. Since that happens to be seven years ago and some gamers today might not even have been playing games at that time, let alone strategy RPGs, Atlus has released a trailer showcasing Stella Deus’ combat and story sequences.
