The first proper boxing sim for the PlayStation Vita, Real Boxing, has been released across Europe via the PlayStation Network. It’s set to hit the ground running with the inaugural Real Boxing Vita European Championship.
Players will have the chance to test their skills against others from around the world until September 11. The winner will receive another PS Vita to get a friend on board the handheld goodness.
“With the Championship starting today, players can jump into the multiplayer action immediately – we’re looking forward to seeing the result in two weeks time and congratulating the first Real Boxing Champion,” said Remi Koscielny, CEO of Vivid Games.
Utilising Unreal Engine 3, the game features singleplayer and multiplayer modes, customisable fighters, a variety of locations and a real-time deformation engine.
Real Boxing is priced at €9.99/£7.99 on the PSN and is also available on mobiles. The North American version has been delayed “for a short time”. For more info visit the game’s website, Facebook or Twitter pages.
Hugh Laurie (Mr. Watts) and Xzannjah (Matilda) star in Mr. Pip, directed by Andrew Adamson.
On November 7th, Paramount Pictures Australia will be releasing Mr. Pip – directed by Andrew Adamson (Shrek 2) and starring Hugh Laurie (House) – nationwide. Adamson‘s home country of New Zealand will get the film ahead of that date on October 3rd.
Mr. Pip is produced by Robin Scholes (Once Were Warriors), with music by Tim Finn, Costume Design by Academy Award winner Ngila Dickson (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King), and Production Design by Academy Award winner Grant Major (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King). Here is the official synopsis:
Directed, written and produced by Academy Award-nominated director Andrew Adamson(Shrek, Chronicles of Narnia), Mr. Pip is based on Lloyd Jones’ seminal novel (Mister Pip) which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The film was shot on location in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.
Set against the backdrop of civil war in Bougainville, Mr. Pip stars Hugh Laurie (House) as the enigmatic teacher Mr. Watts who reads to his pupils from Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations”. Matilda, a 14-year-old student played by newcomer Xzannjah, is transported by her imagination and the world of Dickens, becoming transfixed by the characters and Mr. Watts’ interpretation of the story. The film also stars Healsville Joel, Eka Darville and Kerry Fox.
Mr. Pip is a wonderful tale of the imaginative power of story and reveals that on an island at war, fiction can have dangerous consequences.
You can view the first official Australian trailer for Mr. Pip embedded below.
The weeks continue to roll by and so do Namco Bandai’sJoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle trailers. Everyone is getting incredibly excited about this game, it seems as though even the game development team is giddy with excitement, releasing all of these awesome trailers. The latest trailer is a bit more of a longer one than the last two, this one goes for three and a half minutes and shows off the DLC characters that are available in the game going head to head in all out fightingaction.
The characters they’re focusing on are Pannacotta Fugo, Shigekiyo Yangu and Stardust Crusaders’ own Iggy. They are the most recent additions to the game roster and , I believe, are already available, there has been no release of information to dispute that so far so I’m hoping this is the case. The game was released in Japan today on the PS3 and each DLC character will go for 600 yen each. Head down below to watch the latest trailer and let us know what you think in our comments section just under that.
Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone Studio:Studio Khara Publisher: Madman Format : DVD Release Date: 17th April 2013 Price: $29.95 – Available Here
Overview
Neon Genesis Evangelion would have to be, by far, the most widespread and influential Anime series and franchise to have ever been created. It has spanned over 18 incredible years and, although it showed signs of slowing down during the 90s, it has been a fan favourite for most of those years. Every Anime fan knows Neon Genesis Evangelion and – between the original series, the End of Evangelion movies, the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy and it’s countless marketing adventures – if you didn’t know about it “back in the day” I’ll guarantee you know about it now.
Is it safe? No? Oh then I’ll absolutely pilot it!
Story
The series takes place in Tokyo-3 and it is exactly how it sounds, after a great deal of the earth was decimated during the Second Impact, where in which a large-scale battle lead to a larger scale force of destruction being set loose upon our world, Tokyo-3 has had to “put up” with the ruthless attacks of creatures referred to only as “Angels” even though that is extremely far from what they truly are, but you don’t know that yet so “shush”! NERV is a government agency who have developed gargantuan, humanoid robots called “Evas” which were created with the sole purpose of defending the world against the advances of the Angels and stopping the world from going through what it has already been through once before. Enter, Shinji Ikari. He’s a young boy who was chosen by his father, the fearless leader of NERV, to pilot Eva Unit 01, not seeing his father for many years Shinji seems fairly reluctant and, after a while of indecisiveness and general fear, he pilots Unit 01 and destroys his first Angel. He meets fellow pilot Rei Ayanami, she’s a quiet girl but a killer in an Eva, he also meets two young men from school who he quickly becomes friends with.
Hey there, pretty lady. What brings you to this…giant robot…battle?
Throughout the movie he fights three Angels, each one more difficult than the last and as much as I’d like to get into the “nitty gritty” of the story I really can’t without spoiling something that is best seen by watching the actual film. That’s a big thing about the Rebuild of Evangelion movies; just explaining what goes on isn’t enough to do it justice, people seem to experience it in different ways yet leave it with such fundamental agreements. It’s very fascinating.The story, in my opinion, is absolutely fantastic. I love how Evangelion seems like one thing but it is really an entirely different thing. Looking at the front cover with no idea what this film is about, all you can think is “oh, another robot anime” but it is so much more than that both literally and mentally speaking. The characters develop in a way like no others and, while Shinji really annoyed me at the start with his constant yet justified whinging and whining, the change in character types is well-done and it’s only by the end of the movie do you realise how incredibly brilliant it all is. It hits you like a tonne of bricks and leaves you with countless questions…and this is only the first of fours movies. So not only do you have the “cool” factor, that being giant robots fighting giants monsters, but you also have the psychological factor, it gets your brain ticking and your blood rushing in a way only Evangelion can, that’s why the fans of this franchise are so intense.
Visually this movie is beautiful.
Visuals
Many years ago when the series was just finishing up it seems like the production company ran out of budget for the show which lead to some really dodgy animation and the general populous feeling down-right crummy about it, jump to 12 years later and you’re met with such brilliance, this movie. The way that the animation team literally blend CG animation with traditional animation is just fantastic, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen an Anime movie get this close to visual perfection. The way the characters move and they way the robots do battle, the environments, the sweeping shots, the level of time, money and power put into this movie can be seen at first glance and that is something I have to applaud. The character designs haven’t changed that much since the original release of the series but considering that was never an issue I wouldn’t consider that to be a negative aspect in any way. The development team have managed to keep the old-school feel of the original series within the movies despite the fact that, visually, it is infinitely better.
Alright, there’s no time like go time!
Audio
The music is fantastic and really suits well with the series, the orchestral tracks really blend well with the vibe that the story gives off and the sound effects of the robots and the world the series is based work in such a perfect way. I would like to draw everybody’s attention to the level of voice acting that was in this movie. Now the original cast of the series do the same voices in the Rebuild of Evangelion movies which I think is just awesome but that’s not the point I’m trying to make, I watched this in English and the voice actors for, yes, every character did such a high calibre job on getting the voices spot on. You could feel the emotion, you could feel the sadness and, my God, you could feel the terror of these characters. While there are characters like Rei who don’t speak to often, and when they do they’re extremely quite, you can still get the feel for the character just by the voice of the actor or actress playing them. It is difficult to find an Anime/Anime Movie with English voice actors that put in the hard yards to get it right and Evangelion some how found the ones to do it, I guess that’s why they’ve been doing the same roles for all these years.
Who gets paid to clean THAT up?
Extras
I’m reviewing the “Slipcase Edition” which comes with a dust cover to go over the DVD case which is really nice, it’s very basic and just has the name but it looks nice in a shelf which, I suppose, is what matters. The DVD case has a reversible cover which even has the name of the movie on the flip side of the spine so it is literally a reversible cover unlike a great deal of other releases that only give a small piece of artwork as the flip. The release also comes with a small 20-page book which takes you throught he movie, a small explanation of what it’s like behind the scenes, important parts of the series, some nice pictures and even a fairly long note from series creator Hideaki Anno. The “on-disc” extras are even better, you get the original release of the movie “1.01”, the Angel of Doom promotional music video, Evangelion news flashes, movie previews and trailers. It’s an incredible release.
Don’t tell anyone you saw this, don’t even tell yourself, forget you saw this!
Overall
What more could I possibly say about this movie? I’m a big fan of the movie, despite my lack of interest in the series, and I feel like it’s done so well that it casts such a wide net. I’ve seen non-anime fans enjoy this movie and I think that’s a real testament to the amount of blood, sweat and tears put into this film. I think it’s fantastic on all fronts and, while it’s a bit strange story-wise, I fell like all different types of audiences could get into it as long as they have the slightest bit of an open mind. Each aspect of the movie complements the next. It’s for fans of the genre and for fans of just well put together animated films. It’s number one in my books let me just say that.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Wolverine and The Hulk are finally getting a much needed collaboration in disc form, as SHOUT! Factory have plans to release a brand new DVD featuring the two famed heroes who are about to clash in a battle for the ages. Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk will see Primetime Emmy Award-winning television writer and creator Damon Lindelof (Lost) teaming up with legendary artist Leinil Francis Yu (Secret Invasion) and superstar colorist Dave McCaig for one jam-packed DVD that has been packaged like a comic book with a stunning cover from Yu himself.
Here are some details of the feature as well as the bonus content you can expect:
Synopsis
Dr. Bruce Banner (a.k.a. the Hulk) has been presumed dead since his execution, following his murderous rampage through Manhattan as the Hulk. But when reports start cropping up of an unidentified creature appearing around the globe, Nick Fury begins to get worried. Not because Banner can turn from man to unstoppable monster in seconds, but because Banner’s existence is the one secret that can bring down Fury. So Fury turns to the only man he can trust: Wolverine. And he’s only too glad to take care of Banner – by any means necessary.
Special Bonus Content:
A retrospective interview with legendary artist Leinil Francis Yu and Marvel Knights Animation’s Supervising Producer Kalia Cheng gives fans an exclusive look into the making of ULTIMATE WOLVERINE VS. HULK.
You can pick up Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk when it releases on September 10th nationwide at a price set of just $14.97. For a hardcore Marvel fan, this deal is a no-brainer. Check out some artwork below.
Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians made a splash not too long ago, blending its gameplay with music to create a truly unique and unforgettable experience. Today, it was announced that Reverb Publishing and THREAKS‘ gem would be seeing a soundtrack release, which will arrive this October.
”The Beatbuddy game features awesome music that gamers get to experience in each Song level,” said Wolf Lang, Co-CEO and the THREAKS GmbH. “Now fans of the game music will be able to enjoy all the tunes in this great package including some really uniquely arranged remixes that will have Beatbuddy fans bobbing their heads to the groovy beats!”
The first single of the album is the soul-house styled song “Lost In Yesterday” from EUROPA DEEP, which will be out on various download outlets in September (August 30 in Germany). The Beatbuddy digital bundle includes, in addition to the original version and the video, three new remixes of the “Lost In Yesterday” track including a featured remixed by SupaFunk, famous for his crazy, old-school funk arrangements, and produced by Michael Popescu, who has already been featured twice at the Britspotting Awards and the Raindance Film Festival.
Our very own Joe Morgan enjoyed his time with the PC version of Beatbuddy, and you should go give his review a look by clicking here. For now, check out the official music video for “Lost In Yesterday“ by EUROPA DEEP – which is coming soon to various outlets ahead of the soundtrack down below.
We first seen the power of what the graphical tool YEBIS 2 could do with next-gen visuals in that famous tech demo from E3 2012. All of that power however is starting to make its rounds into other products, with Ubisoft‘s Fighter Within being the latest to utilize Silicon Studio‘s visual effects software.
“YEBIS 2 allowed us to implement state of the art post processing effects in our game,” said Yves Grolet, studio director at Daoka. “This saved us a great deal of time and allowed us to significantly raise the visual quality of our next gen title, Fighter Within.”
In addition to providing next-gen gameplay mechanics, through the power of YEBIS 2, Daoka is bringing the best in next-gen visual effects, including tone mapping and color grading, glare effects, depth of field, anti-aliasing, and god rays. Fighter Within sets a high standard of visual effects for Xbox One, launching this fall.
“By utilizing YEBIS 2,” says Takehiro Terada, CEO of Silicon Studio “Daoka can create the ground-breaking effects available in YEBIS 2 without compromising development time, money, and resources. This is a beautiful looking game, in large part due to this newly formed relationship.”
To get a better look of YEBIS 2 in action, check out the demo reel down below, along with some screenshots for Fighter Within – which will be launching on the Xbox One. I for one am quite excited about the possibilities this little engine has for future titles, and Fighter Within definitely is pretty- regardless of its pending quality that we we learn of when it releases.
Little Galaxy Developer: Bitmap Galaxy Publisher: Bitmap Galaxy Platforms: iPhone (Reviewed), iPad, iPod Touch, Android Release Date: 18th August 2013 Price: $0.99 – Available Here
Overview
Little galaxy is a cute, little, one-touch, casual game by developers, Bitmap Galaxy. When it comes to Mobile Games I have to say that I’m not the biggest fan, but ever once in a while a game comes along that is so simple, so easy yet so fun that my faith in the platform can’t help but be renewed. Little galaxy absolutely does this and I’ve got a good feeling that a lot of people will feel the same way as I do about this game.
Visuals
Little Galaxy has possibly the most well-rounded and beautiful looking visuals I’ve seen in an iOS game for a very long time. It has an incredibly eerie feel to it while also keeping that childish nature floating around like a warm aura, I think it may be because of the clay model-style of animation that they have, for all I know it could actually be a stop-motion clay figure on the screen.
The way that they layer the graphics is very nice, the galaxy in the background sparkles in the distance and you can feel that distance too, the planets you land on look solid and the gems you collect throughout gameplay complement the other visual aspects well, they don’t stand out too much yet they stand out just enough for you to be able to differentiate between them and the stars in the distance. On closer inspection of some of the larger planets, it almost looks like the terrain, as minuscule as it may be, looks fairly real, it’s a testament to the the team for putting in so much effort in the smallest of details.
Audio
The biggest piece of audio within this game is the music track that plays throughout it and although it’s just one track and there are no actually track changes, the one piece of music within it seems to bend and vary in a way that, even though it loops around to the beginning, doesn’t seem to get annoying. It’s as though the music was composed with the intention to allow a player to use it more therapeutically while playing the game, as strange as it sounds.
The game isn’t hard at all, you barely screw up and loose once you’ve played it for a bit, and I think the music flows along with the type of gameplay. The use of flutes and what seems like small symbols really just makes this game what it is, especially when you pair it off with the visuals. Some games cannot to this well, I’ve played big, console titles that used, basically, just one song and couldn’t do it right but I won’t point fingers. The sound of getting gems is basic, not that it needs to be anything big, it’s nice to hear a little “bling” when dashing through the gems without being overwhelmed when there’s a group of them you have to collect.
Gameplay
It is very easy to play this game, a child could play it, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s basically one finger, that’s all you use, just one finger. You’re a small child that stands on a small planet, the planet moves around and your aim is to jump from one planet to the next and you do that by tapping the screen, that’s it. It’s really simple, really easy and really well-done. You collect gems and power-ups that help you collect more gems, if you miss a planet you fly off of the screen and start the game again.
There are small obstacles here and there but they’re easy to overcome and kind of fun to run into as well. There are no real “levels” in the game, it’s similar to an endless runner, though there is a “levelling system” I would say. let me give you an example; you start off on level 1.1, there are three achievements that pop up on your screen before you begin, if you complete those achievements you go to level 1.2 and so on and so forth, the obstacles change and get harder the more you go on like in a normal level-based game I just find it interesting that this is the way they went about it. Once again, it just works. You can actually see a demonstration of the game in our featured video section below.
Overall
This game is an absolute winner for me, simple as that. It’s exactly what these types of games should be, there’s no annoying sounds, there’s no annoying features, it’s extremely accessible and so easy to just pick up and start playing at any time. I literally stopped writing this review about three or four times just to play a round of the game, my temptation; my phone was sitting right next to me while writing. That’s all it takes for this game. All I have to say is that they team over at Bitmap Galaxy have done extremely well with this game and for $0.99 you have nothing to loose by picking this one up.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
I say this trailer is surprising because it is still hard to believe that Sega has brought Hatsune Miku Project Diva F to the West. This is of course great news and something that fans of the Vocaloid have hoped for for quite some time, but still a surprise nonetheless.
Anyways, the trailer can be seen below and the game itself is now available for purchase in North America while gamers in Europe will have to wait until September 4th to pick up the game. The title costs $49.99 and features 38 unique songs, four different difficulties per song, over 90 different modules (costumes) a room feature to spend time with your favorite Vocaloid and more.
Kids love to dance and now they can do it to some age appropiate music with Ubisoft today annonucing the latest release in the Just Dance sereies, Just Dance Kids 2014. If any kids witnessed Miley Cyrus’ latest performance at the 2013 VMAs then hopefully this game can repair their mental depiction of what dancing is. Just Dance Kids 2014 is the fourth Kids title in the successful series and will feature new choreography and a new 30 plus song traclkist as well as both new and returning game modes, some of which are unique to certain consoles.
These modes include:
Just Create Mode: Exclusively for Kinect, Just Create Mode lets kids star in their very own music video by creating their own original choreography and dance routines.
Dance Director Mode: Available for the Wii U, Dance Director Mode allows one player to act as the leader by using the GamePad to surprise players with dance move suggestions in the middle of songs. Kids can show off their unique moves and get awarded points from the Dance Director!
Parents Corner: This feature put the parents in control. With non-stop shuffle, fitness tracker, and custom playlists, Parents Corner even lets parents see how many calories their child is burning while dancing.
The tracklist includes tracks from the likes of One Direction, Victoria Justice and Selena Gome as well as kid favourite bands such as The Wiggles and songs from kids programs like Yo Gabba Gabba. The full tracklist features:
“Hit The Lights” by Selena Gomez & The Scene
“Give Your Heart A Break” by Demi Lovato
“We Go Well Together” by Goldheart
“One Thing” by One Direction
“Put Your Hearts Up” by Ariana Grande
“Make It Shine (Victorious Theme)” by Victorious Cast featuring Victoria Justice
“Ready Or Not” by Bridgit Mendler
“Get Ready To Wiggle” by The Wiggles
“The Freeze Game” by Yo Gabba Gabba!
“7 8 9”
“Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)”
“Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance)”
“Fireflies”
“Footloose”
“Get Down On It”
“Hit Me With Your Best Shot”
“I Like To Move It”
“Magic Carpet Ride”
“Problem (Monster Remix)”
“Shout”
“Fraggle Rock (Opening and Closing Theme)”
“The Hustle”
“The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room”
“Walking On Sunshine”
Just Dance Kids 2014 will be releasing on the Wii, Wii U, and Xbox 360 in the UK on October 25th. It is expected to release in other regions around the same time.
