Ms. Splosion Manblasted her way onto Steam, Games 4 Windows Live, and Windows Phone 7 today. The game is a follow-up to the hit platformer ‘Splosion Man. Ms. Splosion Man is off to escape the lab into a wacky platforming adventure with three of her friends.
The Steam and G4WL version comes with a higher $9.99 price tag but includes give extra levels with a brand new ending in four player co-op madness. The Windows Phone 7 version is the same price as theiOS version at $2.99. The WP7 version features new touch controls designed for the WP7 platform. The game was released last week for iOS at $2.99 and is also available on Xbox Live Arcade for 800 MSP.
Groupees is running a themed bundle called Retro Groupee. The bundle contains six modern retro styled games plus several bonuses as more bundles are sold. All buyers will receive 2d shooter Dead Pixels, call centre sim Smooth Operators: Call Center Chaos, and 2d sidescroller Forceline. Those who pay more than $3.00 will receive platformer 8-bit Commando, 16 bit adventure game Anodyne, and 2d platformer Bleed. The three bonuses are RPG Sylia, the chiptune album Hit and Run, and platformer Love+. All of the games run on Windows PCs, with a few also running on Linux and Mac. Make sure to check out our review of Anodyne.
Remember to check off the “Donate to Charity” box to send 20% of your payment to the charity CAREInternational. The charity provides community based help for people around the world to improve their everyday quality of life and provide assistance during disasters.
Have fond memories of your old NES? Think you know the NES inside and out? Take the NES Video Game Quizand prove your skills. Video Game Quiz!’s latest game was released to the iTunes App Store today for free. Players will be provided with over 350 pictures of NES games to guess as quickly as possible. There are ten different levels of difficulty to conquer, ranging from popular hits like Duck Hunt to obscure Japanese Famicom titles. Players will compete on the Game Center Leaderboard for high scores and bragging rights.
NES Video Games Quiz is available for free on the iTunes App Store for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
Still in its first closed beta phase, developers ZQGame has already announced the date for the second beta for their game, April 18. This browser based MMO adds an interesting spin on the formula by mixing the mythologies and legends of the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans for the motivations of the player. Gamers are tasked with handling the incredible journey of their character into the fantastic world of Aristos in order to save the lord of the plane, the Titan Hyperion in the aftermath of the demise of the Titan Ophion.
The Lost Titans’ initial beta phase was launched on November 29 of last year, and has been an invaluable asset with players contributing an immense amount of tips and ways the developers can modify their game for the better. The second phase is looking to smooth out the in-game economy that has been implemented. Other new features have been added as well including new bosses, additional pets and mounts, new tutorials, and an expanded PvP feature for gamers looking for a battle. Additionally as to not show some holiday spirit, ZQGame have also brought an April Fool’s/Easter Troll week with sales and bonus Easter eggs and game modes.
For those interested in taking world mythology by the horns or just MMO fans looking for something new, information on the beta can be found at http://tlt.zqgame.com/news-2-1.html.
Reef Entertainment have announced the European release of their newest title, Alien Chaos 3D for the Nintendo 3DS. The game will release tomorrow as part of the eShop update.
The main protagonist, named “Really Shooter”, and Poor Mama run a cleaning business together. Really takes commando jobs on the side. When animal robot aliens invade, what more excuse could you have to blast up the room and take out the trash!?
The game features include:
“Really” uses an arsenal of different weapons spanning the Peashooter right the way up to the Explosive Flaming Chainsaw Shotgun.
The animal robot alien hordes include robo-boxing kangaroos, rocket spiked hedgehogs, shield carrying hippos and robo-frog fodder.
Debris, sparks, smoke and flaming chainsaws pop from the screen in 3D.
5 chapters, 30 levels and 5 deadly bosses.
Exchange high scores with friends and other players via Street Pass.
You can check out Reef Entertainment’s page here or read the full press release here.
In sad news, Disney has shut down legendary video game developer and publisher LucasArts. About 150 staff were laid off and all production on current projects have been cancelled.
Meaning that LucasArts’ upcoming games Star Wars: First Assault and the very promising Star Wars 1313 have been cancelled indefinitely, as the company shifts into a licensing entity with future video games to be developed by either third-party companies or Disney Interactive Studios.
Disney has provided the following statement explaining its decision to close the video games studio,
“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”
While this announcement may come as a surprise for some, over the last couple of months speculation on the future of LucasArts has been looming ever since Disney’s acquisition of LucasFilm last October for $4.05 billion. After news of the deal came to light, LucasArts reportedly froze all hiring and announcements.
Founded in 1982, LucasArts will not only be remembered for its Star Wars and Indiana Jones video games, but also for creating some of the most innovative adventure games during the 1990’s such as The Monkey Island and Sam and Max video game series.
To celebrate the launch of Injustice: Gods Among Us on the 19th April in the UK, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment have today announced that Ed Boon, best known as the co-creator of Mortal Kombat and creative director of NetherRealm Studios, will be meeting fans and signing copies of Injustice: Gods Among Us at GAME’s Stratford store.
If you’re a fan of fighting games or comic books, Ed will be at hand at GAME’s Stratford store (Westfield, Stratford City, London E15 2EN) between 9:30am and 11:00am on the 19th April. Unsurprisingly it’s a case of the earlier the better, as signed copies will be dished out on a first-come, first-served basis. Better dig that tent out to camp out if you’re keen!
Injustice: Gods Among Us is an all-new title, in development by award-winning NetherRealm Studios. The title debuts a bold new fighting game franchise that introduces a deep, original story featuring a large cast of favourite DC Comics icons such as Batman, Green Arrow, Cyborg, Harley Quinn, Nightwing, Solomon Grundy, Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and many others. Set in a world where the lines between good and evil are blurred, players will experience heroes and villains engaging in epic battles on a massive scale. If you haven’t already done so check out our competition to win a copy of Injustice: Gods Among Us here.
Tecmo Koei America has confirmed that Dynasty Warriors 8 will be hitting Western shores on July 16th, for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Following in the tradition of previous titles in the franchise, Dynasty Warriors 8 tells the tales of the Kingdoms of Wei, Wu, Shu and Jin through the eyes and actions of multiple historical military and political figures of the time as they fight to gain control over the Three Kingdoms of China.
What’s unique about this entry is the inclusion of different endings and extra modes that breeds replay-ability like never before. You can expect the tried-and-true Story Mode, but with brand new characters, episodes and “What If?” scenarios that break away from historical fact to provide a branching, alternate history of events depending on your choices made throughout the experience.
There will be over 40 completely fresh stages ranging from verdant plains, desolate wastelands and sharp ravines to huge castles and more. On the character side of things, that number grows to 70+, with franchise veterans returning alongside a newly playable (but familiar face) and two first-timers in Xu Shu and Li Dian.
Check out the gallery below for all the character art currently released (which includes the new characters). Also watch the opening cinematic here and a 12 minute gameplay video if you are so inclined.
Bodacious Space Pirates Part 2 Studio: Satelight Publisher: Hanabee Release Date: Out Now! Format:DVD, BD(Reviewed) Price: $59.99 – Available Here
Overview
Bodacious Space Pirates Part 2 is the second part of the Hanabee release for the Anime series Bodacious Space Pirates. We have reviewed the first part of the series previously which can be found at this link here.
Bodacious Space Pirates is an Anime adaptation of the light novel: “Mouretsu Pirates” authored by Suichi Sasamoto and is currently at 9 volumes. The Anime adaptation was animated by Satelight and covers 26 episodes. The second part of the release contains episodes 14-26 and picks up right after the events of the first part.
Story
Bodacious Space Pirates follows the story of Marika Kato who inherits the captaincy of a pirate ship called the Bentenmaru as well as its crew from her seemingly deceased father that was the previous captain of the space pirate ship. The second part of the series deals with the Bentenmaru crew and its adventures in space piracy. This particular part deals with a few arcs.
The first arc in this part of the series involves the aftermath of a deadly illness incapacitating the crew of the Bentenmaru and so Marika must enlist the assistance of a new crew to ensure that the Bentenmaru is able to continue pirating, else they will be likely to lose their Letter of Marque. The second story arc involves a race involving a small space shuttle and the students in Marika’s school Space Yacht club. The final arc sees all of the Space Pirates in the stories universe gathering together to battle a final and powerful enemy.
What I really liked about the story in Bodacious Space Pirates was how each arc in the story was handled. Each took a fair few episodes to get through and it really felt like you were engaging with an ongoing story rather than watching a bunch of standalone episodes vaguely stuck together. However, converse to that, I really disliked how the crew of the Bentenmaru was essentially sidelined for two entire story arcs on this particular side of the series. While the arcs were enjoyable in themselves, I actually enjoy the Bentenmaru crew more than the schoolgirl crew, so this is where my disappointment comes from.
One last thing that I want to mention is that it was clear from the ending of this part that the team were setting up for another season or something. Towards the end there all of the pirate lore was building up nicely and all of the characters were faced with an important question. While it does sort of go answered, it is unclear as to what the pirates do afterwards really. If there is a series revival or a second series, I’d definitely be on top of that.
Video
I think that I mentioned this in the last review, but Bodacious Space Pirates has some rather interstellar space ship designs. I hope that when I live to see the space age, that we get spaceship designs as great as the ones presented in this series.
What was notable was the amazing visual fidelity offered by the Blu-Ray version of the series. If you are to watch Anime in any format, it has to be in the superior Blu-Ray format. This is especially true for Bodacious Space Pirates.
My one issue with the video in this particular series, and this was present on the first part as well, was that each episode seems to be encoded with scanlines. This means that you might have to manually tell your player to de-interlace the video. While a minor annoyance, it would have been nice to have a version of series available that supports televisions newer than 2003.
Once again the character designs in this series are amazing. And now that we get to see a larger portion of pirates and other assorted characters, it’s great to see some amazing costume designs. What was particularly enjoyable about this is that one character aboard the Bentenmaru is actually quite the attractive woman when she’s given the opportunity to showcase her body. I was actually confused as to who the character was for quite a while considering how different she appeared.
Audio
Once again for this half of the series the awesome opening by Momoiro Clover-Z returns. It is also followed by the catchy ending theme from the first half of the series by the same group. Actually, speaking of music, the entire background audio for this half of the series was also fairly enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed it whenever things would get more intense and the music would start picking up.
By this point in the series the English dub has actually improved quite significantly, or at least, I have become accustomed to the English speaking voice actors for each character in the series. However, I still have to admit that the Japanese dub is the superior speaking audio track for this particular series. Unless you’re a person that hates subtitles or is unable to keep up, I’d recommend listening to the Japanese audio dub, but for those that would prefer it, the English dub is also pretty good.
The last point that I want to talk about is how cheesy some of the dialogue is in this series. While the first half of the series had its share of cheesy moments, this half ramped it up significantly. I think that they were trying to romanticise space piracy somehow, but they ended up overdoing it a little and you kind of get sick of hearing about how awesome it is to be a pirate in the vastness of space.
Extras
Once again, even after flicking through the releases filesystem, I couldn’t find too many extras included with the packaging. I did find a bunch of Hanabee trailers, as well as clean opening and closing animations. It also features a teaser trailer for the series.
The reverse cover-art is a picture of space featuring the Bentenmaru and it features an episode listing. As someone who loves reverse artwork, this was a little disappointing, especially considering many other Hanabee releases have such amazing artwork on the flipside. But, eh, you don’t watch the interior of a DVD/BD case too often, do you?
Overall
Bodacious Space Pirates Part 2 is an amazingly entertaining package that, in my opinion, is superior to the first part in many significant ways. Better stories, better dubbing, more awesome spaceships and even more. I’d definitely recommend this series to anyone (as a whole, because it’s a bit weird recommending just part 2 by itself) and anyone that has seen the first part will definitely be wanting to grab this second part of Bodacious Space Pirates.
The latest issue of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine has leaked online and along with it news regarding the next ending theme song for the Hunter x Hunter anime series.
It has now been confirmed that YUZU will once again contribute a song for the Hunter x Hunter anime after having previously performed the third ED theme ‘Reason’. The latest Weekly Shonen Jump announced the the fourth ED theme will be ‘Nagareboshi Kirari’ by YUZU.
Hunter x Hunter fans may recognize the song title from the Hunter x Hunter: Phantom Rouge film’s OST as the song was previously performed by the voice actress of Gon, Killua and Retsu; Megumi Han, Ise Mariya and Hirano Aya respectively. The song will be rerecorded by YUZU for use as the ED theme for the Chimera Ants arc
You can listen to the original version of ‘Nagareboshi Kirari’ below. What do you think of YUZU returning to perform another ED theme for the Hunter x Hunter anime series? Let us know in the comments section.
The latest issue of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine has leaked online and along with it news regarding the next ending theme song for the Hunter x Hunter anime series.