Today Sentai Filmworks revealed that they picked up quite an adorable little anime in the form of Acchi Kocchi. The anime series aired during the Spring anime season last year and the company is going to be releasing it under a new name called “Place to Place” on subtitled DVD sometime later this year.
Acchi Kocchi is an anime adaptation of a 4koma manga series and it follows a tsundere girl named Tsumiki, who isn’t actually a cat-girl, and the object of her affection Io as well as their friends as they live out their high school lives. The series was, as mentioned earlier, adorable when it first aired and absolutely hilarious with its random comedy so this is quite a pick-up for Sentai.
Today Namco Bandai provided an official release date for their unique looking Naruto Powerful Shippuden, also known as Naruto SD: Powerful Shippuden. This super deformed looking game featuring Naruto and Rock Lee battling against chibi enemies will be released in North America on March 5th.
The game’s story mode will feature a story mode for both Naruto and Rock Lee and will take missions from the anime series, Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals which currently has not been licensed in the West. Along with this announcement the company also released a few new screenshots. Those of you who want to check out the game’s trailer as well as a number of other images, you can find the trailer herewhile the screenshots can be seen here.
Retro City Rampage Developer: Vblank Entertainment Publisher: D3 Publisher (XBLA), Vblank Entertainment (Windows/PS3/PS Vita) Platforms: PC, Playstation 3, PS Vita, Xbox Live Arcade (Reviewed) Release Date: January 3rd, 2013 Price: $14.99/ 800 MSP Get it Here
Overview
Retro City Rampage started out 11 years ago as a fan project. Brian Provinciano wanted to create an 8-bit version of Grand Theft Auto 3. In the 11 years since then, this project morphed into Retro City Rampage, a satirical tribute to pop culture and video games. Retro City Rampage leaves no pop culture reference untouched in instantly recognizable NES graphics.
Story
The plot in Retro City Rampage is pretty forgettable. The main character, conveniently named Player, is the classic GTA hero who is a low level thug with an ever so slight conscience. The player hops into a broken port-a-potty turned time machine to avoid the cops in a bank heist gone wrong. He meets Doc Choc who becomes convinced Player comes from the future and Player’s ridiculous adventure to fix the time machine begins.
The story line quickly takes a back seat to the game. Like a Family Guy episode, the actual plot is a rough and easily forgettable structure that keeps the game’s plot together, but the real gems are the plethora of pop culture and video game references generously spooned into the game. Playing Retro City Rampage is like walking down Hollywood and going star spotting. Players are guaranteed to bump into at least one reference they understand and a few more obscure references too.
Gameplay
It is extremely obvious that Retro City Rampage started its life as a port of Grand Theft Auto 3. It boasts a large open world that just begs to be explored. The stores are tongue in cheek parodies that would make Rockstar proud. As a Canadian, I even spotted a few subtly Canadian references. The city has taken several cues from developer Brian Provinciano’s base of operations in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The game itself is broken down into three modes. The free roam mode strips out all the missions and allows the player to roam around the city as either the protagonist or special characters unlocked during the course of the main game. Most of these characters are from iconic indie games like Minecraft and Super Meat Boy. The arcade challenge provides players an opportunity to compete on the leaderboards for high scores.
The main attraction of the game is the story mode. There are 62 missions to complete and several on the side distractions to optionally complete. There are a wide variety of weapons to wreak havoc with. The inventory system becomes a little irritating to handle as the right bumper is used to cycle through each weapon. After a while, the inventory becomes rather full. I found myself trying to jump around and dodging enemies while rapidly tapping the inventory button trying to find the weapon I needed for the situation.
The missions cover all the basics from car reappropriations, assassinations, and the dreaded tail missions to a few retro throw backs like the paper boy mission and Metal Gear Solid styled sneaking missions. Some of the missions can become a little tedious, as many boil down to drive from point A to B, kill a lot of people without dying, finish the missions or here is a special vehicle, go on a huge killing spree while trying to get the highest score possible. The checkpoints are placed at reasonable points and failure results in some good advice on completing the mission.
The controls are excellent as they are responsive and are well thought out. The game provides a good tutorial for controlling the game that is built into the story. Driving controls can be set to old school type controls or a simplified point in the direction and go type controls. Those who are too young to remember the NES era of gaming will not encounter too much of a struggle to transition to the top down and 2d perspectives of the game. The only time I ever struggled with the controls was aiming my stomps. I found the hit box could be a little small, especially when my target was moving around. However, the game provides a large bonus reward for the skill required to chain stomps together.
Visuals
Retro City Rampage is presented in classic 8-bit NES graphics. It stays true to form with all the classic styled screen effects. The only modern concession the game makes is the possibility to play the game in widescreen format instead of having borders on the window. There are several border styles that can be selected including the classic arcade cabinet look.
Audio
Three major chiptune artists where brought on board to provide the soundtrack to the game. Freaky DNA, virt, and Norrin Radd have put together a great soundtrack that blends in well with the 8-bit nature of the game. As an added bonus, a free demo mix tape is available for free download on the Retro City Rampage website alongside the full soundtrack in vinyl and MP3 formats. The sound effects do well, never getting annoying or repetitive but never manage to hit a wow this is amazing moment either. They simply work. Overall
Overall, Retro City Rampage is an excellent game that stumbles on its repetitiveness and its constant need to parody everything. It provides an excellent soundtrack, strong controls, and perfect replication of 8-bit graphics from the NES. However it struggles to come into its own as a video game and escape being an 8-bit Grand Theft Auto parody. For 800MSp/$14.99 USD, I can easily recommend the game for fans of the GTA style games and those looking for a solid retro throwback game, but for those not particularly interested in either Retro City Rampage may best saved for a sale price purchase.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
ATLUS and Old School Games have put together a pretty fun new contest to promote their new game God Mode, while letting players lend a hand athe final product s well. Since the game focuses on players starting out already deceased, to add a little bit more fun the game includes a Spirit Guide that mocks the player for how they died. How can players help with that? By coming up with fun, ironic, or otherwise unique deaths for the Spirit Guide to chide the player with.
The winners of the contest will have their submission recorded by the voice of the Spirit Guide for inclusion in the game and the author listed in the Special Thanks of the games credits. If you have what it takes to come up with worthy death, double check the official rules and submit it to the comments section of the news post HERE before January 11th 11:59 pm PT.
God Mode is a up to four player co-op shooter for PC, XBLA, and PSN set to release early this year, that is luckily rated M, so potential contest entrants don’t have to worry as much about the content of their submissions.
A new App for use in conjunction with Ubisoft’s latest free-roam insane shooter, Far Cry 3, has just been released. This App allows players to find in game encrypted codes in the multiplayer and co-operative modes of the game and decrypt them even when the app isn’t in direct use. By uncoding these special in-game collectibles players will unlock new attachments, gear and weapons for use in Far Cry 3’s online modes; nice initiative to think about the title even outside of game time.
You also may want to rope in any friends you have to boost your own experience. By inviting friends and linking up, items are decoded much faster and player trade can even occur between individual phones. Boost your own game or help out a buddy, it’s all up to you in this new way to play.
Far Cry 3 is out now and available for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC; check out our review of the game here. Also feel free to watch the release trailer for the Outpost Decoding App down below, which itself is available now for all recent iOS and Android devices. Pick up for free from the iTunes Store here.
The latest in flash storage from manufacturer Kingston, DataTraveler 3.0 Ultimate Generation 3 USB 3.0 compatible flash drive, is being shipped to stores across Australia. This incredibly fast flash drive is idea for transferring large files such as: Videos, Music, Hi Res Images and more.
The flash drive boasts maximum read speeds of 150MBps and the incredibly fast write speed of 70MBps. However this is only on USB 3.0 ports, so if you only have USB 2.0 ports, you’ll be gimped at 30MBps read speeds and write speeds up to 20MBps.
On the new device, a Kingston representative had this to say:
“USB 3.0 is becoming more mainstream as it is standard on most motherboards and PCs shipping today,” said Nathan Su, Flash Memory Sales Director, APAC Region, Kingston. “We are working hard to make sure we improve the speed and design of our USB 3.0 Flash drives to stay competitive as demand grows in the market. DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 is a perfect example of this evolution.”
Be sure to check out the devices official site for more info. Check out below for a list of technical specifications.
Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 Features and Specifications:
· Capacities*: 32GB, 64GB
· Speed**: USB 3.0 up to 150MB/s Read, 70MB/s Write
USB 2.0 up to 30MB/s Read, 20MB/s Write
· USB 3.0 Performance***: Dramatic time savings when transferring large media files; 8x faster than a standard USB 2.0
· Durable Design: Solid metal sliding casing with no cap to lose
· Backwards Compatibility: Usable with USB 2.0 systems with excellent performance throughout
· Guaranteed: Five-year warranty and free technical support
· Dimensions: Without key ring: 2.6929″ x 0.8961″ x 0.4567″ (68.40mm x 22.76mm x 11.6mm) with key ring: 3.3622″ x 0.8961″ x 0.4567″ (85.40mm x 22.76mm x 11.6mm)
· Operating Temperature: 32°F to 140°F (0°C to 60°C)
· Storage Temperature: -4°F to 185°F (-20°C to 85°C)
If you have checked out the PlayStation Store since yesterday, you may have noticed that Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable is now available for download exclusively on the PlayStation Vita. As such, D3 Publisher has released a launch trailer for the game which can be seen below.
Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable is basically a port of the original Earth Defense Force 2017 which was released back in 2007 but features brand new missions, new enemies and of course co-op and competitive multiplayer.
D3 Publisher is currently running a promotion where anyone who downloads Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable before February 4th will receive a free pack of DLC that provides the Electro Paralyzer, the Heat Blaster, the Limit Booster and the Reverse Drone. Anyone who wants to buy the pack after this time will have to buy each gun separately for $.99 a piece.
Bluehole Studio, creators of fantasy MMO TERA, revealed that their flagship title is getting the free-to-play treatment along with a new subtitle. The game will now be known as TERA: Rising. Released in May 2012, TERA will be making its switch into to new paradigm with new content including “Champions Skyring,” a PvP arena, and a wave-based dungeon called “Crucible of Flame.”
TERA: Rising will make the switch in February and give players full access to existing content and no level cap, but will only receives two character slots per server. An in-game store will be added as well. Players who have already purchased a copy of TERA will have access to six character slots, an exclusive mount, and an in-game title by way of getting “founder” status. Players who continue to pay $14.99 a month will receive “elite” status which comes with a bevy of perks including more rewards for dungeons, in-game store discounts, an epic mount, and more.
According to En Masse Entertainment’s Brian Knox, the choice was made for TERA to go free-to-play to draw more people to the game and because “the MMO market has changed, and for the better.”
You can check out the TERA: Rising announcement trailer below, or the age-gated website here.
Fans of Devil May Cry 3 and 4 may remember the “Bloody Palace” game mode that put players in an arena where they literally fought thousands of levels upon levels of murderous demons until they could take no more. Avid players of the game would often compete with their friends and in tournaments to see who could get the best score, with the winner gaining respect and uhm… hack-and-slash cred. DmC Devil May Cry looks set to continue this trend with an all new “Bloody Palace” mode built around the same concept and goals; several screenshots of which can be found down below.
Once the game launches players will know whether or not they can play with more than Dante, as in Devil May Cry 3 they could use Dante and Vergil and in 4 they could use both Nero and Dante. It stands to reason then that because of the upcoming Vergil’s Downfall DLC where we get to actually have hands on time with the cool Dark Slayer himself, that he will most likely appear as usable in the game.
This mode comes as a free title update shortly after the game will be released, with no additional charges or codes needed to access it. With over one hundred levels of demons to fight and five different brutal bosses to face, players will certainly have their skills tested on the Global Leaderboards, where they can compete with others from around the world to decide who is the ultimate Demon Slayer.
DmC Devil May Cry will be released in just five days on the 15th of January for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. Jackpot!
A pretty incredibly well-done episode of Crysis 3’s 7 Wonders Trailer series has just been released by Crytek and EA. In this trailer we hear protagonist Prophet talk about the “Cause and Effect” of power and how it impacts on the world around us. Then we see a very nicely choreographed slow-mo rewind effect as Prophet kills many, many people and takes down a helicopter, all in a brilliant mix of powers and weapons that the player can actually use in-game.
One thing that is interesting to note is that the trailer uses music featured in Crysis 2, just lightly re-mixed and altered for the trailer. Whether this means that the full soundtrack of Crysis 3 will include previous songs from the series remains to be seen, but with how good the overall quality of the sound design has remained, would that even be such a bad thing?
Crysis 3 is set for release on February 19th in North America, February 21st in Australia, February 22nd in Europe and finally March 7th in Japan. Crytek’s latest title will be releasing on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.
