Grubby Hands’ whimsical game Boy Loves Girl is getting a free Lite version. Help Boy along his journey to win the heart of his one true love. Help gather everything Girl desires to make her happy. The Lite version preserves the original full game play experience but cuts the levels down to 13 levels plus an unspecified amount of bonus levels. The game is retina ready, though no word if this includes the new iPad’s retina screen. If you have been sitting on the fence about purchasing Boy Loves Girl than this is your opportunity to give Boy Loves Girl a test run and decide if this is the game for you.
After an accidental leak about a possible LittleBigPlanet racing game back in February, Sony has chosen today to officially reveal the title under the previously rumored name, LittleBigPlanet Karting. The same developers behind Modnation Racers, United Front Games, is going to be handling the racer and promises the same level of detail that the original developers of LittleBigPlanet had.
Like past titles, LittleBigPlanet Karting will feature a full creation and customization system that will allow players to create new levels, racers and apparently even ” modify the rules of the game itself to create completely new modes and challenges” or so United Front Games senior producer James Grieve says. Currently the title has no solid release date beyond sometime in 2012 on the PlayStation 3.
So… with another racing game with customization coming to the PlayStation 3 will it be too similar to Modnation Racers to justify purchase or will the combination of LittleBigPlanet and racing be too much to resist? Check out the trailer below to see just how superior LittleBigPlanet Karting looks already.
It was always sort of expected that Square Enix would be bringing Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy to North America and Europe, but the company had never officially confirmed anything until now. Today Square Enix has revealed that they are planning to localize the game and they are currently aiming for a Summer release window.
For those who haven’t been paying attention, Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy is a rhythm-action game that uses “more than 70 musical scores” from past Final Fantasy titles including the most recent releases as well. Players will use the Nintendo 3DS’ touch screen to tap and drag their stylus to the beat of the music during field sequences, events and even battles. Alongside this announcement Square Enix released a slew of new screenshots which can be seen below.
Yesterday it was revealed that Bayonetta would be in Platinum Games’ upcoming action game, Anarchy Reigns. At that time however the company had not revealed how exactly she would be in the game, but today they have chosen to not only reveal her as a playable character in the game’s online modes but also revealed the below trailer.
Those who have played Bayonetta will recognize nearly every move Bayonetta unleashes as it seems they have held nothing back from this fan favorite. Gamers who want to play as Bayonetta, at least in Japan, will need to pre-order the game to play as her but fans in the West will be glad to know that Platinum Games has already revealed she will be available overseas as well, though no details were given about how she will be obtained when the game is released in North America on July 3rd.
Last year there was a significant gap in XBLA promotions from Microsoft as gamers had to wait nearly six months between the House Party and Summer of Arcade promotions. Today however Microsoft has introduced a new promotion which they are calling “Arcade NEXT.”
Why should you care about this promotion? Well it brings with it at least two titles which fans have been dying for, Trials Evolution and Minecraft. The promotion begins with Trials Evolution on April 18th, Bloodforge on April 25th, Fable Heroes on May 2nd and finally Minecraft on May 9th. Fable Heroes will run you 800 MSP while Minecraft will break your little MSP bank at a cost of 1600 MSP, those concerned about the rest of the games will be happy to see they only cost 1200 MSP. It is worth noting that every single one of these games will support the new 400 Gamerscore limit as well.
An all-new Angry Birds short film, “Angry Birds Space” is coming to a television screen near you. Nickelodeon has exclusive global rights to be the first to air the short film, which it will do on Friday 23rd March at 6 p.m.
Six new birds will be revealed in this animated short film which tells the story of how the Angry Birds end up in space. It begins on a day much like any other, but suddenly a cosmic vortex appears and brings visitors from another galaxy with some unfriendly intentions. This means the heroic birds have to slingshot themselves into a new adventure – space.
Angry Birds are the most downloaded games ever, with over 700 million downloads in the two years since they launched. The Angry Birds Space game will be available worldwide on from today too.
Nickelodeon is available on Sky 604, Virgin 712 and TalkTalk 315.
Shoot Many Robots Publisher: Ubisoft Developer:Demiurge Studios Platforms: Xbox 360 (Reviewed), PlayStation 3, PC Release Date: 14/03/2012 Price:800 Microsoft Points
Overview:
Shoot Many Robots is a 2D action shooter title developed by the same studio that has quite the impressive resume in working with other major developers, helping develop several high profile titles such as Mass Effect, Bioshock, and several Rock Band games. Shoot Many Robots is the latest from the company, and unlike their previous projects which were mostly done in collaboration with other developers, this shiny new shooter is their independent project. The game is a digital download purchase on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, with a PC release on the Steam platform to follow after.
Visuals and Audio:
Shoot Many Robots has a very cool and laid back art direction. It has this goofy western cartoon look to it with some offbeat character designs and such. The general demeanor and style of the game is just very American, with a strong and stereotypical American country life vibe. The characters are hillbilly and redneck types, with a fun and laid back attitude. Graphically it’s a decent looking game with a very gritty look and good use of rusty colour tones in the environments, which include locations like scrap yards, forests, and factories. The 3D graphics are decent enough and have an interesting stylisation.
Shoot Many Robots has a very groovy and lazy southern American rock soundtrack, the tracks in the game are scattered with some rather chill and slow guitar tunes that don’t necessarily provide an adrenaline rush, but still compliment the rather rusty and robotic wasteland look of the game’s levels. The simplistic guitar tunes do pick up in speed and aggression during the more intense sections of the game.
Aesthetically and aurally, it’s a rather cool looking game even if it isn’t anything mind blowing. However, it’s still a bit refreshing game because most games in this genre have mostly been developed by Japanese game studios and as such have that strong Japanese and anime vibe to their sound and visuals, so it’s pretty cool to see a very American comic book style aesthetic and hearing a southern rock style of music.
Gameplay:
Shoot Many Robots is a 2D shooter platformer in much similar vein to the Contra series, and perhaps the most recent game that’s most similar to Shoot Many Robots is the amazing Hard Corps Uprising.
In Shoot Many Robots, as the name suggests, is about a small band of humans battling an army of robots (or as the game likes call it, ‘murdering’ robots). There are three main maps each consisting a set of worlds and levels. Each of the maps offers a different level of difficulty, being Normal, Hard, and Insane. You’re forced to start from Normal, and unlock new levels by earning stars in each level.
Levels generally come in two types, survival levels and standard action levels. In the survival levels you have to survive an onslaught of robots, and after surviving the primarily wave, you then get a chance to take on some bonus waves which you don’t have to survive but doing so will increase your score and such. The standard action levels involve you to progress levels in a typical 2D shooter platformer fashion, taking on hoards of enemy robots and working your way through some obstacles, traps, and typical platforming situations. The levels are fun, nothing too intuitive or crazy in terms of design and such, but they offer a nicely paced action and enough enemy and design variety to keep you entertained, as well as some conveniently placed checkpoints.
There are boss battles too, and while they’re not nearly as crazy as the brutal behemoths that can be found in Hard Corps Uprising, they are actually a lot of fun in terms of their design and pattern. The enemy variety is decent but the bosses are actually really good and represent some of the best moments of the game.
Mechanically the game is sound, as your character comes with all the essential skills such as double jump, dash, melee strikes, and others you can unlock. One of the coolest things you can do in the game is literally punch these red bullets right back at the enemy. You can carry up to two weapons, a primary weapon that carries unlimited ammunition a much powerful secondary weapon that carries limited ammunition but carry quite the big punch. The controls work well and it plays really well overall.
The best part of Shoot Many Robots is that you get to pretty much build your character and customise him with in variety of ways. While the main focus is obviously to rack up a high score for some bragging rights, you also need to try collect as many nuts and bolts from fallen robots. These robot parts serve as the game’s currency, with which you can purchase all sorts of new weapons such as flame throwers, grenade launchers, machine guns, shotguns, and numerous others. You can also purchase some really useful attire upgrades which include hats, shirts, and pants, with each offering some stat improvements and in some cases even new abilities such as a power slam. You can’t just purchase what you please, as you need to discover some of these weapons within the game’s stages, and also level up your character in order to be able to purchase them. Leveling up also helps to improve your health and offensive strength.
The deep customisation alone is what makes Shoot Many Robots such an accessible experience compared to most games in the genre, and gives the game a very natural progression and also does wonders for its replay value. While the game obviously gets harder as you go along, you can still work to increase your character’s level and collect more nuts to purchase more weapons. It’s just a matter of making your character strong and figuring out the ideal combination of weapons that suits your play style or nature of the level. The challenge is therefore, usually under control and manageable because of this.
There is an online multiplayer component too, allowing up to four players to play co-op, but at the time of review I was unable to find any players to test this.
Overall:
Shoot Many Robots is a really entertaining shooter adventure that adds quite the modern twist to the Contra style of gameplay that it draws upon. The actual game itself will offer you a ton of great action, fun bosses, and lots of levels with a natural progression in challenge. The best part is that you can level up your character and customise him with a ton of upgrades and weapons. It’s a great shooting experience, and for its price you will definitely get plenty of bangs for your buck.
Using the world famous Angry Birds, Nokia have created a first, by using augmented reality to allow people to play in their own interactive game on a massive screen alongside our favourite destructive avian friends. Additionally, members of the public got to dance off in a virtual environment against Aussie pop star Timomatic, who popped out from the Lumia screen to accept the challenge, testing players with his signature moves. The event was part of a campaign to launch the new Lumia series in Australia and the technology was based on a mat which was powered by Microsofts Kinect and touch sensors which were activated by participants. Players had to choose whether to play Angry Birds, dance off against Timomatic or pet a lost Kangaroo on his way home to Uluru.
Nokia’s head of marketing, Jolaine Boyd, said, “Nokia Lumia is a completely new proposition from Nokia and getting people to experience and judge the phone for themselves is key. “What we love about this stunt is that it allows people to experience some of the great features of the phone in a new and exciting way. Judging by people’s reactions, they were amazed and impressed by what they experienced today,” she said.
The basic premise behind AR is that is that it takes graphical images from a computer screen and has the ability to intgrate them into real-life scenarios thus somewhat confusing the user into what is real and what isnt during the experience.
Are fedora-wearing worms with Scottish accents throwing explosive bananas at each other not zany enough for you? Well, Team 17 are adding a dash more zaniness to the recipe with a new customization pack for Worms: Ultimate Mayhem.
Available from Wednesday 28th March from Xbox Live Arcade, the new pack will cost 400MS Points, and contain 10 new headwear items (including a Feudal Warrior Helmet, Rapper Shades and a Polar Bear mask), 4 new pairs of gloves (including a baseball mitt and Alien Sucker Hands), 5 new gravestones (including a Fiddle and one decorated with Christmas lights), 5 new speechbanks (including Rock Star and Supervillain) and 5 new “payloads” for your customized weapons (including beetles and spaceships).
Also keep an ear to the ground next weekend, as Team 17 have stated a big announcement will take place on March 30th… If it’s not an April Fool’s prank, that is.
If you haven’t spent those extra coins at Club Nintendo yet, you should take notice as Ninty have a brand new reward that is quite awesome, to say the least. After all these years of Mario getting merch and specialized accessories, Luigi has gotten his with a brand new 3DS Pouch.
As you see above, this design is of Luigi’s hat, and will only cost members 450 coins. To make things even better, this pouch will also fit the DSi and DS Lite and even includes a little pocket to hold a cartridge. Yes, it’s beastly, but Nintendo always has a reason behind everything and with Luigi’s Mansion 2 coming out this year, I would imagine this is just the first item in line of in terms of promotion for everyone’s favorite brother.
