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.
Astroplasm Developer: Subspark Entertainment Publisher: Subspark Entertainment Platforms: iPad Release Date: March 3, 2012 Price: $4.99 – Available Here
Overview
In the App store there is a huge amount of games similar to Astroplasm. There’s just something about bright colours, flashing lights and simple, classic games that app developers and publishers love. Maybe it’s that sense of nostalgia, maybe it’s the fact that apps are usually played by people with short attention spans, maybe it’s just that they’re fun. Either way, there are certainly plenty to speak of. So does Astroplasm set itself apart from the pack, or does it just fall in with the crowd?
Gameplay
The name Astroplasm doesn’t really give a lot away, so unless you actually read the description you’ll probably be surprised to see that it is a future version of air hockey with no plasm in sight. Oh and it’s set in an alien bar that looks like it’s a rip off of the Star Wars Cantina. But hey, alien air hockey, why not?
Instead of using different difficulty settings to step it up, there are different aliens around the bar you can play. As you defeat each alien another pops up wanting a piece of you. You can either challenge them to a game or take a look at their bio, which have some cool little alien facts. Y’know, for the sake of backstory and all that. There are four different modes you can play them in: Regular, Twin Puck, Magnetron and Survivor.
Regular is as it suggests, with your standard air hockey table, and the person who gets to 20 first wins. Personally I didn’t encounter much trouble with winning flawlessly until several aliens in. Twin Puck has the puck divide into two pucks after a certain time period, with a flashing circle appearing just before it occurs. This does mean that certain mistakes may happen if the dividing happens at an inopportune time, and I did accidentally score my own goal a couple of times. Magnetron is a barrier that wanders the space in between you and your opponent and either let’s the puck pass through harmlessly, or ‘magnetises’ it and shoots it back in the direction it came from. Survival has the puck starting at quite a slow pace, gaining momentum as it the round goes on until someone finally misses and they lose the point. This mode takes the most patience, particularly if you are facing an easy opponent because the puck will almost never gain decent momentum and it becomes a patience game more than anything.
The paddle is fairly responsive, and as you move through the game you can both upgrade the puck and the paddle, which offers you different positives. Some of the more advanced, tricky paddles or pucks may take some getting used to as you get a handle on how to use them to your advantage, but overall they’re fairly easy to adapt to.
There are also actually some insight into the different characters through bios, which detail their origin, age, and skill. This was a nice little touch, and brought another dimension to that special little aspect that this brought to the game.
Visuals
Like I’ve said before, the different levels are imaginatively set up, and the bar is an interesting set to look at, even though the animations are very minimal. This includes when you’re playing a round, the only thing that really moves is the opponents eyes, which at times gets super creepy. The character designs are fairly unique though, and keep a good handle on that cool noir bar theme as well as inventive alien designs.
Audio
The soundtrack follows that noir, bar theme that the game screams. It varies from the jazzy to the more relaxed, chilled out beats while you are playing, depending on who you are playing. However, I found myself not wanting to have the sound on when playing, why? Well because each opponent has their own unique voices, with odd taunts, and pained grunts when you score against them. In one case of going against a small girl, I actually felt a little disturbed. Giving the characters voices is something that sets the game apart from others, however, in this case that didn’t work out as a positive for the game. This is definitely not a game to be playing loudly in public.
Overall
Astroplasm is a bit of a different game, not in its gameplay, or concept, but in the execution. It sort of defies explanation when it comes to how it plays, even though explaining the game itself is easily done. In terms of whether or not it sets itself apart from other similar arcade games, the answer is that it definitely does. If you want an arcade game that will make you laugh at its moments of pure silliness, and hilarious and disturbing voices, then this is definitely something to grab.
Could you perhaps be a fan of that crazy limbless bastard known as Rayman? Perhaps that’s why you clicked into this article? Well, assuming that you are one of the Rayfans, it would be to your liking to know that Rayman 3 HD is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace and Playstation Network.
That’s right Rayfans, Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc has gotten it’s long awaited HD update. Now you can relive the glorious havoc of the hoodlum’s on your Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 with Rayman 3 HD.
Too excited to contain yourself? Have your limbs become detached in a state of overwhelming ecstasy? Then continue your gleeful convulsions whilst checking out the launch trailer for Rayman 3 HD below. Rayfans rejoice!
In anticipation of the upcoming third instalment in the offbeat shooter series, Far Cry, set for release later this year, Ubisoft have released a new trailer for the game. The latest trailer focuses on Far Cry 3’s gameplay aspects, giving gamers a closer look at what the game’s got to offer.
You can check out the Far Cry 3 gameplay trailer below. The game is set for a release on September 4th for North America and September 6th for Europe and Australia. Far Cry 3 is said to return to the franchise to it’s tropical island routes as seen in the very first Far Cry game, except this time you play as a guy with a Mohawk.
Let us know what you think of the Far Cry 3 gameplay trailer below in the comments section.
The Skylanders Tower Case turned out to be a No#1 selling accessory for the Summer, selling out quickly across most stores in Australia.
But we have great news for all you Skylanders fans out there! New stocks of the Skylanders Tower Case have just arrived and will be available again in retail stores all over Australia over the next few months. One such retailer will be EB Games who are now a major stockist for the product. If you don’t have an EB Games in your area the Skylanders Tower Case will also be available from : Big W, Target, Harvey Norman, Dick Smith, and Toys R Us
If you missed out the first time on this this must have Skylanders accessory I’d suggest picking one up this time around as this might be your last chance at doing so before it disappears forever from retail shelves.
For anyone that is not familiar with what the Skylanders Tower case is all about check out the description, video and images for it below :
The official Skylanders Tower Case unfolds to keep 8 Skylander figurines and your Portal of Power ready for action. A special spot on top stores your Portal of Power during gameplay. And when it’s time to move, everything tucks inside and fastens securely, with a collapsible handle on top making transport easy.
Defenders of Ardania Developer: Most Wanted Entertainment Publisher: Paradox Interactive Release Date: March 14 Platform: XBLA (reviewed), PC Price: 1200 Microsoft Points (HERE), $14.99 – PC
Overview
It’s not every day a new tower defence game comes out…
HA! Now that joke’s out the way: It’s not every day a tower defence game that also has an emphasis on tower offence comes out. Defenders of Ardania puts you in control of a small, defensible area, and it’s up to you to defend your castle from oncoming waves of enemies while having to destroy their fortress at the same time. Does this twist make the game worth your while, or is this a castle that should be burnt to the ground and forever forgotten?
Gameplay
Spoilers: Yes, it really should be.
Defenders of Ardania is a painful game to play. It can hardly handle the mechanics of basic tower defence, much less the addition of an offensive facet to the concept.
A round of Defenders of Ardania starts much like any tower defence game. There’s your castle, your pool of cash, and a variety of towers to build and upgrade. I was pleasantly surprised at the outset, as playing tower defense on Xbox can usually feel a little clunky, but the towers can only be placed on certain points of the map’s grid, so navigation and placement is quite simple. Little did I realize the long-term implications of such a design decision.
See, there’s a limit on the number of towers you are able to build per level. That means that about five minutes in, your strategy with regards to tower placement becomes limited to upgrading and remaining aware of the occasional pathing change of enemy units. And because you are also responsible for destroying an enemy castle (a castle which has a health bar comparable to your own) rather than simply having to survive a set number of waves, an individual level of Defenders of Ardania takes a ridiculous amount of time to complete.
Long matches aren’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as the game encourages dynamism in strategy and variety of play style, but you’ll find neither in Defenders of Ardania. The half-hour minimum it takes to complete a singleplayer mission generally involves setting up your towers and then continuously spamming units towards the enemy’s base.
It’s not even like there’s a great variety of units either. The most effective strategy is to just spam the super slow tank units or the quick rogues. Either way, the units that do get to the enemy castle do negligible amounts of damage.
In a game like this, the “bug bites” manner in which you take down the castle means the pace of play slows to a crawl, even if you use the option to speed up the game. I literally fell asleep while playing, but because the waves sent at you are so static and repetitive, I woke up after my unintended nap to find my castle still standing and the round unfinished.
Multiplayer only exacerbates these issues, as all the players are capable of repairing their castles. Which means an already tediously lengthy match is now extended to the point of ridiculousness.
Defenders of Ardania takes an interesting concept (a concept which has had some success in the past, particularly within the modding community for real time strategy games) and fails utterly in the delivery of that concept. The use of indomitable, massive health bars for castles destroys any semblance of urgency, the units rushing towards you require little change in tactical acumen, and the spammy nature in which you must attack enemy castles borders on more repetitive than repeatedly bashing your head into the wall (it just hurts less).
Audio & Visual
In all fairness, the environments of Defenders of Ardania don’t look bad. There’s a variety in locations and there’s a fair amount of detail on each indvidual map. However, the unit design is bland and the animation is simply lacking. Oh, and good luck differentiating your towers from your opponent’s because there’s so little contrast in the tiny identifying banner on each tower that you’ll have to move the cursor over each individual one to see if it belongs to you. There’s also the occasional frame rate stutter, which by itself isn’t horrible, but compounding it with the already frustrating nature of the game makes for some very loud swearing and/or thrown controllers.
The sound design is average; so better than the rest of the game. The music is nothing to write home about and neither is the voice acting for the game’s very loose story, but it’s a tower defence game, I wasn’t expecting a rendition of Hamlet. To its credit, some of the writing for Defenders of Ardania can actually involve funny satire of the fantasy genre, but it falls flat as often as it’ll make you chuckle.
Overall
Do not buy this game (unless you enjoy increasing your Gamerscore while napping). Yes it looks pretty, yes the concept is interesting, but in the end there’s only one question that a game has to answer: is it fun? Between the tedious, never-ending gameplay and the simmering frustration at all the little things that are just not right, the answer is absolutely, unequivocally no.
