Nothing says new Silent Hill release like a bloody giant pink bunny am I right? Well, even if you don’t agree with that it doesn’t chance the fact that the classic Silent Hill series has returned with a collection of two of the fan favorite games with an HD upgrade. The Silent Hill HD Collection has hit stores today and brings with it both Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3, delighting fans who may have just put down Silent Hill: Downpour.
Not only have these two games received a visual upgrade, but the audio has been re-mastered as well to enhance “the storytelling and ambient music” that was already found in these titles. Also, as these games are showing up for the first time on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 they also come with a slew of Achievements and Trophies for all those hunters out there.
This means that everything you did for fun and for a challenge in the original games will now net you a visible award as you gloat over your friends who were to scared to enter Silent Hill once again!
Unlike most titles from Tecmo Koei, Warriors Orochi 3 wasn’t privy to a very long time to distribute information for potential buyers with various details and press releases. As such it seems that they have chosen to make up with lost time by cramming nearly every feature available in the game into one launch trailer.
You can check out the trailer below and also on your PlayStation 3 as yesterday on the PlayStation Network in North America. Xbox 360 owners will have to wait a little longer than others, though they will benefit from an actual physical release which will occur next week. While some may claim that the various Warriors titles can be a bit too similar to one another, with time travel, new characters and a fresh story mode it seems none of those claims will apply to Warriors Orochi 3.
Noboru Ishiguro passed away at the age of 73 on Tuesday, March 20th. He may be best known for directing the Space Battleship Yamato anime series, or Star Blazers in the West, as well as The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, The Super Dimension Century Orguss, and the movie Macross: Do You Remember Love? for the Macross/Robotech anime series. This year also marking the 30th anniversary of Macross.
Founding Artland, Inc. in 1978 , the studio would go on to co-produce many of the series he directed in addition to Mushishi, Katekyō Hitman Reborn!, and Demon King Daimao. Ishiguro’s latest work had been directing the Tytania anime series, which was adapted from novels by author Yoshiki Tanaka. He had previously directed Legend of the Galactic Heroes, another adaptation from the same author.
Noboru Ishiguro was a major contributor to anime for the past 50 years and his presence will be missed.
The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? Blu-Ray and My Boyfriend’s a Pilot 2012 Playstation 3 game are being released together in a Hybrid Pack that includes a bonus disk filled with content, as well as a 30th Anniversary Box edition which also includes an assortment of physical material, from booklets and miniature posters to actual film.
Macross: Do You Remember Love? is a film based off the TV series The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, better known in the West as the first series in Robotech. The film was made by Macross creator Shōji Kawamori and Macross director Noboru Ishiguro, who recently passed on March 20th. The subtitle referring to a song sung by Macross character Lynn Minmay.
My Boyfriend’s a Pilot 2012 will seem reminiscent to fans of the series as being another of Lynn Minmay’s songs. Other then that, the game features the same staff as the games in previous Hybrid Packs, so can be expected to be in the same vein as those.
Everyone is playing Mass Effect (except for Alexis), but no one is playing the same game. We have Phil doing Game Show this week and get into Xbox Gamerscore glitches, Phil Harrison moving about, Double Fine breaking records and a new indie game that needs your help, Triangle Man.
Cast: Alexis Ayala, Philip Federico, Dustin Spencer & Michael Irving
Music for this podcast is from 8bit Chris
Thanks for listening and let us know what you think!
Kung Fu Rabbit Publisher: BulkyPix Developer: cTools Studio Platforms: iPhone 3GS+ (reviewed), iPod Touch 3rd Gen+, iPad Release Date: March 15th, 2012 Price: $0.99 (Buy Now)
Overview
Kung Fu Rabbit is a fun little platformer from BulkyPix, makers of Jazz (read our review of it here), and it shows. The art style and controls are very similar to those of Jazz, and to the game’s credit.
Story
Some bad blob thingies have captured a load of little bunnies, and you’re on a mission to save them. Oh, and there’s some ufos involved. Or soemthing. The story is told through a few static comic panels at the start of each “world”. And while they look pretty, in BulkyPix’s cartoony style, it’s hard to figure out what’s actually happening in them.
But whatever. It’s a platformer. How does it platform?
Gameplay
It platforms pretty well. You’ve got left and right arrows on the bottom-left of the screen, allowing you to move the Kung Fu Rabbit left and right. These buttons kinda follow you around somewhat, letting you forget about where they actually are, and concentrate on controlling your character, a nice little tweak to the usual virtual buttons. You can also touch above the buttons, reaching all the way to the top of the screen, making it infinitely easier to find the controls. The character controls fairly well, although there are some odd moments when, if you’re standing anywhere near the edge of a platform, the game might just decide that you’re going to fall off.
There’s also jump button on the bottom-right with similar properties. You can slide down walls by falling near them and pushing the relevant direction button to lean into the wall. You can use this to jump away from the wall, and so bounce up parallel walls to reach higher areas, or just to slow your descent for a tricky jump you need to pull off. For some reason you can also keep leaning into the wall and jump to slowly crawl your way up, which feels a bit odd at times. Like you’re cheating or something.
There are 3 carrots and one golden carrot to find in each level, which are then used to buy consumable power-ups from the armory at any time from the pause menu. One such power-up is basically a “continue”. You can place it down at any time, using the button in the top-left of the screen, and are essential if you are to make it through some of the tougher levels without pulling your hair out. But it kinda feels like the game is cheating you out of your hard-earned carrots. Other games just have continues; buying them feels like you’re being ripped off.
Other power-ups, such as “Power Aura” and “Death Ray” help you handle the enemies wandering around each level, clearing the level of bad guys, and such. But these are kind of expensive, and only work until you inevitably die due to some slip up, or the game deciding you slipped up. So all-in-all, youll probably end up just buying a ton of “Soul of the Rabbit” power-ups (the continues), and giving up on the others.
Each level is carefully layed out, with goo stuck to walls, and an array of enemies peppered liberally throughout. The enemies can be taken care of by touching the lit blue areas on particular parts of their bodies. Hit any other part, though, and instant-death for you. The wall gunk, similarly, means instant death. And with some of the levels being quite long, you’ll definitely be reaching for the continues, or suffering the start-from-the-beginning consequences.
Remember I said it platforms “pretty well”? Yeah. Pretty well. The controls work… until the game decides to throw a wobbly. And the levels are well made, though without a built-in checkpoint system, it feels like they are way too long. And the majority of the power-ups are kinda useless.
So… the gameplay is okay, but there’s a few annoyances and bugs that keep it from really shining.
Audio & Visual
The art direction in this game is nicely done. It has a simple, cartoony, oriental kinda feel to it; with a limited, though bright, pallette, that changes as you move onto the different worlds. The animations are also simple, but effective.
The music is pretty cool, fitting the oriental style of the game in general, as well as fitting the various world mileux. The sound effects are cutesy, also fitting the game’s stlye. The pitter-patter of rabbit feet is a great little soundbyte, keeping up the fun and cute atmosphere.
Overall
This game looks and sounds fine, the controls being easy to pick up, as opposed to getting in the way of actually controlling the Kung Fu Rabbit. But the few oddities that pop up in-game from time to time are really quite frustrating. And the power-ups are hardly worth using, apart from the continue item, which is so necessary to complete levels it’s strange they didn’t just have it included in the game.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 has become quite a DLC loaded game, with plenty of costumes and coliseum battles available for download already. However one piece of DLC on the way is moving far away from your standard JRPG genre, instead it is opting for some space age tech.
Today Famitsu revealed the above image, revealing how Mass Effect 3’s Commander Shepard’s armor will appear when it is equipped by Serah and Noel. The DLC pack is set to be released on March 27th for 300 yen or 240 MSP and is going to be called the “N7 Armor.” Currently Square Enix in America has not revealed this piece of DLC, but considering nearly every other piece of DLC has been released at the same time worldwide, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to expect this in the United States next week as well.
There has been plenty of rumors circulating about a sequel for Disney Epic Mickey and today it has been confirmed on two fronts. First it was revealed by Geoff Keighley via Twitter that the game will be called Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two and will be revealed on GTTV.
Then there was a huge reveal from the Associated Press where they pretty much detailed every feature of the game. Epic Mickey 2 will be released on the Wii, Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 and will feature drop-in/out co-op play with an AI taking control when there is no second player. The game will also feature full voice acting which is a nice touch.
Despite what fans may hope for, Bayonetta still hasn’t even been given the slightest teaser for a sequel, however she is going to be making a cameo appearance in the oft delayed Anarchy Reigns when it releases later this year. Also developed by Platinum Games, Anarchy Reigns will contain a guest appearance of Bayonetta. Unfortunately Famitsu’s reveal had no other information about her or in what way she will be implemented into the title.
Currently Sega in North America hasn’t revealed any information at this time, but given the bare bones information provided by Famitsu this is to be expected. Still we have reached out to Sega in an effort to learn more.
Yes, we already have Zuma on the Xbox Live Arcade, but PopCap want Revenge, and plan on dishing it out cold this summer. As of today, PopCap decided to announce Zuma’s Revenge for the Xbox Live Arcade, which will feature a price-tag of 800 points. Cool right? Well, there’s a bit more packed into this port of sorts to capture your attention, such as updated visuals, avatar awards, and online leaderboards.
A full list of features, as well as a statement from Poppy themselves can be found below:
“With well over 20 million game units sold to date, and following the successful launch of four new Zuma titles this year on several leading mobile and handheld devices, the franchise has never been more in demand,” noted Van Riker, Zuma franchise marketing manager at PopCap.
– Extend your gameplay experience in the new and exclusive Boss Rush and Weekly Challenge game modes
– Enjoy updated 2012 gameplay: No more lives, no more checkpoints and no more game over
– Discover and befriend 4 all-new Spirit Animal companions
– Earn Spirit Badges on every level and use them to power up your Spirit Animals
– Dominate your friends on a whopping 74 leaderboards
– Experience remastered HD graphics
– Unlock 20 Xbox LIVE achievements
– Flaunt 2 tiki-themed awards for your Xbox LIVE avatar
So what does this tell us? Well, not a lot considering this release was inevitable. It does however look like Zuma is following Bejeweled and Peggle though in seeing every version hit Microsoft’s download service, which is always a win-win for everyone as Zuma Blitz (my personal favorite) is sure to be next in line. Sweet addictive Zuma, welcome back.
