Launching Pad Games have decided to give us all a little Christmas present, in the form of a holiday update for Mighty Fin! There really is nothing like a little holiday update for an app, it makes you all cheery and Christmas-sy in ways that shopping centre carols just never will.
There are three new holiday levels of Winter Wonderland, Down Under and the Tim Burton-inspire Haunted Holiday. And what is more festive than some Tim Burton? There are also twelve festive costumes, and a generous sprinkling of some damn good cheer.
For those who already own Mighty Fin you can grab the update for free of course, but for those of you who think this sounds like a pretty awesome deal then make sure you grab yourself a copy!
Mighty Fin is available for iPad, iPhone and iTouch for $0.99 – get it HERE
With a name like Buck Crosshaw its no surprise that he’s a bit of a badass. Put on top of that the fact that he’s an outlaw who had to fake his own death and escape Arizona, oh and also the fact that he’s a character from a game called ‘Six-Guns’, which is set in the Wild West. Well that’s damn near enough to get me interested.
Explore the open world set in Arizona and Oregon, filled with events, mystery and challenges which count – but are not limited to – outlaws, vampires and many others which will probably leave you pretty drawn into this not-so-usual title.
There are forty missions overall, and with a wide range of tasks you’re bound to never get bored! There are 8 different horses to unlock, 19 weapons, and a whole heap of clothes, ammo and other items.
Six-Guns is available on iPhone and iPad for FREE – get it HERE
Everything is magical and nothing hurts! That’s how they roll in Fantasy Town. A place for magic and imagination where you get to grow magic plants, build a village of your own, and explore mysterious lands. Expect to run into some fantasy creatures, from dwarves to (I’m guessing) unicorns. Because what’s a fantasy game without some unicorns thrown in?
There aren’t any limitations to what you can build and decorate, so this is great for kids if they’re going through the stage where everything simply must be as colourful, shiny, and rainbow-y as possible! Or if you’re just looking for a place to vent your inner interior designer.
There are items to collect and monsters to slay! Fantasy Town will certainly fulfill your thirst for the fantastical, either way. Plus, you can invite friends over Facebook Connect and check out each other’s towns as well as trade some stuff.
Fantasy Town is available on the iPhone and iPad for FREE – get it HERE
With The Amazing Spider-Man set for mid-next year release, its no surprise that Activision Publishing and Marven Entertainment announce the Amazing Spider-Man video game, planned to launch in (US) Winter 2012. Set entirely after the events of the movie, the game will be about free-roaming the city, slinging your webs all over the joint and stopping some of those nasty criminals.
With some awesome improvements to navigation and combat, this new Spidey is set to rock and roll. With an original storyline written by Hollywood writer Seamus Kevin Fahey, the game follows young Peter Parker’s adventures after the events of the new film. Using a new game mechanic dubbed Web Rush, you can now pull of a wide array of moves never before possible. Explore Manhattan all over, experiencing what it is truly like to be the wise-cracking, kinda-nerdy, but-super-cool hero.
The trailer for the game will be available online from December 12. In the mean time, check out the teaser below! For more information about the game go to the website.
Gamevil have announced that Colosseum Heroes is being introduced to Android for the low price of absolutely free! Colosseum Heroes expands on the original game with more upgradable weapons, monsters and stages. Existing, as well as new, players can now choose to be a goodly knight or an angsty vampire. There is also all new challenge mode where you get to slice through an endless wave of monsters. Because who doesn’t enjoy that?
Colosseum Heroes is a side-scroller with plenty of combat, smooth stylized animations, and intuitive controls which will leave you plenty pleased.
Colosseum Heroes is available on Android now for FREE – get it HERE
One of the most popular European comic book characters, Hergé’s Tintin, has made his way from the page, to the small screen and all the way to the big screen in full 3D. Now, you can experience the adventures of Tintin on the even smaller screen of your mobile devices with Gameloft’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Game. Being a Tintin fan, I was rather excited to get my hands on the mobile game adaptation of the forthcoming film today at Paramount Studios in Sydney.
The plot of the game follows the movie, incorporating levels that fans will find very familiar, such as the Karaboudjan and Marlinspike Hall: both of which I had a quick play through. Incorporating a number of different game play modes, The Adventures of Tintin allows you to control Tintin, Captain Haddock, Snowy and even Sir Francis Haddock. You make your way through levels, which are designed for gamers of any level to enjoy, solving puzzles, fighting pirates, piloting planes and even collecting bonus items.
The Karaboudjan level has you control Tintin has he attempts to escape from his kidnappers. Climbing from the window you will need to use stealth to scale the hull of the ship, avoiding sailors and rats and trying not to fall. Because the game is based on the movie, there are a wide range of cut scenes that push the story forward. These cut scenes use the same engine as the game, and as a result become interactive, allowing players to look around using their devices gyroscopic technology and tapping to find hidden puzzle pieces and coins to collect. There is always the ability to skip them, but then you’d miss out on the engaging story. The game play itself takes advantage of the mobile devices touch screens, allowing you to tap and swipe to engage with items, not to mention the two action buttons and virtual-joy stick to use through out the game. The elements all marry well and provide for a rather interesting game. I am eager to play the game in its entirety and experience the range of other game play features.
It’s strange to see Tintin and the rest of Hergé’s characters as fully three-dimensionally rendered characters. I’ve grown accustomed to, nay very fond of the simplistic style of Hergé’s work and when I saw the trailers for the upcoming film I was a little concerned. However, after viewing the film, and furthermore after playing the game, any worries I had soon washed away. Paramount and indeed Gameloft have done an excellent job reimagining Hergé’s beloved comic book character into a fully rendered 3D character, capable of exploring a vast interactive world. The graphics for The Adventures of Tintin currently the best quality graphics I have seen developed by Gameloft, if not any mobile developer. Although my adventure with Tintin may have been brief, I look forward to more in what is hopefully the very near future. The game will be available for all on the 15th of December 2011 for iPad, iPhone and Android.
I don’t remember if my childhood obsession with dinosaurs began with Jurassic Park or was just fueled by it, but either way, the series has been a big part of my life growing up, both as films and games.
Having just reviewed Telltale’s recent Jurassic Park game, I found I enjoyed it, despite the rather awful gameplay. It got me reminiscing about previous games based on the license, and as I looked back on them all fondly, it occurred to me that nostalgia was clouding my judgement – they were all quite flawed as games, but enjoyable nonetheless.
So if, like me, you really tried to like the new game, let’s look back into the nostalgia-clouded past, and revisit earlier Jurassic Park games that probably aren’t as good as we remember them.
Title: Jurassic Park
Year: 1993
Platform: Super Nintendo
Genre: Adventure
This was one of the very first games I played, on a SNES console we hired for a weekend. Combining my obsession with dinosaurs and my burgeoning curiosity of those fancy video game things, this game might be largely responsible for my love of video games.
From an isometric, Zelda-esque viewpoint, the player controls Alan Grant as he explores the park and tries to get it back under control. The tasks you undertake obviously follow the film’s plot, as you attempt to restore power to the park and make contact to get you out of there safely.
But interestingly, some aspects of the original novel didn’t make the film, but found their way into the game, such as the focus on finding raptor eggs in the wild, and clearing out raptors that have stowed away on a supply ship bound for the mainland.
It cut between the third-person, top-down perspective of the exterior scenes with a first-person view when you enter a building. I remember the interior scenes being too scary for six-year old me to finish, but I’m sure they’d be pretty laughable today.
Jurassic Park 2 – The Chaos Continues
1994
Super Nintendo
Shooter/Platformer
This game diverged from Jurassic Park canon, with an original story set after the events of the first film, as a rival genetics company raids the abandoned island to salvage dinosaur specimens and DNA. In response, park owner John Hammond sends in Alan Grant and some marine guy to cut them off.
It plays out as a side-scrolling shooter/platformer, and while it hasn’t lasted as long in the collective minds of gamers, playing co-op with my brother sparked some of my earliest multiplayer trolling memories. You know, shooting him “accidentally”, letting him go first into the raptor-infested buildings, pushing him off the jeep so the T-Rex eats him.
Ah, good times.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
1997
Sony Playstation
Action Platformer
Amidst the classics of my Playstation One game collection, including Grand Theft Auto, Oddworld, Crash Bandicoot and Soul Reaver, stood The Lost World, a game fittingly lost amongst the beginnings of some awesome, enduring franchises.
But although it didn’t stand the test of time quite as well, I still loved the opportunity to finally play as the dinosaurs. You start off as a lowly compsognathus, the harmless little chickensaurus you see throughout the second film. All you can really do is run and avoid the big predators, but the fun really begins once you get to the velociraptor and tyrannosaurus levels. You’re pretty much unstoppable as a rampaging T-Rex, so the game kinda loses some of the difficulty, but no one cares.
Challenge takes a back seat to fun when you can swallow enemies whole and stamp on military jeeps.
Warpath: Jurassic Park
1999
Sony Playstation
Fighting
Could a raptor take down a T-Rex? Could a Triceratops hold its ground against a Spinosaurus? And what the hell is a Carcharodontosaurus?
Warpath allowed players to answer all these questions by pitting dinosaurs against each other in tooth-and-nail battles to the death. Dinosaurs might seem a bit stiff and cumbersome for a Street Fighter-esque brawler, and I’m sure hardcore fighter fans consider it sub-par, but I remember some brutal fights with these prehistoric beasts.
It all takes place in dynamic, partially-destructible environments recognisable from the films, so you can grab an opponent in your jaws and throw them into an electric fence, snap up an unfortunate goat as it runs past to boost your health, and swing your tail around to knock stuff over, just because it looks cool.
Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis
2003
PS2, Xbox, PC
Theme Park Sim
Developed right here in Melbourne, Operation Genesis allows players to create and run their own version of John Hammond’s original vision, with or without the catastrophic failure.
It plays like a zoo tycoon game, with players building paths, food and gift stalls, amenities, viewing platforms and other attractions, as well as looking after the animals in the park. Except, the animals are, you know, dinosaurs.
It was generally pretty easy to keep your staff, visitors and dinosaurs happy and healthy, but occasionally a storm would blow through, wipe out half your fences, and suddenly the plot of the film is playing out in front of you.
Once you get everything running smoothly again, you’ll miss the chaos, and the game becomes a test of how much you can trash your park and still bring it back to order. Before trashing it again.
Oh hey, you remember that little box you bought a few months ago? It plays 3D games an’ stuff? It was produced by Nintendo? Yea, you ‘member. Anyway, you should probably pull it out, as it has received an update that adds quite a few new features. The update adds DLC compatibility, 3D video recording, and lots of other cool new stuff. For example, there is a Nintendo Zone app to get special content from certain free hotspots. In addition, there are achievements in the StreetPass Mii Plaza. Plenty of other features involving Miis was also included. Once you update your Nintendo, make sure to let us know what your experience is with it.
Nintendo’s iconic game designer Shigeru Miyamoto has announced that he will be retiring from his “current position” within the company. He revealed this information in an interview with Wired.com, but don’t worry he won’t be leaving Nintendo entirely, but instead he has said that “what I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself.”
He has revealed that he has his sights set on a small project saying he wants to begin “working on a smaller project with even younger developers. Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small.” In a way he believes that his current position actually limits his relationship with his younger developers saying that “the young guys are always kind of in a situation where they have to listen to my ideas. But I need some people who are growing up much more than today.”
Miyamoto went on to say that he is very “interested in doing a variety of many other things” so it is worth noting that he has not left the world of video games but seems to be making a point that he won’t always be around forever for the younger developers to look up to and listen to.
If you are Kinect crazy, and/or Skyrim addicted, then you will be excited to know that it is possible to control Skyrim through Kinect. This unofficial mod is produced by Youtube user KinectFAAST. In addition to motion control, voice control is used extensively, making the game much more exhilarating. A partial list of commands is shown below:
-saying “Left hand” or “Right hand” to equip an item to a particular hand when in menu
– saying “Hello” to activate a conversation with a store owner or NPC
– saying “Journal” to access the journal
– saying “Skills” to access the skill trees
– saying “Switch View” to change between 1st and 3rd person perspectives.
KinectFAAST tells us how he produced this Kinect version of Skyrim:
“Well, gesture control is handled by the Kinect using a program called FAAST. FAAST, a middleware that operates using the OpenNI framework, converts user movements into keystrokes. Unfortunately, the openNI framework does not support voice control for the Kinect.
As a way around this, voice control in the Skyrim Kinect video is handled by a program called VAC (Voice Activated Commands). VAC allows you to pair spoken words with keystrokes. ”
What do you think? Do you want this tech to come to Skyrim for real?
Launching Pad Games have decided to give us all a little Christmas present, in the form of a holiday update for Mighty Fin! There really is nothing like a little holiday update for an app, it makes you all cheery and Christmas-sy in ways that shopping centre carols just never will.
