Namco Bandai unveils four new characters joining the ranks of Soul Calibur V. Veteran players of the Soul Calibur series will recognize the faces of Aeon, Cervantes, and the infamous Yoshimitsu. With the old blood comes new and a rod wielding, monkey man enters the battlefield.
Xiba
Only sixteen years of age, Xiba grew up at the base of Zhen Hang Mountain. Disciplined in the secret arts of the Ling-Sheng Su & Kong Style Rods, he has incredible balance and grip making him a deadly opponent. Xiba travels with Maxi, Leixia, and Natsu during the course of the storyline.
Aeon
Twenty-four years have passed since Aeon Calcos has known a human form. Duel-wielding axes the hunter inside of him has clearly taken over. Aeon can no longer understand the difference between memories of his family and the blood of his enemies – only a void is left in his heart.
Cervantes
The Spanish Empire is the birthplace of the ship captain Cervantes de Leon. With his newly acquired body, Cervantes appears much younger and alive than his previous ghostly self. He has known the powers of the Soul Edge, and the hunger for power still lingers through his veins.
Yoshimitsu
Insanity is probably considered the normal for Yoshimitsu. Combining the Manji Ninjitsu along side katana blades, Yoshimitsu creates confusion for his enemies by performing attacks that can hurt himself. He also leads the chivalrous band of thieves known as the Manji Clan. Perhaps if one Yoshimitsu falls, another will be there to replace him.
If you haven’t marked your calendars already, Soul Calibur V will be released on January 31, 2012 in North American and February 2, 2012 in Australia and New Zealand.
Minecraft lovers have always played the title on the PC, but there are a few other versions which have been created in the past year for the iOS devices and other formats. However there has not been a single console release of the title, that is until we heard about a Minecraft XBLA game being developed for the Xbox 360. Unfortunately since it was announced, there hasn’t been a whole lot revealed for the game.
That is until now. Below you can find a very odd video from the guys at Mojang, including Notch himself. We are also given a momentary look at the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft, though it doesn’t look much different from the original to my eyes. Gamers can expect to see Minecraft XBLA sometime in the spring of next year.
It’s so good to have Sonic back again and while Sonic Generations for consoles was great, the 3DS version is also looking just as superb. Sega recently released a new trailer (in Japanese) for Sonic’s debut on the 3D handheld, and if this footage is any indication, this may be the best Sonic title yet to hit a portable.
Much like all great things in life, this clip starts off with the tunes from “City Escape” and displays nearly all the stages in the game with the blue blur speeding along at a rapid pace. With the recent releases of Super Mario 3D Land, Cave Story, and now Sonic Generations set to hit shelves as soon as next week, it’s certainly a great time to be a 3DS owner. Check out the lightning fast clip below and stay tuned, as our very own review for this version is soon to come.
It appears that Tecmo Koei is bringing more than just a couple of different characters from various game series into their next title, Musou Orochi 2. It has been previously announced that Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden would be appearing in the title and now it seems that they will also be having a crossover with Dead or Alive as they are bringing Ayane in as well.
Now while Ayane is a Ninja Gaiden character as well, the company stated that this is in fact a Dead or Alive crossover. Plus with this announcement they revealed the below screenshots showing Ayane in action. The reason for her inclusion is that after the fourth Dead or Alive tournament, Ayane fell into a bend in the space time continuum and ends up in the world of Musou Orochi 2.
A number of other characters have been revealed in the past including Jeanne d’Arc from Bladestorm, Achilles from Warriors: Legends of Troy, and Nemea from Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll. Musou Orochi 2 will be released in Japan on December 22nd, but currently has no release date in the Western world.
It appears that players who have become lost in the world of Skyrim can expect a patch to be arriving shortly to fix at least a few of the problems plaguing their world that don’t involve dragons. Bethesda’s Pete Hines has revealed on his Twitter that the “PS3 & 360 updates have been submitted for certification. PC coming too. Current estimate is they will be live the week after T’giving.”
This means of course that in roughly two weeks time players can expect to see at least the two console versions patched up. However at this time the company has not revealed what the patches will be for, though hopefully it will fix the install issues on the 360 and the save data lag on the PS3.
BioWare has revealed that they will be releasing a special Collector’s Edition version of Mass Effect 3, which they are inventively calling the Mass Effect 3 N7 Collector’s Edition. The package will cost $79.99 and come with a number of special content that everyone could enjoy, especially those who love Mass Effect.
The package will come with a premium metal case that features both the male and female Commander Shepard, a 70-page hardcover art book, a limited edition Mass Effect comic by Dark Horse, a Fabric N7 patch, a 4×6 lithographic print of the SR-2 Alliance Normandy.
Besides all those special goodies, the package will also contain in game bonuses such as the N7 Arsenal Pack, which upgrades the firepower of all N7 weapons, a costume pack for your squad, a Robotic Dog for the Normandy and the digital soundtrack of the title. You can check out all te various features in the video below.
It seems that Battlefield 3 has decided to go back to its roots a bit in the latest trailer they have released for their upcoming “Back to Karkand” DLC. What I mean is, they decide to just simply destroy nearly all of the environment through tons of explosives and gunfire. See for yourself in the trailer below.
Now the Back to Karkand DLC will include the new map of course, as well as new vehicles and a number of other additions. Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand will be out sometime in December and will cost nothing if you have a copy of Battlefield 3: Limited Edition, or basically bought the game new. Those who didn’t purchase the title new will need to pick up the content at either $14.99 or 1200 MSP.
Finally making it’s debut is patch 1.6 of Rift. This major content patch is called “From the Embers” and introduces many features that we have previously discussed in detail since the patches announcement. So they will be breifly talked about below –
Rift™: From the Embers features:
·Ember Isle – Designed for experienced level 50 players, Ember Isle is twice the size of the largest zone currently in the game and will feature stunning environments, new monsters, colossi, and zone events
·New Dungeon –Rift’s newest and largest dungeon, Caduceus Rise, debuts with 11 tough bosses, nonlinear progression, Normal mode, and two Expert mode wings
·New 10-Player Raid – Experience “Rise of the Phoenix,” the new 10-player sliver in Stonefield
·New Warfront Mode – Black Garden now features an alternate warfront mode called “Stockpile”
·Planar Attunement Evolved – 2nd tier of Planar Attunement now available
Be sure to check out the Official Website for more information. I have also embedded the amazing new trailer below, so be sure to check that out and be extra sure to update your Rift clients to the latest version.
UK publisher Europress has today released the TV trailer for Horrid Henry: The Good, The Bad and The Bugly, a game that marks Horrid Henry’s debut on Nintendo 3DS. Developed by Asylum Entertainment, Horrid Henry: The Good, The Bad and The Bugly is a side scrolling adventure game, based on the CiTV series and featuring a blend of action, puzzle and platforming.
Horrid Henry: The Good, The Bad and The Bugly will feature three exciting worlds to explore as Henry attempts to rescue Bunny – Perfect Peter’s toy rabbit.
Horrid Henry: The Good, The Bad and The Bugly will be released on Nintendo 3DS on 25th November 2011.
Cave Story 3D Developer: Nicalis/Pixel Publisher: NIS America Platform: Nintendo 3DS (Reviewed) Release Date: November 8, 2011 Price: $39.99 – Available Here
Overview:
Quite a few years ago Cave Story popped up on the internet for PCs as free game. The title itself was the creation of one man named Daisuke Amaya or as he liked to be called, Pixel. Pixel spent many years working on the title and the series saw widespread acclaim in the indie world. Then just one year ago the first ever version of the title outside of the PC realm was released and that was a minorly enhanced version for the DSiWare and the WiiWare.
Over a year has passed since that port of the title and now we have Cave Story 3D which has been brought to us by NIS America. With a new portable platform and a complete upgrade to the game’s graphics, plus the inclusion of 3D capabilities… how does Cave Story 3D fair? Let us find out.
Story:
Players will fall into the shoes of a robotic looking main character who happens to have absolutely no memory of who he is, where he is or why he is there. With no knowledge of where he even is, the player must make their way through a short series of areas before discovering a village of small bunny like people named Mimiga. However it seems that the main character isn’t the only person who isn’t a bunny, but he can’t meet this person so easily without the help of a female Mimiga who has become friends with this person.
In fact, as soon as the main character thinks he will be able to meet with this person, two lackeys of the “Doctor” who terrorizes and kidnaps Mimiga for his experiments appear and kidnap the female Mimiga right in-front of his eyes, taking away one of his few chances to find out more about what is actually going on. With the Doctor and his crew rearing their heads at nearly every turn and the Mimiga suffering under his reign, what can our main character do?
Now one of the strongest points for Cave Story is in fact, its storyline. There are few details given to the player at the start of the game and going into too much detail would take away from the clever twists and turns that exist within the story of Cave Story. With the players controlling a nameless main character, one of the biggest mysteries is of course who they actually are playing and why does he look like a robot?
Of course this is only one of the mysteries that are wrapped together in the very impressive story. While at first glance this title may appear like some simple platforming shooter, there is a reason that this is called Cave Story and not Cave Shooter you see. With memorable characters and a lot of unique twists that you won’t find elsewhere, Cave Story’s narrative will keep players wanting to keep adventuring through the various stages just to try and solve one of the stories many intertwining mysteries.
Graphics:
Perhaps the biggest reason to pick up Cave Story 3D if you have already played the other versions of the game is to see the title in its ultimate form. You can feel that this is what Pixel originally wanted for his Cave Story creation to look like if he only had the ability to do so back when it was first released. Now with Cave Story 3D, the titles true potential has been realized.
The environments will still be familiar but that familiarity is only a shadow of what they are now. This is because they have been revamped entirely, providing a full 3D world even though the game progresses along a 2D plane. The backgrounds and the environments themselves are absolutely gorgeous with tons of details and designs that help add to the atmosphere of the title, which is essential considering the variety of places you will be seeing. Though the details do sometimes make it difficult to judge the distance of a jump and can cause unnecessary falls due to the way they look.
As for the characters themselves, they have been redone as well and the characters themselves are decently detailed still, though the sprite designs have been changed to a more modern model. The sprite model still is in existence however but that isn’t really the main focus for the title.
Now as for the 3DS’ 3D capabilities. It is rare that you find a title that doesn’t make you want to turn off the 3D effects after a few minutes of playing. And a title that has pulled that off is Cave Story 3D. While most of the time in the past, I’ve had to turn off the 3D due to it either becoming obstructive or just did not increase the gameplay experience. However Nicalis has put an amazing effort into making sure that every little detail pops out at the player.
The 3D effects do a great job of creating depth for the stages with plenty of pieces of the environment sticking out of the screen. The foreground is obviously the best part of this, but with the depth of the background now it truly makes it hard to believe you are still running along a 2D plane. Still, there is one problem with the 3D and that is that the title is rather dark, and with the 3D turned on it can be even darker. So the only way to counter this is to turn up the brightness on the 3DS and therefore punish your battery life more, making players need to have to go charge up the 3DS before long and have to take an unwanted break from Cave Story 3D.
Audio:
Unfortunately there are is no voiced dialogue in the title and while there were no voices in the past iterations of the title, this is a bit of sad news as it would have been interesting to see what some of the characters would have sounded like. But considering there aren’t any voices, the title does a stellar job of making up for their absence with a rather impressive soundtrack which has been upgraded from the original.
Now in the past versions, players were listening to chiptune like music that sounded like something from around twenty years ago. Now while that sounds like a bad thing on paper, the audio was so well done that it felt nice and nostalgic. That is why when the developers upgraded the soundtrack for Cave Story 3D they knew what they were doing when they hired Danny Baranowsky to do the upgrade. For those unfamiliar with Baranowsky’s work they need look no further than Super Meat Boy to understand what his music sounds like.
Baranowsky’s skill with more retro sounding music creates an exceptional mix of an upgraded soundtrack that still retains most of its feel from the original while sounding a whole lot better. This was done by keeping the production rather simple and only allowing a few flourishes of sound while keeping very close to the original, creating a combination pleasurable to both old fans as well as new ones.
Gameplay:
For those concerned about the way the game plays, there is no worry whatsoever as the title has retained all of its old style side-scrolling platforming along with plenty of enemies to shoot. For those who don’t know, Cave Story 3D is a side-scrolling title with platforming sections and they will need to shoot and eliminate various enemies who can kill them if they happen to take too much damage.
You will be doing plenty of damage to enemies with quite a unique variety of weapons. Of course players can only carry around five weapons at a time, though there are ten to find overall. The player will stumble across a number of these weapons without much searching but there are also a few hidden ones to help provide a challenge. Now the interesting thing with the weapons in Cave Story 3D is that they upgrade in level separately from the character.
While the character finds HP upgrades littered throughout a level, weapons are upgraded through killing enemies and collecting the energy crystals that drop from them. The interesting thing here is that if the player happens to suffer damage of any kind the weapon they have equipped will drop in experience slightly. When a weapon upgrades a level they will grow stronger in some form, usually increasing in damage, range or even how the projectile itself looks.
One of the biggest challenges in Cave Story 3D is managing your weapons well enough that by the time you reach the boss battle near the end of an area, you still have enough to be able to take it down quickly and effectively. That is because the boss battles can be extremely difficult in Cave Story 3D and often rely on quick reflexes to avoid being damaged and potentially killed by the enemy. The game does a well enough job of walking you through most of the mechanics at the start, including a simple boss fight but grows to be much more difficult early on.
Now as a whole, Cave Story has five main areas with various hubs and mini zones linked to those areas. The stages you visit even end up changing over time as you progress through the story, so a visit to one area could be completely different from the first time around. This diversity is only helped by the fact that each section has some unique feature that forces the player to play differently due to either level design or the enemies placed on the stage. This keeps gamers from growing tired of the title quickly and always keeps them on edge.
On the other hand, as far as new content goes there really isn’t a whole lot added into the title from its original counterparts. There are four new areas that have been added into the title which can be explored and they are integrated seamlessly into the title without any noticeable problem. Plus if you decide to adventure into one of these new areas you will walk out with a nice little NIS surprise to go along with your main character from then on. Still, with Cave Story 3D being a completely upgraded title, the low amount of new content is questionable.
Overall:
Cave Story 3D can be seen as the ultimate form of Cave Story, with a massive increase in the visual department and a few bonuses added on, players of the older versions will find themselves enjoying every second of the title despite playing it before. Newcomers will be able to experience the 2D side-scrolling platformer in lovely 3D as well, though it is definitely concerning as to why there isn’t any more bonus content added onto the title in the end.
In the end however, Cave Story 3D may give you a reason to take that 3D slider and turn it all the way up and leave it on finally, as it harnesses the best of what the Nintendo 3DS’ 3D capabilities have to offer and provides not only a fun experience but one that can be played multiple times over as you explore the world multiple times simply to make sure you see everything that there is to see.
Xiba
Cervantes
