Wow, Frogger has been around for quite sometime. First appearing in 1979, the addictive arcade game celebrates 30 years of crossing roads and rivers. To celebrate the landmark, Konami is bringing two games for two different platforms: Frogger 3D for the Nintendo 3DS and Frogger Free for the iOS.
Frogger 3D expands the original 1981 arcade game’s basis of steering the amphibian hero past road and river-based areas to the safety of his lily pad. The new game boasts all-new graphics, novel level design and new friends to help guide Frogger to safety with six new worlds to explore spanning 60 uniquely challenging stages. In Frogger 3D, Frogger ventures from the streets and sidewalks of his hometown to new locations including New York, the Far East and even other dimensions.
Frogger Free boasts three new game modes including ‘Turbo’, ‘NightTime’ and ‘Inferno’, wherein users are reintroduced to the cars, logs, turtles, alligators that established the original Frogger coin-op as such a classic. Players can participate in classic arcade-style gameplay with multiple control options including swipe, touch and tilt, and collect up to 10 achievements to become the ultimate Frogger player. With both new and classic graphic options, Frogger fans can also connect with fans through Facebook Connect, competing via local and global leaderboards.
Frogger 3D and Frogger Free will be available this week.
The Final Fantasy Type-0 Ultimania has been released and Tetsuya Nomura discussed the Moogles in two games: Type-0 and Final Fantasy Versus XIII. An Ultimania book is a comprehensive information book for a video game, usually from Square Enix. It prodives info on the game, hints and tips, as well as character bios and more.
The Type-0 Moogles, known as the Cranberry Knights at the school, have been described as “cute” by Nomura. The Cranberry Knight name was in fact created by the scenario staff. When voice recording started, Nomura was surprised by the name. There was also meant to be a scene with all of the Cranberry Knights in the game. Nomura revealed that the scene didn’t make it in because Hiroki Chiba, lead scenario writer, simply forgot to add it in the game He had also joked that they should have been sold as some sort of good, like a plush toy. That would have been interesting.
Nomura also went into what the Moogles will be like in Final Fantasy Versus XIII. This is a first that Nomura has revealed that Moogles will be in the game. Nomura didn’t reveal much, only noting that the designs of the Versus XIII Moogles will follow a similar design to those in Type-0. That’s all he said. He didn’t go any further than that, so what he means isn’t clear.
After the first commercial for the Playstation Vita aired on November 28 in Japan, Sony has detailed more of their advertising campagin, which will feature two of the launch titles: Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Everybody’s Golf (known as Hot Shots Golf 6 in Japan). The tag line for these ads will be “If we play, we’re friends.”
Both ads will star Japanese actors Eita and Ryuhei Matsuda. They will be playing with a Playstation Vita with a number of people in a school that has been fitted with a massive 30×16.8 meter screen on their field. The first spot will show Eita alone with Uncharted while the second spot will show off Hot Shots Golf 6 as well as Matsuda in golf attire.
Sony released some stills from the ads. Below are the screens showing the gigantic screens with gameplay.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss:
Hot Shots Golf 6 (Everybody’s Golf):
The Uncharted spot starts airing on December 1 while the Hot Shots Golf spot starts airing on December 8. The Playstation Vita will be released on December 17 in Japan.
[UPDATE] The first of the two spots is now available to watch. You can see it below. It also includes a making of feature.
Whenever a new console, or console generation, is created there is usually a standard price for games at will be set. For most PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games, they sit at $59.99 in North America, Wii usually at $49.99 and 3DS titles on $39.99. However it appears that the PlayStation Vita titles won’t be using that standard fixed pricing model, instead they will use a range of different prices to combat people purchasing cheaper alternatives.
SCEE CEO Jim Ryan spoke with GI.Biz saying “I think it would be safe to assume we will take a more tailored approach than perhaps we’ve done in the past. It’s our challenge to ensure that the gaming experience that we provide is closer to that TV console experience than it is to your 69p thing that you’ve downloaded on your iPhone. If we do that and we provide great value to the consumer on games like Uncharted, I think the possibility to sustain historic console type price points is there.”
Of course titles that will follow this rule will likely only be Sony published versions, as 3rd party games can of course set their own prices. Still this is an amazing idea and one that is actually quite intelligent in this day and age of cheaper game availability.
While Capcom USA has denied that they will be releasing any type of bundle for the Circle Pad Pro with their upcoming zombie game Resident Evil: Revelations, Capcom Europe has a very different plan in mind. In fact, when Resident Evil: Revelations is released in Europe on January 27th they will be releasing the game itself, but also the game bundled with the Circle Pad Pro.
Currently they haven’t said what the price would be for the bundle, but this is the first time that any company has mentioned a release date for the 3DS attachment outside of Japan. Capcom USA has shown the circle pad pro off a number of times however so we can expect some news in the future before Revelations release date at least. Then you too can make your 3DS so awkward to carry around it’ll be unjustifiable as a portable gaming device!
Konami’s latest ip rips gamers off their feet and flings them into a cockpit. Birds of Steel is a flight simulator primarily focusing on some of the biggest battles of World War II, including Pearl Harbour and the battle of Midway. Alongside the 20 historical missions are a selection of fictitious battles, with potential pilots able to pick and choose from over 100 famous planes from both the axis and allied forces.
It aims to toe the line between full combat simulator and accessible for all by offering a handful of control setups. Players looking for the full flight experience can have control over every aspect of flight, whilst those looking for some more arcade style fly time can jump in with one of the simpler control schemes.
Unusually for a flight simulator, Birds of Steel will be a console only title, coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 in March 2012. The multiplayer component will be a huge part of the game, with massive multplayer online dog fights as well as co-op missions and campaigns.
The new website for the game has just gone live, and will gradually unveil the full roster of planes in the build up to the release. The game also has it’s own dedicated Facebook page, so head on over to check out some more of the details.
Many people’s concerns about Final Fantasy Type-0 not being released internationally outside of Japan were more than justified as, despite plenty of news about the Japanese release of the title, no word had been mentioned anywhere of the title being released to the West. All those concerns can be put to rest however as the latest issue of Famitsu reports that the title is indeed being released internationally.
Game director Hajima Tabata revealed in an interview with the magazine that he is working on an international release of Type-0 though does not know when it will be released. The PSP title will likely end up being released after the launch of the Vita which should be interesting. Also Tabata revealed in the interview that he hopes to make a sequel, as Andriasang reports that he would like to call it Type-1 and see his title on consoles.
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is looking to bring Sherlock and his invesigations to the big time. In a massive step up for the series of adventure games – there have been five previous releases across various platforms – a whole new engine has been used to bring Holme’s London to life, and the detective himself is looking better than ever thanks to motion capture technology.
The website for the game has just gone live, and collects together all of the screenshots, videos and developer info for the game. Along with the site comes a new teaser trailer narrated by the usually steadfast and loyal Dr Watson. Forced to question Holmes’ innocence in a murder case, Watson finds himself doubting their entire past relationship – has Holmes been lying to him for years?
It’s an interesting and dark new take on one of the most iconic partnerships in literature, and with it’s higher than ever production values The Testament of Sherlock Holmes could prove a rather intriguing entry in the gaming history of the Baker Street sleuth. The game is due for release on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, and should become available in early 2012.
A piece of gaming history is about to be distinguished. I’m talking of course about GamePro, the gaming magazine publisher and website have been struggling over the past few years and had even shifted to a quarterly publication schedule in a way to save some money. However it appears that that won’t be the case at all, as the very first issue of the quarterly releases has stated that the company is going to be closing down and that that issue is the last one ever.
GamePro first began as a monthly magazine back in 1989 and used to be one of the largest in the business. The website itself is only going to be up until December 5th and will redirect to PC World after it is shut down. IndustryGamers reports that layoffs are already underway, and we wish these workers the best in their future endeavors.
