A few months ago, Nintendo started their “Nintendo Selects” budget releases, which brought The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Sluggers, Wii Sports and Animal Crossing: City Folk down to the low price of $19.99. Today, Kotaku have posted a very interesting rumor up that we may be seeing some new additions to the discounted line in just a few weeks time.
Super Mario Galaxy, Super Paper Mario, Punch-Out!!, and Mario Strikers Charged have apparently been leaked by retailers as the next four Nintendo Selects for the Wii, which will all see a reprint a price-drop on August 28th. Remember, this is just a rumor for now, but those four titles sound like some awesome additions to the Selects line to me and hopefully will boost Nintendo’s sagging Wii sales a bit in the process.
Once we hear something a bit more substantial regarding these new additions, we will be sure to bring an update so stay tuned to this developing story.
If you have little gamers in the family or are just a fan of platformers, you will be happy to know that Spy Kids: All The Time in the World is now available on the Nintendo DS. Based on the movie of the same name (that hits theaters on August 19th), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World places players in the role of Rebecca and Cecil as they try to take out the evil Time Keeper and save the world using high tech gadgets and weaponry.
Other features include:
Eight levels full of baddies and traps, including: Downtown, OSS Base, OSS Vault, Big Time Watch Repair Shop, and Time Keeper’s Lair
Play as either Rebecca or Cecil, each with special skills
Master state-of-the-art gadgets to fend off enemies and find hidden goodies
Navigate environmental puzzles like quicksand, conveyer belts, air vents, slick surfaces, and more
Earn special attacks, such as Double Speed Attack, Attack Power-up, Mega Super Power Boom, Blue Cheese Bomb, and more
Alongside this release, Majesco have also brought out some new screenshots that you can view below, showing off the varied levels and enemies that players will encounter.
With so much news surrounding the price drop of the 3DS, annoying early adopters and pleasing those who waited, UK users have something to cheer about as Nintendo join The Cloud. The alliance will provide those within the UK who own a 3DS access to over 5000 various hotspots.
“Cloud partnership represents another exciting step that will continue to expand its appeal and encourage owners to take their Nintendo 3DS systems with them wherever they go, offering different and unique experiences every day,” said Nintendo UK marketing director Dawn Paine. Active at the time this was written the hotspots allow gamers to access content via the Nintendo Spotpass service, eShop or simply browse the net.
“Nintendo is a fantastic addition to our list of strategic partners and site owners who are making the most of Wi-Fi’s potential to give other customers a better entertainment experience,” adds Steve Nicholson, The Clouds managing directors told Gamesindustry.
“If gamers are going to play outside their home, it’s essential they have a fast and reliable internet connection. This is what Wi-Fi offers compared to a technology such as 3G, which struggle to handle really rich data hungry video content.”
Suffering from allergies is never a pleasant experience to endure. However, Gesundheit proves that being highly prone to allergic reactions can have its upside. Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc has teamed up with independent games studio Revolution Concepts to produce Gesundheit, a beautifully animated and designed game based on the concept work of film and television animator Matt Hammill. Available for both iPhone and iPad, Gesundheit spans across forty levels, offering a huge amount of gameplay from such a seemingly simple title.
Gameplay
Gesundheit is at heart a point and tap puzzle based game. Featuring four worlds, each with ten levels, the game has enough to keep you busy for a long time. Each world needs to be entered through a gate, which in turn requires stars to open. Star fruits are collected in each level, with each world having three possible fruits for your little piggy to collect, and hopefully not eat. The only problem is, monsters plague the worlds the little pig must get through. As if his allergies weren’t enough of a burden! There are traps that you must lure the monsters into in order to complete the level. Thankfully your allergies come in handy and can be utilised as a kind of weapon. For some reason these monsters love to eat snot, and will gladly wander into traps for a free meal. As you progress, there are new abilities you utilise in your quest, like shooting giant snot balls, or sling shotting yourself across wide gaps with a sticky string of shot. While it sounds all too simple to point and tap, Gesundheit is a fairly difficult game to pick up. Many of the levels involve strategically hiding around corners and bouncing boogers off walls in order to outsmart enemies. Luckily you can skip levels if they become too taxing, but you will eventually run into problems getting through gates to the next world if you consistently do this.
Graphics and Audio
In all honesty, the gameplay isn’t all too innovative. While the level design makes for great fun I really think the game is driven by the graphics, which are nothing short of breathtaking. The art is based on concepts by film and television animator Matt Hammill, featuring some incredible hand drawn style characters and levels. The construction of the world is completely captivating: from roughly drawn world maps to complete and complex maze like levels featuring spectacular artwork. I can’t help but feel somewhat reminiscent of educational animations from when I was a child, only of a much higher quality. Quirky colour choices, hand drawn style sceneries that are slightly off model add a layer of charm to Gesundheit that is very rare to find in games, especially for iOS titles. It’s the artwork, and I stress artwork, not merely graphics, that really push this game forward for me. I can’t help but become completely engrossed by this pocket sized world and its lovable, yet often evil, characters.
Given my love for the visual side of Gesundheit; it may be no surprise that I find the audio not only fitting but also completely amazing in its own right. The sound effects fit with the charming visual style of the game like a glove. Large exhales that continue until your character runs out of breath, little ‘boings’ when the boogers bounce from the walls, and not to mention angry growls when your enemies catch you in their sights, give so much life to the already beautifully designed characters. The sound effects are also used really well to create an extra dimension to the game. When characters walk around, little footsteps that sound like they are walking across a pebbled path come from the speakers. Furthermore, in the world maps chirping birds and ocean sounds (depending on the world) add a much-appreciated extra element to the game world. Gesundheit also features an upbeat, well-composed soundtrack that is a delight to listen to throughout each level.
Conclusion
Playing Gesundheit has been nothing sort of a treat. The simplistic gameplay allows you to sit back and appreciate the design of the game, which I must reiterate, is spectacular. However, if you’re not so much into games with this unique visual or audio style, then I still think the gameplay is enough to carry you through. The levels increase in complexity, as more monsters appear the further in you get, and with forty levels to make your way through you won’t feel the sting of repetition any time soon. Konami have done well to hitch their wagon to Revolution Concepts and animator Matt Hammill to produce such a fantastic title for iOS devices.
If you’re a fan of tactical RPGs, a wacky cast of characters and throwing plenty of Prinnies, then you may want to look into the Playstation Vita. Nippon Ichi has confirmed that their Playstation 3 game, Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, is heading to Sony’s newest handheld as Disgaea 3 Returns.
Nothing much has been announced but Nippon Ichi has revealed that, in addition to the downloadable content that is already available for the Playstation 3 version, the game will include two new characters and four new scenarios exclusive to the Vita version. They have also revealed that the character portraits will have a similar look to those of Disgaea 4. Alongside this confirmation was some teasers about their upcoming projects, including a Studio Plasma collaboration and a 3D action RPG made by the Prinny team.
One Piece Collection 11 Tag Line: When your boat doesn’t float! Produced by: Toei Animation Run time: 325 minutes in 13 episodes Language: English, Japanese Genre: Action, Adventure, Shounen, Comedy Release Date: 20/07/2011 Available for purchase at Madman Online Store ($49.95)
Overview:
After the giantic heights of the epic 3 collection long Alabasta arc, One Piece had to take a break and move into more peaceful waters, atleast for the time being. Collection 11 features One Piece’s second foray into filler arcs, with the entire collection being composed of filler not present in the manga.
Many usually skip filler just because they were not created by the original author and therefore are inferior in their minds. What we have here is far from inferior. What we have here is clever writing, clever story-telling and great character moments all around. With a collection that features 3 story arcs, there was a great deal of story told, so hold onto your straw-hats as we set sail into One Piece Collection 11.
Story:
One Piece Collection 11 follows the continued journey of the Straw-hat pirates following their adventures in the sand country Alabasta. After having saved the country from tyranny and self-destruction the Straw-hat pirates took their leave as unsung heroes.
With a new member aboard they set sail to the seas once more in search of adventure and the One Piece. Where this Collection succeeds is in the fact that it went into filler. I’m sure some of you gave out an audible sigh at that, but it is true. The series needed some cool-down time and we got some nice story arcs out of it.
First off was the Post-Alabasta arc, which spent a few episodes focusing on individual members of the Straw-hat pirates (excluding Luffy and new member Robin). Each member got a little more of their past revealed as well as some friendly reminders of their dreams and where each character is heading. Out of these episodes, Zoro’s was the undeniable stand-out. The episode which told the tale of how Zoro met pirate-hunting partners Johnny and Yosaku, was also a subtle call-back to Eiichiro Oda’s one-shot manga Wanted! which he had created prior to One Piece (which for those out of the know, focused on a character with a similar design to Zoro).
Following the character focused arcs, the story moved onto a 3 episode arc featuring an old man and his goats. There were some well placed comedy moments here that never once fell flat. The ending was also very satisfying.
Moving on from the Goat Island arc was the Collection’s final arc, which was also it’s best. The Rainbow Mist arc is written off by many as being a confusing and boring story arc. I couldn’t disagree more. The story followed a bermuda triangle like phenomena known as the Rainbow Mist, which upon entering can not be escaped from.
What made this arc so clever was the foreshadowing and the way it used the concept of time itself to tie things togethor in the end. From the beginning of this collection Robin was seen reading a book titled the Rainbow Mist, for the sake of being spoiler free, lets just say that it is a very significant plot point in the end.
Overall this collection was as well written and clever as One Piece ever is. The story was well told and concieved without the input of Eiichiro Oda’s original manga as it’s source. For filler this is about as good as they can be. It’s a testament to the creators to have constructed such a well told narrative without utilising source material.
Characters:
This collection featured some brilliant character moments from start to finish. From the hilarious near kiss between a sleeping Sanji and Zoro to the touching reunion of Henzo and Rapa Nui, the characters were all on their mark.
Several new characters were introduced for the filler arcs, including the memorable Wetton dynasty (all voiced by the excellent Vic Mignogna) and the lost children of the Rainbow Mist. All of which were well concieved characters with the great deal of depth you would come to expect from One Piece characters.
All in all, the main cast along with the one-off character were all on fire this collection, providing some real emotional investment in their exploits and adventures. Which is exactly what they need to do, in order for you to connect with the story being told.
Artwork:
The art and animation was of surprisingly high quality, even on par with the Alabasta arc preceding it. I’ll admit I was a little surprised considering this was a filler arc. When I realised that although it was filler no costs were cut in the production of the art and animation, I was extremely pleased.
The Rainbow Mist is of particular interest in this subject, as it was well designs and very memorable. It was both visually impressive and mystifying. With such great detail put into the backgrounds and character designs, this collection featured some great eye-candy all around.
Let’s not forget the battle scenes were as fluid and lively as those of the Alabasta arc, with fully animated attacks, not a single corner was cut. This is truly saying something about the production of One Piece which continues to improve with each release.
Audio:
The soundtrack was as good as ever and used to perfect effect in the emotional and inspirational moments concluding the Rainbow Mist arc. Whenever the instrumental version of “We Are” begins to play you know something is about to pluck at your heart-strings, after 143 episodes it’s become second nature to prepare yourself for something sad yet hopeful whenever it plays.
The opening and endings remain the same here as last Collection, so there is little to say about them other than that they continue to be a perfect theme and end theme for the series as it moves forward.
Voice acting as per usual was absolutely astonishing, with stand-out performances from Vic Mignogna guest starring as Wetton and Lake during the Rainbow Mist arc. He is just so charismatic and in control of any character he performs. I hope he returns somewhere in the future for another role in One Piece as he is just amazing.
Special Features:
Much like the previous collection, Madman has done a good job with special features here. We have the usual trailers alongside a reversable cover, which features some nice artwork of the crew aboard the Going Merry. Also like all collection’s preceding it, a commentary track is available. This particular commentary is of episode 140, featuring Colleen Clinkenbeard (Monkey D. Luffy) and Vic Mignogna (Wetton and Lake) with ADR Director Jason Grundy.
Conclusion:
One Piece Collection 11, proves many misconceptions about filler arcs wrong. The storys told in this collection are clever, well written and above all on par with canon One Piece episodes. It provided a nice cool-down after the high octane Alabasta arc and ends with all gears spinning toward the Jaya arc in Collection 12. All in all, One Piece Collection 11 is a great piece of anime and is without a doubt a must watch.
Overview:
Over the course of smart phone gaming’s small history, several game formulas have come and gone. However there are those that strike gold and are regurgitated several times over to success. Gold Jumper is one of the latter. It is a platforming jumper game, which have seemingly taken over the app store, with titles such as Doodle Jump, Little Dreamer and many more. Gold Jumper follows the trend of the working jump formula whilst polishing it up. But does it polish into gold or is it just a lump of coal?
Gameplay:
Gold Jumper like the plethora of other jumping platformer titles on the iOS features a simple one touch control system. Like many of the other games of the same genre, it works well enough and can provide some fleeting enjoyment here and there. However it also carries the same downfall as the others – it is repetitive and only truly works in short bursts.
Now this isn’t a bad thing necessarily, these games aren’t designed to have the player sitting for hours straight playing through. However if you were that way inclined, Gold Jumper will leave you bored quickly. It is certainly short burst gameplay.
The game tasks you with guiding a burlap sack of gold upwards through a mine shaft by making it jump between mine carts and other types of platforms and obstacles. There are several ways to play this. You can play through a story mode (which technically has no story) with each world featuring 4 mine shaft levels followed by an end level racing mini game, which is a pleasant change from mine shaft scaling. You also are given the option to play endless versions of the mine shaft jump or the cowboy canyon race. Both of which can get tiresome very quickly and have no difficulty control, often leaving you traversing an extremely difficult platform early on in the endless playthrough.
The gameplay in general is enjoyable and overall is a much more polished version of the tried and true platform jumper formula.
Visuals:
The game features appropriate visuals, which ooze western grit. The sack of gold is a memorable character, mainly due to it’s character design and being an odd choice for a main character of a video game. Other than the sack of gold, there isn’t much else too memorable about the games visuals. Besides the dirty grit of the mine-shaft which captures the western theme superbly.
The graphics are well presented through and through and don’t strive for anything too spectacular or innovative. This works only in it’s favour. The game itself is far from innovative and the visuals match that.
Audio: Perhaps the games biggest black-spot is in it’s soundtrack, which is simultaneously grating and uninspired. The audio comes across as very rushed and being of extremely cheap quality. Featuring the same few tracks repeated over and over, almost beckoning you to either mute the game or stop playing altogether.
The audio needed much more work. Everything about it from the cheesy western tunes to the repetitive sound effects that get on your nerves quicker than a 90’s Batman movie’s dialogue. It is very irritating and sadly fails in all regards at being a cohesive soundtrack to a overall good game.
Conclusion:
In closing, Gold Jumper is a fun take on the platform jumper genre that has taken the iOS by storm. It doesn’t do much in the way of innovation, nor did it need to. It polishes the already winning formula to gold and proves once more that the iOS suits titles such as this more than any other – simple, fun, short burst gameplay.
After claims of extremely harsh working conditions and staff crunching around the clock, Team Bondi could have finally hit rock bottom, selling off their IP and releasing their staff. Team Bondi staff are currently in the process of being relocated to KMM studios or being made redundant. According to a report by Develop, Team Bondi have sold off all their IP and assets to KMM. The Sydney based studio is currently working on the Happy Feet 2, the popular childrens penguin franchise.
The LA Noire developer, which tool seven long years to release the title, creating much backlash and negative relations between them and Rockstar, would not comment on the issue. No paperwork has of yet been filed with the rumour starting from a visit to KMM studios by Brendan McNamara.
When I read these were the guys responsible for the old PS2 title Black I had to have a closer look at this game as even amongst a sea of FPS on PS2, Black stood out from the rest. With its ultra real environmental damage and intelligent AI it was a joy to play. By the looks of this trailer, Bodycount takes these concepts to a new level, truly immersing the player in their sinister destructive world.
I love a game which has had a lot of thought put into it and listening to the art and game directors, Bodycount is certainly not lacking in this department. It’s the small things that can often make or break a game, and listening to the passion of these guys it looks like everything has been well tuned. Max Cant, the games Art director explains how he wanted the environments to start out light and earthy and become more dark and sinister as the game progresses. Hence this had a huge influence on the order players would visit different countries and locations. From the polluted and war torn Africa to the seedier underbelly of Asia, everything looks amazing if this trailer is any indication.
There is a huge emphasis on environmental damage, “You feel like you’re really kicking the ass out of the world” says Mac Cant. He goes on to say that with so much variance in environmental damage you never get the same experience twice. Game Director Andy Wilson also explains the AI and enemy class system that fight in vastly different ways again ensuring huge replay value.
Bodycount is set to light on consoles and PC’s on fire come September 1st, so until then enjoy the footage. http://www.facebook.com/Bodycountgame http://twitter.com/#!/bodycountgame
Konami has revealed, that you can now join in on the Yokai wars, with the upcoming Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, fighting game; Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan – The Great War of a Hundered Gathering Demons (or Nura: ROYC – GWAHGD for short).
Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan – The Great War of a Hundred Gathering Demons is a fighting game adaptation of the Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan anime series which itself is an adaptation of the Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan manga series.
The game is set to feature a huge roster featuring many characters of the series from several clans and races. So if you ever watched the anime or read the manga and thought to yourself, what would happen if that mongolated cyclops did battle with that anthropomorphic crow? You are in luck! You can match up your favourite yokai in demonic clashes when Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan – The Great War of a Hundred Gathering Demons gets released for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on November 17th in Japan. Or alternatively you can wait for it to be localised into English next year.
Leave a comment below letting us know what you think of this upcoming Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan game.
