Voltron is making a comeback in October, THQ has announced Voltron: Defender of the Universe, scheduled for release on Xbox LIVE®Arcade and PlayStation®Network.
In this brand-new take on the classic Voltron animated series, nostalgia induced players like myself can except Interwoven clips from the original animated series remastered in hi-def.
The game has multiplayer, including either online 1 to 5 player co-op or offline in 1 or 2 player co-op. Players select a Lion based on a number of strengths, resistances and elemental attacks that they use to battle fierce Robeasts and a number of other familiar enemies.
“We really wanted to create a game that’s exciting, true to the original series and challenging to play,” said Peter Armstrong, executive producer. “All of us here are big fans of classic Voltron, and we’re really proud of what we have created.”
Voltron: Defender of the Universe will cost 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox LIVE Arcade and $9.99 PlayStation Network. Checkout the screenshots below
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe today announced that the team behind the upcoming LittleBigPlanet on the PS VITA, signed a deal which would see the studio, developing exclusively for Sony platforms.
The studio was formed by Rockstar Leeds lead-engineers in 2010, in a short time it has grown to become one of the biggest new developers in the UK. The company was behind the technology to run LittleBigPlanet on the PS VITA’s hardware.
Under the conditions of the deal, Double Eleven will work on the new LittleBigPlanet, but can also begin working on other titles across Sony’s platforms.
Michael Denny, Senior Vice President of SCE Worldwide Europe, had this to say about the studio “Double Eleven are one of the most exciting developers to emerge onto the development scene in recent years, their technical expertise makes them a great fit for LittleBigPlanet on PSVITA and we’ve very pleased with the progress the team have made on this hugely anticipated title,”
You may not of heard of this studio before, but the future is no doubt brighter for Double Eleven after this announcement, and CEO Lee Hutchinson seems to think the same “The opportunity to work so closely with Sony is simply fantastic and we look forward to a truly exciting new phase in our own development, with the absolute intention to become a world-class studio.”
Japan is always great with their artwork for both films and video games, and the release of L.A. Noire has inspired a reflection on the old, moody imagery of the film noir genre.
According to Rockstar, the Japanese versions of noir art are even better than the original Hollywood ones. Not only does the kanji jump out against the background with its geometric aspect, but to Westerners the added enigma of unreadable text makes for even more of a visual riddle. Not only is it a mystery to uncover what narrative lies behind the art, but it becomes a mystery what the poster is actually saying.
We’ve taken a few Japanese noir posters and compared them to their US counterparts.
Today sees the North American launch of 8 pre-NEOGEO arcade titles coming to the PlayStation Store for the PSP and PS3. Emulating that really old-school arcade experience from SNK’s Golden Age, these mini titles are on sale for $2.99 each from the NEOGEO Station. One of these titles, Guerrilla War, is actually FREE for one month starting July 19th, 2011 for PlayStation Plus members! The Games are listed below.
OZMA WARS
Originally released in 1970, Ozama Wars was not only the second released vertical shooting arcade game, but is also known as the first game with disparate levels! This title will have you fighting against UFOs, meteors, comets, and dock with the mothership until your health bar is depleted. out
SASUKE vs COMMANDER
This 1980 arcade shooter is famous for being one of SNK Playmore’s first games to include a bosses. In Sasuke vs Commander, player play as Sasuke, who must protect the Shogun from Ninja in the style of a gallery shooter.
VANGUARD
Known for being one of the very first scrolling shooters, VANGUARD will see players shooting enemies in four directions and collecting energy pods to ram foes in the 1981 title.
MARVIN’S MAZE
This game from 1983 has players fill the shoes of Marvin, who must defend his Maze from the evil Robonoids. A puzzle-action game that’s pretty cute for its age.
HAL 21
Another classic shooting title, this one from 1985. Players control Captain Clain, and must preform arial attacks on enemies and bombing ground targets before reaching the boss in this 1985 classic.
ATHENA
As ATHENA, the Princess of the Kingdom of Victory, this classic platform arcade game released originally in 1986 has player opening a “Forbidden Door” and descending into a realm of fantasy.
IKARI WARRIORS
This ’80s ‘run-and-gun mega-hit’ has players controlling a colonel turned mercenary Ralf, with machine guns, grenades, and tanks in your arsenal to take on endless amounts of foes as you infiltrate an enemy base.
GUERRILLA WAR
Free for 1 month for PlayStation Plus Owners, GUERILLA WAR has these heroes of revolution entering jungles and ruined cities of a tropical island in order to overthrow its tyrannical dictator. Players must rescue captures comrades along the way while trying to liberate the nation against the dictator.
What a blast from the past, I wasn’t even born for these titles! If you want to grab a piece of history, head over to the the “New Releases” category and the “SNK NEOGEO” Featured Publishers page now on the PlayStation Network!
Asura’s Wrath looks to take the normal action gameplay model and punch it in the face with six arms in rapid succession as you can see in the latest trailer released for this title. We are treated to plenty of combat and enemy killing as we see Asura’s six arms put to good use. Normally Asura will have only two arms but can power up to have six at once.
Unfortunately something that you should do while watching this video is turn down the volume because the narrator is probably the worst I’ve heard narrate any game trailer in recent memory. At least the game itself looks good enough for us to forgive the lackluster Capcom worker. Check out the video below.
Planning on playing some The Darkness II for Halloween this year? Then you might want to lower your expectations to The Darkness I instead because 2K Games revealed today that the title which was originally meant to be released on October 4th has instead been pushed back until February 7th 2012 in North America and February 10th elsewhere.
No reason was given for this delay but it could be due to the saturated October release schedule which is already full of titles like Batman: Arkham City, Gears of War 3, Twisted Metal, Battlefield 3, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record… it looks like October is going to be a busy month. Nevertheless the delay could also be to help throw an extra layer of polish on the title and make sure it is bug free for fans.
If you were hoping to get another, perhaps a bit sturdier, Batarang this time around in the Batman: Arkham City collector’s edition then you will soon be disappointed. However rather than a simple Batarang, you’ll be getting a collectible statue of the Bats himself. The statue is created by Kotobukiya and is quite cool looking.
Besides the statue you will also be getting the game itself, an art book, the game’s soundtrack through digital download, four collectible cards, the animated Batman: Gotham Knight DVD as well as early access to the Iceberg Lounge Challenge Map and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns skin. The package is currently being listed at $99 and will be released alongside the normal version of the game on October 18th in the US and 21st elsewhere.
Ever wonder why the Indie game scene on the Xbox Live Indie Games is so barren of amazing titles? Well the following news will help shed some light on that situation. Recently Zeboyd, developers of Cthulhu Saves The World, released a bundle on Steam with that game and Breath of Death VII. The bundle costs only $3 and only a week after being released they have made more money than everything put together from the Xbox Live Indie Game sales.
Breath of Death was released in April of 2009 for $1 and Cthulhu went live on December 2010 for $3 and they have only sold 50,000 and 17,000 copies respectively. These figures barely match up to the 30,000 copies sold in one week on Steam and making Zeboyd nearly $100,000. There can been plenty said with the fact that Microsoft does a poor job marketing, or even showing that Indie games exist but statistics don’t lie my friend.
Despite Ubisoft never actually announcing a release date for the PlayStation 3 exclusive Splinter Cell Trilogy, many retailers had the game listed for an early August release date. That apparently isn’t going to happen anymore thanks to a switch in listings.
Online retailer Amazon.com and rental system GameFly have pushed back the release date of the title to September 27th now. We’ve contacted Ubisoft to see what they have to say about this HD bundle, though their history of being tight lipped on the game’s release date doesn’t bode well. Splinter Cell Trilogy has already missed two previous release dates in March and June, keeping the title always out of reach of Sam Fisher fans.
Two months after the Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland was announced to be localized on September 27th NIS America has released a trailer for the title. You can see in the video below that all of the main characters’ official names have been confirmed and also we are treated to some of the English voice acting.
In Atelier Totori players will follow the journey of Totooria Helmond as she goes on an adventure to find her missing mother. The English voice cast sounds very promising and I daresay maybe even better than the original Japanese voice work. Fans who are looking to pick up Atelier Totori when it is released in September will be able to either buy the game alone or in a limited edition bundle that will include the game itself, a soundtrack CD and an artbook all in one package. You can read my hands-on impressions of Atelier Totori at E3 here.
