KAMI RETRO is spelled in all caps. There’s a reason for it. It’s because it demands your attention. Unable to be contained by a single device, KAMI RETRO has spread it’s love onto the delicious tenderness that is iPad. Optimised for the increased resolution, KAMI RETRO is perfectly suited for the larger real-estate.
KAMI RETRO burst onto the scene and was immediately highlighted as iPhone Game of the Week on the US App Store, being the envy of all other apps. But it didn’t let the fame go to it’s head, instead KAMI RETRO focused on an awesome retro-3D look, 8-bit inspired soundtrack and a unique spin on platforming and puzzle-gaming.
Featuring more than 60 stages across five worlds, platform-puzzle game KAMI RETRO HD will challenge players’ smart thinking and quick fingers.
I can’t recommend KAMI RETRO enough. It’s a fantastic title and worthy of your time. The HD iPad version is available on the App Store now for $2.99 and the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad version is still available for $0.99.
KAMI RETRO and KAMI RETRO HD are developed by Paw Print Games and published by GAMEVIL.
Did you hear that? That loud roaring applause? That, my friends was the sound of zillions of Uncharted fans rejoicing aloud because David O. Russell, Destroyer of All Things Uncharted, quit. If you were unfamiliar with this travesty, Mr. Russell decided to horribly miscast (Mark Wahlberg as Nathan Drake!?) and opt to change virtually everything that makes Uncharted, Uncharted. Which brings to question, why even make the movie if you’re just going to change everything? Why not just call it something else? Well, I’m just going to assume that logic set in.
Don’t get me wrong, David O. Russell is a fine filmmaker. But I can’t help but think he was horribly misguided in his decision to make this picture. Crisis averted. The Internets can now calm down.
Variety had the exclusive report. No reason was given. None is needed.
Capsule Computers were recently invited to preview Alice: Madness Returns, where we were lucky enough to rub shoulders with one of the gaming industry’s legendary game developer and Creative Director on Alice: Madness ReturnsAmerican McGee.
Some of his early works include involvement in the creation of the classic video games Doom, Doom II, Quake and Quake II, these achievements really speak for themselves.
However with the release of ‘American McGee’s Alice’ back in 2000, McGee has since become somewhat of a cult figure/cult game developer among many gamers around the world.
So with this in mind, I was very fortunate to of interviewed American McGee and gain his insight into the games he has created.
Interview Begins
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1. I find that both Alice and Alice: Madness Returns seems to be defined their very unique art style/direction and equally for their dark, macabre and twisted reinterpretation of Wonderland. How did you first get the idea/inspiration to create this video game adaptation of Alice In Wonderland ?
McGee – The inspiration came to me while driving along the coast of California (Highway 1) and listening to a song by the Crystal Method (Trip Like I Do).
The word “wonder” struck me and stuck in my head – that, combined with the surrounding scenery, speed and my general mindset, set off an series of creative bursts in my head which largely resulted in the core concept for the game and its story.
2. Why did it take so long (more than a decade) for an Alice sequel to be made?
McGee – There was really nothing special about the timing – I just needed to be in the right place at the right time (again) for everything to align so that a sequel could be made.
I’d spent the previous 10 years travelling the world, making other games, moving to Los Angeles, Hong Kong (then Shanghai) before starting a studio (Spicy Horse Games, Shanghai) which I felt had the ability to tackle the creation of a sequel.
3. The game is quite dark and delves into mature themes, was there anything that too “full on” to make it into the full game and was removed during development?
McGee – Content in the game is driven purely by Alice as a character. We had a rule during development – everything seen in Wonderland had to come from an experience Alice had in her real-world life. That constraint forced us to think of interesting ways to present really fantastic or horrifying themes using only the elements of Alice’s imagination.
So most everything we created “fit” within the constraint, but we still ended up with a lot of content that we just couldn’t find room for in the game. A lot of that ended up in an art book recently published by Dark Horse Comics (The Art of Alice: Madness Returns).
4. So what can players expect coming from the original to this new game?
McGee – We’ve had the luxury of ten years’ feedback from audiences around the world. They’ve told us about those things they loved in the first game, and those things they didn’t love so much.
We’re presenting a pretty classic formula in terms of what made the first game work – but we’ve also taken that feedback and improved things like combat, which many people felt was too one-dimensional.
5. Also what can newcomers expect to see, playing this game series for the first time?
McGee – What made the first game so successful was the blending of narrative, art and game play – along with the tremendous amount of variety found in the characters and locations of Wonderland. People who didn’t have a chance to play the first game will find that the sequel delivers on all those things; this is in many ways the ideal vision of what the first game was trying to be.
We’ve also just recently announced the re-release of the original game for those people who purchase Madness Returns, so there’s no reason why newcomers can’t enjoy the new AND the old game.
6. What to do you think the future of video games is? Is the industry moving to more independent developers, user generated content, community driven content or other?
McGee – The industry is definitely in a transformative phase – so much content is being pushed to new online and mobile platforms and the traditional ideas of game development are shifting to match.
For developers and audiences these changes will be mostly good – resulting in a wider range of audiences and more innovative game types across more platforms.
7. What is your option on video gaming piracy and are you worried about your video games being pirated?
McGee – Piracy is a complex problem created by a combination of factors such as price per entertainment unit, distribution platform limitations, player/consumer expectation and psychology, developer constraints/goals and monetization issues (payment, pricing, etc).
There are platforms and regions where many of these problems are being tackled simultaneously – or were alleviated/eliminated early in the formation of the market – and in those places the question of piracy is basically non-existent. The model needs to adapt to make piracy pointless while benefitting the consumers and producers.
All that being said, I am concerned about our games like Madness Returns being pirated – because it’s tied to a legacy distribution and monetization model.
But we’ve created some online hooks and incentives that we hope will inspire consumers to value the product more and thereby support our efforts more efficiently. Beyond that, the studio is moving away from retailed-based boxed product and focusing 100% on free to play online games.
8. Should gaming companies take more anti-piracy measures to protect their games or is the issues one that lies with gamers themselves?
McGee – Companies should change the model so that piracy becomes a non-issue. If you leave your car sitting in the street with keys in the ignition can you really blame people for taking it on a joy ride?
Build a better system which encourages the sort of consumer behaviour you want – no point in punishing people for taking advantage of a broken system.
9. The Alice film adaptation has been rumored/in development now for more than a decade, would you be like to see your video games adapted into films and do you think Alice will ever hit the silver screen?
McGee – Of course I’d love to see it – just not holding my breath. Hollywood can be unbelievably slow at times and blindingly fast at others; I’ve yet to figure out where the controls are, so I’ll continue to focus on our games and let the film stuff take care of itself.
10. So what’s next up for American McGee?
McGee – Spicy Horse just announced the signing of a development deal with PopCap, whereby we’ll be adapting one of their existing IPs for the 3D free to play online market – and we just received investment funding from Shanghai-based Vickers Ventures, which we’ll be using to develop our own original IP for the free to play online market worldwide.
It’s a very exciting time for the studio, we’ll be able to combine our experience with online games and AAA console games to produce really high quality free to play online games using 3D art assets. It’s a direction we think the industry will soon turn towards, and we want to be there and ready when it happens.
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So all up some very thoughtful answers from American McGee. Alice: Madness Returns is set to be released on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC on June 16th & 17th in Australia and New Zealand.
Check out our preview of Alice: Madness Returns along with Shadows of the Damned here
In case you have been hiding under a rock, you should know that Hunted: The Demon’s Forge will be coming out next Tuesday, May 31st. To celebrate this release Bethesda and inXile have released a very well done launch trailer today which you can see below. The trailer shows off the best parts of working together and is displayed to a cover of the old song “Happy Together.”
As you can see in the video E’lana and Caddoc really do work together well by combining each of their strengths to take down any number of monstrosities that are placed in their way. Also if you pay attention to near the middle of the video you may notice a quick mention of a certain video gaming website that certainly sounds more than a little familiar if you catch my drift.
Seems like every other day the ESRB has something going on. Sure they rate games everyday but every once in awhile they either end up rating an unannounced title or providing a rating for a niche Japanese title that is being localized for release in the United States. This ESRB article is the latter. Konami submitted Otomedius Excellent for review and it was given a T rating with a few interesting parts of their description. Catch the description below:
This is a side-scrolling shooter in which players control small characters that fly through the air and destroy fantastical alien ships. Players fire missiles and lasers at waves of enemies (e.g., robot penguins, floating spacecraft, mech-robots) in constant air battles; enemies and objects explode in fiery bursts and bright particles.
The game depicts several female characters in revealing outfits—their breasts/buttocks are partially obscured by towels, strategic poses, and skimpy costumes. In one mini-game, players can scroll an on-screen cursor over characters to “touch” them (e.g., “Stop touching me there,” “You can touch me, but no one else!”); some sequences contain instances of suggestive dialogue (e.g., “We’d better get hot and bothered for this,” “Are you trying to turn me on or find my off switch?”).
The whole touching minigame sounds a bit odd and is something that has yet to be shown by Konami in any of their Western assets. Konami has not officially announced a release date for the title but Gamestop and Gamefly have the game listed for a June 22nd release date, special edition and all.
Having abated slathering fans with two of the most revered maps in Battlefield history, Strike at Karkand and Wake Island, today the team has decided to take pity on us all and reveal new information and concept goodyness from the two remaining maps in the Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand limited edition, the Gulf of Oman and Sharqi Peninsula.
Head over to blogs.battlefield.ea.com to check it out. And try not to drool on your keyboard.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D is coming out in under a month now and Nintendo isn’t going to let us forget about the new features they have added in. Sure there will be the 3D effects which should be great considering the title, but most fans are just delighted to have a portable version of one of the best Legend of Zelda games of all time.
In a video released today Nintendo showed off the various additions they have added into the game, such as boss challenge mode, touch screen item usage and of course the help system. Nintendo’s Super Guide for Ocarina of Time 3D will be called “visions” and players will be able to see ahead of time how to solve puzzles in a temple that they otherwise would have been stuck in. Catch the New Features video below.
Tokyo Game Show’s mascot won’t be much different than we remember her. The poster for TGS 2011 was released today and Andriasang managed to get a hold of it with some extra information. The artist of the mascot is still Ippei Gyoubu who is a talented marketing artist who has worked for companies like Adidas and Dr. Pepper in the past.
Despite his credentials however I’d still have to say that the mascot is a tad bit creepy. A mixture of human and electronics usually would fit well with the whole Japanese theme but something is just a bit off with her in my mind. In case you were wondering; the Japanese catchphrase there means: “Game – Dancing Your Heart.” You can see the poster below and make up your mind yourself about her creepiness level.
Sony wasn’t making empty promises when they said that they would offer identity theft protection to its users. Any PSN user can sign up for the identity theft protection service today. This service is currently only being offered to United States residents with the company trying to work out the details for international users. To begin signing up for your protection you can go to this website and place the email address attached to your PSN account in the box.
Afterwards you will receive an email with more information about how to activate your identity protection. Debix had this to say about the services they are offering PSN users:
“AllClear ID PLUS is a premium identity protection service that uses advanced technology to deliver alerts to help keep you safe. The service also provides identity theft insurance coverage and hands-on help from expert fraud investigators. Sony has arranged, at no charge to eligible PlayStation®Network and Qriocity account holders, for twelve months of this service to be provided by Debix to those who choose to enroll.”
Things obviously haven’t been going well for Sony the past few weeks. With the PlayStation Network being down and numerous attacks from hackers all across the board, Sony fans may begin to question just how well things are going internally on the NGP. Well apparently they are going just fine.
Sony said today that they are still preparing for the NGP to be released at the end of the year and to expect more information at E3, as well as aiming to have the PlayStation Network back in working order by the end of this month. The PSN itself may be up, but not quite 100% with the Store still offline. In the notes translated by Andriasang, even if there was a delay it would only be for a few days at max.
