Yesterday we received some bad news regarding the Guitar Hero Franchise from Activision, which left Harmonix as the only music instrument peripheral using music game maker in the business at the moment. Or at least the only main stream company. Now Harmonix has issued a statement regarding the fact that Guitar Hero has now found itself in the game franchise graveyard.
Harmonix’s John Drake commented on the Rock Band forums about the closure saying:
We were sad to hear yesterday that Activision was discontinuing development on Guitar Hero. Our thoughts are with those who are losing their jobs, and we wish them the best of luck.
The discontinuation of Guitar Hero is discouraging news for fans of the band game genre. As retail sales of Guitar Hero and Rock Band titles have slowed with time, we’ve been focused on building a robust digital platform for music gaming and have recently crested 2,500 songs available for play within Rock Band 3.
He went on to say that Rock Band would continue as a franchise and that they thought of Activision’s Guitar Hero as a battle of the bands but now that they are gone they are keeping their eyes to the future. This is good news considering the fact that, as he said, the music game shine has faded over the years, but at least one company will continue to support fans.
There are only seven days until Catherine hits shelves in Japan and give players there a chance to experience one of the strangest, but most intriguing games of the past year. Atlus isn’t missing a beat either, they have released another trailer for the game which shows off plenty of the anime-styled custscenes and lots of drama and of course suggestive scenes too.
It looks like there will be plenty of scares of course, as Atlus is looking to provide fans with a very creepy and mind bending experience as they explore the horrors of the human mind. There are also plenty of different characters shown off, though their relation to the main character other than the two girlfriends are a mystery.
So the ESRB has picked up The 3rd Birthday now and given it an expected M-Rating and a breakdown of what may offend people who play it. The description really isn’t much of a surprise to anyone who has followed the game so far, but if you haven’t been following it then a lot of the game mechanics are explained and fans of Parasite Eve will be happy to know that the blood and horror has returned.
A new mechanic which may interest some, and make others wonder how they thought about it, is the fact that Aya’s clothing tears depending on how much damage she takes and can reveal parts of her body as the description says. Also the famous shower scene has returned yet again despite earlier statements that it would not be included in The 3rd Birthday. But don’t take my word for it, catch the full description from the ESRB below:
This is a third-person shooter in which players assume the role of a federal agent (Aya) who uses her special abilities to battle an alien invasion. Players use machine guns, pistols, shotguns, and explosives to attack and kill alien creatures (i.e., “the Twisted”). Battles are accompanied by realistic gunfire, explosions, and screams of pain; enemies generally explode and disappear when defeated. Several cutscenes contain large pools or splashes of blood; in one sequence, slow-motion blood droplets fall over a crowd as multiple characters are killed at once.
Aya’s character can change into a variety of outfits (e.g., lingerie bunny costume, short skirts, bikini tops); when she is injured, her clothes also take damage and reveal large amounts of cleavage/buttocks. One unlockable video depicts Aya in the shower, with her breasts and buttocks partially obscured by steam and varied camera angles. The words “f**k” and “sh*t” appear in the dialogue.
There are many ways that you can make a boxart for your game. You can create something entirely unrelated to the game and leave it as a nice picture to help try and make the game look fancier than it is, or you could simply leave the name of the game on the title and leave it as that. Or you could also place every single character in the game on the cover as well.
Such is the case with Dissidia 012[duodecim]: Final Fantasy’s box art. As you can see below you will be able to tell distinctively which characters will be on the Cosmos side of the fighting (on top) and who will be fighting for Chaos (below). There are a number of different ways they could have done the box art but I believe that this is actually one of the more complicated ones that you can find. I’ve always been partial to having a well done box art and I’m really liking the fact that they put a good amount of effort into designing this one. So much in fact that I decided to give a full sized view so you will be able to pick out your favorite characters.
Crux Prime, an add-on for the Lego Universe MMO, was released today. Battle your way to the Ninjago Monastery Ruins on Crux Prime to meet Sensei Wu. She can teach you Spinjitzu, a fightin’ style that will allow you to decisively defeat your enemies with a tornado made of pure Imagination.
Plus, the developers of the game added a new functionality that is a great addition to the universe. Players can finally defeat the enemies of Crux Prime with their friends. Up to 4 of your friends can join you in the action to kill all who want to ruin the creativity beating inside you.
Crux Prime and the Ninjago storyline is based on the Lego Ninjago toy series that was put on store shelves last month. Gamers can now continue the story in video game form in Lego Universe.
This new zone will have 100 new missions and achievements, 100 new pieces of gear, decals and weapons, 4 rare armor sets and even more collectibles and missions than you can shake a brick at. The add-on is huge, expansive and the biggest expansion the game has seen; it will greatly grow the game’s universe. If you have Lego Universe, this is a great time to get back into the action, and if you don’t have the game yet, you should probably consider it. It is great MMO that will surely stay in your mind for a long time. Read our review here if you are still undecided.
Game Name:Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! Platform(s): Nintendo DS Publisher(s): Nintendo Developer(s):Nintendo Genre(s): Puzzle Release Date: November 14, 2010 (US) February 4, 2011 (AU & EU) Price: $29.99 (U.S) £29.99 (EU) $68.00 (AU) BUY NOW!
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem is the fourth installment of the successful Mario vs DK spinoff series which has you guide wind-up Mario toys to a particular goal, avoiding many obstacles along the way. In many ways, this entry stays true to the same formula that we have seen in previous incarnations, but with much more content and some brand new game-play mechanics that add quite a bit to the growing franchise. Here is my review for Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!
Story
The plot for Mini-Land Mayhem kicks off with Mario and Pauline sponsoring an opening for a brand new theme park where mini-Pauline toys are being given away to the first 100 attendees. Donkey Kong soon shows up to claim his toy, but when he is just a little too late for the give-away, he becomes enraged and kidnaps the real Pauline. It is now up to Mario and his wind-up friends to travel through 8 worlds, level by level, to save Pauline once and for all.
If you remember the original Donkey Kong titles, Pauline was the victim in those games and in many ways, the whole Mario vs Donkey Kong series is more of an evolution of that age-old formula. We also see many other classic characters throughout the game in wind-up and real form, so Mario fans will be happy to see many familiar faces along the way. Being a puzzle title at heart, the story isn’t really a big presence of the game as this title is all about the unique form of gameplay, so let’s move on to that area.
Gameplay
In previous Mario vs DK titles, the focus of the game was to control the minis to a certain destination while collecting coins and various items along the way. Mini-Land Mayhem is the same for the most part, but now the controls are much more environment based so instead of controlling the minis along transparent blocks, you must now drag and pull on various mechanisms to clear a path for your little soldiers to reach their goal.
When a level starts up, we see the famed plumber winding up his little minions, and then they set off into the environment. The minis do not stop for anything though, so keeping a close eye on each one is pivotal in completing each stage. Using the Nintendo DS’ touchscreen, girders are used to connect platforms to each other on the map. If you see a rivet, simply pull and release a girder between one rivet to the next and a platform will then be available for your minis to safely cross. It may sound simple, but the game truly uses strategy for each level, as there are many obstacles such as spikes, standard Mario-themed enemies, pitfalls and many other traps that are ready to take your minis down one by one. You also are only able to have a certain number of girders in an area at a specific time, so switching these out must be done quite often in the game, which adds the element of timing in to the gameplay. How many pieces you are allowed to use is judged by however many are collected within the stage by your minis.
Of course girders are not the only thing that gets the wind-ups from point A to point B. Many areas have barriers with that can only be opened by having a mini hit a certain trigger. Since these minis cannot jump, there are plenty of spring-loaded launchers that must be used, launching minis in the air upon contact to a higher point in the stage. Timing is yet again used with these contraptions, as each can be moved to fill a transparent spot and many times if you are not there to catch your mini, it will meet its doom due to an environmental obstacle or enemy. Ladders, power-ups, conveyor belts, warp pipes and many more passages can also be found as you travel through the varied worlds, each adding their own new techniques to add different twists to the puzzles.
As you move throughout the game, gameplay changes up in different ways. One of the prime examples are the other wind-ups which are used such as Toad, Princess Peach and few other familiar characters. These wind-ups differ as they must pass through their own specially marked door. My favorite levels in Mini-Land Mayhem though come down to the boss battles themselves, though. The boss stages are crafted more as an ode to the classic Donkey Kong games by design, but with the same core style of the Mario vs DK series. You must guide your minis in the same way as before, but instead of reaching a door, they must hit a trigger point which damages the big ape. Each boss battle is different from the next so reaching these feel like an extra reward in itself, as the way they are presented gave off an old-school nostalgic feel that truly lets each world end with an exclamation point.
As a whole, Mini-land Mayhem really isn’t too different from the past titles in the series, but the fresh and varied level design kept me going for hours at a time. Each puzzle is well thought out and the pace of challenge grows as you complete the game, so you really must think a lot more and use strategy to safely guide your minis to the correct doors later in the game. The menu system is well integrated into the game as well making everything easy to access at anytime. Nothing felt that repetitive either with each world contributing something new to the equation, mixing up the gameplay mechanics as you progress. With the addition of coins and trophies which can be collected and earned to get better scores, perfectionists should get even more time out of the whole experience as many coins are well hidden and can take some serious planning if you want to grab them before the timer ticks down to zero.
After you complete the game as a whole, it doesn’t stop there. The Construction Zone lets you construct your own levels with all of the features from the main game. Once you make a level, you can go back and play it at will, or you can also upload it to Nintendo Wi-fi to stump other players all over the world. Players have already created a ton of levels, so just going in and downloading new areas can add an infinite amount of replay value.
Graphics/Audio
I was very impressed by how Mini-Land Mayhem looks. The whole game is bright and cheery throughout, and each area is heavy in detail that reeks of that Mario charm that fans have come to know and love. The minis themselves are also full of character and life and share this same high-end detail. With the worlds constantly changing as you progress design wise, each area not only plays differently, but has it’s own special themes to add that rewarding feeling of progression. Some stages have a lot going on at certain points, especially boss battles, but fret not as there was absolutely no hiccups or slowdown during my play-through and everything flows smoothly.
The music in the game might just be my favorite soundtrack for a Mario title on the system period. With remakes of classic familiar tunes from both Mario titles as well as Donkey Kong Country, and even a few new tracks thrown in, it is clear that Nintendo wanted to appeal to their core audience with this title. Sound effects are also woven in well as the little voices of the minis and characters such as Pauline are all clear and well acted. These little things like getting to hear your little minis shout in victory as they reach a door or Pauline scream in agony as she is taken to the next level add a lot more charm to the title, so all of the high quality work done on the audio should not be ignored to get the full experience here.
Overall
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem is not a groundbreaking sequel, but it does extend the series’ lifespan with new elements of gameplay that add some new puzzle mechanics as well as fantastic level design which is challenging and simply fun to complete. Nintendo have filled this title full of their classic charm and the overall quality of presentation make it clear that this game was crafted for old and new fans alike. Along with the jam-packed main story mode and the Construction Zone, this is the perfect title to pick up and play anytime as it never really ends. Not only is Mini-Land Mayhem now a necessity to a Nintendo DS library, it simply tromps many other addictive puzzlers on the console proving yet again that Mario still holds the throne when it comes to putting out fantastic titles.
If your into sports and Android, then this announcement will undoubtedly excite you. As you (hopefully) inferred from the title, the PES football/soccer experience is coming to the Android OS. Coming with Konami style quality and personality, this iteration of PES brings the sport to life. Featuring a new control system called True Flow, PES 2011 aims to allow you to control the game simply and accurately.
The game also puts the UEFA Club Competitions into the mix. Both the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League will be included and the UEFA Super Cup Final will await the champions of the aforementioned leagues. Get it on the Android Market now!
The video game Homefront is coming soon, and the trailers leading up to its release are hitting harder than ever before. The newest video, entitled “Resistance,” features plenty of grisly, gritty elements that will make your hair stand on its head and your heart pound. It also showcases a pretty darn good soundtrack and lots of guns, explosions, and even a few chicks. What more could you ask for? Get ready to fight the new enemy, and win the second revolution!
Homefront is being developed by KAOS Studios and will be published by THQ. It will release on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on March 8th, 2011. You can check out our preview of the game here: Homefront Multi-player Hands on Preview
Through the mist of the app store emerges another restaurant/café themed game for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. While previous time-based café management games are rather weak themed, Capcom Interactive, Inc.’s latest game, Zombie Café infects the genre with a zombie theme. While there are a number of zombie themed games, such as Zombie Farm, Zombie Café uniquely blends the elements that make zombie games and restaurant management games so enjoyable.
Gameplay
As a newly opened restaurant, you are lacking in a low payed, yet dedicated work force in which to serve your customers. In order to create a reputable business, you need to first infect patrons who visit your cafe to convert them into zombies. This is where Zombie Café differs from the number of real-time based cafe and restaurant simulation games available for iDevices. While it may seem a little uncharacteristic for a zombie to work in a cafe, Capcom have combated this by giving the zombies a short enough attention span to attack customers (in true zombie nature) when they become restless. If the zombie becomes too bored they will begin to attack the customers and cause your café’s star rating to decrease. In order to prevent this you need to give the zombies adequate rest.
In Zombie Café you are required to learn new recipes and increase the level and size of your café. Players also have the option to redecorate as they see fit. Despite the clean look available to players in terms of decoration, the food options would defiantly not pass a health inspection. Recipes like ‘tumor melt’ and ‘dishwater soup’ give the game a great sense of character and add to the somewhat black humour of the game. Each meal needs a different amount of time in which to cook before they can be served to the eagerly awaiting customers by a staff of “hired” zombies.
While the management of a cafe employed solely by zombies may become a little repetitive, the ability to thwart (at least temporarily) your competition by sending an armada of zombie warrior/waiters adds a great new element to the mix. While the zombie raid is not unique to Zombie Café (also present in Zombie Farm) I find the management of theses raids a little less frustrating than other games. Rather than your zombies dying and having to be regrown, Zombie Café employees need time to reanimate. While this is still time consuming I prefer this method as it lacks the need for harvest after a certain time frame. By raiding other Cafés players can boost their level, earn cash, toxins and new recipes while destroying other cafés all at the same time. During the raids, zombies attack and chase off customers from other cafés, or battle against the chefs and waiters. Once a zombie has defeated a human a black censor bar covers the body before it turns to bones and is eaten by your victorious zombie. This is just another clever little element to the quirky humour of the game (as well as to tone down any violence).
Graphics and audio
Graphically, Zombie Café pays attention to detail in a cartoon like fashion, which adds to the overall fun of the game. The avatars in Zombie Café are well designed and add to the overall aesthetic of the game. There are a few different types of customers who enter the café, from punks to politicians, to footballers and retirees. Each of the different types of characters are uniquely designed (although some clothing cross-over character types) and have different attributes according to job (or lack of job in some cases). After infecting different customers their appearance changes slightly to make them more zombie-like, generic zombie alterations such as ripped clothes and more apocalyptic hairstyles. Zombie Café also plays particular detail to the design of the awful meals served in your café, from cockroaches in the ‘zomlet’ to eyeballs encased in the ‘gello mold’.
Zombie Café utilises a minimalist approach to sound design, using a jazzy musical background and cooking noises to emphasis the café setting. A few audio favourites of mine are the zombie noises that come with clicking on an employee or that come with the push notifications. All the audio elements work well together to compliment the thematic and graphical aesthetics of the game.
Conclusion
Overall, Zombie Café is a pretty fun game. The easy to use interface and the dark sense of humour that can only come from zombies cooking brains (and a whole bunch of other body parts and bugs) make the game a winner in my books. The necessary waiting period in games such as Zombie Café is a downfall for me. I am constantly setting dishes on the stove to cook only to forget about them two minutes later and return to a burnt meal. The push notifications are a great feature within the game that allows my wandering mind to serve my prepared meals. While this isn’t unique to just Zombie Café, the sound byte of or ‘brraaiinns’ is a great enticement to get back into the Zombie-Café business. The zombie theme really adds a new interesting element that blends uncannily well with the food service industry. Unlike other zombie based games, Capcom have remodelled the zombie elements to include infection as a means of zombifying, as well as providing a well designed and manageable invasion function paired with awesome zombie-designs delivered with a great sense of zombie-humour.
Hard Corps: Uprising Developer: ARC System Works Publisher: Konami Platform: PSN, XBLA (Reviewed) Release Date: 2/16/2011 Price: 1200 MSP ($15) Coming Soon!
Overview:
Contra is a series that has been well known for its brutally challenging difficulty and trademark style of gameplay of being a run and gun shooter. Now Konami has decided to have Arc System Works take a shot at making a Contra styled game themselves. Well known for their work on the Guilty Gear franchise and BlazBlue fighting games, does Hard Corps: Uprising make a nice addition to the franchise with Arc System Works’ anime styled touch to it?
Story:
Now do not let the name fool you. Hard Corps: Uprising is indeed a part of the Contra storyline and takes place before Contra: Hard Corps, making it a prequel to that story. The year is 2613 and the Commonwealth Empire has begun to take power across the world under the leadership of Tiberius. The neighboring countries have done what they can to avoid direct confrontation with the Commonwealth but are suffering greatly at their hands.
Entire the Resistance Forces. These fighters have struggled against the superior military might that the Commonwealth can call upon, but not anymore. Two elite soldiers are entering the battlefield, Bahamut and Krystal. These two soldiers are able to take the fight to the Commonwealth, all the while getting their story told through text descriptions in between stages.
These descriptions are unfortunately not the most exciting bit of storytelling considering that it is the only place that story is really being told short of the beautiful opening cutscene. The story text differs depending whether you are playing Bahamut and Krystal, and looks into what they are thinking about each other as Krystal struggles to trust Bahamut who is an Ex-Commonwealth soldier. The story is unfortunately pretty loose as far as development goes, but it does supply at least enough to explain what you are fighting for.
Graphics:
Those who have played any games created by Arc System Works know that they usually use hand-drawn characters in their games and are often anime-styled with their coloration and design. This has been true for BlazBlue and Guilty Gear, and is just as true for Hard Corps: Uprising. This isn’t to the games’ detriment however because the refreshing art style works very well with the variety of levels that are in the game, as well as giving players a variety of different enemies to face off against. Plus when you choose your character you have the option of changing their color palette, which can create some remarkable lookalikes that may be unintentional, or a nice reference that you can find out for yourself.
Gameplay:
There are two modes of gameplay that can be selected immediately when you load Hard Corps: Uprising up for the first time, the Arcade Mode and the Rising Mode. Arcade Mode is exactly what it sounds like, a straight run through of the game with your standard amount of health and lives to make it through the levels. While Rising Mode provides an experience similar to an RPG where players can upgrade their character’s abilities such as health amount, credit amount, weapons and more.
Now, right out of the gates there is a pretty big part of the game that you should know. It is quite difficult and there is no option for changing your game difficulty. Now while this may be offputting to some, Contra fans will know that this is exactly what the game is known for. Arcade mode is very difficult and will only allow players to be hit a maximum of two times before losing a life, and then only having two lives each time.
Now rather than having a difficulty option, there is the Rising Mode instead. Rising Mode plays similar to Arcade Mode except that you have the ability to choose your starting stage (only as far as you’ve made it so far), and allowing your player to be upgraded significantly. There are a few times that you may struggle simply to get past the first level, but all of those kills that you are acquiring add up to more upgrades, which makes it an easier time for yourself and make the game accessible to those who are looking for an action packed and fast paced shooter, but not quite capable of answering the difficult level that it requires.
As you enter a level you will immediately notice that you’re in a fight for your life as your enemies are numerous and their bullets and bodies are coming right at you. You take direct damage when an enemy touches you, as well as shoots you of course, but there is no melee button and your character does not automatically hit close enemies which I found to be a small disappointment. Rather you will run through each level shooting through a large amount of enemies and acquiring in-stage power ups that will help you along.
These in-game power ups provide immediate weapon upgrades depending on the ones that you pick up. They include a rapid fire machine gun, a scattergun (shotgun), a flame throwing plasma gun, homing laser shooter, grenade launcher, and a reflecting beam. You will be able to switch which weapon you use by pressing Y, though you can only carry two at a time, meaning if you pick up a new weapon with one already equipped it will replace it. Weapons are dropped at the slightest hit however, so that means that you will need to pick when and where to use your weapon because they can make a pivotal turning point in boss fights. The most efficient weapon is probably the homing laser as you can easily dash through an area shooting it and most likely make it through unscathed, though I found myself favoring the scattergun usually.
Now I’ve mentioned before that the game is hard, and that cannot be understated. Sure there may not be as many enemies as hardcore Contra fans would be used to, but there are a number of cheap deaths that can occur which can easily remove a life from your precious counter. These include the relatively badly designed wall climbing sequences which not only break up the action, but involve areas that one touch can cause you to fall to your death. Also there are a number of levels which take place on or near water, and a careless respawn system can often cause your character to fall into the water and remove yet another life, which can cause a quick end to your Arcade play through.
Overall:
Hard Corps: Uprising stays true to the Contra formula while also making it accessible to newcomers that are looking for a fun time. There is plenty of fun to be had, especially after defeating the first stage after losing so many times before. With the inclusion of Rising Mode it extends the replayability of the game significantly and allows players to enjoy the game thoroughly. So there is something for everyone in Hard Corps: Uprising. If you are a Contra fan who likes a challenge, tackle Arcade mode, anyone else would be best suited to trying Rising Mode, and despite a few cheap deaths and badly designed wall climbing sequences, enjoy a great run and gun shooter.
