Think of the worst product name you have ever seen. Wii? Yes, that may have made many Westerners giggle, but it has still got nothing on the one your about to read. How about iPad? The instant it was announced, Apple haters, tech journalists and even some Apple fans instantly laughed on internet forums across the world. Maybe the Bloggie, Sony’s new video recorder, comes to mind. Not only does that name make it sound like your 5 when you say it, it also makes you look a little like a dork. Still, the worst name for a product that I have recently seen is the Skunk Juice Ear Buds. The name combines excretion and blatant visualization of the worst atrocities that a person may ever experience.
However, the product does have a few things going for it. It combines magnets with headphones, so that if they get ripped out, your ear lobes will not follow. You can also apparently connect many different headphones at once for those intimate, MP3 music sharing moments so many people like to have. Check out the screenshot and video for details.
Michael Jackson: The Experience Developer: TRIUMPH INTERNATIONAL, INC Publisher: Ubisoft Genre: Music/Dance Platform: Wii (PSP, DS, Xbox 360 Kinect, PS3) Released: 26 November
Michael Jackson: The Experience had been in development for a long time until its release late on in 2010. Some may have proclaimed otherwise, saying it was just a quick cash-in job by Ubisoft trying to make the most of the shock and hype that surrounded untimely death of the singer, song-writer and dancer, or more recently, a cash-in of the festive period and the sales frenzy that goes along with Christmas. However, it had long been known that a game was in-development. In fact, its release was meant to coincide with the planned tour that never came to after Michael Jackson’s death, so the game has been in development for a while now, and it certainly shows.
In a lot of ways, Michael Jackson: The Experience is basically just ‘Just Dance: Michael Jackson’. The user interface in-game, as well as the instructions moving up the side of the screen during gameplay are identical to that of Just Dance 2 which released earlier in the year and achieved sales success. Conversely, it must have sold well for a reason, so if Ubisoft held a winning formula in Just Dance 2, why not carry it over and mould it to suit Michael Jackson the experience. It turns out this was their thinking exactly, and although in Michael Jackson: The Experience you’ve got a game that shares a lot of similarities with Just Dance 2, the game has clearly been stylised to portray a true representation of the King of Pop along with his unique dance techniques.
Michael Jackson: The Experience consists of two main modes, ‘Dance’ and ‘Dance School’, both of which are fairly straight forward. As you will have probably guessed, you spend the majority of your time in ‘Dance’ as this is where the main bulk of the package is located – the dancing part. There is a choice of 27 songs in this Wii version, which are as follows:
-Another Part of Me*
-Bad
-Beat it
-Billie Jean
-Black or White
-Dirty Diana
-Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough
-Earth Song
-Ghosts
-Heal the World
-In the Closet
-Leave Me Alone
-Money
-Remember the Time
-Rock With You
-Smooth Criminal
-Speed Demon
-Streetwalker
-Sunset Driver
-The Girl is Mine
-The Way you Make Me Feel
-They Don’t Care About Us
-Thriller
-Wanna Be Startin’ Something
-Who Is It
-Will You Be There
-Workin’ Day and Night
As you can see, it is a fairly varied tracklist, including a mix of iconic tunes and some lesser known songs from the artist. It is worth mentioning that ‘Another Part of Me’, as marked by an asterisk above, was limited to only special edition day one copies of the game at selected retailers, therefore, so to speak, for most copies of the game there is a choice of 26 songs. It is also worth noting that despite the advertising campaign saying you can dance and sing like Michael Jackson, only the dancing part is recorded and scored at the end, but by all means sing along as you are dancing – you will often find yourself singing along to the hits involuntarily anyway.
As for the dancing, this is tracked and scored at the end and is the main part of the game. You can dance along to individually created routines for each song, and in the instances of songs that were accompanied by music videos, the same choreographed dance routines seen in the music videos. At the end of the song you are then awarded a points score and a rating out of five stars based on how well you pulled off the moves and moved in time to the song. Each set for the various songs is different, and you will never feel like you are re-doing dance steps from a previous songs. They have all been carefully crafted and choreographed, with a separate animated Michael Jackson figure guiding you through the steps, as well as backing dancers in the cases of songs which include back-up dancers. The animations are very good and look realistic, authentic, and more importantly clearly guide you through the dance moves. They are also entertaining enough to watch, and the game can hold the interest of those watching because for each song on the tracklist the costumes and number of dancers onscreen changes, keeping it fresh and absorbing.
For the songs which include backing dancers, you also get the choice of doing their routines instead of taking the lead as Michael, and as a result the dance routine can vary in difficulty. It varies between tracks anyway, but by giving you a choice between roles within the song, the game also offers variation in the difficulty within a song. For example, on ‘Thriller’, you can choose to play as Michael, hence you will dance the set given the ‘Inhuman’ difficulty ranking, or you can choose to play as a backing dancer and subsequently the difficulty rating is lower, coming in at the ‘Hard’ ranking.
Additionally, there is a ‘Dance School’ mode. This is comprised of videos which you gradually unlock as you are dancing. These videos feature advice and tips from professional dancers in regards to many aspects of dance, such as warming up or technique. This is an added extra which those wishing to further their dancing can benefit from, and those who wish just to have a good time can also benefit from too, as it can help improve your scores in-game or prevent you from pulling a muscle by helping you to warm up.
Overall, Michael Jackson: The Experience is a good game, and although it shares similarities with Just Dance 2, it has clearly been developed in the image of the King of Pop. With a new dance routine for each song and convincing animations of dancers doing the moves with you, it really is an ‘Experience’ as you dance along in the style of Michael Jackson. It is debatable just how much of your movement is being tracked as you are only being sensed by the Wii remote you are holding in your right hand. Arguably, you could achieve similar scores sitting down and flicking your wrist about, but this defeats the point of the game and spoils the fun. In this respect, it may be worth favouring the Kinect version of the game as at least then you know it is scoring you based on your entire body. Obviously, if you aren’t a fan of Michael Jackson it may be worth considering the more generalised Just Dance 2 instead, but there are some classics included in Michael Jackson: The Experience and for a more defined dance style, I’d recommend this game. It offers great entertainment, there’s multiplayer so it would make a good party game if you’ve got the space, and it is also a formidable but enjoyable source of exercise unlike some of the monotonous fitness simulators on the market which put too much of an emphasis on the exercise part of the equation.
Pros
Fun source of exercise
Animations and routines are different every time
Choice of 26 MJ songs including some famous hits
All carefully choreographed in Michael’s style
Cons
Wii version doesn’t track movement particularly convincingly
Instructions along the side can often leave a lot to be desired
This week sees the release of Angry Birds on PSN which will join the growing catalogue of PlayStation Minis on offer. Obviously the game was very successful on iPhone – it even managed to land the award for best iPhone/iPad game in our very own Capsule Computers 2010 Game Awards.
The download will be playable on both PS3 or PSP, but how well will Angry Birds make the tranisition? Anyone picking it up later this week when it is made available will be able to find out.
If you haven’t played it on the iPhone because you don’t have one, then this could definitely be worth thinking about, and even if you have got it on the iPhone, picking it up via PSN isn’t a bad proposition either.
Call of Duty: Black Ops is set to receive its first bout of DLC, a timed-exclusive for Xbox 360, on February 1st.
Entitled ‘First Strike’, the new map pack will include four new multiplayer maps (Berlin Wall, Discovery, Stadium and Kowloon), as well as a new zombie map called Ascension.
Treyarch boss Mark Lamia had this to say about the DLC:
“We’re committed to supporting Call of Duty: Black Ops fans with continuous updates to the game and exciting new content that will keep our community engaged”.
As it is a timed-exclusive, the download content will arrive on Xbox Live first, followed by an arrival on other platforms such as the PlayStation 3 at a later date. So who’s picking it up?
Ladies and Gentle-gamers … News just in from Two Tribes, seems that during the development of a brand new, as of yet unannounced game that could be appearing on the Apple iPhone, employees at Two Tribes have started to exhibit symptoms of what appears to be a new type of addiction…
From what we’ve been told, designers, programmers, game testers and even producers have been caught frantically switching items around. Office supplies, i-devices and even Toki Tori’s eggs have been lost and subsequently found at the most unusual places. Kinda like the same thing that Dylan does with our multiple copies of Barbies Horse Adventures. It’s a little disturbing but now we can safely say that he’s not the only one that has problems.
All we we’ve told is that it is unknown what the long term effects of this addiction are. Apart from having office redecorating effects and being highly time consuming, the addiction does not seem to have any damaging side effects (but I do beg to differ after looking at what Dylan does here in the office). Two Tribe are confident that all subjects seem to derive a healthy dose of pleasure from this ‘compulsive swapping disorder’ resulting in the addiction spreading at a fast pace!
Office cameras in the Two Tribe offices managed to capture footage of an employee suffering from addiction, check out the video below. Should we BE AFRAID !! ?? Or Be PREPARED for some serious fun !!! only time will tell !! We’ll keep you updated once we have more information.
If you happen to be one of the many that own a copy of Mass Effect 2, I am sure you are probably aware of the Cerberus Network. Since the game’s launch in early 2010, the service was pretty much used on the Main Menu to alert players about new updates and DLC that was available. As of January 24th, the Cerberus Network will cease to update as a message was posted today to any players logging in. If this news upsets you by any means, don’t feel down just yet.
This message was also included in that update:
“A week of posts will precede a downloadable content release, and two more weeks will lead up to the release of Mass Effect 3,”
Of course this means we should be seeing one more DLC pack, and I am thinking this will be the DLC that was promised that will bridge the story between Mass Effect 2 to the upcoming third entry in the series. Another thing to note is this only effects the updating news and all content will still be downloadable from the Marketplace like normal.
Either way, I am ready to see Mass Effect 3, though I do need to give it a replay to get a better ending since the content will all carry over, but this news pretty much sets the release date for Mass Effect 3 in stone for later this year and the new content for ME2 should definitely be one to watch for.
Polish video games developer and publisher, Teyon, is pleased to announce their next puzzle/logic game hitting the European Nintendo DSiWare™ on January 7th 2011. The title will sell for 500 Nintendo DSi points.
You can Swap till you drop with Super Swap, an exciting blend of arcade action and match-3 fun in which you find yourself dragging colourful blocks in one of 4 directions to connect 3 or more blocks and clear the board. As new blocks fall, you’ll have to move fast to keep the stack from reaching the top. The games features include:
4 exciting modes of the gameplay
Plenty of power-ups and combo bonuses
Colorful and nice graphics
Various shapes of blocks
In a lot of ways, Super Swap looks much like Bejeweled, but with Bejeweled 2 released only recently on WiiWare, the Nintendo download service for the Wii, will Super Swap be able to compete?
Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! Developer & Publisher:Nippon Ichi Software Genre: Difficult Platformer Console: PSP (Reviewed) Release Date: January 11th, 2011 Price: $29.99 USPre-Order Now!
Overview:
Now many of us may be familiar with the Disgaea strategy RPG franchise. It has been one of the core SRPGs since its creation and has always been critically acclaimed. Now while Etna, Flonne, and many other characters have played larger parts in past Disgaea games the most memorable characters are the Prinnies. Cursed human soles woven into the body of an explosive penguin and cursed to do menial labor for their demon lords.
But life can’t be all bad for the Prinnies dood especially now that they have a game made specifically for them. Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! brings us the second installation of the side scrolling platformer starring the Hero Prinny. Now with one of the most peculiar sounding titles that we’ve seen in a few years Prinny 2 is to be released in a few weeks and we’ve got our hands on review all set.
Story:
The Prinnies lives have always been one of servitude and rarely do they ever have the chance to be in the spotlight. Now of course in Prinny 2 they have yet another chance to shine. One day in the middle of the night a Phantom Thief (named the same as who he is) has stolen a rare item from Demon Lord Etna. Now this rare item can cause the destruction of the entire Netherworld now that it has been taken by this thief. But what exactly could this rare item be? Why it is Demon Lord Etna’s panties. Yes the whole centerfold of the story is the fact that Etna’s underwear has been stolen by a thief who hunts only rare items, and if she doesn’t get them back by the end of the night she will destroy the Netherworld because she will be pissed.
Now it is your job as the Hero Prinnies to capture this thief and return Etna’s underwear back to her and avoid her wrath. You will do this by venturing out to six different Netherworld stages and retrieving other rare items to help lure the thief back to the castle so you can once and for all defeat him and retrieve the panties from him. The levels can be chosen at your own pace and increase in difficulty as the night wears on. Unfortunately while you may see a few Disgaea characters that you recognize, a lot of the characters will not be explained or given any background information. Sure you may know who Etna is, but not who Flonne is even though they converse as if good friends. There are plenty of laughs to be had as well as the Prinnies not only make jokes amongst themselves but at bosses expense at well. At the same time however those who do not know much about the Disgaea characters will still miss out on inside jokes that only those with background knowledge would understand.
Graphics:
Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties may have some of the best graphics of its kind on the PSP dood. The graphics are very bright and gorgeous and are exactly what one would expect to see in a game with an Anime like feel to it. Each region you explore is full of monsters and plenty of details to make it unique compared to the other stages that you can venture too. The characters themselves are very well designed, and although there aren’t many actions taken by some of them they are very great to see.
Besides the Prinnies themselves you will see a variety of different enemies that are fully rendered in 2D and often match the world in which you are visiting though there are occasional repeats. One thing however that can be noted is that Prinny 2 does have some slowdown during parts of gameplay. This wouldn’t be an issue usually but thanks to the high difficulty level of Prinny 2 one can expect occasional slowdown to cause the death of their Prinny. This may not be much of a problem when you are playing on the Baby difficulty, but on any higher difficulty level it can cause unnecessary frustration.
Audio:
Each of the characters inside of Prinny 2 possess their own voice over work done by their classic voice actors. For the most part however Etna’s voice sounds slightly different at times but this is usually something that will not be noticed by most players as the enjoyment of listening to her voice actor (Michelle Ruff) is still there. The bosses each have their own names and are often named after ingredients one may find in the kitchen, including one trio of enemies whose names spell out a few spices but always refer to themselves in their own parts. Also even though you meet many different Prinnies outside of battle they all have their own voice actors which is another nice touch rather than making them all sound alike. The background music is also quite nice as each Netherworld stage will have a different tune to go along with it and matches said stage perfectly.
Gameplay:
Prinny 2 is a hardcore platformer to it’s core. As you begin the game you will first be given an introductory level where you will have infinite lives and be given a variety of different tips that will teach you the ropes of what to expect inside the game. Before all of this however you will be able to select your difficulty level which will include Hell’s Finest, Standard and Baby mode. The most noticeable (and partially recommended) difficulty is Baby Mode. Rather than having scarves to show your health level you will instead have diapers to signify the amount of damage you can take plus there are the addition of breakable baby blocks which will give you some easier jumps.
The reason that I mentioned that Baby mode would be recommended is that this game is very difficult. While most 2D platformers can claim the title of being a hard game, Prinny 2 takes the cake (in more ways than one) in this category. The first thing that you will notice that will signify the difficulty level is that you are given 1000 lives right off the bat. Meaning that as you lose lives throughout the game you can watch your life level slowly dwindle down. The reason that your lives dwindle is because the jumping mechanics are a little tough to get used to, especially considering you can not alter your jumping path once you are in midair. What this means as though you can double jump, if you jump straight up twice there is no way in the slightest to adjust your momentum. You can use your first jump to go straight up into the air and then use your second jump to move forward or backwards but this jumping mechanic does take some time to get used to and feels heavy handed and not the most suitable for an already difficult platformer.
Now not only is the jumping hard, but the combat and final bosses as well. The main idea of the combat is handled through performing hip pounds to stun enemies and slashing attacks to finish enemies off. You do not need to stun most enemies to kill them, but it is recommended as they can hurt you with the slightest touch. Bosses especially are only able to be truly hurt after they are stunned by a hip pound. Once you have performed enough combination attacks you can enter a Combo mode which gives your Prinny blades even more power and kills enemies faster. There are also special moves such as the Prinnikaze and Husky Hip Drop that can be performed by holding the R button and performing your standard attack. Combat is mostly satisfying but there are times that you will experience difficult boss fights that will whittle away at your total life count severely.
The reason I mention times is the fact that considering you only have 10 hours to find Etna’s panties and time passes as you finish each stage, increasing their difficulty. This means that there are many different paths you can take through a level, as sometimes you may not be able to beat a certain boss once you have made it down to the last stage, but you can choose different stages next time around and face not only different bosses, but different levels as well. This means that the replayability is extremely high as there are multiple paths to take through the game.
Beyond the replayability is the fact that there are multiple collectibles inside of the game. There are numerous soul orbs you can collect that will unlock different options to upgrade your Prinny Base. There are 120 different dolls to collect inside of the different stages that can be traded in to get special items as well as special tickets that unlock the partially hidden Asagi Wars game once you have completed the Prinny 2 storyline. A small hint however to those looking to access Asagi Wars, you must first gather the ticket pieces which appear above your Prinny base before going to each level so that you do not miss this extra game.
Asagi Wars Side Cover:
Asagi Wars is an unlockable second game that is within Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! and it features the human Asagi transformed into a Prinny due to her unfortunate demise. Unfortunately countless other Asagis have tried to claim themselves as the real her and are attempting to take her place, so it is up to you to make it known that you are the true Asagi. The gameplay itself is quite similar to the standard Prinny 2 with a few differences. For example each boss you fight will be a different Asagi, such as an 8-Bit Asagi or even Asagi Scharwznature. Also rather than having a health bar where you will lose increments you will instead have a “rating” meter where you have to constantly keep the action going or else you will lose.
The action is handled more of in a Contra style way with multiple weapons that you can acquire and use, though the eggplant is always a handy weapon in and of itself. You will use these various weapons to defeat the enemies and the bosses that stand in your way. The mode itself is a great addition and feels like it warrants a game itself and is best labeled as a game within a game. It is quite enjoyable to see Asagi do battle with the fake Asagi’s and just as funny, if not more, than what you will experience playing the main storyline of Prinnny 2.
Overall:
While Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! may be quite difficult it is not an insurmountable task. There are countless routes to take and plenty of ways that you can reach your goal in retrieving Etna’s underpants. The initial difficulty may be a daunting task to some and be warned again of how difficult the game can be, it is certainly rewarding when you finally finish a level. With its pedigree cast of characters such as Etna, Flonne, and of course the Prinnies fans of the Disgaea series will be hard pressed not to take a look at Prinny 2. With gorgeous graphics and perhaps one of the most humorous plots you can find Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! is going to be a hard one to pass up when it releases in just a couple of weeks.
Rock Band 3 owners prepare to walk the line with Johnny Cash as he makes his Rock Band Debut! On the 4th of January, 8 of Johnny Cash’s greatest hits will be available for download in the Rock Band 3 store, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii. Xbox 360 and PS3 owners will also get the opportunity to download 9 other classic songs from previous Rock Band games.
Available on Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 system (Jan. 4): Johnny Cash Pack 01
“Cry, Cry, Cry”
“Don’t Take Your Guns to Town”
“Five Feet High and Rising”
“Folsom Prison Blues”
“I Got Stripes”
“I Walk the Line” X
“Tennessee Flat Top Box” X
“The Ballad of Ira Hayes”
Available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 system (Jan. 4): Rock BandFree Pack 01
Abnormality – “Visions”
Anarchy Club – “Get Clean”
Bang Camaro – “Night Lies”
Breaking Wheel – “Shoulder to the Plow”
Libyans – “Welcome to the Neighborhood”
The Main Drag – “A Jagged Gorgeous Winter”
Speck – “Conventional Lover”
The Sterns – “Supreme Girl”
That Handsome Devil – “Rob the Prez-O-Dent”
(All tracks are original master recordings) (These tracks will be available in Europe on PlayStation 3 system Jan. 5)
The Gears of War franchise has been through the Platinum Hits wringer and the Game of the Year reprints. But Microsoft may be planning on one more release for the bloody awesome game. According to Gamestop listing since retracted, the Gears of War Ultimate edition will be $29.99 and release on February 15, 2010. The bundle will most likely compromise the first two games. Hopefully, all the downloadable content will also be included. Of course, you will still have to buy Bulletstorm to get access to the Gears of War 3 beta. And now that Sony has released several collections of their best franchises, maybe Microsoft will start releasing some more of their best games as well.
