Arcana Heart: the fighting game for weirdos

A game like Arcana Heart, which features an all-female cast duking it out for no apparent reason, is a no-brainer Playstation 2 import for Atlus, publisher of all the most Japanese games on the U.S. market. Arcana Heart is apparently quite popular in Japanese arcades, but does this beauty also have the brains to back up her brawn?

Full Story »

Super Smash Bros. Brawl a rowdy good time

Like many of my peers, I enjoy slashing, shooting missiles at, ramming with a motorcycle, and blasting others. Virtually, of course, and what better game to do all of this in than Super Smash Bros. Brawl, arguably the most hotly anticipated game to come out so far this year.

Nintendo wisely decided not to mess with the multiplayer much, the only really significantly new feature being the Final Smash Ball, an item that allows players to use their characters crazy special move. The four player battles are still amazingly fun, and nothing is more satisfying than getting the Smash Ball over and over again.

The single player game is about as much as you could ask for in a fighting game, including an arcade mode and an adventure mode called Sub Space Emissary. While the Sub Space Emissary mode is enjoyable and there are some “oh snap!” moments in the story, it’s unlikely anyone will play it for anything more than unlocking all of the characters.

The new characters, including third-party favorites Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog, all fold into the brawls well. Some of the characters can be a tad over powered (I’m looking at you, Pit), but never so much that it completely unbalances the game. Obviously it’s a major disappointment that other third-party characters like Mega Man or Dante didn’t make it into the game, but it is Nintendo’s show. At least there’s always next time.

The graphics, while not on-par with some of the incredibly good looking games on the other next-gen systems, are very good for the Wii. I suppose there’s always that asterisk of a Wii game looking good for the Wii, but does anyone really notice after playing for five minutes?

Over the past week, and likely into the coming months, you’re going to hear a lot of different things about Brawl, but there’s one very important thing you must understand if you consider buying this game: don’t look to it for deep mechanics and ultra-combos. This isn’t a game you sit at home with and practice at until you’re ready to take on the Daigos of the world for ultimate tournament championship wins. What this game is great for is gathering a bunch of your friends and just having fun with ramming Peach butt first into Solid Snake, whether this is for hours late into the night or during your 15-minute break. This is true not only of the multiplayer, which the series is known for, but the singleplayer as well. If you come into this game with the mindset of just having fun it’ll be great game. I know I love it. But if you expect it to be anything like Tekken or Street Fighter, well, there’s other good news on the way for you, but this game isn’t it.

Duke Nukem Forever teaser trailer

Well, it’s finally here. After 10 years, we’re finally seeing something from 3D Realms about Duke Nukem Forever that’s more than a tiny screenshot. However awesome Duke Nukem and his various games are, I’m kind of confused as to why there’s all the celebration about a minute long teaser that really doesn’t tell us anything. If this game didn’t have Duke Nukem attached to it, I don’t think anyone would care. We really haven’t heard anything about what the game is going to offer. I suppose, at this point, people are only interested because they want to know whether anything could be worth a 10 year wait. It’s definitely too early to allow for any excitement, though.

DMC4 demo confirmed for early 2008

A downloadable demo of Devil May Cry 4 should be available over Xbox Live Marketplace and the Playstation Store in early 2008, Capcom announced in a press release today. The demo will showcase new protagonist Nero over a variety of locales before culminating in a battle against Berial. Players can use a variety of the new abilities bestowed by Nero’s devil bringer in the demo, including “the ability to slam creatures to the ground, cover great distances in a single bound or even grab enemies while on the ground or in the air and pull them towards Nero to continue the attack combo.”

Capcom also announced a new weapon, named Lucifer, which fires glowing red swords that pierce enemies and explode when Dante throws a rose, which he holds between his teeth. Kay. Capcom also announced a new boss, One Winged “Dark Knight.”

Keep in mind the game is scheduled for a February 2008 release, so it’s entirely possible the demo will come out in very close proximity to the game. The press release says players will have a chance to play the demo before purchasing the game, but whether that means the demo is coming out before the game or not is unclear.

Capcom also released a bunch of hi-res screenshots and some artwork, so look for those and the full press release after the jump.

Full Story »

Deus Ex 3 confirmed, possible December 2009 release

Eidos has confirmed, through the announcement of their new branch in Montreal, Deus Ex 3 is in the preliminary stages of development. Eidos Montreal’s general manager Stephane D’Astous said the game just passed proof-of-concept.

This game was very highly rated at its release in 2000, and we have this great huge mandate to do the third one, and everybody is very excited.

D’Astous said they expect a team of about 80 to work on Eidos Montreal games for development cycles of 18 to 24 months.

We don’t want to become a huge studio where there’s over 100 people on a title. We want a smaller, multi-discipline group that are tightly knit together.

Based on this information, we should expect to see Deus Ex 3 by December 2009. Of course, we’ve seen companies delay products for years because “it’ll be done when it’s done.” 3D Realms (and to a lesser extent Valve), I’m looking at you here.

This longer development time will hopefully bring the franchise’s status back to greatness. The original Deus Ex was brilliant for it’s time, but the sequel, well, not so much. Let’s just hope the involvement of Warren Specter is a pre-requisite for a great Deus Ex game.

Ghostbusters to be on six platforms by two developers

Variety has revealed even more information about the game based on the unmade Ghostbusters sequel. Apparently, in addition to the talents of the original Ghostbusters, Ernie Hudson, who played Winston Zeddmore, and Annie Potts, who played Janine Melnitz, will also be lending their talents. The article also says the game will be available on all the major platforms, with the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions being developed by Terminal Reality aimed at the “core gamer demographic,” and another version being developed by Red Fly Studio will develop a version for “families and casual gamers” for the PS2, Wii and DS.Terminal Reality, in case you aren’t familiar with the name, developed Terminal Velocity (a great DOS game), the Aeon Flux game, Blood Rayne and the Metal Slug Anthology. Red Fly Studio has started developing only one other game, Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars (I shit you not), though their about page shows some pretty impressive credits, including Deus Ex, Anachronox and the aforementioned Blood Rayne.

More players from the movies does up the chance of Ghostbusters goodness, but with two developers working on games for a total of six platforms, the liklihood these games will be anything more than a “But you used to love Ghostbusters!” holiday bargain bin title plummets much farther than Winston or Janine could hope to reach. Still, gotta keep the faith. Mushroom Men looks just wacky enough to be actually interesting, so you never know. Just have to keep our fingers crossed and see what happens.

(Found via Kotaku).

Miracles do happen: Game Informer to reveal new Ghostbusters game based on never produced movie

Fans, and even Dan Akroyd, have been clamoring for a third installment in the Ghostbusters series since the second slightly-better-than mediocre movie came out. Akroyd even said he had written a script for it. One of the major elements keeping it back was Bill Murray’s desire to never make a Ghostbusters movie again.

Apparently hell has frozen over, though, and Kotaku is reporting that in the next issue of Game Informer they’re going to reveal the game that would’ve been the movie. Making hell in even better condition for snowmen is the news that the original Ghostbusters, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, are working on the script and will be doing the voice overs as well.

Now, as a wee lad Ghostbusters was second only to Ninja Turtles in my eyes. I had the backpack, the trap and, I admit it, even the Stay Puft Marshmallow man stuffed toy thing. Since Ghostbusters II, though, the whole franchise has been on a steady decline. Will this return of the originals revive the franchise, or will it just continue to suck harder than a black hole? I sincerely hope the former because my nostalgia can’t take another 80s remake that epic fails.

Rock Band not just a game but a platform for music

In general, I don’t like the full on publication of interviews. Call it my journalism brainwashing telling me the reporter has to cull the good quotes from the interview. OXM’s interview with Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Harmonix, actually has some rather enlightening dialog on what Harmonix really wants to achieve with Rock Band. (Found through 1up.com)

Among the many exciting things Rigopulos has to say, the most interesting for me was his vision of how we’re going to experience music in the near future.

In 3 to 5 years people are going to expect to be able to play with music as the normal way that they experience music that they love. If you have a favorite band that releases a new album, sure you’ll buy the CD but you’ll also want to go onto the Rock Band server the game levels based on those 15 new songs to experience them as an active participant in the music-making. But this is how people are going to come to expect to experience the music that they love.

He later said of music distribution through Rock Band:

In the same way that MTV has promoted artists through the video medium on their channels, we actually see Rock Band as a way to break and promote new artists to the audience of people that are playing the game. So that’s definitely something that’s part of our plans.

It’s nice to know that my thoughts on how to best utilize Guitar Hero turned out to be what they wanted to do all along.

Also exciting are plans to be able to export your character onto the Rock Band Web site and convert that into different kinds of merchandise, from t-shirts to bumper stickers. Figurines are mentioned by both OXM and 1up, but I don’t see it in the interview.

So, to get Rock Band or to not get Rock Band? That’s a lot of money to drop on one game, but if Rigopulos’ vision comes true it will be the future of music content delivery anyway.

Mass Effect best game ever?

That’s a basically what The Official Xbox Magazine is saying, according to a scan of the holiday issue at N4G.com. Before giving the game a perfect 10, the reviwer, Paul Curthoys, said:

Still, that’s what’s remarkable about Mass Effect. If you separated the gameplay from the story, you could crap on the gameplay for a handful of different things. But in this game, story and gameplay are relentlessly intertwined, and the impact of that is so powerful that any irritation you feel is washed clean away.

More after the jump.

Full Story »

Rock Band features Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld as a bonus track, makes irony laugh

For those who haven’t seen it, the full track listing for Rock Band, including bonus tracks, has been released at IGN. The bonus tracks include songs from Harmonix-staffed bands and Harmonix staple Freezepop’s “Brainpower.” One of the lesser known artists supplying bonus tracks is Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld. As far I’m aware, this is a band with just one, self-titled song, so it wouldn’t be surprising if you didn’t know who they are.

Also in case you weren’t aware, South Park recently aired an episode about Guitar Hero that has Stan and Kyle living a somewhat stereotypical rock band rise to stardom in Guitar Hero form.

In other news, sweet irony laughed and laughed and laughed…