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Atari announces Mizuguchi's 'QJ' for Wii, 'Q3' compilation
Atari is banking on Tetsuya Mizuguchi's next project, a music game with the working title "QJ," to reestablish the celebrated developer at the top of his, uh, game -- or to strike a chord with Wii owners, at least. The publisher announced today that it will bring Q Entertainment's QJ to Wii, but omitted further details. Marching behind a string of Lumines sequels, Mizuguchi has stumbled offbeat with his last several experiments, including Ninety-Nine Nights, Gunpey and Every Extend Extra Extreme. But QJ's music foundation suggests that Mizuguchi could be drumming up renewed inspiration from his own cult classic, Space Channel 5. Additionally, Atari announced the Q3 ("Cubed") compilation disc for Xbox 360, which will include Mizuguchi's XBLA games: Every Extend Extra Extreme, Lumines Live and Rez HD, along with all released DLC. The collection has been given a tentative price of €30 (roughly $40) and has yet to be dated for release.
This Wednesday: E4, Speedball II, and discounted Lumines
Joining the already announced Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe this Wednesday on Xbox Live Arcade is the announced-in-March XBLA rendition of Q Entertainment's Every Extend Extra dubbed, helpfully, Every Extend Extra Extreme. Both titles will be available for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). Also joining the two full games is some news on older Xbox Live Arcade titles. First, Band of Bugs has a new expansion pack out titled "Ninja Sticks of Fury" which, we presume, will be the same 250 points ($3.12) as their previous expansions. And finally, Lumines Live! will get two "skins" free for all XBL Gold members through November 14th. Don't like free? They've also got a "Rockin' Holiday Pack" available for 400 MS Points. If you're thinking, "Hey, that's great Joystiq but I was turned off by the game's initial pricing" we're pleased to relay the news that, as of Wednesday morning at 9am GMT, Lumines Live! will be permanently discounted to 800 MS Points. How about now? %Gallery-8659%
E4 and Speedball 2 dash onto XBLA this week
This week's twofer Xbox Live Arcade offerings were just announced this morning and both game should leave you with a sense of fulfillment and joy. First up is a 800 Microsoft point Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe which includes 32 teams, 2D or 3D gameplay, Xbox Live fun and more Speedball goodness than you can shake a stick at. The other half of this week's twofer is Q Entertainment's Every Extend Extra Extreme which will also be available for 800 Microsoft points and features numerous game modes, lots of enemies and allows the use of gamers' custom music tracks. This Wednesday, October 17th the Arcade world has no choice but to get extra extreme to the brutal deluxe max, yo!
Joystiq plays Every Extend Extra Extreme
Joystiq managed to get some hands-on time with Every Extend Extra Extreme from Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q? Entertainment. Described as something of an inverse take on the shooter genre (your goal is to blow up your own ship), Joystiq notes that E4 is a marked improvement over the original PSP iteration. First and foremost, the musical nature of the game (typical of Q? Entertainment titles) is now actually integrated with the gameplay. In other words, the actions you take in the game will affect the music. The game also incorporates a new shield system that encourages faster-paced gameplay. There is a new Endless mode which, appropriately enough, goes on forever so long as players continue to acquire Extend power-ups. Boss encounters have been removed from the game, which Joystiq finds puzzling, but overall the impression is definitely a good one. Head over to Joystiq for their full impressions.
TGS hands-on: Every Extend Extra Extreme
Don't let the ridiculous title fool you: Every Extend Extra Extreme has a lot going for it. Q? Entertainment's upcoming XBLA game expands upon the ideas of Every Extend Extra and provides a refreshing twist on a familiar concept. Unlike other shooters where players must protect their ship at all costs, E4 has players actually blowing up their own ships. The explosions caused by the self-detonated destruction ripple across, creating a domino effect that destroys all enemy ships within range of the connecting string of explosions. E4 improves upon the previous titles by making true on the promise of the PSP E3. Mizuguchi's trademark music synesthesia style was merely cosmetic in that title, with almost no interactivity between the music and gameplay. E4 is different, however. As if taking a cue from Everyday Shooter, the explosions now add to the musical tapestry of the game, as they'll add an interesting and catchy beat to the music playing in the background. Detonating at the top of a beat will make the resulting blast even more powerful, so internalizing the music will only add to the gameplay experience. E4 also adds a new shield system that encourages players to pick up power-ups as quickly as possible before they become vulnerable once again. The balance created by the new shield system creates a much faster-paced game than before, one where players will opt to trigger explosions more frequently -- it also makes the game a lot more accessible than the PSP title, which was somewhat notorious for its difficulty.
Rez and Ikaruga confirmed for XBLA
Proving that the Tokyo Game Show is about more than just announcing Ninja Gaiden 2, several new (and notably Japanese) games have been announced for Xbox Live Arcade. First and foremost among these are Lumines creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Rez and Treasure's Ikaruga. While Ikaruga's appearance on XBLA shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's been paying attention, Rez comes as a pretty big surprise. If you're not familiar with Rez, you're probably better off watching the video embedded after the break than having us attempt to explain it.Microsoft also touted several other games for XBLA including EXIT (previously announced), Every Extend Extra Extreme (ditto), Omega Five (impressions), and Triggerheart Exelica (a shooter apparently). Things are looking up for XBLA, no?
Rez, Ikaruga, Exit confirmed for Xbox Live Arcade
If you missed out on our liveblog of Microsoft's pre-TGS conference in Japan (it does, after all, require an excessive and strenuous amount of scrolling to access), you may appreciate and respond with delirious joy to some of the pertinent news to emerge from it. You should also appreciate the amount of effort that went into the preceding and vaguely professional sentence -- we really just wanted to blurt out that REZ ON XBLA YAY. Ahem. Microsoft confirmed that Tetsuya Mizuguchi's melodic shooter will soon make you hear everything you see and see everything you hear on Xbox Live Arcade. Other things you'll see are waves of hypnotic bullets (Ikaruga), saviors adorned with fine hats (EXIT), pulsating geometric shapes (Every Extend Extra Extreme), flying robots (Omega Five) and... er, some sort of Japanese car (Triggerheart Exelica)? No release dates have been announced for any of the games, though we suspect none of them are likely to come soon enough.
Rumor: Every Extend Extra Extreme Extricated in August for $10
In concluding a rather positive preview of rhythmically exploding retina melter, Every Extend Extra Extreme, IGN seems to casually pin down the game's release window and pricing. Article author, Douglass C. Perry, writes that Q? Entertainment's next Xbox Live Arcade game will be in one piece "and cost about $10, or 800 Microsoft points" when it arrives this summer, "probably August." When queried about this information, a Microsoft spokesperson couldn't determine its exact origin, offering that "Microsoft hasn't announced anything about the title at all, other than it exists." Though it seems possible that Q? Entertainment simply informed IGN directly, prefacing the information with words like "about" and "probably" seems to indicate that nobody really knows for sure. Mizuguchi fans looking forward to the more Extreme version of Every Extend Extra will have to extend their patience just a bit more.
GDC 07: Every Extend Extra gets more extreme ... but not for us
The PSP puzzler Every Extend Extra was plenty extreme as-is: but that's not stopping Mizuguchi-san and his Q? Entertainment cohorts from amping up the game in an XBLA follow-up to this oft-neglected puzzler/shooter. This is not the first time that one of Q? Entertainment's PSP titles has jumped ship to Microsoft's home console: Lumines released on the digital distribution platform, fueling an incredible controversy over the value of microtransactions.Considering the game's lackluster sales performance on Sony's handheld, it shouldn't come as surprising that the game would move to another platform. The game joins an increasingly growing list of once-exclusive titles that have moved on: Tekken: Dark Resurrection and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories being just a few notable examples.Joystiq Gallery: Every Extend Extra Extreme (E4)
Every Extend Extra Extreme Arcade bound
According to the 'stiq, the next title from Tetsuya Mizuguchi expected to hit XBLA is Every Extend Extra Extreme. E4 is going to be an updated version of the PSP's E3. The freebie PC version of Every Extend was originally developed by Omega. From the sounds of the press release, it looks like you'll be able to play with your own music, along with playing a versus mode online. Unfortunately, the schedule for the release is later this year, so don't expect it to be showing up as a surprise download during GDC. Have you played Every Extend before, on either the PC or PSP?[Thanks, Jonah Falcon]
Mizuguchi's Every Extend Extra Extreme announced for XBLA
It was never going to be Rez, and we knew it -- not unless Q has surprises for us -- but Tetsuya Mizuguchi's next bound-for-XBLA opus does have sufficient neon-on-black to make us very happy Marketplace campers. Every Extend Extra Extreme, or E4 for short, is a new take on E3 (which Q developed for the PSP last year). The original Every Extend game was developed by Omega for the PC (the freeware version is here). Described as a "trippy visual journey of self destruction," E4 will enable you to play with your own tunes -- or, according to the peoplespeak of Q's press release, "wiz ur muzik" -- and against others in an online versus mode. If you're hooked on the PSP version (and if not, do get hooked), you'll know that the gameplay is all about chain reactions. Pretty chain reactions. But this XBLA version also offers Leaderboards and Achievements to keep the chain junkies flying. When, you ask? "Later this year." %Gallery-1918%
