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First real and fake BurgerTime HD trailers
MonkeyPaw Games is going back to the kitchen to create a new serving of BurgerTime -- which is a good idea, considering the original burgers are now 29 years old, and that's disgusting. For those of you interested in sampling BurgerTime HD's new recipe, you'll find a trailer after the break. Also after the break is MonkeyPaw's heartbreaking April Fools' Day joke, a trailer for the "Delicious Edition" DLC, which replaces Peter Pepper with Burger King's eponymous, creepy monarch. It was a joke, but ... we would have been totally into playing as the King. So much so that we would have walked into a Burger King and purchased Burger King food to make that happen. We were willing to go that far.
BurgerTime HD coming to PSN, XBLA, PC & WiiWare this summer
After showing the game at GDC, MonkeyPaw Games has officially announced BurgerTime HD, its first experiment in "evolving" a retro game as opposed to merely re-releasing it. The announcement adds lots of meaty information to the, uh, news ... wich. The updated version of Data East's classic burger-stacking platformer is being developed by Frozen Codebase, and it's coming to XBLA, PSN, PC and WiiWare "early this summer," according to MonkeyPaw president John Greiner. A peck of Peter Peppers will be able to play together, since the game now includes four-player online multiplayer, along with split-screen local multiplayer. Leaderboards, DLC and chat will help add a modern flavor to this culinary concoction. We'll let MonkeyPaw describe the updated gameplay, since we don't know if we'd ever be able to generate a sentence this wonderful on our own: "A unique cylindrical playing field reinvigorates the familiar classic gameplay of creating enormous hamburgers while fending off wieners, condiments and spices." The enlarged 3D landscapes offer "numerous paths of burger creation." Screens of all three console versions are available after the break.
BurgerTime HD footage shows a twist on the coin-op classic
If you can figure out what's going on in this BurgerTime HD multiplayer footage IGN shot during GDC, we'll ... buy you a (virtual) burger. Here's the deal: It sort of looks like Data East's 1982 original in terms of the basic burger-building gameplay, but the HD-ification has clearly been taken to an extreme. The levels twist, the art style screams "cyberspace" circa 1992 and there's just so much happening. But hey -- it could be weirder.
Arc the Lad 3 brings the trilogy full-triangle today
If you've already chewed through the second, recently released installment of the Arc the Lad trilogy, then first and foremost, we need to talk about your RPG consumption habits. Those RPGs aren't going anywhere, you know! Take your time. Savor it. Secondly, you'll be pleased to learn that the final installment in the trilogy will arrive on the PSOne Classics storefront later today, priced at $5.99. Like the other two games in the series, Arc the Lad 3 has been ported by MonkeyPaw Games. Hopefully, its release means that Xenogears, Legend of Mana and Vagrant Story -- all of which were ESRB rated at the same time as Arc 3 -- aren't too far away. Though you'll probably just beat them all in a few days, anyway, you mutant.
MonkeyPaw bringing Galaxy Fight to PSN import store today
Another weird Japanese PlayStation game will hit the PSN Import Store today courtesy of MonkeyPaw Games. Galaxy Fight, originally released on Neo-Geo and Saturn in 1995, was Sunsoft's first fighting game. It's about ninjas, monsters, robots, and other assorted characters, who travel from planet to planet to beat each other up in infinitely-scrolling stages. It also marks the first appearance of the living punching bag, Bonus-kun. Galaxy Fight will be available with today's PSN update, for the usual $5.99 price. As usual, it's in Japanese, but ... it's a fighting game. You'll figure it out. And MonkeyPaw posted instructions.
Money Idol Exchanger and Sonic Wings Special on the PSN import store
MonkeyPaw Games is living up to its responsibility as the single publisher (so far) for the PSN Imports Store, dropping two interesting Japanese PlayStation games on the service today. In case you're not familiar with one or both -- a totally understandable happenstance -- here's what they are. Money Idol Exchanger is a pretty weird (but not Cho Aniki weird) Neo Geo puzzle game ported to PlayStation, in which you link up on-screen coins to combine them into higher denominations: five 1s become a 5, etc., until you match two 500s and they vanish. Also, there are idol characters in it for some reason. And Sonic Wings Special is a single game combining all three Sonic Wings shmups (known as Aero Fighters in America). The games are both available now for $5.99 each -- less for PlayStation Plus members.%Gallery-107537%%Gallery-107536%
Alundra and Arc the Lad on PSOne Classics Oct. 12
Two PlayStation action RPGs originally published by Working Designs will be released on PSN tomorrow -- though, because they're digital, there won't be any room for cloth maps, toys, or other trinkets. Sorry! The upside is that the digital releases of Alundra and Arc the Lad, published by MonkeyPaw Games, will only run you the customary $5.99 PSOne Classics price. In its press release, MonkeyPaw teased that it "[plans] to promote the titles with some of the historical swag from the titles' original releases." What could that mean? We're following up with MonkeyPaw to find out. These two games won't be in the new PSOne Imports Store, as they were both officially localized and released here. They'll be in the regular PSOne Classics area instead.%Gallery-104801%%Gallery-104806%
Cho Aniki, Gaia Seed hit new PSN import store Sept. 21
MonkeyPaw Games, how did you know? Seemingly in honor of a certain blogger's birthday, the upstart developer/publisher will release two PSOne Classics on the North American PlayStation Store on September 21. The identity of the two games, Cho Aniki and Gaia Seed, isn't a surprise, but the games have interesting implications (beyond the implication that you'll be able to play Cho Aniki). The two games are the first offerings in a service called Imports on the Playstation Store, on which unaltered Japanese games will be released. "Classics like Cho Aniki and GaiaSeed," according to MonkeyPaw, "will be followed by a steady stream of untouchable titles you dreamed of playing but were relegated to reading about." A steady stream of PSOne titles, period, would be noteworthy for the North American PSN service.
ESRB outs more Monkeypaw games, including Cho Aniki
[Hardcore Gaming 101] We never thought we'd see a time when even one Cho Aniki game made its way Stateside, and now we face the possibility of a third. An ESRB rating reveals that neophyte localization firm MonkeyPaw Games is planning to release the PlayStation's Cho Aniki: Kyukyoku Muteki Ginga Saikyou Otoko on PS3 (and PSP, MonkeyPaw's John Greiner confirmed to PSNStores) as simply "Cho Aniki." This version is even weirder than the freaky, protein-obsessed series usually is, as it uses digitized photography for its character art. The ESRB also revealed PSOne Classics releases for the Data East fighter Outlaws of the Lost Dynasty, and Gaia Seed, a horizontal shmup by Techno Soleil. The company is also working on Ante Up: Texas Hold 'em for DSiWare. After the break, we've reproduced the ESRB description for Cho Aniki, because we had to.
Interview: John Greiner introduces MonkeyPaw Games, a localization firm for digital releases
John Greiner was president of the US-based Hudson Entertainment for five years, and worked for Hudson Soft in Japan for fifteen years before that. Now, he's taken his expertise in the Japanese game industry and applied it to a new project, the digital distribution-focused publishing firm MonkeyPaw Games, a company that will specialize in remaking and localizing Japanese games from the past and present. In an interview conducted during E3, Greiner explained the new company's plans, opined on 3D and his favorite "lost" Japanese games, and provided valuable insight on what it's like to do business in Japan. Joystiq: Details were scarce when you made the announcement of MonkeyPaw Games earlier this month. John Greiner: The reason we didn't want to release many titles -- what we're doing -- is because we are having another release shortly, but first we wanted to show who the company was and what we're trying to do. The foundation of the company is the bridge that we give between Japan and the West. As you know, there are lots of Japanese games that never made it to the West, and should have made it to the West, but for whatever reason -- usually a lack of understanding on the Japanese side that there is a market for Japanese games in America and in the West. What we plan to do is form a community of like-minded gamers, people who want to see a lot of these great Japanese games come to the West.
