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Three games to light up your 4th
The founding of a nation is pretty significant and well worth getting excited about. The best way to display said excitement is, of course, with massive, colorful airborne explosions, a.k.a. fireworks. Tomorrow night, towns across the USA will be putting on fireworks displays, big and small -- but why should you have to wait for it to get dark? The games you'll find after the break will let you get all explode-y from the comfort of your living room, without the charred mess and frantic 911 call. So, put on your favorite patriotic tune (it's "The Stars & Stripes Forever" for us) and make with the clicking! [Image]
SouthPeak sees revenue surge on 'post-holiday demand'
Hey, SouthPeak, we're in a recession, didn't you hear? The publisher again pocketed an impressive wad of cash, reporting $13.5 million in revenue during its fiscal third quarter, up more than $2 million over the same time the previous year. According to Gamasutra, the company cited "post-holiday consumer demand" and recent releases like Big Bang Mini and X-Blades as key factors in the outfit's financial buoyancy.With 711,000 units of software flying out the door during the quarter, it's no wonder the company is making plans for the future. The report notes that SouthPeak has more than 60 games in the works, with over $14 million currently invested in development of new titles and IP. Perhaps we can finally quit pointing and laughing as the publisher of Gamecock cast-offs Legendary and Velvet Assassin rolls up to the bank. Clearly some gamers' spirits are more resilient than others.
DS releases for the week of January 19th
For those of us in the United States, this week may be notable for more than video games, despite the debut of the fascinating Big Bang Mini ... and that may not even be limited to us! Well, Big Bang Mini is, but the news goes everywhere.Of course, if you think about it, so do DS games, if you want to pay international shipping. If you want an Obama DS Lite, well, you've gotta do that yourself. Big Bang Mini Jumble Madness SimAnimals Gallery: Big Bang Mini
Big Bang Mini pops up in Rio
There's only one thing more explosive than new Big Bang Mini screens, and that's a new Big Bang Mini trailer. Wait, no, really, that's completely inaccurate. Lots of things are more explosive than video and images, including, uh, actual fireworks, but maybe we can get away with the hyperbole when we're talking about a game that uses fireworks. Anyway, despite the extended opening and music from the other Big Bang Mini trailers, this footage from the schmup is new, fresh, and even a little Brazilian. Welcome to Rio de Janeiro. In this Rio, the weather is bad and you've got no homing missiles. But then again, would you have them in the real Rio? Confirmed: Big Bang Mini is like going on vacation.Oh, just watch the trailer.%Gallery-18714%[Via press release]
Big Bang Mini's mini New York
SouthPeak has revealed another one of Big Bang Mini's unique environments, with yet another visual style completely unlike the others. The fireworks-based shmup's New York level combines a backdrop of NYC-style skyscrapers (and, as seen here, girders) with a stereotypical American comic-book aesthetic, with comic-style text and sound effects that evoke Comix Zone, and a cool halftone explosion effect for fireworks.Each world also comes with a unique ability for your avatar, and in New York you can grab enemies with your stylus to steal their weapons. Of course, good luck trying to do that while also using the stylus to fling fireworks at the top screen.%Gallery-18714%[Via press release]
DS Daily: Holiday rush, continued
Elebits. Moon. Big Bang Mini. Retro Game Challenge. Personal Trainer: Math (like it or not, it's a first-party release, and thus high-profile-ish!). The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity. Legacy of Ys. My World, My Way. Magician's Quest. Fire Emblem. Dragon Quest V. Puzzle Quest: Galactrix. Avalon Code. Blue Dragon Plus. We just went through Gamestop.com and culled genuinely interesting games coming out in January or February in North America. The list above represents a hasty gathering of quality games coming out in just these two months. Isn't the schedule supposed to slow down after the holidays? We kind of don't have a real direction for today's discussion topic, only general marveling about the next two months on DS. Even if some of this stuff gets delayed, the DS still has a lineup in January or February to rival or beat most fall/holiday lineups. Who plans to buy more in these two months than they did in late 2008? Who else is really, really overwhelmed?
Some kind of large explosion of Big Bang Mini screens and video
It's been a while since we checked in with Big Bang Mini, but we're making up for it now with a delightully Hungry Man-style serving of media. We've got screenshots of four of the game's levels in our gallery, and two new trailers to share! At first glance, the trailer above and the one following the break seem identical; however, the gameplay footage is totally different! It was pretty confusing to us, too -- and kind of ironic that a game for which no two levels look anything alike would have trailers that look identical. SouthPeak says the game comes out January 20, and, well, it had better. Because we want to play it again.%Gallery-18714%
Pokemon Platinum, Fire Emblem, tons more Q1 releases officially dated!
Nintendo has graced us with their customary infodump of the next quarter's DS and Wii releases, and by far the biggest news in terms of guaranteed sales: Pokémon Platinum has finally been officially confirmed for North America (not that there was ever a speck of doubt), and it's indeed coming March 22. Statistically speaking, you will probably purchase it. Also in first-party news, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon hits February 16, a bit earlier than Circuit City predicted. Personal Trainer: Math will be Nintendo's first DS release of the year on January 12. In third-party news, we're thrilled to see a January 6 release date for Retro Game Challenge -- except that according to the list, it'll be competing with Big Bang Mini. Atlus's My World, My Way is on its way February 3, with Legacy of Ys following on the 10th, and Trackmania on March 17. GTA Chinatown Wars has yet to be dated in this release, but we know it's March 17. And Monster Band from DreamCatcher: could it be Music Monstars? Is that just for us? Check the post break for the full list! %Gallery-25539%
Studio Arkedo taking on Wii for their next game
Studio Arkedo, the French developer behind Nervous Brickdown and the upcoming Big Bang Mini on DS is branching out to Wii, according to a Cubed3 interview. While talking about the upcoming Nintendo Channel demo of Big Bang Mini, Camille Guermonprez offers the fairly unambiguous hint "Our next project in on the Wii, by the way *grins*".This could mean a Wii version of Big Bang Mini, as Guermonprez states earlier in the interview that "We would love to do Big Bang Mini with its addictive blending on a bigger screen.." Or it could mean a new project. What it probably won't be is a WiiWare game: "WE WANT BOXED GAMES *grins*", Guermonprez said. Whatever it turns out to be, expect color.
DS Fanboy Preview: The World(s) of Big Bang Mini
Studio Arkedo's Big Bang Mini is pure uncomplicated fun. It's a shmup with all the button tapping swapped out for frantic swiping on the touch screen. It's Pac-Pix's bow and arrow expanded into a whole game. Other elements are added as the game goes on, but the basic gameplay -- flinging projectiles at the top of the screen at top speed while dragging your little character around to avoid debris -- stays the same. I covered the basics of gameplay in my E3 preview. This time, I'll focus a bit more about some things that I didn't cover as much: the visual styles, the bosses, and the bonus modes -- at least for the three worlds I've experienced.%Gallery-18714%
E308: A mini hands-on with Big Bang Mini
Studio Arkedo's Big Bang Mini is a very simple game, and I mean that in the best possible way. Like the other recent retro-style shooters on the DS (Space Invaders Extreme immediately comes to mind), Big Bang focuses entirely on making you shoot almost everything on the screen. Unlike Invaders, it uses a totally stylus-based control scheme -- which is surprisingly okay! Usually, classic, frantic game style plus touch equals problems!You control a little icon of some kind (in the first level, a wireframe pyramid thing -- it changes with the theme every level) who shoots fireworks at stuff flying around on the top screen. You have to drag the little avatar around with the stylus, and then also swipe upward to shoot fireworks. If you hit the enemy, it blows up; if you miss, your shot explodes into fireworks, whose sparks then fall down towards the bottom screen and must be avoided. You can aim your shots by drawing lines at different angles, and you can shoot about as fast as you can slash the screen. %Gallery-18714%
E308: SouthPeak's lineup has some hidden gems
Big Bang Mini is one of those delightful-looking, under-the-radar games that people should be paying more attention to, so we're glad that SouthPeak will be showing it off this E3. Then again, we're shmupoholics, so we can't help but be seduced by this trippy, fireworked shooter. An honorable E3 mention also goes to Ninjatown, though, for its cute and clever ways of portraying the deadly assassins. The other two DS games on SouthPeak's lineup are Brave: Shaman's Challenge and Igor the Game, neither of which we can muster up much enthusiasm for at the moment. Hopefully we'll end up pleasantly surprised, though -- at least by the former, as licensed-based games would probably have to make us breakfast, too, to incite a reaction. %Gallery-18714%%Gallery-15839%
The fireworks start early with this Big Bang Mini trailer
What better way to celebrate the impending anniversary of the United States' Declaration of Independence than with less than thirty seconds of video footage of an upcoming DS game? That seems to be the idea behind the timely release of this Big Bang Mini trailer. It's a smart move to promote your fireworks-based game on the eve of one of the most colorfully explosive days of the year!As it turns out, the game would look brilliant on any day of the year. This trailer cycles through completely dissonant visual styles, from retrogaming to winter to aquatic to a cityscape to ... a place of some kind with some flying clowns. If you haven't been paying attention to Big Bang Mini until now, we hope that all the explosions and flashy stuff got your attention!%Gallery-18714%
Big Bang Mini lights up the sky with new screens
With a colorful, exciting shoot-em-up like Space Invaders now on the market, would-be shmup developers really need to step their game up to catch our attention. Arkedo Studios (Nervous Brickdown) seems to have done just that with Big Bang Mini!Due this fall, this touchscreen shooter features a fireworks mechanic that is just as vibrant as it is unique -- instead of firing bullets at incoming waves, players draw in fireworks, detonating and chaining the scrawled explosives to clear as many enemies as possible.The enemy designs are just as creative -- marionette skeletons, walruses riding on flying carpets, and monkeys floating above a city skyline. See them all in our gallery of new Big Bang Mini images below!%Gallery-18714%
'Fireworks-themed shooter' Big Bang Mini lights up DS
"We usually only get to see fireworks, but with Big Bang Mini you get to make the fireworks," says Melanie Mroz, SouthPeak Interactive CEO and touter of handheld fireworks. Don't be alarmed, however, as the company's latest bomb is safely confined to the Nintendo DS. Dubbed a " fireworks-themed shooter" by the press release, Big Bang Mini tasks players with destroying enemies overhead using stylus strokes and dazzling explosives."With Big Bang Mini, we're trying to combine the thrill of an intense action shooter with the beauty of a grand fireworks display," explains Camille Guermonprez, Managing Director of developer Arkedo Studio. "If there's anything players won't like about the game, it will be that they're too involved in striking and dodging to appreciate the light show they're creating." As many a mad scientist has come to learn, your creation can and probably will come back to harm you, with missed firework shots raining down sparks from the sky. You'll want to avoid those, we think.If you choose to rock it on your DS when it launches this Fall, you'll discover Big Bang Mini is infused with four gameplay modes, a handful of multiplayer options and over 90 levels to explore and explode.%Gallery-18836%
New shmup from Nervous Brickdown creators: Big Bang Mini
SouthPeak Interactive has announced that they'll be publishing Studio Arkedo's next game, an unconventional shooter called Big Bang Mini this fall. Big Bang Mini is designed around a fireworks theme -- rather than just shooting bullets at enemies, you "create" fireworks with the stylus and detonate them in order to destroy as many as possible, and attempt to chain the explosions together. It's somewhere between a normal shooter and Every Extend.Just by looking at the screens, it seems that there will be multiple visual styles across the game's "over 90 levels." No word on how the game manages to be both "big" and "mini." %Gallery-18714%[Via GamesPress]
