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Blast Works developer working on Guitar Hero for new owner Activision
Budcat Creations is perhaps best known for developing the excellent DIY shmup Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy for Majesco. But they've also ported Guitar Hero World Tour, Aerosmith, and III to the PlayStation 2 for Activision, and it's that kind of work that they'll be doing now as a newly-acquired company. Activision announced today that they've purchased Budcat, and that the developer is working on "a new game in the Guitar Hero franchise." Normally, we would suspect that Budcat has been purchased for the explicit purpose of creating PS2 ports, but the PS2 isn't mentioned anywhere in Activision's press release, while the Wii and DS are. In fact, the press release highlights their "expertise" with the Wii and the DS specifically, and Activision CEO Mike Griffith says that the acquisition "strengthen(s) our development capabilities on the Nintendo platforms." I want to read about Guitar Hero all ni-i-ight, and eat Guitar Hero cake!
Ten for under twenty at Gamefly's sale
In these belt-tightening, penny-pinching times, it literally pays to have a nose for the bargains. That's where we, or rather Gamefly, comes in. The game rental outfit has a broad selection of used Wii software for low, world banking crisis-friendly prices, and we chose ten of the best sub-$20 games to tempt you. Thar be bargains ahead! Baroque for $12.99 Battalion Wars 2 for $17.99 Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy for $9.99 Dewy's Adventure for $13.99 Geometry Wars: Galaxies for $16.99 Mercury: Meltdown Revolution for $15.99 NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams for $12.99 No More Heroes for $17.99 Sega Superstars Tennis for $9.99 Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure for $17.99 There's actually a ton more we could have mentioned, including Super Mario Galaxy for $32.99, Super Smash Bros. Brawl for $30.99, and Metroid Prime 3 for $26.99. Sadly, "One hundred and fifty-eight for under forty-two" just doesn't work as a headline. Hit up the "Source" link for the full set. %Gallery-3283% [Thanks, William!]
Blast Works arrives in Europe tomorrow
According to an entry for Blast Works on the Nintendo of Europe website, the incredibly cheap and really fun shooter from Budcat will arrive on European retail shelves tomorrow, as the listed date of release is October 17th.We're not sure if the game is going to cost as little across the pond as it does here in North America, but we're hoping it does. Either way, you need to pick up this fine game. It's easily worth more than $20.%Gallery-4821%[Via Go Nintendo]
Excellent games for cheap Wii owners
What's more fun than dropping fifty bucks on a new game? Dropping fifty bucks on three new games. Diverging from their usual retro theme, Racketboy has posted a wonderfully long list of Wii, GameCube, and (obviously) WiiWare games that you can buy for less than $20. While people were busy complaining about the lack of quality third-party Wii games, a bunch of third-party Wii games came out and dropped in price immediately.The list is populated by awesome shooters like Geometry Wars: Galaxies, Blast Works, and Ghost Squad, mascot games like NiGHTS, Sega Superstars Tennis, and Rayman: Raving Rabbids, and Elebits-style games like Elebits. And that's just in the Wii list! Each game also has handy Amazon and eBay search links attached. Go hit the ATM and check out the list!
Blast Works officially $20 now
The price has been dropping at retailers for a couple of weeks now (as low as $10, temporarily), and now Majesco has made this great deal official: the publisher sent out a press release announcing that the new MSRP for Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy is $19.99.It's a sad situation that the sales warrant a price drop, but we're of the opinion that pretty much every game should cost $20 or less. We can just tell you with even more conviction before that if you like shmups even a little, or if you just like building stuff, you should purchase this game and be amazed by the Blast Works Depot.%Gallery-4821%
Blast Works: Spend Ten Bucks, Trade, Destroy
Over the weekend, Amazon and Gamestop dropped the price of Majesco's Blast Works to $20, which we thought was going to be the best Wii game deal we'd hear for a while. Then Best Buy stepped in and showed just how little money you can charge for Blast Works. They're selling it online and in-store for $10, but it's currently sold-out online. It should be in stores for a bit longer, since that requires some prospective buyers to go to a place.This is a very sad development for one of the best games of 2008, but it's really good news for people who have ten bucks to spend right now.[Image: "Kunio Kun" by gatsu25]
Wii Fanboy Review: Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy
In 2004, Kenta Cho (under the name ABA Games) released TUMIKI Fighters, one of his many freeware polygonal shooters. Then, last year, Majesco baffled us by announcing plans to adapt it to a retail Wii game. Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy is an odd candidate for AAA-ness: it's a game in a dormant, extremely hardcore genre, based on obscure freeware and developed by a company whose previous experience has mostly involved ports and licensed games, without any real input from the original creator. It's also published by a company whose success with Cooking Mama inspired them to go "casual."These disadvantages would lead anyone to the natural conclusion that Blast Works wouldn't end up a great game -- and they would be correct. It is, in fact, two great games. Or, to take the idea to its ridiculous extreme, infinite great games. We'll stick to two for this discussion, and we'll talk about those two separately.%Gallery-4821%
Pick up a $10 gift card by purchasing Blast Works
We're still shocked that Blast Works finally came out after all those delays (and according to a few emails that we've been getting from you guys, some retailers are also feeling disbelief). If you can manage to track down this content-packed shooter, though, we recommend trying your luck at Circuit City. This week, the folks at the good ol' city of circuits will hand you a nice $10 gift card with a purchase of Blast Works. Yet, don't fret if you're having trouble finding this game at brick and mortar locations, since you can also head to the retailer's online store. For a game that's only $40 to begin with, we have to say -- this deal is mighty tempting. Any takers? Gallery: Blast Works [Via CAG]
Metareview: Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy
We can hardly believe it, but Majesco's Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy finally got released. It's in stores right now. And now that it has the distinction of being real and not just some constantly-delayed pipe dream, reviewers can play it and register their opinions.But, really, how good can a Western-developed remake of a freeware PC shooter, with an editor mode attached, be? The answer is apparently "really, really good."1UP: A -- Ray Barnholt found Blast Works both a worthy shooter and an awesome game construction kit: "The core game is cute and clever -- probably not a tide-changer, but it's definitely unique enough to be worth something within its genre (it's an awesome sequel to Tumiki Fighters, at any rate). And if you've got the desire to design games (and share them with the world via Blast Works' included online tools), the editor will teach you some basic fundamentals."IGN: 81% -- Daemon Hatfield heaped more than 81 percent worth of praise on Blast Works: "With BlastWorks, what you get for your $40 is a unique, lengthy shooter, a powerful editor for creating your own levels, plus access to unlimited user-generated content from the game's official website, BlastWorksDepot.com. This is a great package, and although it's not going to appeal to everyone it's great to have something so unique in the Wii's library."Game Informer: 80% -- Even the lowest-scoring review on the list doesn't have many huge complaints: "It's certainly not perfect; the difficulty balancing is rough around the edges, and the co-op multiplayer is ruined by the fact that the camera doesn't pull back, resulting in total chaos as each player's hunk of junk grows in size. However, I'm pretty addicted to Blast Works, and this addiction might never end due to the amazing level editor and online community functions, which gives players the ability to create anything and everything in the game and share them for free online."
WRUP: Having a blast edition
Hey, did you know that Blast Works released this week? Yeah, it's all up on retail shelves right now, waiting for you to pick it up and buy it. Our copy is out there right now, cold and alone, awaiting our loving embrace. But, what about you?Nabbing Blast Works yourself? Picking up something else? What will you be playing this weekend?%Gallery-4821%
Wii releases this week: Blast Works edition
There might be a huge game releasing this week, but that won't deter us from celebrating the release of a title we've been dying to get our hands on: Blast Works. So, you can imagine what we're planning to pick up from the small pile of new releases this week. Well, maybe it's less of a pile and more of a pair.This week's releases are: Blast Works Backyard Baseball '09 Planning on picking up a new game this week?%Gallery-4821%
Blast Works duo on what didn't make the cut
Blast Works: Build, Trade, & Destroy will finally launch in North America next Tuesday, so now seems like a fitting time for Budcat Creations pair Marcus Brown and Matt Modaff to update their IGN blog and reflect on numerous aspects of the game's lengthy gestation. Fortunately for this post, that's exactly what they did!Amongst other things, Brown and Modaff discuss the team's motivation for including the game's wonderful editor, the content sharing features that we adore so much, and how they'd like to see the game cultivate a modding community to rival those seen in many PC titles. They also reserve special praise for the Wiimote, noting how it "affords players a near mouse-like interface."Most intriguingly of all, there's a list of features that didn't quite make the final cut, mainly due to time constraints. These include the ability to play through the Campaign Mode with four players (there's still a two-player function), a "Marathon Mode" (in which players blast their way through an infinite selection of levels randomly chosen from the campaign and rack up the highest score possible), a "Movement Editor" (for editing, yes, the movement of enemies), and the ability to trade high scores.Despite all of that "missing" stuff, some of which sounds way cool, we'd still probably trade our closest family members in for a copy of Blast Works next week.%Gallery-4821%
A guide to content sharing in Blast Works
As you can see in the helpful video above, sharing your own stuff in Blast Works is likely going to be a ... well, uh ... a blast. It looks fun, doesn't it? Of course, the main issue is will anyone actually take the time to share? We hope so!The stuff that folks can share ranges from something as small as a ship to something as big as an entire stage. It really looks like it'll offer Wii owners some solid online content. And, as you all know, the Wii is in need of some online functionality.%Gallery-4821%
How to share user generated content in Blast Works
Wii may not be known for having the most advanced online capabilities, but the community developed for the upcoming Blast Works looks rather extensive. The upcoming shooter, based on the works of Kenta Cho, allows players to create their own enemies, ships and levels ... and share them with other Wii users. Players will be able to send data directly to their friends, or make it available for all to play through the Blast Works official website.This Joystiq-exclusive trailer shows how the website integrates into the game. By registering a Wii Code, you'll be able to send levels directly to your Wii from any internet browser (via WiiConnect 24). You can even send levels to your friends whilst you browse the site. You can also add comments and rate creations, just like in YouTube (and the oft-delayed LittleBigPlanet for PS3).Certainly, Blast Works has much potential in a "Game 3.0" era, and we think Wii owners should be pretty interested in the game. We'll see how well this community can thrive once it officially hits stores next week.
Blast! Another Blast Works delay? [update]
[Update: Majesco sent out a press release with a real release date on it! June 10. This release went out mere hours after our email to Majesco. Coincidence? Most likely.]We don't know if this is official (but then no Blast Works date has ever been official), but Gamestop's release date for Blast Works: Build, Trade, and Destroy has moved from May 20 to June 3. If we weren't looking forward to playing the game, this carrot-and-stick routine would be comical, but really we're just angry. This was originally supposed to come out in October.Amazon still says May 27. Best Buy says May 29. Were we regular shoppers and not game bloggers (which requires us to try to keep up with release dates and such), we would definitely have given up on following Blast Works by now. We'd just buy it whenever we happened to see it in a store.
Blast Works Depot open as part of MiiPlaza.net
Blast Works Depot, the official site for uploading and trading user-created Blast Works content, is now online (despite the game's current lack of availability). Rather than creating a fancy new corporate-designed website, Majesco worked with an existing Wii community website, Wii Fanboy Mii Plaza. It's kind of a brilliant idea -- (some) Wii owners are already used to sharing content on Mii Plaza, and Blast Works content now uses the same interface for trading levels, enemies, ships, bullets, and shapes. Oh, except you can upload and download directly from inside the game. Now all we need is for the game to come out, and for other people to buy it and create interesting things!
Blast Works delayed again, apparently
It was no mistake that Blast Works: Build, Trade, & Destroy didn't show up on our weekly releases list. We were sure that it was really going to come out this week, but just like every other time we thought Majesco would release the game, Blast Works has been pushed back. The new release date is still within the month, for now, so at least Majesco doesn't have very long to decide to delay it again.According to Gamestop, Blast Works will be out on the 20th. Amazon says the 27th. We don't know if it'll really be out on either of those dates, but we will still want to buy it whenever.
Majesco: Nintendo 'very enthusiastic' about Wii online functionality, helps Majesco prove it with Blast Works
Well, someone had to step in and tell Nintendo that they're doing a good job with their online platform (even though, and let's face reality here folks, they aren't right now, but we're hoping WiiWare can help change that). Majesco sees Nintendo as doing okay with the online content in titles such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii, but sees the system as able to do more elaborate and better things. Majesco is planning to make this leap into a bigger world with the release of Blast Works for the Wii. So what is so envelope-pushing about Blast Works's online functionality? Well, players will be able to create and trade content online. On top of that, players will also be able to head on over to a special website set up by Majesco, where they can browse other content made by users and, through the power of a mouse click, send that content to their own Wii. The best part? No Friend Codes necessary. Majesco said that Nintendo has helped them make this leap into a world full of more rich and dynamic online content on a console that hasn't had it yet and sees the future as very exciting regarding Wii and the online space. You can read all about how in the MTV Multiplayer interview here.%Gallery-4821%
Brawl, WiiWare and Nintendo Channel dated in Europe
The latest Nintendo of Europe release schedule contains fairly awesome news for the neglected continent, as there's finally a concrete release date for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Nintendo's wildly popular fighter is hitting stores in the region on June 27th, and there's more happy tidings, with WiiWare and Nintendo Channel set to launch on May 20th and May 30th respectively.There's little else in the list that both interests us and has a specific date (de Blob and Blast Works have both had a vague "Q2 2008" slapped next to them, though it appears that Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors will be out on May 9th), but heck, why are we yammering to you about this? Check out the latest European dates for yourself past the break![Update -- Corrected date for Nintendo Channel]%Gallery-16727%
May 6th is Shooter Day
In a bizarre turn of events, two new scrolling shooters will face off for the money of the tiny audience who buys scrolling shooters on May 6th (well, probably May 7th, since the games ship on the 6th). Both Majesco's Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy and Aksys Games' Castle of Shikigami III will be released on that day, according to Gamestop. This makes May 6th either the most awesome day in years or the worst for shooter fans, depending on their financial situation. There usually aren't two original shooters to choose from within six months of each other!Exacerbating the shooter overload, Jack of All Games' 3D fighter-jet game Rebel Raiders is also coming out on the same day. Too many options! And of course, all three will be competing with whatever shooters Nintendo puts on the VC that week.Read - Castle of Shikigami IIIRead - Blast WorksRead - Rebel Raiders
