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Rumor: Elite Beat Agents 2 listing appears
Click for to embiggen! Even the tiniest hint about a confirmation of Elite Beat Agents 2 -- a game that would surprise no one and thrill nearly everyone -- is like the skies opening up to shine a light onto the Earth whilst the angels sing. Well, get to singing, angels, because this listing from the Nintendo UK press site shows Elite Beat Agents 2 right underneath Elite Beat Agents. Could it be? Maybe. Maybe even probably ... but we'll have to wait for some sort of official confirmation to be certain.
Lips coming to Xbox 360 this November, song list revealed
Why Microsoft went silent about its upcoming karaoke game, Lips, is beyond us. But thankfully, the curtain has been pushed aside, and MGS is ready to start hyping the Xbox 360's answer to SingStar. With developer iNiS at the helm (Elite Beat Agents, Gitaroo-Man), we knew to expect something more than just a karaoke game. By integrating a few new ideas and Wii-styled gyroscopic microphones into the mix, iNiS hopes to create a fun party experience that anyone can enjoy -- no singing required.Accessibility is at the heart of this brand new music game. Not everyone in a party is confident (or drunk) enough to show off their singing prowess. Not a problem in Lips. Developer iNiS has added a number of other things for anyone to do while a song is playing. Instead of grabbing the mic, you can grab a controller and start pressing buttons to activate a variety of "noisemakers." Four controllers can be used, in addition to the two wireless microphones. If you're is feeling a bit more theatrical, you can grab the microphone and shake it like a tambourine. You can move your body and perform the gestures that appear on screen. And finally, if you're ready to sing, you can start belting it out.Continuing the theme of accessibility, there's only one difficulty to be found in Lips. The vocal engine that's in place is supposedly much more forgiving than competing singing games. That means even those that aren't the strongest of singers can feel encouraged to play. Players can also jump into duets at any time: a simple shake of the wireless microphone will activate two-player mode instantly -- no need to pause the game or exit to a menu.
Lips song list revealed, Nov. release confirmed
Today, Microsoft pulled back the karaoke curtain on the E3 announced Lips, revealing all of the game's licensed tracks, confirming the game's release month and detailing some game specifics. According to today's Lips news reveal, we'll be seeing the game on retailer shelves sometime in mid-November with a retail price tag of $69.99 (including both microphones.) All original music videos will be included in the game and the list of music (viewable after the break) is varied, spanning different genres in hopes of catering to everyone's musical tastes. Mad props to MS for licensing Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" and Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". Make the jump over to Joystiq to read about the game's unique features, how it stacks up against Sony's SingStar and learn about Lips' special pre-order offer. Our Lips interest is piqued, but can it deliver?
Gaming to Go: Elite Beat Agents
Agents are ... go! Elite Beat Agents built a reputation on many things: colorful characters, marvelous music, and, on later difficulties, the combination of soul-crushing challenge and those godforsaken spin markers. But look beyond that shiny veneer and you'll see above all an incredibly unique game, one that takes advantage of the DS's touch-screen capabilities arguably better than any other title on the system. And it's a hell of a lot of fun. Give the game a spin for just a few minutes and you'll see what I mean, as part of Elite Beat Agents's charm is its bite-sized gameplay. Take one of the many songs for a ride and you'll get a glimpse of nearly everything the game has to offer, with the frantic tapping, circling, and groovy beats the title is known for. It's okay to dance with your DS. I don't judge. Can you feel the music? Come along with this week's edition of Gaming to Go and see why exuberant dancing can solve all of the world's problems. %Gallery-30898%
Lips gets all boxed up with two microphones
(click to embiggen) Searching through some new'ish Microsoft provided press assets, we came across the official box art, packaging, bundle thingy for upcoming karaoke game Lips. Complete with two stylish microphones (we're partial to the white one) flanking the retail disc and a convenient harrying handle, the Lips bundle is a pretty well designed package. Check it out for yourself by clicking the pic above to view an embiggened version.
Lips details, Lips facts and Lips love
In a sit down discussion with developer iNiS's Keiichi Yano, the chief creative officer for karaoke game Lips, Joystiq learned quite the factual load of Lips information. Informative highlights including mention that Lips will support both the Zune and iPod but will not use DRM'ed music, the microphone is in fact dongle'less, every song included will be a master track and feature the original music video and game scoring will be enabled with all custom tracks. You can jump towards the break to view Joystiq's compiled Lips information fact sheet. Lips'tastic!
Details on Lips: microphone, your songs, its songs
We got a chance to sit down with Keiichi Yano – chief creative officer of Lips developer iNiS – for a walkthrough of their upcoming Xbox 360 karaoke game. We'll get around to writing up some of our impressions later, but first we wanted to share some answers to our biggest questions about the game. The microphone The wireless microphone will bind with the Xbox 360, no dongle required. It's unclear if it will work with other music games. When asked about Rock Band or Guitar Hero World Tour, Keiichi Yano told us, "That's a great idea. We would love to do that." Alas, it's up to those third-party devs to implement support for this peripheral. A second player can shake the microphone to instantly "jump in" to the song, no menus needed. They use 2 AA batteries, just like the Xbox 360 controller. Yanno said that, despite the motion-sensitivity and the lights, the battery life is pretty impressive already, on prototype hardware. Lips will be bundled with a black and a white controller Your music Though they were only showing off the streaming functionality through a Zune, they assured us it would work just as simply through an iPod. When asked why they couldn't use one now, Yano responded, "Trust me. It works." We then crossed our arms and fell backwards into his waiting arms ... DRM'd songs can't be used, regardless of the DRM scheme used. So no Zune or iTunes songs. Lips will perform "vocal reduction" on your own songs, though they weren't showing the functionality off. You can be scored on your own songs. Audio from a Zune or iPod is streamed only, not downloaded, so you'll need to keep it nearby After telling us that they "actually don't know" if Lips will be able to read directly from your streaming media library (think iTunes) the way the Xbox 360 can, Yano said they'd like to implement the feature, which he followed up by saying "hint hint, wink wink, say no more." We asked him to repeat that in a British accent and he was all too happy to oblige. When asked if you would see your Avatar singing on the screen in the absence of a music video, they said they weren't talking about Avatars now. No word on how they'll implement lyrics or a beat chart for the songs, though Yanno promised it would be "very, very compelling." Its music There are only three confirmed songs: "Mercy" by Duffy; "Young Folk" by Peter, Bjorn & John; and "Bust a Move" by Young MC All songs will be master tracks and will include the original music videos Rap songs work a little differently, it's not just about rhythm.
E308: Lips and Scene It! Box Office Smash screens
You can't blame the day for progressing a little slowly on the news front considering the 'OMG' moments that we brought you yesterday. But there are a few things to discuss.Two of the titles announced yesterday have a strong focus on the casual market. Lips and Scene It! Box Office Smash may not be directed toward our audience but as party titles they both look interesting. Scene It! Lights, Camera, Action doesn't get enough love for how well made it was and with online play Scene It!2 should be a riot. Until you catch a glimpse of your friend checking IMDB.com through his Xbox Live Vision camera, that is. Lips is a singing game. Not much we can do with that on the 'funny' front. Here are the first official screenshots of each.%Gallery-27691%%Gallery-27692%
E308: Lips revealed, motion controlled mics [Update]
Update: Lips ships this holiday season with mics that light up and utilize motion control (an example used was shaking the controller as a tambourine) and lets players connect any of their music devices to play their own music.The rumors were true. According to the, now deleted, Gamerscore Blog video press release Microsoft will announce that the rumored Lips music game is a reality. The karaoke game, developed by Elite Beat Agents dev iNiS, will feature motion-sensitive wireless microphones. The "franchise" is expected to hit Xbox 360 this holiday season. Motion controlled mics? Yeah, we're confused too.
Microsoft's Lips supports motion-sensitive wireless mics
Microsoft's Lips has been "officially" unveiled at E3 -- a bit early courtesy of Gamerscore Blog. The karaoke game, developed by Elite Beat Agents dev iNiS, will feature motion-sensitive wireless microphones. (What does that mean?) The "franchise" is expected to hit Xbox 360 this holiday season.Update: "Lips breaks new ground by being the first game to let you sing from your own music collection," says Keiichi Yano. Wow.
Variety: Microsoft to show 'singing game' at E3 (read: Lips)
We've got more rumors about next week's E3 announcements, but this one seems a bit more plausible. Variety reports that "somebody involved in promoting it" has revealed to the outlet that Microsoft will be showing off a brand new music/singing game. Our first instinct is to scream "Lips!" (naturally, using our lips in the process), the leaked karaoke game that Elite Beat Agents developer iNiS may or may not be working on.We've got our ears to ground and our noses to the grindstone between now and Microsoft's Monday press conference.
Rumor: Elite Beat-dev iNiS developing Xbox 360's 'Lips' karaoke game
While the thread on this rumor is pretty thin, we wanted to share it with you anyways, being clear about its origins. After yesterday's rumor-splosion gave us some more potentially accurate info on Lips – the Xbox 360's answer to PS3's SingStar – we received an unverified tip which appeared to originate from within Microsoft, which told us that the Microsoft Game Studios-published title was being developed by iNiS, the Japanese dev best known for its Elite Beat Agents and Ouendan Nintendo DS games.So, to recap: Microsoft is working on a karaoke game codenamed "Lips" – that's a rumor. The developer working on the game is iNiS – also a rumor. That iNiS has a long history of making music and rhythm games and that it's co-founder Keiichi Yano confirmed that the developer was in fact working on an unnamed Xbox 360 game – those are both facts. We'll (hopefully) put the rest of the puzzle together four weeks from today when Microsoft holds their E3 press conference. If you've got any more information, we're all ears about Lips.
We're not cheering for We Cheer
It turns out another cheerleading game that's not Ouendan is coming to the Wii. Can we get a facepalm, please?Not that we have anything against cheerleading. We're just curious why there's a sudden revival of the sport, which has inspired two companies to bring it to the Wii. Seriously, people, it's been years since the Spartans SNL sketches or Bring it On made the general public view cheerleading as anything other than an excuse to ogle cute girls.Nevertheless, joining THQ in the pep parade is Namco Bandai with a game called We Cheer. There's no word yet on whether Namco's game will involve the balance board, too, but we think it's a safe bet (think We Ski). We hope this is the last cheerleading game we'll ever have to write about; unless, of course, iNiS feels inspired to bring an Ouendan adaptation to the Wii. We'd be totally fine with that. Seriously, iNiS, make it happen.*Note: Looking up "cheerleader" in Google Image Search is absolutely scandalous.
Ouendan 2 sale redux
Did you miss out on Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 (that's a mouthful) when it was on sale around the holidays at Play-Asia? Never fear, dear readers, because the game is selling for cheap once again. This time, importer YesAsia is the site responsible for giving joy to rhythm game loving DS owners who don't live in Japan.The price was slashed from its original import cost of $50.99, and now will only set you back $31.99. Making the deal even better, YesAsia offers free shipping with the item. The total may still sound costly, but trust our Ouendan-loving hearts when we say that it's well worth it.The only thing to be wary of is YesAsia's claim that the game "usually ships within 21 days." We hope that doesn't mean you have to wait too long for it, and that Ouendan 2 will ship sooner rather than later. Buying the title at a reduced price might make the possible wait a little easier to swallow, though.[Thanks, Brian!]
Need help spending thirty bucks? OUENDAAAAAAN!
Import retailer Play-Asia's weekly specials are generally nice ways to get import games at good prices. This week's sale is extra-special, because the game is one close to our collective DS Fanboy heart. For the next six days or so, Play-Asia is selling Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 for a mere $29.90. We ordered a copy (as research for this post, of course) and shipping came out to just two dollars.Normally, there's a period of intense waffling when we come across one of these sales. Do we go for the impulse purchase? Is an awesome deal worth disrupting our careful game budgeting? That is not how it went this time. This time we instinctively threw our wallets at the screen as soon as we saw the price.
Ouendan cosplay performance grooves Singapore
At this year's Singapore EOY earlier this month, a ragtag group of well-dressed Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan cosplayers took the stage for a game-inspired performance. Thanks to the internet culture in which we live, there's plenty of pictures and videos from the event to enjoy. The SGCafe forums has started a thread for people to post images of the cosplayers, and although there are ample number of videos from the event on YouTube, the best two we saw were this one (embedding disabled) and this one (embedded after the break), the latter from very close to the stage but unfortunately missing the first 30 seconds of the performance. View - Gallery Watch - Video 1 (complete) Watch - Video 2
Ouendan cosplay skit is unashamedly insane, and all the better for it
With its outlandish (yet easily portrayable) cast and one of the most compelling soundtracks in gaming, we're not surprised that cosplayers are so drawn to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. In the video above, a highly enthusiastic crowd is treated to a performance by the Singapore-based "Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan Cosplay Group" at the annual EOY '07 Event at Singapore Expo. If only the same amount of effort was ploughed into all cosplay performances.A warning before you hit play, however: as this is the last song from the second Ouendan game, consider this to be spoileriffic.[Thanks, varumin!]
Free PC Ouendan/EBA emulator hits public beta
One thing you can count on for any decently successful rhythm game: someone will figure out a way to make a free PC clone. First there was Stepmania for DDR players, then there was Frets on Fire for Guitar Hero shredders and now there's Osu! for Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents fans. The public beta, available since yesterday, does a remarkable job of capturing the tap-out-the-rhythm gameplay of the DS games, though the dancing cheerleaders have been replaced with static videos for each song. You can build your own levels or download over 100 "beatmaps" of primarily J-Pop songs that were made by testers. Casual fans beware -- a lot of these fan-designed levels are killer, though there is an easy mode that makes things a little more manageable. Even if you're a master at the DS games, using the mouse takes a little getting used to. Then again, if you have a tablet PC, it's probably just like the DS games. Except, er, bigger.
Keiichi Yano: Elite Game Development Agent
Keiichi Yano of iNiS has a unique perspective on the Japanese and American game industries. His company remade their game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! into a new game whose references and music are more famililar to Western audiences; now Japanese shops are importing the resulting game, Elite Beat Agents, for Japanese sale. In addition, as discussed in this interview with Gamasutra's Christian Nutt, iNiS has been licensing their nFactor2 engine out to developers for use in Xbox 360 games-- a move that, to be honest, would seem to have more benefit to the American market. Furthermore, the genre to which he contributed so much-- music games-- now has an American juggernaut in Guitar Hero that threatens to subsume all other music games (except Rock Band, which is a direct descendant of Guitar Hero) in the public's consciousness. We'd listen to anything Keiichi Yano had to say based only on our teary-eyed devotion to Gitaroo-Man. Luckily, he's actually interesting in this interview about music games, middleware, and international game development. Readers-- are-- GO!
Elite Beat Agents dev working on Xbox 360 project
No doubt communicating to Gamasutra via boisterous cartoon speech bubbles, Keiichi Yano of the annoyingly capitalized iNiS confirmed that his team is currently working on an unnamed Xbox 360 project. "Yeah. We are currently working on a title," he said when prodded about Microsoft's console during Seattle's GameFest event. "I can't really get into it more than, 'Yes, we're working on something!'" With iNiS' past creations consisting of feel-good rhythm games such as Gitarooman, the Ouendan series and Elite Beat Agents, said something could easily involve catchy tunes, rhythmic button presses and unintentional gyration. We're certain the iNiS co-founder isn't pressed for ideas, but even if he was, he'd only need to holler for help. The strange men leaping out of his closet in response would probably share some sort of song about putting Gitarooman on Xbox Live Arcade ("it was the best decision ever made!").
