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Never say Neverwinter: Cryptic forced to delay D&D RPG
Fans -- and general looky-loos -- anticipating Cryptic's next game will have to wait a little while longer. Neverwinter has been officially delayed following a bout of legal mumbo jumbo involving Atari and Hasbro struggling over the Dungeons & Dragons license. While the two companies have finally settled this long-running dispute, Atari's sale of Cryptic to Perfect World Entertainment has come with a catch regarding its Neverwinter project. Due to the new ownership, Perfect World is demanding Cryptic work on "a more immersive experience" for Neverwinter and is thus pushing the cooperative RPG's release from the formerly announced 2011 launch window to late 2012. The settlement means that Hasbro will regain the digital licensing rights to D&D, but Atari can still sell and develop some titles under that umbrella. Cryptic Studios was acquired by Perfect World earlier this month for a whopping $49.8 million.
Coming to Xbox Live Arcade: The Office?
You might have read over at Joystiq that MumboJumbo is working on a video game based on NBC's The Office. The game is set to feature the characters from the show depicted as bobblehead dolls. Players will be challenged to complete jobs and pull pranks around the office. Currently, the game is slated to appear on the DS, PSP, and PC. According to Variety, the game won't be developed for new-gen consoles because of its relative simplicity. XBLArcade begs to differ, noting that MumboJumbo's deal includes the option to create the title for Xbox Live Arcade.MumboJumbo recently released Luxor 2 on XBLA, so they definitely have experience with the platform. Whether or not The Office will actually make an appearance on Live Arcade remains only a rumor at this point.Now, if we could just get The Office to make an appearance on Video Marketplace, we'd really be getting somewhere.
The Office video game sounds easy: "That's what she said."
MumboJumbo, maker of "premium casual games" will soon be adding Michael Scott and his underlings to their roster as they develop a video game based on the NBC hit comedy The Office. According to the story in Variety, the player will have to "handle jobs and pull pranks" at Dunder-Mifflin, featuring the cast as bobblehead dolls. According to MumboJumbo VP Mike Suarez, "Because of its simplicity and low cost, "The Office" videogame won't be available for high-powered consoles like the Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360." High-powered like the Wii, hee hee!The game will be on the Nintendo DS, Sony's PSP, and downloadable on PCs via the net sometime this Fall.
Mumbo Jumbo covertly releases new casual game
Have you heard of 7 Wonders? No? Neither did we. Mumbo Jumbo, publisher of fine games such as Platypus, is secretly releasing the game this week. Strange, considering we haven't seen or heard a single tidbit about it. Should we worry? Probably. There's something fishy when a game gets as little attention as this one.There is a playable demo for PC users to get a taste of this Bejeweled clone. However, with most everyone bonkers over Puzzle Quest, will 7 Wonders stand out? Most likely not.[Via IGN]
Luxor 2 gives XBLA more balls
Luxor 2 is now available for Xbox Live Arcade. Essentially, the game rests somewhere between Zuma and Breakout. You control a horizontally moving paddle that shoots multicolored balls towards the other multicolored balls. Match up three of the same color and guess what happens. That's right, they disappear. It's your job to destroy all of them before these malicious balls have their way with your pyramid. The trial version gives players a healthy chunk of Luxor 2's gameplay and should give prospective buyers a good idea of the game's appeal. For puzzler fans out there, it's pretty much a no-brainer. It plays well, has interesting power-ups, and poses a decent challenge -- a challenge that we imagine gets much harder in later levels.If you've made it your life's work to destroy scores of evil balls (and who hasn't?), Luxor 2 can be yours for the price of 800 MS Points.
Luxor 2 brings Egyptian marbles to XBLA
Xbox Live Arcade's unprecedented string of releases continues this week with the arrival of Luxor 2 from MumboJumbo. Xbox Live Arcade isn't short on puzzle games involving marbles. We've already got Marble Blast Ultra and Zuma. Luxor 2 opts for the traditional color matching of Zuma with an Egyptian twist. In addition to the scenery change, Luxor 2 features a horizontally scrolling cannon of sorts (akin to Astro Pop), rather than the 360 degree cannon found in Zuma. Rather than explain the object ourselves, we'll just give you the delightfully absurd description in the official press release: players advance by "shooting and destroying the magical balls that threaten the pyramids at the end of their paths." Enough said, right? The game will be available this Wednesday for the sum of 800 MS Points. You can grab a PC demo of Luxor 2 here.Full press release after the break.
PSP Fanboy review: Platypus
The shooter genre is easily one of my favorites: classics like Ikaruga and Gunstar Heroes, demonstrate how much fun it is to blow up lots of stuff with rapid-fire lasers. The aforementioned games have brilliant simple controls, utilizing just two buttons, but they feature great gameplay mechanics that challenge the gamer considerably. Platypus, however, features none of these attributes.You know you have to be a little suspicious when the promotional quotes on the packaging don't actually praise the game. Unlike Ikaruga's notorious "frothing" quote, Platypus' box notes that its "graphics are made entirely of clay." Huh? Yes, that's true. But does that say it's good? (No, it doesn't!)
Platypus game creator exploited, ignored
The popular mass-market game Platypus apparently has a long history of scandal. The original was created by the work of indie game developer Anthony Flack. Licensing company Idigicon seemingly exploited Flack's inexperience in the world of game publishing, and purchased all the rights to the game for chump change.Now, publisher MumboJumbo returns with a remake/sequel of sorts for the PSP, and it appears that Anthony Flack has been completely ignored, even in the credits, although the game reuses many of the same gameplay mechanics and assets of the original PC game. He stated in the Indiegamer forum, "I thought I was through with this game making me feel bad, but to see a whole bunch of people listed in the credits but not me, the actual creator, just feels like a deliberate attempt to hurt me. And it does. Why would they do that? It's not like listing my name in the credits would have cost anybody anything."[Via GameSetWatch]
