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Invizimals PS3, Vita games are ready to capture North America
The Invizimals series is bringing its reality-augmenting critters back to North America, with portable and console entries due this year. Vita game Invizimals: The Alliance and PS3 companion Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom hit Europe last year. Despite not bringing the series' PSP game stateside, Sony Computer Entertainment America stepped in to ferry the duo over this time around. Given the Vita's built-in augmented reality features, Invizimals: The Alliance was always a given. The portable game rekindles the series' Pokemon-like unearthing and capturing of monsters, with players using touch and noise to capture their psuedo-real prey. Meanwhile, PS3 game The Lost Kingdom is the first in the series to shy away from AR, instead dropping players into a colorful 3D action-adventure set in the Invizimals' world. The PS3 game syncs up with its Vita sibling, letting players duke it out in a cross-system battle arena for up to four players, additionally allowing players to transfer items across the two games. Fans of the three PSP games, including Invizimals: The Lost Tribes, which never made it stateside, will be pleased to hear SCEA's Nick Accordino say there's a "nice chance" of them showing up on PSN.
Invizimals gets 'enhanced reality' cartoon show, unlocks Vita content
Sony Europe yesterday announced an Invizimals animated show, and with that announcement hinted at a new PlayStation Vita entry in the series. The TV show, World Screen reports, is set to feature "enhanced reality" mechanics that let viewers unlock content on the Vita.That content could be from a new Invizimals game, or it could be a companion app, a monster running around the screen, or coupons for an Invizimals-themed meal deal for kids. Or it could be all of the above, which would be neat.The last game from Novorama, the team behind the Invizimals PSP games, was 2011's Reality Fighters on the Vita. The Sony-exclusive studio's next game remains unknown, with Novarama CEO David Sánchez telling Gamereactor in June, "Invizimals on PS Vita has not been announced and is not real – yet."The TV show's interactivity with Vita may be nothing to do with any game, but Invizimals, as an augmented reality series, seems a perfect fit for the console. For now, the Invizimals cartoon awaits its pilot and 26 subsequent episodes. Meanwhile, here in the US we're still waiting on a release for the third Invizimals game, Lost Tribes. Although a year's wait is per usual.We've reached out to Novarama for comment on the Vita content.
Report: PlayStation Vita memory 'about ten times' that of PSP [update]
Sony hasn't officially shared the PlayStation Vita's technical specifications, and rumors insist that the amount of memory in the system has been cut since developers originally got on board. Daniel Sánchez-Crespo, CEO of Invizimals developer Novarama, recently provided some calming context to these claims in an interview with Develop, saying that his studio was "unaffected" by any rumored RAM reduction. "It's actually good for developers to work under constraint," he said. "Generally for Vita, we still have a whole lot of headroom in terms of GPU power, CPU power and indeed RAM." According to Sánchez-Crespo, the Vita's quantity of RAM (Random Access Memory) bests that of the PSP by "about ten times." With the first PSP making do with 32MB -- yes, really -- that would put the Vita somewhere in the region of at least 256MB. "Remember, more hardware features means more costs for buying the handheld," Sánchez-Crespo added. "Our main interest is for Sony to sell a lot of [PS Vita] units. Clearly the Sony guys in Japan have a tough job of what to leave in and what to leave out." The Sony-exclusive Novarama is currently working on a few augmented-reality projects, including another Invizimals hunt and Reality Fighters, a camera-enabled fighting game for PlayStation Vita. Update: Develop now reports that one of its Sony Japan sources insists that no cuts have been made to the system's RAM. Of course, whether or not changes have been made to the specification is less relevant when we don't know how much memory there was to begin with. What we want is a number, and Sánchez-Crespo's comparison of Vita to the original PSP has been the best hint thus far, outside of official confirmation.
Invizimals: The Lost Tribes appearing across Europe 'this November'
You'll forgive us if we relate Invizimals to the 1988 sci-fi classic They Live, but we can't help ourselves. The premise of seeking out "magical monsters" who "live in the world all around you," only seen through the lens of a PlayStation Portable's camera, is eerily similar to "Rowdy" Roddy Piper's situation in the film. Apparently the devs at Novarama have stepped up their invisible monster capturing technology, as a third game in the franchise is headed to Europe "this November." Unlike They Live, the 150 "magical monsters" of Invizimals: The Lost Tribes are instead captured, trained, and unleashed against other creatures, Pokémon-style. And unlike Pokémon, Novarama chose to curate "80 of the community's favorite" creatures and add 70 new ones, rather than building an enormous "Invizidex" roster, if you will. The Lost Tribes has only been announced for Europe thus far, though we expect a North American announcement somewhere down the line.
Invizimals developer Novarama working exclusively with Sony
Invizimals developer Novarama didn't just announce a new game in its PSP augmented reality series today: it announced a new deal with Sony that will ensure more of the Spanish company's games will appear on Sony systems. The AR-focused developer has entered into an exclusivity agreement with SCEE. That means that the PlayStation Vita fighter Reality Fighters will remain a Vita-only experience, and Novarama will also begin working on new games for Sony. "For a studio geared towards innovation like Novarama, having a partner of the size and experience of Sony is the perfect blend," said Novarama CEO Dani Sánchez-Crespo. "By extending our partnership, we will continue making kids believe in invisible creatures and turning gamers into video game characters." Put that way, it sounds a lot more like the work of some evil mastermind. "Soon, all the children will believe in invisible creatures! And then, the world is ours!"
Invizimals: Shadow Zone will have you swatting at your coffee table again this fall
Augmented reality-based collection-RPG Invizimals never quite picked up the steam in North America that it managed to conjure up in Europe -- probably due to the fact the game came to our shores a full year after it hit PAL territories. Still, that doesn't mean we'll have to go without further iterations of the undetectable monster franchise: PlayStation Blog has announced that Invizimals: Shadow Zone, which dropped in Europe last November, will come stateside this fall. The game throws over 100 more secret beasts into the mix, and adds a co-op component to the original title's monster-capturing mechanic. So, potentially, you could have two people working in tandem to snatch collectible apparitions from the flat surfaces of their homes. We can't tell if that's going to make them look less insane, or exponentially more insane.
Music Monstars breaks free this September
A press release from publisher JoWood suggested, if not clearly, that they would publish developer Novarama's strangely compelling music game Music Monstars in North America. A new press release makes this sound a lot more likely, though the language is still a bit indirect.According to the press release, JoWood is handling distribution in "North- and South America, Portugal, Spain and India" Tivola, who is releasing the game in Germany, will release the game in September. Does that mean that JoWood will also release the game in September in all those territories? At the very least, this is the first time that this game has been mentioned specifically as a North American release.
Music Monstars going on a world tour?
JoWood has announced a deal with German publisher Tivola, in which JoWood will publish the company's titles in "North America, South America, Spain, Portugal and India." Tivola's DS lineup is an assortment of the kind of children's games that get mocked relentlessly, with one exception: the surprisingly awesome-looking Music Monstars, which the company is releasing on August 21.There's no specific announcement about Music Monstars -- in fact, JoWood's press release emphasizes "well-known licenses" and "significant educational content." Music Monstars might count as educational, but it's not really an identifiable license! Still, if JoWood plans to localize any of Tivola's games, we would be really happy if they chose the really cool one.[Via La Gran N]
Music Monstars rocks Europe
Music Monstars is a new music game developed by Novarama and published by JoWood Ibérica and Tivola, which combines the gameplay styles of Ouendan with instrument-simulating music games like Jam Sessions and Band Brothers in an interesting way. Notes are played by tapping shrinking circles on the screen as in Ouendan, but those circles correspond to keyboard keys, drums, or guitar strings in such a way that players play the song in the game by tapping. Eventually, then, it could be possible to play the song without the "assistance" of the circles.But to really see why Music Monstars is awesome, watch the above video. Then have a look at the two after the break. We really, really hope it gets released outside of Europe (but with the band Europe intact).
