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Wii to celebrate Tomb Raider: Anniversary
In news that is sure to set tongues wagging and arms waggling, IGN reports that Lara Croft will soon raid a more modern tomb -- your Wii's game shelf. In a press release issued by an international Eidos branch, Tomb Raider: Anniversary is stated as being in development for Nintendo's popular console. Previously, the remake was only slated for release on the PC (including GameTap), PlayStation 2 and PSP. With Eidos holding out on costly PS3 releases until 2008 and with no Xbox 360 version of Anniversary in sight, it seems the Wii is benefiting for once by being lumped in a similar technological bracket as the PS2. It makes for a quick and financially sensible port, it's only challenge being the tacking on implementation of unique motion controls. We're hoping for an ice-cold virtual hand to poke Lara into position for those tricky jumps. No Anniversa-Wii date has been set, but other platforms begin festivities on June 5th.
Tomb Raider: Anniversary, day and date on GameTap and more
Referred to as May Day on their design blog, Turner's buffet-esque gaming service, GameTap, has some huge announcements today. The headliner of which is a real doozy. Through a deal with Eidos, the upcoming Tomb Raider: Anniversary will be made available on the service come launch day, June 5th, and at no extra cost to subscribers. The title will also be available to non-subscribers via their upcoming digital distribution store as well. GameTap has been offering brand-new, original titles at no extra cost for a while now (see: Sam & Max, Myst Online), but to take this trend and run with a third party is huge. Closing out May Day is May 31st where GameTap will crack open its doors a bit with a new free-to-play portal. Not regulated to chump titles, the new service will launch with games such as Metal Slug, Bust-a-Move and Tomb Raider: Legend. This will be made possible with their new three-tiers of membership and a handy-dandy chart to explain these tiers (two of which are free, by the way) has been made available after the break. In other GameTap news, both the press release and blog have mentioned the Metal Slug and King of Fighters series coming to the service. Nice.
Virtually Overlooked: Bronkie the Bronchiasaurus
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative. Some of the games we cover in this feature are worth talking about just because of their concepts. Zombie Nation, about a giant flying head, for example. Bronkie the Bronchiasaurus might be the ultimate conceptually-interesting game, at least to us, since it is one of the most bizarre and incongruous things ever to appear on a console. Bronkie is an educational side-scrolling platformer for the SNES about an anthropomorphic dinosaur with asthma.
Tomb Raider: Anniversary set for June 5th (don't forget!)
Those longing to don a pair of unreasonably tight pants, shoot up ancestral tombs and mow down innocent bears (without getting arrested) would be wise to circle the date of June 5th, 2007 on their official Rhona Mitra calendars. This day marks the release of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary, a Crystal Dynamics remake of the adventure that put the grave-robbing heroine on the map, the coffee mug, the magazine cover and the unfortunate t-shirt which proclaimed, "I raided Lara's tomb." Hearkening to a time (1996!) when Tomb Raider regularly induced drool as opposed to debilitating nausea, Anniversary sees reworked puzzles, improved controls and enhanced graphics injected into one of the greatest games of all time. Play it on your PS2, PC or PSP while you wait for a sequel to last year's surprisingly superb Tomb Raider: Legend to arrive -- and don't forget to do a graceful swan dive straight into a boulder. That's always good for a laugh.
Next Ratchet & Clank officially titled
1UP informs us that the forthcoming Ratchet & Clank adventure is featured on the cover of April's Electronic Gaming Monthly, complete with its full title, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. Brian Allgeier, design director for Insomniac Games, notes that the name "works on many levels. It signals a new era for the franchise, ties into the game's story, and includes one of our signature subtitle double entendres."Tools of Destruction might even mark the first time that Insomniac's playful choice of words survives the trip to Europe. You might recall the PlayStation 2 titles, Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal, being respectively changed to the more polite Locked & Loaded and Ratchet & Clank 3. It's just as well Insomniac didn't go for their original and somewhat less subtle choice, Ratchet and Clank To Come: Implements of Ravaging.
Super Paper Mario releases April 9
Portly paper plumber platforming news now, with Nintendo announcing a release date of April 9 for Super Paper Mario. Initially developed as a Gamecube title, the Wii adventure sees Mario switching between charming 2-D and 3-D landscapes in an effort to thwart the ill-advised marriage of Princess Peach to Bowser. Who knew a mere platformer could provide such sweeping social commentary on the liberal, inter-species marriage laws of the Mushroom Kingdom?The platformer also underlines the state of the ongoing Wii games drought. Short of Sonic's Wii debut later this month and Wario's notable appearance early this year, the console's Q1 release schedule has been decidedly barren. Ideally, Super Paper Mario will kick off a more vigorous second quarter, complete with the evolved form of an overlooked Gamecube ape. %Gallery-1586%
Sonic Rivals trailer
Sonic has been cursed with some pretty mediocre gameplay in the past generation when placed in the third dimension. But, the 2D platformers found on the Game Boy Advance were all very solid. Sonic Rivals, the upcoming PSP-exclusive title features 2D gameplay, but with 3D graphics.... So, will it fall into the same curse that all the other 3D Sonics have?This trailer shows off some solid (and very speedy) graphics, but the gameplay worries me. Does it seem a bit too shallow? I'm afraid that because of its focus on racing, it might forget the important platforming element so crucial to a platform game. You watch the trailer and you be the judge.
Modern society under attack from Mario Bros.
Shortly after celebrating Mario's rampant popularity in Japan, we now learn through Joe Larson's blog, Exploding Unicorn, that the portly plumber is nothing more than an instrument of societal destruction, wrecking young minds as the worst kind of role model. Larson points out that Mario's career is dubious at best, asking "if he can jump fifteen feet in the air, why doesn't he play basketball? One can only conclude that Mario had the worst high school guidance counselor on the planet – if he graduated from high school at all."The rogues that populate the Mushroom Kingdom are just as guilty of polluting young minds, it seems, with Shy Guy teaching kids that "the best way to treat social anxiety disorder is by jumping on it with an overweight Italian plumber. Maybe Shy Guy would fit in and make some friends if he stopped dressing like a serial killer."Read the rest and become aware of the overalls being yanked over your eyes. And please, take it seriously.[Thanks Joe!]
Wii impressions: Super Mario Galaxy
Though players have long become accustomed to controlling Nintendo's iconic and portly plumber, Super Mario Galaxy marks somewhat of a departure from that tradition. You still control Mario's movements with the analogue stick on the left nunchuck, but the wiimote in your right hand actually allows you to exert an influence on the world itself. A little on-screen star indicates where the wiimote is pointing and by holding down the B-button, you can grab onto various items and structures. For instance, if you run the cursor through a patch of flowers, it willl gently rustle in reaction to the presence of your invisible hand. While you have Mario running and jumping about and doing his usual platforming, you can manipulate objects in the environment in order to help him out.The game world seems to be comprised of a bunch of little planets floating in space, with Mario seeking out different ways to travel between them. One method of transportation is what appears to be a giant elastic plant. Mario climbs to the top and, using your wiimote, you grab onto the plant, stretch it into one direction and then release the button to have Mario slingshot to a different panet. It's an extremely intuitive experience and really creates the impression that you are reaching into Mario's little universe and making things a little easier for him. You can also stun and tip over the meandering Goombas by running your cursor across them, allowing Mario to finish them off with a good 'ole butt-stomp. Mario's usual repertoire of moves remains intact, with a vigorous shake of the wiimote activating a furious spinning attack. It's effective for clobbering enemies and activating the various star lifts scattered across the levels. The levels themselves look excellent from a graphical standpoint, boasting some stylish lighting effects and crisp and colorful textures. As far as depictions of plumbers in outer space go, I'd say this is probably the best one I've seen. Super Mario Galaxy really does make up for a lot of the graphical shortcomings of other Wii games. In fact, its unusual and engaging control system provides one of the best glimpses of the system's potential we've seen so far.
Kojima's DS game touts vampirism and meteorology
If you spend a good deal of your time watching classic Dracula movies or, uh, the Weather Channel, you would no doubt be interested in Hideo Kojima's new DS game, Lunar Knights. Featuring loads of snarling vampires and weather effects, Gamespot notes that the game follows the adventures of two warriors looking to spill the blood of some blood-suckers. The stylus is used for plenty of actions in the game, just as you'd expect, but the interesting part comes in with the use of the DS' top screen. As your characters traverse the bottom screen, the weather above them (so to speak) will change and affect their abilities to successfully fend off the vampires plaguing the planet. If the thought of umbrella-wielding heroes slaying in the rain doesn't appeal to you, you are most likely dead inside.
New Castlevania, awful art style confirmed
Wrong.That's what comes to mind when I look at the art style for the now confirmed Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. The title seems awfully appropriate now, what with the series' stunning gothic art heritage being ruined in the wake of something more along the lines of "Yu-Gi-Oh" and "garbage". Is this some sort of reverse Prince of Persia phenomenon, where a beloved franchise is actually lightened up in order to appeal to a broader group of gamers?I'm sure it'll still play wonderfully, but I have trouble believing that an androgynous, saucer-eyed blondie wielding half a jump rope will be able to convey the atmosphere of melancholy that permeates the rest of the series. Poor Dracula - imagine getting bested by someone like that.
New Castlevania called Portrait of Ruin? [Update 1]
A while back, we all assumed that Konami was on the brink of announcing a brand new Castlevania adventure for the DS. It was a fairly solid assumption based on the evidence at hand, but information since then has been scarce or, worse yet, completely fake. That's why we're a little dubious about an article on Orange Lounge Radio (who?) that claims the game in question will be called Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and will be released in November.As great a title as that is (certainly three steps up from Waltz of Discontentedness), the article raises a few suspicions and references no sources. It states that Konami has "quietly announced a few titles" that are meant to be released this year. What an excellent strategy to employ--by quietly announcing new entries in popular franchises to a select number of obscure websites, Konami will minimize the danger of people actually finding out about these games, becoming interested and possibly purchasing them. Yeah.I also happen to be on Konami's press release mailing list, and the spot reserved for them in my inbox is currently as empty as a cinema showing Bloodrayne. The article also mentions a DS Death Jr. game, one which has been previously rumored but never confirmed. Am I right in being cautious, or am I being overly paranoid? And how stupid will I look if this turns out to be true? (You don't have to answer that one.)[Via 4cr][Update: 1up is reporting that the same list of titles and release dates were leaked (and not quietly released) to retailers. Portrait of Ruin on 15 November it is, then! Thanks Mike!]
DS Lite in May says EGM
An EGM scan pretty much confirms what we've all been thinking: The DS Lite looks set to launch on 21 May, the same day New Super Mario Bros. bounces into stores. Don't worry--the game will still work on the old DS![Via Joystiq]
Mega Man ZX official website up
We've got to admit that we're awfully excited about the recently revealed Mega Man ZX, a brand new DS entry in the platforming series that forgets all that 3D nonsense and takes us back to that good 'ole 2D jumping through-the-boss-door gameplay we obsessively love. We seriously dig Mega Man and have gotten over the fact that he's actually not a man at all, but a little robotic thief that strips hilariously named enemies (Clown Man, we're looking at you) of their surprisingly useful powers. The official website is up now and, while not revealing much information (even less if you can't read the Japanese characters) does give you a glimpse at the new spiffy saucer-eyed character designs and the newly created Mega Woman. Girrrrrl power and all that. Anyone care to translate this for us? We'll pay you in Zeenies.[Thanks shiftup72!]
