JC Fletcher
Articles by JC Fletcher
Wii U Virtual Console out in North America next week
The Virtual Console will arrive for real on Wii U next week, a Nintendo Direct presentation revealed. The launch lineup includes Excitebike, Super Mario World, Mario Bros. Punch-Out, Super Metroid, Balloon Fight, and F-Zero, with GBA games and N64 games planned for the future.You might notice that some of these Wii U Virtual Console launch games ... are already on the Wii U Virtual Console. F-Zero, Balloon Fight, and Punch-Out were released for 30 cents as an early preview.
New Mario Party coming to 3DS this winter
You could find a new Mario Party 3DS game in your Christmas stocking this year, since one is being released in Japan, North America, and Europe this winter. The news comes via this morning's Nintendo Direct broadcast, and if you've ever played, seen, or even imagined Mario Party, you know the deal. It's multiplayer competitive minigames.There are some new twists, like AR minigames and some that use drawing. 7 different boards each use their own rule sets. It's coming out this winter.
'World 1-2' album brings chiptune artists and legendary composers together
World 1-2, a new album produced by Mohammed Taher for the record label GameChops, is a collection of new material by relatively new voices like Super Hexagon composer Chipzel, and established artists like Mega Man's Manami Matsumae (who Taher's Koopa Soundworks connected to Yacht Club Games for Shovel Knight). Other artists on the eclectic mix include Danimal Cannon, Austin Wintory, Tecmo's Keiji Yamagishi, halc, and Akira Yamaoka.The album will be released on May 2 for $10. Five sample tracks can be streamed here, in case the collected talent on the album isn't convincing enough.
Indie Fund backing 'whimsical physics toy' Kachina
Kachina is a game by Ben Esposito, who did level design on The Unfinished Swan with Giant Sparrow, in which you control a hole in the ground that moves around, swallows up animals and deposits them elsewhere. It's a game about a hole, and a game "exploring the relationship between modern American and indigenous Pueblo cultures through themes of erasure & discovery."That seems like a wide-ranging set of goals for a small game, and Esposito is getting help in realizing those goals from the Indie Fund, which revealed Kachina as its next project. Originally a Molyjam creation, the "whimsical physics toy" is planned for commercial release on PC, OSX, and iOS.
Capcom Arcade Cabinet lineup ends at the beginning
Capcom's planned releases of games for Capcom Arcade Cabinet come to an end today with Son Son and Pirate Ship Higemaru, illustrating the bizarre trajectory of Capcom's historical re-releases.Rather than follow the history of the company in a linear fashion, Capcom released packs of games from 1987, then 1985, 1986, 1985 again, and finally 1984, with bonus games from 1988 and 1984 (Vulgus is Capcom's first arcade game). It's easy to overlook the haphazard plan behind these releases in favor of, you know, just enjoying some old games, but now that the push is over we're looking back for the first time and realizing: Capcom Arcade Cabinet is pretty odd.
Soul Sacrifice demo progress transfers to the full game
TheA Soul Sacrifice demo out on PSN today gives you an early look at the first chapter of the game. Progress made in the demo will transfer over to the main game, the PlayStation Blog revealed, allowing you to fully commit to the demo without sacrificing your free time on repeats. You even get an exclusive item, the "Spirits' Heart," for transferring data.The demo also includes multiplayer co-op for up to four locally or online, just like the final game. Soul Sacrifice will be available in North America on April 30.
Wonderbook's 'Diggs Nightcrawler' due this holiday [update: May 29 in EU]
To date, the library for the PS3's augmented reality Wonderbook is one game deep: just Book of Spells. Wonderbook owners will have a second game to play "this Holiday," roughly a year after the first, when Diggs Nightcrawler arrives. [Update: May 29 in Europe!]The PlayStation Blog posted a development diary and a gameplay video today, revealing the good news: Diggs Nightcrawler looks pretty interesting! The time developer Moonbot spent figuring out how to implement gameplay appears to be paying off. It's a (cute) noir mystery set in a series of virtual books, each of which is a setpiece for investigation, conducted by folding the book, touching the pages, and otherwise manipulating the world as if it really did come out of a book. Imagine what Wonderbook developers could come up with if they iterated a third time.
PSA: Black Ops 2, Dishonored, Forza Horizon DLC out today
Today is the day that the game about military battles in 2025 also becomes about Mafiosi battling zombies in the 1930s, and our world becomes incrementally stranger in the process. Black Ops 2's "Uprising" DLC is available on the Xbox Live Marketplace now for 1200 MSP.Other noteworthy, perspective-shifting DLC today brings "The Knife of Dunwall" to Dishonored. It's available now on Xbox and will be released today on PS3 and PC. And Forza Horizon's "1000 Club" expansion offers new challenges for every car.%Gallery-185837%
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate off-screen play patch live
Starting today, those of you in the US can team up with friends in Europe to take down the dreaded Lagiacrus, and you can do so without occupying the television. The update for the Wii U version of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, enabling off-screen play and cross-region multiplayer, went live last night, Capcom reports.Now you can play all you want without the people you live with noticing how bad you are at, say, trapping live monsters, as you fail that tutorial mission repeatedly. Hypothetically speaking.
Level-5's 'Guild01' eShop games go on sale this week
The three games released in North America and Europe from Level-5's Guild01 collection will be discounted from April 18 through May 30, offering you a prime opportunity to check out Level-5's exceedingly eclectic collaborative output.Liberation Maiden, the 3D mech shooter made with Grasshopper Manufacture, will be $4.99 (down from $7.99). Yoot Saito's manic airport luggage sorting game Aero Porter is $2.99 (from $4.99), and Yasumi Matsuno's involved tabletop RPG Crimson Shroud will be $4.99, marked down from $7.99. Level-5 says the games will also be discounted in Europe.
Watch a 3DS-focused Nintendo Direct April 17 at 10am Eastern
Both Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe will hold Nintendo Direct presentations this Wednesday, April 17 at 10am ET/7am PT/4pm CEST, with unspecified new information about the Nintendo 3DS.We will, of course, be watching both, and breaking out the news into individual posts – which should be much easier for you to read at work – but feel free to join us on Wednesday whether you'd prefer to watch or read. Or both! The last Nintendo Direct two months ago was surprisingly packed with info, revealing Mario & Luigi Dream Team, Mario Golf: World Tour, New Super Luigi U DLC, Animal Crossing: New Leaf's release date, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, and more. We don't say that to suggest that this week's will be that good, rather to warn you that they can't all be that good.
Pokemon Scramble U's second line of NFC toys dated
A new set of near field communication-enhanced toys for the Wii U action game Pokémon Scramble U will come to Japan on May 25. The game has yet to be announced for release worldwide, but it's a Pokémon game, so you should expect it.The second series of toys includes Eevee, Mewtwo, Croagunk, Zoroark, Litwick, and Genesect, and one secret unannounced Pokémon. The NFC figures add playable characters to the game, much in the style of Skylanders. In the Pokémon Rumble/Scramble games, all of the playable Pokemon are actually wind-up toy Pokémon – which means these figures are toy versions of toys.
Puzzle & Dragons coming to 3DS in Japan
Mobile puzzle hit Puzzle & Dragons, in which players build teams of monsters and explore dungeons, leading them into combat through color-matching puzzles, is coming to 3DS this winter, according to scans of CoroCoro Magazine found by Siliconera.The 3DS version, called Puzzle & Dragons Z, features 200 different monsters to battle with. The nature of the release is as yet unknown – the mobile versions are free-to-play, but that is exceptionally rare on 3DS (approximately zero games ever have used the model on the platform).
Minter's 'TxK' is a new spin on Tempest for Vita
Jaguar killer app Tempest 2000 (pictured) is being updated by creator, and flashing-lights-and-colors enthusiast, Jeff Minter for Vita. TxK is a new version of his frequently iterated game, which sees players circling the periphery of a geometric prism, shooting down the sides into the screen."It'll be the pure, straightforward shooter that maybe you hoped for when you first saw Space Giraffe," Minter said on his blog. "We're not going to overload you with ultra psychedelia, but we will make it fluid and colourful and awesome-looking on the Vita's delicious, vibrant OLED screen.Minter was approached by Sony, presumably as part of the company's indie PSN push. He plans to keep a development log for updates on TxK, a game that he already promises is "going to be *awesome*."
Break off a Soul Sacrifice demo April 16
If you'd like to try Soul Sacrifice, it won't cost you an arm and a leg. A demo will be released on PSN in North America on April 16, two weeks ahead of the gruesome action RPG's release date.The demo features the opening of the game, in which you, after being captured by a mage and marked for sacrifice, meet a talking book who forces you to live its contents. In other words, the frame tale for Soul Sacrifice is that you're experiencing a book's memories of fighting monsters and sacrificing comrades.
'Men's Room Mayhem' rated for Vita in Australia
A Vita game called "Men's Room Mayhem" has been rated by the Classification Board in Australia. It's the work of developer Sawfly Studios, a group of four former Sony Liverpool employees.Sawfly hasn't officially announced its game yet, but on the studio's website, art director Jon Eggelton said "We take a lot of inspiration from games like That Game Company's Journey, and Playdead's Limbo." Maybe Sawfly is working on two games? It's either that, or we're heading to a future in which something called "Men's Room Mayhem" surprises us with subtlety and beauty.We've asked publisher Ripstone just what this is, because there's no way we can read that title and not have questions. Ripstone confirmed its existence, but is still waiting to make an official announcement. "What I can say is it's a game about mens rooms and what goes on behind closed cubicle doors (but not in a dodgy way!)" the publisher told us.
Japanese voiceover pack coming to Tomb Raider PC ... for $30
Rather than waiting to localize Tomb Raider into Japanese, Square Enix will sell a Japanese voiceover pack for the Steam version already available in Japan through the Western stores. That part is cool and kind of forward-thinking.The part that's less cool: the pack costs $30, on top of the full-price purchase of the game. The massive upcharge brings the US Steam version into price parity with the Japanese retail release, which shares an April 25 release date with the VO pack, and retails for ¥7,980 ($80). Yes, video games are always too expensive in Japan. And Square Enix is artificially ensuring that's the case for Tomb Raider.It's hard to figure out who this Japanese Language Pack is for, if it comes out the same day as the localized PC release for the same effective price. We suppose it's for people in Japan who want to play Tomb Raider now, but don't mind missing out on all the dialogue for a couple of weeks.
Rayman Jungle Run updated with 20 new levels
Rayman Jungle Run, like Rayman Legends, is being updated with a bunch of extra levels. However, unlike Legends, the mobile runner's free levels aren't a gesture of reconciliation following a delay, they're there just because.Also different: with Rayman Jungle Run, there is no delay. The game, and 20 new levels, are there right now as a free update to the iOS and Android versions. Windows 8 is coming soon.
Wii Forecast, News, other channels going offline in June
Everybody Votes ... until June 28. Nintendo of America has informed us that many of the network-reliant Channels on the Wii will go out of service on that date, including the Forecast Channel, News Channel, Everybody Votes, Check Mii Out, Nintendo Channel, and data exchange between friends. Mii exchanges and Wii Message Board conversation functionality will also go offline.Other services will remain active for the time being, including the really important one, the Wii Shop Channel, so your original Wii is still infinitely better than the totally-offline Wii Mini.
Project X Zone launch copies come with extra stuff
This trailer not only confirms Project X Zone's June 25 release date, but the names of a lot of different attacks in the Sega/Capcom strategy RPG, thanks to some lovely subtitles added to the western release.Launch copies of Project X Zone will be released as "Limited" editions at the normal $40 price, with a "mini-art book," a poster, and a music CD, all trying to encapsulate the horde of recognizable characters.%Gallery-185479%