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Reimagine Metroid in 2D
Behold Metroid: SR388.We always have mixed feelings about sharing fanmade renditions of Nintendo IPs with readers. On the one hand, it would be a shame if things this awesome were kept hush hush, but on the other hand, should the buzz get too loud we know Nintendo won't hesitate to squash the project. In any case, since SR388's creator Von Richter is promoting the digg link, we're going to absolve ourselves from such moral dilemmas and spread the love.The trailer makes this game look like a 2D Metroid reimagining rather than a remake based on any particular title, although some sprites (like Samus's) were clearly ripped. Between the music, original enemies, and intriguing new weapons and abilities, this fanmake has us licking our lips in anticipation. Hopefully we'll get to try it out before Nintendo comes knocking with a cease and desist, should that happen.Fortunately, progress on the game seems to be going quickly. According to Von Richter himself, this trailer (which was released at the end of April) is already out of date.[Via NeoGAF]
VC Monday Madness video wrap-up 4/28/08
Now that we've finally gotten River City Ransom, Nintendo has saw fit to take a lazy week and only provide us with one new Virtual Console game to download. At least it's a good one though, as Double Dragon on the NES owns. Likely, many of you recall it doing just that as a child. So hit up the video above, then head past the break for more.
No GBA version planned for Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
Despite its fanboy following and favorable reviews from critics, the GBA adaptation for The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night will not see a follow-up on single-screen portable, according to Sierra's 2008 Spring Event held over the weekend.Interestingly, of all the platforms The Eternal Night released on (PS2/Wii/DS/GBA), the GBA version, a 2D platformer/brawler some described as Devil May Cry meets Astro Boy: Omega Factor, has the highest average review score by a large margin. Quality doesn't equal quantity sold, however, especially on a dying console, and we're not surprised that Sierra opted to not complete its The Legend of Spyro trilogy on the GBA.Dawn of the Dragon for the DS is scheduled to ship in fall 2008. Based on the screenshots released so far, it looks to be another 3D action platformer with occasional sidescrolling stages. Mark Hamill will reportedly lend his voice to one of the game's characters, and Elijah Wood will return to voice Spyro. Christina Ricci will take over Mae Whitman's role as Cynder. We can imagine her disbelief over the replacement : "Her?"For reference, we gave the DS version of The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night a 5.0/10 in our review (GBA version: 9.5).
VC Monday Madness: Double Dragon
This week sees a lone wolf of a release on the Virtual Console. And, to kill the sense of suspense as to what the game is (unless you like to, uh, read the title of posts), we already knew it was hitting today. That's not to say the game isn't good, though!This week's Virtual Console release is: Double Dragon (NES, 1 - 2 players, 500 Wii Points) As usual, be sure to stop by later for our video wrap-up of this week's releases, complete with commentary and direct-feed game footage. We hope to see you there!
Ignition, SNK to co-publish Metal Slug 7 in North America
Mercury Meltdown publisher Ignition Entertainment has announced that the company has inked a deal with SNK Playmore to co-publish titles in North America, the first of which will be Metal Slug 7 for the DS. The pair are not exactly strangers, having been cozy together for quite some time on the European side of the pond. Beyond Metal Slug 7, which represents the retro shooter's first outing on Nintendo's handheld, no other titles have been announced, though considering SNK's pedigree we expect the fruits of this union, whatever they are, to be decidedly 2D.
First Look: Remnants of Skystone
One particular flavor of science fiction that's gotten short shrift by MMOs is Steampunk, the variant that combines our love of gearwork with mad science. Fortunately, Flipline Studios will redress that omission with its upcoming 2D, side-scrolling adventurer, Remnants of Skystone. Set in a future wherein an alien race called the Mimics have claimed the Earth as theirs, covering it with a poisonous miasma called the Haze, humans have taken to the skies in the floating city called Nidaria. Players can expect a game experience somewhat in the manner of MapleStory, where players may team up to explore and retake the ground from the alien menace.No word yet on whether this will be free-to-play or subscription, but it does mention it will be for PCs and Macs. Remnants of Skystone is set to release late this year on kongregate.com. For a full look at how this title's developing, check out the RoS blog. The site also features screenshots and a bit of world history, so whet your appetite and getcher goggles on -- full steam ahead![Thanks, Tony!]
How Lila Dreams was able to do a lot with a little
Here at Massively, we're slowly becoming bigger and bigger fans of Lila Dreams, a tiny little MMO with some big ideas so far. The latest post over at the dev blog talks about how they made the best use of things that would normally be thought of as limitations in MMO design, and actually came out of it with more creativity than if they'd used more traditional MMO technology. The game is built in Java and Flash and is only 2D, but instead of settling for cheap animation, the designers actually used the drawback as a benefit, and designed a 2D scheme that lays down a set of bones, which can then be customized with any art that the designer wants to put in. What that means for players is customization -- the animation is designed around movement, not specific art, so lots of clothing or items or shapes can be put in their places, and the animation will still work.It also means, they say, that anyone can be designing animation, since instead of drawing frames or creating movement, you're just dragging keyframes around until they look right. The idea itself isn't necessarily new (lots of designers have used this "paper doll" philosophy, and of course letting anyone do animation doesn't guarantee that Lila Dreams will be anything special), but it's a good sign of the creativity of the Lila Dreams team that they took what most MMO developers would see as a negative (the limitations of Java and Flash), and made something interesting out of it. Can't wait to see they game they're cooking up.
Ban-kai!: Sega to bring Bleach DS sequel stateside
Likely surprising no one considering the popularity of the Bleach manga/anime series, Sega announced its plans to publish Bleach: Dark Souls (or Bleach DS: 2nd Kokui Hirameku Requiem, as it's known in Japan), the follow-up to Bleach: The Blade of Fate, this summer in North America.The Treasure-developed 2D fighter features a number of improvements on the original: an exclusive storyline that takes place in between the series's first and second season 44 playable characters (The Blade of Fate has 26) 30 new Power-up Cards and Power Crystals Bleach encyclopedia containing "fun and interesting facts about the entire Bleach universe" All that comes on top of the game's four-player online battles and multi-plane stages. Hit the gallery below for English-translated screenshots from Dark Souls, or check past the break for a two-minute trailer from the Japanese release.%Gallery-17918%
Lila Dreams devs are blogging up new MMO insights
Back in late January, Eliah posted about an interesting little MMO called Lila Dreams, that was intriguing for a few reasons. Not only is it being developed as a 2D game in Java and Flash on Kongregate.com (a website probably most known for the extremely popular Desktop Tower Defense game), but the premise sounds terrific: the game takes place all inside a little girl's dream, with platforming and "gardening," and "mood-based world altering." Sure, it might not appeal to the Counterstrike crowd, but to experienced game players and developers that just sounds perfect.Since we first posted about it, the developers of the game have been blogging, and now there's quite a bit to read there about the process behind the game, including some good tidbits about how to make an RPG without a grind, and how to include microtransactions that vibe with both players and the people who want to make money from them.It'll definitely be interesting to see what comes of this. It certainly seems new, and as a great movie once said, the new needs friends.[Via KTR]
VC Monday Madness: Super Turrican
Well, it was a long wait. And what kind of thanks do we get for being patient little boys and girls and having to actually turn on our Wii to find out what Virtual Console games are available this week? Super Turrican. Yup, that's it, only one release this week: Super Turrican (SNES, 1 player, 800 Wii Points) So, uh ... who's excited?
Dofus opens test servers in America and Canada
As of yesterday, and continuing for the next month, Ankama Games' Dofus MMO will offer 5x the earned experience for all players playing on the new American test server. You can download the client software at the community site right away.Dofus is an MMO I signed up for a long time ago and immediately fell in love with its art style. It's completely 2D, but the adorable design and animations are well worth the download -- and it's free! You can check out previous Massively entries on Dofus to help you decide if you want in or not, but don't wait too long ... 5x experience won't be around forever!
Wii Warm Up: 2D remakes
Yesterday's popular video demonstration of how Super Mario Galaxy would look on the SNES made us wish there really were 2D remakes of the 3D games we love. Wouldn't it be totally rad if Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 was recreated as a top-down shooter in the style of Medal of Honor: Infiltrator (GBA)? Or if Super Paper Mario was, uh ... Okay, so that example doesn't work.What 3D titles, old and new, would you want to see turned into a 2D project?
GDC08: Now for some Monkey Business
As you already know, we're in love with wacky 2D platformers, the crazier the better. You need only look to our romantic exchanges with Barnyard Blast, Sanuk Software's low-budget Castlevania spoof, for evidence of our forbidden flirtations.At an IGS session yesterday, EA Tiburon's Kyle Gray demonstrated a new DS game, tentatively titled Monkey Business, currently in development and after our own heart. The colorful game's hero, a British explorer named Hatsby, could be seen battling an opera-singing boss and a robotic construct of Big Ben.The combo system seems reminiscent of The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night, and there's some unclarified puzzle mechanic played out on the touchscreen -- what's there not to love? We were surprised to hear that EA greenlit the project, even if only for its EA Casual Games division, but Kyle explained, "It's this weird new face of EA ... They're actually looking to do new things, now."Swing past the post break for more videos from the Flash prototype of this very interesting platformer.
King of Fighters XII at AOU 2008
Some of you might remember our post about King of Fighters XII coming to the PS3 in 2009. That seems like a long time from now, but don't worry old school fighting fans -- 2008 won't be going down without a little SNK love. The SNK-Capcom website tells fans that the AOU 2008 expo in Tokyo's Makuhari Messe convention center will feature King of Fighters XII in video format. Not much else is know about what will be shown at AOU, but we do know that KoF XII will use a whole new game engine and rehashed old character sprites will be a thing of the past. The game is expected to come out first in the arcades by June/July 2008, running on the Taito Type X². A PS3 port (and possibly an Xbox 360 port) will follow in 2009.
Homebrew game bears Devilish Resemblance to original Castlevania
Likely taking inspiration from Koji Igarashi's formula of remaking Symphony of the Night ad nauseam (har har har), homebrew coder Frosty Chaotix is working on his own vampire-slaying update for the first Castlevania NES game. He released a demo for Castlevania: Devilish Resemblance yesterday to show off his progress on the project's engine, and it looks fantastic! Of course, most of that can be attributed to the ripped 2D assets from previous titles in the series, but it's still an impressive project.So far, this proof-of-concept build has Simon Belmont walking, jumping, and whipping to his heart's content, all within the confines of a single test room. While there's still a lot left to be implemented -- e.g. enemies, interactive objects, touchscreen controls, etc. -- the soundtrack, grabbed from OCRemix, is the cat's galoshes. We totally wouldn't mind vanquishing the Prince of Darkness to this music!See also: Leaked Castlevania screens or whipped-up fakes?%Gallery-15538%[Via GBAtemp]
Legend: Legacy of the Dragons becomes first Russian MMO to get English translation
European publishing company Waygate Publishing Limited has issued a press release to announce a new, free-to-play browser MMO called Legacy: Legend of the Dragons, which has now gone live. They say that theirs is the first Russian MMO to receive an English translation, and the decision to bring it over was due to its popularity in its home market.Part of this popularity is apparently because of the game's combat system, which is fully animated in its 2D engine, whilst keeping system requirements low. Players join one of two factions, and can participate in PvE, PvP, professions and questing. The game's free-to-play system is supported by microtransactions, with players able to "invest as much, or as little as they like." The press release provides a link to the game's new website for those who want to learn more, or give it a try.[Via PlayNoEvil]
Jump Ultimate Stars translation project forked, anxious gamers hoping to spoon with new lead
Localizing Jump Ultimate Stars, the acclaimed 2D fighter featuring hundreds of Shonen Jump characters, would be a licensing nightmare for any US publisher, so don't expect an official announcement for a US release any time soon. We've rested our hopes of ever playing the game in English on the fan-lead translation project instead.But with over eleven months passed since the effort began, we've yet to see any public patches, and many are starting to worry that the project has stalled, doomed to sit around incomplete while interest dwindles. Deufeufeu, the same ROM hacker leading the FFTA2 translation team, has stepped in to kick the effort back into gear, forking the project and bringing some much-needed organization to the process.Having already created a "working patch system," extracted all the game's text, and readied other elements important to the game's translation -- all within a week -- Deufeufeu promises to deliver a patch this weekend, with regular stable and unstable releases to follow. Bring your koma deck past the break for more Jump Ultimate Stars screenshots sprinkled with English text.
Samus vs Ivy! Cloud vs Chun Li! Link vs Mega Man X!
Before your head explodes, no, this game isn't a planned release, commercial or non-commercial, for the DS. Card Sagas Wars is a homemade PC project created with M.U.G.E.N, a "freeware 2D fighting game engine." The music and backgrounds have been ripped from a variety of popular games, but it looks like the character sprites have been redrawn for a consistent (and totally awesome) look. If anything, Card Sagas Wars' developers are ambitious, setting out to include a collection of playable characters that would put even Super Smash Bros. Brawl to shame, its posted list of 995 "Blue Series" cards ranging from Killer Instinct's Cinder to Castlevania's Soma Cruz. A demo with four playable fighters is currently in the works, but no concrete date has been set for its release. You can see an older, less epic trailer for Card Sagas Wars past the break.
Study says girls prefer 'easier' 2D games
Here's an interesting little nugget we stumbled across: according to a recent study, girls prefer 2D over 3D when it comes to games.To reach this conclusion, author Tina Ziemek offered a pool of 34 13- and 14-year old students a selection of six Nintendo 64 titles (Yoshi's Story, Bust-A-Move, Mischief Makers, Banjo-Kazooie, Wetrix, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time), and noted down which of the games each subject preferred to spend time with.As it happens, the females in the group opted to play Yoshi's Story most of the time, while the males chose Zelda. Ziemek also notes that a lot of the kids commented on the easiness and accessibility of the 2D games in interviews, and that the females "disliked the confusion in the 3D video games, whether it was unclear directions, objectives, camera perspectives, or not knowing how to control the character."Ziemek's final conclusion? That the majority of females would rather play games that are "easy," while the majority of males would rather play games that are "challenging." If Ziemek's findings are correct, this may partly explain why so many females pick up a DS -- after all, which other platform has such a delightful array of 2D software?[Via Kotaku]
Custom Tank looks incredibly non-budget
Much like D3's other recent Simple series announcement, THE Zombie Panic, we question whether THE Custom Tank actually began its life as a Simple game. It looks like a lavishly-drawn, fully 2D action game -- which, these days, is actually more expensive than 3D. The thing's even got wireless (but not online) multiplayer! That doesn't sound like a super-low-budget game to us.Custom Tank features (duh) customizable tanks, to which you can add parts found in battle. There are 20 varieties of main weapon, 40 subweapons, and 16 different kinds of armor. With that Metal Slug-esque cutesy/gritty visual style, and the customizable weapons, we hope to see more of this game soon. We can start with the gallery of screenshots available at GAME Watch.
