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Hasbro's viral video-inspired headgear scores your mood for lulz
Teen YouTube is a strange place to the over-30 set, populated with pranks, game streams and possibly most inscrutable of all, challenge videos. YouTube challenges basically ask people to film themselves doing some hard or ridiculous thing, like flipping a water bottle onto a table or eating spoonfuls of ground cinnamon. Some have even garnered mainstream fame: The Tide Pod challenge has been making headlines lately, if only because it's so dangerous. One particular group of challenges that's been growing in popularity are the ones where people "try not to" do things like laugh, cry or get annoyed. However, that last one may get a little more attention if Hasbro's viral video-inspired Don't Lose Your Cool game takes off.
‘Scribblenauts’ returns with a party game for consoles
Innovative wordplay-based game Scribblenauts debuted on the Nintendo DS at the end of the last decade, but we haven't heard from the franchise since it headed to mobile for a semi-sequel in 2015. But today we got news that a new entry in the series, party game Scribblenauts Showdown, is coming to PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on March 6th.
Hasbro wants to crowdfund your party game ideas on Indiegogo
Hasbro is hoping you'd be willing to share your best party game idea ever(!) with the company and has launched a search for the "Next Great Game." The mechanics are simple: just go to the project website and submit an entry -- along the same lines as Monopoly, some variants of Trivial Pursuit and Funny or Die -- until September 30th, 2015. After that, sit back, cross your fingers and hope that you're among the five finalists announced on October 30th. Now, here's the twist: you're not getting any prize money even if you end up as one of the five. Instead, you'll be invited to launch an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for your concept.
Daily iPad App: Phrase Game is a party game in an app
The intersection of physical games and Apple's iOS platform is interesting -- the iPad and the iPhone are very good for abstracted interfaces, just because you're touching them directly rather than using a mouse or a keyboard, so it makes sense that they'd be ideal for interacting in a game-like fashion in real space. And Phrase Game, by Removem's Matt Martel, basically does just that. It's a party game, similar to Taboo or even Pictionary, and you play it like one of those. You need at least four people (or two teams), and the idea is that you actually pass the iPad around from player to player, each time getting a phrase that everyone else needs to guess. It's interesting -- the action in this game is all outside of the iPad itself. Other than just a suggested phrase (which comes from a series of categories, and you can buy more via in-app purchase) and the timer, the fun comes from you and your party, not the iOS device. It's a cool idea, and if you are having a get-together this weekend, it's probably worth the free download to see if you can give it a shot. I think there's lots more that can be done here. So many video games focus on just what's happening on screen, or a virtual simulation of some kind, but there's so much fun we can have in person as well that I think there are plenty of ways iOS apps and iOS devices can simply help govern that.
Joystiq hands-on: EA Playground (Wii)
When announced, we were concerned that EA Playground would be another mini-game fiesta for the Wii. While it won't be a Rayman-like game with dozens of scenarios, it comes off like Wii Sports in a schoolyard.After about a half-hour of hands-on time with the game, I have high expectations that nearly all of the playground-based sports will be entertaining. Some will even be excellent, although the family-friendly simplicity occasionally makes them boring.%Gallery-3900%
Cool Herders converging on the DS
When Alten8 commits to a system, they don't mess around. The company is currently working on ten titles for the DS, and recently they announced that the first will be Cool Herders, a revamped version of the party game for the Sega Dreamcast. As you might have guessed, Cool Herders is all about collecting sheep, even if it means you have to steal them from your friends. It's hard out there for a shepherd ....
Wii like to (Mario) party
This short video from the upcoming Mario Party 8 should be just enough to whet your appetite for some silly multiplayer action. This is one game we're definitely planning on checking out -- but how about you? Where's the latest Mario Party fall on your list of must-haves? If nothing else, it certainly falls in with the Wii philosophy about playing games together! Check the video out after the jump.
Rayman Raving Rabbids interview, new info revealed
A Nintendo magazine in France recently held an interview with the development team of the upcoming launch title Rayman Raving Rabbids. Thanks to a wily, bilingual forum poster (thanks, Jing_Ke!), we now have some new information. The story mode of the game is divided into fifteen game days. On each day, you wake up in jail, where you can enter the hub area "Rabbit Arena". This area gives access to five mini-games per day: four regular mini-games, and a boss battle. If you do well, the rabbits will reward you with various costumes or decorations. Another mode exists where you can play the mini-games freely, multiplayer if desired. The length of the games are discussed (much longer than, say, those found in Wario Ware), and they reveal that around seventy games will be in the final version. Alas, no classic platformer for us...are you disappointed? Hopefully, Sonic and the Secret Rings can fulfill those lingering desires to fall to your death while jumping to a platform inexplicably floating in mid-air.
Fuzion Frenzy 2: more mini-games, but in space
Perhaps most remarkable for being an Xbox launch game that wasn't Halo, Fuzion Frenzy attempted to fill the oddly shaped party game niche way back in 2001. Ignoring the use of some of the most pathetic and annoying characters to ever grace the gaming universe ("Where is the competition?!"), the game was quite an amusing diversion, though one might argue that it's hard to go wrong with bopping people over the head and rolling about in giant hollow balls.Microsoft has officially announced the holiday arrival of Fuzion Frenzy 2 for the Xbox 360. Interestingly enough, this one's actually being developed by Hudson, a subsidiary of Konami (the first game was done by Blitz). Aside from oh-so-creatively shifting the 40 mini-games into space and across multiple planets, the new developer has seen fit to add full online functionality, allowing players to create custom tournaments and build up a rank that gives them some authority in picking which mini-games to play next. It isn't specifically mentioned, but you can probably count on purchasing and downloading extra activities months after you've grown tired of the original selection.That original selection had better feature Sumo and Twisted System, or we'll be so angry. You won't like us when [censored by the clichè police].
