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Yars Rising revives a 40-year-old Atari game as a modern metroidvania
Yars Rising is a forthcoming Metroidvania with an interesting pedigree. It’s a sequel to an Atari 2600 game from 1982.
'DuckTales: Remastered' is being pulled from digital stores
DuckTales: Remastered, a remake of the beloved NES platformer released in 1989, will soon disappear from digital store shelves. Capcom announced the news in a blog post but, curiously, didn't explain why it was being pulled. If you're not familiar, DuckTales: Remastered was released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii U in 2013, before cane-hopping to iOS, Android and Windows Phone in early 2015. Developer Wayforward replaced the original's iconic but primitive visuals with brighter, more detailed characters and backdrops. The studio also added some fully-voiced cutscenes that critics found tedious and generally unnecessary.
Beat 'em up revival 'River City Girls' arrives September 5th
WayForward thinks it has a simple way to keep the River City formula fresh: reverse the roles. It's releasing River City Girls, a revival of the side-scrolling brawler that has high school girls Kyoko and Misako laying waste to everyone between them and their captured boyfriends. True to the spirit of the series, virtually anything is a weapon -- baseball bats, bikes and even park benches are fair game.
Unwrap Shantae and the Pirate's Curse on Wii U on December 25
After stormy seas kept sassy Shantae sequestered from Nintendo 3DS shores earlier this year, we weren't really sure when the half-genie girl and her pirate rival, Risky Boots, would team up to take down the Pirate Master in Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. Thanks to a tweet from developer WayForward made earlier this week however, it looks like Wii U owners can expect to find the 2D platforming adventure available on the eShop for $19.99 starting Christmas Day, December 25. Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, a Kickstarter-funded adventure starring WayForward's purple-haired heroine, has been delayed from its 2014 launch window. [Image: WayForward]
WayForward's Adventure Time game coming to PSTV, Vita
Along with the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS and PC platforms, publisher Little Orbit has announced that the WayForward-developed Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom will also appear on the PlayStation TV and Vita handheld. As Sam explains in this preview from E3 2014, Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom is a clear homage to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The prior Adventure Time game, Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know, was criticized both by fans and series creator Pendleton Ward for being too linear, so developer WayForward opted to include a bigger overworld, and more puzzles while giving players more freedom to choose their path. Little Orbit is especially thrilled to be bringing the game to the PlayStation TV. Actually, the publisher's announcement never mentions the Vita (despite it being nearly identical hardware with a larger install base than the PSTV), and Little Orbit CEO Matt Scott ignores the handheld in favor of gushing over Sony's latest gadget. "We're pleased to be partnering with Sony and have our game featured in their new PlayStation TV advertising campaign. The PSTV is a perfect fit for our game because it enables the entire family to play together to unravel all the secrets of the Nameless Kingdom," Scott said. Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom arrives on November 18. [Image: Little Orbit]
Three fresh games from Amazon Game Studios
AGS is keeping busy following the acquisition of Far Cry 2 Lead Designer Clint Hocking and Portal Co-Creator Kim Swift earlier this year. The studio has three games in development with three different partners: CreepStorm by Happy Tuesday, Tales From Deep Space by Frontier Developments and Til Morning's Light by WayForward. CreepStorm (pictured above) is a tower-defense game with RPG elements and a cartoony gothic vibe made exclusively for Fire Tablets. See a trailer for CreepStorm below. Tales From Deep Space is an eccentric adventure and puzzle game set on a space station also due out exclusively on Fire Tablets. Til Morning's Light, which we covered earlier, is a haunted-house puzzler exclusively for the Fire Phone. [Image: AGS]
WayForward keeps haunting Til Morning's Light with Amazon
WayForward ain't afraid of no ghost, but that's primarily because it's got Amazon Game Studios backing it up making Til Morning's Light, a new haunted-house game. Built specifically for Amazon's Fire Phone, it follows the flashlight-wielding Erica Page as she wanders around a cursed New England estate solving puzzles and fighting off specters. Think of it as an Are You Afraid of the Dark? teen-friendly spin on Alone in the Dark, but not from the '90s. WayForward is best known for its two-dimensional action games like Shantae and Mighty Switch Force, but Til Morning's Light actually marks a return to the studio's earlier experiment in young adult horror. LIT, an early WiiWare title from the studio, trapped a high school student in haunted classrooms and forced him to use a flashlight to escape. Devious light-based puzzles were the name of the game in LIT. Til Morning's Light, meanwhile, uses Fire Phone's "Dynamic Perspective." WayForward and Amazon say the game will be out "soon." In the meantime, there are actually audio blog entries from lead character Erica available on Audible. [Images: WayForward]
Joystiq Weekly: Free upgrades for Destiny, Hatoful Boyfriend review, PAX Prime and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. PAX Prime 2014 ended on Monday, but we're still recovering. Not from the marathon of appointments or swimming through an ocean of people – we've got those parts down pat. If you've ever heard of the PAX Pox though, just know that it's ... definitely a thing. It seemed every morning of this week brought news of another staff member falling to Prime's crowdsourced super virus. Laptops still work on death beds, of course, so we kept churning out content from Prime while we tried to remember what clear airways and normal body temperatures feel like. You can dig through our featured content after the break worry-free though – we slathered it in hand sanitizer, so you shouldn't catch anything from going near it. There's always the rest of this week's content that wasn't staged in a biological hazard, of course. We've got good news for Destiny fans planning on upgrading hardware at a later date, release dates for The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and Mortal Kombat X, a review of pigeon-on-human dating simulator Hatoful Boyfriend and much more after the break!
WayForward developing next TMNT game, Danger of the Ooze
Activision will publish a new game based on the iconic Ninja Turtles brand called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Danger of the Ooze, the publisher announced today. The game will slot in between seasons two and three of the current Nickelodeon television show and use 3D artwork inspired by the show. It will launch later this year for Xbox 360, PS3 and 3DS. Danger of the Ooze is a side-scrolling action-adventure game that allows players to freely switch between the four turtles to use their unique skill sets at their convenience. The city of New York and alternate world Dimension X are non-linear, so the game encourages "exploration and creative thinking" from players. The developer behind Danger of the Ooze is WayForward, known for games like Contra 4, BloodRayne: Betrayal, the Shantae series, and A Boy and His Blob (Wii). [Image: Activision]
Adventure Time: Nameless Kingdom debuts November 21 in Europe
WayForward's next Adventure Time game, The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom, premieres in Europe for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS, and PC platforms via Steam on November 21, publisher Bandai Namco revealed this week. Announced earlier this year, The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom takes gameplay cues from classic entries in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series, and models its structure after the lauded 16-bit action-RPG A Link to the Past. Gameplay focuses on solving environmental puzzles to progress through the game's many dungeons, ditching the roguelike-styled gameplay of its predecessor Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know! for a more traditional approach. A North American release date for The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom was not announced. [Image: Bandai Namco]
Shantae: Risky's Revenge finds a home on Steam this month
Following a stay in the purgatory of Steam's Greenlight district, WayForward has announced that classically-styled platforming adventure Shantae: Risky's Revenge will make its Steam debut on July 15. "Shantae: Risky's Revenge – Director's Cut hits STEAM for Win PC next week, July 15!" WayForward tweeted. "Features to be announced shortly!" For those keeping score at home, this will be the third platform for Shantae: Risky's Revenge, a colorful platformer which initially debuted on DSiWare in 2011 before earning a special new outfit in its iOS re-release. WayForward is playing coy, but with any luck that "Director's Cut" qualifier will indicate that the Steam version includes all content and features found in its predecessors. [Image: WayForward]
The next Adventure Time game is a link to the past
Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom will be the first in the WayForward-developed series under publisher Little Orbit, and a new name means a new direction. Whereas the previous game, Explore The Dungeon Because I Don't Know! was ... well, a dungeon-crawler, Secret of the Nameless Kingdom takes its inspiration primarily from a Nintendo franchise: The Legend of Zelda.
WayForward launching new Adventure Time game for consoles and Steam
Developer WayForward takes another crack at Cartoon Network's Adventure Time series with a new game launching later this year for the Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC platforms via Steam. Teased last month, Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom adds "a classic top-down action adventure experience and puzzle-solving element to the franchise, reminiscent of early high fantasy console games," according to publishing partner Little Orbit. So, it's inspired by The Legend of Zelda, in other words. Nameless Kingdom follows up on WayForward's notably verbose series predecessors Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! and Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know! Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom will hit retail and digital platforms in November. [Image: Cartoon Network]
Drink in Bloodrayne Betrayal on PC, out now on Steam
Et tu, Bloodrayne Betrayal? WayForward's campy revival is available now on Steam, any you can pick up the vampiric 2D hack-and-slash for $10 in North America, or £7/10 euros in lands closer to Transylvania. The PC port was handled by Abstraction Games, who you might recognize from the PC port of Double Dragon Neon and the PS3 and Vita ports of Hotline Miami. Our review rained praise on the PS3 and Xbox 360 release of Bloodrayne Betrayal, with Joystiq undead JC Fletcher giving the game four and a half stars, mostly because it's a rollicking good time: "You can kick a vampire into a toxic sludge jump onto his floating body, and then use a flamethrower-like weapon as a jet to propel yourself around. Fun. Occasionally (I'd say in exactly two places) the enjoyment is overwhelmed by difficulty, but those spots can't take away the goodwill I have for the game as a whole. And I begrudgingly respect the design of those spots, after having died around 50 times trying to get through them." [Image: Midnight City]
Bloodrayne Betrayal coming to PC next week, Japanese tease was port
Last week's tease by Arc System Works for something BloodRayne related was simply a razz for the Japanese localization of BloodRayne: Betrayal. The "BRCS" from the teaser site stood for BloodRayne: Crimson Slayer, which will be the game's name for the region. The solid action game from WayForward will be available in Japan on May 1 on PS3. In the west, BloodRayne: Betrayal will be available on Steam for PC on April 30 with full controller support. In our review we said Bloodrayne Betrayal has "style, substance and butter-smooth combat."
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse waylaid at sea for a few more months
UPDATE: Shantae Half-Genie Hero is targeted for an October 2014 release date, not August 2014 as previously stated. Kickstarter backers in the beta tier will receive early access in August 2014. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse for Nintendo 3DS has been slightly delayed from its planned Q1 2014 release window, and no wonder! Genies are fickle. Pirates are no better, following fortune and trade winds wherever they may lead. It figures WayForward, the renowned 2D game developer behind Shantae, would have to delay the game with these wildcards in starring roles. That and it takes a lot of time to make a hand drawn, exploration-based platformer. "Shantae and the Pirate's Curse will be in development for a couple more months while we add a few finishing touches," tweeted WayForward on Monday. "Almost there!" Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is the third game in WayForward's cult series that stretches back to the Capcom-published Shantae on Game Boy Color. Announced back in November 2012, Pirate's Curse is set to expand on the Metroidvania mix of exploration and action from the DSiWare game Shantae: Risky's Revenge. It's also one of two Shantae games currently in production. Shortly after announcing Pirate's Curse, WayForward opened a Kickstarter fund for Shantae: Half-Genie Hero for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PS Vita, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U, and PC. After meeting its goal, that game was pegged for an August 2014 release. With the delay of Pirate's Curse it's not impossible that Hero will get pushed back as well. WayForward is also working on a PC remake of the old Namco arcade game Wonder Momo and the Activision-backed Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark. [Images: WayForward]
Double Dragon Neon cowabungas onto Steam today with online co-op
Tubular news, dudes and dudettes: Double Dragon Neon is out later today on Steam for Windows PCs, and it's got a righteous new addition: online co-op. It comes courtesy of the bodacious bods at Abstraction Games, while the original flashback beat-em-up was developed by Ducktales Remastered studio WayForward. When it swaggered onto XBLA and PSN in 2012, Dave 'To The Max' Hinkle gave Double Dragon Neon a radical four-and-a-half-stars, calling it, "yet another jewel in WayForward's crown, unmistakably a Double Dragon game but with just the right amount of new flavor to make it something distinct, all wrapped in a brilliant '80s motif." If that all sounds most outstanding to you, it's $10/£7/9 euros to join the partay. [Image: WayForward/Abstraction Games]
DuckTales Remastered dev working on new Wonder Momo game
DuckTales Remastered and Double Dragon: Neon developer WayForward revealed that it is working on a follow-up to Namco's 1987 arcade game Wonder Momo, due for release in the first quarter of this year for Windows, Mac, and Android devices. The original Wonder Momo was a side-scrolling arcade beat-'em-up that cast players in a superheroic role during a series of live stage shows. As the young protagonist Momo, players battle waves of minor enemies in each level before dramatically transforming into Momo's alter-ego Wonder Momo, who wields a powerful energy hoop for the remainder of the stage. Though the game saw a home port to the PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) console, no version of Wonder Momo was ever released stateside. WayForward's reboot of the series follows a storyline introduced in Shiftylook's Wonder Momo webcomic, which premiered in 2012 alongside other commissioned comic strips based on classic Namco franchises. A Wonder Momo anime series is also set to premiere this year.
Majesco's indie label bringing Double Dragon: Neon to Steam, Slender to consoles
Publisher Majesco announced that it will bring WayForward's arcade-style brawler Double Dragon: Neon and Blue Isle Studios' first-person horror game Slender: The Arrival to new platforms in the first quarter of this year under its Midnight City indie label. Double Dragon: Neon is set to hit Steam with a new online co-op mode -- a key feature that was missing from its previous PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ports. Slender: The Arrival will boast new post-game flashback levels when it debuts for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as a digital release this quarter, and developer Blue Isle Studios plans to patch the PC and Steam versions of the game to add the new console content once it's available. Midnight City's lineup also outs the upcoming launch of Krautscape, a tactical racing game due for a Windows PC release via Steam later this quarter.
DuckTales Remastered patch fixes bugs, adds cutscene skip option
Capcom has taken the DuckTales anthem to heart and rewritten history in the form of a patch for DuckTales: Remastered, a Capcom Unity post detailed this week. The patch's keystone is the new Quick Cinema mode, an option that unlocks after players complete the game (yes, even pre-patch completion saves work for this). Once activated, the option will let players skip "most of the cutscenes" in Remastered. The rest of the patch will focus on more minor fixes. Those include a tweak to Scrooge's pogo attack to make it more reliable, as well as a few adjustments to address various glitches and freezes. This patch will also be applicable to the $19.99 physical versions scheduled for treasure hunts on the Xbox 360, Wii U and PS3 this Tuesday. Allowing players to skip cutscenes will address one of the major problems Danny had with the game, writing in our review that Remastered's "focus on dialogue has a detrimental effect on DuckTales' underlying design."
