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New Nintendo eShop releases: Mario Kart 8 DLC, Sonic Boom
Mario Kart 8's first major content pack is available now, and for $8 and 1GB of Wii U space you can fill your racing roster with the likes of Link, the Master Cycle, and a circuit based on F-Zero's Mute City. Or, to summarize for numerophiles, three characters, four karts and eight tracks. Don't forget, you can also get the DLC as part of the $12 package that bundles in a pre-order for the second pack, due in March 2015. The eShop's not just about Mario Kart 8 this week... 'cos Mario Kart: Super Circuit brings GBA racing to the Wii U Virtual Console. We josh, kartophobes, there's plenty of other stuff to download. There are the console and handheld editions of Sonic Boom, the Wii U port of pop-up beauty Tengami (check out our impressions of it on iOS), and the belated stateside arrival of Pokemon Trading Card Game on 3DS Virtual Console. Since it's November and another one of those content-packed weeks, our digestible list of new releases should prove handy. You'll find that below the break. and if you're after sales and permanent discounts, point your clicker here.
A World of Keflings coming to Wii U in next couple of months
Giant Miis should have A World of Keflings in their hands by the end of March, according to developer Ninjabee. The province-building follow-up to A Kingdom for Keflings was lined up to hit Wii U last year, but Ninjabee now says it's due in the next two months. While Ninjabee's first news of the year is for an old game, the indie studio says it's got plenty of new things in the pipeline. Last week it posted images from four concepts doing the rounds at its Utah office, and they're certainly intriguing. Three of them look to be for action-orientated games, with one featuring a sword-bearing demon in a city's downtown, and another a band of modern-looking adventurers taking on a colossus-like monster. "Some of them are more developed than others," says Ninjabee's Michael Purser. "Not all of them will become finished products, at least not in any recognizable form. But they all represent the beginnings of something wonderful: the genesis of NinjaBee's next game." Expect to hear more on that around August and September time, because Purser says Ninjabee's bringing one of those properties with it to PAX Prime. [Image: Ninjabee]
A World of Keflings breaks ground on Windows 8; Wii U 'later this year'
A World of Keflings has expanded its borders to Windows 8 today, providing your Avatar a passport to the PC for $6.99 starting today. The press release announcing the news past the break also mentions an impending Wii U port, due "later this year."A World of Keflings is a city-building game from Utah-based NinjaBee that originally launched on Xbox Live Arcade in 2010. Our own review lauded its "steady dopamine drip of sweet accomplishment" but recommended short play sessions over extended hours of construction.
World of Keflings DLC takes your Keflings to the Candy Kingdom
Yes, there's still DLC for the 2010 XBLA game A World of Keflings. Following a fan vote to determine which new world would appear first, developer NinjaBee has revealed the "Candy Kingdom" downloadable content, which adds a new environment. As part of the vote, a fan has been "Keflingized" in a process that we hope wasn't excessively painful, and "Kari the Last Chocolatier" will play a part in the story.A World of Keflings was most recently updated to be part of the Avatar Famestar program, promising a year of free quests and Avatar bonuses.
A World of Keflings now a world of Avatar Famestar rewards
The second game to see new Avatar tie-in content from the "Avatar FameStar" program is NinjaBee's A World of Keflings, which was just updated to support FameStar today. The new update adds more than just Avatar bonuses for in-game accomplishments, including what NinjaBee calls "a full year's-worth of free weekly quests, a new kingdom to build in and more."The new kingdom is a "sandbox" environment in which players can build whatever they want – including ships to sail and explore the waterways. Also present in this new kingdom is the "Rockstar Kefling" who dispenses each week's new quest.In other weird, time-delayed updates, today's Keflings additions include a patch to unlock a "unique Twisted Pixel emote" for players who have earned a specific achievement in Comic Jumper. What a strangely busy week for XBLA games from 2010.
A World of Keflings can't decide: Candy, pirates or graveyard DLC
A World of Keflings developer NinjaBee has some new DLC in the works, but it isn't sure what kind yet. NinjaBee wants Keflings players to decide the theme of its new DLC -- Graveyard, Candy or Pirate -- and it plans to "Kefling-ize" one fan, with that character to appear in the game. "I mean, who doesn't want to be turned into a tiny, chipper peon and forced to eternally work for free?" Brent Fox of NinjaBee asked, referring of course to the Kefling-ization of one fan, and not to the free decision-making provided by peons fans in the DLC poll. Of course. Keflings fans can vote in the poll on PlayXBLA now through 12 a.m. PST on Friday, Jan. 20, and the winning theme will be announced the following Monday on PlayXBLA as well.
World of Keflings alien DLC crash lands Oct. 26 for $4
Ninjabee has revealed the launch date for the upcoming "It Came from Outer Space" downloadable content for A World of Keflings. The DLC is set to be released on Wednesday, October 26, just in time for your (incredibly short) Halloween marathon of all the good Aliens movies. The content sports two to four hours of extra gameplay and increases the game's content by "more than 30 percent." The asking price is 320 Microsoft space bucks (four earth dollars). %Gallery-136198%
Aliens to invade A World of Keflings in upcoming DLC
Well, more specifically, they will crash land. After all, nothing in A World of Keflings would be so violent as to invade anything. Thus, the new "It Came from Outer Space" DLC will see players helping a group of marooned aliens repair their mother ship and return to their (undoubtedly adorable) home world. The DLC will include a new alien-themed kingdom as well as new resources, buildings, characters and, if the above teaser art is to be believed, space blazers. No price or release date have been announced. %Gallery-136198%
April Fools: A World of Keflings becomes A World of Deathlings
Ninjabee has gone a step further in pursuit of April Fools Day funniness and has actually patched a joke into A World of Keflings on Xbox Live Arcade. According to the press release, the patch adds combat to the game, thus making it more akin to violent RTS games like StarCraft, Age of Empires and Team17's classic Orcs, Orcs, Orcs!. We downloaded the patch to give it a try, and it certainly does add violence to the game. It adds the worst kind of violence, as a matter of fact: emotional violence. You can see it yourself after the break ... if you think you've got the stomach for it.
Xbox Live April schedule: Bad Company 2 DLC, Comic Jumper discounts
Microsoft has revealed some of the content and deals coming to the Xbox Live Marketplace in early April, which include quite a few discounts. It kicks off this week with the launch of DLC for Mass Effect 2 and You Don't Know Jack, as well as some discounts on Comic Jumper, Deadliest Warrior and the "Dead Money" DLC for Fallout: New Vegas. Hit the jump for the full list.
A World of Keflings review: Community organizer
A World of Keflings is one of two things, I haven't made up my mind as to which. It's either a charming parable about the joys of working together to build a thriving community ... or a terrible warning about the dangers of modern industrialism. I'll go out on a limb and assume developer Ninjabee was probably shooting for the former, but it's up for interpretation. The fundamentals haven't changed much since A Kingdom for Keflings. Your Avatar stands as a giant among the tiny Keflings, and it's your job to help them build their kingdom and, ultimately, a castle. To do this, you must gather resources, train your Keflings and construct various houses and workshops to produce the goods you'll need to build more advanced houses and workshops, and so forth. For task-oriented thinkers, A World of Keflings may just be productivity poison.%Gallery-112087%
12 Days of Joyswag: Xbox 360 S plus 'Games for the Holidays,' A World of Keflings, Raskulls, and ilomilo
To celebrate the holidays, we're having twelve straight days of giveaways up through Christmas day. And while we say it's to celebrate, really ... we're simply getting rid of some of the larger packages around the ol' office. Remember when Microsoft promised everyone in the audience during its 2010 E3 keynote a brand-new Xbox 360 S, the just-announced redesigned console? We've got just one left and we're going to take this opportunity to unload it before the year's out. But instead of just a plain ol' 250GB Xbox 360 S console, we're going to spice matters up with codes for all three of this month's Xbox Live Arcade "Games for the Holidays," featuring A World of Keflings, Raskulls, and ilomilo. We've got nine other sets of codes which we'll be handing out on Twitter and Facebook over the course of the week but, for now, get in on our final piece of Joyswag in this series. Happy holidays!%Gallery-95140%
Download Raskulls early through ilomilo
We've already reported about the quirk that allows you to download Raskulls early through today's A World of Keflings. Readers have written in to inform us that you can also get it through the other Xbox "Games for the Holidays" release, ilomilo -- which is itself available well before its release date thanks to a secret website. Simply press Y in the ilomilo main menu, and you'll be able to access the trials (and thus the full games) for both Raskulls and Keflings. At this point, the only one of the three you can't get before its release date is A World of Keflings, and that's only because today is Keflings' release date. [Thanks, Dillon and Jeff]
Video: A World of Keflings' musical cannons
You've conquered A World of Keflings. You've built every building, tamed every wild frontier. What's left? Just the best endgame feature ever: Musical cannons. Over 80 cannons can be unlocked by game's end. We can't wait to cover completely inappropriate songs. First up? Anything by GWAR.
Video: Xbox Live Arcade's Games for the Holidays mascot crossover
Confused by Xbox Live's "Games for the Holidays" crossover bonus? Don't worry. This new video from Microsoft makes it very clear what you unlock when you buy more than one game from this seasonal promotion.
Xbox 'Games for the Holidays' feature unlockable crossovers
Raskulls, Ilomilo, and A World of Keflings aren't just connected through the shared "Games for the Holidays" promotion. They also each unlock extras in the other games. In Ilomilo, you can get unlockable Keflings and Raskulls costumes for Ilo and Milo by purchasing the other games. Additionally, "You can unlock ilo and Doug as playable characters in Raskulls," says Raskulls dev Halfbrick, "and also unlock Raskulls characters within ilomilo and World of Keflings by purchasing the full range of games." And buyers of Raskulls or Ilomilo can build homes for characters from those games in A World of Keflings, according to a statement posted by Kotaku. Even crazier: you can actually get Raskulls early by buying A World of Keflings. Raskulls can be bought from within that game, a week before its December 29 release. That's two out of the three games available early!
A World of Keflings, Raskulls and ilomilo dated for XBLA
"But Joystiq," you ask, "isn't there already a way to get the absolutely delightful ilomilo for XBLA right now?" Yes, there is -- or you could wait until it's "officially" released on the Xbox Marketplace come January 5 as part of the "Games for the Holidays" promotion. But really, who would do such a silly thing? (Either way, it'll set you back 800 Microsoft Points, or $10.) Of course, since there's no way to secretly procure Ninja Bee's latest, A World of Keflings, or the puzzle/racer mash-up that is Raskulls from Halfbrick Studios, you will have to wait until their official launches on December 22 and 29, respectively, at 800 points ($10) each.
Microsoft showing off upcoming XBLA games during Fantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest, an annual, week-long film festival held in Austin, Texas, has broadened its scope this year to include a few high-profile downloadable titles. Attendees can visit the Fantastic Arcade to check out some upcoming games coming from the festival's sponsor, Microsoft Game Studios -- titles including Comic Jumper, A World of Keflings, Hydrophobia and Super Meat Boy. The Fantastic Arcade opens its doors on Thursday, September 23. If you live in the Austin area and want to catch an early glimpse of some of these games, you can check out a schedule of demos and showtimes on the event's official site.
World of Keflings trailer debuts tiny man cannons
Lording over your Keflings in A Kingdom for Keflings was easily one its most amusing aspects. Watching this trailer for the sequel, A World of Keflings, confirms your duty has risen to a whole new level. Really, why would you help them build things when you can just stuff them into cannons?
A World of Keflings includes in-game Avatar props and pets
Ninjabee has announced that A World of Keflings will expand on the Avatar functionality of its predecessor, A Kingdom for Keflings. Specifically, the title will allow players to bring their Avatar props and pets inside the game world. Players will be able to summon their props and pets whenever they want, although the press release notes that the items won't have any extra functionality in the game. When summoned, the pets and items will simply go through the same animations seen on the Xbox 360 dashboard. That's unfortunate, as we really would have loved to smack some Keflings around with a giant cotton swab. Art director Brent Fox also offered some new details regarding the new "story-driven" focus of A World of Keflings. He noted that players will meet several new characters, including a "Kefling pirate, a witch, a princess and an inventor, just to name a few". Players will also "travel between exotic Kefling lands, assemble a robot and build an airship" -- all of which, according to Fox, is "barely scratching the surface."
