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Bit.Trip Flux keeps CommanderVideo alive Feb. 28
CommanderVideo, hero of the Bit.Trip series, will finish his journey through psychedelic techno-scapes of attacking pixels on February 28 in North America, and February 25 in Europe, according to developer Gaijin Games. Those are the dates when Bit. Trip Flux will be released on WiiWare. In the announcement of the release dates, Gaijin's Alex Neuse revealed that there is no "Game Over" result in Flux -- which is a pretty sharp contrast from the other five Bit.Trip games, in which "game over" is basically the natural state. "To help tell the story of CommanderVideo's transition back to The Source," he said, "we wanted to convey the point that it is an unstoppable pull which draws him home. For this reason, there is no Game Over." Flux is designed to be completed in a single session, something that "most players" will be able to do. The challenge will be in reaching and sustaining the "Meta Mode" for as long as possible by hitting consecutive beats. "But the primary goal of Flux is to be an exploration of visual beauty, aural splendor, graceful gameplay, and how it feels to be lost in the beauty of life," Neuse added, "while reminiscing about all the events that led CommanderVideo to this, his purest form."
Double Dragon iPhone remake due out in March
We want to be happy about the fact that Aksys Games is publishing a new remake of the classic Double Dragon -- because we like Double Dragon -- but a couple of complications have us a bit worried. First, it's being developed not by Million -- the company built from the original Technos team that made Double Dragon -- but by mobile game developer Brizo Interactive. Second, and most troubling ... it's an iPhone game. Aksys promises an "easy-to-use on-screen controller and combo system," but we're justifiably wary of any kind of beat-em-up port for iPhone -- especially since the "controller" looks a lot like a regular old virtual pad and buttons in the screenshots. Still, we like the Neo Geo-esque visual makeover. We'll find out if this remake Double Dragon is good or Abobo-minable when it comes out in March.%Gallery-116321%
Bit. Trip Flux trailer will delight and frighten you
Are you ready to be simultaneously soothed and terrified? This emotional paradox is brought to you by Gaijin Games, who released the first trailer for Bit. Trip Flux. The final Bit. Trip game, which returns to the Pongery of Bit. Trip Beat, is revealed in this trailer to have wonderful, dreamy visuals, catchy music with themes from previous games ... and insane patterns of flying Beat dots that makes the first game seem manageable. This game is going to kill us.
BlazBlue Continuum Shift DLC discounted now on Xbox Live, Jan. 4 on PSN
'Tis the season for Valkenhayn R. Hellsing! It seems that way, at least, as Aksys has announced a sale on BlazBlue: Continuum Shift DLC, including Mr. Hellsing and other downloadable characters. Today through January 7 on Xbox Live, and from January 4 through January 25 on PSN, you'll be able to pick up all the Continuum Shift downloads at a discount. If you were ever going to pay money for a different color scheme for your characters, now would be the time, since those are half-off. As for more substantive downloads, the unlock for the character Mu-12 is just a dollar, with Makoto and Valkenhayn available for $4.50 each. See the full list after the break.
Debut Bit.Trip Flux screens give us deja vu
You'll forgive us if we make an obvious observation here, but these first screenshots of Bit.Trip Flux look very ... familiar. Perhaps it's because of our recent proclivity to play Bit.Trip Beat on the iPhone every chance we get, but the images -- unlocked by Extra Lives after completing "Day 17" in the Flash-based indie game Mission in Snowdriftland -- look similar to the very first game in Gaijin Games' Bit.Trip series. One item of note: The Flux images appear to show a reverse version of Beat's right-to-left gameplay. We're not sure what other difficult twists Gaijin has in store for this sixth and final Bit.Trip, but we could use some reassuring right about now. %Gallery-111593% [Thanks Anthony!]
Final Bit.Trip game is called 'Bit.Trip Flux'
Gaijin Games has (unintentionally) teamed up with the German USK ratings board to reveal the title for the sixth and final Bit.Trip game: Bit.Trip Flux. Yesterday, the developer put up a blog post titled "Flux," with poetic text that really looks like it's hiding some secret code. "A lesson is learned. Life is. Simply. There is no death. There is no before. There is no after. All is in flux. Simply." In addition, the USK posted a rating for an Aksys-published game called Bit.Trip Flux, which is a lot less cryptic. Even if we can't surmise any details about the game from this title or the blog post, it's basically enough to know that it's another Bit.Trip game. We're intrigued!
Give yourself a few minutes to read about Jikandia: The Timeless Land
Do you like games from Opus Studio that combine retro-style graphics, RPG gameplay and time-compression gimmicks? Well, good news: now you have more than just Half-Minute Hero through which to experience that unique combination. Aksys Games is localizing Jikan de Fantasia for PSP as Jikandia: The Timeless Land, due Spring 2011. Jikandia is a unique side-scrolling dungeon RPG in which players set the time limits for each dungeon -- which, in turn, affects the treasure quality and the difficulty of the dungeon. Players control a boy from our world drawn into Jikandia, a once-timeless place that is now experiencing linear time, as a "champion," searching for his missing friends. Of course, given the random-dungeon style of gameplay, you probably won't need to spend much time worrying about the story.%Gallery-108245%
Bit. Trip Fate review: A trip to bullet hell
Bit. Trip Runner, the last game in Gaijin Games' six-part WiiWare series, appeared to be about freedom, with blue skies and open spaces abounding -- but there was literally only one correct path through any level, and the game dictated with exacting detail the timing of your movements on that path. In contrast, Bit. Trip Fate is all gloomy, subterranean worlds, with Commander Video trapped both inside a glowing sphere and held to an explicit path -- but the player has both more freedom of movement and more freedom to make mistakes. I don't really have a point to make here; I just wanted to start my review with something other than "Bit. Trip Fate is so hard."%Gallery-105917%
Deathsmiles standard edition available next week from GameStop
If you want to play Cave's Xbox 360 shmup Deathsmiles, but don't need a big box or a faceplate, you'll be able to pick it up cheaply next week. A listing on GameStop.com revealed a standard version of Deathsmiles, coming out for Xbox 360 on September 28 for $29.99. A representative of Aksys Games confirmed the release to Joystiq, saying that "the Deathsmiles Standard Edition will be $29.99 at GameStop for now." If you buy this and then something falls on your Xbox 360, cracking your current faceplate ... be sure to tell us. We'll do our best to be sympathetic while marveling at this unlikely, ironic happenstance.
999 pre-order bonus timely, fitting, disturbing
The pre-order bonus for 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors is appropriately enough a watch version of the device worn by the nine persons in the game. Of course, unlike the gizmo in the sinister scenario, this thing won't blow up if you're a failure. The item will only be available online by pre-ordering from GameStop.com. Check it out over at GoNintendo.
Gladiator Begins review: Do I not entertain?
Despite its long list of problems, Gladiator Begins gets the most important thing right: beating, bashing and slicing dudes feels good. It's just as well, because that's the only thing this PSP game ever lets you do. The premise is simple to a fault: You hop in a box with Roman slaves and then stab 'em until they're dead. That's it. For some, non-stop brawling makes for the best kind of action game; the beat-'em-up genre's survived on this kind of repetition. Gladiator even takes advantage of a handful of elements inspired by role-playing, which keeps things from getting stale too quickly. %Gallery-101608%
'999' to ensnare North America this November
999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, a graphical text adventure released in Japan last December, will challenge North American audiences this November. Aksys Games confirmed last month that the unusual DS title would ship across the ocean, but didn't offer a release window at the time. With a premise akin to Saw (the movie and game), 999 involves nine people who are locked behind nine doors on an old passenger ferry. They have only nine hours to solve various puzzles before they drown, and are unable to contact Professor Layton for help.
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift 2 throws down in Japanese arcades this winter
Yo dawg, we made a sequel to your sequel so you could sequel while you sequeled -- ahem, sorry, we couldn't help ourselves. Andriasang reports that Aksys Games has announced the next entry in the BlazBlue series for Japanese arcades, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift 2. The new arcade game will debut at the Amusement Machine Show on September 9. The game will launch in Japanese arcades this winter and (so far) adds one new character, Valkenhayn R Hellsing. He was recently announced as the second DLC character for the home console versions of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift and has been priced at ¥800 (560 Microsoft Points) in Japan. We suspect his price tag here will be the same, especially since Makoto, the first announced DLC character for CS, is priced accordingly.
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift's second DLC character revealed
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift has already seen one DLC character, Makoto. Arc System Works has announced the second at a Japanese event, and it's a familiar face to series fans. Rachel's butler, Valkenhayn Hellsing, will be joining the fight sometime in the near future. We all should have seen this coming: how can someone named Valkenhayn Hellsing not take part in epic battles? Arc System Works has yet to announce a price or release date for the character, and Aksys Games had no information yet about a stateside release. If the pricing follows Makoto's example, it'll be $7.99, 560 Microsoft Points, or 800 yen.
A big media update for the tiny BlayzBloo
How much cuteness can you handle today? Is it, like, a lot? If not, just pass this post right by. After the break, we have gameplay footage and dozens of screenshots of BlayzBloo: Super Melee Brawlers Battle Royale, the DSiWare arena fighter starring chibi versions of BlazBlue's characters.
Review: BlazBlue: Continuum Shift
It's hard to avoid comparing BlazBlue: Continuum Shift with Super Street Fighter IV. Both are budget-priced updates that add new characters and modes to existing fighting games. But where Capcom's offering improves on its predecessor by expanding the character roster and retooling the online experience, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift's biggest selling point is that it makes it surprisingly easy for newcomers to get in on the action. %Gallery-88603%
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger throws down on PC August 26
Arc System Works has finally revealed a launch date for the PC port of the first entry in its budding new fighting series, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. Japanese gaming site 4Gamer reports Aksys Games is priming the Games For Windows Live version of the frenetic fighter for an August 26 PC release in Japan, for a suggested retail price of ¥5,040 ($58). Consider us thoroughly shocked. We've contacted Aksys Games for word on whether the PC version will be coming to our neck of the woods. We'll be sure to update you as soon as we hear back. For the console gamers out there, the sequel, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, is set to launch in North America next week.
See Makoto's combos in this BlazBlue: Continuum Shift trailer
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift is set to launch on July 27 and, soon thereafter, fight fans will be able to download an additional character, Makoto. Rather than provide you with some hum-drum stills of the new character, we've got the next best thing: actual gameplay footage. Peep it past the break. %Gallery-96331%
Aksys localizing '999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors' adventure game [Update: it's official!]
Those of you with a penchant for reading a lot of text in your DS games (or, to put it another way, those of you into adventure games) have something new to look forward to: Chunsoft's Extreme Escape: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, a graphical text adventure released in Japan last December, appears to be receiving an English localization. Siliconera first spotted a listing for the game on Gamefly and has now posted English screenshots of the interactive novel/room escape game. It appears that publisher Aksys plans to call the game 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors. 999 is a graphical text adventure with a sort of Saw-like premise. Nine people are trapped on a cruise ship and somehow wired to explode. A sadistic mastermind requires them to work together (but only in groups of up to five people) in order to open the nine doors that correspond to the nine passengers and escape from the rooms in which they're held. We're contacting Aksys to find out more details about when the game will escape to retail. Update: There's now a big 999 image at the top of Aksys's site. In case you didn't believe before, the localization is now confirmed! We've also put the press release after the break.
Gladiator Begins fighting for North American PSP audience
Acquire's Kentoushi Gladiator Begins, a PSP game more famous for its advertising than for its gameplay, is headed to North America, courtesy of Aksys Games. In Gladiator Begins, you'll get to master several fighting implements like the sword and shield, polearm, and even your own fists in your quest to defeat other gladiators, entertain bloodthirsty crowds, and attract the attention of one of five patrons. While Aksys didn't announce a release date for the game, a subsequent announcement lets us know exactly when we'll get to play part of the game. A demo for the arena combat game will be available on PSN July 13.
