Aksys-Games
Latest
VC in Brief: The Combatribes (SNES), Solomon's Key (VC Arcade)
This week's Virtual Console update offers two delectable titles -- Solomon's Key is a very unique action/puzzler hybrid, whereas The Combatribes features a wonderfully bad story and the demon clowns of Coney Island. Life doesn't get much better than this, folks! Solomon's Key (VC Arcade, 1 - 2 players, 600 Wii Points) The Combatribes (SNES, 1 - 2 players, 800 Wii Points) Every week, we like to check out what's new on the Virtual Console. We offer these videos as a sort of taste to help you decide whether or not you would want the game in question. We also toss in our own two cents because we're pushy jerks like that.
NintendoWare Weekly: Tales of Monkey Island, Bookworm, The Combatribes
If you thought last week's NintendoWare Weekly update was huge, well ... you'll probably think the same thing about this week's update! That's mostly because Nintendo provides quite the overweight offering this time, with a total of ten new titles available for your post-Thanksgiving download. Loosen that belt and make some room for more by heading past the break for the full list of this week's releases.
NintendoWare Weekly: WiiWare demos, Pokemon Rumble, Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures
This week, we get our first taste of Nintendo's new WiiWare demos. Surprisingly, it didn't take Nintendo that long to flip the switch for North America, considering the company revealed the long-overdue feature -- and day-one annoyance -- only earlier this month. And on top of the free trial versions of select WiiWare titles (five total this week!), there are also two new Virtual Console titles to enjoy, as well as three new DSiWare games. Hit the break for the full list.
First legion of BlazBlue Portable screens deployed
Famitsu has posted the first screens of BlazBlue Portable, the PSP adaptation of Arc System Works' stunning high-definition 2D fighting game. The game has made the transition to the PSP pretty well, at least from what we can tell in still images. The sprites are a lot less smooth, but still detailed, and the screen is still covered with flashy effects. The screens also show the new Legion Mode, in which territory you capture by winning fights is represented by connected nodes. BlazBlue Portable supports ad hoc multiplayer for up to four players, and can be played online with the PS3's Ad Hoc Party mode.
Give thanks for Bit.Trip Void on November 23
Gaijin Games has announced a release date for the third game in its abstract, chiptune-infused Bit.Trip series. Bit.Trip: Void, which involves using the Nunchuk's analog stick to absorb and/or avoid dots based on color, will arrive in North America on November 23. "That's right, the week of Thanksgiving!" the announcement notes. "Total sweetness in the village." Like Beat and Core, it'll cost 600 Wii Points. If you like the music from the Bit.Trip games, you'll also be delighted to know that the soundtrack for Bit.Trip: Beat is now available for purchase on iTunes and CDBaby, with releases to follow on pretty much every online and mobile music retailer you've ever heard of, and several you haven't. Finally, proving its allegiance to the chiptune community. Gaijin Games announced that it will sponsor this year's Blip Festival in New York City. Classy!
Arc System Works porting BlazBlue to PSP
The giant HD sprites of Arc System Works' fighter BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger will be shrunk down a bit. Famitsu has announced that Arc System Works is preparing a PSP port of the fighter. The portable release, out in Japan on February 25, will feature all the characters from the console game, and ad-hoc multiplayer for up to four. It'll also include a new Legion Mode in which players fight to gain territory on a game board. No screens or scans have been released yet. Considering the prolific nature of Blazblue's predecessor, the Guilty Gear series, and the fact that there's already an updated version of the original game on the way to arcades, don't expect this to be the only port of Blazblue.
NintendoWare Weekly: You, Last Ninja 2, Family Tennis and the Cubes
Studies show that American consumers are most receptive to downloadable content at the beginning of the week. It's true! Why do you think Nintendo dumps its releases out on Mondays? It's not rocket science, people. But, we digress. Hop past the break to check out what's new this week for download on Wii and DSi.
Nintendo reveals three new Bit.Trip games headed to WiiWare
Proving that the Bit.Trip is far from reaching its destination, Nintendo has listed two additional games in the pixel-celebrating series for WiiWare. (We already got a hint at another this morning, bringing the total number of Trips we'll be going on to three.) The Big N has the already announced Bit.Trip: Void down for Q3 2009 release, noting that "three additional titles" in the franchise will arrive sometime in Q4 2009 and into Q1 2010. We already know from our chat with Gaijin Games that one of the trio is based on an old-school Atari title -- the other two are anyone's guess. We're betting on the sixth game being Bit.Trip: Trip, in which players must guide a lone pixel home through all of the previous Bit.Trip games.
Austin GDC 2009: Gaijin Games hints at Bit.Trip: Void release date, next game
Following his panel about Gaijin Games' design process, we approached art director Mike Roush to try to get some more information about Bit.Trip: Void -- specifically, when we'll be able to download and play it. He wasn't entirely sure, because nobody is when it comes to downloadable Nintendo releases, but he told us, "If I were to guess, it would be mid-October. We wanted to push that release date back." Roush said that Gaijin is shooting for a simultaneous worldwide release for the Ikaruga-ish dot-absorbing game, after receiving some "flak" from impatient European fans. While we were chatting, we tried our wiliest interview techniques to try to extract some hints about the next Bit.Trip title -- which is to say we asked for hints about the next Bit. Trip title. "I will not give you a hint," Roush said. "However, it is the game we all wanted to make when we started Gaijin Games. It's the game we've been waiting for... I will give you a hint: it will be based off of an Atari game." And no, it isn't Warlords. We asked.
Explore the Void with Aksys and Gaijin Games
Gaijin Games is up to its old tricks again, offering inscrutable teasers for an upcoming game, though the new "Explore the Void" site is much more quietly lovely than the Commander Video mysteries we're used to. Over the last week or so, the developer has posted images to the site that have now been revealed as extreme closeups of satellite dishes in silhouette. What does it mean for the next game? Bit. Trip: Dish? Bit. Trip: Transmit?Bit. Trip: Zoomed In Images of Everyday Objects? At least we have pretty pictures to look at while we contemplate this puzzle.
NintendoWare Weekly: Picturebook Games, Revenge of Shinobi
Today's highlight is no doubt Revenge of Shinobi, the first Shinobi game on the Sega Genesis. What's funny about this is that the third game in the series on that console, Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master, was released on the Wii way back in 2007. Two-thousand-and-freaking-seven, people! How crazy is that? More after the break.
BlazBlue punching Europe's face with 'new characters,' other goodies
Arc System Works' competent fighter BlazBlue is set to invade Europe courtesy of PQube and, aside from including the US Collector's Edition character strategy guide and soundtrack, the press release also mentions "new gameplay content not available anywhere, like new characters and moves." This may come as a bummer to some of you that already picked up the game, because, in all likelihood, these new characters will be offered as DLC outside of Europe. The European release will be localized in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish, and will grace Xbox 360 and PS3 during Q1 2010. Yes, that Q1 2010.
Record of Agarest War coming to the US via PlayStation Network
Niche PS3 JRPG Record of Agarest War is finally coming to America, courtesy of BlazBlue publisher Aksys Games. The Compile Heart-developed SRPG is infamous among certain otaku circles thanks to its suggestive sausage-eating imagery and abundance of low-angle panty shots. The game also features a unique "Soul Breed" system that allows the player to pursue a relationship with the game's many female characters. We'll leave the rest to your imagination.Official details of the game's American release are forthcoming, but we do know the game will be distributed digitally through the PlayStation Network. While logistics are being figured out, it appears this will be one of the largest (if not the largest) downloadable games on PS3.
Review: Bit.Trip Core (WiiWare)
Gaijin Games returns with another installment in its Bit.Trip series: Bit.Trip: Core, and if you found yourself hyperventilating at the prospect of zapping pixels from a whole bunch of different directions, know those fears are well-founded. Bit.Trip: Core is very tough, but like its predecessor, it's not frustrating. [Note: There's also a video review!]
Review: BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (Xbox 360/PS3)
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger is a game that's going to immediately feel right for hardcore fighting fans. If you've cut your teeth on Arc System Works' Guilty Gear franchise in the past, or enjoyed some of the more intense Capcom offerings in the 2D fighter genre, then the principles and mechanics of BlazBlue are going to feel natural to you. [Note: If you're not one for battling through long paragraphs of words, try our casual setting, which features a much easier opponent: a video synopsis.]
Trophies: BlazBlue
1 Platinum 2 Gold 10 Silver 38 Bronze Difficulty: Very Difficult Online Trophies? Yes Time to Completion: 25 hours DLC Trophies? No View Trophy List Read More About the Game %Gallery-77138%
PS3 version of BlazBlue outselling 360 version ... and here's why
Hardcore fighting fans are all talking about BlazBlue, Aksys' foray into high-def 2D fighting. While equal numbers of 360 and PS3 copies were made, the PS3 version appears to be selling out faster than the other. Why is that? Well, it could be the system's superior D-Pad. While many players will opt for an arcade stick, those who play with a default controller generally find the DualShock layout more comfortable for 2D fighters. Or, it could be the rare implementation of Remote Play. With a sufficient wireless connection, players can play the game with the PSP system from anywhere in the world. This is one of the few retail titles to take advantage of the feature, the first being Lair (ugh). Perhaps players are taking advantage of the lack of region coding on the PS3 version. Without a European release in sight, some may look towards importing the American PS3 release. (The Xbox 360 version is region locked.) However, according to an Aksys representative, the main reason BlazBlue is more popular among PS3 owners is its popularity with Japanese gamers. Aksys' Harry Chang explained that many hardcore players want to play against Japanese players, and people know that the "Japanese players are mostly on PS3." Those that are seeking competition from Japan's best players know which version to choose. No wonder PS3 is Capcom's "platform of choice" at the EVO Championship Series.
Bit.Trip: Core to be 100th WiiWare game upon its July 6 release
Gaijin Games posted this semi-cryptic puzzle to its official blog yesterday, offering what seems to be the release date for Bit.Trip: Core, the follow-up to the retro-rhythm-Pong-shooter, Bit.Trip: Beat. The numbers "7+6+9" correspond to a date: July 6, 2009, which just happens to be a Monday. We've gotten confirmation from Gaijin Games that this is indeed the meaning of the image. "Absolutely," Gaijin's Chris Osborn told us. "And it will be the 100th WiiWare release!" Given that Nintendo saves its milestone Virtual Console releases for things like Zelda games, it seems like quite a distinction to be the hundredth game on WiiWare. [Via GoNintendo]
NintendoWare Weekly: NEVES Plus brings Art Style to SimEarth
This week's star of the show is undoubtedly WiiWare, which receives the very rare "three-title-update." Playing second and third fiddle are DSiWare and the Virtual Console, which both get the usual one new title. So, without further ado, let's check out what's available to download this week across Nintendo platforms in the latest NintendoWare Weekly. %Gallery-48138%
Prepare for pain with this Bit.Trip: Core trailer
After watching the trailer for Bit.Trip: Core we've embedded after the break, we're panicking well in advance of actually playing the game. Beat only had pixels flying at us from one direction, and we were scared enough when we learned that Core would up that to four. But this trailer shows that dots approach the middle of the screen from eight directions. The more precise digital control scheme should make the gameplay a bit easier to process, but we still perceive a lot of psychedelic, entranced failure in our future. And we can't wait!Those creepy stretched-out Commander Video characters didn't help make us feel any more confident about the game, either.
