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Blast Works duo on what didn't make the cut
Blast Works: Build, Trade, & Destroy will finally launch in North America next Tuesday, so now seems like a fitting time for Budcat Creations pair Marcus Brown and Matt Modaff to update their IGN blog and reflect on numerous aspects of the game's lengthy gestation. Fortunately for this post, that's exactly what they did!Amongst other things, Brown and Modaff discuss the team's motivation for including the game's wonderful editor, the content sharing features that we adore so much, and how they'd like to see the game cultivate a modding community to rival those seen in many PC titles. They also reserve special praise for the Wiimote, noting how it "affords players a near mouse-like interface."Most intriguingly of all, there's a list of features that didn't quite make the final cut, mainly due to time constraints. These include the ability to play through the Campaign Mode with four players (there's still a two-player function), a "Marathon Mode" (in which players blast their way through an infinite selection of levels randomly chosen from the campaign and rack up the highest score possible), a "Movement Editor" (for editing, yes, the movement of enemies), and the ability to trade high scores.Despite all of that "missing" stuff, some of which sounds way cool, we'd still probably trade our closest family members in for a copy of Blast Works next week.%Gallery-4821%
Revolutionary: Playing. Creating? Sharing!
Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. Custom level creation in console games has come a long way. It used to be, if you wanted to share a track that you built in Excitebike, you had to invite friends over to play your creation on your cartridge, until you powered off your NES and the track was lost forever. Nowadays our levels can be saved to internal storage, and shared by removable media, or across the internet to survive for posterity. It's a feature that's fully supported by all consoles this generation, and big games are highlighting it amongst their bullet points. System sellers like Halo 3, LittleBigPlanet, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl are trojan-horsing the concept of custom level creation into the consciousness of the console-consuming collective. Former Sony exec Phil Harrison popularized the term "Game 3.0," but we'll be taking a look at how it is playing out on Nintendo's platform.
Blast Works media reveals more of editor, underwhelming boxart
For a game as inventive and unique as Budcat's Blast Works, that sure is some vanilla boxart. Okay, so it's functional in a Ronseal-kinda way, but it's also far from pretty or imaginative (like the game itself). Then again, sporting the kind of cover you'd expect to see on the blandest of Wii budget shovelware didn't harm Game Party's chances, so perhaps this will do the trick, and millions will get to sample Blast Works' original premise and amazing item editor. We can but hope.Speaking of the item editor, it's the center of attention in the fifteen new Blast Works shots in the gallery below. It looks as deep and as engrossing as ever, and there's some encouragingly weird ships being created in those screens.%Gallery-4821%
Anniversary aftermath: Next year's awesome games that you forgot about
We spent yesterday going through the big releases that've been announced for next year so far -- Smash Bros. Brawl and/or Wii Fit likely topping your personal "must get" list -- but what about the second-tier games that don't usually receive much press or attention? Though we haven't forgotten about the low-key releases, we've collected a selection of games and media to ensure that these titles stay on your mind too! Read on for our top ten list of awesome 2008 games that you totally forgot about!
Blast Works lets you build all kinds of stuff
For a while, all we've known about Blast Works's editor mode is that it was feature-rich and awesome. Gametap's Jared Rea (formerly of Joystiq!) got to mess with the editor during a hands-on preview, and found not only an edit mode, but an incredibly versatile shooter creation engine. Apparently, ships made of "over 100 pieces" are possible, and feature user-defined hitboxes and gun placements. Levels feature custom backgrounds, which can be layered for parallax effects, and populated with enemies designed and placed by the user, which shoot bullets that are also user-drawn. Any drawn element can be used for any other, so enemies can be placed in the background, or used as the protagonist's ship, or anything else.We really hope to see a community built up around trading custom ships and levels online, through which we could be shooting forever.
Blast Works delayed, for a decent reason
At one time, we dreamed of filling the period between now and the big holiday releases with lots of shooting, courtesy of Majesco's Blast Works. We most recently found it scheduled for an October 16 release, which was acceptable to us. But Majesco announced yesterday that Blast Works has been delayed until the first quarter of 2008. Our hopes for playing it this year have been exploded into blocks and caught to add firepower to the junk-composed spaceship of our disappointment. The good news is that, with the extra time, developer Budcat Creations will be adding the capability to share custom ships and levels, as well as high scores, over WiiConnect24. The bad news is that -- oh, right, the rest of the post was the bad news.[Via Game|Life]
Blast Works' price gets built up
We've been eyeing Majesco's Blast Works as a potential purchase for some time, and now that potential purchase is going to set us back some more potential cash. The shooter's Gamestop listing, which once had the game priced at $19.99, now shows a price of $39.99.Since the game isn't out until the 16th of October, we're hoping that Majesco has time to further revise the price before release. Our unsolicited opinion: we prefer the old price. We love the freeware PC version, and we really want a good new shmup on the Wii, but we, in general, like it better when things cost less money.
Blast Works developer seems to care about the game
We must admit that we're very impressed with Budcat Creations so far. We assumed that they were just some guys to whom Majesco farmed out the development of Blast Works (to replace the one guy responsible for the PC version), but an interview with Siliconera paints a different picture-- or assembles a different ship from discarded blocks, to use a more thematically appropriate metaphor.It seems that Budcat was the catalyst for the remake: they originally pitched the idea as an Xbox Live Arcade game, and then hooked up with Majesco for a PSP release, which became a Wii release instead. In addition, they approached Kenta Cho independently for his blessing before Majesco did so. It's very comforting to have a team of real fans of the game working on the remake. Despite its apparent budget status, there is the possibility of real thought going into it, rather than just hasty porting.
Blast Works almost as cheap as the PC version
If Gamestop's listing is to be believed, Blast Works is scheduled for an October 10th release at a lovely $19.99. While that's still roughly infinity times more expensive than the original PC TUMIKI Fighters (which was cheap as free), it's quite cheap for a Wii game. Some people may have a problem with Majesco charging anything for even an updated version of freeware, but we'll admit it-- we were expecting Majesco to go for the $50 price tag with this one.A shooter creation system plus a load of awesome shovelware for $20? We think we can do that.
Kenta Cho talks Blast Works
ABA Games' Kenta Cho, who has nothing to do with Majesco's Blast Works other than originally creating TUMIKI Fighters, is apparently more positive about the whole deal than previous reports made it sound. Speaking with Siliconera's Spencer Yip, he allowed himself to briefly stop being aloof, a little: "I'm glad that I was able to see my game working on the Wii. I hope it would be released also in Japan."He went on to say that he's interested in the new editor features, but worries about ruining the game's simplicity. And, to be clear, Cho is referring here to intuitiveness rather than low difficulty level-- as a shmup fan and creator, we assume he has a lifelong addiction to cripplingly difficult games.
Why not throw a bunch of freeware games in with Blast Works?
That's what Majesco and Budcat thought, anyway. They were already making a game based on a Kenta Cho freeware shooter, with no legal hoops to jump through. There's basically no reason for them not to throw a bunch more Cho games on there! It works out well for them, because it's bonus content, and it works out nicely for us, because we'll be able to play more great abstract shooters on our television, using our Wiimote!Siliconera played Blast Works at E3, and realized very quickly that they were just playing the original TUMIKI Fighters. The Budcat rep explained that it was an early build and that Blast Works would indeed be a new game. He also revealed that not only will TUMIKI Fighters be on the disc in its original form, but rRootage and possibly Gunroar and Torus Trooper will be bonus content as well.This means that you can go preview some Blast Works bonus content right now! It's like being at E3. Just like it. We recommend rRootage especially-- it's a parade of randomly-generated bosses.%Gallery-4821%
Majesco takes advantage of freeware license for Blast Works
How would you respond if you were an amateur game developer and a publisher approached you about remaking one of your freeware games for a home console? If you were ABA Games' Kenta Cho, you'd dismiss the publisher and your own game in a supreme act of powerful nonchalance.When Majesco announced that a version of TUMIKI Fighters was being made for the Wii, we kind of assumed that Kenta Cho himself would be involved in its creation, or, at the very least, at the receiving end of a nice check. Why wouldn't we assume that? But apparently that is not the case.The original game is under a BSD license, which means that anyone can use it, even commercially, as long as they include the proper copyright notice, and they don't use Cho's name to endorse it without permission. And that means that Majesco can just pick up this game and set Budcat Creations to work on a new version. They don't even need permission, because Cho put it (nearly) into the public domain. Before you jump on Majesco for "stealing" free IP, you should know that they did ask Kenta Cho for permission. Cho, being the baddest dude in game design, basically "whatever"-ed them, saying "I'd received an offer of porting TUMIKI Fighters to Wii from Majesco and Budcat and I replied [they could] feel free to use it under the BSD license." Like he didn't even care. Maybe he's just nice and principled: earlier in the same interview, he said "...I want to help many amateur developers to create their own games. I released all my games under the free software license with the source code. I hope the source code helps someone to create a game by referring to or using a part of my code."
Majesco brings indie game TUMIKI Fighters to UK Wii as 'Blast Works'
It's been an indie day for Nintendo: first the announcement of the WiiWare developing platform, and now comes news that Majesco is officially bringing unique indie shoot-em-up TUMIKI Fighters to the Nintendo Wii in Europe, under the sadly generic name Blast Works: Build, Fuse & Destroy.The original TUMIKI Fighters, created by Kenta Cho, is a Katamari-esque freeware shooter on the PC, where the polygons of exploded enemy ships can be "stuck" to the player's ship for increased firepower and greater points. According to Majesco's press release, Blast Works will retain the gameplay and "retro" aesthetic of the original, and will include a new ship editor, level editor, and a two-player cooperative mode. No word yet on a US release, but Majesco states that Europe will be building, fusing, and destroying sometime this fall.[Via Wii Fanboy]
Majesco officially announces Tumiki Fighters as Blast Works
We had just about forgotten about the Gamefly-supplied rumor of a Wii port of Tumiki Fighters, and now we have confirmation from Majesco! They'll be releasing an upgraded port of Kenta Cho's freeware shooter, with the new title Blast Works, in the first quarter of next year-- in Europe. No US date has been announced.Not only will the game feature the same awesome mechanic the original had (grabbing parts from exploded enemies to upgrade your ship) but it'll include weapon, propulsion, armor, ship, enemy, and level editors. Grab the freeware version and give it a try, then join us in hoping for a US release-- it beats online petitions, at least.
Wii Are Tumiki Fighters?
A listing for a Majesco-published Wii version of Tumiki Fighters has shown up on Gamefly, and we really, really hope it turns out to be real. Tumiki Fighters is a freeware shmup by Kenta Cho that involves collecting pieces that fall off of destroyed enemy ships to power up your own ship. We like Kenta Cho's games. They're gorgeously presented abstract shooters that either (like Tumiki Fighters) invent new gameplay mechanics or, like rRootage, artfully (and openly) rip off mechanics from other shmups. We aren't sure we'd want to pay full price for them, since they're free right now, but we would consider paying budget price for sufficiently expanded versions.
