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Latest Sonic Unleashed screens focus on the positives
What the latest screens of Sonic Unleashed lack in variety (they're all taken from the desert level, or one of the game's town stages) they make up for with some fairly rad track design -- track design like this, for instance. There's also a pleasing omission of the Sonic Werehog sections, though that part of the game is, sadly, definitely still real. Make like a blue blur into our gallery for 23 new shots of the Wii version in action. It's looking purdy.%Gallery-19031%
Born for Wii: Power Stone 2
"Welcome to the Power Stone World."Man, we're off to a good start already! When a game is nice enough to welcome you to the experience just for making it to the title screen, and also offers you encouraging remarks like "You are the champion – keep it up!" it's got to be pretty awesome, right? Well, in the case of Power Stone 2, it is.Released for the Dreamcast in 2000, Capcom's Power Stone 2 was relatively hot on the heels of its predecessor -- the original Power Stone hit the system in 1999. Power Stone 2 takes advantage of the Dreamcast's four controller ports, and like Super Smash Bros., it offers one of the most frenetic and entertaining brawler experiences for a group. Just make sure you don't play with that one friend who doesn't respond so well to losing -- your Power Stone experience may end with a large bruise. But I digress: other than 2006's Power Stone Collection for the PSP, the Power Stone world has been rather dormant. The colorful cast of characters, addicting chaotic battles and goofy nature of the Power Stone world make it a prime target for the next Wii multiplayer phenomenon. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-30455% Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Rogue Squadron, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.
Sega shows off new Sonic Unleashed screens
Click for embiggened image Despite being told otherwise like right to my face at E3, it appears that Sega's newest Sonic game on Wii will be very much like the Xbox 360 title, in that it's essentially two different games in one. The first game, which is very reminiscent of the Sonic you know and love, is competent and could provide hours of fun. The other is a darker and far less forgiving affair, as you control the Sonic Werehog and mash buttons in a generic brawler, all the while engaging in some mediocre platforming segments sprinkled in between the fighting. But hey, let's not focus on the bad, let's focus on the half of the game you want to play. Check out the new screens in our gallery below.%Gallery-19031%
Sailor Moon transforms into a homebrew Wii brawler
A group called "Destiny Revival" is honoring the dormant Sailor Moon franchise by creating five Sailor Moon brawlers created in the free Beats of Rage engine. Two are available so far, and now the group is branching out and tempting widespread attention (and thus lawsuits from Toei) with the announcement of the development of a Wii homebrew Sailor Moon game.In a Sailor Moon Forum post, developer kungpow12345 unveiled the first screens of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, a new game done in the style of the Super Famicom Sailor Moon games. Even if you're not particularly interested in fighting evil by moonlight and winning love by daylight, it's a homebrew brawler for the Wii, and that is excellent. kungpow12345 is hoping to have a playable version of Pretty Guardian ready for next year's Otakon in July.[Via GoNintendo]
Capcom informs of Spyborgs overhaul, already thinking about sequel
While lobbying questions about Spyborgs and, uh, Zack & Wiki 2 (oh how we wish it wasn't such a pipe dream), Capcom's Corporate Officer/VP of Strategic Planning & Business Development, Christian Svensson, kind of explained why the game was missing from E3. You see, Capcom is "refining it considerably." Also, when asked about online co-op, Sven commented that it would only local multiplayer, because Capcom has to "save some features for the sequel." We guess they're planning a franchise around this!%Gallery-24237%
Sealed Game Boy games will make you break your piggy bank
Hey, you. Yeah, you reading this right now. Do you want River City Ransom EX sealed for $17? If you're ready to say anything but "yes," we kindly ask that you close your browser window, call your mother and apologize for being such a disappointment. If for some reason you're not keen on the game and still manage to have a working brain (or, you know, you already own it), there's plenty of other Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games on offer. It's a nice mixture of great first-party and third-party titles, if we may say so. You know, in case you wanted to bulk up your GBA collection.[Via Gamesniped]
Capcom reveals sci-fi Spyborgs [update]
[Update: trailer!] What's this? A Wii exclusive from Capcom? Our spherical future-predictin' device indicates that IGN's Matt Casamassina will go nuts for the newly-announced Spyborgs, and that it will not do as well as it probably should, and may perhaps be too difficult for some. Oh, wait -- that's not a crystal ball, it's last year's news! At last week's Captivate 08, Capcom did in fact announce a new game, exclusively for Wii, that does feature bright, cartoonish graphics, but is nothing at all like Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure. First, there's nary a pirate present (that we've seen, but there is a pirate-y sort of ship), and instead of a puzzle/adventure, Spyborgs looks to be a sci-fi action title with a dollop of brawler blood. Since we love us some brawlers around here, you can bet we'll be keeping an eye on Bionic Games' effort. For now, you'll have to be satisfied with the first screens tucked away in our gallery below. %Gallery-24237%
The VC Advantage: How to Play Renegade
This week, during his VC Monday Madness video, Dave alluded to the fact that he had to enter a code to get past the first screen of Renegade. He was not exaggerating. Renegade is freaking impossible. Here's how Renegade works: three guys beat the crap out of you. Then you manage to get enough punches in between beatings to kill one of the guys, and another one walks out and beats the crap out of you.Should you want to see the old ladies beating the crap out of you, or guys on motorcycles beating the crap out of you, you'll need to skip levels. Luckily, Technos included that functionality, presumably so people could experience the rest of their game. To skip levels, hold the down button on controller 2 and enter one of the following codes: Stage 2: down, up, right, up, left, up, start Stage 3: up, down, left, down, right, down, start Stage 4: down, down, up, up, right, left, start Now that you can see all of Renegade's content, the only thing left is figuring out why you would want to! The VC Advantage is a weekly look at the secrets inside games -- not just cheat codes, but assorted trivia and oddities. We aim to bring back the feeling of the hint columns from game magazines, except when we do something else.
No GBA version planned for Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
Despite its fanboy following and favorable reviews from critics, the GBA adaptation for The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night will not see a follow-up on single-screen portable, according to Sierra's 2008 Spring Event held over the weekend.Interestingly, of all the platforms The Eternal Night released on (PS2/Wii/DS/GBA), the GBA version, a 2D platformer/brawler some described as Devil May Cry meets Astro Boy: Omega Factor, has the highest average review score by a large margin. Quality doesn't equal quantity sold, however, especially on a dying console, and we're not surprised that Sierra opted to not complete its The Legend of Spyro trilogy on the GBA.Dawn of the Dragon for the DS is scheduled to ship in fall 2008. Based on the screenshots released so far, it looks to be another 3D action platformer with occasional sidescrolling stages. Mark Hamill will reportedly lend his voice to one of the game's characters, and Elijah Wood will return to voice Spyro. Christina Ricci will take over Mae Whitman's role as Cynder. We can imagine her disbelief over the replacement : "Her?"For reference, we gave the DS version of The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night a 5.0/10 in our review (GBA version: 9.5).
New trailer for Naruto Ninja Council 3
Naruto: Ninja Council 3 is approaching its May release, and to promote it, D3 Publisher has released a new trailer. The trailer shows a lot of what we expect from Ninja Council games (Naruto-styled brawling), and also what we expect from action games on the DS (stylus activation of special moves).But what we didn't expect was how varied and weird the touch screen stuff would be! There's all kinds of stuff happening on that bottom screen. Check after the post break for the video, and click the link for a big screenshot-cluster thing.
Who you gonna fight as in The Warriors?
Rockstar's latest is coming out real soon. This PS2 port has already earned one rave review from GameSpy: its budget price, and immediately available Armies of the Night mode, pushed it to a pretty fantastic 4.5/5 score from them. "The Warriors is that console generation's best pure brawler," GameSpy notes. Sounds exciting, no?To get a better feel for the violence that'll end up in our handhelds, Gamespot has covered the various characters and fighting styles in the game. You'll be able to read up on thugs like Cleon, Swan, Snow and Ajax. Having missed the PS2 original, I have to admit that I'm pretty excited for this Tuesday's big release. Are you?
Bleach 2 brings the pain
Oh, we don't mean the pain of the action variety. This is more the pain of "where the hell is Bleach DS?!" We haven't even seen the first one and they're already on a sequel. What gives? Folks outside Japan can certainly appreciate a good fighting game. Oh well, looks like those of us who can't live without a little violence might have to turn to importing. This isn't just any violence, either. We're talking four-on-four multiplayer WiFi violence. Did any of you guys import the original? This sequel is said to improve on the gameplay, and that's a tall order. It did take them a while to get around to showing off anything from the sequel, so maybe some extensive fine-tuning did go on. If only we had more than a few screens to show off, but these will have to do for now. Check 'em out after the jump.
100% awesome Naruto footage
How does Naruto rate such incredible graphics? Yeah, we know, loads of people read, watch, and love Naruto, and that's fine; we support a love of ninja goodness in all things. But licensed games are just supposed to be there for our entertainment. Oh, we don't mean the gameplay. They're supposed to be, y'know, bad. It's a rule. But you know how those mischievous teenage ninjas can be. They don't like rules. They like violence and hey! So do we. So it's convenient that this game is going to be all about kicking ass. The original video at Jeux France is definitely higher quality, but a version popped up on YouTube (just some color fading, not losing a lot) that we've embedded after the jump. Watch it here, watch it there, watch it anywhere -- just don't miss it.
Dual videos from Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Symphony
It could be a new jingle, amirite? Dual pleasure, dual fun, dual screens from Dual Symphony!Well, maybe we'll just stick to blogging and hang up those hopes for the marketing career. These two videos are from GameSpot's preview of the English version of Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Symphony. And we've learned something from watching them -- jumping on spikes? Not a good idea, not even if you're a hardcore alchemist.Unfortunately, the videos don't cover any of the minigames that are discussed in the preview. That's the part that sounds interesting, after all. We've seen lots asskickery in our day ... bring on the arm wrestling!
