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Discs of Tron to be tossed on XBLA?
Another day, another potential Xbox Live Arcade title leaked by the ESRB. With Quake III Team Arena leaked just over a week ago, today's title is the arcade classic Discs of Tron. Originally released in 1983, Discs of Tron charges players with taking out an opponent by tossing light discs towards him. The ultimate goal is to "derezz" the opponent or knock him off his platform. Given its simple nature, Discs of Tron would be most suited towards the pick up and play nature of Xbox Live Arcade. Even as retro games go, Discs of Tron is old, so we would hope that Buena Vista Games would go the extra mile to give it a Geometry Wars style makeover.Anyone want to take a guess about what title will be leaked next?[Via Siliconera]See Also:Original Prince of Persia on XBLA?
Buena Vista Games renamed Disney Interactive Studios
During a shareholder meeting today, Disney senior vice president and general manager Graham Hopper announced that the company's game division, Buena Vista Games, has been renamed to Disney Interactive Studios to better reflect the celebrated brand. More precisely, the re-branding marks a return to BVG's original name, Disney Interactive. The studio will continue to publish both Disney and non-Disney branded titles for all major platforms, including Propaganda Games' forthcoming re-imagining of Turok (pictured).
More Turok shots. Dino-mite!
It's only been two days since our last batch of Turok shots, and we already have some new ones for you, fresh out of the oven. We're happy to note that these shots are not entirely brown, as is the new trend. Nope, these shots have some vibrant greens and even some pink(!). Also, unlike our previous shots, most of these images showcase actual gameplay. In other words, you can see that these are shots taken during play (note the first person viewpoint) as opposed to cinematic in-engine still shots. All in all the game is looking great. Hopefully, we'll see some video soon.[Thanks, Scott Berlin]
New Turok shots are dino-tastic
Our friends at Xboxygen have gotten a hold of some new shots from the upcoming Turok. In case you don't like to familiarize yourself with interesting franchises that slowly died, Turok is a shooter centered around dinosaurs. It's essentially one of those dream game ideas you had when you were a kid: "I want a game with big guns ... and DINOSAURS!" After a few sequels, Turok got pretty bad, but this entry looks to revitalize the series with new gen pizazz (and the Unreal Engine 3). The above shot showcases a dinosaur getting roasted by a very pretty flamethrower. The game definitely has the looks, now it just has to back things up with a little personality. Hit the "read" link for more shots.Anyone have hope for this once great series?
Wannabe DJs compete Lumines-style
Who's Junkie XL? I don't know either. But, if you're in the DJ scene, you may be familiar with him, and the Winter Music Conference. Buena Vista Games wants to take you (yes, you!) to this event in sunny Miami, and all you have to do is play with the Lumines II video mixer. Looks a little familiar to me... Even if you don't want to enter the contest, it might be a good way to pass the time.[Via Joystiq]
Disney forms Nintendo games studio
Disney is forming a new studio based in Salt Lake City called Fall Line (???) to make games exclusively for Nintendo featuring Disney characters. The new studio marks the fourth that Disney has bought or started up on their own in the past two years at a tune of more than $200 million dollars.While Nintendo puts the emphasis on fun in their games instead of next-gen processing power, Disney could be a great fit with them. Both Nintendo and Disney skew heavily towards younger audiences, and those aren't the kind of gamers who'll be concerned with how many polygons it takes to render Goofy's hat into a photorealistic prop. They have sequels in the immediate future: another Chicken Little game comes out around Wii-launch, and you can probably expect another Cars video game.It'll be interesting to see what Fall Line can produce on their own. Maybe they'll port Kingdom Hearts to the Wii. That would be worth a wait.[Thanks, Bored]
Buena Vista Games races to Climax in Europe
Disney's video game arm Buena Vista Games has acquired London-based Climax Racing for an undisclosed amount of dough, giving BVG a chance to develop racing games, and a European office to add to the Disney empire. The Mouse House also currently owns Propaganda Games in Vancouver, and Avalanche Software in Salt Lake City.Climax developed MotoGP and ATV Offroad® Fury and may start cramming Disney characters into racing games, a la Mario Kart, or continue to develop sequels to both of these franchises. The recent MotoGP 2006 scored fairly decent numbers when it went through the paces, so hopefully BVG won't tinker too much with a formula that produces solid games.Still, we're hoping that Climax insisted on cash and didn't receive only stock options, Mickey Dollars and tickets to EuroDisney. If they held out for bootleg copies of The Rescuers and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? with the missing footage intact, they're sitting on a goldmine.
New Turok 'propaganda'
Acclaim and the Turok franchise were once riding the wave. Heck, Gamespot called Turok 2 "a landmark shooter and a must-buy," rating the sequel a 9.0. Alas, both the company and the dino-hunter series fell on hard times. In fact, Acclaim, as we knew it, was dead, and Turok eventually became the property of Buena Vista Games, which decided to scrap the whole 'Western Indian Guardians of the Lost Land' mythology for a badass, albeit clichéd, former Black Ops commando who carries the 'Turok' name, if not the heritage. Propaganda Games, charged with developing the series' reincarnation, has prepared a fresh batch of images, which appear to look more like digitized concept art than actual screenshots. But if the final product shows that the studio has revived the Turok franchise with Unreal dinosaur hunting, we'll stop trippin' over today's propaganda.
DDR Disney Mix, no console required
Looking to get down with The Mouse without visiting the Magic Kingdom? Konami, Buena Vista Games, and Majesco will be partnering to produce a Plug 'N' Play version of Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix. The game plugs directly into TVs and includes a custom Disney dance pad. DDR Disney was originally released for the PlayStation back in 2001 to average reviews, but console-free technologies have been giving older games second lives. How many Plug 'N' Play titles do you own?
Lumines II to use licensed video bait
The latest issue of Game Informer (trust us, or buy/borrow/steal a copy) reports that Lumines II is almost identical to its acclaimed predecessor. The draw will be new unlockable skins, which, this time around, include licensed music videos from artists including Black Eyed Peas, Fatboy Slim, Hoobastank, and Missy Elliot. It's a risky deviation from the standard set in the original, as much of the sequel's soundtrack contains songs that were played out many seasons ago. Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" ... ? No thank you.With all the technical intricacies of the PSP, one wonders why Lumines II isn't being sold, at least in addition to a full-fledged UMD release, as a downloadable utility (for Lumines), which in turn would give us access to an online store where we could purchase additional skins that include music videos -- or better, bundles that include multiple skins that need to be unlocked through gameplay. But this sounds eerily similar to another future puzzler we've heard of ... Lumines Live, anyone?Buena Vista Game is pimping the Lumines franchise for all it's worth. Go 'head -- that's the business. It's just a shame that there's not more of a collective effort to exploit the potential of the PSP. Instead, we've got a near-identical sequel being hustled to us on UMD for $40. ... Okay, we're stepping down from the podium now ... here are the soundtrack details you're looking for ...
Lumines Plus to drop on PS2
In addition to Lumines II, confirmed for PSP, Buena Vista Games will publish Lumines Plus for the PlayStation 2. Plus will be a new version of the original handheld title. Buena Vista Games will also publish two more forthcoming Q Entertainment puzzlers, Every Extend Extra (PSP) and the newly announced Meteos: Disney Edition (DS).Pictured: Lumines II.
Desperate Housewives to despair on PCs
If all goes according to plan, fans of the desperate housewives on Wisteria Lane will be able to live out their soap opera dreams on their PCs before the TV show's canceled.Disney (which owns the ABC television network that distributes Desperate Housewives in the States) has set its Buena Vista Games division to publish a PC-based adaptation of the sudsy Sunday-night staple this fall.While negotiations are underway to secure additional cast members to represent themselves in-game (they've only gotten the deceased housewife narrator on-board so far), we hope this license works out better than the recent video game adaptations such as 24: The Game, Alias, and Dark Angel (where the DA game actually came out after the show was canceled). The screenshots revealed seem to display more suburban architecture than gameplay, but the game will involve taking on the role of a new neighboring housewife. It has not been disclosed, however, whether you can take prisoners in your basement as of yet.[Thanks, riffgod, bandersnatch, Nick, & GunForHire; via Yahoo! & the BBC]See also: Mark Green discusses 24: The Game Metacritic metascore for 24: The Game (on the PS2): 61 out of 100 Metacritic metascore for Alias (on the PC): 55 out of 100 Metacritic metascore for Dark Angel (on the PS2): 48 out of 100
