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DS releases for the week of May 21st
Looks like it's pirates vs. ninja this week ... but we're pretty sure this time, it's gonna be alllll ninja. Pirates of the Caribbean may be all the rage when it comes to the theaters, but when it comes to gaming, our money's on Naruto. Of course, if you're looking to stay out of this particular conflict, there are plenty of other games for you to check out this week. Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom Diner Dash Marvel Trading Card Game Naruto: Ninja Council 3 The New York Times Crosswords Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End For the rest of the globe, check out the lists after the jump.
Marvel UA DLC now available
Major Nelson gave word that the Hero and Villian packs are finally available on Xbox Live Marketplace. You can buy the Hero or Villian packs individually for 500 MS Points a piece, or if you're a thrifty fanboy, can get both packs for 800 MS Points. Also available is a trailer for the packs so people can have a look at the content before they buy it. So, now that the wait is finally over, are you going to pick any of these packs up? If so, which ones, and does it have to do with the added Achievements?
Marvel Ultimate Alliance content on Live ... no, seriously
After being announced two weeks ago with prices and everything, then promptly disappearing, three content packs for Marvel Ultimate Alliance have finally, actually made their way to the Xbox Live Marketplace. The packs are still the same stuff as before Nightcrawler BAMF-ed the whole team to Aruba for two weeks of fun in the sun: 500 MS Points will get you the Hero Pack of Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Hawkeye and The Incredible Hulk or the Villain Pack of Venom, Doctor Doom, Magneto and Sabertooth. The description also says not to buy the packs if you've bought Marvel Ultimate Alliance: Gold Edition (due out next month) because these characters are already in there. So keep that in mind.For those of you who are buying though, there's a third option, and one we'd love to see other DLC feature: A bargain pack, which gives you all the heroes and villains for the value price of 800 points. No, it's not a huge difference, but it is nice. Now, just give us our Spider-Ham, NFL Superpro and Matthew Lesko pack, and we can die happy. You can watch a trailer featuring all the new content after the break.
Sega pulls a Tony Stark, intuits their comic titles being rad
If you're like us and you're overly defensive about your nerd books, you're probably scared that Sega's wrangling of the Iron Man license could warrant them doing something crazy like resurrecting old Vectorman code. Sega's VP of marketing, Scott Steinberg, gave Next Generation a few reasons why we should at least be able to sleep at night.In earlier eras, Steinberg recalls, Hollywood studios would dump a licensed property into the laps of snatch-happy developers with six months to develop and market the beast. With properties like Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Captain America under the hand of Sega at the moment, they're looking to avoid the typical gauntlet that has churned out titles such as Fantastic Four and Ghost Rider.Steinberg goes on to say that "The whole industry, both industries, have coupled together and have evolved or advanced their craft to a point where both are taken extremely seriously and that just wasn't the case two years ago." And if they fail? We toss them in the Negative Zone.
Sega gathers up more Marvel superheroes
Sega, I love ya and I hate ya. Nights on the Wii? Come on, the SIXAXIS would work too -- look at flOw. Also, why no traditional Phantasy Star? Why are you pooing all over the Sonic franchise? At least you're not cutting any corners on the Virtua Fighter 5 front. SEGA, you seem to cater to the fighting enthusiast. Dreamcast was a great arcade fighter system -- their arcade stick (whatever its name was) was arguably the best ever. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is still in my white box.Marvel understands this and continues its relationship with Sega by giving them three more superhero names to utilize: The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America. Sega already has an Iron Man game in the works, probably to follow the upcoming film's adventure with Tony Stark. Iron Man is Tony Stark, right? Or is my memory rapidly melting away into reality? We can expect most of these games to coincide with their respective films, but maybe we'll get treated to one with a unique story. Who knows? ...The Shadow knows. Awful.
SEGA bringing Marvel's Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America to games
Superhero games are nothing new, but like comic movies, the games seem to be of a higher quality lately. With that in mind, SEGA has announced a deal with Marvel to bring games featuring their beloved characters to PC, next-gen consoles and handhelds. But what can I say that SEGA PR can't say better? Here's what SEGA US president Simon Jeffery said:"As SEGA continues to create more games that are built from the ground up to appeal to Western audiences it makes perfect sense to work with a powerhouse company like Marvel that has established and beloved characters like The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, and Thor. These are icons that people are already familiar with and love, so our goal is to give gamers the ability to play out their fantasies by actually becoming these Super Heroes."I think I'm personally looking forward to a Thor game the most, if for only because he hasn't hit the gaming space quite as often as the other heroes. How about you? Which of these Marvel characters would you most like to play with on your PSP?[Via IGN]
Halo: Uprising #1 spotted in Marvel solicitation
Announced this past February at New York Comic Con, Halo: Uprising is an ongoing series for the man from Killimanjaro and the follow-up project to last years incredible Halo Graphic Novel. Newsarama has got the details in a July solicitation from Marvel. The first issue will be coming in at 40 pages and will fill in the blanks between the Master Chief joyriding a Forerunner spaceship at the end of Halo 2 to, well, whenever the heck Halo 3 picks it up. The Chief won't be the only star of the show as Uprising will tell the saga of "a great American city's rebellion and downfall." If it's anything like HGN's "Sunrise Over New Mombasa," lore-nuts will really have something to freak out about.Halo: Uprising is written by Marvel's marathon man, Brian Michael Bendis (Mighty Avengers, New Avengers and roughly 1,000 other books) and illustrated by Alex Maleev (New Avengers, Spider-Woman).
First Halo comic cover art revealed
Bits and pieces of info concerning the upcoming Halo comic from Marvel have been slipping through the cracks for a while now, but today we have uncovered what appears to be the cover for the first issue (click for full size). It appears that the Chief (or whichever Spartan is seen here) is wearing the Halo 3 variant of Mjolnir armor (notice the plating over the hands), so we can expect the comic series to focus on events after Halo 2. We don't know much more about the comic except that it is titled Uprising. The comic should hit newsstands in July. Anyone plan on picking it up?[Thanks, Webnet]
New Marvel: UA content still MIA
After waiting around all day staring at the Xbox Live Marketplace (what a living), the new content for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance still hasn't arrived. Naturally, we're a little confused, as a trailer was released on Marketplace just to let us know that the content would arrive April 10th (i.e. yesterday). The trailer has now been pulled, and the official Marvel: Ultimate Alliance website says nothing of the content beyond the original announcement that was made last month. Of course, it's possible the content failed the certification process, in which case fans could be waiting a while to get their hands on the new heroes and villains. Was anyone out there looking forward to this new DLC? Update: The sheer magnitude of all the super villainy contained in this post created a time vacuum, thus shoving the post backwards in time an entire day. The evil has since been rectified and the post returned to its proper time.
New Marvel Ultimate Alliance Content available for 360
Our only regret is that we can't spam the words "Gene splice!" over and over and over again and call it news. Activision delivered new characters for Marvel Ultimate Alliance to the Marketplace today and, as previously mentioned, they are available in three different packages.Split between heroes and villains, 500 Microsoft Points can net you a pack of either (Behold!) Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Hawkeye and The Incredible Hulk, or Venom, Magneto, Sabertooth and Doctor Doom. Alternatively, you can get all 8 new characters together for 800 Microsoft Points. Hey, isn't Hulk sporting something ridiculous like a 200 power rating these days in Marvel? Dude can lift entire mountains and now you have to level him up to smash some tiny robots? So not cool.[Update - Hey, where's the beef? And by beef we mean hot, new character action! Our bake sale buddies at Xbox360Fanboy are on the case of the missing content.]
Screens of new Marvel UA heroes and villains
TeamXbox has unearthed a few screenshots of the upcoming downloadable content (DLC as the kids call it) for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. The screens include some shots of Venom, Magneto, the Hulk, Dr. Doom, Hawkeye, Cyclops, and Sabretooth. Not pictured, unfortunately, is Nightcrawler. The new content will be available sometime this month at several price points. The Villain pack or the Hero pack will be available for 500 points each, or you can pick the heroes and villains in a single pack for 800 points. In addition to the new heroes and villains, the DLC will come with new achievements as well.Of course, the question is, are new characters and achievements worth 800 points?Update: Cyclops and Hawkeye are in the shots. We missed them because we were too busy staring at the Hulk.[Thanks, DjDATZ]
New goodies, and baddies, coming to Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Xbox 360 owners, traded in your Marvel: Ultimate Alliance disc yet? If you did, then you'll be missing out on the opportunity to fork over your Microsoft points in exchange for some additional characters. In April you'll be able to purchase either a 'Heroes' pack or a 'Villains' pack for 500 points apiece, or both for 800. Whoever said that Activision doesn't like to make a deal and pass the savings along to you?The Heroes pack includes: Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Hawkeye, and The Incredible Hulk. On the flipside, the Villains group consists of Venom, Magneto, Sabretooth, and Doctor Doom ... which sounds like an 80s hair-band mega-metal tour. Both packs will include new achievements as well, breathing some life back into this game. Hopefully this is a trend that'll continue for awhile, because we like adding some shelf-life and playability to our games. Of course, we're still waiting on additional achievements for Whacked!, but that's a different story.
New Marvel: Ultimate Alliance content soon
It looks like the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance content that was announced last month is nearing completion. The news comes from GameDaily.biz, though it seems the original article has been removed. Luckily, Evil Avatar has captured the important bits. The content pack is set to bring 8 different heroes and villains to the game, including Hawkeye, Magneto, the Incredible Hulk, Nightcrawler, Sabretooth, Doctor Doom (!), Cyclops, and Venom (!!). The Hero Pack and Villain Pack will set you back 500 points each, or you could grab all 8 in one pack for a cool 800. Individual gamer pictures will also be available for 80 points each. No release date has been confirmed.Are you willing to drop the MS Points to breathe new life into Marvel?Update: As awesome as Magneto is, he doesn't deserve to be listed twice. Added Nightcrawler, who richly deserves to be there.
Fantastic Four: ROTSS preview is ... fantastic!
1UP posted an optimistic preview of Marvel's upcoming Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer game for the Xbox 360. In talking with the senior producer we learn that Fantastic Four: ROTSS will incorporate a fleshed out team system that uses "fusion attacks". These fusion attacks will allow characters in the game to team up and dish out the pain. We also know that the story will be 50% original and 50% from the movie sequel. We don't learn much more than that, as we'll just have to wait to see if the game is what 2K promises it to be. Until then, we have a few screenshots to keep your belly full and nothing but optimism on our end.[Thanks, Jonah]
New content coming for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Fans of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance will take comfort in knowing that new downloadable content is on its way. Back when the game released those who pre-ordered received a special invitation to the VIP section of the Ultimate Alliance website. The VIP community has since come to an end, but not without a thank you from global brand manager Daniel Jhung. In his thank you to the community, Jhung hints at upcoming downloadable content saying that they are "working on the release of some truly awesome Xbox Live downloadable content for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, scheduled for later this Spring". There you have it Marvel fans, mysterious downloadable content in a few months straight from Mr. Jhung himself.[Thanks, Kid Pyrrhic]
Peek into the future: the best games of 2010
Pointlesswasteoftime has been peeking into the future, and has prepared a list of the 12 best games from 2010. It's really nice to know that the Wii will still be dominating gaming by then. Speaking of the Wii, sign us up for those Star Wars: Jedi Saga and DC vs. Marvel: Superhero Brawl games. And seriously, have you heard of a better concept for a game than Killchain? That would seriously be extreme fun. Burnout is just the tip of the iceberg in setting up a series of accidents.Of everything on the list, the one that has the best chance of coming true is World of Starcraft. Isn't it about time Blizzard just went ahead and told us that they're gonna make this for the crying masses? Maybe they'll wait until WoW subscriber numbers start dropping off, which doesn't seem like it'll be anytime soon ... looks like 2010 isn't a bad guess.
Halo comic book series announced
We have some good news for fans of the Halo Graphic Novel. Coming from the New York Comic Con, Marvel has announced (translated) the creation of the official Halo comic book series. The series will be penned by Brian Michael Bendis, who has worked on such comics as Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man, and The New Avengers. Art for the series will be created by Alex Maleev, who has worked with Bendis before on Daredevil. Details such as storyline and release date have not been announced.Anyone care to speculate on what the series will cover?[Thanks, Neural]
Ghost Rider, the flaming skull guy previewed
Could Ghost Rider be God of War with a comic license pasted on top? It's unlikely, but it sure would be amazing if Ghost Rider had even half the game of Kratos. While IGN's current preview does go over some of the game's features, it gives very little opinion on the title's quality. Here are some tidbits from the preview for those interested in Ghost Rider: Ghost Rider has light or heavy attacks he can use to create combos Once an enemy is injured enough, a variety of finishing moves can be used to defeat them Some levels involve riding the Hell Cycle The game has five chapters Between chapters there will be comic book style cut-scenes There will be cameos from other Marvel characters like Lilith and Scarecrow PSP owners will of course get exclusive content like multiplayer via adhoc for up to 4 players To read the preview in full, check out IGN.
Stan Lee: games trump movies
As significant as Hollywood has been in reviving the Marvel brand, Stan Lee believes video games can have an even bigger impact on the growth of the comic book label. "Video games are more exciting, more colorful and more complex than motion pictures," says Lee, ""In a movie, you just sit and watch. [In a game] you're not only seeing the story but you're participating in the story."Despite Lee's enthusiasm for the games medium, he admits he doesn't have the time or the skill to play video games. Lee is certainly not alone, which explains why Marvel movies have grossed billions of dollars, while the games have managed only hundreds of millions in sales (hardly insignificant, but nonetheless paled by the film industry's results). Still, Lee remains optimistic about the future dominance of Marvel games, hoping to become more involved with game makers' efforts by contributing to the content and narration of future titles.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance ad
We welcome Nintendo's marketing blitz because it just means we get a lot of sweet video game footage disguised as ads. And we do like us some videos! But this ad for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance gets all the props for including Captain America's shield throw, since that's one of the first things we're all not-so-secretly dying to do. Check out the video, embedded as always after the jump.
