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PSN Tuesday: Shadow of Mordor, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
Today's PlayStation Store update rolls out with a large selection of featured games, marking the digital debuts of Monolith's stealthy action-RPG Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Atlus' 2D fighter sequel Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. The PlayStation 4 and PS3 share a number of premiering titles this week, including NIS America's tactical RPG Natural Doctrine, Koei Tecmo's large-scale brawler Warriors Orochi 3, and Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments. Notable Cross-Buy releases include the retro-styled RPG Pier Solar ($14.99) and vibrantly colorful rail shooter Futuridium EP Deluxe ($12.49). This week also brings a handful of retro arcade compilations to Sony platforms, marking the PSN debuts of featured classics like Pole Position, Mappy, Gaplus, and The Tower of Druaga. Today's five Namco Museum releases are priced at $5.99 apiece. [Image: Warner Bros]
Namco Museum: Virtual Arcade opens its doors this April
Namco will be giving European Xbox 360 owners exclusive access (though, a $30 cover charge applies) to the Namco Museum: Virtual Arcade sometime this April.The 360 edition of the Namco Museum includes 30+ arcade titles, various classics, new "Arrangement" versions of older games, a bunch of leaderboards and Live multiplayer for up to four players. Best part: the trippy visuals and morphing gameplay of Pac-Man Championship Edition will also be a part of the bundle. Wakka-wakka!
Japanese Namco Museum demo unlocks Home 'gifts'
Here's something nifty. Playing the Japanese demo of Namco Museum on PS3 unlocks special items in PlayStation Home. We've confirmed that this works with the US version of Home after downloading the Namco Museum Beta from the Japanese PS store.In order to get the schwag, you first need to create a Japanese PSN account. After that, you can download the demo, which contains playable Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug, and Xevious. Achieving high scores in the games will "gift" you with several in-Home items; we've snagged a Galaga T-Shirt so far, but have received tips that a full Galaga arcade machine can be obtained and placed in your virtual apartment.[Thanks, Andrew]
Shipping this week: Boring edition
Is there a more boring month than November? It's like there's nothing worth playing this month at all. After the debacle that was last week, this week is completely bereft of anything even remotely resembling fun in even the most infinitesimal way. Seriously, have you seen what's coming out this week? Just take a look. Gears of War 2 Tom Clancy's EndWar Secret Service: Ultimate Sacrifice James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Namco Museum Virtual Arcade Legendary History Channel Civil War: Secret Mission See? Nothing. Ah well, maybe we'll finally get something worth playing next week.[Image: sweet mandy kay][Via Joystiq]
DS releases for the week of September 17th
No rest for weary wallets this week -- but is that really a bad thing? Our sources say no, though it can certainly be hard to find fundage for all the DS games that catch our eye. Good thing they're cheap! 7 Wonders of the Ancient World AniMates Backyard Basketball Digimon World: Dawn Digimon World: Dusk Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights Master Jin Jin's IQ Challenge MySims Namco Museum DS Nancy Drew: Deadly Secret of Olde World Park Sonic Rush Adventure Anything catch your eye this week, or are you saving up for later releases, or still hurting from previous weeks?
E307: Namco Museum Remix is still weird
CONFIRMED: Namco Museum Remix continues to be insane. Not that we expected them to, but Namco did not go back and change Galaga back to regular Galaga. We are still living in a world where a description of Galaga can include the phrase "Pac-Man rolls on a tube in outer space." This is the "new" Galaga in which, instead of shooting from a ship at the bottom of the screen, you shoot the alien ships by pointing and shooting at them with the Wiimote, shooting-gallery style, and you can also use the analog stick to make Pac-Man jump.Rally-X was still Rally-X, but with speed boosting, which seems like an okay addition. These were still the only two playable games, so we'll have to wait to see how Namco is ruining updating the rest of their classics.
Namco Museum screens are as new as Namco Museum screens can be
We've seen countless releases of the Namco Museum collections over the years. We remember feeling quite special about the Playstation versions-- they were the real versions of real arcade games! At home! But now the Namco Museum series is, itself, old. How old?Valkyrie no Densetsu (1989) was eight years old when it was released on Namco Museum Vol. 5. The original Namco Museum Playstation game is eleven years old. In other words, Namco Museum is now older, in relative terms, than a game that was old enough for Namco Museum.Speaking of the Playstation editions, the new Namco Museum DS has something not seen since those days: an actual museum mode, in the form of a trophy collection and music player, as well as scanned instructions and flyers. Relatively newer features include bottom-screen maps and hints for Galaga (?), Xevious, and The Tower of Druaga. Of course, the most exciting relatively-new thing is Pac-Man Vs., which, now that it won't require so much of a financial outlay, we may actually try with another person.%Gallery-4650%
Namco Museum Remix: Galaga, Rally-X details
Game|Life's Chris Kohler played the wacky reinterpretation of Galaga found on the new Namco Museum Remix, and somehow came out of it cogent enough to describe the surreal experience. Basically, Pac-Man is rolling down a slide in space, for some reason, and players have to protect him by shooting the Galaga ships that come down to attack him for some reason. You aim at the little ships with the Wiimote pointer. If Galaga '88 was Galactic Dancing, this is Galactic-- okay, we don't know what it is. We're still pretty confused about the whole idea. Kohler also played Rally-X, which was basically a 3D remake of the original arcade game (which itself is basically Pac-Man). While Galaga is rife with Wiimote integration, Rally-X is more staid and relies on the analog stick and shoulder buttons.
Pac-Man VS coming to DS via Namco Museum
The GBA connector, one of Nintendo's experiments with integrating its portable and home consoles, spawned only a handful of games: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Four Swords Adventures and Pac-Man VS. The latter title had one character play as Pac-Man viewing the classic screen (via the Game Boy) while the other three played as the ghosts in an isometric view on the TV.Namco is revisiting Pac-Man VS in its Namco Museum collection for the DS. The game sports single pack multiplayer and is priced at $20. Other games in the collection include Dig Dug II, Xevious, Pac-Man, Mappy, Galaxian, Galaga, and Tower of Druaga. We're happy paying $20 just for the multiplayer Pac-Man VS action.[Via Evil Avatar; thanks, Sam!]
