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Virtually Overlooked: Zombie Nation
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative. Zombie Nation is easily the best game ever created about a flying, disembodied samurai head. Don't try to argue with us on this one. We feel pretty confident that we're right about this. Oh, and it's a shmup, as well. Boring spaceships have nothing on a giant head.
Wii Warm Up: Shooting the core
The Virtual Console has, surprisingly, become one of the best venues around for classic scrolling shooters, or "shmups" if you prefer. Suddenly, there's a single console on the market where you can play games like Soldier Blade, Super Star Soldier, R-Types I-III, and Gradius, and you can download them all at impulse-buy prices. Soon, Gradius II, Final Soldier and Air Zonk will show up (in Japan, at least).Has anyone been brought into shooter fandom from a VC release? Or rediscovered the genre, which was lost to all but the craziest, die-hard fans since the onset of 3D gaming? Any new gamers out there surprised by how freaking hard old shooter games can be? Let's hear about your shmupping experience before and since the Wii.
Geometry Wars was 'supposed to be' free
In a recent interview with IGN, Ben Ward of Bizarre Creations said Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was intended to be a free gift to hardcore gamers. They eventually realized they couldn't pull it off, so they went with the bare minimum price Microsoft would allow: 400 points. As we all know, Bizarre later attacked the free Geometry Wars clone for the PC, Grid Wars, claiming it "impacted the sales" of their game. Why so uptight when they wanted their game to be free in the first place? We understand that operating a business requires you to protect your intellectual property, but if the intention was to give it away, clones shouldn't be an issue. Either the Grid Wars fiasco was Microsoft-induced or these latest comments are nothing more than PR-speak. Something doesn't quite add up. [Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
Bizarre wanted Geometry Wars to be free
In an interview with IGN about their upcoming game Boom Boom Rocket, Bizarre Creations' own Ben Ward revealed the true ambitions behind that uber hit Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. When asked about their experience with the XBLA and comparing the risks involved between Boom Boom and Geo Wars, Ward said that, "Geometry Wars was really intended as a gift to hardcore gamers and we initially wanted to give the game away for free. When it became evident that we couldn't do this, we said to Microsoft "what's the absolute bare minimum we can charge". They said 400 points, so we went with that." We have yet to find someone who has complained about paying 400 Microsoft Points for Geometry Wars, because the game is good enough to charge 1200. But how cool would it have been to get it for free? We always knew that the guys at Bizarre were good folks which makes us want Boom Boom Rocket all the more. Speaking of Boom Boom, make the jump for the complete interview where Ward discusses everything Boom Boom related. And feel free to express your disgust with Microsoft for not allowing Geometry Wars to be a free download ... long live the free content!
AutoFire 2007 shooter competition results announced
A group of nearly 20 indie-made shmups battled it out for supremacy in the recent AutoFire 2007 Shooter Competition. The quirky Clean Asia flew away with the top overall score, while Excellent Bifurcation and Force Majeure rounded out the top three. Games were also ranked by graphics, sound, and innovation; and Clean Asia polished off the top place in two of those categories as well. Not bad for a game with wireframe visuals.If you read the recently featured guide to doujin shmups, the AutoFire competition should be your next destination. Not only are the contestants some of the best indie shooters around, they're also free. Free as in gratis. Free as in beer. Free as in go download them now!
Geometry Wars Vista available on MSN Games
Microsoft be a cold pimp, turning out its Xbox Live Arcade darling onto the uncharted streets of Windows Vista. There's no crawling into bed with a trusted XP customer for this version of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. Vista-only. For its sake, Geometry Wars won't be working the MSN corner alone, as it's joined by fellow newcomers Bliss Island and Crystal Quest. The cost might have gone up (from $5 on XBLA to $7.95), but the experience will be over just as fast for the average john (patience, it takes practice) -- do remember to bring your Xbox 360 controller for an authentic experience. Play safe, folks.
Japanese homebrew shmups deciphered
Japanese homebrew shooters, or doujin shmups, form a subculture of developers and dedicated players in the indie gaming scene. It's a massively confusing (but not-so-multiplayer) world of strange games, websites with squiggly characters, and obscure names that have become the subject of fanboy worship. If you've played Warning Forever, Clean Asia, or even Cave Story creator Pixel's new project Guxt (a work-in-progress demo) you're off to a good start. The Independent Gaming Source has published a quick guide to the world of doujin shmups. Everything is divided into digestible bits of information that actually makes sense to the doujin n00b. And once you know who Kenta Cho is and why you should put him in your will, an entire universe of free indie shooters is at your disposal.
Raiden IV scrolling onto Xbox 360, Raiden III on PS2 in March
After XS Games dropped the distribution rights to the North American localization of Raiden III for PlayStation 2, UFO Interactive Games graciously picked them up -- and, despite low-demand forecasts, kept the project alive. The vertically-scrolling shmup originally debuted on PS2 (in Japan) back in September 2005, and next month Raiden III will finally arrive in North America; for $30. UFO product manager Chong Ahn confirmed as much during the latest Team Fremont podcast, adding that the game's follow up (currently Arcade-only) Raiden IV is being prepped for release on Xbox 360.Ahn remained vague on further details, not willing to commit to a launch date or format; but he seemed to indicate that Raiden IV would be released to retail and not via Xbox Live Arcade (à la Treasure's Ikaruga port). Expect an official announcement after Raiden III gets off the ground.
Radio Allergy delayed to March
Bad news for both of the people that preordered this one. O3 have delayed the US release of Milestone's shmup Radio Allergy until March 30th. The game, known as Radilgy in Japan, was released on the Gamecube in May of last year. We understand the delay-- shooting games have so much text to translate. Or maybe they didn't want to bring the game out in the midst of a busy Gamecube release season. Also (and this is what makes this news item explicitly appropriate for Wii Fanboy) O3 have deployed the "Rhythm Tengoku trick" in marketing their game-- there's a little "Wii Compatible" icon on the box. They might as well use every tactic they can think of; we get the feeling that selling a shmup for the Gamecube in 2007 is harder than, well, a certain kind of frantic videogame that is notorious for difficulty.We'd actually like to see the "Wii Compatible" tactic used by other developers to sell localized versions of obscure titles from the Gamecube back catalog at budget prices, but we think it would take a more popular game to start a trend. What do you think?
Radio Allergy delayed, now 'Wii Compatible'
O~3 Entertainment's efforts to bring Radio Allergy to North America have been slowed, slightly. The throwback shmup will be delayed a month, now scheduled to ship in limited quantities on March 20 (available through Amazon). Hoping to unload its stock of the budget GameCube shooter as swiftly as possible, O~3 has wisely tacked on a "it'll play in your Wii" reminder (meaning: you'll still be piloting with your WaveBird).So how often is your Wii just a GameCube?
AOU 2007: Cave's Muchi Muchi Pork shmup released (from its sty)
This new vertically-scrolling shmup from ace DonPachi developer Cave is a 100% pork-based product, whatever that means. Muchi Muchi Pork is playable at AOU 2007 and, according to Dengeki, it features a "Lard Gauge" that can power a "Lard Attack." How cool is that? What else we know: there's a two-player versus mode, Cave's booth girls were wielding frying pans, and the theme song goes like this: "Muchi muchi pork! Muchi muchi pork! Muchi muchi! Muchi mu-chii!" (Seriously.) Muchi Muchi Pork will be pigging out in Japanese game centers from the end of April.
Ikaruga bound for Xbox Live Arcade
CVG has the scoop: Treasure's hypnotic, crushingly difficult and strikingly beautiful shoot-em-up, Ikaruga, is headed for Xbox Live Arcade. An early build of the game was spotted on the debug version of Xbox Live, which is only accessable through an Xbox 360 debug unit. Though the code wasn't functional yet, we imagine that Live co-op would make for an excellent addition to this particular version.For those who missed out on Ikaruga's previous console ports on the Dreamcast and Gamecube, know that the game is one of the genre's best -- at least if you're willing to accept the irremediable psychological damage caused by the game's never-ending sea of pulsating bullets. Let the torturous wait for further details begin!
Today's most geometric game video: Geometry Wars PC 'Vista'
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved has had its own little evolution, going from minigame, to full-fledged console game, and now it'll be dropping onto PCs everywhere and we've got the video to prove it. Yes, it's retro gaming action that takes you back to the land of arcade quarter-eaters like Tempest and Qix ... and it's incredibly addictive fun. Check out the Vista version in action after the jump. It looks pretty spiffy on that monitor, or else the brightness levels are just kicked up to 11. Either way, PC users can finally toss Minesweeper and Solitaire away, because this will be the new king of the timesuck in cubicle-land.
Dreamcast: the system that won't die [update 1]
Remember way back in January 2001 when Sega quit the hardware race and put their last system, the Dreamcast, out to pasture? Apparently no one told Japan, because now, six years later, they're still coming out with new games for the system over in the land of the rising sun. Sega Nerds has some details on three top-down shooters being released for the Dreamcast in the next few months: Last Hope, Trigger Heart Excelica and Karous. Casual importers should be particularly interested in the region-free Last Hope, which can be played on any Dreamcast without modification. Retro importers can pre-order all three games from Play-asia. Between these official releases for the Dreamcast, recent homebrew releases for the Genesis and Atari 2600 and the increasing prevalence of top-loading Famiclones, we may be entering a new era of support for classic consoles. As long as someone out there is willing to play, the market will find them. I know I'm personally clamoring for some new 3DO games. [Update: Fixed a link and the characterization as "top down" shooters. Thanks Brandon] [Thanks Keldon]
Top XBLA title Geometry Wars headed to PC [update 1]
During the Microsoft keynote at CES on Sunday, Microsoft gave us evidence that surprise hit Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (an Xbox 360 launch title) is headed to the PC (the confirmation occurs at timestamp 44:28 on the official keynote video). No surprise there, because genuine hits like GW are so rare that hay must be made while the sun shines. We've already blogged about a mobile version of the game; a PC version was inevitable. No word on timing or price, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect it to land this year for between $5 (the price on XBLA) and $20 (the price for most "casual" PC games). [Update 1: noted that confirmation occurs at timestamp 44:28 on the official keynote video.]
Radilgy now Radio Allergy, GCN shooter westbound
Which is it? Radilgy? Rajirugi? Radirgy? None of these. O~3 Entertainment has settled on 'Radio Allergy' for the North American release of Milestone's GameCube port of the throwback arcade shooter. Radio Allergy is due February 2007 for a mere $20.Radilgy made its console debut on Dreamcast this past February in Japan -- yeah, that's right, Dreamcast. A few months later additional versions wound up on PlayStation 2 and GameCube. Radio Allergy is a vertical shmup with anime flair. It's no Ikaruga, but anytime a classic-style shoot-em-up makes it out of Japan it's a blessing.
Christmas sees first VC price increase
Wii owners waking up this Christmas morning expecting to download some classic space 'shmup goodness might be a little surprised at what they have to pay to get it. R-Type, released today on the Wii's virtual console, is the first TurboGrafx-16 game to be available for 800 VC points instead of the normal 600.This didn't come as a total surprise: Nintendo casually mentioned last month that virtual console games merely "start at" the now-standard point levels (NES: 500, TG16: 600, SNES/Genesis:800, N64:1000). They also mentioned the R-Type price specifically in a press release last week, but our eyes glazed over and we misreported it at 600 points. Silly us... we thought the price used in six other TurboGrafx-16 games so far would carry over to the seventh.While R-Type is a bit more popular than a similar game like Super Star Soldier, we can't help but wonder why Nintendo chose this game to break out the first price hike. While a 200 point increase isn't too outrageous, we can only hope this does not represent the start of a trend in ever-increasing virtual console prices.
It's a masterpiece! Geometry Wars inspired art
Joystiq's own Vladimir Cole jumped on the chance to purchase the above art from a charity auction held at the University of Pennsylvania. Yes, it is Geometry Wars inspired artwork and yes it is quite the beautiful piece. It seems so perfect that a game such as Geometry Wars would move an artist in such a way to create art from what essentially is video game art. We're thinking it was the trippy colors and pretty "grid effects". Good job Vlad, not only on that uber cool purchase, but for donating your hard earned blogging cash to a charitable cause. So, who's up for buying some Cloning Clyde inspired toothpick art that we created? The bidding starts at a reasonable $3,000 and all proceeds will go into our empty pockets.
Geometry Wars as art
It's no secret that some of us at Joystiq love Xbox Live Arcade title Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved a whole bunch -- so much so in fact that we declared Geometry Wars the Xbox 360's best launch title. A year later, we're still finding the time to fire up the 360 for a quick run at Bizarre's masterpiece. It still holds it down. And so I didn't hesitate to snap up Anastasia M. Wong's work titled "Geometry War," (shown above, click for a larger image), when I spotted it at a charity art auction held at the University of Pennsylvania earlier this month. After I sent her a note thanking her for making the art, Anastasia responded, "I got some really great screen shots of the game. they are really beautiful and the more i look at them the more i see them in prints or drawings."
K4rn4ge to attempt 1 billion-point Geometry Wars high score
As if his leaderboard-topping score of 360,360,600 isn't enough, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved celeb K4rn4ge has revealed plans to attempt to reach the one billion-point mark during his upcoming winter break. The "Geometry Warlord" estimates that his current high score (he stopped at the 360 million-mark on purpose) took him at least 30 hours, spread across four days of playing. At that pace, his new goal could exceed 90 hours of thumb twirling. Whad'ya think, Guinness Record worthy?
