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Space Invaders Get Even with Dinobots
The cybernetic sauropod seen at the end of this stirring Space Invaders Get Even! trailer may not be the genuine Grimlock, but it may as well be. Or is it more of a Mechagodzilla riff? In either case, it's just one of the overblown, yet futile, weapons the puny hu-mans wheel out in an effort to stop the inevitable Space Invasion.We love pretty much everything about the concept of this game, from the division into bite-sized chunks to the way it changes the usual neatly-stacked Invader lines to swarming masses, adding even more to the inversion of the normal Space Invaders experience.%Gallery-25384%
BlizzCon '08: The Game updated
You may remember BlizzCon '08: The Game, the fanmade Flash game by Toneslice that came out of the BlizzCon ticket chaos last week. Toneslice originally promised that if he got a certain number of views, he'd update it to be a better game, and he got more than that, so he completely revamped it. Now, you play as the Fail SCV, and you have to shoot Blizzard fans coming in all directions (who are strangely shooting back at you). The game's a fun little distraction, and just another example of something cool coming out of the problems last week.Unfortunately, unlike Blizzard's games, it's still only for PC, but a Mac version may be on the way soon. Fanmade games about a game company -- what will they think of next?
Nerf N-Strike features Boom Blox-inspired game
IGN has the first look at Nerf N-Strike, EA's Wii game that comes with a hybrid Zapper/Nerf dart gun. It's going to be marketed as a hybrid as well, apparently, being sold in both the Nerf and video game sections of retailers. We gawked at the awesome gun a few months back when it was first revealed, but this is the first info about the actual game.As expected, N-Strike is a shooting game in which you use Nerf weapons in-game -- against Nerf-susceptible robots, as seen in the above screen. The guns apparently behave like real Nerf guns, which means that the projectiles move much more slowly than actual bullets.The game also contains multiplayer modes, one of which sounds quite similar to a current EA favorite. In Blox, players shoot one dart at a time into a structure of cubes until one uncovers a target block. It's a shooting-game take on Boom Blox, and it sounds like a pretty clever tie-in to the other game.
Mega Man 9's item shop is the future of Mega Man's past
Though it's intended as a sort of continuation of Mega Man 2, Mega Man 9 still manages to sneak in some elements from the later games. The item store is full of things that have shown up in Mega Man 6 and later, which is fine! We like later Mega Man games, and the idea of synthesizing the best elements from the whole series is a sound one. Plus some of this stuff is really helpful.You can use the bolts found throughout the levels to buy these items. Just for reference, we saw several of these bolts in the E3 demo levels, but couldn't reach any of them. So good luck! You can probably figure out what they all are from looking, but we'll describe them for you as well after the break.
BlizzCon ticket fiasco sparks fan-created game
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/BlizzCon_ticket_fiasco_sparks_fanmade_game'; If you've been one of the many frustrated players attempting to purchase BlizzCon tickets online since yesterday, then you'll really get a kick out of BlizzCon 08, a mini-game created by Belneiros of Moon Guard (or Toneslice of Exodar). It's extremely simple to learn how to play, and follows a classic arcade pattern. The premise is that, as a Failbot aka Blizzard employee, you arrive at work only to learn that (gasp) Blizzard forgot that the BlizzCon tickets are going on sale that day! In order to save face, you're going to have to start shooting as many down as possible. After all, there's no superior diversionary tactic. Armed with your gun, you must do everything possible to prevent the sale of BlizzCon tickets. The more customers that get tickets, the closer you are to death. It's actually a fun little pass-time that doesn't use much processing power at all. It's a quick play, and its inspiration came from the same refreshing, Failoc ordeal that we've all had to endure. If you sift through our live coverage yesterday, you'll notice that Belneiros wasn't the only bored player that got creative!Stay tuned to our live blog today for news on ticket sales and our luck (or lack thereof) with acquiring some of the elusive tickets.
Space Invaders Get Even with iTunes
On the 20th of this month, the Japanese iTunes Music Store will be invaded by the Space Invaders Get Even soundtrack. The album, which costs 1,500 yen, contains new orchestrated and electronic music from Taito's house band Zuntata. Some of the songs on the album apparently won't be featured in the game, which to us suggests remixes.While it's not terribly likely we'll see this album in the U.S. -- although Square Enix, Taito's parent company, makes some soundtracks available on the American iTunes store -- it's still great news for us (provided we even get Space Invaders Get Even over here). It means that we'll get a full soundtrack of Zuntata Invaders music in the new game, at least, which should excite any Space Invaders Extreme player.%Gallery-25384%
ST-2 shooting simulator keeps your aim sharp
And you thought using the HIPerSpace wall for GTA IV was overkill. Marksman Training Systems' ST-2 shooting simulator is touted as the "first simulator for shotgun and rifle shooting designed specifically for demanding users such as shooting instructors," and considering that the Russian and Slovakian national clay shooting teams have practiced on this very system in preparation for the Beijing Olympics, we'll be seeing just how effective it is here soon. Furthermore, this system allows hunters / huntresses to use their preferred weapon (via an attachable sensor) rather than some proprietary pistol, and the advanced diagnostics screen ensures that you know exactly why you missed that digital fowl. Looks like you'll have to inquire directly about pricing, but seriously, you don't want this taking the place of your home cinema... or do you?[Via CrunchGear]
PSP caused teen to shoot another teen
Down over in Jacksonville, Florida, two teenagers were arguing when one decided to shoot the other. This is already tragic enough, but the "center" of this shooting is a PSP. Zachary Robinson, 17, shot another teenager twice before fleeing the scene. Robinson was subsequently captured and is now charged with aggravated battery. Fortunately, even though there was an art fair being set up at the location, no one was hurt.We love our PSPs, but these kids went way too far. Also, it wasn't specified who originally owned the PSP, but let's not try to shoot each other over one, okay kids?[Via Kotaku]
Big Bang Mini lights up the sky with new screens
With a colorful, exciting shoot-em-up like Space Invaders now on the market, would-be shmup developers really need to step their game up to catch our attention. Arkedo Studios (Nervous Brickdown) seems to have done just that with Big Bang Mini!Due this fall, this touchscreen shooter features a fireworks mechanic that is just as vibrant as it is unique -- instead of firing bullets at incoming waves, players draw in fireworks, detonating and chaining the scrawled explosives to clear as many enemies as possible.The enemy designs are just as creative -- marionette skeletons, walruses riding on flying carpets, and monkeys floating above a city skyline. See them all in our gallery of new Big Bang Mini images below!%Gallery-18714%
Space Invaders Encased
If there's one thing we love, it's DS games. Obviously.If there are several things we love, Space Invaders swag is somewhere on a list of those things, especially with Space Invaders Extreme so close, feeding our Invader mania. These keychains feature pink, blue, and yellow Invaders embedded in acrylic cubes like prehistoric flies in amber. Each order comes with three of them for $8.50.It's up to you whether the awesomeness of the Invaders is worth cramming a big plastic cube into your pocket. That's a personal decision. Alternately, you could get a bunch of them and stack them in the classic Space Invaders configuration. Inside the clear cubes, they'd look vaguely like they were suspended in midair!
Metal Slug 7 boxart will soon wrap copies of Metal Slug 7
The appearance of a boxart image for Metal Slug 7 means that SNK is one step closer to putting the game in boxes and shipping it out to stores in Japan (which happens on July 17!). Then, some time in the future, it'll get shipped out to the U.S. Then, shooting stuff time! Even without the portent of Metal Slug on the way, we'd be happy with this boxart, which can only be described as classic SNK -- detailed, colorful hand-painted art that would be right at home adorning the box for a $300 game. Hopefully SNK realizes it would be cheaper to keep the same awesome art for the American box, rather than replacing it with something boring.
PlayStation 3 at heart of recent shootout
We thought it was bad enough people would go so far as to steal from children to get their grubby mitts on a PSP or PS3, but whenever we hear about a shootout with the PS3 at its core, we do wince a little. It seems two kids, at one point friends, got into a hit and run shootout the other day as they both tried to keep a PS3 for themselves. Talk about not sharing.A crossing guard was hit by their car, while the two fools arguing over their PS3 shot one another: the first got hit in the arm and leg, the other in the chest. They're in custody. If the police auction off that PS3, it'll probably be relatively cheap. It was involved in a shooting, after all. The reason for the altercation is unknown, but it most likely amounted to "I want it this weekend," then "no, I want it," and then the rest is history. Lame.
The VC Advantage: A good old-fashioned code list
We've been diverging lately into video game history and ephemera in these VC Advantage columns, because those are usually a lot more interesting than just plain old cheats, while keeping in the spirit of extending the enjoyment of games through secrets. But sometimes it's nice to get back to the original stated purpose of presenting codes for Virtual Console games as if we were writing a column in an old gaming magazine.Mega Turrican seems like an excellent candidate for this treatment, because it is hard as all get out. While previous entries in the franchise involved huge, maze-like levels, Mega Turrican is basically Contra but faster (and with backgrounds that don't contrast enough with the enemies) -- a straightforward left-to-right run-and-gun. And that is almost universal code for "punishingly hard game whose first level you will see about fifty thousand times."With that in mind, an invincibility cheat seems like a perfectly relevant and helpful thing to offer. It couldn't be easier to pull off, either: just pause the game and hit A, A, A, B, B, B, A, A, A. You don't even have to write this one down! You can also skip a level by hitting right, left, down, right, and then B while paused. And now you can pretend to be successful while playing Mega Turrican![Codes via GameFAQs]
Nine-minute Custom Tank video is eight minutes too long
With Play Asia's fantastic sale still in progress, we thought it a good time to highlight one of the discounted imports that we haven't talked much about since it was first announced, Simple DS Series Vol. 31: The Chou-Dangan!! Custom Sensha (The Super Bullet!! Custom Tank).We appreciated that someone bothered to recorded a video preview of Custom Tank with a steady camera, and we hoped that the game would live up to our expectations as a Metal Slug-esque experience, what with its run-'n-gun mechanics and chunky sprites, but publisher D3 wasn't kidding when it threw this title onto its "Simple" budget line. The music track is on an annoyingly short loop while this first stage is excruciatingly long, likely dragged out to disguise the game's limited content and length. Judging by the slow pacing, it's definitely not a suitable Metal Slug substitute.But if you like its cheerful approach to war -- tanks hopping over bottomless pits and zeppelins casually floating into view -- or if you're just looking for a game with customizable tanks, you might as well pick up The Super Bullet!! Custom Tank while it's cheap. Play Asia will have the game listed at $23.12 until midnight tonight (or while stocks last).See also: Eight frantic minutes of Ketsui DS[Via Nicovideo]
Bangai-O Spirits' free play is really free
During my GDC appointment with D3 Publisher, I was told that any Bangai-O Spirits stage could be edited "in free play mode." I asked how to unlock stages for that mode, but the information was unknown to anyone outside of Treasure. Jeremy Parish's preview of the game gives us an idea of the answer, and it's awesome."You're free to play any of the game's 160 stages from the outset," Parish said, "and when you lose you can quickly jump back in to have another go at things." Sounds like the "free play" mode is the main game, doesn't it? And even if that doesn't exactly turn out to be the case -- if you can play any stage, but you still have to complete it or otherwise achieve a goal in order to access it in the editor -- that's okay too. We're just shocked that they opened all of the stages. It's a wonderful way to ensure that players can experience the whole game even though it's really hard.%Gallery-16997%
Hear Bangai-O's downloadable stages for yourself
Bangai-O Spirits is out in Japan as of this week, and Treasure and ESP have already made some bonus content available on the game's website (click "special"). Not only can stages be transmitted through sound, but replay videos can as well! The MP3 files come in at 500 kilobytes at most and run from about 7 seconds long up until 29. As expected, they sound pretty much like modem connection noises -- in case you were wondering! We're saving these for ourselves, just in case they're only available for a limited time. There are currently three stages and three associated replays online -- one of which was created as a TGS demo with V-Jump Magazine branding, another the work of a PR person (we think?) named George who set out to make a challenging stage, and the last a maze created by someone at ESP.%Gallery-16997%
New shmup from Nervous Brickdown creators: Big Bang Mini
SouthPeak Interactive has announced that they'll be publishing Studio Arkedo's next game, an unconventional shooter called Big Bang Mini this fall. Big Bang Mini is designed around a fireworks theme -- rather than just shooting bullets at enemies, you "create" fireworks with the stylus and detonate them in order to destroy as many as possible, and attempt to chain the explosions together. It's somewhere between a normal shooter and Every Extend.Just by looking at the screens, it seems that there will be multiple visual styles across the game's "over 90 levels." No word on how the game manages to be both "big" and "mini." %Gallery-18714%[Via GamesPress]
Commando to Slug it out in Europe this May
It's been quite some time since we've heard from 07 Commando, the surprisingly nice-looking total ripoff of Metal Slug. Since then, the name has changed to Commando: Steel Disaster -- maybe because it's "08" now? Today, publisher Lexicon Entertainment announced a European release date for the derivative run & gun: May 9th. They'll probably beat Metal Slug 7 into stores (SNK's game was fairly early at GDC), which is probably an important component of the business model. We wouldn't mind an extra seven levels of Slug-esque shooting, ourselves, before the main course comes out.%Gallery-18362%[Via GamesPress]
Space Invaders Get Awesome
Just a few days after the first scan, Taito has released a few screens of the new Wii Space Invaders game, Space Invaders Get Even. In this "from the Invaders' perspective" game, swarms of glowing 8-bit Invaders take down 3D cities. The player uses the Nunchuk to control the elusive UFO, and the Wii Remote to direct 300 Invaders. The stages are broken into three areas each, and there are forest, city, military, and other types of stages.We still don't know how the three types of Invader differ, but we can at least see that they can be directed at separate targets, even outside of their traditional formation. We also don't know if "DOOOOOOM!" is the sound of an explosion, or a description of the humans' fate, or if GIR is in one of the ships.
Space Invaders Get Even with the Wii
Taito has chosen the Wii for the followup to the brilliant-looking Space Invaders Extreme. A tiny sidebar in the latest Famitsu has revealed a new Space Invaders game for the Wii. Called Space Invaders Get Even, Taito's latest actually casts the players as the pixelated swarm, whose job is to destroy cities. Just going on the screenshot, it appears that you'll have a stock of different Invaders who perform different functions, and who arrange themselves in the familiar 2D formation in 3D space. Unfortunately, other than this screenshot and a little blurb (which calls the game an "action game" and entreats you to "get your revenge"), nothing is known. We're sure we'll hear more soon.
