tiny-brains
Latest
Tiny Brains becomes $10 cross-buy for PS3 and PS4 with free update
Tiny Brains launched on the PS4 in December last year, and since then it's gotten a bit bigger on the inside: a free update to the game has added new time-based and puzzle challenges, a new superpower, online functionality for the demo which allows players to join up with those who own a full copy of the game, and more. Arguably, the biggest update of all is that the game is now a cross-buy purchase for PS3 and PS4, so you'll get two copies for the price of one. Or rather, two for half the price of one; the game's initial price of $20 has been cut down to $10 across all platforms, which means that the game is now both tinier and larger. Whoa. We ... we may need to sit down. [Image: 505 Games]
PSN Tuesday: Don't Starve, Tiny Brains on PS3, free DmC
This week's PlayStation Store additions are marked by Klei Entertainment's Don't Starve, which is now available on PS4. The roguelike survival game from the makers of Mark of the Ninja is $14.99, but also happens to be one of two games that are free for PlayStation Plus members starting this week. The other PS Plus freebie is DmC: Devil May Cry for PS3. Two games joined DmC on the PS3's digital storefront this week: Tiny Brains ($19.99) and Twisted Lands: Shadow Town ($11.99). Tiny Brains already launched on PS4, and the game is Cross-Buy-compatible for those with multiple Sony consoles in their household. StreetKix: Freestyle is also available on PSP for $11.99, discounted to $10.79 for PS Plus members. Among PSN's new add-ons is the Illustrious Pirates Pack for both PS3 and PS4 versions of Assassin's Creed 4, which is $9.99 and free for season pass holders. This week also saw a handful of permanent pricing changes on PSN, including Saints Row 4 ($39.99), Need for Speed: Most Wanted ($19.99), Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 ($39.99) and the Artorias of the Abyss DLC for Dark Souls ($9.99).
PSA: Tiny Brains out now on Steam, 30 percent off until December 18 [Update]
Spearhead Games' Tiny Brains is now available on Steam for PC. The co-op action puzzler is 30 percent off until December 18 ($13.99). Those looking to take advantage of the "cooperative" part of the game may want to pick up the Tiny Brains 2 Pack for $24.99, granting them an extra copy to give to a friend. Our review of the game found it "accessible and adorably illustrated," though its puzzles seemed increasingly repetitive and predictable as the game wore on. Tiny Brains already made an appearance on PSN for both PS3 and PS4 last week. Update: As a clarification, Tiny Brains only launched on PS4 last week, but it will arrive on PS3 early next year.
PSN Tuesday: Tiny Brains, Escape Plan, Rainbow Moon
The PlayStation Store has issued its weekly update, which is headlined by Spearhead Games' PS4 puzzle game, Tiny Brains. In our review from earlier today, we called the game "accessible and adorably illustrated" with just a tinge of dark humor. PS Vita launch game Escape Plan also comes over to the PS4 today with its cross-buy functionality intact, so if you've already picked up the game on another system you can play it on PS4 gratis. On the PS Vita side, both Rainbow Moon and Stick it to the Man make their platform debut today. PS Plus members can download a free copy of Grid 2 on PS3 today. On top of that, there's the ongoing holiday sale to consider, plus price adjustments on games like Limbo, Saints Row: The Third and more.
Tiny Brains review: Frankenstein's furballs
There's a thin line between solving a puzzle and completing a chore, and you can easily sense when a game has taken a step over it. The primary pleasure of a puzzle comes in piecing together the solution, in plotting your escape from each convoluted trap the designers have strung up around you. Carrying the plan out is a secondary problem, and the best games in the genre – like Portal – make that part fast and constantly mix and re-mix the arrangement of your shots, pushes, jumps or pulls. Tiny Brains is a game about pushing, pulling, jumping on and switching places with a small selection of objects. In rearranging those mechanisms, and splitting them between four twisted lab creatures looking for an exit from the skewed venue of science that created them, the game gives us our physical puzzles (and the occasional chore). The tiny, titular noggins belong to Dax, the miniature bat, Stew the rabbit, a mouse named Pad, and Minsc, the blue hamster that, in some alternate universe somewhere, probably has an owner named Boo. Those are their names, but you'll probably call them by their color-coded telekinetic abilities: Push-Bat, Pull-Rabbit, Swap-Rat and Block-Hamster (he can summon a block of ice). Together they must escape an eccentric scientist's clutches, as you look from above and see them scurrying about in a cute, sectioned maze built out of tubes, wires, corrugated cardboard and popsicle sticks. You can either play by yourself, switching through the super-powered vermin with the shoulder buttons, or have three more players join you on couch or online.
Tiny Brains delayed on PS4 again, now coming Dec. 3
Spearhead Games' Tiny Brains is having a heck of a time nailing down a launch date. The game, which was originally supposed to be a PS4 launch game before moving to November 26 at the last minute, is now slated to make its PS4 debut on December 3. A co-op action puzzle game at heart, Tiny Brains is focused on team antics rather than competitive play. In Tiny Brains, up to four players – who assume the role of lab animals endowed with psychic abilities – work together toward a common goal as they navigate a series of tests within a mad scientist's laboratory.
Action puzzler Tiny Brains settles on a Nov. 26 PS4 launch date
Tiny Brains, the multiplayer puzzler from former Ubisoft developers at Spearhead Games, will come to PS4 on November 26. Tiny Brains has been on a rodent-sized roller coaster over the past few weeks: First it wasn't included in the PS4 launch lineup announced on October 30, then it was added, and then it was removed on November 6. It's OK though – we spent some time with Tiny Brains at E3 and we're pretty sure its super-powered mouse, rabbit, gerbil and naked mole rat can handle a few extra bumps. Tiny Brains should hit PS3 and PC in early December, and it's not in development for Xbox 360, publisher 505 Games told Polygon.
Tiny Brains mixes Pinky and the Brain with Quantum Conundrum on Nov. 15
Spearhead Games' action puzzler Tiny Brains will be a PS4 launch title, 505 Games has announced. The game will simultaneously launch November 15 on PS4, PS3 and PC, though the publisher didn't mention a release date for Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions. Tiny Brains has players controlling one of four super-charged rodents: a mouse, gerbil, rabbit and not-quite-naked mole rat, solving puzzles with friends to escape a mad scientist's experiments. The co-op campaign features drop-in, drop-out multiplayer and the game includes competitive and challenge modes. In our time with Tiny Brains at E3, we likened it to Pinky and the Brain in Quantum Conundrum's world.
Tiny Brains is the 'Pinky and the Brain' puzzle game that never was
Tiny Brains didn't exist seven months ago – hell, Spearhead Games, the developer of Tiny Brains, didn't exist seven months ago. The studio was founded in December by a trio of AAA deserters, including Dead Space 3 Game Designer Malik Boukhira and Assassin's Creed 3 Design Director Simon Darveau, and by E3 this year they had a stylish, playable next-gen game on the show floor. Tiny Brains is due out on Steam, PSN and XBLA this fall, with a launch on PS4 to follow. It's a lot for one brand new studio to handle, but Darveau tells me he has the passion to make it happen – and it has to happen now. "I really believe that a revolution is coming and that the future will belong to those guys who know how to create new types of experiences," Darveau says. "It was a very difficult choice for me to quit, because I was in a stable position and I was successful, but I felt like if I didn't do this I would miss the train. Something is happening right now, something huge, and it's only the beginning, I'm convinced of that." And after some time playing it, I think Tiny Brains could be part of "something huge."%Gallery-192333%
Tiny Brains coming to next-gen platforms after launch in fall
Tiny Brains, the co-op puzzle game starring a team of tiny, scientifically enhanced animals, will make its way to next-gen consoles following a launch on PC and current-gen systems this fall. Tiny Brains comes from Spearhead Games, a Montreal studio founded by Assassin's Creed 3 Design Director Simon Darveau, Dead Space 3 Game Designer Malik Boukhira and Army of Two Development Director Atul Mehra. The animals in Tiny Brains each have unique powers – Create, Vortex, Teleport and Force – and must work together to escape the lab. Tiny Brains will be at E3, following a showing at PAX East earlier this year.
Tiny Brains is first project from former Assassin's Creed, Dead Space devs
Tiny Brains is the first game coming from a new Montreal-based developer called Spearhead Games, made up of developers from popular franchises like Assassin's Creed, Dead Space, and Army of Two. Developers Simon Darveau (who served as design director on Assassin's Creed 3), Malik Boukhira, and Atul Mehra are starting their company together with this co-op puzzle game in which four players, in the guise of test animals, escape a lab and defeat the scientists who have captured you. Platforms for the game are still unannounced, but Spearhead tells us it will be playable this weekend at PAX East. Given the pedigree, we look forward to seeing exactly what these guys have made.%Gallery-183228%
