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Renowned devs creating 'Big Name Games' for free WarioWare D.I.Y. DLC
Playing your own microgames in WarioWare D.I.Y. is great and all, but what if you could play 5-second microgames designed by your favorite developers, like 5TH Cell, Gaijin Games, and even Cave Story creator Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya? In the weeks following the release of the microgame creation suite, you'll be able to do just that. Every Monday from March 29 through July 26, Nintendo will make new microgames in its "Big Name Games" series available for free download through WarioWare D.I.Y. The first offerings will include the game Yoshio Sakamoto showed off at his GDC presentation, as well as a game from Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai. Team Meat and WayForward are also contributing games.
WayForward behind another new WB game, 'Galactic Taz Ball'
Taz hate water, but love gallery Is Taz even still a popular character? Warner Bros. seems to think so, having announced Galactic Taz Ball for DS, the latest to come from the longtime collaboration between WB and developer WayForward (most recently, the two announced Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but also partnered for Duck Amuck). Galactic Taz Ball, set on floating chunks of Earth that Marvin the Martian is in the process of stealing, combines two forms of gameplay. In the "Overworld" areas, you control Taz by moving the stylus trackball-style, turning into a tornado if enough speed is gathered. In the "Underworld," the game becomes a "side-scrolling puzzle game" in which Taz explores the Martian's machinery. Taz Ball will be released in Europe and Australia this May, with a fall release following in North America. %Gallery-87365%
WayForward developing Batman: The Brave and the Bold game
It didn't take long after the announcement of Rocksteady's acquisition for WBIE to reveal the next Batman game. In fact, it's just really weird timing, because the next Batman game has nothing to do with Rocksteady and probably won't be anything like Arkham Asylum. But there's a chance that this Batman game will be surprisingly good, as well: it's being made by A Boy and His Blob/Contra 4/Shantae developer WayForward. The publisher announced a Wii and DS game coming this fall based on the comedic Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon. The cooperative game will allow a second player to control another DC Comics hero, from a group including the Blue Beetle, Green Lantern, Robin, and Aquaman. Encouragingly, Plastic Man also appears on the box art and the splash image for the game's website. Connecting the DS version to the Wii version will allow a friend to use the DS to control the 5th Dimensional fanboy Bat-Mite in the Wii game. Yes, Bat-Mite's in the (mass-market) game, and Blue Beetle and Plastic Man are both on the cover. Somehow, when we weren't looking, the world became a wonderful place for DC Comics nerds.
WayForward considering 'small and crazy' games before possible Boy and His Blob sequel
In an interview with Official Nintendo Magazine, WayForward's Sean Velasco said that he'd be up for making a sequel to the developer's Wii update of A Boy and His Blob. While it's not official confirmation of such a project in the works, the fact that Velasco thinks that "Another A Boy And His Blob game would also be amazing as the first one was such a great experience" is a positive sign for those interested in the continued adventures of a kid and his jelly-bean-crazed monster. In the meantime, however, Velasco is looking to "make a few small and crazy titles next. Maybe some downloadable games?" WayForward has Shantae: Risky's Revenge on the way to DSiWare, and has expressed interest in more downloadable games in the past. %Gallery-46747%
European Nintendo downloads: Starship Patrol, A Boy and His Blob, Eat! Fat! FIGHT!
Today's European Wii/DSi Shop update includes one of the most cringeworthy localizations in memory. Tecmo's Tsuppari Oozumo Wii Heya, the latest in its long-lived sumo wrestling series, appears in Europe today as ... Eat! Fat! FIGHT! Sure, it's more lighthearted and less a strict simulation of sumo, but Eat! Fat! FIGHT? Really? A Boy and His Blob and Street Fighter II' (the PC Engine version) arrive on Virtual Console today, and DSiWare has yet another original Q-Games title: Starship Patrol, a futuristic-looking tower defense game in space! Eat! Fat! FIGHT! (WiiWare, 1-2 players, 1,000 Wii Points) Moki Moki (WiiWare, 1 player, 800 Wii Points) A Boy and His Blob (NES, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Street Fighter II': Champion Edition (Turbografx-16, 1-2 players, 700 Wii Points) A Little Bit of... Magic Made Fun: Psychic Camera (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points) Castle of Magic (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points) Littlest Pet Shop (DSiWare, 1 player, 800 DSi Points) myNotebook: Green (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points) Starship Patrol (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
VC in Brief: Super Mario Kart (SNES), A Boy and His Blob (NES)
This week's Virtual Console update is delicious on two different fronts. For one, it's delicious in that we wish we could have some of those jelly beans the Blob in A Boy and His Blob is snacking on -- well, except for the ketchup ones. Even we don't like those! Secondly, it's delicious because ... uh, we may not have thought that far ahead, But, hey, Super Mario Kart! Have you been adequately distracted from our mental lapse? Check out the video above! Super Mario Kart (SNES, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points) A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia (NES, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Every week, we like to check out what's new on the Virtual Console. We offer these videos as a sort of taste to help you decide whether or not you would want the game in question. We also toss in our own two cents because we're pushy jerks like that.
Review: A Boy and His Blob
A Boy and His Blob tells the story of an extra-terrestrial, amorphous lifeform and his young handler as they combat an evil emperor, hellbent on doing what all evil emperors want to do: kill most and rule over what's left. The only thing standing in this extreme evildoer's way is the boy's willingness to feed the Blob different jellybeans, which cause him -- it? -- to transform into different shapes, thereby overcoming the game's many obstacles. After playing the game for a bit, it became clear that I was going to have to give up my need to solve the game's puzzles unsupervised. See, A Boy and His Blob thought that I would be far better off if it held my hand. %Gallery-46747% [Note: This review also comes with this "complimentary" video. Enjoy!]
A Boy and His Blob gameplay video is remarkably huggable
You know what more games need to have? A hug button. This inspiring innovation is introduced in the gameplay demonstration for A Boy and His Blob seen above. Okay, so maybe an "embrace command" wouldn't pan out too well in, oh, say, Gears of War. Perhaps hugs are rarely appropriate in a video game context, requiring the presence of anthropomorphic gobs of slime to be considered acceptable. We don't really care about all that stuff -- all we know is that our hearts have been warmed to a point where eggs could be scrambled on our bare chests.
What's in a Name: WayForward Technologies
With its gorgeous A Boy and His Blob remake in the pipeline, WayForward has been on our minds quite a lot recently. Unfortunately, we didn't have the answer to the real question: How did the company come up with its name? Our curiosity is now sated. "Back when we started in 1990, I happened to be reading a Douglas Adams book called Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. One of the lead characters in it is Gordon Way, who not only shares my surname, but also developed MIDI software for Windows, which happened to be a hobby of mine at the time. I decided to name my company after his partly as a tribute to my favorite author and partly because it was too weird a coincidence to pass up. "Five years later, the parallels continued when we were acquired by a company that subsequently spun us off. We effectively started over from scratch. Gordon Way's company was actually called WayForward Technologies II for similar reasons. "Honestly, I'm hoping the similarities end there, because Gordon Way ends up getting murdered." –Voldi Way, founder of WayForward Liked this story? Be sure to check out the What's In A Name archives.
WayForward working on Shantae: Risky's Revenge for DSiWare, Q4 release
Nintendo Power: November 2009 Rumors of a followup to GBC title Shantae have been bandied about for a couple of years now, but it would seem as though we finally have official word courtesy of the new Nintendo release list. Sadly the listing on the platformer's sequel is light on details. We know it's coming to DSiWare, that it's called Shantae: Risky's Revenge and that it's being developed by WayForward for a Q4 release. And that's it. What's that? You've never heard of Shantae? well, we can rectify that right now. [Update: And, just like that, we've got our first look at Shantae's DSiWare release, thanks to the upcoming November issue of Nintendo Power. Go Nintendo has a sneak preview of the mag, which promises "six pages of EXCLUSIVE pics!"]
A Boy and His Boy-Shaped Blob in a new trailer
WayForward has done something fairly magical with its gorgeous remake of A Boy and His Blob -- it's made the game look appealing even to someone who has played the NES game recently enough to remember the abject frustration, untinged by nostalgia. In fact, we think this game is lovely enough to attract players who don't even know there was another game. This 'launch' trailer (though the game isn't out until October) includes some animated story sequences, the use of which shouldn't be much of a surprise in a hand-drawn game. It also includes a quick look at some delightful jellybean-granted Blob abilities, like a mech and some kind of "boy" shape.
This Week on the Nintendo Channel: A director and his boy and his blob
This week, WayForward's Sean Velasco offers Nintendo Channel viewers a look at the delightful-looking A Boy and His Blob, describing the colorful sidescrolling adventure as "a sincere game in a cynical time." We suppose that the level of interest the game inspires could be related to your own cynicism. In short, if the look of this game does nothing for you, you're either too cynical or you've spent too much time playing the NES game. FInd the video, as well as the list of DS demos and other new videos, after the break. [Via GoNintendo]
Preorder A Boy and His Blob, get a blob
Now here's a novel idea: Preorder A Boy and His Blob at GameStop and receive ... a blob. Well, at least something that looks like the blob from the game's title. In actuality, it's one of those foam rubber stress-relief balls. Only shaped like a the blob -- and far more cute. Note that -- thankfully -- the bonus is just the blob and does not include a boy, foam rubber or otherwise. Girls who preorder the game also get the blob, but are able to claim they're "a girl and her blob," which would probably make a good title for the sequel. A Boy and His Blob is out on October 13 and looks gorgeous.
A Boy and His Blob's new screenshots warm our hearts
We'll be honest -- the upcoming re-imagining of A Boy and His Blob for Nintendo Wii makes our hearts go aflutter. The newest screens, grabbed by Aussie-Nintendo, do little more than entice us while we patiently wait for the game's release date. When is that again? Oh, right, we have no idea. We do, however, have two videos from back in March to compare with today's screens, which we're pleased to say look just as good as the videos did back then. And just look at that adorable picture with the game's main character taking a snooze! Sorry, sorry, we'll be over here being total creeps. You enjoy the new screens below. %Gallery-69237% [Via GoNintendo]
Where the Wild Things Are romps into our hearts this October
(click to Wild Things-size) We didn't want to wake you up, but we really want to tell you something ... specifically, that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today officially announced the upcoming movie tie-in game, Where the Wild Things Are, for 360/PS3/Wii and DS. Landing on retailer shelves this October in-tandem with the film's theater release, all we know about the game so far is that it's an action/platformer.You might remember hearing about this game back in May when we told you more or less everything we've just heard officially today. We do have the one exciting screenshot you see above, but that's not a lot, so we've embedded the movie trailer after the break for your enjoyment. If it can warm our icy hearts, it can warm anyone's.
Sega: game not over for Aliens: Colonial Marines, Aliens RPG
The big, green gooey eggs containing Sega's long in development Aliens: Colonial Marines and Aliens RPG are going to hatch -- just not soon. When we asked why the games were absent from this year's E3, Sega replied, "Aliens vs. Predator will be the first to ship out of our triplet of Aliens titles; hence it was shown at this year's E3. We'll have more news to share about the other two games in the near future so stay tuned." Rumors of both titles being jettisoned out an airlock have been swirling since earlier this year.In addition, Gearbox Software prez Randy Pitchford has confirmed to Kotaku that Colonial Marines lives on in now-gen console and handheld form on DS. Pitchford told the site that Gearbox is not developing the portable title, lending more credence to purported footage of a WayForward-developed Colonial Marines that leapt out of the darkness last month. We've put word into Obsidian, developers of Aliens RPG, for confirmation of that title's status.
E3 2009 highlights: The Nintendo roundup
Nintendo E3 2009 checklist: Mario? *check* Zelda? *check* Metroid? *check* Are we missing something? Head past the break to find out!
Interview: WayForward's Voldi Way talks blobs, Shantae, and street cred
Voldi Way, president of WayForward -- or "Tyrannical Overlord" of the company, if his business card is to be believed -- gave us one of the company's first interviews as a "publisher," having recently self-published downloadable games on DS (Mighty Flip Champs) and WiiWare (LIT). During this E3 interview, Way told us that the company has at least three new unannounced projects, two of which are coming this year on Wii, and one also headed for PC. He also addressed the purported Aliens vs. Predator DS game and discussed the company's licensed game strategy, about which we may have accidentally given him a complex.
Impressions: a boy and his blob (Wii)
WayForward's a boy and his blob is at the same time an excellent recreation of the original game and an experience all its own. Much like the original game, our titular boy feeds his pet blob many varieties of jelly beans, however a new art style and host of new blob forms give this game a feel all its own. If there were any doubts regarding this title as both a conduit to relive the plesant days of the original's release, while simultaneously offering a fresh, new take on the game, then let them be squashed now. %Gallery-46747%
NintendoWare Weekly: Final Fantasy IV, Mighty Flip Champs
Even though we're beginning our hellish descent into the mouth of madness that is E3, Nintendo is still taking the time to unload the downloadable goods to fans. This week, you'll find some fresh DSiWare, and your usual doses of WiiWare and Virtual Console goodies to boot. So, head past the break to check out what's available this week on Nintendo platforms.
