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Jason Rohrer's Diamond Trust of London coming this fall
Zoo Entertainment has officially announced its intention to publish Jason Rohrer's DS strategy title Diamond Trust of London. The board game-esque title, which is about the conflict diamond business, was originally to be published by Majesco. Zoo's IndiePub label " rescued Diamond Trust of London from a year-long holding pattern," Rohrer said in the press release announcing the deal. Zoo plans to sell the game this fall. There's only one thing left to do before that goal can be achieved: make Diamond Trust of London. " Development of Diamond Trust of London is scheduled to begin shortly with an anticipated limited edition release this fall," the press release notes.
Sleep is Death creator's latest still coming to DS
The latest game from prolific indie designer Jason Rohrer, Diamond Trust of London will finally see the light of day on DS. In an interview with Charge Shot!!!, Rohrer said that he's landed a publisher -- Zoo Games -- for the long-awaited handheld release, which was originally being handled by Majesco. Diamond Trust of London is Rohrer's 16th game and, in keeping with its developer's penchant for unconventional concepts, is a strategy title which revolves around the underground "blood diamond" trade. If it captures anywhere near the amount of genius found in other Rohrer games, such as Sleep is Death and Inside a Star-Filled Sky, we're sold. [Ed. Note: Since this post was published, Charge Shot!!! has updated its interview with Rohrer to clarify that his Inside a Star-Filled Sky, and not Diamond Trust of London, is coming to Steam "soon."]
Fireburst to offer explosive (budget) racing on XBLA, PSN and PC this summer
Zoo Entertainment clearly never learned not to play with fire. Its upcoming Fireburst is an off-road racer in which cars appear to be regularly set aflame. Beyond the pyro gimmick, the game's features sound rather impressive, especially when you consider the $10 price tag. Fireburst promises to offer 16 different cars, including buggys, muscle cars, trucks and 4x4s, and 15 race courses. Given the arcade nature of the game (you didn't expect a racing game about cars on fire to be a sim, right?), it should come as no surprise that there will be power-ups, including fireballs, fire blasts, walls of fire and other predictably fire-themed weapons, too. The Unreal Engine 3-powered racer will also feature four-player split-screen -- a nice throwback to the Mario Kart 64 days. You can expect Fireburst on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC this summer. See the first trailer after the break. %Gallery-118036%
Auditorium PSN to feature more levels, 3D and Move support
Auditorium is one of those perfect little games that you load up when you need a break from the stresses and toils of the real world, allowing you to relax while moving soothing sound particles through even more soothing squares. That's why we're a little trepidatious about the recently announced changes that will be incorporated in the game's PSN iteration: There are twice as many levels and musical selections (we're cool with that), PlayStation Move support (we're okay with that) and, troublingly enough, 3D display support. We suppose if you've invested in a PlayStation Move and 3D television, these additions will be quite welcome, entirely justifying the game's $9.99 price tag when it drops November 23. However, we're not sure how soothing the experience will be when the sound particles are flying right at your face whoooooOOOOAAAAA%Gallery-107463%
Silly Bandz for DS seems like a stretch
Zoo Games has announced a DS game based on ... some rubber bands. This December, Zoo will release Silly Bandz, the official game of those rubber bands in the shape of animals and Justin Bieber. Silly Bandz tasks players with freeing Bandz from capture by launching other Silly Bandz at the structures in which they are trapped. Screenshots found on Amazon show an Angry Birds-esque experience: a side-scrolling game where players knock over colored block-structures and ... is that a giant magnet? Of course, the actual game content doesn't matter at all, because it ships with a set of twelve video game-themed Silly Bandz -- and the office supplies are the real selling point here. In July, Zoo announced that this game would be released on iPhone as well (without free Bandz, of course), but that version has yet to be dated.
Auditorium coming to PSN, XBLA first week of November
While it may have missed its planned "early 2010" release, indie game Auditorium is finally coming to consoles in early November. Publisher Zoo Entertainment has dated the game for a November 2 release on PSN and November 3 on Xbox Live Arcade.
Auditorium flowing to XBLA, PSN and PSP next year
We haven't heard anything about Cipher Prime's plans to port its hypnotic musical puzzler, Auditorium, since the studio won a publishing contract in the 2BeeGames competition back in July. Today, a press release from newly named publisher Zoo Games revealed a few details about the title's console destinations: It's coming to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN, both as a PS3 and PSP download "early next year." For those who want to know what the soothing buzz is all about, you can check out Auditorium for free on the 2BeeGames site. For those who can't access that site for some reason, just turn on some classical music, go turn on the nearest water faucet, and try to redirect the stream with your hands.
Indie game 'Storm' strikes XBLA, PSN, WiiWare, iPhone
Terence Lee, creator of Storm, joins the growing list of independent game developers lucky enough to find a publisher. His game, created specifically for an independent games competition at 2BeeGames.com, will find refuge on PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, WiiWare and iPhone next year via a new publishing deal announced by Zoo Games. We talked with Lee about the indie games scene, and what we can expect from the console version. What is Storm? How did the concept come about? Storm is a game where you use weather elements, like wind, rain, and lightning, to solve physics puzzles. I had been playing around with some physics sandbox games, like Garry's Mod, and I found that these games were all based on experimenting with mechanical interactions. I wondered if an organic style could also be fun. And what's more organic than a storm? Plus storms bring lightning and every game needs explosions. %Gallery-74679%
Amazon and GameFly list Raiden Fighters Aces for North America
According to listings on both Amazon and GameFly, Japanese shooter Raiden Fighters Aces may see life Stateside. Back in March, a demo for the top-down shooter landed on the Japanese Xbox Live Marketplace for all of our phantom accounts to enjoy but, we didn't think the retail game would ever hit North America. The product pages, discovered by Verbal Spew, list two separate publishers: GameFly notes Valcon Games, the house that brought Daisenryaku to North America, will publish, while Amazon lists Zoo Games as the import culprit. No official word on the listings yet, but we're hopeful the shooter will eventually find its way to our Xbox 360s.
Three DS news items you might have missed
With several major press conferences yesterday and a deluge of media assets, it's easy to miss all the smaller news items that popped up. We've rounded up three of them for you so that they won't be completely forgotten!1. Retro Game Challenge logo! Yep, there it is, right above our post. It doesn't look too different from the Retro Game Master DVD logo, but we'll find any excuse to talk about this wonderful, nostalgic title. In fact, keep an eye out for our hands-on impressions from the E3! For now, you can check out five new screenshots in our gallery below or have a look at the Retro Game Challenge sell sheet past the post break.2. Zoo Games is working on a Puzzle Quest clone? Any time we see the words "puzzle" juxtaposed with images of fantasy-type warriors, as was the case with Puzzle Kingdoms, our minds immediately go to last year's surprise hit, Puzzle Quest. Though developer Infinite Interactive already has two official Puzzle Quest clones in the works, the hybridization of RPGs and puzzle games are addictive enough that we don't mind seeing knock-offs. We hope to see more than just three pieces of character art for Puzzle Kingdoms soon! 3. Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades coming out less than six months after Guitar Hero: On Tour? Alright, so you might have heard that Vicarious Visions is preparing a Guitar Hero DS sequel for the holiday season, but if you stop for a minute and think about it, you'll realize that the original game came out only three weeks ago! That's a shorter gap than the time in between Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith's releases (8 months) for consoles!%Gallery-27519%%Gallery-27789%
Flipping burgers with Order Up!
We were wondering when we'd find out what SuperVillain Studios was up to on the Wii, but we never thought it'd be a restaurant game akin to Diner Dash. Hearing that might immediately turn you off, but we think Order Up! actually looks pretty interesting. Not only do you perform motion-controlled, Cooking Mama-style recipes (only with fast foodstuffs), but you also have to manage the restaurant in this simulation game. There's 4,000 lines of dialog included in the game, too, which (based on the screens) we hope is humorous. Our only complaint is that this might be better suited for WiiWare, but if it's available at a budget price (i.e. not $50), we might look into getting this. If your interest is piqued as well, keep your eyes peeled for the game's June 22nd release date.%Gallery-21449%
