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, 03 Feb 2012
If you are in the LA area on February 10, you won’t want to miss this launch party!
Rhythm Heaven Fever Launch Event!
Greetings!
We’ve teamed up with the lovely folks at Nintendo and our pals at Giant Robot to produce a shindig for the launch of Rhythm Heaven Fever, coming out for the Wii in a few weeks!
This will perhaps be the craziest party we’ve produced, as the game isn’t shy about how bizarrely addictive it is. There are more than 50 mini-games, all of which are pure awesome (like snow seals rolling to a beat) and weirdly awesome (like a monkey high-fiving fellow chimps as he rotates around a clock). The game is all about keeping the rhythm to fast-paced music, which translates most perfectly into a party scenario.
We’ll have an overload of activities, including:
- Live Art (by famed artists Yoskay Yamamoto and Mari Inukai, courtesy of Giant Robot)
- Photo Playset (complete with lots of crazy, oversized plush props)
Interactive Video Playset (in which you’ll be coaxed into dancing your favorite jig for the camera, and then upload it to Nintendo’s site)
- Swag Galore! (custom-designed t-shirts and posters)
- Raffle (win the art created by Yamamoto and Inukai)
- Food (yum!) Drinks (gulp!) DJ (oh yeah!)
- Fun (fun!)
Rhythm Heaven Fever
Launch Event
Friday, Feb. 10
6 to 10 pm
iam8bit
2147 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
iam8bit.com
And in the coming weeks, stay tuned for a bunch of radical announcements from us! We’ve been cooking up a lot of great stuff lately!
See you there!,
iam8bit
[PR Email]
, 03 Feb 2012
High Voltage is a registered developer for Wii U.
High Voltage, the studio behind The Conduit, is the latest developer to sign up for Wii U.
Click here to read the full article
, 03 Feb 2012
Great Scott! Marty and the Doc return to our screens soon...
Back To The Future will finally be released for Wii during the first quarter of 2012.
Click here to read the full article
, 03 Feb 2012
When Pokemon Platinum released, the Pokemon Giratina was on the cover… but in a brand new Forme not found in Diamond/Pearl versions. There has been much speculation that if there is indeed a third version of Pokemon Black/White (Pokemon Grey perhaps?), then Kyurem was the most likely one for the spot. Most Pokemon fans are predicting that Kyurem will get a new Forme… but much of that has been speculation and just going by what makes sense. Now, we have actual proof.
The site PokeBeach has done some research into the code for the Pokemon Black/White games. In that code, they found a list of all the Pokemon who have alternate formes. That list includes Unown, Deoxys, Rotom, Shaymin, Deerling, and many others… including Kyurem. The sprite associated with it is the Pokemon Meloetta’s sprite, but that’s just a placeholder. The same thing happened with Diamond/Pearl, which had placeholders for new formes for Shaymin and Giratina, which appeared in Platinum.
So basically it is now confirmed that Kyurem will have an alternate form. And since this form doesn’t exist in Black/White, then we can put two and two together and get confirmation that there will be a third game for the 5th generation of Pokemon. What that game is called, what Kyurem’s new forme looks like, when we’ll find out about it officially… these are questions we don’t have answers to yet, but hopefully we soon will. Kyurem is appearing in the next Pokemon movie in Japan, so it’s highly likely we’ll get more info in the next few months. Personally I’m more interested in what system this inevitable third version will be on… DS or 3DS?
[via PokeBeach]
, 02 Feb 2012
Blockbuster HD games are vital for Nintendo's next console launch.
The Wii U release date is set for the second half of 2012, that much we know.
Click here to read the full article
, 02 Feb 2012
Minneapolis, MN- February 2, 2012 – GameMill Entertainment, an independent publisher of entertaining mass-market video games, today announced plans to bring the popular Gogo’s Crazy Bones toy characters and games to digital life with Gogo’s Crazy Bones game for the Nintendo DS™ family of hand-held systems. Gogo’s Crazy Bones the game will make its debut in retail stores this March.
Gogo’s Crazy Bones are small, colorful, figurines with endless gaming, collecting and learning possibilities. Players will find Gogo’s Crazy Bones the game jam-packed with more than 70 puzzles and 30 favorite Gogo’s to collect, each one with a unique name, design, personality and special ability. Unlock five Gogo’s in every level as you take on popular Gogo’s games like Knock Out, Battle and Basket Attacks. Earn stars and unlock rewards as you explore interactive environments from the bus stop to the playground. Gogo’s Crazy Bones the game provides hours of fun and entertainment as you collect, trade and play with friends!
, 02 Feb 2012
9 ideas for a Super Mario Wii U game.
So last week we discussed what we'd like from the forthcoming Super Mario 3DS game But don't forget about Wii U. Reggie Fils-Aime has already said that Wii U will have great launch games and it would be fantastic if the line-up included a new Mario game for the first time since N64.
Click here to read the full article
, 02 Feb 2012
Nintendo Zone Adds Pokémon Episodes and Game Demos
New Content Will Be Available at More Than 29,000 Locations
REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Nintendo 3DS™ owners are getting access to a wealth of fun entertainment and information that they can access on the go. Starting Feb. 6, Nintendo Zone™ will offer a variety of new content, including playable demos of select Nintendo 3DS video games and a dedicated Pokémon™ section that will feature full-length episodes of the Pokémon TV series. All of this exciting new content is only available when owners are wirelessly connected to a Nintendo Zone location.
“Nintendo 3DS continues to deliver fun and engaging new experiences, especially for users who connect their systems to the Internet,” said Zach Fountain, Nintendo of America’s director of Strategic Partnerships. “Nintendo 3DS is our most connected system ever, and Nintendo Zone offers a wealth of exclusive content to users who take their systems with them when they are away from home.”
Nintendo Zone also includes trivia games featuring the latest Nintendo 3DS software, exclusive coupons available only at Best Buy for discounts on Nintendo 3DS games and a showcase of Nintendo 3DS games that includes videos, screen shots and one-click links to game websites. The Pokémon section will also include information and videos about the newest Pokémon video games, Pokémon Trading Card Game and Pokémon news.
Nintendo Zone content can be accessed at more than 29,000 locations at restaurants, coffee shops, hotels, airports and malls in the United States and Canada. Nintendo 3DS owners can find a Nintendo Zone location by visiting http://www.nintendo.com/3ds/nintendozone.
Remember that Nintendo 3DS features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/3ds.
[PR Email]
, 01 Feb 2012
February is here, which means new game rewards available for Club Nintendo members. This month, you can get either Mario Party 2 (Wii) or Art Academy: First Semester (3DS) for 150 coins each. Head over to http://club.nintendo.com. Hurry, though, because these offers will end at the end of the month.
, 01 Feb 2012
Game – Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy (Rated T for Teen)
Version – Nintendo 3DS
Obtained – Review copy from Namco Bandai
Reviewer – Steve Cullum
The critically acclaimed aerial combat series flies onto the Nintendo 3DS in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy. While it looks pretty, does it also pack a punch in other aspects? Read on to find out.
Story & Plot
You are a pilot for USEA Allied Forces, a group of nations who have joined forces against two world superpowers. However, the northern and western nations are strongly against a specific treaty between the southern nations and the Osean Federation. A band of conservative extremist have staged a military coup, and the allied forces have initiated their retaliation attack. You have been chosen for this mission as a member of Special Tactical Squadron “Scarface,” a part of Operation: Fighter’s Honor, to take out the rebel forces.
From the menu, you are given ability to jump into the story, pursue specific challenge modes (unlocked as you progress), view your game data, and change options within the game. As you begin the story, you are briefed on each mission, given the ability to choose your airplane, gear, and (sometimes) your wing-man. Then, you are off to the skies to take on whatever mission awaits you. After you complete your mission, you are debriefed and given a ranking based on how you performed. In addition, you can even keep a video copy of your mission by saving it to your SD card. Unfortunately, you cannot share these videos with anyone.
Gameplay & Controls
Each mission is pretty straight forward. Sometimes you will be shooting down rebel pilots. Other times, you could be taking out targets on the ground. Still, other times, you could be shooting down supplies dropped from enemy airplanes. Usually, you will complete the initial mission, and then go back to your base. On occasion, though, harder enemies will surprise you afterward. It is very easy to understand what you are to do each time, and you will rarely get confused.
Ace Combat feels great. It is not a simple flying game, as you will find a slightly higher learning curve than something like Star Fox. However, the controls are fully customizable. This includes changing which buttons fire which weapons to inverting the axis for flight. If you prefer, you can even change the language for the subtitles. With all these options, you are sure to find the control scheme that works for you, which is just another strong point to this game.
Graphics & Sound
Every aspect of Ace Combat looks amazing on the 3DS screen. You do not have to play with the 3D on, but it is highly recommended. It gives a depth that really adds to the gameplay. The only problem is that you may end up moving around while flying, if you are that type of pilot. If so, you may drop out of the 3D “sweet spot,” so just be careful not to move around quite a bit. You are able to change the in-game view from third-person, cockpit, and HUD view. I prefer the third-person view myself. There are few animated cut-scenes in the game, but when they do show up, they are also very good.
The music during the menu is some sort of Japanese slow pop style, but during gameplay, you will get a variety of orchestral music that fits very well to the feeling of flying in the open sky during combat. Sounds are spot-on, and it sounds great coming out of the 3DS speakers. However, if you plug in a set of headphones, you will be even more drawn into the combat.
Concluding Statements
In all honesty, there are very few things to be said against this game. In fact, all I can think of is the lack of multiplayer. Connecting with a friend for a local or online dogfight would have been a great addition. In the end, though, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy is an excellent game. If you are a fan of flying games, you have to get this today.
FINAL SCORE: 4.5 out of 5
Here is a video I shot off-screen of the opening song and video sequence.
Here is a video I shot off-screen of Mission 02.
, 31 Jan 2012
GameIndustry.biz wrote up a fairly extensive opinion piece about the power of the Wii U, have a read of this excerpt:
In theory, we could look at laptops here as an example of getting powerful chips working in smaller areas. The problem here is that high-power mobile GPUs are highly ‘binned’ – they’re the pick of the production crop of processors destined for a broad range of different graphics cards. Mobile parts are typically the very best chips, the cream of the crop, capable of great performance at low voltages. Nintendo would not have this luxury on a mass-production item with a single design, where high efficiency is the key to keeping costs down as much as possible.
Realistically, short of a major architectural shift to components based on smartphone tech – and lots of it – the idea of Wii U possessing next-gen rendering capabilities doesn’t make a lot of sense. We know that there’s no transition to mobile tech because the IBM CPU is an off-shoot of an existing line and the firm doesn’t make mobile CPUs. Similarly, while AMD has produced smartphone GPUs, none of them get close to the performance of the Xbox 360′s Xenos GPU. That being the case, the chances are that it’s a customised variant of an existing PC Radeon part: Japanese sources have previously hinted at a connection to the Radeon HD 4000 series – and a lower-end chip from that range would be a good fit.
With the IBM chip confirmed at a 45nm process – the same as the current Xbox 360 – the question then moves on to how the graphics chip is made. TSMC, the most probable candidate for actually producing the chip, has just moved onto a 28nm process, and will be ramping up production throughout the year. But any new node typically starts with low production yields, so Nintendo would need to either swallow the cost (Microsoft did this at the launch of the 360 with the then state-of-the-art 90nm Xenos GPU) or downclock the chip. It’s far more likely that sticking to the existing, established 40nm process for AMD GPUs would actually be cheaper for them in the short term – and would provide cost-savings in the future when the chip could be shrunk economically.
But let’s assume that Nintendo does push the boat out here. Even a 45nm CPU and a 28nm GPU in a box that small is still likely to cause cooling issues for an actual “next-gen” 360 beater. The more probable 45nm CPU/40nm GPU combo combined with the size of the machine suggests a far more likely scenario: that Wii U has a ballpark performance level with current PS3 and Xbox 360 titles, perhaps actually lower. Across the years, chip designs may have become more refined and efficient but it’s worthwhile to point out that almost all major increases in processing power have mostly come from shrinks in the fabrication process meaning that more transistors can be packed into the same amount of silicon.
The final nail in the coffin about a notional 2x increase in power over the Xbox 360 comes from Nintendo itself. At no point has the platform holder ever suggested that Wii U offers that kind of leap in processing power, an extraordinary omission considering the amount of money Nintendo would need to invest in this architecture. The focus of the platform holder’s message is of course on where the money has been spent: the tablet controller, with its zero latency link to the console – technology that must have been fairly expensive.
But is there anything in the package that could give the Wii U an advantage over the PS3 and Xbox 360, aside from the tablet controller? We should look at the commodities that have collapsed in price over the past few years, and could prove genuinely useful for a games machine. RAM is the obvious choice: a 1GB minimum wouldn’t break the bank and would help developers significantly. The pre-E3 rumour of 8GB of flash RAM also makes sense, especially when we bear in mind that there is no internal hard drive. The Wii U optical drive – almost certainly based on Blu-ray technology – could also be faster than its PS3 equivalent too. This may be useful bearing in mind that the lack of HDD would preclude mandatory installs.
Read More:
[GameIndustry.biz]
, 31 Jan 2012
People often assume “gamers” are younger, but this 100 year-old lady proves them wrong. She says she keeps her brain active by playing on her Nintendo. She plays all day, trying several games. Her current “brain age” is 64 on word searching. It really is helping, and she suggest children to use them at school.
, 31 Jan 2012
The game is played with the Wii Remote held vertically, with players required to either tap the A button, or squeeze the A and B buttons together. Like previous titles, the game features various levels with their own set of rules, requiring the player to play in time to the rhythm in order to clear them. These levels range from stabbing peas with a fork, to attacking evil spirits with a sword and playing badminton in midair. At the end of each level, players are ranked on their performance, with at least an ‘Okay’ rank required to clear the level and progress onto the next. Each set of levels culminates in a Remix stage, which combines all the gameplay elements of the previous levels in one stage. There are a total of 50 levels divided across 10 sets.
Clearing levels with a Superb/High Level rating earns medals which unlock extra content, including Rhythm Toys, Endless Minigames and levels from the original Rhythm Tengoku. Levels that have been cleared with a Superb rating may also be randomly selected for a Perfect attempt, in which the player can try to clear the level without making any mistakes with the maximum of 3 retries before the perfect challenge disappear.
New to the series (bar the Arcade version of Rhythm Tengoku) is a multiplayer mode, in which two players can play simultaneously. Levels played in multiplayer require players to earn enough points in total to reach the desired rank and clear each stage, with bonus points awarded based on the harmony of the players. These levels come with their own set of medals which can unlock multiplayer minigames.
, 31 Jan 2012
Join the quest with Pikachu and his friends to save the missing Pokémon and discover the mystery of an enchanting new world in PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond, available exclusively for Wii across Europe from 23rd March 2012. As Pikachu and his Pals, solve the mystery of the missing Pokémon and save them from Wish Park. Only you can find out who or what is behind the disappearances in order to save the rest of the Pokémon.
Control one of four Pokémon characters in PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond, Pikachu and the Unova starter Pokémon Oshawott, Snivy and Tepig, all with unique abilities that will help you in your quest. Each of Pikachu’s Pokémon Pals’ unique skills could prove vital if you are to save the missing Pokémon from the trance of the mysterious world: Pikachu’s Electric moves can help you to activate devices on the way; Oshawott has the ability to move through water; Snivy can move faster and jump higher than the other Pokémon, and Tepig can destroy obstacles on your quest.
This wide range of skills allows Pikachu and his pals to adapt to almost any environment or situation, with easy-to-use controls that make PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond a game that young Pokémon fans and beginners can enjoy just as much as PokéPark veterans.
Pikachu, Oshawott, Snivy and Tepig aren’t the only Pokémon you will get to know on your mysterious journey as there are nearly 200 other Pokémon that you can befriend to lend you a hand on your adventure, including many from the Unova region. The other Pokémon can challenge you to games where you may have to battle multiple opponents, play a game of hide-and-seek, partake in a game of chase or even compete in a quiz. Take on these Pokémon to prove your skills and they will reward you by becoming your friend and helping you on your quest to save the Pokémon.
While searching for Pikachu and his pals’ friends, you will encounter Attractions, guarded by a Boss Pokémon. Once you have completed the Attraction, you will have to battle the Boss! You will have a choice of which of the four playable Pokémon you wish to use in the battle, but choose wisely as a particular Pokémon’s unique strengths may be best suited to the battle and would therefore give you a greater chance of success.
This game also offers younger players a chance to experience the magical world of Pokemon for the very first time and provides a safe platform allowing parents to leave their kids to play by themselves.
Can you solve who or what is behind the mystery of the disappearing Pokémon? Join Pikachu and his Pals and befriend and battle many different Pokémon in PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond, which launches across Europe on 23rd March 2012 only on Wii .
, 31 Jan 2012
A short film starring Hot Pockets and a gamer who is about to reach level 420. I think we’ve all been here. A Hot Pocket helmet that just queued up snacks into a easy to reach tube was made I think we’d all be set.
