This week (October 1st) marks the one year anniversary of The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass. With 4.30 million copies sold around the world, the everlasting strength of the portable titles in the Zelda franchise are obviously unstoppable.
How did you like Phantom Hourglass? I personally loved the visual style, puzzles, and praised the touch control method, but a few aspects held it back. Mainly the unavoidable ‘Temple of the Ocean King’ which put a halt too many a gamers progress. This massive temple required the player to constantly redo the dungeon in between normal temples. This was a good concept on paper, but gave the final product a dreaded chore. Beyond that rut, The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass is a spectacular DS title which no handheld owner should be without.
Have you beaten it yet, or is it still in a pile of “need-to-play” games?
The latest issue of American gaming magazine EGM has an interesting rumor in the Quartermann section. Apparently a Strider 3 game series revival is being considered by Capcom.
To quote: “It looks like Capcom may not be done revisiting classic franchises and characters from its massive catalog due in large part to the success of Bionic Commando: Rearmed and high praise for the retro resurrection of Mega Man. The Qmann says that Capcom is eying none other than futuristic ninja Strider Hiryu as a potential candidate for revival in a new Devil May Cry-style action game.”
Today Nintendo of Europe and Australia added new classic games to the popular Wii Shop Channel. The games went live at midnight CET. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at stores like Amazon UK (Card).
We’ve included videos of the games so you can see if it’s for you. This week’s new games are:
Earthworm Jim (Sega Mega Drive, Action/Platformer, 1 player, 800 Wii Points = €8 / £6 / AU$12): Jim was just an ordinary earthworm who did regular earthworm-like things such as flee from crows and eat dirt. One day, during a grand space battle overhead, a super suit drops to Earth and lands around Jim - and transforms him into a large and intelligent (at least by earthworm standards) superhero! Then, when Jim learns of the evil plans of Psy-Crow and Queen Slug-for-a-Butt, he jumps into action and resolves to rescue the beautiful Princess What’s-Her-Name! — Play as Jim in this zany, madcap Sega Mega Drive adventure! Run, gun, swing on hooks by your (worm) head and launch cows at the quirky villains you meet along the way, such as Major Mucus, Chuck and Fill, Evil the Cat and Bob the Killer Goldfish. Groovy!
(Supports Wii Component AV cable Interlace Mode.)
Shining Force II: Ancient Sealing (Sega Mega Drive, RPG, 1 player, 800 Wii Points = €8 / £6 / AU$12): It’s a dark and stormy night in the kingdom of Granseal, when a thief steals two jewels from the Tower of the Ancients, which sets in motion strange events that lead to the resurrection of Zeon, the Devil King! Granseal’s king falls sick, the princess is kidnapped and a door to Arc Valley, the Devil King’s home, is opened. The young swordsman Bowie, realising the grave danger Granseal faces, must lead the Shining Force to find the Holy Sword and the stolen jewels and protect Granseal against the invading armies of the evil Zeon.
Here’s a tidbit you might like to know for when you pick up Fable 2 for your Xbox 360 on October 21st, 2008. It turns out that Fable 2’s online co-op won’t be available right away at launch, instead it will be added later in the launch week.
To quote Microsoft’s Gamerscoreblog: “We just got word that while we will be able to play the single player and [full screen] local co-op on day one, they are still making tweaks to the online co-op. […] Lionhead and Microsoft Game Studios are looking to get the update out within the first week of launch in North America.”
No word yet on how this will play out in other regions outside of North America, but I imagine in a similar fashion: a small delay.
See how online co-op works 3:30 minutes into this Fable 2 video, where creator Peter Molyneux explains it.
Watch it to the end if you want to know why Peter says “cheeky bastard!” to his co-op friend.
The DICE team at Electronic Arts have announced they’ll be releasing four multiplayer maps for Battlefield: Bad Company. They’ll be part of a free Map Pack that will be released by the end of October 2008 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The two community selected multiplayer maps are: “Acta Non Verba” and “Par for the Course”.
The two developer selected additional maps they felt were best suited for Conquest mode are: “Ghost Town” and “Crossing Over”.
Additionally, this month the developer will release a Battlefield: Bad Company title update to fix some of the still outstanding bugs like the VoIP issue on PS3. — Via Bcompany
Microsoft has released “Delta Blues”, the third instalment in a series of video documentaries that showcase the development of Gears of War 2 before its worldwide launch on November 7th, 2008.
“Delta Blues” provides an inside look at the members of Delta Squad from those who know them best. In this vidoc, find out what it means to never fight alone as Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski, senior producer Rod Fergusson and president Mike Capps discuss the iconic characters who comprise Delta Squad, as well as the new characters introduced in Gears of War 2.
Watch the third Gears of War 2 video documentary.
Watch the latest Gears of War 2 video documentary too. In “Enter the Horde” Epic gives a closer look at brutal new foes.
This week (October 1st) marks the one year anniversary of The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass. With 4.30 million copies sold around the world, the everlasting strength of the portable titles in the Zelda franchise are obviously unstoppable. 
