Source: videogamesblogger.com

Here’s a list of this weeks U.S. game releases. The most popular games are Saints Row 2 on Xbox 360 & PS3, Dead Space on Xbox 360 & PS3, Rock Band 2 on PS3, SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Confrontation on PS3, and FIFA Soccer 09 on multiple platforms. On the downloadable games front we’ve got today’s Wii Shop titles World of Goo, Art Style: Cubello, Secret of Mana, Street Fighter II’: Special Champion Edition, as well as Age of Booty on Xbox Live Arcade (updates Wednesday). No word yet on any games for PlayStation Network or GameTap Gold (both update on Thursday).

Monday:
Art Style: Cubello - $6 (Wii Shop)
Avatar: The Last Airbender - Into the Inferno (Wii, PS2)
Bratz: Girls Really Rock (Wii, PS2, DS)
Blitz: The League II (Xbox 360, PS3)
Secret of Mana - $8 (Wii Shop)
Street Fighter II’: Special Champion Edition - $8 (Wii Shop)
World of Goo - $15 (Wii Shop, PC)

Tuesday:
Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs (DS)
Boogie Superstar (Wii)
Brain Training for Dummies (PC)
Cesar Millan’s Dog Whisperer (DS, PC)
Combat Wings: Battle of Britain (PC)
Dead Space (Xbox 360, PS3)
Disney Sing It (PS3, PS2, Wii, Xbox 360)
Dokapon Kingdom (Wii, PS2)
FIFA Soccer 09 (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, DS, PC)
Golden Axe: Beast Rider (Xbox 360, PS3)
Littlest Pet Shop (Wii)
Littlest Pet Shop: Garden (DS)
Littlest Pet Shop: Jungle (DS)
Littlest Pet Shop: Winter (DS)
Lovely Lisa (DS)
My Dress Up (DS)
My Japanese Coach (DS)
My Secret Diary (DS)
Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 (DS)
Penny Racers Party: Turbo-Q Speedway (Wii)
Poker for Dummies (PC)
Rock Band 2 (PS3)
Rock Revolution (Xbox 360, PS3, DS)
Saints Row 2 (Xbox 360, PS3)
Sam & Max: Season One (Wii)
Smart Boy’s Toy Club (DS)
Smart Girl’s Party Game (DS)
Smart Kid’s Party Fun Pack (DS)
SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Confrontation (PS3)

Wednesday:
Age of Booty - $10 (Xbox Live Arcade)
SafeCracker: The Ultimate Puzzle Adventure (Wii)
Space Trader: Merchant Marine (PC)
Tak: Guardians of Gross (Wii, PS2)
Tak: Mojo Mistake (DS)

Friday:
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (PC)

Source: infendo.com

Well, it’s pretty easy to say that I could spend almost thirty bucks on WiiWare and Virtual Console games this week.  We have World Of Goo, Art Style: Cubello, Secret Of Mana, and Street Fighter II’: Special Champion Edition.  Not sure why we need a fourth version of Street Fighter II.

Anything you’re going to buy?  I’m sure glad I have the day off of work!

Full game details after the break.

WiiWare

World of Goo (2D Boy, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone—Comic Mischief, 1,500 Wii Points): World of Goo is an award-winning, physics-based puzzle/construction game made entirely by two guys. Grab living, squirming, talking globs of goo to build structures, bridges, cannonballs, zeppelins and giant tongues. The millions of Goo Balls that live in the beautiful World of Goo are curious to explore—but they don’t know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious. World of Goo Corporation is contractually obligated to state that everyone is a winner, and is enthusiastic to celebrate everyone’s Goo building opportunities equally.

Art Style: CUBELLO (Nintendo, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points): Art Style: CUBELLO mixes the strategy and feel of a traditional puzzle game with the precision and reflexes required in a shooter. As each stage begins, various colored cubes form into one large object called a Cubello, which floats and rotates as you play. Launch additional cubes from your magazine and try to connect four or more of the same color, removing them from the Cubello and eventually leaving only its core. Take on the challenge of either Stage or Endless mode and watch what happens when Bonus Time is activated. The straightforward controls and goal ensure that anyone can play, while offering enough depth that even advanced players will find themselves quickly addicted to the unique world of Art Style: CUBELLO.

Virtual Console

SECRET OF MANA (Super NES, 1-3 players, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older—Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, 800 Wii Points): Good and evil battle for a young warrior’s heart. There is one force in the universe that keeps good and evil in perfect balance. It is called the tree of Mana. But a magic sword has tricked a young warrior into upsetting this balance, spreading evil throughout the land. Thus, the warrior must undertake a dangerous journey to find the seeds of the Mana tree, which have been hidden for centuries. Only then can perfect harmony be restored. In this incredible adventure, things are not as they seem. Magic swords release evil as well as fight it. Treasure chests hold booby traps. Monsters are friends and friends are enemies. Potions give power, black magic takes it away. Dragons fly, weapons change. It’s a world turned upside down that you must help the warrior make right. And the only way to succeed is to solve the Secret of Mana.

STREET FIGHTER II’: SPECIAL CHAMPION EDITION (Sega Genesis, 1-2 players, Rated T for Teen—Violence, 800 Wii Points): STREET FIGHTER II’: SPECIAL CHAMPION EDITION was the first STREET FIGHTER game released for the Sega Genesis console. The STREET FIGHTER series can be considered one of the first fighting games to popularize competitive video game fighting. This version of the game contains both the CHAMPION and HYPER rule sets, from the two editions released in the arcades. It also introduced an exclusive Group Battle mode that is now a general feature in most fighting games. Play as one of 12 different characters, each with their own distinctive fighting style. Try single-player mode or challenge a friend in this legendary, classic fighting game.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Today Nintendo adds new/classic games to the popular Wii Shop Channel. The games go live at 9AM Pacific time. 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 (see Card above).

We’ve included videos of each of today’s games for nostalgia’s sake or so you can see if it’s to your tastes.

This week’s new WiiWare games are:

World of Goo (2D Boy, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone—Comic Mischief, 1,500 Wii Points = $15): World of Goo is an award-winning, physics-based puzzle/construction game made entirely by two guys. Grab living, squirming, talking globs of goo to build structures, bridges, cannonballs, zeppelins and giant tongues. The millions of Goo Balls that live in the beautiful World of Goo are curious to explore—but they don’t know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious. World of Goo Corporation is contractually obligated to state that everyone is a winner, and is enthusiastic to celebrate everyone’s Goo building opportunities equally.

Art Style: Cubello (Nintendo, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points = $6): Art Style: Cubello mixes the strategy and feel of a traditional puzzle game with the precision and reflexes required in a shooter. As each stage begins, various colored cubes form into one large object called a Cubello, which floats and rotates as you play. Launch additional cubes from your magazine and try to connect four or more of the same color, removing them from the Cubello and eventually leaving only its core. Take on the challenge of either Stage or Endless mode and watch what happens when Bonus Time is activated. The straightforward controls and goal ensure that anyone can play, while offering enough depth that even advanced players will find themselves quickly addicted to the unique world of Art Style: Cubello.

This week’s new Virtual Console games are:

Secret of Mana (Super NES, 1-3 players, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older—Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, 800 Wii Points = $8): Good and evil battle for a young warrior’s heart. There is one force in the universe that keeps good and evil in perfect balance. It is called the tree of Mana. But a magic sword has tricked a young warrior into upsetting this balance, spreading evil throughout the land. Thus, the warrior must undertake a dangerous journey to find the seeds of the Mana tree, which have been hidden for centuries. Only then can perfect harmony be restored. In this incredible adventure, things are not as they seem. Magic swords release evil as well as fight it. Treasure chests hold booby traps. Monsters are friends and friends are enemies. Potions give power, black magic takes it away. Dragons fly, weapons change. It’s a world turned upside down that you must help the warrior make right. And the only way to succeed is to solve the Secret of Mana.

Street Fighter II’: Special Champion Edition (Sega Genesis, 1-2 players, Rated T for Teen—Violence, 800 Wii Points = $8): Street Fighter II’: Special Champion Edition was the first Street Fighter game released for the Sega Genesis console. The Street Fighter series can be considered one of the first fighting games to popularize competitive video game fighting. This version of the game contains both the Champion and Hyper rule sets, from the two editions released in the arcades. It also introduced an exclusive Group Battle mode that is now a general feature in most fighting games. Play as one of 12 different characters, each with their own distinctive fighting style. Try single-player mode or challenge a friend in this legendary, classic fighting game.

Source: infendo.com

Hit the jump for press release, fact sheet, and a few more screens.

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HIGH VOLTAGE HOT ROD SHOW RUMBLES ONTO THE WII!!
High Voltage Software announces new multiplayer racer for WiiWare

Hoffman Estates, IL – October 10, 2008 - High Voltage Software, Inc., one of the world’s largest independent developers, today announced High Voltage Hot Rod Show, an intense new racing title scheduled for release on the WiiWare downloadable service later this Fall.

High Voltage Hot Rod Show requires players to master more than the basic racing skills to compete. A unique stunt system gives players multiple ways to build boost, which drastically increases a Hot Rod’s speed. If you get too greedy, you might crash and burn! The game utilizes the company’s proprietary Quantum 3 Game Engine technology, which provides graphical performance and game play not possible on other Wii titles.

“We wanted High Voltage Hot Rod Show to be a fresh and exciting racing title for the Wii that would provide up to four friends with endless replay value,” said Kerry Ganofsky, CEO and founder of High Voltage Software. “The result is a game that is easy to pick up and play, but maintains a core of skill-based racing, which gives it special appeal.”

“Style was important to us on this project,” said Benjamin Savage, Lead Artist on the title. “We were inspired by the work of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and that led us to design some really exciting characters, Hot Rods, and even music. We hope players will love the direction we’ve taken.”

“We set the bar for ourselves very high with each new title” said Eric Nofsinger, Chief Creative Officer of High Voltage Software. “Not only have we created a fantastic racing title with support for split-screen racing and online leaderboards, but we’ve also demonstrated the incredible versatility of the Quantum 3 Game Engine.”

About High Voltage Software, Inc.

High Voltage Software is a game development company located in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Established in 1993, employs more than 130 staff members. Red Eye Studios, a motion capture facility, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of HVS. For more information, please visit their website at www.high-voltage.com.

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Fact Sheet:

High Voltage Hot Rod Show
Format: WiiWare™
Launch Date: Q4, 2008
ESRB: E (Everyone 10 and Older) – Mild Cartoon Violence
Game Type: Racing
Players: 1-4
Developer: High Voltage Software, Inc.

Key Information
High Voltage Hot Rod Show is a slick and fast-paced racer that challenges up to 4 players to tear up the track on a variety of off-road courses, mastering death-defying stunts and building enough Boost to stomp the competition. Players must learn to tame their monster Hot Rods by nailing ramps, powerslides, bunny-hops and tricks, while avoiding mud pits and smashing through Boost Rings to fill their Boost Meters. Players can compete against seven CPU opponents in Championship mode, or set their best lap times in the Time Trials. Top times can be uploaded to an online scoreboard via Wi-Fi Connection and shared with players around the world. Multiplayer supports up to four players in split-screen mode, giving each player a wide range of controller choices. High Voltage Hot Rod Show is an addictive racer that fully leverages the company’s cutting-edge Wii technology!

• Boost or Die - Unique Stunt/Boost system rewards players with more speed for getting the biggest air and pulling off the wildest stunts. Be careful though, your Boost will evaporate if you crash and burn.
• Shake It Up – The default control scheme is similar to Mario Kart Wii, with motion-based steering and stunts.
• Racing, a la Mode – Three different game modes: Championship, Time Trial, and Multiplayer provide hours of white-knuckle competition.
• Choose your Poison – Players can choose from a variety of rockin’ Hot Rods, each associated with a unique character. Each Hot Rod has skins that can be unlocked by earning gold trophies in Championship mode.
• Bragging Rights – Post your top lap times for each of the tracks online and see how you fare against the world’s best.
• Couch Crashers – Fire up the game with up to four players in split screen mode and customize your multiplayer race series to suit your taste.

Gameplay Mechanics: High Voltage Hot Rod Show is an off-road racer with jumps and stunts. To win the race, players must not only successfully navigate each track at high speeds, but they must hit ramps and perform tricks in the air. These tricks build Boost in the Boost Meter. Boost kicks in automatically when the wheels hit the ground, providing a burst of speed. Other tools the player can use are the Powerslide, which makes handling more difficult but increases the speed through turns and maximizes boost, and Bunny-Hopping, which can be used to clear mud and obstacles and also to achieve maximum air off ramps. Players can also aim for lofty Speed Stars, which hover high above the track and reward skilled drivers with top speed bonuses.

How to progress through the game: The game is divided into three modes. The single-player Championship mode provides a series races with increasing AI difficulty. By winning races, the players unlock more races and skins for their Hot Rods. Time Trial mode encourages practice, helps players to learn the best lines through each track, and records their best times to be stored locally and compared with other players online. Multiplayer mode lets players customize a series of races with different tracks and lap counts to compete against up to three of their friends in split-screen fashion.

Track Features: There are various types of tracks: Island, Desert, Forest, and Ruins, each with a unique layout that challenges the player in different ways. Ramps, Powerstrips, Boost Rings, Mud Pits, Speed Stars, barriers and chasms all play a part. The more difficult tracks have fewer guard rails, more intense jumps, and more danger.

Difficulty: This is a skill-based game, but it is still fun and accessible for new players, even if they need a few races under their belts before they can hang with the veterans. Championship mode is geared to provide a few extra-easy races while players acclimate to the driving mechanics. Tips appear before each race begins to help players learn advanced techniques. Once players have the controls down to a science and the tracks memorized, they will find a whole new level of skilled gameplay that provides endless replay value.

Controls: It’s tough to be all things to all people, but High Voltage Hot Rod Show pulls it off by providing players with lots of control options. Controls default to the Wii motion-based scheme used by Mario Kart Wii and Excite Truck (players can use the Wii Wheel if they choose). Players can also plug in a Nunchuk for analog steering, or use the Classic Controller or GameCube Controller if they prefer a more traditional control scheme.

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Source: videogamesblogger.com

Square Enix’s new action-RPG Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time for both the Wii and Nintendo DS is coming out in Japan in a few months on January 29th, 2009. If you’re curious how the Pollux Engine allows up to four Wii and DS gamers to play together at the same time online (co-op), as well as supporting complete interaction between the two system, then you’ll enjoy the debut trailer.

Watch the first Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time gameplay video.

Click on the bottom-right corner arrow to view it fullscreen.

Source: infendo.com

Even the medicine colored title screen of Yudo’s “Aero Guitar” that was released on the Japanese Wii Shop Channel last week told me that the game might not really satiate my desire for a quick-quality music title to play while waiting for “Wii Music” and the pointlessly late Japan release of “Samba de Amigo.” Nonetheless I figured it would at least make for a fun review and I flushed my 800 yen down the digital drain.

Time to call the plumber.

Aero Guitar tries to capitalize on the stateside success of “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” and lack of attention from Konami to port their original “Guitar Freaks/Drum Mania” series onto the Wii.

Let’s get the most crucial part out of the way: the music. A music game has to have good music to be a good game and this one does not. It’s got four cheesy songs pre-loaded from bands you have never heard of (with vulgar names, no less) that appear to be mimicking other songs like the kinds they use in low-budget commercials that couldn’t afford to use originals. It appears you can buy a couple more songs with your hard earned Wii points but it’s hard to justify paying a premium for songs you don’t know. 

Forgoing any peripherals, the game uses the wiimote (or the much less fun A-button) to strum and all the while you press either up, down, or nothing at all on the nunchuck to simulate the holding down of a string. In theory this isn’t a terrible way to simulate how a guitar might feel, but the wiimote strumming is a hair-trigger. It ended up being more effective to hold the remote like a drum stick and swing it forward over-hand with my wrist, rather than moving it up and down in a strumming motion.

In addition, any note can be played by flicking the wiimote forwards or backwards, but some bonus notes can only be activated with the backwards flick. These are notoriously hard to pick up and presumably add a level of challenge though the points system doesn’t make a lot of sense. Also the lack of any tutorial or practice mode before the game started made sure I wouldn’t hit at least the first 4 or 5 bonus notes without any trial and error. Overall the effect is fun for a bit, but you end up pounding the wiimote quite hard and it kind of gets tiring quickly.

Oh yeah, and once the notes get fast? Forget about it. I cleared all but one song on normal mode with relative ease but the hardest song “How the hell?” contains a few quick notes that just don’t seem plausible — as if strumming the previous note keeps the wiimote from sensing the next one. Aero Guitar actually gives you quite a bit of control over how fast the notes go by, and the faster you make them the easier it is to figure out these quick strums, but most of the time they still seem not to work.

This brings me to Aero Guitar’s biggest problem: the overall interface. All selection can be done using the D-Pad and buttons but the default is to point at it with a guitar-pick shaped cursor. Now a pick is shaped like a triangle (right?) and one would assume that the tip of the triangle would be the part of the cursor you need to put on an icon in order to select it… right?? Apparently Yudo did not see my way and you actually have to point the fat bottom end of the pick on an icon to select anything. Now if you went ahead and read the instructions you might know that you can use the d-pad to circumvent this issue, but here’s one you can’t fix. Let’s say you pick the wrong song or the wrong difficulty - there is no pause menu, you cannot quick-fail the song by fudging every note, and you can’t even go back to the Wii menu. You have to either wait until the entire song has finished or reset the console just to get back to a menu. This is an oversight that encourages users to turn the game off — which is never good.

I don’t know if this is normal but I also had one of the three commands (up and stum) simply stop registering on one song — quite frustrating when you can’t pause or quit in the middle.

Now I make it my business to pick up almost every rhythm game and play it at least once no matter how terrible, but Aero Guitar doesn’t really need to be picked up again after that. Unless you’re really itching to try out the strumming or… can think of another reason, I wouldn’t recommend buying Aero Guitar if/when it is released stateside. Let’s hope if it is, though they fix some of the above problems.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Tatsunoko vs Capcom is heading to the Wii if you haven’t heard. The reason the Wii was chosen is due to the arcade hardware the game was made on, which is based on the Wii hardware. Thus making for easy port over to the Wii.

Tatsunoko VS Capcom is the newest game in Capcom’s “versus” series that includes the incredibly popular Marvel VS Capcom and Capcom VS SNK arcade staples.

Sadly the game may not come to the United States due to licensing issues. The game involves characters from many different anime series from a company known as Tatsunoko Productions, which is most well known in the U.S. for the Gatchaman and Speed Racer series. The problem is that, in the U.S., different companies hold the rights to the different characters, thus making it difficult for Capcom to get the licensing issues sorted out. That’s in addition to the characters not being well known in the U.S. and/or some of them never having been released outside of Japan legally.

The Wii version will include at least one new exclusive character and will support both the Classic and GameCube controllers.

Check out a new gameplay video from the game from the Tokyo Game Show 2008 show floor and a previously released trailer.

Gameplay Footage

Japanese Debut Trailer

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Discipline is an upcoming WiiWare downloadable game developed by the same guy who brought the world Doshin the Giant and Tail of the Sun, director Kazutoshi Iida.

We know very little about this game . . . but the video kind of speaks for itself, don’t you think?

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Arc Rise Fantasia is an upcoming Wii-exclusive RPG that was first unvieled in the pages of the popular Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu.

The game is being developed by imageepoch and published by Marvelous Entertainment in Japan, and features people on the development team who were involved with Namco’s Tales RPG series (the latest of which is Tales of Hearts for DS). That includes Hiroyuki Kanemaru, who was the scenario script director and level concept designer for Tales of Symphonia. Other people on the development team have worked on Tales of the Abyss, Luminous Arc, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Shadow Hearts, Xenosaga, and others.

Story:
Arc Rise Fantasia is set in the empire of Meridian. Creatures called “Contaminant Dragons” are causing a lot of trouble as they pass the Meridian in flocks. If one is killed, the resulting explosion poisons the local area. When the empire receives word that a massive horde has its sights on the capital of Diamant, it immediately sends out an army to fight them, including Bright, a cool and collected novice mercenary, and his friend Alse, the beloved prince and second in line for the throne. Bright is severely injured during the battle, but is saved by a girl named Ryphia, who has secrets in her past and possesses the power to control “ley squalls,” naturally-occurring storms of magic that usually take the form of luminous rain.

As for the game itself, the goal of the team is to create a modern day “classic Japanese RPG” that is heavily inspired by the standard RPG conventions we’ve known and loved since the 80’s. Naturally, the game will be turn-based and will feature three-person parties.

For more info on the game, check out these new trailers from the Tokyo Game Show 2008.

Debut Trailer


Arc Rise Fantasia Intro Part 1

Arc Rise Fantasia Intro Part 2

Arc Rise Fantasia Intro Part 3

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Castlevania Judgment is playable on the show floor at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show in Japan and that has brought us new gameplay footage of the Wii fighting game in action as well as a new trailer.

The game is scheduled for release in the United States on November 18th and in Europe in the first half of 2009 (with a Japanese release on January 15th, 2009). Keep in mind that this is the Wii fighting game spin-off, NOT the new next-gen Xbox 360/PS3 Castlevania.

Like a lot of things from TGS 08, the video isn’t the best quality given that it was taken off of the screen with a camera, but regardless you still get to see new video of the game in action.

Including the trailer, there is new gameplay footage of Death, Maria and Simon duking it out. Looks pretty fun to me, much in the vein of Super Smash Bros. Brawl or Capcom’s Power Stone series.

Death vs Death Gameplay


TGS 08 Castlevania Judgment Trailer


Maria vs Simon Gameplay