Got our first screenshot at least. Impressive enemy design.
"An update to the game's official site fleshes out some of the game's backstory. A black hole forced humans to leave Earth. They placed all their belongings and valuables on large ships and set off into space. Once ship didn't fare very well: a gamma ray killed everyone inside. The ship's computer continued on, though, finding a safe planet to inhabit.
This new planet wasn't quite ideal, so the ship computers set out to make it so, generating Earth's creatures on this new surface. But, because of damage from an emergency landing, monsters were created instead of Earth creatures. A thousand years pass, and then the game begins.
You play as a new type of "human" created from the ship's computer. You'll work with the planet's natives, trading liquor for their Energy Balls, which you'll need to progress.
Andria Sang says that the battle system mixes real-time and command-based systems. You'll move your little human guy and ... Read More!
Let’s Catch is far from a definite recommendation to anyone, but it is pretty interesting and original, perhaps not in terms of gameplay but certainly in concept.
The gameplay itself is nothing too special: you flick the Wii remote to throw a ball and press A and B at the same time to catch it. Flicking the remote with just the right amount of force nets you more points, whereas when catching, your timing determines how well you're doing and how many points you will get. Do well several times in a row to build up a combo.
What makes the game interesting, however, is the story mode. In it, you throw and catch a ball with your neighbors and get to know them. Play well and they'll keep opening up to you about the issues they're facing. Do poorly and they'll stop playing with you. The more you listen to them, the higher your "friendship level" gets, and eventually you unlock new characters to play with.
You will find yourself throwing a ball while listening to a widower dad who thinks his ... Read More!
In My Life as a Darklord, you get to play a Final Fantasy defending herself against the stream of would-be heroes assaulting her tower. It falls under the "tower defense" genre, which I am not overly fond of, but MLAADL has made me a believer. It offers a more streamlined experience than most of the other games in that genre I've played, taking out the guesswork and the experimentation and making it more about strategy. When you fail, you can usually point out exactly what you did wrong, and succeed on the second try.
The game has you defend this lone tower by building floors equipped with booby traps, which you populate with monsters (up to three on a floor, but different types of floors have different capacities). The adventurers will arrive alone or in groups of 2 or 3 at a time, however only one adventurer will visit a floor at a time. The next adventurer, finding the floor occupied, will move on to the next one. An adventurer will remain on a floor until he has destroyed it, until ... Read More!
The release of Cho Aniki on the Virtual Console is the first time this PC-Engine side-scrolling shoot’em-up is available for purchase outside of Japan. I remember reading about it nearly 20 years ago now in EGM and raising an eyebrow given the game’s subject matter: big muscled men.
Indeed, this weird Japanese game is all about bodybuilders in Speedos. The story: an Emperor who achieved ten consecutive victories in the Great Galaxy Bodybuilding contest faces an ever decreasing supply of protein and starts invading neighboring star systems in order to replenish his supply. Your own planet is in peril and so you fly out in space and start shooting.
As you can guess, the whole appeal of the game is the novelty of playing a bodybuilder-themed shmup to then be able to tell friends: “let me tell you about this messed up game I played” and then discuss how crazy the Japanese are.
And so initially, I was disappointed by the relative lack of bodybuilders and generally just how tame ... Read More!
The easiest way to describe Dive: The Medes Islands Secret would be to call it a side-scrolling Endless Ocean, but it is not quite accurate. Just like in Endless Ocean, you are a diver scouring the floor of the ocean looking for treasure, but whereas Endless Ocean removed any danger element and makes for a tranquil experience, exploring the seas in Dive is definitely a more hazardous and challenging affair.
The controls are simple and intuitive: you point where you want to go using the remote’s pointer, and hold B to swim. It makes adjusting your trajectory a breeze: you can drastically reorient yourself much more quickly than you ever could with an analog stick. And that is important, because very quickly in the game fast, aggressive creatures will charge at you without a moment’s notice. You’re also equipped with a dart gun to defend yourself, but the limited ammo is so limited and it take so long to fire that most of the time, evading attacks and outswimming your aggressors is your ... Read More!
DoReMi Fantasy is a colorful SNES platformer on the Virtual Console that carries the import price tag of 900 Nintendo points, seeing as it’s the first time it is being made available in North America.
You play as Milon, a little boy who stole Link’s hat, fairy, and possibly lunch money. Milon also went to Mario’s school of self-defense: he jumps on his enemies’ heads, and runs when you hold the attack button. He does distinguish himself with the fact that jumping on enemies only knocks them out, and makes it possible to use them as platforms, an unfortunately underexploited mechanic. Most of the time, you’ll be taking out baddies with his main attack: shooting bubbles. Once an enemy is trapped in a bubble, then all you have to do is touch it to send it flying outside the screen.
Milon goes through the standard 90s cliché platforming worlds: forest, water, ice, lava and, um, cakeland. These different worlds are more than mere palette swaps, however, as each new world introduces a new ... Read More!
Fantasy Slots: Adventure Slots and Games Publisher: Big John Games Players: 1 ESRB Rating: T (Teen) – Simulated Gambling Price: 700 Wii Points™ Description: Players can bring the exciting "Slots" experience home. Choose from six adventure-themed, five-reel bonus slots, or try your luck with classic Cherries or Diamonds slots. Win big jackpots and earn access to VIP suites. Players can use their winnings to purchase vibrant merchandise to customize their suites. As players progress, they can win multiple awards and achievements. Five-reel bonus slots include Gold Rush, Power of Zeus, Pirate Cove, Wild Safari, King Arthur's Excalibur and the Rising Sun. Classic three-reel slots are Diamonds and Cherries. Additional features include: High Roller Suites, where you can live like a VIP while customizing your own high roller suite with items such as artwork, pool tables, trophies and furniture; Bonus Games, offering six great games that can be played separately to challenge your nerves and ... Read More!
Here comes another repurposed review, for your perusing pleasure.
Art Style: Precipice (or Art Style: Kubos, overseas) is yet another little slice of downloadable (DSi) heaven from the lovely lads at Skip. It's a really cool physical puzzle game. Sort of like Mr. Driller in reverse. Or Congo Bongo meets Tetris (meets Q-Bert?). Blocks fall in a small 3-D grid, and you manipulate a minimalist 3D stick figure character to 'paint' each block by walking over it and climb ever upwards without getting squashed or falling into nothingness (when the bottom layer drops off). You can also reshape the field by pushing or pulling blocks. The game is intuitive, simple, and fun, with a nice dash of added complexity by way of Bomb Blocks to defuse, Energy Blocks to harvest, and a limited Blast move. Because of the deliberate speed of movement and telegraphed block drops, Precipice has a measured, strategic feel, which belies the underlying tension in a very interesting way.
This game is a prime example of what a WiiWare title should be. Given its huge limitations, titles on the service should not try to emulate full retail releases, but rather be simple, original and straight-up fun concepts executed well. Take a game like Jett Rocket for example. While it is a great game, in the end it just makes you wish it were a retail game so it could look better, last longer, and be overall bigger.
But then there are games which don't need to be bigger, and so are perfect for WiiWare. The Art Style games are a good example of that. There's five of them already, all very good, however one of them stands as easily the best: Art Style Rotozoa.
In the game you control that ... thing with tentacles you see in the picture above, maneuvering it around ... somewhere with the d-pad, and twsiting it clockwise with the 2 Button, and counter-clockwise with the 1 button. The goal of each stage is to collect as many "pieces" of the tentacles as you're told in the beginning (for ... Read More!
My first remark is whoever said it looked like an N64 game deserves to be shot (wait, I haven't said that, have I)? I think it looks absolutely fantastic, visually.
And then, no voice acting? Disney needs to get with the times and start pushing the envelope again. It's sad to see how much Mickey has fallen behind and lost its significance. They could have given the Mad Doctor its original voice (lol)!!!
And then, some comics will describe both the world Mickey will visit from before the game, and then some others tell the game story (source: NintendoLife). ... Read More!
