Nintendo Download: Art of Balance: Touch, Lego Batman 2 demo, more

Posted on June 7, 2012 by John Scalzo

Nintendo has supplied a pretty substantial update with their weekly Nintendo Download, including a 3DS demo of Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes.

Also available this week is five new games:

Art of Balance: Touch! (3DS eShop) – Grab your stylus and build a balanced stack in this physics-based puzzler. Enjoy 200 levels that not only challenge your skills but also spark your imagination. Art of Balance: Touch! is easy to pick up but hard to put away.

Prince of Persia (3DS eShop) – Relive a classic game that’s been heralded as a pioneer of the platforming genre. This version is faithful to the original, complete with the dashing acrobatics of the Prince that made the game famous.

Cat Frenzy (DSiWare) – This adorable and relaxing puzzle introduces totally new twists to the popular slide and match-3 mechanics and, of course, lots of cats.

Curling Super Championship (DSiWare) – Curling is the world famous sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice toward a target area, the “house.” Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy stones, also called “rocks.”

The Last Blade (Wii Virtual Console) – Originally released in 1997, The Last Blade is a fighting game set in the “Bakumatsu” period of Japanese history, where 10-plus swordsmen are fighting for different purposes.

Posted in 3DS, DS, News, Wii | Tagged

Nordic Games resurrects Painkiller franchise

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Melissa Niedringhaus

Nordic Games is bringing back the Painkiller franchise with a new installment called Painkiller Hell & Damnation. The game is being developed by Polish studio The Farm 51, and will be developed with the Unreal Engine 3.

Expect lots of fast-paced gameplay and big boss fights with an “old school FPS ideology.”

Reinhard Pollice, who is responsible for Business and Product Development at Nordic Games, said player skill will be the most important part of the game, and that they will be putting “tremendous emphasis on the game’s multiplayer component.”

A first build is being shown at E3 2012, and Nordic Games promised that more information is forthcoming!

Posted in News, PC | Tagged ,

$99 subscription-based Xbox 360 console moves to Best Buy, GameStop this month

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Nicole Kline

Are you the only other person in the United States other than me who doesn’t have an Xbox 360? Well, you’re probably about to be $99 poorer. Major Nelson announced on his blog that the $99 4GB Xbox 360 with Kinect and two-year subscription service is coming to all Best Buys and select GameStop stores later this month.

The two-year subscription service is $14.99 a month for 24 months of Xbox Live. This comes out to nearly $360. Coincidence?!?!

In all seriousness, this pilot program (an expansion of the original Microsoft Store-only promotion) is a huge deal for Microsoft. This might just be the year I actually buy an Xbox.

Posted in News, Xbox 360 |

Sound Shapes coming to PS3, Vita on August 7

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Nicole Kline

Sound Shapes, the musical side-scrolling platformer by Canadian studio Queasy Games, will be coming to both PlayStation 3 and Vita on August 7. Sony made this announcement on the PlayStation Blog. Superbrothers and Jim Guthrie have provided the music and artwork for one of the levels, called Corporeal. In fact, the adorable video above shows Guthrie playing the game and using the editor, creating a level right on the spot.

The beauty of releasing this for both systems on the same day is that there will be crossplay availability from the get-go. As Mathew Kumar so elegantly wrote:

Through the magic of crossplay, you’ll be able to share content between the two systems without even having to really think about it. It’s all thanks to the “cloud” which floats above us like a benevolent data god. Save your campaign data up in the cloud, and download and resume on either platform. Maybe you’ll start creating a song at home on the PS3, but then decide that it’s not really the place to compose your latest masterpiece! Just download it to your PS Vita and make some beats on the bus. Then get off the bus several stops late, in a part of town you don’t know that well, and make some beats there! Then get another bus home, probably.

I’ve been on those buses, Mathew.

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Scribblenauts Unlimited coming to 3DS, PC, Wii U

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Nicole Kline

Warner Bros. and 5th Cell are expanding Maxwell’s horizons yet again, bringing him to the 3DS, PC, and Wii U with Scribblenauts Unlimited this holiday season. We’ll finally be learning more about Maxwell’s background as well – not only do we get to find out how he got his magical notepad, but we’ll also get the skinny on his parents and twin sister, Lily.

The PC and Wii U versions will also include an Object Editor, allowing players to make and share creations online. All objects – shared and summoned in the game – can be stored in your “magic backpack.” Jeremiah Slaczka, C.E.O. and Creative Director of 5th Cell, said, “With new gameplay modes and features, Scribblenauts Unlimited sets no limits on how players can use their imagination. The game breaks the franchise’s previously set boundaries and allows for unlimited creativity.”

This sounds promising. Even though I never finished the first one, I’m ready to put my Maxwell hat back on and jump into another creative adventure with him.

Posted in 3DS, News, PC, Wii U | Tagged ,

Atlus and ACE Team are bringing Zeno Clash II to PC, PS3, Xbox 360 in 2013

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Nicole Kline

Atlus has been busy, it seems – the publisher announced that it will be teaming up with ACE Team to release Zeno Clash II in early 2013 for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The first game was an indie first-person brawler, and the sequel is going to tie in RPG elements in a vast open-world setting to make it bigger than the original.

The game will also feature drop-in/drop-out online co-op, allowing players to team Ghat up with his sister, Rimat. Andres Bordeu, co-founder of ACE Team, had this to say:

“The world of Zenozoik is one of wild dreams and wilder nightmares. This is part of the reason we are working on Zeno Clash II, to give players the opportunity to explore Zenozoik with a friend via online cooperative multiplayer, turning those moments of wonder and awe into a shared adventure. We will make certain that going back and forth between solo and cooperative play preserves the consistency and impact of the narrative experience, while still allowing friends easily drop in and out of the game’s fulfilling exploration and visceral melee combat.”

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged ,

Atlus picks up North American publishing rights to Code of Princess

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Nicole Kline

Your 3DS is about to get a little more risque: Atlus announced that they’ll be bringing the scantily clad Code of Princess to North America this Fall. Developed by Agashima Entertainment, Code of Princess is an action RPG brawler with both competitive and cooperative multiplayer options.

With both the character development of an in-depth RPG and the fun gameplay of an old-school side-scrolling beat-em-‘up, Code of Princess promises to bring a fun new experience to the 3DS.

Tim Pivnicny, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Atlus, said:

Developed by an all-star team of industry veterans, Code of Princess is unlike anything else available for Nintendo 3DS. Fans of action will savor the game’s combat, which is loaded with satisfying chain attacks and plenty of depth-both in terms of attack options and also quite literally in the sense that battlefields employ a three-railed design, letting players move forward and back as tactics dictate. Fans of RPGs will relish the ability to level and improve their characters, converting their gained experience into boosts for the stats that best suit their play style and tactics. This appealing amalgam of game designs is wrapped in a beautiful package, boasting lovingly rendered and animated characters and eye-catching flurries of punches and kicks. With something for virtually every kind of old-school gamer and with an esteemed pedigree to draw upon, Code of Princess is certain to be one of the most anticipated Nintendo 3DS games of the year.

That’s quite an ambitious claim. In true Atlus fashion, those who pre-order the game will receive the Sound & Visual Book, with artwork from designer Kinu Nishimura, as well as music from ACE’s soundtrack. Start clicking that pre-order button, collectors.

Posted in 3DS, News | Tagged ,

Dead or Alive 5 fights its way into stores on September 25

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Nicole Kline

Tired of waiting for your busty babe brawler? Well there’s good news for you: Dead or Alive 5 now has a release date, and it’s September 25. That’s just a little over three and half months away. Then you’ll be able to bounce boobs on the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.

[Source: Game Informer]

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