Nintendo Download: Donkey Kong Country trilogy, DK Land trilogy, Ironfall Invasion, more

It’s Donkey Kong Country Day on the Nintendo eShop as Nintendo has added all three Donkey Kong Country games to the Wii U eShop and all three Donkey Kong Land games to the 3DS eShop.

Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest, and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble were all released in the waning days of the Super NES in an attempt to stave off the then-new PlayStation and Saturn systems. All three games launched to widespread critical acclaim, helped bring Donkey Kong back to the mainstream, and showed just how beautiful 2D side-scrollers could be.

Meanwhile, the Donkey Kong Land series attempted to adapt these landmark titles for the pea-green Game Boy. They weren’t exact translations, but Donkey Kong Land, Donkey Kong Land 2, and Donkey Kong Land III were all well-liked in their own right.

Also available this week is Ironfall Invasion, a free-to-play 3DS eShop title that attempts to bring a Gears of War-like third-person shooting experience to Nintendo’s handheld.

More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break.

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

Insert Quarter: Did Batman: Arkham Knight Just Kill the Teen Rating?

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Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.

The gaming world was a tad surprised when Batman: Arkham Knight was awarded an “M For Mature” rating by the ESRB earlier this week, but no one has taken up the “Won’t someone think of the children!” mantle just yet. And that’s probably because the way that gamers treat a Mature-rated game is much different from the way moviegoers react to an R-rated film (to say nothing of the dreaded NC-17).

You might even wonder if this has signaled a shift away from the ESRB’s Teen rating (which has always been considered equivalent of the much-more-popular PG-13 for films). Few games carry a Teen rating in 2015 and nearly every critically acclaimed title of the past decade (BioShock, Red Dead Redemption, Fallout 3, Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto V, and many others) has been slapped with a scarlet “M.” Paul Tassi of Forbes believes the “T For Teen” rating is dead and that it’s unlikely anyone will notice or even care:

Unlike the movie industry, however, a game being rated M is not all that big of a deal. Movies will bend over backward to cut themselves down to PG-13 from an R in order to have a chance at dramatically increasing their box office haul, and there’s only one R-rated movie in the top 25 highest grossing films of all time, The Passion of the Christ. There are 16 PG-13 movies, by contrast, including the first four of the top five.

Gaming is a much different story, with rating hardly seeming to matter at all. M-rated games are routinely best-sellers, and comparatively seven out of the top 25 highest selling video games of all time are rated M, all split between Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty titles, with the non-M games mostly coming from Nintendo ’s E-rated stable. In fact, there isn’t a single T-rated game in the list.

The full article is available for your perusal at Forbes.

Posted in Insert Quarter, PC, PS4, Xbox One | Tagged

HumaNature launches Kickstarter campaign for ToeJam and Earl: Back in the Groove

As promised a few weeks ago, Greg Johnson and HumaNature Studios have officially announced the fourth ToeJam & Earl game, ToeJam and Earl: Back in the Groove.

Johnson and his team have recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the retro-inspired sequel. The developer, who originally created ToeJam & Earl back in 1991 with Mark Voorsanger, wants to refocus on what made the first game great while discarding the less-loved elements from the sequels:

Will it be like game one or game two, you ask? Well… (holding breath)… mainly like game one. We plan to go old school with this one. Fixed isometric camera, 2D sprites, simple controls, and an emphasis on coop play. It will also pull in some of the more beloved elements from game two, AND we have a list of exciting new gameplay elements planned as well.

Oh right, I almost forgot… and we’ll have funky music, and more funky music, and… then we’ll add in more funky music.

HumaNature is seeking $400,000 to complete ToeJam and Earl: Back in the Groove, which they’ll use to create a PC (Windows/Mac/Linux) version that includes four-player co-op play, a funky new art style, and “more fun features.” The plan is too eventually bring the game to as many platforms as possible, and the odds of that happening are good, as the campaign has already collected $100,000 in pledges with 29 days remaining. There’s currently no timeline on when Back in the Gorrve will be availabl if HumaNature reaches their goal, but you can find plenty of funky concept art and additional details at the Kickstarter campaign page.

Funky! OK, I’ll stop now.

Posted in News, PC | Tagged

Xbox Store Today: RE Revelations 2, Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires

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If you’ve already perused this week’s PlayStation Store update, you’ll be pretty familiar with what Microsoft has added to the Xbox Games Store.

The first episode of Resident Evil Revelations 2 (Xbox One, Xbox 360), “Penal Colony,” puts Claire Redfield back in the spotlight as she attempts to escape from a mysterious island with the help of Moira Burton. It’s joined by Dragon Ball Xenoverse (Xbox One, Xbox 360), which is the latest Dragon Ball adaptation from Bandai Namco. Also available today is Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires (Xbox One), the latest game from Koei Tecmo in the strategic “Empires” sub-series.

More details on all of these games can be found after the break.

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Daily Scoop: February 25, 2015 – New Indie Royale Bundle

There’s a brand new bundle at Indie Royale today – the Kiss Bundle! Beat the average to get N.P.P.D. Rush: The Milk of Ultra Violet, Canyon Capers, Cobi Treasure Deluxe, Glacier 3: The Meltdown, Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising, Hyper Fighters, Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi, Numba Deluxe, Racer 8, Radical Roach, and The Tribloos 2. Whew. That’s a lot of games!

At Steam, there’s a brand new Daily Deal. You can grab Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Rise of the Owlverlord for $1.24. And don’t forget about the Humble Store – the Just Cause Collection is $4.74, Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty is $17.99, and there are two versions of Hotline Miami 2 you can pre-order – the regular one for $13.49, or the Remix EP version, which comes with 6 remixed tracks from the soundtrack.

Just three t-shirts today!

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Posted in Daily Scoop |

Dragon Quest Heroes will be released for PS4 in US in 2015

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Koei Tecmo’s Omega Force successfully turned The Legend of Zelda into a Warriors game last year with the release of Hyrule Warriors. They’re currently performing the same magic on Dragon Quest, with a Japanese launch planned for this week. Today, Square Enix confirmed that Dragon Quest Heroes will also makes its way onto store shelves in North America sometime this year.

Besides Koei Tecmo and Omega Force, many familiar faces from Square Enix have come together to bring Dragon Quest Heroes to the PS4:

In Dragon Quest Heroes, players must rise up against insurmountable odds, challenging swarms of enemies and conquering gigantic monsters. Dragon Quest Heroes comes to the PlayStation 4 system in beautiful high-definition graphics, filled with characters and monsters designed by world-renowned artist Akira Toriyama.

Both Yuji Horii, director and creator of Dragon Quest, and Koichi Sugiyama, the composer closely tied to the series since its first installment and creator of countless memorable musical masterpieces, are closely involved in bringing this title to life. Dragon Quest Heroes is a title not only for Dragon Quest series fans, but also for gamers of all interests to enjoy.

The Dragon Quest franchise has tallied more than 64 million copies sold since its debut in 1986. That number will surely grow with Dragon Quest Heroes and the frenzied response to the franchise in Japan.

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Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious standalone expansion announced

I will never understand why the Fast and the Furious film franchise hasn’t been the subject of more video game adaptations. You’d think it’s ridiculous action setpieces and even more ridiculous car stunts would it perfect fodder for the adaptation machine. But aside from 2004’s Tokyo Drift game, 2013’s Fast & Furious: Showdown, and a handful of arcade cabinets, the series has been largely absent from the video game space.

That number will expand by one next month when Universal Studios, Microsoft, and the team behind Forza Horizon 2 team up to release Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious.

Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious will serve as a “standalone” expansion to Forza Horizon 2, so even if you don’t own the original game, you’ll be able to experience all the Fast & Furious content on the Xbox One and Xbox 360. Best of all, from March 27 through April 10, the game will be available as a free download to help promote the April 3rd theatrical debut of Furious 7.

So what can Fast and the Furious fans expect? According to a post on the Xbox Wire, players will have to reach ludicrous speeds:

In Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious, you’ll be recruited by Fast & Furious expert mechanic Tej Parker, voiced by Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, to source cars for the Fast & Furious crew’s next big mission. You’ll take part in a series of thrilling car challenges set in the idyllic south of France, and inspired by both the “Fast & Furious” movies and Forza’s awesome, pulse-pounding gameplay. As you complete game challenges, you’ll unlock new cars that you can drive throughout the open world in free roam play.

Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious will be priced at $10 after the promotional period ends.

Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged

Resident Evil Revelations 2, Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Starwhal, more added to PS Store

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The first episode in the first episodic entry in the Resident Evil series is available now on the PlayStation Store today as Capcom launched Resident Evil Revelations 2 today. “Episode 1: Penal Colony” stars fan favorite Claire Redfield and it can be purchased now on the PS3 or PS4.

Also new this week is a variety of new games including…

  • Dragon Ball Xenoverse (PS3, PS4) the latest Dragon Ball game from Bandai Namco.
  • Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires (PS3, PS4), the latest entry in Koei Tecmo’s strategic spinoff series.
  • Starwhal (PS3 + PS4 Cross-Buy), a multiplayer game featuring battle space whales.
  • Dead or Alive 5: Last Round (PS3), the ultimate edition of the fifth fighting game in Koei Tecmo’s franchise.

More details about these games (and a few more new releases) can be found after the break. A full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons and discounts can be found at the PlayStation Blog.

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Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita | Tagged , , , ,