All Articles: DS

Michael Jackson: The Experience moonwalks onto PS3, Xbox 360 on April 12

Posted on January 6, 2011 by John Scalzo

Michael Jackson: The Experience was a big hit for Ubisoft this holiday season. How big? The game sold two million copies across the Wii, DS and PSP in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. But Ubisoft was quick to point out that those numbers don’t include Japan, “which has one of the largest and most passionate concentrations of Michael Jackson fans anywhere.”

The publisher also revealed that the King of Pop will be moonwalking his way onto the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this April. The Kinect and Move-enabled Michael Jackson game will be released on April 12 in the US and April 14 in Europe. It will include several bonus tracks not found on the Wii version including “Blood on the Dance Floor” and “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You.”

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot is very excited about the upcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 version of Michael Jackson: “As the leader in the dance game genre, our teams have worked enthusiastically to build an experience that recreates the magic worlds of Michael Jackson’s videos and performances. We’re looking forward to bringing Michael Jackson The Experience to Kinect for Xbox 360 and PlayStation Move so an even bigger audience can enjoy playing the game with their friends and family too.”

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GameFly reports 2010’s best, raises questions on 2011

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Ryan Littlefield

Best of 2010

Early Wednesday morning, GameFly released several Top Ten lists, documenting the rental service’s most popular titles of 2010. As expected, GameFly’s most-rented games closely match up with the most purchased games of 2010, logging titles like Take Two’s Red Dead Redemption and the latest game in Activision’s ever-popular Call of Duty series, Call of Duty: Black Ops.  GameFly’s co-founder Sean Spector states: “The GameFly community is comprised of active and dedicated gamers and we view their preferences, requests and favorites as a great barometer for what’s hot in gaming.”

Though the aforementioned shooters dominated consoles in 2010, GameFly’s handheld rental numbers seemed to thrive with RPG titles such as Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep and Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies. Could this predict an emergence of the RPG genre exclusively among handheld systems, leaving consoles solely for action games?

The cross-platform list and all of the platform-specific lists can be found below. (more…)

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THQ has the power (to make games based on Mattel toys)

Posted on January 5, 2011 by John Scalzo

Like two action figures that come together to form an even bigger action figure, THQ will raid Mattel’s toy chest in a multi-year deal to create games based on many of the company’s biggest properties.

THQ currently has multiple Mattel-inspired games in the works, with the first scheduled for release this Fall. The deal will ultimately result in new THQ-published games based on many of Mattel’s biggest toy lines, including Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, Monster High, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Polly Pocket and He-Man: Masters of the Universe.

THQ wasn’t ready to talk about specific games on specific platforms, but they did confirm that the agreement allows them to create games for consoles (both disc-based and downloadable games), handhelds, PCs, mobile devices and social networking platforms. However, THQ did reveal that at least one game will support the publisher’s uDraw GameTablet on the Wii.

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DS, Wii set new sales records in 2010

Posted on January 4, 2011 by John Scalzo

This is not news: The DS and Wii sold a ton of systems in 2010.

This is news: The DS and Wii sold a record-setting amount of systems in 2010.

While it seems like news outlets publish this story every year and just change the date, Nintendo has announced that the DS and Wii have set several new sales records in 2010.

The DS pushed its total install base to 47 million in 2010. According to Nintendo’s internal numbers, that’s a new record for a console or handheld in the US. Congratulations to Nintendo, but Sony put out a similar press release in 2009 claiming the PS2 had sold 50 million units in the US. We may never know which one actually holds the record, but they both have a huge library of classic games, and that’s all that really matters.

The Wii also set a record in 2010, becoming the only system to sell seven million units (or more) in three straight years. Nintendo’s little white machine (which added black and red variations in 2010) has sold 34 million units in North American since its debut in 2006.

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X-Raying the Brain Training Trend

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Ryan Littlefield

Brain games were all the rage back in 2006, but what happened to them? Despite the great reviews and large audience appeal, players stopped caring about Brain Age and Brain Age 2 roughly a month after they were each released. Repetitive gaming is only fun for so long. What newer thinking games are worth your time and money, and, more importantly, will they actually make you smarter?

Since the beginning of time, mankind has found ways to stretch their brains. Some strive to become smarter, while others thrive on being stupid. History lessons aside, the video gaming industry has found a way to capitalize on this idea, and has fairly successfully encapsulated the trend that is “brain gaming” – gaming that totally makes you “smarter.” (more…)

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New Retail Releases – Lost In Shadow, More

Posted on January 1, 2011 by John Scalzo

Welcome to 2011! The new year starts off a bit slowly when it comes to new releases, but one notable game will make its way to store shelves this week.

Konami’s Lost In Shadow (Wii), a puzzle platformer where players control a shadow’s climb up a tower, finally makes its way to America this week. Lost In Shadow has been a highlight of every industry showcase its appeared at, so let’s hope the finished product lives up to the hype.

The rest of this week’s new releases are pretty slim, but they can be found below.

New Retail Releases: Week of January 3, 2011

DS

PC

Wii

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