This weeks Virtual Console and WiiWare update is a good one, with three great games coming out. Vectorman, in particular, was one of my favorites on the Genesis. It’s also the main reason I don’t feel bad littering:
In 2049, the human population of Earth embarks on a migratory voyage to try and colonize other planets. They leave mechanical “orbots” to clean up the mess they made on Earth through littering and pollution. Raster, a high-level orbot who watches Earth through a planetwide computer network, is accidentally attached to a working nuclear missile by a lesser orbot and goes insane, becoming an evil dictator named Warhead. He declares himself ruler of Earth, and begins preparing to execute any humans who dare return to their planet.
Enter Vectorman, a humble orbot in charge of cleaning up toxic sludge by simply discharging it into the sun. As he lands on Earth after his last trip, he finds chaos and confusion. Because all the other Orbots are controlled by Warhead (Vectorman having not been affected because he was away), Vectorman takes it upon himself to destroy the errant orbot and restore peace to Earth.
The robots will clean up our mess while we’re living it up on Mars. Also, Super Dodge Ball was always a fun game to play…I don’t particularly remember why, I just remember always enjoying it.
If Mega Man 9 wasn’t going to be a download-only release, this is what the packaging would look like. Pretty awesome, I’d totally buy the game for the packaging, alone. They’ll only be making these available to the press, but the post also mentioned they might be making 200 or so available for purchase. Be sure to check out the post (linked below) if you’re interested.
Ignition Entertainment announced today that they will be publishing Blue Dragon Plus in North America. The sequel to Blue Dragon for Xbox 360, Blue Dragon Plus is a tactical RPG for the Nintendo DS. Set one year after the events of the original, the game follows Shu and other characters from the original as they try to do something or other, most likely saving the world. It was released on September 4 in Japan, and there doesn’t seem to be a ton of information out there about the game (I haven’t seen any reviews). The North American (and European) release date is set for March 2009.
Microsoft has officially confirmed that it will be closing down it’s eternal developer Ensemble Studios. Ensemble Studios is probably best known for their real time strategy Age of Empires games, as well as the upcoming Xbox 360 Halo Wars. Halo Wars is still scheduled for release, Ensemble will be shut down once the game comes out sometime early next year. Additionally, many of the “leadership” team from Ensemble will be forming a new development house, and they have entered into talks regarding supporting Halo Wars after it launches.
“This was a fiscally rooted decision that keeps MGS on its growth path. While the decision to dissolve Ensemble was not an easy one, Microsoft is working to place as many Ensemble employees who do not move to the newly formed studio into open positions within Microsoft as possible.”
MGS = Microsoft Game Studios, not Metal Gear Solid, I think. Maybe. Anyway, not awesome, the Age of Empires games were always fun. Halo Wars…I’m not sure what I think yet, the screen shots haven’t really done anything for me, but who knows.
Valve’s Gabe Newell has confirmed plans for a PC and Xbox 360 demo of their upcoming survival horror game, Left 4 Dead. The demo will contain both single player and online co-op modes. There’s no set release date for the demo yet. Left 4 Dead is scheduled for release at the end of November, and the article doesn’t make it clear if the demo will be released before or after it’s already out. As for what content will be in the demo, Newell said “I think it’s going to contain the first part of one of the campaigns. I think it’ll probably be Hospital but I’m not sure.” I hate zombies so much.
If you’ve ever wanted to dress up as an Atlus character AND win fabulous prizes (not just for fun), now’s your chance. Basically you just dress up, take a picture, and send it to Atlus, it’s that easy. If you have the best costume, you’ll win:
* Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 Poster signed by Masayuki Doi (character designer)
* Growlanser: Illustration Archive signed by Satoshi Urushihara (character designer)
* Etrian Odyssey 2: Heroes of Lagaard 3-disc Music Collection
* Set of 3 Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns Posters (including the super-rare third unreleased mini-poster)
* Persona 4 T-Shirt
* Dokapon Kingdom (your choice of PS2 or Wii)
* Large hardback promotional poster of an Atlus title of your choice (subject to availability)
I want all that stuff…maybe I should work on an outfit. Last year’s winner looks exactly like Elizabeth (the one from the game, not the other one)…
So, Cho Aniki. It’s basically a shooting game, but replace spaceships with half naked guys. I’ll just take Wikipedia’s description:
For various reasons, the popularity of the Cho Aniki games has endured since the series’ debut. Depending on which specific title one looks at, highlights include in-game music, innovative control schemes or sheer kitsch value. In Japan, these games are examples of baka-ge, a type of kuso-ge. “Baka-ge” literally means “idiot game” while “kuso-ge” literally means “shitty game” or “shit game”. Baka-ge’s appeal lies in its campness. Indisputably, the game’s aesthetic sense — semi-nude men in suggestive homoerotic poses — is a unique one, certainly a quality that has given the series a cult popularity among Western gamers. Though the graphics are more risqué than pornographic, the series references homosexuality and gay sex more directly and more often than perhaps any other video game series in history.
Since the release of Castle Crashers there has been a lot of speculation about finding certain weapons or unlocking additional characters. Apparently, while they were testing the game through Xbox Live, someone was able to download the then incomplete game and make a video of themselves playing it. In the video were two additional characters, the necromancer and the king, as well as another weapon, the chainsaw.
A lot of people have been trying to figure out how to unlock them in the now complete game, to no avail. Well, Behemoth has posted on their official Castle Crashers blog to stop looking because, as it turns out, those items are for future DLC through Xbox Live. They also mention that they’re fixing some bugs that have come up, like probably the one that kept disconnecting me from online games.
If you could somehow remove all the mumbling, and slow down this guy’s speech, you would be able to tell that he’s super pissed off at Gamestop. So much so, in fact, that he’s decided to post like nine different Youtube videos on how much Gamestop blows. When I can understand what’s being said, he makes some good points (except the 50 Cent Bulletproof part, come on, it totally deserves platinum hits status). This is exactly why the future “Awesome Radical Video Game Store” will beat out Gamestop. I’m stuck on the mission statement so I can’t proceed with the rest of the business plan…I’m thinking “Establish Awesome Radical Video Game Store as the premier provider of video game software and equipment while employing the most knowledgeable staff and maintaining the highest possible level of customer service.”
I received an email from Atlus the other day asking me to take a survey about the Trama Center series, to help determine if they should put it on another platform, basically. I’ve only played the DS versions of the game, and I honestly find it hard to imagine on a system besides the DS and Wii (without stylus/motion control). Also, they promised that if I completed it, I would get to see nurse Angie from Trama Center 2 in a bathing suit and the chance to win a signed Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 poster. I still haven’t done it yet.
We’d like to ask you a few questions about Trauma Center. In return for the few minutes of your time, we’re going to give you two things.
First of all, at the end of the survey, we have a nice image of Nurse Angie in rather fetching swimwear for all survey-takers to enjoy.
Secondly, we’re going to give five random survey takers (and by survey takers we mean you need to have actually taken the survey) a Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 poster signed by character designer Masayuki Doi, just for letting us pick your brain.
Without further ado, here’s the survey! Please be as clear and concise as possible whenever providing comments… This survey may help guide the future of the franchise!
