It’s been so long since Contra Rebirth landed on the Japanese WiiWare service (two months ago to be precise) that you’d be forgiven for thinking that Konami have forgotten all about releasing it elsewhere – after all, it took them so long to get around to getting that other Rebirth title, Gradius, out that it actually landed today.
Konami are clearly thinking the same thing and have put out a press release which confirms the game will be coming to other regions in August. While Gradius Rebirth’s release today was for a knock down price of 600 Nintendo Points, anyone hoping for another territory related price reduction here needn’t hold their breath seeing as the delay hasn’t been that long.
Taken from the official site of the games developer, Polytron, it finally confirms the news from earlier this year that quirky platformer Fez will be coming to the Xbox Live Arcade some time in 2010.
Blast your way through levels filled with alien spaceships and otherworldly creatures in this retro side-scrolling shooter. Pick your weapons carefully and upgrade them to create a devastating arsenal of space-aged weapons that will aid you in your challenging mission. Players can post their high scores to worldwide leader boards via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and see where they rank against all the other Gradius ReBirth players. Test your skills with Gradius ReBirth and see if you have what it takes to beat this action-packed arcade shooter
It’s interesting to note that the delay in getting the game to Europe seems to have resulted in a cheaper price point than the 1000 Nintendo Points it cost in other regions.
Bit Boy – 600 Nintendo Points
Bit Boy!!, is a totally new kind of game mix in which one-pixel-hero Kubi rushes through the whole history of videogames in order to save his pixel pals. Players accompany Kubi in this totally crazy-pixellated retro journey and battle hordes of nasty monsters in 4-bit dungeons, 8-bit caves, 16-bit strongholds, 32-bit mazes, 64-bit arenas and 128-bit worlds.
The Virtual Console also gets the SNES game Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen and the Megadrive title Pulseman, for 900 Nintendo Points each.
After such a bountiful release on the European PSN, todays update for users in the States is a little less bulging at the seams:-
The Punisher: No Mercy – $9.99
The Punisher: No Mercy delivers a fast-paced multiplayer experience loaded with original and comic-inspired in-game taunts, as well as access to a wide array of weaponry, intense combat and deafening destruction. Players can fight alongside or take on an eclectic mix of Punisher allies and villains in a series of arena-style multiplayer matches that feature solo and team-based missions for up to eight players. Battle arenas span from shipyards rife with contraband to the “birthplace” of Jigsaw, the Punisher’s archenemy.
In addition to the exceptional online gameplay, No Mercy also boasts a single-player campaign where players can unleash their vengeance on hordes of villains while unfolding an original storyline that’s brought to life with exclusive artwork from acclaimed Marvel artist Mike Deodato.
There’s also some more content for High Velocity Bowling at $0.99 a piece.
The Punisher: No Mercy delivers a fast-paced multiplayer experience loaded with original and comic-inspired in-game taunts, as well as access to a wide array of weaponry, intense combat and deafening destruction. Players can fight alongside or take on an eclectic mix of Punisher allies and villains in a series of arena-style multiplayer matches that feature solo and team-based missions for up to eight players. Battle arenas span from shipyards rife with contraband to the “birthplace” of Jigsaw, the Punisher’s archenemy.
In addition to the exceptional online gameplay, No Mercy also boasts a single-player campaign where players can unleash their vengeance on hordes of villains while unfolding an original storyline that’s brought to life with exclusive artwork from acclaimed Marvel artist Mike Deodato.
Numblast – £3.99/€4.99
Things aren’t going too well at the Scientific Alchemy Club at Cross Academy: Choco Ayama has managed to turn Akasaka Sempai, the president of the Club, into a monkey… How? Well, let’s just say that Choco’s experiment with the Numblast cubes did not go according to plan and you’ll need to put things right. So it’s all up to you to master the mysterious cubes and channel their energy to turn Akasaka Sempai human again.
Three puzzle modes:
Endless mode lets you play for as long as you can, until the field is covered by inert grey cubes which cannot be swapped.
Time Trial gives you 3 minutes to detonate as many cubes as possible.
Puzzle mode – detonate all the cubes in preset arrangements with as few rotations as possible.
Topatoi – £7.99/€9.99
Your journey begins in an unexplored and mysterious corner of a far-flung world, where Raph’s airship has crash-landed. Now you must help him scavenge for spare parts to fix the airship – and save his girlfriend as well. Topatoi is a dynamic arcade game that puts you at the controls of a fantastic gyroscopic hovercraft which handles like a futuristic spinning top.
Spin your craft through the many intricate levels of the Great Tree, use it to fight enemies and meet the mysterious world’s inhabitants.
Success in your main mission will unlock more than ten bonus levels and an interesting multiplayer split screen mode to further shake up your playing experience.
Embark on an unforgettable journey through secrets and mystery
Aim for glory and upload your score over PlayStation Network to the global topatoi high score table
Test your skill and co-ordination in arcade mode, then take on your friends in multiplayer split screen mode
The Red Baron Arcade – £6.29/€7.99
Engage in the ultimate World War I arcade flight-shooter Red Baron Arcade. Grab the flight stick of 20 historic WWI planes and battle countless enemies including huge zeppelins, powerful battleships and authentic WWI aircraft in over 36 varied levels. Fight against intense computer AI in the single player missions or wage war against 7 other aspiring “Aces” online.
Official confirmed by developers DICE, next Wednesday and Thursday will see the launch of Battlefield 1943 on XBLA and PSN respectively. In an inimitable PR stylee ,Gordon Van Dyke (a producer on the game) said:
“Battlefield 1943 is going to change consumer expectations of what a downloadable game can be. By offering Frostbite’s next generation destruction technology with a full Vehicle Warfare FPS multiplayer experience at a mere 560MB, Battlefield 1943 sets a new standard. Our goal is to blow people away with a fully accessible, retail-calibre game for veteran Battlefield fans and shooter fans alike…”
The game is confirmed to cost 1200 on XBLA and £9.99 on PSN.
Beginning with Blast Off and continuing with Echoes, the Halfbrick Friday series of Xbox Live Community games will soon see its third entry; Halfbrick Rocket Racing.
The game is a 2D, top-down racing game as is quite apparent from the trailer.
Less obvious is the control system, which uses the left and right analogue triggers to control left and right boosters on your vehicle. One of those systems that sounds difficult but should be easy to pick up and will make shaving precious milliseconds from your fastest laps a lot of fun! Global leaderboards demand this of you.
“After Halfbrick Blast Off and Halfbrick Echoes made their critically-acclaimed mark on the Xbox Live Indie Games service, developer Halfbrick is on the warpath again, showing off its new futuristic multiplayer racer – Halfbrick Rocket Racing. At first glance, it seems to be presented in a traditional top-down format, but there are two notable twists which simplify the learning curve and ensure fun, intuitive gameplay.
Control of each racing craft is actually handled with just two buttons – the left and right analogue triggers. They power the left and right rockets respectively, so movement is simple – press both at once to move forward, and alternate power to each for turning. Players will be able to customise their controls to find the configuration that suits their playing style, including using the left analogue stick.
Hitting the best racing line and cutting corners won’t always be the best way to win. Players will actually gain a significant speed boost by positioning the rockets against the walls and corners for extra thrust power. The concept is explained via a simple tutorial system in the game, and players will eventually be sliding and boosting around each level with high speed and extreme precision.
Gameplay is focused on shaving seconds off your best times, reminiscent of the legendary Trackmania series. Players can upload their best times on over 40 tracks to the Global Leaderboards and see where they rank among the world’s best. Local multiplayer is available with up to four players taking control of a rocket racer, drifting around corners and sprinkling the course with colorful glowing trails – a simple yet incredibly engaging graphical effect.”
Halfbrick Rocket Racing will be released soon (check every Friday!) for a miniscule price of 200
You might have already guess from the way Konami have been very quiet since their initial announcement about Vandal Hearts for XBLA and PSN, that something was up.
If you did, then you would have guessed right because they’ve now announced that the game will miss its initial launch window next month. Instead the game has now been given the more tentative date of “this Winter”.
The opinion of series fans have been pretty split so far over the games visual style and changes to the gameplay. It’ll be interesting to see the reaction to the finished thing… whenever it appears.
Ten years on from Worms Armageddon and the turn-based mayhem and destruction continues! Worms 2: Armageddon is the most fully-featured digital version of the game ever. With four player online and offline multiplayer, voice support, a raft of new weapons (including the return of some iconic weapons from the past), all-new high-definition landscape themes, new play modes, hats, skins, speech-banks, loads of other customization and to top it all off, a highly-involving single player experience with tutorials, deathmatches, races, fort games, and puzzles. It’s a package as high on fun as it is destruction!
Extensive single-player content: Play through three tutorials, three firing ranges, a thirty-mission campaign, plus five secret unlockable missions.
Online and offline multiplayer: Battle it out in four different ranked game types and extensive leaderboards.
Massively increased customization: Choose from new hats, skins, speechbanks, gravestones, victory dances, and much more.
Retro-themed landscape artwork: The high-definition artwork is based on the most loved Worms game ever made.
Return of iconic weaponry: You’ve got more than 40 weapons out of the box, including the return of fire weapons and the beloved Holy Hand Grenade.
King of Fighters ‘ 98 Ultimate Match - 800
The King of Fighters ‘98 Ultimate Match comes to Xbox LIVE Arcade! The KOF ‘98 fighting game has fascinated game fans all over the world, and now it’s powered up and ready to be on Xbox LIVE Arcade. Additional characters have been added from the King of Fighters universe, and new battle systems and moves have been implemented. Extend the fight to opponents all over the world. Face off against others to prove who is the real King of Fighters. Use Practice Mode to learn, Challenge Mode to improve your skills, then go to battle to show what you’ve got!
The best of arcade fighting action: The Japanese arcade game comes to full life on Xbox LIVE Arcade, featuring the best of 3-on-3 2-D fighting action.
More characters: Ultimate Match includes more characters than the original King of Fighters ‘98, incorporating some of gamers’ favorite characters from previous King of Fighters games.
It was only a few weeks ago when E3 was in full swing and Joystiq posted (and we reported) that Atlus were bringing Frozenbyte’s Trine to Xbox Live Arcade. Now, in a post over on the official Frozenbyte forums, developer Joel Kinnunen has thrown doubt over that news by saying:
“The XBLA version and its features is just speculation at this point. I can say that in all honesty, as developers, we would love as many people as possible to be able to play our games and therefore I hope Trine will eventually find its way to XBLA too. We are not really looking to take sides in the console wars, we just want people to play our games – obviously more platforms means more money but it also means that everybody could play the game on their favorite console.
That said, the fact is that the PSN and PC versions will be released a lot earlier than any possible other versions, and the PSN and PC versions are what we are focusing on right now.”
Did Atlus jump the gun? Did Joystiq get it wrong? Are Frozenbyte just doing that whole `being coy` thing that developers seem to love so much? Is Trine coming to XBLA or not?
We don’t have any answers, we’re just throwing out questions there. But it seems the official word for now is that nothing has been confirmed.
on XBLA and £9.99 on PSN.
