We think we're going to have to start reading or watching Bleach so we know what's going on in Bleach Versus Crusade and the DS fighting games. Our interest in the DS games has been motivated mostly by love of developer Treasure, and that is certainly driving our desire to play the Wii game as well. But we can't help but think that it would be nice to know who all these people are and why they're fighting.
Even as a context-free fighting game, however, we think Versus Crusade looks pretty nice. You can see for yourself in the latest batch of screens, originally posted on the official site, but visible in a much less annoying Flash interface on Wiiz.
Namco Bandai is determined to spoil Klonoa: Door to Phantomile's "Extra Vision", the "Balue's Tower" level in which Klonoa is tasked with picking up all 150 gems to unlock more special content. Now Dengeki is posting those screens along with the reverse stage and alternate costume information found a few days ago. Normally, revealing total spoilarz would be worth complaining about, but the statute of limitations has long past expired on Klonoa spoilers.
But the real draw to this particular article isn't the repetition of top secret info. It's the fact that there are tons of new screens of the remake's third and fourth "visions," and they are as colorful and brilliant as every other Klonoa Wii screen. At this point, it doesn't matter if you've seen everything there is to see from the original, because you'll probably want to see it again.
Cave Storyremake developer Nicalis has been spreading exclusive content around the web, turning our daily news crawling into a delightful Cave Story scavenger hunt. The latest release is this screenshot found on WiiWare World, featuring the updated, redrawn graphics.
We have feared that the increased definition in the sprites and environments would change too much of Cave Story's unique look, but Pixel knows what he is doing. The new look is more detailed, but still retro -- it just looks like somebody sharpened the focus.
If you haven't tried Cave Story yet, don't worry about waiting for the WiiWare version. Play the freeware game now. You'll be ready to start again when the Wii game comes out.
Gallery: Cave Story (WiiWare)
We're not going to stop talking about Cave Story any time soon. You may as well read up on it and join the discussion!
The first shots of Evasive Space invaded our inbox earlier today, and apparently things get quite ... trippy in the Yuke's/High Voltage collaboration. Not Jeff Minter levels of trippy, but still pretty out there in parts. The game itself, which will cost 1000 Wii Points, seems to be a mix of open play shmupping (as seen in Geometry Wars) and more linear, contained areas.
The screens in our gallery are drawn from the first two of the game's four acts, each of which will contain five scenarios to play through. In turn, these come in two types: either you'll be doing timed runs, or you'll be collecting stuff (spacemen, energy cells) while avoiding other stuff (asteroids, gas clouds). It's brave of Yuke's and High Voltage to release a shmup on a system overflowing with the things, but we like what we see so far! Hit up the gallery and tell us what you think.
Famitsu has revealed some of the extra hidden content in the gorgeous Wii remake of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. The extra "vision," an especially difficult level set in Balue's Tower, was present in the PlayStation game and remains unlockable in this version. In addition, Klonoa will be able to earn secret costumes by beating bosses in Time Attack mode. Perhaps the "new look" Klonoa will be included in these unlockables?
Players will also have the ability to unlock reversed versions of levels in which Klonoa starts from the end. Either these stages will have redesigned enemy layouts or other new content, or Famitsu is employing a bit of hyperbole by describing them as a "new adventure."
You can watch a trailer for the game here, if you like, and make yourself queasy with the cloying cuteness of it all. Not only that, but nine new screens (sadly not wearing adorable hats) sneaked into our gallery!
There's not much we'd rather do on the weekend than stare for hours at the gorgeous MadWorld, but since we can't look at the real thing, we'll have to settle for a few new screenshots. Not everyone agrees (blasphemy!), but we can't find anything wrong with a little black and white violence. Study the new screens (located in our gallery below) and see if you agree.
The new followup to We Ski may improve on the reality of the snowboarding and/or skiing experience. Aside from the obviously reduced costs associated with playing a Wii game versus taking a vacation, and the sharply reduced likelihood of serious falling-off-a-mountain-related injury, Family Ski: World Ski and Snowboard allows you to play a game of snowboard tag under the supervision of a guy in a dinosaur suit. We're glad to see the silly suits return.
Speaking of silliness, the new course in World Ski and Snowboard also features a gigantic donut to jump through. Also there are normal races and half-pipes and such, if you're interested in stuff like that.
First off, there is a new video of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes at Famitsu, featuring Saki from Quiz Nanairo DREAMS and Viewtiful Joe vs. Ippatsuman and Doronjo. Joe's Mach Speed super combo is expected, but delightful.
In addition, screens reveal another set of character-specific minigames. For free extras included in our cool fighting game, they all look pretty excellent -- and there are now more minigames in Tatsunoko than in many dedicated minigame collections.
Saki has an enjoyable-looking asteroid shooting gallery game, Ippatsuman has a baseball pitching game, and Doronjo has some kind of bomb-throwing platformer in which her and her goons Boyacky and Tonzler ride through a valley on unicycles.
Viewtiful Joe's minigame is the standout of the group: a sort of "shooting" game in which you attempt to snap photographs of a running Joe, with the ability to take three photos in rapid succession.
Cooking Mama: World Kitchen is almost here, and that means the powers that be are working very hard to convince Wii owners that Mama is cute as ever, even if she's had a little work done. These latest screens do an excellent job of proving their point, with their adorable high fives and Mama poking herself in the eye. Guess those fleshed-out limbs take a little getting used to.
Check out the gallery below for new screens, and if those aren't enough to satiate your appetite for Mama, head on over to GAME Watch to see more.
We conclude our exploration of Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars'freaky arsenal this week with two categories of weapons: thrusting weapons and Radical! Weapons. The idea of a thrusting weapon is fairly simple to understand: it's a pointy thing of some kind on a stick, and your mushroom uses it to poke at stuff.
Radical! Weapons are special weapons that have limited ammunition and are used at certain specific points in a level to obscure a hole in the wall or otherwise destroy an area that is the source of repeated enemy spawns. They're slightly more sadistic and demented than the normal weapons. And by "sadistic and demented" we mean "a flamethrower made from a match, a whistle, an aspirator, and a football bobblehead."
Tyrone from Nicalis asked us if we wanted to run an exclusive Cave Story sprite comparison, and we responded by sputtering, mostly, and attacking the keyboard furiously with our frantic approval. The new sprite that Nicalis chose to share with us is Sue Sakamoto, whom you rescue fairly early in the game. Beyond that, we're a bit shaky on what people would consider a spoiler, so we're not offering any more biographical details. We're impressed by how much the new sprite resembles her character portrait, and by the fact that her scar is visible.
This is the sprite that has really convinced us that the upgraded graphics are a good thing. They're still blocky, but more expressive and with more variation between the characters.
After the break, we've got another sprite comparison, this one from the Nicalis blog. Huzzah!
tri-Crescendo's Fragile is a game about searching a ruined world for survivors. The decayed, destroyed suburbia gives Fragile a melancholy look, and the newly-revealed bonfire system only strengthens that impression.
Bonfires appear in various locations around the game. They are the only way to identify the type and use of wrapped "mystery" items, but more importantly bonfires unlock the memories each object holds of its owner, helping provide clues to the reason for the world's destruction.
Evidently, bonfires also act as storage for items (represented by cards) in your bag. Only during bonfires can you swap items in and out of your bag. In addition to this, they restore your character's HP.
[Update: after the break, four videos of Family Glide Hockey in motion.]
We love air hockey, and we're pretty friendly with Family Table Tennis, so we're pleased to see that Aksys has chosen to release the second Family sports title for WiiWare, Okiraku Air Hockey, in North America as Family Glide Hockey.
Family Glide Hockey adds several twists to the delightful arcade attraction including ridiculous locations, weird tables, special shots, and extra minigames like Glide Hockey Drill, in which you ... solve math problems?
As for when it's coming out, Aksys says "this holiday," and even if they had specified a release date, we wouldn't be able to trust it, because Nintendo doesn't seem to want people to know when downloadable games come out.
Japanese Poké-enthusiasts will have a pleasant surprise next time they load up My Pokémon Ranch. No, the game won't suddenly be enjoyable or worthwhile or anything -- don't be silly -- but they will be able to enjoy full compatibility with Pokémon Platinum on the DS, and observe Giratina (in its Another Forme, as seen above) and Shaymin (in its Sky Forme, as seen here), or at least some very angular representations of Giratina and Shaymin.
The cap of 1,000 pocket beasties has also been raised to 1,500, and GAME Watch has the first screens of the update -- click through our gallery and take a look.
We think we're going to have to start reading or watching Bleach so we know what's going on in Bleach Versus Crusade and the DS fighting games. Our interest in the DS games has been motivated mostly by love of developer Treasure, and that is certainly driving our desire to play the Wii game as well. But we can't help but think that it would be nice to know who all these people are and why they're fighting.
