All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Master the mole.

Ever since the series' inception, the bananas in Super Monkey Ball have been adorned with tiny Dole stickers. But now the balance of power has shifted, like a floating checkerboard platform, as Sega announces a partnership with rival banana company Chiquita for the latest Monkey Ball game, Super Monkey Ball: Step and Roll. This changes everything. Well, it changes a few things, at least: in addition to the labels on the in-game bananas (we assume), real Chiquita Bananas will have Super Monkey Ball: Step and Roll branding on their stickers. It also changes the number of "Family Gaming Room Makeovers" being given away by Chiquita to one.

How would you like to get your virtual hands on another game soundtrack, all for the low price of zero dollars? Well you’re in luck, because Game Arts has released the official soundtrack for The Magic Obelisk via their Japanese blog, and it’s completely free! Just click the link below to start the [...]

New campaign on the way for the fantasy kingdom sim.

I’d love to know how well these games are selling. Electroplankton is such a unique game, I can’t imagine the releases really making a ton of money. Still, it’s nice to see them getting out to a wider audience.

Nancy Drew phenomenon expands with game based on 'Model' book trilogy.

Test new music tracks and participate in peer review program.

Remember Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble? If you're not familiar with the game, it's the one where you can dress up in a banana suit and fight gang members by shooting lasers from your eyes. That one. Seriously. And Japan's getting a movie adaptation of it on March 6th this year. You can catch a predictably insane trailer after the break.

If we've learned anything from the latest "Divnich Debrief" on IndustryGamers, it's to be careful what we wish for. Video game anthropologist analyst Jesse Divnich has crunched the numbers and formed a surprising statistic: 106 percent -- the percentage increase in the number of new console game properties introduced from 2007 to 2009 (61 new IPs in 2007 compared to 126 in 2009). One hundred and twenty-six! Surprised? We are, considering that we've pined for new game experiences, as we've stocked our shelves with sequels these past few years; all those 2s, 3s and 4s -- heck, we've got a spot reserved for a "13" in March. Still, we'd like to think our collections owe more to exquisite taste than a compulsive habit to collect them all. After all, as Divnich points out, of those 126 new properties introduced last year, not one received an aggregate review score of over 90 percent. The lesson, as Divnich tells it, is that publishers are barbarians (see, the image does make sense). In other words, when we the consumers stop buying properties worn barren by those plundering publishers, they turn to mass-producing new IP, in search of a hit, which is then quickly ravaged (think: sequel, sequel, sequel -- in short succession) as the cycle repeats itself. The solution, Divnich poses? Simple -- for publishers to consider Blizzard's calm approach (at least it's worked on the PC platform) and farm their prize properties with sustainability in mind. We suppose that makes it our job to suffer excruciatingly long droughts, while keeping the faith. Who wants to join us for the seasonal StarCraft Dance?

New orchestrations of classic Halo themes originally created by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori with new original Anime music.

Between your rampant donations to Child's Play and your support with Haiti recovery efforts, you've been stretching your altruism muscles quite a bit over the past few months. We just hope you're not all charity'd out -- Zoe Mode and OneBigGame's XBLA rhythm title, Chime, is due on February 3. In case you've forgotten, 60 percent of the game's 400 ($5) price tag will go to Save the Children and Starlight Children's Foundation. Best of all, the game actually looks pretty fun! Check out the explanation video above to see the title in action -- it's kind of like Tetris meets Lumines meets the beneficence of the human spirit.

The Japanese box art for Heavy Rain, featuring a nose and mouth barely staying above water, is probably the most sinister and mysterious out of all the regions. Andriasang has posted all three images in succession for comparison. No word yet if the Japanese art will be available online to print like the European cover -- but that would only seem fair, right? (Come on, play along.) It'll be interesting to see how the game does across the oceans, with the European and Japanese covers lacking a certain marketing appeal that's quite prominent in the North American cover. Heavy Rain will try to grab attention with its box art -- and whatever else it has at its disposal -- when it releases later next month.

Were you quick enough to catch the handful of Halo: Reach screens released via the EBGames website? Well it happened, we assure you, and luckily the folks at XCast Online snagged the whole lot of 'em. That said, if you've already got the February issue of Game Informer, chances are you've seen these screens before -- that's because a good deal of them are directly from that issue's cover story on the upcoming prequel. If EB Games has already gotten its hands on these screens, chances are we'll be seeing an official release from Microsoft in the not-so-distant future. In the meantime, we've pestered the publisher for some idea of when exactly that'll be.

Over 180 million Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll-branded Chiquita bananas to be sold in grocery stores nationwide.

Hot off the release of Final Fantasy XIII, composer Masashi Hamauzu has ... left Square Enix, according to a report on Square Enix Music Online. Hamauzu has been with the company since 1996, and composed the soundtracks for SaGa Frontier II, Musashi: Samurai Legend and others, while contributing to many others including Final Fantasies VII and X. If true, Hamauzu will likely join the growing ranks of Japanese game industry figures to go freelance -- with the most famous example in game music being Square's own Nobuo Uematsu, who left in 2004 to form his own company. Previous to Hamauzu's reported departure, Square Enix Music Online notes, Square Enix sound team members Kenichiro Fukui and Junya Nakano left the publisher. The site also suggests that more of Square's composers will exit in the next few months. [Via Siliconera]

Marines go up against a hellswarm of Aliens in this magnificent multiplayer mode.

If you have a 360 you can stream all the character videos from the dash, and I did.

Also I put the Subject Zero reveal trailer instead of the profile, because hey: *crag* you.

So what is the deal with these guys anyway?

Thane: I like to kill shit

Grunt: I like to kill shit and am obviously not a replacement for Wrex

Miranda: I'm the obvious romance sub quest

Subject Zero: I like to kill shit, also I'm going to rape Shepard

Is anyone getting the feeling that Bioware may be taking the "Dark Second Chapter" thing too far? Is there a single crew member that is not *crag*ing insane?

But no seriouisly, Thane and Grunt are my go to guys if Wrex doesn't come back.

If Wrex comes back than *crag* Grunt. *crag* him up his four testicled ass.

Almost the entire internet is in agreement: Avatar: The Game isn't very good. The game hasn't sold as well as Ubisoft would've liked and, as GI.biz reports, the company is now preparing for a future filled with far less licensed product and more of its own franchises. The game is nearing two-and-a-half million units sold -- what would be considered a success for just about any other game out there -- around half of what Ubisoft initially expected from the "world changing" franchise. "Our plan is to take more care of our high end franchises, we will leave less place for licensed games," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot commented. He further added, "it doesn't mean we will stop but we're going to spend less in licenses in the future." And if Ubisoft's continuing work in the field of cinema is any indication, it might have more to gain from making films based on games rather than the other way around.

Though we've yet to hear official word from Sega on whether After Burner Climax is jetting to Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network, Gameswire has obtained "by hook or by crook" a plethora of gorgeous screens -- 26, to be exact -- which it reports as coming from the XBLA version. Late last year, the flight action was rated by both the Australian and Korean boards, with classification applied for by Sony. While you peruse these shots, we'll keep bugging Sega about some proper details. Update: Sega of Japan has confirmed (via 1UP) After Burner Climax's release this spring for ¥900 ($10) on PS3 and 800 (also, $10) for Xbox 360. We're still following up with Sega of America for confirmation of a North American release. [Via Kotaku]

Though we've yet to hear official word from Sega on whether After Burner Climax is jetting to Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network, Gameswire has obtained "by hook or by crook" a plethora of gorgeous screens -- 26, to be exact -- which it reports as coming from the XBLA version. Late last year, the flight action was rated by both the Australian and Korean boards, with classification applied for by Sony. While you peruse these shots, we'll keep bugging Sega about some proper details. [Via Kotaku]

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow may be in development for both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, but the game's producer David Cox recently pointed out via his Twitter account that the "PS3 is the lead platform" for the upcoming game. That isn't to say the Xbox 360 version will be lesser for the fact, as he quickly followed up his statement with the assurance that "the game is identical on both formats [Xbox 360 and PS3]." He's also noted a few times recently that we'll be hearing more about the game sometime "soon," so in lieu of no new information, at least be contented with the thought that you'll get some additional Castlevania deets sometime in the near future. Maybe.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick mentioned in a recent interview that he could have bought World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment back in the mid-'90s for a mere $7 million -- instead of having to do that whole $18 billion deal 12 years later. Speaking with Game Informer, the polarizing executive notes that during a dinner in 1995 he was shocked that another company bothered to buy Blizzard for $7 million. That year, Kotick says that Activision had about $60 million in revenue. The executive thought at the time that his dinner companions were "out of [their] minds." In fairness, Blizzard only really had Lost Vikings and Warcraft in those relatively early years of the developer. It's actually Blizzard founder Mike Morhaime who is probably kicking himself more (financially speaking) now, as Kotick relays that Morhaime told him recently,"Yeah, could you imagine if I had just held out for the seven billion instead of the seven million?'"

The reviews on Divinity II: Ego Draconis weren't exactly sparkling, but perhaps you're in the mood for an RPG and missed this one in the rush of holiday titles the past few months. If so, let us pique your interest with this short trailer showing off the Necromancer, an unlocked ally in the game that allows you to use the limbs of fallen foes to customize a party member named "the Creature." After all, these are tough times we live in, and it's best to reuse everything you can. Including that horribly disfigured arm ripped off of a vanquished demon. And speaking of recycling, we'll also reuse this post to tell you about the various contests that cdv Software has going on its website where you can win an Xbox 360 styled with Divinity II art, a "Dragon Knight Kit," or some sweet mouse pads. Using the same post for two purposes might not be as magical a trick as stitching creature parts back together, but it is pretty handy.

There's just one Team Fortress 2 class that's scraping by without the support of post-launch additional content: The hard hatted, begoggled Engineer. It makes sense that Valve will get to the crafty class sooner or later -- but many have wondered whether the developer will keep expanding on the title once the Engineer's update goes live. Fortunately, a Community Fortress interview with Valve's Robin Walker confirmed that new TF2 content would drop before and after the final class gets its new equipment. When pressed about the studio's post-Engineer plans, Walker explained, "we've got multiple updates in the works still, at least one of which will land before the Engineer pack." He later added, "as always, we haven't planned too much out beyond that point, because we want to see what feedback we get from the community." Well, community? What would you like to see? Some new weapons? Different styles of hats? Any support whatsoever for the console versions of the game? [Via 1UP]

At first glance, this iPhone / GBA mod by Goteking seems pretty novel. It has the classic charm of the Game Boy Advance coupled with the technical wizardry of the iPhone. And, as many Joystiq staffers noticed, it handily conjures up hilarious memories of the Nokia n-gage. However, upon realizing that the mod is literally just an iPhone crammed into an empty GBA shell, the cruel joke is revealed. You see, despite the lovely, responsive physical buttons surrounding the display, you'll still be forced to use the awful, unintuitive virtual buttons to control your games. Ah well, we're sure it's still good for at least a few sidetalking jokes. See a video of the mod in action after the break. [Via TinyCartridge]

There's nothing quite like a 30-second tech demo clip to get our hearts racing. Maybe, just maybe, the inclusion of some steaming hot data to go with that footage, perhaps from a big PC hardware company like Nvidia regarding its next graphics chip. Good thing then that we have just that (we're shaking in anticipation just putting down these words), as Nvidia unveiled its "GF100" (a codename) alongside said video clip (embedded after the break) just recently. What about those pulse-pounding specifics, you say? Well, the chip features "3 billion transistors, double the CUDA cores of previous generation GPUs, a high speed GDDR5 memory interface, and full DirectX 11 support." Whoa, whoa, settle down there kiddo, there's more. Reports have gauged it as running games like FarCry 2 at 84.3 frames per second with the resolution cranked all the way up. No price has yet been given, but can you really put a price on quality? (The answer is yes, and it could be a high one.) [Via BigDownload]

From Sonic the Hedgehog: * Sonic the Hedgehog * Miles “Tails” Prower * Knuckles the Echidna * Doctor Eggman * Amy Rose * Shadow the Hedgehog * Big the Cat From other Sega properties: * AiAi from Super Monkey Ball * Amigo from Samba de Amigo * Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue * Beat from Jet Set Radio * Alex Kidd from the Alex Kidd series * Billy Hatcher from [...]

The biggest year for gaming on record.

The biggest year for gaming on record.