Joystiq older than one year ago

Zen Studios has announced that it's readying a Tegra 2-only version of its PSN title Zen Pinball for compatible Android phones and tablets. Set to arrive "soon," the game will be going up against the just-released Pinball HD port for Google's mobile OS, which also requires Nvidia's dual-core chip to run.

The announcement says that "several" tables will be included in the Zen port, including the one featured in the latest DLC for the console version, "Sorcerer's Lair" (seen in the gallery below). Also to be expected: head-to-head online multiplayer and achievements.

Zen Pinball THD -- as it's called -- will be playable at Google's I/O 2011 conference in San Francisco tomorrow, May 10, and Wednesday.

"We always wanted to release a basic level editor" for Super Meat Boy, Team Meat's Edmund McMillen writes in an emailed announcement, "but the idea started to balloon when we decided to buy servers and program a fully automated level portal (Super Meat World) to support these levels as a bonus chapter for the PC version." Needless to say, it's taken a while for the two-man team to complete the free add-on. But ...

The level editor is "FINALLY out on Steam!" McMillen rejoiced.

Technically, the editor is in beta release -- "and probably will be for a very long time," McMillen notes in a blog post -- so users may encounter "minor issues." Still, with the exception of boss battles and warp zones, the editor can be used to create "anything you see in game," and even package such torturous levels into a complete chapter of pain.

"So think of this as a thank you to all the awesome fans who sent us cool shit, nice emails and created amazing levels with devmode," the ever-irreverent McMillen concludes in his post, "if you bitched us out because the free level editor was delayed, you should probably not update your game and burn in hell."

McMillen added in his email that Super Meat World would be updated next week to add a few "missing" features and fix some bugs with the editor. "After that we will be closing the book on the PC version, porting SMB to Mac and swiftly moving on to game #2."

As saddened as we were by the news that Mass Effect 3 wouldn't reach us until next year, after an EA earnings call today we're hovering between befuddled and intrigued.

When asked about the delay, EA boss John Riccitiello said, "Essentially, step by step, [BioWare is] adjusting some of the gameplay mechanics and some of the features that you'll see at E3 that can put this into a genre equivalent of shooter-meets-RPG, and essentially address a far larger market opportunity than Mass Effect 1 did and Mass Effect 2 began to approach."

... So what does that mean? Well, mentioning that Mass Effect 2 was closer to what EA's targeting would seem to indicate more of an emphasis on action. But if the company's looking for "a larger market opportunity" a multiplayer component seems a surefire way to achieve that.

Here's hoping we remember to check this post after E3 to feel either really smart or a little sheepish about our prognosticating. Also, hello future us! Hope you're having a good summer!

THQ left very little room for interpretation today in regards to Saints Row: Drive By, the XBLA and PSN spinoff of its puerile open-world series. "We are not developing Saints Row: Drive By," a THQ rep told Joystiq, confirming reports of its cancellation.

That likely means there won't be a 3DS Saints Row game either, since core games CEO Danny Bilson said that the planned 3DS project was the same as the XBLA game. Given the kind of weaponry we've seen in the latest Saints Row game -- weaponry we're not too keen to see in 3D -- we're at peace with the cancellation.

THQ told Joystiq it had "no further comment at this time" regarding the 3DS title specifically.

And with that headline, I exhausted and easily matched every bit of creativity that Sega and High Voltage Software put into The Conduit 2, a half-rendered, poorly scripted, mysteriously voice-acted, first-person shooter for the Nintendo Wii.

I'm not allowed enough space to truly get down to the essence of lackadaisical trash this game is, but dear, sweet Lord, I'm going to try.

Following up on this morning's news that Sony Online Entertainment servers were offline across the board, Sony Online Entertainment announced that it has lost 12,700 customer credit card numbers as the result of an attack, and roughly 24.6 million accounts may have been breached.

The company took SOE servers offline after learning of the attack last evening, and today detailed the unfortunate results: "approximately 12,700 non-US credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates (but not credit card security codes), and about 10,700 direct debit records of certain customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain" were lost, apparently from "an outdated database from 2007." Of the 12,700 total, 4,300 are alleged to be from Japan, while the remainder come from the aforementioned four European countries.

Furthermore, Sony ties today's announcement directly to the recent attacks on PlayStation Network and Qriocity, with Sony saying SOE customer information was stolen on either April 16 or April 17. Sony has repeatedly stated that its PSN servers and SOE servers are not part of the same network, so it remains unclear just how these two attacks are tied together.

We aren't exactly sure how Metromix got screens of what appears to be the recently outed Smurfs Dance Party game, but here it is (above and after the break). Contacted for comment, a Ubisoft rep told us the Smurf product announcement will come mid-May. The company isn't currently releasing assets for whatever its Smurf game(s) will be.

Metromix's product description notes the title is being developed by Land Ho! (We Cheer) and will have players following "Smurf'testants" as they (sigh) "shake their powder blue rumps to songs by the Jackson 5, Selena Gomez and Katy Perry."

The site lists a July 26 release date (same as GameFly). And yes, if the screens are accurate, it's definitely another spin-off of Ubisoft's super successful Just Dance franchise.

[Thanks, Elliott]

Though short on details, Valve hasn't wasted any time confirming its plans for Portal 2 DLC. After a massive launch just over a week ago - Valve says Portal 2 is its "fastest-selling" release since Half-Life 2! - the famously generous developer has outlined what it's calling "Portal 2 DLC #1."

For the asking price of $0, DLC #1 will offer "new test chambers for players, leaderboards, challenge mode for single and multiplayer modes, and more." While free DLC on the Steam-powered PC and Mac platforms is nothing unusual coming from Valve, DLC #1 will notably free "free of charge" on Xbox 360 and PS3 as well. Of course, adding Steam to the PlayStation 3 release was always intended to allow for this scenario and we can only imagine Microsoft didn't feel comfortable with the Xbox 360 being the sole platform charging for otherwise free content.

Portal 2 DLC #1 is "targeted" for release this summer; it's not clear if that estimate is Normal Time or Valve Time, so don't mark up your Stephen Merchant calendars just yet.

When Nintendo finally flips the switch on the 3DS eShop, it's got a pretty solid plan for enticing users into the service. During an investor briefing, president Satoru Iwata announced that Nintendo plans to offer a free downloadable version of Excitebike through the eShop, for a limited time starting at launch.

It won't just be Excitebike -- it'll be 3D Excitebike. This freebie will be 3DS owners' first experience with the "3D Classics" line, in which classic games are updated with new 3D effects. So when some anonymous racer knocks you off your bike, it'll be more ... exciting. Iwata didn't specify a region for this release, so there is a possibility that it might be restricted to Japan.

Shigeru Miyamoto has a habit for developing games that show off the strength of new Nintendo platforms -- and it sounds like he's planning on doing so once again for the 3DS. Speaking to Edge, Miyamoto explained now that Nintendo has finished developing the 3DS hardware, it can "focus more on gaming" in the coming year, adding that we can expect "remakes of games on 3DS as well." When asked for a specific title he'd like to see remade, Miyamoto reached into his own back catalog, answering, "I think A Link To The Past."

Deciding that wasn't enough of a pseudo-sadistic tease, Miyamoto explained some of the functionality he'd like to see in a 3DS Link to the Past remake. "Do you remember Xevious," Miyamoto asked. "It's two-layered and I really wanted to create that at the time. So to see Link To The Past in two layers would be quite attractive for me." Such a remake sounds just perfect for the 3D Classics section of the 3DS eShop -- a storefront which, serendipitously enough, will play host to a renovated version of Xevious itself.

Think you've seen all there is to see in the deadly, paneled catacombs of Aperture Science? You might have missed this Portal 2 easter egg: A quartet of hidden-away, musically-oriented turrets, a video of which is posted after the jump. Or maybe you didn't miss it. We're not mind readers, you know.

In a recent interview with Edge, industry legend Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed two of the suspicions we'd developed regarding the handful of Super Mario 3DS details revealed during the publisher's GDC presentation. First, he explained, "It's a combination of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario on N64." Which makes sense, considering we knew it was being developed by the team between both installments in the Galaxy series. He added that the device's 3D capabilities makes platforming a bit smoother, explaining, "The floors floating in space: in 2D it's difficult to judge the distance, but in 3D it's really easy."

Second, remember the tail that was springing out of the logo? That wasn't just some sad remnant of a half-deleted Wingding -- it was, as you probably expected, an appendage. Miyamoto explained, "The tail you mentioned on the logo - it's what you think it is. You probably know what's going to happen using that character." Who, Tanooki? Yeah, we know that guy's style. He's gonna get right in our trash cans, mess up our yard and then fly off into the crisp, night sky.

We'll have our opportunity to get reacquainted with that ringtailed jerk relatively soon -- Miyamoto explained, Super Mario 3DS is "completely original, and coming this year."

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D may not possess a boundless cornucopia of new features over its Nintendo 64 predecessor, but Nintendo revealed one neat gameplay mode in a press release published earlier today. After reaching a certain point in the game, players will access the "Boss Challenge" mode, which will "provide players with the opportunity to face any of the previous Bosses they have defeated once again, or, the option to face and confront them one-by-one, all in a continuous battle."

Oh, you mean we'd have to pummel Queen Gohma, King Dodongo, Barinade, Shadow Ganondorf, Volvagia, Morpha, Bongo Bongo, Twinrova, Ganondorf and Ganon all in one sitting? That's a whole lot of weak points to exploit, but we're pretty confident that we can handle it.

If Nintendo is following up Donkey Kong Country Returns with sequels like it did the original Donkey Kong Country, it's not doing so right now. Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe, who works with DKCR developer Retro Studios, told Game Informer, "I wouldn't say we won't do a sequel, but we don't have anything planned at this time."

In a postmortem panel at GDC on the development of last year's sucessful DKCR, Retro revealed the difficulties of making the side-scroller. The team attempted to adapt the Metroid Prime morph ball camera to the side-scrolling, but found it unable to handle the quick and complex movements of the DK characters -- especially once Tanabe insisted that two-player simultaneous play be added.

There are over 2000 animations for the player character, a number inflated by the second character -- and by the late-stage suggestion from Shigeru Miyamoto that Donkey Kong be able to blow on background items to reveal secrets. Miyamoto was testing the game, running back and forth for about ten minutes, when he declared that Donkey Kong appeared to be exhaling when he turned around. And then, he said that "it might be fun to make Donkey Kong blow on things," causing extensive damage to Retro's metaphorical tea table.

And the Super Guide -- "oh, jeez," one of the team exclaimed when that subject came up. It turns out that Retro had to rewrite the engine to make it deterministic -- make it that all the inputs would result in the same output every time, essentially eliminating randomness. This turned out to be a boon, however, as the same mechanic that allowed the team to record playthroughs also made it easy to reproduce bugs in testing.

Retro ended its panel by joking that it would like to refresh the Doki Doki Panic (Super Mario Bros. 2) series next, along with making a "Pokemon Prime." "We've been looking at Tingle a lot," as well.

Microsoft has disabled Xbox Live "Free" members' ability to rate Marketplace content on Xbox.com in an apparent effort to curb ratings manipulation. The announcement was made on the XNA Game Studio Team Blog and was specifically addressed to the Indie Games Community.

"By implementing this change, we believe our customers will experience more consistent ratings and a significantly reduced potential for abuse across the entire Xbox catalog," said the statement. "We have also investigated rolling back suspect votes, however, we determined it will not be possible to do this."

Several weeks ago, developers of some of the top-rated Indie Games suspected foul play when their games began to slide down the Top Rated listing after receiving, by one developer's count, "hundreds of 1 star ratings" in a single week. While the XNA Team conceded that it would be unable to take away such seemingly unwarranted ratings, it did add that "we are investigating users who may have violated their user agreement during this series of events."

"Violating user agreements may result in actions up to and including banning from Xbox Live, removal of currently posted games, and loss of ability to post games in the future," the statement continued.

A few Indie Games developers have expressed gratitude, as reported by Armless Octopus, for Microsoft listening to their concerns and taking action. (Historically, it's been a somewhat rocky relationship between the two sides.) While limiting rating powers on Xbox.com to paying Gold members would seem to thwart the most egregious attacks and manipulation of content, it does not solve some of the other issues with the system; most notably that a user need not play, let alone purchase, content to rate it.

Are you having a hard time wrapping your noodle around the perspective-shifting gameplay we outlined in our recent preview of Sonic Generations? Sounds like a visual aid is just what the doctor ordered -- check out the gameplay video below to see Generations' two distinct angles.

Nintendo said that the 3DS version of Blazblue: Continuum Shift 2 would be out in North America on May 24, but publisher Aksys offered a different timetable today, when it officially announced the PSP and 3DS releases of Arc System Works' fighter.

The bad news is that CS2 will actually arrive a week later, on May 31. The good news is that it won't have to needlessly compete with Dead or Alive Dimensions by being released on the same day! We have galleries of each version, so the PSP and 3DS releases can battle one-on-one for your fighting game budget. There's also a trailer after the break.

It could just be a very, very specific, unintentional typo, but we're gonna bet that ex-BioWare lead level designer Rafael Brown knew what he was doing when he included "Jade Empire 2 (360/PS3/PC)" in his list of "unreleased" games that he worked on in his LinkedIn profile. The listing suggests a current-generation sequel was planned for the 2005 Xbox/PC/Mac Jade Empire.

The listing also indicates he was working on the title at BioWare somewhere between April 2006 and April 2007 -- the year that Brown was employed by the company. His job description at the dev even specifies he was the "lead level/world designer on an unannounced project."

Meanwhile, other folks still employed at BioWare were feeling optimistic about the Jade Empire IP as recently as 2009. The BioWare of 2011, however, had yet to respond as of publishing.

Step aside, Skyrim, another endless world of magical adventure is set to steal your spotlight. That's right, Minecraft will finally be released later this year on November 11. Of course, the official release seems a little less momentous considering there are nearly two million people enjoying the game already.

Minecraft maestro Markus "Notch" Persson notes that the "full version" of the game won't differ significantly from its current beta. In fact, it would seem that the most important distinction will simply be the removal of the "beta" label. Persson notes that development team will continue to update the game with new features after the official release.

Also, for what it's worth, Persson notes that he's "excited" for Skyrim too.

Sega has revealed a brand new Sonic the Hedgehog game via Sonic's Facebook page (Dr. Robotnik friend request -- rejected). A short teaser trailer depicts Sonic running through a sparsely colored sequence of checkered hills and loops, before meeting up with an old pal. Classic Sonic is back, pudge and all! Also, we hate to worry you, but it looks like he's been cloning himself.

The game is expected to arrive on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sometime in 2011. We're sure to see more before the blue speed demon's 20th birthday.

As both Europe and North America count down the (still unknown) days until the launch of Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play smart phone, PSOne games compatible with the "PlayStation Phone" have started popping up on the Android Market. Five games, in fact, including Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, Jumping Flash, MediEvil 2 and Syphon Filter. That's right -- the Play is ready to, er, play like it's circa 1995-97.

All of the games are selling for £3.99 ($6) -- the same going price as on PSN. MediEvil 2 and Syphon Filter are available in five languages (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish) while the rest are English-only releases. They're also all (predictably) platform-locked to the Xperia Play (Sony Ericsson R800i). All this one day after Google removed the PSOne emulator, PSX4Droid, attributing the action to a Content Policy violation.

Capcom has posted an apology and cancellation notice on the official Japanese website for Mega Man Universe, an odd DIY Mega Man game that was scheduled to launch on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network later this year. The retro-styled platformer was a cheeky amalgam of remade Mega Man 2 levels, customizable characters (including the crooked caricature from the North American Mega Man 1 box art) and user-created levels.

According to Capcom's notice, the decision to extinguish Mega Man Universe was given impetus by "various circumstances." Those may involve the departure of Mega Man creator and Universe conceptual lead, Keiji Inafune, who resigned from Capcom in October 2010. We've requested further comment from Capcom.

With the launch of Sony Ericsson's Android-powered "PlayStation Phone," the Xperia Play, supposedly right around the corner, Google has pulled the plug on a prominent PSOne emulator for its mobile OS. According to its author, "zodttd," PSX4Droid was removed from the Android Market without warning due to a "Content Policy violation," though he suspects it has more to do with Sony's imminent smart phone offering. "Sony's Xperia Play must be coming soon," tweeted the dev, adding that, "The timing is suspicious with no remedy."

As for alternatives to the Android Market, PSX4Droid's maker says he's a "bit worried to goto Amazon App Store" since "people who own the Market version would have to buy it again to update." Meanwhile, another PSOne emulator for Android, fpse, remains available on the Market. We've contacted Sony for its response to the app's removal and are awaiting comment.

Rise of Immortals, Petroglyph's entry into the rapidly expanding multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre -- which includes Heroes of Newerth, Demigod, League of Legends and Dota 2 -- will invite nearly 10,000 applicants into its closed, friends-and-family beta test on April 5. Actually, we guess once those invites go out, it'll become less of a friends-and-family beta and more of a friends-and-family-and-thousands-of-strangers beta.

Check out our preview of Rise of Immortals to see if it's the kind of thing you'd like to play before its official launch. And by "play," of course, we mean "rigorously stress test and check for bugs." We're basically talking about a job, people. Freeloaders need not apply.

In addition to the ability to buy it in Japan and play it in Japanese, there are additional benefits to Konami's Japanese localization of Scribblenauts. Specifically, you can use the power of your words to bring forth Konami characters into 5th Cell's world.

In these screenshots, including one tweeted by Hideo Kojima and two from Hachimaki, you can see Scribblenized versions of Old Snake, Gradius's Vic Viper, and Love Plus's Manaka Takane. Apparently, the other two Love Plus girls were left out for some reason.

Capcom launched an update for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 earlier today to prepare for the new "Event Mode" that will be added to the game this Friday -- however, the patch has also quietly introduced a few balance changes to some characters' intricately measured statistics. The most drastic is a reduction in Sentinel's health, which has been dropped from 1.3 million tiny units (the most health of any fighter in the game) to 905,000, according to Shoryuken.

The patch also nixes a few fairly unfair loops belonging to Spencer, Akuma and Haggar. Hey, why not remove their grappling hook, forbidden demonic Kung-Fu and impossibly gigantic muscles while you're at it? Those seem pretty unfair, too.

It's official! Against all odds, Sony Ericsson has finally ended its nearly year-long streak of embarrassing leaks, missed opportunities, and terrible advertising and come out the other side with this: a series of excellent ads for its "PlayStation Certified" Xperia Play phone.

Spokeswoman (and comedian!) Kristen Schaal walks you through some of the phone's strongest features in a series of five ads, all found after the break. Did you know the Xperia Play is the perfect phone for downloading apps, looking at kitten pictures, editing spreadsheets, and watching YouTube? Neither did we. But it's also got a slide-out gamepad, which Ms. Schaal is all too happy to show off.

Hey, Kristen ... do you mind if we call you Kristen? We know a guy you'd probably get along great with. Kristen, meet KB. KB, Kristen.

It's been a good long time since we lost the kind of party-stamina required to persevere through a day-long rager, but perhaps you possess the endurance required to make this invitation more inviting: Nintendo's throwing a lengthy soiree to celebrate the launch of the 3DS this weekend in New York City. You can stop by the Best Buy in Union Square starting at noon Saturday to check out the new handheld before queueing up to purchase one between midnight and 2AM.

Now, considering you'll be indulging in 14 whole hours of bacchanalian delights, you'll need to come prepared -- we suggest applying multiple coats of sunscreen throughout the day, remaining well hydrated, and bringing along some extra eyeballs. On the off-chance you play the 3DS for 14 hours straight, you'll probably end up disintegrating your corneas.

As you likely noticed, 3DS cartridges are just one good filing away from being able to fit in a DSi. To save you the trouble, we took a file to our copy of Madden Football, and we've got a detailed walkthrough of exactly what happened after the break.