HENRY HATSWORTH: THE POMPOUS ADVENTURER’S THEME TUNES

---

12.19.2008

Brandon Boyer

2 Replies

Anticipation is running high for EA’s simul-puzzle/platformer DS title Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure, and as we wait patiently to get our proper go, I note that EA’s offering the entirety of the game’s soundtrack via its official homepage.

Our picks for the old bean’s top tracks: the theremin laden ‘Moist Tango,’ and ‘Old Timey Eight-Bitter,’ which is as good a Koji Kondo tribute (rampant steel drums and all) as any I’ve heard since Denki’s Go! Go! Beckham.

Henry Hatsworth [EA]

Previously:
Nintendo's Wii/DS outlook: The Offworld view – Offworld
Denki re-emerge with XBLA boardgame mashup Quarrel – Offworld

For the detractors who thought LittleBigPlanet‘s holiday level pack was a bit lacking in levels, Sony and Media Molecule have just revealed their true Christmas surprise, a massive update and Metal Gear Solid-themed pack of goods that also adds new gameplay elements.

In addition to over 100 new stickers, objects, and materials (which you’ll now recognize as the work of Grip Wrench artist Rex Crowle), the update adds five new story levels and one challenge, trophies, and a new paintgun weapon that can be used across all levels.

What I like about the update is that it highlights just what it is that makes LittleBigPlanet amazing: it’s best not seen as a videogame itself, but as a videogame version of the games we played as children. I rambled about this in a cutting-room floor bit of tape for the first BBtv update, but Media Molecule’s achievement was making a digital version of jumping on couch cushions and pretending the carpet was a shark-filled ocean or molten lava, and this dress-up version of Konami’s world perfectly underscores that point.

LBP Premium Level Packs + Costume Packs (Metal Gear Solid Edition) – on the PS Store 12/23 [PlayStation.Blog]

DOUBLE FINE OPEN THE PSYCHO-PEDIA

---

12.19.2008

Brandon Boyer

9 Replies

Here’s one way to see a whole morning suddenly slip away: first, discover that Brutal Legend developer Double Fine have opened the Psycho-pedia, a clearinghouse of information on their debut game Psychonauts.

Then, methodically work your way through each and every single page gawping at the wicked concept art within and watching MTV2 interstitial videos and an hour-long special on the company.

Finally, realize that even though you own the disc, it might be time to re-buy the digital download and play it all over again (still trembling with acid flashbacks of the hours it took you to get past that circus bit with the kid’s “BUN BUN BUNNY” shouts echoing in your back-brain [but it was worth it in the end]).

The Psycho-pedia [Double Fine]

Finally, one last LittleBigMorningUpdate: ‘Corbu’ has showed up even the mechanical brilliance of the LittleBigCalculator and the behind-the-curtain magic of that recent Reversi game with an unbelievable street-lamp clockwork version of the Game of Life, which is doubly impressive for keeping all its inner-workings in plain view (and might be the first time I’ve seen the PS3 struggle under the weight of a level).

Your best bet to find it is to run a search on ‘Corbu’ — I found that searching for ‘LittleBigLife’ was too choked with other ‘LittleBig’ named levels.

TOUCH ME I’M SLICK: NGMOCO/HAND CIRCUS’S ROLANDO

---

12.18.2008

Brandon Boyer

16 Replies

If I didn’t think it’d be unfair to all parties involved, I’d simply title this one “why Rolando isn’t LocoRoco,” say my peace and be done — but it would be, so I won’t. But I will say, since it’s the laziest comparison and being used as a pejorative, that it clearly isn’t, and here’s why:

Yes, both games feature tilt mechanics (a feature better suited to the iPhone, for obvious reasons). And yes, as such, both feature balls, an understandable choice since those are the types of things that roll on inclines (and a design choice made for this type of game since someone first dropped a marble inside a wooden labyrinth).

And both, true, have chosen bold, high-contrast artwork that cutely personifies the movable objects. This is for a number of reasons: the more adorable the object, the more emotional connection, and the more we care whether or not it haphazardly rolls into spikes. The higher the contrast, the easier it is to follow the action, especially when you’re literally twisting and moving the screen in front of your face. (more…)

SPORESCULPTOR OPENS FOR 3D PRINTED SPORE CREATURES

---

12.18.2008

Brandon Boyer

2 Replies

Via press release: Electronic Arts and Z Corporation have just announced the opening of Sporesculptor to offer custom 3D printed figures of your Spore creations, utilizing the same technology as Z Corp’s ‘Bandmates‘ figurines for Harmonix’s Rock Band.

The announcement isn’t too much of a surprise: the private showroom of Spore‘s debut E3 booth was packed with cases full of the figures, and the conference tables at subsequent Maxis visits were always littered with the same. But it does add focus on what’s still Spore‘s strength: its sense of creativity and ownership over your particular world.

There are limitations: given the near infinite permutations of creature shapes and features, the site has headed off problem children at the pass and lists a number of features that won’t work with the tech, for obvious reasons: particularly long, spiny and wispy thin features, and bubbleheaded creatures who are supported by spindly bodies. Instead, the site says, “legs are good.”

Starting the process is as simple as browsing to your creature’s PNG file and uploading to the servers, and, as with the Bandmates, the sculpts come permanently mounted on a base, and are offered at roughly $49 to the ‘mates’ $69.

Sporesculptor [EA/Z-Corp]

FOR FURTHER READING: GEARS OF WAR AS LIFE AQUATIC, LION LEGS, OFFWORLD

---

12.18.2008

Brandon Boyer

2 Replies

I was tempted to not follow up our earlier link to Simon Parkin’s first Best Games Writing list with his second, if only out of humility, as inside he does call Offworld his “favourite new videogame site of 2008” (next to Sci Fi network/Tom Chick’s Fidgit), but, hrm, right, it does have too many good things within to ignore.

Apart from Margaret’s debut One More Go column, he calls out an excellent IGN [!] piece on Gears of War 2, which beside Parkin’s quoted paragraph contains a wonderfully apt comparison of GoW to the delayed adolescence combat-games in The Life Aquatic, as well Eurogamer’s Ellie Gibson’s review-response to a GameFaqs message board poster on whether you could drive into and break the legs off a lion in Sony’s PlayStation 3 safari sim Afrika.

Best Games Writing of 2008: Part 2 [chewing pixels]

Tears shouldn’t be our goal. Stories don’t need to be our tools. The majority of art forms don’t rely on narrative for their emotional impact. Stop and think about that for a second. The games industry tends to draw on such an amazingly limited roster of inspirations that it’s easy to forget it. But our obsession with linear, story-based – word-based, even – non-participatory art at the expense of all the other forms makes life so much harder for games, and it makes me crazy.

Read more, and her related GDC metagame plan, via her blog.

Snapping point [Lookspring]

I’d already seen ‘Myk Dawg‘s excellent pastel-pixel video for Offworld fave DJ Shadow, but embarrassingly hadn’t subsequently sleuthed hard enough to find his clearly linkable video for DJ I-Dee.

Keep this one on headphones for you NSFWers, and play spot the reference in the comments below.

[very well spotted, Joystiq!]

I FEEL A WRECK WITHOUT MY LITTLE CHINA SISTER

---

12.18.2008

Brandon Boyer

2 Replies

Just added to Take Two’s web store, a ‘very limited’ 3 inch porcelain version of BioShock‘s Little Sister that was quite obviously always meant to go alongside the Xbox 360’s special edition Big Daddy figure. And it comes at a very respectable ten dollars, which is about loads less than I’ve paid for a number of the vinyl figs scattered around the room.

While I was sniffing about, I also got quite taken with this ultra-dapper Incinerate T-shirt — the store’s also added some other sharp BioShock finery.

Little Sister Figurine [via Cult of Rapture]