Based on the world Gagne created for the Insanely Twisted Shadow Puppets animations shown on Nickelodeon in 2005, Fish is right: there isn’t a single second of this video that doesn’t make me want to play, though it’s still unclear when we might be able to. New posts at the game’s blog seem to all but ensure an eventual Xbox Live Arcade release alongside the previously planned PC version, which could put it months away.
But that’s a bit beside the point: the point is it’s trumped its own record and become one of the most bluntly wicked trailers I’ve laid eyes on since The Last Guardian, and re-rocketed the game back up my most-anticipated list.
In an exclusive report on Sony’s renewed and rejuvenated initiative to bring smaller (read: indie) offerings to the PSP and its on-device PlayStation Network Store (which I noted earlier as probably the most important aspect of their PSP Go! announcement, especially combined with its subsequent drastic devkit price drop), the company has told Develop that it’s already signed some 50 studios for new content, both games and apps.
Chief among them, or at least, the most recognizable game/studio? Subatomic, who Develop have revealed will be bringing a new exclusive version of their iPhone tower-defense hit FieldRunners to the PSP.
Subatomic’s Ash Monif told Develop that Sony’s plans were “about bringing the lighter, lower barrier content to the PSP that has been so successful in other categories… You don’t see this happening at Microsoft and you even don’t see it happening at Nintendo yet.”
My new favorite thing about Fangamer’s Metal Gear merchandise: your upcoming orders will be shipped with this packing slip, which doubles as Snake’s legendary cardboard disguise.
Several weeks back I took an entire Sunday afternoon to dig through the garage and fish out every first party DS and Wii game I’ve ever owned, and went through the arduous process of cracking open each one to register it on Club Nintendo. The Game & Watch Collection DS game was basically reward enough, but, if you haven’t been personally notified yet, there’s a newly announced bonus in it for members that reached Gold or Platinum level.
As seen at right, Platinum level members can now choose from two new gifts free just for having participated: a cotton/poly “life sized” Mario hat, which is nice (and would look cutest slung side-long on your unsuspecting child’s head, Yoshi’s Island-Mario-style), or, a special downloadable version of the Wii’s Punch-Out!! remake that pits you directly against your in-game coach, Doc Louis. It’s a tough call between the physical and the digital, however exclusive the latter, and I’m still not settled (we have until August 11th).
For Gold members, though, the choice is clearer: you’ll be receiving a 2010 desktop calendar featuring a different game per month — neither wearable or playable, but no booby prize itself. Log in to your Club Nintendo account to see if you’re eligible for either and to claim your prize.
Back in some of Offworld’s earliest days I mentioned an obscure addition to the Space Invaders family tree: Infinity Gene, a vector-sharp retro-future take on the series made specifically for Japanese mobile phones (as below). The then-recently-announced DSiWare seemed a logical choice for the game to eventually move to, but Taito have just got in touch to let me know they’re taking it in a different direction: the iPhone.
And that’s perhaps the better move it could’ve made, so as not to compete against its own Extreme brothers, though they are quite different games. Where Extreme kept you tethered to that X axis, Infinity Gene will let you — from what I understand so far — move your ship around the screen at will via touch controls, and, as above, comes equipped with a new rapid-fire laser that puts it much more in keeping with later arcade shooters than the original Invaders.
Infinity‘s true evolution, as its name suggests, happens by collecting the gene clusters seen at top right which will, at times, break you out of the action and bring you to a new evolution screen that informs you which new capabilities or weapons you’ve unlocked. And its enemies have evolved as well, with new impenetrable shields (seen top left), new weapons, and massive screen-filling bosses (my favorite bit of the video, apart from the terrifying Zuntata score: ‘A HUGE ENEMY — “The Moon” — BREAK INTO THE BATTLE’).
Taito says the game will be available “in the very near future”.
Thought the quiet return of Mobigame’s iPhone platformer Edge to the App Store was a sign that the trademark debate had been settled, or even proof of Tim Langdell’s reform? Guess again:
Gamasutra spin-off iPhone site fingergaming has learned that Mobigame has officially been served a complaint from Langdell’s lawyers, alleging that not only is the game a trademark violation, but that mechanically it’s a copy of obscure 1986 Spectrum game Bobby Bearing (it’s worth noting — as Mobigame does — that Bearing itself, along with Spectrum’s Spindizzy, were both heavily inspired by Marble Madness).
(It’s also worth noting here that the argument Langdell’s taken is suspiciously similar to the capper of a very, very, very lengthy comment the pseudonymous and surely entirely impartial ‘bobf’ created an Offworld account [from a Ventura, California Kinko’s] to write after I first posted about the trademark debacle.)
As Mobigame also noted in their latest tweet of new legal threats, in the interim period since the Edge case was presumed settled, Langdell’s also taken the opportunity to file a new UK trademark on the name ‘Edge of Twilight’ in June. The significance? It’s also the name of Fuzzyeyes’ steampunk platformer the studio first announced in 2007 and showed off in 2008, which just recently (as in, in June) made its latest video appearance.
Fingergaming says that EA, it turns out (and as predicted) have been contacted by Langdell regarding the ‘Mirrors a new game by Edge” game Langdell claims his company is currently developing (for seven platforms, simultaneously) — no word there, though, on whether his similarly late-comer UK filings for ‘Soul Spore’ and ‘Mirrors Spore’ have also been dragged into the fray.
And while we’re on the subject, let’s just make this our own mini-#musicmonday, and get straight to this: Pieter ‘Dr. Zilog‘ Montoulieu doing a chiptune cover (mp3) of Animal Collective’s hipster runaway favorite My Girls. Zilog takes a few liberties here and there, but essentially captures the spirit, especially paired with his low-res filtered version of Brody Baker/Shelly Zander‘s original video.
This isn’t the first time Zilog’s gone down the 8-bit indie path: above, his version of MGMT’s Kids (mp3). [via GSW]
They’re probably not the most artful shots, but they’re the first on-site looks I’ve seen so far: Michael Surtees of the always excellent DesignNotes blog returns with these shots from inside the Jonathan LeVine Gallery, where the previously mentioned Space Invader show is still open through July 25th.
In addition to the invaders at top (which are more glittery than they appear here), Surtees has this shot of Invader’s ‘Rubikcubism’ VU/Nirvana/Daft Punk/Sex Pistols album covers remade in Rubik’s Cubes.
And this shot (apparently taken somewhere along Bowery), proving that, even after the 25th, the game will continue as city residents spot surreptitiously installed invaders around town.
Spotted over the weekend via regular Pulsewave visual artist Paris Treantafeles: demoscene group Braadworsten Brigade’s Breakpoint 2009 submission, Exelence, a demo made entirely in Microsoft Excel 2003. See its scene.org entry here to download the file for yourself and interrupt your next office meeting in style. [via parisgraphics]
