Just coming down from the production of their forthcoming IGF-nominated first person brawler Zeno Clash, ACE Team has used April 1st to announce that, in the future, “we will not continue to develop such ambitious projects. Instead we will focus in smaller titles with shorter development cycles.”
Their new direction? Point and click adventures, with the first — The Malstrums Mansion — now available to play via the ACE Team website, complete with maddening anti-piracy measures.
Spore creators Maxis have used April 1st to announce Dungeons of Spore, a new ASCII-enhanced rogue-like coming in March of 2011 and promising “procedurally generated levels, thrilling turn-based gameplay, and NPCs straight from MPN.”
A trial version available on their site: I spent far more time than I’d like to admit running around and hugging various creatures.
I’ve mentioned Hudson’s Shooting Watch — the recently re-issued digital ‘trainer’ meant to help strengthen your game controller button-tapping muscles up to par with the hummingbird-fingered Takahashi Meijin — a few times before, and now the company has made it a good deal more affordable to own its little slice of Japan’s gaming history.
Coming just a few weeks after the release of an unofficial app that does much the same thing, Hudson has just released Shot Watch [iTunes link], an iPhone app that reproduces all of the functionality of the physical watch, and adds a few more ‘trix’ up its sleeve.
Like the traditional watch, your ultimate goal is to beat the mythical “16 button presses per second” of the master Takahashi, but now with a web ranking mode, you can see just how pathetic your attempts really are (I’m currently at 39 with a paltry 7.8). Check the official website for more information on its secret modes: I wouldn’t dare spoil the revealing sudoku puzzle that awaits you there.
Let us know your top rank once you’ve outpaced me!
Even better, they’ve made the announcement in song. Click below for the official site, which I’ve borrowed the above video from for handy embed’s sake.
Microsoft use April 1st to announce Alpine Legend for Xbox 360, in which you “take your band through all the alpine rights of passage: a mountainous village tour, recording sessions in a log cabin studio, overcoming throat soother addiction, and even competing in a live yodel off.”
Limited edition tri-horn pack and mountain goat add-on sold separately.
Blizzard use April 1st to announce the latest feature coming to World of Warcraft, which I’ll let them explain:
Tired of your mount looking like every other raptor, wolf, horse, kodo, or nightsaber out there? Want to spice it up with some armor plating, a few spikes or chains, or maybe even some flaming decals? Then Z to the A to the zzber (whew, that’s a mouthful!) will be glad to welcome you to his shop where you can epic-ize your mount with some phat total pimpage!
Coming in a future content patch, we plan to bring you a new feature that will allow you to alter the color, the armor, or add decorations to your in-game mounts. Simply drop in to Zazzber’s Local Fix-‘Er-Up, pay a small fee, and leave your mount there overnight. The next morning, you’ll pick up a mount that is uniquely yours!
Indie dev Wolfire — the team behind those always excellent Design Tour videos — have used April 1st to announce that their anthropomorphic animal 3rd person adventure Overgrowth has been deemed too niche even for the indies, and that they’re instead focusing their attention on hyper-cute World War 2 action game Small Tank for OnLive, XBox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, Steam and WiiWare.
The problem? It kind of looks brilliant — somewhere between Advance Wars, Metal Gear and the maligned 3D entry in the Metal Slug series — and I actually want to play. Maybe next year, guys?
Konami’s uses April 1st to debut a new video that, awesomely, starts with Hideo Kojima’s GDC keynote presentation slides before corrupting and giving away the Metal Gear Solid 5 debut that everyone secretly was hoping for last week.
Today’s most tender chiptune remix: Sebastian ‘Little Scale‘ Tomczak softens Super Panda Blast’s “LSDJ Test” and displays it through a hacked VGA adapter that renders sound as beautiful glitches.
