Very well spotted via Tiny Cartridge, the ESRB — everyone’s new favorite source of pre-release information — has rated a Windows PC version of Square Enix’s excellent puzzler Yosumin. Originally released as an import-only DS title, you may recall rumors spreading several weeks ago of an imminent Xbox Live Arcade port, but this is the first public indication that Square Enix is considering stateside release — though, it should be said, not a guarantee.
Either way, I now have a very good excuse to say here, you can prep yourself for the release by training on Square Enix’s Flash version (hosted grey-ly by thelostmd, click the first of the three menu options to start the game), but — fair warning from personal experience — it’s frighteningly easy to lose hours to the charms of its virus-esque polygons.
The gameplay itself is simple enough: your only task is to find any rectangle amongst the field where the same color shapes make up each of its four corners, at which point all the shapes inside will be converted to that color, collected, and replaced with a new set of randoms. While your score will be boosted by by finding ever wider rectangles within the field, each level ends when you’ve collected the requisite number of each color.
The ESRB notes, as the Xbox Live Arcade rumors did, that the official release will include both high score challenges and multiplayer modes — here’s to looking forward to updating more on that later this year.
Offered as a counterpoint to 1UP Retro Blog’s timely “worst presidents of gaming” article (a list including, of course, Bad Dudes‘ own burger-loving Mr. President), I submit gaming’s greatest commander in chief, the hard-boiled, dual-wielding mech-pilot Michael Wilson of From Software’s 2004 import-only Xbox title Metal Wolf Chaos.
Wilson not only soldiered bravely against the rebel army of his vice president, Richard Hawk, but commanded one of gaming’s most fantastically ridiculous entrances, exploding through the West Wing walls.
Microsoft, if you’re listening, now that we’ve ushered in a new era: now’s the time to correct your prior error and bring this to the States as a special Xbox Originals download.
Though there doesn’t appear to have been much activity on the site since mid-2008, after coming across the project today I’m tentatively hopeful it’s still moving forward: artist Rachel Beth Egenhoefer and scientist Kyle E. Jennings have partnered to create KNiiTTiiNG, a Wii-mote enhanced, presumably PC-based application that would use motion control to teach the basics of knitting via minigames and on-screen tutorials.
Egenhoefer explains:
The more we started to work together and play silly Wii games, the more the ideas started to come. We thought about the craze of Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero and then thought we’d make our own type of “Knitting Hero”. Users follow the knits and purls as they move up the screen challenging the player to knit in rhythm with the game, and without dropping a stitch! In Dance Dance Revolution the player produces a dance (or something like a dance), and in Guitar Hero the player creates an actual song. In KNiiTTiiNG however, you can only knit a virtual cloth object which comes back to my ideas about tactility and code, while also bringing in elements of pop culture and scatological video games.”
The site teases three patterns: a tea towel, ‘sensible’ hat and octopus toaster cover, but we might also suggest more game-centric further add-ons: pixel-patterned DS/PSP cozies? Partnering with mad-teaparty’s Xiola for Katamari hat patterns? The possibilities are endless.
A month after ruing the fact that Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade team were “sitting on” his submitted demo, Llamasoft head Jeff Minter has announced (alongside an excellent review for Space Giraffe PC) that the Xbox 360 remake of his cult retro shooter Gridrunner will see release via XBLA in late April.
And, best of all, Minter also revealed earlier last year that the Xbox Live Arcade port, as above, would include emulated versions of the original Vic-20 and C64 titles that earned Minter and Llamasoft their reputation, for a release that promises to be as good a newcomer’s introduction to the Llama-legacy as you can find.
Update: Well, now that we’ve gone and killed his website, Kyle has sent along word that there’s a temporary mirror at the 2D Boy’s site, which you can find here. Attack!
The best present we could have received today: World of Goo devs 2D Boy have released the game’s soundtrack — truly one of the best in recent memory — as a free download via designer and composer Kyle Gabler’s homepage, with notes on the inspiration for its various tracks. Gabler explains:
The majority of the instruments you’ll hear are computer instruments, with a few live performances on top to add a bit of warmth. For the older music, I used one of those Sound Blaster cards that let you load samples into memory. More recently, I’ve been using the freeware sfz soundfont sampler. I have an m-audio keystation 49e midi keyboard for picking out melodies. Influences include Danny Elfman, Vangelis, Bernard Herrmann, Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone, and all the big movie guys. I grew up listening to them, and they remain a big influence in everything I write.
It’s hard to pick a favorite, each one conjuring very happy memories of different game highlights, but embedded below, this being Offworld and all, the most obviously Vangelis inspired, ‘Inside the Big Computer.’
Previously mentioned as one of my most anticipated DS titles for the first half of 2009, Arkedo’s Big Bang Mini is not only shipping to retailers this week, but, publisher Southpeak has announced, has hit the Wii’s Nintendo Channel DS Download Service as well, so you can try an extensive demo of the game ahead of time.
If you do, what you’ll discover is that while it shares PS2 launch title puzzler Fantavision‘s vivid romanticization of fireworks against a jet black sky, that’s where the similarities end. What Big Bang Mini really is, at its fuse-lit core, is an introduction to the thrill of hardcore bullet-hell shooters wrapped in a more palatable and familiar metaphor. (more…)
And the day’s last dose of Helvetica porn: following Meat Bun’s similar Nintendo dream team shirt, which followed Amsterdam studio Experimental Jetset’s iconic original, Zazzle user ‘bigdukesix’s tribute to his “band (of survivors)” of choice, the boys and girl of Left 4 Dead.
Nothing says ‘presidential inauguration’ like papercraft, and Hattori obliges with this wicked Kid Icarus diorama that captures everything good about the game minus the Eggplant Wizard.
In mid-December I was delighted to discover that Manhattan developer area/code had stealth released a port of Chain Factor — the Flash puzzler they’d created in partnership with CBS tv drama Numb3rs as part of a promotional alternate reality game — to the iPhone as snap7.
As it turned out, it was a bit too stealth for my own good: just hours after I’d posted it, the app had to be removed from the store. But now, a month later, it has re-emerged under its new name Drop7 at a re-introductory $0.99 price, and comes as very, very highly recommended as it did to start: it’s been one of my most regular smoke-break and long-trip iPhone companions since.
The only downside is — gasp — my high scores have been removed in transition, and I know I’ve had at least one absolutely brilliantly executed Sequence mode run where I scored well higher than my original 87k.
