I WANNA BE A BIG BANG: ARKEDO’S BIG BANG MINI DEMO HITS THE WII
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…)
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
LOUIS & BILL & ZOEY & FRANCIS: THE REAL FAB FOUR
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.
Louis & Bill & Zoey & Francis. T-shirt [via Tom, via Wonderland]
Previously:
Left 4 Dead: the twits don't stand a chance – Offworld
Screaming for Hitekkai: Meat Bun's new T-shirt designs – Offworld
Polygraph's Kakuna T-shirt casts harden – Offworld
Look a little bit like Little Mac – Offworld
A new Hanes Beefy-T awaits – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
GETTING CRAFTY: HATTORI’S KID ICARUS DIORAMA PAPERCRAFT
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.
[Kid Icarus Papercraft, via Nintendo Papercrafts, via Tiny Cartridge]
Previously:
Getting crafty with Foldskool and Cubecraft – Offworld
Life-size papercraft Link hat (and hair) – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
TOUCH ME I’M SLICK AGAIN: AREA/CODE RELAUNCHES DROP7
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.
To learn more of what the game’s about read my original writeup, and find the game on the AppStore here.
Drop7 [area/code entertainment, iTunes link]
See more posts about: area/code, Drop7, Offworld Originals, Touch Me I'm Slick
OLLY MOSS’S PENGUIN-INSPIRED VIDEOGAME CLASSICS COVERS
Like AtomicToy’s Dude-A-Day project, I happened across designer Olly Moss’s fantastic Swiss-inspired movie posters last week and wondered what he might come up with in the games realm, and now I see I didn’t have to wonder long.
Taking a cue from classic Penguin book covers, I’d like to think Moss’s newly created ‘Triforce on the brain’ Zelda cover and his ‘projectile dysfunction’ Goldeneye design would have brought a happy twinkle to Germano Facetti‘s eye.
Videogame Classics [Flickr, via Super Punch, via Tiny Cartridge]
Previously:
AtomicToy’s Dude-a-Day Games Dudes – Offworld
Ben Marra's view from Vice City – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Olly Moss
BROWSER BRAWL: STREET FIGHTER COMES TO YOUTUBE
Well spotted via Destructoid, Patrick Boivin’s Youtube Street Fighter, a fully playable (as playable as, say Dragon’s Lair), stop-motion version of the arcade classic done up with cleverly hacked overlay buttons and a frighteningly complex array of all various outcomes.
See more posts about: Meta, Offworld Originals
NGMOCO PROMISE WORD-FU, MORE TOPPLE BY MID-FEBRUARY
More good iPhone news following Infinite Ammo’s: reigning App Store champs ngmoco have let slip that their first post-Rolando games coming in the next 30 days will include Word-Fu, a tossed-out Scrabble tile wordfinder (a much more ‘traditional’ casual outing for the dev) — which you can see via TouchArcade’s MacWorld party spycam footage above — as well as a new version of its debut “fast app” brick-stacker Topple, to be known as Topple Too.
Previously:
Touch me I'm slick: ngmoco/Hand Circus's Rolando – Offworld
ngmoco shows off iPhone's Dr. Awesome, Dropship – Offworld
Rolando gets papered – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
YOU’RE MY OBSESSION: PUZZLE QUEST: GALACTRIX DEMO GOES LIVE
As I mentioned in December, Infinite Interactive’s sci-fi themed Puzzle Quest follow-up Galactrix is one of my most anticipated 2009 titles, based almost solely on the fact that the original game has wound up on nearly every one of my supported devices: I currently have dedicated characters on my DS, PSP, Xbox 360 and, most recently, my iPhone, and happily chip away at the same areas on each based on whichever I’ve got on hand.
But now I’ve got better reason: publisher D3 and Infinite have set a Galactrix demo live that lets you putter with the game’s match-3 battle interface, and already I’ve lost a good part of the morning to its hexagonal wiles.
Though I don’t quite have its particular vocabulary yet (the help gives only the briefest overview) It’s all too instantly familiar to a Puzzle Quest regular — each three or more pieces matched add to your equivalent bank of ‘mana’, purple for experience, white (presumably) for money, and blue for shield regeneration.
It’s that last bit that gives Galactrix its extra strategic kick: as a regenerable force, keeping your shields up becomes an utmost priority, as does moving in for repeat attacks once you’ve got your opponent’s defenses on the ropes. And the playfield’s mines, this version’s ‘skulls’, amplify their damage the longer they remain on the field (unlike PQ‘s randomly dropped/spell-amped flamers), so minimizing their effect on you by clearing them as soon as possible, or holding them to maximize damage to your opponent, also adds to the depth of play.
Whether Galactrix will garner the fast word-of-mouth cult hit status of the original Puzzle Quest, or — as Popcap CCO Jason Kapalka recently claimed, its very shape will prove a turn off for casual customers — remains to be seen, but I can say that even my brief time with the demo has made the game climb several rungs in my most-wanted ladder.
Play Puzzle Quest: Galactrix [Infinite Interactive, game site, via GameCyte]
Previously:
Things We Lost In The Snow, pt 1: PuzzleQuest hit the iPhone …
Nintendo's Wii/DS outlook: The Offworld view – Offworld
Othello gets Puzzle Quest treatment with Neopets Puzzle Adventure …
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
REVOLVINGDORK’S SUPER MARIO LAND ETCHED EEE PC
The last bit of Monday Morning Metal: ‘revolvingdork’s Eee PC etched with the entire map of the original Game Boy Super Mario Land “from the familiar layouts of 1-1 to the climactic battle with Tatanga in the clouds at the end of 4-3” has, to my mind, never made a better case for laser etching everything.
Logo etching detail [Flickr, via GamOvr]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
INFINITE AMMO TEASE IPHONE PUZZLER HEROES AND VILLAINS
Doing due diligence on keeping up with the work going on at Offworld fave Infinite Ammo, the team have updated with new concept art for Heroes and Villains, a prototype game idea they’re busy porting to the iPhone.
As with their recently mentioned larger project Marian, we’ve only got bits and pieces to go on, but in a late November update, Ammo head Alec Holowka dropped one little tidbit on its gameplay, calling it “Lemmings meets [Blizzard platformer] The Lost Vikings meets Awesome,” which is basically all I needed to hear.
Heroes and Progress [Infinite Ammo]
Previously:
Infinite Ammo teases their Marian-ette – Offworld
Bringing Gamma home to you – Offworld
Bit Blot's Aquaria hits Steam – Offworld
See more posts about: Infinite Ammo, Offworld Originals
