A quick look at the highlights among the games coming out in Japan this coming week, courtesy the review pages of Famitsu magazine:
- Crysis 3 (9/9/8/9, 35 out of 40 points): "The beautiful graphics and 'you are there'-ness are amazing," wrote Famitsu editor Atsuhiro Fujiwara. "The presence of the nanosuit gives you this great feeling of being some kind of super soldier, but you aren't just blindly shooting your way through; you also have stealth and a lot of other tactics at your disposal. Multiplayer's also laden with modes and maps, making for a reliably fun experience."
"The visuals and animation are particularly excellent," added Urara Honma. "The campaign gets you into the world nice and easy, making this remarkably accessible even though it's the third game of a trilogy. The...
The latest trailer for Disney Infinity offers a look at what players can expect in the game's Cars Play Set, which will allow for the creation of custom-built racing missions.
The short trailer shows off aspects of the Play Set, including desert-like racing grounds and backdrops featuring castles and enemies that Cars protagonist Lightning McQueen can take out with some sort of built-in laser gun.
This upcoming Play Set was first revealed last month, when it was first announced the new Disney title would include characters from the Pixar title and offer users the chance to build their own racetracks and host tournaments. Events in the Play Set will take place in the home of many of those characters, Radiator Springs, set sometime after the events of Cars 2.
Disney announced Infinity,...
Conception: Please Give Birth to My Child, the 2012 release featuring one of the most mind-boggling game titles of all Japanese role-playing games, is getting a new portable sequel, according to this week's issue of Famitsu magazine.
Conception 2 takes place in a fantasy world, within a fortress-city situated on a faraway island. The hero, infused with special ethereal powers, must create "star children" with seven of the heroines, all military students stationed within the city. These progeny can then be raised by the player as he sees fit (RPG stats-wise, that is); you then bring them into the game's dungeons in order to stamp out evil and so forth.
Spike Chunsoft, the publisher of this 3DS and PS Vita title, promises Conception 2 will feature twice the story volume and 10 times...
In a new developer diary from NetherRealm Studios, the team behind fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us dives into the Red Son add-on for the game, a costume and mission pack that features a Superman raised not in the United States, but the Soviet Union.
The alternate fiction of Injustice's Red Son add-on is adapted from the 2003 DC Comics mini-series Superman: Red Son. In the video game version, players will have access to 20 story missions and alternate costumes for Superman, Wonder Woman and Solomon Grundy.
The Red Son content is currently exclusive to retailers like GameStop in North America and Game in the U.K.
Injustice: Gods Among Us comes to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii U on April 16 in North America, April 19 in Europe.
Now that we all have our Wii U's and I'm sure I'm not the only one with an empty friends list, let's get together and "fix" this. Just post your ID if you want so we can follow or request each other.
he idea of people being able to follow someone without them actually used up a friend in your list is quite interesting. It'll at least help the Wii U feel a little less empty and lonely. Right now my plaza is just filled with Nintendo Miis trying to tell me how cool the Wii U is.
Edit: Also a quick tip. Send the friend request through the profiles in Miiverse. If you register a friend in the friendlist section, it works like friend codes used to, requiring both parties to register each other. It'll be a hidden request only you can see, unlike the Miiverse which its a 30 day expiring...
This week's issue of Famitsu magazine brought gamers the first word on Sayonara Umihara Kawase, a brand-new Nintendo 3DS platform game whose name will probably ring some bells among import enthusiasts.
The original Umihara Kawase, released in Japan for the Super NES in 1994, featured a young girl navigating a surreal landscape of block formations and foes modeled after underwater creatures. Her only weapon: a fishing line and hook that she could attach to walls and swing around with, like Bionic Commando but with a lot more accuracy. A cult hit in Japan, the game was followed by a sequel, Umihara Kawase Shun, for the PlayStation in 1997. (Neither one was released outside of Japan.)
Both titles have been remade for portable platforms, but Sayonara Umihara Kawase is the first...
Hyperkin will unveil the RetroN 4, a console designed to play NES, SNES, Game Boy Advance and Sega Genesis cartridges, March 23 at the Midwest Gaming Classic trade show, according to a press release from the company.
The RetroN 4 will have cartridge slots for each system, two controller ports for each console and include a Bluetooth controller. The console will output video via HDMI and allow users to play both NTSC and PAL cartridges. The RetroN 4's "Perdana" operating system will allow players to select systems, reassign controller buttons and include other features that Hyperkin will announce at the console's public unveiling.
"As this is an ambitious project for Hyperkin, our goal for this system is to combine modern gaming convenience to not only cater to the retro gaming...
Minecraft might make its way to PlayStation devices but it's unlikely to ship on the Wii U, according to an interview with Mojang lead designer Jens Bergensten published in iGamer.
"Minecraft has an exclusivity deal for consoles," he said. "When it runs out, we'll consider Minecraft for PlayStation, but Wii U is very unlikely."
The game's current console exclusivity means that it is only available on Xbox 360 consoles. Developed by 4J Studios, Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition surpassed 5 million copies sold late last year. Minecraft has also been ported to Android, iOS and recently to the diminutive Raspberry Pi computer on a chip.
We've reached out to Mojang to find out why Minecraft on Wii U is so unlikely, and will update this article with more information as we receive it.
Of the many hardware features crammed into the Wii U's hefty GamePad — from a touchscreen to a front-facing camera to motion control — one of the most mysterious remains the controller's integration of near field communication or, as its better known, NFC. At a meeting this afternoon, Shigeru Miyamoto — Nintendo Senior Managing Director, and the designer behind some of gaming's biggest franchises — said that creating games with NFC integration was more of a priority than a game supporting dual GamePads.
NFC is perhaps best known as the wireless tech used to transport Skylanders' figurines into the game when placed upon its NFC-powered "portal." The technology will also make an appearance in Disney Infinity, which uses an NFC-powered pad to drop Disney figurines into the game....
Popular science publication, Scientific American, took a theoretical look at The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s time travel mechanics in a recent guest blog by Kyle Hill.
Hill is a research assistant at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the post he discusses branching universes, quantum mechanics, time paradoxes and string theory to bring the magical in-game world depicted in Ocarina of Time, where time travel easily exists, to the real world.
"Zelda's decision to send Link back in time splits the universe," Hill wrote. "Link is shot between temporal branches, which is way cooler than any transforming mask or incessant fairy.
"The only way to maintain the idea that separate Zelda games could have followed OoT is the invoking of a theory meant to resolve the...
Nintendo released an update to the Wii U's system software today, a minor revision that brings "further improvements to overall system stability" to the console.
The small, 30 MB update (version 2.1.3 U), released today, is the most recent since Nintendo's December update to the console, which offered similar stability improvements and "other minor adjustments ... to enhance the user experience."
On its support site, Nintendo notes the previously announced Wii U system update scheduled for spring will be released sometime in April. It will add "new features and further improvements to the user experience," Nintendo says.
In January, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata promised two system updates in spring and summer, adding Virtual Console support and speeding up the Wii U's sluggish...
A main Assassin's Creed game could feature a female protagonist in the future — in fact, it "wouldn't be surprising," said Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag director Ashraf Ismail in an interview with IGN.
Asked why Black Flag features another male lead, Ismail said that Ubisoft planned long ago that Assassin's Creed 3 and Black Flag would "tell the story of the Kenways." For that reason, he said, "We actually never thought, 'Could this be a woman?'"
But Ismail said Ubisoft isn't against having a female lead in a future Assassin's Creed title.
"I would say it wouldn't be surprising to see a female assassin coming up in a mainline Assassin's Creed," he told IGN. To date, the only Assassin's Creed game that has starred a female character is the PlayStation Vita title Assassin's Creed 3:...
Nintendo will offer attendees of the SXSW Gaming Expo hands-on experience with eight Wii U games and nine games for 3DS, including unreleased titles like Pikmin 3 and Animal Crossing: New Leaf, the company announced today.
Playable versions of the following 3DS titles will be on-site, some of which will see their North American debut at SXSW:
Animal Crossing: New Leaf (guided demonstration)
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate
Fire Emblem Awakening
HarmoKnight
Kersploosh!
Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate from Capcom
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity
Wii U games and apps available for participants to demo include:
Pikmin 3
Lego City Undercover
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
Need for Speed...
Footage for the high-definition console remake of Resident Evil: Revelations has surfaced online courtesy of German website AreaGames, offering a look at gameplay in the upgraded port.
The video posted above features 30 minutes of in-game footage including some light exploration and zombie-shooting action. The game is running on an Xbox 360 and follows protagonist Jill Valentine through corridors, dark rooms and around corners into the sightlines of lurking enemies.
Resident Evil: Revelations launched in early 2012 as a Nintendo 3DS exclusive In January this year, Capcom announced the title would be ported in HD to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows PC and Wii U. The game will be available in North America on May 21 and Europe on March 24, and will cost $49.99. PC and PS3 ports will be...
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag may be the franchise's mid-life crisis.Set in the hot waters and islands of the Caribbean during the 18th century, the player inhabits the role of a charismatic pirate named Edward Kenway – father of Assassin Creed 3's Haytham Kenway.Edward Kenway's the ultimate dad, a bleach blond surfer-type that cares mostly about himself and his hot ride, a ship he can trick out however he'd like.
Kenway's adventure lasts over a decade, starting around 1715. In his swashbuckling shoes, the player will captain said ship, free to hunt whales, visit hidden coves, search for sunken treasure and do all sorts of things you'd expect from Jack Sparrow, but not Ezio Auditore.
Judging from the hour-long presentation of slides, trailers and gameplay we were shown in New...
Retro City Rampage developer Brian Provinciano doesn't expect to profit from bringing the throw-back fighting game to Nintendo's WiiWare service due to the costs associated with porting the title; however, he tells Nintendo Life, this is fine with him.
Prior to being given access to Nintendo's development kit, Provinciano was required by the WiiWare company to have legitimate office space from which to work from. As an independent developer this wasn't something that was necessary for him in typical development, but he invested in an office for Nintendo's sake. Another mountain to climb was the issue of needing to sell a particular number of units before Nintendo finally begins paying the developer their share in profits. With the relatively recent appearance of Wii U consoles, as well...
Yasuhiro Wada, Harvest Moon creator and ex-Marvelous CEO, revealed that his new game known as Project Happiness is now HomeTown Story, according to recent interview with Famistu.com.
Wada first announced his new game Project Happiness at E3 2012. Atsuko Nishida, the Pokémon’s character designer, and Nobuo Uematsu, Final Fantasy composer, are on board as part of the HomeTown Story’s development team.
In the game, players run a small village store accompanied by a magical sprite. As the player interacts and sells items to the village inhabitants, more information is gleaned about them. After a while the player will be able to make a handful of the NPCs happy by granting them one of seven wishes.
"Because you've spent very much time with the villagers, you care for them, you feel...
Novice surgeons who spend time playing a Nintendo Wii perform better in simulations than those who don't, according to a recent study reported by NPR.
Italian researchers made 21 surgical residents play Wii one hour a day, five days a week for a month. Afterwards, residents performed a simulated keyhole, or laparoscopic, surgery — a procedure where a surgeon inserts small video cameras into the body. Researchers found that those who played Wii performed better than those that hadn't.
According to Dr. Gregoria Patrizi, a professor at the University of Rome Medical School who was involved with the study, the Wii offers viable practice.
"You have to move in a three-dimensional space but you have a two-dimensional image on your screen [during laparoscopic surgery]," Patrizi said. For...
A new update from Gaijin Games founder, Alex Neuse, details several fixes for the newly released Bit.Trip Presents Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien on Wii U, including a bug that locks up the console.
Neuse announced the patch, which is currently in progress, via the Gaijin Games forums. Some Wii U owners have been experience a bug that locks the system after quitting the game or powering down through the Home Menu. According to Neuse, it's possible that the problem is "not even [their] bug."
"We had never experienced this issue on our devkits, during development, so it seems that this is an issue that only occurs on retail Wii Us," Neuse wrote. "This makes it super gnarly to debug."
The patch also includes fixes for leaderboards, settings, false score reporting and more. B...
Two new Injustice: Gods Among Us gameplay videos were released today showing a battle between Superman vs. Sinestro and Green Arrow vs. Hawkgirl.
Both Sinestro and Hawkgirl were confirmed for the Injustice line-up earlier this week.The videos show the over-the-top finishing moves of the characters, including an out-of-this-world attack from Sinestro that involves him pulling Superman through a portal to outer space and slamming two meteors to crush his opponent.
In the battle between Green Arrow and Hawkgirl, the characters throw each other with such intensity that they crash through walls into other arenas and, at 1:21, Hawkgirl is sent flying through the sky and is beaten up by giant non-playable characters – Giganta and Atom Smasher — who are brawling in the background.
I...
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked will be released April 5 in Europe, according to a post on the Ghostlight blog.
Ghostlight will begin taking pre-orders on Friday, March 8 in the Ghostlight store. The game will sell for £34.99 ($52.52).
Those who order the voice-acted and graphically enhanced Nintendo 3DS port of the 2009 DS game through Ghostlight will have postage waived or the price discounted to account for shipping costs. Orders will also come with a double-sided Devil Survivor Overclocked poster featuring the box art on one side and artwork designed by the developers at Atlus on the other.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked was released in North America in 2011.
The Nintendo Wii Mini, a scaled-down version of the Wii console, has moved 35,700 units from Dec. 7, 2012 through to Jan. 1, 2013, Nintendo of Canada's communications manager Matt Ryanto told Nintendo World Report.
The red and black console officially launched in Canada on Dec. 7, 2012 for $99. It came with a matching red Wii Remote Plus and a Nunchuck controller. The Mini didn’t feature an SD card, online connectivity or backwards compatibility with Game Cube games.
The console was a Canadian exclusive until Nintendo's announcement this week that it will launch in the U.K. beginning March 22.
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