Zuma is a fast-paced match three game released in 2003 by PopCap for a plethora of platforms and mobile devices including the PC, Xbox 360, IPod and many others. In 2009 PopCap released Zuma’s Revenge! for the PC and it has since been making it’s way across the platforms that it’s predecessor has already conquered. Now it makes it’s way to the Nintendo DS with both a retail release as well as a eShop/DSiWare download.
What You Need To Know
As in most of PopCap’s hits, this is another take on the addictive “Match Three” style of gameplay with a few interesting things to keep it different. As in the first Zuma you play as a frog who has been given the seemingly painful job of vomiting up multicolored balls. All of which is to stop the flow of new balls on their way to the Skull that denotes a “Game Over” when reached. The ball flow follows a predefined track that comes from off-screen to the Skull, the balls will continue to come until you have cleared all the ones on screen and in the container that supplies the flow. After you have cleared all the balls you are given a score based on how well you did with making combos and how you managed your time. There are many helpful power ups and ways to get extra points from things like fruit and gap bonuses just to name a couple.
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In addition to the news of the Skyward Sword bundle Nintendo has also put release dates on two other titles that they’ll be publishing before the end of the year. The first is Professor Layton and the Last Specter. This new title in the Layton franchise is the beginning of a new trilogy for the Englishman that takes place three years before the events of Professor Layton and the Curious Village. The game will be hitting store shelves for the Nintendo DS on October 17th.
Not to be outdone by the Zelda bundle though, anyone in North America will be getting an exclusive bonus. Alongside the new game that features more puzzles than ever before is a brand new adventure called Professor Layton’s London Life. This is an RPG adventure that contains more than 100 hours of additional content and will be available at the start of the game.
The other title to get a release date is Tetris: Axis. This new installment in the popular puzzle franchise contains more than 20 different game modes, 8 player multi-player battles with the use of a single cartridge, augmented reality and SpotPass. Tetris: Axis will be hitting store shelves for the Nintendo 3DS on October 2nd.
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Captain America has been around since the 1940′s taking down Nazi’s and saving the world. It’s kinda what he does. When it comes to licensed super hero games it seems he’s been on the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to games. Sure he’s made appearances in some other games, but he hasn’t had the starring role nearly as much as someone like Batman or Spider Man. Now, thanks to the fact that he’s got a new movie he’s now taking the spotlight in the video game world as well.
What You Need to Know
Captain America: Super Soldier follows the basic plot of the new summer blockbuster. You’ll play as Cap himself as he tries to take down the forces of Hydra, led by Red Skull as they attempt to create super soldiers of their own. You’ll go through various levels in traditional platformer style, or a little more stealthy. Captain America throws his shield at guys with machine guns, sneak past security cameras and run through the sewers of Germany.
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The Nintendo DS has been around for a good long while now, but it’s light is beginning to fade. What do the guys think about its prospects for E3 this year? Is there still something left in the tank? Will this be the last hurrah? Let’s hear what they have to say.
Shelby Says: I don’t expect we will hear much about the DS this E3. Nintendo is going to have their hands full with 3DS and Project Café. I imagine they will try to illustrate a lot of sale parallels between the 3DS now and how the DS itself launched. If they announce any new titles they will be third party games. Nintendo has known about the 3DS longer than anybody, obviously so, and they would have stopped production of all DS games long ago to focus resources on 3DS development. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear about a new RPG from Square Enix or something. This E3 will be the start of the tail end of support of the DS.
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I’ve had a bit of a developer crush on the folks at WayForward over the last couple of years. They’ve given an NES classic a modern facelift, created a solid superhero platformer for two systems and created some of the best games on Nintendo’s portable download service. It made sense that their latest effort would be something to keep an eye out for. Does Thor: God of Thunder have the developer shining once again, or does it miss the mark?
What You Need To Know
Thor is a side scrolling beat em up starring the popular Marvel character. The world of Asgard is being overrun and the only one of the gods that can stop the oncoming hordes is the biggest jerk in the land, Thor. You’ll travel various landscapes, moving from left to right, hitting everything you see with your hammer, Mjolnir. Make it to the end of every third level and you’ll fight a screen spanning boss that will take some pattern recognition to defeat. The story for the game follows along more with the story of the comics than the movie so casual movie going fans might not know as well what’s going on.
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If you’re one of those people who’s been sitting around your house saying, “I’ve never had the chance to play Dragon Quest VI because I live in the United States and it’s only been available in Japan,” you’re luck is about to chance. Nintendo has just announced that Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation is finally heading across the ocean. The game, previously available only in Japan will be heading to North America for the Nintendo DS family of systems.
DRAGON QUEST VI: Realms of Revelation features a rich storyline that leads players through a multitude of captivating worlds as they gather allies and battle fierce monsters on a quest to defeat evil forces. With updated graphics and more than 15 character classes to choose from, new and experienced players alike can dive headlong into the timeless role-playing excitement of the DRAGON QUEST franchise anytime, anywhere. They can even enjoy special features such as switching between character classes and letting monsters, such as Slimes, join their party.
The game was originally released in 1995 for the Super Famicom in Japan. The date of this new “revelation”? February 14th, just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Source: Nintendo Press Release
Here’s Nintendo’s latest Nintendo DS News email, for November 2010:
You can click the image to see what Nintendo wants you to know about!
The Oklahoma Video Game Exhibition was this past weekend here in Tulsa and I ended up picking up a piece of technology that really made me appreciate how much portable gaming hardware changed in a very small amount of time. While at the event I happened to walk by a booth that was selling some older Game Boy stuff and I saw a Game Boy Advance sitting on the table for $10. It’s an original generation, white system and they were selling it for a little cheaper than normal because it was missing the battery cover on the back. I asked the guy, just on a whim if they were doing any half off deals like some of the other tables because it was the last 30 minutes of the event and the guy said sure. That means I was able to get a Game Boy Advance for $5. This is the first GBA I have ever owned.
This is the system I own
I’ve had a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons sitting on my shelf for years now because I have never had a system that would play it, and I’ve been playing through the game since Saturday and I have loved every minute of it. I’ll probably do the Retro Redux this week on the game, but that’s not the point of this article. The point of the article is that it really makes me appreciate just how far gaming has come in the last nine years since this system released. There are three main features that are now standard on the DS that weren’t present on the GBA that I don’t think I could part with any more.
The first is the screen. This GBA was built before Nintendo started putting backlit screens on their systems. I know the GBA would eventually get one with the release of the GBA SP, but I didn’t own that and the DS is the first handheld system I owned that had a screen that didn’t require you to play in a brightly lit room, or outside. The ability to sit in a darkened room and not disturb anyone else that may be trying to sleep is huge. It also means that people who have families like mine who prefer to travel later in the evening and early in the morning can now pull out their game systems any time they feel the urge to play regardless of the time of day is great. This feature really opened up portable gaming to all hours of the day regardless of the lighting conditions. It also allows games to have brighter, more vibrant colors because everything can be seen clearly and it adds a level of beauty to games that we didn’t really know we were missing out on during the days of the Game Boy.
The second feature is the ability to close the system and put it into sleep mode. This serves a couple of purposes really. The first is to protect the screen from any damage that might occur during travel, especially if you shove your game system into a pocket with other materials like coins or keys. The more important feature is the ability to pause a game anywhere during normal play by closing the system and having it come right back on to the moment you left. There have been a number of times over the last few days that I’m in the middle of some long gameplay session with The Legend of Zelda and I can’t pause the game and put the system to sleep. This means the game is continually running and I’m draining the ever important battery power.
Speaking of battery power, the third most important improvement I see in handheld gaming systems is the rechargeable battery. Just being able to know that all you have to do is plug a system in and you don’t have to have a set of batteries in reserve should yours die is huge. You can continue playing while the battery is recharging or you can put the system to sleep and plug it in to let it charge without having to worry about losing any progress you’ve made in your game.
Some of them are little improvements and some of these are bigger and more important, but it’s hard to argue that with just the jump of one generation portable gaming was made so much more accessible and easy to deal with than it ever was in the past. The GBA SP made some of these improvements, such as the back lit screen and the rechargeable battery. That could almost be considered the next generation of system, but it wasn’t until the DS pulled all of those improvements together in one package that it really seemed like a leap. We may not have known it at the time, but the DS was a pretty big moment in portable gaming. Of course, it couldn’t have gotten to where it is without the previous generations and the advancements they made as well. There’s no telling what the future holds for gaming either. Sometimes it seems like things can’t get any better, but just when we think that something happens that changes the way we look at video game hardware forever.
Have you ever wanted to find out, with 100% certainty who was better at trivia, men or women? Well Nintendo is finally going to settle that score for us with their latest challenge, Ladies vs. Gents. It’s a puzzle contest using the brain bending puzzles in Professor Layton and the Unwound Future.
Beginning today in San Francisco’s Union Square shopping Center, from 11am to 6pm, men and women will play through a fun and challenging selection of the new game’s puzzles at this free event. Men’s and women’s scores will be tallied and compared throughout the day to determine which gender has the top puzzle-solving chops.
Events will be held throughout this week in Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia to determine which gender has the ability to best solve the puzzles found in the game, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, which launches on Sept. 12th for the Nintendo DS.
In addition to the game itself there will be costumed actors there in authentic period clothing interacting with people and contestants will enter red phonebooths that would be found throughout London to solve the many puzzles they’ll be faced with.
For more information about the event, including a teaser video, check out http://www.professorlaytonds.com/ladiesvsgents/.
Source: Nintendo Press Release
That’s right. Finally an official reason to talk about Plants vs Zombies on the website. Laurie Thornton is a PR representative in charge of the franchise on consoles. Yesterday there was a message on her Twitter that had me all twitterpated.
Plants vs. Zombies coming to the Nintendo DS – Jan 2011.
It was a very simple message that means they’ll be getting more of my money. Plants vs Zombies is coming to Xbox Live in just over 2 weeks on September 8th. I’ve got the Microsoft Points sitting on my console waiting to purchase the game and now coming next January they’ll get probably $20 more of my money when the game comes to the DS. They’ll also give you good reason to shell out the cash, because every platform has unique features that draw on the strength of that system.
I’ve contacted Ms. Thornton for any more details and I’ll pass them along to you if I get anything.
Source: Laurie Thornton PR via Kotaku
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