After a rather unsuccessful port to the DS, the first title in the Myst series is making another go at a new generation of gamers. The game’s developer Cyan has covertly announced that a small team is working on porting the point-and-click adventure title to the iPhone. It’s a very small team, consisting of only three people. Apparently the project is receiving outside funding however, which begs the question of ‘who’? It could certainly be Apple, given that every popular app that comes out for the iPhone pushes its potential further, especially since they’re trying to break into the handheld gaming market with the high quality visuals and touch-screen technology.

That’s it people, after seemingly forever, the highly anticipated Spore has finally gone gold and is now ready for a September 7th release date.

For those of you living under a rock, Spore was made by Will Wright, maker of The Sims series, and allows players to create a species and watch it grow from a single celled organism, all the way to an advanced space-exploring intelligent race.

Spore for the PC and Mac will hit retailers September 7th with Spore Creatures for the Nintendo DS and Spore Origins for phones also shipping on the same day.

Now, before you overlook this announcement, make note that EA is fashioning this game around Need for Speed: Most Wanted, it is NOT going to be another ProStreet or Carbon.

Anyways, Need for Speed: Undercover will be released for PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, PC, along with other mobile devices on November 18th.

The game will focus on aspects of gameplay featured in Most Wanted, like car chases, and underground racing. You know, the fun stuff.

The capabilities of multimedia phones such as the iPhone and the Instinct have elevated the possibilities of cellphone gaming beyond the simplistic gameplay and poor quality graphics they’ve been restricted to for some time. The question of course is will this catch on? Monkey Ball says yes, it certainly can. A port of an existing title that sells for a mere $10 has pulled in $3 million with over 300,000 sales.

While a good portion of these sales might be attributed to the heavy ad campaign Apple ran to promote its application store and Monkey Ball’s headlining on many of those ads as a sort of ‘launch title’, it certainly shows potential for an industry here. It might not be able to rival the DS but it certainly says that plenty of people would be willing to play games on their iPhone, especially given the rise of ‘casual gaming’.

Originally slated for an August 12th release date, the PSP and Nintendo DS versions of N+ will now be shipping August 26th.

After this unfortunate news, the games MSRP dropped to $19.99 making up for the delay. While this new price hasn’t yet reached the console versions MSRP of $9.99, new levels and modes of online play on the portable version is sure to make up for it.

Of course, why pay for N+ game when you can just play N for free?

Returning from the grave, Apogee Software today announced their plans to start doing their stuff again, disclosing that they will be producing a new Duke Nukem game on handhelds.

The game will feature three new missions and will be called the Duke Nukem Trilogy. The Trilogy is comprised of three episodes - Critical Mass, Chain Reaction and Proving Grounds.

“This marks a new beginning for a famous publisher with a history of market-making innovation,” said Terry Nagy, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Apogee. “I can’t think of a better character than Duke or a better franchise than the Trilogy to usher in a new era for Apogee.”

The company has been thought to be long dead, but was a pioneer during its day, producing some of the very legends in the industry, including Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein 3D, Raptor and Rise of the Triad, just to name a few.

With the launch of the 3G iPhone along with the new 2.0 firmware update comes the App Store, featuring an array of different applications (and games in this case) that can be downloaded and installed onto the iPhone or iPod Touch wirelessly.

Well, EA’s hoppin’ on the bandwagon, recently announcing their full lineup of games you can expect to see at the App Store’s launch.

While we already knew that we would see a handheld version of Spore come September, EA has also announced that they will be adding SCRABBLE, Sodoku, and Tetris to their App Store lineup.

This news may not sound that exciting but remember, these games are to launch on a portable device and some could argue games like Tetris and Sodoku are the best games to play on those long train rides, or during those oh-so-exciting lectures.

Already available in Japan and North America, Square Enix today announced that they will release Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core across Europe and other PAL territories on June 20, exclusively on the PSP.

The prequel to the biggest-selling and most popular Final Fantasy of all time, Crisis core takes players on a journey across the game’s world before the original even started. The European version features additional gameplay challenges not included in the original Japanese version. As an added incentive to pre-order, a special edition version of the game, complete with hardback artwork book and slipcase is available exclusively with selected online retailers till stocks last.

Electronic Arts is looking to make a big change in the upcoming Madden game; John Madden won’t be the announcer for the game. Instead, Tom Hammond of NBC Sports and Cris Collinsworth of NFL Network and NBC Sports will be taking his place in Madden ‘09. We all knew that it would happen sooner or later, as the football legend is in his seventies.

Keep in mind that this is the 20th installment of the series, so it just wouldn’t be complete without the main man himself. The game is titled after him, so why not include him? Maybe at least a cameo would do justice.

Read (AOL Sports)

Following up on the cover story in the newest issue of Nintendo Power, Square Enix has put out a press release confirming and also dating the FFIV remake for the Nintendo DS. Of course, the remake features the same 3D upgrade as FFIII, but also voiced cut scenes and added content, which are sure to make most people very interested in picking up a copy, no matter how many times they’ve played it.

The game will officially be released on July 22nd in North America.

Final Fantasy IV is regarded as one of the best old school Final Fantasy’s by many fans, but it was very recently available on the Game Boy Advanced, so it will be interesting to see how that that does or doesn’t effect the sales of the title. One thing is for sure, the game certainly will not be a flop, Square Enix sure knows how to leverage its IPs to the fullest.

This would certainly explain some of the delays we’ve been seeing with the game. An inside source has informed CVG that LittleBigPlanet is also PSP bound, likely to also line up with the PS3 release in September. Link up options also would seem to be a very likely candidate, although nothing was given in great detail by the source, so the information is mildly lacking. The game is apparently being developed by the Sony Liverpool office, although they were obviously not forthcoming and have yet to comment on the story. I’ll bet it’ll be something along the lines of them not commenting on rumor and speculation. If indeed true, its certainly been held quiet for a while already, with September rapidly on the horizon.

We’ll keep you up to date if we hear anything more about this rumor.

Capcom’s Monster Hunter is a really big thing in Japan. How big you ask, well 1 million units of software have easily been moved at this point in time, which in a short two week period in Japan, the smallest region and on PSP no less is a mild miracle. Perhaps the only bigger stunt would be to sell a million pieces of software on the 360 in Japan, which considering the .5 million install base would be slightly impossible.

As such, the PSP has seen another massive upsurge in the charts, putting shame to nearly everything else. The DS and Wii do nice non monster hunter numbers, but at least Sony has something worth celebrating as the other Playstation consoles seem to be doing fairly horribly. Even PS3, which has seen quite the nice little boost in recent days in other regions, isn’t feeling the same love. Perhaps word hasn’t gotten out to Japan yet that Blu-ray has won out, or perhaps they are too busy with Monster Hunter to care.

- PSP: 129,986
- DS Lite: 58,916
- Wii: 48,785
- PS3: 11,206
- PS2: 10,296
- Xbox 360: 1,547

It looks like Gran Turismo for the PSP is doomed for some major delays, as developer Polyphony Digital concentrates on the console space. The development on the PS3 is taking up significant resources as they try and pump out a finished product, and as such a PSP version while in the works, is for the moment being pushed to the side, likely until 2009.

“We had been developing the PSP version, but the problem was that the PS3 version took much more time and effort than we had first imagined. So that’s been delayed - I don’t think we’ll be able to make the end of this year for the PSP version, but we are working on it.”

From the sounds of things, the project is still in its infant stages, or remains vaporware, so I wouldn’t get you hopes up yet until we actually see something. For now Gran Turismo will obviously sit on the drawing board, but the focus for Polyphony Digital will be on the PS3 version, which really is where it should lie.

Hoping to give gamers a sample of crashing into a tree (among other things), Empire Interactive announced that a playable demo of the PSP version of FlatOut: Head On will be released on February 22.

“This is a great way for us to showcase FlatOut Head On to PSP gamers”, said Sean Walsh, Empire Interactive Product Manager. “PSP enthusiasts can often be heard talking on forums and blogs about the lack of good demos available for their beloved handheld. We wanted to help satisfy that need, and by giving them a taste of some of the featured modes - Carnage, Deathmatch Derby and Ragdoll Stunts - we think that it’ll really whet their appetite for destruction.”

The demo will feature three game modes - Carnage Race, Deathmatch Derby and one of the classic Ragdoll stunts. Players can enjoy the demo for an unlimited amount of time, but will not be able to save their progress and no other features will be unlocked.

The demo will be available to download from the PlayStation website or from the publisher’s website on the aforementioned date. The full game ships March 14.

Check out this very impressive mockup of a future PSP. ahh, one can only wish. More pics at Flickr.

Hit Nintendo DS, PSP and XBLA game Puzzle Quest, will be receiving a sequel after decent reviews and sales. At a D.I.C.E. conference D3Publisher issued a press release that Puzzle Quest would be receiving a sequel in 2008.

The announcement was actually hidden away in a press release about a new internal managing director, and slipped in under the radar, along with announcing a new Ben 10 title also for 2008. No word on which platform the title will be announced or pricing, but we’ll keep you up to date as we learn more.

The rumor mill exploded today, which lead many to believe a DS version of Peggle was well on the way, but after PopCap suddenly got a hold of these reports, they were very quick to point out that this simply was not the case. A port of the extremely popular Peggle makes a lot of sense on the DS platform, especially since we already know XBLA will be receiving a version all of its own later this year.

PopCap has issues a press release following up on the rumors, where they quickly and effectively shot down all hope for touch screen Peggle in the near future. “We have ambitious plans for many of our titles including Peggle, and are eager to bring its peg-popping pleasures to as many appropriate platforms and devices as possible. But Nintendo has not approved this product, we have not signed a developer to port Peggle to DS, and we have not green lighted this project.”

It seems that a 7th grader attending Warner Middle School in Detroit had an unpleasant encounter with the PSP. Apparently the portable system, which was in his pocket, overheated while the boy was in band causing burns to his leg. The boys name was not released and the severity of the burns weren’t mentioned either but everyone over here at Digitalbattle hopes for the best because this sure sounds like a law suit brewing for Sony given the boy wasn’t using third party batteries or anything of the sort.

Activision has reserved yet another Guitar Hero title and this time it’s Guitar Hero: On Tour. There isn’t much information detailing Activision’s latest trademark but we are led to believe that this will in fact be the title for the upcoming DS release of Guitar Hero that we heard about from Red Octane CEO Charles Huang last August. It will be very interesting to see how Red Octane portabalizes(?) Guitar Hero while still keeping the experience authentic.

Yep, that’s Assassin’s Creed for the DS you see above. The game, called “Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles”, is a prequel to Assassin’s Creed released last year on the Xbox 360 and PS3. The game is fully 3D rendered, and will use the touchscreen and stylus to pick pockets, interrogate informers , while only the top screen will be used for actual 3D gameplay.

Just another feather to add to Blu-ray’s hat, Sony has announced at CES that in the future, Blu-ray releases will also contained a paired down format ideal for Sony PSP. Files will be transferable via the PS3 to the PSP and you’ll be able to watch Blu-ray movies you own on the go. Files are stored on a memory stick and thereby allow you to take an optimized version with you. Interestingly, this conversion is also possible with an iPod and Zune, just to cover all the bases there.

There still remain a few questions though. It seems to be the only way this is possible is through owning a PS3. Will PC’s with Blu-ray drives be able to do the same thing? More importantly, what DRM will there be to worry about?

This is quite the interesting move, actually being more of a bigger announcement for iPod owners where I could see this being a more popular feature. Hopefully more studios follow suit, as owning a movie and being able to load it onto a portable device with ease is something that would be quite useful.

Thousands of gadgets are displayed right now at CES in Las Vegas, a lot of them are gaming related, like the newly announced PSP keyboard. There have been several third party keyboards for the PSP (like the one pictured above), but this is the first time Sony will be making an official keyboard for the handheld console. However, the keyboard won’t arrive until mid-2009. Sony also announced that the GPS and camera units for the PSP will be coming to North America later this year, after being released last year in Europe and Japan.

In addition to everybody’s Wii channel, already released in Japan and expected shortly in North America, which include DS demos, it appears the Regginator has something else up his sleeve. When discussing it with the NY Times, he told them “complete” DS games would also be offered through the service. In addition to this, additional packs for pre-existing games will also make their way onto the service. It seems a pretty interesting move, and would answer a few outstanding questions. We still have two mysterious blanks on the virtual console page, one which was expected to belong to Sega, the other possibly the Gameboy/Gameboy Advanced perhaps?

The other lingering question is how the download will be handled. The DS would require a device to increase its storage capacity and be able to hold onto full titles even when powered off. While we can only wonder on the specifics of the setup, Reggie had this to say about the new service:

“Mr. Fils-Amie said that future DS device will be more tightly integrated with its Wii console. Complete games as well as game samplers will be able to be downloaded into the Wii using its broadband connection, and then transferred wirelessly to the DS.

A puzzle-solving game, Professor Layton, to be introduced next year, will be upgraded with new puzzles transmitted to the DS through a wireless download.”

What may very well be the next Brain Training, Wii Sports or Wii Play? Well Nintendo sure has nailed all the selling points. One part training, one part addictive new game play and one part packed in peripheral device makes Wii Fit an almost sure fire hit, and the Japanese public are lapping it up. In its second week in the charts, Wii Fit’s 150 thousand may not seem like a whole lot, but keep in mind the small size of the Japanese market with word that the game is sold out.

Wii Fit also demonstrates a very important trait of casual games. It has legs! No, not that it makes you use your legs, but it’s sales seem to be strong, while most games aimed at hardcore audiences tend to see major drops in sales after a debut, casual games tend to sell not as speedily, but hold good numbers for a very, very long time. Other titles including Mario Party DS and Super Mario Galaxy are clinging to the top ten, promising to sell very well over the long scheme of things.

Check out the full top ten after the break

Read on »

While not an entirely new game, Phantasy Star Portable is expected to hit Japanese PSPs sometime in 2008. Under development by Alfa System, Phantasy Star Portable will be recognizable to most as Phantasy Star Universe combined with the Amabition of Illuminus expansion. It will feature things like an all new single-player story mode and 4-player co op utilizing Ad-hoc mode. Where the details really lack is regarding the online capabilities of the game because as of now there is no mention of the game being online compatible.