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Super Mario Bros Wii, Super Skills trailer

Nintendo’s upcoming Wii Mario platform game appears to look quite exciting, as you can see in the above trailer, which showcases the new Super Skills system. The game will be out tomorrow.

Audiosurf, Project Gotham Racing added to Zune HD

Microsoft’s Zune HD has certainly given the iPod touch a run for its money, and is capable of some serious 3D rendering with a powerful Nvidia Tegra chip running it. However, there haven’t been many games to really test the hardware — or to sell a lot of units — but that should be changed now.

With the latest update, Zune HD adds Audiosurf: Tilt, PGR: Ferrari Edition, Lucky Lane Bowling, Vans Sk8: Pool Service, Piano and Checkers. These are all free game that will be available on the Zune Marketplace. While the games are free, players are forced to watch a short ad before the game starts, which is okay, considering they’re free games.

1 vs 100 season 2 begins November 19

Microsoft has announced that the second season of the highly successful Xbox Live game 1 vs 100 will begin on November 19, 5 PM Pacific time. The first season, which was a beta season of the massively multiplayer show game, ran for 15 weeks and had over half a million contestants. Over 2 million Microsoft Points were given out as prizes during for the best players of the trivia game, and it looks like season 2 will surpass in both player count and prizes.

Wii Fit Plus review

Wii Fit has been one of the few original and innovative games on the Wii, something new and refreshing in the hail of never ending Mario games. The Wii Fit training game, coupled with the Wii balance Board, has sold in excess of 20 million units worldwide, so it’s no surprise that Nintendo is looking to offer a bit more on that side. Enter Wii Fit Plus, which retails for only $20 if you already own Wii Fit with a Balance Board, but if you don’t, the whole package will cost you $100, which is $10 more than the original Wii Fit.

Wii Fit Plus isn’t really a sequel — it’s sold separately without the Balance Board for those that already own it — it’s actually an expansion pack which includes the original games and workouts, and even transfers your data from the old game. This is pretty slick, meaning that you won’t have to swap the new and old Wii Fit disc. Wii Fit Plus features 15 new work out mini games and six strength training and Yoga workouts, and this time, you can mix and match your workouts as you see fit. Read the rest of the Wii Fit Plus review

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story review

Mario & Luigi have offered a little diversity (very little, by some accounts) to the never ending Mario based platform games. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is the third time Mario and his green dressed bro Luigi play as a team on the DS, this time, the story is weirder than ever, as the arch nemesis Bowser swallows the mushroom kingdom, including Mario, Luigi and all their buddies. Actually, the story is a bit more complicated, but we won’t ruin it for you here.

The gameplay is very similar to the last Mario & Luigi DS game, where you basically control both characters at the same time, with one button for Mario and another for Luigi. This time however, you control Bowser as well, and actually, you’ll spend more time in the game playing as Bowser than Mario & Luigi, which might seem odd at first, but it feel quite natural. Yes, quite natural, controlling the antagonist. More »

Scribblenauts review

Scribblenauts for the Nintendo DS is a kind of adventure game that you don’t see often — actually, there hasn’t ever been a game like Scribblenauts; an adventure game where your character progresses through the levels by you typing the name of an object, pretty much any object you can think of, from dinosaurs to cars, to monkey to trees, as long as it isn’t vulgar or trademarked, it’s probably in Scribblenauts. The core concept of the game is highly original and extremely entertaining, and if it wasn’t for a few issues, it would’ve been the ultimate must-have game for any DS owner.

The gameplay is simple and follows the standard 2D side scrolling fashion, but to solve puzzles in Scribblenauts, you need to use an object that might fit and help you move forwards. You “scribble” the object (say, a “meteor”) and poof! it appears on the screen. The goal of each level is to secure a Starlite at the end, and accumulate them. On top of that, you have dedicated puzzle levels, which don’t feature as much action but pack plenty of challenge for your imagination. Once you’ve settled in the gameplay and figured out how advance through the levels (maybe you need a club or a crowbar to break something, maybe you need a walking robot), you’ll be troubled by the rather frustrating controls the game has to offer. You control your hero (named Maxwell) via the stylus, where you point to an area on the screen, and he’ll run to it. But it’s far too easy to point a few pixels too far, and see yourself walk into certain death. More »

Zuma’s Revenge review

Developer PopCap is on a roll, continuously chugging out bite-sized casual games that’ll addict even hardcore gamers. That’s especially true for Zuma, one of PopCap’s most popular games ever. Originally released in 2003, the game has since sold more than 17 million copies on platforms ranging from PC and OS X, to DS and PSP, to mobile phones of every kind. We’re finally getting the sequel, Zuma’s Revenge.

While the gameplay in Zuma’s Revenge remains unchanged — for a good reason — the game does add a few new features, revamped and prettier graphics (including a widescreen mode), as well as a ton of new levels. In case you’re not familiar with the gameplay in Zuma, it’s relatively simple: you control a frog that fires colored marbles though its mouth, at several balls rolling along a path, headed towards a pit. If they reach the pit, you lose. In order to win you must knock out the balls as they roll towards the pit, but can only knock them out if you pair colors in three or more balls. And so it goes. In Zuma’s Revenge, once you complete the campaign, you unlock several challenged modes, where you have to score a certain amount of points before time runs out. More »

Katamari Forever review

It’s been a while Katamari took Japan by storm, and subsequently created a gaming sub-culture all over the world, persistently rolling katamaris everywhere. Katamari is now out for the first time on the PlayStation 3, with new visuals (full 1080p support), and a remixed soundtrack of the original, Katamari Forever gives fans what they’ve been waiting for. However, it doesn’t go beyond that, there’s no revolution here, or even an evolution for that matter, sans the technical update.

In case you haven’t heard about katamari before, your object is to “roll katamaris”, meaning roll huge balls of stuff lying on the streets, cars, benches, trees, people — everything, really, which constantly grows your katamari. Once again, as the “Prince”, you’ll need to complete different missions — in Katamari Forever, you’re doing missions in two “campaigns”, one for the King and one for the RoboKing, in all, there are 34 levels. More »

Katamari Forever dated for US release

Namco Bandai has announced today that their ball-rolling puzzle game Katamari Forever will be seeing a North American localization and will make its debut on September 22nd.

The game features a total of 30 levels, some new and some are ports from older games.

No official release for Europe is planned, although it’s expected to be released in September. The game was released in Japan back in July for the PlayStation 3.

Trine delayed for PlayStation Network

A Frozenbyte developer has announced, via their official message boards, that Trine will not be released this week.  The reason behind the delay is due to a “small bug” that was recently discovered. The developer goes on to say they don’t know about the North American and European release differences, as well.

We can probably expect the game to not release this entire month, as earlier planned (despite some confusion).

If you really have been waiting this long for the puzzle platformer, you should probably just grab the Windows version off of Steam. The game has already received a patch and has been out since early this month.

Read (Frozenbyte Community)

Katamari Forever demo out in Japan

A demo for Katamari Forever is now out for the Japanese PlayStation Network. Today also marks the retail release of the game. If you live outside of Japan, obviously you can’t access the demo. However, there are ways to create a Japanese ID, if you’re really interested.

If you’re at Comic-Con right now, be sure to look for the demo there. Katamari Forever will be out in North America come September 22nd. No date has been announced for PAL regions. A trailer was released a few days back, so check that out while you’re in the whole ball rolling mood.

Read (Eurogamer)

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth dated

In April, Capcom let us know that Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth would be hitting North American shelves for the Nintendo DS sometime this holiday season.

Well thanks to Comic-Con we now know that the game will officially hit the U.S. on February 16th, just missing the holiday season.

If you’re not familiar with this game, you’ll play as Miles Edgeworth to investigate crime scenes, collect clues, solve puzzles and ultimately give criminals what they deserve.

New Katamari Forever trailer, playable at Comic-Con

Sony has released an extremely cute trailer for Bandai Namco’s Katamari Forever today, complete with monkey and turkey puppets. Featured in the trailer are some new game play footage. Sony has also announced, via their blog, that a demo for the game will be playable at this year’s Comic-Con.

The game is coming out in Japan in two days, but will be seeing a September 22nd release in the States. No exact date has been announced for Europe, however the game is expected to be out this year.

Read (PlayStation.Blog)

Wii Sports Resort review — fun, but with friends

You can’t argue that the big reason Nintendo is selling so many Wii consoles is because of the bundled Wii Sports — which not only offers great multiplayer fun, but also showcases what the console can do in terms of motion controls. In essence, Wii Sports trains the player in the new controls for future Wii titles, and it does so brilliantly.

Nintendo has now released a sequel for Wii Sports, called Wii Sports Resort, and rather than just building on top of Wii Sports, the game is mean to train Wii players for another thing: Wii Motion Plus, which is included with the game. The Wii Motion Plus accessory is attached to the Wiimote at the bottom, and offers a lot better motion sensing; true 1:1, meaning what you do with the Wiimote is copied exactly in the game. Some would argue that this should have been build into the Wiimote at launch, but we’ll leave that discussion for another time. As for Wii Sports Resort, the accessory offers great controls and showcases the possibilities.

As for the game, it takes place on a tropical island, with several available mini games, which include: Sword Play, where players duel out with swords, Power Cruising, a kind of WaveRace game, DiscDog, where players have to accurately throw discs to a dog who’ll catch it. Those are just some of the 12 new mini games players can play, including the Wii Sports classics, bowling and golf. One of the best games is Sword Play, which really showcases the new Motion Plus attachment’s capabilities, as you duel it out with an opponent. Equally fun is basketball, where players have to time the shots perfectly with the Wiimote. The updated Golf game is better than in Wii Sports, mainly because of better controls (with Motion Plus, of course) and 9 more holes than in the previous version.

If you’ve played Wii Sports, you can rest assure that Wii Sports Resort features the same simplistic design, making it very easy to get into any one of the mini game, and the learning curve is is just right. Graphically, the game looks pretty much the same as Wii Sports, the cartoonish style is carried over and works well for the target audience (being the casual gamer).

In addition to ranking your Mii on a 1000 point scale for each of the mini games, Wii Sports Resort now offers “Stamps” as well, a kind of achievement system where player can unlock “Stamps” by completing certain parts of the game and meeting the criteria (and they’re not easy). It’s a great new addition, however, it only works offline, meaning you can’t show off for your friends online, which brings us to…

One thing that is missing from Wii Sports Resort is the complete lack is online capabilities. Because, unless you have a friend, or rather, three friends, it’s not really a lot of fun in the long run if you’re playing alone. Instead Nintendo should’ve offered online play for this game, it’s rather astonishing how they’re still lacking behind on online capabilities. At least their first party titles, especially those designed for only multiplayer gaming (like Wii Sports Resort), could benefit greatly from online modes. It’s quite a shame, because Wii Sports Resort would definitely have been an online hit.

The Good:
Great collection of mini games
Fun multiplayer action
Cute visuals, constant 60fps frame rate
Includes Wii Motion Plus

The Bad:
No online features
Quickly gets boring in singleplayer

Final score: 8/10

Rabbids Go Home on DS this holiday season

It seems that the Wii isn’t the only Nintendo getting some Rabbids love as Ubisoft has just let us known that a Rabbids Go Home title will be released for the Nintendo DS this holiday season.

If you’re familiar with the Wii version of this game you’re in luck as the DS version shares the same storyline. However, instead of the collecting gameplay featured in the console version players will find themselves in a puzzle-adventure oriented Rabbids Go Home. You will be tasked with completeing puzzles, collecting garbage and ultimately creating a tower to the moon.

Again, expect Rabbids Go Home to hit store shelves for the Nintendo DS sometime this holiday season.

Read (Kotaku)