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LittleBigPlanet does the Limbo

Nicholas Lohr — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:47:08 +0000

After all this time, the online community for LittleBigPlanet is going strong and level designers still manage to impress us with their latest creations. LBP user bra2008 has taken one of Xbox Live’s newest hit titles, Limbo, and given it the Sony twist. Limbo kicked off this year’s “Summer of Arcade” promotion. Heralded by many as this year’s Braid, the game is a haunting puzzle platformer that does incredible things in terms of design. Stark contrasts between light and shadow, a mysterious world of black and white, a lone boy awakens in the woods and presses forward, looking to escape. The minimalist design choices enhance a strong foundation of platforming which takes players across levels ripped straight from an arachnophobe’s nightmare. Fans of Ico, Portal, and Braid should check it out. In the meantime, this certainly makes the wait for LittleBigPlanet 2 a little easier.

Source: Kotaku

StarCraft II Arrives with many Unboxing Videos

Nicholas Lohr — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:42:32 +0000

After years of waiting, millions of Actions Per Minute, and the unrelenting cries of pro Korean players, Blizzard has finally given gamers a sequel to its wildly popular real-time strategy game entitled, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Like any PC gamer worth their salt, no StarCraft player will be caught dead without the Special Edition version of the game which made its way to several media outlets this afternoon. Many of them, including Giant Bomb and Kotaku made the inevitable unboxing videos to capture the moment. If nothing else, watching them will help kill a few minutes from the remaining, agonizing hours left until Blizzard turns on the game’s servers.

Source: Giant Bomb / Kotaku

SGN pits Android vs. iPhone

Nicholas Lohr — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:12:37 +0000

Mobile gaming company, Social Gaming Network, has just released its latest title, Skies of Glory for the Android marketplace. When Skies first landed on the iPhone back in December 2009, it brought some impressive 3D arial dog-fighting to Apple’s little handheld. With the release of the Android version, SGN has taken things a step further and added cross-platform multiplayer. Meaning, even your Nexus One-owning Android fanatic can go head-to-head with the biggest Apple fanboy. Will this solve the open versus closed platform debate? We doubt it. Engadget reports that other games such as Raging Thunder 2 and Homerun Battle 3D also offer cross-platform play so there’s more than one way to settle the score between Android and iPhone.

Source: Engadget / SGN

God of War (Independent) Movie trailer

Nicholas Lohr — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:47:46 +0000

Just when you’ve read the last “First!” comment you can stand and accepted that Facebook friend request from your grandmother, the internet has a way of reminding you why you fell in love with it in the first place. Gamervision, the same team behind the amazing Inglorious Plummers, has released their vision for the God of War movie. Or should we say, the God of War movie if it were done by Wes Anderson. The trailer is absolutely genius and, if anything, should be awarded for pointing out all of the overused tropes in almost every indy film of its type. For those who love independent movies such as Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, & Juno, and have a high tolerance for overt use of helvetica check out the video below.

Source: Gamervision

Zelda II Remade as FPS

Nicholas Lohr — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:08:53 +0000

The oft-neglected entry in the Legend of Zelda franchise, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, has been given a 3D makeover. Fan and home-development maverick, Michael Johnston has recreated the side-scrolling adventure through the first-person perspective.

Combining 8-bit graphics and textures with an FPS is not only genius- it’s vicious. The game is harder than the original Zelda II and that’s saying something. Tread lightly, adventurers. Get in while you can before Nintendo shuts this down!

Source: Joystiq

Google gets Pac-Man Fever

Nicholas Lohr — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:31:28 +0000

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the arcade classic Pac-Man, Google has changed its logo to commemorate the event. Now, Google is known to change its logo or “doodle” from time to time but today marks a special occasion. Pac-Man is actually playable from the homepage. Makes you wonder how they’ll celebrate other milestones. Hit up Google.com and get those dots! Oh, and watch out for Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde.

LittleBigPlanet 2 Revealed

Nicholas Lohr — Sat, 15 May 2010 17:52:41 +0000

Sackboys and Sackgirls of the world rejoice! Media Molecule has just unveiled the debut trailer for LittleBigPlanet 2 and it’s a doozy. Expanding on the concepts of the original game’s Play.Create.Share mantra, the studio is refining the creation capabilities for the sequel. Go beyond making levels and create entire games. By the looks of things the possibilities go far beyond platforming. Kart racers, RPGs, shoot-em-ups, and more look to be on the horizon for future LittleBigPlanet creators. Perhaps one of the best features is the game’s ability to play all of the two million user-created levels from the original LittleBigPlanet. It’s exciting to see Media Molecule and Sony get behind the series as a platform rather than just an easy way to churn out sequels leaving the community in the dust. Expect more details about LittleBigPlanet 2 as E3 approaches.

Oh and the song? It’s Passion Pit’s “Sleepyhead”

God of War sequel announced for… PSP?

Nicholas Lohr — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:27:12 +0000

God of War: Chains of Olympus was a stellar portable outing for Kratos on the PSP. It was disheartening to see developer Ready at Dawn Studios return their PSP dev-kits to Sony back in 2008. However, they must have gotten a new shipment because they’re now developing a sequel to the original PS2 game. God of War: Ghost of Sparta was revealed via the Spartans Stand Tall website and comes on the heels of many rumors linking Ready at Dawn to the new game. According to the developer’s blog:

“Our latest game, Ghost of Sparta was just announced on the PSP. The game takes place immediately after the events of the first “God of War.” Kratos may have managed to best Ares in battle, but his quest to become the new god of war was apparently just beginning.

So there you have it… we couldn’t help coming back to the PSP and improve on the first game. As someone in the press puts it this morning “All I care about is that Ready at Dawn (the Chains of Olympus guys) are handling it.”… and we are… just you guys wait to see what we did this time.”

Expect more coverage in the coming months as E3 gets closer. By the looks of these first screenshots, it’s going to be epic.

Super Mario Bros. beaten with a Dance Pad

Nicholas Lohr — Sun, 02 May 2010 15:06:46 +0000

Stand in awe of youtube user DJ17Nario and his fancy footwork. Not content with simply beating 8-bit classics like Castlevania with the usual NES controller, he has taken things to the next level by completing them with a Dance Pad. For his latest feat, he has taken on the original Super Mario Bros. complete with DDR Pad, warp zones, and twinkle toes.

Source: Giant Bomb

Super Mario Crossover: the Flash-game of your dreams

Nicholas Lohr — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:51:26 +0000

Newgrounds user, ExplodingRabbit, took a year crafting the Flash game we’ve all been waiting for. Super Mario Crossover is the original Super Mario Bros., completely remade for the browser, with the added twist of being able to play as other 8-bit characters such as Mega Man, Simon Belmont, Link, Bill from Contra, and Samus from Metroid. We’re trying to contain our excitement here but as far as videogame nerd-outs go this just reached Defcon 4. These aren’t just a simple sprite swap, the characters actually play as they do in the original games. Mega Man jumps just exactly as how you remember him, Simon has his whip, and Samus can drop bombs behind her.

[Play the game on Newgrounds]

Author’s description: This is my first game, and I have worked on it for over a year. It has been a long journey, but I think you will see that all of my effort has paid off. I have recreated the entire game of Super Mario Bros, but now you can play as different characters. Each character plays just like they do in their original games with a few modifications to make the experience better.

This is my tribute to classic NES games, and anyone who grew up playing Nintendo should enjoy it. Now please enjoy the hell out of this game and experience Super Mario Bros in a whole new way!

Source: Kotaku