Category Archives: Gaming News

Smash Brothers Gets Some Extra Hands

The main protagonist of Tales of Symphonia, one of only two Tales games released for Nintendo systems in North America. Will we see him join the fight?

We all know Nintendo’s Super Smash Brothers is in development for its next installment. The lead developer guiding this project is Masahiro Sakurai of Hal Laboratory using Project Sora (the creators of Kid Icarus Uprising) as his development team. It seems now that Nintendo thinks they need some extra hands on this project by introducing Namco Bandai as a co-developer.

Yoshito Higuchi, known for producing Tales of Vesperia, has been chosen to direct the game but still working alongside Masahiro Sakurai. Yoshito Higuchi is not coming alone though as he’s coming along side with Tetsuya Akatsuka (who is the art and sound director of the SoulCalibur series) and the development team of the Tekken series.

This is interesting news indeed. Could we possibly get any guest characters from the Namco Bandai side?  Can we get a Tekken or SoulCalibur  character? Or maybe the rarity of seeing a Tales of Symphonia character? Whatever happens we are on the trail of this giant as it continues its development.

[Source] [Source]

Sine Mora Coming To PlayStation Network

This isn’t the Fox McCloud your brother grew up with

Sine Mora is a side scrolling shoot ’em up game exclusive to the Xbox Live Arcade that has you controlling a team of time traveling animal pilots trying to stop a crazed serial killer from committing genocide on their precious world. The game has been praised by critics for its fresh take on game modes, story (which can be hard to understand) and gameplay of this type of genre. Now the possibility of Playstation holders being able to play this game is coming to reality.

By Grasshopper Manufacture and Digital Reality, Sine Mora came out in March of this year on Xbox Live Arcade. The response that this game has been receiving has allowed the developers to bravely release the game later this year for the vita (which was shown at E3). It has been confirmed by publisher Balazs Horvath (Digital Reality) that the game is also coming out for the Playstation Network later this year on December 31, 2012. There has been no confirmed price but knowing how these digital store games work when going multi-platform, it is safe to assume it will be priced the same (which goes for $15.00 on the Xbox live arcade).

[Source]

Anarchy Reigns Gets Delayed Again… To Early 2013!

Woah-ho-hooo! Now that’s one major delay if I ever saw one. If you remember a while back, SEGA delayed the Anarchy Reigns from early Summer until it could find a better date to release it. Since Japan’s going to get it as scheduled (which is still this Summer), you’d think it’d be around late Summer at least. In the initial report, SEGA didn’t specify what the new release date would be. But now they have a general date: Early 2013! Does SEGA really need to push it that far for a successful launch? Remember, SEGA delayed the game initially because it wanted to find a better time to release it — i.e. no major competition would be around. But 2013!? And the game is fully done too.

Well, at least they could use this surplus of extra time to work out any kinks and netcode issues they find in the JP release. But man, if this was any other game, I wouldn’t bat an eye. But with SEGA’s financial trouble, it sounds like something bigger’s happening in the House of Hedgehog.

SEGA’s Twitter, via Kotaku

Australia Finally Gets An R18 Rating For Videogames

Well that took long enough. Gamers in Australia have long awaited to get an R18 rating for videogames. For other forms of media in Australia, the R18 rating has been around. For videogames however, the highest the rating went was MA15. This was due to politicians believing that games were still for kids. But, like other governments around the world, they’re slow to catch up to changing demographics and not knowing that the common age for gamers has risen (those kids grew up after all). Since the R18 rating didn’t exist for videogames, games were either edited to meet the MA15 guidelines, banned, or simply considered for released there. Measure to pass R18 for videogames have popped up, only to be shot down at the last minute due to 1 or two members of their legislators not approving it (it has to be 100% unanimous).

Thr R18 rating for videogames will take effect January 1, 2013. So rejoice Aussie Gamers! You earned it!

Gamers get adults-only R18+ classification [news.com.au, via Kotaku]

Miyamoto Thinking Of Making An FPS

Reading that title might give you a jolt, and rightly so. The First Person Shooter is the most popular genre this generation, and for Shigeru Miyamoto to want to make one almost goes beyond the philosophy (we think) that he’s established for himself (and probably the entire company). But you know what, this is Miyamoto. Someone can give him a crumpled piece of paper and he’d make a game out of it. All joking aside, in an interview with Kotaku, he states that he would make an FPS that would focus more on exploring the environment, the situation, and the weapon in your hand, and how enemies would react. “Having that 3D space that in theory you are in and being able to look around and explore that—particularly being able to do that in conjunction with another person—is very interesting,” he says, highlighting the exploration advantage that FPS can have (but are woefully underutilized).

Much of what he says can be seen in the Metroid Prime games, which emphasized exploration over action (though that was present, more so in Prime 3). The Elder Scrolls games also come to mind. But probably the one game that really took advantage of the environment was Mirror’s Edge, and it does almost what Metroid Prime does — albeit in a more linear fashion — when it comes to exploration. It’s virtually a platformer. Heck, one of the achievements is an homage to one of Miyamoto’s biggest creations. If Miyamoto wants to make an FPS, let the man make one. Heck, let DICE give him Mirror’s Edge!

…Yes I really want another Mirror’s Edge game.

The Creator of Mario and Zelda Wants to Make a First-Person Shooter [Kotaku]

Original Shantae 3DS Virtual Console Bound?

Near the end of the Game Boy Color lifecycle, a neat little game called Shantae was released. It was one part action, one part rhythm, and one part Metroid. This was all topped off with a genie that used her hair like a whip, shook her ass for some gold and transformed into other creatures. This was a game that was packed to the brim with content, especially for a GBC game. The game was compatible with the Game Boy Advance for extra colors. A sequel was planned on the GBA, but was scrapped. But WayForward, the developers of Shantae, brought her back in the DSiWare sequel, Shantae: Risky’s Revenge. Since then, WayForward’s been riding high on the success of some of their games, including Mighty Flip Champs, Mighty Switch Force, and are currently creating an Adventure Time game.

WayForward says that they submitted the game to the ESRB to rate it, and will then have to wait for Nintendo to approve it. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem considering that 1) WayForward was smart in maintaining the Shantae IP and not letting DLCapcom hold it (and they said that all they’d have to do is remove Capcom’s logo from the intro), and 2) Nintendo could use a game in the handheld VC that pushed the GBC to its limits at the time. Since Shantae is pretty damn rare, I’ve only had the chance of playing a little bit of it on an emulator. Releasing it on the VC would be a dream come true and I won’t have to dread spending a huge sum of money to play it.

Shantae Coming to 3DS Virtual Console Soon (Hopefully) [Nintendo World Report, via Operation Rainfall

XSEED Delays The Last Story, But Sweetens The Deal

Click for full image

Before the mayhem of E3, Amazon customers who pre-ordered The Last Story were sent emails informing them that the game would not be released on the expected date. In the email, it stated that “the release date for the video game listed below has been changed by the publisher…” It goes on to state that the estimated release date would be August 6th, which is a little over 5 weeks from the original release date of June 20th. So we’ll have to wait a little longer to enjoy what may be the Wii’s Last Story.

But on the heels of this delay comes some good news. XSEED has revealed that a special Limited Edition will come with all first run copies of the game. The game will come with a 44-page artbook (way more pages that Xenoblade’s), with both the game and artbook coming in a box. If this is the reason for the delay, then I welcome it. I’m a sucker for collector’s items that are standard with the game (like Ar Tonelico, Devil Summoner 2, and Persona 2). I just finished Xenoblade, so I’m more than ready to play this. Not sure if those who pre-ordered have a better chance of getting the artbook, nor if it can be picked up without a pre-order. I’ll update you when I find out.

XSEED shows off The Last Story Limited Edition [Destructoid]

E3 – Nintendo Confirms Fire Emblem Awakening Coming To The U.S.

I’m noticing a pattern here. Nintendo makes a conference, and announces the good stuff after the conference is over. First was Project P-100, which James, Anthony and I think looks really cool. And now comes this. I’ve never played a Fire Emblem game (which I should be), but this comes as great news for fans who were dreading the game not coming over after Nintendo’s staunch reluctance to bring over JRPGs after the whole OpRainfall debacle. It still boggles the mind why Nintendo would not announce this during the presentation. Do they think it’s not worth announcing something they think is niche when it actually has quite a few fans? Something strange is brewing in Nintendo Land and I’m not sure how to feel about their awkward focus on things.

But hey. We got a new Fire Emblem coming out. So that’s some major good news there.

Fire Emblem: Awakening Will be Coming to American 3DS Systems [Kotaku]

E3 2012 Nintendo 3DS Press Conference

It’s not over yet. Nintendo announced during their initial presentation that since there wouldn’t be enough time to show plans for both the Wii U and 3DS, there will be a separate presentation for the Nintendo 3DS at E3. And so, here we are again for one more Liveblog on the Nintendo 3DS. Nintendo showed a little bit of what was in store for the 3Ds at the initial press conference, be this one coming up will be the real deal.

Liveblog and Press Conference start at 9PM EDT.

E3 2012 Nintendo 3DS Press Conference

*Note: Since we’re using the free version of CoverItLive, some readers might be blocked due to reader limit. Fret not as the conversation will be copy/pasted below when the conference it over.

Continue reading

E3: Project P-100 Trailer

Project P-100 seems to be what happens when Platinum Games meets Pikmin! The company’s title in progress has players rounding up civilians and turning them into…well, pretty much anything they need in order to defeat the giant robots invading town. From the gameplay above, we can see citizens being used as fists, guns, and swords in order to combat the invaders. But they also play an important role in navigating levels, as we see them turning into climbable ladders, hands that can pull and push objects, and even planes you can fly with. On top of that, there appears to be four player co-op added into the mix!

This definitely looks like a game to watch out for, which makes it all the more odd that this wasn’t shown during Nintendo’s E3 press conference. If Nintendo was willing to show off more games like these, rather than games that we already know about, I think their conference would have had a much warmer reception.

E3: Persona 4 Arena Trailer

Update: An official release date has been confirmed. Persona 4 Arena will be arriving in North America on August 7th and will feature both the original Japanese voice track as well as the new English voice-work.

Here’s a new trailer for Persona 4 Arena with more gameplay, one very hyper announcer, and a tease of the Midnight Channel’s return. Persona 4 Arena is still slated for release this summer and I believe many Persona and fighting fans alike have this game on their radar. I know several of us at The Wired Fish do.

Update via: Gamespot

E3 2012 Nintendo Press Conference Liveblog

Last year Nintendo revealed their next console, the Wii U, which garnered mixed reactions from many a gamer. Rumors have circulated over the specs of the console. Some developers have said that the console is just as powerful as the 360 and PS3. Other have said it even more powerful than both. Then come the leaked picture of the updated Wii U Tablet Controller. On the games side, we got Xenoblade! And we’re getting The Last Story later this month courtesy of XSEED. What of the fate of Pandora’s Tower? What will Pikmin 3 look like? Will there be a Starfox game by Platinum Games? Will there be a crossover of Starfox and Metroid by Retro Studios? All will be known today.

Liveblog and Press Conference start at 12 Noon EDT.

E3 2012 Nintendo Press Conference

*Note: Since we’re using the free version of CoverItLive, some readers might be blocked due to reader limit. Fret not as the conversation will be copy/pasted below when the conference it over.

Continue reading

E3 2012 Sony Press Conference Liveblog

Last year, Sony had to deal with the biggest security hacks in U.S. history. With that event long behind them, it’s time to look at the future. The Ps3 is still performing strong. But their Playstation Vita handheld is not quite performing as well as Sony predicted. Some weeks ago, we saw Sony reveal Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale, which sparked what may be the most heated debate in recent gaming memory. Now there are rumors that Sony would reveal the PS4, codenamed Orbis (with rumors that it too would block used games). What does Sony have planned for their wacky world of Playstation?

Liveblog and Press Conference starts at 9:00PM EDT

E3 2012 Sony Press Conference

*Note: Since we’re using the free version of CoverItLive, some readers might be blocked due to reader limit. Fret not as the conversation will be copy/pasted below when the conference it over.

Continue reading

Ubisoft Press Conference 2012 Liveblog Wrap-Up

Ahoy! Ubisoft’s press conference just ended and boy what a conference. The games on display were pretty damn good and Ubisoft showcased a few things they plan to do with Rayman Legends and the Wii U. They also show a game that really intrigued James and Steven. Hit the jump to see their reactions.

Continue reading

E3 2012 Microsoft Press Conference Liveblog

Ahoy and welcome one and all to the Microsoft Press Conference Liveblog. Last year Microsoft showed off more things to do with the Kinect and surprised the world with the reveal of Halo 4. They’ve showed off the new features that would be coming to Xbox 360. As the days got closer, the rumors were running rampant with some saying that Microsoft would show off a new console (and block used games). Today is judgement day. All the rumors will be cleared and the future of Microsoft will be revealed.

Liveblog and Conference starts at 12:30PM EDT

E3 2012 Microsoft Press Conference

*Note: Since we’re using the free version of CoverItLive, some readers might be blocked due to reader limit. Fret not as the conversation will be copy/pasted below when the conference it over.

Continue reading