Higgin's Is Back And He Brought His Shooting Watch

Master Higgins triumphant return in this weeks WiiWare release, Adventure Island: The Beginning sweetens the pot with the inclusion of fun looking mini-games. Twitch-meister Higgins disciples will be pleased to know that a competitive Shooting Watching mode is included in this new release.

For those who are interesting in Xtreme tapping, but aren't interested in importing an official Shooting Watch, snatching up an e-copy of Adventure Island: The Beginning for $10 sounds like a perfect deal.

Now if only you could shoot out against people online...Hello Hudson!? How about a dedicated Shooting Watch game for XBLA? Sell it for $5 and have ranked and player matches, plus extra games modes like melon-smashing.

Get to work Higgins!

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GIRL Has Made It To Mars!

After 92 days of stretching, the Noby Noby Boy community has finally reached Mars!



This comes as a surprise seeing as Noby's creator Keita Takahashi recently stated that at the rate that players were contributing length, GIRL wouldn't reach Mars for another three years or so.

Thankfully Takahashi introduced Lucky Week. Lucky Week is a new feature in Noby Noby designed to entice PS3 owners into playing more. Here's how it works: Every month or so, an announcement will be made that there will be a Lucky Week. Namco will draw a random number and any GIRL length that you report during Lucky Week will be multiplied by said number.

The galaxy exploration and sense of journey and accomplishment in Noby Noby Boy make for a truly epic and sublime gaming experience. If you have a PS3 you really owe it to yourself to experience this game. It will be the best $5 you've ever spent.

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The Neo-2D Action Post!: Starring Shank and Dust

Who doesn't love a meticulously crafted, gorgeously animated sprite?

2D games have kept a low profile on the living room systems for a while now. With the advent of high-definition graphics on former "next-gen" systems, you'd think that 2D dot-artists would be running for the hills screaming. "Holy s***! I cant e-sketch that big on my Wacom tablet! "

It's astounding that over the last few years we have witnessed a 2D revival on the current generation of platforms, many rendered in undoubtedly time consuming high definition.

Here is a pair of upcoming 2D show-stoppers that I'm sure will join the ranks of Castle Crashers, Warioland: Shake It!, Soldner-X, and Braid, just to name a few.

This footage is from an alpha-build of XNA-developed Elysian Tail: Dust, created by Dean Dodrill.



The animation is breathtaking! Hope the furry-esque character designs don't turn people off from this awesome looking hack-n-slasher.

This next video is also pre-alpha footage, but much like Dust, even it it's early stage the art and animation looks superb.

Klei Entertainment, of Eets fame, are developing a Tarantino-inspired 2D action side-scroller titled Shank and it's shaping up nicely to say the least.



Klei have yet to officially announce a platform release yet, but the controller shown at the beginning of the video suggests that this may come out on XBOX LIVE Arcade. Maybe an announcement will be made at E3.

Viva la 2D!

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As if You Need Another Reason to be Excited: Uncharted 2 Multiplayer

Excuse me while I put on my Young Jeezy voice...

Ha ha!!!

I am usually not too crazy about online multi-player, but I have to admit, this looks like a lot fun. I mean, what could be better than pulling your homie off of a building by his leg while suspended a hundered feet in the air? Just icing on the cake that is looking to be one of the hottest games of the year.

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It's All About the Fear: Punch Out!! Wii Review

Of all the terrifying characters I have met in the gaming world: Pyramid Head, the Cyberdaemon, Big Daddies or these guys, one villain in particular stands out. One who frightens me in a way that no other can...

Soda Popinski.

Besides having the laugh of a homicidal manic: he's big, ugly as hell, freakishly proportioned, and has a questionable addiction to "soda" (yeah, um...more like PCP.) The real secret to Soda Popinski's reign of terror though, is his speed. He is fast. Fast and strong. Like many of the later characters in the original Punch Out, he will take advantage of even the smallest mistake in your game and pummel you to quivering pulp in a matter of seconds. The ability that the Punch Out's baddies have - to instantly turn a fight in their favor - always kept me in a state of total panic. As far as I am concerned, a large part of what made the original Punch Out so amazing was it's power to strike deep and intense fear into even the coldest, most un-shakable gamer. The villains of Punch Out got into your head, and once they were there, they were there for good.

Of course, I absolutely loved both the OG Punch Out and its Super Nintendo sequel, Super Punch Out. Even though they both scared and frustrated the hell out of me, they were fantastic games boasting imaginative characters and absolutely addictive gameplay. Naturally, I was incredibly excited when I first heard that Nintendo would be bringing back their beloved franchise, but when the news hit they would be farming the development to the barely known Next Level Studios, I got a bit nervous. Would they be able to capture the character? The heart? The FEAR? Well, the wait is finally over and I have been able to spend some quality time with the latest installment in Nintendo's classic series.

Does Punch Out!! Wii live up to the hype? See the full review after the break!!!

Right off the bat, it's obvious that that Next Level is aims to hold true to the Punch Out legacy and pump the nostalgia factor as far as it can possibly go. Innovation and new ideas were not high on the developer’s priority list, but that’s not really what I was expecting, or hoping for, to be quite honest. This game makes no qualms about its fan-service: nearly every character in Punch Out!! Wii's roster has appeared previously in the series and they all look, act and fight just the way you hoped they would. Hearing Doc Louis giving Little Mac inspirational pep-talks between matches for the first time is a load of fun, especially since his voice sounds exactly the way you imagined it would back in the day. All the classic tunes are there as well, only this time, with the added punch of live horns and shredding guitars. The controls feel just the way you would expect, left and right dodging, high and low punches, the heart meter, the star punches, it's all there and it all feels great.

It isn't until you reach the final third of the game that the true essence of Punch Out!! Wii comes to life. That’s when things start to feel less like nostalgia and more like reliving a nightmare from your past. I mean that in the best possible way, of course. When the fights start to get really scary, you know that Next Level has done their job. You’ve got your Soda Popinski, just as blood-hungry and bat-shit-insane as ever before, you’ve got Bald Bull with easily one of the most intimidating special moves in gaming history and of course, Super Macho Man, who brings not only the fear of an instant knock-out but also the unease of a potential sexual assault on our Little Mac. When you finally meet Mr. Sandman at the "end" of the game, he is so massive, so quick and so powerful that the hardest part of the fight is getting past the intimidation factor. He will literally syke you out with an occasional "boo" between hammering your head into your shoulders with overhead punches. My friends, the fear you remember is there, maybe more so now than ever.

I imagine working on a game series that people love and treasure as much as Punch Out is a lot like that fight with Mr. Sandman: intimidating and overwhelming. Despite the odds, the little game company that could, Next Level, has really won me over with their heartfelt sequel to the most racially and culturally stereotyping videogame of all time. Much the way that the Little Mac always gets his win, no matter how huge the goon you throw against him.

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Could This be the New Team ICO Game???

Above is a link to about three and a half minutes of what is allegedly test footage from the new Team ICO project. I say allegedly because nothing official has been released from either Sony or Team ICO as to whether or not this leaked video reel is actually from the much-loved, art-house developer. Perhaps it's a hoax? Perhaps it's a loving homage to Team ICO from a fan? Whatever it is, it looks absolutely incredible....

Let's just move forward assuming it is real, shall we? My impressions of the video after the break.

Taking what seems to be a blend of the two Team ICO projects: Shadow of the Colossus and of course ICO, this new game looks to incorporate innovative platforming, a child-like hero, themes of companionship and giant creatures (or at least one.) Speaking of giant creatures, the hero's massive kitten/rat partner is the stuff that dreams (maybe nightmares) are made of. It's beautifully designed and rendered: I love the beady, glowing eyes, feathery hide and ugly rat tail. The creature seems to carry realistic weight, something that many developers can't seem to get right and Team ICO totally nailed with Shadow of the Colossus. Hanging on to the creature while it is scaling mountains and jumping over chasms is sure to be a thrilling experience.

Though the elements shown in the footage look to be in-keeping with the Team ICO's typical themes of ruins, quiet heroes, caves, creatures and epic vistas, the power of modern graphics processors brings an entirely new level of detail and focus to the vision. That's what has me so excited about this game - the idea of incredibly creative developers taking advantage of incredibly powerful hardware. I am sure we will see things in this new project that we have never seen before and the results will be very important to the gaming world, or at the very least, yours and mine.

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Weekend Wrap-Up: Madworld and Uncharted's Love Child

Ahhh...Nothing beats a lazy weekend where instead of going outside to enjoy the late-spring weather, you're pent up inside playing video games. The sun glare in my television beckons me, "come out and play!" it says.

F*** you sun! Can't you see I'm trying to beat this boss!? Damn!!! I need black curtains.

More after the break!

So this weekend I sat down again with Madworld for the Wii and came to an alarming realization that I'm actually stuck on this deceptively simple game (at least on the default difficulty.) Frank's Castle is the first level where I get killed by regular scrub enemies and it's always the same giant-scissors wielding devil-mask guy that gets me.

Another realization I've come to with Madworld is that you can't be lazy with the motion-controls. To do our hero Jack's horizontal attack you can't fake the funk. A wide horizontal swipe with the wii-mote is really the only way to consistently do this move that is needed to fillet giant-scissors wielding devil-mask character. Problem is, I'm too lazy to actually put any real life physical effort into playing video games, so that's probably why I keep getting iced on this level.

Motion-controls were great the first time you swung your tennis racket as your mii-doppelganger in Wii Sports two and a half years ago but now, for the most part, I'm kinda over it. The new Punch Out!! for Wii is being advertised as a motion-control-heavy game but thankfully, it allows players to tilt the wii-mote on its side for a "classic" control scheme. Guess how I'll be knocking out Glass Joe?

Back to Madworld. Armed with only one life left, I finally made it to the end of Frank's Castle to face the boss, a King-Kong-sized Mary Shelley inspired monster-man sitting eerily still in his electric-chair throne. All of the bosses so far in this game have been gnarly, but none intimidating enough to the point that I didn't think I could take them down on the first try. Frank was a different story. Again, this boss is the size of a Shadow of the Colossus beast, and simple hacking away at him with your chainsaw arm just ain't gonna' cut it (da-dum-snik!) Needless to say, I didn't beat Frank on the first try, in fact, he destroyed me instantly by swatting me off the upper-level catwalk plummeting me into the electrified cesspool below.

Game over.

Oh well...Maybe next time.

As the weekend rolled on I was inspired by Chris's Uncharted 2 hype-piece to pop in the original Nathan Drake romp. It had been a while since I played Uncharted and was happy to find it's stunning graphics and it's "Prince of Persia meets Gears of War" gameplay have held up nicely over the past year and a half. I started a new game on normal difficulty and played for an hour or so. As I guided Drake through the lush jungles and murky ancient ruins my excitement for Uncharted 2 really sunk in. Game sequels often surpass their originals and if this remains true for Uncharted 2, it could be a Game of the Year contender. Judging from the 5 minutes of footage shown earlier this week, I have no doubt that it will show up somewhere on our list come the end of December.

As the weekend drew to a close I got an urge to try out a new game. I browsed the demo section of XBOX LIVE and was pleasantly surprised to find a demo for XMEN Origins: Wolverine. My interest in this title had been piqued by buzz it's received on many of the gaming podcasts that I listen to. I think it was on the Joystiq podcast when one of the hosts mentioned that this game couldn't have originally been designed as a Marvel movie-licensed game because it was too good. Other podcasts have described it as a fun action game that was not worth full price but definitely deserved a weekend rental. Games that are prescribed that description by smug professional game journalists usually turn out to be really good to us unwashed commoners, so I thought I'd give Wolverine a whirl.

The first thing that shocked me wasn't the slightly above average graphics or snappy gameplay mechanics. No, it was the ridiculous amounts of bloody pulpy gore that ensues as you glide Wolverine through swarms of unfortunate enemies. Remember "hard R" movies? Well, this is a "hard M" game tied to a "soft PG13" movie and I'm equally thrilled as I am puzzled by this paradox.

Once I wiped the bloody giblets from my face I found that this game demo actually was, dare I say, too good. The game devs behind this game did a great job capturing the savage brutality of the character. As Wolverine you absolutely devastate the poor chumps brave enough to stare down the end of his razor-sharp claws. XMEN ORIGINS: Wolverine combines the spattered heroic violence from Madworld with the cinematic kinetics of Uncharted to create a game that I'd would most certainly pick up for twenty bucks in the used bin. What a coincidence that my weekend game-fest would be topped off by a game that melded the best elements of the titles that I had been playing.

It's a small game world.

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