Trioncube

There aren’t many puzzle games with plots attached, but with We Love Katamari publishers Bandai Namco behind this new DS block shifter, a suitably wacky one was always to be expected. We’ve been playing a Japanese copy and from what we can ascertain it involves a man with a head so big that it takes …

Read more

Red Steel

In the past Nintendo hardware has always been demonstrated with Nintendo’s own software. Super Mario World, F-Zero and Pilot Wings on the SNES; Mario 64 and the canned Kirby Bowl on the Nintendo 64; the Luigi’s Mansion and Meowth’s Party tech demos on the GameCube. It was a little bizarre, then, to see Nintendo showing …

Read more

Goodbye, our purple pal

It’s a sad day for the GameCube. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is likely to be the last Nintendo-published game for the system. Going by the scarceness of the PAL versions of Lego Star Wars II, Flushed Away and Naturo 2 it’ll be something of a challenge to actually find a copy anyway. Your …

Read more

Viva Piñata

Are Rare shit now? Kameo was alright, but didn’t really hold our attention as it should have. Well good news, Warwickshire-based developer fans, Viva Piñata is cute, bright, fun, addictive and full of ridiculous regional accents. Yes, it’s a proper Rare game. At last. The only grumble in stylistic terms is that it isn’t particularly …

Read more

A glorious waste of time

It’s been around for a while, but we may as well show you the Mii Creator if you haven’t seen it already. It lets you create your own Nintendo Wii ‘Mii’ characters from the safety of your web browser. Perhaps the best time waster since Line Rider. It’s particularly interesting if you haven’t got a …

Read more

Monster 4×4 World Circuit

We were going to start this review by pointing out that apart from Red Steel, this is the only exclusive title in Ubisoft’s eight-strong Wii launch line-up. That was until we discovered that it isn’t a new game at all: it was first released on Xbox back in April, albeit only in the US. So …

Read more

Shenmue on Xbox 360

Microsoft updated the list of backwards compatible Xbox 360 games on the Xbox website, only to retract the update a few hours later. We’re not sure why, but it was a good mixture of new Xbox titles (Family Guy, Scarface, Splinter Cell: Double Agent), old titles (I-Ninja, Pariah, Shark Tale) plus a few that I …

Read more

Assault Heroes

We like Xbox Live Arcade at the moment, as the last few additions have all been shiny and new, rather than updates of crusty old arcade games. Last week we had the 3D platform / puzzler RoboBlitz, this week overhead shooter Assault Heroes from Wanako Games. It would probably be best not to say their …

Read more

You can’t fool us, Sega

Sega are trying to confuse everybody. It’s the only explanation. Yesterday they announced that they’ve got the Alien license, and have at least an FPS and an RPG in development for release no earlier than 2009. Then today they’ve announced that an update of old Sega IP Alien Syndrome is in development, for the intriguing …

Read more

F.E.A.R.

Fat Elephants Ate Rennies? Nope. Fire Everyone At Roofs? No. For Everything A Reason? Hmm, could be. Fold Envelopes At Reading? Now you’re being silly again. First Encounter Assault Recon? You got it in four – well done! Like Far Cry, Doom III, Half-Life 2 and Quake IV before it, F.E.A.R. is a first person …

Read more

Wii: not as popular as FIFA

No surprises there. If Wii had been released at another time of year, then maybe Zelda would have taken the chart top spot. But as it is, #5 is what it gets, with FIFA 07 hanging on at #1. The best placed Xbox 360 title in launch week, almost exactly a year ago, was Perfect …

Read more

Another bug hunt

Good news, everybody: D3 will be publishing the Xbox 360 big monster shooter Earth Defense Force X in the US next spring. Well, it’s good news if you live in the US. Keep an eye on Play-Asia to see if the Japanese version is region free. Looks like we’ll know by the end of the …

Read more

The Nine O’Clock Not News

A lot of toss passes for game-related news. We throw stones in the glass house atop our ivory tower. » The games industry is absolutely desperate to find someone with a personality. David Jaffe is that person, apparently, because he got a bit drunk and rambled on in front of a camera. Quite a few …

Read more

An hour of Wii Sports burns 330kcal

There’s a little bit of confusion over what games are being released with the Wii today. Obviously Zelda, Monkey Ball, Rayman and Red Steel, but it appears that Splinter Cell, Gottlieb Pinball Classics, Fruitfall and a few others aren’t due until next week. Various dates are also flying around for Far Cry Vengeance – Play …

Read more

Starry eyed surprise

Nintendo’s European Stars Catalogue has always been a bit of a farce when compared to the regularly updated Japanese equivalent. There you’ll find proper gifts to cherish, such as Nintendo playing cards, whereas Nintendo of Europe seem to think that downloadable t-shirt transfers are what all the cool kids want. Things are about to change …

Read more