via Cubed3

Players move around the level by jumping and clinging onto pegs and other hanging items with the DS’s shoulder buttons acting as his left and right hands respectively. When DK teams up with Diddy the pair can collect wings and fly for a short period. For those wanting a little bit more simian action, there are bonus multiplayer gems for up to four people - Banana Catch has Donkey Kong catching bananas falling from the top screen while Rolling Rock Panic takes players on a dangerous obstacle course.

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via Cubed3

Following the initial announcement of The Ward for Nintendo's DS portable, it has now been confirmed that the game has had a slight name change and also now has a publisher.

Apparently Gamecock has taken on responsibility for the game, now titled with the much more memorable name of "Dementium: The Ward", which has players taking on the role of a patient who wakes up with no memory that must find a way out of the strange hospital without losing his life. On-route there will be several puzzles, unusual characters to meet and disturbing truths to be learned about the hospital itself. Developer Renegade Kid has promised the game will come complete with "gory visuals and bone-chilling audio that brings the world screaming to life."

"Renegade Kid is looking to move above and beyond what most games are attempting on the DS, and with Gamecock we've found a publisher who is supportive, developer friendly, and willing to give us the freedom to create the game we want. Dementium showcases what a powerful piece of hardware the DS is, while drawing in a mature crowd that's looking for a title they can really sink their teeth into."
- Jools Watsham, Owner and Creative Director of Renegade Kid.

"From the first meeting, Renegade Kid have proven themselves to be innovative, unafraid to push the 'norms' of gaming and incredibly talented - all of which we think are the key characteristics of a great developer. It's great when you can sit down with a developer who shares the same vision of where games should be going in creating new and exciting titles to offer an alternative to the bland remakes and sequels flooding stores today."
- Harry Miller, Head of Development of Gamecock Media Group.

With the game due for release later this year, you can surely expect further media coverage in the coming months. ...

Fragger decided to cancel the project. You can see in the link a nice video about the Fightoon gameplay.

What he said:

Fightoon is not coming out in 2007. And it is not coming out in 2008 either.

I am sorry to announce this, but the project has been cancelled.

There are many reasons for this. I will list some, but there are some others that we prefer to keep in private. This is a sad event for us, and right now we just want to take some rest.

In this topic I will explain why some aspects of the game are the way they are. There were many things I had to take in consideration when designing the game, and I want to let you know why some decisions were made. It is a lot easier to talk about these things now that the game is not coming out, since we don't have to worry about leaving bad impressions anymore.

Right now I will only mention that we didn't have any music to put in it yet, so I used a freely available music for the sole purpose of recording this video. Except for the music and the Makaqu engine, everything else was completely developed from the ground up by me and Rodrigo.

We want to thank everyone who gave their impressions about the game, and everyone who expressed interest in it. Sorry for not being able to get it done.

Also, thanks to the GOAT Store for all their support.

I will post again in a few days. ...

via Game Guru


After announcing the Ice Blue Nintendo DS for Australia, Nintendo has decided to come out with a yellow DS. The Pickachu-themed handheld console will only be available in Japan. It is a special edition DS, so it is going to be hard for gamers to get their hands on the handheld.

To buy the yellow Nintendo DS, gamers will have to first go to one of the five Pokémon Centers in Japan between June 1, 2007 and July 1, 2007. They will have to fill out forms which will then give them a chance to buy the yellow DS. The winners will be informed via mail if they have won the chance to buy the Pickachu-themed handheld console.

The Nintendo DS Lite Pikachu Edition is priced at 16,800 yen (approx. Rs. 5600). But I have a feeling that most of these yellow handhelds will end up on online auctioning sites! ...

via Gameinfowire

Today Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announced that it has shipped WarTech Senko no Ronde for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft to retail stores. Developed by G.rev Ltd., WarTech Senko no Ronde is rated "T” for Teen and has an MSRP of $59.99.

WarTech Senko no Ronde, a new take on a famous arcade game from 2004 that has already been released in Japan with great success, thrusts the player into a distant future where humanity has colonized countless new galaxies and Earth has become a planet mined for its natural resources. A violent war has erupted as nations struggle for world domination. Features include:

* Fast-paced arcade fighting – Combine an almost limitless arsenal of special moves, power-ups and attack drones to unleash the most lethal combos.
* Xbox LIVE online gaming service multiplayer – Challenge friends in head-to-head two-player or battle against the world's best players online and test your skills to improve your Xbox LIVE ranking.
* An impressive choice of Rounder Mech suits – Each of the eight Rounder Mechs features two distinct variations, as well as an unlockable in-game B.O.S.S. mode, for 24 variations in all.
* Epic boss battles – Go blow-for-blow against the other Rounder Mechs, but be prepared, because at any moment you could find yourself battling an even deadlier enemy. ...

via Next Generation

It was only a small title, but faithful shoot-'em-up fans were still keeping an eye on the GameCube shmup Radio Allergy, which has now been canned, O3 Entertainment told Next-Gen today.

The cancellation further solidified the GameCube's status as a doorstop with a handle.

"Radio Allergy for the Nintendo GameCube has been cancelled in North America," said Mike Pepe, marketing manager at O3 Entertainment, the small Santa Clara-Calif.-based publisher that was going to publish the game in the US. "Due to the transition to new gaming platforms, retailers are no longer interested in stocking GameCube titles."

Milestone developed Radio Allergy in Japan, where the game released under the name Radilgy (or Radirgy or Rajirugi) on Dreamcast.

Even though Radio Allergy alone has been cancelled, it may pop up on the Wii somewhere down the line. "Milestone is exploring options to bring this to North America as part of a future compilation on the Wii," Pepe added.

In January this year, Next-Gen spoke with Pepe, who speculated that the Wii's backwards compatibility combined with the established installed base for GameCube would present opportunities for small publishers who could target users of both consoles.

"There’s still a large following for shmups [shoot ‘em up games] on the GameCube,” said Pepe at the time. “We’ve actually been prodded a lot by the fan base out there to put one out.”

...

via Xboxic

Retailers both in Europe and the US have bee quietly changing their dates of when they expect to see Virtua Fighter 5, another exclusive Sony lost to Microsoft’s machine. Dates range from September to November of this year, which is a way off yet. Not so, according to SEGA.

Eurogamer had the chance to speak with SEGA, who still expect the game to ship sometime in the Summer. This is contrary to sites such as Gamestop, Play.com and GAME. It’s strange that the majority of retailers have pushed their dates back so far, but since none of them match there is little to read into at the moment.



The 360 version still lies in murky waters in terms of content though. With the PS3 version already released, many would hope that some improvements would be made. Certainly one would be which version the game is based on. In Japanese arcades, they are currently running Version C of VF5, whilst the PS3 version runs on B. It is hoped that the 360 version will use the enhancements made in C instead of running on what is now old technology. Optional analogue control and improved AI are also hoped for, along with Xbox Live multiplayer.

Hopefully SEGA will speak more publicly about the 360 version soon so as we know what we will be getting. For now though, praying will have to do. ...

More news about the 0.9.4 version of the PlayStation 2 emulator for Windows and Linux.

Real Time Clock (RTC) has been recently implimented by Refraction. PCSX2 now takes the current system time from your OS and inserts the value into PCSX2 upon launch, from that point onwards the emulated RTC counts independently from the OS.

So? you wonder, well apart from the BIOS now displaying the correct time and date - you would think this is a minor addition to PCSX2, nothing more than an addition to authenticity? Well you're in for a suprise!

It struck me when talking to Refraction over a cup of coffee, Metal Gear Solid 3 uses system time for various fun aspects of the game - Such as being able to kill The End from old age if you set the RTC 1 year ahead after saving during the battle.

Metal Gear Solid 3 had never done anything under PCSX2, so with the RTC addition to PCSX2 in mind, I popped the disc into my drive, and eureka it booted!! This however was only the beginning of an epic saga between Zerofrog and the Konami programmers!

Zerofrog has spent days wrestling with Knonami's ability to push the PS2 hardware to it's limits by making zeroGS KOSMOS push the limits of GPU's, Metal Gear Solid 3 certainly loves it's post processing! Not only has he managed to get the game looking ..well from absolute garbage to gorgeous, he's also managed to stop Snake from slipping through holes in the universe instantly.

The game still has issues, Snake still manages to find holes in the universe (falls through geometry), and he still likes to get stuck inside trees, rocks or just teleport off the edge of the world (the video demonstrates the latter beautifully!). The game also still suffers from visual issues, such as missing textures and the specular lighting overlay being drawn wrong, hopefully by the time the next incarnation of PCSX2 comes out, these issues will be mostly resolved.

So to celebrate this game going from nothing to ingame and the challenges it threw at us, we're releasing a video and 63 shots! Not all 63 are here though, General Emulation run by our betatester General Plot has 31 exclusive shots, so head there for the rest!

All this maybe great news (especially for MGS fans), but there is more, you may have noticed the nothing status games have been decressing steadily and the playable count is going up on our on site compatibility list, including some rather nice games...and there is a new plugin coming up...but you'll have to wait! Wink ...

via My Broadband

A recent advertisement depicting a seriously hurt man fighting over a Playstation 3 gaming console was deemed too violent for public consumption.

The Musica Playstation 3 advertisement depicts a man with a black eye, scratches, stitches and stab wounds. The words: “STOCKS ARE LIMITED. THINGS COULD GET UGLY” appear at the top of the advertisement.

Philippa Judith Maartens complained to the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA), saying that the advertisement is irresponsible and offensive as it encourages crime and violence.

New Clicks Holdings Limited, trading as Musica, said that they will not use this advertisement again in future.

This agreement was accepted by the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa, with the agreement that it is withdrawn with immediate effect. ...