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During GDC a few weeks ago, IGN got a chance to sneak a peek at the newly announced Wii rhythm game, Boogie. Unfortunately, rather than giving us a look at the game behind closed doors in relative comfort, EA stealthily unveiled this interesting-looking game during the middle of its SSX Blur party at some random bar in San Francisco.

Keep in mind that this game caught us totally off guard when EA first showed it off. We were firmly in the process of getting hammered off the free booze, when the folks from EA Montreal took the stage. We fought our way through the throngs of assembled gaming journalists to snag a good vantage point. To our dismay, we ended up standing behind Reggie, and -- as any good Nintendo fan knows -- that man is massive. None of us were quite tall enough to see over his imposing figure without much difficulty, but believe us when we say that we struggled to get as much of an eyeful as the situation would allow.

We can see it now: Rayman vs. Boogie dance-off.The first thing that we noticed when EA began to show off the game was that the art style was really impressive. The main character looked like a discoed-out version of Patrick from Spongebob Squarepants, and was surrounded by what we could only assume were hordes of bloodthirsty Pikmin. The game certainly had a unique look to it, and the whole presentation fit together very well, as the on-screen character began to sway back-and-forth in time to the music. It may not have been technically all that impressive, but it had enough flair and originality that we couldn't help but find ourselves drawn in by the game's visual appeal.

From what we could gather, Boogie appeared to be controlled by use of both the Wiimote and the Nunchuk. With the Wiimote, players could point at the screen and direct a pair of eyes around the dance floor. Doing this would cause the character's upper body to contort in correlation to eyes' movement. The Nunchuk, on the other hand, was used to manipulate the lower body of the character. Using these in conjunction could get the jovial little disco dancer to pull off all sorts of remarkable moves from the Hustle to the Melbourne Shuffle to the Turkish Twist.

What was interesting about all this was that the game didn't appear to work like other rhythm-based games, where the player tries to sync up his actions with on-screen cues. Instead, it seemed like gamers could move their character around anyway they chose, with better timing and rhythm yielding better results score-wise. Occasionally, a prompt would appear on screen, indicating a particular Wiimote/Nunchuk movement that needed to be pulled off, but unfortunately the game's designer seemed to suck at his own game, and failed these often enough that we never really noticed the results of a success.

Despite the fact that the settings under which we saw the game were far from ideal, we still managed to get a substantial feel for what Boogie is all about. Unfortunately, although EA did mention microphone support in the game, the reps on hand did not demo that aspect of the game, or even talk about how EA is planning on implementing it. Even so, Boogie intrigued us due to its artistic merits and unique take on rhythm games, despite its early development status. We hope that the next time we get a chance to check out the game we aren't plastered and stuck directly behind a massive corporate mogul like the Regginator.

via ign ...

via ign

To coincide with the UK release of the PlayStation 3, Sony and Polyphony Digital have revved their engines and moved Gran Turismo HD to the European PlayStation Store. But while US and Japanese gamers are still running laps in version 1.1, UK gamers have gotten the world's first taste of Gran Turismo HD Concept 2.0.

Largely identical to version 1.1 (and 1.0 for that matter), GTHD 2.0 includes the same 10 cars, the Eiger Nordwand track and time trial and drift options. However, there's one major difference: Version 2.0 includes Force Feedback support. Yes indeed, now that Sony and Immersion have kissed and made up, Polyphony has been able to implement the technology into the game. Listing official support for four Logitech wheels, namely the Driving Force Pro, GT Force, Driving Force and Driving Force EX, racers are now able to actually feel the road as they compete for leading laps times on the game's online leaderboard.

We plugged in a Driving Force Pro, the same wheel that we used to review Gran Turismo 4, and took a few laps with each of the game's 10 available vehicles. The implementation seems to be very basic for the time being, perhaps just a "we're going to do it" proof of concept. Much of the feedback feels like it's based only on engine feedback rather than the road. While you'll feel a jolt when you drive on or off the track, you won't feel pebbles, grass or anything of that sort.

As the first couple cars are rather underpowered, you might not even realize that it's on. Once you get up to the Ferrari 599 GTB, the wheel does provide a great bit more feedback and lets you know whether or not your wheels are on the ground, but only subtly. Again, it doesn't feel as if everything in the world has been assigned a Force Feedback variable yet, so compared to what we saw in Gran Turismo 4 it's a pretty weak implementation.

It's only a start, however, and we have no doubt that Polyphony will nail Force Feedback by the time that Gran Turismo 5 actually ships. For now, you can sleep better knowing just that. ...

via ign

Perhaps one of the most fondly remembered non-Nintendo series on the NES, the Ninja Gaiden franchise was practically the pinnacle of action gaming on said platform. When Tecmo brought back the series in March of 2004 to the original Xbox, Ryu and company were once again vaulted to the top of action gaming. And now, Tecmo aims to do the same to the next-generation (is it current-gen yet?) with Ninja Gaiden Sigma on the PlayStation 3.

Sigma can best be described as a remastered version of Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox. With all of the content from Ninja Gaiden Black in tow and a healthy dose of new and enhanced content to encourage existing fans to plunk down $60, Ninja Gaiden Sigma is set for release late this Spring on the PS3. Tecmo stopped by our offices today to give us an in-depth look at the game, and yep, Ryu looks set to do it all over again.

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According to Amazon UK the 20GB PS3 may be in the UK sooner than we thought. It's just appeared on the website with a release date of "30 Oct 2007".

SPOnG contacted Sony to see if the UK will, in fact, be getting any lower end PS3s before the end of the year. While not giving a definite 'no,' Sony's head of UK PR, David Wilson, said of the 20GB console "I haven't seen any. We don't have any here."

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The DS is well-known for its unusual design features, the two-screen format and the touch screen. Many of the DS's most popular games make good use of these features, and there are many outstanding games, like Meteos, that make strong enough use of them that they could fairly be said to depend on these features. There wouldn't be too much to Brain Age without the handwriting input, and it is hard to imagine Elite Beat Agents existing at all without either the unique interface or the simultaneous cutscene/gameplay presentation.

But for as much attention as the DS gets for its unique features, many of its best games use them in only the most cursory of ways. Some of the best-reviewed, most popular DS games have only optional touch-screen use, or some function that is nonessential to gameplay. Some games squander their second screen on inventories and maps. Many such games not only could have worked just as well on other systems, they are from long-standing series that worked just fine back in the dark ages when game systems only had a single screen and controls were mapped only to buttons.

The games on this list are the highest-ranked games according to Metacritic that fall under the category of "traditional" games. In fact, the top four DS games according to Metacritic are all traditional. Each game on this list is an excellent DS game that is excellent independent of the DS' inherent advantages.

1. Mario Kart DS (Metacritic rank: 1)

The Mario Kart formula hasn't changed since the beginning of the series: Mario universe characters race in adorably tiny little cars, and throw stuff at each other. And they haven't needed to change. Mario Kart games are always well-received, always popular, and always staples of the multiplayer Nintendo experience. The DS version controls just like its predecessors: with the D-pad and buttons, to great effect. The bottom screen shows a map of the track-- map screens, of course, are the second-screen display for games that don't need the second screen. The DS version brought the welcome addition of online play, but internet connectivity is hardly unique to the DS.

2. Advance Wars: Dual Strike (Metacritic rank: 2)

Like the other games on the list, Advance Wars comes from a line of games that dates back to the NES (or, more accurately, the Famicom: the series is called Famicom Wars in Japan.) Predictably, for the series to have made it into the 21st century, previous incarnations must have been okay without touch screens. And they were! When the strategy series finally made it outside Japan in its Game Boy Advance form (hence the "Advance Wars" title) it became a hit in Western territories. Advance Wars: Dual Strike's optional stylus controls are just that-- optional, and dispreferred to the traditional button/D-pad interface. The character portraits on the second screen might add to the experience for some players, and the unit information is somewhat useful, but these features aren't essential to gameplay.

3. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (Metacritic rank: 3)

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow benefits more than most of the other games from the DS's dual screens, but even so, the second screen is almost completely unnecessary. Map screens have been included in Castlevania since the very beginning; constantly-updated automaps have been a part of the game since the series went free-roaming in Symphony of the Night. The DS version allows you to have a constant view of the map screen, which is nice. It doesn't change the nature of the game at all, and it hardly means that the game is better on DS than it would have been on any other system. The touch screen implementation in this game is somewhere between "token" and "annoying", breaking the flow of boss battles and forcing you to draw shapes on the screen correctly to kill bosses. We're glad Konami didn't try to make Dawn of Sorrow more "innovative."

4. New Super Mario Bros. (Metacritic rank: 4)

New Super Mario Bros. is about as traditional as a game can get. It draws directly from the original Super Mario Bros., the game from which many design traditions originated. There's nothing more complicated here than there was in the Super NES Super Mario World. Mario runs, jumps, breaks blocks, collects powerups, and shoots fireballs just like he has for the last twenty years. And as such, NSMB would have been equally brilliant on any system of the last twenty years. All of the brilliance of NSMB is in the level design anyway! The bottom screen is kind of a joke-- do we really need a progress bar for Mario levels? The touch screen is only used to select reserve items, which was controlled by the Select button in Super Mario World, and works about as well in either case.

5. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (Metacritic rank: 9)

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is a confluence of classic game influences: it's a platforming RPG set in the venerated Mario universe. RPG's as a genre are generally not innovative ...

via dsfanboy

The name (Final Fantasy Crystal Chroncles: Ring of Fates) may be long, but the characters are all lil'. The party of adventurers looks like it's composed entirely of three-year-olds. Maybe it's a modern interpretation of the kind of character art found in the NES Final Fantasy games, but whatever the reason, we definitely appreciate toddling in our world-ending crises.

Like the Gamecube version, you'll have to have friends nearby to play in multiplayer. However, unlike the Gamecube, pretty much everyone has a DS these days.

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Nervous Brickdown breathes new life into the Arkanoid-Breakout genre, updating its basic template with ten distinct gameplay modes. This might be Arkedo Studio's first game for any console, but the charming soundtrack and highly-stylized environments -- ranging from 70s mod to playful retro -- really give Nervous Brickdown a first-rate polish that other Breakout-clones usually lack. The break-a-brick game takes advantage of the Nintendo DS' hardware, making use of the system's touchscreen, microphone, and WiFi (multiplayer) features.

Ecrans has a few videos showing how hectic the game can get as it forces you to dodge bullets, fight bosses, and catch items, all while keeping the ball in play. No release date has been announced yet, but we're happy to hear that Eidos has picked this title up for publishing. You will definitely be hearing more about Nervous Brickdown from us in the future.

via dsfanboy ...