The Ace Attorney series proved to western shores in 2005 that a game in which you play as a lawyer could be not only fun, but downright awesome at times. Sure it had a tendency to be silly and extremely over the top, but snappy writing and simple and intuitive gameplay made the original game a joy to play. Sequels followed almost yearly, culminating in this year’s instalment: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.
I for one am a huge fan of the Ace Attorney series, which puts a legal spin on a traditional graphic adventure game formula. It’s also incredibly fun to scream “OBJECTION!” into your DS’ microphone whenever you present evidence.
The next entry into the series, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is set to launch about right now, and so a launch trailer has hit the internets. This new entry puts you into the purple suit of Miles Edgeworth, Ace Prosecutor, as you search for clues and uncover murder mysteries in a new third-person setting. And yes, you can still shout “OBJECTION!” and “HOLD IT!” at the top of your lungs.
Nintendo Europe has released details about their spring line-up for DS and Wii, confirming Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver for March, as well as Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth for February.
Red Steel 2 is scheduled for release in March, but no specific date is given. The game will release March 23 in the US, so a European release probably won’t be too far off.
Personally I’m very excited about Tatsunoko vs. Capcom for Wii and Miles Edgeworth for DS.
Nintendo’s holiday lineup has been revealed, and the company is looking forward to a busy Christmas season, with plenty of third-party support and some first-party titles as well.
Notable games within the lineup includes Dead Space Extraction, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (try saying that five times fast), DJ Hero and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles for Wii.
The DS sees the release of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Scribblenauts and Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 days among others.
Full list can be found after the cut.
5th Cell, the developers of upcoming DS title Scribblenauts, will be moving on to consoles for their next game.
In an interview with Destructiod, 5th Cell co-founder Jeremiah Slaczka said the company are “going to console next year”. The game will be another original title, but nothing else has been revealed at this point.
“We’ll be announcing that next year, and it’s another original title. We’ll still do DS, maybe, but we want to focus our efforts on original consoles.”
Scribblenauts is out right now in the US, and October 9 in Europe
UK fans of the upcoming Scribblenauts will have to hold out for their game a little longer, as the game’s release has been somewhat postponed.
While US gamers will be able to buy the game on September 15, UK gamers will have to wait a few weeks until October 9. This was confirmed by Warner Bros. via Eurogamer.
For those that don’t know, Scribblenauts is a puzzle game where you spell out words to conjure up tools in order to solve a given problem. The game is considered to be one of the hottest DS titles coming out this year.
The Nintendo press conference this morning was lackluster at best, with only a few actually new titles being revealed. Nintendo seemed to be, once again, focusing on sales numbers and dishing out games they’ve developed themselves. Thankfully they were kind enough to throw Ubisoft a bit of a bone by showing off C.O.P: The Recruit for the Nintendo DS. Not that Ubisoft needs a bone, being one of the biggest game developers in the world…
C.O.P: The Recruit tells the story of a street racer who’s been taken in by the police one too many times. Like Mahoney from Police Academy he’s given a choice: Go to jail or join the force. Our street racer is then forced undercover to unravel a conspiracy that killed his partner.
What’s interesting is that this seems like a 3D GTA on a DS. Everything is rendered from a third person 3D perspective, just like in 3D GTA games and Driver. The main character being a street racer, there’s obvious amounts of racing, but also free roaming on-foot sections and shooting. Could this be the second M rated DS game?
During Nintendo’s press conference this morning, Reggie dvelved into the RPG genre, mentioning that an old franchise is making it’s triumphant return on a Nintendo platform in 2010.
That title was Golden Sun DS. It’s long been rumoured that a third addition to the Golden Sun franchise would come, but until this morning nothing solid had surfaced.
Few details are known at this point, but it seems Golden Sun DS will contain the same kind of gameplay as the last two games, as well as the Djinni and massive summons, covering both screens.
I, for one, am psyched for this release.
Lego Rock Band was announced yesterday and some more details has surfaced on the official Xbox website. Apart from the usual Rock band gameplay, there will also be rock challenges and an even easier difficulty setting.
But can Rock Band get any easier than using only 3 fret buttons?
Here are the full details:
* Songs you know and love: Rock out to everything from current radio hits to past favorites the whole family will enjoy.
* LEGO-themed rock challenges: Play killer riffs to destroy a giant robot, summon a storm, and demolish a skyscraper using the power of rock!
* Enhanced customizer: Don’t stop with your avatar, customize your whole entourage! Design the band, roadies, and manager just the way you want.
* Build fame LEGO-style: Collect LEGO bricks after each song to build cooler vehicles and move to new venues. (Wait, vehicles?)
* LEGO rock den: Buy furniture, decorate the walls and customize your band’s hang-out as you climb the ladder to rock success.
* Fun for everyone: Turn down the difficulty with an easier skill set option for budding musicians.
I still say this game is fairly pointless, but maybe the younger generation will enjoy it.
From simple colours to precious gems, the Pokémon series has seen at least 3 core games on every generation of Nintendo’s handheld consoles.
For 13 years (going by the Japanese release of Red and Blue) players have been trying to “Catch ‘em all”, with the recent release of Platinum bringing the grand total of core Pokémon games to 14 games, and the total number of obtainable Pokémon to a whopping 493!
There has also been a slew of spin-off games ranging from dungeon crawlers, card battles puzzle games and a racing game, which brings the grand total of games to 32! Even so, the games are still selling like hotcakes among both young and adult gamers, which brings me neatly into this evening’s discussion:
- Have we gotten to a point where there are too many Pokémon, not to mention Pokémon games?
- Do you think the franchise should be put to bed?
In his keynote speech at GDC, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata announced a new Zelda title for the Nintendo DS. It will be called Spirit Tracks, and is to be released later this year.
From press release:
The new The Legend of Zelda™: Spirit Tracks game that Iwata announced will utilise the intuitive touch control of Phantom Hourglass in an all new adventure that will please longtime Zelda™ fans while keeping the game accessible to all DS owners. The concept behind this Zelda game includes utilising a steam locomotive to travel around the world, switching Phantom and Link to explore the dungeons, and solving puzzles using new items.
Though I’m not sure what the “Phantom” part at the bottom meant.
We’ve also got screens! As you can see it features the same graphical style as Phantom Hourglass
In about a month’s time, the newest addition to the GTA franchise hits Nintendo DSes all over the world, but not until now has a trailer for the game surfaced. And we’ve got it!
There’s some gameplay, albeit very little, but tons of artwork and the feeling that this is a true GTA title.
The game casts you as Huang Lee, a man out to avenge the murder of his father. The DS touchscreen will be used in various gameplay scenarioes like dealing drugs, defusing bombs, assembling weaponry and hotwiring cars.
Enjoy!
First let me just make one thing clear. When I say “Celebrity gamers” I don’t mean Fatal1ty or the Frag Dolls, who are actual gamers. What I mean are those pesky public personas we all know and love to gossip about.
Celebrities are good at a lot of things, like making movies and music, as well as complete asses of themselves. The latter especially applies when it comes to celebrities who claim to be gamers.
Take Nicole Kidman’s Nintendo DS Lite commercial, where she plays Brain Training on a white DS, in a white room… wearing white clothes while sitting on a white chair.
We also see them at various game and console launches, controller in hand, making a “gamer face”:
- Why is it developers and publishers seem to think celebrities can help sell their product?
- Would you buy a product (game) because some A-list personality decided to endorse it?
Pokemon Platinum, essentially Diamond and Pearl’s “Yellow Version”, sees release in the UK on May 22.
New features in the latest addition to the RPG series includes enhanced Wi-Fi combat and a “brand new Distortion World, governed by neither time nor space”. There’s also “an all-new Battle Frontier, accessible after defeating the Elite Four”.
CVG has more
Sega has officially confirmed “Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games”. Though methinks it should be “Winter Olympic Games”.
The game will be released late 2009 for Wii and DS, and is being developed at Sega Japan” under the guidance of Shigeru Miyamoto”.
The Wii version will use the Balance Board for certain events.
“We are extremely happy to again team up with Nintendo and ISM on what promises to be another global success,” said Sega’s western boss, Naoya Tsurumi.
“Sonic will partner with Mario once more beneath the spotlight of the legendary Olympic Games. Together they will face new athletic challenges that will provide gamers with more of the exciting experiences unique to this series.”
Full press release, as well as a debut trailer, after the break.
