Game developers, Apps Genius Corp, recently released a new game called Angry Turds available now at the App Store. No joke, you get to be a monkey flinging poop, bananas, and coconuts at island invaders.
Nintendo has a bad habit of ignoring big threats until they become implacable foes. The latest goof? President Satoru Iwata attempted to allay investor’s fears about social media games like FarmVille. He didn’t do it by announcing a new Nintendo Facebook game or social networking service. Instead, he said this: “Nintendo has been developing social entertainment in the field of video games for a long time.”
Which is true. I spent hundreds of hours of my childhood huddled around a screen with three of my friends, blasting each other in GoldenEye or irreparably damaging our friendships over Mario Party. Nintendo games have always had a fairly strong social component.
But “social” today isn’t the same as “social” ten or fifteen years ago. Iwata continued, “When you hear the term ‘social network,’ it generally means a service taking advantage of social human relationships through a constantly connected network with smart phones and PCs. In contrast, Nintendo appreciates real human relationships among people.”
And that’s fantastic, but real humans appear to appreciate being able to integrate quality gaming into their social media. Now and, in the future, increasingly, they’re going to expect to be able to take those games with them wherever they go.
But Nintendo has always been dismissive about this sort of thing. As recently as April of 2010, Iwata blew off Apple as “not having an impact on Nintendo”. Six months later, Nintendo America President Reggie Fils-Aime admitted that Apple was more of a near-term threat than Microsoft.
If that trend continues, we can look forward to hearing Reggie admit that social media gaming represents a real threat by this time July.
That’s right, they’ve assimilated game designers “Area/Code” and have begun to add their biological and technological distinctiveness to their own. This New York group will now become Zynga New York. Social gaming will now commence with a very ironic conglomerating of many design groups into one. Zynga also has offices in Boston, San Francisco, Beijing, Austin, Tokyo, Frankfurt, and Dallas. Each of these locations, other than San Francisco, were once smaller games companies that have now been swallowed by, (not dismantled, as other eviler companies might have done,) by Zynga.
Take a peek at the big list, courtesy of the relatively reliable Wikipedia:
? Zynga Headquarters (San Francisco, CA)
? Zynga China (formerly XPD Media, based in Beijing) – acquired May, 2010
? Zynga Austin (formerly Challenge Games) – acquired June, 2010
? Zynga Boston (fromerly Conduit Labs) – acquired August, 2010
? Zynga Japan (formerly Unoh Games, based in Tokyo) – acquired August, 2010
? Zynga Germany (formerly Dextrose AG, based in Frankfurt) – acquired September, 2010
? Zynga Dallas (formerly Bonfire Studios) – acquired October, 2010
? Zynga New York (formerly Area/Code) – acquired January, 2011
Zynga released an official announcement that included the following statement: “Area/Code has proven itself as a strong and creative innovator with the ability to deliver successful new games on Facebook and for mobile. This addition is truly deepening our bench of world-class talent, with a team that ultimately shares our passion for innovation and success.”
Area/Code also had some input on their own site, saying the following: “Our ambition is to contribute in a major way to the evolution of games on social networks, to make games in this space that are deeper and more interesting, games that reward the time and attention of the millions of people who play them with complex, meaningful experiences. We believe our best shot at doing this is working with Zynga, the biggest, most successful company in this space.”
The newest edition of the massively successful mobile phone game Angry Birds is set to come out Valentine’s Day with a special pink addition to what we’re pretty sure will be the Seasons version of the game. Seasons already has Christmas and Halloween sets of levels, and this love-based new set would fit perfectly in the timeline. This news was released by DW-TV (Deutsche Welle) via YouTube where the personality speaking notes that “The designers and game developers at Rovio are currently working on new versions of their game, like this update in pink, due to come on the market on February the 14th – Valentine’s Day.”
If you’re in the mood to watch the entire clip, you can grab a bit of additional insight on how the game got its start (with a mother of a developer delaying a dinner party because she could not stop playing,) and simple fun facts (like the fact that originally there was no slingshot and the game made no sense!) Mikael Hed, CEO and co-founder of Rovio notes that the future of Angry Birds has the potential to include additional games, merchandise, and even TV shows and movies! Wacky stuff man, wacky. Check out the full clip here:
NOTE: They don’t mention if the game will be released on both iOS and Android at the same time, but if we had to guess, we’d say yes.
Behold one epic looking game. This sort of game is what makes it worth having an iPad, if you ask me. This game is what IntoMobile is calling a Legend of Zelda clone, and I’m inclined to agree. I’m NOT inclined to protest though, as such a game as that might not be out for ages and ages. Now is the age of Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden. A young fellow by the name of Ayden is chosen by the god Uryah to save the kingdom of Lasgalen from no less than the Apocalypse. How will you do such a monumental task? You’ll ride your horse and break some ice with a big glove, of course!
This game wouldn’t be so innovative if they were releasing it on PS3 or Xbox 360 or a PC, but here on iOS: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, it has the potential to be huge. Huge in a way that normally only highly-recognizable brand-name RPGs are huge. Possible prices for iPhone and iPod Touch are $6.99 and $9.99, respectively, and those are only guesses, but they’re informed guesses to be sure. Take a peek at the preview video:
Are you interested in and capable of developing “complex, integrated iPhone/iPad applications”? Crytek will want to hear from you, then, as the author of the CryEngine has this week advertised its intention to leap into the Apple orchard known as iOS via a job posting. Sadly, there’s no direct mention of a mobile version of Crysis, though given the limited range of Crytek’s activities, the company is clearly looking to develop either an iOS game or a game companion app. Aside from the job requirements, the “preferences” section is also illuminating as it lists Android and Windows Mobile development expertise — potentially suggesting that whatever developer leads the iOS charge might then transition to bringing Crytek’s goods to the other major mobile platforms. Hey, if the Unreal Engine can be crammed inside an iPhone, why not the CryEngine?
Also coming to your PC, but noone cares about PCs. Never fear, Don Reisinger, your lost love of video games will be revenged (unless I read that article wrong.) On the 22nd of February, 2011, a Dreamcast Collection package will be being released for Xbox 360. Joy unto the mountains, the greatest console gaming system is back in the form of a pack.
Of course the first thing everybody says is “Where is Shenmu?” and of course “What about Jet Set Radio?” But chill! You know why? Because like all great holders back of amazingness, the people who are putting this out more than likely have those games up their sleeves and are waiting to see how well this collection does before sending out a second version.
What do you get in this pack? Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Sega Bass Fishing and Space Channel 5: Part 2. These games are ENHANCED GRAPHIC versions of their original counterparts, and there will be leaderboards online just like all the rest of your Xbox LIVE games so you can love and kiss and hug your buddies.
Gary Knight, VP of Marketing at Sega of America and Sega Europe, noted that “The Dreamcast console is still remembered as a pioneering console for online gaming. We are delighted to be able to offer to our large community of dedicated fans a collection such as Dreamcast Collection for them to enjoy old favourites on this generation of consoles.” We emailed him to ask if he really meant to spell favorites like that, but he had no response.
Perhaps if there was some sort of Brundlefly-style gadget mix-up five years ago, the outcome would look like this: an HTC Hermes jammed inside a GameBoy Advance housing. This prototype, presented by Windows Phone Hacker, features some fun changes that make it feel more like your beloved handheld gaming console, and less like your dated Windows Mobile Pocket PC, including a startup GIF animation of the original GameBoy Advance boot screen, custom software that keeps the OS in landscape mode, and custom notifications and ringtones from the Mario games. Also included is PocketGBA emulator for playing GameBoy Advance ROMs on the phone itself. Of course, this is just the beginning of the project: we look forward to seeing a version where the buttons work! In the meantime, check out the thing in action after the break.
There’s no shortage of applications out there to demonstrate the potential of Verizon’s 4G LTE network, but Electronic Arts’ just showed off one of the more impressive ones to date at its CES 2011 press conference. It demoed its forthcoming Rock Band Mobile game for Android, which will let up to four players “jam together over the network,” making it the first game that can be played with friends over the network at launch. Not much more than that to go on at the moment, but we’re certainly eager to try this one out for ourselves.
Update: Press release is after the break with the complete track listing. Jethro Tull is headed to 4G.
Whooo doggy these games look fun. Gameprom, the group of designers that created my all-time very favorite app SLAYER Pinball Rocks has released a couple of videos teasing at the release of a couple of massive mayhem games for the Apple App Store. First there’s Crimsonworld, a fabulously fast-moving game where you’re a robot in an alien environment where every monster you see wants to destroy you – murder them! Then there’s Magnetar, a space scroller along the lines of all your favorite overhead airplane war adventures.
They’re calling Crimsonworld a “Doom-style bloody mess with a top-down view.” That sounds right up my alley! Looks like there’s probably no chainsaw, which is regrettable (lol), but WOW does this look fun.
Magnetar seems like a relatively short game (5 unique worlds with 4 levels in each of them with 5 bosses,) but LOOK at it! It’s bright and fabulously layered. Can’t wait to play it.
