So some gameplay footage for Dead Rising: Chop till you Drop has been released today, with mixed reviews and of course the accompanying negativity that follows ported games to the Nintendo Wii. And strait off the bat people have compared it to the Xbox 360 version, which is totally wrong. Because number one the Wii is not nearly as powerful as the Xbox 360. Number two the game is being build from the ground up using the Resident Evil 4 graphics engine which does have its limitations.

The lack of zombies is a bit disturbing to say the least as that is what renowned for the huge amount of zombies that attacked you, and populated the different areas in the game. But then Capcom did promise us that they would try and push a 100 zombies at any given time on screen, and they usually deliver what they promise. I am not going to paying attention to this critisism and will get the game myself when it is released, then I can decide if I am either disappointed or not. Having said all that check out the trailer.

Dead Rising: Chop till you Drop gameplay

Sega I love you long time! Yes your eyes do not deceive you Sega has announced at Leipzig today that they will be bringing us a fourth installment of the House of the Dead franchise entitled “Overkill”. I am really stoked about this news as I am a big fan of light gun games genre and even a bigger fan of the House of the Dead franchise. Not to mention the fact that the really cheesy 70’s B-grade trailer for House of the Dead: Overkill has gotten me even more worked up now. The fourth installment of the franchise is scheduled for release on the Wii in early 2009, and I highly recommend you go check out these screenshots and the trailer.

House of the Dead: Overkill

Good news for fans of the Birdy Mighty series, according to Moonphase Diary, a second season of Birdy the Mighty Decode is scheduled for release in January 2009. The original announcement was made on the staff’s blog last weekend. Now I just need to find a fansub group that is still subbing the first series as the sub group I went with (Chroma) seems to have “died”.

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight revolves around a group of twelve called the Kamen Riders, who are the protectors of Ventara dimension, a mirror world opposite to our own. In battle against the wicked General Xaviax, the Riders were defeated and ten of them were stripped of their Advent Decks, special card decks that allow whoever wields them to transform into Kamen Riders and utilize unique weapons and powers.

While searching for his missing father, the main character - Kit Taylor - finds an Advent Deck that allows him to become Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. He eventually meets Len, who serves as Kamen Rider Wing Knight, and the pair join forces after Kit learns that General Xaviax has imprisoned his father in Ventara and is using him and the other humans that his monsters abduct to gain power and rebuild his homeworld. Furthermore, Xaviax begins recruiting corrupt humans to become Kamen Riders and aid him in his goal.

Remember watching the very first season of Power Rangers as a kid when it first aired on South African television all those years back, and thinking how it was the best show ever. Only to watch it after all these years and noticing how shit the show really was. Well the Kamen Riders (The Japanese equivalent of Power Ranger and highly popular show in Japan I might add.) is coming to America. Entitled “Kamen Rider Dragon Knight”, which will be the twelfth installment in the franchise. Check out the trailer it reeks of cheese but for some reason it still looks really awesome, maybe its just the little kid inside me. LOL!

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight trailer

Well it is not like we did not see this one coming, and if you did not let me bring you up to speed with what happened so far. On the 12th of August a article got published in the Daily Mail and The Sun (Basically two UK tabloids which isn’t worth the paper that it gets printed on.) reporting about Madworld the violent surrealistic black and white game currently in development at Sega. Here is a snippet from the introduction of an article in Daily Mail and The Sun:

“Parents horrified as most violent video game ever to launch on ‘family friendly’

MadWorld lets players impale enemies on road signs, rip out their hearts and execute them with chainsaws and daggers. It is made exclusively for the Nintendo Wii — and looks set to wreck the popular console’s family-friendly image.

Even John Beyer, head of watchdog group Mediawatch-UK, got into the action calling for a ban on Madworld:

This game sounds very unsavory. I hope the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) will view this with concern and decide it should not be granted a classification. Without that it cannot be marketed in Britain. What the rest of world does is up to them. We need to ensure that modern and civilized values take priority rather than killing and maiming people.

You got to love how the media taps into people’s prejudice against media formats like movies and books and in this case console games. The articles continues and even at one point claims that Mad World will be the most violent videogame in history. And goes on to further explaining to the readers the “horror” that is Mad World. Well you might wonder what Nintendo’s response was to these articles. An unnamed Nintendo spokesperson had the following to say to the news papers when they inquired about the game:

Wii appeals to a wide range of audiences from children and teenagers to adult and senior citizens, anyone from 5 - 95, as such there is a wide range of content for all ages and tastes available. Mad World will be suitably age rated through the appropriate legal channels and thus only available to an audience above the age rating it is given. The game is not made by Nintendo but by Sega.

It basically means fuckoff in the most polite manner possible. I am really glad that Nintendo has taken a stance on this and I hope they keep on doing so against these media zealots. But having said that I think Nintendo should be really careful as this might turn into a PR disaster waiting to happen.

But if they play there cards right it could also have the ability to show off a high quality third party title coming from one of the most exciting new studios in the business, which would possibly get more third party publishers to develop high quality games for the Nintendo Wii console. As the current selection of high quality third party titles on the Nintendo Wii is rather limited.

If you are interested in reading the orginal news articles regarding Mad World they can be found here and here.

Remember Jenni Källberg Stockholm Sweden? the really talented illustrator and Artist and avid gamer not to mention cosplayer, and a really good looking lady. If you can remember I reported on her a couple of months ago, after I discovered her really awesome cosplay of Samus Aran’s Varia Suit from the Metroid Prime series. Well she is back with a new cosplay better and hotter than ever, check out more of her pictures cosplaying yet again as Samus from Metroid Prime but this time in her Zero Suit. Oh on a side note, I think I have developed a latex fetish after seeing these. LOL!

Some of you might remember K.O.R.E from six years back when it was scheduled for release on the original Xbox but it got canceled for some unexplained reason. Well ZOINK Games and SnapDragon Games have announced that they will be resurrecting the game and rebuilding it from the ground up for the Nintendo Wii.

Practicing her climbing skills, Pixie falls and suddenly lands in an underground laboratory full of weird equipment. It’s here that she makes a stunning discovery: the incredible Core-Suit, a metal suit that adapts to its wearer.Equipping herself, Pixie sets off to find a way out. Shortly after, Pixie meets her future comrades:

Madboy and the dog, Rex. The alien Corelings have captured Dr. Samuelson, the Core- Suit’s inventor. Some time ago, the Doctor discovered a probe named CORE, and used its technology to create the Core-Suit. The trio must save him - and use the Core-Suit to make the most of their individual skills: Pixie can use it to climb better than anyone else, Madboy can really pack a punch, and Rex’s excellent hearing and sense of smell turn him into a walking radar station.

Features :

• Dozens of different enemies and challenging boss fights.
• 24 tricky levels in 6 worlds.
• 3 freaky characters: a girl, a boy and a dog.
• The first game ever with character-dependent viewpoints, for example Rex the dog’s “Smell View”.
• Hilarious story and characters.
• Unique art style.

From the screenshots and the Youtube trailer it looks like K.O.R.E will be a entertaining game with lots of quirky humor thrown in for good measure. Lets hope ZOINK Games and SnapDragon Games gets a publisher for this game soon, as it seems that they are currently on the right track for publishing a highly entertaining game. Go check out the trailer and see for yourself.

K.O.R.E. trailer

Disaster: Day of Crisis is still alive! The game actually got rated by the OFLC, which means it is not vapor wear anymore. Maybe Nintendo will give us some good news not to far into the foreseeable future regarding this title.

Yesterday Codemasters revealed that it is planning to release a new take on its popular Overlord franchise exclusively for the Nintendo Wii. The title for the new game in the franchise is: “Overlord Dark Legend” . And will be designed from the ground up for Nintendo by Climax Studios, and is slated for a 2009 release.

Players will take control of a young Overlord as he takes command of his evil minions and trains to become a full fledged tyrant. The “trainee tyrant” will, according to Codemasters, “be able to take his growing pains out on the local fairy tale inhabitants as he protects his castle and lands.”

Dark Legend will feature an original tongue in cheek humor, the same type of humor we got to see in classics like the Dungeon Keeper series of games. The game also seems to borrow heavily from the Nintendo cult classic Pikmin, in the way the game uses its minions to do your dirty work for you.

According to Codemasters, the Wii remote enables “unprecedented control over the minions.” Using the controller, gamers can pluck a minion from the horde, hold him by the neck and shake him around, “throttled to imbue him with some Overlordly power and turn him into a manic minion missile.” Now charged with an explosive body. He can be guided into enemies with “hilarious, if rather fatal, consequences.”

I really enjoyed the the Overlord series on the PC, even if it had somewhat flawed camera movements issues and weird control scheme. But from the sound of things this might turn out to be a wickedly funny and entertaining game in the same vain as Dungeon Keeper. I will most definitely keep my eye on this one.

]]> http://larcho.wordpress.com/2008/08/14/overlord-dark-legend/feed/ larch http://larcho.wordpress.com/2008/08/13/lack-of-updates/ http://larcho.wordpress.com/2008/08/13/lack-of-updates/#comments Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:49:29 +0000 larch http://larcho.wordpress.com/?p=2409

I must apologies to the regular reader of Anime Life And Everything Else for the lack of updates on the blog work has been keeping me busy lately so I get home dead tired and in the mood for absolutely anything not even anime or playing games. I just slump down in front of my computer and listen to music and then fall asleep. There also seems to be a lack of good anime and nintendo related news lately but I will keep an eye out on the news feeds for anything interesting.