Most Recent: DS
Daily Scoop: June 21, 2011 – Gold Box Event!
Ah, another Amazon Gold Box Event, just for video game nerds! The Deal of the Day is Xbox 360 4GB Kinect Bundle with $100 Promotional Credit – which works out really well for people like me, because the 250 GB Xbox 360 hard drive is on sale for $84.99. If you’ve been waiting to pick up the new Xbox 360 with Kinect, this is a great time to do so!
The rest of the Gold Box Event is as follows:
- 6 AM PDT: Bring the fitness club to your living room – This one’s ExerBeat for Wii – $14.99!
- 8 AM PDT: Blend banana-collecting puzzles with manic action gameplay – It’s Super Monkey Ball 3D for $21.99!
- 10 AM PDT: Now in its tenth year, this franchise returns with number 7 on the PS3 and Xbox 360 – This one is Dynasty Warriors 7 for $39.99!
- 12 PM PDT: Explore iconic settings including Hogwarts castle, Diagon Alley and the Forbidden Forest – No surprise that this is Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 for Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 for $14.99!
- 2 PM PDT: Join your host, Mr. Potato Head, as you and your family play classic Hasbro games
- 4 PM PDT: Listen to your game like it was meant to be heard
- 6 PM PDT: Latest iteration of a storied fighter franchise
- 8 PM PDT: Big savings on this classic NDS puzzle game
Huh. Well, I was hoping for Infamous 2 to be on sale, but hey – beggars can’t be choosers, amirite?
New Releases: FEAR 3, Dungeon Siege III, Shadows of the Damned, More
After multiple delays, FEAR 3 will be scaring gamers on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this week. The game was developed by Day 1 Studios, who took over for original developer Monolith Soft. FEAR 3 will be joined in stores this week by another threequel that has switched developers: Dungeon Siege III (PC, PS3, Xbox 360). The Dungeon Siege series was originally created by Gas Powered Games but the third entry was developed by sequel specialists Obsidian Entertainment.
Sequels aren’t the only games releasing this week as EA will be bringing Shadows of the Damned to the PS3 and Xbox 360. A collaboration between Grasshoper Manufacture’s Suda 51 and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, the hellbound tale will be nothing if not original. But for a complete change of pace, this week also sees the release of the movie-to-game adaptation Cars 2 (DS, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360).
Check out the full list of the rest of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)
Nintendo Download: Donkey Kong ’94, Mega Man V
Nintendo has pushed out the first Thursday update of their weekly Nintendo Download with another Game Boy re-release, a mega Virtual Console update and a bevy of DSiWare titles.
Donkey Kong was originally released on the Game Boy back in 1994 and was the first major sequel to the arcade classic. It’s available this week on the 3DS eShop. Also this week, the Wii’s Virtual Console continues its dash through the Mega Man catalog with the addition of Mega Man V.
Five other games were added to the various download services today and you can read more about them at Nintendo’s official site:
- Gold Fever (DSiWare)
- Zimo: Mahjong Fanatic (DSiWare)
- Hidden Photo (DSiWare)
- Beach Party Craze (DSiWare)
- Snail Mail (WiiWare)
All DSiWare games are also available on the 3DS eShop.
L.A. Noire tops NPD chart in May
Rockstar Games’ detective procedural L.A. Noire has topped The NPD Group’s list of bestselling games in May. The PS3/Xbox 360 game was followed by several other new releases including Brink at #2 and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean in the third slot.
The remainder of the top ten is a mix of recently games (Portal 2 at #4 and Mortal Kombat at #5) and holdovers from last Fall’s game rush (Call of Duty: Black Ops at #6 and NBA 2K11 at #8).
The complete top ten can be seen here:
1. L.A. Noire (PS3, Xbox 360)
2. Brink (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
3. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean (3DS, DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
4. Portal 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
5. Mortal Kombat (PS3, Xbox 60)
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops (DS, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360)
7. Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360)
8. NBA 2K11 (PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
9. Just Dance 2 (Wii)
10. Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (3DS, DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
New Releases: Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D, Duke Nukem Forever, Alice Madness Returns, More
14 years, 1 month and 17 days.
That’s how long Duke Nukem Forever has been in development. An actual war against aliens that stole our babes wouldn’t take that long. But after the countless delays, the constant cries of “vaporware” and the empty promises of George Broussard… it’s finally here. And that’s all that matters because I always bet on Duke.
Interestingly enough, Duke Nukem isn’t the only oldtime franchise being resurrected this week. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, the fourth version of the classic game, will be available this week for the 3DS. Think about that, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released for the Nintendo 64 in 1998 and has been remade three times since Duke Nukem Forever was announced. Amazing.
And now that E3 is over, publishers are pushing out a ton of other big titles as well, including…
- Alice: Madness Returns, the long-awaited sequel to the 2000 action-adventure game American McGee’s Alice
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon (3DS, DS, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360), the movie-to-game adaptation of the final entry in the trilogy
- Wii Play: Motion, another minigames/controller package from Nintendo
- Child of Eden (Xbox 360), another light show from Q Entertainment
- Record of Agarest War Zero, a prequel to last year’s creeptastic RPG
Check out the full list of the rest of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)
Professor Layton and the Last Specter given Fall 2011 release date
Lost in the shuffle of Nintendo’s Wii U and 3DS announcements comes the news that the fourth Professor Layton game, Professor Layton and the Last Specter, will be available on the DS this Fall.
Developed by Level-5, the game will sport a “baffling number of puzzles” and is the first story chronologically, making it a prequel to the entire Professor Layton saga. The Japanese release of The Last Specter included a full-length RPG, Professor Layton’s London Life, that was unlockable after the main game was completed. Let’s hope that makes it across the Pacific as well.
Kirby officially returns to DS, Wii this Fall
Announced in Japan earlier this year, Nintendo has used the E3 Expo to confirm the North American release of two new Kirby games.
The imaginatively titled Kirby Wii is a side-scroller where Kirby gains special powers based on the item he’s holding. You can get a good look at the variety of these powers in the trailer above. Kirby Wii will be released for the Wii (surprising I know) this Fall.
Kirby: Mass Attack will be coming to the DS on September 19 and it takes a different tack for a Kirby side-scroller. Kirby has been dropped into some kind of world where everything is huge and the only way he can save the day is to gather up a gang of Kirbies to fight off the giant monsters. That’s right, in this game a gang of torch-wielding Kirbies will swarm a big monster and then eat him to death. Don’t believe me? Check out the trailer after the break. (more…)
Nintendo @ E3 11: Zelda’s 25th anniversary celebrated with four games
Accompanied by a full orchestra, Shigeru Miyamoto unveiled the 25th Anniversary celebration of the NES release of The Legend of Zelda.
According to Miyamoto, each of Nintendo’s platforms will get in on the celebration. Starting today, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX will be added to the newly launched 3DS eShop. It will be followed next week by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. In September, the DSi will receive The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords as a free download.
Miyamoto also confirmed that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will be released “this holiday season” alongside a gold Wii Remote with Triforce styling.