Remember High Voltage Software's Animales de la Muerte ? Originally one of the most promising-sounding titles for the then-new WiiWare service, it stewed in limbo for a few years before dropping WiiWare and becoming an XBLA / PSN game instead. Two more years went by and... nothing. Nothing until now, that is.
Good news: The game is not canceled and is set to launch in two weeks. Bad news: It's no longer a console title but a mobile release. Worst news: It's been completely overhauled to the point that it no longer resembles the original concept, and it's been renamed Zoombies -- Animales de la Muerte is the subtitle. It now looks more like Plants vs. Zombies, even if doesn't necessarily play the same. The main characters can't even move anymore!
It could be a good game, but I want to know what the hell happened. Anybody at HVS willing to share that story? In the meanwhile, Animales de... I'm sorry... Zoombies: Animales de la Muerte will arrive on iOS devices on April 18 with an Android version set to appear next month.
Preview: Animales de la Muerte becomes Zoombies [TechnologyTell]
No one is going to dispute that the entire Epic Mickey franchise was the Matterhorn of unrealized potential. How much of that was due to developer Junction Point Studio's lofty ambitions versus Disney's demands and constraints, I couldn't say. I will say that the Junction Point team was filled with highly talented individuals, such as studio co-founder Warren Spector. Having spent a day at Magic Kingdom with the man, I can vouch that his passion is 100% genuine.
It wasn't hard to feel bad for Spector when Junction Point shuttered following poor sales of Epic Mickey 2. Legally unable to publicly discuss the matter until after April 1, he finally spilled the beans in an interview with GamesIndustry International. In addition to talking about his experience working under Disney's wing, he also hinted towards his future game development plans and expressed apprehension towards working on AAA projects anytime soon.
Surprisingly, Spector doesn't bear any deep grudge against his former employer and is rather grateful that he was able to fulfill a lifelong dream of working for Disney. Despite not quite understanding the tangled bureaucracy of one of the biggest media companies in the world -- "I've learned that I don't play politics very well, that's for sure, and I'm not great with bosses, generally" -- he doesn't regret his initial decision to sell Junction Point to the House of Mouse. But that doesn't mean that working on two massive AAA titles with equally massive teams didn't take its toll.
It's obvious Sony is going all out by getting all of the indie game makers they can. They've been getting all sorts of developers on board for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and especially the PlayStation 4. Most of the games we've seen announced for Sony's platforms have been by indie studios we're familiar for the most part, but that's not enough for Sony.
They're even courting the super tiny indie guys, like Muteki Corporation, the makers behind the first Dragon Fantasy and the upcoming Dragon Fantasy II . The original Dragon Fantasy was in development for years, going through a dozen iterations before being dropped.
The game was seemingly done until the creator of the series, Adam Rippon, father passed away. Adam would then go on to rework the game to star his father, and after the first of his homages to retro role-playing titles was released, he would go on to work on the upcoming sequel.
[This post originally ran as impressions on the open beta and is now updated to reflect the full release, which came two weeks later.]
Call of Duty has dumbed down the modern shooter to being about planting bombs, capturing points, and getting headshots. In contrast, Tactical Intervention is a breath of fresh air and feels evolutionary in its ideas -- one could say next-gen, but it'd be hard not to laugh when looking at its budget production values. Dog barks sound like Doom imps and the visuals somehow look worse than anything in Half-Life 2, despite having all the niceties that have come to the Source engine since '04.
Before Call of Duty fever swept the nation, I loved online first-person shooters for the chaos that car combat and hostage encounters can bring. I'll never forget surfing on an airplane wing in Battlefield 1942 or using hostages as human shields in a pitch dark cs_mansion in Counter-Strike.
Tactical Intervention brings back the good memories before FPS were marketable to the mainstream, along with reminders that mods like Counter-Strike weren't born with that layer of polish later achieved.
Host Master Deux: Quest for Identity is a free, browser based sequel to 2009's Host Master . Once again, the player must help Double Fine founder Tim Schafer bumble his way through preparing for the GDC Awards. It may be the closest thing to a traditional adventure game until Broken Age arrives.
Speaking of which, this sequel is co-developed by Marius Fietzek who is now working on Broken Age.
[via Double Fine]
Remember Me is an exciting new title Capcom plans to publish this coming June, and put together by Paris-based developers Dontnod Entertainment. The intriguing cyberpunk adventure follows Nilin, an elite memory hunter who traverses the city of Neo-Paris 2084 in hopes of bringing down the evil corporation: Memoreyes.
We caught up with the Remember Me creative team at Anaheim Wondercon 2013 to get some insight into this unique universe, and learn what went into designing the character of Nilin.
Dragon Fantasy II is a wonderful retro homage to the glory days of SNES role-playing games. We already know it's heading exclusively to the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita soon, but what about the first game?
Well I spoke with the series creator Adam Rippon during PAX East and he told me the original game is heading to both of Sony's platforms as well. The team decided to remake the original while they're still working away on the sequel, and we can expect the first Dragon Fantasy out on the PlayStation 3 and Vita later this month.
Dragon Fantasy is expected to run $10, will have cross-buy and cross-save features, and there's a new 16-bit skin added to all the visuals. There will be an option to switch to the original visuals of the game too.
