I got my copy of Ninja Gaiden II last week and dropped it into my XBox 360 with every intention of playing through the game and writing up a thorough review. I played the original Ninja Gaiden games way back on the NES, but I never got around to playing the first XBox version. So this would be my first foray into the 3D world of Itagaki’s slice and dice hero, aside from Ryu’s appearances in Dead or Alive, and I was looking forward to it. My non-review follows after the jump.
Yesterday I paid a trip to the local Circuit City to take advantage of this week’s discounted XBox Live 1600 Points Cards, down to $14.99 from $19.99. I buy a ton of Rock Band songs and the occasional map packs or XBLA games, so I figured I’d be wise to go ahead and buy up a bunch of points while they’re discounted. Even with 7500 points now sitting in my account, I find I’m frugal to the point of miserly with my Microsoft Monopoly money. It’s a rare thing for me to come across a XBox Live Arcade game these days that I’m actually willing to drop the change for (the Penny Arcade game didn’t even make the cut), but I just came across an upcoming release that actually looks like it could be points worthy.
The game is called Go! Go! Break Steady and is a break dancing rhythm game that has you rapid-fire button mashing in time with the music to have your dancer pull off crazy moves and stay with the song. There will be a single player mode, as well as multiplayer co-op and competitive play. The game will ship with 6 playable characters and 20 songs to play through. I think the thing that really grabbed my attention is the art style, though. It’s a 2D cartoony style that works very well with the crazy dance moves and gameplay they have going on. The gameplay itself looks like it could be a lot of fun, if you’re into the pattern-button-mashing puzzle games.
No info on pricing just yet or when the game will be available for download, but the developers have released a trailer that tops most other XBLA trailers I’ve seen, and they also have a making-of video that gives a fun and cartoony look at how the game came together.
Go! Go! Break Steady Trailer
The Creation of a XBLA Game
Check out the game’s official website here: Link
Four new tracks are available for download on Rock Band this week, all from small bands promoted by MTV2. Here’s a rundown of what you can get and for how much:
These tracks are available starting today on the XBox Live Marketplace, and they’ll be downloadable on the Playstation Network on Thursday.
Harmonix has been shopping around ideas to consumers via a recent survey in the hopes of getting input on the packaging for the sequel to the immensely successful Rock Band. The survey contains two box art possibilities for Rock Band 2 and has folks pick which is their favorite. Aside from the obvious packaging critiques, it’s worth noting that both boxes show a singer, drummer, and two guitarists. This is the same configuration as the original Rock Band, possibly negating the rumors that a keyboard peripheral will be added for the second installment. All of this is very early in the cycle and not at all finalized, so take the art and its implications with the proverbial grain of salt for now.
Source: XBox360Fanboy
You’d think Activision would be doing everything they could with Guitar Hero to make it appeal to fans over the esteemed Rock Band competition, but it seems like they just keep getting it wrong. This time it’s a bit of news that has trickled down about the next installment in the venerable series, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Have you downloaded any content for your Guitar Hero 3 game? Hope to be able to play it with the Guitar Hero: Aerosmith game once that arrives? Sorry, you’re outta luck.
It’s not exactly a surprise that GH3 content won’t work with GH:A (as GH2 content doesn’t work in GH3), but there was always the hope that progressing technologies and rising competition would make Activision allow the cross-game content. There’s no word about whether Guitar Hero: On Tour or Guitar Hero: Metallica will have cross-game support, but I tend to doubt it, given the franchise’s desire to have you wear out your console by swapping discs to play different songs.
Source: Joystiq
Yesterday I posted the first installment of my two-part interview with Keiko Takamura. She’s a virtual celebrity in the world of Second Life and an actual up and coming musician named Amy Te offline. You might have seen her recently in a spotlight on MTV’s award winning True Life series, where she discussed her musical status within the game and gave us a glimpse into her work towards getting her music heard by non-Second Life audiences.
Check out Keiko’s website at http://keikotakamura.com/ where she posts news and media, as well as a page where you can listen to and purchase her music. She’s also online at http://www.myspace.com/keikotakamura and http://keikotakamura.livejournal.com, and you can join her Second Life Group called Keiko Takamura’s Anti-Fan Club.
Here’s part two of the interview with Keiko.
In a press release today, Sony announced that their new Qore program will be going live on the Playstation Network on June 5. Qore is an interactive monthly program that will deliver new media, interviews, and previews to subscribers. Much of the content sounds similar to the Inside XBox feature that’s available for free on the XBox 360, but the Playstation 3 version will cost $2.99 for the first episode, or $24.99 for an annual subscription of twelve episodes. Qore does sound more customizable than the Inside XBox feature, allowing users to utilize multiple windows, picture-in-picture viewing, and other options. The press release describes what players can expect from the first episode:
Premiering on June 5, the first episode includes in-depth, exclusive and never-before released content on upcoming PlayStation titles such as SOCOM:US. Navy SEALs ConfrontationTM, Star Wars: The Force UnleashedTM, Secret Agent ClankTM, Soul Calibur 4TM and Afro SamuraiTM as well as the latest Blu-ray DiscTM trailers, an exclusive SOCOM: Confrontation theme with an invitation to the SOCOM: Confrontation beta, art galleries and a few other surprises.
Qore is produced and published by SCEA and under an exclusive development agreement with Future US, Inc., publisher of PlayStation: The Official Magazine.
New episodes will go up the first Thursday of each month. For a limited time, if you buy the year subscription you’ll also get a free download of the PSN game Calling All Cars.
Source: Sony
If you’re aching for some post-apocalyptic roleplaying action, you can’t do much better than the Fallout series. Fallout 3 is one of the big ticket games that’s in production now for release in fall 2008. Last month, Bethesda released details about what we can expect from the collector’s edition of the game, and today they’ve followed up with photos of the goodies. Here’s a glimpse of the package, complete with metal lunchbox, Vault Boy bobblehead, art book, and more.
Source: Bethesda
Back in 2000, Metallica was at the spearhead of the anti-Napster drive and was instrumental in turning the music industry against free digital distribution. Now they’re jumping right into the latest music distribution paths, as they will be the next band after Aerosmith to get a specially featured edition of Guitar Hero. Activision has announced via their recent SEC filing that they have Guitar Hero: Metallica on track for release in the 2009 fiscal year, which would have it hitting by March 31, 2009.
Most likely, the Metallica game would be similar to the upcoming Guitar Hero: Aerosmith in that it would largely feature the title band’s tracks but also would delve into bands that were influential to Metallica or that have a similar style. Metallica previously has had songs and a track pack featured in Rock Band.
Source: Joystiq
I recently had the opportunity to talk with singer / songwriter Keiko Takamura. Keiko is a virtual celebrity in the world of Second Life and an actual up and coming musician named Amy Te offline. You might have seen her recently in a spotlight on MTV’s award winning True Life series, where she discussed her musical status within the game and gave us a glimpse into her work towards getting her music heard by non-Second Life audiences.
Check out Keiko’s website at http://keikotakamura.com/ where she posts news and media, as well as a page where you can listen to and purchase her music. She’s also online at http://www.myspace.com/keikotakamura and http://keikotakamura.livejournal.com, and you can join her Second Life Group called Keiko Takamura’s Anti-Fan Club.
Here’s part one of the interview, in which she talks about her origins and musical experience in Second Life. The second part of the interview will post tomorrow, where Keiko tells about what it’s been like to have a True Life episode document her and what her musical aspirations are.
