Studio Arkedo's Big Bang Mini is pure uncomplicated fun. It's a shmup with all the button tapping swapped out for frantic swiping on the touch screen. It's Pac-Pix's bow and arrow expanded into a whole game. Other elements are added as the game goes on, but the basic gameplay -- flinging projectiles at the top of the screen at top speed while dragging your little character around to avoid debris -- stays the same.
I covered the basics of gameplay in my E3 preview. This time, I'll focus a bit more about some things that I didn't cover as much: the visual styles, the bosses, and the bonus modes -- at least for the three worlds I've experienced.
Come my ninja
Come come my ninja
You're my defender My wee ninja
Oops, wrong town. Today, we're on about Ninjatown, the adorable Tower Defense-style game which uses cookies as currency. In fact, we've got ten cutesy new screens. Even though Ninjatown is based on time-honored gameplay principles, it takes such a fresh approach that we're always happy to see something about it. The enemies, the minions of Mr. Demon, can't resist the Ninja Baby, and neither can we.
Only a month ago, SouthPeak Games released a delightfully adorable puzzle title called Roogoo to XBLA. Now the game is Nintendo-bound, as the company recently announced it for both the Wii and DS. So, why is this a good thing? For starters, in addition to its positive critical reception, Roogoo is just cu-ute. Art style aside, this puzzler also looks simple (yet challenging). You have to help the planet Roo by guiding oddly-shaped, colorful meteors through rotating platforms. If you succeed, you'll stop the Meemoos from draining the planet's energy and resources. Take a look at the XBLA trailer above for a better idea of what you have to do.
The DS version will include new levels, backgrounds, and puzzle shapes. Interestingly, there's also a bit of DS-Wii connectivity for owners of both games. Oddly enough, you'll be able to use the DS as a controller for the Wii version.
We're curious about the game's price point. It only costs $10 on XBLA and $20 on PCs, but surely it will retail for more on the DS. We bet it hits the $30 mark, even. Hopefully the portability factor, new levels, and touchscreen controls will make any monetary increase worth it.
Both Brave: Shaman's Challenge and Igor were available for demo at SouthPeak's booth -- two Puzzle Quest-inspired handheld puzzlers, and two games that are very clearly influenced by other puzzle games as well, to their benefit (as was Puzzle Quest).
Brave, which is played book/Brain Age-style, is a match-four falling-gem game -- with a twist. The twist is that your opponents are weak to certain colors and strong to certain colors. Breaking blocks in their strong colors actually heals them! You have to get your strategy on in order to succeed. Thinking about which colors you're supposed to break instead of grouping everything as it arrives changes the flow of the game significantly. I didn't get much of a look at the story, but I'm sure I'll be able to continue ignoring it.
Igor was a surprise. Not only had I never heard of the upcoming animated movie (starring John Cusack!) on which it is based, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. Why did I enjoy it so much?
Because it's Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. Like, exactly. And I love Puzzle Fighter. There is an added layer outside of the main puzzle game. Instead of fighting animations playing out automatically, each color fills a meter for a certain attack, which, when filled, you then tap to attack. I didn't even really know about this thing, and now I want it!
I don't know a thing about Tower Defense, so Ninjatown was scary and alien to me. But, unlike most strategy things, the world is so super-cute and appealing that it motivated me to try to play it. The game begins with an adorable cutscene in which the mayor, on his way to a good cower, entrusts Ol' Master Ninja to defeat the incoming minions of Mr. Demon.
Playing Ninjatown is like a sort of strategy Actraiser. You pick a square parcel of land and place the ninja group of your choice there; the building gets built, then ninjas of whatever kind come out and start working. Wee Ninjas beat up on enemies, Sniper Ninjas shoot peas, and Snow Ninjas freeze enemies with snowballs. You can also build training centers and other enrichment buildings nearby. The ninja fortifications can also be leveled up for more stamina and attack power. All of these use cookies, the official currency of Ninjatown, which are replenished by defeating enemies.
Mister Slime makes his DS debut this week, and in his honor, we've got a little follow-up to last month's gameplay preview. If you're looking forward to getting your goo on -- microphone-blowing notwithstanding -- then let DS Fanboy give you the lowdown on a few more techniques for success in the land of slime.
Big Bang Mini is one of those delightful-looking, under-the-radar games that people should be paying more attention to, so we're glad that SouthPeak will be showing it off this E3. Then again, we're shmupoholics, so we can't help but be seduced by this trippy, fireworked shooter. An honorable E3 mention also goes to Ninjatown, though, for its cute and clever ways of portraying the deadly assassins.
The other two DS games on SouthPeak's lineup are Brave: Shaman's Challenge and Igor the Game, neither of which we can muster up much enthusiasm for at the moment. Hopefully we'll end up pleasantly surprised, though -- at least by the former, as licensed-based games would probably have to make us breakfast, too, to incite a reaction.
What better way to celebrate the impending anniversary of the United States' Declaration of Independence than with less than thirty seconds of video footage of an upcoming DS game? That seems to be the idea behind the timely release of this Big Bang Mini trailer. It's a smart move to promote your fireworks-based game on the eve of one of the most colorfully explosive days of the year!
As it turns out, the game would look brilliant on any day of the year. This trailer cycles through completely dissonant visual styles, from retrogaming to winter to aquatic to a cityscape to ... a place of some kind with some flying clowns. If you haven't been paying attention to Big Bang Mini until now, we hope that all the explosions and flashy stuff got your attention!
With a colorful, exciting shoot-em-up like Space Invaders now on the market, would-be shmup developers really need to step their game up to catch our attention. Arkedo Studios (Nervous Brickdown) seems to have done just that with Big Bang Mini!
Due this fall, this touchscreen shooter features a fireworks mechanic that is just as vibrant as it is unique -- instead of firing bullets at incoming waves, players draw in fireworks, detonating and chaining the scrawled explosives to clear as many enemies as possible.
The enemy designs are just as creative -- marionette skeletons, walruses riding on flying carpets, and monkeys floating above a city skyline. See them all in our gallery of new Big Bang Mini images below!
Ol' Master Ninja has plenty of techniques at his disposal to help take care of the denizens of Ninjatown. This trailer illustrates some of the ninja magic that can be used in-game to augment the monster-killing abilities of Ninjatown's silent, cuddly assassins.
One special ability allows the player to refill ninjas' health by humming into the mic while they are on screen. Another gives Ol' Master Ninja a magnifying glass that can be directed onto enemies with the stylus. Ninjas aren't helpless on their own, of course: Forest Ninjas shoot barrages of arrows, and Business Ninjas can ... smack dudes in the head with cell phones.
We may not have LocoRoco or even World of Goo on the DS, but we do have a sludgy platforming hero of our own: Mister Slime. Little Slimy will be setting out in his self-titled platforming adventure next month, and we've got some exclusive gameplay tips for all future gamers looking to protect the gooey guy's home village from the invasion of evil Axons. Stretch out and get comfortable -- we've got all the info you'll need after the break!
We knew developer Venan Entertainment and Shawnimals creator Shawn Smith were intending to create an "action-strategy" title with Ninjatown, but, for some reason, it never occurred to us that what they meant was a ninja-themed Tower Defense game.
Reviewing IGN's gameplay clips and Joystiq's hands-on preview, it's obvious now how Ninjatown will play: During a brief building phase, you'll build ninja huts along a path which will produce varied ninja units. Enemies will start to charge down the path, and your newly created ninjas must try to stop them.
Managing and commanding the ninjas from a hot air balloon as Ol' Master Ninja, players can jump into the battle with special attacks, such as smacking enemies with the Ol' Master Ninja's cane and slowing them down by blowing into the DS's microphone.
Publisher SouthPeak expects to include 30+ scenarios total, encompassing five different gameworld areas, for Ninjatown's fall release. Though there's already at least one other Tower Defense commercial title due for the DS -- 5th Cell's Lock's Quest -- the cute character designs, playful approach, and use of the system's features could be enough to turn Ninjatown into something special.
IGN has posted impressions of SouthPeak's new puzzle adventure game, Brave: Shaman's Challenge, answering the question of exactly what kind of puzzle game it is. Basically, it's a variant of Columns and about a million other falling-block puzzle games: groups of two pieces fall, and the player rotates and slides the groups around to create lines of four or more pieces of the same color, which disappear when lined up.
As far as the adventure aspect of this puzzle adventure, IGN's Daemon Hatfield calls Brave "a linear adventure without all the RPG elements of Puzzle Quest." Combine that with awkward-sounding stylus controls and the game gets less and less interesting. But not so uninteresting that you don't want to watch the two videos posted after the break, right?
SouthPeak Interactive has released the first screenshots of their narrative puzzle game Brave: Shaman's Challenge. The puzzle game element seems to be of the "falling blocks" variety, though we can't exactly see how it works yet (it's not match-three -- Super Puzzle Fighter-esque, perhaps?)
While the main puzzle mechanics may not be strictly influenced by Puzzle Quest, we can't help but think that the very idea of marrying a puzzle game with a real storyline has something to do with Infinite Interactive's hit. It worked well enough for them that they're trying the same "existing puzzle gameplay + new story" tactic again in two new games, so maybe it'll work out in Brave's "Native America" (which may or may not be Oklahoma).
Aside from Mister Slime, Big Bang Mini, and Ninjatown, SouthPeak is working on yet another unreleased game called Brave: Shaman's Challenge. This particular title is a puzzle game with a Native American theme and setting -- in fact, it even takes place in a land called "Native America." Following a boy named Brave who is trying to protect what he holds dear, this puzzler is also meant to have a deep and complex storyline.
Unfortunately, with the announcement of the game SouthPeak didn't elaborate on what kind of gameplay Shaman's Challenge will entail, so it's hard to tell whether or not this title is something to look forward to. In any case, we'll keep our eye on this supposedly intricate game.
Studio Arkedo's Big Bang Mini is pure uncomplicated fun. It's a shmup with all the button tapping swapped out for frantic swiping on the touch screen. It's Pac-Pix's bow and arrow expanded into a whole game. Other elements are added as the game goes on, but the basic gameplay -- flinging projectiles at the top of the screen at top speed while dragging your little character around to avoid debris -- stays the same.
Come my ninja
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