Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is supposed to be playable at Square Enix's acronym-tastic event this weekend in Tokyo, so it's no surprise that the company has confirmed that the DS title is still on track for release this year. If you want anything more specific than "winter," though, you'll have to wait; nothing else has yet been announced. We're keeping our fingers crossed for several sets of impressions from DKΣ3713.
Posts with tag disney
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days dated (sort of)
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is supposed to be playable at Square Enix's acronym-tastic event this weekend in Tokyo, so it's no surprise that the company has confirmed that the DS title is still on track for release this year. If you want anything more specific than "winter," though, you'll have to wait; nothing else has yet been announced. We're keeping our fingers crossed for several sets of impressions from DKΣ3713.
DS Download Service updates with old demos
E308: Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals (insert cake joke here)
Even though this trailer doesn't differentiate itself much from some previous ones we've seen, the message is clear -- Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals looks cool. Yep we said it: a Disney game looks cool. Got a problem with that?
Even furthering our attraction to the game is its look. Appealing to the shallow graphics whores within us, both the 3D battles and the cut scene animations managed to please our hungry eyes. We never got around to playing the first title in the series, but we may just find ourselves giving its sequel a look in the near future. On the other hand, we could do without the cheesy story about death vortexes and the "our only hope is the Spectrobes!" bits. Oh well, you can't win them all.
Check out new screens from Spectrobes
Game Watch uploaded a bunch of new screens from Disney's upcoming sequel, Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals. For those of you who either skipped the first game or find yourself just now getting interested in the whole thing, there's a short synopsis on the game's story, as well as a crash course on what it is you do in the game (see: collect creatures). So, head on over and check out the new screens.Spectrobes get into a rumble in new screens
While the adventuring portions of Spectrobes: Beyond the Portal may not stray far beyond the first game, the battle mode extends out into the (carefully moderated) world. The addition of an online battle mode is an exciting enough change, we think, for anyone interested in Spectrobes battles in the first place.The new screens show off some decently impressive 3D monster battles, with no Rallen in sight. Perhaps the Spectrobes have realized that they know how to fight and don't need some kid chaperoning them all the time. In any case, it looks like the new battle mode may differ from the normal offline battles.
[Via press release]
DS Fanboy Review: Disney Friends
No, this one isn't new, and it's probably not the kind of game most of you are looking for when you browse the racks, but if there are young gamers (or Disney freaks) in your life, Disney Friends is worth a second look. It's one of those games that's mystifying in its invisibility, the sort of thing that should be advertised until we desperately hunt down the remote just so we don't have to see that damned commercial again. Instead, it slipped by with nary a wave in the pool of DS games, and that's just criminal.If you know a younger gamer who loved Nintendogs (or one of these people), this may be a surefire recommendation. Surprisingly, it's that good. But that seems to be par for the course when it comes to developer Amaze Entertainment -- who also worked on the GBA's incredible Spyro title last year. They take old franchises and licenses that no one seems to care about, and sometimes put out gems no one notices. Not all the time ... but when they're good, they're great. And for what it is, Disney Friends is pretty great.
Gallery: Disney Friends
Rumor: Marketing website reveals new licensed games
After Xbox 360 Fanboy found some unreleased information on marketing firm Intellisponse's website, NeoGAFfers quickly figured out how to access more of their info (because it was a very simple process). As a result, Xbox 360 fans had a sort of impromptu E3 of rumors, videos, and news.The DS fallout from the release of Activision and Disney survey materials isn't quite as explosive, but it has enabled us to learn a bit about some planned or proposed new games from the companies. Unfortunately, the newly-"announced" DS games consist solely of licenses, from the expected (Transformers 2) to the sadly kind-of expected (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition) to ... what? (Gossip Girl). We've posted the full text about each game from the now-defunct site after the break.
Continue reading Rumor: Marketing website reveals new licensed games
DS Fanboy Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
If you happen to know what (or who) a Pevensie is, you've probably either dabbled in the readings of C.S. Lewis or watched the blockbuster Narnia fims. You should be familiar with the formula by now, though: with a big movie comes a video game. The existence of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian for the DS and other platforms is to be expected.
Those of you who fell in love with C.S. Lewis's magical world probably want to experience it in any way possible. Of course, you also want to have fun while doing so. With games like these, fun is never guaranteed, and as I made my way through Prince Caspian, I clung onto that careful caveat.
Those of you who fell in love with C.S. Lewis's magical world probably want to experience it in any way possible. Of course, you also want to have fun while doing so. With games like these, fun is never guaranteed, and as I made my way through Prince Caspian, I clung onto that careful caveat.
Continue reading DS Fanboy Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
New Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals trailer shows us villain, portals
With the new demos and videos available on the Nintendo Channel, we figured we'd nab this one for you all to see (without having to turn your Wii on, if you have one).
When we heard about Disney's sequel to the first Spectrobes title, Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals, we were interested in what innovations the game would bring. Of course, that "innovation" turned into only more of what the first game presented, as the game adopted the model of providing fans of the first game with more and more of what that title offered. Likely, it'll work, because in these kind of games, folks are usually looking for just that.
Anywho, check out the new trailer above. It not only shows off the new bad guy you're supposed to hate, but also a good deal of CG. So, what do you all think?
Disney Fairies will please little girls this winter
Disney announced today that a game called Disney Fairies will be heading to the Nintendo DS this holiday season. Apparently, Disney Fairies is an entire franchise, spanning books, online minigames, movies, and maybe even other forms of media, too.The DS game will let young girls (we hate to generalize, but come on) dress and accessorize Tinker Bell, as well as barter for more clothes from other fairies. (After all, why not let Tinks wear something other than a leaf dress?) Other activities will include minigames, of course, and completing tasks for the fairies of Pixie Hollow. Disney Fairies will also make use of Disney's new DGamer service, which launched last week.
Confession: If this game had come out when this blogger was a wee lass -- oh, never mind, there's no sense in shaming the DS Fanboy staff and girl gamers all over the world. (Oops, too late.)
[Via Kotaku]
A glimpse into developing Prince Caspian
In the videos, you'll find some commentary, interview snippets and peeks at the development process. For those of you that find that sort of thing infinitely interesting, get to clicking!
Source - Making of Prince Caspian part 1
Source - Making of Prince Caspian part 2
New DS demos are the old DS demos
For those of you with a bad memory (or no desire to click links), the list of demos available has been placed past the break.
Disney's DGamer service launches today
With the release of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian comes a Disney innovation that we've been curious about: the DGamer service. While we'll reserve our own opinions until we get to try it out (read: soon), it's pretty evident that such a feature is aimed at the younger crowd.If you get Prince Caspian, you can connect to the community on your DS (via Wi-Fi). First, though, you'll have to register for an account at the DGamer website. One feature of the DGamer community is the ability to make an avatar, although (to reiterate) you probably won't enjoy the options unless you're a tween-aged girl or boy. You can also chat with friends, check out leaderboards, and earn
If you ask us, though, the parental controls are a little silly. They use an honor system of sorts, which asks you to type in your parent's email address, but I just typed in my own -- what's to stop a young'in from doing the same? Besides, just think of all the crazy DGamer shenanigans I'll get into now.
[Via press release]
Inspect these Spectrobes screens
Even if our internet petition to get Bokura wa Kaseki Horidaa localized doesn't end up working (current number of signatories: four), our urge to excavate stuff and then send our discoveries into bloody battle can still be fulfilled, thanks to Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals.The sequel to the million-selling Spectrobes is out later this year, and Disney fired new screens our way earlier today (none of which feature the DGamer service, sadly) -- head to our new Beyond the Portals gallery to check them out. It all looks eerily similar to the first game, though if Brain Training taught us anything, it's that you don't mess around with million-selling formulas.
[Via press release]
Disney's DGamer service: moderated chat, embarrassing avatars
Disney has released some screens of their DGamer service, a social network integrated with the company's upcoming DS games that allows avatar creation and chat. There's a lot to like about the service, in general: it provides a platform-wide (or, at least, common to Disney's games) interface for connecting with online friends, and avatars and accounts are usable on both PC and DS. Chat is moderated by Disney employees on the lookout for potential security problems. It also includes "Honors" for each supported game, which are similar to Xbox Live's Achievements. You'll be able to see how much time someone has put into Prince Caspian, and then ask them why they're playing so much Prince Caspian! That's the first game to support DGamer, but Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals will as well.The downside is that you have to represent yourself as something like the avatar pictured. Do you want to connect with your friends if that's how you'll be doing it? Maybe it's a security feature -- kids won't want to talk to strangers looking like that. Oh, and also it's got its own version of friend codes.
