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Sim City 2 hides unlockable maps

Posted Apr 11th 2008 2:15PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News, Screens


Over at Game Watch, they have an interesting look at a neat feature in Sim City 2 for the DS. They're showing off several different types of the buildings available for you to plunk down in your virtual city, as one might imagine there being in a game where you erect cities, but what's interesting here is the unlockable maps.

Now, machine translation hasn't given us a 100% clear picture on how to unlock these maps (or how many there are, for that matter) and what is needed to essentially "clear" them, but we do know it's a password-based system that will unlock them and that, much like the scenarios in the Sim City of old, you'll start these bonus maps at a certain period in the city's development.

Click on through to check out some screens from the unlockable maps.

Gallery: Sim City 2 DS

Skate to bust ollies on the DS?

Posted Apr 3rd 2008 3:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Rumors

Earlier today, IGN put up a post detailing that EA Black Box's (see what a little knowledge gets you?) Skate game was on its way to the Wii and DS, under the title Skate It. Of course, the page has now since been pulled and the link simply leads to a 404.

Would EA bring the franchise to the Wii and DS? It would make sense to tap those markets and get Wii and DS owners into an arguably already casual game. Not to mention that the only skating game available on the Wii isn't too great and the DS could always use another good skateboarding game.

So is this likely to happen? Well, we'll just have to wait and find out. If it's an April Fools' Day joke, IGN is really late to the party.

[Via PALGN]

EA announces Zubo for the DS

Posted Mar 28th 2008 12:45PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News


EA has a new DS game lined up and it's called Zubo. While it sounds like some kind of long-lost martial art, Zubo is, in fact, a rhythm-based game aimed at "teh kiddiez." Geared toward boys and girls age 7 through 11, EA's Casual Entertainment Label is hoping they have a winner on their hands here. Zubo is currently set to ship this fall.

In the game, the player aids the fine inhabitants of Zubalon against the evil Zombos. There's also more to the title than just that, as players will also be charged with recruiting, feeding and overall training their Zubos before sending them into musically-driven battles. Sounds like fun!

[Via Joystiq]

Sim City 2 almost as cute as My Sims

Posted Mar 19th 2008 8:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: News, Screens, Imports


The characters in Sim City 2 (which released today in Japan) may act like robots, but they sure look adorable -- check out our gallery if you don't believe us. They also seem to have hooves for feet, which we don't understand. Would it have been that hard to give them real feet? Yet, we can totally support a game that gives cavemen glasses and distinguished looking facial hair.

The characters and the Sim City name aren't the only appealing things about Sim City 2, though. The game lets you start in ancient times (hence the caveman) and progress to the modern era. Certainly not a novel idea for a civilization sim, but one we enjoy nonetheless.

Unfortunately, this game is virtually unplayable for folks who don't read Japanese. Sim City fans, let's hope it gets localized -- and, while we're at it, let's also hope that this game is better than the first Sim City DS.

Gallery: Sim City 2 DS

Promotional Consideration: City planning

Posted Mar 16th 2008 4:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Promotional Consideration



Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.

We applaud any video game ad that eschews the common official-art-and-screenshots approach, a template that's been in place for as long as we can remember. This week's piece abandons those conventions, marketing EA's SimCity DS port and its city-management features in a much more creative fashion. Expand you commercial zoning, lower industrial taxes, and join us past the break!

Continue reading Promotional Consideration: City planning

Sim City 2 constructs Japanese release date, new screens

Posted Mar 5th 2008 2:15PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News, Screens

Town-planning enthusiasts who are also adept at reading kanji rejoice! EA just declared that Sim City 2 DS will be layin' pipes and buildin' roads in Japan on March 19th.

Don't get too excited, though. One look at any screens of Maxis' build-me-do should let you know that this is not most people's idea of an import-friendly title. There are lashings of Japanese text, and if the user interface is anywhere near as confusing as the one found in the first Sim City DS (which we struggled to understand in English), we may as well just give up now and wait for news of a western release.

Go past the break for a sprinkling of new screens.

Gallery: Sim City 2 DS

Continue reading Sim City 2 constructs Japanese release date, new screens

GDC08: More like Cubispore

Posted Feb 21st 2008 8:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News

Nintendo had a playable demo of Spore Creatures at their booth, and I availed myself of the (scaled-down) miracle of (simulated) life. I don't know about the scope of the full game, having played for just a few minutes, but the initial stage of the game was easy to understand.

Starting out as a small creature with just a pair of eyes and a little worm-like body, the game paired me with an identical friend. This friend walked me over to a "nest" where I could add a part -- in this case, a mouth. You use mouths to eat things! Different parts give different attributes -- how much can be eaten, what type of food the creature prefers, and such. In addition, they add to your social ability. I chose one based on the unofficial "looking hilarious" attribute.

After this I was shown how to make friends. To engage another creature, you call out to it and then sort of pet it with the stylus (really). If you're social enough, they'll be your friend and can be asked to dance (in a Samba-esque minigame) and even follow you. After this, I was led into combat, which involves clicking on a "fight" icon and then scratching away at the creature.

Really, more than anything, Spore Creatures reminds me of an expanded Cubivore, with friends instead of just enemies, and expanded combat based on more than just eating. This is a good thing.

Gallery: Spore Creatures

GDC08: Now for some Monkey Business

Posted Feb 20th 2008 1:30PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News, Video


As you already know, we're in love with wacky 2D platformers, the crazier the better. You need only look to our romantic exchanges with Barnyard Blast, Sanuk Software's low-budget Castlevania spoof, for evidence of our forbidden flirtations.

At an IGS session yesterday, EA Tiburon's Kyle Gray demonstrated a new DS game, tentatively titled Monkey Business, currently in development and after our own heart. The colorful game's hero, a British explorer named Hatsby, could be seen battling an opera-singing boss and a robotic construct of Big Ben.

The combo system seems reminiscent of The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night, and there's some unclarified puzzle mechanic played out on the touchscreen -- what's there not to love? We were surprised to hear that EA greenlit the project, even if only for its EA Casual Games division, but Kyle explained, "It's this weird new face of EA ... They're actually looking to do new things, now."

Swing past the post break for more videos from the Flash prototype of this very interesting platformer.

Continue reading GDC08: Now for some Monkey Business

Spore Creatures producer Jason Haber talks up the game

Posted Feb 19th 2008 5:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News

To say that Spore Creatures is a radical departure from the PC game is an incredible understatement. But, we're not complaining, because hardware limitations on the DS are a lot harder to work with than say, oh ... a PC. But that doesn't mean all hope for the game is lost, as producer Jason Haber says Spore Creatures will be worth your time.

One of the things that has been most criticized about Spore Creatures is its look. Haber describes the inspiration for the look of the game as being from "the look and feel of flat Japanese rod puppets and shadow box art, and how their creators would customize scenes to bring them to life." He goes on further, adding that this "was something that we wanted our players to be able to do on the DS, allowing the game to feel completely unique while supporting an intuitive and open editing system."

Haber also hinted a bit in regards to DS-to-Wii functionality, responding to the question with "for Wii features and connectivity, we have not announced anything in particular, but that is the future and who can really predict the future?" The remainder of the interview is pretty interesting, so be sure to give it a read.

Gallery: Spore Creatures

Watching Sim City isn't as fun as playing it

Posted Feb 18th 2008 3:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Video

There's something compelling about Sim City games, even though it's hard to capture exactly what that is in a trailer. You can see that evidenced in this video for Sim City 2 DS, which borders between dull and downright creepy. The trailer just fails to capture the magic of Sim City, making us think that the game has to be better than this video makes it look.

Or, maybe we're just being too harsh. Maybe those slow-blinking characters that talk in robot voices don't creep you out. Either way, the gameplay seems deeper in this title than in the DS's first foray into Sim City, and we'll be keeping a close eye on the game as more information comes forth. As of now, it's only planned for a Japanese release in March.

DS Daily: Spore, Spore, Spore (How Do You Like It)

Posted Feb 15th 2008 9:00AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: DS Daily

EA recently revealed the design for the DS Spore game, Spore Creatures. To be blunt, it's ... not the whole Spore. Instead of shrinking the whole game down for the DS format, Maxis decided to make a different, smaller-scale game about the life and adventures of one evolving critter. We kind of assume they know what they're doing (they're Maxis), and we know that Will Wright is a fan of the DS, so we have reason to believe that this is a good decision.

But we aren't sure. Are we getting screwed over by a half-assed Spore, or has Maxis made the right decision by designing a more portable-friendly game? Obviously we haven't all played it, but we're sure you have some kind of feelings already.

Gallery: Spore Creatures

Europe to get Spore two days early

Posted Feb 13th 2008 6:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: News

According to Maxis's Patrick Buechner, "Europe is the priority for Spore." After years of being shafted and having to wait while American and Japanese gamers get titles first, how does that make all of you in Euroland feel?

Of course, it helps that there's a ton of PC gamers in Europe. Fortunately, for those of you planning to get the DS version known as Spore Creatures, the games are set to release on both platforms (and Macs) simultaneously.

The goal for the European release is September 5th, which happens to be two days before the American one. Buechner also says that these dates are very makeable, so gamers shouldn't expect delays. We can't help but be a little bit skeptical on that issue, but we're willing to believe him for now.

Gallery: Spore Creatures

Plenty of MySims to go around: two new titles announced

Posted Feb 13th 2008 3:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News


Apparently EA's strategy of releasing games with the word "Sims" in the title is paying off. Citing the success of the MySims games on DS and Wii -- to the tune of $100 million in revenue and 3 million copies -- EA Casual's Kathy Vrabeck revealed two more games in the spinoff franchise to be released on Nintendo systems.

No details have been released for either game except the titles (MySims Kingdom and MySims Party) and release schedules. Kingdoms is planned for an October-December release, while Party is scheduled for early 2009. We're pretty sure we can guess what MySims Party is, but Kingdoms? We're hoping for a medieval-themed MySims. Wouldn't it be awesome to design your own cute lil' king and then outfit his castle with tapestries? Yes, it would.

[Via Joystiq]

Joystiq gets their hands dirty with Spore Creatures

Posted Feb 13th 2008 12:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News

For many of you, yesterday's news meant that life would have to take a break on September 7th of this year. Friends will be lost and your job will likely alter to one of playing God instead of filing paperwork like you currently do. Yup, it should be a very good year.

That is, until we read up on Joystiq's impressions with the DS version of Will Wright's game. First of all, it's being developed by Foundation 9 and not Maxis. Although Maxis did say they're handling "design" internally, we're not all too pleased to know that another developer is making this game and it won't be under the scrutinizing eye of Will Wright day and night.

Second, this game is going to be very different from Spore on the PC. In Spore Creatures, you're abducted by aliens, along with a pal of yours, and you must go on a long quest to save your friend. You'll make other friends, evolve and fight to survive. But, the focus is clearly on collecting items and maintaining one creature, rather than all of the awesome stuff one can do in the PC game.

That isn't to say that Spore: Creatures is a completely lost cause. The game will allow players to trade creatures over Wi-Fi Connect, so we're glad to see that. Also, the creature creation system sounds robust, from what Joystiq found. And, also the game will benefit from a good stylus-driven control scheme.

Gallery: Spore Creatures

Spore gets dated for September as DS details emerge

Posted Feb 12th 2008 4:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: News

Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit. It seems that Spore has finally been given a release date (or at least, the DS, PC, Mac, and mobile phone versions were). The much anticipated game will be gracing our favorite dual-screened portable on September 7th. Yes, that's quite a long way away, but it's better than the "possibly 2009, but who really knows?" window we had before.

We're wondering, though -- how many of you potential Spore buyers plan to get Will Wright's game for the DS? While there's been a lot of hype for the game, it's usually not on the handheld front. The lack of excitement might be slightly justified, however. Obviously, the DS and mobile phone games are going to suffer some cutbacks when compared to their computer counterparts.

According to a Newsweek interview with Lucy Bradshaw, the vice president of Maxis and executive producer of Spore, the DS version will be called Spore Creatures and will focus mainly on creature creation. The title will also have a different, Japanese-based art style, and features "unique abilities" for the creatures in the game. The Wi-Fi will be similar to that of the PC and Mac titles, however, and allow players to trade or share their creations with friends.

While the game might not be as deep as the computer ones, it still appears to be pretty epic, so having the option to carry it around at all times might be a good thing.

Hey, and it beats getting the mobile phone version, amirite?

[Via Joystiq]

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