Posts with tag wayforward
Posted Aug 4th 2007 5:10PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News
We've reached the point where every single
Contra 4 news piece that comes in has us gripping the arms of our chairs, afraid that we'll fall from the dizzying heights of ecstasy that we've just been sent to. The experience is both exhilarating and
terrifying.
Even this image of
Contra 4's control setup, taken at one of
Comic-Con's demo stations last week, gave us cause to throw our office windows open, yelling out our excitement to the pedestrians below. Press B to jump! Press Y to fire! Press L to switch weapons! How great life is!
Posted Jul 27th 2007 2:50PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: News
Greg Miller of IGN got a little extra facetime with our beloved
Contra 4 at Comic-Con ... which was probably not a good idea, because
Contra is all about
face-beatings. While it seems the controls are smooth and easy to pick up, all other forms of ease end the moment you step into the big blue man pants. This is hostile territory, and everyone wants a slice of
your ass. Just thinking about it makes us cry with joy. We do so love a good beating!
But did Miller enjoy the game? It seems so, though he spends most of his preview writhing in pain over the punishing brutality of
Contra 4. If you ask us, that just means everything is as it should be, and we continue our
campaign of
impatience as we wait for this one to hit shelves.
Posted Jul 23rd 2007 10:40AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Video
All we need to be happy with our job right now is a short
Contra 4 video every day, so that we can watch it and think "YES CONTRA 4 OH DUDE YES," and then share it with you in a similar manner. We've been happy to see more and more
Contra 4 videos and impressions posts come up after E3, now that the writers have had time to wake up from their awesomeness-induced comas.
GamesRadar's Charlie Barratt is the latest to give us the gift of
Contra in motion, with a video that starts with the wall boss we've already seen, but then moves on to a waterfall set piece that's new to us. The animation, the graphics, the levels, and, of course,
the music-- it's all perfect. It all looks like a real
Contra game. Looks like
Contra 4 is going to continue the series' tradition of blistering our planet with its
LMDs.
Posted Jul 18th 2007 5:30PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
However
Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck ends up, we'll be confident in saying that the art and animation are technically spectacular. Some of the scenes from the Chuck Jones-directed original short have been redrawn directly, allowing comparisons between the game and the real thing. Have you
ever seen a DS game that looks so close to its source material?
Before you say "oh, it's just Flash," keep in mind that someone had to draw every frame of animation in this clip, no matter what program was used. And that real 2D animation of any kind is becoming scarce these days. Are we hyping a licensed minigame collection now? What a fresh feeling!
Posted Jul 17th 2007 1:40PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Screens
Duck Amuck is the best concept for a
minigame collection we've ever seen. It may also be the best concept for a licensed game we've ever seen. It's based on the classic 1951
Merrie Melodie, in which a malevolent animator (later revealed to be--SPOILER-- Bugs Bunny) jerks Daffy Duck around as the cartoon plays. Locations are changed, Daffy is frequently erased and redrawn, and his attempts to regain control of the cartoon are met with punishment.
The concept of "Daffy Duck being dropped into hilariously unfortunate circumstances at the hands of an animator" translates into a DS game well, since gamers are used to manipulating onscreen characters. DS gamers, in particular, are used to doing so with a pen.
We watched the trailers and looked at the screenshots, expecting to have our enthusiasm thoroughly dampened. But the screens actually look good, and the trailers are well-animated and
funny. What? Humor? In our video games?
Even though we're pretty sure it's all concept art and not real gameplay footage, we're already impressed. We're also inclined to support WayForward, our new favorite DS developer (pending playtime with
Contra 4.)
[Update: A producer at Warner Bros. Games wrote in to confirm that all of the footage is in-game, done with Flash!]
[Via NeoGAF]
Posted Jul 12th 2007 2:50PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Video
If your
face hasn't been sufficiently rocked by the DS showings at
E3, then we suggest watching this video of the first boss battle in
Contra 4. Even if you feel like you've been rocked enough, you should go ahead and watch it, and allow Virt's brilliant cover of the Stage 1 music to rock your face
clean off.
No
brains are being
trained here, people. Unless you count the brains of
alien soldiers, which are being trained to
blow up. We know it's early to declare a winner of E3, and we also know that E3 is not technically a competition. Even so,
Contra 4 wins.
Continue reading E307: Contra 4 video wins E3
Posted Jul 2nd 2007 11:30AM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Fan stuff
We gasped when we unfolded the poster included with this month's issue of
Nintendo Power. JC, reading over my shoulder to see if there were any updates on
Barnyard Blast, fainted at the sight of its retro design.
Lance and Bill look just as badass as ever, but who are those other two characters firing away in the background? According to
NP's preview, they've inherited Mad Dog and Scorpion's code names; we're of the opinion that they look like Bill Bellamy and that dude from
Prison Break. Which dude from
Prison Break, you ask? All of them.
Don't let their identities or the fact that the top-left guy isn't even paying attention to whatever he's shooting at get in the way of enjoying this fantastic work of art. Tie on a headband, throw your shirt aside, and head past the post break for more shots of the
Contra 4 centerfold.
Continue reading Nintendo Power poster: Contra 4 porn
Posted Jun 30th 2007 10:00AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: DS Daily
Contra 4 looks awesome. That was almost the entirety of today's daily topic, although we were considering making it a question just to fit the format. One thing (other than the apparent awesomeness) sticks out as a topic of
discussion: can WayForward deliver a true, series-defining experience? We sure hope so. They've got some big shoes to fill, since they're trying to follow up
Contra III; and, as history has already taught us,
Contra III is awesome.
Posted Jun 29th 2007 5:30PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Video
Don't just walk -- run, flip, and shoot your way past the post break for the first
Contra 4 video footage to hit the interbutts.
The 1UP Show interspersed clips of the
WayForward-developed title in this week's episode, supplementing the 1UP staff's
hands-on impressions with scenes from
Contra 4's various levels, throwing a boss fight in there for good measure.
Our thoughts on the game so far, especially considering
Virt's involvement with its music and sound design, echo Jeremy Parish's: "It's like they said, "Let's make the best fan game ever,' and
Konami said, 'That's so good, we want to make it a real game.'"
Continue reading Contra 4 video even awesomer than our article image
Posted Jun 29th 2007 2:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
We're going to cut out the introductions and get straight to it:
oh man, Contra 4 looks awesome. It's fully 2D,
just like we hoped. It's designed as a direct sequel gameplay-wise to the excellent
Contra III: producer Tomm Hulett said "Anyone who's played
Contra III on Virtual Console recently should be able to jump right into
Contra 4 and feel right at home." New features include the ability to hold two weapons and toggle between them, weapon upgrading (two of the same weapon result in a powered-up version), wireless two-player, and a grappling hook.
WayForward is taking inspiration from
New Super Mario Bros. for
Contra 4, in the best way. They're returning to what was great about the series, and designing a new game based on that.
Can you believe that two guys who are supposed to be great commandos
keep forgetting their shirts when they go on these missions? Check the screens and see how many enemy soldiers forgot their shirts. Preview:
none.
Posted Jun 28th 2007 11:45AM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News
We've been in love with Jake "Virt" Kaufman's video game soundtracks (e.g.
Shantae,
Godzilla: Domination,
Scurge: Hive) and micromusic remixes for years now, so it pleased us to no end to hear that he would be working with
WayForward on
Contra 4's themes. Not familiar with his discography? Here are three of our favorite Virt arrangements and chiptune covers that we grabbed from his site:
- Contra - "Contravirt" (6.0 MB MP3)
- Castlevania II - "What a Horrible Night" (2.0 MB MP3)
- Michael Jackson - "Thriller (VRC6 Cover)" (4.1 MB MP3)
How did the
Konami fanboy react when he was initially approached with handling
Contra 4's music and sound design? "After I got off the phone with the dude I couldn't stop pacing back and forth for like 10 hours. I was afraid I would suddenly grow tentacles and then question reality and then wake up in my bed and it was all a dream ... Alas, my tentacles are REAL."
Posted Jun 20th 2007 12:30PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
Konami made an announcement today that had
better excite you:
Contra 4 coming to the DS! The sidescrolling action game will be a direct sequel to
Contra III: The Alien Wars and will pit Bill Rizer and Lance Bean (and, confusingly,
new characters named Mad Dog and Scorpion, which were the names used for Bill and Lance in the American release of
Contra) against the alien Black Viper across two screens of action. And to traverse those new heights, they'll have a grappling hook item.
The press release refers to the game as a 2D sidescroller, but we don't know if they're referring only to perspective or to graphics as well. We're hoping for a fully 2D game. There's actually a good chance of it, too. Developer WayForward Technologies is known for sidescrollers like
Shantae and
Sigma Star Saga, both of which use hand-drawn sprites. Also we must mention
Ping Pals, but we hope that has no bearing on
Contra.
[Via press release]
Continue reading Konami announces Contra 4
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We're taking that whole walking in a straight line and jumping on everything to heart, because, y'know, we're linear like that. We also like our destruction with a heavy dose of bouncing around. And also, guns.
