We're delighted to present a new trailer for Mekensleep's gorgeous puzzle-adventure thing, Soul Bubbles. The short clip introduces the tiger mask, which gives the player a dash move that can split bubbles. As a bonus, it also gives you a psychotic, permanent grin.
One of three available animal masks, this ability adds just a bit of depth to what may be seen as a simplistic game design -- especially in combination with the ability to use bubbles to solve puzzles (by filling them with water, etc.) It's still intentionally simple, but the player does have multiple choices to make in order to get through each level.
You should put on your own tiger mask and dash into the gallery for a look at new screens. Bubbles is due out June 30 in the U.S.
We're still charmed by the simplicity of Soul Bubbles, especially after a few trailers that show the game in action popped up. As you can see, the premise is basic enough; you just have to navigate your bubble through various levels.
The trailers remind us a bit of LocoRoco, which is a good thing, as there really aren't enough games like Sony's colorful platformer. Still, it manages to retain its own personality with its clever puzzles, like when you have to fill bubbles with water to put out fires. (There's another video posted after the break, too, if you want to see more.)
What say you, fine readers? Does this look stunningly simple, or boringly basic?
The revival of adventure games on the DS is great news for gamers, but it can make things tough for developers like Austrian outfit Sproing, whose Undercover: Dual Motives will be competing with prestigious genre stablemates such as Ace Attorney, Hotel Dusk, and Professor Layton and the Curious Village. With the likes of Gyakuten Kenji, Jake Hunter, and more Layton on the horizon, the competition isn't about to get any easier.
In other words, we DS-owning adventure fans are a spoilt bunch, which means it takes something special to impress us. And, as hard as it tries, Undercover: Dual Motives isn't it.
Our usual Monday morning trek to our friendly local press site unearthed something that should ensure a pleasant start to the week for many of you: plentiful supplies of food, potions, and a dozen screens of Eidos' modern remake of Gauntlet, which was revealed over the weekend and will support a host of multiplayer modes, playable locally or over the intertubes (with voice chat, yaaaay).
A few of these screens already appeared at IGN, but most are new, and contain a reassuring number of ghoulies, treasure, and suspiciously well-prepared food. Have a mooch around our gallery to take them all in.
... and it's going to get it! February's speculation after Gauntlet appeared on the ESRB's website has become fact: Eidos and Backbone Entertainment are bringing the classic to the DS. But let's get the best news out of the way up front -- Gauntlet has always been known for awesome multiplayer action, and the DS will continue that tradition. Not only will you be able to throw down with your friends using local wireless, Gauntlet will also support multiplayer over WiFi. They've even thrown in voice chat to make adventuring easier (and potentially more fun). Of course, there's also a single player mode, for those times when you just can't wait for everyone to get together.
Gauntlet will come into rotation for Game Night be released in late June. Start hoarding funds (and food) now.
After a lengthy silence stretching back to last July, Sproing's Undercover: Dual Motives has finally reemerged with a dozen or so new screenshots.
If you had forgotten about this Eidos-published adventure -- and we can't blame you if you did -- then we should probably remind you that it's an adventure title set in England in 1943, and stars a pair of busybodies (researcher-turned-spy Dr. John Russell and his secretary Audrey) as they investigate a German nuclear threat. And yes, you read that right: it's a World War II game that doesn't involve one-man-army types mowing down screeching Nazis. That fact alone is enough to keep us interested.
There's also a twist on the usual adventure game formula, as players have to switch between the doctor and Audrey to solve puzzles (each character gets their own screen), some of which require both characters to lend a hand (a bit like Resident Evil 0, we daresay).
It's been available in German-speaking regions since last year, and we're still waiting on news of an English-language localization, but the fact that Eidos is suddenly distributing new screens gives us hope -- even if some are still in German.
Update: After chatting to the good folks at Eidos, we've learned that this will be getting a 2008 release. The "end of April/beginning of May" seems most likely, but that's not official just yet.
Eidos just blew a further ten screens of Soul Bubbles our way, and aside from Eric's interpretation of some, erm, questionable imagery, Mekensleep's game is looking charming, not to mention pleasingly devoid of "licensed racing cars, post-apocalyptic soldiers, gang fights, and elves, orcs, and magicians." Yay for that!
The accompanying press release also exposed more on Soul Bubbles' gameplay (which we have previously discussed), describing how players are able to draw, deflate, and cut bubbles, as well as join them to other bubbles. Some puzzles can only be negotiated by filling bubbles with water or gas, and there's a host of sticky or dangerous surfaces that will slow your bubbles down throughout the game's forty levels.
Back in July, we heard word of a Dr. Who game, but were given no information other then, "It is thought it will be available on PC, PS2, DS and Mobile." The game was also supposed to hit stores last year before Christmas, but obviously that didn't happen.
Now, details on the game are slightly more clear -- at least, we know for a fact that the game is in development for the PC, PS2, and DS (with no mention of a mobile version). Otherwise, Eidos is keeping pretty tight-lipped on the project for whatever reason, merely stating that the release date is "not too far away." Eidos did promise that more details would hit the press soon, though, so if you're actually interested in this game, just hang tight.
A mysterious rating has shown up on the ESRB's search page for a DS game called Gauntlet. Our first assumption is that this would be a continuation of the modern Gauntlet series from Midway, but the game is listed as being published by Eidos. Furthermore, the specifics of the rating (Alcohol Reference, and Fantasy Violence as opposed to the Cartoon, Animated, or just plain Violence described in the others) suggest that this is an original game.
Is it a remake of the arcade game, maybe? Whatever it is, as long as there's top-down arcade (fantasy) violence and the pressing need for food, we're interested. We just hope it's not some kind of Road Rules game.
Despite receiving favorable previews as a solid title, Operation: Vietnam's release last August went largely ignored by gamers. As a reward for your apathy, Amazon is further discounting the already budget title, knocking three dollars off its listing to bring the price down to $16.99. The least you can do to thank them is help empty out their inventory!
It's likely that you know next-to-nothing about the squad-based, top-down shooter, so we've embedded its trailer above for you to preview the bullet-filled action. As you can see in the clip, there are dozens of enemies just waiting around for you to buy the game and shoot them in the face.
We can no longer ignore the signs: classic cartoons are clearly the hottestthinggoing for DS developers and publishers lately, and Eidos has announced that they are jumping on the bandwagon. And by "jumping on," we mean "attempting to seriously dominate the new market," as they're planning ten -- yes, ten! -- different titles based on classic Hanna-Barbera 'toons like Yogi Bear, the Flintstones, and the Jetsons. Let's just hope that they all end up looking as good as WayForward's Duck Amuck appears to be.
Has anyone actually picked up a copy of Operation: Vietnam, Coyote Console's squad-based action title? Publisher Majesco shipped the title to stores last week with a budget price of $19.99, but all the reviews and impressions for it seem to have been lost in the jungle. Sending the game out on the same day as Rune Factory, Heroes of Mana, and Luminous Arc's release probably wasn't a good idea.
Though we weren't impressed with the screenshots we've seen, hearing previews describe Operation: Vietnam as a mix of Cannon Fodder and Metal Slug was enough to keep us at least a little bit interested. Majesco unceremoniously put out a trailer for the game a couple weeks ago, to little fanfare; you can check it out past the post break.
We were surprised to read that Prism: Light the Way collected an 8.5/10 score in the latest issue of Nintendo Power, mostly because prior to the review, we had never heard of the puzzle game. Prism tasks you with saving the Glowbos, a black-hole-inhabiting race of blobs. A space monster has absorbed the light that the Glowbos need to survive, and the Bulboids, creatures that shoot beams out of their mouths, are their only hope!
Directing these rays to the Glowbos can be a challenge, especially since some of them require a specific color of light. You'll have to use filter blocks, splitters, and mirrors to deliver the right beams to all of them. Prism features 120 unlimited-time puzzles, Timed and "Hyper" modes, and the option to play an infinite stream of randomly-generated stages. You'll also be able to compete against another player without needing a second copy of the game.
Prism: Light the Way hits the DS this September 4th in North America. There haven't been many screenshots or trailers put out for the handheld title yet, but we've embedded a gameplay video for the PC version past the post break.
The reviews were slow to come in on Touch the Dead -- which usually indicates a dud. From the scores, it looks like that cliché may really be a fair assessment of the title's merits. With a current metascore of 58%, Touch the Dead is less OMG-zombie scary and more scary like Grandma's lingerie.
Game Informer: 66% (average of two reviews) - "What you imagine to be headshot city is, in reality, the most challenging zombie game to come along in quite some time. As the zombies struggle to walk, their heads jerk about violently, making it an incredible test of skill ... this is a game that every zombie fanatic could love, but only the hardest of hardcore gamers can excel at." (Issue 170, p117)
Game Almighty: 45% - "The first thing you notice when the game starts is the awful graphics. Touch the Dead reinvents what it means to have jaggies. Everything is pixilated and bland and the closer the zombies come, the worse it gets. Ironic, because the bad graphics actually inspire you to kill the creatures when they're as far away as possible, lest you think your DS has a broken graphics chip."
GameSpot: 55% - "Every time you empty a clip, you have to manually reload by dragging the stylus from the ammo icon on the lower right-hand part of the screen to the clip icon on the lower left-hand part of the screen. While it certainly injects a little tension into the game, you quickly get to the point where you have to reload your clip after every zombie you take down, so you actually end up spending more time reloading your weapon than you do shooting zombies. It feels unnatural and can be difficult to consistently reload fast enough when you have a swarm of zombies bearing down on you."
We've been on edge ever since Eidos announced its plans to publish Nervous Brickdown, Arkedo Studios' modernization of the Breakout genre. Much like how Tetris DS made block dropping seem fresh again, this high-strung title breathes new life into the break-a-brick formula with creative modes and a style overhaul.
IGN has a hands-on preview and some new videos of Nervous Brickdown's gameplay variations, and they're totally stressing us out for reals. In one of the game's ten distinct modes, you guide a paddle and ball through scrolling shmup stages -- making it a paddle-em-up, maybe? Drifting ghosts haunt the stages, hindering your progress, so you'll have to blow into the DS' mic to push them away. Another theme challenges you to manage a platformer on one screen while simultaneously playing Breakout on the other.
Just talking about it is enough to make our stomachs all queasy.
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