Halfbrick Studios have announced their latest PSP Minis title - Age Of Zombies! a twin-stick shooter following the travels of Barry Steakfries as he travels through time to stop the evil Professor Brains from sending through his Zombie hordes and destroying the world as we know it!

What makes this game different from all those other games? Well outside of the cool premise and the elaborate scoring system... I worked on it. This is my first game as a designated Level Designer at Halfbrick Studios! Do you want to set more than 100 Zombies on fire at once? This game will itch that scratch. Blowing stuff up is very much a part of the Age Of Zombies experience.

The game should pop up sometime near the end of the month and retail for $4.99USD - and will be appearing in all territories. Time to shoot things in the face with guns!

Posted by Ryan Langley at 4:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Since we didn't get much of a chance to look at Master Blaster before its release, I thought I'd just post the trailer separately.

Certainly looks like Blaster Master with a few bits here and there. As more of a Sega guy back in my day I never got a chance to play the original, but I might have to give this new version a go.

Posted by Ryan Langley at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A big week for Xbox Live Arcade this week - Darwinia+ is finally out this Wednesday for 1200MSP - Includes the original Darwinia and the Multiwinia expansion. Check out the video above for the Giant Bomb quick look.

Also this week is a doozy of a deal - 3 games have gone down in price for Xbox Live Gold members. Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is available for 800MSP (was 1200), TMNT Reshelled is 400 (was 800), and Invincible Tiger is 800 (was 1200).

Posted by Ryan Langley at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fantastic week for WiiWare and DSiWare this week - a huge amount of quality content is here for the taking.

WiiWare has four new titles, headlined by Blaster Master Overdrive, a new title in the classic NES franchise that was announced... well, Saturday. Sure would have loved to have known about it, but Japan seems to love these "surprise" releases. Grab that for 1,000 Points.

Also this week is Konami's crazy Japanese sidescrolling dancing simulator Tomena Sanner for 500 Points, Hands-On Mobile's Bloons, which was previously released on PSP and iPhone and will also be making its way to DSiWare , is available for another 500 Points, and finally Hubert The Teddy Bear Winter Games for another 500.

DSiWare also gets another 5 games - Link 'n' Launch - a game by Intelligent Systems which has a mixture of Pipe Mania and Space. Subatomic Studios' Fieldrunners makes its Nintendo debut for another 500 Points, Oscar in Movieland, sequel to Oscar In Toyland on DSiWare and remake of an Amiga title for 800 Points.

On the other, weirder side of DSiWare we get Sudoku 4Pockets, the eleventy billionth Sudoku title for DSiWare for 500 Points, and Extreme Hangman for 200 Points.

And finally, Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom for Virtual Console. 500 Bones.

Posted by Ryan Langley at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Every week we round up the top news and interviews of the last week from console digital download site GamerBytes, featuring new information about Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, WiiWare, DSiWare and PSN Minis.]

What a week, eh? A new Sonic The Hedgehog is coming to all platforms, and it looks like it could be good! I was a huge fan of Sonic as a kid. Not so much now, but I really do hope they can pull through with this one.

A whole lot of games came out this week too - Chime, Fret Nice and Telltale's latest Monkey Island for everybody, while Final Fantasy VIII and ExciteBike: World Challenge finally came out in Europe.

We also had our final Developer Reflections article with PlayStation Network developer Creat Studio - they've got a lot more on the cooker this year, so keep a look out for them. Here's the highlights from the last week:

Store Updates

XBLA Update - Chime, Cheap Splosion Man, And 0 Day, Buku Sudoku, And 0D Beat Drop DLC
NA PSN Store Update - Fret Nice
EU PSN Store Update - Final Fantasy VIII, Minis Month
NA Nintendo Update - Legends Of Exidia, Golf Express, Monkey Island Chapter 5, Alex Kidd In Shinobi World And More
EU Nintendo Update - Excitebike: World Challenge, Snakenoid And More

GamerBytes Originals

Developer Reflections 2009: Creat Studios (Part 2)

Developer Reflections 2009: Creat Studios (Part 3)

Game Room Ratings Follow-Up - Regarding ESRB Ratings

Continue reading "Best Of GamerBytes: Got Places To Go, Gotta Follow My Rainbow!" »

Posted by Ryan Langley at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One new title this week - Pieces Interactive's Fret Nice is now available for $14.99 on the PlayStation Store - along with a demo too. You can also check out a demo of Gameloft's Tank Battles. Madden NFL Arcade is also $5 off for this week.

Outside of that, nothing else. No minis despite Europe having a minis month. Where are those games?

Posted by Ryan Langley at 2:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In our latest employment-specific round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Black Rock Studio, Blizzard and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

Black Rock Studio: Lead Vehicle Artist
"When a company the size of Disney steps into European development, it's pretty big news. Disney employs over 100,000 staff. It’s one of the biggest Entertainment companies in the world and it's getting serious about original games. We're a strong studio of just over a hundred people, based at the heart of beautiful and cosmopolitan Brighton, UK. Just a quick train ride away from London in an office where pretty much everyone gets a sea view. The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly but focussed and our role is to create original racing game franchises."

CCP China: Senior Programmer
"CCP, makers of the largest game universe in existence, is looking for a Senior Engineer to be a part of the creative team that brought the world the groundbreaking MMO title, EVE Online. Successful applicants will join a seasoned team based in Shanghai, China where they will work on original games for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3."

Continue reading "Round-Up: Gamasutra Network Jobs, Week Of Feb 5" »

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been a while since this game came out in the US, but Europe has finally nabbed Excitebike: World Challenge for WiiWare. If you're a fan of the original NES game, you can download this new one for 1,000 Points. Alongside its release is "Aha! I Found It!" Hidden Object Game for 500 Points.

For DSiWare this week there's Snakenoid from Cinemax for 500 Points - a mixture between Snake and Arkanoid, oddly enough.

And for the Virtual Console, Capcom's Final Fight 3 is now available.for 800 Points.

Posted by Ryan Langley at 2:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of Interplay's weirdest Super Nintendo games will be coming to DSiWare soon - Prehistorik Man.

Funny seeing the game get a resurgence before it makes it to Virtual Console. This version will also include some Touch Screen support and the ability to... shout at your enemies. Sure!

Posted by Ryan Langley at 5:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It took more than a month, but Final Fantasy VIII is now available in Europe! Go grab it, you know you want to.

No new games this week, but Europe has begun a "minis month" promotion, where some PSN minis are now available a little cheaper, and will also be pushing new minis on the PlayStaton Blog. FieldRunners, Kahoots, Pinball Fantasies and more are now available that little bit cheaper.

For the full list you'll have to continue reading, but give them all a look at take a punt at one or two - they all work on PSP and PS3. A new addition to the minis as well - Spaceballs Revolution, which was also released on WiiWare a few months ago.

Continue reading "EU PSN Store Update - Final Fantasy VIII, Minis Month" »

Posted by Ryan Langley at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So Project Needlemouse has been unveilved - Sonic The Hedgehog 4, for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network And WiiWare, Coming Summer 2010. Trailer above.

The game is set to be episodic, but each episode will be the equivalent of one of the standard Sonic games - think Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. From the short bit of footage from the trailer the game looks great, and as a huge Sonic fan from back in the day, I've got some high hopes for this one. Let's hope the Sonic Cycle doesn't continue this time.

Source: Gamespot - Sonic 4 Q&A.

Posted by Ryan Langley at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Organizers of GDC 2010 are reminding that today is the last day to register for up to 35% off pass prices for the March 9th-13th event, with the free Android phone offer also expiring today.

The Moscone Center, San Francisco-based event has just announced a raft of new lectures, including highlighted talks from Pixar notables, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, Double Fine's Tim Schafer, and Final Fantasy XIII's director Motomu Toriyama, and a surprise lecture from Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto.

However, Thursday, February 4th is the final day that GDC is accepting registrations at the early rate, which includes up to 35% discount from final pass prices. The early reg rate will be open until 11.50pm ET this evening.

In addition, today is the final day to register for free Nexus One and Verizon Droid by Motorola phones with GDC 2010 attendance, as part of a promotion between Google and Game Developers Conference. Select All-Access Pass and Summits & Tutorials Pass attendees will receive the phone, and more information is available on a GDC website page.

As well as the nine major Summits, from iPhone to indie and social games -- and notable tutorials on the first two days of the show, there are six main Tracks - programming, art, production, business, audio, and design - for GDC 2010. These include lectures from the creators of Assassin's Creed II, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Uncharted 2, Braid, God Of War III, Dante's Inferno, APB, and a host of other acclaimed games.

Game Developers Conference 2010 -- part of Think Services, as is this website -- will also play host to the GDC Expo Floor, including a host of notable tool companies, the recruitment-specific GDC Career Pavilion, the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival plus Awards and the 10th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, open to all pass holders.

More information on many of the highlighted areas of GDC 2010 is available on the official Game Developers Conference weblog, and the GDC 2010 website has a full list of lectures, passes, and opportunities at this year's event, as well as specific on registration pricing and options.

Attendees are also reminded that they can email GDC 2010's registration staff -- or call them at 866-535-8997 or +1 (415) 947-6926 from 9am to 4pm PT each weekday -- if they have any issues registering. (All GDC 2010 registrations commenced before the 11.50pm ET deadline will be honored, even if any technical issues occur.)

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)