Angry Birds Dev’s New Game – Amazing Alex Releasing July 12th

Releasing the same day as the Tiny Wings sequel, Amazing Alex (the new game created by the Angry Birds masterminds) is releasing July 12th on iOS. Watch the launch trailer above.

Tiny Wings Sequel Landing July 12th

Via Joystiq.

Shigeru Miyamoto on Angry Birds

This cracked me up today. The following comments come from Shigeru Miyamoto.

“There aren’t many games that I’ve played recently that have been truly convincing to me. But that said, I have very much enjoyed Angry Birds, especially the way in which it combines traditional and new game elements in exciting ways. Angry Birds is a very simple idea but it’s one of those games that I immediately appreciated when I first started playing, before wishing that I had been the one to come up with the idea first. I mean, obviously I want to be the one creating the most convincing, surprising game ideas.

In particular the control scheme is excellent. When you analyze it, the controls are actually quite fuzzy in terms of the way that it works. It takes a little while to get used to the controls, I think, but once you’ve mastered them, you have a lot of precision. To make it the interface and controls work that well and intuitively… well, I think a lot of work went into getting that right.

Obviously, if the developer had created the game for Nintendo DS the controls would have been even better, but what can you do?”

Via GoNintendo.

Angry Birds Space Story Animation

Nintendo Releasing Pokemon iPhone Rhythm Game in Japan!

This could be the start of something BIG. Nintendo is releasing a Pokemon rhythm game on iPhone in Japan! Here is the bit from ONM.

“Nintendo and Game Freak have joined forces to produce the first Pokémon App for release on various platforms including iPhone and Android. Set for release in Japan this summer, Pokémon Say Tap is a rhythm action game based on the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Players who download this App will be tasked with tapping the Pokémon in time with the music and sounds. As you can see from the image, it looks set to star Pokémon Black and White Starters Oshawott, Snivy and Tepig.”

This really blows my mind. I can’t believe it.

 

 

League of Evil Review

Note: Video is a little out of date, it has 132 levels as of this blog post.

The list of great iOS platformers is incredibly small. Most suffer from lame controls, a horrendous lag, or a  failed gimmick. The few greats are generally endless running games where you can’t control how fast or in what direction you run (Monster Dash, Canabalt, etc.). Some secede with their gimmick (Bounce On, etc.), but many don’t.

League of Evil is perfect. It’s everything you could want in a platformer. Easy to use controls, hilariously fast response time (seriously, it’s amazing), a funny story, an awesome 8bit style, a very large amount of content, and excellent level design that’ll kick your butt (but never until it hurts). It has created a flawless formula that works incredibly well as a iOS title, speed, control, and character placement on your screen (your fingers are never in the way). I am not sure how it manages to succeed where every other game has failed, but it destroys at what it does.

Gameplay involves 4 buttons. A left, a right, a jump, and a punch. Your character has to navigate complicated paths through turrets, gunmen, and boatloads of spikes. You have to double jump, wall jump, and punch your way through each level to reach the evil scientist at the end and sock it to em. This seemingly easy task isn’t easy. It’s super duper hard, but it’s never impossible. Every time you lose you just play the level again. You can do this because there are no lifes and the levels are fairly short. There are usually a few paths to complete a level, an optional suitcase to collect (which doesn’t give you a bonus, it just makes you feel awesome for collecting it), and a clock to try to beat your fastest time (you try to get a 3 star time as you play). This all adds up to a incredibly addicting combo.

If fantastic gameplay isn’t enough for you, the game has a great amount of content. With 132 fantastically hard levels that take anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes (if you have to replay it over and over), you won’t run out for a long, long time. Not to mention that more free levels may be on the way.

I would recommend League of Evil to any platformer fan or non-believer of the iPhone’s ability to play great platformers. Also, did I mention this fantastic game is only $.99? I love the App Store. Even with the low price, if you’re still unsure, you can download the lite version or play 40 different levels on your computer here (the computer controls aren’t quite as epic, but just click the link and try it).

Gameplay: 10
Quality: 9
Value: 10
Sound: 9
Controls: 9

Overall: 9.5 (Get it NOW)

Angry Birds Rio Samba Update

While I was writing E3 posts, a new update for Angry Birds Rio was released. It has added 15 new Samba themed levels (with 15 more in the Samba section coming soon). Also, this update adds a new bird, Blue! Blue fly’s solo in this update (previously him and Jewel flew together) and he has a new ability! Whenever he lands (or you tap the screen) he freaks out and flaps his wings wildly and then falls to the ground.

Once again, it’s a free update. Angry Birds rules!

Sony’s Newest Comments on the 3DS and the Downloadable Market

The president of Sony Computer Entertainment recently made the following comments.

“Compared to 3DS, it was very interesting – when we were designing the NGP we had no idea what Nintendo was going to do. Aside from the 3D stereoscopic display, they seem to be keeping the same theme that they had with the DS – it feels like an update of the DS to me. Lots of choices we made were so different from their choices. It’s kind of hard to compare the two (3DS to NGP), aside from the fact that both of them are dedicated gaming platforms. We are dealing with the same issue that Nintendo is. It’s up to content publishers, including ourselves, to show people that this is worth £25 or £30 as opposed to 59p. You cannot release the same content that you put on the iPhone for a dollar on to NGP or some other consoles and expect people to pay 20 times that.” – Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment worldwide studios

I can’t believe I agree with Sony. I believe he hit the nail on the head. The arms race for gaming is going to a different world that both Nintendo and Sony need experience in.

Via GoNintendo.

Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 Releasing this Holiday Season

Joystiq reported yesterday that Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 will be releasing this year for almost all platforms, including Sony’s new handheld, the NGP. The game will follow through the last 3 treacherous books (or 4 movies, depending on how you look at it). It’s sure to be just as good or better than the original.

Via Joystiq.

World of Goo iPod/iPhone Coming Thursday

It’s official, World of Goo for iPhone will launch this Thursday, April 14! It will be priced at $2.99, but will be on sale for $0.99 for the first 24 hours after release.

At the same time, they will release an update for World of Goo HD ($4.99), which will make it a Universal App. That means, if you’ve already bought the iPad version, you’ll already own the iPhone/iPod version.

World of Goo requires an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 or 3rd generation iPod Touch or newer.

It is truly one of the most fun games I’ve ever played (I have it on WiiWare for $15 and I’ve played it on iPad) and I will be getting my goo portable as soon as possible.

Via 2D Boy’s Blog.