Battle of the Bands

Platform: Wii - Developer: Planet Moon Studios
Genre: Rhythm Game - Two Players

Reviewed by rf

Introduction

With the advent of Dance Dance Revolution, game play changed forever. Gamers suddenly were required to learn rhythm and timing and use these newly acquired skills to defeat their gaming foes. Games like Elite Beat Agents further pushed these skills; tapping in rhythm on the DS allowed one, as a secret agent, to fix everyday problems AND save the world from aliens. Guitar Hero and Rock Band kicked the rhythm-game genre up a notch; gamers followed scrolling notes across a screen to be a better rocker, gain fans and money, and win. Battle of the Bands for the Wii is the next step in this musical rhythm game genre. Using the wiimote, players hit notes scrolling across the screen to further their band’s performance. These accurately hit notes, however, don’t just add to the players score, they form attacks which the player uses to crush its competitor’s band–be it the computer or another player. At the end of the song, only one band survives.

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While everyone’s attention has been focused on Resident Evil 5 or Street Fighter, a new IP from Capcom was revealed at their Captivate 08 event which took place in Las Vegas. The brand new Wii exclusive game, goes by the name ‘Spyborgs’ and is being developed by Bionic Games.

The action adventure, sci-fi (not forgetting the puzzles) themed game is due sometime in 2009, is being led by Mike Stout, Lead Multiplayer Designer for Resistance: Fall of Man, and features several Insomniac Games team members.

Characters such as Bouncer, Kinetic, Clandestine, Voxel and Stinger are some that are included in the roster, and is set to emulate a Saturday morning TV show, including missions that are split into episodes, and fake advertisements.

Gamers will be encouraged to play the game along with a friend as each level features two characters that work alongside each other. But don’t worry if you don’t have any friends! You can still have all the fun as the second character can be controlled by the computer.

So, check out the screens below… or the video above and come and discuss it on the forum!

Source

-Olly

Well, I must say, this has got to be one of the best updates I have seen in awhile.  The new Dr. Mario game will surely make some fans of the old school NES title very, very happy. Not only that, but the original Metal Slug is one of the best arcade titles ever, in my opinion. Take a peek at the full release list just below. This week’s games are:

Dr. Mario Online Rx - 1,000 WiiPoints - WiiWare

Family Table Tennis - 500 WiiPoints - WiiWare

City Connection - 500 WiiPoints - NES

and

Metal Slug - 900 WiiPoints - NeoGeo

Discuss

VC Games List

WiiWare Games List 

-Thomas 

Well, starting this week, I have twice the work to do when it comes to these release posts. Now I also have Wiiware games to add in. For all of the forum-goers reading this, expect the WiiWare thread to come out tomorrow with a complete list of the current available games.

This week’s games are:

Sky Kid - 500 WiiPoints - NES

Critter Round Up - 1,000 WiiPoints - WiiWare

and

Star Soldier R - 800 WiiPoints - WiiWare

A decent list!

DISCUSS

VC GAMES LIST

-Thomas

For all of you out there that were looking forward to this new IP, it is important that you know that it will not be meeting it’s Japanese July release date.  This means that you might not be getting a taste of this game until 2009. It is delayed indefinitely, so it is unlikely this game will hit US Shores in 2008.

SOURCE

DISCUSS

-Thomas

Sega announced yesterday they have formed a new partnership with PlatinumGames Inc. Why should we care? Simple: PlatinumGames is a studio founded (in part) by ex-members of Clover Studios, the sweet little studio who brought us Okami and God Hand.

It seems PlatinumGames has four titles lined up which will now be released under the Sega banner. The first, a Wii exclusive title MadWorld (pictured above) is set for release in early 2009. Madworld is directed by Hideki Kamiya, creator of the Devil May Cry and Veiewtiful Joe franchises. He also directed Okami, and with all that credit, this is a title to keep your eye on over the next 12 months.

Also announced was Bayonetta, another Hideki Kamiya directed action game set for 2009 release on the 360 and PS3. Sega tells us this game will push the limits of the action genre as you take the role of a hyper powered witch who slays “angelic” enemies.

The last title announced was Infinite Line (working Title), a Sci-Fi RPG for the DS. Infinite Line is said to include over 200 characters and 150 customizable spaceships to play with. So if you’ve been looking for a nice in-depth RPG you can play with a stylus, look no further.

Check out the official Sega announcement, and then let us know what you think here.

-glitch-

Activision announced today that they will be reviving the Pitfall series in a new title for the Nintendo Wii. Pitfall: The Big Adventure is slated to hit shelves this fall, though no specific date was named. For our younger readers, it’s worth noting that the Pitfall series is one of the oldest in video game history, stretching back all the way to the original 1982 release on the Atari 2600. Various implementations and sequels of the game have been put out on over a dozen platforms thus far. With this announcement, it should be interesting to see how they apply the Wii controls to the gameplay.

SOURCE

DISCUSS

-glitch-

Nintendo’s WiiWare service was finally launched today (12th May) to North American Wii owners and with it comes 6 original titles exclusively to the service. The list and prices include:

• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King – 1500 Wii Points
• Lost Winds – 1000 Wii Points
• Defend Your Castle – 500 Wii Points
• Pop – 700 Wii Points
• VIP Casino: Blackjack – 700 Wii Points
• TV Show King – 1000 Wii Points

Its good to see Nintendo finally joining the original downloadable game train that Microsoft and Sony have already been riding. The service will be launched in Europe on May 20th, 2008. Special thanks to forum poster DarkG for reminding us. Hit the jump for the press release and as always you can discuss this at our forums, HERE.

- Tiberian

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Nintendo brings us a new Wii Channel online today: The Nintendo Channel.

As you might expect, it offers up plenty of information about new and previously released titles, lets you watch videos of upcoming games, etc. But what’s the big deal you might ask? You can use the Nintendo Channel to download Nintendo DS demos. As I understand it, this is functionality Japanese Wii owners have had for sometime now. I’m glad to see it’s finally graced us with its presence.

Check out the official Nintendo site for a nifty video: Source

And as always, let us know what you think here: Discuss

 -glitch-

Rock Band for Wii may not be out until June 22, 2008 but that hasn’t stopped Harmonix and EA for coming up with a quick solution of bringing the DLC thats already available on Xbox 360 and PS3 to Wii owners, in the form of Volume packs. The Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1 for Wii will go on sale July 15th for an MSRP of $29.99. Its a real shame Harmonix and Nintendo could not work something out to get these as DLC because of the lack of storage, as i’m sure no one wants to have to pay for extra songs they don’t like. For the full list of tracks as well as the full press release, hit the jump.

Discuss

-Tiberian

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