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See more Move in Sports Champions dev diary

by JC Fletcher { Mar 11th 2010 at 6:40PM }

PlayStation Blog posted a developer diary featuring Zindagi Games, developer of the PlayStation Move minigame showcase Sports Champions. The devs demonstrate the abilities of the Move controller, showing lots of game footage and demonstrations of controller motions.

They also describe their excitement about Move and its new opportunities for control -- going so far as to compare it to the feeling of playing a 3D game for the first time. If you were developing one of the flagship games for the thing, you'd be excited too!

Majesco cooks up Crafting Mama for DS

by JC Fletcher { Mar 11th 2010 at 10:33AM }

Almost a year ago, a trademark for "Crafting Mama" was spotted. It's now being put to use, as Majesco has announced, well, Crafting Mama for DS. In her latest endeavor, Mama will occupy her seemingly endless time with a new task: arts & crafts.

In a series of 40 projects, players will create things like birdhouses, quilts, kaleidoscopes and adorable new aprons for Mama to wear, as well as Mama dolls. Of course, these creations will all be realized through the familiar touch-based minigames, played alone and in multiplayer, which so many of us have grown to love in the utterly populous Cooking Mama game franchise. It's kind of crazy that a company can announce a game about making quilts and birdhouses, and we can already pretty much imagine how to play it!

Majesco plans a fall 2010 release for Crafting Mama, but we suspect the publisher is at least considering bumping that up a bit.

Beat City screens are nice and confusing

by JC Fletcher { Mar 1st 2010 at 4:25PM }

We suggested our enthusiasm for THQ's Beat City may be reduced upon seeing actual screenshots of the rhythm-based minigame collection. We're delighted to report that in addition to sounding like a neat idea, we think it looks pretty interesting as well! It's got an unusual geometric art style.

You can inspect the style of Beat City for yourself in our gallery, and even see storyboard-style sequences that are ... intended to explain the gameplay. We see an assembly line of crows being turned into parrots. We see a loving couple wearing outfits that grow spontaneously more ren-faire. We don't feel illuminated.

Gallery: Beat City (3/1/10)

'All-Star Karate' for Wii will teach you how to hit stuff

by JC Fletcher { Feb 8th 2010 at 1:00PM }

No, you won't learn who the stars of karate are by playing THQ's All-Star Karate. Rather than a licensed game featuring the biggest names in martial arts, All-Star Karate is a fighting game in the same casual Wii series as All-Star Cheer Squad. And though the final product may not turn out to be to everyone's tastes, there's something about a casual-oriented fighting game that sounds fascinating. Or, it would sound fascinating if not for all the minigames.

All-Star Karate uses the Wiimote and optional MotionPlus for motion-based karate moves in training. That training can then be put to the test in the Challenge Mode. Also neat (and likely to be overshadowed by the minigame-ness of the whole thing): a kata editor that lets you put together your own choreographed demonstration.

All-Star Karate will be available this spring. Beware of the stinky socks!

Kung Fu Funk headed to WiiWare with expert timing

by JC Fletcher { Jan 25th 2010 at 7:15PM }

Stickmen Studios, creator of WiiWare's Dragon Master Spell Caster, announced its next game today. Kung Fu Funk is a multiplayer party game, also for WiiWare, with a martial arts theme.

In a series of "1970's styled funky Kung Fu mini-games" (like catching flies with chopsticks, most closely associated with 1984's The Karate Kid), players will use the Wiimote to train themselves in "ancient 70's moves" before testing their comedy kung fu abilities in a "disco dojo showdown." It's all your favorite kung fu movie stereotypes translated into Wii minigames -- and set to Carl Douglas's 1974 hit "Kung Fu Fighting." Also, according to the press release, singing yaks figure into the game somehow!

Here's where it gets interesting: Kung Fu Funk somehow integrates research from Industrial Research Limited on upper body mobility, seemingly with the goal of teaching you some kind of actual motions. Or something!

WarioWare DIY screens show how it's done

by JC Fletcher { Jan 25th 2010 at 3:15PM }

WarioWare DIY's simplified game design interface, used to create five-second microgames in the style of previous WarioWares, seems a lot simpler in these screenshots, mostly because it's now in English and we can read it. Quite helpful, that.

And now that we can see it, it looks like an extremely user-friendly, but still complicated, programming language presented as if it's plain English. The game guides you through the creation of animation and sound, and then the development of the in-game actions and conditions. And with those tools, you can create the five-second DS microgame of your dreams!

Gallery: WarioWare DIY

'Let's Draw,' says Majesco to Nintendo DS owners

by JC Fletcher { Jan 21st 2010 at 3:00PM }

Majesco's Let's Draw is ridiculously cute. Chances are it won't be as cute in untrained hands, but that's no reason not to try! Let's Draw combines minigames with Drawn to Life–style customization -- it's part drawing book, part game -- and adorability varies (based on the player's skill).

Kids (and yes, this is for kids) draw and color images as prompted by the game, which are then animated in minigames like Whack-a-Mole and Air Hockey. Let's Draw also includes simple drawing lessons, based on a Japanese drawing book series. Drawn to Life was a big success for THQ -- we'll see how this younger take on the idea works out for a somewhat bruised and beaten Majesco when the game releases this March for $19.99.

Gallery: Let's Draw (DS)

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom adds 'Ultimate All-Shooters' minigame

by JC Fletcher { Jan 12th 2010 at 7:45PM }

Though they've seldom been mentioned since the fighter was announced for a North American release, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom contains a wide selection of minigames -- one for each character in the original Japanese release. While it's currently undetermined whether all the new characters added for Ultimate All-Stars will have unique extra games, Capcom has revealed at least one new one: "Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Shooters," a vertically-scrolling, Commando-esque shooter starring the characters from the fighting game.

The up-to-four-player minigame apparently features not only multiple stages, but branching paths, as well as special moves. It appears to be based on the Lost Planet-themed PTX-40A "AK Extermination Mission" minigame, but expanded. See a clip of Ultimate All-Shooters -- which appears to have been captured from VHS -- after the break.

Continued →

THQ taking DS to Beat City

by JC Fletcher { Jan 12th 2010 at 10:15AM }

Ever wonder what a city built on rock and roll would actually look like? Find out this spring when THQ releases Beat City for the DS. Beat City, developed by THQ Wireless developer Universomo, is a series of 20 rhythm-based minigames in which players "tap, swipe, or hold" to the beat, while the city transforms. Success in minigames will help drive Dame Isolde Minor and her Cacophony Corporation, who presumably dislike music, out of the city.

While Universomo isn't quite as glamorous a developer as the Nintendo R&D1 team that created Rhythm Heaven, we're delighted to see someone else taking on the idea of rhythm-based minigames. That enthusiasm may diminish when we see actual screens or footage, but why not enjoy the moment?

Update: Three screens of some "funky mannequins" are now in our gallery.

Gallery: Beat City (DS)

FYI: WarioWare DIY does it on DS in March

by JC Fletcher { Dec 14th 2009 at 10:30AM }

One of Nintendo's most exciting announcements from E3 was the localization of WarioWare DIY, a DS app that lets players create their own WarioWare games, with custom graphics, sound, and gameplay. Nintendo didn't happen to offer a date during the thrilling E3 presentation, and it's said nothing at all about what should be a major part of the publisher's DS lineup -- until today.

In its Q1 schedule, Nintendo provided a date of March 28. You're not buying anything in March, right? The company also offered a Q1 date for WarioWare DIY Showcase, the WiiWare game through which WarioWare DIY games can be uploaded and played on a big screen.

Crystal Bearers also has a ballroom dancing minigame

by JC Fletcher { Oct 19th 2009 at 4:05PM }

Famitsu revealed two "event" minigames in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. We knew about the vaguely embarrassing pool float minigame, and we've actually seen hints of the other minigame in the trailer: ballroom dancing. This seems to take place in the scene in which Layle steals some guy's tuxedo to sneak into an event, and involves rotating the Wiimote and Nunchuk to simulate dancing movements.

In the E3 demo, the game was full of diverting events like this. A rail shooter segment opened the game, followed by an airship piloting segment. The main enemy-tossing game will be broken up by events like this one, which finally fulfills the promise of Final Fantasy VIII's most famous scene.

TGS 2009: Hands-on: Minna no Sukkiri

by JC Fletcher { Sep 25th 2009 at 11:15PM }

The latest Hot Shots title from Clap Hanz isn't about golf or tennis. Minna no Sukkiri is more Hot Shots ... baseball! And karate! And ... vegetable fighting! And book sorting! And other things that I didn't get to play in my short demo session! Sukkiri (something like Hot Shots: Refresh) is a minigame collection featuring twelve wildly different games. If the four I played are any indication, the descriptions for all of them would include the phrase "and that's it."

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Let's tap on our iPhones to play Let's Tap on our iPhones

by JC Fletcher { Sep 18th 2009 at 11:00PM }

If you've got an iPhone -- and a really secure case to protect it -- you'll be able to play Prope's quirky Wii debut Let's Tap soon. Prope has started releasing individual games from the Wii collection, with the first, Let's Tap: Tap Runner, available on the App Store today for $4. Gem Game will follow on September 25 for .99, with Silent Blocks, Bubble Voyager, and Rhythm Tap coming after that.

In case you don't want to risk tapping your phone right off the table, the games offer a "touch" mode in which you can control them by tapping on the screen, or a "free" mode in which you can tap any part of the phone. Let's watch a trailer after the post break!

[Via GameSetWatch]

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Mario and Sonic in a new trailer, at the Olympic Winter Games

by JC Fletcher { Aug 20th 2009 at 11:50AM }

We thought we had been cured of all vestiges of Sonic fandom -- the last several years having made caring about Sonic games unbearably painful. But then a speed-skating Metal Sonic showed up in this Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games trailer, and we were, however briefly, thrilled.

Other items of interest in this trailer: superfluous Sonic character Silver the Hedgehog getting really into curling, a Bowser/Bowser Jr. team (which confused us a lot when we initially thought it was a paradoxical Bowser/Baby Bowser team), and snowboarding! Which seems to be awfully close to the concept of Sonic Riders. And in the gallery, a few pictures of snowball fights! Is snowball fighting an Olympic sport now? If so, we'll actually pay attention to the TV broadcasts.

Gallery: Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics (GamesCom 2009)

Hudson finally announces Deca Sports on DS

by JC Fletcher { Aug 10th 2009 at 1:45PM }

We first heard rumblings from Hudson about a DS version of the surprisingly popular Deca Sports back in May of last year. Those ... offhand remarks have finally come to fruition, as Hudson has officially announced Deca Sports DS, for release in North America at the same time as every other game ever (Spring 2010). Scans of the Japanese version have also appeared, providing a first look at the handheld sports game.

The DS game includes customizable team designs, multiplayer modes and, most importantly, new sports. The events on this cartridge include golf, ping pong, wall climbing, bobsled, rugby, arm wrestling, clay shooting, cheerleading, and sepak takraw, only one of which we had to look up. (Wall climbing? What is that?)

Will Deca Sports be a hit on DS? Will the kind of inexplicable success of Deca Sports counteract the super-crowded release schedule? It should be interesting to find out.

[Scan via GoNintendo]

minigames posts(Subscribe to this feed)

See more Move in Sports Champions dev diary

Majesco cooks up Crafting Mama for DS