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Gyromancer will end our lives on November 18

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 6th 2009 at 7:00PM }

Looks like we're going to have to start working on that Bucket List a lot sooner than we would've guessed. The recently released English language trailer for Square Enix and PopCap's RPG-puzzle mash-up Gyromancer has delivered a release date for our pending doom: November 18. Not only that, but the trailer's now-readable text has revealed a gameplay mechanic which slipped our attention in the original, Japanese trailer: Monster collection.

So, it's Bejeweled, Final Fantasy and Pokémon all rolled into one, then? Awesome. That's really awesome. We hope you guys have enjoyed reading our humble site, because Gyromancer looks to be addictive enough make us forget to feed ourselves, let alone work.

Auditorium flowing to XBLA, PSN and PSP next year

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 4th 2009 at 7:30PM }

We haven't heard anything about Cipher Prime's plans to port its hypnotic musical puzzler, Auditorium, since the studio won a publishing contract in the 2BeeGames competition back in July. Today, a press release from newly named publisher Zoo Games revealed a few details about the title's console destinations: It's coming to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN, both as a PS3 and PSP download "early next year."

For those who want to know what the soothing buzz is all about, you can check out Auditorium for free on the 2BeeGames site. For those who can't access that site for some reason, just turn on some classical music, go turn on the nearest water faucet, and try to redirect the stream with your hands.

Ghost Trick returns to haunt us with new trailer

by JC Fletcher { Nov 3rd 2009 at 4:50PM }

Capcom's Ghost Trick was one of the most memorable games of TGS (in our opinion), combining a novel puzzle mechanic with a memorable style. We've been eagerly awaiting any new information or media that may (Ghost) trickle out, and now we've got a new-ish trailer to share for the 2010 release.

We say new-ish because it features the same intro animation seen in the TGS trailer. But this extended video also has brief snippets of gameplay footage, in which we can see Sissel possessing and "tricking" things like a cabinet door (to make a dog move). Check out the trailer after the break.

Gallery: Ghost Trick (TGS 2009)

[Via GoNintendo]

Continued →

A world of data from the World of Goo birthday sale

by JC Fletcher { Oct 26th 2009 at 5:30PM }

Following the completion of the World of Goo birthday sale, 2D Boy gathered up all the statistics it had from the "pay what you want" sale and connected them all into a big pile of interconnected info blobs. After the last stat update, when the developer revealed that many people were buying the game for one cent, something magical happened! The average price went up by a noticeable amount.

Linux users were, on average, more generous with their purchase prices (maybe they offset the money they don't spend on operating systems?), and Swiss buyers were the most "generous," according to a metric that compares average purchase price to a country's per-capita GDP. The most generous individual? One "Stuart", who handed over $150 for a copy of World of Goo!

Meanwhile, the average purchase price for the WiiWare version was $15 -- because the sale didn't apply to that version.

Q? Entertainment: Music licensing, other issues keeping portable Lumines off PSN for now

by JC Fletcher { Oct 21st 2009 at 11:00AM }

Lumines was one of the most popular launch titles for the PSP -- but Q? Entertainment's puzzler is notably absent from the PSP Go's initial lineup. Q explained the reason for the non-downloadability succinctly in a Tweet.

"We would love to bring Lumines/Lumines II to the PSN store," Q's rep said, "but there are complications, music licensing, was published by Namco, etc." However, "That said, we're obviously looking into it. :)" Q went on to single out the songs "Shinin'" and "Lights" as requiring new licenses for digital distribution, and clarified that it would be Bandai Namco's decision to publish the first Lumines on PSN, since it published the game on UMD (in Japan).

While the licensed music in Lumines makes it even harder to republish, this is starting to sound really familiar. As Sony's Eric Lempel told us, it's especially difficult for publishers of older PSP games to go to PSN, because licenses will have elapsed, and won't have covered digital distribution in the first place. And Sony isn't requiring third parties to pursue digital distribution, so unless they see significant revenue potential from, say, PSP Go sales, many publishers just won't. That said, it's hard to imagine a PSP without Lumines, and we're confident it'll happen eventually.

[Via PSN Stores; thanks, Kassatsu]

Shadow Walker: Boy of Shadow, Girl of Light, Trailer of Game

by JC Fletcher { Oct 20th 2009 at 1:30PM }

One week from today, Game Arts' Shadow Walker: Boy of Shadow, Girl of Light will be released on WiiWare in Japan. To mark the occasion, Game Arts released a trailer (after the break), demonstrating its adorable character design and puzzle-based gameplay.

Okay, so Hudson's Lost in Shadow, which isn't on WiiWare, is about a boy who is a shadow, using other shadows as platforms and making new shadows to travel on with the help of his fairy companion. This game, which is a download, is about a boy who can only walk in shadows, and whose fairy companion helps him create shadow paths.

Despite the extremely similar premise, the gameplay looks quite different. In this game, you control only the fairy, creating paths for the boy to walk through.

[Via Andriasang]

Continued →

Puzzling: No plans for Wii Professor Layton

by Richard Mitchell { Oct 8th 2009 at 5:40PM }

Everything is improved with waggle. It's a fact. Scientifically proven. And yet, Level 5 CEO Akihiro Hino has still seen fit to crush everyone's hopes of a waggle-infused Professor Layton. Hino told Official Nintendo Magazine that the upcoming Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel will conclude the trilogy, though it will soon be followed by the first episode of a new trilogy, entitled Professor Layton and the Flute of Malevolent Destiny. That's wonderful, and we're sure handheld puzzle enthusiasts will be thrilled, but Hino notes -- probably followed by a cruel, derisive laugh -- that there are currently "no plans for a Wii release."

Frankly, we're shocked at the revelation, as a Wii release of Professor Layton seems like the mannerly, logical thing to do. We're sure the world-famous Hershel Layton would agree.

Critter Crunch trailer is nauseatingly cute

by Griffin McElroy { Oct 7th 2009 at 1:15PM }

We speak a lot about the adorable properties of Capybara's roly-poly puzzle title, Critter Crunch, but we think they truly come out in the title's latest trailer, seen above. It's easy for developers to create fuzzy creatures that make our hearts go a-flutter -- it's considerably more difficult to make those creatures remain precisely that cute while they vomit into each other's mouths. In fact, it almost makes them cuter. We know it defies logic, but you're going to have to trust us on this one.

Sony characters get Critter Crunchified

by Griffin McElroy { Oct 6th 2009 at 5:59PM }

The adorable art style of Capybara Games' PSN puzzle title Critter Crunch can't be contained within the boundaries of its own franchise. A recent post on the developers' blog shows off a number of doodles from the game's character artist, Nick "Qiqo" Stephan. These illustrations peer through temporal doorways into other worlds, where Biggs, the game's protagonist, was dressed in the skin of characters from other PlayStation titles. (Okay, it's less creepy than we just made it sound.)

Check out all 15 of these concepts after the jump -- we guarantee that you've never such a lovable Kratos. (Sackboy, eat your heart out.)

Continued →

Hands-on: Coropata

by JC Fletcher { Oct 1st 2009 at 3:45PM }

Delightfully free of both hype and epic lines, Lukplus's Coropata proved to be one of the most pleasant surprises of TGS 2009. The DS adventure game looks at first like any of a million chibi anime games, but proved to be a light-hearted Japanese take on the Incredible Machine-meets-Lemmings gameplay most recently found in LucasArts' upcoming Lucidity.

Each puzzle in Coropata gives you a limited number of items in your inventory, like a single wooden platform or two basketballs, to use in order to help a blue-haired girl get to the goal. Additionally, other objects, including scissors and baseballs, are pre-littered throughout each stage, and their positions can't be changed. The girl automatically interacts with any object she comes across: if there's a ball, she throws it; if there's a banana peel, she slips, delaying her progress for a few seconds.

Continued →

TGS 2009: Hands-on: Echoshift

by JC Fletcher { Sep 27th 2009 at 12:01AM }

I think that if I hadn't played Yoshio Ishii's Cursor*10, I wouldn't have had any idea what was going on in Echoshift. But because I have played both Cursor*10 and its sequel, I had no problem playing Echoshift, because the Echochrome sequel is that game, but side-scrolling. This is not a complaint. Echoshift was one of the most engrossing games at Tokyo Game Show. There's far more room for exploration in the still-fresh time-loop genre.

Continued →

Q? Entertainment connecting lovers with Q?'pid's Finger Puzzle

by Griffin McElroy { Sep 19th 2009 at 4:00PM }

Is your relationship going through a rough patch, fueled by soul-crushing trust issues and mutual acrimony? Has your love begun to languish, leading you to wonder whether your significant other is really all that significant? Are you looking for stopgap measures to keep the fires of love burning? Don't shell out cash for counseling -- there's an app for that.

Rather, there will be soon -- Lumines developer Q? Entertainment recently revealed a bizarre iPhone project titled Q?'pid's Finger Puzzle, which tasks a couple with tracing lines to clear up fuzzy "titillating images." Following a level, the couple is given a compatibility report which offers relationship advice such as "look into your partner's heart and drink in their vapors." Yeesh. Thanks for the helpful tip, Buffalo Bill.

UT3 is FTP on STW

by Griffin McElroy { Sep 17th 2009 at 9:00PM }

Oh, sorry -- do you lack the cryptologic know-how to decipher that headline? Excuse us as we get our Layton on:

UT3 is not a shorthand way of saying three urinary tract infections -- rather, it's the acronym commonly used to refer to Unreal Tournament 3.
Though the internet-savvy may assume FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, that doesn't make much sense with the previous piece of the puzzle in place. However, "Free-to-Play" fits quite nicely.
STW obviously means "Steam this weekend." If you couldn't figure that out, you should probably go jump off a cliff or something.

Every puzzle has an answer -- this time around, the answer is "Unreal Tournament 3 is free-to-play on Steam this weekend," beginning today at 1PM PST. Unfortunately, we've got no Picarats to distribute. As any true gentleman knows, cerebral satisfaction is its own reward.

Konami announces DSiWare puzzle-platformer 'Reflection'

by Griffin McElroy { Sep 16th 2009 at 10:47AM }

click for gallery

Konami has decided to dip its massive toes into the murky waters of the DSiWare platform with Reflection, a downloadable puzzle-platformer designed to invoke the handheld's dual-screen capabilities. In the game, you play as Kirra, an adventurer on a journey to recover a broken magic mirror. Actually, you play as Kirra's good and evil halves simultaneously on the two screens -- a nasty side-effect of the aforementioned mirror-breaking.

Though the game's art (seen in the gallery below) isn't exactly stunning, that concept actually sounds pretty neat. According to the game's press release announcement, it's set to drop this fall, so we should be seeing Reflection in the DSi Shop soon. We also expect to see it in a snow-covered hill, shortly before the landslide brings us down.

Gallery: Reflection (DSiWare)

There are 22,802 words in Scribblenauts

by Griffin McElroy { Sep 12th 2009 at 2:30PM }

Some scurrilous vagabond somehow managed to get their hands on the supposed complete dictionary from 5th Cell's upcoming everything generator, Scribblenauts. We sincerely urge you not to go through the illicitly obtained list, looking for particular nouns of interest and internet memes -- why not save that fun for the actual game? However, everyone should absorb the final tally of words present in the final build of the game: 22,802.

Also, if the list is legit, then "Plumbob" finally made it into the game -- as per our suggestion from E3. As we see it, we're owed around 0.00005 percent of Scribblenauts' total profits. We'll be waiting on the check, 5th Cell.