Earlier this month, SEGA revealed they are working on another Sonic game, this time focusing on Sonic’s classic gameplay elements that we all grew up loving.  Even though it seems this will be the definitive Sonic game fans have been waiting years for, Sonic fans still can’t help but feel caution given how promising previous Sonic games looked, only to not live up to expectations.

It seems we could all breathe a little sigh of relief as the SEGA Community Manager ‘RubyEclipse’ revealed on the official SEGA forums the original Senior Level Designer for Sonic 3 is working on Sonic 4.

So, is it just Dimps? Just Sonic Team? The answer is a bit of both: Yes, Dimps is working on the game. But there’s actually more to it than just that: at the same time, we also have members of Sonic Team, including the original senior level designer from Sonic 3 & Knuckles on the SEGA Genesis working alongside them. It is most definitely a partnership, and the result of this teamwork is something many of us are excited for.

So it seems SEGA is putting all of their efforts into Sonic 4, which hopefully will be something beneficial for the gaming community as we’ve all become extremely jaded when it comes to new Sonic games.  Although, it looks like Sonic 4 could finally break the streak of bad Sonic games if all goes according to plan.

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SEGA officially announced the next sequel in the Sonic the Hedgehog series with Sonic the Hedgehog 4.  The first trailer for the game was revealed on GameSpot last night and it’s very telling.  Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is dropping the 2D sprite graphics for a more HD-friendly 3D look, but it looks like it will keep the gameplay elements that we all know and love.

The title is set to be released this summer on the Xbox LIVE Arcade, Playstation Network, and WiiWare as a downloadable title.  ’Episode 1′ in the title leads us to believe SEGA has future DLC plans for Sonic the Hedgehog 4 for future episodes in the series.

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It’s true, Mega Man 10 will not be exclusive to the Wii like some thought.  In fact, it will be coming to the big 3.  Nintendo’s WiiWare, Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE Arcade, and Sony’s PS3.  Keeping the same 2D graphics, Mega Man 10 screens do resemble previous Mega Man titles and their retro look.  But rest assure, these graphics were done purposely in keeping the tradition going with our side scrolling hero.

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In the January 2010 issue of Nintendo Power, Capcom has revealed they are currently developing Mega Man 10.  Like Mega Man 9, which was released Fall 2008 on WiiWare, PSN, and XBLA, the graphics will resemble the old-school 8-bit Mega Man we’ve all grown up playing.

The issue also reveals one of the bosses Mega Man will be encountering in his latest side-scrolling adventure, Sheep Man.

Easily the strangest of the Mega Man 10 bosses, Sheep Man does, indeed, look like a set of robot arms and legs attached to a fluffy sheep… or possibly a cloud.

If Mega Man 10 is as brutally difficult as Mega Man 9 was, then there are going to be a lot of happy hardcore gamers out there, while the rest of us normal folk cry ourselves to sleep.

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This Week in Nintendo (TWIN) has one of the first RPG titles to grace the NES.  That’s right, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy hits the VC this week for the great price of 500 points.  When it came to RPG’s in the 80’s there were only two; Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy.  Now you can complete 50% of the 80’s RPG titles with today’s announcemnet of Final Fantasy.

Virtual Console

FINAL FANTASY
Original platform: NES
Publisher: SQUARE ENIX
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Fantasy Violence
Price: 500 Wii Points^™
Description: The world lies shrouded in darkness. The winds die. The sea rages. The earth decays. But the people believe in a prophecy, patiently awaiting its fulfillment. “When darkness veils the earth, four Warriors of Light shall come….” After a long journey, four young travelers did at last appear, and in the hand of each was clutched a crystal.

Nintendo DSiWare

Thorium Wars
Publisher: Big John Games
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Fantasy Violence
Price: 1,000 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: In Thorium Wars, you must stop the Thorions, a super species of Thorium-based machines, from destroying mankind. Blast through waves of Thorions by controlling an arsenal of tanks, skyfighters, hovercrafts, gunboats and starfighters with either the standard or touch-screen controls. In 12 exciting missions, navigate through a variety of combat environments while viewing 360 degrees of the battlefield, fully rendered in 3-D. Toggle between first- and third-person views to destroy the terrifying army of Thorium beasts, from swarms of Redeye Drones to the bone-crushing Manticore Walker. This man-versus-machine battle proves to be the ultimate test for the survival of the fittest.

WiiWare

Word Searcher
Publisher: Digital Leisure Inc.
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 500 Wii Points
Description: You’ll need a sharp eye and a quick mind to complete 100 themed word-search puzzles. Word Searcher contains fun words from multiple categories including anatomy, world cities and U.S. presidents. With a huge assortment of subjects to choose from, there’s sure to be a puzzle for everyone to enjoy. Help improve your vocabulary, memory and problem-solving skills with these engaging puzzles. Track and try to beat your own play-through times again and again—words are scrambled every time you play.

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It’s been nine years since we last heard from Guybrush Threepwood and the rest of the Monkey Island crew in their last swash-buckling adventure in 2000’s Escape From Monkey Island and boy have they changed.  Not only has the developer of the title changed, but some of the visuals have received an update as well.  With all of this updating, does the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island have the same feel as the previous Monkey Island games, or did that get an unnecessary update as well?

In Tales of Monkey Island: Episode One, you play as Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate™.  The game’s opening sequence introduces Elaine, Guybrush’s wife, and The Ghost Pirate LeChuck, who has kidnapped Elaine in order to make her his bride….again.  Guybrush comes sailing in to rescue his wife, only to be blown away from the ship and stranded on an unknown island with a cursed hand courteous of LeChuck.  Once you begin your adventure on the island, that is when you get the sense of this being a true Monkey Island game.  One of your first missions on the island is to prove yourself a mighty pirate, which acts as an homage to how The Secret of Monkey Island started.  The Tales of Monkey Island thankfully doesn’t require players to have played any of the previous Monkey Island games.  Long time fans will be able to pick out little references to the past games, but that doesn’t mean this title is only for the die-hard Monkey Island fans as there’s plenty in this title for new players who enjoy a good adventure game.

The controls for Tales Of Monkey Island are a mix of on-screen clicks to particular points of interest and moving Guybrush around using the WASD keys.  FPS shooter players will be familiar with this control scheme, but Guybrush’s movements feel clunky at times and it’s hard to navigate him through the 3D world.  Guybrush can also be moved by holding down a mouse button and pulling him towards the intended destination, but that feels a little strange at times as well.

The interface has also received a bit of an upgrade.  Gone are the actions like “Look At” and “Talk To” to which now you simply point at a particular point of interest, click, and Guybrush will interact with it.  If it’s an item, he’ll either comment on it or pick it up.  If it’s a character, he’ll start a dialogue with them.  Items in your inventory can be called up with the TAB key, but you can also move your mouse to the right edge of the screen to call it up as well.  In previous Monkey Island games, to combine items, you simply took one item, put it on another, and the items would be used together.  In Tales of Monkey Island, there are two slots in your inventory screen where you can place the items individually in order to combine them.

Graphically, The Tales of Monkey Island isn’t anything spectacular in comparison to current-gen games.  This is neither a good thing nor bad as the Monkey Island series has never been known to push the envelope graphically.  The main players in the game received a nice artistic upgrade, but some of the side characters can look awfully familiar at times, such as the pirate you commandeer a boat from and the news reporter you meet early on in the game.  Regardless of that, the visual style overall is reminiscent of a true Monkey Island game.

When I think of a Monkey Island game, the one thing that sticks out the most is the humor.  The humor in Tales of Monkey Island is spot-on to the past games.  As you progress through the story, the dialog between Guybrush and other characters is always entertaining and rarely bores you enough to want to skip through the dialog.  Most of what you’ll encounter in the dialog will be nonsense and won’t make a difference to the game’s story, but learning all of the little intricacies of the characters that populate the island are always entertaining.

FINAL THOUGHT: It’s safe to say that the Monkey Island series is in good hands with TellTale Games.  The sights, sounds, puzzles, and dialog are all reminiscent of a true Monkey Island game.  Adventure game fans will be pleased with the offering TellTale has made with the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island.

8.5/10

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The release date for TellTale’s Tales of Monkey Island is nearly upon us (July 7), and a new gameplay trailer was released today.  The first chapter, entitled “Launch of the Screaming Narwhal”, will include the cast you know and love from the Monkey Island series.

The gameplay trailer shows the game has kept it’s humor in tact.  I’m the kind of player who likes playing around with dialog to find out as much information as possible, or to simply see what kind of humorous dialog I can uncover.  The banter between Guybrush and Governor Marley is a great example of why I loved the Monkey Island series.

TellTale also made sure to note the inventory system, specifically the ability to combine items.  The ability to combine items can raise the difficulty of the game quite a bit as players could be spending a ton of time combining items in order to get the desired effect.  At least we can say the game might take a little longer than the 2-3 hours TellTale says it could be completed in.

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So it’s been a while since E3 and what have we found buried in between our couches?  Receipt for Crystal Pepsi Six Pack, a left pinky toenail and a little rumor that has your favorite 1982 classic title, Choplifter, making it’s way back onto the gaming scene.  For those too young to remember, Choplifter was a game that featured..you guessed it… a chopper lifting poor civilians from the ground and transporting them to a safe zone marked with an “H” symbol and a building with an American flag.

Fun Factor for Choplifter… Were you saving these people from the Cold War?  Could it be the Korean Conflict?  No, it had to be from the poor graphics that made people scream “Wow” from the Commodore 64.  This title could very well hit the PSN, Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare or even the iPhone.  So as long as it’s a rumor, let the comments fly.

Developer InXile Entertainment filed a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office for the title “Choplifter.” The filing locked down use of the title for “downloadable electronic games via the Internet and wireless devices,” raising the possibility of a digitally distributed version of the game for consoles, handhelds, or possibly the iPhone.

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We knew we loved Telltale Games.  2 pieces of news for you. 1. Not only are they re-releasing great PC adventure games, but they’re also working on a new 5 part series, called Tales of Monkey Island!  and 2. LucasArts will be re-releasing The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition.

Tales of Monkey Island – Guybrush Threepwood is back along with a bunch of people who worked on the original game.  Tales of Monkey Island will be released over 5 chapters for the PC and through the Wii’s Wiiware, similar to the Sam and Max series.

While explosively stripping the evil pirate LeChuck of his demonic mojo, Guybrush Threepwood inadvertently infects the entire Caribbean with the arch-fiend’s expelled voodoo, which threatens to transform buccaneers into unruly pirate monsters. Pursued by a notorious cut-throat Pirate Hunter and a creepy French Physician who believes that Guybrush’s eerily-infected hand holds the secret of eternal life, Threepwood sails the seven seas in search of La Esponja Grande, a legendary sea sponge with unparalleled voodoo exfoliating abilities. But little does Guybrush know, his quest is part of a larger, more sinister plot, and good and evil are not always as they seem…

We’re VERY excited for this release from TellTale Games and can only say Thank you for reviving the series once again.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition – The game from 1990 is back with updated graphics, new voiceovers and a re-mastered musical score.  Expect this to hit XBox Live and PC.

Back by popular demand, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition faithfully re-imagines the internationally-acclaimed classic game (originally released in 1990) for original and new audiences alike. The development team at LucasArts is bringing the game into the modern era with all-new HD graphics, a re-mastered musical score, full voiceover, and an in-depth hint system has been added to help players through the game’s side-splitting puzzles. Purists will also delight in the ability to seamlessly switch between the updated HD graphics and the original’s classic look.

source

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The first video game for WiiWare up is Bang Bang Kids despite the perverted name it seems like a very cute game. It seems to be a mix of Super Mario World and Halo. Hudson’s Bang Bang Kids has water guns instead of actual guns!  There is a huge variety of guns to choose from, even a sniper rifle gun! You can use this game with a Wii zapper. Sounds like fun, safe fun for all! This is a game I definitely would pick up!

The second one up is Muscle March, yea this one is pretty hard to describe. Basically it is alot of beefcake looking guys running around in speedos. The premise here is these muscular babes  have to chase down a thief in possession of their prized protein supplements.

The thief is not an easy get as he break down wall after wall, all while striking some of his baddest weight lifting poses. It is jam packed with rainbows, diaper wearing Polar Bears, Constellations in the shape of muscles and so much more. Confused as much as I am? Then let the videos do the talking! If the videos entice you, both come out in June and are 800 Wii points.

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