Surprise! Nintendo has released the action slash tower-defense game a day early, it said during a video conference this morning. You'll find Dillon's Rolling Western in the 3DS eShop for $10 right now. [Nintendo]
Here is where you can speak your mind, wanderers. Welcome to Kotaku's official forum, known affectionately as Talk Amongst Yourselves, where we gather on a daily basis to discuss the joys and wonders of gaming all rolled up into one.
It's a celestial JRPG battle in this TAYpic, where the work of Yankton, the Circus McGurkus calls back to the classic Final Fantasy VI . That is one sunburnt cherub, huh?
We need your TAYpics, people! Make us some. This forum can't live without them!
Post your masterpieces in the #TAYpics thread. Don't forget to keep your image in a 16x9 ratio if you want a slice of Talk Amongst Yourselves glory. Grab the base image here. The best ones will be featured in future installments of Talk Amongst Yourselves. Get cracking!
Cyclops! Black Cat! Invisible Woman! Facebook Avengers Assemble! Facebook's Marvel: Avengers Alliance cares not for comic book continuity, focusing instead on giving players some sweet choices, and then making them pay for them.
Coming soon to a major social network near you that doesn't start with the letter Google, Avenger's Alliance lets you slip into the form-fitting costume of a top S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Like Samuel L. Jackson has been doing over the course of several live-action movies, you are tasked with recruiting heroes from a pool of 28 of Marvel's finest, many of which have never had a spot on any Avenger's roster. Begin with Iron Man at your side and then catch 'em all, from Kitty Pryde to more Kitty Pryde.
I really dig Kitty Pryde.
Strip Marvel: Avengers Alliance of its superhero garb and you've got what's basically a couple of different Facebook games mixed together into one spandex-covered extravaganza. You'll take your team through ten chapters of missions, each comprised of six chapters (one being a premium purchase). Those chapters consist of a series of turn-based battles between your two or three-man team and a series of peoples, leading up to a boss battle against a named Marvel villain.
It's a rather straightforward system. Complete missions, level up your characters to unlock new powers and upgrade slots. You'll also gather a little bit of each of the game's four different currencies, which is where things get a little confusing.
Talk about resource hogging, Marvel: Avenger's Alliance has four different resources to keep track of. There's silver, which is used to buy items, pay for upgrades, or fund research (which in turn unlocks more items for you to buy). There's gold, which speeds up things like research, training, or deployable missions you can send your characters on to earn more silver. Training and research also require S.H.I.E.L.D. points on top of money, and it's beginning to feel like we're being punished. Finally there are Command Points, which are used to unlock heroes and recruit them to your cause.
There are 28 heroes to add to your roster, each costing a certain number of Command points to unlock, that number likely based on relative power. Spider-Man on-again, off-again love interest the Black Cat costs eight command points to unlock. Spider-Man himself costs 65.
Maybe it's just a popularity contest.
Speaking of popularity, visiting your Facebook friends in the game will earn you Distress Calls, special items usable once per battle that summon powerful characters to your aid. There's also a player-versus-player element to the game, but I didn't get a chance to unlock it during my preview of the app.
So there'll be plenty to pay for once Marvel: Avengers Alliance goes live. Luckily the folks at Playdom have made it easy for us; we just buy gold, and then convert it into any resource we need. Thoughtful!
You can accrue these things naturally, of course. If the previous sentence made sense to you, then you'll be fine playing Avengers Alliance for free.
If not, you could be in for a dangerously addictive time. The urge to gather all of the heroes and level them up as high as possible sets in early, and it doesn't let go.
And it probably won't. Not until I have Jean Grey's Phoenix in my Facebook Avengers.
Marvel: Avenger's Alliance (Coming Soon) [Facebook]
Expectations have to be running high for the multiplayer component of Kid Icarus: Uprising. After all, it's the designer beloved for pitting Nintendo's all-stars and B-listers against each other in crazy free-for-all battles who's in charge of the game.
In the video above, Sakurai details the weapons and modes that you'll find in the upcoming 3DS release. There's also information about single-player gameplay, too. Kid Icarus: Uprising comes out on March 23rd.
Nintendo is partnering with publisher Xseed Games to bring Wii RPG The Last Story to North America this summer, it said today during an online broadcast.
The Last Story, directed by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, has received rave reviews in Japan. Though the game will make its way to European shores this week, Nintendo had not yet announced a North American localization, causing some fans to worry that they'd never see the Wii RPG.
Xseed Games, a small localization house based in California, is best known for helping publish Falcom RPGs like The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and the Ys series.
Last summer, fans campaigned under the banner "Operation Rainfall" to get Nintendo to localize several RPGs including The Last Story. The campaign also fought for Xenoblade, which Nintendo will bring to the U.S. this April.
Hear that, gamers? Get angry enough and you can make anything happen.
Nintendo Direct [Nintendo — thanks, Mac!]
If you're not one of the more than 300,000 players that participated in the closed beta test for Tribes: Ascend, your time has come. On February 24 you get to stop reading about what Hi-Rez Studios has done with your beloved Tribes franchise and experience it first-hand.
Oh I can't wait to see the looks on the faces of those 300,000 plus early players when the 'newbs' come marching in this weekend. I imagine they'll be grinning ear-to-ear as a wave of fresh meat joins the game they've been getting acclimated to for months. Even with Hi-Rez's constant tweaking they're still familiar enough with the game to wipe the floor with newcomers all weekend long.
Hi-Rez even things out a bit with a new patch hitting the game prior to the open beta launch. Let's see what's inside!
So the old guard won't be on completely familiar ground when the bullets and other players start to fly, but they'll hang onto their progress and unlocks, so it's still pretty much their game.
Wanna get killed horribly? Hit up the link below to sign up.
Tribes: Ascend [Hi-Rez Studios]
Would you like to play Borderlands 2? You can do it on September 18 this year, on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. (September 21 for international audiences, Gearbox tells us, meaning those of you not in North America.)
You can even play it in splitscreen. Four-player co-op, too. With more guns and skills than ever, it looks like.
Gas It | LOS ANGELES: Back in 2008, Nintendo promoted Wario at gas stations. (Photo: Bob Riha, Jr. | AP)
If you thought Brain Age was easy, get ready for Nintendo's new spin on the series: Oni Tore (鬼トレ) or "Demon Training".
The game aims to increase player's concentration and working memory, and it features a ogre Dr. More »
Would you like to play Borderlands 2? You can do it on September 18 this year, on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. (September 21 for international audiences, Gearbox tells us, meaning those of you not in North America.)
You can even play it in splitscreen. More »
The foreign policy of the Koopa Kingdom toward its neighbor has always been unpredictable in timing and method. Although the Koopa Kingdom and the Mushroom Kingdom have engaged and cooperated with each other in friendly international competitions, critics have pointed out that relations between... More »
In Japanese geek meccas like Tokyo's Akihabara and Osaka's Nipponbashi, otaku (nerds) flock to maid cafes. The establishments are staffed with young women, eager to talk, serve rice omelets, and play paper-rock-scissors with customers. More »
Opus Artz is a concept studio in London which specialises in production art for the video game industry. Among its artists are guys like Bjorn Hurri and Theo Stylianides, so yeah, we're about to see some good stuff.
The studio has worked with clients such as EA, 2K, Paradox and Square Enix, on... More »
Now that Bayonetta developers Platinum Games are working on Metal Gear Rising, Kojima Productions is free to work on something else. Like...another Metal Gear Solid game.
The studio has begun a recruitment drive for "the latest Metal Gear Solid" which will be appearing on "high-end consoles and PC". More »
If you've played games for more than a decade, you've undoubtedly witnessed the ongoing evolution of the medium. Some see technology as the primary driver, and there's no question games look and sound better than ever. More »
Surging college basketball player Jack Cooley doesn't attribute his recent success to some sort of miracle or an act of God. Nor does he blame nonsense like "hard work" or "dedication."
Nope - More »
I love behind-the-scenes insights into the making of my favorite games. Although I usually watch or read them after I'm finished with a title, instead of before one is released, I enjoy reading and watching the stories of the production itself.
Any successful game, large or small, takes a... More »
As far as male manga artists go, Pikupikun is considered a dreamboat. Pikupikun, who draws erotic manga, plays up his looks, frequently uploading photos of himself in the shower, in revealing outfits, or just cosplaying in dresses.
No wonder he's developed a sizable following with female readers. But sorry ladies, Pikupikun's work won't appear in the April issue of Pinky magazine. It seems Pikupikun has injured himself. While pleasuring himself.
The magazine's publisher, Bunkasha, passed along an apology via Twitter, stating that Pikupikun was stricken with laceration on penis during "furious masturbation".
Because of this misfortune, Pikupikun missed his deadline, and his work won't be in print for the April Pinky. The manga artist has not updated his blog since Feb. 8.
"We do expect him to return for the next issue," tweeted the publisher. "From here on, masturbation is prohibited before deadlines." Noted!
お詫び [ほんわら&みこ半編集部 via 萌えオタクニュース速報]
Do you not care if you have a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend? According to Waseda University Tomonori Morikawa, who specializes in relationships, you could be suffering from a type of illness.
As Morikawa pointed out, having a girlfriend (he specifically mentioned "girlfriend") is not about being handsome or rich, it's a time and energy investment.
"If begins thinking, 'I can't get a girlfriend, but that's not big deal,' that is a serious illness," said Morikawa. One of the symptoms, he professor continued, was to erase the gap between one's dreams and one's reality.
"You really want a someone to love. But in reality, you cannot," continued the professor. "However, if you brush that off and use the excuse that you don't want a girlfriend, then you're trying to ease your serious heartbreak."
This does not pertain only to fringe dudes (see above) who ride the train with hug pillows, but regular, totally normal folks, too.
While I do agree that covering up one's desire for companionship does lead to heavy hearts, not everyone is able to easily find a member of the opposite sex that's right for them. Saying you don't want a girlfriend (or boyfriend) could be the only way to cope.
「『彼女がいなくてもいい』は一種の病気」と恋愛学の権威が指摘 [Yahoo! Japan]
