maestro! green groove screenshot

Neko Entertainment have announced the European launch of Maestro! Green Groove, a musical platform adventure game designed for Nintendo DSIWare, available from the Nintendo Shop Channel now.

Blending two exquisite flavours, Maestro! Green Groove is a unique concept combining the standards of platform gaming with the pleasure of musical creation in a unique and astonishing way.

Maestro! Green Groove gives players the power to create a symphony with the touch of the Nintendo DS-stylus. Set in the deep, dark tropical forests of the Green Groove World, players take control of Presto a colourful music loving bird.

Using the DSi stylus players strum, run and tap to the rhythm of a Bollywood musical orchestra whose reinterpretation of classics such as Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, Chopin’s Nocturne n°2 and Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” will drive you wild. Just like the world’s best conductors, to move Presto through Maestro! Green Groove players will need to stick as close as possible to the original composition to progress.

Featuring challenges including special strings, goofy enemies and crazy targets that need to be knocked down as fast as lightning, Presto will need to defeat his jealous rival Staccato and his spider gang in epic musical battles.

Utilizing the Nintendo DSi microphone Maestro! Green Groove is one of the first DSiWare games to truly make the most of the Nintendo DSi microphone, allowing players to let their vocal cords loose with the melodies featured in the game.

Laurent Lichnewsky, Managing Director of Neko Entertainment says;

“We are pleased to announce the launch of Maestro! Green Groove for Nintendo DSiWare owners throughout Europe. Its perfect mix of platform adventure gaming and musical creation featuring some of the world’s best known compositions will appeal to players both you and old.”

For further information visit Neko Entertainment.

Racing Game: Fuel - Games Review

This month saw the release of Fuel, a racing game for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles from Codemasters. The hype was big.  But was it worth it?

Fuel, the press release told me, was built on ground-breaking technology to give the game a huge world of “atmospheric beauty and awe-inspiring size fully open to race and explore. There is 5,000 square miles of game world to explore, making it the ‘biggest game ever made’.

This unprecedented racing playground features dramatic weather effects, including tornados, blizzards, sandstorms and lightning, a full day / night cycle and enormous environmental diversity, from the snow-capped dormant volcano Mount Rainier to the arid Grand Canyon and everything in between.”

Fuel allows gamers to pick and choose their route, races and career progression while extensive multiplayer options allow up to 16 players to race against each other in pre-set events, explore the world in free ride or create their own challenges and share them online.
It includes a wealth of over 70+ quads, trucks, bikes, cars and even hovercrafts that race across both land and water to choose from.  But is a wide range of vehicles, terrains and race tracks enough for an arcade style racing game in 2009?

Like a lot of other gamers, I was really getting quite excited about the release of Fuel.  After all, Codemasters know their stuff right? Unfortunately, Fuel may look great, and may offer you more race track and vehicles than other racing games.  But frankly, that’s not enough.  And after the initial buzz of excitement Fuel falls well short and fails to deliver.

You can play Fuel in two different game approaches: Free Ride and Career and Challenges.

Free Ride is very similar to the Freeburn gameplay in Burnout Paradise.  Unfortunately, the similarities with Burnout Paradise don’t stop there.

Fuel: screenshot

The game’s Career and Challenges mode allows a player to fast-track to the beginning of an event without having to travel between each race. The main emphasis of the game is career events and the challenges offer extra interest level as missions. Unfortunately, most of the Career and Challenge events are simple standard races against a grid of 8 other opponents.
Similar to Burnout Paradise, your progress in the Career and Challenges unlocks more vehicles.
Fuel is an exciting game filled with 72 career events, 196 challenges and a vast land available to roam freely in freeride where you can collect oil drums, liveries and vista points.

On a more positive note, Fuel has online multiplayer races for up to 16 players.

Furthermore, the game comes with a race creator that allows players to design checkpoint races and can form part of the endurance challenges. Competing online with up to 15 other players is Fuel’s best point.  Though I’m not sure the gameplay is going to keep anyone’s interest for too long.

In conclusion I would say if you haven’t already got a racing game for your PS3 or Xbox 360 then you will possibly enjoy Fuel enough to warrant a purchase.  However, if like me you were hoping it would be an improvement on what I already have, think again.

Buzzin Games: 65%

Basically, ABC 17 news had this inflamatory article about sexual predators in games like Animal Crossing. There’s a lot of lovely, lovely misinformation in there, but two pieces stand out: firstly that your child can just run into complete strangers online. In fact Nintendo’s overly-complicated friends code system makes that impossible – you have to approve every single person to visit your town, and if you’re worried about your children you have the ability to vet them.

Secondly the wonderfully offensive quote from the leader of the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force, who states “There is no reason an adult should have this game.” Wow. Just wow – so, according to him if you meet an adult playing Animal Crossing, they’re a sex offender. That’s amazing.

As I said in the article yesterday, I have enjoyed Animal Crossing from time to time. My girlfriend loves it, many of my friends play the game and they’re all the same as me – mid twenties. For God’s sake, Nintendo’s own Animal Crossing UK advertising campaign is based around women in their mid twenties enjoying the game!

The annoying thing is that there are cases of sex offenders using online game systems to groom their targets, but Nintendo are about the most careful to give parents control. A sensible article with instructions to parents would have been a good thing – this is baseless rubbish, which only adds to my growing pile of scorn for the mainstream press’ attempts to understand gaming culture.

There are rumours it will take another price cut to give it another sales boost, and it’s definitely about to enter new global markets including Latin America and Eastern Europe. The system has a particularly impressive back catalogue with over 1,900 games released and 70 new ones due out this year as developers still continue to support the system – usually with ports of Wii games.

Personally, I’m pretty sure the DS will outrun the PS2 sooner rather than later. The DSi is nearly upon us, and I think that will put it well on the way to overtaking, especially as the system has age on its side – at a sprightly four years younger than Sony’s black box, it certainly has the upper hand.

So how do these heavy weight sellers fit into the greater spectrum? Here are the approximate worldwide sales figures courtesy of Wikipedia – some of these are a little out of date, but it should give you an overall picture…

1. Sony Playstation 2 – 136,000,000

2. Nintendo GameBoy/GameBoy Colour – 118,700,000

3. Sony Playstation – 102,490,000

4. Nintendo DS – 100,000,000

5. Nintendo Game Boy Advance – 81,360,000

6. Nintendo Entertainment System – 61,900,000

7. Sony PSP – 50,000,000

8. Nintendo SNES – 49,100,000

9. Nintendo Wii – 44,960,000

10. Nintendo 64 – 32,900,000

11. Sega Mega Drive – 29,000,000

12. Microsoft Xbox 360 – 28,000,000

13. Microsoft Xbox – 24,000,000

14. Nintendo GameCube – 21,740,000

15. Sony Playstation 3 – 21,300,000

16. Sega Master System – 13,000,000

17. Sega GameGear – 11,000,000

18. Sega Dreamcast – 10,600,000

19. TurboGrafx-16 – 10,000,000

20. Sega Saturn – 9,500,000

Seeing the Dreamcast outsold by the GameGear must make Sega question the existence of a just God. I’m also left a little surprised at how well the PSP has sold – so why has the support for it virtually dried up?

Before I start, I should point out that it’s not just the cosmetic improvement to the console that it appears to be. Under the bonnet, there’s a lot of significant improvements that you won’t see in current DS games: the clock speed is doubled from 67mhz to 133mhz, memory is upped from 4mb to 16mb and it has 256mb of flash storage memory, where the previous console had none. Then there are some obvious changes: the Gameboy Advance port has gone, and it boasts a 0.3 megapixel camera – which really won’t be a selling point on the surface unless you’re never owned a digital camera (and if you have a phone from the last five years, the chance is you already have a better one in your pocket!)

So what use is a faster DS if it only plays the same software as the old one? Well, the reason is that in the long term it won’t. The DSi uses that internal memory to download games to it from the DSi store, which works in a similar way to the Wii Shop Channel, right down to using the same fictional currency. Right now there’s not a lot there – a web browser and a Warioware game aside, but there’s real potential and Nintendo themselves have said that it will consider whether to phase original DS software out depending on how the new version sells.

You could be cynical and say that this new version only exists to stop the rampant piracy around, and there’s probably some truth in that. If you currently use your DS Lite to play homebrew games, or run old LucasArts point and click adventure games, you’ll want to steer clear of the upgrade. This new version will take firmware updates like the PSP or Wii, which could very easily see your console bricked or locked out if you try to play in the way Nintendo doesn’t want you to.

But anyway, on with my impressions. Firstly, it does feel a lot nicer than the DS Lite – this is mainly thanks to the new matte coating, which unlike the Lite’s glossy finish doesn’t leave fingerprint smudges all over the place. The shoulder buttons now stick out a little, which is a welcome change, making them feel a little more tactile, while the remainder of the buttons remain the same. Both screens are now a little larger as well, and while this seems like a welcome idea, it does make the jagged edges of the current crop of DS titles that bit more obvious. The game I tried was Mario Kart, and in truth I almost preferred the way it felt on my trusty ol’ DS Lite.

The multimedia functions it boasts are either a lot of fun or completely baffling depending on where you’re sitting. I was able to take photos of myself and friends, and manipulate them in all manner of ways using the built in software. This could be as simple as bending and stretching images, scribbling all over them or blending two faces into one. There’s also some neat facial recognition software built in, which promises to do things like adding comedy features in the anotmically correct place, or comparing two people to guess whether they’re related. The image quality is a little patchy as both cameras offer only 0.3 megapixels (640×480 photographs), but I’m interested to see what games developers have up their sleeve with camera integration. Currently it’s a fun little diversion, but little more.

The cost still remains a bugbear. Even with its improved specs, a £150 retail price is quite hard to swallow. The PSP has better specifications and manages to retail cheaper than that, and you can even pick up the massively more powerful Xbox 360 for £20 less. I’d advise holding off on launch, but keep an eye on things, because as ever the exclusive software will inevitably be the deal breaker.

The DSi is out in Europe on April 3^rd.

There were a couple of surprises – perhaps the biggest one being the complete absence of Grand Theft Auto amongst the winners, and that the only first party Nintendo winner was a game that’s over a year old. There were also a few big hitters amongst the nominees who left empty handed: Fallout 3, Gears of War 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4.

It’s a shame there’s no room for downloadable games in the list, because there’s an area where arguably the greatest innovation has been occurring lately with the likes of World of Goo, Braid, Lost Winds and Nobi Nobi Boy showing that a game doesn’t need to weigh several gigabytes to provide a first rate experience.

Anyway, here’s the list of nominees and winners. I’ve underlined my personal pick from each category.

Action & Adventure: Fable II
Nominated: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Dead Space, Grand Theft Auto IV, Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider: Underworld

Artistic Achievement: LittleBigPlanet
Nominated: Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Dead Space, Gears of War 2 (Eh? – ed.), Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Best Game: Super Mario Galaxy
Nominated: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Fable II, Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, Rock Band

Casual: Boom Blox
Nominated: Guitar Hero World Tour, Buzz! Quiz TV, LittleBigPlanet, SingStar Vol. 2, Wii Fit

Gameplay: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Nominated: Grand Theft Auto IV, Left 4 Dead, Mario Kart Wii, Rock Band, Super Mario Galaxy

Handheld: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Nominated: Geometry Wars: Galaxies, God of War: Chains of Olympus, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Patapon, Soul Bubbles

Multiplayer: Left 4 Dead
Nominated: Buzz! Quiz TV, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Gears of War 2, Mario Kart Wii, Rock Band

Original Score: Dead Space
Nominated: Assassin’s Creed, Fable II, Fallout 3, LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Sports: Race Driver: GRID
Nominated: FIFA 09, Football Manager 2009, MotorStorm Pacific Rift, Pure, Wii Fit

Strategy: Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution
Nominated: Advance Wars: Dark Conflict, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Ninjatown, SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Tactical Strike, Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise

Story and Character: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Nominated: Assassin’s Creed, Fable II, Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, Mass Effect

Technical Achievement: Spore
Nominated: Assassin’s Creed, Fable II, Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, LittleBigPlanet

Use of Audio: Dead Space
Nominated: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Gears of War 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, LittleBigPlanet, Super Mario Galaxy

GAME Award of 2008 (public voting): Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Nominated: Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Left 4 Dead, LittleBigPlanet, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Wii Fit, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

What do you think of the list of nominees and winners? Was GTA 4 (ironically) robbed? Let us know with a well placed comment or two.

Nintendo DS

Monster Jam

Nintendo Wii

Kidz Sports International Football

Death Jr: Root of Evil

Monster Jam

London Taxi: Rush Hour

Playstation 3

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

Race Driver: Grid

Xbox 360

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

Race Driver: Grid

Monster Jam

Playable on the game are the first three movie adventures including, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Thinking of the most recent film (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), could there be another Lego Indiana Jones game released soon, or a Lego Indiana Jones game that includes all four of them like the Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga game.

It is the next game in the Lego Video game series and I hope it turns out to be as good as the previous games including Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga.

The game is priced around £25 and £30 and will be released on the 6/6/08, only 8 days to go.

Although the Light Blue Nintendo DS has been available in other places before I am still amazed to see the red and lime green Nintendo DS.

I’m sorry DS old friend but that Lime Green one sounds interesting (I might have to trade you in).

Alex Kidd: Finish Tournament Singles in Alex Kidd stage

Amy Rose: Finish Tournament Singles in Sonic the Hedgehog stage

Gilius Thunderhead: Finish Tournament Singles in Golden Axe stage

Gum: Finish Tournamet Doubles in Jet Set Radio stage

MeeMee: Finish Tournament Singles in Super Monkey Ball Stage

Pudding: Finish Tournament Singles in Space Channel 5 stage

Reala: Finish Tournament Singles in KNiGHTS stage

Shadow: Finish Tournament Doubles in Sonic the Hedgehog stage

Unlockable Stages

Alex Kidd: Finish get a high score in Space Harrier stage

Outrun: Finish hit justice shots in Virtua Squad stage

Space Harrier: Finish Tournament Singles in Space Channel 5 stage

Virtua Squad: Finish hit the big zombies in Curien Mansion stage.