Nintendo launching ‘amiibo’ with 12 characters

LOS ANGELES — Pikachu and Link will be among the first characters coming to “amiibo.”

Nintendo announced Friday that 12 characters will initially be part of its upcoming toy-game franchise set for release later this year. In addition to the “Pokemon” and “Legend of Zelda” leading men, the starting line-up will include Mario, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Samus Aran, Kirby, Fox McCloud, Marth, the “Wii Fit” Trainer and the Villager from “Animal Crossing.”

The figures in the “amiibo” toy-game line will each cost $12.99 and work in tandem with several of the Japanese gaming giant’s upcoming titles, beginning with “Super Smash Bros.”

“We wanted to make sure that the breadth of characters we had for the initial ‘amiibo’ line-up supported the fan favorites, as well as showcase the variety of people Nintendo speaks to — from kids to adults,” Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said in an interview. “For example, you’ve got a character like Marth from the ‘Fire Emblem’ series. We thought exposing Marth to a wider collection of consumers through ‘amiibo’ made a ton of sense, but, of course, we had to have Mario, Princess Peach and Donkey Kong in that initial line-up, as well.”

Similar to Activision’s “Skylanders” and “Disney Infinity,” the characters’ virtual histories will be stored on the plastic figures and transmitted through the Wii U GamePad, the controller for the Wii U console that features a touchscreen and near field communication (NFC) capabilities. Unlike the Activision Blizzard Inc. and Walt Disney Co. franchises, the “amiibo” figures will work with several games from different genres and won’t be required to play the games.

“Our vision is to have these ‘amiibo’ figures be your playable friends that allow you to enhance the overall experience,” said Fils-Aime. “It’s a different approach from Activision and Disney, which is more to unlock something in the game. You’re going to want to have your ‘amiibo’ figure because it’s going to allow you to enhance your skills, upgrade your character and take the experience over to a friend’s house.”

Nintendo first unveiled “amiibo” at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June. The company plans to release more figures over the next year and include “amiibo” functionality in future games, as well as compatibility with its handheld Nintendo 3DS system.

The Kyoto, Japan-based company is hoping the figurines will help boost its bottom line and sales of its beleaguered Wii U console, which has been on the rise since the May release of “Mario Kart 8.” Despite the success of the latest installment in the cartoony Nintendo racing series, Wii U sales still trail behind the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles from rivals Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp.

“Call of Duty” and “Assassin’s Creed” publishers Activision and Ubisoft Entertainment recently said they wouldn’t bring the new installments of those popular series to the Wii U later this year.

“In the end, I want the very best of every single publisher’s content on our platform,” said Fils-Aime. “We believe we’ll get there as we grow the install base of the system. Make no mistake: The consumer knows they can get high-quality games on the Wii U console. That’s why our business is up almost double over last year.”

Nintendo will be showing off upcoming games like “Super Smash Bros.,” ”Hyrule Warriors” and “Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker” at PAX Prime, a four-day celebration of gaming that kicks off Friday in Seattle.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Game over for Flappy Bird

HANOI, Vietnam – The young Vietnamese creator of hit mobile game Flappy Bird has removed it from the App Store and Google Play saying it ruined his life.

The game which was uploaded in 2013 but only surged to the top in downloads earlier this year was removed early Monday.

The success of the game that based its appeal on being simple and also maddeningly difficult made its creator Nguyen Ha Dong, 29, a minor celebrity.

The game was downloaded more than 50 million times on App Store alone. In an interview with The Verge website, Dong said Flappy Bird was making $50,000 a day in advertising revenue.

But tech blogger Carter Thomas said the sudden popularity of Flappy Bird might have been due to use of fake accounts run by computers to create downloads and reviews.

Thomas said he couldn’t prove his suspicion and that the success of Flappy Bird might also be explained by it being “just a wildly viral game.”

Dong, from Hanoi, wrote on Twitter on Saturday that the Internet sensation caused by the game “ruins my simple life” and he now hated it.

“I will take Flappy Bird down. I cannot take this anymore,” he wrote.

Dong had agreed to talk to The Associated Press about the game in an interview scheduled for Friday, but canceled.

On Twitter he didn’t address the inflated downloads allegation but denied suggestions he was withdrawing the game because it breached another game maker’s copyright.

“It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore,” he wrote.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Diablo III comes to consoles, makes for better gameplay

It's been a while since the release of Blizzard’s third entry into its popular PC game franchise, Diablo. Since then, Diablo III has been criticized for a number of questionable design elements, ranging from Blizzard’s controversial decision to restrict the game to always-online play, to its glaring lack of new gameplay features despite a decade in the making.

Enter Diablo III for the console.

According to Kotaku, Blizzard is now bringing Diablo III to the console. This version, though still at its core the very same game, aims to address the problems of its PC game cousin.

 

 

First and foremost, Diablo III can finally be played offline. Gone are the infamous lag issues, server problems and the notorious Error 7 woes. Secondly, the console controller as a replacement for the mouse and keyboard offers a new, potentially more fun and intuitive way to play the game. For one thing, our index fingers will no longer ache from all that clicking. But whether this new interface will lead to sore thumbs instead remains to be seen.

On the PS3, the player uses the left joystick of the controller to move the character around. R1 and the colored buttons are primarily for mauling monsters and interacting with the environment, but they can be customized to fit any play style. The L buttons are for potions.

One addition to the characters’ common moves list is one many fans have been clamoring for and that I, personally, would have loved to see in the original game: an evade command. No longer will our virtual avatars have to stand dumbly in place and take fireballs to the face; now they can dodge enemy attacks, like any intelligent demon-hunting veteran will do. Another gameplay tweak so intuitive one wonders why it wasn’t in the original in the first place, is the ability to move while attacking. For the more fragile classes like the Demon Hunter and the Wizard, this is a blessing.

But wait, there’s more! When questioned about the other changes made to the console port, Joshua Mosqueira and Matthew Berger of Blizzard had plenty to say.

Regarding boss battles, Berger said, "We know that there's a huge tradition of boss battles on console games. We're going through bosses and updating visuals, cinematics. Also, the pacing."

The item system has also been modified. Players can now see how an item will affect their characters’ stats before they pick it up.

Online play will make use of the PlayStation Network instead of Battle.net, which means owners of the console port won’t be able to form parties with PC gamers. There is, however, another option that allows multiplay on one console and on one television, so that now you can play with your mom or your yaya at home if your online friends are too busy ogling Lara Croft to hunt demons with you.

The PC version of Diablo III sold over 12 million copies. Blizzard is confident the console port will sell just as well, however; from their estimates, over 50% of the people who have visited their booths have not yet bought or played the PC game.

As for when fans can get their hands on the console port of the game, Diablo III will be released “Soonish”, to quote Mosqueira. — TJD, GMA News

 

source: gmanetwork.com

 

Ouya Android-powered game console now up for pre-order

Announced a few months ago and priming itself for retail in April 2013, the Ouya is a new video game console that’s primed at introducing Android-based software and games to the video game industry.

As a console that came into fruition via a Kickstarter campaign in July, the upcoming new console is the result of the efforts of Boxer8, headed by game industry veteran Julie Uhrman.

Fuseproject founder and designer Yves Behar was brought in to collaborate on the project, along with product manager Muffi Ghadiali. Backers were quickly gathered, and soon the console saw signs of life.

Built using open-source software technology that runs on the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, the unit has a Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU powering it, and an 8 GB internal flash memory storage device and 1 GB RAM for memory. It supports 1080p HDMI Display, and visuals are supported by NVIDIA ULP GeForce GPU graphics card. It also has a 3in touchpad wireless controller, with eight buttons, two analog sticks, a d-pad, and a system button attached to it.

With an introductory price of $99, the Ouya is prepared to enter a world where Sony’s Playstation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 are the reigning rulers of the console market.

Via an update on Kotaku, the Ouya is now available for pre-order. The console doesn’t have a lot of launch titles announced for it yet, but one big name confirmed for it is a port of Final Fantasy III by Square Enix. Another game in development is a prequel to Human Element, an upcoming zombie game slated for release in PC and Mobile Devices by video game company Robotoki. Namco Bandai is also in negotiations to port some of their existing titles to the Ouya, but not much other info has surfaced so far. Freeware open media player Plex Media Center is also coming to the system.

More information can be read about the Ouya, as well as pre-order info, by visiting the official website, www.ouya.tv. — TJD, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

What Would Molydeux? A 48 Hour Game Jam Based on Parody Twitter Account

At this point in its lifecycle, the parody Twitter account, @petermolydeux, has made a name for itself, parodying the legendary game designer Peter Molyneux. Known for being extremely eccentric and getting too carried away with his ideas, the parody Twitter account emulates Molyneux well, tweeting hilariously insane video game ideas that, oddly, usually end up being legitimately good game ideas. To celebrate the Twitter mastermind, a 48 hour game jam is being held in his honor, where participants will develop games using the twisted ideas tweeted from the account.

The game jam will be held from March 30 to April 1, and if you’d like to participate, you can head over to the Google Docs signup page and throw your talented hat into the ring.

If you haven’t been following @petermolydeux, some of his brilliant ideas include a game where eight different players control one octopus tentacle per player, hilariously dubbed Cooptipus. Another of his ideas is a game where you have to survive a zombie apocalypse by keeping safe inside your house, but your house is made of guns, and to kill the zombies you have to dismantle your shelter in order to get the guns to shoot them with.

Fortunately, if you don’t want to dive into the entire @petermolydeux Twitter feed, he has created an easily browsable list of past game ideas you can view here. Some of the ideas included are a survival horror game mixed with a bowling game, a game where you play as a life support machine in a hospital, but at night you turn into a diseased rat, and a stealth game where the enemies have dirty piano keyboards for aheads, and to dispatch said enemies, you have to clean their piano keys without making a noise.

Obviously, @petermolydeux is nothing short of a genius, and it’ll be great to see (and play!) the results of the game jam. Stay tuned.

source: http://www.geekosystem.com/what-would-molydeux/

New Gaming Mouse, Savu, Comes With Its Own Achievements

Gamification has been the thing for a while now, from regular console video games to getting achievements for reading the news. Though we don’t expect everything to be gamified in modern times, we certainly aren’t surprised by it, but a computer mouse having its own achievements is not something for which we could’ve been prepared. Peripheral company Roccat is releasing its Savu gaming mouse, and with all of the fancy accoutrements of gaming mice, the Savu is bringing its own set of achievements. Yes, you can now get achievements for mouse movement and number of clicks.

At a glance, the Savu is your standard gaming mouse. Sleek exterior, pretty lighting, a multitude of extra buttons, a sensor that can crank it up to 4,000dpi — your standard stuff. However, what isn’t your standard gaming mouse feature is the Roccat Achievements Display — acronym intended — that incorporates achievements into using your mouse. No, it doesn’t have a set of its own achievements for different games, but it has a set of its own achievements for being used. The achievement list doesn’t seem to have been released as of yet, but due to the nature of what is being gamified, one can probably infer that the achievements will look something like “clicked fifty times in one minute,” and because we’re living in 2012, the achievements can also be share through social networks.

The Savu will be debuting at CeBIT in a week, so hopefully a more readily available achievement list will be released by then so we’ll know exactly how much Diablo we’ll have to play before we can get our clicky achievements.

source: http://www.geekosystem.com/savu-gaming-mouse-comes-with-own-achievements/

Top 5 Ninja Games

The Top 5 online free ninja games are: Ninja Fighter, N-Game, Ninja Guiji, City of Zombies and Ninjas 3D and Bike Ninja. In my opinion these top five games are very interesting, challenging, exciting and fun. Everyone will be entertained playing these 5 ninja games. If you want to have fun you can play these games.

Here I will give you a short description of these top five games. I will start with the last one:
5. Bike Ninja is outstanding online ninja game. In this fun game you have to drive your ninja bike on a jick jack path with low visibility condition. Complete all five levels as fast as you can to get maximum points. Get over all the obstacles and perform tricks if you can. Try not to tip over. Use your ninja skills and vision to drive your bike and try to reach the finish line. All the best!

4. City of Zombies and Ninjas 3D is awesome online ninja game. You have to try to protect the city from the zombies in this stunning game. You are a sexy ninja and you have to fight the zombies. Use different weapons: your katana, ninja stars, grenades etc. Everyone in the city is counting on you. Prove you’re the best. Good luck!

3. Ninja Guiji is outstanding online ninja game. Your aim in this stunning game is to complete quests and fight against Samurais on your way. Be careful you must get behind the samurai to kill him. Enjoy in this cool and fun game!

2. N-Game is really great online ninja game. Your god-like speed, dexterity, jumping power, and reflexes are all the result of an amazingly fast metabolism; sadly, so is your natural lifetime of 1.5 minutes. You have an unquenchable thirst for gold, a natural propensity for exploring rooms infested by increasingly lethal ninja-killing robots, and a devout belief in N. Have fun!

1. Ninja Fighter is an awesome online ninja game. In this totally cool game you are a ninja and your mission is to fight with other ninja. Use your ninja skills in order to win in this stunning game. Have fun and enjoy!

According to me these five games are the best online ninja games. You can play this five online ninja games and many more on Ninja Games you can find at ninja-games.biz. You must play them and see if you are sharing my opinion. I hope you will like them.

Ninja Games - Online Ninja Games

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http://www.articlebiz.com/article/1051515508-1-top-5-ninja-games/