Week o Games, 12/13: Blaster Master VC, Konami Classics X360, Molly the Were-Zompire

slash000

Another week, another 7 days of new game releases!

Welcome to the 94 edition of G&T's newly traditional "Weekly Games Release Thread!" - Week 12/13/09 - 12/19/09 !

Where we discuss what we're looking forward to, what we're going to buy, and what we're just now realizing is being released this week that we had forgotten about!

NDS

Reader Rabbit Kindergarten
Playmobil: Pirates

PC

Twin Sector




Europa Universalis III: Heir to the Throne





EverQuest Underfoot


Brukkon


Hello Kitty Online

Saira

Manga Fighter Season 2

PS2

nothing

PS3

nothing

PSP

nothing

Wii

Blaster Master (VC)




Diatomic (wiiware i think)




Rubik's Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH (wiiware)




Playmobil Circus

Xbox360

Konami Classics Vol. 1





Konami Classics Vol. 2

Sort of a modest week. The big Fall rush is over.


We have Twin Sector on PC, a first person puzzle game of sorts (i think), and a new Europa Universalis game, which I know nothing about.

The Wii gets some cool VC and WiiWare games this week. First is the much beloved NES classic "Blaster Master." Lots of people looking forward to that being on VC. The Wii also gets Diatomic, which, I don't know much about except it looks like a pretty cool 2D shooter or something. Might check it out. Next, the Wii gets the Rubiks Puzzle Galaxy for Wiiware, which sounds like junk, but could potentially be a cool puzzle game.


Last but definitely not least is the 360 gets 2 retail releases:
Konami Classics Volume 1, and also Konami Classics Volume 2.
These are $20 compilations of classic Konami games including Super Contra, Frogger, Castlevania SOTN, with enhanced 720p modes and graphical filters. The Vol 2 has Contra, Rush'n'Attack (aka Green Beret), and Track & Field.

Strangely Amazon is showing Volumes 1 and 2 coming out this week but Gamestop is only showing Volume 1 coming out this week and no mention of Volume 2.



As a side note, any fan of Konami classic games should check out my thread on the much more comprehensive and portable "Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits" for the Nintendo DS which came out in 2007 and is an absolutely brilliant compilation. Much recommended.






Also RainbowDespair's XBLA Indie Game, "Molly The Were-Zompire," the humorous text adventure game, came out last friday and is now available for you to buy for a mere $1 on XBLA Indie games!

“Molly the Were-Zompire is the best game on the XBox Live Marketplace that stars me.” – Molly the Were-Zompire

Molly the Were-Zompire is now available for your downloading pleasure. Experience life as a werewolf-zombie-vampire-girl hybrid firsthand! Eat brains! Don’t eat brains! Choose what kinds of brains to eat! The choices are endless! Top-notch hand drawn art that looks like it was drawn by an 8-year old! Text! More text! All this and more can be yours for a mere 80 MS points!

UnbreakableVow

Hell yes.

This same dead week comes every year, right before the holidays.

I don't have to budget any money for games, and as such I can actually go out for a few nights on the town with friends around Christmas and New Year's time

Happy holidays everyone!

slash000

Everyone with a 360 should buy Molly The Were-Zompire. It's a dollar. What do you have to lose. Besides a mere dollar. And what do you gain? An awesome text based adventure and the sense of satisfaction that comes with supporting a G&T forumer's hard work, effort, and creativity. And that's priceless!


Also, the WiiWare game called Diatomic looks pretty interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4nndK9pPK8

It's a top down shooter but it looks like it has some pretty cool and creative elements.

It reminds me of something too.

Like it visually looks like Fl0w on PS3 but the gameplay is entirely different. It's like a weird top down single screen shooter, but it's not a Robotron clone. It's almost like a shmup confined to one screen and you have all these offensive and defensive powers and stuff.

I dunno, looks pretty sweet.

UnbreakableVow

I'll buy Molly the Were-Zompire, if only to say that I've bought every game from a certain developer so far.

mastrius

I hath bought Molly the day it came out. Will play soon enough. Just been buuuusy.

fragglefart

Yeah I need to get that pronto.

Another great XBLA Indie game released this week is Johnny Platform Saves Christmas, the follow up to his well-received Biscuit-Romp (which has been amongst the highest-ranked games since the launch of Indie games).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJYvD5s_R5Y

I got it, and it is great to play a fun little old=skool festive platformer this close to Xmas.

In fact, there have been a pile of really good games in the last week or two on XBLA Indie.

Peewi

Twin Sector? That came out on Steam back in september. The trailer made it seem like a Portal rip-off, but with different kinds of puzzles instead of portals.

slash000

Peewi wrote: »

Twin Sector? That came out on Steam back in september. The trailer made it seem like a Portal rip-off, but with different kinds of puzzles instead of portals.

Well, sometimes digitally released games wind up getting physical/retail releases month(s) down the line. I guess this is one of those cases.

Is the game any good, or does anyone have any idea?

elliotw2

Well, this is a big week of nothing coming out. I don't have a 360, so all that's out, and I don't really know much about the two Wii games.

TelMarine

Blaster Master, man. Fun game, but if you look at the way the levels are setup (they show you in the manual), it is obvious that they tried to make the game artificially longer. Like, you go to the first level and then you gotta go across the entire "map" to get to the next one, so lame. Also, that second jump power-up that has you stick to ceilings screws you over so many times, especially on the last level.

RainbowDespair

Hey, thanks for the Molly the Were-Zompire shout-on Slash. And I agree with fragglefart - Johnny Platform Saves Christmas is an awesome platformer that everyone with an XBox 360 should pick up. In fact I even wrote a review of it - http://zeboyd.com/2009/12/09/platformer-review-double-feature-chris-unarmed-johnny-platform-saves-christmas/

Since I have a few Nintendo points left over, it's Blaster Master for me. Also EWJ2 came out to the VC this week which is nice.

Xagarath

And so we have yet another release of SOTN not on any format I own.
Wonderful.

Dodge Aspen

Man I've been saving my Wii Points for Castlevania Rebirth or Cave Story, and they keep being no shows, but awesome nostalgia keeps cropping up. Blaster Master might get a look, if I can stomach ignoring my backlog.

slash000

Aren't most of the Konami arcade games already out on XBLA independently?




Also -

In addition to Blaster Master, the Virtual Console is also getting Earthworm Jim 2! Sweet.

Billmaan

TelMarine wrote: »

Blaster Master, man. Fun game, but if you look at the way the levels are setup (they show you in the manual), it is obvious that they tried to make the game artificially longer. Like, you go to the first level and then you gotta go across the entire "map" to get to the next one, so lame.

I really don't see it like that. The way I see it, the tank portions are supposed to be like Metroid, which means you're supposed to use your new abilities to explore previously unreachable areas.

Of course, I also didn't realize they gave you a map in the instruction booklet. That kind of takes the fun out of it.

Brainiac 8

Since I own the original cart of Blaster Master, I'll be getting Earthworm Jim 2.

Great game.

Capt Howdy

Is that the NES Contra or the Arcade Contra? One I will buy, the other I will use as tp. And that Frogger better have the music from the Atari game.

:!:Blaster Master:!:

RainbowDespair

I just finished playing pretty much all of the XNA Indie Games that were released on XBox Live last week and wow, I'm impressed. Besides my own game, Molly the Were-Zompire (which I'm naturally biased towards), and Johnny Platform Saves Christmas (amazing platformer), what is probably the best Breakout/Arkanoid clone I've seen on the XBox 360 was released as well. It's called Bonk and it's only 80 MS points.

Not only that, but there's a downright amazing game called Leave Home. It's a sidescrolling shooter with procedurally generated gameplay. Basically, there are 5 or 6 short levels that each last a minute or so and depending on how well you're doing with score and death, the levels transform into more or less complex versions. The game looks & sounds fantastic - like the Bit.Trip guys, but a lot better - the levels have a nice amount of variety even ignoring the variants based on score, and it plays great. It's good enough that it would have been a worthwhile $5-$10 XBLA game, but it's available on XBox Live Indie Games for only $3 (240 MS points). Buy it ASAP to reward such a well made game!

Oh yeah and Gerbil Physics is a hilarious puzzle game where you try to knock over stacks of Gerbil blocks with bombs and stuff. Well worth your 80 MS points.

Some of the other games last week were pretty good as well, but those 5 games really stood out. It boggles the mind that you could buy Molly the Were-Zompire, Leave Home, Johnny Platform Saves Christmas, Bonk, and Gerbil Physics all for $9 - that's like the Indie Orange Box of awesomeness!

metaghost

Billmaan wrote: »

Of course, I also didn't realize they gave you a map in the instruction booklet. That kind of takes the fun out of it.

My memory is hazy, but as I recall it wasn't really a "map" but simply a bunch of grey numbered rectangles that let you know that Stage 2 had an entrance to Stage 7 because they had a line connecting them. Where the entrance is? The "map" ain't sayin' shit.

TelMarine

metaghost wrote: »

Billmaan wrote: »

Of course, I also didn't realize they gave you a map in the instruction booklet. That kind of takes the fun out of it.

My memory is hazy, but as I recall it wasn't really a "map" but simply a bunch of grey numbered rectangles that let you know that Stage 2 had an entrance to Stage 7 because they had a line connecting them. Where the entrance is? The "map" ain't sayin' shit.

I just looked at the manual again. What you are remembering is referred to as the "overall map". It then has a map for each stage flat out pointing out where each stage entrance point is in each level.

metaghost

Sheeeeit, maybe my manual never had that page. I was getting lost all the goddamn time.

Billmaan

I bought the game from a friend and therefore didn't have a manual. I imagine it was a lot more fun that way, even if I still get lost in level 2...

RainbowDespair

According to Vic Ireland, there are going to be some contests with Blaster Master if you can beat the game.

Cantido

slash000 wrote: »

Aren't most of the Konami arcade games already out on XBLA independently?




Also -

In addition to Blaster Master, the Virtual Console is also getting Earthworm Jim 2! Sweet.

I never understood the Game Show sequence.

Bartholamue

I'd buy your game Rainbows if it was on the PC. I don't have an HD-D...I mean Xbox 360 that can go online.

chamberlain

Has anyone played Alien Breed yet?

It looks just like Shadowgrounds. If it plays that way it will have my 800 points.