Artificial Studios and publisher South Peak announced that the upcoming Xbox 360 and PC top down mutliplayer action game Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia has slipped slightly from its previously expected April release, and is now scheduled to launch for both platforms on May 15. Last week during GDC the game was touted as being “nearly finished”, and set to go off to Microsoft in “a couple weeks.”
Also interesting, it looks like the extra time might have been put towards making the game support 4 player co-op over Xbox Live according to statements made by Artificial Studios’s CEO Jeremy Stieglitz during a GDC demonstration of Unreal Engine 3, the engine that powers Monster Madness. This feature that has up until now been left strictly for local play, but has been requested by forum communities for some time. Look for this one to be one of the dark horse games to really shine for the Xbox 360 especially this summer.
Tomy and D3Publisher of America today confirmed earlier rumors regarding a fighting game for the Wii set in the popular Naruto anime universe. Tentivly titled Naruto: Clash of Ninja MVZ, this Wii fighter will feature content created exclusively for the North American market when it ships this fall.
The game will be based on episodes from VIZ Media’s anime series Shohen Jump Naruto and will include 14 characters, including some that have never been featured in the Clash of Ninja game series. Naruto: Clash of Ninja MVZ will also take advantage of the Wii Remote in “fast-paced ninja action for up to four players in nine different gameplay modes.”
The fighting game will also sport new character animations, new special attack animations and for the first time new interactive environments. Developed by Eighting, Naruto: Clash of Ninja MVZ takes advantage of the Wii system by allowing players to launch attacks with the Wii Remote using “Ninja-like” movements, and features special mini-games created exclusively for use with the Wii remote.
OK, so maybe Nintendo isn’t being totally arrogant when it comes to embracing the need for online gameplay, though it is easy to jump to that conclusion. With only Elebits and the upcoming Pokemon Battle Revolution featuring any sort of online connectivity, it certainly feels as if Nintendo needs to shift gears and adopt a new solution to sooth gamers’ collective online woes. That solution, it would seem, is GameSpy.
Officials from GameSpy announced today that it will provide multiplayer technology to game publishers developing titles for the Wii. As part of an ongoing partnership with Nintendo, GameSpy has developed middleware technology to enable Wii titles to offer community features, such as friend rosters, matchmaking capabilities and comprehensive rankings data. The aforementioned Pokemon Battle Revolution will leverage off of this technology.
Prior to this development agreement for Wii, GameSpy and Nintendo also partnered to offer wireless online options for owners of the Nintendo DS.
“This partnership will expand our wireless community of players on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “Millions of Nintendo DS users have already logged on using GameSpy’s technology, and now Wii owners will be able to do the same in a fun and easy-to-use environment.”
One of the highlights for me from last week’s Game Developers Conference was attending the independent Games Festival and its bigger cousin, the Game Developers Choice Awards. It was almost surreal, sitting at a table within spitting distance of industry luminaries such as Shigeru Miyamoto and Cliff Bleszinski. Not that I would have spat on them. My mouth was much too dry.
Anyway, besides the event’s comedic styling care of Tim Schafer, the event also was home to a handful of skits performed by the always funny (albeit uncomfortable) Mega64. The group’s newest video, which was shown for the first time during the event, is now up on YouTube, and I heartily suggest you check it out. The look on Shiggy’s face is priceless, as is Link, who steals the show.
