Harmonix Music Systems has announced that they will be teaming up with Q Entertainment, a leading Japanese music game designer, to bring Rock Band to Japan.
The collaboration will mark the first time a US-based rock music title will be heavily localized for the Japanese market. Q Entertainment’s involvement in the music/rhythm genre includes it’s work on Lumines, E4 (Extend Every Extra Extreme), and Rez HD’s release for Xbox Live Arcade.
Rock Band has sold over 3 Million copies to date and should enjoy great success in the region responsible for many of the great rhythm games in recent years. READ MORE
Beginning this week, our Monday morning update on the new releases on the Wii Virtual Console takes a turn to encompass the weekly releases on WiiWare as well.
To kick things off, Nintendo has released a pair of WiiWare titles and a single Virtual Console title this week. The WiiWare releases are: Critter Round-Up (Konami) and Star Soldier R (Hudson Entertainment).
Critter Round-Up will set you back 1,000 Wii Points and is rated E while Star Soldier R is only 800 Wii Points, but is also rated E.
This week’s VC release is SKYKID is only 500 Wii Points and is rated E. READ MORE
Many recent game releases are overly complicated. This is not to say that they aren’t fun games, but there is something great about a simple game you can pick up and play for just a few minutes. Puchi Puchi Virus is exactly that, a simple game that you won’t want to put down.
Puchi Puchi Virus takes place on a planet similar to Earth. One day, a virus named Puchirus began to infect the residents of this quaint planet. The residents begin to transform into odd creatures due to the virus. The protagonist of our story, Dr. Kevin Longfellow, sets out to help the residents. With the help of his assistants, Honeydew and George the Chicken, Dr. Kevin developed the “Virus Buster DS”. The Virus Buster DS is how Dr. Kevin cures the patients.
Puchi Puchi Virus has single and multiplayer modes. The single player mode allows you to A
Rechargeable batteries for wireless game controllers are a god send. In some cases, 3rd party companies have stepped in to provide awesome solutions for gamers looking to streamline the recharging process. Nyko is one such company and they have a whole host of power solutions available for each of the consoles.
Nyko’s initial recharging station for the PS3 came in the form of the Charge Base PS3. It supported 4 simultaneous charge slots utilizing the SIXAXIS’ mini-usb port for connectivity. With the announcement of the Dual Shock 3’s imminent release, Nyko has released a revised version of the charging station that is compatible with the Dual Shock 3, this time named the Charge Base 2. This revised version of the initial product has cut the number of charging slots down to 2 and utilizes a special connector for charging connectivity. These charge adapters feature a mini-usb on one side and a few contact spots on the other. This change in design allows the controllers to lightly sit on the Charge Base as opposed to being firmly stuck to the Charge Base.
The Charge Base 2 features a pair of bright lights to indicate when a controller is charging or when it has reached a full charge.
I personally like the Charge Base 2 and have no issue with recommending it to friends and family, but the $30 price tag that the Charge Base 2 carries may be a deterrent for many gamers despite the added convenience. This is compounded by the fact that the only thing necessary for charging a PS3 controller is a $1 mini-usb cable that plugs in directly to one of the available USB ports on your PS3. The value that this device presents will vary widely due to that fact.
The Charge Base 2 differs from some of its other offerings since the PS3 natively supports a rechargeable controller. The device merely serves as a more convenient way to charge the devices. That said, the device’s construction is of a very high quality and the move to the USB charge adapters are evidence that Nyko is committed to improving their products.
Our copy of Mario Kart Wii showed up at the house yesterday and we spent a good chunk of the evening checking it out.
Wii Wheel
For starters, the steering wheel is great. It’s lightweight, yet very durable (the kids kept dropping it) and it was very well thought out. The backside of the wheel has a hole for the wii remote strap and a button for accessing the B button on your remote. The Wii Remote fits snugly into the center of the wheel, yet is easy to remove when you need to take it out. There is even a transparent window on the side of the wheel so you can still use the wii remote while it is housed inside the wheel. I was very impressed with all aspects of it.
The Game
Mario Kart Wii shows the same level of polish that Nintendo is known for. The menus and title screen were simple and easy to navigate and getting right into the game took no time at all.
The Controls
My big concern with most Wii titles to date is the accuracy of their controls. This is not the case with Mario Kart Wii. There was a slight learning curve to get things going, but once you get it down it is an altogether joy to play.
There is a lot more to this game and we have barely scratched the surface. I’ll save the rest for the formal review, but if you are on the fence about this right now allow me to sway you. From what I’ve seem of the game so far, it’s great. I didn’t want to do anything but play it all night long. I can’t say that this will be the case for everyone, but I sincerely enjoyed myself. I can’t wait to see what multi-player is like.
