Merscom are also having a competition! Be the first person in the world to get to 200 Gamerscore on Buku Sudoku and you will win yourself a 40" Samsung TV!
Merscom announced today that it is sponsoring a contest with Xbox360Achievements.org (x360a.org) for the upcoming Xbox LIVE Arcade title, Buku Sudoku, which is scheduled to launch Wednesday, 28 May. A drawing will be held two weeks after launch among players who earn all 200 achievement points, with the winner receiving a Samsung LN40A550 40" television. An additional five players who complete all the achievements win a copy of Scene-It? Lights, Camera, Action for the Xbox 360 that also leverages the Big Button Wireless Controller.
Merscom chose an HDTV as way of informing gamers about the incredible high res graphics of Buku Sudoku. Just as the Samsung LN40A550 represents the next step in digital televisions, Buku Sudoku represents the evolution of Sudoku into core gaming. The HDTV features include full HD 1080p resolution, 5 ms response rate and a dynamic contrast ratio of 30,000:1. Superb connectivity and networking with a USB port and 3 HDMI 1.3 ports with Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) also makes it perfect for the gamer's 360. Also, Samsung's DNIe Digital Natural Image Engine improves the picture by enhancing the contrast, detail, and white balance.
In addition to the Samsung TV, the other five players chosen from those that earn 200 out of 200 Achievement Points will receive Scene It? for the Xbox 360. Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action includes four wireless Big Button Controllers, giving each player their own buzzer. Both Scene It? and Buku Sudoku utilize the simple and intuitive Big Button Controllers for a casual and fun experience.
Developer: Stainless Games Publisher: Atari Genre: Console Classics Price: 400 Microsoft Points Availability: Worldwide (with the exception of Japan and Korea) Click here for the official Xbox.com webpage!
This week gives you two games - Buku Sudoku and the classic Atari classic Warlords!
Experience the excitement of the world’s hottest number game sensation on Xbox LIVE Arcade with Buku Sudoku. The title upgrades the traditional paper-and-pencil game with beautiful HD graphics, informative tutorials, multiple grid sizes and new ways to enjoy the game via multiplayer modes. With multiple themes that allow players to choose the audio and visual environment, over 1,200 puzzles total and three levels of difficulty, Buku Sudoku has something for everyone.
Buku Sudoku multiplayer modes feature support for up to four players offline and up to eight players via Xbox LIVE. More casual players can experience the game with friends and family through the cooperative mode, and competitive players will enjoy an entirely new concept – an active duel where the player’s performance directly impacts his opponent’s puzzle.
Warlords offers single and multiplayer action as up to four players battle to protect their fortress from attack, while battering down their opponents’ at a frenetic pace! Defend yourself from incoming fire with your mighty shield and smash down your enemies’ defenses by firing flaming balls at them, or blast a hole through and bring their Warlord tumbling down along with his castle walls!
Warlords returns in both a pixel-perfect copy of the original arcade cabinet game, plus a brand new Evolved version featuring cool new 3D graphics and the opportunity to be your own Warlord using the live video feed! Single player is supported, along with 2, 3, and 4 player local and Xbox LIVE multiplayer choices.
Developed by Stainless Games, Warlords will be available worldwide (with the exception of Japan and Korea) for 400 Microsoft Points. Click here for new images of Warlords!
So what happened with that rumored Commando 3 release this week? Apparently all a big mistake. After the UK Xbox manager apoligised for the "Street Fighter IV" error, they were asked about the release date as well, with the reply:
That was a mistake too - it's not next week's XBLA game. For saying that I've been given a spinning piledriver.
Looking at these achievements there is a lot for both 'styles' of game play - getting characters through without taking any or a lot of damage, or taking a whole lot of damage - killing even. It's all part of the show, after all.
The game is filled with different medals depending on how well you go through a level, as well as unlocking the "second part of the movie". Perhaps they dangle the first half of the cartoon as a carrot! Sizzle!
Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm should be popping up shortly. Will it be the game that brings Stainless games out of the pit that is the not-so-good Atari remakes? We'll have to wait and see!
Both Rocky & Bullwinkle and Battlezone have done pretty poorly in reviews - blaming the cheap nature of R&B and some poorly designed micro games for it's poor reviews, and Battlezone for, essentially the same reasons other Stainless / Atari ports have gotten bad reviews - games haven't aged well, and the evolved versions not being particularly good.
Rocky & Bullwinkle Developer: ZEN Studios Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Genre: Xbox LIVE Arcade Price: 800 Microsoft Points Availability: Everywhere
There’s a new addition to the family of party games available on Xbox 360! Rocky and Bullwinkle is available exclusively on Xbox LIVE Arcade, along with an enhanced version of the tank vs. tank action classic Battlezone this Wednesday, April 16, 2008!
Based on the popular cartoon series of the 1960s, Rocky and Bullwinkle on Xbox LIVE Arcade is a fast and fun party experience packed with more than 100 micro games. Eight playable characters from Frostbite Falls are back in the living room, including Rocky, Bullwinkle, Boris, Natasha, Dudley Do-Right and many more. Rocky and Bullwinkle features five difficulty settings, as well as support for up to 12 players in local hot-seat mode.
The game takes visual inspiration from the 1960s with a decidedly retro art style, but the fun is as modern as it gets. In fact, cool cats who want to get up and move will enjoy 25 micro games that work with the Xbox LIVE Vision Camera. By moving around and expressing gestures – like rowing a boat or throwing darts – players can control the action in the game!
Developed by Zen Studios, Rocky and Bullwinkle will be available worldwide for 800 Microsoft Points and is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.
Battlezone on Xbox LIVE Arcade adds exciting new multiplayer modes for up to two players both locally and over Xbox LIVE, including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. Plus, players can use the Xbox LIVE Vision Cam to challenge opponents on the battle field. Combine these features with new special effects for weapon firing, impacts and explosions and this revamped version of Battlezone is a must-have classic that fans and newcomers will enjoy.
To score points in Battlezone, players must shoot and destroy the enemy’s brigade including a standard enemy tank, supertank and a flying saucer.
Created by Atari, an enhanced version and the original version of Battlezone will be available worldwide (with the exception of Korea and Japan) for 400 Microsoft Points and is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.
Oh the year 2000 - things were looking so good for SEGA and Sonic Team. Coming from the high of the Dreamcast release they announced three games - The first two Samba De Amigo, Phantasy Star Online - all ended up being great games. The final game was Chu Chu Rocket! A bizarre cat & mouse puzzle game which essentially started the online console revolution.
Chu Chu Rocket is a simple puzzle game - save the Chu Chus (Space Mice) from the Kapu Kapus (Space Cats). Set up on a checkerboard map with set boundaries, you must get the Mice to their Rocket without being eaten or having them fall into a hole - and then onto the next puzzle. The only tools you have at your disposal are a set of arrows you must place on the map, which change the direction of either party.
There are two single player modes - Puzzle and Challenge. Puzzle Mode sets the player up with a level, and a set amount of arrows to place. Once everything is placed, pressing start will get them moving. All the Chu Chus need to reach their Rockets, or you've failed. These levels start off very easy, but end up getting quite difficult the further you move on. Thankfully it's purely grid based - it's a problem to be solved, and you can skip the ones you're stuck on and continue on.
In the original game there were 100 different puzzles to solve, as well as the ability to create your own and upload them to the online server for other people to download. The later GBA version included an additional 2,500 puzzles that users created from the SEGA servers!
Challenge Mode is slightly different to Puzzle mode - instead of placing arrows beforehand - everything is done in real time, and graded on the amount of time it took for you to complete it. In the original Dreamcast release there were 25 Challenge Mode levels - it's more of a test in order to play Multiplayer.
Chu Chu Rocket had a very strong Multiplayer aspect, and was the first major online multiplayer game for the Dreamcast. It played much like Challenge mode, but instead with 4 players and their own arrows and their own Rockets. Each player must try and set up arrows to get more mice into their Rocket, block other player's arrows, or attempt to make a cat go into another player's Rocket. Special pink mice will pop up randomly during the game and will start a Random power up - this can include upping the amount of mice coming out, replacing all mice with cats or moving all the players around! It's a frantic Multiplayer mash up which anyone can play for a couple of minutes when you're bored - your attention doesn't have to be there for longer than 3 minutes, much like Bomberman.
If this was to come to the XBLA, it should be very close to the original - complete with downloadable levels made by other players. With the current state of XBLA this is the big problem - Microsoft have barred games like N+ or Band of Bugs from level swapping by easy means despite being completely set up for doing so. Hopefully Microsoft will have some sort of infrastructure in place by the time this ever comes out.
One thing that might work well is to have the different arrows be placed not just by the ABXY buttons, but by the right analog stick. The second analog stick hasn't been utilized in many puzzle games outside of Poker Smash, and would really fit the twitch game play Chu Chu Rocket has.
Outside of that, not much else needs to be added. 4-Player Multiplayer worked wonders back on the 56k modem Dreamcast owners were using, and is still plenty of simple, quick fun which can be set up with ease online or at home.
Puzzle games are filling up Xbox Live Arcade very quickly, but there is always room for Chu Chu Rocket. Even if people aren't completely interested or good at the puzzle games, the frantic multiplayer can be fun for anyone.
SEGA have recently started up some non-emulated work in the style of Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm - being released in a few weeks time - but hasn't started any specific in house development. If HTF turns out well (with Stainless redeeming themselves after the terrible Atari ports) they might be someone to look at for this development. Chu Chu Rocket isn't a completely difficult game to make - anyone could pick up the project, really.
Thanks to Dreamcast @ IGN for the images. Respond to this blog post and show your support for such a game, maybe someone with power will see it!
IGN have just added a new interview with the creators of the web cartoon Happy Tree Friends and how the game - made by Stainless - is coming along. There are a few very short clips of the game intertwined throughout it - it's actually looking pretty good!
IGN have got the scoop on the long announced SEGA XBLA game - Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm!
Based on the psycotic web cartoon of the same name, HTF: False Alarm will have players play as Lumpy the Moose in a different kind of take of the Lemmings formula.
As Lumpy, you must use your powers of Fire, Nitro, Action and Freeze to coherse your Happy Tree Friends to complete the level - either by force (Setting fire to nearby props to move them faster) or manipulating the world - the example given is to make a giant whale bleed in order to fill an empty hole for the Friends to swim across.
The levels in Tree Friends are colorful and of the type you'd see in the saturated, happy land of family friendly animated films. But there is so much blood. In fact, there are about a half-dozen custom deaths in Tree Friends. Oh yes, there will be blood. You only need a lone Tree Friend to reach the exit and beat a level. That may often be the case as the five Friends seem attracted to anything that might prove lethal.
Another addition is that False Alarm will also include a brand new and exclusive episode of Happy Tree Friends, unlocked by finishing all the levels! You can read the rest of the preview, as well as the first few shots of the game, by going to the source below. The game is apparently set for an April release date, so look for it soon!
