Jungle Speed

Wii Points: 1,000
Game Type: Card Game
Control Type: Wii Remote, Nunchuk
Players: 1-8
Publisher: Playful Entertainment Inc.

"Jungle Speed is a lightning-fast card game for the entire family, where quick reflexes and a keen eye will put you on top. Flip your cards, watch your opponents and grab the totem at the right moment to win the game. Just when you think you've got it down, a new card can temporarily change the rules and keep you on the edge. Play starts when the first person flips a card. Moving around the table, symbols are revealed until two of the exposed cards match. Players with matching cards must then scramble to grasp the totem in the middle of the table; the loser gets the winner's cards and anything in the pot. With paws flying, be the first person to get rid of all your cards and win the game."

Click here for Playful Entertainments site, complete with images and trailer.

Planet Pachinko
Wii Points: 500
Game Type: Arcade Platformer
Control Type: Wii Remote, Nunchuk, Classic
Players: 1-2
Publisher: Allied Kingdoms Inc.

"Can you survive the Pachinkeet Temples of Planet Pachinko? In the future of the future, an ancient civilization has sealed away its riches in elaborate temples dedicated to the game of pachinko. Now the Robot family must fight through these dangerous temples in search of their lost puppy. Using their rockets, lasers, grenades and slime launchers, will they be able to survive the challenges? They aren't the only ones adventuring through the temples. The pirate Vile Vill and his minions are looking to loot the temples and take on the Robot family. Play in single-player mode or with a friend in exciting two-player co-op."

Click here for the official Planet Pachinko website.

Recent updates to the German rating board have revealed two new WiiWare titles which feel like a bit of déjà vu in the downloadable space.

The first is Texas Hold'em Tournament from Digital Leisure, the fellows behind Sudoku Challenge and The Incredible Maze. This game actually has been revealed, but never sent out a press release - they just quietly put up a synopsis on their website.

"Think you're the best poker player out there? Using the Nintendo ® Wi-Fi Connection service, start climbing the worldwide rankings by winning online tournaments and see how your poker skills stack up against the world by viewing the online Leaderboard. Texas Hold'em Tournament also lets you play multiplayer poker with up to five friends, and with full Mii support, you can really bring yourself to the table"

While their first two titles were very simple and cheap titles to bring to WiiWare, this title seems to have more attention given to it. Leaderboards, Mii support and online play are very welcome additions.

The second title is Sudoku - We All Play from 1bit garden. While this is not officially announced as WiiWare, it certainly sounds like it 1bit garden's website mentions that they're a very small outfit, but have also been given the nod to be an official WiiWare and PlayStation Network developer.

While Sudoku is not the most ambitious title, especially for WiiWare, it might be better than the current Sudoku game. If you need that fix, there you have it.

Upcoming Chibi-CTF Fat Princess made its debut last year at E3's Sony conference. This year at CES more people were able to get their hands on a nearly complete version of the game.

GameTrailers has an excellent 3-part walkthrough of the mechanics for Fat Princess, while GameSpot and IGN have both had some glowing previews for it too.

You can check out parts 2 and 3 of the GameTrailers walkthrough after the jump.

At the Consumer Electronics Show Microsoft revealed that Kodu, previously titled Boku, will be made available to everyone through XNA Community Games in 2009.

Kodu is a visual programming tool designed to be used by people who cannot program their games themselves - a simpler version Click & Create from the mid-nineties and The Sims Carnival - a new and very popular web application allowing players to create their own games.

You can check out a quick video on how Kodu will work above, as well as check out IGN's impressions here. From the sounds of it they will be releasing the application through Community Games and will have some sort of system which allows players to upload their games to a server for other people to play - similar to that of Little Big Planet.

If this can all work out within their own rule set for XNA Community Games it will be a very interesting thing to see. The current rules limit the filesize for community games to 150 megabytes and limit the transfer of information, leaving games like Biology Battle and Easy Golf to find complicated way to exchange information. If this application has some better way of doing it I'm sure others those developers are all ears.

With the recent changes to the ESRB ratings system, on occasion we'll get a bit of a synopsis on titles that have yet to be announced.

Previously we revealed that Gel: Set & Match had popped up on the Australian classification website. All we knew was that it was being developed by Gastronaut Studios, the fellows behind Small Arms for Xbox Live Arcade back in 2007.

Now the synopsis has been revealed, courtesy of the ESRB:

"This is a puzzle game in which players use a small character to move colored blocks and arrange them into formations. Players can sometimes get "smushed" by thrown blocks or by "bomb blocks" that release a gel-like substance. Players can also customize their characters with a variety of zany costumes, including a "cartoony" zombie speckled with green slime and missing chunks of ear and jaw."

Gel sounds a little bit like the classic Adventures Of Lolo for the NES. You can check out a video of that here. It also sounds a bit like one of the quality XNA Community Games titles that has been released in CaveIn - Miner Rescue Team.

Since the game has shown up on ESRB and OFLC, we should be hearing more about this game very soon.

Source: ESRB - Gel synopsis.

Oh sure, we still don't know what's coming out this week for Xbox Live Arcade, but we're all set for next week. Action-platformer The Maw will be released next Wednesday for 800 Microsoft Points.

"The pinnacle of alien evolution, Maw is a cowardly fat blob concerned mostly with snacking and lounging. He can, however, absorb the traits of anything he eats, is virtually indestructible, and can grow to unlimited size. If he wasn't a danger to all life in the universe, he'd make the perfect pet. In this action/adventure game, he's the best friend of our hero Frank, and only by working together can Maw eat their way to freedom.

The Maw was honored with the Audience Choice Award in the 2008 PAX-10 showcase of independent games, and is a finalist at this year's Independent Games Festival for Technical Excellence."

The Maw is looking really good, and I'm really hankering for a 3D platformer right now. The game will also include a free unlockable premium theme, which is very nice to see.

Check out more on The Maw at their website. Now if only we could find out what is coming out this week on XBLA...

EA's unorthodox strategy for bringing Hasbro's lines of board and card games to the Xbox Live Arcade has raised a few eyebrows. It's still not entirely clear on how Family Game Night will be releasing the games,how achievements will work and the kinds of prices we can expect. But these new videos from IGN can clear up a bit on how the interface will be working.

Continue reading for videos of Battleship and Scrabble, or click below for IGN's hands-on with Family Game Night.

Source: IGN CES 2009: Hands-on Hasbro Family Game Night on XBLA

High Voltage Software have revealed that their next title, High Voltage Hot Rod Show, will be showing up on WiiWare on January 19th in North America.

"High Voltage Hot Rod Show is an arcade-style racing title that centers on a unique boost system which requires players to pull off dare-devil stunts in order to achieve maximum speed. The game was built using the company's proprietary Quantum 3 Game Engine technology, which provides stunning graphical performance."

The game will be released for 1,000 Wii Points, and will feature 4 player split-screen racing and online leaderboards. Still no word on whether this or their other titles will be making it to Europe at some point.

Click here for more screenshots of Hot Rod Show.

The guys over at Team Xbox have hooked up their Xbox 360 test kit and gone wild with three new previews of upcoming Xbox Live Arcade titles coming in the first quarter of the year.

CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars

"Your Psi abilities in CellFactor dovetail nicely with the action-packed shooter fun of the gameplay. No puzzle-solving to be done with floating objects here, just lots and lots of smashing bits of the environment into your opponents faces. In CellFactor, you’ll have multiple ways of utilizing your psi abilities as weapons and defensive tools. What exactly you get to do with those abilities is defined by which character you choose to play as though. In CellFactor, there are three basic characters (or classes if you want to look at it that way) to play as."

You can play as three different classes, each with completely different movesets: Bishop is the female psi character who can fly and push balls of picked up garbage at others, Blackop is a more traditional shooting character with some limited psi abilities, and the Guardian is the dual weilding, double jumping master of weapons. It's looking pretty good so far. This game will also be available for the PlayStation Network as well.

Click here for Team Xbox's first look at CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars. They also have a video available of the game which you might want to look at.

Blazing Birds

"When I first saw Blazing Birds listed as a potential Xbox Live Arcade game, my first thought was that it was going to be a flying game, perhaps air combat. But when I saw it was badminton with robot surrogates as the players, I thought what you’re probably thinking now: “Wow, that should be pretty boring.”

"As I played the title and got deeper into the gameplay, though, I realized that such a preconception was way off the mark. The project developer, David Flook from Toronto, has crafted enough variations on badminton and put some twists in to improve its playability. It’s more fun than you’d expect—and there wasn’t much surprise that it was co-winner of Microsoft’s 2007 Dream-Play-Win competition, which was intended to recognize the best community games created with the company’s XNA programming tools."

David Flook along with his brother have already released one title on Xbox 360 - Blow for XNA Community Games, their second submission for the Dream-Build-Play competition. That's also a very good puzzle game, so despite this still technically being his first title, I hope it works out for him.

Find out more about Blazing Birds with Team Xbox's preview here.

Death Tank

"Death Tank is quite simple in design, putting a number of tanks onto a hilly terrain and then counting down to the metal machines flinging missiles into the air. It’s up to each tank navigator to determine the correct firing angle and power in order to take out the foes scattered across the same terrain.

"There’s not much beyond that minimalist concept. The gameplay—which reminded me of the XBLA Worms game, with players wanting to discover the right firing parameters, so that every shot counts for something—is one of those simple-yet-complex designs, though another layer of strategy comes out when you score a kill, which earns you points, as well as money that’s banked at the end of each round. Between sortees, you can purchase upgrades to your tank, including a machine gun for faster bullet firing, Super Fuel for faster driving and a Nuke armament that unleashes the damage faster."

Death Tank is looking very cool and appears to play just like the original. There is currently word that the game will be released at the premium price of 1200MSP which I think is a big mistake, especially if you want to build a community upon a fantastic multiplayer game. I hope they change their mind.

Read the whole hands on preview of Death Tank here.

The XNA Community Games were a very interesting move by Microsoft back in November - allowing anyone with the know-how to create a game and release it onto the Xbox 360.

With the highs and lows of the service still being sorted out, one major problem remains - nobody's been paid.

Patrick Klepek over at the MTV Multiplayer blog has been busy asking XNA developers what their status is with sales and their income - the problem is that they don't know. Right now there is no setup to allow developers to know how much their game has sold, and won't be available until March.

That's 5 months without any payment or even word on how games are selling on the service. For creators like the people behind Biology Battle and Weapon Of Choice who are doing this full time it's an utter hassle.

While the first 5 month wait is a one-off time, later payments will be made every 3 months after that. That's still an awful long time to be waiting to know how much money you've made. From hearing iPhone developers discuss their applications, they tend to get paid after they reach certain milestones, but tend to get paid far quicker.

Currently the only way to have an inkling of sales is through Major Nelson's weekly blog about the Top 10 XNA Community Games. Unfortunately with such a varied amount of prices for XNA Community Games its difficult to see any real trends.

Each week seems to show a whole new set of games in the Top 10, which may mean all games are selling roughly the same, and that only minor changes can completely change the Top 10 If that's the case the sales may be incredibly low at this point. The only trend we can see is that the higher quality titles aren't making it to the top every week, which is disheartening.

Jason Swearingen of the XNA Community Game Biology Battle discusses this and more on Evolvedgaming.com's most recent podcast, where he discusses being in the dark in terms of profitability, the difficulty of pricing XNA games and what they are currently working on for the future of XNA. You can check out that podcast here.

When March rolls around we will hopefully see many of these developers come out and discuss their makings - good or bad - so we can see whether this idea can really continue on to be a profitable venture.

Source: MTV Multiplayer Blog - Xbox 360 Community Developers Still Don’t Know Sales Figures

No game this week - instead you're getting Castle Crashers DLC.

Castle Crashers - King Pack

"Add to your arsenal of good with 2 new playable characters plus additional weapons and animal orbs."

Click here to download the King pack.

I'm a little late to the party on this one - the December issue of Game Developer Magazine has an insightful look about next week's Xbox Live Arcade game The Maw - a postmortem look at trying to get into the digital download space.

The postmortem is written by CTO and co-founder of Twisted Pixel Frank Wilson and introduced as follows:

"Twisted Pixel went from an under-construction warehouse to a urologist's office during the development of The Maw, and lived to tell the tale. Here, the author discusses the difficulty of Lua and Luabind memory allocations and XML load times, not to mention the difficulty of greenlighting a new project to begin with."

Luckily, sister site Gamasutra has a number of extracts from the postmortem, detailing some of the things that went right and wrong during the game's development.

In addition, the downloadable/online viewable digital version of the December 2008 Game Developer issue is now available - you can buy it for $3.95 via its official website.

Gaijin Games and publisher Aksys Games have revealed their first WiiWare title - Bit.Trip Beat.

Bit.Trip Beat is "a crazy mix of 80s aesthetics and modern game design", says their press release, and looking at the video, it's certainly true. While games like Space Invaders Extreme and Pac-Man CE have brought back the more 8-bit stylings of classic arcade games, Bit.Trip Beats opts instead to go even further - to look like an Atari 2600 game.

“The Gaijin Games team wanted to make a game that used the tools of today to inspire the fun of yesterday. Our goal was to make a game that was as simple in gameplay as the games of the early 80s and equally as fun-even though gamers' tastes have changed over the years,” continues Alex Neuse, Designer of Gaijin Games. “And let's face it, sometimes a really good videogame is just awesome. We hope you enjoy BIT.TRIP BEAT.”

Certainly looks appealing, I just hope it attempts to come out across the world.

[Ex-Insomniac programmer Nathan Fouts created one of the standout Xbox Live Community Games for Xbox 360 in 2D side-scrolling shooter Weapon Of Choice, and explains in a new postmortem for sister site Gamasutra.com.]

Our sister site Gamasutra has a postmortem of standout XBLCG game Weapon Of Choice - here's the intro, click below to read the entire article:

"Working on games such as Resistance: Fall of Man and Postal 2 was a dream come true. While I really enjoyed contributing to stunningly-complex 3D games, my secret passion was to create a smoking, 2D, side-scrolling action game that looked like it crawled off that high school, stoner kid's notebook, and then ate Rainbow Brite.

For me, directly mapping 2D stick controls to a 2D action game is like pizza and beer. And maybe some warmed pie on the side. And some ice cream on the pie.

Mmmm... anyway, I drugged my wife and convinced her that I should quit my great job at Insomniac Games, and use all of our savings to make my own game. (Okay, just kidding -- no one actually took drugs despite what Weapon of Choice's art direction may suggest.)

With most of my teenage years spent fighting Red Falcon and the Bydo Empire, Weapon of Choice's designs and drawings flowed freely. The game revealed itself to me over a period of months, and fortuitously, XNA became ready for primetime as well."

Continue reading the postmortem of Weapon of Choice over at Gamasutra.

It may only be the beginning of the year, but it's been pretty busy for all concerned - though I will say that this week's Xbox Live Arcade release was certainly an odd choice. This week - no game, but you get Castle Crashers DLC. Not even worth adding it to the top stories of the week.

One big addition to the website is that GamerBytes is now on Twitter. Sometimes we'll get some new information about a game but don't have enough to really write a story. This gives you, the reader, instant access to the latest information.

Outside of news on GamerBytes itself, I'll be posting, via Twitter, direct links to the latest XNA titles on Marketplace for you to look at, and on occasion will post notable interviews and reviews that show up on other websites.

So go on, add http://twitter.com/gamerbytes to your Twitter feeds so you don't miss anything. Anyhow, here's the week's top announcements:

Xbox Live Arcade

CES '09 - Hasbro Family Game Night Scrabbles Your Words
New previews and video of the upcoming Hasbro Family Game Night on Xbox Live Arcade have appeared at IGN - scope them out here.

A Look At CellFactor, Blazing Birds and Death Tank
Team Xbox take a look at the upcoming multiplayer FPS CallFactor, the indie-made robot badminton title Blazing Birds, and one of the best multiplayer games ever - Death Tank.

More Info On Gel From Gastronaut Studios
Just what is the developer of Small Arms up to at the moment?

CES '09 - Kodu To Be Made Available Through Community Games
Create your own games within a game - Kodu is the next step along from RPG Maker and Click & Create.

Gamasutra Postmortem: Mommy's Best Games' Weapon of Choice
Gamasutra lets ex-Insomniac programmer Nathan Fouts spill the beans on how the process was for one of the top XNA Community Games.

PlayStation Network

NA PSN Store Update: CREAT Studios Week With Mahjong Tales And Cuboid
A Mahjong-based puzzler and mind-bending block mover fills up this week's PlayStation Network titles.

CES '09 - New Trailer And Screens For Flock!
Upcoming Capcom-published, Proper Games-developed UFO simulator Flock! showcased as part of Capcom's digital download showing at CES - and it's looking great.

CES '09 - Fat Princess Impresses
It's been quiet for Fat Princess over the past few months, but they blew the doors open at CES - with videos detailing all the classes in this CTF platforming game.

WiiWare

NA WiiWare Update: Planet Pachinko And Jungle Speed
Two new titles for WiiWare this week - and both are nothing like you'd expect from just reading the titles. Check them out here.

GameLoft To Bring UNO To Everything Under The Sun
WiiWare, PlayStation Network, PSP Network, and DSiWare are getting their own versions of the top selling card game.

WiiWare Gets More Sudoku And Online Texas Hold'em
Rating boards show off more upcoming WiiWare titles.

Bit.Trip Beat - Making Pong Hip And With It
If Jeff Minter and Tetsuya Mizuguchi got together and remade Pong, this is probably what it would look like.

There are a fair few titles that have come out on PC before becoming a digital download for Xbox Live Arcade - we're still waiting for Darwinia+ and Pipe Mania to make their XBLA debut.

One other title was Defense Grid: The Awakening by Hidden Path Entertainment, the people behind Wits & Wagers last year. Defense Grid came out a couple of months ago on Steam, and they are now working on the Xbox Live Arcade version they announced back in February last year.

But what was missing from the PC release was a demo, and they've rectified that by releasing a new demo on Steam, which you can download via this link.

Suffice to say the game is absolutely gorgeous and now after playing the demo... I'm not sure I can wait for the Xbox Live Arcade version. It looks like a great game, and the critics agree, it already has Xbox 360 controller schemes in there, and they appear to work well. I hope it's coming out sooner rather, than later.

Magic Ball
Magic Ball (£7.99)

Category: Puzzle
Publisher: CREAT Studios
Players: 1

"A fresh spin on classic brick-breaking gameplay, in which players bust apart a 3D environment, piece by piece. Smash your way through dozens of colorful and stylized levels including pirate islands amid shark-infested waters, and castles filled with noble knights and courtly ladies. Special power-ups, weather effects and realistic physics make Magic Ball a fun, action-packed and engaging experience for up to two players."

High Velocity Bowling

- Darryl Pack (£0.79)
- Gage Pack (£0.79)
- Chasity Pack (£0.79)
- Foxy Pack (£0.79)
- Beatrice's Holiday Spirit Costume (£0.79)
- Carl's Season's Greeting Costume (£0.79)
- Horror Balls Pack (£0.79)
- Gearhead Balls Pack (£0.79)
- Gutter Bird Ball Pack (£0.79)
- Trick Shots Pack One (£0.79)
- Trick Shot: Tiff's Big Zero (£0.79)

Click here for more about these expansion packs.

Brain Challenge
Brain Challenge Expansion Pack (£2.39)

"Get enhanced features to Brain Challenge: 8 new mini-games, 2 multiplayer games, A brand new Creativity mode, and Special Kid Test and Senior Test modes to gather everyone around the game."

GTI Club+
GTI Club+ ($9.99)

Developer: Sumo Digital
Publisher: Konami
Genre: Racing
Players: 1 - 8

"Back in the day, the GTI Club: Rally Côte d'Azur arcade game was a huge hit due to its frantic, fast paced gameplay. Brought up-to-date on PLAYSTATION 3 for PlayStation Network using the latest technology, the game has been revitalised with stunning visuals and support for eight players online."

Click here for more information on GTI Club+

Magic Ball
Magic Ball ($9.99)

Category: Puzzle
Publisher: CREAT Studios
Players: 1

"A fresh spin on classic brick-breaking gameplay, in which players bust apart a 3D environment, piece by piece. Smash your way through dozens of colorful and stylized levels including pirate islands amid shark-infested waters, and castles filled with noble knights and courtly ladies. Special power-ups, weather effects and realistic physics make Magic Ball a fun, action-packed and engaging experience for up to two players."

Brain Challenge
Brain Challenge Expansion Pack ($4.99)

"Get enhanced features to Brain Challenge: 8 new mini-games, 2 multiplayer games, A brand new Creativity mode, and Special Kid Test and Senior Test modes to gather everyone around the game."

Lonpos

Wii Points: 800
Game Type: Puzzle Game
Control Type: Wii Remote, Nunchuk
Players: 1-2
Publisher: Nintendo

From Wikipedia: "Lonpos is a puzzle video game by Genki for the Wii, based on the logic puzzle of the same name. The object of the game is to fit a fixed number of beaded puzzle pieces of various shapes, called pentominoes, into the remaining empty spaces on a rectangular game board. The game features a number of puzzles of increasing difficulty, and co-operative and competitive multiplayer"

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section, including positions from THQ, Rockstar New England, Vicarious Visions, and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted in each market area this week include:

Previously revealed through the Australian classificiation website, Hudson has officially unveiled their latest WiiWare offering - Pop'em Drop'em SameGame.

"Pop 'Em Drop 'Em Samegame features classic puzzle gameplay in which players match two or more colored blocks to clear them. As blocks are cleared, the remaining blocks will shift. If players are skilled enough, bonus points are awarded when all blocks are cleared. The game allows for play with up to four friends at home in three fast-paced multiplayer modes: Fame Game, Shame Game and Blame Game. Players can also customize the game by changing the block design and backgrounds.

"The game features simple, easy to understand puzzle elements that casual gamers will love. It is easy and addictive to play but challenging to master. Players simply need to match two or more colored blocks and hit a button. It’s that easy! The challenge comes when players advance and try to maximize their score."

It actually kind of looks cool for their version of this classic PC title. Even the smallest things like tiny Bomberman heads always make the fans happy, and I can't help but be remembered by SEGA Swirl in some of these screenshots too.

Click here for more screenshots of Pop'em Drop'em Samegame.

[In the latest of GamerBytes interviews by Ryan Langley, we look at XNA Community Games. Over a hundred titles have been released for the service, and one of the highlights is Ishisoft's Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp]

With the recent events of XNA Community Games for the Xbox 360 we've seen a variety of releases - but most developers have started off with the XNA developer kit with middling results.

However, an untapped source is the homebrew community. Whenever a console gets broken into, be it Wii, PSP, DS, or Dreamcast, you'll not only find numerous ports of open source games like DOOM and Quake, but you'll also find people creating brand new games to test their might on the platform.

One of those games was Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp which got a bit of fanfare for being a neat little platform-puzzle title in the Nintendo DS homebrew scene. Now developer Craig Forrester has ported over his title to XNA Community Games. In discussing the move from Nintendo DS to XNA Craig gives us an inside perspective on porting his NDS code to a new platform, and discuss the week long beginning of Johnny's journey for coffee and biscuits.