Final Fantasy: My Life As A Darklord

Wii Points: 1000
Game Type: RTS
Control Type: Wii Remote
Players: 1
Publisher: Square Enix

"Introducing a new hero – or should that be villainess? The daughter of the Darklord! Set fiendish traps for any adventurer foolish enough to cross you, then send in your monstrous minions to finish the job!

"Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord puts you in the highly fashionable shoes of the Darklord's daughter, a malevolent little miss charged with dispatching intruding do-gooders by strategically placing traps and monsters around the tower she calls home. It's a real time strategy game with a devilish twist!"

Click here for the official website, and a trailer for the game.

5 Spots Party

Wii Points: 500
Game Type: Arcade
Control Type: Wii Remote
Players: 1-4
Publisher: Cosmonaut Games

"5 Spots Party is a game of skill for all ages based on the popular game of finding five differences. In its three playing modes, the goal is to find the greatest number of differences in the pictures shown. In the party modes, you must compete with other players and find as many mistakes as possible. In the 1 Player mode, you must find the differences before time runs out in order to beat the game’s highest scores."

Click here for the official website for 5 Spots Party

Battle Poker

Wii Points: 800
Game Type: Board Game
Control Type: Wii Remote
Players: 1-4
Publisher: Left Field Productions

"Battle Poker is a family-friendly card game with up to four players battling against the clock to make the best five-card hand possible. Battles are played across multiple rounds, and points are scored for each round based on the quality of the hand. Each player uses a Wii Remote™ controller to point and click on a standard deck of cards on the screen. The first click flips the card over, at which point it can be grabbed by anyone else. You've got to have fast fingers and eyes to grab the cards you need before someone else snatches them."

RTL Interactive have today announced a new WiiWare project titled The Mystery Of Whiterock Castle - a point and click hidden object game set in a medieval fairytale world.

Hidden object games are very popular on the PC and its quite surprising that more of them have not appeared on WiiWare. Whiterock Castle sets you to find your lost playmate by finding clues throughout the castle by using the Wii Remote, collecting objects along the way.

Currently this is only announced for WiiWare, but a recent addition to the Korean Game Rating Board suggests that the game will also be coming to the Xbox Live Arcade. RTL Interactive recently announced Ion Assault for XBLA, so it is not out of the realm of probability.

The first two screenshots of the game, along with the logo, can be seen here. It's a genre perfectly suited to digital download and WiiWare, so I hope they can pull it off.

"Fools they were, to tread where knowledge should stay forbidden. For what emerged was not a man—it was Splosion Man. "And all who saw him were 'sploded, for he was the fire and they were but meat." Able to 'splode himself at will, Splosion Man launches his way through levels, an uncontainable force. From Twisted Pixel Games, developer of the award-winning The Maw, comes a single- or co-op multiplayer experience that 'splodes like no other."

'Splosion Man will be out this Wednesday for 800 Microsoft Points. It will include a free Premium theme which you can easily unlock during the games' early levels.

Click here for the official Xbox.com splash page.

Click here for a look at one of the later levels in the game.

The Xbox Live Arcade continues to grow each month, and June was no different - 15 titles made their way to the Xbox 360's digital download service, more than any other month in its history. It was filled with old classics, new titles and something that fits into almost every genre available on the marketplace.

But this influx of many -- perhaps too many -- games come as a cost. A much expanded catalog means games don’t get a chance to stand on their own merits, and instead they swiftly fall off the recent release list.

We look at two different sources for our analysis – the weekly Top 10 released by Larry Hyrb on MajorNelson.com, and when applicable, the online Leaderboards that every title has. We see what appears to have done well, what hasn’t, and what publishers and developers can do to do better in the marketplace.

Following up our June Xbox Live Arcade analysis, the month also brought the final piece of EA’s Hasbro Family Game Night experiment, with the release of Boggle and Sorry Sliders.

We’ve taken a look back at the Leaderboards for each game to see how well this experiment did. However, please note that this data includes all logged-in profiles, and some games are quite multiplayer-friendly.

So a game like Connect 4 could very easily include multiple Live-enabled players from the same console, while games like Scrabble and Battleship are more likely running with less players per downloaded copy.

Family Game Night launched with four titles, and as of the end of June 2009, the Leaderboards for Battleship have over 85,000 players, Connect 4 has over 69,000, Yahtzee has over 53,000 and Scrabble has over 56,000.

Sorry was released a month later, and its Leaderboards show over 37,000 players, and the final two games were Boggle with 22,000 players and Sorry Sliders with 8,400 players. Sorry Sliders hasn’t fared too well compared to the others, but is the most unknown of the titles – its board game variant only launched last year.

The Family Game Night set of games includes a “rewards” list, which inadvertently gives us a total list of Live-enabled accounts who have played the game. That Leaderboard has over 160,000 players on it, and the total of the FGN games played by these players exceed 330,400. Therefore, we can see that players, on average, purchased 2 Hasbro Family Game Night titles.

Criticism of the Family Game Night titles was that they were expensive to purhase as a whole, considering you could get 6 of them for $39.99 on the Wii's retail version of the pack. But for the Xbox Live Arcade release, not everyone is interested in playing all 7 games, and many pick up one or two – therefore saving money.

It should also be said that the retail board versions of these games tend to sell for between $15 and $20 each, so regardless of the 'Internet outrage', players are saving money. People tend to remember playing Connect 4 or Scrabble when they were younger, but forget that they were never free - their parents bought them.

The Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog has revealed that Cartoon Network and Konami plan to reveal a new downloadable title based on Metalocalypse at the San Diego Comic Convention.

The popular Adult Swim show will be making it way to the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network courtesy of Frozen Codebase. The show follows a collective of Roadies who fight in service of Deathlok, a heavy metal band. The exact style of game we'll see has yet to be revealed, but I'm betting it involves punching people.

Frozen Codebase has previously released titles such as Zombie Wranglers and Screwjumper on Xbox Live Arcade, and previously worked with Konami on Sandy Beach for WiiWare. While they have not had the best game record, letting them work on an IP may allow them to get more focus on the end product.

Source: Wall Street Journal Speakeasy - Metalocalypse, the Video Game: Fighting Roadies and Heavy Metal

Revealed on the PlayStation blog, 24 Caret Games are currently hard at work to bring Retro/Grade to the PlayStation Network. Nominated for an award in sound and design at this year's Independent Games Festival, Retro/Grade has you follow a spaceship and its fight towards the end boss - but all in reverse.

Instead of avoiding lasers being shot at you, you must instead avoid those that have previously been shot. You must accurately replicate your entire battle backwards - including being at the exact point on where you yourself shot your bullets.

Check out the first trailer of the PSN version above. The game is currently set to be released "when it's done".

It's been an awful long time since Defense Grid was announced for the Xbox Live Arcade. The PC version came out a little over half a year ago, and still we've barely heard a peep from developer Hidden Path.

Well Xbox360Achievements.org has gotten its hands on the game's achievement list which usually that the game is close to being released - but they achievements also suggests that the game may have more content than expected.

The achievements suggest that the game will simply be released as Defense Grid, relegating its The Awakening subtitle. However The Awakening is used as a name for the main Campaign mode. One achievement, Master Strategist, says it will be earned when you "Earn a gold medal on at least 40 Story or Challenge mode missions in any campaign." Any campaign? Sounds like new content to me.

The PC original also included only 20 levels, and only 19 of them had a challenge mode. Unless Grinder levels (continuous streams of enemies) are included in this statistic it would require more than the original's levels to be earned.

We should hope to hear more about this award winning tower defense game soon. Stay tuned.

[GamerBytes checks out Sony's PlayStation Network PS3 downloadable game sales, with an exclusive U.S. June Top 10 showing how titles like Trash Panic and the re-issued Final Fantasy VII fared in their debut month.]

We’re taking a look at the Top 10 PlayStation Network titles for June 2009, supplied to us through Sony's PlayStation press representatives, following our recent look at Xbox Live Arcade sales for June 2009.

The PlayStation Network received 6 new downloadable PlayStation 3 titles during June 2009 – Trash Panic, Cellfector: Psychokinetic Wars, Wolfenstein 3D, Gunstar Heroes, Droplitz and Bomberman Ultra. The PS3's digital distribution network also included numerous big PSOne Classics such as Final Fantasy VII, Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid – bringing us the first PSOne titles to make it into the Top 10 in the past few months.

In this analysis, we'll look to see how well each title did, see which games released for PSN in April 2009 were able to hold on, and try to determine what trends might be gaining traction in this downloadable space.

The South Park game for Xbox Live Arcade has finally revealed itself - and it's a tower defense game.

The game was announced way back at E3 2008 in an absurd little video with no information whatsoever. Now more than a year since we can see that it's staying as far away as possible from the not-so-good Acclaim games of the last decade. As a tower defense title you'll be controlling your character to move around the board and add or upgrade weaponry around a path, much like in PixelJunk Monsters.

The game will allow you to play up to 4 players - both online and offline, and allow you to unlock many of the characters from the South Park universe. The game is set to be released the same day as the new season - October 7th.

In the meantime, check out the interview with the developers that GameTrailers recently did.

'Splosion Man

Developer: Twisted Pixel Games
Publisher: Xbox LIVE Arcade
Genre: Action
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions
File Size: 339 MB

Click here for the official Xbox.com splash page.

Click here to add the game to your download queue via Xbox web marketplace.

The Xbox Live Arcade's most popular title Castle Crashers is now coming to the PlayStation Network, it was revealed at San Diego Comic Con.

The first video and preview can be seen over at GameSpot. The game appears to be completely intact, and there hasn't been any details about exclusive content, but it's coming.

Castle Crashers did wonders for the Xbox Live Arcade - 11 months old and still in the Top 10 - only this week did it get to its record low 6th position on the Top 10 leaderboards. Will it follow in the same footsteps on the PlayStation Network? That's up for its many users to decide.

Let's hope they don't have a horribly online bug for the first few months of its release.

Source: Gamespot - Castle Crashers PSN First Look

Developer HB Studios have revealed through their website that they plan to release 3 new titles to the WiiWare shop - HB Arcade Cards, Cricket, and Disc Golf.

Currently the only title to have a webpage is HB Arcade Cards. The game includes Solitare, Rummy, Hearts, Canasta, Cribbage and Euchre card games, and you can use your Mii in-game. However it also appears to be single player only, and will require you to fight AI players for your game of Rummy - which appears to miss the point.

Not much is known about Cricket or Disc Golf, however HB Studios was the developer behind Big Beach Sports for the Wii - a game released by THQ that, due to bundling in many retail stores, was one of the Top 10 games sold in Australia for 2008. Maybe they'll be able to improve it with Motion plus support? Doubtful but hey - just putting it out there.

Source: HBarcade.com

The Behemoth may be showing their PSN version of Castle Crashers at the San Diego Comicon, but that doesn't mean they've forgotten about the still untitled Game 3.

1UP.com have previewed the title, complete with two new videos of the game in action. The game appears to keep it quite simple - you run, you jump, and you battle other friends for supremecy. The two mini games shown involve 'Grab the Gold', where you knock the literal crap out of a golden whale, and 'Paint the World', a standard "own the most space" game found in Bomberman and Tony Hawk Pro Skater games.

The game appears to be purely made out of multiplayer minigames, though that may change as the game progresses along in its development. It's actually looking a little like Halfbrick's Raskulls but not nearly as far along.

I'd expect this game to hit late next year. Let's hope The Behemoth can figure out a name soon - calling it Game 3 is becoming quite annoying. There is still no specific platform either, but expect it to be on the PlayStation Network or Xbox Live Arcade.

Source: 1UP.com - The Behemoth's Game 3

A few weeks ago Joystiq set out a rumor that Lucasarts were working on a brand new game for the Xbox Live Arcade, a game not in conjunction with old intellectual property, titled Lucidity.

Well known Spanish speaking leaker of news Pure De Garbanzos has recently posted this single screenshot, claiming it to be said game. The suggestion of a female protagonist from the Joystiq article appears to be correct, but doesn't correlate with the idea that it's a sidescrolling adventure. Garbanzos hasn't lied to us yet, so we're inclined to believe him / her / it.

Certainly, the style of graphics is completely different from anything Lucasarts have ever produced. It has more in common with classic European artwork than, say, Day Of The Tentacle. Maybe Lucasarts are serious about this whole digital thing? It'll certainly work out better than Fracture did, at the very least.

Source: Pure De Garbanzos Blog

Wizards of the Coast, the people behind all Magic: The Gathering bits and pieces, have revealed that in 5 weeks, they have sold over 170,000 copies of Magic: The Gathering on Xbox live Arcade.

In the first 10 days of release, aka the first two weeks where it was sitting pretty at the top of the Major Nelson Top 10 list, the game went on to sell 100,000 units.

The trial version of the title has also been downloaded over 440,000 times, which we believe means the game had a 38% attach rate - very high considering what we expect from digital downloads. However, it may be due to that Magic The Gathering is a well known brand - and people know what it is. People who know they'll love Magic: The Gathering most certainly bought it, and those who know they want nothing to do with trading card titles know to stay clear away from it.

We previously reported that, at the end of June, 39,000 players had played the 2-player online mode. It was the only data we had, and even that statistic beat every other new game that month. Currently, to frame alongside the 170,000 sales statistic, the Leaderboards currently show 56,000 players have been online. It appears the majority of players decided to play against the AI, rather than an online opponent.

The game is currently 5th in the Major Nelson Top 10, and has repeatedly beaten Castle Crashers since its release - a game that until now had never been outside the top 5. Congratulations to Wizards Of The Coast and Stainless Games for pulling it off.

Crystal Defenders (Demo available)

Price: £7.99 / €9.99 / $15.95AUD

"Combine classic tower defence gameplay and the world of Final Fantasy and this is what you get. Deploy class based troops in tactical positions in order to protect the crystals from wave after wave of monsters."

Shatter

Price: £4.79 / €5.99 / $9.95AUD

"Shatter is indeed what this brick-breaking game is all about as you utilise power-ups and special attacks to defeat the enemies. With innovative controls and physics based effects, Shatter is a great mix of old-school gameplay with a modern twist."

WipEout HD – Fury Expansion Pack

Price: £7.99 / €9.99 / $15.95AUD

"Eight new tracks, thirteen new ship models and three new playable modes (two of which are available online – Eliminator and Zone Battle Modes) are included in this pack."

EA have revealed that with their release of Battlefield 1943 just a little over two weeks ago, they have created a monster. In two weeks they have sold 600,000 copies collectively between the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network - becoming the fastest selling day one and week one game on either platform.

In comparison, Battlefield: Bad Company was released to retail on the 23rd of June 2008 and also had a two week sales period. According to the NPD Sales numbers for that time, Bad Company sold 346,800 copies on the Xbox 360, and on the PS3 version sold less than 260,000 copies.

Therefore, Battlefield 1943 worldwide has sold more than Battlefield: Bad Company did in the US in the same period. That's nuts. I just hope DICE can figure out the problematic leaderboards before the end of the month!

Source: EA PR - EA's Battlefield 1943 Shatters Sales Records for Download-Only Games

Shatter
Shatter

Price: $7.99

"Shatter supercharges the brick-breaking genre with Boss battles, physics effects, power-ups and special attacks. Intuitive and visceral controls give you the power to break free from the machine across 10 vibrant and distinct 3D worlds. Shatter features multiple game modes, leaderboards and trophies, and a fully scored soundtrack.

Wipeout HD
WipEout HD – Fury Expansion Pack

Price: $9.99

"It was there back at the beginning and now it’s taking the franchise into the future: WipEout HD is set to deliver 1080p High Definition visuals running at a breathtaking 60-frames-per-second. The WipEout HD Fury add-on includes a brand-new single-player campaign, 13 new ships, 8 new tracks, 3 new game modes, new licensed music and all-new Trophies to unlock!"

PSOne Classics
Spec Ops: Covert Assault

Price: $5.99

"Lock and load, because the Rangers are back in action! Choose your two-man team from a squad of five expert Rangers. Traverse dangerous ground and utilize ten different weapons to complete your missions and defend democracy. Download this PSone classic game today and jump into the action!”

WILD ARMS 2

Price: $5.99

"Odessa plans to conquer your home world of Filgaia. You are chosen to combat this organization as an elite member of ARMS. Download this PSone classic game today and defend your planet!"

The XBL Community Games as of today are now officially Xbox Live Indie Games, and along with the rebranding some some very substantial changed to the marketplace - including the pricing structure.

For developers, those in Germany and Japan can now be a part of the XNA Creators club and submit their own games - and as of August 11th, when the new dashboard update goes live, those in Japan will also be able to download Indie titles too. Developers will also now be able to send out free codes for their XBL Indie Games - no need to send off $5 to a gaming blog so they can care enough to review your game.

For buyers of XBL Indie Games, a substantial price decrease. It's been well documented that the 800MSP price point appears to be too much for a lot of people looking into these titles. Well no longer - instead of 200, 400 and 800MSP price points Indie Games will now only be able to sell games at 80, 240 and 400MSP - or $1, $3 and $5USD.

Those who are currently on the old pricing structure can now change to the new prices, and on October 22, 2009 they will automatically be changed to their closest price. This is clearly a change made to battle the current iPhone marketplace where $1 games are the norm.

As this has just been announced, those pricing changes haven't come into effect just yet. In the coming weeks we'll make it known which games have changed price, and which ones you should download.

Are you a XBL Indie developer? Drop us a line to give us your thoughts on these new changes.

Source: Creators Club - Welcome to XBL Indie Games

Colorz

Wii Points: 700
Game Type: Puzzle
Control Type: Wii Remote, Nunchuk
Players: 1-3
Publisher: Exkee

"With ColorZ, set forth in your spaceships on a mission to clean up virus-infested planets. Immerse yourself in a new gameplay experience that will reveal mind-hand-eye coordination skills you never knew you had! Absorb viruses of your own color, but steer clear of the others. If you need to, you can cleverly merge your ships together to create new colors. Buzz past your enemies to keep your combo and clock up a new high-score record. Explore an extra dimension to the game with the multi-player mode and share the unique experience of cooperative play between friends. Pool your forces, synchronize your movements, and become a unified team (of up to 3 players) to meet the challenge together!"

Click here for the official Colorz website for trailers and screenshots.

Heracles Chariot Racing

Wii Points: 800
Game Type: Racing
Control Type: Wii Remote, Nunchuk
Players: 1-4
Publisher: Neko Entertainment

"The famous Heracles has taken on a challenge like none he has ever faced. Our hero will have to beat his opponents in a race across mythological kingdoms and be the first to reach the top of Mount Olympus. You can play as Heracles and help him return the sacred trophy, or play as one of the other varied mythological characters from Satyr to Poseidon and claim the prize for yourself. Race through three racing cups across 10 courses set in five mythic landscapes. Use awesome fantasy weaponry to defeat your opponents: tridents, fireballs, Zeus's lightning rods and more. Get your friends together for intense two-to-four-player split-screen multiplayer action in Championship, Single Race or Battle mode."

Kirby's Dream Land™ 3

Format: Super Nintendo (Import)
Wii Points: 900
Game Type: Action
Publisher: Nintendo

"Kirby, Dream Land's resident hero (and everyone's favorite puffball), must once again save the day when the mischievous King Dedede starts causing trouble. Kirby must travel through an assortment of levels, battling an exotic array of enemies (both new and familiar) determined to stop him from completing his mission. Always armed with his trusty ability to swallow enemies and gain special attacks, Kirby can also unite with some of his animal friends and make use of their particular talents. Featuring detailed graphics, challenging boss battles and the distinct charm of a Kirby game, it's no wonder this title is considered a classic."

Detana Twin Bee

Format: TurboGrafx16 (Import)
Wii Points: 700
Game Type: Action
Publisher: Konami

"It's the popular vertical-scrolling shooter renowned for its cute and comical world. Here come Twinbee and Winbee on a mission to save the planet from evil alien invaders. Standing in their way are six stages full of goofy enemies. Play as Twinbee in single-player mode, or team up with Winbee in two-player cooperative mode. With powerful attacks like Big Shot, or Twin Attack and Burst Attack in two-player mode, there's plenty of sting in their arsenal. Use your Shot to transform Bells into items with various effects. Stock up on these bad boys to expand your attack range and really have a blast."

According to the USK rating system, hidden object game Interpol: The Trail For Dr. Chaos will be making its way to the PlayStation Network, courtesy of Creat Studios.

The game was previously released on the Xbox Live Arcade back in January after jumping around with publishers. Since then developer TikGames has formed a partnership with Creat Studios, bringing Cuboid, Mahjong Tales and Magic Ball to the PlayStation Network, and that relationship continues with Interpol.

The game didn't fare too well in reviews, though this kind of hidden object game doesn't tend to do well in gamer circles anyhow. If you missed it on XBLA, pick it up on PSN soon.

In our latest employment-tastic round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Volition, Namco 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:

[Every week (well, mostly), we sum up sister Downloadable Game site GamerBytes's top news and releases for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network and WiiWare services, as written by Ryan Langley.]

In the past week it's been all about sales and statistics - we've taken a hard look at the month of June and looked at what's sold well and what could have done better - plus we've got some official numbers on Battlefield 1943 and Magic: The Gathering. Xbox Live Indie Games have also gone through a dramatic price scale change - but will it work out in the end?

This Weeks Releases

- XBLA Update - 'Splosion Man

- NA WiiWare Update - Final Fantasy: Life As A Darklord, Battle Poker And 5 Spot Party

- EU Nintendo Update - Colorz, Heracles: Chariot Racing, Twinbee And Kirby Dreamland 3

- EU PSN Store Update - Shatter, Crystal Defenders, Wipeout Fury Expansion

- NA PSN Store Update - Shatter, Wipeout HD Expansion, PSOne Classics

Analysis

- In Depth: Xbox Live Arcade Sales Analysis, June 2009

- In Depth: Hasbro Family Game Night Sports 2:1 Attach Ratio

- In-Depth: PlayStation Network Sales Analysis, June 2009