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Like many older gamers I was a fan of the golden age of Sonic the Hedgehog. I still have fond memories of a certain New Years Eve party when I was younger and the challenge was issued amongst the rather inebriated guests to partake in a competition of skill.. namely to see who could get the furthest in Sonic the Hedgehog on the Genesis. I’d never been particularly good at the game, though I’d spent a lot of hours playing it but as the host I was obligated to try the best. Long story short, I got further in Sonic that night than any other time since and I credit that to my loose reflexes compensating for the game’s innate sense of speed.

Years have passed and Sonic’s seen better days. The last two games - Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic and the Secret of the Rings were mediocre titles that lacked the certain charm and style of the earliest games, or event the excellent early 3D games.

Sega wants another shot at changing the impression that Sonic is old hat. Last year’s Mario & Sonic titles sold well but they were not true Sonic games. The announcement of Sonic Unleashed however caught the attention of Sonic fans and the limited screens and footage hinted that maybe Sega had finally found the right mix to recreate the Blue Hedgehog for the new consoles.

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More details for MADWORLD have come to light thanks to SEGA and Platinum Games.

In MADWORLD, Varrigan City is under siege by a terrorist group simply known as “The Organizers.” They have isolated its citizens from the rest of the world, and have turned the city into a bizarre and twisted game show environment called “Death Watch.” In this game of survival, all the citizens have become reluctant contestants and they are pitted against unknown enemies in the ultimate battle of life or death, where only the strongest will prevail.

As Jack, players make their way through the various levels and environments in Varrigan City, crafting clever traps and using various weapons – chainsaws, street signs, and daggers, to name a few – to destroy enemies who threaten their lives. The Wii Remote and Nunchuk are used in a variety of motions that mimic the action on screen. Lively sports commentators call out moves as players execute them, and darkly comical finishing moves add a level of irreverence that contributes to the game’s unique tone. Along with the exaggerated characters, upbeat pace and bloody visuals that define “Death Watch,” a variety of crazed mini-games called “Blood Bath Challenges” are scattered among the levels, giving players a chance to upgrade weapons and increase overall scores.

MADWORLD will be available Q1 2009 exclusively for the Wii. Check out more E3 screens here, and here is the trailer I posted yesterday.

The E3 trailer for Soinc Unleashed is a helluvalot better than the last trailer we posted. No people in this one what so ever, no campy attempts at humor, and chock full of blazing side-scrolling, rail-riding, beast-morphing goodness.

New features have been implemented in the game, and one called Speed Drift will allow Sonic to slide around corners at top speed, while the other one, Quick Step, is a side-step maneuver which allows him to doge obstacles instantly. Sonic will also gain more abilities as he progresses through the game, and repeated action chains will give him the ability to perform special moves and access different routes inside the level.

Sonic fans, lets all continue to keep our fingers crossed on this one. The game will be released on multiplatforms just in time for the holidays.

The upcoming Wii exclusive MadWorld from Platinum Games was shown today at E3 and again it looks like Running Man meets Sin City, and that is 10000% fine by me. I want to get my hands on this game more than most really because the artistic styling in the game appeals to me. Oh yeah, and it looks fun too because since it is for the Wii, I am sure you will be making stabbing, slashing, and bludgeon motions to control your character.

Like the previous trailer, this one shows off some more artsy violence and blood and looks far removed from your typical third-person action game. In MadWorld, you will battle opponents using various weapons and items found within the environment, such as chainsaws and street signs, while “sports commentary” is going on the background.

The game is scheduled for release in the early part of 2009.

I am sure we will hear more about Golden Axe: Beast Rider when Jonathan and Shawn are finished with the  Sony press conference. I have heard that there are some exciting things happening at Sony’s and that it is blowing Microsoft’s out of the water. You can hear what Ron has to say about MS though if you listen to our latest podcast.

Now, back to Beast Rider. This game has been on our radar here at Gaming Today for quite some time and considering that the majority of us were fans of the original game, that should come as no surprise. It has been a while since we have heard anything regarding the game, and we have not had any fresh screens for it up until now. The game is slated for a September release for both the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Check back with us later because I am sure the guys will have their impressions of the Sony announcements posted sometime this evening. The SEGA event is tomorrow, so I am sure we will hear more about Beast Rider then as well.

As if the idea of an action packed game where you play an eponymous witch who has guns on her feet and hands, and uses them to blow the heads off of angels isn’t enough to get you interested in the upcoming title from Platinum Games, then you most likely will not be impressed with the screens for Bayonetta shown at E3 today.

Sega will be the publisher, and it is expected to hit the PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime next year - possibly September 2009 if the rumors and the GameStop listing are to be believed. Hopefully one of our guys at E3 will be able to confirm or deny this for us later.

The new trailer for Sonic Unleashed tries to be campy and cute but it falls so short of its intentions that I honestly cannot find the proper word to describe my loathing for it. Normally I would not even post such rubbish, but it is Saturday, and I need an excuse to start drinking early.

On a brighter note, CVG recently previewed Sonic Unleashed and what they witnessed sounds very promising despite them not actually getting their hands on it. The Sonic Team have presided over the marriage of 3D graphics and action 2D gameplay, and having patched up their differences, 3D and 2D Sonic are finally living together in harmony once more - which is great news for fans of the blue hedgehog.

In the game, Dr. Eggman ripped the world to shreds which not only has the world in pieces, but has affected Sonic himself in a way that has him using his powers during the day and at night trying to control the savage beast inside him. Sounds like a werewolf complex to me, but if it brings us back to the glory days of Sonics past, full of side-scrolling goodness brought to life with today’s engines, then I am all for it.

Read CVG’s impressions for yourself here.

SEGA has committed to participating in the locally organized Summer of Sonic event in London. The company is using the event as an opportunity to promote two upcoming games featuring its Sonic the Hedgehog character.

“The Summer of Sonic is essentially a community get-together/convention arranged by a number of Sonic fansites, such as The Sonic Stadium and Sonic Wrecks,” a SEGA spokesperson told Eurogamer.

“Although independently organised, SEGA’s online community team will be providing some support for the event as part of the promotion for Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood and Sonic Unleashed.”

The Summer of Sonic event is scheduled for August 9th at the Dragon Hall in London’s Covent Garden. For more information on the event, visit the Summer of Sonic website.

via Eurogamer

While Dungeons & Dragons may dominate the history of tabletop RPGs in the USA there is another game that has been around almost as long and has had almost as much impact on gamers. I think back to my first games in the early 1980’s and I realize that it wasn’t swords & sorcery that grabbed my interest and pulled my to the game table, it was my love of comic books and super heroes.

The first RPG I played was a nondescript blue book with two titanic heroes clashing on its cover. The rules were confusing for a group of 3rd graders to grasp but it didn’t matter, we just rolled the dice and as I found happening for the next 7 years, it always degenerated into a fight in the park. The epic clash of super powered characters didn’t have grand story at first – like many of the comics we were reading they were simple morality plays locked up under the sanitary seal of the comics code authority.

While Champions was the early leader in the market other games like Superworld and Villains & Vigilantes offered different takes and options for those who were unhappy or uncomfortable with the system behind Champions. These systems all offered a different mechanic but the core concepts were similar, all of them focused on costumed heroes with amazing powers fighting to save the world from dastardly villains.
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XBLA Hors D’oeurvres are a weekly feature where I play the latest Xbox Live Arcade game – in trial form – for no more than 10 minutes, and then summarize my impressions of the game based only upon that.

This seems to happen every week lately — one of this week’s new Xbox Live Arcade games, Happy Tree Friends was released without any prior knowledge on my part that it was an existing property. The whole cutesy animals crossed with blood-splattering violence thing isn’t an entirely new concept (see Conker’s Bad Fur Day for more of that), but it certainly feels fresh in a sea of futuristic space marines.  (Is that redundant?)

Happy Tree Friends plays like a platformer crossed with a strategy game where you don’t have any direct control over the characters. Instead, you remotely interact with the environment to allow safe passage through dangerous, obstacle-laden levels. It’s a pretty neat idea, but from what I could tell from the tutorial and first level, there’s not going to be enough diversity to keep it from becoming stale.

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Her Interactive, Inc. and SEGA are working together to bring Nancy Drew to the Wii this fall. Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek is part of the popular PC game series based on the Nancy Drew series that originated in 1930.

Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek finds Nancy far from home in the middle of the Canadian Rockies to investigate several suspicious accidents occurring at Chantal’s spooky Icicle Creek Lodge. To make matters worse, an eerie wolf’s howl in the distance is haunting the guests at night, causing Nancy to wonder if the accidents and the mysterious wolf are connected.

The game puts players into the shoes of Nancy Drew; testing their deductive reasoning as well as their command of the Wii mote which is used for many mini games. There are two skill levels to choose from. Beginners can play Junior Detectives while more experienced sleuths may opt for the challenge of becoming Senior Detectives.

Gamers can uncover Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek in stores in October.

via Business Wire

Those who enjoyed the video for Bayonetta that Jonathan posted last month are in for a treat.

The next issue of EGM will feature the game on the cover, so that means than some cool inside looks and information will be forthcoming.

Bayonetta is the upcoming title from Platinum Games in cooperation with Sega for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Directed by Hideki Kamiya, creator of Viewtiful Joe, and the Devil May Cry series, it will tell the story of the eponymous witch who has guns on her feet and hands, blowing off the heads of angels.

Can’t wait to hear more about it.

Via: VG247

The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, is the third chapter in the trilogy and will be released this autumn for the DS, PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360. This time around, Spyro can fly at any time and players can drop-in/drop-out with the new co-operative feature. The co-op feature allows players to have the option of completing the game as either Spyro or Cynder, giving them more freedom to explore Spyro’s world in completely new ways.

For more on The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, check out our previous posts.

Just imagine the guy who does the voice in movie previews saying this: Happy Tree Friends in… “Ticket to Ride.” Doesn’t sound half bad. Of course, the two have nothing to do with each other, aside from being the two games in this week’s XBLA Wednesday update.

If you didn’t catch the announcement post on Monday, Ticket to Ride is another entry in the board game genre on XBLA, joining the likes of Carcassonne and Catan. 800 Microsoft points ($10) is the price for this game you can play online with up to five people — with Vision cam support! — or four people offline.

Happy Tree Friends False Alarm also carries the $10 price tag, and you’ll be restricted to just solo play in this game that’s pegged as a strategy title. I’m not familiar with the web series its based on, so that might get in the way of my “getting” it, but the visuals look happy enough to cater to a game that stars characters with names like Cuddles, Toothy, and Flaky.

On Wednesday, a pair of new games will be released on Xbox Live Arcade, each of which will run you 800 Microsoft points ($10). Ticket to Ride is based on the board game of the same name, while Happy Tree Friends False Alarm! is based on the cartoon series of the same name. I didn’t think it possible, but Microsoft managed to pick out two games in the same week that are based off existing properties that I’ve never heard of. Bravo.

Ticket to Ride:

All aboard! Travel from coast to coast and visit all the stops on the exciting train adventure Ticket to Ride. Plan your routes and connect your cities across the country to become the ultimate traveler. Earn points as you claim your tracks and complete your tickets for your chance at the big score. From sea to sea, crisscross the nation as you build the longest route and take home the prize. It’s hours of fun for your family and friends. Who will come out on top when the steam clears? Get your Ticket to Ride and see!

Happy Tree Friends False Alarm!:

Based on the popular and twisted Web series, Lumpy and his accident-prone friends face one gory, horrible disaster after another in Happy Tree Friends False Alarm! Armed with a helicopter pack, Lumpy rescues his pals by blasting open areas where they may be trapped with flaming napalm or explosive nitro, or he can put them into a deep freeze if they are about to stumble into danger. Try to keep the friends from peril in ten exclusive disaster-filled scenarios, each with three frantic levels, and brand new cutscenes.

Maybe you’re feeling nostalgic. Maybe you’ve got a DS and you’re looking for some recommendations for quality cartridges to stick in that bottom slot. (Heh.) Whatever the reason, GameDaily has assembled a pretty solid list of the top 25 GBA games. Much to my surprise, my only gripes come with the particular order the games come in (Super Mario 3 and Golden Sun go 12-11? Utter nonsense.) rather than the actual contents of the list.

And don’t say it’s redundant to do a list like this when you could go to Game Rankings or MetaCritic, because a quick trip to a site like that will yield inferior prequels to games and things like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (the #2 game on GBA? Please.).

After you check out the list, come back and share what you think they got right and wrong.

Surely, you must’ve seen some of the leaks from various companies that were accidentally revealed yesterday (since they were pretty much on every gaming site out there). And you may have seen some gameplay footage that came out of that, titled “The Crucible,” leading many people to speculate that this was video from the upcoming Silicon Knights/Sega project, “The Crucible: The Evil Within.” Well, turns out it’s not, according to Sega, who released this very carefully worded response:

“That video is not the game that Silicon Knights is creating for us. I have no idea if it is a game they are working on for someone else, but it’s definitely not the project that Silicon Knights and SEGA are producing. I can’t reveal any info about the game we currently have in development, but I can tell you that it is not titled ‘The Crucible.’ More news about our game coming soon.”

Strange. So all we know is it’s a Silicon Knights game, and it looks pretty sweet; but it’s definitely not named “The Crucible.” Maybe there’s still hope for the long-overdue video game adaptation of the Winona Ryder movie based on the play by Arthur Miller that subtly satirizes the “Red Scare” and McCarthyism. I’m thinking something like Phoenix Wright, but with more witch burnings.

Via MTV Multiplayer

Guilty Gear X2 #Reload has barely been an Xbox Original for a day now and Xbox 360 Fanboy has tracked down a listing for an Xbox Live Arcade game simply titled “Guilty Gear.” The listing comes from PEGI’s website and lists Sega Europe’s name with the game title, leaving us to guess at whether this is a port of the PS one game or an original Guilty Gear title.

Clearly, though, you might be angry if you bought X2 #Reload today for 15 smackers. If the game has already been rated by PEGI, then surely the game can’t be too, too far from release. And not too many games on XBLA reach the 1200 Microsoft points price point, so yeah — I personally won’t be picking up X2 #Reload in light of this unofficial reveal of Guilty Gear XBLA.

As promised last week, two new Xbox games have been added to the Xbox Originals catalog: Guilty Gear X2 #Reload and The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. Both games are now available or 1200 Microsoft points, or $15, each, and the only catch (aside from the outrageously high prices) is that “you may see some minor irregularities with audio/video for brief periods.” They should just attach that note to every game that comes out so that we’re warned in advance that they couldn’t work all the kinks out.

Check out the previous post for most information on both games.

Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm may not be hitting the XBLA until next week, but we can still get a look at what to expect from this new trailer. You’ll be tasked with guiding these cute, hapless critters through all sorts of strange hazards and traps. Failure means a horrible horrible death for them, usually involving geysers of blood. This game actually looks kind of inventive and might be fun. Guess we’ll find out in a little over a week.