High Voltage Software (Leisure Suit Larry, Harvey Birdman) will be bringing a zany game exclusively to WiiWare called Animales de la Muerte (”Animals of the Dead”) where animals in a Mexican Zoo are dying mysteriously and subsequently rising from the dead with a taste for flesh.

Siblings Marco and Maria Mendoz, are the main characters in the game, and players will use cattle prods, chainsaws, flame throwers, rocket launchers, and other weapons to keep the zombified animals at bay. This brother and sister team will eventually be able to master legendary attack moves handed down through their family tree called “Attacks Estupendo”. One such move is the luchadore, which is basically a flying wrestling kick which will send the enemies’ skeleton flying out the other side of its body. Then there is the “el mariachi” move which gives you short term invisibility and a twin machine gun guitar case – Desperado anyone?

Animales de la Muerte is being described as a bit like Geometry Wars Galaxies. The nunchuck will be used to move your character around and you can flick it to toss grenades while aiming with the Wii remote. The game will support up to four players, and while pricing and release details have not been announced, it sounds like it is going to be fun as hell. I mean, think of it – how would you react to a zombie elephant hell-bent on eating you, or a massive lion or tiger (which is formidable in real life) coming at you with rotten fangs and claws bared?

Check back often for more details as they become available. In the meantime, click through the link below for more information on Animales de la Muerte.

Thanks: Nick Chester (Destructoid)

Rocketmen: Axis of Evil
Developer: A.C.R.O.N.Y.M Games
Publisher: Capcom
Price: $9.99
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
Category: Arcade Shooter
ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone Ages 10 and older (Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes)
Release Date: March 5, 2008

One of the highlights of last years E3 for me was my trip to visit and interview the folks at Capcom about their upcoming games. I was jazzed about the upcoming Harvey Birdman game, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles looked like it was going to resurrect the arcade rail-shooter on the last platform I’d have expected and the Street Fighter II ultimate hand-drawn coolness edition was in the works. One of the titles that flew somewhat under the radar at the time was the Xbox Live! arcade game Rocketmen : Axis of Evil. I even wrote a quick preview of it during our E3 coverage.

Even the PR guy who politely showed me around did not have any clue what the game was based on so I guess he was surprised when I mentioned that the title was an interesting choice for a license built around a constructible card game where ship-to-ship combat was the main focus. Instead of the Star Control-like  melee I would have expected instead I was watching someone grind through a swarm of burly Martians in a Smash TV-like top down shooter.

Read the full article

This is one of the best PlayStation Store for PC updates I’ve seen since the platform was released – not only is there a new downloadable game (Go! Puzzle, $5.99) and a PS one Classic (Crash Bandicoot: Warped, $5.99), but there are also two demos (Harvey Birdman and Puzzle Guzzle) and a digital comic (The Cryptics, $2.99).

The Cryptics marks the first time a comic has been released on the PlayStation Store and hopefully it won’t be the last.

There are also some new videos and a wallpaper available. Hit the break for the full list of new content. Read the full article

Capcom has finally let Harvey Birdman out of his cage, and he should be preening restlessly on your local retail shelves as we speak. Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law promises to merge the fun and mayhem of the popular Adult Swim TV show with a unique style of adventure gameplay. Each one of Harvey’s cases are a self-contained story, incorporating the characters, settings, and off-beat humor that fans of the show will be most familiar with.

Over the course of the game, players must guide Harvey through a series of odd and comical cases. In order to prove his client’s innocence, Harvey must explore the scene of the crime, gather evidence, talk with other cartoon characters, occasionally have drinks with opposing council, and of course, tear holes –no matter how ridiculous – in the testimony provided by the witnesses for the prosecution.

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law is available for the PSP, PS2, and the Wii. For more information on this game, check out our previous posts.

Via: Press Release

It looks like an “ok” release week across all platforms this week. Most games in the following list should be on shelves in North America by January 9, 2008. I’m personally excited about the release of Kingdom Under Fire on the Xbox 360. It also looks like another week where a last generation console releases more games that current any of the current generation consoles. The PS2 continues to be a viable system after all this time.

PC:
The Sims Carnival: Bumper Blast
The Sims Carnival: SnapCity

Nintendo DS:
Jackass: The Game DS
Brain Challenge

Sony PSP:
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law

Nintendo Wii:
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law
Kidz Sports: Ice Hockey
Luxor: Pharaoh’s Challenge
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity

Xbox 360:
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom
NFL Tour

Sony PS3:
NF Tour

Sony PS2:
Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Channel Edition
Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Channel Edition Dance Pad Bundle
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
World Championship Paintball
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: The Beginning of Destiny

You may recall that the Harvey Birdman game, based on the Adult Swim show, was slated to hit stores this month before it got pushed into next year. Well, on the plus side, at least the game will be arriving early in the year, as Capcom has announced it will be released on January 8th. The game will arrive for the PS2, Wii, and PSP featuring Phoenix Wright-style gameplay, but with the humor of the TV show. You can probably expect to see more than a few ridiculous situations and cases involving Hanna Barbera cartoon character. And a bear. Gotta love that bear.

Via Game|Life

It seems more developers are jumping out of the way of the atomic blast of game releases that drops this holiday season. After several titles like Smash Bros. Brawl, Army of Two, and Harvey Birdman being nudged into next year, it looks like Ubisoft is preparing to do the same with one or more of it’s high-profile titles. In a recent financial report put out by the company, they made a note that some games’ releases would be postponed. Unfortunately, they didn’t note specifically which ones:

“As a result of the positive trends observed during the first half of the year as well as the positive outlook for the third quarter, Ubisoft has decided to postpone the release of certain games…Six franchises are now scheduled for release in 2007-08 (Brothers in Arms, Far Cry, Rayman Raving Rabbids, The Settlers, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and an unannounced franchise), compared with the previously announced seven…Three new brands are now scheduled for release in 2007-08 (Assassin’s Creed, Haze, Tom Clancy’s End War), compared with the previously announced six … the four games concerned will now strengthen Fiscal 2008-09.”

It should be noted that Ubisoft’s Fiscal 2007-08 year ends on March 31, 2008. The wording is quite vague in the report, but they do specifically say that some games will be getting pushed back. We’ll just have to wait and see which ones. Personally, I’m okay so long Assassin’s Creed stays on time…and by saying that, I’ve probably just jinxed it.

Via 360 Gamer

EA announced today that it would be pushing back the release of Army of Two to sometime in early ’08 so that the game can be sufficiently polished. It was originally set to release in just a few weeks, on November 13 – a date that Army of Two is not alone in abandoning. With an absolutely absurd number of titles coming out on that day, it’s going to be hard for any game – especially a new IP – to gain any sort of traction.

“‘Army of Two’ has potential to become a lasting EA franchise — so getting the first title right is essential,” Frank Gibeau, head of EA Games, said in a statement.

My take is that this is a terrific move by EA. Whether the game actually needs more time in development or if they’re just trying to avoid the mass rush of games onto store shelves, but by releasing in the January – March period, they’ll be in a much less busy time period and might just be able to sale on the spare cash people will have from returning those crappy movies and games their Aunt Betty gave them.

via Reuters

It’s just been confirmed by a representative from Capcom that the upcoming Harvey Birdman title has been delayed. According to a post on the Capcom message boards, the publisher didn’t want to force the game to compete with all the other titles coming out around the same time, so they’re holding off on releasing it for the time being:

“The game is and has been finished, submitted and approved, however we felt releasing the game on the same day 112 other SKUs released was not ideal for its chances. Retail buyers agreed.

As such, we’ve opted to move the title out into a slightly cleaner release window. This will allow us to get on more shelves, do a bit more outreach to the media and hopefully get the fans in on the action a bit more.”

Probably not a bad idea. Seriously, November’s already looking to be an atomic explosion of gaming goodness.

Via Capcom Forum

Everyone knows that the rest of the year is absolutely jam packed with huge releases, even with delays to titles like Unreal Tournament III and Grand Theft Auto IV. It’s easy to lose track of quality titles with so many games coming out, but that’s where we come in — each month until the end of the year, we’ll be pointing you in the direction of some games you might be interested in but may have forgotten about.

Let’s take a look at October. Read the full article