Monday, September 29, 2014
Treon's Game of the Week - X-Type (XTYPE+)
Twin stick shooters have always been a blast to play with their engaging spin on old school space shooters like Space Invaders. They have even experienced quite a rebirth during the recent indie gaming boom with developers exploring the finer aspects of gameplay offered by this classic shooter genre. Robotron 2084 was one of the earliest games to popularize the sub genre of the space shooter but it took indie hits such as Geometry Wars and The Binding of Isaac to really give twin stick shooters a new lease on life. Indie friendly consoles such as the Ouya and Wii U have even experienced some twin stick gems such as Meltdown, Nano Assault Neo and XTYPE+.
X-Type is a simple yet addictive shooter that places it's focus on style and tight controls to craft a great game that channels the spirit of Geometry Wars. The game is essentially a string of randomly generated boss battles where top scores and leaderboards are the driving force. When the player surrenders themselves to the tight controls, you experience an almost zen like level of immersion. The game started as an HTML 5 browser based experience built in the versatile Impact game engine but was expanded when the developer worked with Nintendo to make the Impact engine a part of the Wii U development environment (it should be noted that X-Type and the Impact engine are from the same indie developer). The results are an incredibly fluid game showcasing the versatility of HTML 5 as a game engine. The enhanced XTYPE+ is available on the Wii U eShop for a mere $2.99 and comes highly recommended but the developer also offers the original version of X-Type on the Impact site as a fully playable free game. X-Type is a must play for twin stick shooter fans on either system so be sure to give it a try. Enjoy!
Direct Link
X-Type is a simple yet addictive shooter that places it's focus on style and tight controls to craft a great game that channels the spirit of Geometry Wars. The game is essentially a string of randomly generated boss battles where top scores and leaderboards are the driving force. When the player surrenders themselves to the tight controls, you experience an almost zen like level of immersion. The game started as an HTML 5 browser based experience built in the versatile Impact game engine but was expanded when the developer worked with Nintendo to make the Impact engine a part of the Wii U development environment (it should be noted that X-Type and the Impact engine are from the same indie developer). The results are an incredibly fluid game showcasing the versatility of HTML 5 as a game engine. The enhanced XTYPE+ is available on the Wii U eShop for a mere $2.99 and comes highly recommended but the developer also offers the original version of X-Type on the Impact site as a fully playable free game. X-Type is a must play for twin stick shooter fans on either system so be sure to give it a try. Enjoy!
Two Tribes Bringing RIVE To Wii U
Two Tribes has been responsible for some real gems on the Wii U eShop despite having to go through a recent restructuring of the company. Their many hits includes greats such as the Toki Tori series, Edge and Rush. The company has a firm handle on Nintendo hardware which shines through in their excellent work on the Wii U. Happily, Two Tribes has recently revealed that their latest game known as RIVE will be coming to the Wii U in 2015.
RIVE is a futuristic side-scrolling action platformer which looks similar to classics such as the Contra series. The game is running on a modified version of the Toki Tori 2+ engine which bodes well for the game considering how well the engine was optimized for Nintendo's HD console. Interestingly, RIVE is being developed internally by Two Tribes for the Wii U alongside the PC version while the PS4 & XBOne versions are being farmed out to other developers. This is interesting considering that the traditional third parties normally do the opposite and shows that indie developers really do respect the Nintendo fans by taking their work seriously. Enjoy!
Direct Link
RIVE is a futuristic side-scrolling action platformer which looks similar to classics such as the Contra series. The game is running on a modified version of the Toki Tori 2+ engine which bodes well for the game considering how well the engine was optimized for Nintendo's HD console. Interestingly, RIVE is being developed internally by Two Tribes for the Wii U alongside the PC version while the PS4 & XBOne versions are being farmed out to other developers. This is interesting considering that the traditional third parties normally do the opposite and shows that indie developers really do respect the Nintendo fans by taking their work seriously. Enjoy!
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Fan Animated Zelda Series Retells "A Link To The Past"
Nintendo has wisely avoided expanding the Zelda franchise into other media outside of the questionable animated series from the late 80's. Despite fans crying for a movie or animation, its safer for Nintendo not to stray from the subjective video game experience since fans have set in their mind what the voices and characters should and should not be. This was clearly proven by Metroid: Other M which attempted to provide both a voice to bounty hunter Samus Aran and also give fans a truly cinematic Metroid experience which many fans claimed to want. Sadly, despite trying something new, the last Metroid game received a harsh and arguably undeserved bashing from the gaming community ensuring that Link and Princess Zelda would not follow in Samus' footsteps.
On the flipside, fan works are given much more latitude and rightly so considering their work comes from passion and not profit motive. This brings us to the beautiful Zeldamotion animated series by YouTube channel Aeipathy Industries which has set out to bring fans an animated retelling of the SNES classic, The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past. The group released a stunning trailer back in 2012 which showed a lot of promise but was watched with cautious optimism considering the fate of previous Zelda fan works. Fortunately Episode 1 was released in mid September and the response has been quite positive. The first episode gives a wonderful taste of what's to come and is sure to delight any fan with its depiction of Link's early adventure in this legendary story. Enjoy!
Direct Link
On the flipside, fan works are given much more latitude and rightly so considering their work comes from passion and not profit motive. This brings us to the beautiful Zeldamotion animated series by YouTube channel Aeipathy Industries which has set out to bring fans an animated retelling of the SNES classic, The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past. The group released a stunning trailer back in 2012 which showed a lot of promise but was watched with cautious optimism considering the fate of previous Zelda fan works. Fortunately Episode 1 was released in mid September and the response has been quite positive. The first episode gives a wonderful taste of what's to come and is sure to delight any fan with its depiction of Link's early adventure in this legendary story. Enjoy!
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