Review: Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures

Pac-Man_GA _PS3Platform: PlayStation 3 (also on Xbox 360, Wii U, PC, 3DS)

Developer: Monkey Bar Games/Namco Bandai Games

Publisher: Namco Bandai Games America

# of Players: 1-4

ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)

Official Site

Score: B (80%)

Has there been a year since Pac-Man was introduced that the character hasn’t been in a game or other must-have product? The dot-munching ghost chomper has been on the video game scene in plenty of 2D and 3D adventures from arcade games to platformers, kart racers and even an adventure game or two. His longevity has been pretty much secured thanks to Namco (and now Namco Bandai) shaking thing up every so often with a reinvention or classic reissue and the latest new game on the scene is Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, a kid-friendly game based on the fun new Disney XD animated show. While some of the more stubborn fans of the arcade classic might give this one an automatic sneer because it’s not their favorite way of playing Pac-Man (in which case, they can go dive into the stellar multi-platform Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+), the game is actually quite a lot of fun with only a few quirks… Continue reading

The Typing of the Dead Overkill Now On Steam: Shaky Hands May Actually Help…

TOTDO9…and some really BIG keys to type on if you’re really a scaredy-cat. Granted, Sega’s hilarious offshoot of it’s popular classic arcade game series is more fun to play for fast typists with nerves of steel who aren’t squeamish about a bit of digital blood and guts, but the game is fun no matter what your typing skills. Now, I’m from the two-to-three finger school myself (using more makes my hands confused because they all want to hit the same keys (stupid fingers!), but I’ve played the classic Sega Dreamcast game The Typing of the Dead with my untaught tapping skills and did pretty darn well.

Anyway, this gory great little game is on sale NOW through Steam for a measly $9.99 and yes, comes highly recommended if you’re camping out at home on Halloween and want something different to do besides the usual scaring the crap out of kids stalking your doorway for candy. Of course, in a perfect world, parents would get this game for their kids and keep them at home where it’s nice and warm, but hey – you can’t stop those little monsters from wanting to go on the prowl for free treats on NON-holidays, so I guess tradition wins in the end…

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BUY THIS! Adventure Time 3DS Gets A Nice Collector’s Edition. You Want That 3DS Now, Don’t You?

Adventure Time 3DS

Look at it. LOOK AT IT! I said! Lovely, isn’t it. Yeah, I thought so. Uhhhh… hey! Where’s that chorus of angels I hired? Oh, crap – they all flew off to buy a box of 3DS XL’s and now I’m broke because angels do NOT work cheap. Crap and blah. Well, so much for the musical portion of this post. Anyway, huzzah! Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! has gone gold (crowd cheers) and will be… IN. STORES. SOON. Yeah. As far as I know, the PS3, Wii U and Xbox 360 versions get no special treatment and the PC version is on Steam as a digital game so you don’t even get a box (just MAGIC coming through your computery screen!). Yeah!

Anyway, if you’re awake NOW and reading this, thanks for waiting for this very post. Now get the heck to bed so I can go to sleep as well. Keeping me up past midnight, you guys… Now I have pumpkin feet (AGAIN). Pkay, Good to the Night, people… I have a tiger to catch later today or something, growl!

MUSIC! Retro City Rampage Soundtrack Will Rock Your Ears To Bits…

virt, Freaky DNA and Norrin Radd - Retro City Rampage Soundtrack - coverYeah. You NEED this download NOW. Your gamer side will squeeze you hard and your music side will grin as its head bops up and down to these pleasing bloops and bleeps from the not terrible at all trio of virt (Jake Kaufman), Freaky DNA (Leonard J. Paul) and Norrin Radd (Michael Creamer). 35 tracks, available on Bandcamp as a digital download or CD. That very limited edition 23-track Vinyl LP (Holy K-Tel, Batman!) is all sold out online (booo!). But I’ll bet you a nickel if you poke around your nearest or farthest hipster record shoppe that still does mail order (or is within traveling distance), you MAY be able to score a platter for not a king’s ransom. Unless Prince buys that last copy… then it’s going to cost you more…

Random Films: Two From France I Can’t Watch…

made in franceOK, some stuff from the vaults with a goofy story behind them. My late dad gave me a box of VHS tapes around 15 or 20 years back and these two were ones that I couldn’t play on my NTSC tape player (they’re both SEACAM format). I recall telling him this later when he called to ask if I liked the movies and he said he’d “get back to me” later on this. I knew what that meant, so I told him he didn’t have to go looking for a player here at all because even if he DID find one, I’d still need a TV that could play it. If you ever knew my dad long enough, you’d know he had a sort of single-minded pursuit of the great deal mindset to him that was fascinating and slightly pesky once in a while when he’d end up with multiples of some items if you’d simply asked for one. I had to stop him from looking for a VCR and TV on that occasion because I knew he’d somehow find both in his travels and I really didn’t want him to spend that money just so I could watch two movies, one of which I’d already seen…

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Happy Birthday, Retro City Rampage (Yes, This Means A Nice SALE)!

OK, where’s my CAKE? You can’t have a par-tay without cake and screw that Portal nonsense about the cake being a lie. I’ve got over 40 birthdays that say otherwise, grrrr! Anyway, yes, Brian Provinciano’s awesome mash-up of pure 2D bliss, Retro City Rampage, is a whole year old today and to celebrate, you get that video above and a BIG sale below. OK, not below… just click HERE, have that wallet (and a smile) ready and you’re all good to go. And if you already own the game, good! Get it for someone else or even yourself if you pre-ordered the PC version and happen to own a PS3 or Vita. Whee! Can you tell I just LOVE sales. And cake. WHERE’S MY CAAAAAAKE! Seriously, I have none here and really want a slice. And some ice cream. And a cuppa coffee. And a pony…

Gallery: Hello Kitty Kruisers (Wii U)

HelloKitty_WalkI’ve found that one of the big secrets to enjoying life is smiling more and anything Sanrio is usually quite good for getting a grin going, no matter what your mood is. Austin-based Scarab Entertainment knows this, so they’re cooking up a fun family friendly kart racer for the Wii U and mobile devices (with other platforms TBA) called Hello Kitty Kruisers, set for a Q4 2013 release from publisher Bergsala Lightweight.

Granted, I’m betting the bulk of you fist-pumping, caffeine swigging uber-core gamers are probably cringing from all the bright colors searing your eyeballs and rainbow juice splashing onto your keyboards scaring that mouse you were clicking under your seat. But, hey… I say everyone needs a too cute for words game in their libraries just to break up the monotony of grays, browns, greens and whatever color big explosions are.

Besides, EVERYONE loves Hello Kitty – they just don’t all admit it in public. For those of you immune to the charms of Miss Five Apples Tall (weight, three apples!), you’d better put on those sunglasses now if you dislike bright colors in super shiny HD, folks – things are about to get Kitty up in here:

HK_Kruisers_01 HK_Kruisers_02 HK_Kruisers_05 HK_Kruisers_08 HK_Kruisers_09 HK_Kruisers_10

Screens above, press release below the jump.

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Oops. I Forgot Some Adventure Time 3DS Screens Last Month…

Title_ScreenOK, this is a sort of filler post, but I did forget to add these to that Adventure Time: Explore The Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! screenshots for the Nintendo 3DS in that preview I wrote up not too long ago. I’m still flipping a coin about whether to buy a new 2DS or a bigger and more expensive 3DS XL to play this on.

On one hand, cheap is always good and that 2DS and its kid-friendly design (it’s targeted to 5 and 6 year olds!) will make me the envy of the playground parent set (er, not that I hang out at playgrounds or with parents, mind you). On the other hand, that more expensive XL is MUCH better for my eyesight thanks to the nice and big screen. Decisions, decisions… well, it’s not exactly earth-shaking in importance at all, so worry not your pretty little heads about me this time. I think I’ll work it out just fine…

Candy_Kingdom_Hub Cinnamon_Bun_and_Skeletons Lumpy_Space_Princess

Gallery: Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure

SNDC_Wii U_2D_E10p5th Cell’s latest game features the return of Maxwell and plenty of fun user-created content… but with a nice twist as you’ll see in that rather fun-looking trailer above. But wait, there’s MORE! Act now and every single Wii U, 3DS and PC copy of Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure also features a rather robust character edit function that allows you to create and play as any character you can come up with (with a DC Comics focus, obviously). I’m planning to scour that selection of classic to current heroes just to see if 5th Cell has stuck some of DC’s more oddball heroes and anti-heroes into the mix, so I’m hoping to see a Swamp Thing, Deadman and maybe Etrigan in there somewhere but mot likely there will be no Ally Babble or Madame Xanadu unless I can cobble them together myself. We’ll see. I do love little surprises like a smart development team that sticks in some really obscure characters into a game this flexible. Having a Bat-Mite to play around with would be quite cool, that’s for sure.

It also has (or at least HAD until I shrunk them down with Picture Resizer) some HUGE honkin’ screenshots in its press kit, which is quite amusing for a game that relies on a simple and effective art style. I had to shrink them to a more manageable size just so they’d upload faster (OK, well that and no one needs an 8000 x 4500 screen cap to scroll around like it’s a map to some lost Inca gold! Anyway, enjoy!

Assorted Heroes (Custom) Batcomputer_Dex-Starr (Custom) Dancin in the Streets (Custom) Omega Beams (Custom) Riddle (Custom) Superboy Prime (Custom) MarvelFamily_TrinityofSin (Custom) Mask-Erade (Custom) Meeting (Custom) MindGames (Custom) GettinTheGang (Custom)

Earth Defense Force 2025 US Cover Art Revealed: The Gang’s All Here (Almost)!

EDF2025 PS3 fob EDF2025 360 fob

Nice. While the game’s Japanese cover art was a relatively simple shot of multiple motherships converging on an about to be invaded Earth, the North American art features all four playable classes and some of the many enemies you’ll face off with in this BIG bug and ‘bot blast fest. I loved that they used in-game character models and not a standard painting, although the import version DID ship with one of two reversible cover images done in a cool manga style. I’ll put in a quick Q to D3PoA’s PR and see if we’ll be blessed with that alternate art choice, but even if we don’t get them, this one’s a fine looking bit of art that will make those non-EDF playing pals of yours automatically ask what’s up with that cast of armored guys and gal and that upside down spider that’s making them nervous. Five new screenshots are below:

EDF Team Explosion Ranger Robot Attack Wing Diver

EDF 2025 ships out in February 2014. Back with more as info rolls in – stay tuned.