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Posted April 21, 2013 by Peter in News
 
 

This Week In Gaming – April 15th to 21st

This Week In Gaming
This Week In Gaming

If you’re a Nintendo fan, it’s fair to say this has been a far, far busier week than most…

Announcements

On Monday, Nintendo streamed Nintendo Direct and announced a large number of new titles. It also seems to show it being a better time to own a 3DS than a Wii U, with a vast majority of the titles coming to the handheld.

One of the most prominent was a new Legend of Zelda title, set in the same world and titled as a sequel to the SNES classic Link to the Past. Videos of demo playthroughs show gameplay very reminiscent of the original (a different video of the same demo being played can be seen here, which also has clear audio of the game’s soundtrack)

Other titles included:

    • A new Yoshi’s Island game
      A new Mario Party game
      A prequel to Lego City Undercover
      Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move
      And for the Wii U, Game & Wario was announced, following in the footsteps of the Warioware games by being made up of many minigames to be played on the TV, Wii U pad, or combinations of the two.
  • There were also updates given for several previously announced titles, including Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D on the 3DS, and Super Luigi U for the Wii U.

    Super Luigi U

    Super Luigi U

    Namco Bandai released another video for Star Trek: The Video Game, showing some of the behind-the-scenes work on creating the musical score and recording the voices of the actors from the forthcoming movie. The story of the game is set between 2009′s reboot and Star Trek: Into Darkness due out in May; and fittingly, the game coming out between the two – just – with release dates next week. Of course, this isn’t the only work they’ve done with Star Trek cast, having an earlier video with William Shatner, a man who always seems willing to send himself up.

    The week before last we covered how there was early information suggesting that early Megadrive title Castle of Illusion, starring one M. Mouse, was getting an update to new systems. Last week this was officially confirmed – Sega Studios Australia are bringing the game to Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and PCs summer this year. Quite how true to the original the game will be remains to be seen – the announcement described it as “a complete re-imagining”, and that the game has “new gameplay mechanics”.

    Namco Bandai announced last week that Soulcalibur V would become available for download on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network as of next week. Released last year, the bring-you-own-weapon party had its invitation accepted by Ezio from Assassin’s Creed 2 who is a playable character, along with the established fighters such as Ivy, Yoshimitsu and Edge Master. Due for release on 23rd on Xbox and 24th on PS3, the downloadable game will be £14.99 or £15.99 respectively – though a special edition will also be available on the PS3 with extra content for £23.99.

    Soulcalibur V

    Soulcalibur V

    Red 5 Studios have announced that Firefall, a free-to-play open world MMOFPS, will be going into open beta on July 9th. Set 200 years in the future, the world is one filled with people fighting against a hostile alien race called the Chosen while also trying to survive an energy storm enveloping Earth. Registering for open beta now also has the possibility of getting an invite to the current closed beta tests, which promise significant changes between now and the summer.

    Updates

    Four and a half years after Atlantica Online was released, telling players about the mysterious land of Atlantis that they should find, Atlantis has finally been found thanks to the area being added in a major content update this week. When released at the end of 2008, the turn-based strategic MMORPG won several awards but has since slipped back in terms of popularity. However, since the new content was released for the Korean version last year players have been waiting for its release in the international version – adding two new classes and low level content for them, high level content for all players, new equipment and a new raid.

    Atlantica Online

    Atlantica Online

    Another title receiving updates was Aion Online, which was updated to version 3.9 last week. Developed by in Korea NCSoft but run in the west by Gameforge, Aion’s update added a new instance, a PvE only beginner’s server, and an integrated instance server among other features. Along with the update, it was announced that since going free-to-play February of last year 3 million new accounts have been started for the game.


    Peter

     
    Peter can be described as an old, hairy gamer, a survivor of the console wars of the 1990s, and a part-time MMO addict. He has an especial fondness for retro gaming and observing the progressions in long running gaming series. When scandalously not caught gaming, he can also be found reading comics and fantasy fiction, or practising terrible photography.