SIMCITY CREATOR, AN ALL-NEW EXPERIENCE FROM THE SIMS LABEL FOR THE Wii AND NINTENDO DS, COMING SEPTEMBER 2008

Create, Enjoy, Destroy Amazing Cities On The Wii; Develop Your City From Ancient Times To The Modern Day On The Nintendo DS

The Sims™, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) Label, today announced the first details for SimCityTM Creator, exclusively for the WiiTM and Nintendo DSTM. SimCity Creator is an open-ended, highly creative game with a sense of humor that allows players to utilize the distinctive gameplay aspects of the Wii and Nintendo DS to create, enjoy and destroy epic cities. The most accessible and light-hearted game from the SimCity franchise, SimCity Creator will ship on September 22, 2008 in North America and on September 19, 2008 in Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. SimCity Creator is designed to be a city-game experience for families and players of all ages!

SimCity Creator for the Wii™
Be a powerful mayor — create, enjoy and destroy your ultimate city. Start by zoning your city, constructing homes, businesses, factories, skyscrapers, freeways, railroads, and much more. SimCity Creator is a visually exciting experience with a completely new user interface, designed specifically for the Wii and the Wii remote. You’ll discover many ways to customize your city, including 13 city styles to explore, such as American, European and Asian themes. More city styles will be revealed, so stay tuned for more information!

You can also place a selection of more than 30 “Hero” buildings into your city to make it distinctive and momentous. Some of these iconic buildings are based on the current day, some on history and some on fantasy. The more city styles you explore, the more Hero building options you have.

For the first time, take the liberty to build transportation systems with free placement of rounded and curved roads and rail lines, taking your city to new creative and curvy heights. And get a new perspective on your cityscape from a helicopter, a jet or a propeller plane which you can use to fly over your creation. Check out what you’ve built in your aircraft of choice!

Disasters that players of SimCity always love remain an important and entertaining element in SimCity Creator. Using the Wii remote you can create earthquakes, tornados, call in destructive robots and monsters, create fires and discover many more ways to cause havoc. You created it, and now you can destroy it. With hours of fun and replayability, the fate of your city and its citizens are in your hands!

SimCity Creator for Nintendo DS™
Guide your city from ancient times into the future with SimCity Creator for Nintendo DS. Evolve your city through time, starting with ancient times, the middle ages, modern times, present day and the future. Four play modes are available, Challenge, Free Play, Chance Encounter and Gallery, giving options to make the game as challenging or as creative as you want. Earn epic landmarks along the way to enhance your city and mark your progress into the next era. Choose your path through history and make a city for the ages.

“SimCity Creator for the Wii and Nintendo DS brings two separate, delightful new ways to create, enjoy and destroy your own cities,” said Rod Humble, Head of Studio for The Sims Label. “On the Wii, for the first time in the SimCity franchise, you will have the ability to build curved roads and differently shaped zones allowing you to make more authentic places all utilizing the motions of the Wii remote. Employing the new city advisor system, you will be able to make the game as complex or simple as you want. On Nintendo DS, we will give you the ability to make a city develop through time and to overcome the different challenges each era of urban development presents. I know both long-time and new SimCity players will enjoy these innovative experiences in SimCity Creator starting this September!”

SimCity Creator will be available on the Wii and Nintendo DS on September 22, 2008 in North America and on September 19, 2008 in Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.

Ohhh, the onslaught of bobsledding, luge, and a remake of Toobin’ is about to begin.

Learn how to turn the volume down while seeing how to play Guitar Hero on the DS. ROCK OUUUUUUTTT!

Trailer showing off the damage and flashback system. One word - Awesome!

Hi folks,

My name is Karthik Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions. We’re the development team behind the upcoming release of “Guitar Hero: On Tour” - the first ever Guitar Hero game for Nintendo DS. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be talking about the rollercoaster ride we’ve been on this past year in the development of the game. It was a very unusual project to work on and we wanted to share some of our experiences with you.

The game actually started out over a year ago as an idea that some of our handheld guys were batting. The question was, “would it even be possible to bring the Guitar Hero experience to portable form?” That question quickly led to the major aesthetic challenge we needed to solve, “How do you recreate the essence of Guitar Hero for a portable without making everyone carry around a full size plastic guitar?”

We all thought it was crazy… and so did the guys at Activision and Red Octane. But we wanted to give it a try as a research project. Worst case, it wouldn’t work and we would learn a bunch of stuff and we move on. :)

To Activision/Red Octane’s credit, they gave us the breathing room to experiment for a few months. The team built a *lot* of prototypes. Some were ridiculous… others a total disaster. But a few were promising. We’ll be taking you through the prototype process in the next couple of weeks.

What became evident was that we were NOT going to recreate the exact same Guitar Hero game as console in portable form. Why bother? Having a full size guitar for a handheld makes no sense. So we weren’t going to do that. Maybe we wouldn’t even have a guitar at all…

I still remember the day when some of the guys were standing in front of my office with giant grins on their faces. I knew these guys were up to no good. :) That’s when they showed me a “Frankensteined” GBA cartridge with exposed wiring, switches and electronics plugged into a DS. The game prototype had a note highway, with the peripheral activating the gems on screen.

It was a breakthrough. We’ve never released a picture of the original device we built. Here it is:

Yes, it had 3 buttons. But it proved the idea. We took it to Red Octane and their hardware guys (who are really friggin’ smart) went forward fleshing out the design.

There were a lot of challenges on the project – the user interface, peripheral design, graphical fidelity, audio compression and quality, storage space, multiplayer and more. In the coming weeks, you’ll meet the team and how they tackled these problems. It was rough sailing on this project, but we had a determined team of core gamers/developers who had their minds set on one goal: Creating a unique portable music/rhythm game that uses the Guitar Hero mechanics and aesthetics.

Karthik

I feel like I am going to throw-up when I see anything associated with force feed speed eating.

Images and art for Super Dodgeball Brawlers out now.

Is there a Fourth of July in Europe?…

TIME STANDS STILL… DARKNESS FALLS… UNLEASH YOUR INNER POKÉMON AND SAVE THE WORLD

- Experience A New Pokémon Adventure with Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Time and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Darkness! -

Pokémon fans get ready to rejoice and dust off that explorer hat as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Time and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Darkness hit stores across Europe very soon! Having sold over 1.5 million copies globally following their launches in Japan and the US, this epic adventure, based in a world of mystery full of friends, enemies and hidden treasures, will give players the chance to live the life of a Pokémon. With the ability to communicate with friends via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, the Nintendo DS Wireless Communication, or by sharing passwords, players will never be completely lost, no matter how deep the Dungeon may be. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Time and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Darkness launch across Europe on 4th July 2008.

With the first titles of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series selling over 1 million copies across Europe, Pokémon fans will not want to miss this next instalment. Once again heading into a world completely populated by Pokémon, players take a Personality Quiz to determine which Pokémon they will become. Will fans become their favourite Pokémon from the 16 potential Pokémon alter egos, including four Pokémon from Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl, available? Players must also choose a Partner Pokémon to support them through the rollercoaster adventure ahead as their trusty sidekick. Accompanied by their loyal friend in this strange world, players embark on an epic journey through limitless and randomly generated dungeons, uncovering mystery after mystery to find out why they’ve become a Pokémon.

The unpredictability in these titles is not limited to the Mystery Dungeons as Pokémon fans soon find out that the undiscovered treasures hidden in the deepest and darkest Dungeons are not the only secrets in this world! As players search and battle Pokémon in the dungeons, they discover that a Pokémon has travelled back in time to steal the precious Time Gears hidden in the farthest corners of this world. It is up to the player to build an Exploration Team brave enough to take on this enemy and prevent Time from stopping and the whole world plunging into Darkness!

As players settle into their new Pokémon form, their Partner Pokémon will urge them to join Wigglytuff’s Guild to create an Exploration Team. Once initiated into the Guild the newly formed team is allowed to run simple errands, but very soon the Exploration Team will head out on grander adventures, seeking lost items and capturing wanted outlaws. At the Guild, players will be well looked after by a host of Pokémon who are always ready to help players with their adventure!

Players take on the responsibility of Team leader as they enter the dungeons, collecting items and challenging enemy Pokémon standing in their way. As the game progresses, victory will sometimes see fans able to invite the defeated Pokémon into their team. Also, a useful new option in these Pokémon titles is now available to those who faint in the Dungeons. They are able to send out an SOS mail to friends via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection or the Nintendo DS wireless function or as a password!

Choosing the Friend Rescue option allows any player who is defeated in a dungeon to issue an SOS mail to friends or other Exploration Teams, calling for them to enter that dungeon and make a rescue attempt. If the rescue attempt is a success, the defeated Exploration Team will not lose any money or items and continue the exploration from where they fainted. Along with the Friend Rescue requests, players can also access Wonder Mail to share dungeon missions and view any requests for advice from other players. Fans can also swap items in Trade Items and even trade team members in Trade Team.

So prepare for a summer full of mystery and epic adventures as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Time and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Darkness launch across Europe on 4th July 2008.

Check out Pokémon Snap already available on Virtual Console and watch out for Pokémon Puzzle League which will be arriving soon. These Nintendo 64 classics make themselves available on Virtual Console for 1000 Wii Points and are perfect to keep for yourself or to give as a gift to your friends!

Asylum Entertainment ‘first in Q’ on Wii

Adopts ‘Q’ game middleware for console

28th May 2008. London based studio Asylum Entertainment has become the first game developer to adopt Qube Software’s innovative new ‘Q’ middleware for the Wii™ console from Nintendo.

Qube, an authorised third party tool developer for the Wii console, unveiled ‘Q’, its fully customisable, cross-platform middleware, at GDC San Francisco earlier this year and announced its availability for the Wii console in April. Asylum was familiar with the early iterations of Qube’s 3D tech and wanted to be first with the new solution.

Asylum has forged a reputation as one of the UK’s leading makers of children’s games, many based around high profile brands with titles including Bob the Builder, Nancy Drew and Scooby Doo. Asylum will be using ‘Q’ as its platform for two forthcoming titles in the same genre.

“We took a good look at technology engines for the Wii and Q is by far the best we have seen,” said Simon Bailey, Asylum’s Managing Director. “Qube has mastered the use of certain Wii technology features that other developers don’t properly utilise. That allows Asylum to offer quality, speed to market and price advantages for our publishers.”

As a studio producing games for all the major platforms, Q’s wide compatibility was a major factor in the decision.

“Q’s flexibility has helped us unify our production process right across the studio,” said Bailey. “Now we can move IP and game mechanics across hardware platforms quickly and with a lot less fuss. This makes accurate milestone planning possible and frees up time for polishing and balancing our games.”

For David Mowbray, who as Asylum’s Development Manager was closely involved in the decision to adopt Q, the ease with which the software worked on the Wii was a major factor.

“Our evaluation of Q left us with the strong feeling that it’s an exceptionally well-crafted engine,” said Mowbray. “It allowed us to get up and running on the Wii very quickly because its open architecture and flexibility gives us complete freedom to configure the engine how we want. It’s like starting each project with a clean sheet of paper because Q’s only legacy is that it’s designed to build games – any games.”
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Not only is the start-up rapid but Mowbray says that Q makes the most of the Wii console’s signature technology.

“For instance the ‘Q’ engine’s unified input subsystem completely manages the unique Wii Remote and we were able to port previous work by simply adding a single line of settings in the system configuration,” added Mowbray.

He and his team found Q liberating. It was simple to set up Q to take care of all of the essential underlying processes, freeing up developer time to shape the user experience.

“Q takes care of all the setup and the hardware considerations of the Wii completely autonomously so we can focus on the game rather than on managing those processes,” Mowbray said. “Full access to the TEVs through the QDraw library means we could push the hardware as much as we needed while letting Q do the heavy lifting for the routine stuff. While the unified architecture makes it easy for artists and programmers move their work to and from platforms like the PC with absolutely minimal hassle.”

Coming just weeks after Q’s launch, its creator, Qube CEO Servan Keondjian says Asylum’s endorsement reinforces his belief in his middleware solution.

“My message has always been that Q’s multi-platform compatibility, flexibility and the fact that it’s completely customisable means that Q represents the future of middleware,” said Keondjian. “Because of this we believe that Q is the only available solution that truly can standardise development across a whole studio.”

“So I am very excited about what Asylum are doing. We say ‘Q sets you free.’ Asylum have discovered just that and they are reaping the rewards already,” Keondjian said.

“The bottom line is if you’re looking for a middleware solution then you should evaluate Q. Make up your own mind.”

Qube Software produces ‘Q’, the only truly cross-genre, cross-platform 3D game solution on the market today. Q is a complete game solution in a completely customisable and extensible framework. Q has been designed to revolutionise game development by offering a standard for developers to use across all projects. Qube Software is a privately held company that was founded in 1998 by Servan Keondjian and Doug Rabson, the creators of Direct3D, and is headquartered in London, UK.

Asylum Entertainment Ltd is an experienced and award winning video game developer based primarily in the major brand name children’s market. Asylum has completed over 20 titles on multiple platforms for some of the biggest and best publishers and licence holders in the world including EA, Riverdeep, Vivendi, BBCW and Cartoon Network. Asylum uses a number of leading edge technologies and develops for all gaming platforms, currently focused on developing for Online PC, Nintendo DS, Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3. Asylum is passionate about its work, understands children’s brand values and always aims to surpass client expectations.

MAJESCO ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES ‘WONDER WORLD AMUSEMENT PARK’ FOR NINTENDO DS

Featuring Over Two Dozen Mini-Games And Rides, The Carnival Is Portable This Holiday Season!

Now you can bring the fun and thrills of the amusement park with you, as Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, today announced Wonder World Amusement Park for Nintendo DS. The portable companion to the Wii title releasing this summer, Wonder World Amusement Park for DS is being developed by Majesco Studios and will be in stores this holiday season.

“Our internal team is very excited to be developing original Majesco IP for such a strong, marketable concept,” said Bill Petro, Vice President of Internal Development and Studio Head for Majesco Studios Santa Monica. “Wonder World for DS is a perfect complement to the Wii version and includes additional features that take advantage of the Touch Screen play to maximize the portable fun.”

Wonder World Amusement Park for DS lets players experience a complete day at the park in the palm of their hands. Using the Touch Screen, players can toss, drive, shoot, whack, fish and spin in more than two dozen mini-games throughout five themed zones. Playing mini-games lets gamers access interactive rides and win tickets they can redeem for prizes and accessories for their characters. Other rewards include unlockable modes, games and a secret Park Zone! Whether playing alone or challenging a friend via local wireless connection, Wonder World Amusement Park offers a rich carnival game experience anytime, anywhere.

Wonder World Amusement Park for DS is expected to release this holiday. For additional information about Majesco’s exciting line of products, please visit http://www.majescoentertainment.com/.