Twinworld Game Reviews

Archive for September, 2015

An adventure about the Chronus Fragments. Dungeons filled with puzzles to solve! Change classes and engage in your quest!

The Chronus Fragments are needed to prepare for the Time Rewinding, which only takes place once every 10 years. On their way to the Chronus Shrine to get the Fragments, Loka and his teacher Teth are surrounded by a mysterious man named Geppel and his gang. They demand the Fragments. While Teth plays for time, Loka, the main character, rushes out of the cave on his own to fetch reinforcements. He is successful, but Teth and Geppel are nowhere to be found.

Aiming to gather information about his missing teacher, Teth, and Geppel, who is trying to get his hands on the Fragments, Loka decides to set out on a journey with his friend Sarna.

The game features familiar quests, but also dungeons filled with puzzles to solve, and characters who grow and can be developed as the story progresses with the class change system.

Also, additional dungeons and special items are available for extra fun by collecting Mana!

Don’t miss out on Loka and his friends’ grand adventure!

Source: Nintendo Website

Guess what's coming to the Wii U eShop from @mobotstudios and @CM_Games this holiday? The Deer God. Bam! pic.twitter.com/9SZQ9UrW2n

— me (@mobotstudios) September 28, 2015

Source: VentureBeat

Freedom Planet is coming to North America this Thursday on the Wii U eShop! pic.twitter.com/cKTbuDYDZB

— Stevie DiDuro (@galaxytrail) September 28, 2015

Fast Racing NEO is one of the hottest titles in the Wii U ‘Nindies’ section at EGX, which is currently taking place at the NEC in Birmingham in the UK. It’s the largest expo of its kind in the country, and the Shin’en Multimedia title is getting plenty of attention.

We’ve spent plenty of time with Martin Sauter, the Art Director on the project, to talk about the title and to also go hands on with the game. We’ll be sharing a full interview feature and videos very soon, but we did get into details on a new Hero Mode coming to the title. It’s going to be an unlockable available after some progress in the speed classes in the campaign, and is designed to offer a substantial challenge. Sauter told us the following.

• It’s designed to pose a big challenge for experienced players
• A key mechanic is switched up with the boost energy meter also functioning as a shield mode
• Must finish first in the race to unlock the next

The boost gauge, which in normal modes simply charges for that extra charge of speed, will be tied to the craft’s shield. Though this title very much has its own identity, Sauter acknowledged the similarity to F-Zero. He said the difficulty means that progressing all the way through will suit “F-Zero-starved players”, saying the mode is “pretty close to F-Zero”.

Source: Nintendo Life

All robot masters better watch their metal butts this winter.

Mighty No. 9 is due out February 9 in the Americas, according to developer Comcept and publisher Deep Silver. You can will hit retailers as a physical version for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U — additionally it’ll go up as a digital download for all of those systems and the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Linux, and Mac.

Mighty No. 9 is the spiritual successor to Mega Man from one of the game’s original artists, Keiji Inafune. After Inafune left Capcom, he took the idea for a Mega Man-style platformer to the crowdfunding site Kickstarter and was able to raise $3.85 million with that campaign. During development Comcept revealed it was also partnering with Deep Silver to help publish the game.

While the game is due out February 9 in the Americas, it will not go live in other territories until February 12. Comcept and Deep Silver also plan to release Mighty No. 9 on PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS handheld systems, but those version won’t go on sale until later this year.

Source: VentureBeat

VANCOUVER, B.C., September 25, 2015 – Nook’s Homes is looking for you! The renowned real estate business is seeking a new designer to help decorate the interior and exterior of villagers’ homes and public facilities in town. Candidates must own a Nintendo 3DS system and the new Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer game and be willing to interact with animals with big personalities who like to wear stylish clothes. The highly coveted position requires a love of designing (obviously!), strong animal skills (no brainer!), a knack for decorating (of course!) and a passion for amiibo cards (they’re cool!). Interested parties can contact Tom Nook through snail mail, carrier pigeon, megaphone pointed in the direction of Nook’s Homes … or by picking upAnimal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, now available for Nintendo 3DS.

• Great working environment: Working for Nook’s Homes places you in the esteemed company of other star employees, including Tom Nook, CEO and wearer of fabulous sweaters; Lyle, Tom Nook’s right-hand animal and real-estate veteran; Digby, brother of Isabelle and all around great pup; and Lottie, the newest member of the Animal Crossing family. Optimistic and outspoken, Lottie will walk you through the ins-and-outs of design. She’s a pro, so listen up if she offers you some friendly advice. (She even excels at posting on Twitter! Lottie truly is a renaissance otter.)
• Fun day-to-day duties: When you step into the role of designer, there’s no need to worry about daily office tasks like scheduling meetings or checking up on those all-important memos that OMG-have-to-get-out-before-the-deadline. Your tasks in Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer are all about having fun and using your imagination. In fact, the motto at Nook’s Homes is “Have Fun!” Well, it’s not the actual motto, but it very well should be! What other job asks you to design the homes and town facilities for hundreds of beloved Animal Crossingvillagers? That’s right: None of them! And designing is made simple and streamlined using the touch screen of the Nintendo 3DS system.
• Creativity encouraged: After taking on new design requests, your catalog of usable items and decorations will grow. And this will totally help with expanding your creative options. When animals come to you with their vision, they may think they know what they want, but by using the tools provided, you can design homes that are more creative and imaginative than the villagers ever dreamed! If someone requests a new home that is “cool,” you can flex your creative muscles and give him or her a house full of snowman furniture, snowflake wallpaper and a relaxing “cold” tub. Why not? You’re the expert.
• One-of-a-kind benefits: Let’s talk perks! Boy, there are some unique perks at Nook’s Homes. First and foremost: amiibo cards. What are those, you ask? They are the next evolution of amiibo and work with Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. Packs contain six random amiibo cards and can be purchased at a suggested retail price of $6.99 each. There will be hundreds of cards in the wild (perfect for trading with friends!), and each card represents a different Animal Crossing character. After tapping them in the game using the New Nintendo 3DS system or the Nintendo 3DS NFC Reader/Writer accessory for players who own Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL or Nintendo 2DS systems, the character joins your game and gives you a unique design request or can be assigned to work at one of the facilities around town! There are even some high-profile clients like DJ K.K. and Isabelle that will only visit if you use their respective amiibo cards.
• Giving back to the village: Designing homes is not the only focus of Nook’s Homes. If you impress them with your design savvy, they’ll even ask you to help redesign the school, hospital or Department Store to help build up the town.
• Positive reinforcement: Folks who love sharing their awesome work (who doesn’t?!) have many options in Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. If you’re working on a particularly creative request, you can share images of your inspired designs on Miiverse or your favorite social media channels using the “Image Share” feature. And since peer reviews are a staple of any well-run business, Nook’s Homes offers the ability to rank fellow designers’ creations in the “Happy Home Network,” which will be available through a software update at launch. Creations can be ranked in one of four categories: cute, cool, unique or “I want to live here.” You can even turn your designs into a QR Code pattern to share in the Happy Home Network that other designers can view.

With all this great information, how could you not want to take a job at Nook’s Homes? It’s the best animal home designer job in the competitive world of animal home design. All you have to do is get Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer in stores or the Nintendo eShop on Nintendo 3DS at a suggested retail price of $44.99 and then you are in! As a bonus, the retail version comes with an amiibo card, while the digital version comes with a code for an Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer Nintendo 3DS HOME Menu theme. Prospective designers looking to get the most out of this opportunity can also get the Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer Edition bundle, which includes a download code for the game, the New Nintendo 3DS system, two cover plates and one amiibo card at a suggested retail price of $269.99. If you own a Nintendo 3DS or Nintendo 2DS system, you can even grab a bundle that comes with the game, one amiibo card and the NFC Reader/Writer accessory at a suggested retail price of $59.99. So many fun choices!

For more information about Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, visit http://animal-crossing.com/happy-home-designer/.

Nintendo 3DS features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/en_CA/3ds.

Like the Nintendo of Canada Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nintendoofcanada.

Follow Nintendo of Canada on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nintendocanada.

About Nintendo: The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii U^™ and Wii^™ home consoles, and Nintendo 3DS^™ and Nintendo DS^™ families of portable systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System^™, Nintendo has sold more than 4.3 billion video games and more than 680 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL, as well as the Game Boy^™, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi^™ and Nintendo DSi XL^™, Super NES^™, Nintendo 64^™, Nintendo GameCube^™ and Wii systems. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario^™, Donkey Kong^™, Metroid^™, Zelda^™ and Pokémon^™. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, please visit the company’s website at http://www.nintendo.ca.

• Explore this 2D world by moving in 3D parallax layers. A wall is blocking your path? You can go in front it. There’s treasure off in the background, far away In the distance? You can go there at the touch of a button. The world of Poncho has no limits on the Z plane…

• There are no levels in Poncho. You wake up in the centre of the game, and choose to go any way you want. With no hand holding to tell you where to go, it’s up to you to choose the right path. The Maker is out there somewhere…

• Interact with every little creature. Every area is filled with randomly generated ecosystems of creatures, all co-existing and reacting to every movement Poncho makes.

Source: Poncho Official Site

After reading about Poncho and watching the video, I was interested to find out more about this game. I love puzzle-platformers and the site left me with some unanswered questions about the game. After emailing Delve Interactive for further details, here’s what I got back:

1. Are you still on track for a September release on the Wii U? If so, do you have a confirmed date?

We don’t have a confirmed date just yet, we have an ambition to release on all platforms at the same time, so we’re just going through the approval process with each console right now. We’re definitely releasing before winter arrives though.

2. Have you decided on a selling price?

Poncho will be available for roughly $15

3. Will the game provide any kind of upgrade / item system to help Poncho solve puzzles and find his father?

Yes, there are unlockable abilities and a shop where you can buy keys to access new areas of the game.

4. Are there multiple endings to the game based on the path you take to find your father?

Yes, Poncho does indeed have multiple endings!

5. Are there any enemies / bosses or does the game focus strictly on exploration & puzzle solving?

No, there aren’t any enemies. Believe me, the game is challenging enough already! It’s a mix of exploration, puzzles and the occasional hardcore platforming areas.

6. What do you anticipate to be the average play-through time for your game?

This is probably about 4-5 hours, though since the game is kinda open world, it’s not likely you’ll see everything in a playthrough. To 100% complete the game, I anticipate at least 8 hours.

7. Are there any Wii U / Miiverse specific features incorporated into the game? (off-TV mode etc)

Right now the only Wii U specific feature we have is off TV mode, similar to Shovel Knight.

Based on the information provided and the video, I’m definitely looking forward to playing Poncho when it comes out on the Nintendo Wii U!