Europeans will also be able to get their hands on two versions of Cave Story "soon," with the classic indie action-adventure seeing release both on DSiWare and as a full retail 3DS remake - both of which came out in the US last year.
The excellent gravity-flipping puzzle-platformer came out for PC and Mac over two years ago and was released on the North American eShop last December.
On a more positive note, Nicalis announced that Terry Cavanagh's VVVVVV will make it onto the 3DS eShop in Europe on May 10th.
We'll get the bad out of the way first: La-Mulana for WiiWare has been canceled in North America and Europe, with Nicalis producer Tyrone Rodriguez telling GoNintendo that sales on the download service are "almost non-existent." This isn't entirely surprising to us, especially when the game in question is a torturously difficult Japanese 2D platformer, but after a long development period it's a shame we won't get to see the Wii release. Each one is neatly encapsulated in a single, non-scrolling screen with a witty title by Bennett Foddy.Indie publisher Nicalis has shared some information about upcoming releases on Twitter, and there's both good and bad news.
From this simple but original twist on the most basic platform-game template, Cavanagh conjures dozens upon dozens of satisfying spatial puzzles and challenges to your dexterity and - above all - timing. The Captain can't jump, but he can suddenly fly to the ceiling or the floor and stick to it he needs to be standing on a surface to flip, otherwise you'd be able to make him fly just by hammering the space bar. VVVVVV controls with just three inputs: left, right, and flip gravity. In doing so, he'll need to negotiate a handful of tortuous yet linear levels set within a loose, chaotic overworld, like a disintegrating Metroid map. Taking the role of Captain Viridian, the player's job is to find the crew and reunite them aboard ship by reactivating a network of teleporters. The gimmick behind VVVVVV is simple tapping a face button causes the playable character to fall in the opposite direction instead of jumping. This Commodore-64 inspired platformer is just as creative as its name.
The world's most economical intro movie telegraphs the set-up: a spaceship encounters some kind of dimensional disturbance on its travels, and its six crew members (all of whose names start with V) end up scattered about a mysterious and treacherously dangerous space station, around which the fabric of space and time seems to be distorting. VVVVVV is unquestionably a unique title for a game but do not let that distract you. It's as if Portal had been made in 1985 it's a turbo-charged, sci-fi Jet Set Willy set in a world that's falling apart. It's also sophisticated, with a cunning structure, varied and imaginative design, perfect pacing and even, in its simple way, storytelling prowess. If youre a gamer that strives to see all aspects of the game, you are likely to spend around 4½ Hours to obtain 100 completion. When focusing on the main objectives, VVVVVV is about 2½ Hours in length. VVVVVV is smart and generous: death is instant and very frequent, so restarts are immediate, checkpoints are everywhere and you get infinite lives. The game involves exploring the strange world youve found yourself in, and reuniting your friends. It's not, however, anything like as crude or ironic as its comically basic, pixellated graphics and stupid title might suggest. This is a game of fiendish design and extreme speed that requires both your reactions and your problem-solving to be razor-sharp. Such gluttons for punishment will enjoy Terry Cavanagh's VVVVVV, a short sharp shock of a 2D indie platformer with a gravity-flipping party trick.
Gamers, cheeks stinging, have woken up from their mollycoddled daze and said, "hit me again!" Wii: games that would sooner slap you in the face than hold your hand. And so a new old breed of deliciously, sadistically difficult games has started to emerge, including retro throwbacks like Mega Man 9, but also modern reactionaries like Trials HD and Demon's Souls, and even supposedly cuddly uncles like New Super Mario Bros. They grew up, in other words, and quite right too.īut some people, including some of videogames' best friends, felt that in this drive for warm, all-embracing, one-button, smooth-curve accessibility, they'd lost their edge a bit, and were in danger of forgetting what they were about in the first place.
They learned how to explain themselves properly, how to get to know people gradually, and how to be entertaining in polite company without being so rude and challenging all the time.
They discovered that they would get invited round more often if they stopped being quite so horrible. Over the last decade or so, videogames have learned manners.