Survey finds video games top holiday wish lists

Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble available now

Atlus U.S.A.’s Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble for PSP is now available in stores on UMD format and as a digital download on PlayStation Network. Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble is a beat ‘em up featuring a young man on a quest to become the toughest delinquent in his high-school, preferably through the use of his fists, feet and a sharp tongue. Players must take control of Sakamoto and guide him through the city to about learn about life, love, and laser eyes (really).

Players have 7 days to wander through the city of Kyouto and discover all it has to offer and every minute counts; you’ll travel, interact with the population, pick fights with virtually anyone, and face the consequences — and the cops. The game also offers a two-player co-op ad hoc mode that lets you run around with a friend to gain additional experience. Night Out mode lets you sneak out of the hotel after curfew to challenge Yakuza roaming about the town.

Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble is now available in stores and on PlayStation Network with an MSRP of $39.99. Find out more www.atlus.com/bancho.

Shippin’ Out: Week of Nov. 16, 2009

Buried in a sea of offal (the usual rush of products prior to the holiday shopping season stampede), are a number of promising games including multiple versions of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 2, the new Tony Hawk game, Left 4 Dead 2, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, NCAA Basketball 2010, LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, LittleBigPlanet’s PSP debut, and so much more. You can check out the rather massive list after the break - which doesn’t even include the new stuff making its way to digital distribution platforms like Steam, GamerGate, Impulse and more.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii was released on Sunday, Nov. 15, so if you haven’t gotten your copy yet, you should be able to find it at most major outlets.

Read the rest of this entry »

No UMD for Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman

NIS America announced awhile ago that it wanted to release a UMD version of Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman!? for retail.

But in order to do so it put a condition on doing it: the company asked fans that were interested in it to help them hit the 1,000 unit pre-order mark.

Almost a month later the company came to the conclusion that this would not happen after all. Why? Because not enough people pre-ordered the game. The company made the following statement in its most recent newsletter to fans:

Unfortunately, due to not meeting our demand of 1,000 units of Preorder, we will not be able to create the UMD version for ?Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman!? What Did I Do to Deserve This??. We truly understand your disappointment in not having this item. In the future, we are considering to have the Badman 2 release on UMD. We truly would appreciate your patience and your understanding. Again, we truly apologize for the many inconveniences to all of our valuable fans. Thank you for your continuous support.

So much for a hard copy, right? Fans who wanted it on UMD but didn’t bother to pre-order have only themselves to blame. At least you can still get via PlayStation Netowkr as a digital download.

Modern Warfare 2 Tops GameFly’s Most Wanted

Video game rental service GameFly has released its annual list of “Most Wanted” games ahead of the holiday shopping season. Of the top 10 titles featured on the across all platforms list, seven have seen brisk retail sales and significant rental activity for GameFly. They include Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Halo 3: ODST, Borderlands, Dragon Age: Origins, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Madden NFL 10. Here are the top ten most wanted games according to GameFly subscribers:

1) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - XBOX 360, PS3

2) Batman: Arkham Asylum - XBOX 360, PS3

3) Assassin’s Creed 2 - XBOX 360, PS3, DS

4) Halo 3: ODST - XBOX 360

5) Borderlands - XBOX 360, PS3

6) Left 4 Dead 2 - XBOX 360

7) Dragon Age: Origins - XBOX 360, PS3

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - PS3

9) Madden NFL 10 - XBOX 360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2

10) New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Wii

For more information on GameFly, check out www.gamefly.com.

Carmack: iPhone a serious threat to other hand-helds

In an interview with Chris Morris for CNBC, id Software founder and chief programmer John Carmack said that Apple’s iPhone may be a serious threat to the hand-held gaming market - specifically Nintendo’s DS and DSi.

It’s a pretty interesting comment if you consider that earlier this week a prominent analyst (who I won’t name here) said that the iPhone - in the long term - will not be a viable game platform. Carmack sees it another way - and he should know, he’s been working on the platform and selling his games via Apple’s app store for quite some time.

Earlier this week it was announced that there are now 100,000 apps available on the iPhone, and while not all of those are games, a good portion of them are and many of them sell for anywhere from 99 cents to $9.99 USD.

“I think mid- to long-term it’s a significant threat,” he says. “I don’t carry a DS or a PSP around, but I’ve got my iPhone everywhere. So if it plays good games, I’m less likely to pick one of the others up. … I think the stars could align and it could start to eclipse those other systems in terms of unit sales.”

While Carmack is a PC guy through and through, he has fallen in love with developing games for the iPhone. He describes his time developing games on the system “fun.”

“I wouldn’t be shocked if someone has one in development right now, though they probably don’t realize it will run that high yet,” he told CNBC. “If a title could do well at $9.99, you could put [Nintendo] DS level development expenses into it.”

id Software has made it their goal to release one iPhone game every quarter over the next year. Most recently the company released an iPhone remake of the classic DOOM game called “Doom Classic.” iPhone versions of one of my favorite id Software titles - Quake - and a follow-up to the popular Doom RPG are also in the works. id Software is also planning on having its latest game, RAGE, ready to go for the iPhone when it is released in 2010.

Source: CNBC

White Stripes make Rock Band debut next week

Harmonix and MTV Games will release a three pack of tracks from The White Stripes and singles from The Damned and Kasabian will be added next week to the Rock Band Music Store for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii.

Tracks from No Doubt and Dropkick Murphys will be available for download next week for Rock Band Unplugged on PSP.

Sadly, no LEGO Rock Band content mentioned unless I am missing something here, which Is highly doubtful. Anyway, here’s the completel list:

Available on Xbox 360 and Wii (Nov. 10) and PlayStation 3 system (Nov. 12):

- The Damned – “Smash It Up (Part II)” 

- Kasabian – “Club Foot”

- The White Stripes – “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground”

- The White Stripes – “Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine”

- The White Stripes – “Icky Thump”

Tracks available for Rock Band Unplugged (Nov. 12):

- No Doubt – “Excuse Me Mr.”

- Dropkick Murphys – “I’m Shipping Up to Boston”