SpongeBob Truth or Square game in stores this week

THQ has released SpongeBob’s Truth or Square to all major retailers nationwide for the Wii, Nintendo DS, the Xbox 360, and PSP. In this off-the-wall action adventure game, players will take poart in some of the most humorous events from the last 10 years. The game also introduces a new and unique morphing capability that turns SpongeBob into unlikely objects like a spatula or sledgehammer. The game is slightly tied to a special episode of the show that celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the show.

In SpongeBob’s Truth or Square, players journey through memorable SpongeBob SquarePants locations to find the missing Krabby Patty formula in time for Krusty Krab’s Eleventy Seventh Anniversary. From Jellyfish Fields to downtown Bikini Bottom, players will have to run, jump, spin and hammer their way through 10 levels. Each level will take players back to a happy SpongeBob SquarePants moment, such as when SpongeBob becomes a fry cook, gets into the Salty Spittoon or meets Sandy for the first time.

Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants “Truth or Square” one-hour prime time television event premieres on Friday, Nov. 6, culminating Nickelodeon’s 10th anniversary celebration of the pop-icon and top-rated kids’ series. The event features celebrity guest stars Craig Ferguson, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, LeBron James, P!nk and Robin Williams, among others. SpongeBob’s Truth or Square was developed by Heavy Iron Studios.

AddictingGames Showdown winners announced

Nickelodeon’s ‘AddictingGames Showdown’ has ended and the winners have been selected.  Jerry Trainor, host of Nickelodeon’s “AddictingGames Showdown”  (and one of the stars of the TV show iCarly) revealed the winners in a televised event.

According to Nick.com, over 5 million votes were cast for the winners and other games playable at addictinggames.com. The winners were announced on TV and on the “AddictingGames Showdown” microsite which drew 16 million game plays and 26.5 million page views since its launch on June 3, 2009.

The AddictingGames Showdown winners can be found after the break.

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Guitar Hero: On Tour Wins Nick Award

Activision’s Guitar Hero World Tour was awarded Favorite Video Game at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards 2009 on Saturday, March 28. Guitar Hero World Tour took the top honors in the video game category with a record-breaking 91 million votes cast at the Kids’ Choice Awards 2009 earning the show’s highest ratings ever amongst kids and tweens. The awards allow fans to vote on their favorite entertainment and entertainers, including actors, TV shows, movies, singers and video games. On Sunday, March 29, 2009 Guitar Hero Metallica, the newest entry into the Guitar Hero franchise, debuted at retailers across North America giving fans the chance to experience the music of Metallica plus 20 top bands, such as Alice In Chains, Foo Fighters, Social Distortion, Queen and The Sword.

While it would be easy to make a joke about winning this award, it is interesting that kids picked this game above and beyond many other games that you would expect to be shoe-ins. Perhaps America’s kids’ have shown that their tastes in games are changing and evolving into new areas. Congrats to all of this year’s award winners.

Avatar Goes Into The Inferno

Avatar: The Last Airbender - Into the Inferno has shipped to retail outlets in North America. Based on the popular animated Nickelodeon television series, Avatar: The Last Airbender (which recently enjoyed its final episode), takes players into the Fire Nation on a journey to face the Fire Lord and end a 100 year war.

Playing as one of their favorite characters from the show, players will perform martial arts moves, as well as bend all four elements - Earth, Fire, Water and Air - to help them in their journey. Cinematic air battles will take place as players soar through the sky on gliders in new flying levels. The Nintendo DS version of the game will also introduce a brand new and unique “bobble head” style of animation previously seen in Nickelodeon’s special Avatar series of animated shorts.

Look for it in stores beginning today.

Avatar MMO Announced

Why Nickelodeon, why? As someone who has watched every last episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, today’s announcement that the company is working on a watered down MMO combat game is a bit disconcerting. Why? Because talk in my circles about an Avatar MMO have been frequent and stimulating. But instead of getting the robust MMO experience I’d imagined from such a game, it looks like fans of the show will get a watered down arena combat game. Here’s some free advice for developers making games for kids: they can handle decent, deep and engaging gameplay.

The game, Avatar: Legends of the Arena, will serve as a prequel story to the events in the series, letting players create their own Avatar character and test their skills against players from around the world in 3D online arenas. Each game level will introduce new content, challenges, custom character outfits and powers on an ongoing basis. A beta version of the game is being unveiled today at Comic-Con in San Diego.

The game will be rolled out in 81 markets in ten languages, including the United States, United
Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, India, Southeast Asia, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Italy, France, Korea, Japan, Israel, Holland, Northern Belgium, Germany, Brazil, and Portugal. A total of 77 countries will launch the game on Sept. 15, with the remaining markets launching shortly thereafter.

The game is part of an initiative to promote the continuing re-runs of the series on Nicktoons Network, the July 29th release of the Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 3: Fire - Volume 4 DVD and the upcoming Avatar live action film being handled by M. Night Shyamalan, and the Avatar The Last Airbender: Into the Inferno video game from THQ.