Gamertell

Since Nintendo has been lax in providing a portable version of its legendary fighting game Smash Brothers, fans are taking the matter in their own hands. A German man known as Fuzzy is working on Super Smash Bros Rumble. The first demo of the game was released July 1, 2008 and is 873kb.

The YouTube video of Super Smash Bros Rumble gameplay gives an idea of how the demo of the game works. A user boots up the game, chooses the single player Solo mode and then begins fighting as Mario against another Mario. Everything looks very polished and the characters look good so far. The menu screen also shows a Wi-Fi button, indicating that future updates of the game may include either local Wi-Fi or maybe even Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection support.

Click through to watch the YouTube video of the demo…

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I suppose it was bound to happen. Puzzle Quest‘s success was not going to go unnoticed, and the copycats are coming out. At least Genimo Interactive LLC’s Puzzle Hero doesn’t look like it was just slapped together.

In Puzzle Hero, you play a hero whose little brother Tristan’s been kidnapped by a Zalock and his henchmen. Players go through match-ups on the map (like in Bust a Move or Puyo Pop‘s story modes) until they reach Zalock. Each match features the grid of icons on the bottom, and the hero and stage’s villain on the top. You then must match up similar icons in groups of three to deal damage. Sound familiar? You can also purchase equipment for your character between fights.

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Fans of shooting games and DS homebrew should start rejoicing right around now. They should probably start thanking Asbjørn Djupdal, Morten Hartmann and Kyrre Glette as well, since efforts from the three created Retrorocket. Djupdal and Hartmann were inspired by Thrust (Atari 2600) and TurboRaketti II (Amiga), and decided that those games belonged on the DS, so they set to work on a pretty homebrew application.

Retrorocket offers more than some commercial games. All of the Thrust levels and TurboRaketti II maps are available for play. Plus there is a RTS strategy mode where you can enhance your shop by collecting items and multiplayer collection games. Multiplayer games can even carried out over local WiFi as well. Also Glette assisted the duo by programming in map autogeneration. 

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Facebook is home to many addictive, user created applications and games, and Perfect Warrior is one of them. Perfect Warrior is something of a text-based, massive multiplayer online game. Once players sign up, they can battle monsters, join alliances, equip items, strengthen weapons with runes, go on monster hunts and strive to become a legend.

Perfect Warrior requires quite a bit of dedication and time to succeed. Your character has three attributes - strength, constitution and dexterity. Defeating monsters earns you skill points which you can use to strengthen these attributes. The best way to succeed is to plot out what kind of character you want. You may want a strong and aggressive warrior who can take enemies out in one hit. Or perhaps a tank who can take repeated hits without falling is more your style. Of course a lightning fast opponent who can dodge attacks and deal frequent criticals is also a very viable option.

Click through for more information on creating a legend in Perfect Warrior…

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Eyezmaze has just released another Flash web-game. Sometimes I’m amazed by the productivity there. Anyways, SEEK ver.0 has just been released. It is described on the site as an easy word game, but it is more like a letter/number finding game. 

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The DS homebrew scene is incredibly active - making new games, programs to run computer applications and even turning the system into a Wi-Fi phone. Now it has turned it into an alarm clock. DCEmu Forums user madcat1990 has tweaked the Metal Gear Solid Otacon desktop clock to work on the handheld. According to the DS Fanboy, the OtaClock was originally a computer application.

The OtaClock RC1 features Dr. Hal Emmerich a.k.a. Otacon, from Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4. The application allows users to set a time to wake up. Once that time is reached, the alarm will go off and a math problem will appear. Users then have to solve the problem to shut the thing off. It is a free program, and available for download at both DCEmu and GBA Temp.

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Pixelpickle Games is working on a side-scrolling action game called Lylian, which takes players through the imagination of the title character. The incredibly stylish game is still in development, but the initial screen shots are enough to get people interested. Lylian will be Pixelpickle’s first title, and should be finished before the end of 2008.

Lylian is a young girl with some mental issues - and these issues cause her to misinterpret what she sees and hears. Her imagination is incredibly vivid and, in the finished game, players will be able to control how Lylian’s imagination changes her view of the world. The full version of the game will have both a story mode and an optional co-op mode. 

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I recently learned that GameJunkie, perhaps the last independent videogame store in the Cincinnati, OH (USA), area, is closing for good on June 29, 2008.

Damn recession. Damn retail chains. Damn through-the-mail game services. You are all crushing the life out of privately owned, independent videogame shops.

GameJunkie, which opened five years ago, took a refreshingly intimate approach to videogames and…

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Title: Anguna: Warriors of Virtue v0.94
Price: Free ($10~15 on a cartridge)
System(s): Gameboy Advance
Release Date: July 9, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Game by Nathan Tolbert, art by Chris Hildenbrand
ESRB Rating: N/A
Pros: It’s a free, well-executed action RPG for a system which is no longer receiving commercial releases
Cons: There are no towns to visit and only five dungeons to explore.
Overall Score: One thumb up, one thumb down, 75/100, C, ** 1/2 out of 5

Anguna: Warriors of Virtue is a Legend of Zelda style RPG that simply offers an enjoyable, dungeon crawling experience. Some amazing homebrew GBA games exist on the internet and Anguna is one of them. It may not have all of the features of a full-fledged action RPG, but Nathan Tolbert has put together an extraordinary game that deserves a play-through. 

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Creative Mountain Games is a hidden gem of tabletop gaming resources.

The site and company is run by a friend I made through Northeastern Illinois University while working at its student newspaper the Independent. Mark Clover, the head of Creative Mountain Games, is a gamer at heart. His love of tabletop games is part of the reason he started up the indie publishing company with the philosophy, “We do the work, so you can play!”

The company currently has 17 products at EN World PDF Store and RPGNow with more in development. Products that are developed are one-shot scenarios and full-length campaigns. The formats and rules are adaptable to…

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