Ubisoft has announced Shaun White Snowboarding will be arriving on the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii sometime this holiday season.

The game is being developed in close collaboration with Shaun White (Olympic Gold Medalist and eight times X Games Gold Medalist) to “infuse the gaming experience with authenticity, personality and humor.” Shaun will mentor you in the game and help you with your skills.

The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will be powered by the Assassin’s Creed engine and will be the first time a snowboarding game is completely driven by physics instead of animation. The game is being developed from the ground up for the Wii. The Wii version will incorporate use of the Wii Balance Board and feature a unique storyline.

The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game will allow players to ride in open-world mountains across the world, whether that be conquering extreme peak conditions, creating your own paths in the back country or competing with other riders in terrain parks.

Players will be able to create customizable avatars before performing different tricks and riding styles using the dual analog control, both in single player mode and online. Gamers will also be able to do runs against their friends or other gamers or simply engage in a snowball fight, take a hike or share videos of your friends tricks by uploading your films.

The Wii version sees players traveling the world to participate in various events to become a famous athlete. Two to four players can enjoy the multiplayer aspect of the game with players using the Wii Balance Board to control their rides. You will be able to take on bigger challenges in new events and competitions as your fame grows. However, earning your friends respect by riding in style is also essential to the game as they will help you find hidden areas and share music tracks.

“Shaun White Snowboarding will turn all of the traditional ideas and experiences of past action sports titles upside down,” said Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Ubisoft. “The combination of Ubisoft’s innovation approach and the influence of Shaun’s lifestyle and perspective make this gaming experience like no other.”

For more information visit the game’s website.

European Wii owners can download the new Nintendo Channel for free from the Wii Shop Channel today. Basically Nintendo Channel allows you to keep up to date on the latest information for upcoming games as well as present and past games on all Nintendo platforms.

Nintendo Channel allows gamers to watch trailers and game play videos of recent and upcoming games, search for games, download game demos to your Nintendo DS and recommend games you have played.

You will be able to keep up to date on the latest Wii and Nintendo DS games by searching for a game by release date, platform, publisher, genre or keywords. The DS Download Play allows you to download game demos and videos straight to your Nintendo DS. Simply select ‘DS Download Play’ on the DS and the game demo will download, enabling you to play it until you turn your DS off.

If you consider yourself a well rounded gamer, why not share the gaming love? Once you have played a Wii game for more than an hour you will be able to rate it, enabling other gamers to check out everyone’s recommendations on graphs published regularly. The recommendations will take gender and age into account, as well as whether it is recommended as a single player or multiplayer experience.

For more information on Nintendo Channel, head over to Nintendo.com.

While on a recent expedition into the wilds of Pavilion shopping centre, I stumbled across a great find.

Mario Kart Wii has finally hit the shelves in SA! I have only seen it in Look and Listen so far but stock will probably start trickling in to most retail shops over the course of the weekend and next week.

It was priced at R550 if my memory serves me correct. Maybe see you online?

By the way, watch this space…more Mario Kart Wii details to follow late next week.

The PSP has once again topped the Japanese hardware chart for the week ending the 25th of May. Surprisingly it was the only console to experience a decrease in sales with 64 449 units sold, down from last week’s 70 536 units.

The Wii came in second with 49 047 units, up from last week’s 41 572 units. Time will tell if the Wii has what it takes to overtake the PSP in the next few weeks. The Nintendo DS sold roughly 2 500 more units to take second place with 37 404 units followed by the PS3 with 9 071 units, up 1 370 units from last week.

The PS2 sold 7 189 units and the Xbox 360 1 947 units, slightly up from last week’s 7 022 and 1 474 units respectively.

Head over to this week’s software chart to see how Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G and Mario Kart Wii faired.

Source: Media Create

Another title to be confirmed at yesterday’s Ubidays 2008 was Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party. Ubisoft had previously hinted that the next Rayman title might make use of Nintendo’s Wii Fit Balance Board in the teaser video titled ‘Rabbids Secrets to Health and Happiness.’

Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party will launch for the Wii and Nintendo DS this holiday season. The game sees the Rabbids invading TVs around the world with players engaging in various games and comedic exploits “spoofing TV shows, pop culture and even advertisements.”

Play the game using what?

Players will be able to use the Balance Board, Wii Remote and Nunchuk for the Wii version which will feature over 65 mini-games. Up to four players can play simultaneously while up to eight players can engage in the new turn-based party mode. Players will also be able to customize their bunny, take his photo and send it to friends online.

The game will feature innovative ways to play with eight types of game play including shaking, precision, dexterity and balance. It was even demonstrated at Ubidays 2008 that some games may require the player to play the game with their derriere on the Balance Board, apparently a world first.

Ubisoft touted the fact that over 22 million units of Rayman titles have been sold worldwide before promising to reveal more details about Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party at E3.

“The Rayman Raving Rabbids titles have been an immense success, entertaining the world over,” said Yves Guillemot, president and chief executive officer, Ubisoft. “The inclusion of the Wii Balance Board into the game was a huge source of inspiration for our development team and I guarantee you will see the Wii Balance Board used in ways that will be surprisingly unexpected!”

Check out the latest trailer for Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party below. If you have not had the pleasure of delving into the insane world of Rayman and the Rabbids, check out our review of Rayman Raving Rabbids for the PS2 and Wii.

Ubisoft has finally taken the wraps off the much anticipated sequel to Beyond Good & Evil. Yesterday at Ubiday’s 2008 CEO Yves Guillemot introduced the untitled game title simply as Michael Ancel’s latest project.

The announcement was followed by the world premier trailer of the new Beyond Good & Evil game. The teaser trailer features Pey’j and a woman, presumably Jade, whose face is obscured by an umbrella sitting on a broken down car in a desert. It gives no indication as to what platforms the game will be released on and when, no official title for the game was even given.

Beyond Good & Evil was released in 2003 and turned out to be one of our most popular action adventure games of all time. It earned itself a 5 star rating from us and the words to many songs including ‘olli olli,’ and ‘Propaganda’ still reverberate through our heads. Check out our review of Beyond Good & Evil to see what all the fuss is about.

This is for all those gamers out there who thought they were cool by having a Mario Bros. theme tune on their cell phone. It turns out there is someone even cooler than you, and that someone used a remote controlled car and bottles filled with water to play the theme from Mario Bros.

So what would you do with a couple of hundred bottles of water and a remote controlled car if you were stuck on a desert island?

Mario Theme With Remote Control Car

Thanks to Dawid for the tip.

Source: www.guzer.com

Vicarious Visions has released the first Guitar Hero: On Tour Developer Diary.

Continue reading if you are interested in how the Guitar Hero: On Tour Guitar Grip for the Nintendo DS was created. Karthik Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions, takes you behind the scenes in this first part of the Developer Diary and also reveals the never-before-seen prototype of the Guitar Hero: On Tour Guitar Grip.

Developer Diary

Hi folks,

My name is Karthik Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions. We’re the development team behind the upcoming release of “Guitar Hero: On Tour” - the first ever Guitar Hero game for Nintendo DS. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be talking about the rollercoaster ride we’ve been on this past year in the development of the game. It was a very unusual project to work on and we wanted to share some of our experiences with you.

The game actually started out over a year ago as an idea that some of our handheld guys were batting. The question was, “would it even be possible to bring the Guitar Hero experience to portable form?” That question quickly led to the major aesthetic challenge we needed to solve, “How do you recreate the essence of Guitar Hero for a portable without making everyone carry around a full size plastic guitar?”

We all thought it was crazy… and so did the guys at Activision and Red Octane. But we wanted to give it a try as a research project. Worst case, it wouldn’t work and we would learn a bunch of stuff and we move on.

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2K Games has announced that a “genetically-enhanced” version of BioShock is in development for the PS3 at 2K Marin. The PS3 version of BioShock will include new features and content and will be released in October 2008.

This means the PS3 version will be arriving roughly a year after the game’s debut on the Xbox 360 in 2007. 2K Marin is also currently developing BioShock 2. The title is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of Take Two’s 2009 fiscal year but platforms have not yet been announced although it is rumoured to be heading to both the Xbox 360 and PS3.

“Since BioShock for Xbox 360 and Games for Windows won countless 2007 Game of the Year awards, we are excited to see the impact of this stellar title for the PlayStation 3 system when it debuts this fall,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K.

“Over the coming months we look forward to revealing the new features and content that will make this a must-have game for its new audience, as well as for those who enjoyed it on the other platforms.”

Read El33tonline’s review of BioShock for the Xbox 360.

Sega’s Let’s Make a Pro Baseball Team for the Nintendo DS has debuted at the top of the Japanese software chart with 59 000 copies. Capcom’s Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G dropped one place to number 2 with 51 000 copies while Nintendo’s Mario Kart Wii also moved down one place to number 3 with 48 000 copies.

Nintendo’s Wii Fit climbs one place to number 4 with 36 000 copies and Nintendo’s Glory of Hercules: Proof of Spirit for the Nintendo DS enters the charts at number 5 with 23 000 copies. Nintendo’s DS Beautiful Letter Training moves up one spot to number 7 with 15 000 copies and Idea Factory’s Scarlet Fragment DS debuts at number 7 with 15 000 copies.

Nintendo’s Battalion Wars 2 for the Wii loses ground to number 8 with 15 000 copies and Namco Bandai’s Taiko Drum Master DS: Seven Island Adventure remains in ninth with 14 000 copies. Nintendo’s Link’s Crossbow Training for the Wii drops two places to number 10 with 12 000 copies.

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The Veteran Map Pack for EA’s third person co-op shooter Army of Two will be available for the Xbox 360 and PS3 tomorrow.

The free downloadable content will include two new co-op campaign maps as well as an enhanced multiplayer map. It features “dynamic and interactive environments including destructible objects that were not available in the retail version.”

The first map will see players finding and destroying the central hub of a militia in a subway station in Kiev. Players will get the chance to take out Dalton, Rios and Salem’s ex-boss in the second map which is set in SSC headquarters in Miami. Finally two-on-two teams can battle it out in the China Canal Lock map.

The Veteran Map Pack will be available on the 29th of May in North America and Europe on Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store.

Capcom has announced that Bionic Commando Rearmed has been delayed and will no longer meet its May launch target. No new release date has been announced yet.

Bionic Commando Rearmed is the downloadable remake of Capcom’s 1988 classic NES action game. It will be released for the Xbox 360 on Xbox Live Arcade and the PS3 on the PlayStation Network.

According to the ‘Communicator’ section of the game’s official website, Bionic Commando Rearmed will not be making its scheduled May release. It goes on to say “All we can tell you is that the game is done and is more awesome than pure liquid awesome. Our troops right now are in the trenches, battling with bugs and submission procedures.”

Developed by Grin, Bionic Commando Rearmed promises “intense 2D side scrolling, shooting and grappling action.” The game will feature new visuals (including dynamic shadows, particle effects and environmental damage) and weapons as well as online rankings, a musical score that has been reworked and a new two player co-op mode.

Unsurprisingly game play will be focused around the use of the bionic grappling arm. By completing parts of the game players will be able to unlock new content and information about characters and plot of the new Bionic Commando sequel coming later in 2008.

Afrika was first revealed in a promotional video during Sony’s press conference at E3 in 2006 and later showcased in a new trailer at the Tokyo Game Show 2007.

Developed by the aptly named Rhino Studios and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, Afrika is the working title of an African safari simulator headed to the PS3.

Sony has not yet announced where the game will be released. However, according to Eurogamer there are currently no plans to publish the game in Europe and the website relates only to Japanese gamers. A North American release date could still be on the cards.

The placeholder website for Afrika launched in Japan yesterday. If you pay the site a visit you will be lulled by the sounds of the wild in the form of wind and bird calls. A single white rhino strolls across the bottom of the page, below it are the words ‘Coming Soon.’

Head over to Rhino Studios website for a closer look at the big five and not so big other animals featured in various screenshots.

Capcom has announced that it is bringing Street Fighter IV to home consoles, revealing that it is in development for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The Wii was noticeably absent from the list of consoles, as was a release date.

Street Fighter IV will feature a “return to the classic 2D Street Fighter fighting action mixed with new characters, amazing visuals, and next-generation fluid gameplay.”

The game will feature the original cast of Street Fighter II with favourites such as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Guile along with new characters such as female spy Crimson Viper, lucha libre wrestler El Fuerte, mixed martial artist Abel and more.

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This week you can pick up both Buku Sudoku and Warlords on Xbox Live Arcade. Buku Sudoku will be available for 800 Microsoft Points while Warlords will cost 400.

Sudoku with a twist

Developed by Merscom LLC, Buku Sudoku is a puzzle game featuring HD graphics, multiple grid sizes, three difficulty levels as well as both single player and multiplayer modes. Players will no doubt be challenged by 1 200 puzzles, over 15 books worth of Sudoku puzzles!

The game includes tutorials, the option to display hints, highlight errors, undo moves and even solve puzzles. Three multiplayer modes allow players to play co-operatively, in a team battle or in a new battle mode where completing a line, row or square will remove numbers from your opponent’s board. Up to four players can compete offline and up to eight over Xbox Live.

The game supports multiple controllers as well as optional control schemes. Players can choose between eight options so you can pick between the one-handed setup, casual scheme, faster-than-paper advanced scheme or a dance pad. Players will also be able to choose between multiple themes which select audio and visual environments.

Players who earn all 200 Achievement Points in Buku Sudoku stand a chance to win a Samsung LCD TV. Two weeks from today Merscom will hold a draw to select the winner. Five players who complete all the achievements will also walk away with a copy of Scene-It? Lights, Camera, Action for the Xbox 360. Head over to Xbox360Achievements or Merscom’s website for more details. Please note this competition is only open to players in the United States.

I’m a Warlord, not a Drug lord!

Warlords is the original arcade game from Atari. The game sees up to four players (either human or AI) either locally or over Xbox Live controlling a shield to protect their castle from fireballs. Deflect the fireballs on to other players’ castles and breach their walls to defeat them.

Warlords is available in both the original version as well as the new Evolved version featuring advanced 3D graphics and support for the Xbox Live Vision camera. Players will be able to play single player or with up to three players locally or via Xbox Live.