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As was noted in an earlier post by XBLA Fans, Sega’s After Burner Climax was scheduled to be de-listed and removed from Xbox Live Arcade on December 24, 2014. No …
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On December 4, 2014 an old evil villain was re-awoken in Tokyo when the Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (NGS2) table was released for Pinball FX2 on the Xbox One. You play as Ryu and team up with three other teammates to confront this evil and attempt to “jump” your way to defeat it. Not having played the actual NGS2 game (a PlayStation 3 exclusive title), I at first felt a disconnection with this table. I was “going though the motions” while beginning to play it, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still make for one exciting table. The last couple tables that have released for Pinball FX2 (South Park and The Walking Dead) have had intricate, detailed missions to attempt with multiple ramps to try and consistently hit.

In contrast to those examples, the NGS2 table, originally made for Zen Pinball on the PlayStation 3, and it shows. There is a large open middle section in the table where the ball will pick up a lot of speed. With only three short ramps to hit, a much quicker response or more precise timing is required on the flippers to hit them. The NGS2 table also brings a new platform jumping mechanic that is unique to this table and a fresh new aspect and challenge to a game that I have been playing for many, many years.

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As first posted by Major Nelson both Risk, develop by ZOE Mode, and Tetris Ultimate, develop by SoMa Play Inc, are available now on the Xbox One. With both being published by Ubisoft this could account for the change in release dates as both of these titles previously had others; Risk’s being December 23, 2014 and Tetris Ultimate’s being December 17, 2014. Continue on for launch trailers for both titles.

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Kalimba was developed and published by Press Play on Xbox One. It was released on December 17, 2014 for $9.99. A copy was provided by Press Play for review purposes.

A funny thing happens while playing Kalimba, Press Play’s new puzzle-platformer for Xbox One. Your brain will shut off and you will go into auto-pilot. It might happen on your first attempt at a colorful new level, or it might happen during your 60th try at said level. But the stars will inevitably align, and the next thing you know, you’ll have made it to a new checkpoint that you had previously thought impossible to reach.

Kalimba has you controlling two totem pieces in tandem as you use both sides of your brain — and some really clever power-ups — to maneuver your way past enemies and through traps and puzzles. It’s not the first game I’ve seen in which you have to control two characters at once, but I think it just might be the best.

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The team behind last year’s Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons has started a new studio called Hazelight, headed by the Brothers director Josef Fares. Electronic Arts is publishing their first game, teased in the screenshot above. It does not yet have a title.

Fares’ success with Brothers came after many successful works in film. “Movies are a great way of telling a story,” he says, “but the potential of interactive storytelling through games is even greater.” After the emotional journey that Brothers was, he has a point.

When inquired, Hazelight told us “We are not at AAA level budget-wise. We are a comparably small team in the area of 20-25 employees.” In other words, they are right up our alley. Check out the teaser for their new game below.

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Argentinian indie developer OPQAM wants to give gamers some classic arcade-style shmup action, and that’s exactly what they’re doing with Project Root. Recently announced by OPQAM and Reverb Triple XP, Project Root is an overhead shooter with free-roaming open environments. You play as Lance Rockport, a rebel pilot attempting to end the Prometheus Corporation’s plans for world domination. Taking flight in an advanced F-72 Zonda fighter, you’ll fight enemies both on the ground and in air across eight distinct levels. Players fighting in this revolution can also look forward to upgradable firepower, special weapon drops, and crazy boss battles.

Project Root is coming to Xbox One in early 2015. Check out the reveal trailer after the jump.

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Warner Bros is working towards a potential Minecraft film, but the studio has yet to find the right story. Shawn Levy, director of Night at the Museum, proposed a Goonies-style adventure film which was ultimately shot down by developer Mojang. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Levy explained how it all happened.

“What happened simply is Warner’s asked me to develop, ‘How might this ever be a story for a movie?’ Because it’s not a narrative game. And we came up with an approach that felt good to us, and I discussed it with Mojang. And they’re like, ‘That doesn’t sound like what we want. If we’re going to see a movie get made, we don’t know what we want, but that doesn’t feel right.’ And I said, ‘OK, well that’s a movie I can envision.'”

So just what was his idea? He goes on to explain, “It was not a comedy. It had a bit of a Goonies flair… [I]t was an adventure movie, and I thought it could have been a lot of fun and fulfilled a lot of the qualities that people love about the game.”

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Almost every kid has played with, or at least seen, the iconic little green army men known simply as toy soldiers. Almost every parent has stepped on one of these little guys as well. In developing Toy Soldiers and Toy Soldiers: Cold War, Signal Studio, along with publisher Microsoft Game Studios, brought those toy soldiers out of the physical toy box and onto the virtual battlefield where those childhood memories could be relived. With those games they also had two of the highest-rated arcade games of the previous generation.

Now, in partnership with publisher Ubisoft, Signal Studios is making the game it always wanted in Toy Soldiers: War Chest, which it plans to release in early 2015.

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JUJU was developed by Flying Wild Hog and published on Xbox 360 by Nordic Games. It was released December 9, 2014 for $14.99. A copy was provided for review purposes.

So what is JUJU? I’m not able to tell you that. I completed the game, and I have no idea if JUJU is the main character’s name, or the world it lives in, or the totems you need to collect. What I do know is that JUJU is an increasingly rare XBLA title, and it has a terrible name for which to use in a Google search.

JUJU is a happy-go-lucky side-scrolling platformer that’s all about the colorful visuals. The game looks like a toddler’s fever dream, filled with giant toys and smiling unnaturally colored animals. It’s about as kid-friendly as kid-friendly gets, even going so far as to have a main menu that only uses pictures. Unfortunately, the game has a severe case of style over substance, as its core gameplay is not as fun and whimsical as you might expect. JUJU feels like an uninspired re-skin of similar titles, and attempting to finish it quickly becomes a chore.

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Its first time on top in 2014.
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