Update: Where the Wild Things Are

Warner Bros. Interactive has finally let a bit more info out (as well as two screenshots) for its upcoming video game based on the film version of Where The Wild Things Are. The game is currently in development for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii by Griptonite and for the Nintendo DS by WayForward. Here's a bit of press release intel with the new images following.

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:

Inspired by the highly-anticipated Warner Bros. theatrical release based on the best-selling children’s book by Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are lets players take on the role of Max as he journeys across the land of the Wild Things, which is on the brink of destruction. Max must join forces with the Wilds Things to find a way to escape to safety before it’s too late.

Where the Wild Things Are is a fun-filled adventure that takes players on a journey through the mysterious island of the Wild Things. Players assume the role of Max, “King of All Wild Things,” as they team up with the fearsome but loveable creatures. While journeying across their island, players learn amazing new skills and abilities. Solve action puzzles, overcome challenging obstacles, and play through a unique story narrative to uncover the mystery behind the hostile island and save the Wild Things before it’s too late!

At any time during the game players have the opportunity to explore the Wild Things’ Village and play through a variety of mini-games, interact with the creatures, and let their imaginations run wild! Where the Wild Things Are takes players on a unique and exciting journey beyond the movie, and brings to life one of the most beloved picture books of all time.

PS3/360/Wii PRODUCT FEATURES:

Rule the Island - Play as the mischievous Max, become King of All Wild Things, and join The Wild Things in their quest to find a way to safety before it’s too late!

Frolic in the Wild Things Village – Explore the Wild Things’ Village to meet all of the different creatures, play through mini-games, and acquire power-ups from each character.

Make ‘Wild’ Friends - Befriend and team-up with these fearsome but lovable mythical creatures – discover their unique personalities and learn new skills and abilities from them.

Discover the Undiscovered – Run, jump, climb, glide, fly and swing your way across the island’s dangerous terrain while battling fierce creatures with your trusty scepter.

Wander through Wild Worlds – Adventure across the mysterious island while tackling exciting unique worlds filled with fierce insects, shadow creatures and hazardous obstacles around every turn!

Experience Extended Adventures – Go beyond the movie to play through a unique story narrative– exploring never-before-seen environments.
Collectible Crusade – Search for more than 400 collectibles each associated with a Wild Thing. Collect enough and unlock special rewards inside the Wild Things Village!

As for the DS version:

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:

Inspired by the highly-anticipated Warner Bros. theatrical release based on the best-selling children’s book by Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are lets players take on the role of Max as he journeys across the land of the Wild Things, which is on the brink of destruction. Max must join forces with the Wilds Things to help save their island from impending destruction.

Where the Wild Things Are is a fun-filled adventure that takes players on a journey through the mysterious island of the Wild Things. Players assume the role of Max, “King of All Wild Things,” as they team up with the fearsome but loveable creatures. While journeying across their island, players learn amazing new skills and abilities. Solve action puzzles, overcome challenging obstacles, and play through a unique story narrative to uncover the mystery behind the hostile island and save the Wild Things before it’s too late!

Where the Wild Things Are takes players on a unique and exciting journey beyond the movie, and brings to life one of the most beloved picture books of all time.

DS PRODUCT FEATURES:

Rule the Island - Play as the mischievous Max, become King of All Wild Things, and join The Wild Things in their quest to save the island from destruction!

Frolic with the Wild Things – Explore the island to meet all of the different Wild Things, play through mini-games, and acquire unique “wild” abilities and power-ups from each character.

Discover the Undiscovered – Journey across the dangerous and foreboding island of the Wild Things, overcoming fierce enemies and hazardous obstacles around every turn.

Calm the Creatures – Before gaining new abilities from them, you must first calm each of the seven Wild Things through individual battles. Win and the Wild Thing becomes your companion for the rest of the game!

Wander through Wild Worlds – Adventure across the mysterious island while tackling 7 exciting and unique worlds, including 18 different levels and countless exhilarating challenges!

Unlock an Alternative Ending – Collect scepter achievements to unlock an alternate “rumpus” ending!

As to When The Wild Things Are stomping into stores, the console version has a "Fall" release date, while the DS game's info sheet says October 2009. Poking around the Internets shows that that date may be October 13 for both console and handheld versions, but I'll need to confirm this of course. We'll have updates on Where the Wild Things Are - The Video Game as they come in - stay tuned...

Spores Growing Soon On Wii, DS

EA and Maxis are expanding the hugely popular and expansive Spore universe with two all-new games, one each for the Nintendo Wii and DS/DSi. Titled Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena, both games will ship this October. In addition, the official website has unique Spore-based content including mini-games, a Spore Hero widget and a newsletter users can sign up for to get more details on both titles. Speaking of more details, how about two screenshots and a little official press release action?

We do aim to please, y'know...


Get ready for heroic battles, vibrant worlds and boundless creativity! Maxis™, an Electronic Arts Inc. studio, today announced that Spore™ Hero and Spore™ Hero Arena will be available at North American retailers on Oct. 6 2009 and internationally on Oct. 9, 2009. Built from the ground up exclusively for the Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ platforms, Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena introduce a new level of action-packed adventure and combat to the critically acclaimed Spore franchise.

“Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena give Spore and Nintendo fans a new, dynamic and engaging way to interact with their customized creature heroes,” said Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at Maxis. “Players’ heroes take center stage as both games, distinctly tailor-made for its Nintendo platform, infuse creativity, combat and adventure to create a unique gameplay experience on the Wii and Nintendo DS.”

Spore Hero delivers the unparalleled creative freedom of Spore in an action-adventure game created exclusively for the Wii. Set in a rich and vibrant 3D world, Spore Hero empowers the player to become the hero as they embark on an epic quest to save their creature’s home planet from destruction. Along this journey, players engage in fun battles, and solve puzzles to collect and unlock more than 250 new creature parts, all with unique abilities. These parts, which can be used to customize creatures in the revolutionary Spore Creature Creator, can change the way creatures will play and fight in the world. Players can also utilize their brawling skills in a dynamic multiplayer mode, where they battle their friends with their own customized creature to become the ‘baddest’ Spore hero around!



Spore Hero Arena catapults players into a galaxy filled with fun and intense arena-based combat. Featuring an all-new story set in the same universe as Spore Hero, Spore Hero Arena takes players on a quest to save planets in their galaxy from an evil force. Throughout the game, players create their own unique gladiator hero creature and guide it from planet to planet as they fight enemy creatures, collect new parts, gain upgrades and unlock special abilities that will benefit their hero. Developed with multiplayer capabilities in mind, Spore Hero Arena also allows players to battle with up to three friends locally or play with a friend over Wi-Fi, taking the Spore gameplay experience to an entirely new and interactive level.

Available for $49.99 MSRP, Spore Hero is rated E10+ by the ESRB. Spore Hero Arena is available for $29.99 MSRP and is rated E by the ESRB.

We'll have more Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena updates as they become available.

Gallery: Fossil Fighters

Dug up some screens and art on Fossil Fighters, Nintendo's newest (and just released) "collection RPG" (as well as potential future franchise candidate) that mixes in a bit of archaeology, geology and good old fashioned claw to the face battle action for the kids (and us dino-loving adults who don't mind folks staring at us while we play games on the subway, of course). The game, developed by RED and known as Bokura wa Kasekihorida in Japan, puts players in the shoes of a young fossil hunter as he sets out to become champion of Vivosaur Island's famous Fossil Stadium.

Yep, it's got the Pokemon thing working for it the kids will love, but given that you're using the touch screen and microphone for digging and blowing virtual dust away ("cleaning") respectively, this one looks like a bit more of a workout. Anyway, here you go - game screens and cute character art.

Fossil Fighters is rated "E" (Everyone) by the ESRB, retails for $29.99 and guess what? It's out even as we speak.

Like The New DAF Logo?

Yeah, yeah, I know it's a quickie MS Paint job an eight-year old could do in his or her sleep, but it's much more distinctive than the generic type I started DAF with. Actually, I worked up a bunch of other logo ideas, so here's a few more you may see up top in the near future (or not):

Feel free to comment on the new logo and the other designs. Who knows, I just may have a non-lucrative future in coming up with unused logo ideas!

Sands of Destruction Hands-On

Sega's upcoming Nintendo DS RPG, Sands of Destruction is going to blow you away. With its superb production values, supremely beautiful visuals, and an amazing amount of voice acting for a DS game, this one's a clear candidate for best handheld RPG when it finally reaches stores in early 2010. The Image Epoch-developed epic is in the process of being tweaked to improve game balance and a few other issues with the original Japanese version and based on my short time with a build at Sega's press event last week, things are coming along very well indeed.

My brief hands-on time with the SOD consisted of watching the 5+ minute long, fantastic looking fully-voiced intro sequence and afterward, playing about 20 or so minutes of the main game in a few different areas. While the first thing that's noticeable is how great the game looks, the voice acting is really what dropped my jaw. It's not only clear as a bell coming from the tiny DS speakers, it's about as good as it gets for a JRPG on the system. Yasunori Mitsuda's dynamic score was equally stellar, pacing both the opening movie and gameplay with style. The overall impact of the aural assault makes it seem as if someone's crammed a CD drive onto a DS cartridge.

After that few minutes of near anime-quality camera angles and a bit of plot intrigue, there was a quick battle to be fought that showed of the turn-based combat system and introduced two of the main characters. Let's just say SOD does a solid job of pulling you into its game world by introducing the lead (Kyrie) who has the power to destroy the world and his enemy and soon to be party member (Morte) whose goal is world destruction. They're initially on opposite sides of that particular fence, but we were assured that (in true JRPG fashion) things would get nice and twisty as the story continued.

The classic turn based combat is fast and both screens are used to display battlefields quite nicely. Flying monsters on the top screen can be hit with aerial or other attacks and from what I saw and played, some creatures can be pretty tough to take down. We also got to see a few later battles with more party members chatting it up but good during combat. Morte really enjoys her work as she takes out creatures, but it's Taupy, the tiny, super-cute eye patch and bandanna wearing killer bear that steals the show with his one-liners that make him sound like a cross between Bruce Willis and Duke Nukem.

In towns, there's a great map system on the top screen that makes it impossible to get lost unless you've a really poor sense of direction. The level of detail i everything from character and creatures to backgrounds clearly shows that 2D isn't going anywhere anytime soon. More jaded players might not want to give this game the credit it deserves, but again, squeezing all this onto a DS cart (even an over-sized one with more memory space) just HAS to be commended.

The playable characters you'll come across are quite an interesting mix, to say the least. Here are the official bios for each of them, along with some nice character art:


Kyrie Illunis
Sex: Male
Age: 17,
Height: 5'10"

The protagonist of this story. Gentle and sometimes shy, Kyrie is genuine and honest with anyone and will always keep his promises no matter what lies in his path. He has never seen the world outside of his town of Barni.




Morte Asherah
Sex: Female
Age: 16
Height: 5'6"

Morte is a tomboy and a half. Always cheerful and up beat, she believes that life should be about having fun. She isn't the romantic type, but once she realizes her own feelings she will run head-on towards her love. Childhood friends with Agan.



Agan Mardrus
Sex: Male
Age: 18
Height: 5'11"

Agan is a childhood friend of Morte's and is somehow whisked into traveling with her and Kyrie. Although he is kind and good-natured at heart, he hides behind a sometimes cynical demeanor to prevent from revealing too much of his real self.



Taupy Toplan
Sex: Male
Age: Unknown
Height: 2'8"

Taupy always gets the job done, and is the best of his trade at treasure hunting. The gritty and hard-boiled little bear is the toughest of the team, joining Kyrie's group instinctively - knowing it is the right choice for him. Teaches the pure-hearted and naïve Kyrie the importance of making his own choices.



Rhi'a Dragunel
Sex: Female
Age: 300
Height: 5'3"

As the last scion of the Dragon race, Rhi'a may look 15 but has actually lived for 300 years. Despite her girlish and bubbly features, her comments can be full of wisdom from her long life experiences. However, she tends to keep her comments short, which leads her to seem a little mysterious.



Naja Gref
Sex: Male
Age: 17
Height: 6'1"

Naja is very much an intellectual and is committed to his ideal of "saving the world." Sometimes obstinate, he tends to believe that his ideas are always correct. With a human mother and a feral father, he has grown under unfortunate prejudice from both the humans and the ferals.

We'll certainly be keeping an eye on Sands of Destruction as the game nears completion. With a wealth of RPGs on the handheld, this one is really looking quite memorable indeed.