New Crazy Taxi game is to his iOS and Android devices later in the year.
SEGA has uploaded a trailer revealing Crazy Taxi: City Rush - a free to play game, offering similar gameplay experienced in past titles.
Creator of the original Crazy Taxi, Kenji Kanno, has developed the game alongside Hardlight - the SEGA mobile development studio.
To celebrate the game's announcement, SEGA are offering the first Crazy Taxi to download free of charge on Google Play and the App Store, but only for a limited time with no mention of when the offer will end.
The official blurb describes various features expected in the game:
"Crazy Taxi: City Rush will launch with a wide variety of adrenaline-fueled missions, wild challenges - and unique areas to unlock, explore, and master as you progress through the campaign."
"Customize your cab to increase its power and visual appeal with a wide variety of over-the-top upgrades. Take your friends for a ride and blaze a trail through the city, sidewalks, and alleyways for special rewards."
PC gamers will soon have the chance to create plagues of their own.
Releasing in 2012 on iOS and Android, Plague Inc. has accumulated over 25 million downloads, deeming it one of the most popular mobile games to date.
February 20 marks the date in which the game makes its way to Steam, featuring various new features such as a multiplayer mode and new improved visuals.
The game will be released as Plague Inc. Evolved due to the new features PC gamers have in store, which can be seen below in full detail.
Infectious Multiplayer - cooperative and competitive gameplay modes let you team up to fight the cure with friends, or compete in a race to kill the world.
Contagious Content Creator - hit the lab and develop your own custom scenarios - creating new plague types and worlds. Bring your deadliest ideas to life and share them with Steam Workshop.
Blinding Graphics - Including full 3D disease models taking you closer to your plague than ever before, city-cams showing humanity's struggle at street level, and the body scanner highlighting the full effect of your mutations, organ by organ.
Deadly Data - Predict government responses with priority indicators, geek out with loads of new stats and graphs, and analyse your best strategies with end-of-game replays. And much more!
The extremely popular 2004 classic San Andreas is now available for Windows Phone users.
Originally re-releasing on iOS devices last December as a remastered version, the game was then ported to Android and Kindle Fire sporting HD upgrades - now users of the Windows Phone can once again take control of CJ and take over San Andreas for the price of £4.99 / €5.99 / $6.99.
All of the following devices support the game:
Nokia Lumia 810, 820, 822, 1320, and 1520
HTC 8XT
Lumia 1020, 952, and 928
Samsung ATIV S
San Andreas first hit shelves almost 10 years ago and instantly gained massive success, sprouting a dedicated fanbase still to this day with mods being made for the PC release on a regular basis.
Veteran pro skateboarder Tony Hawk has revealed he'd like the Tony Hawk games to carry on through mobile devices.
In an interview with CNBC, Tony Hawk has stated he'd like do a mobile Tony Hawk's game, saying "I've been wanting to do a mobile game for a long time." - the first Pro Skater game was released back in 1999, and was a massive success, spanning many more, but its safe to say the series has declined in popularity over the last few years.
Hawk goes on to say that back then it was just Nintendo and PlayStation the games had to cater for:
"It used to just be Nintendo and PlayStation, and now it's all kind of devices. So you've got to learn to adapt what you know from the technology into those areas."
If a new mobile game starts development, Hawk believes the best way for the game to be a success is to initially release it for free, then start charging customers if they wanted access to content later in the game.
Final Fantasy producer clearly states a Final Fantasy VII port to iOS/Android devices is still years away.
With the recent announcement that Final Fantasy VI will be making its way to iOS/Android devices, it only makes sense that the next in the series; Final Fantasy VII would eventually follow.
However, this isn't the case at all - Tokahi Tokita, Final Fantasy producer spoke with Shack News saying:
"Unfortunately, it's not that it's not impossible for us to develop Final Fantasy 7 for mobile," Tokita told Shacknews. "It's that currently, space will be an issue. Phones won't be able to contain the space it takes. It's over a gigabyte. People are probably going to have to wait a few years."
Spanning over 3 discs with its original PlayStation release back in 1997, there's no argument the game has a lot of content and data, which would prove difficult to fit on any current mobile devices.
This year's Tokyo Game Show (TGS) showed some promising games, from the browser-based Kingdom Hearts game to the Metal Gear Solid V prologue; Ground Zeroes. Let's dive into what in my opinion, were the most interesting games shown.
Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes
Gameplay Footage
Developer: Kojima Productions
Release Date: TBA
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Possibly the biggest highlight was Ground Zeroes; the prequel to the not yet released The Phantom Pain - the game was announced around a year ago now and since it's demo at TGS, a lot of gameplay has been showing up around the web and I can safely say that this game looks incredible.
You play as Big Boss in a huge open-world environment, taking on the challenge of tactical espionage action once again. The story takes place after the events of Peace Walker.
Let's get onto the gameplay itself, the video shows Big Boss infiltrating an enemy location (US Naval Prison Facility, Cuba) during the night using his surroundings to his advantage. There are various waypoints we can see, each attached to enemies - possibly a new gadget. Very Batman like.
Once inside the initial exterior of the base, the player takes out an enemy using a silenced weapon in true MGS style, but the body is soon seen by a fellow guard - it looks like Big Boss could be in trouble so the player quickly takes that enemy out too, to avoid any further detection, both bodies are then hidden out of sight.
Being able to drive vehicles will play its part in the game I'm sure, as the demo shows - the player casually drives an enemy vehicle around the base, and whilst it doesn't seem to have any significant importance during this particular scenario, I'm sure various vehicles will play vital roles along the way.
You may notice that when the player grabs an enemy from behind, there are multiple options to choose from in terms of what to do with this enemy, I can make out three options - interrogate, make unconscious, or kill.
Whilst the spotlight in the demo seems it would be an annoying obstacle for the player, it instead turns out to be a source of finding Big Boss' objective - once the guard on the tower is taken down, the player uses the light to take a bigger look around the camp, thus finding the objective at ease. In this case, a prisoner with a bag on his head.
Once the prisoner has been taken, the player calls in a helicopter to come pick them up - to do this an area on the map must be highlighted for the pick-up point, placing it in the middle of the base wouldn't be the best option, so the mark is placed outside of the camp at a secure location.
Now that the easy bit has been done, the player must carry this prisoner to that location without getting caught and/or killed, which proves to be very interesting from a gameplay perspective. In this case, the player encounters two guards who are quickly taken out using a silenced weapon once again.
Afterwards, Big Boss makes his way to the helicopter and as it descends from the base area, the player shoots multiple enemies, which leads on to a mini cutscene that shows off the Kojima Productions logo.
I think I had goosebumps upon watching that last part, Kojima is spoiling us with not only one but two new MGS titles - definitely looking forward to this as I'm sure most gamers are.
Kingdom Hearts X
Trailer
Developer: Square Enix
Release Date: TBA (Open-Beta since 8 July 2013 in Japan)
Platform: Browser-Based
Unfortunately, the trailer is in japanese so it's difficult to extract any real information regarding Kingdom Hearts X, I do know the game will be free to play to an extent and will be completely browser-based.
The trailer shows a created character as the player enters the game, which indicates we will most likely be able to create our own characters instead of using pre-existing characters from the series.
From what I can gather from the battle system, it will be turn-based with the use of cards - each card will have different attributes and/or commands, and it will most likely be very similar to Chain of Memories in terms of gameplay.
We do see some very similar locations from the series, including Dwarf Woodlands, Wonderland, and Agrabah - both fans of Kingdom Hearts and Disney will instantly recognise these places.
You'll notice there's a watermark saying "This product is aimed at the Japanese domestic market.", I hope this doesn't indicate that the rest of the world won't be able to get their hands on the game. There has been an open beta in Japan since July of this year, which you can still sign up to if you happen to have a japanese Yahoo ID and can read the language.
Soulcalibur: Lost Swords
Trailer
Developer: Project Soul
Release Date: Winter 2013
Platform: PS3
With the recent release of the free to play Tekken Revolution, Namco have decided to give the Soulcalibur series the same treatment. Kind of.
Instead of focusing on the competitive side of the series, it seems Lost Swords will primarily focus on a single player mission mode and character customization. Whilst the game will be free, that's only to an extent - players will have to buy "tokens" in order to continue their current progress.
I imagine tokens will regenerate after so many hours, just like they did in Tekken Revolution. The lack of online verse modes is disappointing, especially to veterans of the series, so let's hope this mission mode makes up for it.
Returning characters include Mitsurugi, Nightmare, Sophitia, and other regulars of the series - Tekken fan favourite and fighter in Soulcalibur II; Heihachi will be making an appearance.
The game is slated for a winter release, with no specific date set.
Final Fantasy X / X-2 HD Remaster
Trailer
Developer: Square Enix
Release Date: Winter 2013/Early 2014
Platform: PS3/PSVita
What is left to say about the remastered versions of FFX and FFX-2, aside from the fact gamers everywhere are eagerly awaiting it's release, myself included.
The trailer exaggerates the storyline and shows off some gameplay in beautiful HD-defined graphics, teasing the fans more and more. We just want an official release date, Enix.
In terms of differences from the original, practically every model in the game has been remastered and improved, ranging from locations to characters themselves - as well as 60 or so remastered audio tracks.
The international version of Final Fantasy X was never released in North America, so players missed out on the extra sphere grid, abilities, and bosses it had to offer - however, the remastered version will include all of those things this time around.
Japanese exclusive Final Fantasy X-2 + Last Mission will finally see the light of day outside of Japan as it will be included in the compilation.
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
iOS/Android Trailer
Developer: Square Enix
Release Date: Winter 2013 (Japan) / TBA
Platform: iOS/Android
Set seventeen years after the events of Final Fantasy IV, The After Years explores the life of Ceodore Harvey, son of Cecil and Rosa, and his task to be just like his father.
The After Years has been out on various platforms since 2008 including mobile (japan), WiiWare, PSP, and PSNetwork, so there's nothing actually new about the game except it is now coming to iOS and Android.
Japan can expect a release at the end of the year, whilst the trailer shows no indication of any other release date.
Deep Down
Trailer
Developer: Capcom Online Games/SCE Japan Studio
Release Date: TBA
Platform: PS4
Capcom - it's safe to say their not known for their online role-playing games, but it seems that the company is expanding with their upcoming game; Deep Down.
After watching the trailer, I get the impression the game is set far in the future and upon touching certain artifacts, the player transports to that specific location to perform certain tasks in order to unlock the secrets of the universe.
The dungeon sequences definitely reminds me of Dark Soul's, which is definitely not a bad thing - if the game is primarily set in the future, I wonder if we will be able to travel to the future as well as the past.
Nothing was shown regarding the multiplayer aspect, but that is something I can't wait to find out more of. The game will be PS4 exclusive and unfortunately has no release date as of yet.
Deadman's Cross
iOS/Android Trailer
Developer: Square Enix
Release Date: Winter 2013
Platform: iOS/Android
Set in 2030, Deadman's Cross takes place in what looks very much like a Zombie-infested New York City. players must take out as many Zombies as possible before the time runs out or you simply die.
Initially, the gameplay looks like a mediocre FPS game with an arcade-style twist, but the aspect that really interests me is the card battle system - I knew Square couldn't do a game with an RPG element in it somewhere.
It's difficult to figure out what these cards do at this point, but I'd make a guess that they help you in different ways depending on which cards you use to defeat the Zombie hordes or might even be used against you. Either way the trailer reveals the following cards:
Cleopatra
Lincoln
Morbid Mortician
Napoleon
The game will be coming to iOS/Android devices this winter in Japan and possibly other countries, not much has been shared regarding the release dates.
There you have it from me - this year's TGS has been incredible, I can't say I'm surprised with the amount of RPGs shown considering the event was held in Tokyo.
I'm not complaining one bit though, but the highlight for me personally was the gameplay demo of Ground Zeroes, it looks absolutely incredible and I'm sure it will play just as well. What were your highlights this year? Leave your comments below. Feature1
The port of Final Fantasy Type-O on the PSP was announced yesterday it would be ported to iOS and Android devices, players familiar with the PSP version won't find the gameplay too suprising, but it's a nice look into what tablet users can expect.
In fact, the game was originally only available in Japan, so gamers everywhere now can experience this lesser known game in the Final Fantasy series.
However, the game is not a direct port, the tablet edition includes the option to spend real world money on things such as items, health, energy, and so fourth.
It is free to play, but I imagine some features will require your hard earned money to unlock. Watch the Japanese trailer below, which shows the player exploring the world and engaging in battles.
The game hasn't got an official release date, but I expect it to be early 2014.
