World Championship Games: A Track & Field Event (NDS)

World Championship Games is a hyper-realistic athletic sport simulation game packed with fourteen entertaining and challenging Olympic events, including a variety of multiplayer gameplay modes such as online, pass around, single and multi-cartridge as well as a top notch presentation featuring superior graphics, 3D customizable male and female athletes and a variety of competition venues.

World Championship Games invites gamers to travel to some of the world’s most renowned stadiums and participate in intense international athletics competitions. Players compete to beat world records and collect medals by using a combination of stylus sliding, touch screen taping, and a mix of D-pad and the L or R button. Whether playing in single player mode against the game’s artificial intelligence or challenging friends over the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, World Championship Games provides the most realistic sport simulation gameplay for handheld consoles. Developed at The Code Monkeys in Dewsbury, England, World Championship Games is rated E for everyone.

Features include :

• Accurate representations of 14 events: 100m, Long Jump, Shot Put, High Jump, 400m, 110m Hurdles, Discus, Pole Vault, Javelin, 1500m, Hammer, Running Target Ri?e shooting, Rapid Fire Pistol shooting and Archery.
• Superior character animation, modeling and A.I.
• Hugely detailed international stadiums, including venues in Canada, France, Japan, Spain and China.
• Single player Decathlon, Tournament and Quick Event modes, and Multiplayer modes for 2-4 players.
• Achievements – Beat personal bests and world records, accumulate medals and earn trophies to unlock extra events and tournaments!
• Create your own customized male or female athlete with their own distinctive attributes.
• Compete in great pass-around, Single Card, Multi Card and Nintendo WFC multiplayer modes. Download and beat the world’s best scores via the online Leaderboard!
• Hugely popular genre featuring touch screen controls and rhythm-based events for varied gameplay.

World Championship Games: A Track & Field Event is now in stores exclusively for the Nintendo DSTM for $29.99 in North America.

Space Giraffe (PC)

Space Giraffe features uniquely beautiful graphics and 100 levels of lovingly hand-crafted shoot-em-up action gameplay from the makers of Llamatron and Tempest 2000. Collect power-ups to activate Bonus Rounds and master the strategies necessary to maximize your score on every level!

The PC version of the game is considerably nicer than the Xbox 360 original, in several ways, and adds several key new features to one of the most distinctive and beautiful shooters of recent times.

Some players of the Xbox version found the extravagantly abstract and intense nature of some of the graphics to be distracting, and while in a way that was part of the design of Space Giraffe - learning to extract the necessary audiovisual cues from each level was part of the skill of playing the game - for the PC release we wanted to make the game more accessible to those who might be overwhelmed by the original graphical style.

The Neon engine has also been in continuing development since the time of the Xbox 360 version of the game over a year ago, and in particular we have been developing a new shader library capable of generating much more versatile and nice-looking effects than we've had before (we used the Neon library with the new shaders to provide the background visualisations in the upcoming release of "Space Invaders Extreme" on XBLA).

Accordingly I have undertaken a complete remixing of all 100 levels of the game. Although the fundamental level shapes and scripting are the same as in the Xbox game, the backgrounds and environments in which gameplay takes place have been completely reworked in order to show off the new shaders to good effect. The overall intensity of the effects has been toned down, and there is a lot less deliberate visual distortion of actual gameplay elements than there was in the Xbox version. We hope that this will make the PC version of the game more accessible to gamers not enamoured of the balls-out full-on psychedelia of its predecessor.

This is the version of the game that you will play if you choose "Space Giraffe NUXX" from the options presented when you run the game. We recommend all new players begin with this version (although I am sure people who already played the original version on the 360 will enjoy playing through this; it's very pretty).

Of course, we also do not wish to alienate those who *do* enjoy mad crazy psychedelia, and I thought it'd be a shame to throw away the original levels altogether. Many people might enjoy playing through the chilled remix of the game and then wish to try the full-on original. Of course they could always go and buy the excellent 360 version, but I thought it'd be nice to extend the capability of the PC version to allow users to play either version as they wish.

Thus the PC version also comes with the "Acid Mix", which presents the original 100 levels from the Xbox 360 game in all their balls-out, psychedelic glory.

Adding this capability also allowed us to provide for the possibility of future level packs. If there is sufficient enthusiasm for the PC version of the game then it will be easy for me to provide more level packs for download. These needn't be simply remixes of the original levels - they can be entirely new levels with new level shapes, scripting, and texture literals. We could do themed levels (for Christmas, for example, or to celebrate L. Ron Hubbard's birthday), further level sets for the chilled crowd, further psychedelic challenges for the tripheads, shorter level sets for those who want a game that doesn't take so long to play through in one go - whatever people want, really.

Space Giraffe is now available through the Steam ($19.99) and Direct2Drive ($19.95), as well as the Llamasoft website.

MEVO & the Grooveriders (PC)

MEVO is a synchronized music/rhythm platform game for the casual PC game market. The Steam version of MEVO & the Grooveriders also includes the “Left 4 Dead” characters Bill, Louis, Francis, Zoey, and the Hunter from Valve’s hit game.

In the game, MEVO, the main character, has to reunite his band, the Grooveriders, bring ‘FUNK’ back to the universe and defeat the enemy SILENCE. To move MEVO through the game’s five beautifully crafted worlds (Ocean, Jungle, Desert, Space and Wormhole), players must tap 2 keys to the rhythm of the game’s music as it is played and displayed in the game with arrows. All tracks are original, produced in-house with live musicians, and feature a unique and playful retro-funky style that varies from organic to electronic tracks.

As the game progresses, the beat sequences become more complex, evolving from basic single beats to rapid beats, combinations, sequences and long-hold sustains with breaks. By successfully completing the levels, players can access new areas and songs, or be rewarded with in-game items, such as avatar pieces that are needed to activate power-ups. Power-ups include slow mo, shield up, “perfect boost” scoring, and autopilot. No matter what skill level, players are rewarded with avatars, dance packs and badges to help progress through the game. Even though the game is accessible and easy to play for all levels of players, advanced players will be challenged with the game’s multiple layers of game play, including hidden levels, power-ups, badges and dance packs.

“MEVO & the Grooveriders offers all levels of players from adults to kids a fun experience that incorporates great music, beautiful art and very accessible yet challenging gameplay,” said Jung Suh, CEO of Red Rocket Games. “We know that all gamers from hardcore to casual will appreciate the customizable experience and great replayability that offers them a new experience each time they play.”

Other Key MEVO Features:

• Personalization - Players can personalize their MEVO with 17 body sets, 23 headsets and 6 dance sets, including customized avatars and costumes, such as Ninjas, British Dandy, Reindeers, Pumpkins, and more. Some avatar pieces/sets even have additional power-ups associated with them, such as score multipliers or invincibility.
• Great replayability – Players can replay the game with many variables, including trying to acquire different badges, achieving perfect play through, experiencing all of the alternate endings, or finding all the power-ups, avatars and dance packs throughout the levels. The game will also be updated directly through patches, unlike other casual games.

MEVO & the Grooveriders can be downloaded on Steam’s website or at www.MevoWorld.com.