World Domination, Hordes of Aliens, Ray Guns, Mind Control & Three Teenage Zombies

The invasion begins soon on Nintendo DS

Ignition Entertainment is pleased to announce Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys! is coming to North America and Europe exclusively for the Nintendo DS.

The Earth is under attack by a horde of Alien Brain… uh…Thingys! Humans, succumbing to ray-guns, mind-control, and shiny flying saucers, have failed to defend their planet and let it fall easily into the clutches of the Big Brain and his army of Brain Thingys. The only hope left for mankind is three Teenage Zombies that have arisen from a graveyard disturbed in the invasion. The undead trio ignores their normal human victims in favour of the pulsing pink brains they see EVERYWHERE - all the while being lured to the ultimate lunch: THE BIG BRAIN! The Big Brain soon realizes he’s overlooked this “Super Race” as they inexplicably resist mind control, are unaffected by ray-gun wounds, and devour his Brain Thingy Armies like sweets! He refocuses his efforts and resources to battle the Earth’s greatest champions: The Teenage Zombies!

“The characters in Teenage Zombies have instant appeal,” said Ajay Chadha, President, Ignition USA. “InLight’s team has come up with a uniquely humorous and satirical take on comics and retro sci-fi. You throw in a solid platformer and some truly entertaining mini-games, and you have a game that is accessible to all and downright fun to play.”

Teenage Zombies uses a whimsical style that focuses on, and parodies the Zombie genre, as well as 1950s style Science Fiction. This is presented in a comic book look featuring comic book panels, dialogue boxes and story telling. Gameplay involves side-scrolling adventures opening up to stylus mini-games, double-screen boss battles, and brain busting puzzle challenges.

“InLight Entertainment is looking forward to the opportunity to work with such a dynamic publisher,” said Devin Young, President & CEO of InLight Entertainment. “Ignition Entertainment brings a wealth of publishing knowledge and I'm looking forward to great synergy between the two companies.”

Key features:

• Unique Comic Mode which drives the story with an interactive comic book style presentation

• Platforming gameplay that requires the player to swap between characters to solve levels

• Each character has their own unique abilities to aid them through their adventure

• Mini Games featuring the zombies (or their body parts) using all the Nintendo DS™ features

• The Big Brain Challenge – a series of quick micro mini games that happen at anytime during gameplay to win or lose against the Big Brain

• ZAPS! (Zombie Assembly Pop-up Screen) – a mini-game where you use collected body parts to quickly create a zombie to regain your “unhealth points”

Developed by Inlight Entertainment, Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys! for the Nintendo DS™ is scheduled for a worldwide release Spring ‘08.

For further information please visit: www.teenagezombiesgame.com

Jesper Kyd Scores Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

British Academy award-winning composer delivers visceralsoundtrack for new video game from the creators of Hitman

Jesper Kyd has composed and produced a dark and distorted soundtrack for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men , a gritty, character-driven third person action shooter from the creators of Hitman, IO Interactive. Kyd’s intense cinematic score is a cohesive and hard-hitting combo of scar-edged melodic soundscapes and subversive action-driven grooves that portray the twisted and emotionally driven story of the two lead characters, Kane and Lynch, a flawed mercenary and a medicated psychopath – forced together but hating each other every step of the way. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men will be available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC Games for Windows in November, 2007.

To achieve the right kind of musical tonality for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Kyd’s foreboding and graphic score is as relentlessly intense and unforgiving in its attitude as the violent rage of Kane and Lynch on their destructive path of redemption and revenge. Delivering a masterful mix of melodic and sublime atmospherics, explosive electronic beats intoxicated with musical distortion and strewn with hardcore industrial guitar sounds, Kyd pushes the immersion factor and displays the main characters’ flaws, anger and pain in his echoing themes embedded with haunting vocals, heavily processed synth ambience, ethnic instrumentation and other multi-layered sounds.

Best known for his epic choral/orchestral and edgy electronic scores for the multi-million selling Hitman series, Jesper Kyd’s unique fusion of cinematic scoring techniques and minimalist electronic music for Hitman: Contracts won Best Original Music at the BAFTA Games Awards and his stylish symphonic hybrid score for Hitman: Blood Money was awarded Best Original Score by IGN and nominated for Best Original Video Game Score at the MTV Video Music Awards. His other collaborations with IO Interactive include Hitman: Codename 47, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin and Freedom Fighters, which received GameSpot’s Special Achievement Award for Best Original Music. For more information, visit www.jesperkyd.com and www.myspace.com/jesperkyd.

Multiplayer online game global game festival

Not many things to see about online gaming in the last E4All show? But at the same time in L.A, thousands online gamers gathered in an internet café to watch and participate in massively multiplayer online game global game festival.

During the E4All show, there was The Korean online games service, and foreign direct marketing business as part of the Korea SW Industry Promotion Agency (Chairman, Yu young-min), and subjective (HK) KT-sponsored 'Game&Game World Championship 2007(GNGWC)' the finals of the U.S. region was held on Oct, 20th on L.A.

At U.S. final selection, more than 60,000 players participated from preliminary match of 'Shot online (Sports)', 'War rock (First Person Shooter)', 'Silkroad online (MMORPG)' and US regional final event held successfully with 17 players who advanced from preliminary match and more than 200 supporters from all over the US.

This regional event was held successfully at the 'Internet PC Café' near LA area, and it began with press conference to help local presses understanding, and participants had great time through Korean online games with special events like professional DJ performances, and participants side shows.

Over 20 journalists from 14 local presses such as 'MPOGD', 'WarCry' visited to this event, and they showed off hot interests to Korean game companies and Korean online games.

US regional final had various episodes and special participants due to lot of games took part of it. Especially, 'Lunia (Allm)' has hot-spotlight than any other events, because more than 50% of Lunia users are located in US area. During the event we could see many families, because most of Lunia users are teenagers. Joshua, Jessica Pena (brother and sister) also drew attention from others and mother of Joshua and Jessica said "we recommend to our children to play soundness online games and we like Lunia because it brought something to talk about to our family". Also surprisingly Jessica took 4th place which is better than her brother, and praised from others, and she said "It is inconvenience because we only have one computer." The winner of Lunia, Travis Verhagen who is student of AIU, and wish to be programmer to make games like Lunia said "It is great pleasure to win this event and I will try harder to get better result at Grand final at Seoul on Dec."

The winner of 'Navy field (Enternet)' is Jedi1 (US), and OPR (Poland) took second place on 15 vs. 15 team play match. Even though it is US regional final, the 'Navy field' excited envy in other games because participants showed off great passion like came from all over the world (Canada, U.K., Poland, etc.) and prepare for the final.

Also 'Bomb'N Dash (Innodis)' brought big attentions because a user who has special job. US Marine, Jason who enjoy 'Bomb'N Dash' with his friends very much will dispatch to Afghanistan expressed inconvenience because he cannot play 'Bomb'N Dash' often after dispatch.The winner of 'Bomb'N Dash', SangJun Lee (2nd generation Korean-American) said "After immigrated to US, I could not visit Korea. But I am very happy to visit Korea trough this event."

Last year regional finalists of 'Silkroad online (Joymax)' Gerald Bastien and Zachary took first and second place in this year event again, and have chance to win at Grand final this year too. They said "We could feel much closer to Korea through 'Silkroad online' and very excited to visit Korea again."

The 'War rock (developed by Dream Execution) proceed this event with at scene registration. 'War rock' had great heat from more 50 participants who came very early to enroll this game.

Mr. Kwon (KIPA) said "Over 60,000 players from US, UK, Canada, and Poland participated in this event, it proves that Korean online game already take great part of the world game market.", also "We will try best to lead world game market by Korean online games based on popularity of this event."

Last August, starting with the GNGWC European Finals, Korea (Yong-in, 9.29-30), Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, 10.13), the United States (Los Angeles, 10.20), Japan (Tokyo, 11.17) the series will be held, each chosen gamers through regional finals will be join the Grand final on December 1 during the SoftEXPO & DCF 2007 Seoul COEX exhibition.

About GNGWC (Game and Game World Championship)
GNGWC is an international game competition which began in 2006 by KIPA in order to promote Korean online games throughout the World. Last year, 1,070,000 gamers from 5 regions including Korea, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, and America took participation in comparing in 3 Korean games, 'Silkroad Online', 'Gun bound', and 'Shout Online'. With the success from previous year, the event is planned to continue in the future.

KartRider Gets into the Halloween Spirit

Nexon America's popular MMO racing game gives racers Tricks and Treats for upcoming holiday

Nexon America Inc., the U.S. division of Asia’s leading online game company Nexon Group, is serving up a special batch of Halloween treats for KartRider players. KartRider, the free-to-download, free-to-play online multiplayer racing game, has already surpassed enormous open beta expectations. Now it sends its “riders” off to the races with special Halloween-themed events and releases. The combination of thrilling competition and Halloween spirit promises to be a potent mix for all gamers. More information can be found at www.kartrider.com or http://kart.nexon.net.

KartRider plans to release a spooky new area, Creepy Hollow, showcasing two new themed tracks, ‘Fright Fight’ and ‘Hidden Monastery.’ Creepy Hollow’s new courses feature winding trails through eerie forests, twisting cliff roads, long dark corridors, and even a ghostly cemetery. These new additions will be welcomed by racers who have already exhausted the numerous available tracks through sheer KartRider addiction.

Keeping up with the Halloween theme, Nexon also plans to release its specially designed Pumpkin Racer E2 Kart in conjunction with the release of Creepy Hollow. As the first kart being released in the E2 series, the Pumpkin Racer E2 will have the distinction of being the highest level kart currently available. The kart’s quirky appearance complements the game’s cartoon theme and is one of the more powerful karts offered. The popularity of the holiday and enthusiasm of users assures Pumpkin Racer E2 karts will invade KartRider courses in high volumes.

KartRider also expands its quest options with the addition of a Halloween quest assigned by one of the more popular non-player characters in the game. ‘The Pumpkin Chase’ is a thrill-a-minute scavenger hunt in which users race to collect Jack o’ Lanterns scattered around various courses. Users able to collect enough pumpkins within a certain time frame will have earned themselves a special reward at quest’s end. Let’s just say that KartRider is literally giving its users a chance to be a pumpkinhead!

KartRider fans can check on www.kartrider.com for more news and weekly updates regarding the game. Nexon plans a pedal to the metal onslaught of promotions, contests, and events in coordination with KartRider’s launch schedule to “drive” this title to success!

Are you the right soldier for the job?

Find Out At - www.MercenariesWanted.com

Activision Launches Official Website for Soldier of Fortune: Payback

Activision, announced today that it has launched the official site for the upcoming Soldier of Fortune: Payback. The website, located at www.MercenariesWanted.com, features a new trailer and exclusive screenshots, videos and weapons profiles. In addition, fans of the series can find:

· Links to recent previews – find out what the press is saying!

· Information on upcoming gaming competitions

· Registration for email updates and pre-ordering information

· A very active Soldier of Fortune community on the Forum

· Frequent updates on the latest news, game information and more

Soldier of Fortune: Payback is the long-awaited third installment of the Soldier of Fortune videogame series. The saga continues with the organization known as “The Shop” where players take on the role of a hired mercenary. Players will experience all the thrills and dangers of authentic mercenary combat blasting their way through high intensity combat situations in the world’s most dangerous hotspots in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. Using any means necessary, players will need to uncover a complex plot and defeat an extremist organization determined to throw the world into global conflict. Failure is not an option.

Soldier of Fortune: Payback will be available for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, and the PC. The game has been rated “M” for Mature by the ESRB and is scheduled for release in November 2007.

Golden Axe III available on Wii Virtual console (US)

SEGA of America, Inc. today announced that the SEGA Genesis classic, Golden Axe III is now available for download on the Wii Shop Channel. Prices start at 800 Wii Points for SEGA Genesis titles. Wii Points can be purchased online or at select retailers at an MSRP of $20 for 2,000 points.

Game Summary

Golden Axe III - The once-peaceful kingdom so familiar to fans of the original Golden Axe is under threat once again, as the Prince of Darkness has stolen the invaluable Golden Axe, taken over the kingdom and rendered all its warriors harmless thanks to an evil curse. One warrior, however, breaks free from the curse and must defeat the Prince and regain the Golden Axe to save the kingdom. In this one- or two-player action game, play as a giant, a panther, or a sword-wielding human and fight your way to victory!

The Wii Shop Channel serves as the Wii’s online storefront where visitors can redeem Wii Points to download games. Users need a high-speed Internet connection to access the Wii Shop Channel. Users can buy Wii Points at retail or with a credit card online from the Wii Shop Channel and redeem their Wii Points to download these and other classic games.

For more information on upcoming Virtual Console titles from SEGA, please visit the official Web site at www.sega.com. For assets, please visit the SEGA Press site at http://segapr.segaamerica.com

Wii helps Nintendo double profits

The success of the Wii has helped Nintendo to double its profit in the six months to the end of September.
Demand for the console has outstripped that for Sony's Playstation 3 and Microsoft's XBox 360 - selling about 7.3 million units.

The Japanese firm made a net profit of 132.4bn yen ($1.16bn; £506m) from 54.4bn yen a year earlier.

Popularity of the handheld DS also helped, with Nintendo selling about 13.4 million of the consoles.

The DS console, which allows users to control play with a stylus, has proved popular with women and older users.

Meanwhile the motion sensitive Wii has proved popular after introducing a new way of playing computer games. (see earlier post)

More from the BBC

Zack and Wiki Exclusive on Wii

CAPCOM RELEASES ZACK & WIKI: QUEST FOR BARBAROS' TREASURE, A PUZZLING NEW ADVENTURE EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE Wii

Pillaging Pirate Adventure Challenges Gamers to Play Different

Capcom, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today announced that ZACK & WIKI: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure for the Wii home video game system from Nintendo is now available at retail. Capcom’s first original title exclusively for the Wii is an innovative, full-length puzzle adventure game that utilizes the unique control mechanics of the Wii Remote and challenges gamers to “play different.” Rated E for Everyone by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), ZACK & WIKI: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure carries a suggested retail price of $39.99.

Legend has it that a revered pirate named Barbaros once stole the world’s treasure and hid it on a mysterious island. Though no one knows of its exact location, stories about the untold riches that lay in wait have been passed down through the ages, driving pirates from all walks of life to pursue the alluring prizes. One of these treasure seekers, a young apprentice pirate named Zack happens upon a mysterious talking skull, the skull of Barbaros himself. Barbaros promises to reveal the key to the island, if Zack will help to lift the curse he is under.

Players will explore a variety of wondrous environments and stages, solving puzzles and interacting with the world in search of a legendary pirate ship and the ultimate pursuit of becoming the greatest pirate the world has ever seen. Inventive gameplay mechanics and controller movements allow players to move and open objects, transform enemies into items, unlock new pathways and navigate through perilous stages based on a variety of themes including Jungle Ruins, Frozen Temple, Volcano Cavern and more, each with multiple sub-areas. Players will use the Wii Remote controller in various ways - rotate handles, turn keys to open doors, play a piccolo and much more in order to solve the progressively difficult puzzle stages and collect key items that will lead to the legendary pirate ship.

Wikipedia - Video Games listing

A video game is a game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally refers to a raster display device.

However, with the popular use of the term "video game", it now implies any type of display device.

The electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms; examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms are broad in range, from large computers such as mainframes, to handheld devices such as cell phones and PDAs.

Specialized video games such as arcade games, while previously common, have gradually declined in use.

More from Wikipedia

Wii can all lose weight playing games

Table tennis champion Nikolaus McClellan wiped his brow as he exultantly described his victory over more than 30 competitors at The Grid Lab on Tuesday and the resulting throbbing in his arm after playing four games.

But the tournament did not involve any tables or paddles, and it did not involve any ping-pong balls either.

The only equipment were Nintendo Wii remotes that allowed competitors to simulate real table tennis techniques while trying out Rockstar Games’ debut table tennis game for the Wii and Xbox 360.

Despite a lack of traditional equipment, some gamers and exercise professionals consider interactive sports video games a form of alternate exercise.

While many avid Wii Sports players have documented weight loss online from playing the games, Jill Wagner, an Ohio University physical education professor, is documenting the fitness benefits of exercise video games in an experimental course.

More from The Ohio Post