This is very clearly a tribute to Zelda by From Software, the company that brought us what is potentially 2009’s best RPG in Demon’s Souls. Sure, there are other titles that this game is pulling from, but even the imagery in this trailer reeks of Zelda–I’m not complaining though, because if you’re going to find your inspiration in gaming’s past, you may as aim as high as you can.

The trailer doesn’t show gameplay in motion, but instead is a series of frozen moments from multiplayer, with voice overs and music playing in the background. While you don’t see it as it happens, it’s cool to see what is essentially an animated screenshot of multiplayer–the game also gives you a good sense of some of the destruction and squad elements, despite the lack of footage. It’s worth a look.

While it’s certainly no Powerglove (check out Mario Minor and other songs on their Myspace, and browse their official website here) it does have a music video with 8-bit animation, so that’s something.

That is why this interview that Gamespot did with Ken Ballough, the associate brand manager at Sega, is intriguing on a few levels. First, there are a few responses that let you know Sega is not about to stop going after the younger audience that loves those sidekicks–and why should they, given the sales numbers of the series?–but there is also a sign–a fast moving, hedgehog-shaped sign, in fact–that Sega wants to make things right with their other fans.

Sonic, back in two dimensions, and with HD graphics. Presumably this puts the game on a console rather than a handheld. Maybe some good has come out of Sonic Unleashed–the love people showed for the daytime levels may have just turned into a brand new (yet old-school) style Sonic game. It’s tough to tell now, given we have nothing to go on, but the fact that it’s 2D will at least force me to keep an eye on this project. “Project Needlemouse” (obviously a working title) has no developer, no platforms and no concrete release date, but my personal hope is that Dimps is somehow involved, given how well their handheld Sonic’s have been received.

A Boy and His Blob is adorable, there’s no way around that fact. It’s hard to imagine how the franchise went straight from this to what you see below, but that’s what happens when there aren’t any entries in a series for two decades.

These screens highlight some of the different environments the game’s 40 levels will take place in, as well as a few different shapes and forms you will get to use the titular Blob in. My personal favorite is the Blob Trampoline (Bloboline?) at night in front of a full moon; I kind of wish we had a video of that happening instead of just a screen.

We’ll have more information on A Boy and His Blob for you soon, courtesy of Wayforward. Check back for that and more assets as next month’s launch approaches.

BLAST: One of the most interesting things about Dragon Age: Origins are the changes to the story—even major characters can be killed off or you can fail to recruit them, for example. How big are the changes you see in the story when this kind of thing occurs?

Dr. Greg Zeschuk: One of the interesting things in Dragon Age is that the characters have their own motivations. What we watch during the game is not whether you are good or are you bad, but instead how are the characters reacting to you. There are impactful things you can do, as well as your everyday choices. The range of things the characters can do is pretty stunning—I remember one time, I had one really impatient guy. One cool thing is that the characters will talk to you, just as you are walking along, saying things like, “What are we doing?” and “We’re going the wrong way”. So this guy kept complaining, and eventually he said, “That’s it”, so I turned around and he attacked me. I literally had this full battle while the other guys just stood back and watched it—and he was actually a really tough character in my group, so I had to try and figure out a way to beat him before he could kill me. That’s an extreme example; other examples are you could meet a new character, but they have an instant dislike for you, or you could have a character say, “If they are joining you, then I’m leaving”. It really depends on the way you play your game; if you’re really evil or brutal, some characters may leave you, attack you, or they will split up and have a big battle with each other. It feels like a very realistic situation, where your friends like you so they will do what you tell better. I think that’s one of the key things in the game, so when you’re making decisions, you’re always thinking, “Okay, what will they think of it?” You can also build the group you’re traveling with based on their orientation.

BLAST: Because of all of these changes with the characters and your party, length of the game and replayability are a big factor. How many hours do you think you can squeeze out of Dragon Age: Origins?

DGZ: I would say the minimum you’ll get out of a single-player game is probably about 40 hours. The actual amount of content is amazing—there are some quests that, unless you built up your character a certain way or picked a certain origin, they won’t even open up. I’ve heard of people doing a single playthrough with over 100 hours, so it’s probably more than that. It’s giant. One of the really interesting things about it though, is that you can play in a very bite-sized way, it’s not just one long level where you save and load. I can see playing single player for six months, playing a half-hour per night, clearing out a dungeon or finishing a quest. In these financial times, it’s a critical value. It’s almost like an MMO, where you can play it and play it and play it and always find new things. Even here, I was talking to some guys from Mythic and telling them about a character, and they were saying, “Oh, I have to play it again!” All of these things make it very personal and unique.

BLAST: Tell us a little about the skill tree that you use to customize the characters.

DGZ: There are a couple of different ways—there are Talents, which are a combat ability you can use, there are also some skills outside of battle, like for potions and poisons and traps, those kinds of things. Every character, like the rogue, warrior and mage, come with a certain set of base rules; there are quite a few of them. And within them, there are different sub-trees, like a rogue could be a two weapon wielding backstabber and an archer. What you unlock as you play are these specializations, which come from quests you do and items you find; those give you a whole other set of powers. You can also customize your character to a very narrow line, depending on what it is you want to do. What that allows is for everyone’s character to be completely unique—you won’t be able to get all the Talents in a single playthrough—but what’s great is that it’s not just your own character, you can customize your entire party. You can decide how you’re going to build your party, decide how you’re going to customize them. There’s another side to that too, where there are recommended choices, so people don’t have to be overwhelmed it. It’s a game where it’s very hard to make a bad choice—you can’t pick a Talent that sucks, they are all pretty good, you just have to figure out how to use them.

BLAST: So you can customize your party and try out all different kinds of characters and abilities?

DGZ: You could get three mages, customize them, and every one of those mages could be completely different. One could be using curses and entropy, one could be healing, and one could be primal, like fire and lightning spells. Beyond that, you can further customize in the specializations and other stuff, so there are probably seven or eight different kinds of mages you could make; it’s the same with warriors and rogues. There’s a lot of choice! We anticipate people will replay it, and say things like, “Well this is the best warrior I’ve found” and compare with each other. That’s kind of one of the things you can do on the community website; it allows you to share, which kind of goes by achievements by letting you show what you did and how you did it. So people can look at each other’s progress and see, “Oh, this is how you did that!” and compare and contrast their experiences.

BLAST: The game is multiplatform, as its on both consoles and on PC—are there any major differences between PC and console?

DGZ: It’s interesting, but the PC version, which we developed a little bit earlier, is radically different. We redid the entire interface for the console version; we had all of these incredible Talents and powers on the PC version, and we wanted to make sure console players didn’t feel like we were stripping away any of the power. You also had to make sure they had everything at their fingertips, and that was a huge, huge undertaking. Trying to give console players the opportunity to switch between 20 different spells at any time is how we got the ring structure, which, after playing with it on a console, feels very natural. Another thing on consoles that is very interesting, after playing around with balancing and the creatures, is that it’s actually much more of an action game, whereas on the PC its more natural to pull back, look at the whole battlefield, and have kind of a chess game feel to it. On the console, I think people are just going to jump right in there—everyone here is playing console today, and when you go in there, there’s a very action-oriented feel, and that really plays well to each audience. Console guys want to get right in there, while PC guys want to be more strategic.

You also get a small sample of how the stylus will work as the celestial brush, as our diminutive hero uses it in battle against a few enemies. Hopefully gameplay and information continues to leak from Japan, because this is a title I’m starting to look forward to playing.

BLAST: Tell us a bit about Dead Space: Extraction and how it fits into what we know about the ever-growing Dead Space universe.

SMP:  Extraction is the official prequel to Dead Space.  The game kicks off from the moment the Red Marker is extracted and follows a group of four people as they attempt to escape Aegis VII and see sanctuary on the USG Ishimura.

BLAST: Rather than port over the original Dead Space to the Wii, the focus for Visceral Studios was instead to create an original property that expanded on the Dead Space universe. What drove you in that direction, rather than the one that many Wii owners are accustomed to seeing?

SMP:  As gamers we wanted to create a unique Dead Space experience from the ground up for the Nintendo Wii.  The Wii is a very unique console with its innovate motion controls and we wanted to embrace the challenge of building a Wii game and that meant starting from the ground up.

BLAST: There are mature games on the Wii, but they have hit retail with varying levels of success. What, in your mind, separates Dead Space: Extraction from those mature Wii games already on the market, as well as those that are still on the way?

SMP:  With Extraction we are hoping to deliver a unique and new Dead Space experience for Wii gamers.  One of our main areas of focus with Extraction was nailing the atmosphere the first game had.  Compared to some of the other mature games on the Wii we feel our visuals and gameplay will really stand apart and hopefully interest a wide range of gamers.

BLAST: From what I have played, even in a room full of other people, this game has you jumping and feeling antsy just like the original did. Since the game is a guided experience though, was it challenging to recreate that creepy atmosphere in this format? How was it accomplished?

SMP:  Going with the Guided Experience approach has really opened a lot of doors for us as it relates to setting up tension and scares.  With this new perspective we have been able to approach the game in ways familiar to film makers.  Since the majority of the time we know where the camera will be looking we can leverage that knowledge and create some good set ups that we were not able to do on the original game.

BLAST: Part of the problem with the Wii is perception; many gamers that consider themselves “hardcore” have ignored the Wii in favor of its other console cousins. What do you think Dead Space: Extraction can do about changing the mindset of those gamers by convincing them that it’s okay to own and even like a Wii?

SMP:  Personally as a gamer I think it’s great to have options when it comes to the game systems I play on.  I enjoy playing games on all of the various console and handhelds.

I hope people enjoy Extraction and view it as one of the must have games on the Wii.  I think gamers are open minded and as long as a game is fun will give it a shot regardless of the platform it is on.  Hopefully they feel that way about Extraction.

The news is not all Wii specific though, as those of you that weren’t intrigued by the black or blue DSi’s can now take a look at the new pink and white options. These are $170, just like the other colors–the white one may be a better option this time around than it was with the DS or DS Lite, given the matte finish. The white DS sure got dirty looking when it had the glossier coat on it. You can pick up one of these new DSi’s very soon–in less than two weeks, in fact, as they release on September 13.

I think Solar Striker is the lone shoot-em-up Nintendo has ever developed back on the Game Boy in 1990. I could be wrong about this, but [checks Wikipedia] no, looks like it’s the only scrolling shoot-em-up developed by Nintendo. Check out the video below to see what you think; I’m hoping this comes over to North America, but I’m also a shmup addict (especially for $5).

Remember, if you like what you see, you can get a copy of the game at the Nintendo World Store in New York a few days before the official launch.

This is shaping up to be a pretty good looking title, so keep your eyes on it. We’ll be covering it up to and through release.

We’ve also got a trailer for you that shows off the Laguna Seca raceway. As this game is a looker, the trailer is in HD for your viewing pleasure. Be sure to check that and see what Shift’s rendition of it looks like.

One last EA related note: through September 17th, EA’s store is running a promotion that will give you 20% off of all EA titles. If you happen to pre-order Need for Speed: Shift during that time period, you will also receive an unlock bonus for BMW’s E92 M3 GT2 racer, as long as you live in the U.S. or Canada anyways.

Vanillaware (Odin Sphere, GrimGrimoire) know what they are doing when it comes to developing fantastic looking titles, as their previous work and Muramasa’s trailers and screens show. I have seen the game in motion and played it, and honestly, screens don’t do this game justice visually. Hopefully this latest trailer from Ignition will shed some light on it for you though, and let you see that, HD console or no, Muramasa looks to be one of the prettiest and most artistically stunning games of the year on any system. Muramasa will be out in North America on September 8, and we’ll have a review for you right around that time.

Based on the early details from Molyneux, the kingdom of Albion now needs a king or a queen, and you will eventually become that person. It will be interesting to see how your moral choices and decisions affect the entirety of the population and the land, rather than just your own storyline and personal appearance. To be honest, this is a much more appealing feature to me than the previous two games used (sorry, Eddie) so I’ll be keeping an eye on this one. You have a ways to wait, as Fable II is set for a 2010 release, but it’s not like you don’t have things to wait for in the meantime, eh?

BLAST: How about you tell our readers a bit about ChAIR?

Donald Mustard: We formed ChAIR a little over four years ago, with the intent to create really awesome games and really cool intellectual properties to create and control to set those games in. Our first game was Undertow for the Xbox 360, and just next week we’re coming out with Shadow Complex, which we’re very excited about.

About a year ago, we were purchased by Epic Games. We are now a subsidiary, part of the Epic family. That is so awesome for us, because Epic came in, and gave us all of the time and resources and expertise that we needed to create a really powerful game. The awesome part about being part of Epic is that we get access to the Unreal Engine 3, which is, in our opinion, the very best game technology that’s ever been created. We love using it, and that’s a huge advantage to being part of the Epic family.

BLAST: Shadow Complex has a deeper story than many sidescrollers and other games in the genre, which makes sense given you have Peter David working on it. Tell us a little about how you get Peter to work on it, and on the story itself.

DM: The story of Shadow Complex takes place in our Empire universe. About two years ago, we released a novel called Empire by Orson Scott Card. The novel is about a second civil war breaking out in the United States in the near future, and the ramifications of what that would entail. The story of Shadow Complex runs parallel to the events of that novel and sets up a lot of the events to the sequel to that novel, Hidden Empire, which will come out this December.

Shadow Complex is reminiscent of some of our favorite games from the past, like Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, games that are all about exploration and this environment that you’re placed into. One of the challenges that we wanted to take on in Shadow Complex was to layer in more story than we have seen in those games in the past. We thought it would be awesome to partner with something who understood quick, concise dialogue, and we thought “Who better to do that then a comic book writer” They really have to marry their words with a strong visual style, similar to games in many ways.

We don’t see any reason not to set our sights high, so we made a list of our favorite comic book writers of all time, and Peter David was at the very top of that list. We were able to get in contact with his agent, and through that we got his phone number and we called him up. We talked to him about what we were thinking about Shadow Complex, and what the ideas were, and he really loved the idea of it so we were able to somehow convince him to come and partner with us in writing the story and script. We think the end result is just awesome, he did an amazing job of creating a compelling narrative with cool characters, but still allowed for so much of that open-world freedom that we kind of needed in the game.

BLAST: I see a bit of Metroid Fusion in this title as well, since that game had more story and you have the voices coming in over the walkie and such, in a similar way. How did you prepare for that game, as the play style—even though it does its own things as well—it mirrors them [Super Metroid & Metroid Fusion]; did you do anything special to prepare for that?

DM: For us, for everyone at the company, Metroid, Super Metroid, Zero Mission, and Metroid Fusion are some of our favorite games of all time. And we just saw this hole in the genre. I’ve been waiting almost 15 years for someone to make a new console version of these exploratory sidescrollers. Imagine if no one made a first-person shooter for 15 years, how weird that would be. Then 15 years later, Call of Duty 10 comes out; after 15 years, how fresh do you think that would feel? We decided that no one is making these games, even though they are so awesome, so when we finished Undertow we decided it was a great opportunity to take a stab at creating this type of game. That’s what we set out to do. So at the very beginning of the development process, we looked at the Metroid games to see what they did right, and what we thought they did wrong, and how to bring them back with a re-design and modernize it with everything we’ve learned in the last 15-20 years about game design about pacing and narrative flow, and then fuse that with the very best game technology that we have. The Unreal Engine, bringing in all the graphics and AI and all the things we can do now in modern games. We’re pretty happy with the result, but it remains to be see–you can answer this question better than we can—were we able to take the old and create something that was fresh and new for gamers today?

Geremy Mustard: One of our goals along those lines was—well those types of games are still out on handhelds, like the Game Boy—but that’s a pretty niche market, for the kinds of people that remember those types of games, and we wanted to really bring it to the next generation and bring it to the new generation that has been weaned on Halo and the modern first-person shooters, and we wanted to make that type of game accessible to those kinds of players as well. Hopefully that will be the case.

BLAST: Do you have any kind of insight or idea as to why this type of game disappeared from consoles for 15 years?

DM: Super Metroid came out in 1994, and then in ‘95, the Playstation came out, and then everything was 3D, 3D, 3D. The idea that a sidescroller, no matter what the design was, could be successful, went away. Now, as games have become more mature, and the technology has become more mature, the platforms have matured; look at what Microsoft is doing with Xbox Live Arcade. It creates opportunities for all kinds of games being developed, regardless of the design. There is really an opportunity now for any kind of game to be developed on these next-gen systems regardless of where you set the camera.

BLAST: One thing I noticed while playing is that Shadow Complex looks like it’s set up for speed runs, which is kind of interesting given that speed runs seem to be one of those things where you exploit the design. You even have an achievement for completing a speed run.

DM: We do! One of those things we have fond memories of was the ability to do speed runs in games and sequence break them. While I will always believe in my heart that while I was speed running Metroid and sequence breaking Metroid that no game designer ever intended for that to happen…I think they intended for that to happen, and they made the game support it. So we thought, “Of course we have to support that.” Of course we have to allow the technology to even consider that someone out there will think of ways to break things that we never even thought of, and so we wanted to make sure that we could support it and allow them to complete their game however they want to figure it out. So because we decided to support that, it allowed for some really awesome stuff to happen, and as we ran through the testing process of the game we started to see all the cool ways to speed run the game and sequence break the game, and we allowed that to stay in. So yeah, you can absolutely speed run the game really, really fast if you know where everything is and you’ve played it several times and leveled up your character even enough to unlock some of the really cool secrets and abilities we have to assist you in speed running. A lot of that is built in.

GM: Honestly we see that as one of the coolest forms of replayability that we have in our game, and that these types of games have. Even though you’re kind of playing through the same experience, it’s quite different as you try to play in different ways. Obviously you can see from the older games, people continue to play Super Metroid to try to do speed runs and sequence breaking, there are all kinds of videos on YouTube and stuff about that. We know it’s a very valid form of replayability to get value out of the game, so we wanted to support that as well as we could.

DM: Geremy’s right; playing the game in new ways almost creates an entirely new game experience. Some of these people, after they beat the game a few times, will be able to reach the foam earlier in the game, and will be able to beat the game with just their foam and the pistol. That is a completely different gameplay experience than any other way of playing the game, it’s almost like a new game at that point. There’s some really cool stuff for players that are more interested in finding new stuff to discover and interact with in the game in new and unique ways, it can really extend the life of the game.

BLAST: So the game comes out Wednesday, if it’s successful do you see yourself doing anything else like this in the future? Any other style of throwback, or more in the Metroid/Shadow Complex style of game?

DM: The short answer is we would love to. We love the challenge of making this kind of game, and through the creative process we learned so much about how to create these kind of non-linear, exploratory games. If a game like this can take off, not only would we love the opportunity to create more games like this, but what I really hope is that other people would make games like this. The one problem with Shadow Complex is that Geremy and I already know where everything is! We don’t ever get to play it and enjoy a fresh, new Metroidvania style next-gen game. I hope someone else will make it so that I get to play. Uh, not another Shadow Complex though [laughter]. You know what I mean.

At the end of the day, we are beholden to what gamers want. If they want it, we’ll make more.

GM: We have some sweet ideas for a sequel to Shadow Complex, so if your readers want it, tell them to go buy the game. [laughter] [Editor's Note: Go buy the game.]

Shadow Complex releases Wednesday, August 19 for XBLA at 1200 Microsoft Points. You can read our review here.

In order to celebrate, Blast has some new screenshots of the game! Check out the gallery below to see what to expect from the game graphics-wise.

For More Information Check Out Our Coverage From Comic Con!

BLAST: In the past, Madden on Wii was visually behind its hi-def console cousins. What prompted the complete overhaul of the look and style?

Tim Spangler: One thing we wanted to do with the Madden product coming back to [EA] Tiburon was to create a unique visual style that would stand out among all of the other Madden’s out there. As soon as you pop in our disc, you’ll notice a lot of changes from a visual standpoint. You’ve got all new character designs, all new stadiums, all new fields, all new interface presentation, and all of it specifically designed to make the most of the Wii hardware.

BLAST: It looks kind of arcade-y to me, but in a good way. You have this realistic game attached to an arcade look. What inspired you to go down that road?

TS: In terms of visuals, there was a Coke commercial that came out around the time of the Olympics, and it had LeBron James and Yao Ming on it. They went into this festival thing that was all about the matchups, and basketball, and the Olympics, and it was this comic book looking, stylized characters, and we looked at that, and at the same time…it’s not right when Team Fortress did it, but Team Fortress was getting huge around that time. We looked at that, and our goals were to differentiate. Team Fortress had very similar challenges, being a stylized first-person shooter in a genre that’s known for a lot of realistic gameplay. So, we look at those two as our two main inspiration points. We also looked at toys, graphic novels, films, stuff like that.

BLAST: With Grand Slam Tennis, EA showed a willingness to go with style over realism. Now that a flagship title like Madden has been altered in the same way, can we expect this to be the norm on Wii in sports games?

TS: I can’t really speak for EA Sports as a label, but I know in general we’re trying to make a real strong presence on the Wii console. I would say that if titles like Grand Slam Tennis and Madden do well, and people enjoy them, then we will make more products like them.

BLAST: Let’s hear some details about specific changes, like the player’s bodies. What are they like now?

TS: In years past, you couldn’t really tell the difference between Brian Urlacher and Peyton Manning from the silhouettes, they looked the same. In our game, we tried to say, across the board, what types of body types would you need to excel at certain positions.  So what we did is we studied that frame at pre-play, and then we said, “Okay, we need wide receivers and defensive backs.” With those guys, we wanted a tall, thin, think of a Randy Moss. He’s the prototype kind of guy that plays the position. Then inject some personality into them, like big hands, colorful gloves, big feet. Then you’ve got your quarterback, he’s kind of your broad shouldered, classic pocket-passer, the leader of the team. You’ve got your linebacker, he’s the muscular guy that will knock your block off. You can tell as soon as you see him that he wants to knock your head off. You’ve got your linemen, they look like a hulking mass. They are your blockers, and they are guys you don’t want to get hit by either. And also, with the running backs, we wanted to have a guy you could look at and say, “Hey his legs are kind of big.” Someone like LaDainian Tomlinson, Michael Turner type guys. They are still kind of big, but at the same time they are fast and elusive and low to the ground. So we took that philosophy, and tried to emphasize that in the art with the curves and an overall design that would emphasize those characteristics.

From there, we built our environments around those characters. So we can inject that same personality into the stadium. You can see the Broncos stadium here, they took that same horse and then stylized it so it felt like a natural extension of the overall look.

BLAST: Tell me a bit more about the stadiums.

TS: All of the stadiums were built from the ground up. Every stadium has some type of design element…the Broncos have the horse that sits up there and the mountains that surround it. So we took those, and stylized the mountains, stylized the horse. The Bucs have that pirate ship, we took that, injected a bit of personality into that, increased the scale so it dominates that end of the field, did a little play on the palm trees, stuff like that. So we really tried to find those points where the architects had design elements, bring those elements into our world and make them a natural extension of what we’re doing with the players.

BLAST: The stadiums look huge, they just have this big open space and it looks like there are 200,000 people sitting in the stands. Let’s talk about the menus a bit. That’s the team select screen… do all of the menus and interfaces look different like that now?

TS: Yup. So for all our new modes for this year, we’ve gone with a big, bold, polished look that’s pointer-friendly, very colorful, and easy to interact with. We took that approach when designing the interface for this game.

BLAST: With a revamping of the visual style, it’s clear the hope is to attract more people to the Wii version of the game. What do you think will resonate with gamers new to the series, as well as veterans?

TS: For new people, we tried to make it easy to pick up and play. There’s not a huge, steep learning curve here, but at the same time there’s enough depth where we have our different play modes and different levels of difficulty that veterans can enjoy it too. One thing we did for passing, where in years past it was a lot of complicated gestures that you would have to memorize, we tried to simplify that down. With point-and-pass this year, you press A to hike the ball, point at a receiver to lock onto him, and tap A to lob it or press it and hold real fast for a bullet pass right to him. It’s pretty easy to pick up and play. Also, for the new people on the franchise, we’ve got a co-op mode called Huddle Up. There, that’s like a father/son game. They don’t need to know much about football, they can pick up and play without worrying about complexity. Their kid can jump in and knock down pursuers with the IR. It’s the same thing on defense, you can knock down defenders to take them off of their route, knock blockers out of the way.

Also in new game modes we have Road to the Superbowl. It’s similar to a season, it’s all about getting to the Superbowl, but you can customize how you want to play. You can play that standard 11 on 11, or you can play 5 on 5. You can play half a season, a whole season, or start right in the playoffs. We give you those opportunities as well. We also have Showdown mode, to see who is King of the Couch, see who is the best player in the room. And there we have game changers, which are different ways to play the game: fumbleitis, always turbo, it’s alive, different ways to customize the game for how you want to play.

BLAST: So you have got an arcade product with realistic properties we’re used to from Madden in the same package. That gives people with access to more than one platform reason to pick up both or just the Wii one.

TS: Yes, exactly.

Thanks to Tim Spangler for answering our questions. We will have a preview of Madden NFL Wii for you in the near future. Look for our review of the title around launch as well.

BLAST: We want to know about Over the Top Games. Tell us who you are and what you are about.

Roberto Alvarez de Lara Sieder: We are a team of young developers with a lot of passion for the game industry! We have been making games for some time for other companies, and one year ago we decided to create our own studio to work on our own game designs.

BLAST: What kind of games do you play when you aren’t making them?

RADLS: In my case I like to play all kind of games. I’m a big fan of games like Katamari Damacy, Shadow of the Colussus and those that stand out for some reason. I’m a big fan of FPS like Counter Strike and Unreal Tournament.

In our office there are people that love RPGs and that are fans of Nintendo franchises like Super Mario Bros, Metroid and Capcom’s Mega Man. As you can see we are all players!

BLAST: We can see in the trailer and from screenshots that NyxQuest is a platformer. Tell us a little about the gameplay that you may not be able to glean from the media available.

RADLS: From the start we wanted to create a platformer that used the Wii Remote in original ways. The main concept was “a character that needs help from gods to advance in his adventure”. From there we chose to base everything in the myth of Icarus and Greek Mythology, because it was a nice mix.

BLAST: Visually, NyxQuest looks fantastic. The backgrounds give the game an epic look, as you control your relatively small character through the levels. What inspired Over the Top Games to implement this art style?

RADLS: We wanted the environment to feel epic. The adventure of Nyx is an enormous task. She leaves her realm to find her dearest friend, Icarus, and she finds herself in a hostile world. We wanted the sceneries to transmit that to the player.

Sources of inspiration are Dali and Giorgio de Chirico. They have awesome paintings that transmit just what we wanted.

BLAST: How does co-op gameplay work in NyxQuest?

RADLS: Co-op is big fun, because one of the players controls Nyx, the main character, and the other controls the powers from the gods. It requires a lot of synchronization! But it makes for fun gameplay and the best part is that it allows you to change positions for a different experience. We always laugh when we play the parts with big columns that one needs to grab for the main player to advance.

BLAST: When do you think the game will release in North America? Europe seems to having a great time with it, and we’re all jealous.

RADLS: We are sorry for that! My sources tell me you won’t have to wait a lot!

BLAST: Do you have any other projects you would like to tell us about? Is there anything else you want our readers to click away from this interview knowing about NyxQuest that we didn’t cover?

RADLS: We are now working on some new ideas for new games.  We are discussing where to go next and for what platform.

I hope everyone has a good time playing NyxQuest and enjoys the game as much as we enjoyed creating it. We placed a lot of ‘love’ into that game

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Dark Lord is a tower-defense style game that is also meant to continue the story begun in FFCC: My Life as a King, one of the debut WiiWare games. I love tower-defense, and I love Crystal Chronicles, so this one has my interest. Battle Poker is basically poker, but you fight to grab the cards first, meaning the best hands are made by those with the quickest hands. Last, we have 5 Spots Party, which sounds like one of those books you have as a child that lets you pick up on what’s wrong with a picture. This one seems suited towards the younger crowd, though I guess it would depend on what kind of things they are hiding in there.

DSiWare only gets one title, but it’s an Art Style game. You should know the drill by now, honestly. Chances are very good that the game is great and you’re missing out if you still have just a DS, etc. The full release for all four titles is after the jump, and we have screens for Art Style: ZENGAGE and FFCC: MLAAD (I’m not even sure that is shorter than the actual title) as well.

It’s a behind-the-scenes video meant to tell you about some of the changes, like the fact that you no longer work exclusively in surgery. You will control multiple doctors working in different areas, which should help keep the gameplay fresh and bring in all new sorts of fun that the other four titles in the series never got to.

Sadly, details are still scarce about the game at this time, as it isn’t due out until spring of 2010. You can still see, even in this short video, that a lot more is going on. There was endoscopy, orthopedics, first response aid, diagnosis, surgery, and forensics, which is a huge change from before. The adjustments they have made to storytelling are also a big change for me, as the previous means of telling a story worked, but could have also dealt with some tweaks and improvements. What do you think about how different this looks? Excited? Upset? Let us know.

In case you haven’t heard, Madden NFL 10 on Wii this year is going to be a bit different. I know that normally that makes you think that something was taken away from the game, but EA has built this from the ground up for the system with a brand new and stylized art style. I’ve warmed up to it the more I look at it, as it isn’t cartoony, it’s just stylized. Realistic football with an arcade look to it is something I can get behind; check out the screens we’ve included for your viewing pleasure, and tell us what you think.

First up is Bleach: The 3rd Phantom, which is unlike the previous two Treasure developed Bleach games on the DS. This one is developed and published by Sega, and is a tactical RPG like Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics, rather than a straight up fighter. The story is brand new and written by Tite Kubo, the author of the actual Bleach manga. I’ll be interested in checking this out, given that the game has a well-developed universe to support it and is now in a genre I’m more comfortable in.

That’s not the only DS RPG I’ll be checking out though, as Sands of Destruction, a game that has been on my radar since the beginning of the year when Nintendo Power first discussed it in detail, will also be there. This is a game created by the minds behind Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, and unlike in many games where your goal is to save the world, in this one you are set on destroying it. That’s right, the world is in such awful shape that the protagonists have decided that it’s better off just not existing anymore. Love the concept, so I’ll want to see how the gameplay is.

The other of the titles that I can’t wait to try is Bayonetta, which is being made by Platinum Games. If you remember, Platinum Games (made up of former Clover and Capcom devs) also developed MadWorld, an over-the-top and ridiculously violent beat-em-up that we adore.  Bayonetta is also helmed by the creator of Devil May Cry, so you know this is going to be a very polished, very difficult affair. Bonus points for bringing in a live action model of Bayonetta and hosting a Bayonetta cosplay contest. I hope Sega remembers that her clothing is made out of the hair that’s attached to her head.

Sega will also be premiering Iron Man 2, and showing off Planet 51, and SEGA & Sonic All-Stars Racing. You can check out the screens we have for some of these titles below, but be on the lookout for more information on these games during and after Comic-Con, later this month.

As you can see in the screens, stumbling upon this crashed spaceship grants you access to something much larger. We’ll have more info for you as Bethesda unveils it, and eventually a review of this latest batch of DLC.

The Joker, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, Harley Quinn and Bane all make an appearance in this trailer, so if you’ve been waiting for another look at them–or just want to hear The Joker’s maniacal laugh or Poison Ivy’s sultry voice one more time–then make sure to watch.

Excuse me while I get distracted looking through the plethora of King of Fighters assets we’ve posted the past few months. I say I’m tired, but it’s the only substitute we have for the real, potentially awesome thing at present.

Today, Capcom shows off Storm from the X-Men and Jill Valentine of Resident Evil fame. A mutant with the ability to control weather hardly seems like a fair match for Jill, but I don’t see Storm toting a rocket launcher either, and anyone who has played Resident Evil knows that rocket launchers are capable of saving the world.

In addition to the screens, we also have strategy videos for the two characters. Enjoy remembering how you went about kicking ass back in the day.

World Champion drifter (and gamer!) Vaughn Gittin Jr. worked on this title alongside Slightly Mad Studios to make sure that drifting felt just right; the physics of the whole thing look like they are realistic, but Vaughn was there to also make sure the controls felt as close to realistic as is possible on a controller. Don’t be intimidated by the realism though, as there are amateur settings meant to help you become accustomed to the new system, as well as pro settings for those who want to challenge themselves.

We also wanted to let you know that for fans of the series, the Facebook and Twitter pages are now live, which means you can get your slow IV drip of Need for Speed: Shift updates hooked up. There have been a movement as of late to relay new information and media through these official social networking sites before anyone else gets to it, which is reason enough to bookmark them or follow them if you’re into a certain game. If that’s not enough for you, we’ve also got a ton of screens for you that you can peruse at your leisure.

BLAST: Why don’t we start by having you tell us about Gamelion Studios?

Lukasz Szczepanski: Gamelion was founded in 2002 and currently employs around 100 people in total, across all departments and two main production studios in Poland. Although most of our work in the past was done for mobile devices (including iPhone), we always were working with a multi-platform approach and entering the Wii-market was a natural move for us. Begining this year, we’ve been also approved by Sony for PlayStation development and you can also expect later this year games from us on those platforms.

BLAST: Furry Legends is a platformer, a genre that (sadly) does not seem to get the same kind of love this generation as it has in the past. What prompted you to make a platformer, and why on WiiWare?

LS: We felt that platformers are great games, which can be appreciated by a large public. These are classic, and timeless games. Both new, and adult players love them, so we wanted to breathe something new into the genre. WiiWare was our choice because of accessibility and ease of development. We wanted to create a simple game and distribute it digitally. WiiWare has low entry barriers and it’s not crowded like XBLA, it was an ideal match for us. In addition, the public much more casual-oriented, which is our target market.

BLAST: What’s the background story for Furry Legends? How does the game play?

LS: The background story for Furry Legends revolves around an ancient grudge and vengeance. The furry tribe is attacked by enemies who hold something against them. Our main character has to fight the invaders and find a solution to end this conflict.

BLAST: This is, visually, one of the best looking games on the WiiWare service, and it looks to have a lot of personality. Personally, it reminds me of the bright colors and designs you normally associate with N64-era Rareware , which is a positive. Did you have any specific influences for style?

LS: Thanks, it’s great to hear some praise! We have worked hard on our graphics, both on technical and the artistic side. We were certainly inspired by Lost Winds, and sometimes maybe too inspired. Around alpha, when we have shown our first screenshots, people accused us of copying Lost Winds as a whole, and that wasn’t a good feedback really. We stepped back, saw what went wrong and adjusted our art direction to create something more unique and original. I think we have managed to achieve this pretty well. Sure, some people will still compare us to Lost Winds, but only because we’re two awesome looking platformers on WiiWare

BLAST: What kind of games do you play when you aren’t making them?

LS: It really depends on who you ask in the team. Personally I play stuff from World of Warcraft, through Guitar Hero and DJMAX, through puzzle and casual games, ending with old school RPGs and FPS games. Other guys are playing fighting games and a bit of each genre really. We have a very broad set of experience in the games and we draw inspiration from it every day.

BLAST: When should we expect Furry Legends to be available for purchase? Are there any other projects you would like to let our readers know about today, or something you want to make sure everyone knows about Furry Legends?

LS: We’re aiming for 4^th Quarter of 2009 with our game. We do have plans for future titles, but I can’t say anything right now. In addition, soon you’ll see some Gamelion games on DSiWare, so if you have a DSi, keep your eyes open!

We were also dropped a line to let you know that the weapon design contest is ongoing until July 12. You can submit your entry at the official Army of Two website for a chance that it is included in a future EA title.

Today we have a trailer and some screenshots from the sequel, 40th Day. The game is looking good from what I have heard, as EA Montreal has listened to the complaints about the first game and tried to tweak gameplay and the controls to make it a more satisfying experience.

Luckily, Capcom provided us with a few screenshots prior to taking off for the long weekend, so now we can sit and stare while we wait for burgers and hot dogs to be cooked on the grill.