With a considerable amount of pluck and charm, Steal Princess manages to elevate itself past some middling gameplay mechanics and into the range of an above-average puzzle game. While the premise is utterly bizarre on paper, the tongue-in-check humor reminiscent of Disgaea, Makai Kingdom and other Atlus imports creates an experience ultimately worth sticking through.

The humor starts within a minute of gaming. After watching your controlled hero, Anise, get caught by an Indiana Jones-esque boulder puzzle while robbing from the Demon Palace during the opening scene, she is seemingly dead. This causes an unidentified voice to remark, “No!‚  You can’t die before they reveal my face!”

Wisecracks like this are a common element of the game, most emanating from reluctant hero Anise. She wants no part of saving a kidnapped prince and the kingdom at-large from the threat of the Almighty Demon Emperor. Unfortunately, because of a thief with the same name as her “" wink wink, nudge nudge “" she takes up the mantle of “legendary hero” instead of being strung up at the gallows. The supporting cast is similarly nutty. The unidentified voice from the game’s opening moments is your guardian fairy, Kukri, who zealously insists that you are the legendary hero, and whom Anise ignores with hilarious thought bubbles for the majority of the game. Although the Demon Emperor is capable and coherent, none of his henchmen are, especially the sprite-ish demon Lucretia. How does she talk? Well, she always asks her own questions and provides her own answers, often repeating, that’s how she does it!

Steal Princess needs all of this humor and personality in its characters, because the game itself is fairly by the books, and downright frustrating at times. It is a traditional top-down mix of puzzle and adventure, as you use the stylus and control pad to move Anise around a grid layout. Anise comes equipped with a whip, which is mostly used to position enemies and hit switches. Other items, like swords, bombs and lances, are left lying around stages and are used to defeat enemies. The whip is the only item that carries over from stage to stage, and Anise can only carry two items at a time, so much of Steal Princess relies on good planning.

Most stages require you to complete a stated objective “" normally, defeat all enemies “" and to also bring a key dropped by the final enemy to a locked box in the stage. There is no time limit, although beating a stage within certain times earns you gold, silver and bronze medals. Gems are also scattered throughout stages and dropped by defeated enemies, which are used to pay down Anise’s debt in town and to buy items for your own maps in the Create-A-Map mode.

The initial stages of the Grasslands area walk you through the controls and mechanics, but Steal Princess starts to tax the brain pretty quick, and I hit my first dead end within the first 10 stages. Throughout my experience, there was nothing so ridiculous that I couldn’t figure out what needed to be done. This isn’t an esoteric graphical adventure like Myst, or one of the mind-numbing puzzlers from the 1990s like Solstice, The Lost Vikings or Young Merlin. “Tricky” is a descriptive and correct term for most of Steal Princess’ difficulty.

When the difficulty of Steal Princess is elevated, it is generally a reflection of the game’s lack of focus. It mostly rears its ugly head in design and play control. For example, while the game is primarily a puzzler, it throws mini-bosses and stage bosses at you. None of these battles are particularly entertaining, as most either involve running circles around the boss until you get an opening for an attack, or vaulting up to their platforms to take a slash at them. Repeat either tactic for two minutes, and you have victory with minimal effort and danger.

The second issue is the slippery play control. Movement is much easier with the control pad, but vaulting “" using your whip to scale up several platforms “" is easier with the stylus. Several stages in a row might require minimal use of whip, meaning you haven’t used the stylus for 20 minutes, and the next stage will require seven vaults in a row over a chasm that means instant death if you fall. Then, you might be right back to control pad gaming the next stage. There is little rhyme or reason to the game balance.

If you dig the Steal Princess experience, you can also create levels with the custom map maker, and then trade them over WiFi or with friends locally. There are 150 levels to start with, but it will be interesting to see what comes out of the minds of the niche Atlus fan base now that they have been handed the keys. It’s a solid addition to the game that extends its replay value further, and you can’t complain about that.

If you can overlook these flaws and focus on the quirky characters and dialogue, then Steal Princess is a good addition to your DS gaming library. It aligns itself closely with the type of off the beaten path games Atlus is known for.

Steal Princess is available exclusively for the Nintendo DS and retails for$34.99

Zipper Interactive, creators of the wildly ambitious MAG, a massive battlefield-type game exclusive to the PS3, at the Sony E3 media briefing today showed that indeed a full-on 128 versus 128 match could be pulled off effectively, without lag, and with tons of heinous explosions.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when Sony revealed MAG, short for massive action game, last year at this very show, but now, after seeing it in action, I really feel that Zipper and Sony know just what they’re doing.

What we saw was eight Zipper developers on-stage demonstrating MAG for the first time, over the expanses of the Internet, with QA testers and family members scattered throughout the globe.

You work in an eight-man squad in MAG to seek out and destroy enemy encampments. The fire can get heavy and the blood not only chills in your veins but also flows freely from your body if you aren’t careful.

This is a game we’re sure to keep our eyes on and stay close to as E3 2009 progresses. Keep it locked here at Blast for forthcoming details from our men on location.

MAG is due out fall of 2009.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is an odd game to review, as we are looking at two distinct titles within one package. First, you have the remake of Escape from Butcher Bay “" which, by the way, despite being one of last generation’s better games, was not part of the Xbox backwards compatibility program-and secondly, you have the sequel to that game, Assault on Dark Athena. The names alone do a good job of explaining the differences between the two titles; in Escape, you sneak in the shadows and deliver as many stealthy kills as you can, like some kind of demon in the shadows that is terrorizing the prison. In Assault, you still have stealth kills, but there is more of an emphasis on gun play and blatantly open attacks on your pursuers. This is a problem, one that is obvious to anyone who has tried to utilize Riddick’s gun play over long stretches of time before.

That is not to say that the new content found in Assault on Dark Athena is bad; it’s just that after replaying an improved version of one of the last generation’s gems, the issues stand out and take away from the experience. In the end, depending on your level of tolerance, you’re going to end up with a fantastic remake that has yet to really show its age coupled with either a decent sequel in Athena or one that ultimately disappoints.

As Richard B. Riddick, you help out some prisoners by doing them some favors “" favors which often involve killing other prisoners “" and they help you get on your way to escaping from Butcher Bay, a prison in the desert that no one has ever escaped from. You hide in the shadows, shoot out lights, snap necks, drop from the rafters “" all of these stealth kills are highly satisfying, and if you limit your gun play to involve shadows, even that is fun as the AI struggles to find where you are versus where you were when you fired. The AI is not stupid in this game, as they will find you and come after you once they sense you are in the area. They will turn if they hear you coming as well, so you need to be sneaky and quiet, not just unseen. Luckily, Riddick has a stealth mode that allows him to walk quietly, and also lets you know if you’re in anyone’s line of sight; blue vision means you are unseen, while a return to regular vision means someone has the potential to catch you. You do have to be careful in making sure that guards are not hiding in the shadows like you were, as once you pop out they could converge on you. Like I said, the AI is not stupid.

Escape from Butcher Bay is a game that had tons of attention lavished on it in the past, so I’m not going to go into too much detail here given that there’s an entire other game to review; just know that if you loved the original, this remake is fantastic, and is worth revisiting just for the visual upgrades, given that it comes in a package with another game.

That game is not up to par with Butcher Bay though; Assault on Dark Athena tries to mix run-and-gun gameplay with stealth, and it doesn’t do a great job of either. Here are some issues you need to deal with: there are tons of weapons and ammunition available, and the level design is set up in a way where there are tons of open spaces “" that means there isn’t anywhere to hide. Combine those two together, and you realize the game is telling you to shoot first and hide in the shadows later, which takes away from Riddick’s core gameplay. When you move from the confines of corridors into a more open world, this is magnified. Fewer places to hide, more shooting to be had, and as you will realize, that AI that is not so stupid is now also nearly impossible to kill with ease.

They could sense your presence in corridors when you weren’t visible if you made too much noise, but now you can’t even hide effectively. They have better accuracy and range than you do with Riddick’s limited (and imperfect) gun play, and they have far more health than you do as well; the imbalance between the number of shots you can take and the number you need to fire shows that this is meant to be a stealth game, but it’s tough to pull off when the level design screams run-and-gun. This is not a one-on-one thing either, as Athena often pits you against groups of enemies, or against a turret that can maul you in no time.

Again, this is a worthwhile package, even if you’re just buying the remake of Butcher Bay. You get two games for the price of one, and now Riddick gets to experience multiplayer as well, which is a neat addition to the series when you’re talking about the Pitch Black mode. If you have never experienced Escape from Butcher Bay before, you’re in for a wonderful game, while the remake is worth owning just to play through it again in it’s prettier form. The greatness of Escape from Butcher Bay is quite an experience (let’s say it’s a 9), while the disappointment that stems from playing ‚ Assault on Dark Athena is unavoidable (let’s give this one a 7), but at least you purchased both for the grand total of $60.

Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC, and retails for $59.99.

The Entertainment Software Association, the group putting on the massive E3 convention in just a few short weeks have released the floor plans for the 2009 show and just as you’d expect, tons of video game companies are showing up to show off their wares.

Nothing too exciting to see here, just publishers, developers, and booth babes abound at the LA convention center.

Personally, I have‚  never been more excited for a gaming show, and for some reason believe that heads will roll after the big three publishers unveil their plans.‚  Time will tell, for now enjoy these floorplans.

West Hall

South Hall

Larger images at the E3 2009 page at the ESA website

Activision, annoyingly, continued to connect the dots regarding Guitar Hero 5 today revealing additional artists, alterations to the Music Studio, and the addition of what are called Band Moments to the upcoming title.

Last week’s news of the total upward playability of World Tour’s DLC in GH5 and RockFest mode is great and all, but the week is new, and the press is running hot today.

Confirmed artists for GH5 now include Kings of Leon, The Rolling Stones, The White Stripes, Santana, Vampire Weekend, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and interestingly, 25 additional artists from a “variety of music genres that will be making their music video game debut.”‚  What ever could that mean?‚  Hopefully the teeny bopper tunes stay in Rock Hero, so what genre has Guitar Hero not hit yet?‚  My vote is for hardcore Black metal, but that’s just me.

A total of‚  85 artists made the final build of GH5 and are all master recordings and represent, according to Activision, the “strongest, and most varied setlist to date.”‚  My Black metal wish may come true!

Activision also confirmed today unnamed tweaks to the Music Studio that debuted in World Tour.‚  Whatever they turn out to be, hopefully they draw more to the facet of the title, as it is indeed a robust feature.

As for the aforementioned Band Moments, these are achieved by perfectly executing specific strings of notes together, as group of living room rock stars.‚  The social aspect of Guitar Hero seems to be the focal point of this iteration, something competitor Rock Band seems to have an edge in that department.

Guitar Hero 5 is due out on PS3, Xbox 360, PS2, and Wii this fall.

If you’ve been saving up your hard earned scratch in enthusiastic hopes of picking up a great game or two, this week likely has something for you.‚  Whether you dig hell-bent killing machines, classic franchises revisited, Ultimate Fighting, frantic collapsing boxes, or active sports, your mind will be blown with that these next 7 days have to offer.

Stealing the usual Tuesday rush are Bionic Commando on Xbox 360 and PS3 from Capcom and the highly, highly, highly, anticipated Punch Out!! revision for Wii Monday the 18. The post-apocalyptic Terminator Salvation drops 24 hours later on Xbox 360,PS3 and PC, alongside Boom Blox Bash Party exclusively for Wii.

Full list of an impressive week below.

Monday May 18

Punch Out!! (Wii)

Bionic Commando (PS3, 360)

Tuesday May 19

Terminator Salvation (PS3, PC, 360)

Boom Blox Bash Party (Wii)

Steal Princess (DS)

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Stardust Accelerator: World Championship 2009 (DS)

UFC 2009 Undisputed (PS3, Xbox 360)

EA Sports Active (Wii)

Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s Wheelie Breakers (Wii)

Rock Band Classic Rock Track Pack (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii)

Space Camp (DS, Wii)

I Love Beauty: Hollywood Makeover (DS)

Tournament Pool (Wii)

Jagged Alliance (DS)

Party Pigs: Farmyard Games (Wii)

Hannah Montana: The Movie (PC)

Wednesday May 20

Imagine: Makeup Artist (DS)

via GameSpot

Guitar Hero: Smash Hits was once tentatively titled “Greatest Hits,” but that superlative signifies culmination and finality, and those are two terms not found in Activision’s playbook.

Smash Hits will feature a number of tracks spanning the entire existence of the franchise that have been re-hashed with added drum, bass, and vocal functionality.

Over at the Smash Hits official site you can vote for which setlist is revealed next and Activision every Thursday Activision will bow to its fans’ request and clue you in.

So far Activision has released the following 12 song list:

Guitar Hero
- “Killer Queen” – Queen
- “I Love Rock N Roll” – Joan Jett and The Blackhearts
- “Bark At The Moon” – Ozzy Osbourne

Guitar Hero II
- “Them Bones” – Alice in Chains
- “Killing in the Name” – Rage Against The Machine
- “Message In A Bottle” – The Police
- “Carry On Wayward Son” – Kansas
- “Free Bird” – Lynyrd Skynyrd

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s
- “I Wanna Rock” – Twisted Sister
- “Nothin But A Good Time” – Poison

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
- “Barracuda” – Heart
- “Through the Fire and Flames” – DragonForce

If this partial reveal is in any way indicative of the final soundtrack, great things can be expected of this reprisal of a title.

Guitar Hero: Smash Hits rocks its way to retailers June 16^th on Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

via Kotaku

Skyscrapers are not very fit to ascend with any ease, unless your name is Alex Mercer, the shape-shifting prototype main character in the action oriented open world environments of New York City.‚  In the anticipated summer title, Prototype simply run at a building and Alex will, in Parkour style, scale the face of any mighty tower and brutally destroy any foe standing in his way.

Activision finally announced today the official release date for Prototype; destroying shelves this summer on June 9^th in North America.

If you’ve lost your memory ala Alex Mercer, head on over to the newly updated Prototype official website for all the latest digs and the first half of the opening cinematic.

Prototype is currently awaiting ESRB classification but is expected to receive an M for mature rating and will hit Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC this on the 9^th of June.

iPhone and iPod Touch enthusiasts seem to have two things in common:‚  free applications and the finger-tapping gaming goodness.

A report by ComScore, the global internet information provider indicates that 32% of iPhone/iPod Touch users have downloaded Tap Tap Revenge, the intuitive tapping music game from Tapulous.

The report indicates that of the 25 most popular Apps, 12 are games.‚  Touch Hockey: FS5 clocks in at number 3 (26%) and Pac-Man at the 5 spot representing 24% of the user base.

Of the 15 million total users, Tap Tap’s 32% install base equates to one out of every three owners representing roughly 5 million downloads.‚  So look to your left and to your right, if you haven’t downloaded Tap Tap, one of them has.

Tap Tap Revenge 2, the anticipated sequel, is currently available on the App Store complete with new tracks, trippy visuals, and new game modes.

Wonder how the full list of 25 most popular Apps plays out?‚  Check out the image in the gallery for full details.

via Gamesindustry.biz

Atlus is a company that every DS fan should know by now, as the system has been their favorite testing ground for new ideas and IP the past few years-Trauma Center, Izuna, Etrian Odyssey, and others. That trend continues with yesterday’s announcement of “Steal Princess”, a quirky puzzle/platformer that also boasts a level creation and sharing system.

2008 began to push the idea of user-generated content further into the console consciousness-that kind of ability has been on the PC for years-with titles such as Blast Works, Boom Blox, Super Smash Bros. Brawl (though in a limited sense) and with the king of created content, LittleBigPlanet. It’s great to see the DS get some love in this regard, especially with a charming looking puzzle/platform title.

Steal Princess releases on March 24 in North America. Check out the video below, and tell us how you feel about it in the comments.

From Atlus:
ATLUS SURPRISES EVERYONE WITH ANNOUNCEMENT OF STEAL PRINCESS FOR‚ NINTENDO DS

Your Nintendo DS is about to get its puzzle/platforming on. Steal Princess, a‚ genre-bender with‚ platforming action and challenging puzzle-based level design, is set‚ to rob you of all your free time come March.

Look for Steal Princess to release on‚ March 24.‚  Bring your thinking cap.

So MTV named Twilighters the collective Woman of the Year, and in all honestly, Blast Magazine can see why. This year we’ve covered Twilight mobbing in from San Francisco to Chicago, cast appearances, and the way Twilighters band together to get things done – and Twilighters have definitely made themselves known. It is safe to say that Twilighters have beat out Britney Spears in creating a buzz this year and they didn’t even have to shave their heads!

So as we say goodbye to 2008 and Blast’s second year, we would also like to thank the Twilighters out there for always checking out the Twilight news at Blast and passing it on. If it wasn’t for the Twilight Lexicon and Hisgoldeneyes.com posting news from Blast, I personally wouldn’t have had the opportunity to be Blast’s coolest (and only) intern. But as our entertainment editor and fellow resident Twilighter once said, “we want people to know that Blast is about more than Twilight and beer,” so continue to check us out for all your pop culture news and don’t forget to spread the word.

If you didn’t catch the acceptance speeches on MTV, here are a few Women of the Year, and one slightly disgruntled male Twilighter accepting this great honor through video submission.

Here is my submission, that MTV linked to in their Twilight Tuesdays blog:

Chicago sat in the ninth spot before the draft lottery last night with eight teams having a worse record in the 2007-08 season. They had a 1.7% chance that their ball would be picked first. And it was picked first. The Chicago Bulls will have the number one selection in the upcoming NBA draft that will be held in June. Now they have to decide between drafting Kansas State power forward Michael Beasley or Memphis point guard Derrick Rose. If they do select Rose, one might wonder what Kirk Hinrich’s future holds.

Here is the order of the next NBA draft (lottery part):

1. Chicago
2. Miami
3. Minnesota
4. Seattle
5. Memphis
6. New York
7. LA Clippers
8. Milwaukee
9. Charlotte
10. New Jersey
11. Indiana
12. Sacramento
13. Portland
14. Golden State

NBA fans also have to be excited about the future of the Miami Heat. Dwayne Wade and Shawn Marion will soon be joined with either Michael Beasley or Derrick Rose.

Boston Red Sox port-sider Jon Lester denied the Kansas Royals a single hit Monday night when he threw a no-hitter on 130 pitches. The 24-year old cancer survivor walked just two batters all night in the 7-0 victory and became the first pitcher in MLB to hold a team hitless this year.

Lester’s first career complete game was the second no-no for the Red Sox in as many years and their fourth in this decade. Hideo Nomo blanked the Orioles in 2001, Derek Lowe did it in 2002 against the Rays and Clay Buchholz no hit the Orioles last year. Incidentally, according to MLB.com, all four were caught by Jason Varitek, “breaking a tie held by several catchers.”

Thanks to our editor John Guilfoil for digging these up: The last Red Sox lefty to throw a no-hitter was Mel Parnell on July 14, 1956 and southpaw Dutch Leonard threw two between 1916 and 1918.

Interested in how orgasms work? Always wanted to know about sexual stimulation and gratification in males and females? Scientific American magazine delves deep (very deep) into the brain and tells you how and why the brain works with orgasms and sexual pleasure.

The #7 seed Philadelphia 76ers shocked the #2 seed Detroit Pistons Sunday night 90-86. The Pistons have been there done that and their lineup is just filthy. But, the Sixers are young, they play defense and they run all damn day. This could be a problem for the Pistons if the series drags on. The Sixers will wear you out, especially an older team like Detroit.

If you haven’t checked out this Sixer team, it’s worth it. Louis Williams is 21 years old and is growing into a decent player. Andre Iguodala’s athleticism is disgusting. Andre Miller is the veteran glue. Thaddeus Young is a 19-year old rookie that is developing quickly. Rodney Carney – we believe – is in the process of leaving his bust status in the rear view.

It’s official, this series is worth watching.