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Namco is giving Pac-Man another chance to satisfy his hunger for dots and ghost flesh at arcades, unveiling Pac-Man Battle Royale at next month’s Amusement Expo show in Las Vegas. What is Pac-Man Battle Royale?

It’s not a fighting game in the Tekken vein, as some of us theorized, but what appears to be a four-player competitive spin on classic Pac-Man mechanics. Standard edition yellow Pac-Man appears to be just one of four playable ghost hunters, with Blinky, Inky and Pinky-colored variations of the dot eater also playable.

The following video teaser doesn’t reveal much, other than that the arcade game appears to be built on the Pac-Man Championship Edition backbone. One of the Battle Royale’s mazes can be seen in the background, sharing the same layout and graphical style of the Xbox Live Arcade Pac-Man spin-off.

And if you’ve ever played Pac-Man Championship Edition, you know why there’s reason to be excited about a multiplayer version of that game.

Despite the cool reception to its last King of Fighters game, SNK Playmore has announced that it is working on King of Fighters XIII. The fighting game will be shown for the first time at an event in Akihabara on March 25.

Until then, we know nothing about the game other than that it runs on Taito’s TypeX2 arcade hardware — the same board used by Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue, and, of course, King of Fighters XII. Well, we also know that it has a nice logo. And we’re guessing fan favorite Mai Shiranui won’t be left out this time.

[Via Kotaku]

SNK Playmore announces King of Fighters XIII for arcades originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TOKYO — Konami is bringing Metal Gear to Japanese arcades this year. Here’s our hands-on report.

In the wake of the global success of James Cameron’s 3-D film Avatar, many gamemakers are adding 3-D visuals to their products. On Saturday, Konami gave the Japanese public a first look at Metal Gear Arcade at the annual Arcade Operators Union Expo. The game promises to bring networked shooting action to the country’s game centers with the added hook of 3-D graphics and head-tracking sensors.

Arcade games with online capabilities are not uncommon in Japan, whether it’s players fighting one another directly or simply comparing their high scores. Metal Gear Arcade’s unique hook is that it straps a motion controller to the player’s temple, allowing him to manipulate his perspective simply by turning his head. If you’ve ever seen Johnny Lee’s YouTube videos examining the potential of the Nintendo Wii motion control hardware, you can imagine what this looks like in person.

Beyond the fancy headgear, the controls are relatively straightforward. Players move their character with an analog thumbstick attached to a two-handed light gun controller. The on-screen cross-hairs are layered to reflect the three-dimensional depth.

However, the lightgun has six other buttons (not including the trigger), which can make things rather complicated. Of particular inconvenience is the “voice chat” button on top of the gun, entirely out of reach from players who want to keep their fingers on the trigger.

It is also unclear how voice chat will work, as there was no visible microphone on the demonstration units I saw. The motion sensor and 3-D glasses are already somewhat bulky, so adding more weight to the player’s face might not be an option.

Metal Gear Arcade’s gameplay draws heavily on Metal Gear Online, the competitive third-person shooter that came bundled with Metal Gear Solid 4 in 2008. All three of the maps shown at the Expo were taken directly from Metal Gear Online, so experienced players will have a distinct advantage in the arcade version. Likewise, the weapon and item selection largely mirror that of the home game. Players choose their main weapon (from two sub-machine guns, an assault rifle and a shotgun) and one of three items at the start, and have the option to swap these out whenever they are killed.

The classic Metal Gear cardboard box is available, but the most useful item seems to be the stealth unit, which renders your character invisible for a period of time, though your weapon continues to dance across the screen as if held aloft by string.

A standard match lasts for four minutes with a maximum of eight players, four on each squad. This felt like a good fit for the maps I saw, for no player appeared too far away from the action, nor did I see players getting killed immediately upon re-entering the battlefield. The competitive balance is hard to judge in an exhibition setting, but the relatively slow speed of the game should offer players of all backgrounds a fighting chance. Without a sniper rifle in the game, there’s no danger of being taken out by unseen enemies camping in a tower.

High-definition home consoles with online features have yet to take off in Japan like they have in the United States, so Metal Gear Arcade could prove to be a vital step towards getting more people into the gaming habit. The 3-D goggles and motion controls, while encumbered with a multitude of buttons, should offer a lower barrier to entry than the notoriously obtuse video game controller. The shrinking Japanese gaming industry can certainly use all the help it can get.

I’ll have more game impressions from the AOU 2010 expo later this week.

Image courtesy of Konami

See Also:

• Metal Gear Punk'd
• Metal Gear Online 'SCENE' Expansion Detailed
• Konami Announces Metal Gear Online World Championships
• 6 New Metal Gear Solid Touch Screenshots
• Konami Kills MGS3 Online Service

Steve Wiebe’s done it again. After claiming the Donkey Kong Jr. record back in April, he was usurped from the throne by Oklahoma-based gamer Mark Kiehl the following fall. But, as of yesterday, Twin Galaxies reports Wiebe’s back on top with an epic score of 1,190,400 points.

What makes the story even more interesting is when Wiebe managed to set the record: Valentine’s Day. As any of you who’ve seen The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (all of you reading this post, we hope) can attest, the man is married, so to spend any amount of time on The Lover’s Holiday playing Donkey Kong Jr. is total dedication. As if we couldn’t respect Wiebe any more than we already do!

[Via National Post]

Steve Wiebe reclaims Donkey Kong Jr. world record originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re like me, you have a sh*t ton of various game compilations on your shelves. I love old games. The classics, if you will. But there’s too many discs and carts, and it’s a big hassle to dig them all out. This one for this system, that one for that other system, some on your portable, and so on. They’re all mismatched, and you’ll probably never play all of the games on them, anyway. And who’s going to play them with you?

Microsoft killed several birds with one stone with Xbox Game Room. Now you’ll have your own arcade that you can fill with the games you like, leaving the duds out. You’ll get games that come straight from the ROM, with all the original options (or dipswitches) available to you. And instead of going at your old favorites alone, you can invite friends over to your arcade and play with them. You can also visit their arcades and try out their games. Best of all, you can have all your games in one place. Sell those old compilations.

Hit the jump for our impressions of Game Room.

It turns out that they’ve been working on this for awhile. We were told that they almost showed off Game Room at last year’s Tokyo Game Show. At the last minute they decided to hold back and fill it out a bit more. Besides, they could pimp it at the 2010 CES keynote. They did, as you’ve probably heard.

It’s nearly ready for launch now. We got our hands on the near-final version, trying out some of the classics and checking out what the arcade looks like.

Little green flag-like markers hover over your cabinets in your arcade if you have the high score on a game. If you’re anything like me, you’ll want to keep them green. Your friends can do their best to knock you down the list, changing the flag color and giving you something to obsess over. Of course, they’ll have to own the game to take your score down. Friends can visit your arcade at any time they wish, even if you’re not online, invited or not. They’ll be able to try out your games once for free, but will have to pay for them if they’d like to play any more. There’s a trial $0.50 option to play once more, but with these games costing $3, you’d probably be better off buying them.

Your arcade can be customized fully with art and decorations. We’re not clear on how this works yet, but we saw some neat themed areas. One looked like Pitfall. Another looked like a Western movie, complete with cactus decorations. We’re told that even your arcade cabinets can be customized, though no details were available yet on how.

It appears that each game company has its own sort of separate room in your arcade. For example, your Konami purchases will be in a Konami room, Atari in an Atari room. It seems that there will be multiple floors to give space for all the partners Microsoft is working with for Game Room. There are 30 games lined up now, but they say they have 1,000 planned, and are in talks with several more unannounced makers of classic games. Namco Bandai is not confirmed as a partner yet, but Microsoft said that they’re in talks with “just about everyone.” You can’t have a classic arcade without Dig Dug, folks.

Games are displayed in windows so that you can see your arcade in the background. If you’re playing a two-player game, you’ll see the avatars of the two playing off to the side. This kind of helps convey the feeling of being in an arcade.

Microsoft says that seven new games will be coming every week. That sounds promising and potentially expensive. I asked if there would be enough room for that one guy who’s going to buy all of the titles. “There would have to be,” I was told. We’ll see.

I’ll see you in my arcade this Spring.

Game Room itself will be a free download and you’ll be able to customize your space with decorations, themes and animated icons. The part that will cost you money is with the arcade units you’ll be buying to fill up the Game Room space. Game Room will work on either the PC or Xbox 360 and you can buy games so that you can play them on either platform at any time. You’ll also have the choice of buying arcade games tied to one platform at a lower price. Or for 40 Microsoft Points ($0.50), you’ll be able to play an arcade game until you die, just like a real arcade cabinet. Otherwise, purchasing an arcade title will run you from 240 to 400 Microsoft Points.

Each arcade title will have Achievements and universal leaderboards. Game Room is really about the social aspect, as it should be, and you’ll be able to send challenges to your friends and visit your friend’s Game Room where you can demo their games for free.

Game Room will be released this Spring for the PC and Xbox 360. Hit the break to see the list of the first 30 games, of the 1,000 planned, coming out at launch.

List via GiantBomb:

• Finalizer – Super Transformation
  
• Super Cobra
  
• Centipede
  
• Lunar Lander
  
• Tempest
  
• Jungler 
• Armor Battle
  
• Space Hawk
  
• Sub Hunt
  
• Gravitar
  
• Outlaw
  
• Red Baron
  
• Shao-Lin’s Road
  
• Asteroids Deluxe
  
• Space Armada
  
• Millipede
  
• Scramble
  
• Combat
  
• Astrosmash
  
• Mountain Madness: Super Pro Skiing
  
• Crystal Castles
  
• RealSports Tennis
  
• Tutankham
  
• Adventure
  
• Star Raiders
  
• Football
  
• Road Fighter
  
• Battlantis
  
• Sea Battle 
• Yars’ Revenge

Earlier in the day, Xbox Game Room was revealed to be a real thing. Microsoft’s Robbie Bach did a video interview with On10.net that was accidentally put up a little too soon. The video was taken down, but nothing ever really disappears from the grasp of the Internet!

So what is this all about? Game Room will have over 1000 old school classic games such as Centipede, Adventure and more being released over the next three years. You’ll be able to create a custom arcade rooms and challenge your friends in a number of games.

It’s odd that Microsoft is creating another channel for retro games when we already have Xbox Live Arcade. Perhaps Microsoft thinks the new channel will be more appealing to casual players. Game Room will be out this Spring for both the Xbox 360 and Games for Windows Live.

[Update: Game Room will launch this Spring with 30 arcade classics. Kotaku says games will range from 240 to 400 Microsoft points. Or, you can pretend it's the '80s all over again and buy the arcade games for just 40 Microsoft Points. And just like the '80s, once you die, you'll have to insert another 40 Points to play the game again.]

Seinfeld isn’t just the greatest sitcom ever (don’t try to argue with us, you’re wrong), it’s actually relevant in the games landscape. See, the classic coin-op Frogger was featured prominently in one of the last episodes of the show. In said episode, George Costanza scored a whopping 860,630 points — a score many believed to be laughably high. Sure, it’s a comedy show, so why not make the high score ridiculous?

Well, through a perfect combination of Mountain Dew and mozzarella — and just the right amount of grease on the stick — young Pat Laffaye bested that high score on January 1, 2010, getting his name on the Twin Galaxies high score board with an impressive 896,980 points using an original Frogger arcade cabinet.

We take our hat off to Laffaye … and offer our condolences to the weeping ghost of George Costanza.

[Via Eurogamer and Examiner]

Continue reading Man leaps past George Costanza’s fictional Frogger score

Man leaps past George Costanza’s fictional Frogger score originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TILT is one of the last good things about the San Francisco Metreon. Sure, their movie theater is nice, but a good arcade will always trump any theater. TILT has some redemption machines, but the majority of the place is covered with arcade cabinets. They have a good selection of fighting, racing and shooting games and most of them are games that you will actually drop quarters into. Most of the arcade cabinets are also on sale.

Don’t worry, TILT isn’t going out of business. They’re just selling the cabinets to try to make some extra profits during the holiday season. Nearly all the cabinets are on sale until the end of January and once the sale is over, you can still purchase the cabinets but the prices will go up.

The cheapest machines I saw there were two of the Resident Evil light-gun games going for $195 each. Yes, just $195. The screens weren’t the greatest quality, but the games were still playable. The most expensive machine at TILT is the Tekken 6 cabinet for $20,000. The average machines ran between $1,500 to $3,000 though and only a few of the machines actually go over $10,000.

The machines I know most people will give a damn about are the fighting ones such as Marvel Vs Capcom 2, Street Fighter III Third Strike and SNK vs Capcom 2. Each of those are on sale for about $2,500 — Not bad considering how rare and popular those games are.

The gallery below has about half of what TILT actually offers. If you’re a San Francisco native, and if you have a few grand to blow, then I highly suggest you go see what TILT has on sale.