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Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land No, Crecente didn’t go to Ninjatown over the weekend. He’s in Tokyo covering TGS. But if he did go to Ninjatown, this is probably what he would look like. I say it’s pretty spot on, actually. He even has that confused look on his face he gets every time I talk to him. Someone (I think it was Fahey) claimed the hair underneath his arms with actually armpit hair, and not part of the hair from his head. So what’s this have to do with anything? I don’t know. But what I do know is I finally got to play Ninjatown for the DS. I mean, I’ve seriously been waiting at least a year to play this damn thing. And after spending the whole weekend with it, I have to say it’s pretty good.
My Plastic Heart, a small, yet expensive exquisite toy store in lower Manhattan, was overrun by a large band of ninjas late friday night. Not only was the store overflowing with Ninjatown plushies and original artwork from creator Shawn Smith, the developers from Venan Entertainment were on hand to demo a preview build of the game. I got a chance to talk to the team a bit about the game’s development, what it was like working with Shawnimal himself, and their thoughts on the new DSi.
Leigh was quite impressed by Southpeak’s new DS strategy game Ninjatown, when she got a preview back in June.
It is a top-down RTS based around the cute, chubby ninja characters from Shawnimals. Each Ninja has unique skills that you can bring to bear against hordes of demonic invaders attacking (hey!) Ninjatown.
Here is a taste of the well-rounded Ninja vs Demon action on offer…
SouthPeak Games has revealed their line up for E3 2008, where they’ll be showing a wide variety of games in all shapes and sizes. Most prominent is their just announced reinvention of the Brave series, which started with Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer on the PS2. Brave: A Warrior’s Tale for the Xbox 360, PSP, and Wii has a now elderly Brave telling tales of his youth, with a new character named Courage who uses Brave’s wisdom to stop a current-day threat. Meanwhile Brave: Shaman’s Challenge for the DS is a platforming tale starring Brave himself.
Aside from the new Brave title, SouthPeak will be showing off their anime action game X-Blades for the PC and “next-gen consoles”, Igor The Game for PC, Wii, and DS, the RTS/FPS hybrid Raven Squad for PC and 360, Big Bang Mini for the DS, and the PS3 version of Monster Madness. The game I am most looking forward to? Going to have to go with Ninjatown for the DS. Have to represent my deadly peeps, yo.
VentureBeat reports today that publisher SouthPeak (I was just there yesterday seeing Ninjatown) has picked up $AU 13.57 million in private investments. It’s worth pointing out, as Dean Takahashi does in his story on the financing, that rarely do console and PC video game publishers pick up venture capital – most VC dollars these days are going to more nouveau-media stuff like online games, social networks, virtual worlds and so-called “Web 2.0″.
This artwork by Shawnimals toy line creator Shawn Smith adorned one full wall at the PR office where I went to check out Southpeak’s upcoming Ninjatown strategy title for DS. The game’s based off of Smith’s cute little ninja characters and quirky designs, and it’s slated for an October release.
I got a chance to give it a try, and I had a hard time putting it down.
Southpeak Interactive describes Ninjatown as “a quirky but intensely addictive strategy title.” It’ll be on dispaly at the Leipzig Games Convention, and the game will be out first quarter 2008. I don’t care if it’s Wednesday, this clip is the cutest thing you will see all week. Mark my words.
Cute Ninjas Okay [Dtoid]
