Hudson Entertainment is bringing their A-game to the Penny Arcade later this week... and their B, D and F game too.

The publisher announced their PAX line-up this morning which includes pinball WiiWare title Alien Crush Returns, based on the TurboGrafx-16 title; WiiWare's Bomberman Blast, Fishing Master World Tour for the Wii, and Deca Sports for the Wii.

I haven't had a chance to check out the other titles, but my time with an early build of Deca Sports left me thoroughly unimpressed. Now you can decide for yourself if it's as crap as I thought. Press release and gallery on the jump.

Hudson has just officially announced Bomberman Blast, an all-new installment of the classic franchise created exclusively for Nintendo's WiiWare line that not only allows you to compete online along with seven other players - it allows *you* to compete online. The game will allow you to bring your own Miis into the action, letting you watch tiny superdeformed versions of yourself being immolated by explosives. Joy!

"The Bomberman franchise is one of Hudson Entertainment's most popular," said Sabine Duvall, Vice President of Product Development at Hudson Entertainment. "We're driven by the support of the fans and strive to provide unique new gameplay features with each new Bomberman title to please the longtime fans, as well as make the game accessible to newcomers."

The game will support leaderboards as well as online Bomberman tournaments, including one that will kick off with the launch of the game. When is the game launching? *scans press release, finds nothing* Eventually.

Did you think a 13 hour layover in Frankfurt followed by a 10 hour flight to Atlanta, 45 minutes in customs, and then an hour train ride home would keep me from posting this week's Wii downloadable update? Maybe if this had been one of those normal, crappy updates, but this week sees the release of Ys! Ys Book I & II for the TurboGrafx 16 CD-ROM to be exact, the redone version of the originals upgraded with excellent voice acting, a stunning orchestral soundtrack, and all-new special effects, all for a paltry 800 Wii points! As if that weren't enough, we also finally get Samurai Showdown 2 for the NEOGEO (900 points), officially making this one of the best weeks on the Virtual Console in ages.

There's also Helix from Ghostfire Games on the WiiWare side of things, a rhythm game that uses motion sensing to determine how well you move to the music of 26 different songs. While I've not heard much about the title, it isn't from Gameloft, so it at least has that going for it.

There you have it! Passing out in 3...2...1... *thud*

Epicenter Studios (Critter Round-Up, Real Heroes: Firefighter) cofounder Bryan Jury sent us a heads up about an interview he did with GameCritics.com's Brad Gallaway. While I found his email references to himself in third person a little odd, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since the interview was pretty good. He described it as "a former Call of Duty producer-type from Activision, talks about starting up an independent studio, kind of trashes Gears of War in an answer about games being art, and explains how they got their first game deal", which more or less hits the nail on the head. On 'games as art,' he's got this to say:

The original de Blob developers are back with their own game studio and a shiny new title coming out on WiiWare in Q4 2008. Ronimo Games, founded by said de Blob creators in Utrecht, the Netherlands, is readying Swords & Soldiers for European and North American release. Swords & Soldiers is a side-scrolling RTS in which three different factions battle against each other in order to obtain the powers of the gods. While I'm not yet sure what type of gameplay to expect from the title's single player campaign or split-screen multiplayer, I'm definitely liking the animated style they've got going for them. Check out the first screens from Swords & Soldiers for yourself below.

Blue Oasis - or My Aquarium as it will be called in the states - is coming to WiiWare sometime later this year. What can we expect? gravel, plant life and 40 different types of fish. Hopefully the game will cost 500 points like it does on the Japanese store; I can't imagine paying much more for an aquarium simulator. Regardless, it's kinda nice to see someone taking a twist on the whole Nintendogs craze. The only thing I want to know is can I get my fish to fetch?

Strong Bad and friends have been entertaining the internet for over eight years now, combining colourful characters and pop culture reference to create one of the web's rare clean destinations for comedic entertainment. As regular visitors to Homestarrunner.com know, video games have played a large part in the series over the year, to the point where they even created a fictional video game developer, Videlectrix ("We use computers...to make video games"), to handle their vast catalogueof titles. Now the Brothers Chap have teamed up with Telltale Games to deliver the first "proper" Homestar Runner video game in the form of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, an episodic adventure game for the Wii and PC.

The long-awaited first episode "Homestar Ruiner" is now available, and we checked it out to see if it passes muster or deserves to be DELETED!

Eternity's Child creator Luc Bernard is leaving the video game business. In a post on his official blog, Bernard explains that the stress involved "kind of made me ill and become a alcoholic", and so following chapters 2 & 3 of EC for the PC and the WiiWare version, he will continue his work in graphic novel form instead. The video game industry has proven too harsh a mistress.

I thought the videogame industry was different, but no it's actually harder and worse than any other one, I still wonder why people hate Dennis Dylack for no reason and Uwe Boll, I don't think if people realise the psychological things it can do to people. People love to hate for no reason, and well I've got enough problems in my personal life to do another game after Eternity's Child.

While I like Luc personally and would be first in line for a graphic novel filled with his artwork and ideas, he is kind of coming across like a fourteen-year-old girl on Livejournal here. Guessing it's an artist thing. You don't need to leave, Luc. You need to be an art guy with a decent programming team behind you. Buck up, little soldier!
Won't Be Continuing [Luc Bernard's Blog]

Well this is certainly a pleasant change of pace after several weeks of relative crap with a side order of Beer Pong. Not only does the Wii get the first episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People on WiiWare (1,000 Points) this week, we also get the formerly Japan-only Star Parodier for the TurboGrafx 16 CD-ROM (900 Points). Star Parodier is a Hudson game that pokes fun at traditional shooter conventions, giving players a choice between playing as the Paro Ceaser from Star Soldier, a giant flying Bomberman, or a living PC Engine Console that fires HuCards and CDs at the enemy.

The first episode of SBCGAP, Homestar Ruiner, follows Strong Bad's efforts to crush Homestar's spirit, and subsequent rebuilding of said spirit once the crushing goes awry.

Rounding things off is another TurboGrafx title, the pool title Break In (700 points), ruining what could have been a stellar crop while looking that much better for the company it's keeping.

From the moment I first laid eyes on Eternity's Child I was expecting something special. An ambitious little title from artist Luc Bernard, the story concept captivated me just as much as the artwork. Flooded planet and mechanized animals aside, Eternity's Child was the simple story of a boy seeking acceptance in a world that had no place for him. Of course many things have changed since that initial story. Main character Angel found a winged girlfriend, the game was announced as a PC and WiiWare title, and a dual-character control system was revealed, but it was still the same concept I initially fell for, wasn't it? Will Angel find the acceptance he so desperately seeks, or should gamers turn a blind eye to his plight? Hit the jump and weigh his fate.