Press Release - Two Tribes and The Game Factory Announce New Series of Rubik-Inspired WiiWare Games

Harderwijk, Netherlands – November 3rd, 2009 – Two Tribes, an independent developer and digital publisher and The Game Factory, an International publisher of family-friendly and casual video and computer games, are pleased to announce a new series of Rubik inspired WiiWare™ puzzle games. The first game of the series, Rubik's Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH, will be made available on WiiWare to gamers throughout Europe this autumn.

Puzzle video game fans now have every need to be excited with the upcoming launch of Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH. Developed by puzzle game professionals Two Tribes, the creators behind the critically acclaimed Toki Tori (Wii and iPhone) and Worms: Open Warfare 2 (Nintendo DS™"), Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH is an original 3D puzzle game that provides hours of puzzling fun and excitement across more than 70 brain-busting levels. Utilizing the intuitive Wii controls, players ‘herd’ coloured cubes to their exit points across stylish environments using a crazy mix of tools including conveyer belts, warps and stop signs.

“We are very excited to be releasing our second WiiWare title”, said Martijn Reuvers, Managing Director of Two Tribes, “Inspired by the cult classic from the eighties, Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH is a totally fresh and unique 3D puzzle game experience which we can’t wait to show to Wii gamers”.

In addition to the 70-plus levels included, Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH also features the original Rubik’s Cube gameplay as a bonus. Players can try to solve one of the four sizes available, play the unique pattern matching score mode, learn how to solve the original Rubik’s Cube and even compete in the two player mode. Rounding out the package are the online leader boards, with the potential to host tournaments, with prizes awarded to those players who achieve the best scores.

Rubik's Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH Highlights:

· Original 3D puzzle solving gameplay

· More than 70 brain-busting levels

· Tailor-made Wii Remote™ control scheme

· Conveyer Belts, Warps, Stop Signs, Directional Signs, Splits, and more.

· Stylish environments

· Classic Rubik's Cube in four sizes

· Tutorial on how to solve the original Rubik's Cube

· Unique score mode

· Online leaderboards

Rubik's Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH is rated PEGI 3+ (4+ in Portugal) and will be available on the Wii Shop Channel. For additional information please visit the official site at: http://www.rubikspuzzlegalaxy.com/



About the Rubik's Cube
In 1980, the Rubik's Cube, was launched on an unsuspecting world with a Hollywood party hosted by the "other" famous Hungarian Zsa Zsa Gabor little did anyone know it would become the world's biggest-selling puzzle. Today it looks the same, it works the same and it's still incredibly popular. So iconic did the puzzle become that it earned a place in New York's Museum of Modern Art, and its own entry in the Oxford English Dictionary; not to mention worldwide sales exceeding 300 million copies. Rubik's Cube has featured in major movies, ad campaigns, generated huge sales of T-shirts and apparel, been used as an iconic image for lottery games and scratch cards and along with the brand's other 3D twisting puzzles still generates a huge amount of public interest, recognition and affection.

About THE GAME FACTORY
The Game Factory, trading as The American Game Factory, Inc. in North America, is an international publisher of family-friendly and casual video and computer games, many based on leading international children's characters. It is a subsidiary of the K.E. Mathiasen Group A/S, the largest Nordic company within children's licenses and spanning many different product categories such as: Apparel, toys, candy, home furnishing and games. For more corporate and product information, please visit www.gamefactorygames.com.

About TWO TRIBES
Two Tribes B.V. is a privately owned company focusing on the development of games for portable devices and downloadable game services. Since 2000 Two Tribes has been operating from their offices in the center of the Netherlands. Over the years, Two Tribes has created games for a wide range of game devices. They developed games for Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance and countless mobile phones. With the advent of downloadable game services, such as WiiWare and XBox Live Arcade, Two Tribes has entered home-console development as well. For more information, visit www.twotribes.com.

First Thoughts on WII Fit Plus

Very positive so far - lots of new features (tracking features and exercise-programmes as well as simply new exercises and games), and some of the games really are a lot of fun - circus juggling and snowball fights are probably my favourites after a quick tryout, with some crazy extras like flapping your wings (er, sorry - arms) to guide a bird onto scoring platforms. There are some enhanced versions of games already in WII Fit, too.

Full review sooner or later, but from first impressions, at £15 from Amazon this looks like a very good buy.

WII Fit Plus

Despite the postal strike, our copy of WII Fit Plus has arrived today. Will post more about it when I've had the chance to try it out.

Also a mate will be bringing round Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics soon (largely because he's played it and we haven't, so he expects to beat us hollow at every event) - providing I can persuade him to part company with it for a while, I'll be able to review that soon as well.

Related links:

Mario and Sonic at the Olympics Review
WII Fit Review
WII Fit Plus Preview & Trailers

Oops...

... failed spectacularly at the single leg balance test on WII Fit today and it gave me a WII Fit age of 45 - I'm only 32 and had consistently been getting a WII Fit age of 26 or thereabouts!

I'm not sure I like WII Fit any more... :-D

Play Deal of the Day

FIFA 10 for the WII. Can't give any personal opinion as I haven't played it, but here's the official blurb:

On the heels of winning 25 international gaming awards with FIFA 09, the top-selling football franchise from EA Sports is surpassed with FIFA 10. Responding to consumer feedback from more than 275 million online games played, FIFA 10 refines an already potent game engine, focusing on what matter most to fans.

Interested? Click here.

WII Game Review - Mario Kart WII

Mario Kart WII is one of the Nintendo WII's best-selling titles* and, well over a year after its release, still one of the games that generates most interest in the console. Having enjoyed Mario Kart Super Circuit on the GBA, I was looking forward to this game and wasn't disappointed by it at all.

A fun and often crazy racing game, Mario Kart WII features a host of familiar Nintendo characters - Mario, Luigo, Wario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, etc - as they battle for supremacy amongst a large selection of tracks. There is a single-played championship mode, which is fine in itself, but the game really comes alive in multiplayer mode. You can have up to four players on a single WII (though without a big screen this can be a little confusing!), and typically race in a tournament of 4 trakcs, each of which can be selected separately.

The game looks great; we all know that the WII's graphical capabilities aren't the most impressive, but the bright, bold, colourful cartoon-style graphics suit the game (and the console) down to the ground. There are some very nice touches, lots of attention to detail, and good animation (some of it very funny). The tracks have a lot of variety in terms of difficulty and aesthetic style. Crucially, there is a good impression of speed as you zoom round the tracks. The sound also is great - fun music, insane sound effects and speech samples. It looks and sounds great, and plays just as well.

You can play the game with a classic controller or a Wiimote turned on its side. As standard the game comes with a steering wheel that you can slip the Wiimote into for a more authentic driving experience. It takes a while to feel comfortable with the Wiimote alone and it's definitely easier (but less fun) with a classic controller.

Apart from simply driving (which can be challenging enough, with some tricky courses and various parts of the track that will affect your car - speed0up lanes, creatures that wonder onto the track and can slow you down (or worse!), mushrooms to bounce on - with a tumble to the bottom of a deep canyon as the alternative. All of this is great and makes the game a lot of fun, but what seals it is the power ups (and power downs). No just that there are loads of different things to collect to help or hinder you winning the race, but all of the AI opponents use theirs too. All too often in games like this the AI racers rarely if ever use a power up, but here they're fully used by each competitor. This makes the races very unpredictable since you might be winning and suddenly find your car shrunk to the size of a hedgehog with a similar loss of power; someone turning into a rocket and zooming past you as if you're not moving; a could shooting lightening suddenly appears above your car and won't go away; your windscreen is squirted with ink and you can't see the track properly for a while.

This can be a bit of a mixed blessing since it sometimes detracts from the skill needed to win; often skilful use or avoidance of particular power ups / downs is more important than actual driving skill. However after a while it became clear to me that, while this part of the game certainly introduces a random element into the races, overall your skill in the game is what counts most.

The key strength of this title is its variety - there are loads of tracks to race on, a good number of different characters to choose from, and many different vehicles to race in. Both single and multiplayer modes have a good number of options, and there are several different game modes - standard racing, battle mode where you can blow each other up (well actually you can do this in race mode too, but maybe not as much!) and collecting coins. In these games you can act individually or as part of a team, with 6 on each side (though I've tended to find that whoever's in the same team as me automatically becomes useless!). There is also online play to challenge up to 11 of your friends, and a variety of online challenge modes which are constantly updated and added to.

Naturally it's the multi-player mode that offers the most enjoyment for this game, but whichever way you look at it, Mario Kart WII is a very strong title. Some might feel that there is a bit too much randomness to the races, but if you persevere you'll learn just what to use and when to get the biggest advantage against your competitors.

Overall Mario Kart WII is great fun, and with the excellent online multiplayer plus the huge (and expanding) variety of courses, challenges etc means that you're never likely to get bored of it. If you liked racing games and aren't looking for a pure simulation, Mario Kart WII should suit you right down to the ground.


* Mario Kart WII is 4th in the WII best-seller lists with 17.39 million sold; only WII Fit (21.82m), WII Play (22.98m) and WII Sports (47.62m) have sold more. Figures taken from Wikipedia on 1st September 2009.

The Nintendo WII and Autism

I've known for a long time that the physio department in the hospital I work at has a Nintendo WII with WII Fit and WII Sports to help older people get mobile again or just to gently introduce exercise into their lives again after an operation or other hospital admission. However recently someone pointed my attention to the benefits that the WII has had with her autistic child - in fact the positive results have been quite staggering.

Here are both articles if you're interested:

Consider the Nintendo Wii for Kids with Autism
I'm a Believer in WII Therapy!

I know Mary online as, like me, she is a long-time Epinions member. Visit her profile page there for more of her excellent writing.