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Power Button - Episode 95: The Force Is With Neil Sorens Of Zen Studios And Star Wars Pinball

Zen Studios has been releasing creative and innovative pinball tables for a variety of modern gaming platforms over the past few years.  Working with famous properties like Plants vs Zombies, Street Fighter, and of course the Marvel suite of characters and storylines such as Iron Man and Civil War in addition to the company's own original IPs has exposed new and old generations to the wonders of pinball.  Now the company has taken on its greatest challenge with a series of ten pinball tables based on aspects of the Star Wars universe.  On this episode of Power Button we welcome Zen's Creative Director, Neil Sorens, to discuss the new Star Wars Pinball tables — The Empire Strikes Back, Clone Wars, and Boba Fett —  to Zen Pinball 2 and Pinball FX 2.  Neil takes us through the process of acquiring the Star Wars license, outlines the voice casting process, details elements left on the cutting room floor, covers how Zen chose which parts of the franchise to use in its tables, and so very much more.  We even get Neil to spill the beans and share a little of what Zen has in the works for future tables for both Star Wars and Marvel, but if you want the details, you'll have to listen to the show!  Join us for just over an hour of pinball action without any boring trade negotiations.  Friend of the show and pinball pro extraordinaire Blake Grundman brings his unique perspective to things when he sits in this week as well.  Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, or subscribe via iTunes, toss this RSS feed into your podcast aggregation software of choice, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late. Remember that you can reach us via , you can leave a message on the Power Button hotline by calling (720) 722-2781, and you can even follow us on Twitter at @PressTheButtons and @aubradley84, or for just podcast updates, @ThePowerButton.

Power Button - Episode 95: The Force Is With Neil Sorens Of Zen Studios And Star Wars Pinball

Mini-Review: Star Wars Pinball

Zen Studios has shown that it can take a popular license and turn it into a fantastic series of pinball tables.  Consider the company's past work on familiar properties like Plants vs Zombies, Street Fighter, and Marvel heroes like Iron Man, Wolverine, and Spider-Man.  After working on so many heavy-hitters, where do the creative folks at Zen go from here?  To a galaxy far, far away, naturally.  Zen has released the first in a series of pinball tables based on the Star Wars universe for its suite of platforms Zen Pinball 2, Pinball FX 2, and as a standalone package for various arrangements of the Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, iOS, Android, and PC.  The Empire Strikes Back, Clone Wars, and the bounty hunter Boba Fett provide the source material for these tables and show that when it comes to adapting one of the most beloved fictions of our time, the Force is with... aw, you know the rest.

Star Wars Pinball Tables Unleashing Next Week

Zen Studios has been toiling away on a series of pinball tables for its outstanding Zen Pinball 2 / Pinball FX2 platforms based on aspects of the famed Star Wars universe for quite some time and is finally ready to release some of the results.  Three tables based on key aspects of the franchise are due to hit Zen/FX platforms next week with seven more on the way over time.  The Empire Strikes Back has to be the biggest attention grabber of the first wave, but tables featuring Boba Fett and The Clone Wars are also attracting some interest among Jedi and pinball fans alike.  Straight from Zen's Star Wars Pinball website, here's when and how you can get your Force fix:

Star Wars Pinball   will release as DLC for the following platforms and dates:

• Pinball FX2™ on Xbox LIVE® Arcade – February 27th for 800 MSP
• Zen Pinball 2™ on PlayStation®Network for PlayStation 3 &   PlayStation Vita with Cross Buy entitlement! Purchase once and play on both systems – February 26th in North America for $9.99, February 27th in Europe for €9.99. 
• Zen Pinball 2 on the Mac®App Store – February 27th for $2.99/table
• Zen Pinball on the Apple®App Store – February 27th for $1.99/table
• Zen Pinball HD Google Play™ – February 27th for $1.99/table

Star Wars Pinball will release as a standalone application on the following platforms:

• Star Wars Pinball for the Apple® App Store
• Star Wars Pinball for Google Play™

Additional platforms will be announced at a later date.

I've been teasing my pinball pal Blake Grundman of the EvilCast podcast for weeks that the first tables are actually based on Jar Jar Binks (featuring new voicework from Jar Jar actor Ahmed Best), and L'il Anakin (complete with "Whoopee!" cheer).  It's provided me with no end of amusement.  If the real tables are half as fun as tormenting him with fake information, I'll be pleased.  Check out the trailer for Empire, after which I've included some of my favorite moments of trying to break Blake's brain.

EvilCast Recap - Episode 165

Whenever my friends over at Games Are Evil need a guest to sit in a vacant chair on the EvilCast podcast, they summon me by turning on a Sony PlayStation 3 and loading up Bionic Commando (or, more commonly, they send a text message).  One way or the other, I turn up on this week's new episode of the show, Episode 165, alongside Blake Grundman, Ross Polly, and Keri Honea to discuss the new Nintendo announcements that make up the Year of Luigi, Sony's impending PlayStation 4 reveal (particularly that mysterious prototype controller image that's been making the rounds), bad times for Aliens: Colonial Marines developers and players alike, a little pinball conversation, and a little talk about Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, LittleBigPlanet for the PlayStation Vita, and a freemium Ghostbusters game for iOS that does its best to do right by the source material.  Join us for some off-the-cuff fun.

New Stargate SG-1 Adventure Game Announced

Stargate SG-1 has never had much luck when it comes to crossing the medium line from television to video game.  Three different Stargate game projects have all come and gone without an actual full release (Last generation's team-based shooter The Alliance was canceled as it neared completion, the MMORPG Stargate Worlds collapsed under its own weight, and the traditional online shooter Stargate Resistance was discontinued almost as soon as it hit digital distribution sites), but perhaps this time things will be different as MGM and Arkalis Interactive have announced the upcoming adventure game Stargate SG-1: Unleashed.  Once again, the actors who portray the core SG-1 team are returning to perform voicework.  Here's a trailer:

While I was hoping that this game was in the works for home consoles, PC, or even the Sony PlayStation Vita, it's headed to the iOS App Store and Google Play.  It's a tablet app.  While adventure games can work on mobile hardware (adventure kings Telltale Games have made it work with their more recent releases), it's a shame that a property with the gaming potential of Stargate is being limited to mobile platforms.  However, I shouldn't be surprised.  MGM has chased gaming trends for years with all of its attempted Stargate games, then pulled its support from the developer of the week when that trend grew stale.  Shooters were all the rage last generation when The Alliance was in the works.  MMOs were hot stuff when Stargate Worlds was announced.  Now that mobile gaming is a big deal in the business world, why wouldn't MGM show up there to try and make some seemingly easy money?  Stargate deserves more than the App Store, but considering that it's been years since the last new adventure for the SG-1 team, I suppose I'll take what I can get.  The first episode of Unleashed is due to launch in March.

Miiverse Headed To Nintendo 3DS

Not content to let its new Miiverse social experience network remain purely on the Wii U, Nintendo is planning to expand the service to encompass the 3DS and beyond.  According to the company's president, Satoru Iwata, it won't be long before new 3DS games include Miiverse functionality.  Here's Siliconera with the highlights of an interview with Nikkei:

[E]xpanding the audience lies within the Miiverse, Nintendo’s new social network  community that’s available on the Wii U and is headed to the Nintendo 3DS in the  future as well. Miiverse allows Wii U owners to share messages, screenshots,  drawings, tips and more with each other. Wii U games each have their own  communities for this purpose.

“This is something I’ve talked about for many years with Mr. Miyamoto,” says  Iwata. “Miyamoto loves making games that allow players to create and share  experiences. We believe that it’s one of the main reasons behind the Mario series and Animal Crossing’s success. It was having those thoughts and feelings which  eventually led to the creation of the Miiverse. Rather than social networking,  we consider it an ‘experience sharing network’.”

In order to fully expand Miiverse to a wider audience, Nintendo will also be  bringing the network to the Nintendo 3DS and eventually to PCs and smartphones as well, so you can check it anywhere you are.

While Miiverse support for 3DS games will help the service grow, I have to admit that I believe it will take the availability of Miiverse smartphone apps before people really use it as much as Facebook or Twitter.  I don't always have my 3DS on me these days thanks to limited pocket space (and believe me, I'd carry it if I could; before I couldn't fit it in my pockets anymore, I carried my original Nintendo DS with me everywhere for over five years), but I do carry my iPhone with me wherever I go.  Let me access the Miiverse as easily as I can hop on Twitter for a quick moment and I guarantee that I'd use it as heavily as Nintendo seems to want.  However, supporting alternative hardware isn't necessarily something that Nintendo has been eager to do in the past, so I'm not counting on a Miiverse app to be as full-featured as the level of access available on actual Nintendo hardware.

Power Button - Episode 89: The Pinball Episode

Sometimes it's nice to get out of the house and go play video games somewhere else.  This past weekend Brad Hilderbrand and I took our respective ladies to the second annual Southern Pinball Festival in sunny Orlando, FL for an afternoon of pinball action spanning decades worth of play.  All of the great tables were there - Pinbot!  Star Trek: The Next Generation!  GoldenEye!  Gorgar!  Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines!  Grand Lizard! - and on this episode of Power Button, you're going to hear about them all in a special edition devoted entirely to pinball.  Silver ball aficionado Blake Grundman of the EvilCast joins us to talk about the best tables, the most intriguing designs, and the impressive world of video pinball that brings the action to modern video game consoles and handhelds.  We cover Zen Pinball 2, Pinball FX 2, Pinball Arcade, and our other favorite ways of playing pinball when an actual table is not within reaching distance.  Join us for an hour of pinball wizardry!  Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, or subscribe via iTunes, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late. Remember that you can reach all three of us via , you can leave a message on the Power Button hotline by calling (720) 722-2781, and you can even follow all of us on Twitter at @PressTheButtons, @aubradley84, and @JoeyDavidson or for just podcast updates, @ThePowerButton.

Power Button - Episode 89: The Pinball Episode

Power Button Presents Kombo Breaker - Episode 35: Peggle Is Like Weapons-Grade Heroin... For Your THUMBS!

This classic episode of Kombo Breaker finds Brad Hilderbrand, Joey Davidson, and I welcoming Garth Chouteau of PopCap Games to discuss the origin and process behind the famed Peggle, Zuma, and Plants vs Zombies games which were PC titles at the time of this episode's air date (July 10, 2009), but of course today they're on just about every modern gaming platform out there.  Spend forty minute with us as we talk about the then-future of the company's products, which consoles are next in line for ports of their PC hits, and even the whole core/casual dichotomy.  Oh, and don't miss the bit where Garth remarks that he wouldn't expect to see PopCap games on smartphones.  My, how the times have changed!  However, the industry still has a long way to go.  Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, or subscribe via iTunes, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late. Remember that you can reach all three of us via , you can leave a message on the Power Button hotline by calling (720) 722-2781, and you can even follow all of us on Twitter at @PressTheButtons, @aubradley84, and @JoeyDavidson or for just podcast updates, @ThePowerButton.

Power Button Presents Kombo Breaker - Episode 35: Peggle Is Like Weapons-Grade Heroin... For Your THUMBS!

Rock Band iOS Apps Going Away For Real This Time

Back in May the Internet rallied in disgruntled frustration at Electronic Arts when the company's Rock Band app for iOS informed players that the game would cease to function at the end of the month.  That turned out to be a false alarm, but now the game and its successor, Rock Band Reloaded, are being discontinued at the end of July as EA's licensing agreement with Harmonix comes to an end.  Unlike last time, however, Rock Band and Reloaded will continue to work provided that you already own them.  EA has put together a little FAQ to explain what you will still be able to do with the content that Rock Band players have already purchased.  Here's the bottom line:

If you own a Rock Band game on your iOS device, you can play it, but you cannot purchase new songs after July 31, 2012. You can access your previously purchased songs.  If your previously purchased songs have been stored locally on your device before July 31, 2012, they will not be lost.  You will be able to restore your songs by iTunes provided you have an iCloud backup. An iCloud backup can be created before or after July 31 by selecting backup to iCloud in iTunes.

Nobody likes to see games retired and discontinued, but if it has to happen, then this is the right way to do it.  Those who bought the games will still be able to play them after the contract expires, purchased content can be backed up (to the cloud, no less), and you even have a week to go on a buying spree if you want before EA can no longer sell the product and its expansions.  May's discontinuation scare was the wrong way to go about preparing players for the end, but this new method works.

Manos: The Hands Of Fate Game Coming Soon

It's not uncommon for Hollywood blockbuster films to spawn licensed video game adaptations, but how often do we see the worst movies turned into interactive adventures?  Harold P. Warren's Manos: The Hands of Fate has gone down in history as one of the worst films of all time (and was made famous after being featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 back in 1993), and now after so many decades of "entertaining" viewers, it's set to become an iOS game based on the 2D platformers of the Nintendo Entertainment System generation courtesy of Freakzone Games.  An Android version is due later in the year, and if both do well, it may even pop up on PC.  Here's the pitch and the premise:

MANOS: The Hands of Fate is an homage to the great games you remember from your childhood! Remember how every film and cartoon had it's own platform game adaptation? When every man, woman, child, animal and inanimate object were out to get your character? When the streets were filled with bats, ghosts and Frankenstein monsters? MANOS will take you back to the fantastically absurd games of the past!

Lost on their vacation, Mike and his family have wandered the desert trying to find a place to stay, only to wind up in the haunted Valley Lodge. Maintained by Torgo, an unusual man/satyr who "takes care of the place while The Master is away", the hotel is swimming with paranormal activity which Mike has to brave through to find his now missing family. Who is The Master, and what does he want with Mike's family? Armed with his trusty revolver, Mike will have to wander the haunted halls, venture out into the desert, uncover a dark temple and battle the forces of darkness to find out!

Watch the game's trailer and you'll find that there's more going on here than just Manos.  There are plenty of elements borrowed from other movies showcased on Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Pay close attention and you'll spot the screaming skull, a hobgoblin, Ro-Man, and so much more.  And, of course, this wouldn't be a Manos game without the inclusion of Torgo and his haunting theme (word has it that he fills the role of Knuckles the Echidna from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, appearing at various times to trigger traps and hinder your progress).  I'm definitely going to check this game out when it hits the App Store next week.  It seems like it was made just for me.

(via Kotaku)