Thanks very much to NoVy from the PSP Team website for giving us the heads-up about this mini. Slitherine Software UK’s Ice Road Truckers is due for release in the European PlayStation Store this Thursday March 11th for a very reasonable £2.39. The official game of the award-winning HISTORY channel TV series, Ice Road Truckers features the death-defying everyday feats of the real-life 18-wheeler truck drivers whose business it is to haul their massive trailers for days on end along the treacherous ice roads north of the Arctic Circle.
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Big thanks to Oyaji Games’ creative director and designer Luc Bernard who’s sent us three more screenshots from his forthcoming Mecho Tales mini, just to tide us over following the recent news that the game has been delayed along with his other two upcoming minis, SteamPirates and Mecho Wars. Luc’s also given us this exclusive information about one very interesting aspect of Mecho Tales’ level design:
“The game will have infinite levels. How will that work? There will be a story mode with all levels designed by Oyaji Games. And then there will be a mode that will have infinite level designs, a level generator that will generate a new level every time you play. So you will never play the same level twice.”
Following on from our previous news story this week, Beatshapers has confirmed that Normal Tanks will be its next mini, and that the game is due for release on March 18th in the European store, with the North American release date to be announced soon. This is what Beatshapers had to say about the game in their press release:
“Normal Tanks is a fast-paced multi-directional top-down arcade shooter in a tanks universe featuring classic run ‘n’ gun gameplay with three difficulty settings.
There are eight challenging, dynamic and hazardous environments to tackle. Over 30 different enemies including various tanks, helicopters, robots and biomechanical creatures await your challenge! Crash, kill and destroy them all to move forward. By using special power-ups, you can upgrade your tank abilities – cannon, machine gun and armor – to help you progress.”
The online version of the game received an honorable mention at this year’s Independent Game Festival, so it will be interesting to see how well it transfers over to the PSP and PS3. Liking the look of those explosions though!
4 new minis this week.
In a surprise move, 4 new minis have been released this week, developed by Sony themselves. It looks like they are going to support their brain child after all.
Unfortunately, after spending a little time with each game I not sure I’d recommend any of them. And that’s despite their low price. Maybe this will change if I spend more time with them. Maybe not. So on one hand it’s good news Sony are starting to home-brew some minis, but on the other hand they aren’t setting a good example for the quality level.
Stay tuned for a reviews soon.
Here’s the release list:
*Red = New worldwide
US Minis
- * Digi-Tiles ($2.99)
- * Earthshield ($2.99)
- * Legend of Kunoichi ($2.99)
- * Smashbreak ($2.99)
- Vector TD ($3.99) – Review
European Minis
- Nothing…
Oceania Minis
- Nothing…
It’s been a while coming, but finally minis have their own superhero. Age of Zombies’ square-jawed wise-cracking zombie head-splatting foul-mouthed heartthrob Barry Steakfries doesn’t just have the best name in the world, ever, he’s such an all-round badass he could probably kill zombies just by looking at them, but instead he chooses to blast them with his boom stick, just for giggles. If Ripley from Aliens and Duke Nukem had a baby, it would probably be Barry Steakfries.
Halfbrick, how we do love you. First you give us intriguing and ethereal puzzle minis such as Echoes, then you give us floaty space stuff like Blast Off, and now you’ve clearly gone stark raving mad with the utter joyous lunacy that is Age of Zombies. A game that not only makes me laugh out loud and shout “Barry Steakfries FTW” at regular intervals (note to self: don’t play on public transport), but is also probably vying with Dracula: Undead Awakening for the best top-down shooter mini.
There are two gameplay modes, the main story mode and Survival Mode. In Survival Mode, you just get one life and have to keep going as long as possible in the levels which have already been unlocked in the story mode to see if your high scores make it to the high scores table.
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Some great detective work by Polish PSP website PSP Team has unearthed details and possibly a You Tube video of a forthcoming new mini to be published by BreakQuest developer Beatshapers. PSP Team has spotted a PEGI rating for a PSP Go game called Normal Tanks by Beatshapers, which is rated for ages 7 and up by PEGI, and which is “an action packed overhead shooter” according to the game’s website. There’s been no official confirmation about Normal Tanks from Beatshapers so far, but a little Ukrainian birdie may have hinted to us that the PSP Team story is right on the money. 
Either way, expect an announcement soon from Beatshapers about a new mini, which may possibly involve tanks. Normal ones.
