Shatter!
There’s a new game coming to the PSN from a New Zealand developer that keeps getting mentioned all over the interwebs. The latest to do so is 1 Up’s Listen Up! Podcast.
It’s Arkanoid / Breakout but with enough additions and tweaks to make it feel fresh. Visually it’s given the Super Stardust / Galaxy wars treatment and they’ve added in a kick arse soundtrack by a Wellington DJ. The word on the street is that it’s pretty awesome!
Friday Night Gamers' Blog 
July 13, 2009 at 7:25 am
Yeah, I heard whispers about this on the NZGamer Podcast too.
I would be most willing to shell out for this to support a Kiwi developer.
Plus I have a small soft spot for Breakout Clones.
July 13, 2009 at 10:46 am
Yeah I heard about it first through NZGamer but it’s pretty cool that it’s being talked about by these guys in the states. The PlayStation blog even had a video interview with the developer! I’ll definitley buy it. I think it’s going to be in the $10 a $15 range. On 1 Up they said it was going to be only US$8!?
July 13, 2009 at 11:19 pm
It’s good to know NZ has at least one respectable games developer! I hope it does well.
July 14, 2009 at 7:01 am
Zzzz Ill leave this one to you arcade styling puzzlers lol . 5mins of whoop de doo for me… next! :oP
Good to see a NZ developer being talked about, even if it does look and sound like a mix-mash clone, but still 10billion times better than I could make so ill give him that 🙂
Will be interesting how the replay/repetitive action will be kept interesting with this game.
July 14, 2009 at 7:19 am
The IGN guys have also mentioned it now on their Gamescoop podcast! I downloaded Super Stardust HD recently which could also be described as 5mins of whoop de doo 😉 but for the fact that I have gotten hours of game time out of it. Every now and then something simple comes along and just nails the fun factor. So far everyone who has played this game has been stunned by how much they’ve enjoyed it. It’s definitely put in the same category as Geometry Wars and Super Stardust HD when people talk about it. But there’s definitely some nostalgia here for me as I was brought up on these types of games!
July 14, 2009 at 7:42 am
Bit before my time im afraid, guess I should expect it hanging out with a bunch of old-time gamers 🙂
I guess i get nostalgia from the RPG graphical games of Doom-style corridor walking of Might & Magic and Lands of Lore.
Then I moved on to She-male character JRPG games like FInal Fantasy and then more into Western RPG like Baldurs Gate & Neverwinter Nights.
And thats where im still at…
When will they make a good corridor-walk style RPG again!! I can only hope! Id certainly get it for a laugh.
July 14, 2009 at 7:58 am
Wasn’t there an old school corridor walker based on Doom a wee while back. Or at least by the ID guys? I’m pretty sure there was. Will have to investigate. Might have just been for mobile platforms?
As for your old time gamer comment I cant’ deny it! I still remember games where the only way to get color was to stick a coloured plastic overlay onto the screen!! 😀 If you wanted to change games you had to swap out for a new coloured overlay!! 😉 I was bought up primarily on games like Pacman, Snake/Centipede, Defender, Space Invaders, Elite, Joust and Asteroids!! Back in the day when two colours was a luxury and you had to wait 10 minutes for a game to load if you were lucky enough to not have to type in the code yourself!!!! 😀 Haha It’s true! Many a game I had to type in the code for before I could play it! Those were the days!! 😀
July 15, 2009 at 2:53 am
Yep I remember doing that too. A lot of the Spectrum magazines had the code for games printed in them. I still remember using the Peek and Poke commands LOL They obviously weren’t up to the standard of commercial games but it was pretty cool.
July 14, 2009 at 9:45 pm
I found it. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orcs_%26_Elves"Orcs and Elves and the related Doom RPG.
July 15, 2009 at 12:42 am
I’m half-way through Orcs and Elves on the DS. It’s actually quite good fun! I like it because it’s not too hardcore, but still reminds me of those old school dungeon crawlers Nick mentioned. I’ve also got The Dark Spire which is apparently a lot more hardcore and excellent if you like the genre. It’s even got an alternative old school graphics mode which is basically just black and white wire frame corridors!?…. and the geeks prefer this mode!!?….something about using your imagination to fill in the blanks and create the imagery. That’s taking nostalgia a bit too far IMO 🙂 The standard graphics mode has a stylized comic-book feel which I like and prefer. It’s a very niche title and I haven’t played much of it yet, not sure if I’m willing to invest the time to get acquired to it’s taste. Etrian Odyssey 1 & 2 are also similar games on the DS.
July 15, 2009 at 8:41 am
LOL yeah I downloaded the Orcs & Elves and Etrians Odyssey 1&2 for the DS and played them alot travelling in Europe, Was a laugh and I did play them awhile longer than I did other games. Did bring back the memories 🙂
July 14, 2009 at 8:52 am
Yeah lets bring back those days! NOT, Fark that lol 😀
Ill stick to my she-males while you type your own code!
July 14, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Bimin’ Young-uns! No respect for their elders!
Back in my day …… where was I?
Yes, I remember playing Jetpac and Mainc Miner on the Spectrum at primary school, aah, those were the days.
And then the single colour vertical scrolling racing game on the BBC at high school which made the most godawful noise, and was even worse when you had the whole class playing it during a break!
Sweet, sweet memories 🙂
July 14, 2009 at 9:43 pm
It’s not a real game unless it’s sound effects make your ears bleed!!
July 15, 2009 at 1:52 am
I remember playing Manic Miner on the Spectrum, it was a classic! The early days were great! The line of progression for the systems I’ve had for games is:
ZX Spectrum
Commodore 64
Commodore Amiga
386 PC
Pentium PC
PS2
Xbox
Nintendo DS
Xbox 360
Core2 Duo PC
I went for computers rather than consoles so didn’t get a chance to experience a lot of early console games. I remember getting the multiformat games magazines so I was always aware of what was happening with NES and SNES and Sega Master System, and MegaDrive. I was tempted to get a PS1 and followed that generation really closely but stuck with the PC. Apart from the PC the DS is probably what I’ve logged the most hours on. Does that make me a Nintendo fanboy?? LOL 🙂
July 15, 2009 at 8:46 am
Go the PC! 🙂
July 15, 2009 at 10:15 pm
That’s an impressive list. I’ll make a post out of mine with pictures and stuff 🙂
July 15, 2009 at 2:27 am
Actually there is definitely something to be said for graphical minimalism but I think it only applies when you remove ALL the graphics 🙂 I played a short text adventure recently and I can confirm that the “graphics” were far superior to anything currently out there because in my mind there’s NO clipping, NO invisible walls, infinite polys and the trilinear mip mapping is killer!!! 🙂
July 15, 2009 at 8:33 am
“In your mind”?!? That aint a game.. Thats a Goosebumps Book on a TV lol 😛
July 15, 2009 at 8:50 am
Shit Id be farkn worried if there was Clipping going on in all my thoughts and memory. Would that make my Mind..BETA? lmao 🙄
July 15, 2009 at 11:16 am
Haha 🙂 BETA AS!! I hate it when my thoughts glitch through the scenery and fall forever!?! It freaks me out every time?!? 😀
July 17, 2009 at 3:40 am
My mind game would have the tendency to forget itself and you’d keep finding yourself in an unexpected part of the level.
July 23, 2009 at 3:10 am
Shatter has been named as one of the top 5 games you MUST download from the PSN store!!
July 28, 2009 at 12:48 am
I’ve got Shatter, it’s great. A really good twist on the standard Brickout game!