Namco Bandai is preparing to celebrate Pac-Man’s 30^th birthday. Perhaps surprisingly, the milestone will not be marked with a traditional maze based sequel, a la the critically acclaimed Pac-Man Championship Edition. Instead, the publisher is readying Pac-Man Party, a Wii exclusive mini game collection. It appears to owe a debt to Monopoly, with players traversing a game board, acquiring property and accumulating capital. Players will also face off in more than 45 mini games, including tennis, which seems an unlikely pastime for a man born without arms and legs.

This isn’t the first time that Namco Bandai has shoehorned its most celebrated creation into an ill fitting genre. Notable spinoffs include Pac-In-Time, a Super Mario Bros. style 2D platformer and Pac-Man World Rally, a shameless clone of Super Mario Kart. In fact, Pac-Man Party isn’t even the first mini game collection to bare the Pac-Man license. That distinction belongs to Pac-Man Fever, which lifted its board game structure from Mario Party. Who would have guessed? Each of these games has one thing in common. They depict Pac-Man with arms and legs, which in my book, still doesn’t feel right.

Pac-Man Party is due for release in Autumn.

E3 Originals

The Black Panel profiles the new IPs announced at this year’s event.

NeverDead l Child of Eden l Devil’s Third l Mindjack l Journey

I wasn’t planning to run this story, but the creators of Mindjack seized control of my brain and before I knew it, I was typing away. Damn you Square Enix and feelplus!

In the cyberpunk world of Mindjack, an evil corporation employs mind control technology to usurp the role of government. You hook up with a rogue team to take down them down. Fortunately, you also possess the power to control the actions of nearby people and machines. You’ll never have to fetch your own lunch again!

The trailer offers us a glimpse of both art design and gameplay. The washed out blue palette lends a sense of a sterility and oppression to proceedings. The gameplay looks fast paced and action packed, involving combat with both human enemies and robots. There also looks to be a significant focus on cooperative play. The success or failure of the game may well be determined by the integration of psychic abilities into general gameplay.  The bizarre forced enthusiasm from the voice-over guy makes him sounds like a relic from a 1980s b-grade science fiction trailer.

Mindjack is set for an October release on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is why you should never hold the bachelor party on the night before the wedding.

All Points Bulletin, the forthcoming gangland MMO from Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds, will feature audio in game advertising. As reported by Joystiq, players will hear brief advertisements as they enter a new district, but are then guaranteed at least three hours free from commercial interruption.

APB players are being asked to shell out US $49.95 for the core product and US $9.95 per month to participate in premium game modes. To subject these players to in game advertising could be considered a mite unreasonable. Let’s not be too quick to judge, though. Realtime Worlds has generously offered to remove the feature for any player willing to pay an additional, as yet unquantified, ongoing fee.

Of course, Australian players don’t really need another reason to avoid APB. As reported by Kotaku, publisher EA decided against releasing the game in this country due to the absence of local servers. The few Australians willing to establish US accounts now realise that they’ll be subjected to the occasional advertising jingle along with the expected latency.

IN STORES

Your indispensible checklist of the titles arriving at retail this week:

Wednesday 30 June

Demon’s Souls: Black Phantom Edition (PS3)

LEGO Harry Potter (360/PS3/Wii/PSP/DS)

Singularity (360/PS3/PC)

Thursday 1 July

SingStar: Chart Hits (PS3/PS2)

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 (360/PS3/Wii)

Tournament of Legends (Wii)

DOWNLOADABLE RECAP

A handy reminder of the new downloadable titles released last week:

Art Style: Light Tracks (WiiWare)

Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project (XBLA)

Puzzle Dimension (Steam)

Risk: Factions (XBLA)

The Tales of Bearsworth Manor: Chaotic Conflicts (WiiWare)

The Tales of Bearsworth Manor: Puzzling Pages (WiiWare)

NEXT WEEK: Check back with us next Sunday for Crackdown 2 and more!

RECENT WEEKS

20.06.10 l 13.06.10 l 06.06.10 l 30.05.10 l 23.05.10