Planes, trains, and automobiles

[UPDATE 3: We've got more codes! We added 350 to Dtoid and 150 to PC Invasion, so keep claiming!]

[UPDATE 2: We're all out of codes here at Dtoid and over at PCI! Check out Gamnesia -- they've got 70 left as of this update!]

[UPDATE 1: Looks like we're running low on keys on Dtoid! Check out PC Invasion and Gamnesia to see if they have any left!]

Alright folks, listen up -- we've got 500 PC keys to give away for the Naval Battles Closed Beta in War Thunder. Are you one of the millions of players around the world who's already had a taste of War Thunder? Well whether you're just a cadet or a five-star general, you c?an get in on the closed beta going on now through October??.

Stand at attention, everyone, and get your key before they're ??gone!

War Thunder is the free-to-play MMO that has attracted over 20 million players worldwide. In War Thunder, aircraft, ground forces and naval ships collaborate in realistic competitive battles. You can choose from over 1,000 vehicles and an extensive variety of combat situations many of which are exclusive. You can find yourself blasting your pursuers from a bomber turret, defendi??ng your teammates on the ground from an air raid with anti-aircraft guns, shooting down enemy planes?? with a firestorm from multiple rocket launchers, or trying to sink an enemy warship with a torpedo from a fast attack boat.

In conjunction with the upcoming 1.81 update, The Valkyries, that will add combat helicopters and two new locations, Gaijin Entertainment is doing an exclusive beta for their Naval Battles campaign. Codes will give access to War Thunder's Naval Battles Closed Beta along with the "Full Ahead" decal. Players will be able to start unlocking the ships'?? research tree, upgrade the ships, and participate in Naval Battles (combined with aviation). Fleet is ?now available for three nations - USA, Germany and USSR - with about 60 ships in total from torpedo boats to light cruisers. A special horizontal research system will allow players to quickly explore exactly the class of ships that they are most interested in. The CBT of Naval forces is available in special events "Naval battles" (Events and Tournaments tab in the game).

To claim your PC beta key, use the widget below. Note that you must have a Gaijin Account, and it must be redeemed through the Gaijin website. You must redeem your key by September 30, 2018 in order to participate. The beta period will end some??time in October.

War Thunder is available now on PlayStati??on 4, Xbox?? One, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and Nvidia Shield.

The post Giveaway: We’ve got 500 keys for the War Thunder Naval Beta appeared first on Destructoid.

And a car, and an item shop

Hard as it may be to believe, the Bit.Trip series has been around since 2009. The franchise got its start on the Wii, and developers Choice Provisions have had a close relationship with Nintendo since the studio's inception. Runner 3 is the studio's first game he??aded to the Switch, and I got a chance to try it out last ??weekend at PAX West.

Runner 3 is a direct sequel to Bit.Trip Presents Runner 2, and the developers teased that the truncated name was due to their reluctance to fill out forms with the full title. Joking aside, the shortened name is intended to convey a separation from Bit.Trip's universe, allowing protagonist Commander Video to break away from the Bit.Trip series and explore a larger world.

There are several enhancements new to Runner 3, though the core jump/slide/kick gameplay will be familiar to Bit.Trip veterans. Each of the game's three lands will feature a different type of ve??hicle which controls differently than when Commander Video is on foot. These vehicle sections are supposed to be sort of a reward for players who find them, and they're meant to break up platforming challenges with a different style of gameplay. Players will also be able to find branching paths after completing a level once, and these more difficult sections can be selected by hitting the bumper on your controller when approaching a fork in the path. You may be able to find special "Hero quests" on these branching paths which will unlock new characters when completed. Additionally, you'll be able to spend those gold bars you collect in between levels at a brand-new item shop.

Not everything is different in Runner 3, though. You'll still trail rainbows when you're doing well, and 2D retro levels make a return, albeit in a different form. Instead of 8 or 16-bit graphics, this time the retro levels are inspired by late '50s cartoons, and they allow for free movement instead of the autoscrolling of the main game. The audio should sound similar, since the music was created by the same composer who's worked on the Bit.Trip franchise since the beginning. Mario's v??oice actor Charles Martinet returns, and players who manage to fin??d a puppet collectable hidden in every level will be able to unlock a live-action puppet show featuring his voice. 

Even though it's still a way off, Runner 3 looks and plays great, and the three levels all look very distinct. The easiest gameplay can be found in Foodland, medium levels in Spookyland, and the toughest challenges come from Machineland. This industrial section is ma?de slightly more difficult because the level is built as you approach, meaning there's slightly less time to react before you get close to an enemy or obstacle. It's a little odd seeing a ??character who's intended to call back to Atari graphics running around in HD, but I got used to it fairly quickly. 

Choice Provisions is aiming to have Runner 3 re?ady for the Switch and Steam by February 2018. Other platforms haven't been ruled out, but have yet to be announced. 

The post Runner 3 trades Bit.Trip for a rocketship appeared first on Destructoid.

5% + 5% + 5% off!

Choice Provisions took a chance on a sweet young boy named Gordon Midwood back in 2010 when they published his game, Lilt Line, on the Wii Shop Channel. As great as the game was, it struggled to find an audience on the console, probably because the prevailing opinion among gamers at the time was that shopping for games on the Wii Shop Channel was like buying sushi at K-Mart. No matter how great your sushi is, no one is going to eat it if it's sold next to the the little barrel shaped bottles of multicolored sugar water and Velveeta spray cheese.&nbs??p;

Now Gordon and Choice Provisions are back on digital storefronts with Drive!Drive!Drive!, a driving game where you race on three tracks simultaneously. The game is currently on Steam and PS4, with a 15% off launch sale no less! As much as I love a good old traditional racing game, few of them are able to truly replicate the feeling of having way too many things to keep track of at one time that you get from real life driving. Forcing the player to keep track of three cars at once is a clever way of replicating that feeling. Seeing as the game is being sold far away from the spray cheese, there's no reason why it should be pre-pooh-pooh'ed like poor Lilt Line was. 

The post Drive!Drive!Drive! is on sale for a ?limited time time time appeared first on Destructoid.

'Our biggest and most ambitious game yet'

Bit.Trip! Now there's a name I'm happy to hear again. Choice Provisions is following up its excellent obstacle-course platformer Bit.Trip Presents Runner2: Future Legend of Rh??ythm A?lien with a game known simply as Runner3. Those arrows in the logo are curious indeed.

While this teaser tells us little, the developers say they "plan to be very open with you about the creation of Runner3, and we even plan to solicit feedback occasionally and offer user polls to give everyone a chance to chime in and help us think of things like level names, possible unlockable outfits, and more." There are already a few devlog posts up, including one about instilling joy.

If you're new to Bit.Trip or just missed out on Runner and Runner2, it's currently a good time to make amends. Both g??ames are half price on Steam, Wii U, Vita, and PS4 until October 2.

The post The Bit.Trip series is picking b?ack u?p with Runner3 appeared first on Destructoid.

Having two studios was 'not sustainable' long term

Bit.Trip ?developer Choice Provis?ions (née Gaijin Games) has closed its San Francisco office. 

"Over the past few years, the game industry has changed so dramatically that a mid-??sized studio operating as we have for the past several years, just simply can’t continue in the same w??ay," Choice Provisions co-founder Alex Neuse confirmed via the studio's blog this Thursday. 

In a decision Neuse billed "incredibly difficult," the company "had to let some really great people go" along with the satellite office to "refocus [its] efforts" around the company's ??Santa Cruz headquarters.

"We did everything we could to maintain the company as it had been," Neuse added, "but unfortunately, having two studios was just not sustainable in the lo?ng term."

Choice Provisions was founded as a three-person indie team in 2007. After making a name for itself with the Bit.Trip series on WiiWare, the studio grew considerably, developing multiple projects at once and forming its own publishing label to promote and sell games from smaller teams.

Speaking with me at the PlayStation Experience in San Francisco this December, Choice Provisions co-founder Mike Roush expressed concern about the studio's latest project, Tharsis, which released this?? January for PlayStation ??4 and PC after a prolonged development cycle.

Tharsis was initially conceived as a mobile game and? slated for an early 2015 release, but the studio spent an additional year transforming it into a full-on console title. While more time in the oven resulted in a more impressive experience, Roush conveyed worry about mounting development costs.

Choice Provisions didn't name Tharsis as a reason behind the San Francisco office's closure, ??nor did it indicate the title failed to meet sales expectations, but it might have been a contributing factor.

When Destructoid reached out to Choice Provisions for further comment, Roush said there were "a lot of factors" behind the decision, and reiterated the company's official statement. He called the news "sad," but asserted "it was right?? call to keep the company as a whole alive." Roush wanted to make clear "the Santa Cruz studio is ?still going strong and we will continue to make great games and publish unique titles [like Space Dave! and Drive! Drive Drive!]."

Destructoid wishes eve?ryone affected by the studio? closure all the best moving forward. 

Moving Forward [Choice Provisions]

The post Bit.Trip studio lays off ??employees at San Francisco office appeared first on Destructoid.

Cross-buy with Vita version

Runner2 is coming to PlayStation 4 on February 23, Choice Provisions has announ??ced.

The auto-run platformer will support cross-buy compatibility with the Vita port Choice Provisions released?? a couple years ago. Unfortunately, since another publisher (Aksys Games) handled the PS3 version, it looks like folks who own the game on that platform won't have the same opportunity.

In better news, the studio will be offering the "Good Friends" character pack for free, giving players the opportunity to play as Raz (Psychonauts), Quote (Cave Story), Dr. Fetus (Super Meat Boy), Josef (Machinarium), Spelunky Guy (Spelunky) and Invisible CommanderVideo. 

Runner2 launching February 23rd on PS4 [PlayStation Blog, Choice Provisions]

The post Bit.Trip Runner2 jumps to PS4 this month appeared first on Destructoid.

Sup Holmes every Sunday at 2:30pm EST!

_{[Sup Holmes is? a weekly talk show for pe??ople that make great videogames. It airs live every Sunday at 4pm EST on YouTube, and can be found in Podcast form on Libsyn and iTunes.]}

Recently on Sup Holmes, we had back to back episodes with the developers of the Bit.Trip Runner and Electronic Super Joy, two of the best Rhythm Platformers ever made. Strangely enough, both games star a character who is made entirely of black pixels, with the exception of the whites in their eyes. It feels like a crossover between Bit.Trip and ESJ was meant ??to be, thou??gh right now their developers are hard at work on entirely different projects. 

We talked with Choice Provisions about many of those projects, including Tharsis, the survival horror, resource management g??ame of dice and cannibalism. The more we talked about it, the clearer it became that the game was a metaphor for the terror and excitement that comes from running a game studio.

Similarly enough, Electronic Super Joy creator Micheal Todd's latest project also works as a metaphor for his "team", which consists of one person bouncing ideas of hundreds of people through the internet and face-to-face interactions. While Tharsis is about the white knuckle tension of exploratory team leadership, Queen Under The Mountain is a wild mish-mash of boundary-breaking, crowd sourced creativity. Both are abo??ut embracing the unknown, coming at that space from entirely different angles, managing to generate fun from interlocking variables in their own ways.

As always, I was grateful to them all for being willing to take a chance on the unknown with me on our live streamed chat?? show podcast, and am excited to see what they all do next. 

The post The masters of Rhythm Platformer design on the art of controlled ch??aos appeared first on Destructoid.

Cross-buy and cross-save for $10

All six of Choice Provision's original Bit.Trip games now available on PlayStation systems, Sony announced today during its keynote address? at the PlayStation Experience in San Francisco.

The collection will support both cross-buy and feature cross-save functional??ity for $9.99.

As a massive fan of the Bit.Trip series from its humble beginnings on WiiWare, I can't wait to take the games for another spin on PS4 and Vita and sink hours of my life into them all over? again.

The post Bit.Trip collection coming to PS4, PS3, Vita appeared first on Destructoid.

Skeleton astronaut laser action!

Choice Provisions, the studio responsible for the Bit.Trip series, has been teasing the idea for a similar rhythm action game called Laserlife since way back in 2010. It seems the idea will finally come to fruition later this month, as Laserlife is set to release on PC and PS4 on September 22, with an Xbox One release possibly in Oc??tober.

Choice Provisions co-founder Alex Neuse describes Laserlife as "an interactive biography about a dead astronaut floating through deep space who is discovered by future intelligence??s who hav?e no concept of humankind."

The trailer shows off some trippy, rhythmic laser gameplay, which looks similar to something like Rez. The player controls an alien entity as they explore the astronaut's memories and try to figure out the sum of the human's existence. Neuse says that "it's an exploration, largely through symbolism, of what it means to be a human," themes that were also touched upon in the Bit.Trip games.

Neuse also says that Laserlife is "meant to be played through in one sitting" and will have adjustable difficulty settings to allow anyone to enjoy the story, so don't let the Bit.Trip series' brutal difficulty turn you off from giving Laserlife a try.

Exi??stential rhythm action game Laserlife is heading to PS4 [PlayStation Blog]

The post Bit.Trip studio ?set to release rhythm action game Laserlife t?his month for PC and PS4 appeared first on Destructoid.

On your marks, get set, go, go, go!

Game designers rarely go off-road when creating racing games and?? eschew lesser-traveled paths in favor of more established, familia?r routes. Not Gordon Midwood, though; the one lone developer at indie studio Different Cloth is working on a racer that's unlike anything we've seen before.

Drive!Drive!Drive! puts?? players behind the wheel of multiple cars at the same time, tasking players to compete across several tracks at once. If that sounds chao?tic, well, that's probably because it is. 

It's controlled chaos, though. Luckily, you need only take control? of one vehicle at a time. However, in what might be one of the better "it's a feature" excuses yet, the computer in this game is as dumb as a post. AI??-controlled cars (both yours and your opponents') are largely incompetent.

This requires players to hop from one track to the next, ei?ther taking the lead or putting the computer in a position to do so before moving on to the next track. The challenge is more about management and strategy, rather than pure driv?ing skill. And given there can be up to six tracks on any raceway, all of which sport differing speeds, steering your team to victory can be quite a handful.

While Drive!Drive!Drive!&nb??sp;is still somewhat early in development, it can be a  pretty rough ride. During my time in the driver's seat last week in?? Seattle, I discovered the title doesn't handle anywhere near as well as, well, any mainstream racers I've had the pleasure of playing in recent years.

Midwood was the first to admit the experience could use some fine tuning, as sharp turns often resulted in messy pile-ups and ramps can send your vehicle flying onto another track with no means of returning to the correct one. But there's still time to fix mechanical issues and tighten up the controls, especially since the concept and aesthetics are a??lready so attractive.

The visuals are minimalist, but the pastel color palette and otherworldly track layouts? more than make up for some technically unimpressive graphics. The trippy vibe is also enhanced by a trippy soundtrack, courtesy of synth artist Zombi, giving the game a distinctive look and feel.

On top of that, there's a? track creator, which should give the experience some legs, allowing players to build and share the??ir own designs with the community, should one ever form around the game. 

Drive!Drive!Drive! is targeting a 2016? launch on PlayStation 4, Vita, PC, and maybe more systems.

The post Crazy racer has you drive multiple cars at once appeared first on Destructoid.

Choice Provision's great goldfish shmup

Just last week, we were graced with the release of Shutshimi: Seriously Swole on PC, PS4 and Vita. In this bizarre tribute to classic shooters, players take control of a team of gun-toting goldfish with memory issues as they fight off waves of laser-armed sharks and other giant creatures of the deep. While at PAX Prime 2015, the folks at Choice Provisions (formerly Gaijin Games) showed off their detectable wares, and the Neon Deity Games-developed Shutshimi was among them.

With the announcement of the upcoming Wii U release, we got the chance to get some deep hands-on time with the game. While Shutshimi is already out, we couldn't pass up the chance to try the shmup title with the creators in co-op play. Like a mash-up of elements from Christopher Nolan's Memento with Pixar's Finding Nemo, and adding in the batshit craziness of the classic shooter Cho-Anki, this is totally one to keep an eye out for.

Shutshimi is a lover-letter to the side-scrolling shoot-'em-up scene and features many call-backs and references to the much-loved but punishing genre. With up to four players taking control of some seriously 'roided-out goldfish packing major heat, you'll be blasting through several stages and locales full of dangerous aqu??atic monsters that wish to put these guppies in their place. Unfortunately for these goldfish, their memories only last for approximately ten seconds and they'll have to reorganize and?? reevaluate their arsenal and strategies after the time is up.

In similar vein to Half-Minute Hero, another time-focused recontextualization of an established genre, each level is broken up into smaller bit-sized gamplay sessions. At the end of each ten-second micro-level, players are presented with a choice of new power-ups that change the way they play or what foes they'll encounter. For instance, one level gave me the ability to fire spread shots, while another power-up changed the back??ground to floating animated butts. To make things even more breakneck, you'll have to read super elaborate text descriptions for the power-ups with only a few seconds to make your pick. And in most cases, it'll be mostly useless information and won't actually explain what the hell will happen. With over 30+ items to choose from, you'll be rolling the dice often. And I totally loved that.

In most shmup games, you can often times stick with one power-up and feel safe with it. Shutshimi however ditches that, forcing you to get out of your comfort zone. While a chocolate bar or a toy hammer may look inviting for players, you may end up regretting those picks -- they could seriously confuse you with bizarre, sometimes batshit crazy results. Obviously, Shutshimi never takes itself seriously, and the ridiculousness of the game is up my alley. In case you were wondering, yes, the developers totally love the super insane Cho-Anki series.

Out now on PS4, Vita, PC, Shutshimi: Seriously Swole is a pretty awesome tribute to the shmup genre, and I ha?d a blast being thrown through a loop every ten seconds. With the Wii U release on the way, players looking for a throwback to classic shooters with a sense of humor should wait for this one.

The post Shutshimi: Seriously Swole coming soon to Wii U appeared first on Destructoid.

Sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that

Woah Dave! was a pretty big success, though it's looking like the next title on the Dave! series won't be content to simply give us more of the same. While Dave's first adventure was heavily influenced by the 1983's Mario Bros., Space Dave! looks to dig even farther back into gaming's history, drawing inspiration from the original Galaga. 

While I still play Woah Dave! pretty regularly (latest high score is $2.59), there is definitely room in the Dave-shaped corner of my mind for more color, explosions, and alien mind control. Even better would be to see the series cross over with the Glorkian Warrior, which shares a similar classic shmup style. The game is co??ming soon to PS Vita, PS4, 3DS, Wii U and Steam, so it won't be long before we see how ??Dave's latest stacks up for ourselves. 

The post Space Dave! adds eyeball blasti??ng with a Gala??ga twist appeared first on Destructoid.

PS4 and PS Vita

We heard about April's PlayStation Plus games earlier this week but here's another late addition: Woah Dave! from Choice Provisions. The penny-collecting, alien-dodging, egg-throwing arcade game was free for subscribers back in January on PlayStation Vita, and now that it's available for PlayStation 4 (with Cross-Buy support), it's back in the rotation again. Download away!

A few writers around here are way, way into Woah Dave! and after blindly jumping in last night?, I can see why. I don't fully comprehend the game yet, but it's a bundle of joy in its simplicity.

The post Heads up: Woah Dave! is free with PS Plus again appeared first on Destructoid.

And that's all the info we have!

Good news, everyone! More Woah Dave! is coming! Check out our review of the original here.

Jason Cirillo [Twitter]

The post Woah Dave! Deluxe is a thing that’s happening appeared first on Destructoid.

What other games would you like to see in cartridge form?

Do you ever think about what it would be like to play your favorite sprite-based indie games on the consoles they were influenced by? Well, you might be able to do just that with Woah Dave!, an NES-inspired game which could possibly be coming to the NES itself! Game creator Jason Cirillo of Choice Provisions?? recently spoke with Tiny Cartridge about the idea.

"Yes, we are very keen on doing a cart-based version of Woah Dave! [with a?? c??ustom box]," Cirillo said. "Our preferred platform would be NES because the NES is rad. I think we can all agree on that."

Granted, he says they would probably have to tone down the gameplay a bit to keep it running smoothly on an NES, but this would be awesome nonetheless. Woah Dave! has that classic arcade gameplay which would fit perfectly among the system's library alongside similar titles like Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong.

As a collector of physical media who still buys game carts from time to time, this is very exciting news for me. I've always thought about how cool it would've been to play more recent games like Cave Story or VVVVVV on older consoles. Maybe Choice Provisions could?? inspire other developers to follow suit. Which games do you think ??would fit perfectly on an older system? And would you ever buy a cart of your favorite indie game?

Woah ??Dave could become a real NES game (woah) [Tiny Cartridge]

The post You could play Woah Dave! on an actual NES cart appeared first on Destructoid.

Partnered for RealSense tech

Choice Provisions has been teasing Laserlife since the studio was called Gaijin Games. Back in 2010, Jonathan Holmes talked to Alex Neuse about the idea, but the trail went dark for a few years after that. Last year when the studio changed its name, it mentioned that the game was still in development. Today, we have something more concrete: Laserlife will release? on PC this year, with "additional platforms" following.

Given that it was an idea based on gesture control, it makes real sense that Intel is backing the project for use with its RealSense technology, which is Intel's response to Microsoft's Kinect. Intel seems to be pushing RealSense for gaming, having recently taken on There Came an Echo, another title set for a 2015 release.

The teaser above shows off a more developed art style than we had seen previously, but if you want to get a better idea for how it might play, the old teaser is more informative. Both feature floating skeleton astronauts, but the old one ??also has atoms and lasers too.

The post Bit.Tr??ip studio Choice Provisions teaming up with Intel for skeleton astronaut game Laserlife appeared first on Destructoid.

What a deal!

Woah Dave!, the fantastic little arcade game from the house that built Bit.Trip, is now available? on PlayStation Vita for the low, low price of $5 -- or nothing if you're a PlayStation Plus subscriber??.

Cool boss Jonathan Holmes gave Woah Dave! a favorable appraisal when it launched late last year for Nintendo 3DS and PC, explaining "if you can get past the game's deceptively simple surface and are content to challenge yourself after the game stops providing new carrots to chase, you'll find Woah Dave! to be well worth your pennies."

You can check out the rest of this month's PlayStation Plus lineup right here.

Whoa Dave! [PlayStation Store via Choice Provisions]

The post Wo??ah Dave! out now on Vita, free for Plus members! appeared first on Destructoid.

Dadsdadsdadsdadsdads

There's been a lot of Dad-related excitement on Destructoid this weekend. That hasn't been intentional. When it rains Dads, it pours Dads. This new Dad-centric story is proof of that.

Last Sunday on Sup Holmes, we learned that Woah Dave! creator and cheat code aficionado Jason Cirullo designed the game in part for his son. Jason's raising his kids on videogames, walking him through the classics as they grow up, including the original Mario Bros.. Apparently his son got really good at it, which inspired Jason to make a similar game, but with infused with more streamlined, fast-paced design sensibilities. That's how we go "Excellent Lovely Man", and eventually, Woah Dave!.  

Weirdly enough, Woah Dave! inspired yet another Dad to work on a game. Dan Adelman, former Nintendo "indie game chief" worked on a homemade Unity port of Woah Dave! a while back, in part for fun, in part for education. You can read the whole story of the game's development over on his blog, in a post eloquently titled "I Made a Turd that looks like Woah Dave". He put the game up for download as well. The best part is the sound effects from Dan's kids. Woah Dave! is alrea??dy a gr??eat game, but it would be even greater with a "music made by silly children" DLC pack. 

The post Former Nintendo honcho ?makes Woah Dave fan game with his kids appeared first on Destructoid.

Time to make the woah-nuts

_{[Note: Jonathan Holmes' name appears in the Special Thanks section of Woah Dave!'s credits. No one knows why. One guess is it's because Jonathan and Woah Dave! creator Jason Cirillo had a decent conversation at PAX East 2014, during which time Jonathan was wearing a Woah Dave! t-shirt. Maybe that's it.]}

Woah Dave! is a game that you don't want to get excited for. Any hype at all, even the slightest praise, might ruin your chance of getting into it. Ironically, there are plenty of reasons why some people can't help but be excited for Dave. For one, it's the latest game from Choice Provisions (formerly known as Gaijin Games), who have quite a large and dedicated following chomping at the bit for a new game from the studio. Not only that, but Woah Dave! has both an exclamation point and the word "woah" in the title, as?? though the game itself is excited?? that it exists. 

If you go into the game expecting to say "woah!" right away, you may be disappointed. Like Super Crate Box, Geometry Wars, or Samurai Gunn, it's not a game th??at works to impress at first. That makes it all the more surprising when you discover how deep, intense, and unpredictable this game of controlled chaos can get.

Woah Dave! (Steam, iOS, 3DS eShop)
Developer: Jason Cirillo, Choice Provisions
Publisher: Choice Provisions, Mini Visions label
Released: October 30, 2014
MRSP: $4.99 (Steam, 3DS eShop) $1.99 (iOS)

So why is the game called Woah Dave!? Probably for the same reason Nuts and Milk is called Nuts and Milk, or Fast Eddie is called Fast Eddie. There was a time in gaming when no one knew what would make a game marketable. Technical limita??tions prevented games from going for any level of realism. Mimicking the themes and concepts that made films or TV shows popular was out of the question. Instead developers tended to go with fun-to-say names, easy to pick up mechanics, and nonchalantly surreal scenarios. It was a time when AAA games were usually about abstract cartoon characters running aroun??d bizarre obstacle courses, avoiding death at the hands of cute monsters while collecting money, love, or food. Pretty weird stuff by today's standards.

A little while back, I wrote about how Lone Survivor is one of my favorite games about psychosis. Woah Dave! might soon join that list, along with games like LSD and Deadly Premonition. That said, it's never made 100% clear that Woah Dave! is about ?hallucinating, or anything else for that matter. When Dave dies, everything we see transforms from a dreamlike landscape to a normal city scene. Does that mean Dave's been "living the dream" a little too well? Maybe. One thing's for sure though, titular hero Dave Lonuts has plenty of things to be paranoid about. Almost everything in his world can kill him, including giant green eggs, exploding skulls, and multiple forms of cyclopes. Where do these cyclopes come from, you?? ask? The fried eggs, of course. Worse, the lava underneath the floor makes cyclopes mutate, as dictated by laws of unexplained alien science. 

Thus begins Woah Dave! adventure of constant risk, rew?ard and crowd control. Your goal is to make as much money as you can before you die. The only way to do that is to kill. You kill with eggs and skulls. You can only carry one thing at a time, and either one will kill you if you hold on to it for too long. That forces you to be constantly picking things up, throwing them before they get too hot, running, jumping, and planning in pursuit of maximized profits. 

Woah Dave! may be a little underwhelming on the first couple of plays because it's not immediately clear that with the preparation and skill, you can put together a huge plan for big, BIG money. If you take the obvious path of killing a few newborn cyclopes with an egg, you'll collect a penny per kill. Go about a game that way and you'll probably end up with $.20 or so before all three of your lives are through. With a little experience you'll learn that letting a cyclops get to the bottom of the screen causes it to mutate into a faster, red cyclops, which nets you two pennies per kill. Let a red one get to the lava and it becomes a blu?e hopping cyclops, worth three pennies. Let a blue mutate and it will grow wings. Kill that jerk and you get four pennies. Farming your foes for cash is the real name of the game, though encouraging mutation isn't something for the faint of heart.

It's a similar design hook as Pac-man Championship Edition: DX, where rounding up a lot of ghosts and waiting as long as possible to kill them is the key to achieving a high score. Woah Dave! is different in that the passage of time brings other dynamic changes to the field, some of which may ??sneak up on you before you know it. First is the Woah Block, which falls from the sky at random if you're able to stay alive for a while. The block kills everything on screen at once, so if you're able to fill the world with higher level enemies, you can net $.30-$.50 in massive blow. 

So carefully waiting things out can help you to get rich, but it also makes life way worse. You probably wont notice it at first, but the bottom floor of the screen (the one that covers the lava) is slowly disappearing. That gives you less space to maneuver, and more opportunities f?or the ??cyclops to evolve. So you'll get more mutants at a faster rate as time goes on and less places to hide from them. Increased potential risk reward, if you like it or not. It's just one of the subtle, organic ways the game gradually scales the difficulty without resorting to conventional methods.

With a little experience, you'll learn to start anticipating your death the moment you start a game. Life is short, so you've got to make as much money as fast as you can. That means grabbing eggs and getting them to the bottom of the screen as soon as you start. You want mutants and you want them now. The bottom of the screen should be crawling with monsters within a few seconds if you're playing right. That'll makes the top of the screen the safer place to hang out, though not for long. Mutated cyclopes rocket out the lava upon contact, launching them to the top, and potentially into your butt. Being constantly aware of this is what separates the good Woah Dave! players from the masters. Like with Bit.Trip CORE, learning to stop focusing on individual points in the field and instead look at everything on-screen at once is the secret to Woah Dave! excellence.

Woah Dave!'s only weakness comes from its relatively low ceiling of content. After a certain point, you stop getting concrete rewards for accruing more money and survival time. At first you get little acknowledgements of your success, like changes to the background graphics, added layers to the music, and previously mentioned Woah blocks. After the floor is completely gone,?? and you've bumped into a few tough to kill UFO's, you'll have seen pretty much everything in the game. On top of that there's 16 achievements to shoot for, and an unlockable Bonkers mode, which starts you off with UFOs and no bottom floor. It's a nice little assortment of rewards, but as far as I know, there is no "ending" or more content beyond what you might see at past that $1.50 mark. That might limit your motivation to keep playing regularly enough to ever hit $3-$5.

That's where which version of Woah Dave! you pick up makes all the difference. The Steam version is the best value by far, as it has online leaderboards and 2-player "tug of war" mode where you compete with a pal to see who can get rich the quickest. The iOS version has online leaderboards too, whereas the poor old 3DS has local leaderboards only. The surprisingly fun 3D graphics, the portability and the tradition??al controls make the 3DS version my favorite in theory. In practice, the iOS and Steam ports win out thanks to those online leaderboards. Aspiring to be a global champion is the main reason to play the game long term. Without that draw, you may be done with regular Woah Dave! play after a week or so. 

Still, a week with Dave is certainly worth $2-$5. There's hours of arcade fun, strange charm, and game design science here. If you can get past the game's deceptively simple surface and are content to challenge yourself after the game stops providing new carrots to chase, you'll find Woah Dave! to be well worth your pennies. 

The post Review: Woah Dave! appeared first on Destructoid.

Commander Video takes his swan song to PC and Mac

Bit.Trip Flux, the final entry in the Bit.Trip series, is now available via Steam, Gaijin Games Choice Provisions announced today.

Flux takes inspiration from Pong, much like the first title in the series, Bit.Trip Beat. Players mu?st reflect projectiles with a paddle, which fly from one side of the screen to the other in complex configurations. It's sort of like a reverse shoot-'em-up, where players are asked to defend the edge of the screen and hit all the bullets.  How one succeeds or fails at this will drastically alter the audio and visual experiences.

Gaijin Games first released Flux via WiiWare in 2011, and has included it with physical collections of all six Bit.Trip games for both Wii and Nintendo 3DS. And ?now you can play it on your Windows PC or Mac in glor?ious HD.

On a personal note, Flux is far and away my favorite entry in a series I adore in its entirety. It's very much the culmination of an epic journey, and you can see the rest of the franchise etched into the framework of this stunning conclusion. If you haven't checked it out before, I implore you to do so. It's just that good. A?nd if you have, well, why not take it for another spin?

Bit.Trip Flux [Steam]

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Bit.Trip studio changes name, announces new games

Gaijin Games is dead. Well, not really. They're just rebranding. After six years in business, the indie studio best known for its work on the Bit.Trip series?, has decided it's time for a change. It will henceforth be known as Choice Provisions.

The company is also announcing a couple new games, Laserlife and Tharsis.

Choice Provisions describes Laserlife as a metaphysical and euphoric experience where players guide lasers through space, searching for memories of a fallen astronaut to the beat of electronic music. It's coming to Steam and other platforms maybe. Check out some old concept footage here. It looks really great.

Tharsis, is similarly about a journey through space, but it sounds far more stressful. From what we gather, it'll take you on a trip to Mars that has gone horribly wrong. The synopsis includes a note about Zach Gage, Ridiculous Fishing programmer and creator of SpellTower. So perhaps he's latched on with Choice Provisions. Anyway, expect Tharsis on iOS and Steam sooner or later.

That all said, the Gaijin Games mantle will continue to exist in some form. The studio's current catalog, which includes Bit.Trip, Runner2, lilt line, and Bloktonik; will still point to Gaijin Games as their creators. And any future Bit.Trip games will be released? under the old name as a label.

Speaking of labels, Robotube, the branch of the company behind upcoming titles Destructamundo and Woah Dave!, is now known ??as MiniVisions. This is defin??itely going to take some getting used to.

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Holmes talks with creator Jason Cirillo

One of the most common questions one gets asked when visiting a show like PAX East is, "what's the most fun game you've played this weekend." Woah Dave was my automatic response to any such query this past weekend. An arcade game that draws inspiration from the original Mario Bros. and Hot Potato, players kill ??strange cyclops creatures with the eggs that spawn them, hopefully before the egg hatches in their hands.

It's a strange, quick game with fantastic music that kicks in when you start getting the hang of play, followed by a puzzling Game Over screen? to make you reconsider your actions... just long enough to hit the button to start a new round. Check out what happens when Jonathan Holmes encounters this odd treat and talks to its creator Jason Cirillo.

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Penny by penny

Fifty cents doesn't sound like much, right? You could lose fifty cents in the couch cushion and not think twice about it. Well, I earned -- that's right earned -- almost that much in Robotube Games' Woah Dave!, and I was pretty damn proud of it.

Part of the reason for this seeming like such an accomplishment is because Woah Dave!? doesn't just give away money. It's frugal. It makes you squeeze every cent out of it. But, most importantly, the gameplay makes it satisfying and rewarding to earn anything at all.

Woah Dave! is structured simply and familiarly. Set in arenas that are reminiscent of Mario Bros., the player (Dave?) runs around four tiers of broken platforms as enemies slowly swarm. It's the way that everything is a threat that makes Woah Dave! unique.

The items that can be interacted with in Woah Dave! are eggs and skulls. Eggs, after a few seconds on the screen, hatch into monsters. Skulls can be picked up and thrown at the eggs (or monsters) to defeat them, but they'll explode after a bit of time (there's a ?blinking pattern to forewarn this) ma??king them also dangerous.

The game quickly turns into a semi-cerebral affair of throwing everything at everything to try to simply stay alive. Eggs get throw?n at monsters. Skulls get thrown at monsters. Skulls get thrown at eggs. Eggs get thrown at other eggs because you just screwed up and AHHHH THIS IS SO CRAZY!

Just because that wouldn't be confusing enough, monsters evolve if you?? don't clear them quickly enough. First, they just work their way ?downward. Then, they'll make their way up the level, too. Eventually, they turn into flying eye-creatures that exist solely to hunt your ass down. Quick! Throw an egg at that bastard!

What's this madness for, though? To make money, of course. Each time something's defeated -- be it an egg or a monster -- they drop a penny. That's right, a single coin. Once you clear thirty cents, a "Woah" block (that's right, like in Mario Bros.) a?ppears that destroys everythin?g on the screen, providing a much needed reprieve.

Talking with the developers, they said that a really impressive run might take five minutes or so. I certainly didn't make it that long. But, after exhausting my three lives, I walked away with $.49. It was good enough for the top of the leaderboard (even though PAX wasn't open yet, and that score is almost definitely bested by now). It might not sound like much, but Woah Dave!&nbs??p;made me feel?? like I earned every single penny.

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Both developed by Robotube

A few years ago, Bit.Trip series creator Gaijin Games acquired Robotube Games, bu?t unti?l recently we had not seen the fruits of that partnership. In just a couple weeks, Robotube's two new titles will be shown to the public.

Destructamundo is a game about creating chain reactions with nuclear warheads in order to destroy planets. It seems to play a bit like Every Extend Extra, but with more of a focus on puzzles than on rhythm action. Woah Dave! looks a bit like Mario Bros. on speed, complete with a POW-esque "WOAH" block. Unforgivable spelling aside, it looks neat.

Both Destructamundo and Woah Dave! will be part of the Indie MEGABOOTH at PAX East.

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The groove is in the heart

Bit.Trip Presents Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien recently turned a year old. I know, I know -- you aren't impressed by the aging process. The rhythm-centric platformer also celebrated another milestone: selling one million copies. Well deserved, if you ask me.

A week-long celebratory discount is now in effect, assuming you'd like to help increase that number. You should. The game is now five bucks, down from the usual $14.99 asking price, on Steam, Xbox 360, Wii U, PlayStation 3, and P??S V??ita.

Bit.Trip Run! is also marked down, by 75 percent -- find it on the App Store for $0.99.

The post Runner2 discou?nted to celebrate one ??million copies sold appeared first on Destructoid.

And that's only a good thing

Bit.Trip Presents Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien launched very early on in the year for just about every platform under the sun. We reviewed it, and really liked it. Not long after that, Gaijin Games announced that Runner 2 would be making its way to none other than the PlayStation Vita. After quite a long?? wait, it has finally made its way to the handheld right at the tail end of the year for $9.99.

After spending some time with the new Vita version, I can tell you that it's just as good as you remember it. No significant compromises were made for the visuals, it's locked at 60 FPS, and the OLED screen compliments the game beautifully. Unfortunately, the game is not Cross-Buy or Cross-Save compatible, and there's no additional content or added con??trol benefits on the Vita, but it doesn't need them. It's a fantastic game that can stand on its own -- and does -- that feels great to play with the Vita's physical controls.

If Runner 2 was a ??game you enjoyed immensely before and wouldn't mind paying for again, or still have yet to check it out, then there's no reason to pass up the Vita version. Should you decide to pick it up, just be careful not to throw your poor handheld against the wall once the difficulty really ramps up.

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I heard you like running, so we put Runner2 on a portable so you can run while you run...

The PlayStation Vita keeps proving itself to be a serious contender for independent games, with titles like Terraria, Rogue Legacy, and Spelunky either already on the platform or in the works. To add to that list, Gaijin's rhythm platformer Bit.Trip Presents Runner2: Future ??Legend of ??Rhythm Alien will be available on the ??Sony handheld on December 17 in North America and December 18 in Europe?.

The "Good Friends Pack" featuring characters from various other indie games will be available for Runner2's Vita launch. So you can not only get your run on while cooped up in an airplane economy seat on your way to visit family for the holidays, but you can also do it with Portal 2's Atlas or Machinarium's Josef if you so please.

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