Ok, let’s see how many rubbish worm related puns we can squeeze into the next paragraph. Here goes;

Following the recent announcement that the first two (and best) Earthworm Jim games will soon be worming [1] their way to Virtual Console, Earthworm Jim fans prepare to soil [2] your leg-shirts once again with the news that the spacesuited annelid has been plucked even further from the ground [3] of franchise limbo by the beak [4] of Gameloft, who are said to be working on a brand new instalment in the highly successful platforming series.  

Currently titled Earthworm Jim 4, the game is said to be heading to mobile phones, WiiWare, PSN and Xbox Live. Gonzague de Vallois, senior vice president of Gameloft had this to say about the game;

“We are delighted to partner with Interplay to bring Earthworm Jim to multiple downloadable platforms. The game, with its humorous and edgy style, is a great fit for today’s gamer who craves a fully immersive experience that is fun and easily accessible. We look forward to delivering a fantastic game.”  

And Herve Caen, CEO of Interplay, believes that Gameloft’s creativity could deliver an Earthworm Jim game that holds appeal to a new audience.

“Earthworm Jim resonates with millions of people worldwide and we are excited to have one of the best developers in the industry create this game for a new audience,” said Caen. “Gameloft’s creativity coupled with its innate knack for innovative games makes us 100 per cent confident that the result will be nothing short of stellar.”

Earthworm Jim was the co-creation of animator Doug TeNapal (Rugrats) and Shiny Entertainment founder, David Perry. The first two Earthworm Jim games were developed by Shiny Entertainment and published by toy manufacturer/animation studio Playmates Toys (Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles) before the license was eventually bought by Interplay during the development of Earthworm Jim 3D.

TeNapal is said to be working with Interplay as creative consultant on the game. Now if only someone could persuade David Perry to get involved in some way, this has the potential to be the greatest videogame comeback since Donkey Kong Country.     

If you’re a fan of Atari’s Jaguar, or just love Atari in general then you can’t afford to miss Jagfest UK 2009. Now in its ninth year, this year’s event promises to be the biggest yet, and as well as moving to a new location, will also feature plenty of new computers and consoles.

Organised by Kieren Hawken, this year’s even will be held at Luton’s Chiltern Hotel making it far more accessible than past events. Along with all the exciting Jaguar coverage there will also be other machines to play, the ability to buy and trade games and systems, and a variety of tournaments to take part in. Best of all though are two exciting exclusives that will be debuting at the event.

In addition to a brand new 3D project for the Jaguar CD you’ll also be able to see the offcial premiere of Donkey Kong as well as use the world’s only working VR headset. If that wasn’t enough you’ll even be able to get your hands on Madbodies, the new homebrew game from the creators of the excellent Jaguar port of Gorf.

The event runs from Friday the 18th to the 20th of September. Purchase your tickets now from here

We’re huge fans of shoot-’em-ups at Retro Gamer, so join us as we look at some of the best shooters to ever appear on Sega’s Saturn or any other system for that matter.

First up is Psikyo’s homage to Capcom’s 1942 series.

Ok, a bit of a cheeky headline that one as it kind of implies that Mega Man’s dad could be following up the excellent 3D reimagining of Bionic Commando with further next-gen dust downs of its classic franchises – they’re not (well, as far as we’re aware anyway). But seeing that we’ve got your attention, we can tell you that Capcom is planning to release more of its Playstation back catalogue on PSN – which is almost kind of the same thing, well kinda…ish.

Anyway, the ESRB - who stamp those nice black and white letters over videogame boxes to denote whether or not a game is kid, pensioner, cat-friendly etc, etc - has recently rated three PSone games, namely Dino Crisis, the sublime Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, on its website.

Presumably this means that these games will be heading to the service sometime in the forseable future. However; UK Playstation 3 owners shouldn’t hold their breath for this to happen anytime soon - remember we’re still waiting for the original Resident Evil to raise its badly voice-acted head, and that’s been available in the US now since May.

Get it sorted chaps.

Dino Crisis; essentially just Resident Evil meets a good episode of Primeval

LucasArts trilogy of Super Star Wars games are coming to the Wii’s virtual console. The original game (which appeared on the SNES way back in 1992) is already live on the VC in the US, while Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi aqre set to be added at a later date, costing 800 Wii Points each.

“The arrival of the first three games will be accompanied by additional Star Wars-themed content on other Wii channels throughout the week,” according to Nintendo’s press release, possibly hinting at the X-Wing Vs. Tie Fighter speculation which begun last week.

“Our expanded partnership with LucasArts brings the Star Wars and Nintendo universes together,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “These three Super Star Wars games represent fantastic additions to the growing Virtual Console library, and the exclusive Star Wars content on the other Wii Menu channels is sure to have people from different generations having fun and interacting with one another.” “Virtual Console on Wii is a great way to make these games available to our fans again, and it’s an awesome opportunity to expose our classic console titles to an entirely new audience,” said Darrell Rodriguez, president of LucasArts.”

No word yet on a UK release, but more when we get it.

Story via NowGamer.com

Greetings everybody. Just a heads up to tell you about the fun new retro channel I’ve created on Youtube. Basically it’s just me talking about my love of retro gaming and showing off videos to my favourite games. I’m also using it to revive classic magazine sections from gamesTM that I used to write including Clash of the Titans that pitted classic 8-bit coin-op conversions against each other.

Fans of the Dreamcast should also pay attention as I’ve committed myself to collecting all the available games for the Pal machine, so be sure to check in as I’ll constantly be receiving new games in the post and posting them up on Youtube.

It’s only been running for 9 days now but I’ve already reached nearly 150 subscribers, so be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already done so

Retro Gamer Hits Youtube

In a recent interview on Wii.com, Makato Wada - who was part of the development team that ported Punch-Out!! to the Famicom/NES - revealed that the NES version of Nintendo’s classic boxing game holds a 22-year-old secret which aids players in the ring (and before you think it, no it’s not tapping the Select button between rounds to make Doc’s stamina-giving patting work faster). So what is it? We’ll let Wada explain.

Wada
“This is a great opportunity, so I have something I’d like to say. In Punch-Out!!, the game gives you a lot of hints about effective timing of punches. There is a big boxer called Bald Bull in the NES version as well and a light flashes to the right in the audience when he charges. If you punch when it flashes you will land a body blow.”

Tanabe
“What? Really?”

Wada
“No one has known about that for about 22 years…”

Everyone
(laughter)

Wada
“I was wondering when I would have a chance to tell people that.”

Iwata
“You’ve been holding that information for 22 years since the release. (laughs)”

Wada
“Now that I had the chance. (laughs) There are a lot of hidden elements in the NES version.”

Story and quotes from; www.nintendoeverything.com

Formerly known as Speed Zone (which the game will still be titled in the US), Wheelspin is a futuristic racer developed by Archer MacLean’s studio, Awesome Play. With the action taking place on inter-planetary tracks, with split-screen racing, battle modes and a multiplayer mode featuring up to eight competitors, Wheelspin has the potential to bring a WipEout–style experience to Nintendo’s modest little box.

“Wheelspin was designed exclusively for the Wii – with the intention of pushing the hardware further than any other Wii racing game to date. You have to see the graphics moving to believe its coming out of a Wii – the visuals rush past smoothly at 60fps all in widescreen 480p mode,” commented MacLean

Story via www.NowGamer.com

I was just about to take bite out my cheese and coleslaw sandwich this lunchtime when  games™ retro editor, Ashley Day, tapped me on the shoulder for a chat and mentioned an interesting little DS title that he’s been playing recently, one which I’m now itching to play – Retro Game Challenge.

Loosely based on a cult Japanese television show, Retro Game Challenge plonks you inside the NES era of videogames and allows you to live out the evolution of this important videogame epoch (well, sort of). In the game you must work your through a variety new videogames that have been made in a retro style - there’s a Super Star Soldier-style vertical shooter, a Thrash Rally-ish racing game, and six more retro-themed videogames to discover. Not all of the games on offer are made available to you from the start, and instead you must complete a series of task-based challenges to progress and unlock more games for your collection.

Interestingly, with the advances in technology and graphics that occur over the years the later games you unlock become more complex and more advanced. And to help further recapture the mood of that halcyon and obsessive era of gaming, developer Xseed has even added a neat in-game virtual magazine where players can look up tips and cheats for the various games.

I know Darran reviewed it recently (he awarded it 81% in issue 63), but after speaking to Ash, I’m really tempted to try and track down a copy for myself. If anyone’s played the game (it’s only available in the Japan and US at the moment) I’d be interested to hear what you think of it.