Re-imaginings of retro classics are a solid source of revenue for publishers in these turbulent times. New announcements are posted every day but it takes a special kind of game to snag our attention and the 1988 gore-tour Splatterhouse is one such game.

Alongside the recent announcement of Clash Of The Titans, Namco Bandai has now confirmed that a new version of Splatterhouse is set for release on Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2010. Commenting on the announcement, Namco Bandai’s VP of sales and marketing, Hiroaki Ochiai, said: “Today’s console technology is literally decades ahead of what powered Splatterhouse when it made its first indelible bloody mark on gaming, which means we now have gore like never before for all the fans and the new generation of gamers lining up to get to grips with Rick.”

In this new iteration protagonist Rick will stray far beyond the West Mansion in a storyline written by Gordon Rennie, the comic book author behind works such as Judge Dredd, and original artwork for the game comes care of artist and Marvel contributor Dave Wilkins.

New gameplay dynamics will see Rick using torn limbs as weapons and swinging his way through the environments as well as reanimating corpses of the fallen to fight alongside him. The trademark ‘Terror Mask’ makes a comeback and will aid Rick’s regenerative capabilities.

Grab an arm and start swinging from 2010.

Story via NowGamer

One of the most fondly remembered yet neglected platform heroes to emerge from the 16-bit era was Sparkster: an armour wearing, rocket-powered opossum. Well it’s good news for opossum lovers everywhere with Konami’s recent announcement that the neglected critter will be making a return to our screens in a new game released across Xbox Live, PSN and Steam sometime next year.

News about the game is pretty thin on the ground at the moment, but this is what we know so far: the game is being developed by Climax (Silent Hill: Shattered Memories), will be 2.5D, set 15 years after the first game, and take a steampunk meets Crash Bandicoot approach to its visuals.

We’ll keep you posted about more developments about the game as and when we hear anything.

The more we see of this game the more we get excited. After all, Sega are the masters when it comes to exhilarating arcade racing games, and with the talented chaps at Sumo Digital at the helm, we reckon this could be a title to keep a beady eye on this year.

Well Sega - in savvy mode - has revealed a brand new character who will be joining Sonic, Tails, Alex Kidd, Amigo and cohorts on the starting grid, and it’s none other than Ryo from Shenmue! Want to see? Here’s an awesome video courtesy of NowGamer to whet your appetites; Said awesome video courtesy of NowGamer  

This will of course raise the hopes of millions of Shenmue fans out there who are desperate, nay willing, Sega and Yu Suzuki to finally wrap up their epic arcade-RPG.

While this is certainly great news, we hope Sega doesn’t decide to make this an official chapter in the Shenmue saga – like a dream sequence in which Ryo gets to race Sega heroes from past, present and future (remember the game’s set in the Eighties). Similarly, lets hope Sega doesn’t try to shoehorn the remaining chapters into Ryo’s ending to the game. Like he wins the race, wakes up, his adventure was all just a bad dream, and so off he trots to light fireworks with his dad. Instead, let us put our collective minds together and will this to be a warning shot from Sega that Shenmue 3 could finally be heading to our lives, sooner than never.  

 The official Japanese Street Fighter blog is putting fans through one hell of a trial by teasing the announcement of another Street Fighter game, most likely a spin-off of SFIV.

Natsuki Shiozawa promised last week that she would say more about a sequel this week, but has now only said that we’ll hear more soon.

This seems like a pretty strong indication of more Street Fighter coming to the PS3 sooner rather than later. The announcement of Street Fighter IV took many by surprise, but now Ryu and co are back we’re not all that shocked that Capcom wants to get some more out of the series again. Rather than seeing Street Fighter V, though, we would expect a title more in the vein of SFIII: 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike, offering new characters and slight tweaks to the gameplay.

Seeing as the Tokyo Game Show is just around the corner we would expect to find out much more then.

Story via NowGamer.com

Seriously, what the hell happened to Bub and Bob? Swollen eyes, glazed look and bloated bodies; they look like they’ve just received hurried brain surgery from a baby. In fact, we reckon that if you were to stick a neon sword that launched fireworks into one brother, the other would just remain in that sedate state with that dumb expression splashed on his face for all eternity. Yep, something’s obviously not quite right here.

The new Sonic game is due next year and will be more in-keeping with the traditional Sonic gameplay of old, according to Sega. After a slew of so-so (Sonic Rivals) and lame (Sonic Unleashed) Sonic games, the Japanese developer has announced that the new title, currently codenamed Project Needlemouse (the original working title for the eponymous mascot before Sega christened him Sonic), will spin its way onto unconfirmed consoles in 2010.

Furthermore, and this is eked from the trailer, which gives very little away, ‘Speed returns in an all-new 2D adventure built from the ground up’ (we’ve italicised the important and promising words in that preceding sentence). Also, speaking to GameSpot, Sega associate brand manager Ken Balough confirmed that Project Needlemouse was a response to “old-school Sonic fans” who “have long asked to see Sonic return to a more 2D style of gameplay.”

So there you have it, straight from the brand manager’s mouth – Sonic is going back to his 2D roots and Sega has finally listened to what ardent and passionate Sonic fans have been requesting for years. Hopefully this’ll mean no more annoying preschool-looking characters like Charmy Bee or Big the Cat, no repetitive Crash Bandicoot bits, no guns or motorcycles, no Werewolves, Count Draculas, Swamp Things, or any other mythical creature taking possession of one half of Sonic’s body and gameplay, but instead a return to that exhilarating and classic Sonic gameplay that exudes elation and fun from every pixel.

So if we had to speculate as to what Sega has planned for Sonic, we’d hazard a guess that it’s going right back to the beginning with the franchise and is maybe looking to plant a younger and more spritely Sonic in the starring role (a bit similar to what Nintendo did with Super Mario World 2 perhaps?). We think the trailer kind of gives the impression that the game could take that direction – Sonic’s silhouette looks really quite tiny and the game’s telling project name seems to back this thinking. So what do you guys think?

“An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).”

Still with us? Anyway; to cut a long story short, in a bid to protect Cocoa Touch - the software building platform for iPhone - Apple’s SDK prevents third-party developers from releasing applications that have their own executable run-time images (roms) and it was thought that this revelation could spell the end of emulators appearing on the platform. However; the good news is that Manomio – the company behind the app – has tweaked its emulator to abide with the SDK and its release has now been given the all clear by Apple.

The emulator can be bought for £2.99 and now comes packed with the games Dragon’s Den, Le Mans, Jupiter Lander, Artic Shipwreck and Jack Attack, more games are on the way.

Download service Good Old Games is offering a ‘buy one, get one free’ deal on all Interplay games to celebrate it’s first birthday

“Looking back at the first year, I think we can say it’s been a really successful time for us – we’ve added lots of great publishing partners and amazing games. But we couldn’t have achieved any of that success without our fans, who support us in so many ways. We decided to say thank you to our fans and run this promo,” said Adam Oldakowski, Managing Director of GOG.com.

That means you could snag any two of Interplay’s back catalogue, which includes such retro-tastic delights as Earthworm Jim, Fallout 1 + 2, Citizens: Giant Kabuto, Freespace, Kingpin, MDK and Shogo: Mobile Armor Divison to name but a few, for just $5.99. The site features over 140 classic games, including Heroes of Might and Magic I through III, Duke Nukem 3D and Beneath a Steel Sky, which is free to all GOG.com users.

The Interplay promotion lasts until the early hours of September 9, but NowGamer is also giving you the chance to win 15 titles of your choice from GOG.com. Find out details on how to enter on the NowGamer forum.

Invincible Tiger: The Legend Of Han Tao has been made available on the Xbox Live Arcade courtesy of publisher Namco Bandai. The game’s notable for being one of the first developed in true stereoscopic 3D – you’ll need an expensive new 3D TV to get the most out of it, however. We played it at Develop, and although Andrew Oliver had us just about sold, we’re happy to wait until the price of said hardware comes down significantly.

Invincible Tiger can also be played in 2D, however, and its Bruce Lee-style chopsocky antics are well worth a look. Players can also try viewing with the old-style anaglyph (red and blue) 3D glasses. Follow the link to read our Andrew Oliver Q&A, or scroll down to read some of the features from the game’s press release.

• Team up with a partner and take on the Evil Overlord’s diabolical army through Story Mode Co-op.
• Battle through each level, dealing with increasing difficulty and a shared Zen-meter.
• Learn combat techniques in the single-player game and use them to beat your enemies into the dust.
• Experience Endurance Mode where you’ll face an endless stream of enemies under a time limit.
• Post your scores online for bragging rights.

Story via NowGamer.com

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.