For quite obvious visual reasons, Karnaaj Rally’s box art is legendary. It’s essentially just a Polaroid of a man on his stag weekend. From the odd composition, garish colours, and haphazard way this box art looks thrown together, Karnaaj Rally starts out looking like the result of what would happen if you gave NDubz a billion pounds and a million years to come up with a serious and saleable video game concept.       

Here’s the game’s character select screen, which kinda explains the deal behind the bizarre box art. It’s a racing game that lets you assume the role of one of several characters you’d never willingly ever want to assume the role of.  

After selecting our driver, we were introduced to this guy, Leppa. He’s our sponsor and is here to take us through the bizarre world of Karnaaj Rally, though given the fact that he can’t even afford a shirt we’re not expecting this relationship will prove to be any kind of gravy train.

He does give us some useful tips though, like this one here, which helps explain how you go about getting ‘ultimate pleasure’ from the game - and it doesn’t involve Paraffin and a match. Surprised? We were.

If you think the driver selection process was bad then you should check out the vehicle selection, it’s somehow even worse. Our initial choice of motor vehicle consists of Fred Flintstone’s car or something that looks like a giant pencil. Geez.    

Finally we get into the game, and to be honest it isn’t all that bad. It’s a playable and decent looking top-down combat jostle racer in the style of Badlands meets Micro Machines. While not a patch on either of those aforementioned games, if you’re a fan of the genre, and play your games wearing sunglasses, you may be able to find some fraction of enjoyment from this weird little GBA racing oddity.

Digital versions of Imagine Publishing’s magazines are among the most popular paid for books on the Apple App store less than three weeks after launch.

Powered by PixelMags, the games™ and Retro Gamer apps enable iPhone and iPad users to read the latest issue of each magazine free in its entirety, as well as purchase back issues or subscribe within the App using their iTunes accounts.

The digital editions are stored on the device, enabling users to read, zoom, scan, bookmark and browse through each issue. The digital version of the prestigious UK gaming magazine games™ ranked 7th in the App store’s Book section making it the most popular videogame publication on iTunes, while Retro Gamer, which focuses on classic games ranked 22.
 
games™ Editor in chief Rick Porter commented: “The popularity of the App is excellent news. It offers a great opportunity for those outside the UK to sample a magazine that we are very proud of and put a lot of hard work into – and the upcoming iPad will make the Apps even more relevant.”
 
Follow the links to check out the games™ app and Retro Gamer app right now.

Story via Nowgamer.com

Donkey Kong maestro Steve Wiebe has reclaimed the title of Donkey Kong Junior World Champ by beating the previous high-score record set by Mark Kiel of Enid, Oklahoma.

This is the official word from Twin Galaxies, the organisation which records and verifies videogame high-scores, who congratulate Steve on his impressive achievement.

“On behalf of Twin Galaxies, I’d like to congratulate Steve Wiebe of Redmond, WA for re-claiming the WR on Donkey Kong Junior! Steve reached the kill screen and scored 1,190,400 points on his home machine on 2/12/2010 to take back the crown.”

Great work Steve, does this mean another world record attempt at Donkey Kong is on the cards? Here’s hoping

Download the App and get your first issue free

As of this week, you’ll be able to buy every issue of you favourite Imagine magazines via the Apple iTunes Store and read it on your iPhone or iPod Touch and, for those lucky enough to get one, the apps will also be compatible with Apple’s iPad.

The app costs £1.19 and comes free with one issue of the magazine; subsequent issues will cost £2.99. You can also buy back issues or subscribe to the digital edition for 6 or 12 issues – all from within the App using an iTunes account.

You can flick and zoom through the pages of the magazine, share issues and bookmark favourite pages. The magazine can be read in either landscape or portrait format.

To download the Retro Gamer app, simply search iTunes Store for Retro Gamer Magazine or hit this link.

26 years and almost as many console generations separate these two characters, but there’s no denying their similarities - It’s the deep sea diver helmet that does it. Had Nintendo fitted its G&W diver sprite with a nice drill piece, like the one Big Daddy is showcasing here, he would’ve made easy work of that giant cephalopod blocking him from his fortune.

As far as weird box arts go, a picture of wrestler who is either a) headless and has his bodiless opponent in a headlock, b) is headless but has his own head in a headlock, or c) simply has a very long neck and can bend it backwards in a way that makes it seem as though he’s headless but has his own head in a headlock, has to rank pretty high in the ridiculous stakes. 

The game surely can’t be as bad as the box art though, can it? The game’s called ‘Pro’ Wrestling, and that ‘pro’ bit probably stands for professional wrestling…or maybe it’s Probably Wrestling??

So here’s the game’s title screen. Everything looks in order. Though the fact it nicks the fist punching through the logo idea from Nintendo’s Punch-Out!! is a bit lame - especially as the game isn’t about punch things, but more about grabbing men in leotards called Fireball.

We opted to play as Orient Express, but only because they had the best name, and one of the wrestlers sports the most diminutive and tightly packed facial features ever seen on a character sprite. The other, similarly, sports the most impressive mouth hair.

To be fair, the presentation is pretty good. Here you can see my wrestlers entering the ring. Either they’re wrestling at a school, or judging by the size of their heads in comparison to those of the spectators, they are 30 feet tall.

One of the weirdest features about Pro Wrestling is the fact that whenever you attack, and it connects, the game tells you the name of the move you’ve just performed. Here, I’ve just been punched, and the game’s told me as such. Cheers game. Shame that I keep looking at the hot wrestling action and missing your helpful annotations.

[The Verdict]

This one is a clear case of pretty bad box art for an equally naff wrestling game. Nice colourful visuals, but sticky controls and god-awful collision detection.

Nintendo was kind enough to send us a DSiLL goody bag yesterday, so here’s a run down of what was in it and how the machine itself performs.

Nintendo's goody bag that turned up yesterday.

In addition to the new DSi we received a gigantic oversized cup, a huge calculator (being the child I aim I immediately spelled out boobless on it) and a ridiculously large gummy bear on a stick, which I didn’t give to the kids in fear that the sugar rush would make them hyperactive for the rest of the month. All in all it’s a nice package and typical of the lengths Nintendo will go to to show off a new product.

“But what of the machine itself?” we hear you ask. Well it’s large, amazingly large. In fact, it seems a little too large at first. We can’t imagine many kids going mad for this - although my nine-year old maannged to run the battery out playing Professor Layton) but it’s definately suitable for those who found the neat compact size of the DSi a little crampy.

The new stylus is like a ballpoint pen.

Dwarfing the original DSi, the most unintentionally amusing thing we noticed about the Japanese machine we were sent is that the box reads out DS iLL (it will be called XL over here). Aside from that the new screens make the machine perfect for 3D games (although 2D titles didn’t look quite so nice to us). A sharper, higher resolution screen would have been preferable, but titles still look impressive, with Professor Layton and Spirit Tracks looking particularly nice.

We would advice against importing a Japanese machine, mainly as the DSi games are region-locked and you’ll only be able to access the Japanese DSi Ware store. While some have been quite cynical over this new DS, we actually prefer it to the previous model, mainly as it feels nicer to hold and those larger screens are definately easier on the eyes.

There’s nothing we like more than a quirky retro gaming story, and this one certainly tickled us. If you’re an avid movie and retro gaming buff then you’ll likely appreciate the fine level of lampoonmanship on display here. Talented Aussie artist, Robert Penney, has taken a selection of recent movies (and Prison Break) and reimagined them as ancient CVS games.

On the list is Battlefield Smurph (aka James Cameron’s Avatar), the budget as it sounded Snakes On A Plane, the gonzo monster movie Cloverfield, the The Fast And The Furious movie that starred Sonny Chiba, and Prison Break. We’ve added a scan of the Avatar box below. If you’d like to see the rest they can be found on Kotaku. Simply follow this handy link here: handy link 

If you’re reading this Robert and are open for requests we’d love to see you have a stab at District 9, The King Of Kong and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.

Story and image from Kotaku  

Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes. Sod it… Shoot them anyway

I’m not usually a fan of first-person shooters. They’re far too clichéd, full of idiots online and often like to push controversy for no other reason than to try and get a few extra sales.

So you’ll probably be wondering why I can’t get enough of 2K’s rather excellent Borderlands; which, by all definitions is just another FPS entering an already saturated market. Well that’s what I thought. Well actually I thought: “Right, so it’s a cel-shaded Fallout III, well done Gearbox”. My cynicism couldn’t have been more poorly placed however, as Borderlands has become one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences that I’ve had on my PS3.

For you see, while Borderlands appears to have all the trappings of a first-person shooter, it actually has more in common with the likes of Diable, Phantasy Star Online and World of Warcraft and I bloody love Diablo, Phantasy Star Online and World of Warcraft.

Critical hits are not only satisfying to pull off, they look nice too.

Initially though you may wonder what all the fuss is about for you’ll be wondering around the beautiful cel-shaded wasteland shooting a hell of a lot of rats and doing very little else. Take heart though as once you reach level five and start getting new attributes Borderlands really begins to open up. You meet numerous NPCs that give you quests and you’ll be immediately rewarded with an item and precious experience points once you complete them. Some will simply require you to shoot a set amount of enemies of harvest precious crystals, while others will require you to take out huge bosses that take a massive amount of punishment before they finally keel over and die. What makes Borderlands work however is the sheer organicness that surrounds quests. Complete one and a couple more crop up; finish those and you’ll get an even larger amount to play around with. It’s a great way of opening up Borderlands’ gigantic game world and you’ll always find yourself with something to do, and perhaps most importantly, plenty to shoot.

Enemies will often surround you, so make good use of second wind.

While enemies come thick and fast, Gearbox have given you plenty of ways to combat them. There are hundreds of gun combinations to mess around with, shields can be worn to give you some initially protection from enemy fire, while money is liberally scattered around the game world. Then there’s the Second Wind mode that enables you to revive yourself should you get killed. As the screen fades to black you can instantly bring yourself back to life by killing an opponent. This amazing idea becomes an essential strategy as you continually wound enemies so you can keep cheating death.

Get a vehicle and Borderlands really begins to open up

Arguably the greatest aspect of Borderlands however is its fantastic multiplayer co-op mode. Four players are able to team up with each other to complete quests and suddenly you’re playing the Dreamcast’s Phantasy Star Online again. The comaraderie that develops as you’re fighting huge rats or beating down behemoths like Sledge is immensely satisfying and a world away from most over first-person shooters.

Add in vehicles and a healthy level cap and Borderlands offers something for everybody. If you’re interested in playing with me and have access to a PS3 then my PSN name is Strideristhebest. Otherwise check out these great reviews at Nowgamer.net so you can see what all the fuss is about.

PC Version

Xbox Version

How It Works moves from strength to strength as first issues have sold fantastically across the board. With a record uptake for subscriptions after just two issues, as well as a growing staff of editorial experts, How It Works magazine looks set for a bright future.

With issue three of the magazine on sale from 31 December, this amazing new title from Imagine Publishing dedicated to explaining all things science and technology, is continuing with its penchant for accessible, entertaining articles packed with fact and opinion. So, if you ever wondered how holograms are produced, or how a nuclear reactor works, or even how astronauts are trained, then look no further than How It Works.

Here are a few sample highlights from issue three:

Electric supercars – Thought that electric cars were slow, un-sexy beige boxes on wheels? Think again! How It Works blows open the world of high-performance electric cars with an in-depth look at the Tesla Roadster, Shelby Aero EV and eWolf e2 among others.

The International Space Station – Ever wondered what it would be like to live in space? Well think no more, as How It Works explores all parts of life on board the ISS. From how the ISS was built to how astronauts create water on board, this feature has it all.

The Great Wall of China – No, it can’t be seen from space, but it can be seen in How It Works. We explore how, when and where this great wonder of the world was built, bringing you the amazing facts.

How sharks survive – Made famous in the movie Jaws, many portray sharks as mindless killers. However, there is a lot more to these three-dimensional beasts than first meets the eye and How It Works brings you the scoop.

eBooks – A new fad which will pass in time, or the next stage in the evolution of reading? Whatever your opinion, How It Works explodes open the technology which makes eBooks work. From where to buy, to component lists, to a head-to-head face-off between brands, this feature contains everything you need to know.

Issue three of How It Works is on sale 31 December and can be picked up at all major supermarkets, WHSmiths, newsagents and Barnes & Noble.

www.howitworksdaily.com