And moving forward…
Calling All Cars
Almost unbelievably, this comes from the planet-sized brain of Dave Jaffe, who created God Of War. Not that it’s anything like God Of War – but it is our personal favourite of the PlayStation Store downloadable games. It’s laughable simple, with over-the-top cartoon-style graphics that will make you laugh, destructible scenery and a two-thirds view that puts you in mind of Micro Machines. Set in an area around a jail, you drive a car around in search of escaped prisoners. When you find one, you must pick him up and return him to the jail – the jail entrance you use dictates the number of points you get. But there are other cars trying to do the same – either powered by AI or other people – and question-mark signs dotted around which get you power-ups that could have been lifted from Wacky Races, like giant hammers attached to your bonnet and so on. Which enemies will use against you if you are driving a convict around, or which you can use against them. Or, if you don’t have a power-up, crashing into them will dislodge their occupant. Madcap stuff which is hugely addictive. And an absolute must-download.
Nucleus
This one isn’t entirely dissimilar to Blast Factor, in that it uses the same control system – but it’s an awful lot more elaborate and sophisticated. You pilot a tiny jellyfish-type thing, again in a sort of human-body environment (made to look as though it’s seen through a microscope). Again, you must take out bacteria, viruses, super-viruses and so on, either by clearing screens or surviving for a certain amount of time. Power-ups greatly increase your firepower and you can hide behind protein cells. Surprisingly hard, intriguing visually and sure to be a PSN hit.
Super Stardust HD
This one owes a debt to Asteroids, except you aren’t cruising randomly around space – you’re defending a series of planets from attack, and are positioned on a sort of spherical matrix above the surface of each planet. And you aren’t just dealing with asteroids – there are all manner of hostile ships and nasty enemies. But there are also plenty of power-ups to find – crystals hidden in asteroids yield them, for example, and you swiftly gain things a flame-thrower which melts enemies (and requires much less aiming precision than a conventional weapon. And as seems to be the vogue, you fire using the right analogue stick – although different power-ups do require the use of various triggers. Classic-style, yet modern-feeling, shoot-em-up action that proves pretty addictive.
By Steve Boxer
Do you have release dates for Nucleus and Super Stardust HD?
Also is Super Stardust HD the game that Housemarque will announce at the Nordic Game Expo or are they working on another game for SCEE?
Comment by Joakim Hagdahl — Apr 18, 2007 @ 9:38 am
Calling All Cars is definitely #1 on my list of those, and hopefully they release a demo of those other two so I can give ‘em a whirl
Cheers!
Comment by Matthew — Apr 18, 2007 @ 11:17 am
i can’t wait for Calling All Cars this game, is there a release date yet?
psn: TheDirector
Comment by thedirector — Apr 18, 2007 @ 11:21 am
Any release dates?
Comment by Dario Mancuso — Apr 18, 2007 @ 12:01 pm
What is the release date for these games??
Comment by Max — Apr 18, 2007 @ 12:24 pm
Uhm may I ask why you removed my comment?
I’m a former SCEE employee (left in January) and I asked a couple of valid questions regarding the games you presented here. You are the guys who are presenting Super Stardust HD here and not saying who it is from. Housemarque are the developers as we all know and I wanted to know if Super Stardust was the only game they have in the pipeline.
Deleting commentary is NOT the way to go, in fact it pisses me off.
Comment by Joakim Hagdahl — Apr 18, 2007 @ 12:29 pm
Oh damn, my bad. It appears the comment appeared for me now.
The fool eats his humble pie.
Comment by Joakim Hagdahl — Apr 18, 2007 @ 12:32 pm
Mk2?
UK date ?
Comment by meddow — Apr 18, 2007 @ 2:08 pm
This is all good, but when are we going to see these on SONY EU SHOP?
Comment by Anthony — Apr 18, 2007 @ 3:01 pm
These games look really cool. Since it appears PS3 owners will have to wait a while before we get any of the big games, this is a great way for Sony to keep us entertained in the meantime.
Hopefully we don’t have to wait too long for these downloadable games.
Comment by Travis — Apr 18, 2007 @ 3:35 pm
Would be nice to get some fullsize Super Stardust HD and Nucleus screenshots, those two are new to me.
Comment by Shin-Ra — Apr 18, 2007 @ 4:25 pm
Great, there’s just one big problem. Still no playstation store for Poland.
Pathetic.
Comment by arabek — Apr 18, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
Joakim,
the weird thing is, in the past i also had to fun of getting pissed off and suddenly , my previous statement was there..
maybe sony told them to restore postings about “bad feelings” or “business critical” info,instead of removing without notice
Comment by darkie — Apr 18, 2007 @ 4:56 pm
[...] http://threespeech.com/blog/?p=385 http://threespeech.com/blog/?p=386 [...]
Pingback by Polski PSN Store » PS3 Site Polska | Portal PlayStation 3 | PS3 News — Apr 18, 2007 @ 4:57 pm
Who’s Steve Boxer and how is he getting this stuff from Sony? I know I’d like some information / exclusives for Red Rant. Seems to me like everything goes to Steve, despite getting things very wrong sometimes…
Comment by Ben Furneaux — Apr 18, 2007 @ 5:29 pm
@Joakim, they did not remove your comments, tho they do removed my asking why there’s no ps3 store for Poland yet. It’s been a month already.
Comment by ps3fanboy — Apr 18, 2007 @ 6:26 pm
Calling are Cars is currently listed as Apr 26th for the US.
Comment by Jeff Budzinski — Apr 18, 2007 @ 6:29 pm
I have enjoyed the all the games downloaded from PSN but there could be more. Sony have a huge back catalogue to play with.
Also I thought we where getting PS1 games to download and put on are PSP’s? anyone any idea? or have I gone bonkers again.
PSN: redlander
feel free to add me
Comment by redlander — Apr 18, 2007 @ 6:50 pm
Looks good. Again hoping to see some demos soon. Calling All Cars should be a hit and hopefully the number 1 downloaded title.
PSN: Neil
Comment by Neil — Apr 18, 2007 @ 7:19 pm
Good to have you here Joakim!
I’m stoked for Jaffe’s game for sure.
Comment by Pete Cullen — Apr 18, 2007 @ 7:47 pm
Whats the release dates? Calling all cars looks like fun.
Comment by Jimmy — Apr 18, 2007 @ 9:05 pm
darkie: Maybe some kind of cache problem for the comments. I know that can happen on other sites.
Still, I judged too soon.
Comment by Joakim Hagdahl — Apr 19, 2007 @ 12:01 pm
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