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This is kind of amazing: homebrew developer Sivak has just released Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril, a new NES (actual NES) Metroidvania that’s inspired by Kayin’s I Wanna Be the Guy and NES classics like Mega Man. It features 550 rooms, 30+ enemy types, and 8 bosses. There are 5 difficulty settings and a password system, too.

The cartridge, which is region-free and works on clone systems, can be purchased for $27. It comes with a full-color instruction manual and black dust sleeve.

Sivak has released a few other homebrew NES carts, I believe, although the only one I could find was Mystic Pillars, a Columns-like. Here’s a short interview that Screw Attack did with him earlier this month about Battle Kid.

(Thanks, Luke!)

Speaking of Mega Man, Cutman Mike (I really like that name!) is working on an FPS deathmatch based on the venerable Capcom series. Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch, which is being made using the Skulltag engine, will let you play as every single Robot Master from Mega Man 1 through 6 (48 in total) and use all of their abilities (Mega Man himself is also a playable character)! The game will be released some time in 2010 as a free standalone title.

(Source: Duncan Bell, via Twitter)

P.S. This reminds me of Mega Man 2.5D, another fan game that’s based on Mega Man 2. That game is also planned for a 2010 release. Continue reading

After reading about Sivak Games's Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril, the homebrew Mega Man-esque game releasing for NES next month (trailer, demo ROM ), I checked RetroZone to see if the online shop is taking preorders and discovered another neat NES cartridge that I wish I knew about weeks ago.

RetroZone's 8-Bit Xmas 2009 cart features a four-player homebrew game called Snowball Fight, which is pretty straightforward: throw as many snowballs at your friends as you can before the time runs out. What really separates this from traditional NES cartridges, though, are the LEDs installed in the clear shell and the option to add in-game custom text messages/player names.

Ordering one of the personalized carts will run you around $48 before shipping ($43 without the messages). The package includes a black dust sleeve for the cartridge and a printed Christmas card with a pin-up style cover. Though December 25th is already past, Retrozone is still taking preorders until the 31st. You can also download a free ROM for Snowball Fight from 8-Bit Xmas 2009's product page.

French publisher Ubisoft has released the first officially licensed Nintendo DS title developed by a team in India, according to a report from SiliconIndia. The game, 100 All Time Favorites, was worked on by the company's studio in Pune, which Ubisoft bought in May 2008.

Before the acquisition, the studio functioned as a mobile developer for Gameloft, originally established in 2006. The group had a headcount of 120 programmers and testers when Ubisoft took over and has grown to 160 employees since -- its staff increased by 35 percent since January, adding artists and game designers.

"It was a very novel experience, we got a lot of help from our headquarters," says Ubisoft's HR manager Aurelie Busollo. "Three programmers went in for training as well to Quebec. We had a couple of expatriates, who came in from other Ubisoft studios to help us streamline the processes, and give guidelines."

Around 40 of Ubisoft Pune's workers pitched in to create 100 All Time Favorites. The team first spent six months on preparation and testing before devoting eight months on production work. The resulting title is a collection of 100 puzzle, board, and card games like Solitaire, Poker, Backgammon, Chess, as well as up to 30 original games, all packed into a 32 MB cartridge.

The studio was initially acquired to work on porting titles to handhelds, developing for DS, and assisting Ubisoft's testing teams, but it's also worked on Cell-Factor Psychokinetic Wars for XBLA/PSN and Just Dance for Wii. Studio head David Blanchard adds that Ubisoft Pune is looking into social network games and MMOs, too.

I should also mention that while this is the first licensed DS title out of India, there's at least one homebrew DS game that was developed in the country. Mumbai-based Yellow Monkey Studios entered an interesting looking adventure title called Mortley: A Stitch in Time into the 2009 IGF Mobile competition.

Though Yellow Monkey hasn't put out anything commercially, as far as I know, it is a licensed Nintendo DS, iPhone, and Android developer.

Headsoft, the same homebrew team that released Manic Miner In The Lost Levels and Warhawk DS, has completed another unauthorized remake of a classic title: Sam Manthrope and Argus Press Software's The Detective Game, originally published for the Commodore 64 in 1986.

As with the original game, The Detective takes place in London in 1974, placing you in the role of a Scotland Yard investigator looking to solve the murder of a rich aristocrat. While looking for clues at his mansion, you learn that someone is killing off the departed noble's friends, relatives, and employees. To beat the game, you need to collect 10 pieces of evidence and identify the murderer.

The remake features new graphics and music, and is adapted for the Nintendo DS's two screens -- the moving question marks in the second screen seem distracting, though. The group also created new packaging with original art (complete with a "Not Official Nintendo Seal), in case you want to print the designs and decorate a blank game case.

I've included videos from both The Detective and The Detective Game below so you can compare how the games look. You can download The Detective's ROM for free at Headsoft's site, and you can play it in either a Nintendo DS emulator or on an actual system, provided you have a homebrew flashcart device.

If you missed Ishisoft's original Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp, it had the distinction of starting off as a homebrew DS game that was ported to Xbox Live Indie Games. Despite the game's humble origins, it's a very entertaining 2D puzzle/platformer, and GamerBytes/XNPlay even rated it as one of 2008's Top 10 XNA Community Games.

Boasting 100 levels, this holiday sequel is nearly twice as big as Biscuit Romp. It also features "widescreen HD, new robots, explosions, and lots of sideways rolling", and Ishisoft promises that there's more than one song in the soundtrack this time. The developer hopes to have Johnny Platform Saves Christmas out on Xbox Live Indie Games "some time before Christmas".

The 15th Ludum Dare “48 hour solo game development competition” has ended. The theme this time around was “Caverns,” and there were over 143 (i.e., 144) games submitted—all of which you can find here. (With screen shots!)

The top honors this time went to ChevyRay’s Beacon (shown above) and YMM’s Broken Cave Robot, which are both excellent. But there are many other gems! I advise scrolling through the voting results and trying everything.

Ludum Dare 16 will begin in December. Prepare thyself! Continue reading

A new demo for Bob's Game, the homebrew Nintendo DS game by Robert 'I cannot leave this viridian room' Pelloni, has been released and is now available over on the Bob's Game site.

The story of the release's unfolding has gone on for a few days now. Originally Bob had penned in a 9/9/09 release of something, but no details were given on exactly what this release would be. Then a couple of days before said date, his website became rather colourful at the expense of one Mr. Reggie Fils-Aime (no points for guessing why). With many Bob's Game fans understandably excited, the 9/9/09 came... and went - with no release.

However, with fans revolting on the Bob's Game forums, a cryptic message appeared on the main page, simply reading 'ETA: 2 HOURS'. Confused fans spent the next 24 hours trying to work out exactly what was going on. Eventually, an admin on the forums explained that Bob had been working 'for about 70 hours without sleep' and had been advised to go to bed.

Which brings us to today, and the ETA 2 HOURS message has been replaced with the words 'test version available in forum'. And lo and behold, a new demo has appeared on the forums! The great news for all you PC gamers is that, while the original required a flash cartridge to play, this second demo is for desktop consumption. Grab it from here. Just try not to let Tetrid and Ping make you cry. Continue reading