Wii U ZombiU Bundle Announced For U.S. And Canada

Nintendo are launching a new Wii U bundle in North America—one that has Ubisoft’s ZombiU packed in. A similar bundle was made available in Europe back in November.

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The Wii U ZombiU Deluxe Set comes with everything that’s in a regular Wii U Deluxe package, along with the ZombiU game, a black Wii U Pro controller, and a collectible booklet featuring artwork from the game. Additionally, Nintendo Land will also be included in the bundle, but as a download title instead of on a disc.

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Picking the bundle up will enroll you in Nintendo’s Digital Deluxe Promotion, which is a program that gives you 10% back in points for each download you purchase off the Wii U Nintendo eShop. These points can later be put to purchases.

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The Wii U Zombi U Deluxe Set will be available for $390 on February 17th in the U.S. and Canada.

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Read more stories about Wii U & ZombiU on Siliconera.

Open-World Adventure Rime Announced For PS4 [Update]

An open-world adventure game, Rime, by Tequila Works is headed to the PlayStation 4, Sony announced at their Gamescom press conference this morning.

An early video that Sony displayed showed a game that gave off vibes of Ico and Journey. More on Rime soon.

Update: It would appear Rime is only for PS4, and not Vita. We apologize for the error.

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Read more stories about PlayStation 4 & Rime on Siliconera.

BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma Shows Off Its Brand New 64-Player Lobbies

Last week’s Japanese magazine leaks revealed that BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma will be changing things up by adding new online features such as CPU fights while waiting for opponents, and a huge 64-player lobby. Famitsu.com’s latest update gives us a closer look at the new features, and the recently revealed box art.

 

Limited edition box art.

Standard edition.

The above is a look at the main menu for online mode. In addition to being able to play against CPU opponents while waiting for a match, you’ll also be able to play with your friends in offline local fights, while waiting.

The online lobbies will be selected as various cities in the BlazBlue world, and each area will be able to hold up to 64 players. Once you’re inside, you’ll be able to freely control your own chibi-styled character to walk around and step on arcade machine-like devices for fights against other players.

 

The D-Code feature (pictured above) will be like an ID card for the players, where you’ll get to select your icon and avatar, along with an indication of the time and days you play the most and a short message. You’ll get to send chat messages to everyone in the lobby or private messages to specific people in the area.

You will now also get to set your own rules for casual battles in Player Match. In addition to text chat, you’ll be able to increase the player limit per room from 6 to 8. There are also four types of rooms to choose from in BlazBlue: Chronophantasma.

Play & Spectate: This mode will be split between players participating in fights and those who aren’t participating, who will be able to spectate.

Free-For-All: A non-spectator room, where everyone inside will have a chance to fight. (Max. 4 players)

Training: A room for training purposes, where the fights won’t have any health limits.

Replay Viewing: Allows you to watch replays with everyone in the room.

The new Library feature is a glossary full of terminology from the BlazBlue series, in addition to many detailed terms often used in various fighting games, allowing you to not only about BlazBlue, but fighting games in general.

 

 

The informational Litchi Faye-Ling corner is now called “Teach Me More, Miss Litchi!” in BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma, where cute chibi-form characters will be appearing in Litchi’s lessons. This time, she will be recapping the events of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger and BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, in addition to details surrounding Ikaruga, the Ikaruga Civil War, and two parts of the light novel BlazBlue: Phase 0.

BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma is slated for release on October 24 in Japan and early 2014 in North America.

Read more stories about BlazBlue: Chronophantasma & PlayStation 3 on Siliconera.

Solve Crimes With Professor Layton's Son

Level-5 expanded the Professor Layton series with a crime solving game for iOS. Layton Brothers: Mystery Room sounds like it might star Hershel's long lost brother, but no this game is all about Layton's son. Alphendi Layton works in Scotland Yard and his first case in Layton Brothers: Mystery Room is to find out who murdered a woman in a hotel.

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The game looks more like Ace Attorney titles since you help Alphendi collect clues at the crime scene, point out contradictions, and confront culprits. You can get the first two cases in Layton Brothers: Mystery Room for free. Another seven cases are available as in-app purchases.

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This game also brings up a new mystery… when did Professor Layton have a son?

Read more stories about iPhone & Layton Brothers: Mystery Room on Siliconera.

Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed Co-op Deal 4 Steam Keys for Only $12

Sumo Digital's well-received racing title Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed got ported to the PC earlier this year. Getting friends in on the action can be troublesome at times, but you can give them an extra nudge with a 'Multiplayer Madness' deal going on at GMG. Right now 4-packs of co-op friendly games are heavily discounted. (Other notable titles include Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, Sanctum 2, and Awesomenauts.)

Thanks to the sale, buying four copies of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed sets you back only $12. Until this Friday at 11AM Eastern, all titles listed below are on sale in packs of 4, with the deal available in Europe and the UK as well. You can even get an additional 20% off with coupon code GMG20-4B9NY-L4FEN.

Game TitleMSRP% OffSale PriceChivalry: Medieval Warfare ' 4 Pack $74.9973%$20Eve Online Starter Pack ' 4 Pack $79.9680%$16Killing Floor ' 4 Pack $79.9680%$16Sanctum 2 ' 4 Pack $44.9973%$12Sniper Elite Nazi Zombie Army ' 4 Pack $59.9680%$12Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed ' 4 Pack$59.9980%$12Starvoid ' 4 Pack $39.9680%$8Gettysburg: Armored Warfare ' 4 Pack $39.9680%$8Awesomenauts ' 4 Pack $39.9680%$8Sanctum ' 4 Pack $29.9973%$7.96Dollar Dash ' 4 Pack $29.9974%$7.92

For extra clarification, you'll be receiving FOUR individual Steam keys for the games you buy in your GMG account. These are not Steam gift codes, so if you don't have friends who are interested in the games, you can always trade or sell the keys as you see fit.

On the Steam Weekly Sale front, the Steam Midweek Deal brings us Resident Evil: Revelations at 50% off ' only $24.99 for the game, and DLCs are on sale at 50% off as well. Before you get your hopes up, the whole Resident Evil franchise isn't on sale ' only Revelations ' so you'll have to wait on RE5 and RE6 for a little bit longer. (In my opinion, Revelations is a much stronger RE game anyway.)

At $25, this deal makes the cheapest price we've seen. Revelations is usually around the $33 mark, with the previous lowest price at $26.80 just a month ago. Revelations now also has Steam collectible trading cards added to the system, so it's complimenting the Midweek Sale nicely. This 50% off deal will end tomorrow Thursday at 1PM Eastern / 10AM Pacific.

If you like to keep your wallet fat, check in every Wednesday and Saturday at 11AM Pacific for the latest deals, brought to you by the crew at Dealzon. We’re here to help Siliconera readers find the best gaming deals online, whether for the PC or console. To be clear, Siliconera will sometimes make money if you buy a game. Feedback? Let us know in the comments.

Read more stories about PC & Resident Evil: Revelations & Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed on Siliconera.

Over My Dead Body 2 Director Shares Details On The Upcoming Vita RPG (2)

Since it was initially announced back in 2011, we haven’t heard much about Sony Computer Entertainment Japan’s Over My Dead Body 2, the PlayStation Vita sequel to the cult hit PSOne game about a cursed bloodline that must defeat a demon. After recently revealing a first look of its trailer, director Shoji Masuda spoke to 4Gamer about the upcoming sequel.

The above is a look at Over My Dead Body 2 (to the left) and the original Over My Dead Body on PSOne. As you may have noticed, the graphics have been completely revamped in 3D, but the upcoming sequel still retains its Japanese-style artwork.

According to Masuda, this change is a result from the request of fans. It was not because fans wanted to see it in 3D, but because there was a high demand of those who wanted to see a hereditary resemblance in the characters. The reason being is that your progeny can only live for two years, so your distant descendants will be the ones to lift the curse, which means that you’ll be playing through various generations of the family with the cursed bloodline.

“If we did this in 2D, it would simply be something like ‘Fukuwarai’ (Japanese ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ game),” explains Masuda. “The talks of making it into 3D completely influenced everything, as we felt that by displaying the family in 3D, it would’ve been strange if the other things weren’t, so from there we thought that it’d be better to also display the map and battles in 3D.”

“It’s not that we wanted to make it into 3D, but it was a result of everything else that it ended up being mostly in 3D.”

Fan feedback has been a crucial part of developing  Over My Dead Body 2. Since the release of Over My Dead Body’s PSP remake, Sony have gathered input from questionnaires, various social media networks such Twitter, mixi, and even from those on the Japanese 2channel discussion boards.

Masuda shares that they have a thick stack of papers that are full of fan requests. For every request that has been mentioned by three or more people, the development team puts it into a list of considerations, which are then examined thoroughly. 4Gamer then asks what some of the most common requests were.

“The one that had the most [requests] was about about removing the limit of having 256 people in your family tree,” answers Masuda. “At the time, it was limited due to the capacity of the PlayStation’s memory card, but this time you’ll be able to register at least 1,000 people, so I don’t think there will be any trouble. Also, ‘please let us have more than one save’ was another big one. This was also limited to just one in the past because of capacities, but this time you’ll get to have up to four saves.”

Masuda also teases a new system that will be a part of Over my Dead Body 2 that will involve some sort of communication.

“You see, playing Mahjong with computers is fun, but playing between people you know, is definitely much more fun,” shares Masuda “I’d like to capture the fun part of such a communication method and put it into Over My Dead Body. While we’ll be releasing more details a little at a time, I’m sure you’ll be baffled by it once you get to try it out for yourself.”

Over My Dead Body 2 is slated for release in summer 2014 for PlayStation Vita.

Read more stories about Over My Dead Body 2 & PlayStation Vita on Siliconera.

Super Sonico Stops By With More SoniPro Screenshots

Super Sonico, Nitroplus' mascot, is getting her own video game and you play as her manager in SoniPro. While she is the lead singer in the three girl band First Cosmos Velocity, she's also a college student. Your goal is to balance her busy schedule of modeling, singing, and studying.

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Time and Eternity developer Imageepoch is making Sonipro with Nitroplus supervising it. The game will have popular songs plus brand new ones made for the game. Sonipro is slated for release in winter 2014 on Nintendo 3DS.

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Read more stories about Nintendo 3DS & Screenshots & SoniPro on Siliconera.