Ripstone has officially announced Knytt Underground and Pure Chess for Wii U following the titles’ reveal during last week’s Nintendo Direct. Both are scheduled for a release towards the end of 2013/start of 2014.

Ripstone co-founder and creative director Phil Gaskell commented on the news, and also confirmed more support for the eShop in the future:

“We’re committed to helping developers bring their games to as many digital channels as possible and this announcement demonstrates that commitment. We think Nintendo gamers are going to love spending hours exploring the world of Knytt Underground and will be blown away by the visual quality of Pure Chess, and we hope to announce more games for eShop in the future.”

One other important piece of news: Ripstone has confirmed that Pure Chess will be coming to the 3DS as well. When this version will be launching is unclear, however.

Source: Ripstone PR

Open-world games have often allowed players to take control of an aircraft and fly around the map. Watch_Dogs, however, has no such vehicles.

Speaking with Examiner, senior producer Dominic Guay said:

“Players will not fly aircrafts in Watch Dogs. We did not feel it was core to the experience we wanted to create.”

You’ll still be able to take control of plenty of other vehicles including trucks, motorcycles, and boats. Such means of transportation will let players “explore the city proper, the rivers, the lake and even beyond the limits of Chicago.”

I wonder what that last bit means…

Source, Via

Black Forest Games announced today that Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams will be launching in Europe and Australia on August 22. Pricing is set at €14.99.

Twisted Dreams is scheduled to arrive in North America as well, but a release date hasn’t been confirmed as of now.

Along with the release date news, Black Forest Games passed along an overview of the game’s features:

· Mobile – fully playable on the Wii U GamePad.
· Casual welcome – New easy mode for casual gamers. Hardcore and Uberhardcore Mode still supported.
· Challenging Levels – Discover three distinctive worlds with 23 challenging levels. Each one transforms from fluffy nightmare to spooky dream by a push of a button.
· Personal Style – Whether you like speed run through each of the amazing levels or take your time exploring even the last secret of Giana’s dreams. It’s up to you.
· Lush graphics – Detailed landscapes morph from lush, colorful surroundings to surreal, spiky nightmare worlds. It doesn’t matter how often you’ll see it, you’ll detect new details every time.
· Amazing puzzles – Blocked pathways open up when Giana transforms: pretty flower beds mutate to thorn covered bushes and diamonds can only be collected in one form or the other.
· Legendary Soundtrack – listen to Chris Hülsbeck’s tunes changing from Chiptune to the metal riffs from SID-Rockers Machinae Supremacy.
· Epic battles – from vicious gargoyles to magnificent boss-monsters. You’ll need every trick in your sleeves to master all the challenges that lie ahead of Giana.

Source: Black Forest Games PR

We’ve got the poll ready and waiting for you below. All you need handy is your Nintendo Network ID (if you have a Wii U), your 3DS friend code (if you have a 3DS), and an idea of which online games for those systems you’d want to play this coming Sunday at 4PM ET. We’ll take a look at the votes this Thursday and let you know which games we’ll be playing, in addition to what 3DS/Wii U friends you need to add.

Please don’t fill this out unless you plan on playing this weekend. There will be a new poll each week, so you can fill out a future one if/when you plan on participating.

Software

1. Donkey Kong
2. Pikmin 3
3. EarthBound
4. Art Academy: SketchPad
5. Cloudberry Kingdom
6. Super Mario World
7. Harvest Moon
8. Kid Icarus
9. Mega Man X
10. Super Metroid
11. Nano Assault Neo
12. Super Mario Bros. 2
13. Metroid
14. Kirby Super Star
15. Spin the Bottle: Bumpie’s Party
16. Mega Man 2
17. Mario Bros.
18. Star Wars Pinball
19. Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
20. New Super Mario Bros. U

Videos

1. Pikmin 3 Trailer 6/11/13
2. Pikmin 3 – Get to Know Pikmin Types
3. The Wonderful 101 Trailer 6/11/13
4. Nintendo Direct: 8/7/13
5. DuckTales Remastered Trailer 6/11/13
6. Pikmin 3 – Get to Know the Explorers
7. Cloudberry Kingdom Trailer 6/11/13
8. The Wonderful 101 Direct: 8/9/13
9. Pikmin 3 Commercial
10. EarthBound Launch Trailer
11. Scribblenauts Unmasked Hero Creator Trailer
12. Harvest Moon Trailer
13. Zelda: Wind Waker HD 6/11/13
14. The Wonderful 101 Trailer (Director’s Edition)
15. Pokemon Rumble U Gameplay Trailer
16. Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Director’s Cut Trailer 6/11/13
17. Nintendo at San Diego Comic-Con 2013
18. Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Trailer 6/11/13
19. Spin the Bottle: Bumpie’s Party Trailer 6/11/13
20. Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara Trailer

Source: Wii U eShop

This week’s video additions to the Wii U and 3DS eShops are as follows:

Wii U

The Wonderful 101 Trailer (Director’s Edition)
Pikmin 3 – Get to Know Gameplay Basics
The Wonderful 101 Direct: 8/9/13
Romance of the Three Kingdoms Wall of Fire Trailer
Wii Street U Trailer
Pokemon Rumble U Gameplay Trailer
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Launch Trailer
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Teaser
Nintendo Direct 8/7/13

3DS

The Wonderful 101 Direct: 8/9/13
The Wonderful 101 Trailer (Director’s Edition)
Smash Bowling 3D Trailer
Nintendo Direct 8/7/13
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Launch Trailer
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Teaser
Pokemon Rumble U Gameplay Trailer

Source: Wii U/3DS eShops

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow producer David Cox has spoken up about his interest in working on Contra. When recently pressed about the franchise, he told Siliconera:

“I think if you’re going to bring Contra back you’ve got to be able to do something unique and intuitive that hasn’t been done before. You can’t just bring out a generic shooter. You have to have a new idea. I think if we had a new idea and we could combine that new idea with the universe of Contra that would be special. Yeah, watch this space.”

“If someone were to do Contra, to say hypothetically, it would be like a new IP in many ways. We are hardcore gamers, we played those games, but there are a lot of people that don’t know what Contra is. They have no idea. There is a massive audience out there, they play Call of Duty and love those games, but they don’t know what Contra is. I think if we were going to reintroduce something to that audience. It has to be new, unique, it’s got to stand out. It’s got to have a new idea, something really cool about it that’s never been done before.”

Cox also spoke about Contra 4 and Hard Corps: Uprising. Both were developed by outside studios rather than Konami itself.

Regarding games such as these two, Cox stated:

“The problem with doing games like that is you are not doing anything new. You are basically remaking or doing your slant of something that has happened before. You have to have the things that made that game great, like Castlevania, you need to have that, but you have to not be afraid to do something new. The problem with Contra it hasn’t really had anything done new to it so it’s become this hardcore niche game.”

Source