iPad World

Club Penguin is no hybrid chocolate bar.

It’s a browser MMO about cartoon penguins and their snowy online world of mini-games and igloo decorating. It’s a giant; a business boasting 150 million registered accounts and 10 to 15 million active monthly users. And a portion of those pay £5 every month.

Lane Merrifield created it for his children.

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The debate continues to rage boringly across the internet as to whether the PlayStation Vita’s Japanese release has been a disaster. Some commentators have urged patience rather than wholesale condemnation of a faltering strategy. Others, including plenty of hot-tempered Nintendo 3DS owners, have declared the whole launch a massive botch. (Perhaps their argument is that it takes one to know one.)

But while you wouldn’t want to bet on the success of a new handheld in these fearsomely competitive days of App Stores, tablets and Slide Circle Pad Pros, you can always bet your house that a new … Continue Reading

A free beta version of a Rift iOS app has just gone on the App Store, developer Trion Worlds has announced.

Playable by anyone with an account for the popular MMO, the app offers various social features, including real time chat with friends and guild mates. There are also a number of mini-games included – titled Planar Invasion, Crafty Critters and Shinies – with loot, crafting materials and artifacts up for grabs.

Finally, the app gives you an alert when a Zone Event is getting underway on your shard.

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Microsoft details its smartphone slate.

A mobile version of Xbox 360 pet sim Kinectimals headlines Microsoft’s impending slate of Windows Phone 7 releases.

Microsoft’s Gamescom announcement didn’t offer any gameplay details but promised the title will be out in the Autumn.

Also coming to its smartphone OS is a miniature spin-off of XBLA strategy favourite Toy Soldiers. Subtitled Boot Camp, it packs in its bigger brother’s shooting gallery mini-games with cross-platform leaderboards.

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As well as new Move mini-games.

3D support has been extended to the entire Blu-ray Sly Collection, not just Sly 3, Sony’s Jefferson Dong has revealed.

What’s more, developer Sanzaru Games has added PlayStation Move mini-games to each title. We’ll hear more about those “soon”, said Dong on the US PlayStation blog.

Included in the Sly Collection are Blu-ray remasters of Sly Cooper and Thievius Raccoonus, Sly 2: Band of Thieves and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves. Each of those originally PS2 games now has HD graphics and Trophies.

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Blossoming this September, says PopCap.

PopCap’s trumpeted the “early September” arrival of Plants vs. Zombies on Xbox Live Arcade.

The superb puzzle game will cost 1200 Microsoft Points (£10.20/€14.40). And there will be plenty of extras, such as co-op and versus multiplayer, 12 Achievements and 21 mini-games.

Plus, PVZ on XBLA has “the highest resolution of any adaptation” so far. In other words, full 1080p support.

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Plus: tanks, solitaire and French for DSi.

Nintendo has revealed the new arrivals who will be appearing in the Wii Shop and Nintendo DSi shop this week.

First up is Pearl Harbor Trilogy – 1941: Red Sun Rising, priced at 700 Wii Points (around a fiver in the old money). It’s a trilogy of air combat games and it features two campaigns from the early years of the Pacific War. Play as the US or Japan and practice your skills with the Avenging Ace and Survival dogfight modes.

Or how about Kung Fu Funk – Everybody is Kung Fu Fighting!, also a … Continue Reading