RECOMMENDED: KINECT RUSH / SHOGUN 2: FALL OF THE SAMURAI
Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure
Kids can embark on adventures across five Pixar worlds including Toy Story and Cars, explains Dominic Sacco
Shogun 2:
Fall of the Samurai Popular strategy series gets a new expansion. And it’s a fresh mix of old and new, says Dominic Sacco
PIXAR is a true powerhouse in the kids’ film market.
Having created over ten Box Office hits including the enormous Carsfranchise, millions of children worldwide have flocked to cinemas to watch their latest movies and grab the newest licensed toys. Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventureis a celebration of the Disney-owned studio and its much- loved IP. The Xbox 360 exclusive lets players become a Pixar character and take part in the action across five different worlds. They can become a spy in Cars, control a robot in Toy Story, race through Paris as a rat in Ratatouille, be a superhero in The Incrediblesor a wildlife explorer in Up.
“This is a compelling and highly recognisable IP – no other game contains multiple worlds of the Pixar universe,” says the game’s product manager Laura Disney. “Also, there are few competitive titles in the children’s space on Kinect.”
KINECT ADVENTURE
Players can use their voice and body to interact with Kinect as they explore each level and solve puzzles. The game’s target audience is kids aged between seven and 12 years old, and parents. Two users can play Kinect Rushat once,
[INFO]
Released: March 23rd
Formats: 360
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Asobo Studio
Distributor: Gem
Contact: 01279 822800
making it ideal for friends and families to take part. Microsoft is promoting Kinect
Rushwith big screen ads reaching 1.3m people, as well as postcards in cinema foyers with QR codes on them. There will be a heavyweight TV campaign targeting kids and family TV programmes, ads in children’s magazines, radio promotions and a selection of POS materials available to retailers.
TOTAL WAR is a critical and commercial smash hit – the PC series has sold over 7.5m units worldwide. Prior to the release of Total War: Shogun 2last year which is set in Feudal Japan, the series has also covered The Crusades in Medieval, ancient Italy inRomeand the Peninsular War in Napoleon. These releases all resonated strongly with war strategy game fans. Fall of the Samuraiis a fresh content pack for Shogun 2. It’s a standalone expansion that explores a new conflict between the imperial throne and the last shogunate in 19th Century Japan, some 400 years after the events of the original game. This means players can experience both traditional samurai skirmishes and more explosive modern weaponry. Gameplay has been refined, extra war units have been added and new map ‘Railways’ allows large volumes of units to be transported in a single move. Players can also use land units to call in offshore artillery, and coastal emplacements can now target enemy ships during port sieges, adding depth. Sega’s senior product manager
Ben Walker tells MCV: “All this content delivers over 100 hours of gameplay which is on a par with Total War’s tent-pole releases.
[INFO]
Released: March 23rd
Formats: PC
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Creative Assembly
Distributor: CentreSoft Contact:
0121 625 3388
“Creative Assembly is regarded as one of the leading studios of PC strategy development. It has gained huge success over the last decade, which has seen Total Warbecome a multi award-winning series. “It has always stood out from its peers as it’s achieved a substantial number of firsts within the strategy market, and this level of consistent quality means any fan of strategy gaming is going to be seeking Fall of the Samuraiout on release day.”