2011 has been a great year for Laughing Jackal thanks to all the games they’ve been able to release. We’ll have a review for Orbit next week, but so far we’ve reviewed Fighting Fantasy: Talisman of Death , Cubbix HD and Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain . They’ve sent a little thank you our way, and we wanted to share it with everyone here at PS3Blog.net.

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Laughing Jackal Wishes Us All A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Halfway point has been reached and thus the retail releases start to pile up along with some digital stocking stuffers of Christmas past and present (sorry, nothing from Christmas future yet. Will get back to you on that one ASAP) that want to fight it out for our end of the year gaming budget. The new Assassin’s Creed brings us a nice bonus thanks to the huge amount of space available on Bluray discs: the original Assassin’s Creed is included, absolutely free! Dead Space 2 gave us a port of the excellent Wii entry of the franchise (Dead Space Extraction) and Bioshock Infinite will give us a free copy of the first Bioshock (which is great since I didn’t get the DLC challenge rooms last time and now I can finally get 100% of all trophies). What did you pre-order? How much are you willing to spend this week? Full list of releases after the break: PS3 RETAIL RELEASES You Can Buy Assassin’s Creed Revelations Right Here! You Can Buy Saints Row: The Third Right Here! Or maybe you want to ride with the Platinum Edition? You Can Buy Need for Speed: The Run Right Here! You Can Buy Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 Right Here! You Can Buy Rayman Origins Righ Here! You Can Buy Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legend Right Here! You Can Buy uDraw Gametablet with uDraw Studio: Instant Artist Right Here! You Can Buy uDraw Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat Right Here! You Can Buy Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest Right Here! You Can Buy Eyepet 2: Eyepet and Friends Right Here! You Can Buy Carnival Island Right Here! PSN RELEASES You can Buy Red Dead Redemption Right Here! And You Can Add Undead Nightmare As Well! You Can Buy Hasbro Family Night 3 Right Here! PSOne Classics minis

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Releases for the Week (November 14th-20th)

PS2 is back and here to stay! Apparently the older catalog offerings are getting a lot of sales as we’re now into the THIRD set of PS2 releases made available on the PSN Store. This time around Full Spectrum Warrior and Stuntman Ignition get a chance to shine again at the very enticing $9.99 price point. Enough to convince you or is something else holding you back? Remember, all content bought BEFORE November 18th, 2011 will still be playable in up to 5 PS3 or PSP devices (depending on if it’s a minis, PS2, PSX or PSN release) and after that date you’re down to only two activations. Guess it’s time to do some pre-holiday shopping rush! Step right up and see how this is a wonderful week for gaming! PS3 RETAIL RELEASES You Can Buy Heavy Rain Right Here! You Can Buy Modern Warfare 3 Right Here! You Can Buy The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Right Here! Or Maybe You Want the Collector’s Edition? You Can Buy Metal Gear Solid HD Right Here! You Can Buy Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 Right Here! You Can Buy Happy Feet Two: The Videogame Right Here! PSN RELEASES You Can Buy Dead Space 2 Right Here! You Can Buy Fight Night Champion Right Here! You Can Buy Monopoly Streets Right Here! PSOne Classics PS2 CLASSICS PSP RELEASES You Can Buy Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 Right Here!

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Releases for the Week (November 7th-13th)

November is already here and a new month brings a new list of content for all Playstation Plus Subscribers! As a friendly reminder, those of you that have been thinking about getting a subscription to this wonderful system can take advantage of a VERY GOOD promo that starts today and runs for only one week. Read all about it! What you’ll see after the break is NOt all of the content for november since, as always, dates and content are subject to change, most of the discounts on games and DLC are announced each week once the PSN store goes live AND Sony could give us a little extra for Thanksgiving! Free PSN Games and DLC: Hydrophobia: Prophecy (11/1) Free PSone Classics: Crash Bandicoot (11/1) Crash Bandicoot 2 (11/1) Crash Bandicoot3: Warped (11/1) CTR: Crash Team Racing (11/1) Free Minis: Rumble Trucks (11/1) Where is my Heart (11/8) Doodle Fit (11/15) Full Game Trials: MORTAL KOMBAT VS DC UNIVERSE DIGITAL (11/1) MONOPOLY STREETS (11/8) Hasbro Family Game Night 3 Full Game Trial (11/15) Exclusive Discounts: Jurassic Park: The Game – Full Series (Episodes 1-4) – 20% off – (11/15) Free Themes: Robots Dynamic Theme (11/1) Free Avatars Green Hat Penguin Avatar (11/15) Raccoon Avatar (11/15) Red Ornament Avatar (11/15) Snow Monster Avatar (11/15) Turkey Leg Avatar (11/15) Media: Qore Episode 42 – November Early Access

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PS+ Subscribers: Here’s Part of your November Content!

Halloween is here… and so is the new releases for the week! What does the first week of november have in store for us? For most of you I could just mention that Uncharted 3 is finally hitting retail, call it a day and get this over with, but there are a LOT of games that you should also consider as well! This week brings us the second wave of PS2 Classics (I got GrimGrimoire, Odin Sphere and Maximo. Did you buy any of them?) which at least means the first round was a success and gives us hope for more and more games to join this new part of the PSN store. I did own a PS2 but there are a LOT of games I never got to try and would love to get a chance to do so. Full list of games after the break! PS3 RETAIL RELEASES You Can Buy Uncharted 3 Right Here! Or, Get the Collector’s Edition! Or Maybe You’re Looking for a New PS3 System AND Uncharted 3? You Can Buy Sonic Generations Right Here! You Can Buy Lord of the Rings: War in the North Right Here! You Can Buy NCIS Right Here! You Can Buy Air Conflicts: Secret Wars Right Here! PSN RELEASES minis PS2 CLASSICS PSOne IMPORTS RELEASES

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Releases for the Week (October 31st-November 6th)

The Marbians have crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico and need your help to get them home in this retro, marble-themed puzzle game. Fling and Flick the marble-encased aliens through 72 puzzling levels to get them back to their UFOs and on their way home! The Marbians is a physics-based interactive game, where players will send Marbians careening off walls and around obstacles to collect moon rocks, rack up points and bonuses, and reach their UFO homes. Smack your Marbian off walls at high speed for more points, collect all the moon rocks you can, and see your alien friends safely home! Things start of very easly since you’re only required to get to the UFO that will take you away from the level and it’s usually a very easy shot to make. One shot is all you get for each Marbian available under your control (only one at first but this number continues to go up every couple of levels) and it’s that situation which makes the second element introduced to each level a very compelling one: blue orbs. You can collect each one of the three blue orbs on each level to work towards winning each of the in-game trophies AND truly be able to get 100% out of your gaming purchase. All you have to do to control the action is move the analog stick back so you can decide how strong you want to “hit” the Marbian so it goes flying in the opposite direction. An arrow will make this hassle free as you’ll always know in what direction it will move to. As the levels get more and more complicated you start to realize you must make some very incredible fantasy shots to bounce of 2-3 walls while grabbing all 3 blue orbs and making it to the UFO with almost no momentum at all… and it’s in moments like this that the game truly shines. While playing the game I was, for some reason, reminded of Cut the Rope. My guess is that it was because they’re both very fun games that are easy to play and enjoy but hard to truly master. It could also have something to do with the “collect 3 before finishing the level” side of things. Either way, The Marbians made me smile more than once when I just couldn’t even GET to the UFO shot after the shot after shot until I realized I was doing things wrong. You don’t always need to shoot AHEAD since sometimes bouncing back against a wall gives your shot the speed and angle you require to get to the exit. I also learned that making a full strenght shot is NOT the way to do things all the time since said shot could end up bouncing back on a wall and missing the UFO because I was supposed to hit it at a different speed to skip over one of the hazards in the game (more on that later). Level 11 introduces a 2nd Marbian for us to control which changes things a bit. If one Marbian hits the other it will transfer its speed and momentum and send it bouncing in reaction to the force applied to said body’s mass.. but it will stil be able to move since it hasn’t spent his turn. You can hit the X button to make it stop and better set him up for the last shot for the finish line or just let things flow and see where he ends up before making your move. This is helpful for moving a fully stopped Marbian back into play (even if it has already been moved by the player) since as long as one gets to the UFO you’ll clear the stage. Hazards are introduced later on to spice up your life. A hole is deaaaadly since falling in its grasp spells instant doom (like, at the exact instant you touch it). But wait, there’s more! notice those moving parts that like to make you bounce around AND are sometimes actually helpful? Well, they’re dangerous! If one moves you near to a wall it WILL crush you without remorse, making the Marbian go pop! And to top things off we have spinners, wonderful objects that once hit will spin around, an action that can in turn send you spinning in any direction if you don’t plan ahead. Want more things to look out for? Ok, just because we aim to please! You’ll also find oils spills around several levels and this is another thing to avoid as it will make you slip and could take you away from your goal… but but come to think of it Oil will also help you move faster for a bit so be sure to use that to your advantage! On the other side of the equation you’ve got glue which is veeery sticky and will quickly slow you down and this is NEVER a good thing. We then have teleporters, a quick mode of transportation in which you enter one and see where it takes you! They can save you since they have a bit of a pull and will send you out on the other side with full speed (hopefully towards the goal). Finally, we have Green and Red Magnets. The Green ones will attract the Marbians to them and eventually cling on and never let go (time to restart!) while the Red ones will do everything they can to send you flying far, far away from them, usually into a hole or into other hazards. The Marbians is a great minis that can be enjoyed by all thanks to its easy control layout and quick to learn mechanics. There’s enough content for you to justify a purchase and going for a 100% in the game (by collecting all three blue orbs on each level) will double your total playtime. Review Pros Cons Easy and fun game Over 60 levels in all Tricky shots required to collect all 3 blue orbs in some levels Rating 82% Published by Nordisk Film Interactive Cost – €3.99 (Only available in EU at the moment. US release and price coming soon!) Other Information Disclaimer – A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for this review. – Game was completed before writing this review. – Total amount of time played: 3 hours.

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[Review] The Marbians (minis)

The October 25th PSN Store Update brought us not only several new games for us to try but ALSO great discounts on games! We’ve already posted about the 50% discount for PS+ subscribers on 4 Elements HD , a very fun game we reviewed already but the discounts don’t stop there! You can go to the PSN store and get a bundle with both Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunters AND Carnivores Ice Age for the low price of $5.99!

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Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunters AND Ice Age Bundle Available Now!

Revoltin’ Youth is a new puzzle/platformer from Open Emotion Studios. The evil Big-Wig has covered the characters town in crummy marketing gibberish. It’s up to you to control the three characters through 50 levels of headache inducing puzzles. The game feature a unique pixel-art style and a robust chiptune soundtrack including tracks from George&Jonathan, Sabrepulse and 8Bitlegend. Playing the game for a bit I was instantly reminded of The Lost Vikings and wondered if that game had anything to do with how this game was created… and it turns out that WAS the inspiration for Revoltin’ Youth! Here’s what Open Emotion Studios said: Revoltin’ Youth is a game that I have been wanting to make for about 6 years. As a kid, I had this great game for the SNES by Silicon & Synapse (Now Blizzard), which saw you control three vikings with unique abilities that you had to use to get through Puzzle/Platform levels. I loved it and played it so much that I actually still remember some of the passwords by heart – SMRT (Level 17, I think) – I always waited for someone to come out and do something similar. A couple of years ago I had the idea for a Lost Vikings style game about some Urban Youths (Heaviliy influenced by Jet Set Radio at the time) who have to stop an evil guy whose brainwashed all their friends. I left it at that as I was not involved in the game industry at the time, but when we were trying to figure out our next title after Ninjamurai, straight away I had this idea for a game called “Youth in Revolt” (Not to be confused with the movie/book of the same name… First couple of levels are a minute or two long at most since, as minis have shown us, smaller burst of content that help spotlight all gameplay elements and let us get used to them and eradicate any questions we might have is definitely the way to go. We also get our first taste of the great 2D pixel art on which the game is built AND listen to some of the tracks from the Revoltin’ Youth Soundtrack. You can can listen to all music tracks in the Sound Test Menu and I have to say this is the first game in a while where I HAVE used said option. I just loved the great chiptune mixed soundtrack(already bought it on itunes!) and it helped make the game better. Controls are very easy since you use the D-Pad to move around, X makes your character jump and Square is used to interact with objects and use your characters special ability (when available). I imagine we can all remember that layout, right? You can control 3 characters in total and here’s a small summary of how they’re each different from one another: Badger (spray can user): Can pick up different colors of spray cans which affects which “eye” switches he can trigger with it. For example, on level 3 he starts with a blue spray can which you use to trigger the first switch but then you need to get a yellow one and make your way back to the yellow switch to match on towards the exit. He has 4 HP, normal movement and jump attributes, can create a glider out of thin air when he gets to the right spot and can trigger the aforementioned Eye CE (get it?) Stations. Cole (our tank): He can’t jump… he hops! He moves very, very slowly and can’t jump even if his life depended on it. Always lead with Cole when possible since he can quickly take out any enemies that might cause trouble for others thanks to his punch ability. He can also push around Barrels and Companion Cubes to help others reach higher or lower spots OR to trigger switches. Also remember that Cole is too heavy to be carried around by the wind from fans so he can just walk right past them to turn off said fans. Since he has 6 HP in total he can easily take some damage to protect his fellow team members. Kamiko is fast so she can trigger spikes half a second after crossing over their trigger without being hurt (as long as she doesn’t stop moving). She can also jump extremely high AND climb the green netting you’ll find lying around some of the levels. Unfortunately, Kamiko has a very low HP total (only 2) so you have to be extra careful of not being damaged. Characters don’t always start together so sometimes you have to work with each one on their respective part of the level so you can open up the way for all of them to come together and march to the exit. You can switch between characters with the L and R buttons and you have to juggle controlling all three since while leaving one of them unattended you run the risk of an enemy showing up to deplete their health bar if you’re not careful. Also, all characters must reach the Revoltin’ Youth sign at the end of the level to finish it. You can go back to any level you’ve already completed to try and beat your completion time which is displayed below the level number on the selection screen. How low can you go? Give it a try and relieve your favorite levels! Bottomless pits (or those that are Pro-bottom but that also insta-kill you) MUST be present on this type of game. Falling from a high place (about three times the height of your character) will kill you as well. Not as bad as Lode Runner but something you must keep in mind when trying to quickly make it to the end of the level. Luckily there are checkpoint signs in place in longer levels and touching them will bring back to life any of your fallen team mates. IF they touched the checkpoint sign then they’ll appear near it. Should that NOT be the case, then they’ll re-spawn in the exact same spot in which they started the level. Run into a red “mischevious face” sign (which you can see in the left of the header image for this review)? It means you shouldn’t go any further unless you want to fall to your death. You can spot some Ninjamuai posters here and there. There are ones for Mad Blocker Alpha as well. Great to see Open Emotion Studios promoting their other minis releases, both of which we’ve reviewed here at PS3blog.net. Revoltin’ Youth is a great game that helps validate the minis program as what we really want more of are new games that are exclusive to the service and allow us to experience a fun game that isn’t too expensive, time consuming or complicated. Buy it now! Review Pros Cons Only $1.99! 2D Artwork and an Awesome Soundtrack Lost Vikings! Not enough enemy variety Rating 81% Published and Developed by Open Emotion Studios Cost – $1.99 Other Information Disclaimer – A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for this review. – Total amount of time played: 3 hours. Want to get this game? Then you can: Buy a $20 PSN Card! Buy a $50 PSN Card!

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[Review] Revoltin Youth (minis)

The Galcon Labs Giveaway is over! This is the first time we’ve used the new Lottery system (thanks Tosh!) and it has been a great change! Easier for everyone to enter and easier for us to pick the winners. So easy even I can do it! We had a total of 43 entries and from all of those 3 winners were chosen: Congratulations to mowmow, Insomniac_24_7 and dragon290513! Your codes have been sent by PM so be sure to redeem them at the PSN Store!

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Galcon Labs Giveaway Winners

Conquer the Galaxy like never before! Galcon Labs is an awesome high-paced galactic arcade-strategy game. Send swarms of ships to defeat enemy planets and conquer the universe! Play an exclusively designed for PlayStation Minis version campaign mode and unlock the four innovative new game modes to you: * Billiards : “Moving Planets” – need I say more? With a constantly changing battlefield this game never has a dull moment. * Stealth : Enemy ships become invisible, changing Galcon into a game of inter-galactic hide and seek! * Crash : Ships battle in mid-flight, bringing a whole different twist to the classic gameplay. You can now defeat the enemy in the air! * Assassin : Each opponent is assigned a target. The first player to annihilate their target wins the round! Want to get a quick idea of how this game works and are you too lazy to watch the trailer above? Ok, here goes a quick explanation: Remember Mushroom Wars on PSN and how fun it was? Same genre here which is great… but this is more fast paced and you don’t have to worry about different types of anything. In Galcon Labs you’re tasked with conquering the universe, one planet at a time. Both you and your opponent are trying to eliminate each other AND gain control over as many planets as possible to increase your ship production and therefore have a bigger fleet than your opponent which will allow you to send him into oblivion… until the next match has started. Eliminate the threat and steal all enemy controlled planets to win! Controls are easy enough and only take a minute to understand. You navigate between the planets with either the D-Pad or the Analog stick, use the R Button to select the planet where your cursor is OR use the L button to select ALL the planets in your control. After that you can send 50% of your entire fleet to attack a neutral or enemy controlled planet by hitting the Square Button or send your entire fleet by pressing the triangle button. Once your choice has been made you can’t control your ships until they’ve finished the attack. You LOOSE the spaceships you use to conquer a planet (my take is that they’re fighting either the neutral forces on unclaimed planets or on enemy controlled ones). Be sure you don’t use your entire fleet to conquer a lot of planets at the same time since it will leave you in a weak and vulnerable state in which your enemy cab easily swoop in and take you out with a small attack group. Unclaimed planets show up in gray and the number shown on their surface represents the number of spaceships it takes to convert them and it’s usually the case that bigger planets require more ships for you to be able to conquer them BUT the bigger the planet the more ships you can produce once you claim it which can help you to quickly recover. To start things off you must battle through all 20 levels available in campaign mode in order to unlock the other game modes that the game has to offer. As you progress the enemy becomes smarter and the number of enemy ships will no longer be displayed on the planet you intend to attack. When you run into a new mode during you campaign AND you beat it you’ll unlock it the second half of this gaming package: Fussion. The Campaign mode is only 20-30 minutes long and it’s just preparing you for Fussion since you can’t replay any of the levels in unless you delete your save file. What IS Fussion? In it you gain points to increase your rank (going up through 10 ranks in all) and you do so by playing in all 5 battle types (and can select between 10 difficulty levels as well) we’ve discussed at the start of the review. How are points awarded? Glad you asked! – Time bonus: How quickly you finish the battle. – Mode bonus: Depending on which one you play you’ll get more points. Classic gives 100 points and it goes up from there. – Hardness bonus: 100 points for super easy and an extra 100 for each difficulty increase. I played Fussion until I reached the top spot in the ranking (Master of the Universe) and then continued to play just for fun for another hour and a half without even noticing it. This is a game that would greatly benefit from some online multiplayer but since its a minis release there’s no way that could have even been considered. Galcon Labs is a great game that is inexpensive and will give you more than enough fun for your investment. As is the case with all minis, it has the extra incentive of being playable either on your PS3 or on the go on your PSP (and remember, you can transfer your saves between said systems). Beatshapers is definitely on a roll and I hope they continue to provide us with great minis and PSN releases (I wouldn’t mind a sequel to Stardrone!). Review Pros Cons Excelent game Great for small windows of gaming time Fast paced action No online MP since it’s a minis Rating 87% Published by Beatshapers Developed by Phil Hassey Cost – $2.99 Other Information Disclaimer – A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for this review. – Game was completed before writing this review. – Total amount of time played: 3.5 hours. Want to get this game? Then you can: Buy a $20 PSN Card! Buy a $50 PSN Card!

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[Review] Galcon Labs (minis)