The place to be, this week, is Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) as Popcap’s now released Feeding Frenzy 2 on the 360 platform. Xbox Live Arcade has been the go to place for awesome new content brought in high definition on both shrink wrapped box games along with classic casual titles.
Not into casual games? Perhaps your spouse or children are into them! If you’ve got an Xbox 360 and continually consider it a “big boys hardcore console” it’s time to change your perspective because that’s old world thinking. Microsoft, together with Popcap, plans to change how people game on the Xbox 360 console system.
This isn’t Popcap’s first title, many may remember Heavy Weapon on the Xbox 360. This sure won’t be the last!
Read on for full press release details!
PopCap Launches Feeding Frenzy™ 2 Game on Xbox LIVE® Arcade
Award-Winning Sequel Features All-New Multiplayer Modes, Lite Mode and More
SEATTLE, Washington – September 17, 2008 — PopCap Games Inc., the leading developer and publisher of casual video games, announced that beginning today its popular action game Feeding Frenzy™ 2: Shipwreck Showdown is available for download via the Xbox LIVE® Arcade (XBLA) online service of Microsoft’s Xbox 360® video game console. Featuring a wealth of optimizations exclusively for Xbox LIVE, the XBLA version of Feeding Frenzy 2 includes high-definition graphics, achievements and leaderboards, and several all-new multiplayer modes. Available now for 800 Microsoft Points ($8.00), Feeding Frenzy 2 joins five other PopCap® titles already on XBLA, including Zuma™, Heavy Weapon™ and the original Feeding Frenzy.
“Feeding Frenzy 2 really improves on the original game in virtually every way, as far as XBLA is concerned,” said Greg Canessa, VP of video game platforms at PopCap. “With three different multiplayer modes, high-def graphics and some new moves that really lend themselves to a joystick controller, the new sequel is pretty perfectly suited to Xbox.”
In Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown, you’re a little fish in a big sea, and must gobble your way up the food chain to solve an underwater mystery. Swim fast, eat anything smaller than you and avoid larger fish who want you for lunch. Battle everything from poisonous minnows to fish-munching orcas in your pursuit of a mysterious menace of the sea. Keep eating the power-ups to increase your speed and growth rate, add extra time, bulk up your “food bank” and more!
This new version of Feeding Frenzy makes a sizable leap in overall gameplay and XBLA-specific features, including:
- A bigger-and more challenging single-player story mode, featuring over 60 new levels with bosses and mini-bosses for an even greater challenge!
- New moves, power-ups and more — freeze enemies, stop time, play at night — even jump out of the water to eat bugs!
- Frenzied fish-eating action can involve up to 4 friends in the all-new XBLA-exclusive multiplayer party mode*, featuring 10 new mini-games!
- Story mode enables players to join with a friend in cooperative play*
- Multiplayer Party modes come in two flavors: Party Games (pick from a list of mini-games and compete head-to-head) and FrenzyFest (compete for trophies across a series of mini-games to earn Party Points and climb the new Party Leaderboard)*
- All-new Lite mode lets families experience the game’s Story mode without the pressure of losing lives (available for single-player and co-op play)
- High-definition graphics and 5.1 surround sound create a more immersive experience
*All multiplayer modes are same-console only
About PopCap
PopCap Games (www.popcap.com) is the leading multi-platform provider of “casual games” — fun, easy-to-learn, captivating computer games that appeal to everyone from age 6 to 106. Based in Seattle, Washington, PopCap was founded in 2000 and has a worldwide staff of over 200 people in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, B.C., Dublin and Shanghai. Its games have been downloaded more than 1 billion times by consumers worldwide, and its flagship title, Bejeweled®, has sold more than 10 million units across all platforms. Constantly acclaimed by consumers and critics, PopCap’s games are played on the Web, desktop computers, myriad mobile devices (cell phones, smartphones, PDAs, Pocket PCs, iPod and more), popular game consoles (such as Xbox), and in-flight entertainment systems. PopCap is the only casual games developer with leading market share across all major sales channels, including Web portals, retail stores, mobile operators and developers, and game device manufacturers.
Nintendo has announced the continuation in a series that started in 1984 known as Punch-Out!! for the Wii. Once upon a time we all got to pop coins into Punch-Out!!, later we were able to power on our NES and play Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! or, if you’re younger, the version of Punch-Out!! with Mr. Dream (since Tyson’s contract expired with Nintendo and he wasn’t the champion anymore).
The game industry, like other entertainment avenues, is a risky business in which publishers have to pick titles they “predict” will do well in the market while passing on other “risky” propositions. While a the good ol’ shooter title will break sales records, the market cannot rely on one genre to carry the business especially considering many of these titles are forgotten within two months from launch. Publishers are going to be forced in expanding their reach to “family games” in order to finance new blockbuster titles.
The idea of designing a “family” game isn’t new to our industry, as a matter of fact, it’s one of the oldest cornerstones of video game entertainment. Pong, Centipede, Pac-Man, Space Invaders and many other classic titles were no doubt playable by the entire family, but things have changed. We’ve evolved from hit titles like Donkey Kong to hit titles like Halo. We migrated from 2D gaming to full 3D adventures and pixel graphics to pixel shaders, but where do we go next?