PixelJunk SideScroller is finally out in the world! This retro-styled side-scrolling shooter plays like a love note to the arcade games I grew up with in my youth, and serves as a quasi-epilogue to the PixelJunk Shooter series. Before you pick it up on the PlayStation Store, get a closer look with this handy new Q&A. Q-Games President and Executive Producer Dylan Cuthbert took to Twitter to answer your most burning questions. Read closely and you might learn a few helpful secrets!

From @wildbillhickock
How many levels?
A: There are thirteen levels (called “Sectors”) total. This includes four absolutely amazing boss battles (Note: Expect an “old friend” from the Shooter-verse to make an appearance, but you’ll be seeing loads of new faces as well). One thing that’s so great about SideScroller is that it has four difficulty modes, and the experience will change depending on what difficulty mode you select. New enemies crop up in Hard difficulty mode, and expect certain encounters to get a whole lot more harrowing because of them. Bullets fly at you faster, the overall look of the game changes, and for those of you brave enough to venture onto Brutal difficulty mode, expect to get “revenge” bullets flung at your ship every time you kill an enemy. Needless to say, SideScroller is a game you can enjoy on many different levels by giving it a replay or two (or three, or four)! Also, the only way to unlock the “true” ending is to complete the game on Brutal. Good luck!

From @VofEscaflowne
Is there still an emphasis on exploring, or is it more “on-rails” than the PixelJunk Shooter series?
A: SideScroller is a complete departure from the Shooter series. Instead of exploring and puzzle solving – staples of the Shooter-verse -, you’ll be using upgradeable weapons to spray bullets in every direction possible! Yes, SideScroller is more of an “on rails” experience, because we’ll push the player onward into really tense situations at a brisk pace. It definitely ups the tension. There are also scenes in the game where the scrolling stops and you have to defeat mini-bosses and any other enemies we throw at you. Mark my words: just because the scrolling stops doesn’t mean the game becomes any less intense!

AuburnRDM
Any unlockables and cool things to work for?
A: There are hidden items scattered through the entire game. For any collectors out there, searching for these items and finding them will certainly be a rewarding experience. They also net you a hefty amount of bonus points, which will be a big help to you competitive players out there who absolutely NEED the #1 high score on the Online Leaderboards! Also, don’t forget to keep an eye on your combo count. The skilled players out there will be able to string together combos from the start of every Sector until the end, so play strategically. If you’re good enough, you might even get a Platinum Medal for your efforts!

From @bergasche
Will my eyes begin to bleed because of so much awesome?
A: A resounding YES! Okay, okay, your eyes may not actually bleed, explode, or otherwise become unusable, but SideScroller has a whole lot of awesome contained within its digital casing. It’s on the PSN now, so what are you waiting for? Go and buy it!

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Hello there, fellow PlayStation fans. @Filthierich here again from Namco Bandai Games.  If you’re like me, then you’ve already whipped out your fat red marker and circled February 22^nd, 2012 on your calendar the minute our friends at Sony Computer Entertainment announced the launch date of the PlayStation Vita.  Last week we were able to reveal the name of ‘Touch My Katamari’ which will be hitting on launch day, and today, we’re back with more on another launch title from NAMCO BANDAI.

While they still won’t let ME have a PSVita yet, I do know at least one other person that does have one. That would be Mr. Kazuhiro Watanabe at famed studio Acquire in Japan.  Known around the world for being among the best developers in the stealth action genre with their work on the Tenchu series, Mr. Watanabe’s team has been working non-stop on a PlayStation Vita title that will be slicing the life out of enemies before they can even see what’s coming.
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PlayStation Store (via PS3, PSP and Media Go)

Payday: The Heist update – we are close to being able to confirm the release date of Payday: The Heist and are just waiting for SOE to provide 100% confirmation, which we hope will be with us later today. SCEE and SOE are working hard to get the game in your hands as soon as possible; thank you for your patience.

Hello everybody and welcome to another addition of the PSN Store’s ‘Heads – Up.’ With Halloween just round the corner we have our Halloween Sale starting this week, and below you’ll fine some examples. There is loads of content for everyone to enjoy.

We also have lots of new content coming to the store this week; to start with we have the greatly anticipated Battlefield 3 (I have been waiting so long myself for this game.) This will be available from Friday 28th October at 00:01 GMT.

Today you will also be able to download Infamous – Festival Of Blood which is a stand-alone version of InFamous where vampires have swarmed into New Marais and Cole – the one person who can save the city – has been bitten. Cole now has one night to battle through the bloodsucking hordes and slay the head vampire; otherwise his soul will be lost forever. Sounds like the perfect game for Halloween.

And finally we have PixelJunk Sidescroller available from today. Jump into your very own spaceship for a retro arcade shoot-’em-up through the stars. Spray bullets, unleash laser beams and sling bombs at deadly enemies as you soar through fast-moving, unpredictable worlds.

So that’s it from me for another week, now as for comments, hopefully I will get time this afternoon to answer your questions but if not I will jump on tomorrow.

BYE!!

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Hey all, it’s Brian Fleming from Sucker Punch. It’s been a long time since my last PlayStation Blog post, and today’s entry is a little different… I’ll start with the marketing facts (inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood available today!!!! €9.99/£7.99!! 20% discount if you are a PlayStation Plus member!!!)

But really, I thought I’d give you a little insight into why and how we ended up making a vampire based spin-off of inFamous.

For us, we’d been working for two projects and 5+ years on the main storyline of inFamous. We wanted the DLC to be a chance to take all that work (art and technology) and do something fun and different for players.

We knew we couldn’t just release some more missions or a skin pack, so we took a bunch of pitches from all the departments here at the studio for what we might do… We wanted something that fit our game, would be fun to work on, and ideally would be unexpected, too.

One of the strong pitches we got was originally called “Vampire City” (a play on “Empire City” from inFamous 1). The pitch was that Zeke was trying to impress a girl with a tall tale about Cole, Vampires, and the origins of Pyre Night. There was a lot to like about this pitch, some important ones were: finally getting to add flying to inFamous, the strong “Pyre Night” set dressing we could add to New Marais, a solid supernatural basis for new powers, and of course having a launch date in the days before Halloween didn’t hurt either. So it was decided, and work began!

About the same time, we had some promising PlayStation Move prototypes running… We’d initially thought we would use move to support UGC authors–but as we progressed, we became convinced we could make the game fully playable with Move. So Move shifted to become a core gameplay feature, and our UGC team decided to tackle our next big wishlist item – “speech bubble” cutscenes. Like making narrative missions? Now you get set-up camera shots and add speech bubbles to characters!

So that’s the story behind “Festival of Blood”… We all hope you enjoy this little ‘what if’ detour in the inFamous universe… From all of us at Sucker Punch, Happy Halloween!!

P.S. I can also confirm the new cutscene tool and PlayStation Move support will appear in the main inFamous 2 game any day now!

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Australians launched DanceStar Party in style last week with international megastar ‘Cat Deeley’ visiting the country to host a public dance-off to all those who were keen to ‘give it a go’. The charming presenter of ‘So You Think You Can Dance US‘ helped the PlayStation team to celebrate the new ‘party’ game by greeting fans, hosting the event, and judging the final dance off between finalists. People of all ages took part – gamers and punters alike, with the final four contestants battling it out on the actual DanceStar Party game on stage. The lucky winner of the whole event, 14 year old Bianca Calarco, who heard about the competition on Facebook, impressed the judges with her moves, and will jet off to the US in 2012 to watch So You Think You Can Dance live filming. Bianca also gets to take home a year’s supply of PlayStation games. OK, now that got my attention!

“Today’s search for Australia’s PlayStation DanceStar really captured the true spirit of dance, and that is to just get up on your feet and have loads of fun!” Cat Deeley said. “I see so many talented dancers on the show, but the cool thing is you don’t have to be a pro to play DanceStar Party. In true PlayStation style this game brings you experiences that no other game can – it’s got a killer 40 song track list set to original music video clips, and a whopping 160 choreographed dance routines. Plus, it’s even got the ability to create your own moves – so one thing is for sure, you’ll not only get fit, you’ll also never get bored! It’s going to be a massive hit this Christmas,” she said.

Cat continued: “Using the PlayStation Move motion controller, you can virtually step into the shoes of artists like Basement Jaxx, Usher and Willow Smith and become a dance diva in the comfort of your own living room”.

DanceStar Party is out for PS3 now

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