Hi everyone, I’m Olivier Banal, Assistant Producer in the London Studios International Software Development team, and I’m here to let you know a bit more about Numblast, the latest puzzle game to launch today on PlayStationStore.

Things aren’t going too well at the Scientific Alchemy Club at Cross Academy: Choco Ayama has managed to turn Akasaka Sempai, the president of the Club, into a monkey… How? Well, let’s just say that Choco’s experiment with the Numblast cubes did not go according to plan and you’ll need to put things right. So it’s all up to you to master the mysterious cubes and channel their energy to turn Akasaka Sempai human again.

Here are the basics: you swap the numbered cubes on the grid to create combinations of 4 identical cubes in a two-by-two square. This will cause them to explode but, before they do, the numbers on these cubes will count up. This allows you to plan for combos and create chain explosions for huge scores.

The three different game modes will test your puzzle skills:

• The Endless mode lets you play for as long as you can, until the field is covered by inert grey cubes which cannot be swapped.
• Time Trial gives you 3 minutes to detonate as many cubes as possible.
• In Puzzle mode, you will have to detonate all the cubes in preset arrangements with as few rotations as possible.

Add to that unlockable extras and Trophies and Online Rankings for the PS3 version. So there you have it, it’s a terribly addictive game with a wacky Japanese twist and it is out today.

Rate: (Average: 3.86 out of 5)

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With the start of June, here’s a quick glimpse of some of the games and packs that will be arriving on the PlayStation Store this month. There will, of course, be loads of trailers and behind the scenes videos coming out of E3 this week too, which we’ll be adding to the Store on Wednesday and Friday.

Fat Princess

Late June, Fat Princess will be rolling onto PSN! The online mode will include multiplayer for up to 32 people where you’ll be trying to rescue your beloved princess from the opposing team and their magical girth-expanding cake.

Trash Panic

Since the first preview at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, the feedback about Japan Studios’ Trash Panic in the gaming press has been anything but rubbish. This addictive PS3 puzzler will be equipped with Trophy support, online rankings and even a very nifty YouTube video upload feature to show off your best strategies.

The full game will be hitting the Store in early June, along with a very helpful tutorial trailer to help you get to grips with the finer aspects of eco-friendly waste management, Trash Panic-style.

Numblast

Numblast will be arriving on the PS Store for both PS3 and PSP late June. This colourful puzzler will include online rankings, and if you gain enough points you’ll earn trophies and unlockable content too!

Ghostbusters PS3 demo

Don’t cross the streams! The Ghostbusters demo is due out soon after E3 exclusively on PSN, so can join the boys in grey as they slug it out with pesky poltergeists in preparation for the release of the game in late June.

PSP

A number of classic PSP titles will also make their debut as digital downloads from the Store. We’re expecting Ape Academy 2, Everybody’s Golf 2, Syphon Filter Logan’s Shadow and WipEout Pulse Platinum to be available during the first two weeks of June.

This is just a small taste of all the great content we’ve got lined up for you in June. We’ll bring you more information about the new LittleBigPlanet costume packs and loads of other downloadable content for your favourite PS3 games in a separate update.

Rate: (Average: 4.56 out of 5)

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