Retro Gaming Australia

The ESRB has rated Haunting Ground, a PS2 survival horror game from Capcom, for the Playstation 3 – suggesting a PSN re-release is happening.

In Haunting Ground, players assume the role of Fiona in her attempt to escape a castle inhabited by some pretty creepy people intent on chasing and attacking the young lady. Your time in the castle is spent solving puzzles, evading and hiding from pursuers and generally running about in fear – being fearful for long enough triggers Panic Mode where players must endure a blurry screen and other unsettling visual effects along with controller vibrations in time with Fiona’s heartbeat. You do have Hewie though; a white German Sheppard that Fiona befriends and can command to help you out with a bit of growling, barking, biting, and such.

Hopefully, PAL regions will also see Haunting Ground as a PS2 Classic in the near future.

Source: Siliconera

Sony has revealed via their PlayStation Blog podcast that Grand Theft Auto III will be released on the US PlayStation Network as part of the PS2 Classics range this coming Tuesday (July 31st) for $US9.99.

Unlike the 10th anniversary editions released for iOS and Android last year, this version will boast no upgrades of any kind – it is quite literally the PS2 version.

Still, it makes a nice break from Sony playing loose with the definition of “classic” when it comes to PS2 digital releases.

If you’re in Adelaide this weekend, you might want to pop along to AVCon, Adelaide’s annual anime and video games convention.

Our friends over at Retrospekt are hosting a museum of sorts with a variety of retro consoles for you to sit down and play. There will also be a retro gaming trivia competition, a panel on Dragon Ball video games and a screen of select episodes of the classic Australian video gaming programme, The Zone.

Tickets are $35 for access on Saturday or Sunday, or $60 for the entire weekend (with $5 off for concession card holders)

Cast your mind back to 2004, and you might remember that LucasArts rushed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords out for the US holiday season, resulting in one hell of a buggy mess with a nearly incoherent story.

Many people were pissed about the state the game was released in, but when it was publicised just how much content was cut from the game, and how much of said content was merely blocked off rather than completely removed, a group of dedicated fans started The Sith Lords restoration project – an effort to restore much of that content and fix the myriad of bugs plaguing the title.

You can find the latest version of the mod here, along with some release notes.

Nintendo eShop (Australia, Europe)

3DS Virtual Console
Kirby’s Pinball Land (Game Boy) – $AU4.50

Nintendo eShop (North America)

Wii Virtual Console
World Heroes Perfect (Neo Geo) – 900 points

3DS Virtual Console
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Game Boy) – $US3.99
Mole Mania (Game Boy) – $US2.99

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)

New Releases
Impossible Mission (PS2 Classics) – $AU8.45
Pilot Down Behind Enemy Lines (PS2 Classics) – Not available in AU/NZ
Super Fruitfall (PS2 Classics) – $AU8.45
Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 3 (PS2 Classics) – $AU15.95
Video Poker & Blackjack (PS2 Classics) – $AU8.45
World Snooker Championship 2005 (PS2 Classics) – $AU4.25

Good Old Games

Discounts
Awesome Adventures sale – 50% off the following:
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Little Big Adventure 2/Twinsen’s Odyssey
Simon the Sorcerer
Simon the Sorcerer 2
Simon the Sorcerer 3D
The 11th Hour
The Feeble Files
The Journeyman Project 2
The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time

One of Bizarre Creations’ less successful releases was Fur Fighters for the Dreamcast (and later PS2 as Fur Fighters: Viggo’s Revenge) – a solid third person shooter which replaced your usual soldier types with a variety of woodland creatures.

For reasons unknown, a group of former Bizarre staff (under the guise of Muffin Games) have released an updated version of the game for the iPad, entitled Fur Fighters: Viggo on Glass. It’s currently listed for $US1.99.

Siliconera is reporting that a source close to Sega informed them that ToeJam & Earl and its sidescroller sequel Panic on Funkatron will be the next part of the next wave of Sega’s Vintage Collection releases. This seems to gel pretty well with the renewed focus on digital and heritage content Sega has been touting lately.

There are a few licensing hurdles to get over. While fans commonly associate the characters with Sega, they are not actually owned by the company, rather remaining the property of their original creators Greg Johnson and Mark Voorsanger (hence their omission from Sega Superstars/All Stars games to date).

If the collection is happening, you’ll hear about it soon.

The Sonic fan game sphere has been known to generate some pretty impressive stuff. One particular game with quite the following is Sonic: Before the Sequel, (which you can check out here) an adventure set between Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 which boasted over 50 levels and had some really cool boss fights.

A sequel, Sonic: After the Sequel has been in development since the end of last year, with many Sonic fans eagerly anticipating its release. While the full game isn’t finish just yet, the team behind the game have released a demo to give everyone a taste of their next ambitious project. Among the new additions to the sequel are cutscenes and run-along battles like those featured in the first levels of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles.

Sega has revealed it will be releasing Jet Set Radio for iOS and Android alongside the Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC (via Steam) versions.

Jet Set Radio for iOS and Android includes OpenFeint support and the ability to create in-game graffiti using your device’s camera – this is in addition to the widescreen HD graphics, new camera system, online leaderboards and original game’s soundtrack featured in the other versions of the HD port.

Expect the digital onslaught of Jet Set Radio in Q3 of this year.

Source: Joystiq

GameCenter CX is a Japanese show featuring comedian Shinya Arino attempting to beat video games in one sitting, usually with hilarious results. It’s been running for 16 seasons in Japan, and has spun off a variety of video games, one of which came out in English as Retro Game Collection for the Nintendo DS.

Recently, Kotaku attempted to localise the series for western consumption with mixed results, due to licensing issues that prevented the episodes being shown to people outside of the US.

Fortunately, non-US folks will be able to get their first official taste of Game Center CX with the release of Retro Game Master: The GameCenter CX Collection, a 14 episode best-of DVD which will be hitting stores in September.

You can preorder it here.