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Best of GameSetWatch: From Maestro to Two-Finger Heroes

We highlight the week's offbeat news from sister blog GameSetWatch, with two projects -- one canceled, one ported to iPhone -- from Pastagames and Arkedo, French indies that share an office.

Eric Caoili, Blogger

January 21, 2010

3 Min Read
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[Gamasutra highlights a week's worth of alternative video gaming news, media, and other curiosities from sister blog GameSetWatch, as written by editor Eric Caoili.] This round-up features a look at the PlayStation 2 title that Japanese forum 2ch elected its worst game of the year; the launch of Gamebase, a collection of resources geared at young gamers with disabilities; and the announced release date of OneBigGame and Zoe Mode's downloadable music-based puzzler for charity Chime. Other highlights include two unique projects from a pair of French indies that happen to share the same office -- Pastagames announced an iPhone port for its fantastic but previously Europe-only Nintendo DS game Maestro: Jump in Music; and Arkedo Studio revealed screenshots and pages from its design document for cancelled Natal game 2-Finger Heroes (pictured). This past week's top stories: - Maestro: Green Groove Jumps To iPhone "French indie developer Pastagames formally announced Maestro: Green Groove, an iPhone version of Maestro: Jump in Music, its fantastic Nintendo DS rhythm-based platformer that released only in Europe (with distribution difficulties)." - 2-Finger Heroes: Arkedo Reveals Cancelled Natal Project "Arkedo Studio, the excellent French indie behind Big Bang Mini and the Arkedo series for Xbox Live Indie Games, revealed a surprising project that it's since abandoned: 2-Finger Heroes, a brawler designed for Microsoft's controller-free Natal setup." - OneBigGame To Chime In On February 3rd "Charity game publisher OneBigGame announced that its first title, Chime, will release for Xbox Live Arcade on February 3rd. The non-profit will send 60 percent of the music-based puzzler's purchase price (all of the proceeds) to charities around the world -- a minimum of 80 percent of those donations will go to Save the Children and the Starlight Childrenā€™s foundation." - Unreleased PS1 Gem: Quintessential Art of Destruction "Developed by Cranberry Source around 1997, the Choplifter-inspired 3D game was released for PC and was supposed to receive ports for PS1 and Saturn. QAD is particularly significant due to its publisher, Philips Media Interactive, who had finally given up on its failed CD-i console and finally decided to release titles on rival platforms." - Japan's 2ch Decides Worst Game Of 2009 "A section of Japanese online forum 2ch devoted to kusoge, or crap games, announced the recipient of its 2009 Kusoge Of The Year award: System Soft Alpha Corporation's Sengoku Hime: Senran ni Mau Otometachi, a PS2 port of terrible 2008 PC hentai game taking place during Japan's Sengoku/Warring States period." - SpecialEffect Launches Accessible Gamebase "SpecialEffect, a UK-based charity dedicated to helping children with disabilities play video games, launched Gamebase, a new hub that caters to both gamers who are looking for disability-friendly releases and developers who are hoping to make their titles more accessible." - Special: The Best Of The 2009 Demoscene, Part 1 - Demos "Over the next few weeks I'm going to be taking a look back at what the still vibrant demoscene gave us in 2009. I've searched through the hundreds of productions relased last year and rounded up my favourites into six categories: Demo, 64k, 4k, Oldschool, Wild and Console."

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2010

About the Author

Eric Caoili

Blogger

Eric Caoili currently serves as a news editor for Gamasutra, and has helmed numerous other UBM Techweb Game Network sites all now long-dead, including GameSetWatch. He is also co-editor for beloved handheld gaming blog Tiny Cartridge, and has contributed to Joystiq, Winamp, GamePro, and 4 Color Rebellion.

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