At the conclusion of Game Connect: Asia Pacific, the Game Developer's Association of Australia awarded the best game developers from Australia and New Zealand.

As Medieval II took home the most awards last year, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (DS, PSP) swept up this year's awards with five awards, including Best Game.

North American gamers are in for a classic-filled fun this coming Q1 of 2008 after Marvelous and Ignition Entertainment reached an agreement to bring upcoming DS titles Bubble Bobble Revolution and New Zealand Revolution Story as well as PSP game Rainbow Islands Revolution to North America.

The said DS video games are actually remakes of the original with upgraded graphics and a few level additions. Rainbow Islands Revolution for the PSP, furthermore, is a new entry in the Bubble Bobble franchise. Marvelous owns the rights to these titles and the North American versions will be published by Ignition.

"These games have such classic arcade appeal you will be looking for the slot to put your quarter. They are iconic classics that every DS and PSP system owner must have and we are honored to partner with Marvelous to bring them to North America," commented Ignition USA President Ajay Chadha.

 

Ignition Entertainment puts a new twist in the term "old school." In a recent announcement, the long time publisher of interactive software has teamed up with Marvelous Interactive in a long-term partnership which aims to bring many of its Japanese cult classic arcade games to locals here in North America.

Ignition is aiming to bring back some of the old time favorites a lot of newer gamers have yet to experience. Many old timers (you can include me in that list, sad to say) will remember gaming classics like Bubble Bobble, New Zealand Story and Rainbow Islands when they first came out on their respective consoles providing them with lots of arcade action for hours on end.

Soon, you'll be able to catch all of them in their newest incarnations for the next gen handhelds. Everyone can expect to see Bubble Bobble Double Shot and New Zealand Story Revolution on the Nintendo DS, while you can catch Rainbow Islands Evolution on the Sony PlayStation Portable.

All three games will be an exact port in terms of story content and gameplay, however you'll be blown away with some of the new upgrades all three games will be coming out with when they finally hit video game shelves. In any case, it's nice to know that Ignition is still willing to reintroduce games which would otherwise have fallen into the cracks of gaming obscurity. Hopefully, we'll all be seeing these titles soon enough on handhelds everywhere.

 

The Game Developer's Association of Australia (GDAA) is announcing that early bird registrations are now open for this year's Game Connect: Asia Pacific 2007 (GCAP 07) conference. The conference - formerly known as the Australian Game Developers Conference - is hoped to be a gathering place for the discussion of best practice, learning, and growth of game development.

In line with these goals, the organizers have invited several well-known gaming industry personalities as guest speakers. Here are among the more notable people that were announced at the GCAP site:

• Paul Holman, Vice President of Euro R&D, Sony Computer Entertainment
• Pete Isensee, Director XNA Development Connection, Microsoft
• Jason Della Rocca, Executive Director, International Game Developers Association
• Careen Yapp, Vice President of Licensing and Business Development, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.
• Tony Albrecht, Senior Engine Programmer, Pandemic Studios
• Susan O'Connor, Writer, Susan O’Connor Writing Studio
  

We're also informing the readers that nominations are now open for the GCAP's upcoming GDAA and Independent Games Awards. The GDAA Awards is Australia and New Zealand's award for game developed by studios in their home territories. The Independent Games Award covers winners for both Best Unsigned Game (Professional), and Best Unsigned Game (Indie) categories.

Nominations for for the GDAA Awards 2007 will end October 31, while nominations for the Independent Games Awards will end October 26. Votes for both will be done so by the GCAP delegates from November 16 to 17, with the conference scheduled to run from November 15 to 17.

This year's GCAP event is expected to take place at the Melbourne Convention Centre, in Melbourne, Australia. Those interested can read up on the finer event details at the GCAP official site via the provided read link.

 He's not David Beckham, but in EA Sports' upcoming premiere soccer sim, FIFA 08, Melbourne Victory striker Archie Thompson will be the flag bearer for the A-League as it joins the FIFA series as one of the official playable competitions in the game.

Small compared to its other European counterparts, the A-League will finally get a chance at the limelight as it joins 29 other international leagues in this long-standing football sports franchise.

Also joining the roster of new leagues are Gambrinus liga of Czech Republic and FAI Premiere Division of Ireland. Archie Thompson will be carrying the name of Australia and New Zealand as their official ambassador for the game.

Thompson, perhaps most known for breaking the world record of most number of goals scored in a soccer game, was excited with the A-League's inclusion in FIFA 08. He had this to say:

I know that plenty of the boys at Melbourne Victory enjoy playing video games so it’s fantastic that we can now play as our favourite Hyundai A-League club either in a league or against other international Clubs.

Expect the release of EA Sports' FIFA 08 by September. It will be released on multiple platforms, namely the PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, DS, PSP, and Wii.

Continuing a long-running industry tradition, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has announced a video game tie-in for next year's Speed Racer movie. Speed Racer will be released for Nintendo's Wii and DS video game systems once the movie hits theaters next year.

The Wii version of the game will reportedly be developed by New Zealand-based Sidhe Entertainment. It will let gamers play as one of the characters in the movie for some combative racing behind each character's signature vehicle. Details for the game's DS version have yet to be revealed.

"Speed Racer is an exceptionally creative property and teamed with the Wachowski brothers' vision it makes for action-packed racing gameplay," said Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President, Development and Production, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. "The game will capture the intensity of the racing in the film to give gamers and movie fans a chance to take the wheel after they experience the film."

These days, GameStop has a lot of reasons to celebrate. It's working on an industry that's growing every day, it's posting some serious numbers financially, and has recently opened its 1,000th store outside of the US.

The Texas-based game and console retailer has opened new stores recently in Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Norway to hit the thousand-store milestone. Prior to that, the company has already branched out to Ireland, Switzerland, Australia, Guam, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

GameStop points to the booming hardware sales led by Kyoto-based Nintendo with its DS handheld and Wii console. Microsoft and Sony are also pitching in with the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, respectively.

Total sales posted by the retailer last year amounted to US$ 5.32 billion and is expected to grow even more this year as hot demand continues for pole platforms. The first quarter of fiscal 2007 saw GameStop with its best quarterly performance ever with US$ 24.7 million in profits while gross sales were at an all-time high of US$ 1.279 billion.

The games Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon) will be released in Australia and New Zealand by Ubisoft this May. Both titles have a lot to offer offer Final Fantasy fans from both areas.

Final Fantasy III is much more than a remake of the original that graced the NES 17 years ago.The game has undergone many changes, and if you want to read up on it you can check the previous article we did on it.

In Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales you play a chocobo who must compete in a variety of mini-games and microgames. You will have to do this to save lost friends and restore peace to the land. A pretty strange storyline but that's ok since it's Final Fantasy. The game will have a card-based combat system. In addition, Nintendo's Wi-Fi allows multiplayer with 2-4 players where you can play cooperatively to finish the game or play mini games against each other.

Final Fantasy III will be released on May 4 this year in both Australia and New Zealand with Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales following sometime the end of the month to both regions as well. Check out the screenshots of the PAL version and see if it's your cup of tea.

If you're armed with a DS and you're looking for some good new strategy titles to keep yourself busy, then you might want to check out Anno 1701 once it comes out in Australia and New Zealand in June, thanks to a publishing deal between German company Sunflowers and Disney Interactive Studios.

Set between the 17th and 18th centuries, Anno 1701 is one of the most successful PC game franchises of all time in German-speaking territories. Anno 1701 is an empire-building game that allows players to explore the world and interact with a huge variety of characters.

The DS version of Anno 1701 is not just a port of the PC versions, either. "When expanding the property onto other platforms, we don't simply port the game design," said Wilhelm Hamrozi, CEO of Sunflowers. "We develop new concepts that satisfy the familiar high standards in terms of quality and gameplay appropriate to the platform".

Anno 1701 for the DS will fully utilize the Nintendo handheld system's dual screens, with stylus-driven gameplay and multiplayer support for up to four players. It also features a fully configurable endless game mode with AI players.

Rising Star Games brings you this classic 1988 8-bit game to your 21st century handheld. New Zealand Story Revolution brings you the return of the lovable cult characters Tiki and Kiwi. With a load of new touch-screen-based mini-games, set out in adventure either as single player, or pitted against peers in the multiplayer feature.

The adventure revolves around Tiki rescuing his kidnapped friends from the villainous leopard seal. Now, to get to his friends, he'd have to go through a series of challenges that also has a healthy mix of Expert Modes, Normal Modes, and Multiplayer ones. And that's not all we have for you today.

Here are 50 spankin' new screenshots of Tiki and Kiwi in action. To see them live, get them on your DS.

44 more screens await after the jump!