Electronic Arts and The Walt Disney Company announces an exclusive multi-year licensing agreement that allows EA to develop and publish Star Wars video games. EA will develop and publish Star Wars titles for core gamers on all interactive platforms while Disney keeps the right to develop new titles on mobile, social, and online games.
“Every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe,” said EA Labels President Frank Gibeau. “Three of our top studios will fulfill that dream, crafting epic adventures for Star Wars fans. DICE and Visceral will produce new games, joining the BioWare team which continues to develop for the Star Wars franchise. The new experiences we create may borrow from films, but the games will be entirely original with all new stories and gameplay.”
iPhone & Apple Watch App - Designed for iPhone and Apple Watch, compatible with iPad
Touch Arcade has reported that you can now download Angry Birds Star Wars for free through the Starbucks app. If you already have the Starbucks app downloaded, you can go to the messages tab where you'll find a list of free music, along with Angry Birds Star Wars. If you don't have the app, go to this link HERE.
Coffee and video games are a perfect match together! So dreamy.
“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,” a young child was enchanted by the Star Wars Universe. In more recent history, that same boy came down with a chronic case of pinball addiction. So you can only imagine how the child rejoiced when learning of Zen Studios’ intentions to meld their passion for pinball with Lucas’ brainchild. If you haven’t read between the lines yet, allow me to clarify that the aforementioned child was me, cleverly shrouded as an adolescent, in hopes of hiding the fact that I am a grown man rendered shamelessly giddy by the proposition of my beloved Star Wars bleeding into my favorite past time. Oh well, so much for that.
Much to my glee, the good folks over at Zen Studios invited me to get some early hands on time with their newest masterpiece: Star Wars Pinball. The base install will be its own stand-alone pinball hub, consisting of a healthy collection of three tables at launch, set to the themes of The Empire Strikes Back, everyone’s favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett, and the animated Clone Wars franchise. Before moving on to the meat of the preview, it is worth mentioning that each of the tables will also be available for individual purchase in the Zen Pinball 2 hub as well, but there are special features associated with the specific Star Wars Pinball app that you wouldn’t want to miss out on.
Trying to please Star Wars fans has become an increasingly difficult task over the decades. With that in mind, the creative team at Zen has taken every necessary precaution to make sure their tables are the definitive embodiment of the franchise, only featuring a steel ball. Lightsabers, sound effects, and even reasonably similar sound-alikes have been brought in to re-create seminal moments of the series. There is no greater example of this than the Empire Strikes Back table. Players have the opportunity to relive the most important scenes of the film, all while still playing an authentic pinball game. Everything from downing Tie Fighters to dueling Darth Vader are on the list of highlights, so it is certainly not to be missed.
Boba Fett is a character from the Star Wars mythos that has taken on a life of his own. A relative bit character in the original trilogy, fans have clamored to know more about the mysterious masked man. Drawing heavily upon his actions freezing Han Solo in carbonite and the resulting events on Tatooine, the Boba Fett themed table follows the notorious bounty hunter in his manhunts across the galaxy. Featuring a set of bounty missions that can scale in difficulty depending upon the user’s confidence, this is sure to once again be a fan favorite.
The last, but certainly not least of the trio of tables takes place in the fairly recent Clone Wars animated franchise. Tom Kane, the narrator from the television program and film reprises his role, informing the player of their immediate activities throughout the action. Of the three tables in the set, this is by far the biggest opportunity to run up the scoreboards. A big key to success is managing to chain together long combos, thanks to the fluid layout heavily favoring ramp play.
No matter what your level of appreciation is for the Star Wars brand, you will find something to appreciate in these tables. Even those that don’t like the franchise will still find plenty of fantastic pinball shenanigans to enjoy, because they are simply awesome tables to sit down and pick away at. We look forward to seeing what other tables are waiting in the wings for the coming months. Stay tuned for our full review of Star Wars Pinball, coming soon.
iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad
In case you missed it last night, Angry Birds Star Wars (iPhone $0.99), (iPad $2.99) was released at midnight. Carter gave it 4 stars and noted "Angry Birds Star Wars may not come from a galaxy far, far away, but it does add some interesting new variations on the famous gameplay, along with plenty of Star Wars references."
Rovio has also released this killer cinematic trailer for the game.
Angry Birds Star Wars may not come from a galaxy far, far away, but it does add some interesting new variations on the famous gameplay, along with plenty of Star Wars references.
We've been working on a review and will have that out in the morning.
May the birds be with you.
Take a look below for the recording of a Google+ hangout that took place earlier to discuss with Rovio how the game came about and reveal a few more details on the game.
Angry Birds have created a new Tumblr page to announce some sort of a Star Wars tie in. Could be a Star Wars level in Angry Birds: Space or could be a while new game. We will hopefully find out on October 8th, when the announcement is scheduled to go up.
iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad
With Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace being re-released in theaters with post-processed 3D, LucasArts has released an app called Darth Maul Me. Do note that the name is not an invitation for a Sith Lord to come and maul the user, but an app for turning the user into Darth Maul, Sith apprentice in the first prequel episode of the Star Wars series. Users can either import or take a photo of their face, zoom in and out to line up the eyes and get their head in frame. Then, they adjust the area of their face, and select from one of three Darth Maul effects, from the full-on makeup and horns look to just the crazy Sith eyes. Then, the image processes and the user is ready to go out and share to the world that they are a Sith, and proud of it, and there's Facebook connectivity to help prove it. The Dark Side will only truly win if they receive enough likes on Facebook.
