Late Night Consoling

Gamecock Media Group today announced that the first game from newly formed developer Crackpot Entertainment will be heading to the Nintendo DS and PC.

Insecticide will feature a story as told from the perspective of "bug detectives." Players will find clues and chase down criminals in 3D environments on the Nintendo DS and PC. "The heart of classic detective novels and movies is to get the audience involved mentally, but now via PC and the Nintendo DS we can get players involved in a much more tactile arena," said Rick Stults of Gamecock. Multiplayer will be supported, although no specific details were announced.

Crackpot Entertainment is lead by Mike Levine, formerly of LucasArts. Levine's previous PC credits include graphic adventures, including Full Throttle and Curse of Monkey Island, as well as action blockbusters such as Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II. After leaving LucasArts, Levine formed Pileated Pictures, which worked in a variety of entertainment fields. Larry Ahern, the longtime LucasArts animator, is on board as art director and co-lead designer. Peter Chan, another former LucasArts concept artist--who recently worked on Double Fine Productions' Psychonauts (PS2, Xbox, PC)--has also joined the Crackpot team. Peter McConnell, one of the three main former LucasArts composers and composer for Psychonauts, will be writing Insecticide's score.

The game will make its way to stores this fall. Gamecock also sent along some PC screenshots and artwork. A teaser trailer for the game can be found on Fileshack.

Publisher Red Mile Entertainment has confirmed that a game based off MTV's Jackass property will be released on PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS and PSP on September 24. GripShift (PS3, PSP) creator Sidhe Interactive is handling the PS2 and PSP versions, with Need for Speed: Most Wanted (NDS) and Justice League Heroes (NDS) developer Sensory Sweep Studios helming the DS edition.

"The premise for the games is to have the player create their own 'Jackass' episodes across an array of stunts," Red Mile senior director of sales and marketing Henry Price explained to The Hollywood Reporter. "These stunts are set up like minigames, which provides a great deal of diversity in the gameplay."

"We're excited as all hell about it," Jackass star Johnny Knoxville exclaimed. "It is kind of odd that people will take on our personas and depressing that they're going to have to do that. We've never really worked on anything like this before. This is our first video game. We just hope that our video game is as crappy as our movies."

In a move that will be all too familiar to Star Wars fans, LucasArts today announced a special edition of the hit block-based series developed by Traveller's Tales. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga will combine the content of both the original Lego Star Wars and its recent sequel, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. The former game will see some improvements to bring it more in line with the polish of the second, particularly to its vehicle-based sequences. Both games will feature new characters, powers, and levels, as well as the addition of two-player online co-op for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions.

The Complete Saga will also see release on Nintendo's DS and Wii systems, reportedly taking advantage of their respective control schemes. For those disappointed in the Nintendo DS port of Lego Star Wars II, LucasArts noted that the game will be completely revamped for its appearance on the system.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is due out this fall. More information can be found on the game's newly launched website.

The latest edition of Japanese gaming publication Weekly Famitsu claims that Taito's action-based puzzler Exit is on its way to Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. Previously released on the PSP, Exit puts players in control of Mr. ESC, a suave escape artist who rescues victims of various disasters by commanding them to navigate obstacle and solve puzzles with their differing abilities.

Priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10), Exit is slated to appear later this year on the Japanese Xbox Live Arcade. While no further details are yet available on a North American release, most Xbox Live Arcade games carry the same release date and price point across different regions.

An Xbox 360 demo of Codemaster's off-road racer Colin McRae: DiRT is available for download through Xbox Live Marketplace. Clocking in at 769 MB, the download includes three tracks and three races, same as the PC demo released earlier today.

Electronic Arts sends word that EA Canada's FIFA franchise will be heading to all major platforms this fall. Soccer superstar Ronaldinho will grace the cover of FIFA Soccer 08 when it hits store shelves. Depending on gamers' home territory, featured alongside the Brazilian player will be stars such as Miroslav Klose and Sergio Ramos.

The publisher has stated that many of the stars involved are currently contributing to the motion capture animation for the game. "The body movements, individual moves and playing style of each athlete is being captured, digitized and will become the life-like movement of the virtual players in future versions of EAÂ’s FIFA Soccer games," said EA.

Square Enix has announced that Heroes of Mana, the next title in the long-running Square Enix franchise, will ship to stores on August 14. The game is being developed by Japanese studio Brownie Brown (Mother 3).

Heroes of Mana is a radical departure for the series, featuring real-time strategy set in the established RPG universe. Heroes, creatures, and rabites will be positioned for combat using the DS touch screen. Players will be able to access their nation-wide ranking using a Nintendo Wi-Fi connection.

Dawn of Mana, the RPG sequel to the popular Secret of Mana (SNES), was released today on PlayStation 2. Square sent along a few screenshots of the game, in addition to some artwork.