Ubisoft has showed off their upcoming downloadable side-scroller Outland before, but this is the best look we’ve had so far at the Ikaruga-esque colour swapping dynamic. For those of you unfamiliar with hardcore Japanese shmups, both games allow you to swap the colour of your character between two states. Matching the colour of enemy bullets lets you absorb them without harm, but means you do less damage to enemies of that colour, while bullets of the opposite colour will do more harm to both you and enemies. From that simple setup massive complexity emerges. At least, that’s the case in Ikaruga – Outland will have to show off some pretty impressive design if it’s going to even get close to the infuriating / painfully addictive quality of Ikaruga.

One thing is certain though: it looks absolutely beautiful, as you can see in the trailer below. The plot might need a little work though – handy writing hint: If you look at your freshly-printed script and see that it starts “In every calendar cycle”, just shoot yourself.

Also from Ubisoft, also incredibly pretty, and out right now is Might And Magic: Clash of Heroes HD. It’s a shinier port of the DS game made by Capybara Games (Critter Crunch, Sword And Sworcery EP), and takes the ancient Might and Magic tropes and units and arranges them into a genuinely clever puzzle game. It’s certainly worth checking out the demo, if you’re a 360 user.

Source : ubisoft.com