Join us as we explore how PlayStation Move Heroes was built from the ground up, specifically for the PlayStation Move. We’re excited to give fans an opportunity to experience some of their favorite PlayStation characters in a whole new way through the precision and accuracy of the PlayStation Move system.

We’ve blended some of the familiar weapons, abilities, and character movements from the original games with a fresh new set of motion-controlled mechanics that you’ll only be able to find on the PlayStation Move. For example, one of our favorites in the buzzsaw disc, a new weapon that the heroes fling into space to collect crystals, powers-up and more. But it’s up to the player to steer and navigate the disc while in flight. It’s a joy to fly with the extreme 1:1 precision of the motion controller.

And if you can’t wait until March 22 to get your hands on PlayStation Move Heroes, be sure to keep your eyes out for a single player demo early next month in the PlayStation Store. PlayStation Plus members will have access starting March 1.

For more information about the title’s intergalactic storyline, be sure to check out our recently released story trailer here.

When SCEA and Nihilistic started development on Heroes on the Move we began with the question “what would happen if Ratchet, Clank, Sly, and Jak all showed up in the same game?” We’ve been working with the SCEA producers who helped bring you the original franchises to answer that question, and we’re happy to show you some of what we’ve been working on.

For the first time ever, Ratchet, Clank, Sly Cooper, Bentley, Jak, and Daxter, have been assembled together into a single game where they’ll have their unique skills tested in a diabolical series of competitive challenges. Before each challenge you’ll be able to choose which hero to play, and the locations of the challenges will span across areas from all of the heroes’ home planets – Metropolis, Paris, and Haven City – except this time, the heroes can explore each other’s environments. Expect to see each memorable location upgraded to PlayStation 3 high-definition graphic quality.

That gives you a little more high level detail about what to expect from the game, but what exactly are we showing at gamescom? On the show floor we’re proud to be demoing two rockin’ challenges to give you a taste of the game.

“City of Fights” gives you a chance to try Sly against an onslaught of enemies from each of the three universes. Sly must find and return energy orbs hidden in the nooks and crannies of Paris. With the PlayStation Move you’ll swing Sly’s cane directly smacking enemies over the head with a satisfying crack!

“Fistful of Crystals” Clank blasts his way through Haven City with the Combustor. When using the PlayStation Move controller, aiming and firing the gun feels natural and satisfying. You’ve got to watch your heat gauge though, firing too much too quickly will temporarily overheat your gun. What’s really cool is that the sphere at the tip of the PlayStation Move controller changes colors the hotter the weapon gets, so you’ll always know when to let it cool down a bit. Expect to see more characters, enemies, and weapons inspired from the series!

All of us at Nihilistic have fond memories of playing as these heroes – in some cases, playing these games is what brought us into game development. It has been a pleasure working with the minds at SCEA to bring them to the PlayStation Move for the first time. We hope this blog post gave you a hint at what playing Heroes on the Move will be like.

Look for more information on the PlayStation.Blog in the coming months!

When Nihilistic first sat down and thought about creating a downloadable title, we immediately wanted to do it in the horror genre. We’ve got a lot of zombie and horror fans here. Not to mention some hardcore fans of old-school shooters. Combining the two felt logical and Zombie Apocalypse was born.

Thematic inspiration was drawn primarily from classic zombie films of the 70s and 80s. Two films in particular are ZOMBIE (aka Zombi 2) by Lucio Fulci, and Nightmare City by Umberto Lenzi. The first level in Zombie Apocalypse is set in an airport which is a homage to Nightmare City. If you haven’t heard of either of these films and don’t mind some bad acting they are both incredible zombie gore fests. They are definitely not for the squeamish!

The game design was inspired primarily by two old-school shooters. The first was Robotron, a classic and innovator in the dual-stick shooter genre. In fact, the internal codename for Zombie Apocalypse during development was “Zombitron”. At the beginning of Zombie Apocalypse’s development, we held an internal Robotron tournament to get prepared. The second was gamer favorite Smash TV. We built upon the gore and arena combat of Smash TV by adding environmental hazards into our arenas that will tear zombies to shreds, blow them up, or light them on fire when you blast zombies into them.

Zombie Apocalypse is all about survival and scoring big. When playing with friends either on the same console or online, the team is working toward a shared score. So to do well and hit the top of the leaderboards you’ve got to work together. Here are three PlayStation Blog-exclusive tips for hitting as high of a score as possible, applicable to either single or multiplayer:

• The survivor characters all have chainsaws that you can pull out at any time. Use the chainsaw to grapple by pressing and holding the L1 button to score an instant kill on a zombie and to increase your score multiplier by three. Just be careful to not use the attack in the middle of a group of zombies, as it leaves you vulnerable for a moment as it ends. Try to lead a lone zombie away from the group then chainsaw them in half.
• Make use of the environmental hazards. For example, blast zombies with your shotgun into the wood chipper in the Logging Camp level. Each hazard kill gives you an additional 5,000 points on top of the points you would have scored otherwise.
• Use the zombie bait grenade not just to kill a bunch of zombies but to lead them to environmental hazards to score more points. In the Graveyard level you can throw the bait into the open grave and then shoot zombies directly into it to put them back to rest and get your hazard bonus.

If you reach the point where you think you can easily handle a Zombie Apocalypse and want an even bigger challenge be sure to unlock Hardcore Mode, one of our six unlockable game modes. Hardcore Mode restricts each survivor to starting with just one life and no extra lives are granted. That means you’ve only got one chance to try to score big on the special Hardcore Mode leaderboard. To unlock Hardcore Mode, complete seven consecutive days (missions) in the normal game mode without dying. Additional unlockable modes include Blackout Mode, where all the lights turn off except for one small light per player, and 7 Days of Hell Mode, where the survivors are tasked to survive through a week of sepia toned zombie mayhem.

So hit the store later today and get Zombie Apocalypse for PS3! But we are not just developers — we’re givers too! So to celebrate the launch of Zombie Apocalypse we will be giving away 25 codes for the game on the PlayStation Twitter feed. But make sure you’ve read this post, as there might be little pop quiz via Twitter! So keep your eyes peeled to Twitter later today after our PlayStation Store Update goes live!

Hope to see you online fighting back the zombie invasion with me!