Knytt Underground tells a quirky and strange tale that connects to various things in my own life. It’s set in the future, hundreds of years after the humans disappeared from the planet. Sprites, fairies and various other lifeforms roam tunnels underground. They are curious about their origin and the meaning of life, and to find those answers they try to understand the ones who had obviously figured it out: the humans.

One organization is devoted to understanding our science and language. They have successfully decoded that the letter J symbolizes a hook and O the full moon. Another group tries to combine the truths of our different religions. I mean, what if they’re all right — at the same time?

All mixed up in this is our protagonist Mi Sprocket, a sprite chosen to perform a religious ritual that supposedly saves the world. Odds are it’s superstitious nonsense…but you never know, right? Mi is joined by two fairies; Dora (who tries to find some truth in everything) and Cilia (who thinks people are stupid). Together they must travel the underground to complete the ritual, even though it’s very uncertain what they will actually accomplish — if anything at all.

Knytt Underground really tries to make a point, but I’m not sure what that point is.

When I designed Knytt Underground, I wanted to come up with a minimal number of mechanics that would allow lots of complex moves and interesting puzzles. By combining a very accurate platform character with a fast-paced bouncing ball and letting the player morph between the two forms at any time, the game got its very simple, yet deep controls. Each form also have some temporary powers like a grappling hook or the ability to fly a small distance. Chaining these different abilities in a single move feels super sweet.

Following the tradition of the previous Knytt games, a lot of the areas in Knytt Underground do not have enemies or dangers. Most of the world is designed to simply be a beautiful place where I hope the player wants to be. Despite the game’s huge world, each area has its own looks, music and atmosphere (which is why the level design alone took a year).

So why PS3 and PS Vita? The question for me when I was offered to work with Green Hill and Ripstone was more “Why not?” rather than “Why?”. Getting out on a new console means I can reach more people with my games. Besides, Knytt Underground is the type of game that plays best on a gamepad, so there’s no reason not to have it on a console.

In addition, the times I’ve talked to the people at PlayStation, they have been super supportive. They also made a very nice impression at GamesCom; where 90% of all other games at the conference were the average AAA games about stereotypical males killing other males with guns or swords, almost every different and interesting game I found was in the Sony section. I hope they continue to support those kind of game projects.

Look for Knytt Underground to hit PSN today for $14.99, which includes both the PS3 and PS Vita versions.

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Guten tag! What. A. Show. This week’s PlayStation Blogcast comes to you by way of Cologne, Germany, home to the annual Gamescom videogame expo and countless meat products. Jeff and I made the 10-hour flight for good reason: We got hands-on time with loads of great games, from God of War: Ascension to Dishonored to Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified, not to mention sitting in on PlayStation’s well-received Gamescom press conference that introduced cool new games like Tearaway, Puppeteer, Until Dawn and more. Good, good stuff.

But perhaps more importantly, we finally got a chance to record a big fat Blogcast interview with Shuehei Yoshida, president of PlayStation’s Worldwide Studios. This conversation ranks among my all-time favorite Blogcast discussions for three reasons:

1. Shuhei walked us through his vision for PlayStation’s internal software development, including its focus on creativity and original IP.
2. It was our first (and hopefully not last!) interview to include EU PlayStation.Blog manager Fred Dutton.
3. At two points during the interview, Shuhei says…well, I probably shouldn’t spoil it. You’ll just have to listen.

But that’s just the beginning of this week’s double-stuffed, beer-battered episode. After talking shop with Shuehei, we shift gears to The Last of Us, Naughty Dog’s upcoming survival tale, with an eye-opening interview with stars Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson — or, as you might know them, Joel and Ellie. From there, we delve into the development secrets of Sleeping Dogs, United Front Games‘ highly reviewed open-world crime drama set in the mean streets of Hong Kong.

Oh, and we share full details on next week’s jam-packed North American PSN lineup, too. Listen in, let us know what you think, and we’ll see you back in the States next week!

Stuff We Talked About

Gamescom 2012

Sleeping Dogs

Puppeteer

Tearaway

Dishonored

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Need for Speed Most Wanted for PS Vita

The Last of Us

Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

The Cast

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game
details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating
descriptions.]

• Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. Special thanks to Astro Gaming headsets for providing audio gear.

Following on from the huge success of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, the characters now have their own unique, transforming vehicles designed to take advantage of the varying terrain. The lineup on the Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed grid sees SEGA favorites — including Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Eggman and AiAi — return to battle against newcomers, including Gilius Thunderhead of Golden Axe and Vyse of Skies of Arcadia.

Many attendees got to play the game for the first time at E3, and chose from one of three available levels: Dragon Canyon (based on Panzer Dragoon), Temple Trouble (based on Super Monkey Ball), and Adder’s Lair (based on Golden Axe). In addition to this new track, we also announced that Joe Mushashi from Shinobi will be a playable character in the game.

Joe isn’t the only new character we announced at the show, though! We were thrilled to have Danica Patrick in our booth to announce that she will be appearing in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Known for her talents behind the wheel, Danica will be playable with customized vehicles in the game. That means you’ll get the chance to test your racing abilities as Danica against an All-Star cast of SEGA characters including Sonic, Knuckles, AiAi and others.

“It’s a very exciting experience since I’ll be sharing the screen with such an iconic character,” said Danica. “I cannot wait for gamers to jump into my customized, transformable vehicles and give Sonic a run for his rings this holiday season!”

To further enhance this partnership, Danica will be racing in a custom No. 7 Sonic the Hedgehog Chevrolet, fielded by JR Motorsports, during the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge on November 3rd at the Texas Motor Speedway. The race, part of NASCAR’s Nationwide Series, marks Sonic the Hedgehog’s NASCAR debut (and will be televised live on ESPN).

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed will be available on PS3 and PS Vita this holiday season.

Hi everyone! PS Vita was developed with the idea of creating and delivering compelling content for gamers. With the recent announcements of applications such as nico nico, Treasure Park, Wake-up Club, and Skype, we’re continuing to build out PS Vita’s portfolio of applications. Today, we’re very excited to announce the latest application addition to PS Vita – YouTube!

Coming at the end of June, YouTube will be available as a free downloadable application for PS Vita via the PS Vita Store. With the YouTube application on PS Vita, you can watch millions of YouTube videos on the stunning 5” OLED screen, from comedy to gaming tips to today’s viral trends. The YouTube application features many of the functions you’re already familiar with – you can easily search for videos, choose favorites and make comments, and your personal YouTube account is available right on your PS Vita.

As we move further into 2012, we look forward to introducing you to more unique, social and immersive experiences only available on PS Vita. How will you use YouTube on PS Vita?

Hi everyone! Gaming is the bread and butter of PS Vita, with titles such as Resistance: Burning Skies, Sound Shapes and Gravity Rush launching soon.

Starting today, you’ll have even more reason to never stop playing. We’re very excited to announce the following PSP titles and minis will be available on the PS Vita Store, with many more coming soon. These aren’t just the same games you might have played at one time in the past! Check out the full list below, and we’ll keep you posted as further titles are brought to PS Store.

Available Today

PSP Titles:
Cho Aniki Zero (Aksys Games Localization, Inc.)
Strikers 1945 Plus (PM Studios, Inc.)
Tom Clancy’S Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 (UbiSoft, Inc.)
Tom Clancy’S Rainbow Six: Vegas (UbiSoft, Inc.)
Valhalla Knights 2: Battle Stance (XSEED JKS, Inc.)
Ys: I & II Chronicles Digital (XSEED JKS, Inc.)

PSP minis:
Aero Racer (Halfbrick Studios)
Age Of Zombies (Halfbrick Studios)
Blast Off (Halfbrick Studios)
Dynogems (StormBasic)
Echoes (Halfbrick Studios)
Me Monstar: Hear Me Roar (Cohort Studios)
Vempire (Impressionware Srl)

Coming Soon

PSP Titles:
3D Twist & Match (Sanuk Games)
Aedis Eclipse: Generation Of Chaos Legacy (NIS America, Inc.)
Bejeweled 2 (Sony Online Entertainment LLC)
Beta Bloc (D3 Publisher of America)
Brain Challenge (Gameloft)
Dead Head Fred (D3 Publisher of America)
Field Commander (Sony Online Entertainment LLC)
Gods Eater Burst (D3 Publisher of America)
Groovin’ Blocks (Sony Online Entertainment LLC)
King Of Pool (Nordcurrent UAB)
Luxor: Pharaoh’S Challenge Umd Legacy (Mumbo Jumbo)
Major League Baseball 2K10 (2KGames)
Mercury Meltdown (Ignition Entertainment)
Mx Vs Atv Untamed (THQ, Inc.)
Peggle (Sony Online Entertainment LLC)
Prehistoric Isle (SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION)
Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords (D3 Publisher of America)
Reel Fishing: The Great Outdoors Legacy (Natsume, Inc.)
Split Second (Disney Interactive Studios)
Super Pocket Tennis (D3 Publisher of America)
The Red Star (XS Games, LLC)
Unbound Saga (Vogster Entertainment, LLC)
Undead Knights Digital (Tecmo Koei America Corporation)
Uno (Gameloft)
Untold Legends: Brotherhood Of The Blade (Sony Online Entertainment LLC)
Untold Legends: The Warrior’S Code French (Sony Online Entertainment LLC)
Work Time Fun (D3 Publisher of America)
WWE All Stars (THQ, Inc.)
WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010 (THQ, Inc.)

PSP minis:
5 In 1 Solitaire (Digital Leisure)
Alien Zombie Death (PomPom Games)
Arcade Air Hockey & Bowling (Icon Games)
Babel: The King Of The Blocks (StormBasic)
Bashi Blocks (Icon Games)
Bermuda Triangle (SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION)
Breakquest (Beatshapers)
Bubble Trubble (Creat Studios)
Card Shark (Laughing Jackal Ltd)
Carnivores: Ice Age (Beatshapers)
Cohort Chess (Cohort Studios)
Doodle Fit (Gamelion)
Doodle Pool (Big Head Games)
Duael Invaders (Laughing Jackal Ltd)
Enigmo (Beatshapers)
Family Games (Icon Games)
Farm Frenzy (Alawar Entertainment, Inc.)
Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain (Laughing Jackal Ltd)
Fly Fu (Invictus Games LTD.)
Galcon Labs (Beatshapers)
Gamocracy One : Legend Of Robot (AYEWARE / Bearded Ladies Consulting)
Gold Medalist (SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION)
Guerrilla War (SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION)
Hal 21 (SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION)
Hero Of Sparta (Gameloft)
Hysteria Project 2 (Sanuk Games)
Ikari Warriors (SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION)
Ikari Warriors Ii: Victory Road (SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION)
Jelly Pops (PomPom Games)
Karimogi (StormBasic)
Labyrinth (Bigben Interactive, S.A.)
Let’S Golf (Gameloft)
Marvin’S Maze (SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION)
Mecho Wars (Creat Studios)
Omg-Z! (Laughing Jackal Ltd)
One Epic Game (Grip Digital)
Ozma Wars (SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION)
P.O.W. – Prisoners Of War (SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION)
Pipe Madness (AYEWARE / Bearded Ladies Consulting)
Pix N Love Rush (Sanuk Games)
Psycho Soldier (SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION)
Red Bull X-Fighters (Xendex)
Rumble Trucks (Playerthree Ltd)
Street Smart (SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION)
The 2D Adventures Of Rotating Octopus Character (Dakko Dakko Ltd.)
The Impossible Game (Grip Digital)
The Marbians (Nordisk Film Distribution A/S)
Twin Blades (Sanuk Games)
Vanguard Ii (SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION)
Wackylands Boss (Creat Studios)
Yetisports (Xendex)
Zombie Racers (Big Head Games)

It’s been almost three months since we launched PS Vita here in the U.S. and we’re continuing to find ways to add to your portable entertainment experience. With the recent launch of non-gaming apps such as Skype and Paint Park, and upcoming apps such as Treasure Park and Wake Up Club, all available for free, the PS Vita is an ever-evolving platform that keeps you connected to the content and experiences that are most important to all of you gamers.

What PSP games are you most excited to play on PS Vita?

The LittleBigPlanet Community is about to get a very special treat! Very soon, many of you will have the opportunity to participate in the LittleBigPlanet Beta on PS Vita, where you will get an exclusive sneak peek at Sackboy’s most thrilling adventure yet!

The goal of the Beta is to get feedback on the overall experience from the folk that understand it like few others – and that means you!

For a chance to take part in this exclusive event, head on over to the sign-up to register your interest right away!

http://lbpvitabeta.us.playstation.com/

Paint Park turns PS Vita’s impressive 5”OLED touchscreen into a sketch pad where users can make and share drawings with friends. Players can doodle, sketch and scribble quickly and easily with the virtual markers and onscreen color palette. Using PS Vita’s front and rear cameras, you can incorporate photos of the world around you into your drawings. Players can compete with up to five friends in online multiplayer via Ad Hoc mode to see who has the skills to be the best artist.

Also coming soon to PS Vita are Treasure Park and Wake-Up Club. Treasure Park is a puzzle-based app that enables you to connect with friends and other PS Vita owners. Using the near application and 3G or Wi-Fi, you can create and find your own puzzles to play, as well as set bombs and traps for your friends to find or try to avoid. Wherever you are, you will have the ability to team up with friends to earn high scores.

Wake-Up Club expands on the PS Vita Alarm Clock by allowing you to sync up with other PS Vita owners who set their alarm for the same time. Wake-Up Club is a great way to make waking up in the morning more interactive with the PS Vita community.

Paint Park, Treasure Park and Wake-Up Club will be available as free downloads via PlayStation Store.

Stay tuned for more updates on the availability of Treasure Park and Wake-Up Club.

PlayStation Vita owners can look forward to a trio of free applications to help you make the most of the handheld console’s unique features, the first of which will be available to download this week, on April 18.

Party harder and faster this Easter with the Carnival Expansion for MotorStorm RC, available beginning Tuesday, April 3rd for $3.99 on PlayStation Store! Take your radio-controlled racing rivalries to the next level as you compete for glory in a carnival park after-hours, battling for PlayStation Trophies and triple-medal status in every event to become champion of the biggest MotorStorm RC Festival to date.

Take on 24 all-new Race, Pursuit, Hot Lap and Drift events, all staged in the Carnival Festival on six extreme racing circuits – with 72 medals to win before you challenge your friends and rivals worldwide to make sure you’re faster than them all on every event! Hunt down four new PlayStation Trophies (Bronze, Silver x2, Gold) on your way to triple-medalling all 24 new events and a Gold Trophy for becoming a super-quick Carnival Champion!

Race and collect eight new vehicle models each with four Carnival-style liveries and also four color scheme choices per livery for a greater level of personalization – that’s 16 designs for each vehicle!

Beach Party / Bite Size: Hold on tight as you take a high speed tour of the carnival attractions and twist and turn around the biggest rides. Not for the faint hearted!
Aquaplane / Splash Down: Get your heart to pound and your adrenaline to pump as you race on the beach sands and prepare to tackle extreme bumps, hairpin turns and dramatic inclines. Watch out for the shark!

Hold your breath and splash the day away as you race through the twisting, winding water slides and drift on the wettest and wildest RC circuits! Do you have what it takes to become a Carnival Champion? Be there first or be the best, then challenge your friends to do better! Expand your RC Collection of off-roaders while you’re there with the special “Weenie” Buggy (it’s a hot dog!) and the FREE “Bumper” Supermini (it’s a bumper car!)

Whether you own the PS3 and/or the PS Vita version, purchasing the Carnival Expansion Pack will automatically give you the other for free! For those of you haven’t had a chance to own your own copy of Motorstorm RC for your PS3, the game is available for $9.99 on the PlayStation Store. And for a limited time only, PS Vita owners can download a complete copy of Motorstorm RC onto their Vitas for FREE, which allows players to race a custom RC version of Scion’s iQ thanks to our partners at Toyota.

Continue to check back here on the PlayStation.Blog for more updates regarding Motorstorm RC. In the meantime, enjoy the Carnival Festival and your Easter break!

Since nobody wants to be the jerk that steps on that poor, innocent snail, we (the fine people at Atlus) are dropping prices on our PlayStation Store library of PSP system titles, not unlike the PS Vita’s undocumented ability to drop smaller articles of sub-clothing. We’re calling it…

Want to own the complete PSP Persona collection, including Persona 3 Portable, which is tied for the second-best-reviewed PSP game of ALL TIME, according to Gamerankings.com? It is now far more affordable to do so. Also getting a drop in price is the very recent Persona 2: Innocent Sin, a stunning handheld remake of one our company’s most highly anticipated games!

Always been a fan of Sting’s series of Dept Heaven RPG and SRPG genre-benders? Perhaps you’ve always been curious to see how Knights in the Nightmare, with its incredibly novel blend of tactical roleplaying and bullet-hell action, looks and plays? Well, for less than half the price of a new console game, you can own every PSP Dept Heaven game we’ve ever released (which should set you up nicely for the upcoming June release of Gungnir for PSP, the next entry in the acclaimed series).

Besides the aforementioned two collections, there’s a terrific mix of other RPGs and even an action game—Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble—that are sure to offer something for every type of gamer.

Whether you’re a PSP system owner who has watched Atlus RPGs from afar, your eyes glued to your pervy game-watching binoculars but your wallet unable to open itself for the cause… Or perhaps you like to spend your evenings making sexy time with the two nubs on your new PS Vita… Now you can dive into a library of critically acclaimed Atlus PSP games that delivers hundreds of hours of deep, compelling RPG adventures and promises to thoroughly satisfy your hardcore gamer cravings.

Here, let us move that snail out of the way for you. Step freely, friends… Step freely.

Hi everybody! This is Jakub from Grip Games, the folks who brought you The Impossible Game, MiniSquadron and One Epic Game. We are back to present you our newest creation – Foosball 2012 for PS3 and PS Vita.

As you have probably guessed – it is a table football (“foosball”) game. The very first one for PlayStation 3 and PS Vita, so we made sure that we packed it up with lots of features and game modes, like various kinds of tables (American style, European style), customizations, ball types and trick shots to keep you entertained and experimenting for hours.

The World Tour single-player mode will let you travel across the globe and challenge AI opponents in nearly 30 locations. More social players can look forward to a local multiplayer for up to four and online multiplayer, where you can match against the rest of the world and rank up to become the table football champion.

PlayStation Move is also supported on PS3. If you own this magic wand, you can control Foosball 2012 exactly like you would control a real table football, with 1:1 movement precision. If you don’t own PS Move, DualShock 3 is also supported and, if you have ever played a football game before, the controls will feel immediately familiar. The PS Vita controls are the same as on the PS3 controller, thanks to the dual analog sticks and touch controls are also supported, if that is your thing.

Foosball 2012 is going to be a lot of fun for everyone – not just fans of table football. It is easy to jump into and enjoy instantaneously, but it also provides a lot of space to truly master your skills and rule the online leaderboards. If you are looking for a game that you won’t put away after a few hours, but a game that will motivate you to keep playing and get better, look no further. And I think that I even don’t have to mention just how fun this game can be when you have a few friends available for a local multiplayer. ;-)

Foosball 2012 will be released for both the PS3 and PS Vita as a downloadable game via the PlayStation Store, and will offer every single Cross Play feature between PS3 and PS Vita that you can think of.

First of all, the game supports cross-platform multiplayer – PS3 players can play against PS Vita players online, and vice versa. Secondly, if you own PS3 and PS Vita, the game automatically synchronizes your save data between both versions. You can start playing the game on your PS3 and then take it on the road with your PS Vita, and start exactly from where you left off.

And the best news of them all: if you buy the PS3 version of Foosball 2012 on either platform then you will be able to play on both platforms at no extra charge. The same applies for any additional purchasable content.

The release is planned for the end of this spring. In the meantime, you can follow the game on Twitter or visit the official website to get all the latest news and also keep checking back on the PlayStation.Blog. I hope to see you all soon online, playing Foosball 2012!