You play as a driller robot who can break blocks apart, pick them up, and reuse them. If you complete a line of blocks, the line gets destroyed a la Tetris.

Our intention is exactly the same than the one we had when we created Tuper Tario Tros. We want to create a unique game experience mixing games elements and mechanics.

The mash-up concept is a popular genre and that’s something we really like because it allows players to see how games that seem different at first can share the same DNA.

- Guillaume Martin and William David, founders of Swing Swing Submarine.

Blocks That Matter will be coming to Xbox LIVE Indie Games in April, followed by a PC/Mac/Linux release shortly thereafter. Expect pricing to be less than $5.

Hype frenzy begins…. NOW.

L.A. Noire consistently impresses with the quality of facial animations, but in this trailer from Rockstart Games and Team Bondi we see how this unprecedented level of realism will be used to help give Cole Phelps insight into the suspects and witnesses with whom he comes into contact.

While watching the gameplay trailers for Capcom’s upcoming iPhone game MaXplosion, it looks like it should be a fun little game. There’s this neat exploding mechanic, you see, which your character can do 3 times in a row before needing a recharge. You use this mechanic to traverse standard platforming levels, blowing apart enemies foolish enough to stand in your way.

Of course there’s just this one niggling little problem. This game, a game wrapped entirely around one mechanic, was released in the summer of ’09.

To say this game resembles Twisted Pixel’s wildly popular and frenetically paced ‘Splosion Man is an understatement… there is no way the planning meeting for this game did not include the phrase “Just go make ‘Splosion Man.”

It gets worse too, as Twisted Pixel CEO Michael Wilford responded on his twitter page:

Best part is, we originally pitched @Splosion_Man to Capcom and they said no.

It’s rare to see anything truly original in modern gaming. Games borrow from one another all the time, and when something works it’s bound to get copied in some capacity. But it is rare to see a major developer unapologetically ripping off a well-known indie game in this way. Hopefully it sells well, and Twisted Pixel nets all the profits when the inevitable lawsuit is resolved.

UPDATE: Guess that lawsuit may not be so inevitable after all. Michael Wilford spoke with Joystiq this evening and shrugged off the idea of filing suit against Capcom:

“While I think the similarities are pretty nauseating, we’re too small to take on a company like Capcom,” said Wilford.

That, and we owe them one for inventing Mega Man, so we’ll let them slide. I just hope they’re not counting on the fact that indies can’t fight back. In general, anything that would take our focus off of making games would be a bad decision, I think. We just need to keep our heads down making the next thing so that Capcom has something to steal next year.”

Our pals over at FrozenByte have been hard at work on the next iteration of Trine if this teaser trailer is anything to go by. And they usually are, which is pretty much the reason we bother watching them and the developers bother releasing them. That’s more or less the whole intent of teaser trailers actually, so I don’t know why I brought it up in the first place.

Anyway Trine 2 is due out sometime next year and is sure to set my console aflame with 3 player online coop.

I call wizard.

Sega released a new trailer today that shows off a few of the myriad enemies you’ll be facing in the upcoming Shinji Mikami gun orgy Vanquish. Anyone who played the demo(s) will be unsurprised to find this trailer contains 100% of your daily requirement of fast paced stylistic gunplay and a giant robot with napalm breath.

Vanquish is slated for an October 19th release date.

The second episode of the freeware fan-made King’s Quest little-series-that-could was released to the interwebs today. Entitled “Two Households”, this episode continues to follow King Graham as he searches to free his children from a magically imposed slumber.

The Silver Lining has been praised widely, but perhaps most impressively it was endorsed by Roberta Williams herself as a true to the series continuation. You can download both the first two episodes for free at the official website.

Today Square Enix announced a new third person shooter exclusive to the 360. Gun Loco takes place on a distant prison planet where the forgotten inmates fight amongst one another in an anarchic society. Gameplay description is surprisingly vague, but so far it’s looking like Twisted Metal…. without cars.

Featuring unique third-person, sprint-action shooter gameplay, players can assume the roles of a variety of unique and memorable characters in a game that redefines the run-and-gun shooter. While pursuing and being pursued by their opponents, players must make use of the sprint-action play by running, jumping, ducking and vaulting, using the environments to their advantage.

Ok so maybe Brink meets Twisted Metal… without cars.

Shinji Mikami is probably best known as the brains behind the Resident Evil series, but he’s had his influence on more motion oriented Capcom franchises in the past like Viewtiful Joe and Devil May Cry as part of the highly revered and sorely missed Clover Studios. Vanquish is his first game with Platinum Games, the Bayonetta developer he helped found in 2006, and it looks to take that frenzied motion up a notch.

Set in the near future, Vanquish imagines the US and Russia in a fierce battle for Earth’s remaining natural resources. Not content to keep this war cold, Russia wipes out San Fransisco with a space laser. Now only one man can storm the space station and save the day! Pro tip: It’s you!

Vanquish will release on October 19, 2010 on PS3 and Xbox 360

Today EA announced a new game coming Fall 2010. As you can see in the trailer above, Create looks to be a playground challenge type game obviously inspired by LittleBigPlanet. Lacking in the trailer above is any cute adorable face of this engine, a la Sackboy and company.

“Create uses families’ imaginations to develop new ways to play together that are both fun and challenging,” said Harvey Elliott, VP and General Manager at EA Bright Light. “We wanted to design a game where the entire family can explore, decorate, and solve challenges where no solution is wrong and the only limit is the imagination.”

For those new to the industry, the keyword here appears to be “family”.