We will refrain from the bullish assumption that everyone (and their mother) owns an iPhone, but if you do and have played Critter Crunch, Ubisoft's upcoming Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes may look a tad familiar. That's because Critter Crunch and Clash of Heroes are developed by the same team -- Toronto's Capybara Games -- and both feature a similar look and puzzle style.

Something that won't be familiar when watching the trailer for Clash of Heroes is excitement for a Might & Magic title. While Ubisoft has attempted to revamp the license in various ways over the years, Capybara's simple puzzle adventure feels like a step in the right direction for the franchise. Also, it doesn't help that every character in Clash of Heroes is adorable -- another trademark of Capybara Games, it would seem.

Listen, Ubisoft. You're taking your flagship stealth franchise in a decidedly un-stealthy direction -- we get that. We got it at E3 when you showed us the game's high-octane gunfights during the Microsoft press conference, and we certainly got it when you showed us hobo-Sam blowing up hot dog carts in a crowded park. Don't you think you're pushing the message a tad hard by making the pre-order bonus for Splinter Cell: Conviction an in-game semi-automatic shotgun? That's like, the least stealthy weapon in the world.

From the gameplay we've seen, it looks like players will be able to choose between stealth and brute force -- why not throw a free sneaky-themed weapon in there as well? Maybe a prison shank? A garrote? Or perhaps love -- the sneakiest weapon of them all. Yeah, man. That's deep.

[Via Destructoid]

Ah, snowboarding in the middle of summer -- well, on a screen and using a Wii Balance Board at least. Our recent trip to Ubisoft provided a brief opportunity to get our feet snowy with the Wii-only sequel to Shaun White Snowboarding and, well, the experience was familiar.

The biggest difference: new events in various parts of the world. One we were able to take a crack at was a half-pipe run in New York City's Times Square. The Balance Board control felt great, apart from the act of jumping, which required us to quickly dig our heels into the board rather than, y'know, lifting them off of it. The game really didn't like it when we tried that.

In the first of a series of developer diaries for Assassin's Creed 2, Ubisoft Montreal team members delve into the backstory of Ezio -- the game's newest assassin. Originally from a family of wealth and opportunity, Ezio is pushed into a vengeful quest when his family is threatened by people they once called friends. Set against the backdrop of a 15th Century Italy, Ezio continues the original title's story of exploring the bloodline of Desmond -- a man in the modern world forced to jump into the bloodied shoes of his ancestors through the use of a machine known as the Animus.

We're walking into Assassin's Creed 2 with a lot of questions (namely, will it stay fresh between assassinations?), but we're excited to find out the answers. Sadly, we may have to wait much longer than we anticipated for some of our queries to be addressed.

Since it was first revealed that members of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl team were crafting Ubisoft's new TMNT brawler, the expectation has been that it will be a total SSBB play-alike. From our time with it at last week's UbiNintendo day, we can confirm that there are similarities, but, if anything, it's more like "SSBB lite."

The four-player, multi-tiered arena aspect is there, for sure, but the complexity of the controls (and, with it, the number of moves and weapon pick-ups) has been dialed back a few clicks. At the same time, the pacing and presentation has been turned up, making for an extremely frantic experience.

Since their introduction in the minigame compilation, Rayman: Raving Rabbids, the title characters of Ubisoft's latest Rayman spin-off (a platformer!) have been among the least psychologically stable game characters ever. This is reflected in nearly every nuance of Rabbids Go Home, from the sadistic "inside the Wiimote" bonus mode to the piloting of a stolen jet engine through an airport terminal.

That first bit we mentioned is a detailed interior of a Wii Remote, which reacted to every twist and button press of the real one in our hands during a recent demo of the game. Inside the Wiimote: a Rabbid, subject to all manner of mishandling as we slammed it this way and that before inflating one of its eyes, deflating one of its ears, sticking a squid on its head and diving into the game proper.

We stopped by Ubisoft's San Francisco offices late last week to spend more time with its upcoming Nintendo platform lineup. Although we'd played many of the same games -- at the same stage of development -- during E3, now was the time to really focus on details. So, first up was Red Steel 2, a game that initially had us smitten with its manga-esque East-meets-West visual style, but failed to impress once we took hold of its controls.

So, once again, we were faced with the extremely short demo / gameplay primer Ubisoft had created for last month's trade show. This second look didn't leave us any more enamored with the mix of sword slashing and pistol shooting, but we were able to get a better idea of exactly what didn't feel right. At the same time, we came away even more impressed by the game from a visual standpoint than when we'd first seen it in action.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up doesn't just remind of another famous Nintendo franchise with the word Smash in the cover, now it's got the same style of cameos going on. The Tanooki took note of two different Rabbids that will make an appearance in the melee brawler.

The first Rabbid appears to be a standard insanitus bunnykin, while the other is a Sam Fisher Rabbid. The characters surely have their own fighting styles and special moves. Check out the video after the break.

Earlier today, Ubisoft announced its continuing Canadian expansion, with a new studio being established in the province of Ontario's capital city of Toronto. In a joint announcement with the Premier (his actual title) of Ontario, Ubi revealed the studio will have about 800 employees, while the government is committing $263 million in funding over the next decade. We spoke with Ubisoft Montreal CEO (and newly formed Ubisoft Toronto boss), Yannis Mallat, about his plans for the company why Toronto was "culturally" the right place for Ubisoft to expand its development reach.

After finishing and loving Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, I was so smitten that I went back and dug out the original, which I had never played. After a couple of hours, I switched it off, fueled by a gross combination of frustration and boredom. It's then that it occurred to me that BiB, while not perfect, is a great example of how best to make a sequel to a flawed product.

1. Ditch what doesn't work: In Bound in Blood -- a prequel to the original cowboy FPS -- what's most notable is perhaps what hasn't made the journey from the original game. There's no more crummy fisticuffs, no more holstering your irons to do a special move, no using a whip for frustrating platforming and no weapons that fall apart after use.

Developer Techland has, as William Faulkner suggested, killed their little darlings, and the Juarez followup is so much the better for it. If something you treasure was left by the wayside, I apologize. I can, however, assure that it was, in fact, terrible, and you were wrong to like it. Wrong.

Having already built successful strongholds in Quebec, Vancouver and Montreal, Ubisoft will reportedly continue its fiendish occupation of Canada by building a studio in the heart of Toronto as part of an agreement with the Ontario government to create more digital-age jobs in the area.

The focus of the studio, the number of jobs it will bring to Ontario and projects it will be tasked with developing are still unknown, though Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat are expected to make a detailed formal announcement later today. Heck, we don't even know what the new studio will be called -- hopefully it'll break from the "Ubisoft + Territory Name" formula the company has used so many times in the past. C'mon, guys! Get original!

Update: Sure enough, McGuinty and Mallat's press conference pulled the veil off of Ubisoft Toronto (ugh!), a new studio which will open up 800 new jobs to the area over the next decade. The new studio will be headed up by Mallat himself, and "will work on Triple-A games" as well as "build on the city's existing experience with the film production industry." Ubisoft has been boasting its digital effects work in films lately -- this new studio will likely lend even more pizzazz to Canadian-made movies. We've got an interview scheduled with Mallat later today, so stay tuned for more specific details.

Splinter Cell: Conviction will take 12 hours to complete on normal says the game's creative director, Maxime Beland, in the latest issue of OXM. There will certainly be a harder difficultly level for folks that are into trial and error for 30 hours, but the "normal gamers" will get a well-sized adventure. Beland says this was done because he wants people to actually finish the game. That's quite a good idea.

Also, at around 12 hours of gameplay, Badass: The Game won't wear out its welcome -- if it keeps the action going. Of course, there'll be multiplayer to extend the experience, but we likely won't be able to crack skulls in urinals there ... or maybe we will, which would then confirm Splinter Cell as game of the year.

[Via 1UP]