Everything old is new again, and AtariAge now has the freshly created AtariVox speech/sound synthesizer for the Atari 2600 and 7800 available for sale. As the site explains: "The AtariVox plugs into the second joystick port of the Atari 2600 or 7800 and can be accessed by games and other programs to add unlimited-vocabulary speech and sound effects." Even better, the new homebrew Atari 2600 title Man Goes Down and Paul Slocum's latest music project, LoopCart, an extension of his excellent SynthCart, are both taking advantage of the new peripheral. Just don't go Berzerk, OK?
Sometimes it's easy to forget about odd, European-exclusive PlayStation 2 titles, and here's a prime example - ITE's Hugo Cannon Cruise. If you check the gameplay movie for the game, which was released in continental Europe in October, you'll see a jaunty kids' nautical 3D shooter, with a not-unreasonable game engine. This latest title in the Hugo dynasty was even localized into Turkish (Hugo the troll is normally an interactive television star, in a 'phone up the TV station and press buttons on your phone to control him' style, and apparently massive in Turkey.) Oh, and check out the company's somewhat diverting video presentation to find out what really makes Hugo, uhm, 'come alive'.
News: Suchie Pai returns in spirit with Tenho Painyan
Just out for the PS2 on the 28th of this month is the spiritual successor to Jaleco's classic mahjong series Suchie Pai: Chuuka na Janshi Tenho Painyan. The game, set in Meiji Tokyo rather than Suchie Pai's modern setting, is a single-player, one-on-one mahjong game that includes just about as many fan-pleasing additional mechanics as should be allowable by law: multiple characters that join your cause after you defeat them, a slot machine that can grant rulebreaking in-game help, magical-girl-style transformations, and the sort of post-victory shenanigans you usually find in a mahjong game like this. Just as with the Suchie Pai series, well-known character designer Kenichi Sonoda provided designs for this game, and key voice actors from the previous series have returned as well. The game was developed by Sea's Splash and PCCW-offshoot MyHarvest, published by GeneX, and distributed by Cyber Front. The regular edition of the game is available for 7140 yen, and a Collector's Edition (which includes a music CD and drama CD) is 9240 yen. Softbank Games have a feature on the game that includes several videos and wallpapers.
Falcom's fabled music team JDK have returned with a new album. Titled "The Songs of Zemeth," the album will be a collection of vocal arrangements of songs from Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim. Falcom's update on the album states that the styles present on the album will include the band's characteristic stylish hard rock, as well as fully-orchestrated pieces, J-pop, Latin American folk music, and more.
Game Watch has a promotional video of Asmik Ace's PS2 port of Falcom's popular PC Simulation RPG - VM Japan. Looks like a better port than Ys Eternal, at least. The game will release on the third of february for 6,800 yen.
Here's a silly flash, originally linked by iggy on the mmc, which goes through the final battle of Final Fantasy V, but with game consoles instead of characters. Rather funny if you speak japanese...might even be funny if you don't! He also did a Sega Fantasy IV which is not quite up to par.
Riviera has been released on the GBA for almost a month now. The game is ported from an original wonderswan (Swan Crystal) title from Sting. Characters have been redrawn, voice has been added, but unfortunately the attacks and spells remain at the Swan Crystal level of graphical appeal, rather than making the jump to transparency. Regardless, it's quite a good game, with an excellent story, and it has a slim to nil chance of making it to the US (voice acting in a GBA game kills its chances), so you might want to pick it up if you're feeling rich. I have some impressions of the game in the forums.
Two discs have been released alongside the game - the Prelude Disc, which has CG images as well as minigames and an arranged song, and the Introduction Disc which contains a soundtrack, and was released in game stores. This coming Comiket (67), they will release the Epilogue Disc, containing voice drama, staff info, and lots of other bits.
The Taisen Hot Gimmick mahjong series is coming to the Type X in the form of Taisen Hot Gimmick Mix Party, which will allow the player to choose from all four of the existing THG games. There's a new multi-ending story mode, and while multiplayer is mentioned, it's not explicitly stated as being net play. It would be a good move given the technology they have, so perhaps it will be included. The game is planned for a late january release in japanese arcades.
In related news, the Oshioki Box has been released in japan for PC - also a compilation of the first for THG titles, but with additional CG. The first page is moderately worksafe, but clicking thereafter is iffy.
News: 'Lost' Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy game
Over at somewhat canonical Douglas Adams site Planet Magrathea, there's a history of the 'lost' Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy PC video game, in development from around 1998-2002, but stymied after Adams' tragic death and subsequent loss of funding for the developers, Phase 3 Studios/PAN Interactive. There's an excellent game timeline, as well as some rather smart concept art, and as an added bonus, you can check out the latest HHGTTG movie news on the site's front page.
Official page for Raiden 3 (on the Type X) is now live at Moss. New images abound. Gameplay remains essentially the same, with a button for shot, and one for bomb. There's a new(?) point multiplier though, based on your proximity to explosions, and when playing two-player, there's a shot-down ratio and winner determined.
At the bonus maps section of Blizzard's official Warcraft III site, they've got a special new Xmas present - 'Azeroth Grand Prix', which, as you may surmise from the cheeky logo, is a 'tribute' to Super Mario Kart, entirely playable via Battle.net in the Warcraft III engine. Nice spiky kart designs too, oddly reminiscent of terminally strange, tragically cancelled Warhammer 40k-themed Gorkamorka racing game for PC, which was itself, we kid you not, "based upon the Jeff Gordon Racing Engine."
Over at Game Watch, there's news that top-down 2D robot blaster Baldr Force EXE is coming to PlayStation 2 on March 31st, 2005 in Japan, following its Dreamcast debut in October. There's both a deluxe version for 9,240 yen and a standard edition for 7,140 yen, and IC/NFG's Lawrence had some useful impressions of Alchemist's DC version, originally converted from a (more-hentai) PC original.
The FlexArcade business alerted me to this game: Platypus. It's a side-scrolling shooter with clay graphics. In fact, all of Squashy Software's games (all two of them) are clay-based. There's a demo of Platypus on the linked page, so give it a try.
FlexArcade is another PC-based arcade cabinet (this one is local to the US, put out by TLC industries) - but what's interesting about this one is that most of the game packages for the platform are from indie groups. Jets n' Guns is in there for example. Check out the full list.
Odd japanese game company of the day: Altron. They're quite unusual - they do conversions, largely, the majority of these being for US publishers, using US licenses. They did the GBA Virtua Tennis, for example, and Finding Nemo as well. Earlier in their career, they did Cleopatra Fortune for DC and PS, as well as a number of other Taito properties. They also have three previously unannounced (to my knowledge) DS titles in the works, all based off of US licenses. The oddest part - no english version of the website. Check here for their catalog.
Location testing of Cave's latest shooting game, Ibara, has begun today in Akihabara Hey. Not much is known at the moment, but seems it won't be the first Cave game for Taito's Type-X system, since AMI is again behind the distribution. This is the source and here are the first pics thanks to Guest from Click-Stick boards.
Game Watch has a report from the KOF 10th year anniversary party. Several events took place, including a talk show with the voice actors of Kyô, Iori and Athena, and a small tournament for KOF 94 Rebout.
The biggest announcement was made by Falcoon: it's now official, there won't be any KOF 2004. But neither MI nor NeoWave were intended to replace it; the sequel to the Ash Crimson arc is still in development and will be released when it is ready.
The reason why the title was pushed back is that SNKP is currently focusing on Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, "jointly with Sammy".
Sega Logistic Service will release, on the 17th of February, a Neo Geo Stick-shaped controller for PS2. The announcement was made at the KOF anniversary party on the 22nd.
Like the Neo Geo Pad released with KOF 94 Re Bout, the stick will have 4 more buttons to suit the PS2 layout. Unfortunately, unlike the pad, the stick's new buttons seem quite unpractical, and games using more than 4 buttons (like the SNKP games released on AW) might not play very well with the new setup. On the other hand, the old Neo Geo games soon to be re-released on PS2 (KOF, Last Blade or Garô) should get the best out of the stick.
Atlus has recently revealed a North American release for the SRPG Stella Deus - it's arguably one of the most ambitious SRPGs ever made, and is well loved by both public and media in Japan since its release just two months ago. This might not be surprising since Stella Deus' staff is composed by names such as Ryo 'Lodoss Tou Senki' Mizuno, Shigeki 'Soul Hackers' Soejima or Hitoshi 'Final Fantasy Tactics' Sakimoto. RPGamer has some nice screenshots and artwork sets to celebrate.
- Zepy at Canned Dogs points out sample tracks from Shanghai Alice's music CD "Yumetagaekagakuseiki", to be sold at Comiket 67 on the 29th-30th December.
Konami has announced a port of beatmania IIDX 9th Style for the PlayStation 2. The release date is set for 3/24/2005, only four months after the release of the previous game in the PS2 series, beatmania IIDX 8th Style.
Sony's PSP is out, has been for more than a week now. But for all its gadget appeal and ultra-good looks, the system seems to have been saddled with an alarming number of hardware design flaws. If it pleases you to do so, you can read a NFG Games PSP mini-review - the stories you've heard are true. Also, by request, an NFG DS mini-review.
A bit of sad news, though it broke on friday. Unity, Jeff Minter's wacky shooting/light machine/variousness game for Gamecube, has been cancelled. Here are some words from the Yak's mouth on the subject. Likely it was just not financially viable, but it's a serious blow for shooter fans, especially those in the west.
Bibleman! The Videogame! Can you resist it!? Covenant Studios is bringing the popular christian childrens show to the PC and mac, sighting that "The market for action adventure Christian video games aimed at a target audience of children 6 to 12 is virtually untapped," and right they are. Apparently, once they've put a finished product on the market, the group will begin looking to get licensed by Sony and Microsoft. Anyone who has a link to the official press release for this should write in.
Aiko 3.0 is a simple 3D model creator, specifically tuned to aid in the construction of 3D anime girls. Theoretically these could be used for animation, or something of the like, but it strikes as perhaps a bit more of a fapping tool than anything. Not that there's anything wrong with that inherently, and it is free. If anyone can manage to make anything interesting with it, why not post it on the forums? It wouldn't kill you.
Over at the official Independent Games Festival website, they've announced the finalists for the 2005 IGF Awards, to be presented at next March's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Highlights include Chronic Logic's great physics-based 2D platformer, Gish, the ninja-tastic N, the smart online CCG Star Chamber, and a bunch of other intriguing titles. The finalists were announced just after DIYGames and GameTunnel published a comprehensivejoint guide to every single game entered into the IGF this year.
Billed as the first of fifteen NRA-licensed videogame titles, NRA Varmint Hunter promises the ultimate varmint hunting experience. A quote from the release informs us that: "With the help and close cooperation of The Varmint Hunters Association, the game is as realistic as possible and offers a great introduction into this fast growing sport. [clip] Players can shoot both eastern and western varmints in their natural terrains." The whole release is worth reading, really...you can get it at the Speedco site. Upcoming games in the pipeline include NRA Handgun Shooter, NRA Waterfowl Hunter and NRA Scatter Gunning. Remember, users who purchased the product (Varmint Hunter) from the Speedco site also purchased Hot Pepper Cheese Snack Sticks beef products!
Clueless about those strange Japanese visual novels and ero-games that we often post about? Fear not! Wikipedia has just the thing for you, as today's featured article is the fascinating subject of bishoujo game. Did you know that Enix released a game called Lolita Syndrome 1983? You would have if you read this entry!
You've likely seen it by now, but play asia has photos, impressions and movies of the PSP they won in the niigata earthquake benefit auction. Rather a cool way to get one, as well. While you're at it, might as well check out the Pump it Up PS2 videos and impressions as well.
Bit of an odd one. Steer Madness is an animal rights PC game, apparently, from new Canadian developer veggie games. Here's a bit from the press release: "Featuring a cow who's got more than a few things to be mad about, players of the game find themselves breaking into cosmetics labs to rescue rabbits, hijacking chicken transport trucks to save chickens from slaughter, and overall converting an entire city to vegetarian at a rate that even the Meat Marketing Board can't keep up with."
You can deliver soy milk in this game. That should say it all. Check out a movie here. Decent music in there.
Fren-zE is a new vertically scrolling shooter, made by an acquaintance of matt of hermit games. It's for PAL users only right now, as it can be accessed this way (quoting matt): "Buy the latest Official Playstation Magazine #54, hold down L1, L2, R1, R2 on the menu, goto Comedown section, select Fren-zE." Check the original llamasoft forum post about the game for more info and images. Thanks to AtarianALLstar for the news.
Aquaplus finally breaks the silence by updating its website with To Heart 2's release date: December 28th. Zepy helpfully notes that this is the day before winter Comiket. As for what that means...well... who knows?
Those insane guys at insani and the similarly insane peeps at Ayashii Gamesubs and Ero-Shift maintain insanity spirit with an insane release of another h-game demo translation, for Majipuri -Wonder Cradle-. Break out the obscure Japanese game knowledge along with your BitTorrent client because, as one translator describes, "...it's packed with more video game references than you'll EVER find..."
Another interview from Brandon is up on Gamasutra, this time (free reg. req.) talking to Boston-headquartered Cecropia Inc., a 30-person developer using some Florida-based ex-Disney 2D animators to make an entirely 2D game apparently trying to "synthesize storytelling and gaming." It initially sounds somewhat like a classic LucasArts-style adventure game, but founder Omar Khudari says: "Our [gameplay] structure has much more in common with Donkey Kong than it does with that" - there's direct control of in-game characters. Anyhow, lots of secretive talk, and no mention of target platform just yet, but some really nice art - it's due out in 2005.
Melty Blood Act Cadenza now has a website. [This is the Naomi arcade port of the ever-notable Melty Blood PC doujin fighter.] The official site is still pretty skimpy at this time, but it shows that work is still being done on the game.
Everything old is new again, and AtariAge now has the freshly created 
Sometimes it's easy to forget about odd, European-exclusive PlayStation 2 titles, and here's a prime example - ITE's 
Just out for the PS2 on the 28th of this month is the spiritual successor to Jaleco's classic mahjong series Suchie Pai: 
Falcom's fabled music team JDK have returned with a new album. Titled "The Songs of Zemeth," the album will be a collection of vocal arrangements of songs from Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim. Falcom's 
Game Watch has a 
Riviera has been 
The Taisen Hot Gimmick mahjong series is 
Over at somewhat canonical Douglas Adams site Planet Magrathea, there's a 
Official page for Raiden 3 (on the Type X) is now 
At the 
The FlexArcade business alerted me to this game: 
Location testing of Cave's latest shooting game, Ibara, has begun today in Akihabara Hey. Not much is known at the moment, but seems it won't be the first Cave game for Taito's Type-X system, since AMI is again behind the distribution. 
Atlus has recently revealed a North American release for the SRPG Stella Deus - it's arguably one of the most ambitious SRPGs ever made, and is well loved by both public and media in Japan since its release just two months ago. This might not be surprising since Stella Deus' staff is composed by names such as Ryo 'Lodoss Tou Senki' Mizuno, Shigeki 'Soul Hackers' Soejima or Hitoshi 'Final Fantasy Tactics' Sakimoto. RPGamer has some 
Konami has 
Billed as the first of fifteen NRA-licensed videogame titles, NRA Varmint Hunter promises the ultimate varmint hunting experience. A quote from the release informs us that: "With the help and close cooperation of The Varmint Hunters Association, the game is as realistic as possible and offers a great introduction into this fast growing sport. [clip] Players can shoot both eastern and western varmints in their natural terrains." The whole release is worth reading, really...you can get it at the 
You've likely seen it by now, but play asia has 
Bit of an odd one. 
Fren-zE is a new vertically scrolling shooter, made by an acquaintance of matt of 
Another interview from Brandon is up on Gamasutra, this time (free reg. req.) 
