According to a PDF press release, Empire Interactive is putting together a second Taito Legends compilation, different from the Taito Memories comps in Japan. The first Taito Legends, made by Empire for the european market, had 29 games, and has been licensed by Sega for the US. The second disc will have 'up to 40', meaning that combined, these comps will have over a dozen more games than the Japanese versions. Most curious!
Prophet noticed an update to the AnB site, makers of the very pretty Wanna Be Wizard for GP32, which notes two new games, which may be for mobile phones only, but could transfer over to one of the new GP platforms. The Other Tennis League looks particularly nice.
OK, we're a little late on this one, stay your anger! Apparently Nippon Ichi has planned a direct sequel to Disgaea, though this one will be hex-based. The game will be coming in 2006, and you can check out the preliminary official site here. At least we know the Prinny is in!
Eric-Jon noticed this piece of amazon hilarity. It's a Spyware blocker "from Activision", that is theoretically compatible with Windows NT / 98 / 95 / XP, and........Sega Saturn. This spyware is rated E, appropriate for those 6 and older, so don't let your five year old get ahold of this one.
It was bound to happen: some doujin group got inspired by Namco X Capcom and produced its own insane dream match. Syunpu Teikobo and Mirai Tekikuukan have united their forces to produce DataEast X SunSoft, a cross-over which is an undeniable proof of good taste from the creators. Right now it's "only" a fantastic movie which you can download on their site through numerous mirrors, but one can only hope the net reaction will drive them into trying to make it a complete game - although the work to accomplish would be of titanic proportions. The names of most featured series are given away in the vid, but note some really cool hidden references and cameos such as Ruth from Crude Busters, the ox from Fighter's History Dynamite, Chelnov facing "Chelnov MD", the checkered background of Death Blade, Tantei Saburou Jinguuji's tobacco jokes or Albert holding a "Hero's Sword" made of wood. Found on the IC boards.
You might recall that a mere handful of days ago, and moments before Myst V: End of Ages was released, Rand Miller of Cyan Worlds was forced to fire every single person who worked for him, with the exception of one other person. Cyan was to go into hibernation until he figured something out. Well, he's figured something out now and hired back almost everyone he just fired. So all right then. Save those tears for another day!
Drill is a doujin shooter for Dreamcast that we already talked about last june. The game has been produced by some of the guys behind the popular french site www.shmup.com and, after two years of development, a public demo will be released on the 30th of september on the game's website. They are even trying to release it at precisely midnight tonight, which is 11:00PM GMT and therefore a few hours away as I write this post. To celebrate the launch of the demo, there should be some BGM (produced by Onosendai) avaiable for download as well, and some character art can be found here. I think it would not hurt to stress again that Drill is a Dreamcast game, hence do not complain to us if you cannot manage to run the demo on your computer.
The TGS trailers for The King of Fighters: Another Day and Max Impact 2 are now up on SNK Playmore's site. Go watch 'em! They're pretty nifty. Note Kyo's expression about 1:07 in, when he's defending against Alba's zappy fist. He didn't see that coming!
Likewise, the pre-rendered Max Impact stuff is a bit more nuanced and advanced than in the first game. Still a little weird-looking, but that's okay. You can see the new parrying system about 1:50 in.
Video games, performance art, and potential danger come together once again with Dance Dance Immolation. Its just like DDR, except with flame-throwers! Perform well and you light up the sky, but do poorly and your face is hit with fire.
Seems very similar to Tekken Torture Tournament from a few years back where folks played Tekken 3 while hooked up to electrodes. Every hit delivered in game would result in a jarring, yet non-lethal electric shock for the player.
Indeed! There is now an insert credit wiki! Not much there now, but that's what wikis are for, I suppose - community interaction. So, head on over, and make with the data! Incidentally, if you really like someone else's description of a term, like the eroge thing we linked last week, please ask before you steal. But stealing is fine, with permission! It's login-only right now, just so we only get the serious folks. Enjoy, and let's make this a nice resource, eh? Thanks to Lawrence for setting it up, and vince for figuring out how to use it, sort of. I put something of a sample page up there, so try to follow the same format.
Update! For those of you having trouble registering (the database keeps going down, not for the wiki, but for sending confirmation and password emails), there's a support page now. And if you haven't looked at the wiki since I first linked it, it's already evolved quite a bit!
It's nice to find that someone has put in the effort to compile almost every cameo, ripoff and motif used by Japanese video-games from filmic industry. Hollywood movies, aside from Japanese animation, were indeed the first resource for gaming themes back in the 80s. and this site shows it with passion. Even if it's in Japanese, it contains lots of illustrated examples. A per-kana index is located here and the per-game page is this. Enjoy.
Thoguh there's not much up now, Konami has a new English home page up for the Castlevania series. Nice atmosphere and music! Worth soaking in for a few seconds, even if there's nothing in particular to to read yet.
Thanks to Manekineko and Psiga on the forums for pointing this out: a surgical tool with a videogame-like interface, where the surgeon manipulates tools in 3D virtual space. From the official site: ”Powered by state-of-the-art robotic technology, the surgeon’s hand movements are scaled, filtered and seamlessly translated into precise movements of the EndoWrist Instruments. The net result: an intuitive interface with breakthrough surgical capabilities.” Looks more like a proctology instrument to me.
From Software's Adventure Maker for PSP is now getting some of the promised downloadable games for sale on From's nouten site. Thanks to jiji, via simoniker.
Here's a nice japanese blog, which tends to focus on D3's simple series, but also branches into things like Londonian Gothics and Screw Breaker. Worth a look, as it sometimes has some decent digicam pics. Thanks to jiji for finding it.
An actual saturn-playable demo of Sonic-Xtreme has been sold via Frank Cifaldi, on the Assembler forums. Apparently the demo sold for over $3,000, considering that it's the only known demo in existence. Very unlikely that this will be shared with the community, as one would assume the buyer wouldn't want to devalue the purchase... While you're at it, take another look at Secrets of Sonic Team, which has tons of great info on sonic prototypes, glitches, and hidden data.
EA released a roster update for madden '06, but had to recall it - why? It made one player, Michael King of the New York Jets, seven inches tall. Check the gaming-age forums for screenshots. (He's the little white dot in the screenshot left.)
Not to make this 'all Gama, all the time', but some of you may not have spotted IC uber-ally Frank Cifaldi's two regular columns for biz site Gamasutra, 'Catching Up With' (a more polite version of "Where Are They Now?", Spinal Tap fans), and 'Media Consumption' (dealing with what media game professionals have been, uhh, consuming.)
Anyhow, there's been a lot of updates to the column recently: the rather fun/educative 'Catching Up With' just got a hold of The Fat Man (infamous old The 7th Guest musician), and before that found Ted Woolsey (Final Fantasy translator), David Siller (veteran Aero The Acrobat creator), Dan Kramer (Atari trackball designer), Will Harvey (Zany Golf creator), Howard Scott Warshaw (Yars' Revenge, E.T. for the Atari 2600), Steve Purcell (saintly Sam & Max creator), Al Lowe (captain of the Leisure Suit Larry sloop), and Paul Reiche III (Archon, Star Control creator).
Meanwhile, 'Media Consumption' has also extracted important cultural information on currently favored music, books, DVDs, films, and even games from various creators, including God Of War's David Jaffe, WayForward's Abbie Goldsmith, comic/game writer Paul Jenkins, Death Jr's Chris Charla, Tilted Mill's Keith Zizza, The Godfather's Jenny Ryu, Puzzle Pirates' Daniel James, Treyarch's Jamie Fristrom, Sony Japan's Gregg Tavares, Lionhead's Tadhg Kelly, Double Fine supremo Tim Schafer, and Alien Hominid's mighty fine Dan Paladin. These columns are much fun for of the reading - watch for more.
As you may have heard, there's a new SP on the market, with a backlit LCD screen. Some speculate that this could simply be because LCDs are just coming backlit by default now, but regardless, this is now the ultimate original Game Boy playing device (since the Micro can't play GB/GBC). What's the difference? S:NGP's Comic-Kaze has taken a video, linked here, comparing Iridion II. on both old and new SPs simultaneously. Colors are apparently a bit oversaturated, which was something developers compensated for earlier on (as seen with the multiple display modes for Final Fantasy Tactics), and the new SP is a bit heavier than the old one.
Another Gamasutra interview, this one with Greg Ballard of Glu, a mobile game company. This one will be of particular interest to insert credit readers, because he was formerly COO of Digital Pictures, and President of Capcom in the US. Therein, he tells us once and for all why Biohazard is called something else in the US. Choice quote: "Digital Pictures was not my worst career experience, but close to it. It felt like I was on a Greyhound bus, and the rest of the world was flying on a jet."
Eyezmaze, creator of various games linked on ic in the past (Tontie, Grow), has a new game called Grow Cube, which is excellent. There's also Grow RPG in there, which we never linked. Give him a donation if you like it - this is flash-based, but still a doujin game (japanese developed), and not commercially funded.
There's a new image of the 95% complete GPX2 design over at emuholic, mirrored left. They also have a pic of a silver prototype, and a FAQ which includes all that's known about the console thus far. Thanks to Prophet.
A new company has formed - Xseed, which has been bubbling in the sidelines since the 2004 departure of several higher-level Square USA employees, disgruntled with the Squenix merger (as mentioned below). The new company, which includes ex square USA president Jun Iwasaki, will be publishing Wild Arms 4 and Shadow Hearts 3 in the US. Could be a company to watch.
Taito's full year-end financials are out, and very long, with lots of pictures. Turns out the takeover by Squenix is indeed going through, for better or for worse. Neither company will change their name, but with the way Square is bleeding high-level employees due to Enix's over-management, who knows what will happen.
feature: project ffdog volume five, final fantasy vii review
September 22, 2005, 01:08 PM
by tim, via team FFDog, square-enix, dr. pepper - [permalink]
Hello. It's me, Tim Rogers. This marks the first post I've ever made on insertcredit.com's front page. Isn't that mysterious? Why did it take me so long? Who knows.
Anyway, I'm coming to you today to link you to Project FFDog: Volume Five, which covers the theme of "Final Fantasy VII: A Game For the Proletariat, By the Bourgeoisie." It is a serious matter. The lecture begins as soon as you click here. Bring a notepad and a tall glass of Dr. Pepper. Your professors Tim Rogers and Doug Jones will be tag-teaming for four hours. So do pay attention.
. . . Oh, who am I kidding? It's utter nonsense. It's screaming, horrific, complete, and utter nonsense. Though some of you find it funny to watch such nonsense, and find it even funnier to email me hatemail, saying you're going to find me and kill me if I don't put up FFDog V now, or else saying that you're going to find me and kill me if I do. So here it is. Laugh, if you will laugh, and don't, if you will don't.
Nintendo/Namco's Super Mario Stadium got two stars and featured a goomba levitating a bat, and . . . well, there are some more reviews on there, too. Those are just the ones I remember.
As for Tokyo Game Show -- well. I went! And I would have to say that Dead Rising was my game of the show. I liked it very much. Goku Makaimura had some terrible control issues, which was heartbreaking. Jump Superstars was great as well, though it wasn't exactly at the show. It was on Aderack and Brandon's DS's; they each bought it immediately after stepping out of Ueno Station on the way into Tokyo from the airport. What a couple of dorks!! . . . Well, I think I'm going to buy it this week, just to use my points at the massive Akiba-Yodobashi, the world's largest electronics store, which just opened last Friday. It's double-points until tomorrow. Which is a national holiday (do you know which one?), which means the place is going to be stuffed. Hmm. Maybe I should go tonight. Aw, hell.
This paragraph is an apology to Chazumaru that my favorite, most-personality-filled Saizeriya in Tokyo (that being the one in West Ikebukuro) had completely changed its seating arrangement and was no longer fun to be in. To think that schoolgirl-scoping threads on 2channel used to call it "the best place to consistently see the realest schoolgirls in Japan." Then last week, all of a sudden, the drink bar is fizzy Pepsi and not flat Coke, and all the booths are gone, replaced with little round tables with low-backed chairs. Hmm. Such is decadence. We did see two old salarymen drinking wine, and more wine bottles on tables than I've ever seen at every Saizeriya I've ever been to combined (which is a lot). So comes the autumn menu; a "bikkuri size" bottle of wine is only 1,059 yen, which is half what the same size bottle used to cost, before they called it "bikkuri size." (That means "surprise size," which sounds cool in English as well.) The cheap wine is to, according to staff, help customers cope with the fading of youth. Saizeriya is still a hell of a place to play Jump Superstars wireless.
The few images in the Final Fantasy VII review are drawn by Persona-Sama, who will no doubt be eager to get the rest in to me when he sees I've linked him on the front page here. In closing, look at this picture of a Goomba with a baseball bat he did for my Mario Stadium review:
Isn't that just classic? And yeah, it was I who told him to put the "zugyuuun" in there. And yes, I know "zugyuun" isn't the sound a ball makes against a wooden bat -- it's the sound a gunshot makes in a manga in which violence is stylized yet not flambuoyant. Well, it works for this piece, so . . .!!
So yeah, the point of all this: Final Fantasy VII review is here, and the Project FFDog Volume Five feature is right here. My insertcredit.com exclusive review of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (which Famitsu ran a "strategy guide" for last week, basically explaining all the relationships between the characters for people who had no idea what the hell was going on), on the other hand, can be seen right here. Do, also, watch "Parappa the Rapper in Torrance, California," as well. The videos are linked in the sidebar of the video feature and the "Advent Children" review. Email me your thoughts. Or just some money.
Also!! The Gamer's Quarter's new issue -- issue #3 -- is up. It includes an article by me, or should I say, an article by me includes the rest of the issue. I'd really . . . honestly intended for them to just cut one portion out and use it, though I guess they liked the whole thing!! That article, by the way, is kind of a sequel/rewriting of "life, non-warp", which was the first thing I wrote on this website. There's also some other cool stuff in there. It's a PDF, so don't freak out.
Until next time (which might be a couple of years) --
More! There's a sort of interesting 3D platformer by Tecmo for the PSP, called Karakure (for "Character Collector", best I can make of it); you're surrounded by a group of "characters" -- these little Servbot-like creatures -- who you can align into various formations to perform tasks for you. You can, for instance, get them to hang onto each other's feet so you can grab the one at the end and swing them around like a whip. Or you can climb on them, or get them to guard you, or whatever. A decent idea, though for once I was glad for the booth babe to keep interfering and telling me what to do. It was a little tough to figure out the controls, and the demo was set up as a series of puzzles, each of which demanded a totally new use of the characters.
Then there's Londonian Gothics, for the DS -- that gothic loli game Brandon mentioned a while back. It's... inscrutable. Everyone kept telling me that it sucked; I don't know, because I just didn't understand it. The actual game engine was good. Every technical aspect was solid. There's a submenu where at will you can change your little girl into at least half a dozen different outfits. The thing is, the part of the game showed in the demo just seems to involve walking around in a dungeon and avoiding enemies. I feel like there's got to be more than this. There really wasn't, though.
The new Sega Ages stuff (post-D3) is coming along well. The Space Harrier collection, for instance, contains pretty much every version of the game: the arcade one, the Master System one, the sequel for the Genesis, and Space Harrier 3D for the Master System. That one even has a new 3D mode that lets you use red/blue tinted glasses in place of the Master System shutter goggles. There are a bunch of options for each game, and you can even select the jet from a menu in the Master System version. Basically, if you like Space Harrier, this is darned cool. Same thing with the SDI (Global Defense)/Quintet package. No real reason to play the Master System version of either. They're on there, though!
<Brandon's note: I looked at the Panzer Dragoon Ages game for a while, and it really does seem to be an upgrade, rather than a port. I say this because the jaggies are mostly gone, or as gone as they can be without significantly increasing the number of polys, and the framerate is MUCH improved. Overall it looks like a game to buy, if you like the series.>
Speaking of such things, Hamster also had its PS2 port of Terra Cresta up and running. I don't really get these ports, as Hamster's sampling from everyone's catalog, from Konami to Data East to Nichibitsu. Still, if they could be compiled, it would be neat to see something like a Data East or a Nichibitsu collection. The PS2 version was lots easier than I remember the original game being.
News: Summon Night - Craft Sword Monogatari ~Hajimari no Ishi~
It's the third episode in the Craft Sword Monogatari series for the Game Boy Advance, a spin-off of Flight-Plan/Banpresto's Summon Night saga, which is inspired (the spinoff, that is) by Tales of Phantasia, and indeed a top quality series (though it could be argued further that the Tales series is inspired by Falcom's Legend of Xanadu series). It has just been announced with the opening of an official site. Scheduled for December.
Sting has a little photo report of TGS - mostly booths, girls and objects, but still somewhat interesting, since it's from a developer perspective. Shame they didn't have a booth. Check it out here. If it looks a bit un-crowded, this was taken on business day. To note: first thing the Sting guys did upon getting inside was go to the SNK booth. Last picture is of a butterfly outside. Sting is great.
Checked out Raiden III a bit, and indeed, everyone who said the graphics were poor, certainly had a good point. It feels a bit Raiden Fighters-ish, rather than a third entry to the main series, but I suppose that's to be expected, since the old system is pretty aged by now.
Sonic Rush has really good music. It plays the most like Sonic 3, in my opinion, which is almost a good thing, depending on how you think. It was the last decent sonic up until now, so I suppose it's as good a place as any to resume. The game demo was available for temporary download at the Sega booth.
The same guys are doing the music for "where do babies come from" as "feel the magic", as you likely know - and they did a show on the sega stage to that effect. Rather ridiculous!
Ridge Racer looks very nice on the 360, and FFDog says it plays like the PSP version but with better analog control, which isn't a bad thing. Chrome Hounds looks like Tekki on the 360, almost. But it doesn't have that controller, so is destined for mediocrity, maybe.
Turns out 99 nights does look pretty nice, but still is rather boring to play. There's just not much to distinguish it from Dynasty Warriors. At least Ikusagami has some building, pikmin, and RTS elements to it.
The 3D effect used in Metal Gear Acid 2 for PSP is actually pretty nice. Some of the best 3D I've ever seen, and it doesn't hurt your eyes. You can't use it with glasses though - and if you want, you don't have to use the feature.
Breakblow - I've never linked this game before, but have followed it for a bit. Really strange K1-related game with bizarre homoerotic graphics. I saw a guy playing it who looked like he might've been part of D3's K1 event (probably was, too), who played it and lost. I was glad he didn't break me in half afterwards. Seemed pretty decent, if you like that sort of thing with an incredibly odd twist. Published by ESP. Check out some screens.
Jaleco's World Super Police is finally playable. Looks like an absolutely awful vehicle combat game, but I can't wait to play it - should've gotten in line! Everyone loves Jaleco, so hopefully this game will sell, even with its barely ps2-quality graphics and weird design. Jaleco is more than a bit wacky.
Oh, and yes - Katamari Damashii PSP controlled horribly. The music was better than the second PS2 game, but the control was absolutely dismal. I kept feeling like I was steering the wrong way, and it was simply not intuitive at all. The camera kept getting stuck in odd places, and hidden behind objects, so hopefully they'll clean all of that up before releasing it - or just make it for DS instead.
Every Extend - plays pretty well, good music, looks nice enough. It doesn't really have a lot of depth for a full PSP game, but hey, I'm glad to see someone break out of the doujin scene and into the commercial arena. Maybe it'll bring a new perspective? Who knows. But good on Mizuguchi and Q? for giving the guy a chance. Here's the original for download, which has quite different (almost more appealing) graphics. We first linked this game when it was part of the 3 minute game contest in april, 2004.
Dead Rising (360) is pretty much the best game I played today. Good humor, lots of weapons (tim ran around with an umbrella, using it like a steam shovel to mow down zombies - I was busy throwing lettuce and grapefruit at them), enemies are TOTALLY unrelenting. They don't move til you get near them, but when they do, they move fast. There are hundreds of these guys all over the place, and you really can't avoid fighting at any time. You have to protect people you find, and get them to a safe area, but the zombies kill them, you can kill them, they can kill you, it's just madness. Good madness though! Might buy a 360 to play it.
Super Monkey Ball (DS) has a 2D monkey, and Jaguar-era 3D graphics. It's pretty much a crock. Doesn't controll well (with stylus), and isn't particularly fun. Hopefully they'll power it up a bit.
The SNK game ports all look decent. Not much more to say about that. There's really nothing new or spectacular, they're just on PS2 now. The Neo Geo stick, tim said, doesn't control too well. Quite a shame!
Loco Roco (PSP) is a game where you use the L and R buttons to tilt, and guide a blob of goo through a level. You can jump by pressing both buttons. You can also split into smaller particles to get through small spaces, then re-form. It's a good game, certainly, though some people in the group wanted it to tilt further. It worked for me though, and the music was cute, so I think it'll be a decent one.
Cave's shooter is set for an October release, says River Service, and it will use a three button plus stick layout per player this time. in slightly smaller scale shooter news, Yoku Shin ~Giga Wing Generations~, Chaos Field and Senko no Ronde will have mobile phone versions. Thanks to Namae no Nai Heya.
In addition to the already announced Metal Slug 1 port, Metal Slug 2, X and 3 will also see the small screen according to Famitsu. In related SNK Playmore news, the World Heroes series will also have its own volume in the Neo-Geo Online Collection for the PS2, while the contents of The King of Fighters: Nests Hen have been revealed - '99, 2000 and 2001; no PS2 KOF '98 for the moment.
It's here in video at least; I don't know why it isn't playable, as it looks really far along. According to the pamphlet I am not in a position to scan at present, the game's 60% done -- which was about where the original game was when I first played it.
Anyway! Details. Characters thus far announced include everyone from the original game save Mignon and Duke (though they might be in there somewhere), plus Billy Kane, a poofy-haired Kula, Ash Crimson, and new characters Nagase (a very yellow girl) and the adult gothic loli Luise Meyrink. Obvious changes to returning characters are as follows: Kyo's wearing that outfit from the Production IG character sheet; Iori looks kind of feminine; Seth's got a new, grubbier outfit; Ryo has become more Art of Fighty; all three Ikaris have new outfits, Leona being the most clear with longer pants.
From the video, it looks like every character has either been remodeled or significantly edited. At the least, there are new textures and a few more polygons. Most of the animation seems to have been redone, and is much smoother than before. All the motions seem to blend into each other, continually. There are a lot more special effects, and the lighting seems to have gotten a lot of work. There's still a little way to go with the presentation. Not bad so far, though!
Systematically, it looks like there's some kind of parrying thing going on now; at one point, Rock and Terry are kicking at each other, and Rock sort of kicks Terry's leg out of the way. They trade blows in a really seamless fashion. The game is also faster and more... extreme than before. Lots of knocking people into the air and doing mean things to them. Again, it's all smooth. No jerking around!
There's a pretty decent rendered intro. Looks like it would have been state-of-the-art about five years ago. Ryo's face looks a little weird. That's all right, though. Very dynamic and well-choreographed, for the most part. The Production IG animation is really snazzy, and actually, for how short and random it is, has a decent sense of mood and emotion to it. At one point Kyo looks shocked at a turnaround in the middle of a fight he's in.
Altogether, the game seems to build significantly on what the previous one established.
Oh! To note, Max Impact 3 also was announced for Xbox 360. So I guess this series will be around for a while.
Matrimelee is a bit choppy right now, but is still in development. Hopefully it'll smooth out. It's still matrimelee though, and still a pretty good game. It's coming for PS2, and I'll buy it when it does.
Bleach DS is a bit odd - not 100% sure if this is the only way to do it, but you have to press the touch pad to do your special moves. This is rather obnoxious. I did manage to do some sans touch though, so if it's possible to ignore the touch pad altogether, I'll be happy. You can choose auto or manual facing (since it's a 4 player game) - manual is a bit rough, but auto works well enough. It's on two planes, and you switch between them with the L button. It doesn't feel like a treasure game whatsoever - just a dimps game with four players, at this stage.
The miniskirt police just has you running around, beating up yakuza-looking guys. When they hit you, your clothes gradually fall off. Good game.
The D3 all-stars fighting game is really slow, doesn't control that well, and is largely on a 2D plane in spite of the 3D graphics. It's fun to see all of the characters in the same place though...
Gears of War for 360 plays pretty well. It certainly does have some nice graphics, and that 360 controller plays well. Apparently the demo they were showing has only been running on real hardware for two weeks, so that explains the slow-ish framerate. You can blow stuff up, which is never bad. Designer Cliffy B cried while playing Lunar as a teen, so the game must have something to it.
I know a lot of you people like Metal Gear, so I'll say that the trailer is pretty interesting. PS3 graphics out the wazoo, with a 60 something year old solid snake, who says, when asked if he's given up smoking: "no - I've just been looking for a light."
Genki has a Dynasty Warriors clone called Ikusagami, which is quite cool actually - after being bored by Mizuguchi's 99 nights (not that it's really his - it belongs more to Phantagram). It's got a HUGE number of enemies, looks really nice, good story sequences, and a demo was given out - more impressions later, but I think it's going to beat that 99 nights thing.
Chaos Field and Trizeal still play like Chaos Field and Trizeal, but on the PS2. That's about where that is. Sega seems to be releasing lots of shooters and dating sims now...not sure what they're aiming for, but these games do make a quick buck. They're cheap to port (arcade for shooters, PC for ADV games), and sell about 15k copies - not a lot, but as NEC's Norman Evangelista said, it's just printing money.
That's all I've played and seen for now, I've been doing lots of interviews. More tomorrow!? Who can say!
P.S. I dropped my camera in the toilet. FUCK.
News: Samurai Spirits ~Tenkaichi Kenkaku Den~ on PS2
It just appeared in arcade form, but the online version of Neo-Geo Freak announces it for this TGS. Online matching, character edit, arrange sound and other new features are set for this version. SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters DS is officially announced too, as is the Garou Densetsu [Fatal Fury] Pack for the Neo-Geo Online Collection and the name of the Ryuuko no Ken [Art of Fighting] pack - 'Ryuuko no Ken ~Ten Chi Jin~'. (Hint: three kanji in the subtitle; three episodes in there?).
They promised it for the TGS and here it is. Game Watch and G-Para articles and screens have let us know that the game will use Toukon ~Matrimelee~'s basis (which may imply upscaled graphics for a hi-res display, unfortunately) and will focus on online matches, thanks to Excite. There will be 18 playable characters, Training and Mission modes, and it will see release next year. A preliminary site is located here.
Well, you've already got the major details courtesy of othervideo gamenews purveyors; you've already started talking about it on the forums. Now, check out a clean webcast (with clean English voiceover translation) of Iwata's keynote, courtesy of the big N themselves.
Sam & Max, the popular adventure detectives of PC adventure history, are set to return to the gaming world, courtesy of Telltale Games. The surprise announcement came at the end of a keynote speech last night at the Future of Digital Entertainment conference in San Francisco; Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell gave the mostly Freelance Police-experienced developer the go-ahead to make the game, which will not be related to last year's cancelled sequel.
Today's Microsoft press conference about its new system, the Xbox 360, has revealed that many of the Japanese companies are doing games for the machine. Most are familiar with the big names: some of the smaller, more 2D focused developers working on the system include Treasure (new shooting game coming), Arc System Works (new melee fighting game), Cave Online, Idea Factory (Spectral Force 3, among others), SNK Playmore (Neo-Geo Battle Coliseum), Moss (new shooting game) and Alfa System.
A long-time rumor is news again via Famitsu Magazine. A couple of years removed from Toukon ~Matrimelee~, Noise Factory is continuing the series with Bonnou Kaihou ('The Open of Carnal Desires'). It won't appear in arcade form this time, though, as it is being developed as a PS2 game. Watch for it at this Tokyo Game Show. From Souta House.
First he gave us twin stick mode. Then he gave us double play mode. This past weekend, Kenta Cho updated Gunroar with a mouse aiming mode that builds yet again on the 360 degree gunboat shooter experience. Thanks to exobyte for pointing this out on the forums.
Microsoft's next-gen system just got a little more welcoming to the 2D shooter curmudgeons among us. Shmups.net is reporting that G.rev will be seeing a release on the Xbox 360. Thanks to Maikeru_Rocks from over at dreamcast-scene for the heads up.
Missed out on the Tokimeki Memorial Online's recent beta testing? Don't fret! If you're longing for a piece of the simulated high school fun, check out the web demo of the game's character maker. While not quite as full-featured as the in-game module, you'll still have some fun combining glasses and blue afros with a menacing arms-crossed stare!
Fans of the original, take note: Enterbrain will be distributing RPG Maker XP in good old American English via Download.com starting September 16th. Thanks to NeoGutsman over at Sector: NGP.
For those not lucky enough to have the latest Famitsu on hand, Ar Tonelico's recently published official site has all the screenshots, artwork, and other material recently made public. The big budget RPG from the creators of Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, based on Eternal Mana 2's engine, is set to strike the market in polymorphic splendor with both anime OAVs and comics in tow.
Another gamasutra interview, this one with D3P, of earth defense force 2 fame. This is the US branch though, and while they do seem to have a very different focus, there's a chance some of their better Simple 2000 games might make it out here. Keep your fingers crossed!
Not so much anymore, but we used to report quite heavily on eroge and ADV games. For those that remember, Heisei Democracy has a nice classification of eroge subgenres - useful if you're serious about your elitist nerdiness. Via simon.
Well in advance this time, I'm advising all San Francisco and Bay Area California residents that there's another NES Fun Club meeting coming up on the 25th of this month. Check the ever-evolving site for details, as well as the mini report of the classic gaming expo, and join their t-shirt contest if you feel like it!
Super Mario: Blue Twilight DX is the psuiedo sequel/upgrade for 2003's Marioween, which we linked back in October of that year. It's a Halloween-themed game using Super Mario World sprites (among others), and has a lot of new features over the last version. Give it a look!
Gravity Corp, which made Ragnarok Online, among other things, has been sold by its founder (Kim Jung-ryool) to Softbank in Japan. He started Gravity with just 500,000 dollars five years ago, and sold his 52.4% stock in the company for almost $360 million. That's a deal, there. This means that Softbank (curiously, let by korean-japanese business men according to one source) will be at the helm of the studio for RO 2, past the beta phase. What's next for mister Kim? He'll be investing in mobile and PDA-based games. He feels as though the mobile game industry will overtake the mmo business in the near future. I'm skeptical, but you certainly can't argue with his past choices.
The latest arcade shooting game supported by Taito's Type X system has been announced for the PS2, through Famitsu Magazine, and is scheduled for December the 1st. Though published by Taito, the game is a creation of the Korean company Skonec, which co-developed the Psyvariar series with Success and is currently assisting Alfa System on the development of Shikigami no Shiro III.
My summer has been spent pestering Fabien and Tanguy to help produce a rather pointless but fun project - and as it is only a couple weeks away from completion, we thought it'd be cool to share a few words about it. MGS3 has been one of the great gaming moments of last year, and I thought there had to be a more significant way of celebrating Kojima's hit than by praising it on forums and buying Subsistence. "Box Hound" was born from just such a (possibly drunk) thought, and occupied most of our summer since then.
Box Hound is a fan project focused on the cardboard box, arguably the most popular "character" in the Metal Gear series. The project consists of the short film Think Inside the Box on DVD, its original soundtrack album Box Sound, a dedicated booklet, an exclusive Box Hound tee-shirt and a mysterious secret gift for lovers of Metal Gear-licensed Kubrick toys. Although I initiated the project, Fabien (of The Sugoi! fame) is the real driving force behind it, and his job so far has been tremendous - especially considering he is a very busy guy. But that's not all! The Tanguy Ukulele Orchestra, yet again leaping culturalbarriers, is part of the soundtrack with a faultless cover of Snake Eater. You can already download it for a first glimpse of the Box Hound project, and don't forget to check his recent Shinobi and Batman tunes, too.
We are working hard to finish the project soon. It's obviously completely profit-free, and the only money spent in the project will be mine. For this reason among others, the number of boxes will be extremely limited, but there shall certainly be other ways to distribute some of its contents online. We hope you'll like Box Hound as much as we suffered giving it birth.
Gust and its 2D RPGs have become successful enough to attract Banpresto's interest in the company, in order to co-produce a high budget title (which actually involves a comic and OAV series). While the prelimanary site did open a few days ago with no actual info, today Famitsu has announced the game on its website, letting us know that it will be a fantasy-themed RPG with 2D hi-res graphics not unlike Eternal Mana 2.
The new Gundam arcade game by Banpresto and Namco may have got the first place in the popularity ranking of the still going AM Show 2005, but Sega's Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) is likely the most celebrated game in all the Western gaming forums. So here's some more. G-Para has previewed the game with a nice set of hi-res screens and artwork. They don't reveal much about mechanics besides that it will be the fighting game with the highest number of on-screen player's gauges ever. Hokuto no Ken should appear before the end of the present year, is being developed by Arc System Works and will use the Atomiswave system, as we previously reported. And, if you like G-Para's previews, check out also the Raiden III article where you'll learn that it is possible to play a shooting game with two players and only one PS control pad(!).
SegaSammy Holdings has divested itself of all interest in developer Dimps, according to this report at the AM press. SegaSammy at one time held 51% of all Dimps stock, and was actively funding the company, but now all Sammyshares are being sold back to the Dimps director. It's unclear if Osamu Satomi of Sammy will remain on at Dimps after this, ditto SNK's Takashi Nishiyama. Back in 2000, Dimps was established out of the company Sokiac, by Sammy (51%), Bandai (13%), SCE (10%) and Sega (10%). The Sega percentage was not mentioned in the report, so one wonders if there's still some vested interest for the company. Further, with Bandai's recent expansion, merging with Namco, it would be an opportune time to properly acquire the relatively successful developer. Also, all Sammy USA's arcade business and distribution (based in Chicago) has been absorbed into Sega Amusement, based in San Francisco.
So, a few days ago, the UK Resistence linked up a bunch of images of Yuji Naka and a friend donating a rather paltry sum of 1,500 euros to a hedgehog preserve in germany. (I can only imagine how much more than that it cost to fly the team there and set up the event.) The pictures are just plain neat, so go take a look.
Here's a very odd game for the DS. The style is based on the gothic lolita trend in Japan, and is set in victorian england. It's a Druaga style ARPG, as in very very slow and tactical, but perhaps less well fleshed out, as this is the developer's first ever console game (to my knowledge). It's developed by Megacyber in japan, which is a cellphone company, by and large, and a quite interesting one in that they operate almost exclusively on original IP. They've been around since 1991, I assume making dating sims prior to the cellphone influx. Admittedly, the game does not look very good, but the style is interesting, and you can change the girl's outfits, so the fashion-conscious among you will be pleased! View a movie of the game in action right here.
D3 publisher is at it again, this time with a proper sequel to the oneechanbara, in the form of The oneechanbara 2. Two player simultaneous play, new areas, and new enemies are the features of this game, developed by the makers of Toshinden, which will be showcased at this year's TGS. Also, The Miniskirt Police is looking promising, as is The All-Stars fighting game, which takes popular heros and heroines from D3's best selling titles (including the critically acclaimed Earth Defense Force 2).
Bandai is making a game based on the underrated (by some!) Samurai Champloo series. It's coming this winter to the PS2 - with the subtitle 'hip hop samurai', how can you go wrong? Hopefully the low quality renders on the site's splash page won't be indicative of the game's quality. Thanks to Fuchikoma's mmc post for the news.
Though they may be upside down, Game Watch has put up the first two screens of Cave's new title. Check them here if you prefer their actual position. While you're at it, don't miss the exclusive Puzzle! Mushihime-Tama control panel.
Thanks to Namae no Nai Heya we learn that SNK Playmore has released the list of games they'll bring to TGS. Not actually surprising, but it's now official that Neo-Geo Battle Coliseum will have a PS2 port. Gekka no Kenshi 1 - 2 and KOF: Orochi Hen suffer from delays again, and the latter goes as far as next year.
Tiny ones, but you can see Ralf and Clark from the Ikari series as main characters in them. There have been some gameplay tweaks for the sixth episode, and Atomiswave is confirmed as the system to support it. Let's hope they redrew the graphics this time, but upscaling and filtering seem more than likely again.
One of the most anticipated games of the current AM Show has now a prelimanary site. For some good pictures you should check out the usual Japanese media which are covering the event, though, although you can find them all compiled at Postback's forum (my site). On the other hand, War of the Grail, that new Capcom arcade combat game for the AM Show which some hoped to believe was going to be called 'Street Fighter IV', has also its pre-site since today.
It was bound to happen: some doujin group got inspired by Namco X Capcom and produced its own insane dream match. 
It apparently happened while I was on holiday in Japan desperately asking doujin retailers if Crazy Power Disc had finally reached shelves: you can now get 
Video games, performance art, and potential danger come together once again with 
Earlier in the year game sites went crazy over a 
It's nice to find that 
Thanks to Manekineko and Psiga on the forums for pointing this out: a surgical tool with a 
From Software's Adventure Maker for PSP is now getting some of the promised 
An actual saturn-playable demo of 
EA released a roster update for madden '06, but had to recall it - why? It made one player, Michael King of the New York Jets, seven inches tall. Check the gaming-age 
Not to make this 'all Gama, all the time', but some of you may not have spotted IC uber-ally Frank Cifaldi's two regular columns for biz site 
There's a new image of the 95% complete GPX2 design over at 
A new company has formed - Xseed, which has been bubbling in the sidelines since the 2004 departure of several higher-level Square USA employees, disgruntled with the Squenix merger (as mentioned below). The new company, which includes ex square USA president Jun Iwasaki, will be publishing Wild Arms 4 and Shadow Hearts 3 in the US. Could be a company to watch.
Isn't that just classic? And yeah, it was I who told him to put the "zugyuuun" in there. And yes, I know "zugyuun" isn't the sound a ball makes against a wooden bat -- it's the sound a gunshot makes in a manga in which violence is stylized yet not flambuoyant. Well, it works for this piece, so . . .!!
It's the third episode in the Craft Sword Monogatari series for the Game Boy Advance, a spin-off of Flight-Plan/Banpresto's Summon Night saga, which is inspired (the spinoff, that is) by Tales of Phantasia, and indeed a top quality series (though it could be argued further that the Tales series is inspired by Falcom's Legend of Xanadu series). It has just been announced with the opening of an 
Cave's shooter is set for an October release, says 
It just appeared in arcade form, but the online version of Neo-Geo Freak 
They promised it for the TGS and here it is. 
Missed out on the 
Fans of the original, take note: 
For those not lucky enough to have the latest Famitsu on hand, Ar Tonelico's recently published 
Japjac alerted me to his small (largely pictorial) 
The 
My summer has been spent pestering Fabien and Tanguy to help produce a rather pointless but fun project - and as it is only a couple weeks away from completion, we thought it'd be cool to share a few words about it. 
Gust and its 2D RPGs have become successful enough to attract Banpresto's interest in the company, in order to co-produce a high budget title (which actually involves a comic and OAV series). While the 
The new Gundam arcade game by Banpresto and Namco may have got the first place in the popularity ranking of the still going AM Show 2005, but Sega's Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) is likely the most celebrated game in all the Western gaming forums. So here's some more. G-Para 
So, a few days ago, the UK Resistence linked up a bunch of images of Yuji Naka and a friend donating a rather paltry sum of 1,500 euros to a hedgehog preserve in germany. (I can only imagine how much more than that it cost to fly the team there and set up the event.) The pictures are just plain neat, so go take a 
Here's a very 
D3 publisher is at it again, this time with a proper sequel to the oneechanbara, in the form of 
Though they may be upside down, 
One of the most anticipated games of the current AM Show has now a 
