Speaking of vanity projects, vincent diamante, of this very website, has worked on a new game, after Dyadin, which was in last year's IGF. The new one is called Cloud Game, and vince did the music and effects. There's a playable demo on the site, so check it out! If you hate it, you know who to blame.
For those unaware, I do this thing on Mondays, at Next Generation (sort-of competitor to Brandon's GamaSutra). I often get facts wrong and I often get more angry than is completely required. In general I'm told the column's pretty good, though! This week's episode is, I think, on the better end of the scale. So go read it, if it you so desire. You might learn something! Or not!
The British Gaming Blog has put together some nifty mock-ups of fantasy GBA Micro faceplates. I have to say, I think I'd buy a Neo Geo Pocket or Game Gear one. Thanks to Mathew Kumar for the link.
Game Watch has some imagery from the new japanese Mario Party 7 commercial. There's some goofy stuff in there, do take a look. Thanks to Paleface for the link.
Those of you wondering about the aspect ratio of the updated versions of Crazy Balloon, Balloon Bomber, Kage no Densetsu and Camel Try in the forthcoming Taito Memories Pocket (PSP) should go to Famitsu's website and take a look. They will make use of the wide screen's full resolution, unlike the direct ports.
And SNK Playmore marches on with the exploitation of its popular IPs for cellphones. After the dating sim Days of Memories comes KOF Gals Mahjong - the title is pretty self-explanatory. Yuri, Athena and Mary have already been confirmed, and the game is once again running on FOMA90 mobiles. From the first tiny screenshots, KOF Gals Mahjong will use powerbars and fonts taken from The King of Fighters 2000, and characters will be designed by a different person than the one that did DoM. Thanks to MN for the news.
It's hard to escape the buzz going around Wanda To Kyouzou (Shadow of the Colossus in the western world). One major interrogation was whether the game would be a better commercial success than Ico, which started pretty slowly despite rave reviews, before reaching cult status among a wide array of players. Iggy found out that Wanda managed impressive sales figures over its first days in japanese retail, already breaking the 100,000 units sold. Over the same period, the opportunist re-edition of Ico's "Best Hits" version is almost a sold out as well. As a reminder, Tim reviewed Wanda and would love to see you confront his ideas here. There is certainly a lot to say and read about the game, and the IC forums are actually a good place to begin with - whether you just started the adventure or want discussions filled with spoilers by people who already finished it.
Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, the psuedo-sequel to Type-Moon's Fate/Stay Night was released today, and stores opened early to accomodate the huge lines, apparently. A Maxi-single from the new game, and the original Fate/Stay Night soundtrack were also on available. Check Techgian Library and Akibablog for images of lines, games, and cops. Thanks to Zepy for the news.
Here are some odd new accessories for your DS GBA slot, from Sega Logistic Services. Largely useless, but interesting to see - these include a collapsible stylus, which is "fatter" then the normal one (comes in green and red!), a spare DS game holder, and a (possibly the most useful) screen cleaner. Thanks to Neogutsman for the link.
So it's been released now, in Japanese arcades; you can find a few gameplay videos drifting around the places you'd expect to find them.
Characters now seem to respond quickly and hit hard. The game engine seems to have gotten a big overhaul since last we saw it, and doesn't feel a lot like past KOF games; more like Mark of the Wolves, really. Blows have weight and substance to them. Some people have commented that character animation has been improved significantly over previous games. It's hard to tell from the videos, however.
It seems like players now get the chance to pick a team leader before every match, a feature that kind of hints at the way strikers were done in '99-2001, except in reverse, with the focus being on who's most important rather than on who's most disposable. So really, it's most reminiscent of 2001 (or a modified Capcom vs. SNK 2 - BS).
The intro sequence says the game is "The King of Fighters Episode XI" - which is... a strange thing to claim, if you consider that the previous episode was number 8. "XI", of course, comes from counting the dream matches; same origin as the actual game title. Thing is, until now only the plot chapters were counted as "episodes". So. Well. Huh.
Moving on, K' now apparently has a logo to represent him; that logo is the shadow of Kyo's eclipsed sun. Curious! There's also an androgynous guy woman (thanks Count_Hihihi) with a spear, if you're more into that kind of symbolism.
UPDATE: Also, the music is some of the highest quality, at least production-wise, SNK has ever put into an original game. Yimminy!
So the Ys Strategy website is indeed up, but there's not much to see yet. To celebrate the opening, Marvelous has put up a wallpaper - you'll need a password from the latest Famitsu to download it. The magazine actually tells and shows much more about the game, which will be a RTS in the universe of Ys using the wireless and Wi-Fi connections of the Nintendo DS. Most of the action is dealt with on the tactile screen, the stylus cleverly replacing the usual mouse. The upper screen will display maps and status information. Four sides will be playable: Romun, Estaria, Afroca and Gria (there is no cannon romanization known for them yet). Different generals are shown too, and the red headed kid from Esteria is apparently not Adol but a look-a-like named Abel.
Nobody really cared about Sega Rally 2006 on PS2 until Sega announced the japanese first press will include an adaptation of the original Sega Rally (released in arcades ten years ago) on a separate disc. Considered by some as one of the greatest racing games ever, Sega Rally was popular enough to save the Sega Saturn along with Virtua Fighter 2 during the christmas of 1996, and still is to date Tetsuya Mizuguchi's most successful title, back when he was producer at AM#3. The bonus disc is supposed to host a faithful port of the Model 2 CRX version, so don't expect any home version extras such as the famed Lancia Stratos.
Ridge Racer 6 had been quite discrete lately for a game that's supposed to drive (hoho) the Xbox 360's launch in Japan on December 10th. Namco finally updated the official website with numerous images (that can also be found on Game Watch) and information. Five new tracks were revealed for a total of ten, and as some first elements hinted, the game will come back to Rave City for at least one track. We already know the main single player mode will be organized around missions à la the Soul series - with different and/or hidden missions depending on your actions and results, so this time Namco developed on the online features. Up to ten players will race together and the "Nitro" option can be turned off for purists. An online ranking based on points will also serve to determine who is the best ridge racer, and the best replays will be downloadable by everyone - nothing jawdroppingly new in sight, unlike what Bizzare claims with PGR3's features. Otherwise the game looks more and more like a sequel to Ridge Racers on PSP: choices of textures and global design are pretty similar and, from our TGS impressions, the game plays almost exactly the same - although with an upgraded boost system and an arguably better control pad. A lot of previous (fictional) car brands and models are coming back in revised designs, such as the Age Abeille or the Kamata Fiera. Ridge Racer 6 is still scheduled as a worldwide launch title for the X360.
Akio Otsuka ("Ootsuka Akio" if you're hip) is the Japan's manliest animation voice-actor; his best known role may or may not be that of Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2, and Metal Gear Solid 3, though he's also gained quite indestructable respect from the anime crowd for his work in the "Ghost in the Shell" movies and the "Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex" anime and game. (Which is a pretty good game, too, by cavia, makers of Drag-on Dragoon 2, one of the better games of this year.) Mr. Otsuka's career hit a high note when he played the energetic and flambuoyant Mr. Akihabara in the otherwise horrendous Square-Enix manga/music mishmash Heavy Metal Thunder. Since then, he's in just about everything.
Now for the news: it turns out Akio Otsuka is doing the voice of Musashibou Benkei in Banpresto's Yoshitsuneki for PlayStation 2, being released next month. This is most interesting, because earlier this year, he performed the role of Benkei in Game Republic's Genji, also for PlayStation 2. (From Software's Yoshitsune Eiyuuden, released last year, featured an Otsuka soundalike as Benkei.) Otsuka is also slated to perform the role of Benkei in Genji 2, being released sometime late 2006. It's curious, to say the least, that he's played the same role in two games by different makers. Mr. Otsuka says, of the role, on Yoshitsuneki's official website, that it was "very easy for me to get into the role," and that it's "very fun," and that Benkei is a favorite character of his. "Favorite," in the anime industry, means you're willing to be typecast down to the specific character.
The game itself is quite different from Genji, which visualized the Yoshitsune legend from a Hollywood-action-movie perspective. From Software's effort progresses like a Japanese television drama series. Yoshitsuneki is definitely manga-inspired, with character designs by Hikaru no Go and Death Note artist Takeshi Kobata. The art looks very nice.
Akio Otsuka's next project is the voice of villan Brandon Sheffield in Capcom's insert credit: the videogame, based on the anime insert credit: the musical, based off Araki Hirohiko's upcoming manga "the insert credit chronicles." We shudder with anticipation to hear him utter the famed line "Ore no koto GORGEOUS to omousska?" Actually that's a joke
This has been rumored for a long time now, and the latest Famitsu issue has finally let us know the truth - sadly, Growlanser V - Generations will have full 3D graphics. It seems that Career Soft is either dissolved, or not developing this episode, since there's no mention of it in the whole article. At least, Urushihara is still there with the design. The game will be publicly presented at November's Games Japan Festa in Osaka. Bad news for the 2D fans, and another hint that something still just isn't right with today's industry. The thanks go to Game Boku Tenin no Tawagoto.
Shadow of the Colossus is the new game for PlayStation 2 by Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido, the makers of the critically acclaimed Ico. It stars a young man who some people think is a girl. He's not, though; he's a stranger from a distant land, in a stranger and more distant land than where he's from, engaged in a trial no mortal man can survive -- that is, to kill sixteen animate stone giants, which wander freely (kind of) in the rolling hills of a lifeless land. He is doing this for a chance at saving the life of a girl, whose name may or may not be Wanda. I talked to Fumito Ueda, and asked him, "Who's Wanda? The guy? Or the girl?" His reply came after a shrug. "Neither." The "Colossus" of the title is quite obvious: those big stone giants. Just don't call them bosses.
In the review, I give the game four stars, though I hesitate to call it my "game of the year." I will reveal that one soon enough, in a list feature that will not include killer7. I have grown to hate that game, much as I admire it. I find it original without being creative. Shadow of the Colossus is less original than it is creative, though the creativity here goes a long way. Read why, and if you like, join our long-going discussion on the insertcredit.com forums.
Scans are already running around the web, but next friday will see the official unveiling of Ys Strategy. A logical date as it will coincide with the release of the new Famitsu, the opening of the game's official website and the new Falcom newsletter. We can already confirm the game is an RTS in the spirit of Age of Empires. The character design looks well-executed (and familiar - isn't this a designer from Capcom?), but first in-game screenshots look rather unexciting. Much more information to come in two days.
Q Entertainment opened their Every Extend Extra webpage - it's pretty similar to the one they made for Lumines right before the PSP launch. Check the dowload section for their nice TGS 2005 trailer. In case you never played the original freeware, Every Extend is a sort of time attack puzzle shooter focusing on destroying enemies through chain reactions. The ever on hiatus Doujinaroni has an old interview of the guy behind it. Judging from the playable version at last TGS, the Q Entertainment version is very close to the original in terms of gameplay, but with the kind of graphics and sounds you'd expect from the studio behind Lumines and Meteos, as well as a multiplayer mode. The game should be released around january 2006.
Super robots are invading both trendy handhelds of the moment. First, The DS will host Sunrise's popular robot series Gaogaigar (the one with the big lion head on its torso, for those mildly familiar with Super Robot Taisen). Probably the best concept ever, at least provided you dig robots and logigraphs, Oekaki Puzzle Battle! Yuusha-Ou Gaogaigar Hen will arrive on DS next november. For those unfamiliar with the term "logigraph" or cool magazines such as IllustLogic, the game is nothing more than a new take on the old handheld classic Mario no Picross.
Afterwards, super robots will appear in Super Robot Taisen MX Portable, an upgraded port of the PS2 game, which will be released on PlayStation Portable on December 29th. This will not be the only solution to save the world in public transports, mind you, as Super Robot Taisen J was recently released on the GameBoy Advance (along with a limited edition faceplate for the GameBoy Micro) and an episode for DS has already been confirmed as in the works. Speaking of Banpresto's popular franchise, Majoria's News has given a bunch of interesting related links recently, including fan arts and Wikipedia entries. (And yes, I do know I am probably the only guy in the world who's equally a fan of both super robots and Picross.)
Capcom announced they will release an original soundtrack album for Gyakuten Saiban - Yomigaeru Gyakuten, the DS remake of the first game in the series, via their label Suleputer, on November 13th for 3,150 yen. The OST will feature 34 tracks, including new tunes created for the exclusive fifth chapter of the remake. The booklet will be 8 pages long, full color, with comments from the staff. Via Iggy and Dengeki.
Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z gained a second youth with the success of the license in the US, which in turn drove japanese and european audiences to reconsider an old series often seen as dull and passé by today's standards. The revival worked well enough for a new wave of games to be produced, judging by Bandai/Atari's successful sales and the recent Dragon Ball Z Sparking! from Spike topping the charts in Japan. Whereas the much awaited Hokutou no Ken (by Arc Systems Works for Sega) will soon arrive in arcades, Banpresto has held last friday a location test of their new arcade fighting game Chou Dragon Ball Z, which rises on the rebounding popularity of the license. Aries no Kobayan has a little report on the test, revealing that an IC card will be used for the game (costing 500 yen) and that two extra characters (cyborgs N°16 and N°18) have joined the roster. There are nice scans of the flyer and a picture of the IC card on Kobayan as well (scroll down a little). Another interesting aspect of this game, for people who don't really care about the series, is that the producer behind it is none other that Noritaka Funamizu, of Street Fighter II fame, who recently left Capcom. Aries no Kobayan also has a bunch of impressions on the Druaga Online location test. All in japanese, obviously, but featuring a bunch of interesting scans and photos as well. Both games will be released in arcades by the end of the year.
Toshio Iwai's Electroplankton will finally be available in the US next january. The sore history of the japanese release (5,000 units sold last spring) has led Nintendo to use the american version as an experiment for alternative sales procedures. Hence Electroplankton will only be avaiable by ordering it on Nintendo's website or purchasing it at the Nintendo Store in New York - possibly leading the way for other outlandish, risky titles.
Tiger Telematics' Gizmondo was officially released last weekend in the US (in selected stores). Although the handheld's chances in the market look rather thin, it might make the headlines for another reason. As a comment on Engadget warned us, Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet has conducted a long investigation into the local people behind the system, and it seems they share quite an history with the swedish IRS and Police forces. Interesting news, as it was learned a few days ago that Tiger Telematics had already lost $328 million in the prodution and promotion of the handheld, the company having difficulties explaining why some of the money was invested in luxury sport cars. Might the Gizmondo be nothing but a huge money laundering scheme? Could even Infinium Labs and their shady Phantom get beaten on their own turf? Articles (in their original language) can be read here, here and here. Check out these threads from IC forums and GA-F for further development and translations.
Cliff Bleszinski is doing Gears of War for the 360 right now, and tim and I talked to him at TGS about a variety of things. It also features one of my favorite quotes from a game developer: "Never underestimate the ability of the user to undermine the narrative you're trying to tell." True it is. Read it here, on gamasutra.
Arika's well loved Tetris the Grand Master series will be hitting a home platform for the first time, on December 10th - a launch title for the Xbox 360, according to Rakuten. They tell us about the game modes too, two of them for online playing, and have the first screens and the game cover.
Famitsu's website has the goods. You'll need to draw the rainbows this time, so the formula is a bit changed from the original game. Scheduled for January, 5th.
A successful TV animation series is being converted into a PS2 game thanks to Namco. It will take the form of an adventure RPG with full hi-res 2D graphics. Game Watch's preview is here.
While it was revealed some weeks ago via Famitsu Magazine, the official site for Innocent Life opened today. Classified as 'simulation RPG', it seems that Innocent Life will take the Bokujou Monogatari [Harvest Moon] series, and redesign the formula and aesthetics entirely (pre-rendered graphics, this time). Looks quite nice.
The latest issue of Nintendo Dream has an exclusive article on the remake of Final Fantasy III. The game is indeed in full 3D and quite possibly the most impressive DS game from a technical standpoint. Most of the action (overworld, dungeon crawling, battles) will be seen on the upper screen and there is no information yet on what the lower tactile screen will be used for. There is a nice montage passed around on the net to compare the first screenshots with the original FFIII. In the same article, it is possible to see the first screens of Final Fantasy V Advance and Final Fantasy VI Advance, which are confirmed as GBA releases. No precise retail date has been announced for either game yet. Meanwhile, more images of Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana have surfaced on the net through magazine scans. Still scheduled to be released this winter, the game is in 2D, with a graphic style in-between Super Famicom's Seiken Densetsu 3 and PlayStation's Seiken Densetsu: Legend of Mana. The soundtrack, under the supervision of Itoken (SaGa series), will be taken care of by people who worked on the Ridge Racer series and Sega's old classic Fantasy Zone, so it should be quite something. Finally, Squenix reveals in the latest Famitsu that the surprising Mario Basketball 3on3 was originally an in-house development - they later contacted Nintendo and proposed to apply the Mario license on the game. Via the always reliable dsdsds.net.
Kilvear took part in the Yogurting (Korean schoolgirl action mmo) Japanese beta, and took a bunch of screenshots. Very cool stuff. Simon also found some other promo stuff for the game on bluemist's blog. Looks very cool, aside from the...rather unfortunate name. The game is created by Ntixsoft and Neowiz who has the interesting slogan "Unexpected pleasure!" Combine that with Yogurting and you've got quite a phrase.
Here's a fun utility. You can object to whatever you want, Phoenix Wright-style with this little flash tool. Just type in whatever you want him to object to, and click the button. Text links above the flash give you a different attorney. Possibilities abound! Thanks to Omegadog's MMC forum post for the link.
A savvy gamer and programmer from France has created a set of tools that allows one to extract character and monsters models from FFX & FFX-2 for viewing on a PC. You can also get all the character models for both games via a Chinese FF fan board here and here. If either page is giving anyone problems, they have been mirrored at this GAF thread where one can also check out examples of the crazy degree of care and attention that went into their creation (i.e. tan lines).
Another hentai title from the PC is getting de-hentaied for a PS2 release. Jewels Ocean is an original adventure game with SRPG-style battles by Escude/Element, which appeared in 2004. Pionesoft has just announced the conversion for January 26th (same release day as Ar Tonelico, by the way).
You might remember an old newspost about the promising RPG Megami no Namida TRUE from Alpha Nuts (a doujin circle mostly formed by members of website Angel's Rest). There's been quite a lot of original promotion around the game since last june, such as this html commercial and an A3 poster to download (then print yourself) on art director Takashi Konno's website. The game is now available for purchase at the usual "doujin game" price of 1000 yen, weights 25MB and requires that RPGMaker2000 be installed on your PC. There is a shareware version to download here, as well as additional screenshots to be found on Free Games Arena.
News: Asian Game Developers Summit, Digital Life Show
Two MMC posters have put up reports of some interesting recent shows... Fat Cat Lin has a nice writeup (Page one, Page two) of the Asian Game Developers Summit 2005 in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. Looks like it was pretty casual, but useful for those in the region - and most likely for companies looking to outsource there.
The other report is from Sano, who went to the NY Digital Life Show. Impressions here, pics here. Bit of a crap Sonic they brought to the show, if you ask me.
More and more people are discovering the delightful Neo Geo Pocket, as the system becomes cheaper, and games more available (for whatever reason). This new fan has an amusing photo blog about the things you can do while playing the Neo Geo Pocket. The more people doing NGPC yoga, the better! Thanks to Krzyzewski on the MMC for the link.
It seems a group of fans have gotten together to hack a Final Fantasy 2 Famicom (NES) rom into Final Fantasy X. The 8-bit FFX can be downloaded here (the last link is the newest version, out on the 14th). Check out images here, and some flash movies of the game in action here (the CM one is recommended). Grab the BGM while you're at it! Plays via NES emulator, of course, and even features the full sphere maps from the original. Thanks to Kilvear for the link. He has a nice little site himself, do check it out.
The american website for Screw Breaker is now open with a simple flash animation and the confirmation Game Freak's new game will be released there by the end of 2005. On the japanese website, the creators of Quincy (Famicom) and Pulseman (Megadrive) finally explained the purpose of the password room hidden in the practice stage. It's pretty tricky, as first you have to unlock the password menu before entering the real codes hidden somewhere on this page to unlock the game's last secrets. Meanwhile, NTSC-uk has a nice translation of Screw Breaker's menus on their website, in case you were lost with all those crazy hiragana characters. They forgot to include the translation of one tricky puzzle in the game that requires to read some basic japanese but I am in a good mood (and wrote it down while playing) so here it is: [spoiler, highlight to read]You need to open a huge safe at some point in the stage 2-2. Three locks keep it shut and you must find memos written by the guards to open the safe with the correct combination for each lock. The figures mean the number of full rotations you must perform.
Red lock: 2 to the right, 4 to the left
Blue lock: 5 to the left, 3 to the right
Green lock: 6 to the left, 1 to the right, 12 to the left[/spoiler!]
It's not the first time we've mentioned Ar Tonelico, Gust/Banpresto's PS2 co-produced RPG for the next year. The official website got brand new content today - new frontpage, detailed battle system explanation, character profiles and nice wallpapers. Game Watch is announcing it with a screens-heavy preview, too.
I've found a bunch of insightful interviews lately, so here is a little compilation for those of you who want to speed up your monday at the office. Kikizo hosts what dma-sc (a reliable source on the matter if any) calls the best interview of a game music composer to date, with the legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro. Interesting indeed to learn he actually programmed his music for the Bare Knuckles series himself via a PC-88 and some home-made program, or that his mother owns Ancient. Koshiro's latest work has been in two Namco games, Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2 and Namco X Capcom (note that NxC's original soundtrack is edited by Capcom's Suleputer branch). Also, don't bother about the "October 14, 2004" date of the interview - it's a typo.
Those bastards over at Gamasutra, who share no connection with this site whatsoever, have conducted a Question of the Week on the future of Mobile gaming that shows nobody really agrees on which should be the main focus for next gen titles. Mobile gaming is at a turning point with the upcoming standardization of 320x240 color screens, the arrival of Flash and Palm going for Windows CE. Microsoft's potential hegemony on PDAs and smartphones would help the arrival of less-specialized developers on the market and favor ports of standard videogames on western systems like what happens in Japan. This is not necessarly good news considering how these titles are not adapted to cellphones' ergonomy, but should get mobile gaming out of the ghetto it's stuck in amongst regular gamers. The september issue of Game Developer was mostly focused on the subject of mobiles, in which you could learn Final Fantasy VII Before Crisis is also being developed for the US market. So is Ridge Racer, two years after reaching japanese phones.
Finally here is a months-old but baffling and little known interview of three people responsible for Final Fantasy V's canned translation and port to Windows 95. Square's early attempts at worldwide expansion of their sales certainly weren't as well organized as today's.
NAPS Team, of Gekido fame, is moving that property to the PSP, as we reported in march. Now, the first pictures have been released, and the magicbox is mirroring them. Very different style from the previous 2D work, but still quite visually impressive!
Although most people actually found out about the game through magazine scans yesterday, Sting's countdown reached zero last night and there is now official information on their "second original RPG" after Riviera (It's the second RPG Sting published themselves - Recap). The name is Yggdra Union, based on its eponym protagonist Yggdra (pronounced "Yugudora"). Sting describes it as a "Fantasy Tactical RPG" for GameBoy Advance, but it seems the mechanics essentially revolve around card-based battles and map moves akin to Blue Wing Blitz. We know a bit more about the staff too: chara design is led by Satoko Kiyuzuki, whereas cards' design is led by Sunaho Tobe. The game is single player only as of now, and is scheduled for spring 2006. You can check out a Game Watch preview here.
SNK's dating game for cell phones Days of Memories -Boku to Kanojou no Atsui Natsu- ("a hot summer for my girlfriend and me") has a genuine webpage now, filled with information on the main characters (thanks Rid for noticing). Besides the player and the rival who competes for the girls' attention, it seems the hero will be able to date Athena, B.Jenet, Kasumi, King, Kula, Leona, Mai or Yuri (while other sub-characters should appear). Along with the usual distinguishing marks sheets, there are a few words to describe each girl's situation in the game. Athena is (obviously) a rising idol with a fragile constitution that was in the same class as the hero for as long as they can remember. Jenny is a foreign student. King owns a bar near your school where all the kids hang out after class. Mai is described as the oneesan of the game, and she is conveniently the player's new neighbor. Yuri is the local karate teacher, and Kula is officially aged 14, which is wrong in too many ways to comment properly. The game is SNK's most gal oriented game since Neo Geo Pocket's SNK Gals Fighters, and one can only hope Miss X will make an appearance. Unfortunately, B.Jenet's meganekkocide seems a given now. The game's world map is not unlike the one for SNK Card Fighters, and there will be a bunch of event CG to collect - some of them on the borderline of ecchi.
There's a short interview on Gamasutra with Makoto Iwai of Bandai about the planned merger with Namco, and how they might work together. There are some useful opinions, though it's often tough to get people to speak directly about these sorts of things - but go check it out.
New ad on the website for poweruptees, which appears on the right side just above the external links. If you buy their shirts we become instant millionaires! Yowza! As an added bonus, the shirts appear not to be totally worthless.
Thanks to Comic-Kaze for pointing out a nice way to store your cancer sticks, assuming they're small enough. Watch out NES belt buckle, the GG cigarette case is coming for you! Click for largeness - also we've no idea who made this, so let me know if it was you.
Last month we mentioned a site that listed every single movie reference to come up in a video game. Well here's the same thing, but in reverse: a resource that lists almost every single appearance of an arcade game in an American movie over the past thirty+ years. And since the main list concentrates primarily on arcade games, the Wizard, which was basically an hour and a half commercial for the NES, is not mentioned) though obviously fake games do get nods (such as holo-chess from Star Wars).
Those who pre-order My My Katamari(PSP) in Japan will receive a very nifty bonus: a PSP carrying pouch in the shape of the prince's head! Images of the pouch can be found here, with a link to the whole campaign here.
<Brandon's note: The game controls horribly, but if you really want to preorder it, go here.>
Thanks to Substance J for pointing out some absolutely insane Fire Pro Returns character edits. On this page, you'll find Predator, Spider-Man , Venom, Ronald MacDonald (referred to here as 'chief happiness officer'), Jason from Friday the 13th, and even Morrigan from Darkstalkers. On the second page, you'll find a smaller variety, but much higher quality edits, from E. Honda to the 2Channel mascot, to Freddie Mercury of Queen. Pretty amazing stuff.
Someone has made a 3D model of a duck hunt duck, then taken silly pictures of himself shooting it with a lightgun. What postmodern times these are. Proof positive that all you need for success is a wall scroll, a ddr pad and a Marilyn Manson shirt.
al|together, the month-long visual novel festival organized by insani members, has concluded, and the results are in. Many individuals took part in the festival with the goal of translating an entire Japanese homebrew visual or sound novel entirely into English during a 30-day period. The al|together website has the results of the contest, several such translated games, hosted and ready for download. Each looks to have something unique and interesting to offer. The festival will now move into its final phase, which will give translation teams a chance to finish up any work they may not have finished in time for the deadline, without the pressure of a time limit. Get playing, and if the idea interests you, get translating!
Also thanks to Zepy, we learn that Perfect Cherry Blossom creator Zun has pre-released a patch for his new versus shooting game Touhou Kaeidzuka (described here), that allows netplay. He did this via his very new (as of oct 2), and very nice-looking blog. The direct link to the entry in question is here.
Doujin group Tasogare Frontier (of Eternal Fighter Zero fame) has teamed up with 07th Expansion to create a 3D tag-battle action game, based on 07th Expansion's horror detective novel Higurashi naku koro ni (which is getting a DC and PS2 port as we mentioned earlier). The new game is to be called Higurashi Daybreak, and is Tasofro's first 3D effort. The original Higurashi is also being turned into a TV anime, which will cover the first six chapters of this reportedly very difficult game. Thanks to zepy's mmc post for the news.
Recap has put up an interesting article on his Postback site, about the tendency to not display older 2D games at their proper, lower, resolution. He discusses a few of the methods used to fake this low resolution, even though some systems are actually capable of such display. It explains a bit about why many ports never seem to look as good as the originals these days. If, after that, you want to get deeper into matters of display, take a look at Lawrence's gamesx.
Many of you are probably aware of this by now, but click-stick's website is no longer being updated. He has made his entire archive downloadable though, so give it a look if you're interested.
Seems this time it's for real. Try PCB shop has announced the game for November, 26th, and Alpha Station also speaks about 'November'. Time for some location tests, now.
This week we learned via Famitsu Magazine that a PSP version of Taito Memories is in development, and today we learn its game list via Rakuten:
Crazy Balloon
Balloon Bomber
Lunar Rescue
Qix
Alpine Ski
Elevator Action
Chack'n Pop
Kage no Densetsu
Fairy Land Story
Kiki Kaikai
Rastan Saga
Kuri Kinton
The New Zealand Story
Raimais
Rainbow Islands Extra
Camel Try
Curiously enough, this time Taito is including four full remakes: Crazy Balloon, Balloon Bomber, Kage no Densetsu and Camel Try will have updated versions in the collection in addition to the direct ports. Out on January 5th.
A gamer's friday isn't complete until receiving the weekly Falcom newsletter in the mailbox. Lately, the main focus has obviously been Xanadu Next and there are now four samples of Xanadu Music Chronicles to download, along with wallpapers and a short promotion video. As usual, 4gamer.net has made a high quality version of the same trailer available. Note that, in the same fashion as the Policenauts jingle which accompanies the Konami logo when starting Metal Gear Solid, the jingle for the Falcom logo is a musicbox version of the original main theme from Xanadu.
The game comes out on the 27th of october on PC to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original Xanadu, remembered in Japan for being one of the biggest sellers ever in the history of japanese computer games (the original game was released on PC-80, PC-88, PC-98, FM-7, Sharp X-1 and MSX). In terms of gameplay, Xanadu Next seems to share some similarities with Sega's recent arcade hit Quest of D, an "arcade action-RPG" that uses collectible card decks to create and manage the player's inventory. There's a "2.0" upgrade of Quest of D to come soon and Namco is currently holding loketests of Druaga Online, which looks like their answer to Sega's success, and was one of the most popular games presented at the last AM show. I am writing this because - as you might remember - Aruze is producing arcade versions of popular Falcom games and, if the arcade action RPG genre catches with players, it wouldn't be surprising to see an arcade port of Xanadu Next too.
Falcom's newsletter also had news for Eiyuu Densetsu fans. For those not familiar with Falcom's complex publishing history, Eiyuu Densetsu shares a link with Xanadu: they both started as sequels of Dragon Slayer before turning into spin-offs with their own sequels. Xanadu was Dragon Slayer II, and Eiyuu Densetsu was Dragon Slayer VI. Now, about the announcements...
Bandai is almost done releasing all of the Gagharv Trilogy (Eiyuu Densetsu III, IV and V) on PSP. The first two episodes are already avaiable (Eiyuu Densetsu III Shiroki Majou is actually one of the best sellers of the PSP in Japan with around 100,000 copies sold) and the Gagharv Trilogy PSP website has just opened a new Eiyuu Densetsu V Umi no Oriuta section. The game will be released on the 23rd of november.
Meanwhile, the biggest information of the newsletter is the announcement of a drama CD based on Eiyuu densetsu VI Sora no Kiseki (the last episode to date). I have no idea about the quality of the voice cast announced in the e-mail (15 seiyuus in total), but the staff stresses that they are aware about the importance of the cast in a drama CD and that they are proud of their choices, and there are an unusual number of exclamation marks, so I guess the roster has a few big names in the seiyuu department. Here's the related page on Falcom's website.
Keita Takahashi's new best-dressed friend Tanguy (and his Ukulele Orchestra) released four new tracks this morning, including the songs played live two weeks ago at the Game Hotel 2005 in Paris - where he also beat the crap out of Mizuguchi at Lumines, or so the legend says. It's actually not the recordings of the live interpretations that were made avaiable, but arranged builds based on what he pre-produced and performed at the event. Rediscover his classics Space Harrier and Zelda, accompanied by a brillant take on Katamari Damacy. But that's not all! Since he is plunged into Gyakuten Saiban's DS port right now, he also produced a quickie on the "revelation theme". TAKE THAT.
So the X05 has begun in Amsterdam, and the only interesting news from the show has already been reported by UK Resistance. Unless you are the kind of person to be excited by anything green and microsofty, in which case Xboxyde is a place of choice to check news. Yet Namco saves the day for Insert Credit, as we finally get a peek at the most important information of the Xbox 360's launch: how Reiko Nagase will look like in Ridge Racer 6. The digital idol loved by all, went for a subtle homage to her 10 year old Rave Racer outfit, and affirms her taste in gloves previously shown in Ridge Racers - which also featured levels and music from Rave Racer. Also note the hip update in her personal tastes: Minna Daisuki Katamari Damashii joins Pac-Man as her favorite game(s). Other virtual girls, please take notes.
Longtime insertcredit.com forum veteran and appreciated contributor David Cabrera was present at the Nintendo World store in New York City, New York on Saturday, September 24th, 2005, to see first-hand and report, selfishly, of what went down when Shigeru Miyamoto showed up to sign autographs and play Nintendogs with the masses. I stole his report and put it into HTML without asking him if it was okay to do so. We will now broadcast that report here, and it will say things like this:
Security wouldn't acknowledge us, so he was taking it upon himself to organize. For the time being, I had to be up front with the racetrack crew. As 9 o'clock drew closer, so did the crowd. The crowd was constantly jockeying for position with itself; one guy would try to get in front of the crowd, and everybody would take a step up right after him to make sure he didn't. At first we were between two parked cars; eventually we ended up in front of them, in the middle of the street. When one of the parked cars left, we took up the space it had occupied. At this point there were somewhere in the area of 80 diehards waiting for the line to start, and we still had an hour or two to go. We found our entertainment the old-fashioned way; a guy put on a show by threatening to throw his DS into traffic.
Amidst all this handheld agitation, we should not forget that the GP2X is now officially avaiable for pre-order. You have until the 31st of october to purchase your GP2X on the official site, and only the first 500 buyers will get rewarded with a special pack. If you want to order it from an english-language site, here's the Play Asia link. Gamepark Holdings also put up some interesting photographs comparing its new system with Sony's PSP - the korean handheld is not that big after all. I got this news through Soroban Geeks which also hosts a couple of interesting (and mindboggingly british) videos examining the Pop Station Value Pack and Neo Double Games, two little chinese systems that share "completely coincidental" similarities with two popular handhelds.
Besides the Square announcements Tim just posted, Famitsu Online (and Famitsu Magazine via some evil scans) have revealed plenty of new games for the DS.
The major news is certainly Capcom's Gyakuten Saiban 4, about which very little is known yet except that it will be released in 2006. A few games that were left with an uncertain future have been confirmed for a 2006 release as well, such as Brownie Brown's Magical Vacation, Squenix's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle and Konami's Bokutai and Winning Eleven. Konami hasn't shown anything about these two games yet (they were also teasing with a Winning Eleven Mobile for japanese cellphones at TGS) but gave away first screens of PawaPuroKun Pocket 8 and already announced a new DS game in the Akumajou Dracula (Castlevania) series.
In other news: Koei showed first screens for the DS versions of Shin Sangoku Musou, Sangokushi and Daikoukai Jidai. From Software is producing Tenchu DS. Namco has a new Tales game planned for DS. Nintendo announced a direct sequel to their popular DS Brain Training game titled Motto Nou wo Kitaeru Otona no DS Training (or "Once again work your brain with Adults' DS Training") as well as the graphic adventure game Defect Hacker developed by RED, and Sakaguchi's new simulation-RPG ASH.
And speaking of Nintendo, here is a witty interpretation of "Mario 64". Mario Pepper Band, Mario de Ouji, Mario Kidd and Mario IIIsei are personal favorites.
[update!] GameWatch has put up a lot of screenshots from the Nintendo DS Conference 2005, where most of those games were presented alongside others.
News: Final fantasy v and vi announced for GBA, other squarish mysteries
An article on G-Para highlights some announcements at the Nintendo DS conference today. It turns out that Square-Enix has announced plans to release Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI on Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. It is surprisingly noble of them to wait twenty-four whole hours after the opening of the Final Fantasy IV Advance official homepage. (You will of course remember the summer of 2000, when Square announced Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, and Final Fantasy XI all on the same day.)
Also at the conference, Square announced that they are indeed still working on Final Fantasy III for Nintendo's DS, and that the game is a remake rather than a port. They are stressing the "remake" part pretty heavily. Which means, yeah, it'll probably involve scraping the hell out of the bottom screen to cause maximum damage.
Other interesting things revealed lately on the Squeenix front include that Seiken Densetsu mastermind Kouchi Ishii will indeed produce the DS Children of Mana, which means it might be pretty good, and that Romancing SaGa's lovely talented music composer Kenji Ito will be scoring most of the soundtrack. Official site here. Enticing!
Finally, and most bizarrely interesting of them all, is that Square-Enix will be developing Mario Basket 3 on 3, a Super Mario-themed basketball game for the Nintendo DS. I mean, I can understand getting Camelot, makers of Hot Shots Golf, to make Mario Golf and Mario Tennis, or getting Namco's Family Stadium team to do Mario Baseball, (do I need to show the picture of the Goomba again?) though heck, it's kind of mysterious what made Nintendo think Square-Enix was a shoe-in for Mario Basketball. Was it the jumping segments in Kingdom Hearts that tipped them off? Oh, I kid. It might be fun, especially if they work out a way to slam-dunk with the stylus. That's a joke, too. Either way, rumors will be circulating starting tomorrow about the appearances of Square's 1995 Super NES Super Mario RPG's classic characters Booster, Geno, and Mallow. These would mark the greatest cameos in a basketball game since Mario and Luigi jammed in EA's NBA Street.
Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI will go on sale sometime toward the middle of next year, for probably 7,000 yen each. (No exaggerration intended.)
Speaking of vanity projects, vincent diamante, of this very website, has worked on a new game, after Dyadin, which was in last year's 
The British Gaming Blog has put together some nifty 
Game Watch has some 
Those of you wondering about the aspect ratio of the updated versions of Crazy Balloon, Balloon Bomber, Kage no Densetsu and Camel Try in the forthcoming Taito Memories Pocket (PSP) should go to 
And SNK Playmore marches on with the exploitation of its popular IPs for cellphones. After the dating sim 
Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, the psuedo-sequel to Type-Moon's Fate/Stay Night was released today, and stores opened early to accomodate the huge lines, apparently. A Maxi-single from the new game, and the original Fate/Stay Night soundtrack were also on available. Check 
Here are some odd new 
Nobody really cared about 
Akio Otsuka ("Ootsuka Akio" if you're hip) is the Japan's manliest animation voice-actor; his best known role may or may not be that of 
This has been rumored for a long time now, and the latest Famitsu issue has finally let us know the truth - sadly, Growlanser V - Generations will have full 3D graphics. It seems that Career Soft is either dissolved, or not developing this episode, since there's no mention of it in the whole article. At least, Urushihara is still there with the design. The game will be publicly presented at November's 
Shadow of the Colossus is the new game for PlayStation 2 by Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido, the makers of the critically acclaimed Ico. It stars a young man who 
Scans are already running around the web, but next friday will see the official unveiling of Ys Strategy. A logical date as it will coincide with the release of the new Famitsu, the opening of the game's official website and the new Falcom newsletter. We can already confirm the game is an RTS in the spirit of Age of Empires. The character design looks well-executed (and familiar - isn't this a designer from Capcom?), but first in-game screenshots look rather unexciting. Much more information to come in two days.
Super robots are invading both trendy handhelds of the moment. First, The DS will host Sunrise's popular robot series 
Capcom announced they will release an 
Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z gained a second youth with the success of the license in the US, which in turn drove japanese and european audiences to reconsider an old series often seen as dull and passé by today's standards. The revival worked well enough for a new wave of games to be produced, judging by Bandai/Atari's successful sales and the recent Dragon Ball Z Sparking! from Spike topping the charts in Japan. Whereas the much awaited Hokutou no Ken (by Arc Systems Works for Sega) will soon arrive in arcades, Banpresto has held last friday a location test of their new arcade fighting game 
Toshio Iwai's 
Arika's well loved Tetris the Grand Master series will be hitting a home platform for the first time, on December 10th - a launch title for the Xbox 360, according to 
Famitsu's website 
A successful TV animation series is being converted into a PS2 game thanks to 
While it was revealed some weeks ago via Famitsu Magazine, the 
The latest issue of Nintendo Dream has an exclusive article on the remake of Final Fantasy III. The game is indeed in full 3D and quite possibly the most impressive DS game from a technical standpoint. Most of the action (overworld, dungeon crawling, battles) will be seen on the upper screen and there is no information yet on what the lower tactile screen will be used for. There is a nice montage passed around on the net to 
Kilvear took part in the Yogurting (Korean schoolgirl action mmo) Japanese beta, and took a bunch of 
A savvy gamer and programmer from France has created a set of tools that allows one to 
The latest Samurai Spirits episode now has a release date for its PS2 version: January 19th, according to 
Another hentai title from the PC is getting de-hentaied for a PS2 release. 
You might remember 
Two 
More and more people are discovering the delightful 
It seems a group of fans have gotten together to hack a Final Fantasy 2 Famicom (NES) rom into 
The 
It's not 
Although most people actually found out about the game through magazine scans yesterday, 
SNK's dating game for cell phones Days of Memories -Boku to Kanojou no Atsui Natsu- ("a hot summer for my girlfriend and me") has a 
Those who pre-order My My Katamari(PSP) in Japan will receive a very nifty bonus: a PSP carrying pouch in the shape of the prince's head! Images of the pouch can be found 
Thanks to Substance J for pointing out some absolutely insane Fire Pro Returns character edits. On 
Someone has 
Also thanks to Zepy, we learn that Perfect Cherry Blossom creator Zun has pre-released a patch for his new versus shooting game Touhou Kaeidzuka (described 
Doujin group 
Seems this time it's for real. 
A gamer's friday isn't complete until receiving the weekly 
Security wouldn't acknowledge us, so he was taking it upon himself to organize. For the time being, I had to be up front with the racetrack crew. As 9 o'clock drew closer, so did the crowd. The crowd was constantly jockeying for position with itself; one guy would try to get in front of the crowd, and everybody would take a step up right after him to make sure he didn't. At first we were between two parked cars; eventually we ended up in front of them, in the middle of the street. When one of the parked cars left, we took up the space it had occupied. At this point there were somewhere in the area of 80 diehards waiting for the line to start, and we still had an hour or two to go. We found our entertainment the old-fashioned way; a guy put on a show by threatening to throw his DS into traffic.
Amidst all this handheld agitation, we should not forget that the GP2X is now officially avaiable for pre-order. You have until the 31st of october to purchase your GP2X on 
Besides the Square announcements Tim just posted, Famitsu Online (and Famitsu Magazine via some evil scans) have revealed plenty of new games for the DS.
