range murata's next art book (his 3rd) is due out in february 2006, according to the recently updated publisher publisher page (which has a humorous 'now roading' message while the flash gets up to speed). The book will have 160 full color pages, B4 dimensions, which is 9.75 x 14 inches, or 250×353 mm. Most art books are A4, like Futurhythm regular version (LE is B4). Form Code, in addition being large, will cost a painful 9,500 yen. It will have a PVC cover, similar to futurerhythmLE, perhaps. Thanks to click-stick via Long Range Bullet. Thanks to all who wrote in about paper size!
The 2005 International Robot Exhibition is going on now, and one of the exhibitions is a Bandai/Namco-developed robotic Pac-Man game. Found via Akihabara News, which is unfortunately light on details. It appears as though pac-man really just runs round the maze, but may be connected to an actual version of the game played via the console shown. Regardless, it's pretty neat, and the robot seems to be well constructed!
Check out GameSetWatch, a new games blog from my employers CMP, via sometime ic-poster Simoniker. It's less niche-based than insert credit, though I am also contributing to it. Other posters include our old pal Frank Cifaldi, and a bunch of other people I know a lot less about, but are also supposed to be smart.
As a taste, check out a recent post on Cenix's newly-planned game playing handheld. Cenix previously made MP3 players and voice recorders, and is located in Korea. The 1 gig unit comes with two games, still plays MP3s, and also boasts some 50,000 games via the company's website upon release. More images on Aving! P.S. if you stop reading ic because of it, I will stab you. Read both! It's the only solution.
Caution, some of the links in this post are not worksafe! According to Zepy and Temple Knights, Type-Moon's much awaited Fate/hollow ataraxia has sold 142,686 copies on its first month, hence breaking the record for best sales for an erotic game, previously held by its predecessor Fate/stay night, with 95,640 units sold in its first month. As Zepy tells us: "before that, Air took an entire year to sell 102,080 copies". For the sake of comparison, Fate/hollow ataraxia has managed to outsell Sony's highly praised Wanda To Kyouzou, released around the same period but only selling 129,492 units in its first month. Apparently the success of the game is deserved.
Nifty korean gadget site Aving has a subsection called Aving Girl (aka "gadget and girl") which is like a real-life version of Idiot Toys' running girl holding a thing gag. Anyway, the point is that now there are some images of not-very-attractive girls standing next to Wanna Be Wizard, on a big screen. This game came out for GP32, but I never got to play it - then it moved to Cellphones, and now might be coming to some sort of device which you can see on the left in this image. Here's another one that has a picture of a girl that is dressed like a pirate. So.
Rule of Rose is a new survival horror/adventure game from SCEJ, with quite a disturbing theme. You take the role of a young girl in england in the 1930s, who is lured to a specific house by a boy who only she can see. He gives her a book of disturbing fairly tales, which by degrees come to a sort of life in this house. The house is occupied by other young girls who simply want to be loved, but through their naive innocence create a rather horrid lord of the flies-like environment, from which the heroine wishes to escape.
Gameplay is similar to Demento/Haunting Ground, in that a dog helps you through, and there's more emphasis on discovery and the 'adventure' aspect (ala Siren), in order to unravel the story. The game may not hit the states, given the rather disturbing, and sometimes psuedo-erotic content. Take a look at a promo movie here, though be aware that while there's no nudity, it's not necessarily something you'd want your boss/teacher/whatever to see you watching. Worth a look, it's quite beautiful, in a horrible way. The game is due out January 19th, and there's been very little info about the game released, oddly enough. You can preorder the game here, if you're curious. Thanks to Hague and Iggy for the info.
The minibosses are releasing a new CD with 10 tracks, and much more variety than the last EP, which featured Castlevania III and Megaman II exclusively. There's also a live CD that is relatively new. The CDs cost $12 and $11 shipped, respectively, and though the new CD isn't out yet, if you preorder now, it's quite possible that the order will ship on the 20th, making it more likely to arrive before christmas.
In related news, The Advantage has a new full-length CD (Elf Titled) due in January, with a december release party on the 30th of december in SF.
Famitsu reveals the details, along with the first screens. There will be an arranged mode, a practice mode (to fight bosses) and a gallery mode in this version, as well as the straight arcade mode, of course.
February 2006 will finally see the birth of the third episode of this shooting series, according to G-Para and Game Watch. That's a new 'high tension MAX system', new characters for a total of nine, and ten brand new stages, but unfortunately there are some poor quality visuals, which make even the previous episode look great.
The link is actually about all upcoming Type-X games, so don't miss the direct feed screens of Taisen Hot Gimmick 5, while you're there.
<Brandon's note: Also check out the Half-Life 2 cabinet, which sports some interesting controls, essentially a mouse and flight stick. The visuals actually look decent as well! I think we're finally seeing the upgraded Type-X board Taito promised upon the system's release.>
It was revealed at the latest TGS as a prototype PS/PS2 controller, and Sega Logistics wants to actually put it into production now. In order to make this the finest arcade-style stick for a home system ever, it has put up an online questionnaire to check the public's opinion. They ask if you need Sanwa OBSF-30RG pushbuttons on it or if you're going to pay 22,000 yen if it gets released, for instance. Now I ask, will they be selling a solid-enough, proper-height table with it?
Taito has confirmed the rumor by listing the game on its line-up page (where we also learn that the remake of Ys V they're doing for the PS2 will be called Ys V ~Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand~, by the way). Scheduled for the 23rd of February, 2006.
We pointed it out back in July - Sega was preparing a PS2 compilation of Treasure's most acclaimed games for the Mega Drive system: Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy and Alien Soldier. It's all coming under the name of 'Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 25: Gunstar Heroes ~Treasure Box~' and both Sega and Treasure are announcing it for February 23rd. Straight ports without enhanced versions this time, but you can expect the usual galleries and extras.
The game is now being distributed in Japanese arcade centers - and Cave coincidentally (well, not really), added actual content to the System section of its official site. The game seems to repeat Espgaluda's mechanics, but now you are able interchange the buttons for the guard barrier and auto features each other after selecting your character. Lots of tiny screenshots there, but check it out.
The game releases on february 23rd, according to Game Star. The preliminary site is here, and has a nice set of direct feed screenshots, which show that the game's original graphics aren't being upscaled to fit PSP's whole screen resolution, but they are getting a larger visible game area instead. Cool effort, for once.
Newave, of the ic forums, has made a nice 8 bit-style video of Dealership's song Forest. Dealership, as you may recall, features Jane of GGA (and now 1up.com). I like the video more than the song, as Dealership is better (and thicker) live, but that's me. Still, the video is worth watching if only for its cuteness. Check more of Newave's stuff here, or don't!
Kakuto Choujin is an odd 3D Xbox fighting game from the creators of the Tobal series. It was pulled from the shelves because it contained pieces of the Koran in its background music, and thus was viewed as sacriligious. Nobody seemed to mind, because nobody really seemed to like it. Until now! Prolific combo master MrWhitefolks has done up a spiffy combo video, found on his videos page, which shows that there may be something deep to the game after all. I'll remain outside of the fanbase, but 3D fighting frightens me in general. Check out a liste of moves seen in the video, via an MMC post.
While you're at it, check out his Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon Super S combo vids. Shame some of the older stuff has been taken down, as his Groove on Fight combo video would be mighty appropriate now, what with the pending release of Matrimelee.
Digital Leisure, which owns the rights to a host of classic laserdisc-based arcade games (the likes of Dragon's Lair and Thayer's Quest - and even some atrocious live action FMV games like Mad Dog McCree), has announced that the company will be releasing the games for the Xbox 360. Truth be told though, these are simply DVD titles that are compatible with the 360 hardware by virtue of the 360 controller's doubling as a DVD remote. The (unlicensed!) games are not exactly affortable, at $30 a pop, and might be better presented in compiled form, perhaps with official license from Microsoft.
The GOAT Store, the independent Dreamcast homebrew publisher (of Feet of Fury fame), has announced the pending release of Cool Herders, which has been available as a free one-level demo since the beginning of the Dreamcast homebrew movement. The game was originally distributed via the DC Tonic disc at E3 2001, but has since been revamped and turned into a proper full game with various levels options, and a story mode. The game retails for $19.90, and will come on professionally pressed and packaged discs.
In related enthusiast DC news, preorders are open for DreamOn, a glossy Dreamcast Zine based around the homebrew scene that will come with a demo disc, provided there is enough interest. Thanks to Sweater Fish for the links.
From Tam comes a nice piece of handwork, the tiny homemade one-player mamecab, which you'll see on the left ("mamecab" as in "an arcade cabinet housing a PC exclusively dedicated to the famous Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator"). The little monster weighs 16 kilograms, and although some of its specs and design elements might change in the near future, it gives a good idea of what talent and time can make out of random PC parts and a square meter of wood. Notice the neon-powered marquee, glass-protected 17" LCD screen, Pac Man-themed overlay and real arcade buttons. The whole thing cost around 350€ and two months to make, although it appears the money and time spent would be seriously reduced on a second mamecab with the experience gathered in making the first one. There is an on-topic discussion in french on the mighty Boulette, in case you're interested in reading more on the project.
<Brandon's note: while it's certainly the smallest and cutest, it's not the first, either. here's an early one, and DreamArcades even offers a home kit to make your own.>
Here's a trailer for PaperMan, a FPS which advertises itself as a "First Paper Shooter," and was announced at the beginning of the month from Ragnarok Online developer Gravity. Think Counterstrike but with Parappa the Rapper-esque characters. The use of paper cut-outs in a shooter makes perfect sense actually; for example, when someone runs one way and the upper body turns and twists every which direction, it finally looks natural.
I don't much like the Xbox 360 controller. Brandon and Tim don't agree with me. Neither does The Internet. Such is life!
<Brandon's note: Indeed, I disagree. It feels really nice in my human hands, though I measure some six or more inches less than eric-jon does in height. No denying the nice plastic though. It's smooooth.>
In the form of a medal game, we're afraid. Geki Makaimura is classified as a 'shooting action game' with 3D graphics and featuring the most loved characters in the series. Oh well.
Zun (Shanghai Alice) has released some new screens of his upcoming game Shoot the Bullet, via his blog. Check here. Thanks to Jeremy Weaver for pointing this out.
Yep. The same one which announced Mushihime-sama. So you may expect an official confirmation soon. It was quite predictable, anyway. Taito is behind the conversion once again, which is sad since they ruined <some say!> PS2 Mushi with fake low-res presentation and brand new slowdowns. But hey. According to Kobayan, Taito is also conducting the third location test of the Type-X-supported Shikigami no Shiro III this weekend (Sega's Metal Slug 6 and Hokuto no Ken are also being tested), and they also confirm Skonec as the co-developer, as we mentioned some weeks ago.
Whereas Ys The Oath in Felghana received raving reviews and a great reception from fans, Xanadu Next has received mixed reactions amongst japanese gamers. Most of them complain about the poor controls and expensive retail price, and the game's sales have been rather disappointing. It seems that - not unlike the recent "Shining" games from Sega - people keep playing the game only because of the Xanadu name (and inherent legacy behind it) yet, by the same token, ask more from it than they probably should. One demonstration of this behavior is how most japanese websites' reviews keep enthusiastically comparing the game to its ancestor. 4Gamer even made a list of points showing the heritage of the original Xanadu in this article; some of these points spoil the plot, whereas others are a bit far fetched.
Xanadu Next has its supporters though, and for those who keep playing or would like to try the game and draw their own conclusion on its quality, Falcom has released a new and important patch. Not only does the patch fix some minor bugs, it's receiving appraisal from most players as it includes a whole new dungeon ("the world of the dead") filled with exclusive monsters and USB joypad support - hence fixing the mouse-controlled gameplay a lot of people complained about. Apparently an essential patch for a better experience.
I did a couple of short SNK interviews at TGS and E3, and put them into a short feature on Gamasutra. I interviewed Falcoon and an overseas (ie greater asia) marketing fellow. Check it out here.
Also, check this wrap article for the 2005 Future of Play conference, mainly for the opening picture, which has noted game academic Henry Jenkins about to throttle noted other guy Craig Anderson, while a bearded onlooker stares agape.
Character edits are fun! Iggy has found a website with 100 character edits from Soul Calibur 3. Most of them look largely terrible, given the nature of the editor (the girls look a bit better), but they're certainly fun to see! Running the gamut from Joe Higashi to Moc-cos to Ken Kutaragi, there's something for everyone!
Here you'll find an interesting comparison (in Japanese) between the two versions of Langrisser III, the original one for the Saturn and the recent port for the PS2. Seems that Taito needed to hide some inguinal exposures in Urushihara's original illustrations in order to release the game for the Sony audience. A well illustrated document, so check it out.
News: Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku - Bonnou Kaihou release date
Some major Japanese game sites, like Game Watch, have announced the release date to be february 23rd. New character artwork can also be found there, along with direct feed screens, which unsurprisingly, reveal that the game will use upscaled graphics for an awful hi-res on-screen presentation. They redrew the character portraits and life bars in true hi-res to help their consciences or something, though.
News: "Blue Sky in Games" campaign, sky-blue controllers on game consoles, and the death (?) of the vibration function
Our old school chums at UK Resistance have started this little campaign, encouraging more game companies to make games with "Blue Skies" and "Yellow Suns"; games with "Red and blue things in them." They speak: "We want to COLLECT BANANAS FROM MAGIC CASTLES not earn respect from fictional gang leaders!"
The internet is alive with the linking of this story; I'm stumbling around seeing how many people are linking it, and then reading the comments, wherein netlings, confused, say things like "don't make me laugh," or (and I quote), "Well, while I do love classic games with 'blue skies', and I do miss the bright colours and fun game play, I still do love my dark games. I am of the opinion that the RPG greatness that is Fallout 2 has yet to be matched." UK Resistance, congratulations -- you've now made the big-time: you've got people to invoke Fallout 2's "RPG greatness" while discussing your website. That's pretty heavy.
We here at insertcredit.com, and I say this without consulting senior editor and staff mascot Brandon "The Hedgehog" Sheffield, fully support every aspect of the Blue Sky in Games Campaign, except the part about "We want to restore our health by COLLECTING ROAST CHICKEN, not by syringing drugs into the only vein we can still find!" Not that we condone drugs -- we just don't condone roast chicken. Besides, how sick is it for a furry little animal character to eat roast chicken? Think -- would Sonic eat a bland brown roast chicken? Can we reach a compromise -- can we say "eating big shiny red tomatoes" instead? Think back on the last time you ate a really, really fresh tomato. Wasn't that lovely? WANKERY
Perhaps to commemorate this wonderful campaign, our friends at Sega Logistics, makers of the famed Virtua Stick and proprietors of a very, very blue website, released their "Surf Wave" wireless PlayStation 2 controller. When presented one from a Sega representative today, I was offered a choice of three colors -- black, white, or the color I chose. Which, yes, was Sonic Blue.
Used to play the wonderful, blue-skied new RPG Rogue Galaxy, the controller is every bit as good as a WaveBird, with a better name, bluer, and with a much more generous, somewhat-Saturn-like, floaty D-pad. It is lovely. It even vibrates!
Curious news: every Japanese PS2 game released from December 1st on will no longer labeled as "compatible only with analog controller (DUALSHOCK 2)" -- they are once again compatible with either the DUALSHOCK 2 or the original DUALSHOCK. Does this mean the touch-sensitive PS2 buttons have at last been acknowledged as pointless? Whatever it means, it's curious indeed to see that now four games out of ten released don't even support the vibration function anymore. Could the fad of gang games be next to slip away? Rogue Galaxy doesn't vibrate, for instance. Rogue's producer, Akihiro Hino, told Famitsu last year he finds force feedback "Silly."
Yuji Horii, producer of the vibration-less insertcredit.com's 2004 game of the year, Dragon Quest VIII, also finds the vibration function silly. His masterpiece, produced by Mr. Hino, which is so blue-skied, happy, gangster-free, and fantasy-filled as to even include the word "sky" in its Japanese title, is on sale all over the USA as of yesterday. Buying it would probably be a nice idea. It's for a good cause.
Astonishia Story, the source material for one of the most popular games for the GP32 (it was even a pack-in with a special black version of the console), was apparently released on the PSP, under the radar (mine, at least!). The 2D Korean RPG, with its semi Grandia-esque battles has gotten a minor facelift, largely in the magic effects department, and of course the game also takes advantage of the PSP's lovely screen. The GP32 version was called Astonishia Story R, and deviated from the original in...various mysterious ways (ie, I don't actually know), but the PSP version is a port of the original PC game from 1994. It still holds its own today though, due to the very detailed animation, and 2D in-game cutscenes (you can see some footage of ASR in our GP32 Guide). Check the Astonishia website for a gameplay movie, and some screens. The game was released in september, which means you can buy it now, if you want. It sold a whole 4,000 copies! (This info comes from the Korea times, but it's a bit unclerar if they mean the PSP version, or the original, highly pirated PC version.) You can see some developer comments in the Korea Times.
"Doujin Daily News" website Doujinaroni is surprisingly back after almost a year on hiatus. You might be familiar with it as Doujinaroni is one of the few websites linked on this very frontpage. Although the former chief editor Roni is still missing in action, Doujinaroni's forum member Basara has apparently taken the reins and has been posting ever regularly since early november. Luckily for you, he also kept the tradition of translating the site's newsposts into english. So check their frontpage for news of the doujin world, including fresh information on TakeTake, Muraya and Rectangle. One thing Basara couldn't understand is what Subtle Style is up to with those new screenshots on their webpage. They are apparently taken from Akatsuki Denkou Senki, a tentative name for the sequel to the acclaimed Akatsuki Shirei Ichikou.
There have been a bunch of new (and mostly positive) impressions of Metal Slug 6 this weekend via some early location tests. The first episode of the series to launch on AtomisWave is apparently even harder than MS3! Metal Slug Database has an extensive review of the game, found on the MMC forums. It's filled with details and spoilers on what happens in the game, mind you. The website also has a new video to download. Meanwhile, Ruliweb also has its own footage to download here. Their player unfortunately forgot to try most of the new features and special abilities of Ralph and Clark, so don't bother with this download if you are only interested in those details.
You might recall my column at Next Generation. I'm bringing it up again because, well, today's edition is kind of Insert Crederiffic. What with the fall release schedule, of late I've actually been forced to split the column up over the first three days of the week. There's more coming, therefore, on Tuesday and Wednesday. I don't know how those will go until I finish them. Today's turned out kind of interesting, though.
A warning to Chris Kohler: you won't like everything you read!
Wandering in my local discount bookstore today, I came across the rather lamely monikered Japanese Game Graphics: Behind the Scenes of Your Favorite Games, which was published by Harper Design International in 2004, and seems to have passed by everyone's geek radar. But check out the table of contents - Virtual On Marz, Popolocrois, Resident Evil 0, Sakura Taisen 4? Turns out the 176 page artbook is an English-language translation of "Making Of Game Graphics 2003" by Works Corporation, and includes lots of obscure, interesting concept art and making-of pictures. Squint at the Panzer Dragoon Orta example, which is part of the 10-page spread that includes pictures of a maquette of the dragon - other highlights include storyboards from Contra: Shattered Soldier, and even early controller prototypes for Steel Battalion. Some of the game entries lack some detail, but Half.com has a couple of copies for under $10 right now, and for that price, otaku everywhere should rush to buy it.
Tomy is known in the gaming world as a publisher of various license-based games (such as ZOIDS, or the Naruto games for Nintendo consoles), but their main business for years has been toys and boardgames. Some of these products use videogames licenses, such as the Pocket Monsters golden goose or their Kingdom Hearts trading card game. But sometimes they just blatantly rip-off famous icons. This was the case with Packman. Put out by their brand Omnicl and originally released in the Seventies, Packman was a tiny garbage bin that conveniently shared a striking ressemblance with a famous videogame character. Eager to cash in with nostalgic japanese consumers, Omnicl recently released Fukkoku Packman, a reprint of their original product, as well as the Fukkoku Packman Tanoshi Kane Chokinbako. That last one is a money box in the shape of a tiny Packman, that gobs up 100 yens coins with its mechanic arm. Charming idea, though this video found on Game Kizoku draws scepticism. Tomy is also celebrating the 30th anniversary of their PocketMate series. Those were totally awesome handheld mechanic games that competed with Nintendo's Game & Watch series as the coolest toy you could bring at school in the early Eighties*. To celebrate, Tomy is releasing a 6-pack PocketMate 30th Anniversary Set featuring timeless classics such as Yakyuu (released in 1975), Crazy MachineGun (1978) and Meiro Game (1979). Too bad they did not include Field Athletic (1979), the masterpiece of their original line up. *that's the best excuse I could come up with to talk about them on a gaming site.
The inimitable Dr_Ian and friends, producers of Gamespot.com "PC Game of the Year" (okay so not really) Bodythumper, based on a script by up-and-coming game-writer Jack Thompson, have shocked the internet once again by performing a radio drama based on the legendary "Doom Comic." The drama is best listened to while reading the comic. This drama has actually been around for a while, though it only makes itself known to me . . . now.
Apparently the comic is super-famous amongst players of the Doom games; I didn't know this until seeing it for myself just moments ago. With regards to art, writing, drug-addicted tone, and righteousness, it is a puzzling, bewildering piece of intended entertainment. If the "DOOM" movie had been made in 1996 instead of now, maybe it would have been a direct adaptation of this comic? I get the impression that movies and comics like this just don't get greenlighted in this post-9/11 world of ours. Maybe that's a good thing. Dr_Ian and his hetero-lifemate Knuckles have shed a fine light on the weird violence in all our histories' as gamers, simply by, well, reading this thing aloud over near-pornographic sound effects. Listen!! And fear that maybe Jack Thompson has a point!! or don't
I received an email this morning from a fellow whose "girlfriend" made this lovely blanket of the Katamari Damashii prince. It is apparently crocheted, and the dimensions are 52.5"x77.0". It took three months to make, and the pattern was made with something called OmniGraffle, which sounds like some sort of 1337 MMO term I've never heard of before.
Here I was sitting, pondering which version of Brain Training -- the PSP one, released ironically by Sega, is now outselling the DS version two to one, and without the darling handwriting recognition -- to put on my upcoming "games of the year" feature, when this title quite literally landed in my lap. It's from Japanese publisher Success, who you may remember jumped on the money (and gravy) train to produce Yoshinoya: The Videogame.
The title is "Yawahada Eigo Juku." This is a play on the name "Yawaraka Atama Juku." A "juku" is a kind of school where kids have information "crammed" into their brains in preparation for big exams. "Yawaraka" means "gentle." "Atama" means "head." Yawaraka Atama Juku is a brain-training game for DS that deals more in logic puzzles and riddles than Brain Training (which mostly has you counting objects, and feels either more or less like a videogame, depending on your taste in videogames).
Well, "Eigo" means "English," and "Hada" means "skin." "Yawahada" means "smooth skin." So, uh -- it's a smooth-skinned English-training school.
To tell you the truth, this thing isn't even a videogame. It's like one of those Japanese LD games of yore, where you switch chapters based on on-screen prompts, like a choose-your-own-adventure story. Yet -- yet -- the satirical title and the premise are quite amusing. See, this is a "game" where you basically learn how to speak conversational English from Japanese swimsuit models. They'll say things like "I'm so hunnnngry!" in Japanese, and then speak it in really awful English. "KUDO YUU TERU MII HAU TSU GETTO TSU ZA GUDDO RESUTORAN NIA HIA?!" (Engrish for "Could you tell me how to get to a good restaurant around here?") Meanwhile, severely misspelled subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen, highlighted like karaoke lyrics, as the girl holds her hand to her ear and grins. She smiles back at the camera: "Good job!!"
Sometimes the girls dance in their bikinis, and find reasons to speak English to one another while doing so. The context is, they're on a trip overseas, and are teaching you handy travel expressions while they sit by the pool or belly-roll on beach balls. The interface is riddled with menus -- to work your way through the game, you must master all the menus, and watch all the right sequences. This is tough work. I played it in the toilet, with headphones, and it works really well there. The girls were prompting me to repeat, though I didn't want to do that in the bathroom, else someone think I was a weirdo. The game, unlike TalkMan (click the purple rectangle with "TVCM" in it to see the latest, and amusing, TV commercials for it), which actually seriously tries to teach you foreign languages, does not support the PSP microphone, which means that your chances of actually learning English from this game are about equal to the chances these girls would ever smile at you in person.
In other words, it is a parody piece of software, bizarre in exeuction; if any kids buy it, when confronted by their mothers, they might say, "I'm studying English!" What would the mom do, then? Walk away confused? There's no nudity, there's no sex; there are, however, plenty of typos and dancing, dancing, dancing. In other words, forget PSP porn. This is better, and by better I mean "more confusing."
Yawahada Eigo Juku goes on sale December 8th, for 3,990 yen.
In an unusual fit of negligence (bonus joke for anyone who knows me!), I haven't mentioned this yet - eric-jon, a man known for being obsessed with various things, but never without reason, has created a Dalek, the aliens from Doctor Who, in Graffiti Kingdom. He did a good job.
As you know, our good friend Jack Thompson, enemy to human beings world-wide, put up a $10k bounty for whoever would create his gamer-beating game. Some fellows spent a lot of time creating one, it was deemed satire, and Penny-Arcade made the donation instead. Now, insert credit's own-ish Dr. Ian has made Bodythumper, and in glorious 2D, no less. He's a little late, but his heart is in the right place, and we forgive him.
The game follows Jack's outline quite closely, which details one father's mission to extract revenge against the video game industry for the death of his son via their "murder simulations." The game is available via download/dollar donation, and like the chump he is, Dr. Ian is giving all proceeds to the Penny Arcade Child's Play fund. If you look, you'll find a video of the game in action. This post was written jointly by Fort90.
Various humorous things have been going on in the world of Shadow lately. First, someone has blinged out Shadow's ride, originally shown in this IGN screenshot. Shadow clearly represents the west side though, which is a positive thing. Next, he turned up for a "Pancrase" match, which is apparently some sort of hybrid wrestling. He gave a prize to the winner and posed a lot. All signs point to this being the best sonic team game ever - or at least the game they've been trying to make for the last seven years or so.
Taito's Exit was possibly the most interesting PSP title of the TGS 2005, along with Sony's own Loco Roco and BaitoHell 2000. Game Watch has a ton of new pictures from the game, which is a clever mix between Solomon's Key and Bonanza Bros., where the hero Mr.ESC must help various people escape each stage (there seems to be a hundred of them in total). Exit should be released next December 22nd. <Brandon's note: Some persons on staff thought it was a bit boring.>
Recent contributor David Cabrera, who wrote this feature about lining up to meet Shigeru Miyamoto in New York City, comes to us live, once again, with a review of "DOOM: THE MOVIE"; his review, in addition to being as intellectually stimulating as a good meaty steak (insertcredit.com does not endorse the eating of steaks), is, in its execution, something like the combination of the joy of seeing a bad movie and the joy of reading a zero-star review of a bad movie. The review, in addition to all that multidirectional stimulation, also challenges us to
It's a good piece; I enjoyed it. I also made an editorial note in which I try to make a joke about the deaf. It doesn't quite work. Here, I'll go ahead and say that if any movie was begging to require 3D glasses, "DOOM" was it.
At any rate, Japanese television program "Showbiz Countdown," which runs on NHK every Sunday at midnight, shed a spotlight on "DOOM" just two nights ago. This is because "DOOM" was the number-one movie in America two weeks ago. They said something about how the movie didn't make quite as much money as Hollywood wanted it to, which I guess is true. They called the game "Based on a piece of computer software that used to be popular in America." Very sterile wording. Very distant-sounding. I found that interesting. The film is coming direct-to-DVD in Japan, sometime next year. Meanwhile, I wrote an essay about Japanese toilets, if you like that sort of thing. I racked my brain trying to think of a connection to this newspost, though they all involved too many words.
Here's a DS homebrew app and an interesting reuse of an old game rolled into one: New York based artist/programmer Andre Hernandez created Ticklegirl for the Nintendo DS, back in September. The goal is extremely simple: use the touchscreen to tickle. Tickling different parts of the girl will result in different reactions. The girl in question is not made from sprites or polygons but full motion video, and originally appeared in another game entirely - a web game for Axe and their line of deodorants and full body sprays for men. The game was later ripped by eBaumsworld, which is where Andre came across it and subsequently ripped for his own project.
Those with the appropriate tools can download and play Ticklegirl for themselves at Cybereality.
Frank Cifaldi's Lost Levels got updated - probably by accident - with an investigation into Final Fantasy VI: The Interactive CG Game (often mis-named 'Final Fantasy 64') by Kenny Sutherland. It was nothing more than a (playable!) CGI tech demo based on Final Fantasy VI, which aimed to show what an RPG could potentially look like on the next Nintendo hardware, back when Squaresoft was one of the premium third party developers for Nintendo and nobody yet knew that they would switch for Sony with Final Fantasy VII. It got a lot of fans waiting for the possible on the so-called 'Ultra 64' (ex-'Project Reality' and soon to become the 'Nintendo 64'). And naturally, some hardcore collectioners are still to this day looking for a potential alpha version of the N64 game - the article should cool them off, though.
News: Gackt to star in final fantasy vii: dirge of cerberus
Direct from the "news so big even Brandon Sheffield didn't catch it" department <Brandon's note: I did, I just couldn't bring myself to post about it>: it turns out that J-rock's cruel god, the one and only Gakuto Kamui, aka Gackt, will indeed be performing the theme song, "Redemption," for Square-Enix's upcoming monsterpiece Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus. Japan's ever-studious Game Watch reports (or, uh, reported four days ago) that the once-and-future "Most Gorgeous Situation in Japan" will be performing another song, called "Longing," for the game as well. His next song will most likely be called "Obsession." Wait, maybe he's already had one by that name. Who cares, though?! Gackt is a sexy man from a man's perspective, and as a (sometimes frustrated) player of Final Fantasy games, I, for one, am glad to have him aboard.
In addition to providing the two songs, both of which are "music and lyrics by Gackt" productions, Mr. Kamui will also lend his appearance to the game. "Not motion-capture -- it's actually me in there," he told Game Watch, probably icily. Other details of his involvement with the game remain unknown, though I'm probably not alone in hoping he performs Vincent's voice in addition to whatever character they schlock him into; if anyone could do it, it's him. He was born for it. And for Alucard, maybe, too, now that I think about it.
Before we get our hopes too high up, however, let us remember that Gackt has been disappointing fans very much recently, most recently (and relevantly) being when it was revealed that the voice actor for Vincent in "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children"wasn't him. His song for the new "Gundam" movie was dismissed as schlock even by his hardcore fanbase, that being chubby Japanese girls in maid outfits. "His lyrics are getting boring," says a girl I know on mixi (which is like Japan's MySpace, only with functionality; I hereby consider it as viable a news source as any). The girl, whose user icon depicts her cosplaying Alice in "Disney's Alice in Wonderland," goes on to say that Gackt needs to start "actually playing an electric guitar again" if she's going to buy another one of his albums. When asked about the game, she says, "I played it at the Square-Enix Party in July and it really sucked." Will she be buying it? "Of course! Did you see the photo of the costume Tetsuya Nomura designed for Gackt to wear? It looks bitching. I would wear it every day."
The game was indeed rather choppy as of its most-recent playable build, at the Square-Enix Party in Chiba in July 2005. The aiming system was floaty; they could have just asked cavia to do the whole thing; it would have been a nice enough franchise for them to tinker around with, while making money.
Game Watch reports that Gackt played the game for a full thirty minutes and, when asked of its quality, remarked that it is "an exceptionally well-put-together piece of work." Yeah, like Bujingai, huh? Oh, I'm kidding! Or am I? His remarks, either way, seem just about in-line taste-wise for a man who released his latest mopey album on the same day as an equally mopey Mr.Children album, two months ago, to dismal sales. He also spoke the male narration on the trailer for the mopey Korean amnesia/blindness/infidelity feel-good-tragedy of the year, "April Snow," starring the one and only Young-Joon Bae, known as "Yon-Sama" to the Japanese. That's what we think of him.
See these three guys? They're all executive producers of Dirge of Cerberus, and they refuse to wear cheap ties. Repeat: they are not taking cheap ties for an answer. This is why, when the game launches on Thursday, January 26th, 2006, it's going to cost 8,190 yen. That's about eighty dollars. Gackt's single goes on sale the day before that, for only 1,260 yen. There is a special limited box in the works; the contents are yet unknown, though it will probably include the game and the CD single wrapped in tinfoil for 19,000 yen. Buy responsibly -- and eBay even more responsibly!!
Tokyo-based, Canadian raised Game Boy musician 6955 has been bleeping up some great portable Nintendo music for a while, including various releases on 555 Recordings and elsewhere. Now he's preparing for a European tour with a new weapon (scroll down!), "a Roland TR-606 controlling an array of Nintendo Famicoms" - eight of them, in fact, according to the pictures. There's a test MP3 up already which showcases the TR606+multi-FC sonic results, and also twohi-res pictures of the set-up - most funky. So, if you're a European venue-owner, grab 6955 and Kimonophonic for a tour date this December?
Much like it did on the Saturn, Sega wants a whole volume of its Sega Ages series for the PS2 to be a compilation of some of the company's earlier games. Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 23: Sega Memorial Selection will contain both original and arranged versions of Head On, Tranquilizer Gun, Border Line, Congo Bongo and Doki Doki Penguin Land. The tiny screens shown on the recently opened website lead us to think the remakes will get sprite-based graphics, unlike the games from the now extinct 3D Ages. Out on December 22nd, along with the volume 22: Advanced Daisenryaku (Mega Drive strategy game, originally).
The big news in this week's Falcom newsletter are the first exclusive screenshots from Sora no Kiseki Second Chapter, the direct sequel to Eiyuu densetsu VI Sora no Kiseki. The game is apparently not considered the 7th installment of Eiyuu Densetsu, therefore making the newfounded Sora no Kiseki series a spin-off from Eiyuu Densetsu, which itself is a spin-off from Dragon Slayer. Sora no kiseki SC will feature new maps, monsters and battle system. The main protagonists will be Estelle Bright and Yoshua Astray, but the old heroes will be back as well, mostly as supporting cast. The Sora no Kiseki drama CD we reported on earlier will serve as a bridge between the scenarios of the two games.
The autumn session of the Sega Private Show 2005 revealed a few new elements of the flagship titles for their new Lindbergh arcade system. Virtua Fighter 5 looks as gorgeous as ever, with fantastic lighting and shading effects, already revealed in last week's Famitsu. We also know the new wrestler's name : El Blaze. One major improvement seems to concern aesthetics and design. Sega actually made a lot of efforts this time, as Jacky's new look can attest. There will apparently be more costumes avaiable per character, too. Finally, there is also some shaky handcam footage to download on VF.com (thanks to reno on GA-F for that one). Another game in the spotlight is After Burner Climax - yep, that's the new name for the remake of the 1987 hit. Same F14 Tomcat, same music, same objectives... Like OutRun 2, it seems to aim at the salarymen who still go to the arcades for Mahjong Fight Club and Virtua Fighter 4, yet feel nostalgic for the hits they cherished in the Eighties. There are also more images of Yu Suzuki's tactile screen fighting game Psy-Phi, Power Smash 3 (which uses an IC card for online ranking) and a weird medal game called Amigyo. Via GameWatch.
Those in the know are already aware of Hamster's Oretachi Geesen Zoku series, dedicated to direct ports of classic arcade games for the PS2 (although the company has been doing these ports since the PSOne days). Last week saw the release of the second batch, with well known titles such as Nichibutsu's Terra Cresta. And today, Rakuten let us know what's in the third batch: Konami's Quarth (1989) and Technos' Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun (1986), the game which started it all. Scheduled for January 26th, according to them.
According to the ever reliable Rakuten, a Gradius compilation is heading for PSP. Arcade versions of Gradius, Gradius II, Gradius III and Gradius IV will be accompanied by the excellent Gradius Gaiden (a PlayStation exclusive until now). Some visual arrangements will be made for the earlier games, and there will be sound and movie galleries (for the later games that used cinematics in their console ports). Gradius Portable will be released on the 9th of february, 2006.
News: Rune Factory and other Boku-Mono announcements
The next year Bokujou Monogatari [Harvest Moon] will be celebrating its 10th anniversary soon, and Marvelous Interactive (which evolved from Victor Interactive) doesn't want to lose the chance to sell some games. Innocent Life was announced for PSP some days ago, and today it's the DS's turn. The newly-announced Rune Factory will also carry the 'Shin Bokujou Monogatari' subtitle although it seems it won't have much to do with the series. It will take the form of an fantasy-themed RPG and it's being developed by Neverland Company (Chaos Seed, Frontier Stories). This joins the forthcoming Bokujou Monogatari: Colobockle Station for Girls, appearing this December, also for the DS. That's not all, though, since a Boku-Mono on-line game has also been announced. Check it all at IT Media.
Here are this week's Famitsu newsbites, days before everyone else gets them! Don't ask how or why, just ask what, and then click!! Inside, you will see information on Children of Mana, New Super Mario Bros, Ryu ga gotoku, and Rogue Galaxy! Which games won at the CESA awards? Did Shinobido beat Psi-Ops for game of the week? Who will star as the Japanese voice actor for the lead in God of War? It's all inside!! Or, at least, most of it is!
The article is located on my personal website because I don't know how to make a "click-here-to-read-more"-type post on here, and I wouldn't want to clutter up the front page with stuff like this. You who click, do not worry, what you will see is hastily typed without much consideration to wit, so it's kind of like reading something of Brandon's. (HaHAH!) It is informative! I think!!
The new Famitsu comes out tomorrow, Wednesday, instead of the usual Friday, because Thursday is Culture Day. And what better way to celebrate Culture Day than by reading Famitsu the day before, spotting this giant two-page Konami ad, and screaming, "OH MY GOD I CAN BUY THE JAPANESE VERSION OF ARIA OF SORROW FOR JUST 2,600 YEN, STARTING TOMORROW!!" Not only Aria of Sorrow -- also Harmony of Dissonance and Circle of the Moon. insertcredit.com readers might recall that Aria of Sorrow was our most reviewed (and unreviewed!) game ever. (Two of those reviews were even called the "Worst Game Review Ever" by several major news services, including Chris Kohler, who's a major news service in and of himself.)
All kidding and elbow-jabbing aside, it's interesting that Konami would re-issue Castlevania in Japan; I'm not saying it's inconceivable -- it's interesting. There has been much movement on Nintendo's portables lately (aside: I really, honestly saw a woman in her sixties playing "Brain Training" last night on the Ginza Line), and the audience is expanding at a morbid and exciting rate. This means maximum exposure for simple games. Castlevania's producer, Koji Igarashi, has always been insistent on creating, first and foremost, games that can be "picked up and played," and though no respectable critic would doubt that, the sales numbers show that Japanese people just don't "get" Castlevania. Dawn of Sorrow recently sold something like 11,000 copies, beaten out many times over by Mushiking, a Gameboy Advance game where the player pounds the A button and watches his on-screen beetle glow and gain statistics.
The Castlevania series, originally called "Akumajou Dracula," re-named "Castlevania," and eventually changed back to "Akumajou Dracula" has been in something of a perfect hybrid of a renaissance and a rut since (and just before!) Koji Igarashi took over. Simple and playable, the three GBA games were nonetheless also risky experiments when it came to their attitudes and package designs, and not one of them sold well at all in Japan. Their being made available under the "Konami Best" label is a welcome surprise, about as much so as the news that the more interesting two are being readied on a two-in-one cartridge for American release in January. Sadly, Konami, being a Japanese company, won't put more than one game on a cartridge for sale in Japan, because they love money. Still, it's fresh to see all these cheap-o GBA games flying around in Japan these days - they normally cost 5,000 or 6,000 yen. It's equally refreshing to think that, lately, when Japanese game companies pick titles for their "best" collections, they sometimes pick them based on their actual entertainment value. Go Japan!!
Also, I do reckon Castlevania: Curse of Darkness comes out today in the States. The Japanese version will ship on November 24th. There will be no Xbox version in Japan.
range murata's next art book (his 3rd) is due out in february 2006, according to the recently updated publisher 
The 2005 
Check out 
Caution, some of the links in this post are not worksafe! 
Nifty korean gadget site 
The minibosses are 
February 2006 will finally see the birth of the third episode of this shooting series, according to 
It was 
Taito has confirmed the rumor by listing the game on 
The game is now being distributed in Japanese arcade centers - and Cave coincidentally (well, not really), added actual content to the 
The game releases on february 23rd, according to 
Newave, of the ic forums, has made a nice 8 bit-style 
The GOAT Store, the independent Dreamcast homebrew publisher (of Feet of Fury fame), has announced the pending release of Cool Herders, which has been available as a free one-level demo since the beginning of the Dreamcast homebrew movement. The game was originally distributed via the DC Tonic disc at E3 2001, but has since been revamped and turned into a proper full game with various levels options, and a story mode. The game 
From 
Here's a trailer for 
Zun (Shanghai Alice) has released some new screens of his upcoming game Shoot the Bullet, via his blog. Check 
Yep. The 
Whereas 
Character edits are fun! Iggy has found a 
Some major Japanese game sites, like 
Our old school chums at 
Astonishia Story, the source material for one of the most popular games for the GP32 (it was even a pack-in with a special black version of the console), was apparently released on the PSP, under the radar (mine, at least!). The 2D Korean RPG, with its semi Grandia-esque battles has gotten a minor facelift, largely in the magic effects department, and of course the game also takes advantage of the PSP's lovely screen. The GP32 version was called Astonishia Story R, and deviated from the original in...various mysterious ways (ie, I don't actually know), but the PSP version is a port of the original PC game from 1994. It still holds its own today though, due to the very detailed animation, and 2D in-game cutscenes (you can see some footage of ASR in our 
"Doujin Daily News" website 
Wandering in my local discount bookstore today, I came across the rather lamely monikered 
The inimitable Dr_Ian and friends, producers of 
I received an email this morning from a fellow whose "girlfriend" made this 
In an unusual fit of negligence (bonus joke for anyone who knows me!), I haven't mentioned this yet - eric-jon, a man known for being obsessed with various things, but never without reason, has created a 
As you know, our good friend Jack Thompson, enemy to human beings world-wide, put up a $10k bounty for whoever would create his gamer-beating game. Some fellows spent a lot of time 
Various humorous things have been going on in the world of Shadow lately. First, someone has 
Taito's 
Recent contributor David Cabrera, who wrote 
Here's a DS homebrew app and an interesting reuse of an old game rolled into one: New York based artist/programmer 
Frank Cifaldi's 
See these three guys? They're all executive producers of Dirge of Cerberus, and they refuse to wear cheap ties. Repeat: they are not taking cheap ties for an answer. This is why, when the game launches on Thursday, January 26th, 2006, it's going to cost 8,190 yen. That's about eighty dollars. Gackt's single goes on sale the day before that, for only 1,260 yen. There is a special limited box in the works; the contents are yet unknown, though it will probably include the game and the CD single wrapped in tinfoil for 19,000 yen. Buy responsibly -- and 
Tokyo-based, Canadian raised Game Boy musician 
Much like it did on the Saturn, Sega wants a whole volume of its 
The big news in this week's Falcom newsletter are the first exclusive screenshots from 
The autumn session of the Sega Private Show 2005 revealed a 
Those in the know are already aware of Hamster's 
According to the ever reliable 
The next year Bokujou Monogatari [Harvest Moon] will be celebrating its 10th anniversary soon, and Marvelous Interactive (which evolved from Victor Interactive) doesn't want to lose the chance to sell some games. 
