As has become SNK's modus operandi recently, the company will be releasing another collection, though this one may actually have a bit of some value added. The company plans to port six Metal Slug games to the PSP, on one UMD. The games include MS, MS2, MSX, MS3, MS4, and MS5. It's worth it just for X and 3, really. If they give the graphics proper treatment, this will make the playing field much wider, which could actually lend some strategic difference to the game. The bad news is that this is planned for November, so there's a bit of a wait involved.
Update: Here's an official statement from Terminal Reality, the company doing the PSP port: "We came up with an advanced scaling method to fill the screen with minimal distortion with the original tiles. Most players will be happy with this. But for our hardcore fans, we will have a display option that will be the original pixel for pixel version of the game."
In other, rather wacky Metal Slug news, check out this rather unfortunate press release, probably penned by the only person left at the Sega Amusement offices. Check out this amazing statement: "Metal Slug 6, on Sega’s AW Hardware System, is the 7th installment of the comical and combat-filled Metal Slug series, but the first to land on any arcade platform." Yes, folks - Metal Slug has FINALLY hit arcades, after years of being...where? "Metal Slug is a series of ‘shoot 'em up’ video games first released on the NEOGEO game console created by SNK in 1996." - fully ignoring (or more likely not being aware of) the MVS's existence.
The cavalcade of genius continues here, by passively claiming that Sega had something significant to do with the development of the game: "When called, Sega answered by delivering Metal Slug 6 on its AW Hardware System." Now this last part...well I'm not even sure if it's completely false, but hey, let's poke fun at it anyway, because it includes a childish definition of what a 'slug' is. "The original designers of the series wanted to create an armored fighting vehicle that could crawl on the ground like a “slug”, or snail without an outer shell protecting its body." And here all this time I though they meant 'slug' as in bullet. I am but a humble fool, cowering in the face of the genius that is Sega's remaining amusement PR staff.
News: Final Fantasy XII makes japanese people sick
Apparently, thousands of people are complaining that Final Fantasy XII is giving them motion sickness. This may or may not have something to do with the perpetual state of motion that is Miss Angela Aki's hair. (She sings the theme song.) I spent a large amount of time writing about this, though the conclusion ended up being: many people who hadn't bought a videogame since Final Fantasy X in 2001 bought Final Fantasy XII, and it was the first game they ever played with 3D movement. A lot of my words were probably unnecessary, which is most likely why they were cut out of this article on Next-Gen.biz. It's still an alright article, at any rate.
All of the "complaints" about the game mentioned in this article were pooled from the (many) one-star reviews of the game on Amazon.co.jp, which is so great a place to see what regular Japanese people think about videogames that, um, some people use it as a research tool in their videogame industry jobs. (Ahem!!)
Just about every piece of information edited out of the article by Next-Gen's skilled, experienced staff has found its way into my email inbox in the last twenty-four hours. These pieces of information include:
"The bunny woman is totally Chewbacca." (This relates to the major complaint that the game is a "rip-off" of "Star Wars.)
"Final Fantasy games have always paid homage to 'Star Wars.' Like, there are characters named 'Biggs' and 'Wedge' in most of them."
. . . Actually, um, all of these emails are about "Star Wars." Uh . . .
Anyway, the article, as posted on the website, is tight and readable, which took a miracle, as I wrote it in a hurricane of tears that someone on the internet didn't understand something like I wanted them to. What you'll get if you read it is, at least, an understanding of how Final Fantasy XII works, how it's different from previous games in the series, and how Square-Enix could have marketed the game just a little bit differently to keep people from getting as angry as they're getting. One of the alternative marketing methods omitted from the piece, yes, is "Publicize the fact that Akio Otsuka plays a major voice role. Put his name on the poster."
As this year's GDC winds down, there grows the inevitable throng of people that see themselves hanging out with the rest of the industry at the next conference. While being at GDC is a good way to look at the industry and its various personas, it's a good idea to walk in there with the right attitude and a comfortable jacket...
A PS2 version of The King of Fighters XI has been announced for June 22nd. It was discovered thanks to the release schedule some shops get periodically, as we learn from Game Boku Tenin no Kawagoto. The King of Fighters: Nests Hen is also announced for the same day, so it seems the rumored KOF '98 Re-Bout won't be appearing before this '99~2001 compilation. Anyway, it's SNK Playmore, so you never know. Melty Blood: Act Cadenza has received a release date too: June 1st, and you also can check the first Ten Chi Jin screens via Famitsu.
Update: There's a 'The King of Fighters 2006' announcement now on SNK Playmore USA's site, which is obviously either XI or, even worse, KOF Maximum Impact 2 (most likely). USA is different. Oh well.
Aderack Note: Yeah, it's the U.S. name for Maximum Impact 2. According to a... brief post on the SNK Playmore USA forums, the order came "from Japan" -- though what that means, if indeed anything, is up for grabs. At this rate I expect Noise to produce the first new Ikari game in over a decade, then the US branch to rename it "Metal Slug 7".
What does any of this mean for a US release of KOF XI? Hard to say. Doesn't look good, though.
To continue with our Street Fighter Alpha Anthology-related trivia, 'Street Fighter Zero: Fighter's Generation' is the name the game will get in Japan when it gets released there in May. It has a preliminary site here with a couple of interesting hints. Firstly, the nice main illustration (by Bengus?) includes Fei Long, Dee Jay, T. Hawk and Guile's faces. Quite odd since they were exclusive characters for the home versions of SFZ3 (are they 'porting' the PS version instead of the arcade original? Most Japanese shops are mentioning only '28 characters for SFZ3', though, much like the arcade game...). Secondly, you can see that the game copyright mentions Capcom USA, confirming that it's not a Japanese product, which is what we suspected. Otherwise, it could be alluding the fact that Capcom USA owns Street Fighter IPs now, though Japan still has to approve what they can do with them. We can only hope SFIV never gets made, in that case (even if we know it never will). <Brandon's note: I've heard some things, and wouldn't totally discount SF IV.
Update:IT Media's preview lets us see now the character select screen from SFZ3, which corresponds to the arcade version. Maybe they're including PS SFZ3 as an unlockable extra?
News: Iris no Atelier - Grand Fantasm - first screens
As promised, Famitsu revealed Gusts's latest PS2 game last thursday and there's also a little preview on its website. The combat system seems to have evolved a bit from the previous episode by featuring what they call the Active Cost Card Battle, wherein the player will be able to chose between different 'quests' at the start of the game. It will be released on June 29th.
Fans of Timetop/Daidaixing/GaoMing Electroncic Company's line of products, or el-cheapo gaming devices from China in general, might be interesting in knowing that a new version of their GameKing console has recently been unveiled.
Whereas the GameKing 1 resembled the original, non-front/backlit GBA, the GameKing 2 looked like a PSP, and the first version of the GameKing 3 appears to be based on the Game Boy Micro, and this second iteration (of GameKing 3) has an entirely unique design, particularly the action buttons, which may not look comfortable, but its at least "different". And here's a picture of what might be a working production model. Solid, technical information is scare, but it looks to be backwards compatible with all previous GameKing software, which curiously enough, comes in cartridges that strongly resemble the Game Boy Colors'.
The manufacture's site is not exactly informative, so the best place to go for answers is this Wikipedia page, which breaks down the technical specification of the pervious GameKings, such as the fact that despite it's relatively poor display, some games do feature good speed and audio. Plus there's a listing of all the games available thus far, which not surprisingly are rip-offs of 2600, NES, and SMS games (with the very best one supposedly being Duck Man, a clone of the NES Darkwing Duck). And a more detailed breakdown of various games, as well as pictures of their cartridges (along with promises of screenshots) can be found here.
Credit goes to IC forumite Takashi for the head's up, who also pointed towards Move Star Game, by the same folks behind the GameKing, and which just might be its killer app (assuming it's actually a GameKing game - it's still unconfirmed if any GK sytems support color).
The Katamari Damacy homepage has come to a close. There is a goodbye message that contains a few words from the staff, such as how surprised they were that the page managed to last for 2 years. They also thank all the fans who've played the game, and state that everyone who worked on the game has gone off to pursue their own projects. There's also mention of another project from the "Katamari Doctor" (no doubt Keita Takahashi, who has already stated numerous times that he was more than reluctant to create sequels to his creation) along with a somewhat cryptic message stating that it doesn't have rolling, nor does it involve making things big.
>Brandon's note:> The series isn't over though. I just heard it from the man himself. It's just that he's no longer working on it, and the 'katamari team' no longer exists as such.
You have to give kudos to Milestone for handling their Radirgy license quite well. The game sold well on Dreamcast (it was the best selling game in Akihabara for a couple of days), they demonstrated clever strategies with their upcoming GC and PS2 ports (each one has an exclusive mode), and they never forget to update with a bit of new so that websites like us have something to say until the simultaneous releases in may. On Radirgy's website, you can now preview the cover art for Radirgy Generic and Radirgy Precious. They're pretty cute, I think! But I am partial to orange. There are also new previews from the soundtrack to check out. Milestone will celebrate their third anniversary next month.
According to Thursday's weekly update to the official KOF: Max Impact 2 website, everyone's favorite bisexual tae kwon do disciple has been revealed to be more than just a butchy yet delectably realistic female skin for Kim Kaphwan; she is also, much like May Lee and Jhun before her, a stance user! Going by the web-viewable movies thus-far viewable, she has at least three working stances including a normal one, a "backwards" one, and a "raise the knee" one. Ah, her complexity only deepens as we come to know her!
In other news it appears that Seth is in reality Mr. Big's younger brother, and Terry Bogard has been revealed as a crossdresser. You heard it here first, folks.
otsuka news: everybody loves akio otsuka: episode four (on final fantasy xii) (CONTAINS SPOILER MAYBE)
Hello my gorgeouses!! I'm here to report to you that insertcredit.com's absolutefavoritevoice actor in the whole wide world, Akio Otsuka, whose credits include hero Solid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid series, the cursed tough-guy doctor Blackjack in the movie adaptations of Osamu Tezuka's Blackjack manga, the cyborg cop Batou in the "Ghost in the Shell" movies and television show, a flamboyant rock-and-roll father in Square-Enix's game Heavy Metal Thunder, and Steven Segal in the dubbed versions of any Steven Segal movie showing on late night Japanese television, is now immortalized in the Final Fantasy series -- yes, he plays the voice of Basch, a grizzled, bearded, fuzzy tough guy knight of the kingdom of Dalmasca. If the game's utterly, bizarrely, viscerally confusing introduction sequence is any indication, he might be a traitor, though he probably has good reasons for whatever he's doing. I mean, he has to -- he's voiced by Akio Otsuka.
As always, Otsuka's inimitable voice brings instant-classic depth to the role. However, unlike his recent many typecasted excursions as either tree-wielding murder-fighter Musashibou Benkei in any game about the Yoshitsune legend or a big angry warrior monk (who, as in the case of Tales of Rebirth isn't even a human -- he's this big black panther thing), the character of Basch is elaborately layered and complex. It's very interesting to see Otsuka play this kind of anti-hero. He doesn't even put on his overly deep tough guy voice -- yes, we are able to hear Otsuka acting in his real voice for the first time in, well, since his appearance on Hideo Kojima's podcast (where he only did it for a few seconds, anyway -- the rest of the time he was putting on the radio voice). Here, we can hear Otsuka acting out material of actual depth and personality. Previously, his performances have consisted of what could very well be a "this is a man reading a telephone book" monotone, with occasional shouting. Don't get me wrong -- it's a lovely monotone, and a gorgeous shout. Though hey, Final Fantasy XII gives him a whole lot more to do, and so gets a big thumbs up.
His performance as Basch might be his best yet, and I think he's my new favorite Final Fantasy character ever. I mean, look at him? He's also 36 years old, which makes him the oldest guy in the game. He is, of course, the character who, like Final Fantasy X's Auron, is calculated with the real female audience in mind, you know, the kind of audience who is bored by heroes who don't wear shirts. So let's celebrate as soon as possible by making fan-shrines to Basch. The first person to construct one with up to five index pages, a fanfic (1,200 words or more; can be based on screenshots alone), and some fanart will get a free Final Fantasy XII Potion sent from Japan, and included in insertcredit.com's blowout Final Fantasy XII coverage, which will be promptly posted at some point in fall 2008.
At any rate, this update exists to tell you that Akio Otsuka is indeed alive within Final Fantasy XII, which is a lovely and enlightening videogame with or without him. The reason I took the time to write this at all is because Square-Enix does not put Akio Otsuka's name -- or the names of any of the game's actors -- into the game's instruction manual. They don't even list the game's staff in the manual! Why not? As of this writing, Square-Enix and Namco are the only two Japanese videogame companies who, as a rule, never put a game's staff credits into an instruction manual. They're sure to have all the proper dates after the copyright symbol in the legal information on the back of the box, though! I guess that tells you what's most important to them -- numbers and copyrights, not the people who actually make the game. At least Namco lists the voice actors. In other words, come on Squeenix: be nice to your talent, and maybe they'll stop running away from you. It was hell finding out that this is actually Akio Otsuka. Goodnight.
Those of you into import retrogaming have to know Japanese Gaming, one of the biggest and oldest sites dealing with the subject. It has moved, and has also changed its name to Gamengai and has gotten a nice visual retooling. The full content is still there, though. Don't miss the flyer and translation sections.
News: Art of Fighting - Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden on PS2
It's not exactly hot news - we have been quite sure it would be included in Ryuuko no Ken ~Ten Chi Jin~ since it was announced last summer - but today the game cover has been revealed thanks to Rakuten and with it, the official confirmation for the compilation's content - Ryuuko no Ken, Ryuuko no Ken 2 and Art of Fighting: Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden (the very first game from the team which would develope the Gekka no Kenshi series and Garou, as well as the first and only game from SNK to use motion capture techniques for the sprites' animation). Ryuuko no Ken ~Ten Chi Jin~ will be the Vol. 4 in the Neo-Geo Online Collection and is supposedly appearing on May 11th. Sadly, it may imply that the games will be partial emulations a la SNK-P, with no place for a proper on-screen presentation and total speed/control accuracy. The cover is nice, at least.
Konami released a new promotional video of their first Xbox 360 game, Rumble Roses XX, to be released in Japan at the end of the month. You can either download the high-quality version or this one for smaller connections, via their website.
Here is some fun triva: as you can see here, one of the commentators is named Scott. As Brandon and Tim could tell you, there's little doubt this person is none other than Scott Dolph, Hideo Kojima's dreaded bodyguard/translator for a couple of years (mostly during the promotion of MGS2). We know this because, for interviews at last TGS, Dolph was the appointed translator for Akari Uchida, producer of the game (and of the TokiMemo Girl's Side series). During the interview, Dolph revealed he was a huge wrestling fan, to the point of being close friends with the team behind the Fire Pro Wrestling series (even getting special thanks in the credits!).
You might remember the popular sdmkun, a little program that helped teach players how to dodge classic bullet patterns from various popular manic shooters. Now, thanks this nice clone called BulletGBA, anyone can practice their skills at Guwange, G-Darius or Dodonpachi in the restrooms or public transports. Thanks to forum member Quick Shot II Turbo for the tip.
Falcom's news has been rather uninspiring for the last few weeks, but Sora no Kiseki SC was released last thursday and the publisher is finally moving on to other projects. Japanese message boards are responding much more positively to their latest RPG than to last autumn's Xanadu Next, but their next title will not be for Windows, as they usually do. As some of you might have learned via Dengeki Online a few days ago, Falcom will instead port (and publish themselves) their action-adventure game Gurumin on PSP.
This is the first time in years that Falcom has ported one of their games on a console - they usually rely on deals with other publishers (such as Hudson, Taito, Epoch, Koei, Tonkin House, Sega or Konami depending on the years and systems). As we mentioned a few times in these columns, Bandai was taking care of porting Falcom's Eiyuu Densetsu Gagharv Trilogy on PSP. Falcom must have been allured by Bandai's success with Gagharv Trilogy - Shiroki Majou, which sold more than a 100,000 copies (the two following ports did not repeat such figures). And they must have picked Gurumin because it was done in a 3D style which is close to PSP standards, and also one of the few games they were sure no other publisher would request the rights. Using one of their more popular brands (such as Ys or Eiyuu Densetsu) might have compromised future deals with other companies. Or at least that is the best explanation I can give for Falcom reviving one of its weakest efforts in recent years. Gurumin's PSP release is scheduled for next summer.
In other news, Falcom soundtracks are now available for download on iTunes Music Store, obviously in the soundtrack section, and there are a bunch of seasonal wallpapers to download as always. On the other hand, Falcom remains worryingly silent about MMV's Ys Strategy on DS, to be released on March 23rd. Considering how their newsletter never forgot to mention Bandai's progress with the Gagharv Trilogy, it doesn't bode well for this one...
Controller: Artists Crack the Game Code is an exhibition running until March 25th at the InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre (9 Ossington Ave.) in Toronto. Showcasing the works of artists currently working in the field of video game modification, artists include Myfawny Ashmore, RSG (Alexander Galloway), and Anita Fontaine and Yumi-co. As I expect the average reader won’t be able to take the trip out to Toronto to see what is basically a small room featuring five art installations, I'm including links so you can experience the installations online, albeit in a cut down form, should you so wish.
Prize Budget for Boys’ Calderoids, a fusion of the art of Alexander Calder and Asteroids is given a nice summary on GameSetWatch, that and Prize Budget for Boys’ companion work, PacMondrain (a fusion of Pacman and the works of Piet Mondrian, duh), available to play (experience?) online, Calderoids here and PacMondrain here.
You can view clips of RSG’s Tony Hawks Underground 2 glitch installation Prepared Playstation on Alexander Galloway’s homepage, though the piece itself is actually a live installation of three glitching Playstations.
Videos of Myfawny Ashmore’s Mario Trilogy (intriguingly also being played this month at Toronto's Yonge-Dundas Square) in which all level architecture and enemies are removed from levels of the original Super Mario Bros. can be seen here, though the pieces themselves are in playable form at the exhibition.
Anita Fontaine and Yumi-co's CuteXdoom, an Unreal Tournament mod exploring modern cultures' addiction to cuteness, and can be downloaded at their homepage with a quicktime video also available for those who either don’t have the game, or don’t want to mess up their installation of UT2003 (which the mod appears to do).
And finally, clips of Tasman Richardson’s Atari glitch videos Apollo Shrapnel Part 1 and Restless < Wrath can be found mixed in with the rest of her work at her website, a direct link for Apollo Shrapnel Part 1here and for Restless < Wrathhere, each with a nice description.
An artist in Japan has taken it upon himself to create a gigantic 'controller' for Death Crimson, one of the worst games of all time (click the image for a larger pic). According to the workshop blog where I found it, the game got a score of 1.0909 out of 10, in the first week of user reviews in SegaSaturn Magazine, the lowest ever for the console. The enormous controller is hard to weild, but that doesn't matter, as it's impossible to survive in the game anyway. There's a lightgun at the tip, so you could theoretically use it for other games - you could, that is, if they hadn't glued the lid of the embedded saturn shut, so your choice is Death Crimson or nothing!
The horrible Death Crimson was later lauded as a cult classic, even getting a PS2 re-release, which sold out instantly, as the mmcafe notes. The game was made by Ecole, which if you remember, is also putting out Melty Blood AC for PS2. The Death Crimson art controller was created by Takamasa Sumi - you can see a flash movie of his work here, subbed in english. He seems to really like girls in gothic lolita maid outfits, and you can see one playing the game on the aforementioned blog entry. Also note the impossibly tiny TV. The exhibit was displayed at the third Fukuoka
Asian Art Triennale, but has now moved to Darwen, Lancashire in the UK til early April. Go give it a look! Here's the official site for the object, which he's named 'Kyodai Crimson' - aka 'huge crimson'. Also see this thing constructed for the PS2 version, and sold at Wonderfest. Thanks to Sweater Fish for the link!
While for some, Famitsu's big revelation for this week is Persona 3 on PS2 (which is getting the 3D treatment, but at least has Soejima designs), we at IC find it much more interesting that there's a tiny article related to a new Flight Plan game, also for the PS2. Under the tentative name of 'DSS', it seems the game is being produced outside of Banpresto's domain, even if it is an SRPG which could very well be the next episode for Summon Night, if we look at its in-game graphics. Which leads us to wonder, what happened with Summon Night 4 and that announcement from December? Maybe Flight Plan broke its relationship with Banpresto and is using the existing material for a brand new game? Hum.
news: final fantasy xii rumblings: potion captured on video, perfect score from famitsu
Final Fantasy XII is released here in Japan next Thursday -- on a Thursday, not a Saturday! In other words, Square-Enix is denying the game any Dragon Quest-like explosive selling power. Surely, though, it will sell at least 3 million copies (I'd say 2.5 million in a month -- call it a hunch). The advertisements, et cetera, are out in full force. The game can be preordered at any convenience store in the county. The limited edition etched Final Fantasy XII black PSTwo is all preordered-out in Akihabara. Perhaps among Yasumi Matsuno's many reasons for stomping off the project was the scary thought of some bumpkin on a farm getting the game at 7-Eleven, playing it for ten minutes, and then deeming it not as good as Final Fantasy X-2, and then just watching "Final Fantasy VII Advent Children" again instead.
I mention the above scenario because it's likely to happen -- if you look at this list of Famitsu readers' top 100 games of all time, you'll notice Final Fantasy X at #1, and Final Fantasy VI sitting just beneath Final Fantasy IX, which is rather shocking.
Me and my friend Matt went out and drank Potions last night. We made videos. In the videos, mostly I moan about how the Suntory Whiskey bottle is beautiful in its craftsmanship, and how the Potion bottle is lazy in design, and a mere cash-in. Why not make a good beverage? If you watch these videos, you'll hear me thinking aloud (it's a hobby): Why not just put Cherry Coke (or Cherry Pepsi, as Suntory owns the Pepsi name in Japan) into the bottle and call it a "Potion"? Does it matter if it's good for you? I get more of an enthusiastic feeling after drinking a Coke, I swear.
The verdict: it tastes like grape aftershave, something that might make someone in your office say "you smell vaguely and stupidly exotic today." I guess it has minerals and stuff in it, anyway.
The Potion costs 200 yen. In the original Final Fantasy, a Potion was 60 Gil. This gives us our first-ever real-world exchange rate for classic Final Fantasy currency: .3 Gil to the yen. At the day's exchange rate, this makes $1 US equivalent to 35.3124 Gil. This means that the Silver Sword we saved up 4,000 Gil to buy in 1987 is worth only approximately $113.27. I would assume the silver is not real.
Meanwhile, Final Fantasy XII has scored a perfect score of 40 -- all four reviewers scoring it 10 out of 10 -- from Japanese gaming bible Famitsu. It joins the club of five perfect-scoring games, one of which is a fighting game with a sequel that's better (Soul Calibur), two of which are Zelda games (Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker), and two of which (Nintendogs and Vagrant Story) didn't even make it onto Famitsu readers' top 100 list.
insertcredit.com will review this game -- guaranteed. What I've played so far of the finished version (burn the demo disc) is shockingly good. I won't jinx it by saying too much before I play more.
The Fashion Week ends in Paris and, once again, Chanel crushes the competition. But in the peculiar world of cosplayers, sense of fashion is decided by other standards, such as what Falcoon has decided to dress his characters with in the upcoming KOF Maximum Impact 2. As most of you know, SNK Playmore is having trouble adapting to a market that doesn't care much about bitmap-based fighting games anymore. The KOF MI series is an interesting attempt from the publisher at keeping in touch with its fighting roots while adapting to polygons and focusing more on what made the original series a success among a more casual crowd: weirdly dressed characters with complex storylines. As their numerous recent cellphone games have shown, SNK Playmore sees a lot of potential in the legions of charismatic characters they have developed. For the promotion of KOF MI2, they even produced various short animated features titled KOF Another Day (produced by Production I.G.). These presented the characters' motivations and more important things such as Kyo's new outfit. Polygon-based games open new possibilities for the likes of Falcoon in terms of what kinds of outfit and how many of them they can include in the game, and this aspect is so crucial to SNK that it's no surprise to have the art director of KOF MI2 also being the producer. Check the game's introduction sequence as well as this roster's presentation, courtesy of Cain Highwind from the MMC forums, to see how SNK Playmore struggles and sometimes succeeds in balancing their long tradition with new, breast-implanted ambitions.
It's also amusing how Ryo in his orange gi almost looks like the most normal guy you could meet in the street, amongst this flamboyantly dressed crowd. A few years ago, "pajama-wearing" characters like him looked cliché, and most people perceived KOF as being more credible with its new characters' dressing habits...The game comes out in Japan on April 27.
Atlus, on friday, announced two (three, really) titles for Nintendo handhelds. The first is Contact on DS, from Grasshopper Manufacture. For whatever reason, Atlus is not presently playing this up, but this is GM's first original title after Killer 7, under Suda51 (they do a lot of contract work for other people - like Samurai Champloo and Shining Soul II). They have an english page at GM now, incidentally. Anyway, Contact is an RPG-ish game, in which you and this doctor person land on a mysterious planet, and you have to go search for items in order to rebuild the ship. But the interesting thing to me is that you and the professor are very pixelly, and you've landed on a prerendered 2D planet. Most times, the professor's actions will go on in one screen, while you forage for things on the other. Interesting concepts abound, with hunting, fishing, battles, and the like.
The other game announced is Super Robot Taisen. The reason no Super Robot game has come to the US is the crippling license issues of having so many robots from so many companies in one game. This would be hell for a US company. But this is SRT Original Generation, meaning the robots are familiar, but not the exact licenses. Think of it as a legal Taiwanese knockoff. The gameplay and battles of the series remain intact, which is the main reason to play this, though rumor has it the character (text) limit imposed by the Japanese cart may not be easy to get around. Just like the super famicom days! One thing a lot of people haven't picked up on yet is that they're bringing both SRT: OG 1 AND 2. Both for GBA. There's more good stuff coming from Atlus on the GBA front, so keep your ears open.
The DSlite came out last night in Japan and, of course, all initial stock disappeared in a matter of minutes. Production issues, for which Nintendo apologized, did not help satisfy the delirious demand. The Kyoto-based game maker will not deliver the promised one million units for the month of March, but hopes to get a bit less than half of them shipped to stores and has been forced to provide old models as well (probably from stock originally supposed to go overseas). The current craze has spawned various odd stories and anecdotes, such as shops buying your DSlite for 16,000 yen - which was more than the console's retail price. Quite a con game when, later today, you could see some of the last machines available being sold in stores for 41,000 yen (roughly the PS2's price at launch). Another interesting pheonomenon was the return of massive queues waiting under the rain for the shops' opening hour. This traditional image of japanese gamers' habits had been seriously contested in the last few years, with the surging popularity of the more convenient preorder system. Alas, almost no shop accepted preorders in the case of the DSlite, and those who did limited the offer to their frequent costumers who would then get the right to participate in a draw to know which of them would "win" the opportunity to purchase the machine. Similar scenes should happen with the arrival of the second batch of DSlite consoles, around the middle of the month. Via DS³.net, GA-F, Akibablog and 2ch.
Recap noticed two new releases from Capcom on the japanese cellphone front. The first game is an adaptation of Quiz Nanairo Dreams Nijiirotyou no Kiseki. If you want to get into that kind of game, there are easier ways, such as the recent (and quite enjoyable) Kono Quiz Yarou!! from Namco on DS. The other title is apparently an original game, though it seems Capcom borrowed an idea from an old rival. Taisen Mahjong! JanBattle features various Street Fighter characters in a classic taisen mahjong game, though there is a nice cosplay system included. Check Chun-Li as a cop or Ken as Dante on the screenshots. Street Fighter characters have already appeared in a Dreamcast mahjong game, Taisen Net Gimmick: Capcom & Psikyo All Stars, a 'gaiden' episode of the famous Hot Gimmick series - mathew reviewed a recent episode. It also featured cosplay... though with other intentions.
Iggy found out that Senkou no Ronde Rev.X, the Xbox360 port of G.rev's versus shooter, has been pushed back to a July release. No word on whether this is due to G.rev wanting more time to develop the game's online infrastructure or if this is to wait for the console to widen its userbase. So far, the japanese Xbox360 still has sold less since its debut than the first Xbox did on its launching week in Japan. Tough challenges ahead for Microsoft Japan.
Grev also has some new images of the 360 version, which do look a lot nicer than the Naomi original.
Do you remember this newspost about a new Gust title? The mystery has just been solved. Gust's new game has been unveiled after a 6-day countdown on Salburg Dot Com. While it won't be Eternal Mana 3, it still will be the next episode in the Iris no Atelier subseries. All they're showing for now is a teaser Flash video (don't forget to turn your speakers on), since the game will be unveiled in the March 17th issue of Famitsu, but it's not hard to guess that it will once again take the form of an RPG for the PS2 with hi-res 2D graphics. Ar Tonelico (already announced for the US, by the way) was a big success, after all.
To supplement the previous post on the matter, Radirgy, after its relative Dreamcast success, is being ported to PS2 and GC, as we mentioned. The GC version will be called Radirgy Generic, the PS2 rev will be Radirgy Precious. Both will have original and arcade modes, and platform-specific score attack options, and will come out on May 25th. Thanks to Iggy for the extra details.
It will be part of the fifth batch for the Oretachi Geesen Zoku series from Hamster, which will include the original arcade Contra (1987), as well as Pooyan (1982) and Akumajou Dracula ('Haunted Castle' in Western countries, from 1988), the only specifically arcade-based Castlevania and one of the rarest (and hardest) games in the series. As you see, this is a 'Konami special' which has May 25th as the release date, according to Famitsu Magazine. Thanks to Souta House.
As has become SNK's modus operandi recently, the company will be releasing another collection, though this one may actually have a bit of some value added. The company plans to port six Metal Slug games to the PSP, on one UMD. The games include MS, MS2, MSX, MS3, MS4, and MS5. It's worth it just for X and 3, really. If they give the graphics proper treatment, this will make the playing field much wider, which could actually lend some strategic difference to the game. The bad news is that this is planned for November, so there's a bit of a wait involved.
Apparently, thousands of people are complaining that Final Fantasy XII is giving them motion sickness. This may or may not have something to do with the perpetual state of motion that is Miss Angela Aki's hair. (She sings the theme song.) I spent a large amount of time writing about this, though the conclusion ended up being: many people who hadn't bought a videogame since Final Fantasy X in 2001 bought Final Fantasy XII, and it was the first game they ever played with 3D movement. A lot of my words were probably unnecessary, which is most likely why they were cut out of 
A PS2 version of 
To continue with our 
As promised, Famitsu revealed 
Fans of Timetop/Daidaixing/GaoMing Electroncic Company's line of products, or el-cheapo gaming devices from China in general, might be interesting in knowing that 
You have to give kudos to Milestone for handling their Radirgy license quite well. The game sold well on Dreamcast (it was the best selling game in Akihabara for a couple of days), they demonstrated clever strategies with their upcoming GC and PS2 ports (each one has an exclusive mode), and they never forget to update with a bit of new so that websites like us have something to say until the simultaneous releases in may. On Radirgy's website, you can now preview the cover art for 
According to Thursday's weekly 
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Those of you into import retrogaming have to know Japanese Gaming, one of the biggest and oldest sites dealing with the subject. It has moved, and has also changed its name to 
It's not exactly hot news - 
Konami released a new promotional video of their first Xbox 360 game, 
You might remember the popular 
Falcom's news has been rather uninspiring for the last few weeks, but 
Anita Fontaine and Yumi-co's CuteXdoom, an Unreal Tournament mod exploring modern cultures' addiction to cuteness, and can be downloaded at their 
While for some, Famitsu's big revelation for this week is 
Final Fantasy XII is released here in Japan next Thursday -- on a Thursday, not a Saturday! In other words, Square-Enix is denying the game any Dragon Quest-like explosive selling power. Surely, though, it will sell at least 3 million copies (I'd say 2.5 million in a month -- call it a hunch). The advertisements, et cetera, are out in full force. The game can be preordered at any convenience store in the county. The limited edition etched Final Fantasy XII black PSTwo is all preordered-out in Akihabara. Perhaps among Yasumi Matsuno's many reasons for stomping off the project was the scary thought of some bumpkin on a farm getting the game at 7-Eleven, playing it for ten minutes, and then deeming it not as good as Final Fantasy X-2, and then just watching "
The 
Fans of MileStone's Radilgy can now download a template to create a paper crafted Tadayo, the game's cover girl, via 
Atlus, on friday, announced two (three, really) titles for Nintendo handhelds. 
Recap noticed two new releases from Capcom on the japanese 
Iggy found out that 
Do you remember 
It will be part of the fifth batch for the 
