The movie (scheduled for 2008) will be made in conjunction with Hyde Park Entertainment, and will focus on Chun Li. No info on the anime and the game (which will probably be something stupid or offensive, like a port of SF EX1 to PSP, but who knows).
Brandon's note: I know that companies have been submitting design documents to Capcom for their anniversary game, so a new game is possible...let's cross our collective fingers. Then again, it could be a port of Street Fighter: The Movie to PSP. The PSP is what's key, here.
Readers of insert credit may be aware that Brandon Sheffield, our evil overlord and master, is himself but a cog in the CMP machine, working on Gamasutra and Game Developer. Well, recently CMP had the audacity to publish (on their Game Career Guide website) an article called "So You Want to Be a Games Journalist" written by one Aaron McKenna, that managed to rile up games journalists Kieron Gillen and Tim Edwards so much that they arranged for as many games journalists as they could think of to publish their own personal and unique article titled "So You Want to Be a Games Journalist" simultaneously.
Speaking of Yuki, and their associated company Atrativa Japan, the Jingi Storm official site has actually got some more rubust content than it used to, with character bios and images, and a system description. The only semi-interesting thing about the game is its use of different illustrators for the different characters and their female counterparts. rid points out that fortunecross has images of all the girls from the arcade, if that's of interest. Only mildly not safe for work. Rather an odd premise for a game, still.
News: Second location test for Arcana Heart announced
Yuki Enterprise's new production got an official website the other day in preliminary form, but it has just received an update announcing the second location test, which will take part as soon as next weekend, this time in no less than four different cities across the country. That, along with the large coverage for the game in this month's Arcadia Magazine, may well reveal that this is non-niche development from Yuki after all, and that they intend it to rival Guilty Gear and Melty Blood in the arcade scene. For now, we can confirm non-upscaled high-resolution graphics (looking very polished, in the Guilty Gear vein), which leads us to believe it'll use NAOMI as the platform.
Play-Asia has Gyakuten Saiban 2 for $30 now, with selectable english mode. It's a port of the original GBA GS2. Tough to pass that up. The deal of the week is King's Field Additional 1 for PSP, by the way, at $7.
MileStone has released a video of the system for their new shooter, Karasu, or using their absolutely awful romanization, Karous. This seems to follow the trend of their last title Radirgy not only in the inability to romanize their own language, but also in the cell-shaded graphics, fluid motion, and Naomi GD-Rom arcade platform.
The video shows base and powered versions of: standard shot, sword attack, shield, which interestingly seems to be a projectile itself, should you so desire, and D.F.S., which seems to essentially be a localized 'bomb'-like attack. Other information we can glean from this is that shot, sword and shield can be upgraded individually, and may have their own multipliers (that's pure speculation, there, but the video makes me think). Also the game uses a whole lot of grey. Interesting so far.
Konami's shooting collections for PSP, including Salamander Portable, which we mentioned just recently, finally have a site. Screenshots and release info are available for Twinbee Portable, Salamander Portable, and Parodius Portable.
Twinbee includes: Twinbee, Detana!! Twinbee, Twinbee Yahhoo!, Pop'n Twinbee, and a 'secret title'. Twinbee and Detana!! Twinbee will have tate modes, which is nice.
Salamander contains: Salamander, Life Force, Salamander 2, Xexex (note, this is what we meant by konami porting the game themselves), and a 'secret title.'
Parodius has: Parodius Da!, Gokujou Parodius, Sexy Parodius, Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius: Forever with Me, and following the trend, a secret title. These are nice collections, but I'll be damned if those graphics don't look really stretched.
Two newsbits from Cave - first, the Pink Sweets OST is planned for november 20th. That's the cover to the left there, as you may imagine. Next, there's a Mushihimesama 2 video up on youtube, introducing the first bosses, and some of the music. Looks similar to the original, but with some true transparency this time, and some better animation on the bosses. I suppose it's the system changes that really count, eh?
I saw this page some time ago, but didn't recognize its value until recap pointed it out. Woomb.net is a site that allows you to purchase one-off MSX games for play on your PC. I'm not 100% sold on that (though they did handily translate some of the games and manuals), but they do have nice screens and descriptions of several interesting MSX titles, such as Aleste 2 (compile), Undeadline, and Golvellius, among others. Seems to lean toward Compile, T&E Soft and Anma titles.
Turns out Battle Fantasia isn't 2D after all, but sparsely animated 3D on a 2D plane. There are twelve characters in total, five button system, but this is around where we start giving up hope. Check blurry videos on youtube here and here. Hopefully this doesn't mean Hokuto no Ken is the final 2D work from Arc - if so, that's just one less company in the 2D arcade field - and the most popular one, at that.
Update: Lots more info and links in this forum post by duckroll, including a windows os crash video and screen, and a proper screenshot and lots more gameplay vids. Bootup apparently takes one minute.
Pixelboy is a sort of virtual gameboy clone. It's embedded into dot-invasion's website, a company that does 2D art and handheld music outsourcing. It was created on the side, but is quite nice. You load a cartridge, and at present there's just the one - Meteor Busters - and it emulates the GB experience, with five tones, and squished sound. The game is really very nice though, a scrolling shooter with three levels of power, and five ships which actually do different things, instead of just having different shaped bullets or something. You've got one of each, representing your set of lives. Very good fun, quite nice music, go check it out. I can only hope they'll make more of these! The Pixel Boy looks enough like a OneStation - maybe Jungletac should license the game. Also, check out some nice screens of the game in its native resolution, while you're at it. Can't go wrong with a STG that has a Crashman ship.
Capcom's releasing a new fighting game - and it's 3D and based on an anime I've never heard of (Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi). It has a generis school setting, a main male character with a band-aid on his cheek, and a blonde girl with big boobs and tight clothing. Let's all try to keep our expectations low, shall we? Still, it's been a good week for fighting game news. Coming to PS2 in the near future, no firm date announced. Thanks to Cain Highwind on the MMC forums for the link.
Arc System Works has announced that the location test for Battle Fantasia, which now has a dedicated site, will commence this coming weekend at akihabara's HEY arcade. We mentioned this back in May, but RPG elements have since been confirmed.
This is from recap once again again - the next two Oretachi Geesen Zoku games have been announced, which you'll recall are PS2 one-off ports of arcade classics, most of which haven't hit consoles previously. The next two, revealed by famitsu (reprinted in rakuten here) are Trio the Punch from Data East (pictured) and Thunder Cross from Konami.
The second Taito Memories collection we mentioned is confirmed now, with the first volume coming in january, second in march, both to PS2. 5040 is the price, and here's the full game list, thanks to recap. Estopolis Denki is not confirmed, unfortunately - could be in the joukan version?
Space Chaser
Grand Champion
Time Tunnel
The Undoukai
Ben Bero Beh
Return of the Invaders
Ougon no Shiro
Kick and Run
Scramble Formation
Excisus
Super Qix
Rainbow Islands
Operation Thunderbolt
Continental Circus
Asuka & Asuka
Chuuka Taisen
SCI
Darius 2
Champion Wrestler
Fighting Hawk
Space Gun
Ninja Kids
Dino Rex
Ray Force
Bubble Memories
Sad but true, Lik-Sang has been forced to close due to multiple lawsuits brought on by Sony, over the company's sale of PSPs in the UK/europe. In spite of pay rates being incredibly similar in the UK and u.s., the PSP retails for 150 pounds, about 281, $81 more than in the U.S. Rather than find a way to lower costs, Sony saw fit to penalize those who wanted a fair price on hardware. Ultimately, Lik-Sang has been forced into submission, after a number of lawsuits were weighed against it over the years. Pascal was a nice fellow, and we want to express our consolences not only for Lik-Sang, but the customers who relied on them for their games. PSP hardware was naturally a very small portion of their business.
Note: Sony maintains that they're not to blame, saying no fees were levied upon Lik-Sang thus far. Expect this to get more complicated before it's finished... Thanks to kotaku for pointing it out.
I (actually we - there was a super secret special insert credit guest as well) did an interview with atsushi inaba a while back, which I referenced in my 'clover studio dissolution' clarification post. It's up now, and has some interesting elements, such as the origins of Resident Evil 3 (used to be RE 1.5), the original RE4 becoming Devil May Cry, inaba's ties to Nazca and SNK, and other nerdy things.
As an aside, people have pointed me to some official press statements in which the name Clover is named as 'also being an abstraction of creativity lover,' which I suppose is possible, but he never mentioned it in the interview. It's also entirely possible that this was thought of and added later by Capcom PR, so it's tough to say without asking him directly, which is now quite difficult.
News: New 2D fighting game from Yuki Enterprise (Arcana Heart)
Yet another sunday surprise - a location test for a brand-new arcade game has been conducted this weekend at Felicidad shop in Fujimi. It's called 'Arcana Heart,' a female vs. fighting game with sprite-based graphics(!). Yuki Enterprise (of Samurai Spirits Zero fame) is on the labels the operation cards and poster which you can see here, here, and here thanks to AM Dot Net. With 10 revealed lolita-esque characters and no sign of big companies behind the production, this may not get wider distribution, much like the recent Jingi Storm, but we'll wait and see - hopefully it will find its niche in the arcades as Melty Blood did. Once again, you heard it here first!
Brandon's note: You can check out some screens and impressions in japanese right here. Thanks to Iggy for that.
It's being discussed on some Japanese blogs - some game shops have unveiled another Taito production before its official announcement. If they're to be believed, the game in question is the sequel to the two Taito Memories games, which would also consist of two separate volumes, the first of them being released in January. Even more surprisingly, the compilation would only include home titles, such as the Estpolis Denki ['Lufia'] RPG series. Stay tuned.
...And the official site is getting the pertinent updates these days. The preorder campaign promises a free 'dramatic DVD' for the buyers, which you can preview right here. We learned through Game Watch that the opening is getting brand-new animation scenes and that there'll be an 'Emotion Card Chat' for this version in a few weeks, but its very latest preview on the game is actually here. Check it all out; it is, most likely, the last 'Tales of' game getting 2D graphics, not counting the iterations for mobile phones. Out on november 22nd, you know, for the PS2.
Soul Cradle, as we mentioned at one point, is Nippon Ichi's latest project. It's another S-RPG with some Dragon Force-inspired tweaks this time, and a bit abusive on upscaled and filtered graphics despite the nice sprite design work (the chara designer is Toi 8, by the way), and it's coming next January. While Game Watch had a pretty early preview here full of artwork and screens, Dengeki Online has a more recent one, explaining some new features and characters. You can also get some nice wallpapers from the official site.
Can't recall if I've linked the Dragon Shadow Spell official site or not. Regardless, you can find some screens in the system area (more via the tabs to the left). Admittedly they aren't new, but at least they're unbranded. Character and story tabs are also working. The game isn't coming out until january 2007, but was just recently featured in famitsu, and will be in famitsu wave pretty soon, meaning videos should start to surface on the web. I'm really anticipating this one - as you may recall, it's Flight Plan's first project without Banpresto in quite some time, and looks like quite a nice SRPG.
Off-topic: Treasure's yasushi suzuki to create manga
yasushi suzuki isn't the first name you think of when you think of Treasure, but he did have a hand in three of their major works. Though he was originally freelance, he started working with Treasure for Radiant Silvergun, and did quite a bit on Sin and Punishment, character/object work for Ikaruga and then Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song with Square (thanks alex for alerting me to that last one). If you ever wondered who created that random 3D walking individual in the Ikaruga options menu (I certainly did), or indeed the entire design of Sin and Punishment, a quick glance at his style gives you the answer. He's working on a manga now (with the odd title Purgatory Kabuki), which is being published in the U.S. by DrMaster. They seem to be putting a lot behind this, especially with the game crowd, as they'll be previewing it in Play for five issues, and releasing two 60-page chunks of the manga starting in november on gamespy's direct-to-drive thing.
The story follows a samurai in purgatory who must reclaim the swords of 1,000 fallen soldiers. Generic enough as a premise, but the art looks very nice. They've released a little zip file with info, art, and two sample pages, so go on and grab it if you want.
Leaf has announced a new 3D RPG (for PC) - Kimi ga yobu, megido no oka de. Two years into the making, this is their biggest project yet, involving artists Karen, Misato Mitsumi, Kawata Hisashi, Tatsuki Amaduyu, and Nakamura Takeshi. Karen will be the main artists for the game. The game is planned for release in 2007, and it's not for people under 18.
Karen is best known for having worked on Alicesoft's Yoru ga kuru! and the original Pastel Chime, while the other four artists worked on To Heart 2. To Heart 2 -Another Days- was announced too, it'll be released in winter 2006.
Nobody else is mentioning this (well, besides myself, that is), but Capcom is releasing a new retro series starting on October 24th. It's called "Capcom Game Books" and will consist on one-shots of PS classics, re-released for 2500 yen each. Strider Hiryu (formerly released in Strider Hiryu 1 & 2) and Tenchi wo Kurau II ~Sekiheki no Tatakai~ are the first two titles announced. More interestingly, the discs will be accompanied with a 43-paged booklet.
Seems that the reason we haven't seen a PS2 version of Xexex in the Oretachi Geesen Zoku series after all that speculation is that Konami has preferred to develop the very first port of the game by themselves, instead of licensing it to Hamster. The sad news is that it's coming out for a handheld machine... Pretty lame. The good news (?) is that it's part of another Konami compilation, namely 'Salamander Portable', which will also include Salamander, Life Force and Salamander 2. Why is Xexex there? No clue, but a fifth title is also promised for the pack (...Thunder Cross? Who knows). This was revealed in the latest issue of Famitsu, it's scheduled for January along with Twin Bee Portable (Twin Bee, Detana!! Twin Bee, Twin Bee Yahhoo!, Pop'n Twin Bee and a fifth unrevealed game) and Parodius Portable (Parodius Da!, Gokujou Parodius, Sexy Parodius, Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius ~Forever with Me~ and a fifth secret title). Oh. For the PSP, obviously. Ahh, the industry.
We hope you haven't forgotten about this (Famitsu's readers seem to not have), despite its several delays. The game is finally appearing on the 26th of this month, with a preorder campaign which promises a prominent set of stickers, posters and cards for the buyers. The official site has just put up a promotional movie here. Additionally, another forthcoming PS2 S-RPG has gotten a web space full of content. It's Spike's Elvandia Story, which we already announced here. Check it out.
There's some slightly inaccurate info about Clover going around today, so I thought I'd add some insight. The company is indeed dissolving as a Capcom company. However, we interviewed inaba at TGS, and some people were surprised, as they'd heard he was leaving Capcom to form his own studio. It may well be that he's leaving with Clover, and this is Capcom's 'face-saving' method of doing so. Regardless, I don't think you have to worry about Clover-esque games coming to market, as I don't think inaba has any intention of slowing down. So don't get all crazy.
As for his reasons for leaving, there are some hints in the interview, but I'll wait til they're properly transcribed. In brief, he mentioned in passing (when I said it suddenly seemed like Capcom had just decided to make good games again), that he wasn't sure whether people would still feel that way in five years. Lastly, some sources have stated that "Clover" comes from "creativity lover." We actually asked him what the name came from in the interview, and it comes from the 'mi' of shinji mikami (Biohazard creator and Inaba's mentor), and the 'ba' of atsushi inaba (Clover head). Thus, 'three leaves' - what has three leaves? Clovers. Then he went on to say that they used a four-leafed clover in the logo because it looked nicer. So now you know!
Here are some quotes from the press release for Scarface: The World is Yours, which just shipped. Here's the first thing you see in the release: "Legendary Gangster Returns to Rebuild His Fallen Empire and Seek Vengeance In Highly Anticipated Video Game Featuring Hollywood Production Values" - nice, right? Interestingly, marketing and PR people not only feel that this is acceptable english, they think this is the proper way to communicate ideas!
"The game, which presents a sequel storyline that asks “What if Tony Montana survived the mansion shootout?” is available on the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Xbox® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC for an estimated retail price of $49.99."
Does the game really ask that? The only way to find out is to buy it! Or I can just tell you: no! It directly illustrates what would happen. Also note that the Xbox is 'from Microsoft', while the PS2 is not 'from Sony.' Conspiracy!
"“Say hello to our little friend!” said Cindy Cook, chief strategy and marketing officer for Vivendi Games."
Granted, this is a really funny sentence, taken on its own. Indeed, by cheapening the message with a goofy catchphrase, you've alienated all of the people you're trying to appeal to, namely games press - who I'll begrudgingly admit are slightly smarter than rocks. The difficult bit is that there's absolutely no other way to write a press release in people's minds! This is a 'hook' that 'draws the reader in.' Not that it really matters, as nobody reads these, and just writes about the game, or doesn't. Or they just reprint the press release, for uh...whatever reason. It continues:
"“With its incredible celebrity cast, Hollywood production values, incredible commitment to quality and non-stop action, Scarface: The World Is Yours is poised to provide gamers with a thrilling third person action experience unprecedented in the games industry."
Important note: incredible celebrity cast may or may not include the voice of al pacino. Though he did reportedly choose his own stand-in. In conclusion, video game press releases are either written for idiots, or by them. It's difficult to tell at this stage. Here's the full release, though it's missing the header stuff that I quoted first...
In related news, I'm on a panel at the PR for games conference on thursday. I didn't plan to get all cheesed off at press releases right before that, but here we are!
Around the time of the PSP's release several titles were touted for launch, Vulcanus was one of them. From the few gameplay movies shown a while back it's clear the game hasn't changed much (if at all). There are two new and pretty decent gameplay movies for two of the playable mecha, the Mark and the Kiev.
In all fairness, there's nothing massively new or groundbreaking here. The over boost function is straight out of Armored Core and the plodding and suitably pedestrian gameplay is all too similar to steaming pile of faeces that was Metal Wolf Chaos. It also looks like you can't fly, which for a gun toting robot isn't the best news in the world.
The only eyebrow raising feature is 4 player multiplayer, but it's only Ad Hoc so it aint anything to get massively excited about. Korean developer Zepetto is still handling this as well.
Anyway, the game's released on November 16th for the princely sum of 5040 yen.
Ollie Update: A nice poster on the forum by the name of Wind-up informed me via the forum messaging system that...
"Vulcanus was actually released here in Korea around November of last year. I'd say it's more a case of a lengthy delay in release for Japan, rather than having been in development for two years ... It could (maybe still can) be found commonly in bargain and used-game piles for 15,000 - 20,000 KRW (1500 -2000 JPY ) shortly thereafter, so it would seem the mission of providing a locally-produced alternative to the highly popular AC was not accomplished with much success. It certainly didn't strike me as anything I needed to try."
So, there you have it.
Brandon's note: I've played this all the way through, and it's pretty decent. Could've been made quite a bit better with some minor tweaks, but I didn't miss the ability to fly. It keeps you on the ground, but is very shooty and arcade focused, which I appreciated. Biggest gripes are the need to manually reload, and some lack of variety to the missions. All in all, probably should've come to the states.
News: Phantasy Star Universe beta final impressions
So as mentioned, I was on the PSU PC beta. I posted my final impressions here. Keep in mind I didn't actually play PSO extensively on any platform, so things that seem new to me may be old hat. Still, it gives a decent idea of the shape of the network portion of the game - note that the 'story' mode was not selectable in the advance beta. Naturally I advise that you listen to the theme song as you read. Unfortunately I didn't get more screens, completely forgetting the fact that the end of the beta would render my quest useless. Apologies for that! But here are some tiny pictures from the official site - Parum's fields look like this, Neudaiz's look like this.
Highlights of my impressions: You can hold two small weapons at once (saber/gun), and there's a first person mode for weaponry. Also, though I only mentioned it in the previous post, character creation/customization is quite good. Hooray!
First things first; yay! The Arc System Works Atomiswave-based Hokuto no Ken fighting game is getting ported to the PlayStation 2, as we've mentioned. New info is that the release is currently scheduled for March of 2007 and the port boasts four new game modes; Versus, Survival, Advanced and Challenge Mode (though I am not sure that "versus" counts as a new mode considering that was the main thrust of the arcade game).
Considering the upcoming anime movie releases, the timing of this port is somewhat fortuitous.
I have been able to log in after all! And thus, a mighty warrior was born. The character customizations are quite nice, and there seem to be more possibilities as you go along (in the game's 'mall'), and there are lots of socials and whatnot for the lobby (including a three-person team pose). Unfortunately my wireless connection keeps logging me out...this game strikes as something to play on the PS2 360, since using computers for videogames is like...so 1990s (note that I say this because that's the last time I played a commercial game on a PC).
So I joined the pre-release beta for PSU. I was planning on posting, you know...screenshots of stuff on here. But in spite of my best intentions, I haven't been able to log in yet. I really agreed to do this for the extra stuff though. I got a 360 controller, one of those rubber wrist thingies that prove you care about cancer, and a visual book which comes with a mini soundtrack. That's what we're here to talk about now. The soundtrack is largely pretty average symphonic stuff - til you get to track 9. Those of you who've been following the game may have seen a bit of cheesy singing in the trailers - turns out that's the game's main theme, and it turns out I have it for you right here. It's along the lines of the Sonic CD japanese intro, which tells us that "Nothing can survive your will to stay alive, 'cause if you try, you can do anything that you liiiiike!"
This theme has been known for some time, and indeed, a stream was made available a while back. But now you can download it to own and keep and put on your ipod and walk around like a Sega Star all day long. This guy has got a copy of the lyrics, so now you can sing along! It's performed by the self-proclaimed vocal gymnast kelli sae, so there you go.
Another mockup has been made of SNK's potential future, this time in flash. This combines both the Iroha maid simulator and the enchantress check game. Keep in mind this is not work safe at all - but proposes how you might determine if people are witches by touching them. Something like that. I think you'll figure it out. Done by the blogger/artist Lionz with dialog and voice and everything (albeit very little of both). If you'd forgotten, here's the future of SNK part 1. Thanks to Iggy for pointing the link, once more.
The main story bent for Armored Core Last Raven was for the player to remain the "last raven" standing over the course of a 24 hour war. One of the more memorable opponents was that of Zinaida. Especially, the final time you encountered her.
Most throw down the controller and boil it in acid with the frustration of trying to take her out. She's definitely a tough cookie to crack.
Some crazy player by the name of speriol managed to take her out with two hits of a right arm blade. To clarify, these things have to be manually aimed, have very little ammo and have to be used literally on top of a target to be effective. To put it into perspective here's my more traditional attempt at gunning down Zinaida.
It's safe to say that there are some mad skills afoot (speriol's obviously, not mine).
Opening this weekend in New York City is 8 BIT, a documentary that focuses on folks who create art and music that's inspired by video games. It covers the demo scene, chiptunes, machinima, stuff like Corey Arcangel's Super Mario Clouds, and more. Its also perhaps the first real stab at such a thing, without all the factual errors and condescending tone that has come with previous attempts (that PBS documentary from a while back comes to mind).
For more info on the movie, and to find out if it might be playing in city near you (the film's creators have no definite plans as of yet, but they do hope to have it tour the country in some capacity) just go here.
If you live in New York City, mark your calanders and clear away November 30 through December 3. And if you don't, make sure you're in the Big Apple for the Blip Festival.
It promises to be the greatest gathering of chiptune maestros in North America ever, with appearances by Bit Shifter, Nullsleep, Mark DeNahrdo, Glomag, Bubblysish, Virt, Cory Arcangel, Hally, x|k, Portalenz, Aonami, YMCK, and many many more. History will be taking place at NYC's homebase for 8-bit music, The Tank.
Hard-hitting journalism takes a while to get rolling. For instance, just recently I remembered that we took a picture of insert credit co-founder vincent diamante and final fantasy series composer nobuo uematsu from a party we went to in 2005. And now, I'm sharing those results with you. Clearly, vince is uematsu's long lost son. Similar hair, glasses, facial features, even down to the charming mustache. Plus, vince is a composer himself! You might have heard his work on Cloud, or Roboblitz - though he just did scripting and suchlike on that one. He also did a ringtone for an Ice Cube song! That is hilarious for ever.
A little anecdote - uematsu's not a big english speaker, so I was translating, saying that vince is a musician, and would love to do some work with Squenix, etc (ie shameless promotion), and uematsu said in english - "send us your works!" Now this was fine and all, as he said it in a serious tone, but then kosei ito piped up as well. He's in charge of Squenix's mobile division, which produced Before Crisis Final Fantasy VII and the new Dirge of Cerberus mobile game. He was very drunk, as he can sometimes be, and is the glassy eyed gentleman you see gazing up at...something...in the picture there, just behind vince and uematsu.
"SEND US YOUR WOOOORKS!!" he screamed, in allcaps, just behind uematsu's statement, with his eyes clenched shut as though he really needed to emphasize this statement, taking a pause to nod a few times afterward. Everyone was taken aback by the sudden outburst, and it was tough not to giggle, and it's been a running joke for us ever since. Naturally Squenix never got back to vince, who did send them his works, but we've hung out with ito several times since, who's a very nice guy, if a bit of a notorious party animal. Here's a bonus picture in which I am totally making them become bunnies. Don't they look silly now! Suckers!
If you want to read a severely thought-provoking piece on the Nintendo Wii and the oft-mis-spoken-about marketing concept of "disruption", please click here. The article is rather vast in scope and covers a wide range of topics while remaining sharply focused. It's a little zealous, which is more than forgivable, and a little doomsaying, which is thematically relevant. He points out little "quasi-conspiracies" such as Microsoft "using" Sega, and never once comes off sounding like a complete lunatic. So check it out.
The author of the piece very strongly understands that the idea of a "console 'war'" is thoroughly stupid. Nintendo is not "punching" anyone in the "face" with their Wii; rather, they are not fighting anyone at all. That's the whole idea of a "Blue Ocean" as opposed to a "Red Ocean". It's peaceful disruption versus warful destruction. Then again, there's always the possibility that the winds of trend have turned, and nonviolence is the new violence. It's a mysterious age we live in.
Even considering that Nintendo hasn't advertised the Wii at all here in Japan yet, I'm not even going to bother trying to get one on launch day. Launch day is a Saturday -- people don't have to work so they'll be lined up the night before. The thing's going to sell like crazy. It's going to be a hell of a magic trick. Anyway, it's a good article.
Brandon's note: While interesting in certain ways, this article is not necessarily ubiquitously endorsed. It also may have cooties.
E-JRW's note: If not ubiquitously, then still broadly! My only qualm, and it's a minor one, is in the style and occasional tone of the prose. 'Course, this ain't literature. So!
Totally bizarre, but quite interesting, and by now you've probably heard a little about it - Burger King is making $4 Xbox and Xbox 360 games. Gamespot has info. They're being developed by Blitz Games, of Oliver Twins fame (they made Dizzy - Europeans know what I'm talking about here) - and as he's a food item, I wouldn't be totally shocked to see an easter dizzy in there. Note: insert credit does not advocate the actual purchase of meals at Burger King - please just buy the games separately, as eating meat is only for satanists and weirdos.
I bought a 360 in japan because it was cheaper, and because many games are all region. Perhaps you did the same! Or perhaps, as it the case with some people, you actually live in japan. The tough part is knowing which u.s. games work on a japanese 360. So to that end, I've started a page on the wiki, right here. Most of the games I've tested that don't work are, well, products not to be purchased regardless, but Lego Star Wars II was a bit of a surprise. Right now it's looking like Capcom, Konami, Activision, THQ and Sega are safe purchases, whereas EA, Microsoft, Tecmo, Namco, LucasArts and Ubisoft are not.
Why bother getting u.s. versions instead of asian ones, which also come with english? Because certain liberties are taken, ala the Dead Rising changes, which removes the ability to have headshots, or accidental attacks on the innocent. It's not a big deal, but it's nice to play the games the way they were originally designed. Another interesting thing I found is that american Xbox games work on the japanese 360 as well...wonders of emulation, I guess. And naturally, since it's a wiki, please help update it!
Update: Turns out there's already a good list here. It's not split out, but it's got all the info in it. So! There you go.
tim's note: actually, the "Japanese version" of a game and the "Asian version" are kind of different. The "Asian version" refers to versions released in Hong Kong or Taiwan -- these are commonly sold on Play-Asia.com for cheaper than the US versions. Yet, unlike the "Japanese version," the Asian games are usually released around the same time as the US version, and seldom contain, say, a Japanese audio track. If your 360's language is set to "English", the game will be in English. So they're cheaper, they're 100% compatible with Japanese 360s, and they're still in English. And you can order them from Play-Asia, who actually tend to ship things on time, instead of from Gamestop, who doesn't. So having a Japanese 360 is probably the best way to go.
I found this when checking for Landstalker PSP news (there isn't any), and found mobile Lady Stalker instead. Here's the official site - it only goes for 210 yen, and came out on the 21st of september in japan. We need a download service like this for the DS, and at these prices, I say. Climax actually made these Tamagotchi-esque Mushiking games too, curiously.
There's a new awful toy in town! It's Saber from Fate/Stay Night. Frankly it's too ridiculous to be accidental...right? Either that or a manufacturing defect. Scroll down to see how the author gave her a twist tie sword, which I think it pretty fitting. I think I'd actually buy one of these! Fun animated gif action here. It's from the same site, but I'm hosting it to save their bandwidth.
If you don't remember Mok-Kos, she was the horrible Xenosaga II limited action figure based on Kos-Mos. She gathered kind of a cult following, and when I saw the limited for sale in france for almost $175, I nearly bought it - but it came with a box and some crappy game that drove up the price. Thanks to Satoshi Miwa on the mmc bbs for the link.
Sting has put up a promotional video for their third iteration of Riviera: The Promised Land. It's on amazon, and the direct link is here. It lets you see the resized graphics and nicer portraits - and to be honest the battle effects do look nicer. But it also shows you the pitiful voice acting, and reminds you it's just the same game as before. Personally I think Sting's time would be better spent on something new...the GBA remake made sense, as not many people played the WSC version, but I think a PSP remake is overkill. I guess the GBA version did sell out quickly though... regardless, the official site is here.
Since 2007 will mark the 20th anniversary of the release of Street Fighter 1, Capcom is announcing 
Readers of insert credit may be aware that Brandon Sheffield, our evil overlord and master, is himself but a cog in the CMP machine, working on 
Speaking of Yuki, and their 
Yuki Enterprise's 
Play-Asia has 
MileStone has released a 
Konami's shooting collections for PSP, including Salamander Portable, which we 
I saw 
Turns out Battle Fantasia isn't 2D after all, but sparsely animated 3D on a 2D plane. There are twelve characters in total, five button system, but this is around where we start giving up hope. Check blurry videos on youtube 
Capcom's releasing a new 
Arc System Works has announced that the location test for Battle Fantasia, which now has a dedicated 
This is from recap once again again - the next two Oretachi Geesen Zoku games have been announced, which you'll recall are PS2 one-off ports of arcade classics, most of which haven't hit consoles previously. The next two, revealed by famitsu (reprinted in rakuten 
Yet another sunday surprise - a location test for a brand-new arcade game has been conducted this weekend at Felicidad shop in Fujimi. It's called 'Arcana Heart,' a female vs. fighting game with sprite-based graphics(!). Yuki Enterprise (of Samurai Spirits Zero fame) is on the labels the operation cards and poster which you can see 
It's being discussed on some Japanese blogs - some game shops have unveiled another Taito production before its official announcement. If they're to be believed, the game in question is the sequel to the two Taito Memories games, which would also consist of two separate volumes, the first of them being released in January. Even more surprisingly, the compilation would only include home titles, such as the Estpolis Denki ['Lufia'] RPG series. Stay tuned.
...And the 
Can't recall if I've linked the Dragon Shadow Spell 
Leaf has announced a new 3D RPG (for PC) - Kimi ga yobu, megido no oka de. Two years into the making, this is their biggest project yet, involving artists Karen, Misato Mitsumi, Kawata Hisashi, Tatsuki Amaduyu, and Nakamura Takeshi. Karen will be the main artists for the game. The game is planned for release in 2007, and it's not for people under 18.
Nobody else is mentioning this (well, besides 
Seems that the reason we haven't seen a PS2 version of Xexex in the Oretachi Geesen Zoku series after all that 
We hope you haven't forgotten about 
There's some slightly inaccurate info about Clover going around today, so I thought I'd add some insight. The company is indeed 
Here are some quotes from the press release for Scarface: The World is Yours, which just shipped. Here's the first thing you see in the release: "Legendary Gangster Returns to Rebuild His Fallen Empire and Seek Vengeance In Highly Anticipated Video Game Featuring Hollywood Production Values" - nice, right? Interestingly, marketing and PR people not only feel that this is acceptable english, they think this is the proper way to communicate ideas! 
Around the time of the PSP's release several titles were touted for launch, 
So as mentioned, I was on the PSU PC beta. I posted my final impressions 
First things first; yay! The 
So I joined the pre-release beta for PSU. I was planning on posting, you know...screenshots of stuff on here. But in spite of my best intentions, I haven't been able to log in yet. I really agreed to do this for the extra stuff though. I got a 360 controller, one of those rubber wrist thingies that prove you care about cancer, and a visual book which comes with a mini soundtrack. That's what we're here to talk about now. The soundtrack is largely pretty average symphonic stuff - til you get to track 9. Those of you who've been following the game may have seen a bit of cheesy singing in the trailers - turns out that's the game's main theme, and it turns out I have it for you right 
The main story bent for 
If you want to read a severely thought-provoking piece on the Nintendo Wii and the oft-mis-spoken-about marketing concept of "disruption", please 
Totally bizarre, but quite interesting, and by now you've probably heard a little about it - Burger King is making $4 Xbox and Xbox 360 games. Gamespot has 
I found this when checking for 
There's a new 
Sting has put up a promotional video for their third iteration of Riviera: The Promised Land. It's on 
