Namco
Bandai have announced a release date for God Eater Burst in
Japan. the release date is October the 14th.
More
Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online, is a game on the PC which
tries to bring the experience of Shin Megami Tensai to the
online world. There has been some new stories added and the game
is free to play.
More
JoWood
Entertainment announced to an Austrian magazine that Raiden
Fighters Aces will finally be released in Europe.
More
Space Harrier II and Ecco the Dolphin will be release on
iTunes. They will be price at $0.99 and $2.99.
More
Hudson
are working on a game based on the Fairy Tale franchise.
It's called Fairy Tail Fierce Fighting: Decisive Battle With the
Wizard and is for the DS.
More
Totally Tiny Arcade Totally Free Until Monday
Totally Tiny Arcade is the new name for
the updated version of Joystick Johnny, which was a collection of more
than twenty mini games inspired by arcade classics from the 80's.
Originally released back in 2007, the re-titled game has been updated with
numerous small fixes, graphical updates and gameplay improvements. Not
only that, you can also get Totally Tiny Arcade for free if you
download it before Monday. The only
requirement here is that you provide a valid email address to receive the
download link, and the developer has promised that no spam will be sent to
your mail account.
These mini games aren't just straight remakes with minor graphical changes
though. Similar to the WarioWare series, each game gets a bit more
difficult with the introduction of new enemies or obstacles as you
progress from one level to another.
Fans of arcade cabinets and coin-operated games should definitely not miss
out this promotion. Get Totally Tiny Arcade for free
here. (source:
Warp Factor Awesome)
Shank to be released on the PSN and XBLA network on
August 24th/25th
I don't know about you guys, but every time a new
video is released for Klei Entertainment's side-scrolling beat-em-up
Shank, I
think about how amazing the art style is, and then hope that the gameplay
is equally as nice.
The addition of a co-op multiplayer mode has now tipped the balance for
me, and from here on in I'm going to assume the game will be awesome.
There's only a month left to wait for it too, as it's released on August
24th on PSN and August 25th on XBLA ("wot, no PC release?" says the
commenters) and will cost $15.
Demo: Recettear
Recettear is a tongue-in-cheek Japanese
RPG from 2007, now translated into English. It follows the story of a girl
who is about to have her home repossessed, and so opens an item shop in
the hope of paying the loan off.
If you've ever wondered what all those shopkeepers in RPGs do when they're
not selling their wares, Recettear has all the answers. Buying low and
selling high is the aim, and you'll be selling a wide variety of RPG item
favourites, such as swords, shields and random things you find on dungeon
floors. You can hire an adventurer to hunt down treasures for you to sell
in your shop too.
The demo is really quite long and definitely worth a play. If you're
allergic to hefty amount of dialogue and/or don't particularly enjoy RPGs,
give it a miss. Everyone else should
grab it here.
Browser Game Pick: Streemerz
We've written about the Windows version of Streemerz
before, but now there's a
Flash port of this Action 52 remake that
includes new gameplay modes and a separate story campaign to beat (called
Streeeeemerz Mode). In
Streemerz you play as Joe, a super
soldier who can shoot out streamers from his hands. These streamers can be
used to reel you towards the hook, and letting go of the button also
propels Joe forward and upwards.
Though the control instructions might sound complicated at first, it only
takes about a minute or two to familiarize yourself with moving Joe around
and over obstacles. Note that the game isn't very kind towards a few indie
game developers, so if you're easily offended then our advice is to avoid
Streemerz completely.
Cave's Akai Katana test machine
Do I need an excuse to put pretty women on the site?
21st of July 2010
You go away for a day and all hell breaks loose.
Monster Hunter variant, MonHun Nikki: Poka Poka Airu Mura
is scheduled for release in Japan on August the 26th.
More
Check out the trailer
below
Electronic Arts have announced a game called Darkspore. It is a
new rpg in the Spore franchise.
More
Check out the trailer
below
Arc
Systems are working on releasing Arcana Heart 3 for consoles.
In this fighting game, you can choose from 23 characters.
More
The
iPhone seems to be cave's favourite portable device at the moment.
Dodonpachi Resurrection will be released soon.
More
Check out the trailer
below
Hostess dating game Dream Club Zero, will be released on
Xbox 360 and is a prequel to Dream C Club.
More
Final Fantasy Legends: Warrior of Light and Darkness will be
released on mobile phones in Japan. Is it me or, have Square
Enix turned in to whores since they merged?
More
I have
never played Legend of Mana, because it was never released in
the UK. If it was, I never saw any advertising anywhere.
So you can imagine how pleased I would be to hear that Legend of
Mana will be released on the Playstation Network. Admiringly,
just the Japanese network, but it gives me hope. It will cost 600
yen ($6.50).
More
A new
PSP game called Pastel Chime Continue seems to have copied the
Persona formula but from an isometric perspective.
More
A
company called Experience are releasing Students Of The Round,
which is a dungeon crawler. Not a lot is known about the Xbox
360 game but I'll update you as soon as the information is available.
More
Sega
are apparently working on 3 versions of Thor games.
More
Valkyria Chronicles II will be released in Japan on August the
31st, on the PSP.
More
Dodonpachi Resurrection
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded trailer
Darkspore trailer
Monster Hunter Diary Poka Poka Airu Village trailer
And now, for something different
19th of July 2010
On the web, there are approximately ten to twenty
billion web sites. Most of them cover the same main stream subjects.
I decided to try and cover news which isn't a saturate part of the net and
thus, chose to cover Japanese games, indie games and movies. If
anyone has any suggestions which will improve my ability to cover the news
or sections for the site that they would like to see, don't hesitate in
contacting me. The email address is on the left under emails.
After
acting like a spoilt brat, Minori, producer of Visual Novels, is
apparently negotiating with the fan group who want to translate one of
their
games into English. They want to talk about licensing the product
with a view to making money. Maybe they read my article, LOL.
More
Every time I hear the word Viz, I keep thinking about a comic sold in
the UK. Vis are a Manga publisher and will be producing new
comics soon. Err, I mean Graphic Novels of course.
More
The
famous director of children's films, Hayao Miyazaki, talks about
technology and its use; to be precise, the iPad. If you have
never seen a Miyazaki movie, here are few suggestions: My Neighbour
Totoro, Porco Rosso and Ponyo.
More
What
is popular in Japan at the moment? Dengeki recently undertook a
survey to find the answer to that very question and for a change it wasn't
Pokimon or Monster Hunter.
More
Hideo
Kojima is interested in creating an “adventure game,” which means a
Visual Novel. “Adventure game,” that makes sense,
considering that he likes to implement large cut scenes into his games.
Why bother with gameplay at all and just have one long cut scene.
More
Meet Chibiterasu’s little helpers in Okamiden
Fate/Extra extended battle video
Remake Game Pick: Donkey Kong Super
Donkey Kong Super is an updated remake of
the iconic arcade game which also features levels from the unofficial
sequel,
Donkey Kong 2: Jumpman Returns. The
graphics were given a new coat of paint, but everything from the jumps,
animations, intermissions, and even barrel speeds are as close as Danny
could get them in this remake.
Though the new content had been implemented seamlessly into the game,
purists might wish for an option to disable the unofficial levels so that
a more faithful recreation of the classic can be had. Nonetheless Donkey
Kong Super still stands out as one of the best Donkey Kong arcade remakes
to be released, with controls that are close to perfection and an online
rankings table for Wiebe and co. to submit their scores to. (source:
Retro Remakes)
Trailer: Air Forte (Blendo Games)
Air Forte is a brand new educational game
from Brendon Chung (Gravity Bone, Flotilla), out now for Windows, Mac,
Linux and Xbox 360. Designed with the young of age in mind, the objective
in Air Forte is to fly your plane into the numbers, flags or words that
meet the requirements of each level.
The game features three different game modes, multiplayer support for up
to four players, an original soundtrack, and an online rankings table to
submit your high scores to. Air Forte is only 400 MS Points on
Xbox Live Indie Games, and demos for the
supported operating systems are all available from the
official site.
Promo for Dead Rising 2
Awesome Street Fighter picture
16th of July 2010
It's been a quiet week for game news but here is the
best of today's news. Don't blame me, I'm just the messenger.
Cave
are working on a new shooter for arcade released, called Red Katana.
More
Check out the trailer
below
Red Katana trailer
God Eater Burst trailer with English subtitles
Trailer: Kromaia (Kraken Empire)
Kromaia is an intriguing experimental
action game, in which players must discover the rules of the provided
universe. In this world, traditional interface elements - such as text -
no longer exist, and players must use spatial awareness and quick reflexes
to survive.
The information on
the Kromaia site is rather confusing, but it appears that while
you are not playing the game, the universe continues to evolve, meaning
next time you play, it may be completely different. Every entity in the
world will also be pulled straight from simple XML files, meaning modders
can easily create their own units and features.
It also goes on quite a bit about how everything in the game is 'real' -
"a reality, since everything seen on screen is actually there, entirely
driven by true physical forces". We shall have to see how it plays later
this year!
Trailer: Nikki and the Robots (Joyride Laboratories)
While this concept trailer for upcoming platformer
Nikki and the
Robots doesn't exactly give much away in terms of how the game
will play, there's just something about it that really appeals to me.
The protagonist Nikki cannot use weapons or equipment throughout the
entire game, and instead enlists the help of robots. She can hack into
terminals to take advantage of each robot's unique abilities, solving
puzzles and overcoming obstacles.
Should hopefully be some good, solid fun. Nikki and the Robots is coming
to PC, Linux and Max soon. Visit
the official site for more details and
some lovely screenshots.
Freeware Game Pick: DreamCherry (Rabid Media)
Dream Cherry is a NES-style platformer in
which you play as Cherryboy, a cherry-headed hero who has to drive back
the nightmarish creatures that seek to destroy everything in the realm of
the Dream World. You can jump on or throw star at enemies to defeat them,
although the latter method is preferable because some creatures will hurt
you when you try to step on them.
One thing to take note of is that you have to do running jumps to clear
most of the walls or obstacles that you come across in the game. If
Cherryboy is in a stationary position before attempting a jump, the height
of the leap will be much lower than when he is in motion.
There are five levels to play in this demo. (Windows, 9.05MB)
15th of July 2010
I swear that I'm the unluckiest guy when it comes to
ISP's. I join Virgin and a few weeks later, the company suddenly
decides to overhaul the network WTF! The service is so bad
that I can't tell if I'll get more than five minutes at a time before it
stops working for hours and as usual, it will take weeks to go to BT.
Great
news for people like me who never played the original Shin Megami
Tensei games and Persona games, which were released on the
Playstation 1. They will be released on the Playstation Network,
courtesy of Atlus.
More
Soon
you will be able to dress you Xbox 360 Avatar in Street Fighter IV
costumes. I personally don't get avatars; there just
representations of our own ego. There not worth spending money
on.
More
Five Minutes of Final Fantasy XIV Emotes
Freeware Game Pick: DreamCherry (Rabid Media)
Dream Cherry is a NES-style platformer in
which you play as Cherryboy, a cherry-headed hero who has to drive back
the nightmarish creatures that seek to destroy everything in the realm of
the Dream World. You can jump on or throw star at enemies to defeat them,
although the latter method is preferable because some creatures will hurt
you when you try to step on them.
One thing to take note of is that you have to do running jumps to clear
most of the walls or obstacles that you come across in the game. If
Cherryboy is in a stationary position before attempting a jump, the height
of the leap will be much lower than when he is in motion.
There are five levels to play in this demo. (Windows, 9.05MB)
14th of July 2010
I don't think these ISP's like me. For the
last two years I have had nothing but trouble with the different services.
I'm on Virgin and I'm still not getting a constant service. Maybe
it's karma.
Capcom
are working on a Hello Kitty game. Hello Kitty
Paradise Parachute will be released this summer. The goal of
this game is to obtain items while attempting to get a high score.
More
Mike
Hayes, president of Sega spoke about the chances of House of the
Dead and Aliens vs. Predator coming to the 3DS.
More
Atelier
Rorona on the Playstation 3 will have 30 endings. Even if I
adored this game, there still would be no way thatI would play
it 30 times to see all the different endings. I'll just watch
them on Youtube like everyone else.
More
Class Of Heroes 3, on the PSP will contain 75,000 avatars to
choose from.
More
Idolm@ster will be releasing Dream C Club Portable on the PSP.
D3 Publisher intend to release swim suits as DLC as well.
More
Siliconera has some screenshots for Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2nd.
More
The
producer of Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes, talks about making
action games for women. Perhaps they could have a woman in
the lead role. That would be a start.
More
13th of July 2010
I sorry about not recording a podcast this week or
updating the site yesterday, I have an abscess. If you're ever had
an abscess it feels like being punched in the face and you really don't
feel like doing anything, apart from going back to bed.
Arc
System Works has a countdown page which is a blank screen. What
is the point? You might as well just not bother. I know
people will be talking about it but will the discussion be positive or
negative?
More
Idea
Factory's Blazing Souls Accelate will merge the adventuring map
with the battle map, and in its place will be one huge map. I
think it is time for me to buy a PSP.
More
Cavia,
creators of Drakengard and Nier has been dissolved.
According to Trao Yokoo, director of the company, "Cavia, at least the
staff members, live on within AQ Interactive. AQ Interactive, the
parent company of Artoon, Xseed, and previously Cavia, absorbed the
studio."
More
Konami
has trademarked the name Dance Dance Evolution in Europe.
Does it mean that Konami are reinventing the Dance Dance
series?
More
Atlus
trademarked Devil Hunter and Siliconera asks the question, is
Devil Hunter a spin off from the Shin Megami Tensei
series?
More
Namco
Bandai's expanded version of God Eater, called God Eater
Burst, will include new characters, scenarios and Aragami,
whatever that means.
More
The
Western version of Dragon Quest IX will include a wild Pokemon.
Maybe it went to sleep one night and woke up thinking, "Where the hell
am I?"
More
Freeware Game Pick: Mirage (Grupp 1)
Mirage is a Unity-based action game in
which you control a swarm of glass, out to explore a world filled with
autumn leaves, branches, and plenty of sand. You take damage when
colliding with a wall, but health can be restored by blasting the green
crystals that you will encounter several times during your journey. There
is a healthy amount of checkpoints too, and any enemies previously
defeated will stay down even after you've respawned some distance away.
The entire game is basically just one long level capped by a boss fight,
and can be beaten in about fifteen minutes or so. Download links for both
Windows and Mac builds of the Mirage demo are located
here. (Mac/Windows, 107MB)
Illuminator Update: Full Version Released
The full version of Logan Ames' Action 52 remake
Illuminator is out. This new build is
feature complete, and comes with a new menu, a continue option, more light
fixtures, an additional type of enemy to weaken with your torchlight, an
end-game boss battle, and a proper ending to wrap things up when you've
beaten the story mode. To download Illuminator, click
here. (Windows, 7.18MB)
Browser Game Pick: Cellcraft (Cellcraft Team)
Cellcraft is an educational strategy game
based around living cells and organisms. A meteor is headed towards the
planet, and your job is to create a organism which can save the Platypus
species.
Presented with a bare cell, you're slowly introduced to a variety of
organelles and acids which help your cell grow and defend itself. Viruses
will attack at intervals, at which point it starts to play like a tower
defense type of game. Most of the science stuff went right over my head,
but its very informative and even comes with an encyclopedia from looking
up any details. Apparently the team has been trying it out in classrooms
and getting a positive response.
XBL Indie Game Pick: Sleepwalker (Robin and Sandy
Debreuil)
Alas, this is not a remake of the classic
Sleepwalker game for Amiga, but it's
still pretty good fun. Created for the 48hour Winnipeg Game Jam, it's now
been released as an Xbox Live Indie Game for $1 (80 MS points).
You play a sleepwalker who must be constantly walking. The idea is to
reach the goal on each level via a variety of physics-based puzzles. The
game was created as a test for Robin's
Swf2XNA
program, which allows Flash projects to be ported for release
on the XBLIG system. On a side note, Swf2XNA is now live and available for
download from
Robin's blog.
It'd be nice if the video above had sound, but no matter - it's still good
fun and worth a pop at a dollar. Grab it from the
Xbox Marketplace.
Browser Game Pick: p0nd (The Peanut Gallery)
I've played numerous strange and twisted games in my
time, but p0nd must surely rank up there with the weirdest I've seen. It's
a one-button game, utilizing the space bar to make the protagonist breathe
in and out.
Holding space will cause all the fresh air to enter his lungs - then you
let go to make him breathe out. It's meant to be a very 'zen' experience,
relaxing your nerves etc. In fact, it suggests you try breathing in and
out with the character.
Then you get to a pond, and well, it all gets a bit silly. I'm not going
to spoil it for you, but rest assured, you won't be expecting what happens
next. Play it over at
Peanut Gallery Games.
Ikue Otani, voice actor of 'Pickachu', has sadly
passed away at the young age of 44. Below is her demonstrating her
skills. She sounds like she's on helium.
More
How things have changed. Apparently, Tengen
used cigarettes to promote Klax in Japan.
More
10th of July 2010
Yuji
Horii, series creator of Dragon Quest, talks about the social
impact it has had on the Japanese people.
More
Siliconera also has an interesting article, where they speak to Yuji Horii,
creator of the Dragon Quest series about the reason why the
Japanese love the Dragon Quest series so much. Have
a look and then afterwards
have a look below at why I think it might be so successful.
More
This is just an opinion and
isn't based on empirical data. I think that we all want to be a
hero. It doesn't matter if you are male or female, we all want
to save the day; be the Joan of Arc, Mullan, King David or the Duke of
Wellington. The point is that we all want to be more than we are
now.
With Dragon Quest, we get
to enact those desires and also get to talk about them with like
minded individuals. Japan is a culture that is society
orientated and when one thing becomes popular, it tends to be
massively popular. Children want to play the same games as their
friends and adults
want to find out what's so good about a game as well.
So what we get is a massive
title that sells extremely well. The trouble with popular titles
usually, is that they tend to change from game to game and evolution is
normally a good thing, but it can exclude some of the fans of the
previous games in the series. Dragon Quest, along with Fire
Emblem stay true to their roots and by doing so, ensure that the fans
of the series who are old enough to spend money on the series continue
to do so.
Think about this for one moment;
in the US and Europe, there is a generation which are referred to as
the silver haired generation. The elderly have a bigger
disposable income than the rest of us and that is because they have
done the child rearing thing and now can spend that income on
themselves. If they go into a shop and see a game that they
loved when they were younger and it plays the same way as well, they
are more likely to want to spend their money on this game than having
to relearn everything again, as I have noticed is required in each
iteration of Final Fantasy.
A good metaphor would be buying
a pair of socks that you know will fit your foot well. You know
that there are better brands than the socks you have chosen, but they fit so
well that you keep buying them anyway.
Enslaved: Odyssey will be released in North America on October the
5th. Ninja Theory used Hollywood writers to create the story in
Enslaved: Odyssey.
More
This
weekend will see a souped-up version of God Eater unveiled by
Namco Bandai. God Eater Burst will contain new
monsters.
More
Monkepaw Games plan to release Blockids and Magical Drop F
on the Playstation Network in North America. Blockids is an Arkanoid
style game done in 3D. That might be a little strange at first
but it may work.
More
If you
are a fan of either Persona or Shin Megami Tensei, Atlus
would like to know what you want to see implemented into the next game
in the Persona series.
More
Super Dimension Battle Neptune battle footage
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded’s battle system
Trailer: Asylum (Senscape)
The trailer above (not for the faint of heart!) is
from Agustin Cordes' brand new project for Senscape Interactive, described
as a horror adventure game set inside an asylum called Hanwell Institute.
If the developer's name sounds familiar to you, it's because he was part
of the Nucleosys team that made Scratches (another Myst-style adventure
game).
Asylum is only coming out sometime in 2011, but we're sure that Senscape
will keep us updated with more screenshots and teasers in the coming
months. Until then there's a couple of concept art and 'patient sessions'
that can be viewed at the
official site.
Beyond Black Mesa fan made teaser
China has started to ban online games that have a
sexual undertone in their advertising. A lot of Japanese games will
be screwed (irony, love it) when they advertise themselves in China now.
More
