Heres the full listing of game related releases for the last week:
PlayStation3™:
HORI Fighting Stick 3 US$ 49.90
PlayStation2™:
J-League Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurou 5 JPN US$ 64.90
Saint Seiya: The Hades / Saint Seiya: Meiou Hades Juunikyuu Hen JPN US$ 64.90
Zero Shikikan Josentoki Ni (Taito Best) JPN US$ 34.90
Nintendo DS™:
Bokujou Monogatari: Kimi to Sodatsu Shima JPN US$ 48.90
Fossil League Dino Tournament Championship US US$ 29.90
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 US US$ 39.90
InuYasha Secret of the Divine Jewel US US$ 34.90
Monster House JPN US$ 48.90
Sony PSP™:
Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean US US$ 39.90
Memory Stick Pro Duo 2GB US$ 99.90
Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops KOR US$ 49.90
Sid Meier's Pirates! US US$ 34.90
Ys: The Ark of Napishtim (Special Edition) JPN US$ 48.90
Magazines. Toys & Misc:
Arcadia Magazine [March 2007] JPN US$ 12.90
Bokusastu Tenshi Dokuro-Chan Figure Collection US$ 6.90
Doko Demo Issyo Fun Collection Plush Doll: Angel US$ 18.90
Doko Demo Issyo Fun Collection Plush Doll: Devil US$ 18.90
Dot-S Puzzle: Devil World (07-Type A) US$ 9.90
Dot-S Puzzle: Devil World (07-Type B) US$ 9.90
Dragon Quest Crystal Monsters 4 US$ 3.90
Famitsu Wave DVD [March 2007] JPN US$ 16.50
Gantz: 1/8 Scale Painted Extra! Story Image Figure! - Kishimoto Kei (Swim Suit Version) US$ 48.90
Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex (S.A.C. 2nd GIG) 1/7 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure: Kusanagi Motoko N/A
Melty Blood Pretty Collection Figure US$ 4.49
Neon Genesis Evangelion 1/7 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure: Sitting Rei in Plug-Suit (Rei Ayanami) US$ 48.90
Neon Genesis Evangelion Portraits Candy Toy US$ 5.29
Neon Genesis Evangelion Pre-painted PVC & ABS Figure - A-15 Arael-XX Blood Pattern Blue / Chromosome Type XX N/A
Nintendo DS New Super Mario Bros. Game Card Holder Gashapon US$ 2.99
Nintendo New Super Mario Bros. Keychain US$ 2.49
School Rumble 2 Keychain Figure US$ 2.49
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu Pre-painted PVC & ABS Figure - Mikuru Asahina US$ 42.90
Taisen Hot Gimmick Axes-Jong Ultimate Collection Figure US$ 7.90
Video Game related Soundtracks:
PS2 Ban Happiness Deluxe Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 27.90
Sakura Tree Mini Album: Cosmos [CD+DVD] JPN US$ 29.90
Super Eurobeat presents Initial D Non-Stop Mix from Takumi-selection JPN US$ 24.90
The Idol Master Masterwork 01 JPN US$ 19.90
Online retailer DVD Empire has quit selling games, blaming selfish publishers, slim margins, slow distribution and the fact that "80% of games are crap" as reasons for its decision.
"The video game industry only cares about mass merchandisers like Toys-R-Us, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc. They completely ignore the needs and wants of the medium to small game retailers," the company says on its website. "You may not care whether or not we make money, but we cannot continue to pay to sell video games."
"We all know how fast games devalue in prices; this is due to the fact that 80% of the games created are crap. So take the fact that we only make $5, now if the price of a game drops $20, we are now losing $15 every sale," the statement continues.
"The game industry releases many bad games, and word of mouth spreads fast to the consumer. All of those bunk games sit on our shelves. If we do end up selling them, we lose more money."
DVD Empire then lists several conveniently-numbered reasons why it has decided to stop selling games, including the "video game industry does not care", "we do not receive price protection", "we are not big enough to return products", "distribution is dumb", "games are better suited for brick and mortar retailers".
And the only positive? Apparently 20% of games are indeed, fun - though there's some questionable inclusions on DVD Empire's 'quality game' listings.
Do you agree or disagree with the article above. ?
Dell is focusing its beady eye on the handheld gaming scene, with a potential view to entering the handheld hardware market it's being reported.
"You know, that's definitely one that's on the radar screen, but we have no plans to talk about anything today", Dell's gaming boss Abizar Vakharia told PCPlus.co.uk at a recent press event when quizzed about future plans for a handheld.
It's speculated that, should Dell go ahead with plans for a handheld games device, it could be an Ultra-Mobile PC as opposed to a dedicated gaming platform. We doubt Nintendo - or Sony - are quaking in their boots though.
Those looking forward to EA Japan's promising DS remake of strategy classic Theme Park can enjoy a nice surprise in the CVG video player today, as we offer you an exclusive first look at the handheld game's debut trailer, roller coasters and all.
If that's not enough we've also got a large batch of screenshots that you'll only find on CVG, and an interview with Theme Park's Japanese designer Toshiyuki Nagahara - the only thing we're missing is a competition to go to a real theme park, eat dinner at a giant French fry shop and then sweep up the sick of the over-run punters, but we're working on it.
You can find the trailer over to the right, but for the screens you're going to have to head over to our Theme Park interview.
It's just my opinion a fact, Brain Age would never have appealed to the masses were the DS not played like a book. Now it's nothing special, as A-Ha videos everywhere (better known as Hotel Dusk: Room 215) are exploiting the 90-degree rotational axis of the DS.
So what did reviewers think of this playable paperplasticback mystery?
Game Revolution
From moving to talking to puzzle solving, everything in Hotel Dusk can be accomplished by tapping, dragging or drawing...By touching the screen with the stylus, your little dot will move in that direction. If you draw near something worth investigating, a little icon pops up, and by tapping it you shift to a first person view of that area. When you place your stylus over an item of interest, the item lights up and you can inspect it further by double tapping... clipping a segment of wire from a coat hanger or jimmying a lock, are handled with the stylus.
EtoyChest
it doesn't take a long time spent with Hotel Dusk to realize that besides weaving an intriguing mystery, the game was designed to confound, confuse, and even frustrate time and again...a design methodology that is sure to please hardcore sleuths, while...if a clue was missed or overlooked, a player could find him or herself wandering aimlessly about the available areas of the hotel, knocking on doors and clicking on anything...
Modojo
I was thrilled about the control and visuals but I can't say the same about dialog. Dialog between characters seemed very stilted and a lot of the conversation seemed superfluous. A typical interchange sounded like this:
Maid: "I'm also the cook in this joint."
Kyle: "You're the cook here?"
Maid: "I'm the cook here, that's what I said."
Kyle: "So you're the cook here?"
Repeat that three or four times each time Kyle has to talk to someone and you'll understand how annoyed I was about the conversation
MTV Multiplayer
So far, "Hotel Dusk" has been a welcome surprise... it presents a few other things I didn't realize I wanted...[like ] the player to hold their clamshell DS sideways...[which] allows "Hotel Dusk" another odd classification: sideways first-person-shooter-without-the-shooting....[it's also] the first DS game I'm aware of that enables the player to hand-write notes about what they're doing directly into the game....[and] scenes play in widescreen -- also known as the aspect ratio of every PSP game. So here's a chance to sort of see what Nintendo might do on a PSP, given the screen space.
Rocky Mountain News
I think the developers may have confused black and white crime drama with noir...When you bump into characters the scene unfolds in that moving sketch art we saw 20 years ago in A-Ha's Take On Me video...While this intriguing game's plot is almost accidentally oneiric, it certainly never delivers on the ambivalence, the cruelty, the eroticism that instills most film noir with its gut-wrenching frankness....Instead the characters' dream-like isolation is bogged down with generic characters...
I find it a little refreshing to see the point and clicks coming back into style. And the DS finally makes the idea work off the PC platform.
Phone straps seem to be so very much a Japanese thing. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've ever seen one hanging from a phone in the U.S., but maybe I'm just hanging out with the wrong sorts of crowds.
If I were the type to clutter up my phone with tiny plastic characters or other bits of colorful nonsense, the Revolve strap would likely be the only thing that found it's way onto my mobile.
The Revolve strap is a tiny little DS knock-off that plays generic versions of classic games like Block Game, Shooting Game and, my personal favorite, Frog Game. Ah, that brings back memories of my misspent young: Drinking cokes at the Officer's Club in Yongsan playing Frog Game with my friends before riding home through the golf course on my bike.
Going to school in Japan sounds great. Not that I could have had a DS in my youth, but if I had, the chances of Animal Crossing becoming my classmate's game of choice are somewhere alongside slim and none. In fact, describing the game's "objectives" would in all likelihood have gotten my head punched in.
But not in Japan. 4CR writer Vinnk works in a Japanese school, and there, Animal Crossing is big. Too big.
This morning while I was sitting in the teachers' lounge drinking a nice cup of green tea, an announcement came over the PA system. As usual I and the other teachers tuned it out, as these announcements are pretty much the same thing every day. Then I heard something I was not expecting, the words "Doubutsu no Mori" or as we know it "Animal Crossing". Now I started listening.
Since I missed the first part it didn't make much sense, all I got was that Animal Crossing was now forbidden.
Turns out kids just aren't doing any work on their computers, instead wasting their days hitting up Animal Crossing FAQs and fansites. And the teachers are not happy:
All the students care about is that stupid game, they don't study enough.
I counter that no other game I have ever played (Stroker aside) has so prepared me for the rigors of adult life. Busting your ass to pay off a mortgage, all the while performing menial tasks for a pittance is what life is all about, kids. Learn from Tom Nook. He'll teach you more about the real world than any maths teacher ever could.
Capcom has come up with a great lunchtime distraction for the bored-at-work: a playable preview version of Gyakuten Saiban 4 in Flash. The DS version of what we'd call Phoenix Wright 4 is still a couple of months away from its Japanese release, so we can only applaud Capcom's generosity here.
GUILTY: the dialogue in this demo will be largely incomprehensible to most Western players, as its script is written entirely in Japanese. NOT GUILTY: the music is sublime and manages to convey (without lyrics) how the trial is progressing; this is also the first time we've seen Odoroki-kun (captured here) at the bar. Cheers!
Get set to put your skills to the test as Pokémon Ranger launches across Europe on 30th March 2007 only for the Nintendo DS. For the first time ever, fans finally get the chance to fill the coveted role of a Ranger, an elite task force who protect Pokémon.
Players can become a fully-fledged Pokémon Ranger by being invited to Fall City to learn from Spenser, one of the top Ranger leaders. As they embark on the life of a licensed Ranger, players will learno use the powers of captured wild Pokémon to solve problems, help people and protect nature from adverse effects.
As a player begins the adventure they select either Lunick (male) or Solana (female) as their chosen character. They are then transported to the Rangers Base where they will receive a series of exciting and challenging missions to complete. As experience is gained, the missions increase in importance. The Ranger is pitted against the Go-Rock Squad in an attempt to recover Professor Hastings’ stolen Super Styler – the newly developed version of the Capture Styler used to hold wild Pokémon.
The Rangers don’t embark on their epic journey alone. To help them along their way they are also accompanied by a single partner Pokémon. This helpful friend will remain with them at all times aiding the all important relationship between the Ranger and captured wild Pokémon, whose power they will need to harness in the challenges ahead of them.
For the first time in a Pokémon game, players can control the Pokémon Ranger using only the Nintendo DS touch screen. To capture a valuable wild Pokémon the player must draw circles round their target with the stylus, though this challenge varies depending on the size and power of the Pokémon. Once captured, the Ranger’s partner Pokémon facilitates the use of the wild Pokémon’s powers to solve problems and clear obstacles that they might encounter.
A wild Pokémon’s powers aren’t available forever though. The player must choose the right moment to use the power because once used, the Pokémon is released back into the wild. A captured Pokémon can help a player by providing either a Poké Assist or a Field Move. In a Poké Assist a player can use an already captured Pokémon to capture another. In Field Move the Pokémon is used to clear an obstacle in the new Ranger’s path.
As the game progresses, the Ranger’s Capture Styler, used to hold the wild Pokémon, becomes more powerful. This provides more energy (Meter) allowing more Pokémon to be held with them at any one time. The wild Pokémon captured all provide different powers, depending on the group they belong to. Groups available include Grass, Fire, Electric, along with many more. As the game progresses, the challenge of capturing the correct Pokémon becomes increasingly strategic with various group match-up advantages and disadvantages influencing their assistance to the player.
The fun doesn’t end with the main mission either, with numerous sub-quests available giving players the opportunity to meet and capture legendary Pokémon like Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza. With these and over 200 other Pokémon waiting to be caught, completing your Browser will be no easy task. Do you have what it takes to ‘Catch em all’ and earn the Certificate of Completion
So get ready to capture and conquer as Pokémon Ranger hits shelves across Europe on the Nintendo DS on 30th March 2007 for the estimated retail price of around €40 (Ł30 in the UK).
And be sure you don't miss Pokémon Battle Frontier where the Pokémon Ranger, Solana, makes her TV debut in the most exciting Pokémon TV series yet. Toonami is on Sky Channel 602 at 5pm everyday, with the latest series starting February 5th!
Crossword puzzle aficionados will soon have a new outlet as Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of digital entertainment products and content, today announced The New York Times Crosswords for the Nintendo DS™. Developed by Budcat Creations, The New York Times Crosswords will challenge even the most savvy wordplay enthusiasts when it ships this spring.
“The challenging fun of The New York Times crossword puzzles combined with the stylus-based functionality of the Nintendo DS is a perfect pairing from our perspective,” said Ken Gold, vice president of Marketing, Majesco. “Handwriting recognition lends authenticity to gameplay while wireless multiplayer offers social players a means to enjoy the game with other fans on the go. The New York Times Crosswords really is the ultimate game for passionate crossword puzzle lovers.”
The New York Times Crosswords features more than 1,000 real crossword puzzles and the unique ability to write in answers with the stylus or use a Touch Screen keyboard to enter letters. Various modes of play include Puzzle Me Quick for a fast word fix; Puzzle Week for extended play with progressive difficulty; or Challenge mode with adjustable time and difficulty settings. In addition, the game includes both cooperative and competitive 2-player play so puzzle fanatics can work together or face off in wireless challenges.
For more information about Majesco’s exciting line of products please visit www.majescoentertainment.com
We would call this the series that just won't die ... but, as Nintendo fanboys, we're actually surrounded by those far older. Yes, yet another installment of MK is coming to the DS, courtesy of Midway; rather predictably, we know almost nothing about it. The only comment given: "it [won't be] a direct port of a previous title, it [won't] be a brand-new game either."
This leaves the only remaining option: indirect port. It involves a wormhole and superstring theory. Our best guess? A port of an SNES or Playstation version of Mortal Kombat, complete with OMGawesome stylus control and a couple new characters thrown in for good measure. Meh
The Soviet Mind Game was invented by Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov in the mid-1980s and sold under the name Tetris. From 1988 until 2000, various Tetris products had vastly different control feels and rotation systems. The Tetris Company standardized the games sold under the Tetris mark starting with Tetris Worlds (2001), but some of the changes proved controversial, especially the new infinite spin play mechanic.
LOCKJAW is a configurable implementation of the single-player Soviet Mind Game. Its 20 options can be configured to emulate at least Tengen Tetris, Sega's arcade Tetris, NES Tetris, Game Boy Tetris, The New Tetris, Quadra, Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 PLUS, TOD (without the distortion effects), several modes of Tetris Worlds, and Tetris DS, along with various combinations not yet realized in a Tetris product. Don't like infinite spin or the T-spin triple? Turn them off. Think 8 next pieces are too many? Turn it down. Want faster or slower sideways motion? You can. Want to try the challenge of a low ceiling? You can.
LOCKJAW is available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Game Boy Advance (since 0.26), and Nintendo DS (since 0.30 by request from owners of SLOT-1 flash cards).
I’m still hammering away at the weapon systems. I had to change the abstract renderer so I could see turret positioning properly so now the abstract renderer is fixed to actual game size, as in each tile is a C&C tile in size (24×24). It’s hard to tell right now but I’m a little worried that showing the C&C graphics 1:1 will give the player a view that appears too ‘zoomed in’ becuase of the low resolution of the DS screen. Gameplay testing will show if this is a problem or not I guess. On a smaller map it might be ok but with a big map with a lot going on it might be frustrating. Fingers crossed it won’t be a big issue.
Anyway with the weapons I’ve laid down the framework for a lot of it now. I’ve added a turret to one of the test units and it will be firing soon. I’m starting with the ‘laser’ projectile type which scores an instantaneous hit (think obelisk). This will let me get most of the code done for attacking/damaging/armour types etc without worrying about rendering shells and so on. That will come later.
Also thanks to IHM on the forum for explaining some of the C&C weapon and damage system. I think I have one now which can cover the C&C system but will also allow lots of other cool stuff.
Option that allows to extract rows sav already existing in the archives ZIP. (old rescues)
In case of ZIP, possibility to choose if the name of the rows destination must be taken from the name of the archives ZIP or from the name of the rom contained in it.
Push-button in order to force the rescue of the configuration (rescue that happens R-alla.chiusura of the program)
v0.8 R3:
"Add Files" also with Drag & Drop from the S.O.
Progress bar for the greater part of the functions
Metroid Prime Hunters Pinball may have been the first pinball game on the Nintendo DS platform, but Flipper Critters looks like it could be one of the most elaborate and imaginative pinball games on the system. This title, soon to ship from Ignition Entertainment, recently hit our desk where we had the opportunity to whack the ball around a few times.
The game, designed and developed by Zen Studios, features a bunch of furry critters wandering around fantasy landscapes, and it's up to the player to help them along in their quest by whacking a silver ball around in the environments. Hitting obstacles and scoring points is, obviously, the key task in Flipper Critters, but like in any good pinball game it's how you whack the ball that determines how well you do -- you'll need to fulfill quotas and tasks which will activate hotspots, that must be "attacked" in order to progress into deeper parts of the world.
Much of the action takes place on the lower screen where the programmers push the Nintendo DS system's 3D capabilities to render a wild and wonderful pinball world. The team's actually pulling off 3D on both screens, and the game will use both screens as one display...or actually show two independent camera views of the playfield when the ball travels deeper up the table. Even when the game does all sorts of craziness across both screens, the 3D engine never seems to drop its framerate and slowdown. The physics are tight enough to pull off "pinball wizard" style maneuvers like flipper traps and passes, but it's not on the level of a pinball simulation.
The touch screen comes into play several times during the pinball action, where players must tap or slide on objects to manipulate them in this world. Hitting a switch with a finger will cause a sign to spin around or a ramp to raise, which will cause the ball to adjust its trajectory if the ball's flipped in their direction.
Between pinball levels are mini-games that are incredibly hit or miss. We're fans of old-school shooters like Raiden and R-Type, but they seem a bit out of place in a pinball game. We'd be more accepting if these shooter levels were anything special, but at least in our short time with the game, we were ready to call it quits when these levels popped up. They just went on for way too long with very little variety to keep things interesting.
But at least the pinball action's solid enough. There's even multiplayer support in an option called "Duel" that we wish we could check out -- but since the game requires a second card for this mode, we couldn't tinker around with it.
Pokémon may not be the national phenomenon it was when the first games, Red and Blue, first released, but the latest record-breaking figures show it's still going strong.
Within three months of their September 28 release in Japan, Pokémon Diamond & Pearl shipped five million units to Japanese retailers.
Nintendo hopes this craze will continue when the new adventure makes its way to US stores on April 22.
And we thought Pokémon was getting old. Are you looking forward to Diamond and Pearl? Tell us in the comments section below.
Spectrobes is a new DS RPG from Buena Vista Games in which you catch various mythical creatures with special powers, train them up and send them to battle. Sound familiar?
Yes, it sound exactly like a Pokémon game but there are some nice ideas in Spectrobes. To get yourself new Spectrobes you have to carefully dig its fossil out of the ground using the stylus.
As you dig away the soil you can blow at the screen to clear away excess dirt. Then you take it to a science lab to give it life by shouting into the DS microphone.
Okay, it's clearly for young children, but we give it credit for doing something original. It also looks set to be a fairly hefty RPG, with hundreds of Spectrobes to catch.
Check out these exclusive screens of a battle and the Spectrobe revival system in action.
EA is to further bolster its already healthy support for Nintendo platforms, with Will Wright's innovative PC game, Spore, now confirmed for DS.
Spore lets you create your own alien life form and set it loose to explore an epic-sized virtual universe, spreading the species to new worlds in an incredibly ambitious mish-mash of different gameplays styles. It's one of the most innovative and highly anticipated games coming to PC, an case you're not in with that crowd.
EA remains tight-lipped on actual gameplay details for the DS game, leaving us curious as to how such a large and ambitious title will work on the technically limited handheld.
The new Wii Sims game - now known as My Sims - is also on its way to the DS, along with EA's previously announced Sim City and Theme Park. EA Japan is clearly very busy indeed.
Chairman and CEO of Electronic Arts, Larry Probst, who confirmed the games during a financial earnings presentation yesterday, expressed his approval of Nintendo's strategy.
"It seems as if it is expanding the overall market, and users who purchase software, and we think thats a good thing", he said.
He goes on to say: "Both Microsoft and Nintendo are positioned to gain some share, but we think Sony will continue to be strong...We will be provocatively supporting all of them", reaffirming EA's cross-platform support.
Electronic Arts has revealed record revenues of US $1.281 billion (EUR 983 million) for the Christmas period, driven by key franchises that dominated the charts in North America and Europe.
Need for Speed Carbon, FIFA 07, The Sims 2 Pets and Madden NFL all sold over three million units each, helping the third-party publisher beat analyst estimates and prompting renewed interest in company shares, which climbed over US $2 to US $52.80.
FIFA 07 was EA's biggest seller in Europe, with six million copies sold across the globe since launch. The Sims 2 has now shifted 10 million units, accompanied by 5 million copies of The Sims 2 Pets.
Need for Speed Carbon sold over eight million copies in North America and Europe during the period, while Madden NFL 07 has sold the same amount since launch.
Next-generation products accounted for 32 per cent revenue share in North America, with EA the number one publisher on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC and PSP in North America and Europe.
"We are pleased with the performance of our products on next-generation consoles," commented Larry Probst, CEO of EA.
"In the year ahead, we plan to build on our leadership position on both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, and to significantly increase support for the Nintendo platforms."
Profits were down 38 per cent to US $160 million (EUR 122.8m), down from the previous year results of US $259 million (EUR 198.9m). North America was the strongest performing region, with net revenues up three per cent to US $637 million (EUR 489.2m), while Europe saw a rise in revenue of one per cent to US 583 million (EUR 447.7m).
Revenues in Asia were down 19 per cent to US $61 million (EUR 46.8m), and currency exchange rates impacted revenue by US $33 million (EUR 25.3m).
Rockstar has proven that Western developed titles do have an audience in Japan, with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas making its debut at number one in the regional charts.
Published by Capcom in Japan, the PlayStation 2 title has sold over 227,000 units on the first week of release.
While last week saw the debut of Microsoft's Gears of War in the top ten, this week the game is entirely absent from the top fifty games in Japan.
Namco's The Idol Master is the only Xbox 360 title in the top twenty, while From Software's Enchanted Arms is the only PS3 game in the top fifty, at number 29.
The Nintendo DS continues to enjoy healthy sales in the region, shifting over 194,600 units in the past week, with Wii sales reaching over 83,750.
Sony has sold 35,700 PSP units in the past seven days, with the PlayStation 2 outselling the PlayStation 3, with 20,995 and 19,996 units, respectively. The Xbox 360 sold just over 7360 units.
Simon over on Game Set Watch points out that New York-based game importer NCSX is raving about DS guitar "game" Utaeru DS Guitar M-06
With 16 chords to use at any time from a library of 120, users may strum out a song relatively easily if you're familiar with basic guitar playing. We were able to play the Main Riff I for "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman and "Torn" from Natalie Imbruglia this morning by following guitar tabs found on the web. In addition to its function as a guitar, the software also includes a library of 20 songs and a listening-then-repeating exercise."
"On the touch screen, a thick crop of vertical lines represent the guitar string. It's pasted against a black background so that the focus is the line itself. To play, strum the line with your touch pen or finger and you'll hear a twang. Change chords with the D-pad by moving it in the direction of the chords shown on the top screen and the tone of the twang changes every time you move the D-pad to another chord."
I'm not so sure about changing chords with the D-pad, but I'm loving the rest of this.
It's absolutely ridiculous to think that a person living in Japan still has to go through the following if he wants to get his hands on a stinkin' Nintendo DS lite — that's over 2 years after the initial DS launch, and close to a year for the DS lite — but this is what I had to go through today in order to score a Crystal White Nintendo DS lite (and let it be known that I have an original DS, which I got at launch).
My wife had heard that you needed to call the stores to find out if they were getting some stock, and then rush there to wait in line, and she'd also been told by some friends that Bic Camera got their shipments in on Friday (they also sometimes get some on Mondays and Wednesdays, but Friday are for the big orders). So she called this morning, and sure enough, they had gotten a shipment, but wouldn't reveal when they would go on sale, or where they would make people line up. The wife had gone through the same thing 2 weeks ago — when she scored a pink DS lite — so she told me to head there around noon, and to try and find out what would be happening.
I got there at 12, asked some staff behind the counter in the games section (insisting I had called, because they were just about to say that they didn't know anything before that — the filthy liars), and was told that I had to "hang out" for a while, as they didn't know when they were going to go on sale. Maybe 40 minutes later, two staff with bright green Bic vests ran out from behind the counter with signs that said that DS lites were about to go on sale, and then started forming a line along the staircases (the game section at the main Bic Camera store in Ikebukuro is on the 3rd floor). I was the fifth in line — some guys got there quicker than me — and a few minutes later they started handing out tickets for the color you wanted (I was the first to ask for a Crystal White). Then, 10 minutes later, they started guiding us to the sales counter, and... DS lite GET!
Polish developer group Nibris known, among others, for planning to release Sadness – a gothic horror for Nintendo Wii console, announces the game formerly known as the Raid over the river has a new name – ROTR.
Most important facts about the game:
- 6 campaigns, each with several missions
- 6 different vehicles to be driven in 6 different time dimensions
- very extensive weaponry
- fuel and ammunition management requiring strategic approach to missions, defending transhipment bases
- cooperation and synchronisation of actions with other units
- extensive, full of action, multi-thread scenario putting the player in an intrigue spanning hundreds of dimensions
- 3D graphics on both screens
- set of dodging and special attacks taking advantage of special features of NDS
- hidden missions, vehicles, bonuses enabled in the course of playing
- extensive multiplayer mode allowing to enjoy the game longer
The game is planned to be exclusively for the Nintendo DS console.
With news that Nintendo was going to directly stake a claim in the bolstering Korean games market, many in that market were happy to hear that the company with a knack for creating wonderful and original games would be arriving, saving them from horrible importing fees and lackluster customer service. Now that Nintendo has arrived and launched their DS Lite system, along with Brain Training, some are finding the same technical flaws that plagued the game in America and Japan have come to Korea.
At least, one reporter for the Korea Times has discovered such, claiming that both the voice recognition exercises, as well as the written ones, are failing to register the proper data. Hmm, sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Takara Tomy released a new set of tiny Nintendo DS game carrying cases with art from New Super Mario Brothers. Each one costs 200 yen ($1.61), but you don’t get to pick which one you get. They’re gashapon toys, so you could get the awesome cover art with Mario and Luigi or get stuck with the ugly brick. Next month Takara Tomy has a bunch of Pokemon DS game carrying cases
PokéSensei has released a new MMorpg for the Nintendo DS:
Well, I've been working on a Pokémon MMORPG server for awhile now. And even though its not entirely complete. I've started working on a Nintendo DS client to it using PAlib.
My next step is to learn how to properly read the recv buffer for updates, and parse it for line breaks and do stuff with the data. But for right now, the Working Demo will output a background, play a sound [looping], ask for your username and password (even though it doesn't login yet) and then connect to wifi, the server, and initiate the PoKéQuesT Connection.
Tell me what you think, and if you have any ideas or helpful information, please let me know!
If you're still working your way through Final Fantasy XII on the PlayStation 2, you'd better get cracking. That title's successor is coming closer than expected, as Square Enix announced today a Japanese release date of 4/26 for Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings on the DS. Pricing is set for the standard 4,800 yen DS software price.
Revenant Wings follows the events of Final Fantasy XII, showing Vann and Panello as air pirates. The game is fully 2D, but makes use of some FFXII gameplay systems, like the Gambit AI system.
Via Ketchup site comes a new MSX Emulator for the Nintendo DS:
Heres the translated info:
PenkoDS?
PenkoDS is an emulator MSX2 for Nintendo DS. It is based on fmsx of Marat Fayzullin.
The speed of emulation is currently 75% on average (either about 30 to 40% faster than the port fmsx of nyagosu of which I took again the management of the keyboard and the joystick).
Among the functionalities, one finds:
- A resize mode to manage the various resolutions of the MSX.
- Support DLDI
- Support of the roms and the discs
- Management of the sound (with the same problems as under CrocoDS)
Level use, it is enough for you to copy the Romanian one in the root or the /roms/msx repertory of your chart flash, patcher the nds with patchor DLDI and of launching this homebrew from your Nintendo DS
To test with the version msx bombjack of Kralizec or with one of the releases of the MSXDEV' 06.
One of the large bugs current is the impossibility of rebooter after the insertion of a disc MSX. (On the other hand, not of problem of reboot with the roms). This version is a version alpha, therefore I await all your remarks in order to improve it.
Heres whats new in this new release:
2nd version alpha. I mainly worked on the speed of emulation. The 100% are atteinds in many plays. Some bugs were corrected such as the management of the transparency in mode 2, the redundancy of the files in the selector of files,… the support of DLDI should be better. The sound too.
Paradox writes in with a link to an MSNBC article that shouldn't be too surprising for anyone: the real winners of the console war are the DS and the PS2. Boasting numbers unmatchable by the johnny-come-lately next-gen consoles, the PS2 and Nintendo DS each sold about 1.5 Million units last December. Article author Kristin Kalning points out the reality: given the high quality of gaming in general nowadays, the low prices and rich libraries of these 'venerable' systems will see them in circulation for some time to come. Given the success of last-gen consoles, what are your plans regarding gaming systems? Are you holding out for price drops, or considering buying one of the older systems now that they're considerably less expensive?
Source: A report on trade site Gamasutra, citing a THQ quarterly conference call as its source.
What we heard: There were a lot of interesting tidbits coming out of THQ's quarterly conference call this morning. The company confirmed that it would be making WWE games on the Wii and DS in addition to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable. It talked about the cost of porting a PS3 game to the Xbox 360. It admitted it was planning its release schedule around Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV so as not to go head-to-head with those games for the same audience. It mentioned for the first time the actual name of its announced Stuntman sequel: Stuntman Ignition.
And according to Gamasutra, it also confirmed that it was going to release a new Red Faction game in its next fiscal year (April 2007 through March 2008 for those keeping track). Such a move would certainly be in keeping with the company's plan to increase the amount of revenue derived from intellectual properties it already owns, as opposed to pricey licenses like SpongeBob and WWE. THQ CEO Brian Farrell even told analysts in the call, "Our fiscal 2008 growth will be driven primarily by increased sales of proven owned intellectual properties, a cornerstone of our strategy."
Farrell also talked about original franchises in the company's longer-term plans.
"When you think about fiscal 2009 and beyond, there are three important takeaways we would like to leave you with," Farrell told analysts. "One, THQ has established six owned franchises which have reached the million-unit mark and our pipeline is growing. Two, our long-term license franchises, the WWE, Pixar, and Nickelodeon, have each shipped 30 million units. And three, we are exploiting new revenue opportunities such as microtransactions and in-game advertising and we continue to expand our global footprint."
After Farrell had wrapped up the presentation portion of the call, the lines were opened for analysts to ask questions. A Merrill Lynch analyst asked Farrell to "list out the six franchise brands you referred to." Farrell responded by mentioning Saints Row, Stuntman, Juiced, Destroy All Humans!, MX, "and my favorite, Red Faction."
Clearly THQ has not forgotten Red Faction. And with its increased emphasis on original IPs, a return to the series is not outside of the realm of possibility. However, nowhere in the call did the publisher actually say that it was developing games for all of its six established franchises, nor did anyone confirm there was a new Red Faction game in development.
The official story: A THQ representative chose not to comment, but referred us to a transcript of the conference call.
Once known as the driving force behind the TurboGrafx-16, Hudson Entertainment has been enjoying a higher profile in the US of late with the aid of some larger companies. Nintendo has been releasing its old TG-16 games on the Virtual Console, and Konami today announced that it would be bringing a trio of new Hudson titles for Nintendo platforms to the US.
This spring, Konami plans to release Wing Island and Kororinpa Marble Mania for the Wii, as well as Honeycomb Beat for the DS. Already confirmed for release in Europe, Kororinpa requires players to tilt the Wii Remote in order to navigate marbles through more than 40 mazes in single-player, or race to a finish line while collecting crystals in head-to-head multiplayer action.
Wing Island is another inhabitant of the European Wii's first-quarter release schedule. As a young bird who flies planes for a living, players will have to show their proficiency at a number of tasks, from guiding a group of planes in formation to fighting fires and dusting crops. Over the course of 25 missions, players earn money to upgrade their aircraft, and will be given the opportunity to compete against one another in minigames meant to test piloting skills.
For portable players, Konami is preparing Honeycomb Beat, a DS puzzle game in which players touch hexagons on the screen in order to flip them and change both their color and the color of any adjacent hexagons. Using that gameplay mechanic, the game challenges players to clear puzzles by creating specific patterns on the game board or to clear rapidly rising lines by making all the hexagons on them the same color. In addition to more than 200 puzzles, Honeycomb Beat will include a number of unlockable customization features that let players change the game's colors, background images, and music.
Traditionally, THQ hasn't been shy about spreading its WWE-licensed games around to different platforms. The company has made games based on the professional wrestling company's in-ring offerings for the PlayStation 2, the N-Gage, and everything in between.
However, 2006 was a fairly light year for the company's WWE license because its only major offering was WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007 for the PS2, PlayStation Portable, and Xbox 360. A PlayStation 3 version had been announced but was later canceled because THQ said the series would debut on Sony's next-generation system in late '07.
The PS3 isn't the only system looking forward to its first WWE game because THQ confirmed plans to step into the ring on the Wii and DS. In an investor conference call, the publisher said it would be releasing WWE products on Nintendo's latest systems sometime in its next fiscal year, which runs from April 2007 through March 2008.
There was no indication if the Nintendo games would fall under the SmackDown! vs. RAW banner, or if they would be separate series, as was done with WWE titles on the GameCube and Game Boy Advance.
Essentially a Mini Me for your DS Lite, this Mini-DS holder holds your precious DS games so they don't slip out of your pocket when you're leaning over to snap your upskirt pics.
As cute as having a little DS is, the fact that it can only hold two DS games makes this kinda iffy. However, if one of those games is the DS-Xtreme DS Media Enhancer, then you've got no problems. Plus, it's only $7.90.
The latest hardware sales are in and most consoles are still in decline, the sales figures for the PS3 seem extremely low. DS Lite and Wii are miles infront still:
- DS Lite: 194,526
- Wii: 83,754
- PSP: 35,700
- PS2: 20,995
- PS3: 19,996
- Xbox 360: 7,365
- Game Boy Micro: 1,177
- GBA SP: 1,023
- Gamecube: 347
- DS Phat: 82
- GBA: 34
At its Gamers' Day event yesterday, Konami announced the development of the virtual pet title, GoPets. While the game was shockingly absent from the playable demos on the show floor, we were given a brief preview glimpse of the game during Konami's video reel.
In GoPets, players will create, raise, and train their own virtual dog or cat. Afterwards, players will be able to take these pets online through the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection in order to meet up with other GoPets owners. The twist to this that Konami announced was that GoPets would be the first game to offer online compatibility with its PC iteration.
While we don't have a whole lot more information on the game at this point, we do know that it should be heading our way sometime in 2007.
As the platform of choice for all the Megamen and Pokemons out there, the DS has no shortage of adventure games with anime-style characters, creatures, cards, and things to collect. It's reasonable that you might have skipped right past Spectrobes when look at the list of upcoming DS releases (it's coming out in March, by the way). Well we're here to suggest that you take another look.
Spectrobes appears to be a special game for Buena Vista Games. In addition to being the first title out of the studio to carry the Walt Disney label on its packaging, it's also the first title that the division has produced on its own. And, as producer Kintaro Hisai shared with us when we visited Japan to sample a final version of the game, it's also the first BVG game to feature an all original cast of characters.
Later this year Konami will release its first classic arcade compilation for the Nintendo DS: Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits. This is in no way the first time Konami's created a collection of its old-school arcade games on a handheld -- the Game Boy Advance has a fair share of remade old-school titles from Konami. But where programmers recreated the experience on the GBA platform by reprogramming each game, the developers of the DS collection pull off perfect emulation on the dual-screen handheld, and it allows for the team to pull off some really awesome features that true hardcore arcade collectors will love.
First of all, you get 15 Konami games of various levels of "classic" status. Games like Contra, Circus Charlie, Time Pilot, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Gradius and Track & Field are well worth the price of admission. But you'll also get little-remembered games like Road Fighter, Shao-Lin's Road, and Rainbow Bell (a game that's featured in the better-known Parodius series). Other games include Roc'n Rope, Scramble, Horror Maze, Basketball, and Pooyan. Each game played exactly as they originally did in the arcades, which shows the strength of the programmers' emulation abilities.
Each game plays on one screen, with the other display showing off the arcade artwork's "how to play" imagery -- you can swap the two screens in the configuration menu, but since the touch screen is used for menu functions it's best keeping it this way. Because the DS screens offer less pixel resolution than many of the arcade games' resolutions, there will be some pixelated gaps in the display -- you can turn on filtering to make it look a little nicer, but it'll never look quite as sharp as the original arcade titles. Many Konami games utilized the "tall" vertical orientation, and you can definitely recreate this by rotating the image on the screen and play the DS tipped 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise. This function can be changed on the fly via an easy to use touch-screen interface.
It's quite possibly the most ambitious classic arcade game compilation simply due to one factor: the ability to tweak the settings exactly as arcade operators did back when the games were originally available. Each game has a visual representation of both the title's original motherboard as well as the dip switches -- dip switches were how arcade operators manually adjusted elements such as how many lives a player earned on a quarter, how many points a game required before they earned an additional life or free game. Using the DS system's touch screen, players adjust these settings by sliding the dip switches on or off in relation to the specific setting listed on the upper screen. It's a real down-and-dirty way of changing things within the game, but for arcade purists this is absolutely a way cool way of doing it. It shows that the development team really loved and appreciated the games in their original arcade configuration.
Also for the arcade purists is the addition of a library where you can check out all sorts of artwork and detailed information related to all the games in the package. You can zoom in and out of the scanned pamphlets to check out all of the wonderful typos that made it into the original print.
Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits might not support the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, but multiplayer is a huge focus for this product. Not only can you wirelessly transmit a copy of the game to any DS and play competitively, you can also record a high-score earning run and transmit that "replay" to other systems so your buddies can see just how you pulled off that record.
Fifteen games isn't anywhere close to the library of old-school games within Konami's line-up. We're still missing awesome classics like Gyruss, Lifeforce Double Dribble, Blades of Steel...and yes, Frogger. So if this game sells well, it wouldn't hurt to expect a Volume II in the future.
Backbone Entertainment's been spoiling PSP owners. Not only did the development studio kick off the system's launch with its original IP Death Jr., but it also gave the handheld a sequel late last year. The Nintendo DS version took a backseat to the PSP sequel -- the dual-screen game made a brief, behind-closed-doors appearance at the Electronic Entertainment Expo last summer, but it was so early that it was nearly unplayable...and almost impossible to gauge the direction Backbone's Vancouver team was taking with the project.
At last night's corporate event in San Francisco, Konami showed off a close-to-finished version of Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom. The game ran well and showed off a hybrid 3D action game with tons of 2D platforming elements that put heavy emphasis on touch screen control.
So, in the Nintendo DS game, Death Jr., the son of the Grim Reaper, is still in high school, and now has to deal with the horrors of a science fair gone completely bonkers. Players take control of both Death Jr. and his friend Pandora in a very Lost Vikings sort of way, having them work together in order to fix all the evil that's run amok through the school hallways.
We only got a chance to tinker with the early portions of Death Jr. on the DS, which included a whole lot of tutorial that showed off the game's touch screen control. Using the D-pad, players maneuver Death Jr. in the 3D world, and attack enemies simply by tapping on the touch screen with the stylus. There's a combo system in place that requires double tapping on the D-pad or stroking the touch screen in different fashions...a technique which will clearly come handy later in the game when more and stronger enemies enter the fray.
At some portions of the game the camera will swoop in tight for a side-view of the action, and the controls change somewhat to give players a bit more of an old-school platform-style design. Because the game focuses on a control that requires the D-pad in one hand and the stylus in the other, jumping is handled by the shoulder button.
The game clearly isn't keeping up with the visuals pulled off on the PlayStation Portable, but considering the horsepower under each systems' hoods it's not surprising that the DS game doesn't look quite as good. But even with its limitations Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom is no slouch in the graphics territory. The game plays relatively fast and smooth with some nice detail in the environments. The cutscenes, detailed but still frames, show off the game's weird and bizarre art style.
The final product, due this spring, will feature wireless two player support for some of the mini-games that you'll encounter in the package.
Last night, Konami held its annual Winter Gaming Event in San Francisco, and amidst the maelstrom of bright lights and booze, we managed to find a demo station running the final retail version of Lunar Knights. Previously, we had only been able to go through demo levels, so we were pretty excited to dig our teeth into the vampire slaying adventure. The first DS game from Kojima Productions and the spiritual successor to Boktai Lunar Knights certianly has a lot to live up to.
The game starts off (like so many games do these days) with a lengthy cut scene involving random story elements that were completely unintelligible in the context of a gaming event like this. Apparently, the game's malevolent vampires are plotting to blot out the sun with a device called paraSOL, a mechanism designed to control the weather. Of course, this would give the bloodsucking monsters free reign to roam the earth and gorge themselves on the blood of any mortals unlucky enough to get in the way.
During the video reel at Konami's event on Thursday night, we were intrigued by the few glimpses shown of the new aerial combat game heading to the DS, Time Ace. The game has the protagonist piloting different planes in an attempt to travel through time and stop a maniacal adversary. Needless to say, the brief introduction of the game left us itching to get our hands on it as soon as the videos ended and the demo stations were brought in.
Time Ace starts off with some stylized cut scenes explaining the game's back story. Apparently, way back in 1914, a scientist named Dr. Clock (very clever, Konami) invented a time machine and traveled to the future to see what was in store for mankind. When he got there and learned of the senseless battles of World War I, he decided to use his time machine to prevent the war from ever occurring. Unfortunately for our hero, nothing can ever be easy; Dr. Clock's assistant, Dr. Scythe, happens to have his own evil machinations in place regarding the time machine. Unbeknownst to Dr. Clock, Dr. Scythe jumped into the future on a stolen time machine in an attempt to secure a massive stockpile of powerful weapons (obviously a misguided bid at world domination). Ever the forward thinker, Dr. Clock foresaw this contingency and kept a backup time machine awaiting just such an occurance. The game begins as Dr. Clock takes off in his makeshift biplane/time machine fast in pursuit of Dr. Scythe.
We've been promised more DS content in 2007 by Nintendo, and it seems as though the rush is already underway, with Konami showing nearly a dozen titles at its Gamers' Day event alone. As the newest addicting touch-puzzler for DS, Hudson's Honeycomb Beat is a mix of simple innovation and basic touch screen usage. In what could best be described as a mix between Tetris and Othello, the game's focus centers around a combination of hexagonal tiles that make up a two-colored honeycomb. With the touch of the bottom screen, players can switch any tile on the grid from one color to the other, with th
