Super Robot Taisen Prequel Announced
Written by from on March 10th, 2010 | 0 CommentsOver in Japan this week, Namco Bandai Games took the veils off Masou Kishin: The Lord of Elemental , the latest game in their sprawling Super Robot Taisen series of anime-inspired robot sims. The game is due out for the Nintendo DS May 27 in Japan for the retail price of 6090 yen. The Lord of Elemental is more than just another SRT Original Generation title — it’s the one that kicked off the whole series, sort of. Originally released in 1996 for the Super NES in Japan, the game marks the debut of hot-blooded robot pilot Masaki Ando and his elementally-powered craft Cybaster, popular enough that they starred in a 26-episode TV anime in 1999. Once a normal Japanese kid, Masaki gets his mecha career kick-started in this game when he’s summoned to La Gias, a world housed under the Earth’s crust, and asked to pilot one of the four elemental robots built by the kingdom of Languran to stave off a prophesied disaster. “We’ve never dug into the backbone of Masaki and Cybaster, even though they both appear regularly in the SRTOG series,” producer Takanobu Terada told Famitsu magazine this week. “The Lord of Elemental answers the question of where those characters came from.”
Final Fantasy XIII Ships 5 Million Copies Worldwide
Written by from on March 10th, 2010 | 0 CommentsSquare Enix has shipped over five million units of Final Fantasy XIII globally, according to a report from Adriasang. This includes three months of availability in Japan, during which the company apparently shipped about two million units. The other three million were sent out this week for the North American and European releases. Square also boasted that the Final Fantasy series as a whole has shipped over 96 million units. Of course, we should note that this is units shipped , not sold. We won’t really know the sales numbers until next month’s NPD data comes in. But it’s fair to assume Square will be putting at least a few million units into the U.S. retail chains during the month of March, and the Final Fantasy name should have no problem selling most of them. Check out our review and details from the launch party for the anticipated RPG.
Five Reasons Why Mafia II is The Godfather Game We Should Have Gotten
Written by from on March 10th, 2010 | 0 CommentsThe open world crime simulation genre (if you can even call that a genre) has always been the most logical one to use to bring the 1940s and 50s world of organized crime seen in The Godfather to life in videogames. Neither of EA’s actual existing games based on Mario Puzo’s epic story ended up being that great though for a number of reasons. In 2002, even before those games had been released, Illusion Softworks was able to craft a rich period piece that evoked memories of some of the best mafia-based movies ever made called, appropriately enough, Mafia . This year, 2K Czech (the renamed Illusion Softworks) aims to deliver its second entry in the series, Mafia II , set for release in Q4. After a hands-on session with the upcoming game where I got to play through an entire mission, I get the idea that Mafia II is going to be the Godfather/Goodfellas/Bugsy game I?ve wanted all along, and here are the reasons why.
All about Japan’s Anti-Violence Game Rating System
Written by from on March 10th, 2010 | 0 CommentsIn Japan, the equivalent of the ESRB is the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO), the industry outfit responsible for giving content ratings to every console game released in the country. CERO rates based on a scale of five letters: A (all ages), B (ages 12 and up), C (ages 15 and up), D (ages 17 and up), and Z (ages 18 and up only ). That “only” attached to the Z rating has been the source of consternation for many a gamer in Japan. Unlike the ESRB’s “Adults Only” rating, CERO’s Z seems to be applied almost exclusively based on violence standards — if there’s too much blood, you’re out. What’s worse, while a Z on the box isn’t as bad as an AO rating in America (or being refused classification at all in Australia, effectively banning it from shelves), it essentially means that the game cannot be advertised in any public manner within Japan. The situation came to a head recently when Sony’s God of War III was given a Z, even though the first two games both got D ratings in Japan. Game-store owners were, to say the least, miffed. “[The Z rating] basically means I can engage in no practical advertising,” one Tokyo-based store owner blogged last month. “There are no TV ads, no videos playing in the store. The best I can do is put up posters and flyers, but no matter how great the game is, you can’t show what makes it fun with still images. Capcom [the publisher of GOW 1 and 2 in Japan] spent all this time building up the brand, and now it’s all ruined!”
Japan Review Check: Yakuza 4, Bad Company 2
Written by from on March 10th, 2010 | 0 CommentsA recap of the best games due to hit Japanese shelves next week, courtesy of Famitsu magazine’s review pages: – Yakuza 4 (9/10/10/9, 38 points): We haven’t gotten Yakuza 3 quite yet, but the sequel’s already out in Japan, and it’s apparently a scorcher. Everybody loved the new game’s multi-viewpoint storyline to bits. “The heroes are packed with personality,” one wrote. “Each one has different moves, and it’s fun to try exercising all of them during the fights. The story has tons of exciting developments for all four characters, and the way they all tie in together in the final chapter is incredibly hot.” Another reviewer called it a shame that series hero Kazuma Kiryu “doesn’t get much face time,” but “getting the story from four perspectives is fresh and lets you experience the town of Kamurocho in a whole new way.”
Blaze Union Scorches Japanese PSPs
Written by from on March 10th, 2010 | 0 CommentsIf The Lord of Elemental wasn’t enough “strategy RPG prequel coming out May 27 in Japan” excitement for you, your prayers have been answered — also hitting PSP shelves that day is Blaze Union , a brand new Sting-developed tactical RPG that, story-wise, is a prequel to GBA and PSP hit Yggdra Union . Set in the Bronquian Empire before Yggdra came along and unified it for herself, Blaze Union’s story is centered around the Blaze Knight Corps, a rogue army fighting against the land’s corrupt emperor. You control Garlot, leader of the corps, on a series of campaigns against the evil empire, the story branching this way or that depending on your decisions. Like with Yggdra, Blaze’s battles are a mix of strategy-RPG and card action. Before a battle scene begins, you’re tasked with selecting which units and “tactical cards” to send out to the field. The subsequent fighting proceeds a bit like a sword-and-sorcery Advance Wars , with you forming multi-unit Unions to beef up your position and using special charged skills to wipe out enemy advances.
Power Gig Lets You Start a Videogame Band with Real Instruments
Written by from on March 10th, 2010 | 0 CommentsEven if you love the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games, you can’t deny that the genre has plateaued. The minor tweaks and improvements those games have gotten over the last few years haven’t really introduced anything “new,” and even at their best, the plastic guitars are a long way from imitating the real thing. That’s where Seven45 Studios comes in; its upcoming game, Power Gig: Rise of the SixString , lets you pick up a real guitar and strum along in a game that’s partly about learning how to play an actual instrument, but is still geared to be just as accessible and enjoyable to anyone who prefers to jam along with their favorite bands. Seven45 Studios is the publisher, developer, and hardware manufacturer, for its publishing debut — an ambitious project from a newcomer. But the company is filling an obvious gap in rhythm games: putting real instruments into music games. The note tracks in Rock Band and Guitar Hero work best when they make you feel like you’re imitating an actual guitar; Power Gig is just providing the next logical step by letting you play with an actual guitar . Like its peers, the full band bundle is slated to come with a guitar, drum set, and mic (sorry, no bass), but when a few representatives from Seven45 came by the office recently, the only thing they were showing off was the guitar gameplay.
NBC Announces Battlestar Galactica MMO
Written by from on March 10th, 2010 | 0 CommentsBattlestar Galactica is over, but that doesn’t mean NBC is done cashing in. They’re teaming up with Bigpoint to launching Battlestar Galactica Online , a browser-based massively multiplayer game set in the popular universe. “Battlestar Galactica is a supremely gameable intellectual property, with compelling character classes, a fantastic array of ships and weaponry, multiple worlds, and a dramatic storyline,” said vice president and general manager of digital platforms for Universal Partnerships & Licensing Bill Kispert. “We are excited to work with Bigpoint – and our partners at Universal Cable Productions and Syfy – to bring an epic, accessible, and ‘always on’ BSG experience to fans of the franchise and online gamers alike.”
Four Ways Civilization V Justifies Its Existence
Written by from on March 10th, 2010 | 0 CommentsYou don’t mess with Civilization . If you aren’t a Civ fanatic already, then you should know that Civilization is a veritable cornerstone of PC gaming; it’s a franchise that defines the turn-based strategic experience, that exemplifies the “intricate systems interacting with each other to produce addictive gameplay” motif, that invented the “just one more turn” phrase within PC gamers’ minds, and is often named the best game in PC history. Civilization titles are rare — the “okay, this is pretty much the best one, there’s no way to do but down after this” game that is Civilization IV came out way back in 2005. So it’s no small feat for Firaxis to be making Civilization V . Fact is, with a series this storied and iconic, the developers can’t simply get away with making it look prettier and making the number bigger. They have to make a game that makes the five year wait worth it, especially after its near-perfect predecessor. So what will Civ V do? From a recent, 20-minute demonstration, here are four major changes that V is making to justify its existence.
True Crime: What Happens When A Developer Wants To Make The Departed Into A Game
Written by from on March 10th, 2010 | 0 CommentsThere’s a pretty bizarre moment in the original True Crime: Streets of LA where it transforms from an expected hip-hop laden urban crime game into a poor knockoff of Big Trouble In Little China. Instead of remaining consistent, the game decided to stop having you take on thugs, and started having you fight zombies, dragons, and flying skulls. Well, I can safely say that even though I’ve only seen a small snippet of the upcoming (and subtitle-less) True Crime , from the way executive producer Stephen van der Mescht describes it, there won’t be a crazy “why did I go from shooting guys to punching dragons?” moment in this next installment. In fact, True Crime is a complete reboot. Not only is it an entirely new game and locale (not an unfamiliar thing, since the previous two games changed main characters and switched from Los Angeles to New York), but an entirely different developer, United Front Games (the studio behind the upcoming