Archive for the ‘Industry News’ Category

Nintendo’s E3 Press Conference Overview

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

Overall I was extremely disappointed…there really wasn’t anything announced for the Wii and DS that I need to get. Animal Crossing is cool and everything, but it’s not on the same level as a new Mario/Metroid/Zelda/etc. game.

3rd Party Games Wii

- Star Wars The Clone Wars - Use Wiimote like a light saber. Coming sometime in 2008.

- Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party - used balance board as a flying ironing board.

- Call of Duty World at War - use Wiimote like a gun or flamethrower. Lots of things blowing up. “Coming Soon”.

3rd Party Games DS

- Guitar Hero on Tour Decades - On the way this Fall. Share songs between games.

- Spore Creatures - Different then the Spore. Just basically looks like the creature creator, can share creatures with others.

- Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars - Coming to DS this winter. Custom game engine, same GTA gameplay.

First party DS

- Pokemon Rangers Shadows of Almia (sp?) - No real details.

First party Wii

- WiiSports Resort - Uses Wii MotionPlus. Packaged with WiiSports Resort, along with extended sleeve. Knows where your arm is in space. Showed throwing a Frisbee, riding a jet ski and sword fighting. Sword fighting looked pretty cool.

- WiiMusic - Some guy playing drums and sweating a lot. Miyamoto playing a WiiMote like a saxophone. Playing at the same time. You don’t play notes, you don’t have to know how to play a real instrument. All you do is hold the WiiMote and move like your actually playing the instrument and the game does the rest. Playing a song from an F-Zero game. Played a variety of instruments. Drums, use Wii Balance Board. Can record a music video. 4 people playing the Mario song together, look stupid.

- Animal Crossing Town Folk - See here

Technology updates

- For the DS, they talked about using it to find your gate at an airport, didn’t say how exactly. DS can earn a spot in your kitchen, in November there is a game coming out that’s basically a cookbook. Didn’t catch the name.

- For the Wii, Wii MotionPlus. Renders movement better.

- WiiSpeak - Microphone for the Wii. See here

Animal Crossing Wii Announced

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

Animal Crossing Town Folk was officially announced today by Nintendo at E3. It will be out by the end of the year. Some other details announced:

  • You can go to town now and do a variety of things. There is a beauty salon, where you can put a Mii mask on your Animal Crossing character.
  • The game comes with a microphone, called WiiSpeak. You can now talk to your friends online. Looks like the microphone sits on top of the T.V., it’s not a headset.
  • Can go to other players towns, see how they decorate their houses, towns.

[ via E3 ]

Final Fantasy XIII Coming To Xbox 360

Monday, July 14th, 2008

Holy shit, this is great news. At the Microsoft E3 conference, it was officially announced by Square Enix president Yoichi Wada that Final Fantasy XIII is coming to the Xbox 360, and should be released alongside the PS3 version. That’s totally awesome…but I guess it sucks for Sony that’s it’s no longer exclusive.

Also, Star Ocean will be out Spring 2009, which is great. Also, the Last Remnant will be out on 360 first this holiday season.

[ via E3, IGN ]

There’s a trailer after the link…

(more…)

Captain Rainbow

Friday, July 11th, 2008

It looks weird, so I’m interested and it’s being developed by Skip Ltd., who made Giftpia, this weird Gamecube game that I imported and tried to play even though I know absolutely no Japanese whatsoever. It would have been cool, though, the premise of the game was you overslept for your coming of age ceremony so the mayor makes you pay 5 million bell because he’s so pissed. You should read about it, the game was really weird. Anyway, in Captain Rainbow you play as Nick, who can turn into Captain Rainbow. Captain Rainbow wields a yo-yo.

Square Enix E3 Lineup

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

Square Enix has a hell of a lot of games coming out…interestingly, Final Fantasy XIII isn’t on the list, which kind of sucks but at the same time is OK because I don’t own a PS3 yet. Regardless, there are still a ton of great games coming out, the Chrono Trigger remake should be cool, DRAGON QUEST: Chapters of the Chosen, Star Ocean: Second Evolution, The Last Remnant…I just hope they don’t lose focus with so much going on…

The complete list is after the link…

(more…)

Atlus Hints at Another Announcement June 9th

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

The Atlus homepage is now teasing yet another announcement on June 9th. The front page simply displays a large number of playing cards with the message “We’ll show you our hand.” This has obviously is lead people to believe the announcement will be for a card-based game, such as Yggdra Union for the PSP, Culdcept DS, Hudson’s Elemental Monsters (a turn-based card fighting game), or Dokapon Kingdom (a hybrid of an RPG and a board game). I honestly have no idea, I can’t even begin to guess. The trailer for Dokapon Kingdom looks pretty crazy, though

[via Atlus]

Bionic Commando Rearmed Soundtrack

Friday, May 30th, 2008

Bionic Commando Rearmed Soundtrack

Just in case you’re into awesome and radical video game soundtracks, the Bionic Commando Rearmed Soundtrack is up for sale on iTunes. I like “Power Plant”, the song sounds a lot more fun then I imagine a power plant to be. This game is going to be fucking awesome.

[via Bionic Commando Blog]

Get Darkrai At Toys R Us This Weekend

Friday, May 30th, 2008

Darkrai at Toys R Us This Weekend

That’s right, if you want this super special pokemon all you have to do is go to a Toys R Us with your DS from 12 to 4 PM any day this weekend and download it. Totally awesome!

Official Press Release | May 28, 2008

It’s a Pokémon player’s dream come true! Pokémon USA, Inc. is offering an opportunity to receive the Legendary Pokémon Darkrai, during a two-day event at Toys”R”Us stores nationwide from 12 noon - 4 pm. During this time, all Pokémon aficionados who bring their Pokémon Diamond or Pokémon Pearl Game Card, along with their Nintendo DS, to any Toys”R”Us store in the United States have a chance to add one of the most sought-after characters in the Pokémon Universe, Darkrai, to their game. Darkrai, best-known for lulling people to sleep and causing nightmares, is the star of the latest movie, Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai, now available on DVD, and is featured in the new Pokémon Trading Card Game Diamond & Pearl-Majestic Dawn.

Who: All Pokémon fans

What: Darkrai distribution for your Pokémon Diamond or Pokémon Pearl Game Card

When: May 31 and June 1, 12 noon - 4 pm

Where: Toys”R”Us stores nationwide

Atlus Hints at Announcement

Friday, May 30th, 2008

I receive email announcements from Atlus telling me all about the latest happenings and various other information about upcoming Atlus titles. Today, I receive this (click to view it at a higher resolution):

I have no idea what it means, I really can’t think what game this would be referring too, but it links here. So I guess we can expect some big (or not so big) announcement on June 3rd at around 10 AM PST.

I also received another Atlus email about a new production diary entry, basically behind the scenes information about what goes in to video game production (obviously). This one is about the naming of things in game, which I found to be pretty interesting. Basically, you can’t do a literal translation on enemy names are you get stuff like “Owner of the Malicious Glare.”

Skate 2 Trailer - We’re Dropping The Deuce

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

I think this is the worst game trailer I’ve ever seen in my life. I mean, why waste time dropping a deuce on us all?