Oh, Dragon Quest, how they love you.  In Japan, anyway.  With the recent release of Dragon Quest IX for DS, however, Nintendo hopes to change that.  Through a careful combination of old and new, Nintendo, Square Enix, and Level-5 hope to make the West crazy for (or at least more familiar with) the iconic, “smiling slime” RPG.  Still, as gamers, we all know that while avoiding innovation can make a franchise feel stale, changing things up too much can ruin the core experience (just ask Sonic).  So has this group of developers and publishers succeeded in crafting something that can be successful outside of Japan?  An experience not just for the die-hard few, but something perfectly palatable for a wide-range of Western gamers?

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Those of you with an iPhone may be familiar with the quirky title known as Angry Birds (and mentioned briefly in our last podcast), in which you play as some pissed off pigeons trying to save their eggs from a bunch of pigs.  The highly successful title will be coming to PS3, PSP, and DS soon, according to Chillingo Co-Founder John Wee, although details were scarce at this time.  My guess would see this as a possible “minis” title on PSN and DSiware on DS, most likely for more than the current $0.99 App Store price tag.  However, it’s possible that the console versions will have more levels or other bonus features to entice gamers to purchase the game (perhaps some for the second time).

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Layton fans have a spot of good news today: apparently the good professor has the ability to turn back time, as his upcoming game, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future will be arriving in North America a week earlier than originally announced, September 12, 2010. (more…)

After more than 20 years, everyone’s favorite moonwalker (may he Rest in Peace)  is finally getting another video game made for him. Ubisoft’s Michael Jackson game, simply titled Michael Jackson: The Experience, is going to be developed for the PSP, DS, Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3. According to Ubisoft, The Experience will utilize the Wii MotionPlus, Kinect, and Move. Get ready to Beat It, Jackson fans.

The Wii version will be similar to Ubisoft’s Just Dance, while the Xbox 360 version is going to project 3D images of the player onto the screen (can we say Michael Jackson costumes?). Both the DS and PSP versions are said to be tap-based games. Not too much has been discussed about the PS3 version yet, but be sure that we will keep you updated as frequently as possible about The King of Pop’s latest video game appearance.

 

In the times before voice acting in video games, text reigned king. There were plenty of games before and even after this current generation of consoles that told their grand tales almost solely through the art of the written word. Before video games, in an era where digital art as we know it wasn’t yet an idea, otherworldly adventures were experienced through the medium (or tedium) of books. Now, Nintendo has merged these books with their portable gaming system in a game appreciatively titled 100 Classic Books.

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While wandering aimlessly around Capcom’s lush inner sanctum at E3, my eye happened to fall on a cute, little wolf portrait nestled near the back, behind all the flashy Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Dead Rising 2 showcases. It was for ÅŒkamiden. It’s been a few years since I played the Wii version of ÅŒkami where the art style, the mechanics, the Japanese lore-infused story were all perfect to me in their separate ways.  I’m sure I’ll eventually return to the delicate lines and thrumming stringed music of Okami on the Wii, but thankfully now I’ll have a choice of playing it on a smaller screen when ÅŒkamiden hits North American shores.

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Upon setting foot the first day of E3 in the massive South Hall, Natsume was the first appointment on my planner for the day. The Natsume booth was plenty easy to spot with the huge Harvest Moon farm animal display and the adorable statue and displays (see bottom picture!) set up for Natsume’s recently announced rhythm game Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove . With its cutesy gothic-lolita-during-Halloween style attached to it, this game is unbearably adorable, and sure to be addictive, to say the least.

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Remember that old awesome board game we used to call Chess back in the day? Yeah, that old game that’s been around for some-odd centuries or what-have-you. Or maybe you stuck to your guns in the simpler red and black checkers game, and that’s cool, too. But we wouldn’t want you to miss out on the upcoming Battle vs Chess, SouthPeak’s upcoming chess game using 3D models and beastly war ravaging pieces taking chess to a whole new level. It’s only going to be able for just about every platform ever except for that newfangled iPad doohickey, too.

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Those tricky Japanese almost slipped this one by us, calling it Estpolis: The Lands Cursed by the Gods in their homeland. This fall, when it’s released in North America, it will be called Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals and it’s a remake of 16-bit classic Lufia II: Rise of Sinistrals. Back in the day, I say as I hitch up my belt and put on my nostalgia hat, the Lufia games were some of the best RPGs you could play on the Super Nintendo. They were classic games with classic stories, and as gung-ho as I often am for remakes, this one looks drastically different enough to give me pause. But it’s a brief pause as even the mention of Maxim and company gives me the thrill of remembrance.

The game is being published by long-time industry veterans Natsume, who also put out the original Lufia II.  And yes, it’s for the DS. That much should be obvious any time we see an RPG remake announced. Check out these pretty screens and lovely trailer (the Japanese trailer as the new one yesterday was removed for some reason).

If you’ve ever played the original game, you can see just how drastically this one has changed.  It’s now an action RPG, and actually looks nothing like Lufia II.  Nevertheless, the gameplay and visuals look top notch, so I’m curious to see how this does.

With hype still building for Sonic 4, Sega has just announced Sonic Colors.  The new game is due out the later part of this year and will be available for the Wii and Nintendo DS.  But what is this Sonic Colors game all about?  Good question.

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Via the official Nintendo site today, hungry Fire Emblem fans were excited to see that another remake is in the works for the DS.  This one is a direct sequel to the first game, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, which was remade last year, and is one of those precious gems we Americans never got to play around with as it was a Japan-only release.  The second game in the series, and the first that ever ventured into 16-bit land on the Super Famicom, has the giant title of Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem: Hero of Light and Shadow.  My guess is they might shorten it for North American audiences.

Mystery of the Emblem has an odd history.  When it was released in 1994, it included a remake of the first game, Shadow Dragon.  The remake last year was a direct remake of the original Fire Emblem and not a remake of the remake released in 1994.  Chances are good this upcoming game will not have the first game with it like it did in 1994, but rather be just the “Book 2″ of that adventure.

If that’s not confusing enough, watch the video below.  It’s a trailer in Japanese and really offers nothing in the way of information at all.  But it’s pretty.

Unfortunately, no word yet on whether this will be a Japan only release, but given last year’s Fire Emblem, chances are good we’ll see it head this way.  Either way I’ll keep you informed because I’m a little nutty about Fire Emblem games!

With E3 fast approaching, and details about the mysterious new Nintendo handheld still scarce, this bit of news sheds just a little bit of curious light on the new platform. Apparently, Nintendo of Japan has trademarked the terms “3DS,” “3DSPlay,” and “3DSWare.”  This all seems to fit into line with the existing DSiWare, WiiWare, and so on.  But didn’t Nintendo recently denounce the system would be called the 3DS when it finally came out?  Perhaps this is just to protect the brand and prevent anyone else from releasing a 3DS named device.

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Dementium 2 had a fantastic marketing campaign set up at one time.  Six months ago, there were posters flying around the internet, creepy pictures, like the one on the cover of the box, piquing people’s interest, and plenty of hotlinking to one of the creepiest sites probably ever made for video game marketing purposes. Then it was delayed.  Then it was delayed again.   Hype died down for some reason, possibly as people learned that Dementium 2 was actually on the DS, a platform not particularly known for its horror collection of games.  And in fact it is that question that crops up when thinking about Dementium 2.  Can a horror game exist on a handheld system?  Can it do what horror games set out to do on a 2.5 inch screen?

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There’s been lots of speculations and renderings of what the new Pokémon Black & White starters will look like, but this scan from Japanese magazine CoroCoro seems to be the most legit.  While the dark silhouettes of the three were released a week or so ago, this may be the first official unveiling of the newcomers.

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We knew it would probably happen, but Capcom made the wedding plans official this weekend at their Captivate 2010 event in Hawaii that ÅŒkamiden would indeed come to Europe and North American some time in 2011.  As the gorgeous little trailer below will detail, ÅŒkamiden stars not Amaterasu, but instead a younger son god named Chibiterasu and is set many months after the initial game.  It is Chibiterasu’s job to restore yet more of the land with the trusty celestial brush and a few new companions.   Chibiterasu is a puppy and is adorable, and this game is going to be amazing just like the first one was.  It might even play better on the DS.  You heard it here first folks.  Check that trailer out.