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Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 4/14-4/20
Something caused a Phoenix Wright sales revival, and we suspect it was the Gyakuten Meets Orchestra concert (which was also a Gyakuten Kenji hype event). Both the first and second Gyakuten Saiban games for the DS ended up in the top thirty this week.Newcomer We're Fossil Diggers (a second-party effort by RED Entertainment that actually sounds really fun, at least to the dinosaur lovers in us) deserves all the glory, though. Debuting at third place, this unique piece of software did rather well for itself in its first week.Besides the same old games that have been showing up in the charts for the past few weeks, the other notable is Square-Enix's dull-sounding bookkeeping game. It seems like a rather niche title to end up in the top thirty, but who knows -- maybe a lot of Japanese folks are getting ready to take the Level 3 Bookkeeping exam. Or, maybe they just can't resist a game by the beloved Squeenix.To see all the placings and numbers for yourselves, just click on past the break.
We are First Impressions
Bokura wa Kaseki Horidaa (English name: We are Fossil Holders) doesn't launch in Japan until next week, but Siliconera got its hands on a copy early, and wrote about the experience of excavating one of the in-game fossils; apparently, it's a little more complex than casually chatting to an owl in a bow-tie.There's a range of tools and techniques required to successfully excavate fossils without damaging them, including an X-ray device (to detect what lies underground), a hammer (to break down rocks and soil), and a drill (to chisel away smaller pieces of earth). Blowing dust away (using the DS's microphone, a la Spectrobes) is also an important part of recovering pieces for your dinosaur army.Beware, however, for if greenish cracks appear on the fossil, that means that it's getting damaged, and could break. We'd recommend reading Siliconera's write-up, as it actually sounds like quite a tense (and delicate) process!
A brief dig unearths Kaseki Horidaa site
An official site has just appeared for Kaseki Horidaa, Red's dinosaur-based title in which players dig up fossils, assemble them to create a dinosaur army, and then send them out to fight with other dino armies. For the winners: ultimate victory! For the losers: uh, we presume they just perish and eventually become fossilized all over again. It's a vicious cycle. But we digress.There's plenty of screens and character art over at the official site, and also (more interestingly) some footage of the game, including a brief slice of action from the battles (here), and also a video showing an actual excavation in process, with the stylus being used to gently chip away at the dirt around a fierce-looking skull (here - scroll down and you'll see it). There's elements of both Spectrobes and Pokemon on display here, and that's no bad thing.[Via Go Nintendo]
Dig up fossils and enslave dinosaurs on your DS
Famitsu has a pretty interesting look at a new game for the DS. Developed by Red and published by Nintendo, Kaseki Horidaa looks like Pokemon on steroids. Instead of deceptively cute creatures that hide dangerous attacks, the game will feature blatantly scary dinos with unspeakable power. Unlike Pokemon, the game will allow players to compose a 3-dino team. Gaining a new dino comrade demands the player dig up fossils, as each ferocious beast is made up of 4 different parts. And digging up fossils isn't as simple as blowing away virtual dirt by blowing into your DS's microphone.There's a real sense of tension here, as players can just as easily destroy a fossil as liberate it from its earthy confines. But, with over 100 different types of dinosaurs in the game, breaking a fossil or two won't be too much cause for concern. And, based on what dinosaurs you make, they'll be adept at attack, defense or support.That's about all we could get from the Famitsu page (machine translation is being a royal pain with this, for some reason), so for some more eye candy, be sure to head on past the break to see screens. And keep an eye on DS Fanboy for more news on the game as it develops.
