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Freshly baked Champions Online screens expose environments
For a while we've been worried Champions Online was going to be all jungle and snow, as you can't help but worry about these things when you're looking forward to an MMO. That's all changed now that we've got new screens featuring environments with plenty of personality.Coming from a technical standpoint, these new screens are certainly pushing more visual power than in previous looks at the game. But what really makes them pop is the art direction and, more specifically, the color palette combined with a good dosage of visual fidelity. It's still an incomplete concoction of four-color inspired yet modern visuals, but so long as progress like this continues to occur, a visual concern is highly unlikely on our part.We would be remiss for not mentioning that the cityscape screenshot is probably overall the most impressive, though. It's a hopeful sign that Cryptic will be able to paint some awe-worthy vistas within their new superhero world.%Gallery-17946%
One Shots: Something in the water
The dark and twisting corridors of Moria are definitely not for the weak of heart. But today's One Shots sent in to us from Isndyl of The Old Timers Guild on the Gladden server in Lord of the Rings Online shows that Isndyl certainly isn't one of those overcautious souls. As Isndyl writes: After nearly a year long journey, I find the hidden entrance... Someone on the bank shouts 'get out of the water you fool!' I turn around only to see my journey is near its end! Hopefully our brave adventurer didn't get nommed on too badly.Screens like this certainly show off why Lord of the Rings Online remains a steady favorite for people to send in! Do you have a great screenshot of your character wandering around; in caves, over hill, or across plains? If so, pack it up and send it to us here at oneshots AT massively.com along with your name and what game it's from. Epic stories are always welcome, but never required to get your screenshot posted here.[Note: Image has been lightened slightly to bring out detail.]%Gallery-9798%
E308: DS Fanboy invites Princess Debut to the ball
I don't have to tell you just how odd Princess Debut is. For one, it's not the sort of title one usually associates with Natsume. Second, it's developed by Cave, who are usually behind hardcore shooters, and not titles like this. So, as odd as this all sounds, I was dying to get my hands on it when I hit up Natsume's booth at E3 just to see what this game is all about.%Gallery-27282%
E308: Princess Debut shots dance the night away
Look what just arrived at the ball in our inboxes! As promised earlier today, Natsume has distributed lots of fresh media for its localization of Cave's Princess Debut, complete with talking animals, an entire wardrobe of accessories, and (of course) lots of dancing with charming Princes. That Cesar is such a dish! Pirouette your way into our gallery for plenty of new screens and art.%Gallery-27282%[Via press release]
Natsume officially introduces Princess Debut
Gamefly recently posted a listing suggesting that Natsume taken on publishing duties for Cave's Princess Debut. The company sent out a press release confirming the rumor, and officially announcing Princess Debut for the fall.In Princess Debut, a girl magically enters a fantasy world in which not only is she a princess, but she will attend a ball in thirty days, and must therefore learn to dance in order to successfully impersonate a princess and win the affections of one of six princes.The game involves two parts: an adventure portion in which your character must interact with the princes and convince one to dance with her, and a dancing segment featuring touch-screen-controlled ballroom dances. On her way to one of 14 different endings, the erstwhile princess can unlock 20 new outfits.While this is clearly not targeted at us, we like to see new interpretations of the "dancing game." This is like Dance Dance Revolution, except with more revolving.%Gallery-27282%[Via press release]
Gamefly: Japanese and Chinese Coaches, Princess Debut this fall
According to Gamefly's list of upcoming games, Ubisoft is following up their excellent My French Coach and My Spanish Coach with something that is going to excite a lot of you: My Japanese Coach, with a tentative September 18 release date. Hopefully it's a language trainer and not a game about, say, a tennis coach who happens to be from Japan. It's being joined by My Chinese Coach, with a release date of August 28.In addition, Gamefly lists two unannounced titles from Natsume. Cave's Princess Debut is apparently being released on September 26, and on August 28, Natsume will release Hi! Hamtaro Ham-Ham Challenge, recently announced for Europe by 505 Games. These releases are unconfirmed, of course, but likely.
Movie Gadget Friday: Sunshine
Ariel Waldman contributes Movie Gadget Friday, where she highlights the lovable and lame gadgets from the world of cinema.Last month on Movie Gadget Friday we reviewed the rough and rugged modified gadgets of the post-apocalyptic era in The Road Warrior. Shifting from stick shifts to spaceships, this week examines the pre-apocalyptic adventure of a team of astronauts tasked with re-igniting the sun by delivering a massive payload in Sunshine. Based in 2057, this near-futuristic film has heavy influence from 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: The Year We Make Contact. With relatively unexplained artificial gravity, inner-spaceship scooters and gold leaf heat-deflecting spacesuits, many of the gadgets and technology are taken for granted in this 2007 release. 3D Projection CubeStructured as a small room on board Icarus II, the 3D projection deck serves as a way to boost astronauts' spirits and calculate routes. Translucent walls with embedded light-emitting cells make up the entire cube of a room, allowing for an interactive 3-dimensional experience without the need for external projectors. It's unseen yet as to if this experience requires the use of optical tracking cameras for a gestural user interface. Specific cells have the ability to toggle on or off depending on the specific need of the projection. While this gadget realistically blows away any CAVE we've seen (guesstimating these visuals to be upwards of 100 million pixels), the tactile-keyboard-loving-geek in us is still unrealistically holding out for a touchable hologram to toy with. More after the break.
Get Ketsui boss advice from Cave's boss
Arika's Ketsui DS is more than just a stripped-down "boss rush" version of an arcade shmup -- though it does seem to be a boss rush, judging from the website's description of the difficulty levels (which show different progressions of bosses based on the difficulty). It's being loaded with extra DS content including levels that can be shared via download play, recordable replays (which can also be shared), and an "Evac Report" mode, which seems to contain an unlockable art gallery. The wackiest new feature is the "Oshiete IKD-san!" ("Teach me, IKD-san!") mode, in which Cave's president, Tsuneki Ikeda ("IKD"), offers shmup lessons to the player. Shooting Training: of course![Via Insert Credit]
Don't shoot these Ketsui DS screens down
There's no hiding your secret. After seeing the latest on Ketsui DS, we know you're absolutely in love with the game now. It's okay, we fell in love immediately way back in September, so we know full well your pain right now, as your body must be violently, and randomly, throwing itself into convulsions of desire for the title. That's how it's been for us, at least.Well, courtesy of Famitsu, we all get a brief fix. Their site has a variety of screens up for your perusing pleasure. Also reiterated is the inclusion of a DVD showing Japanese gamers how to get those high scores. Of course, we already knew about that.%Gallery-23580%
Ketsui DS lives, almost complete
Upon first laying eyes on Akira's Ketsui DS, we don't have to tell you how awesome the game looks. But, as quick as we were to get excited, it died down after months of not hearing a darn thing about the project. That is, until another trailer popped up on the internet. Now, our excitement, it returns!It turns out, they've been working hard on the game all this time. So while we've had nothing but month after month of silence, it might have turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The title is due for release on October 23rd in Japan.After you check out the trailer above, be sure to hit up our gallery below for a bunch of screens from the game.%Gallery-23580%[Via Siliconera; trailer courtesy of Go Nintendo]
Cave helps your DS make its Princess Debut
The website for Cave's princess-impersonating dancing game, Princess Debut, features a lovely activity that is probably designed for little girls, but is kind of fun anyway. In keeping with the theme of not actually being a princess, you can design a DS cover out of fake rhinestones and then print it out! If you aren't feeling creative, there's even a template available to color in.Ideally, you'd affix this to the system by slipping it inside a transparent cover, but you'd probably be okay using just a little tape. Alternately, you could just mess with the editor for fun. But then how would your DS get any more princess-like? [Via GAME Watch]
Princess Debut's inaugural trailer
Cave's Ohimesama Debut (Princess Debut) didn't turn into a hardcore shooter since we last heard from it. Cave is still bravely making a cute game about a faux princess learning to dance and collecting silly clothing. It uses a variant of Ouendan-style precision dragging to control various ballroom dance moves.The "Dance Action & Adventure Game" features magical-girl-style transformation sequences for the all-important outfits, and even a "watch mode" that allows you to replay dances. We're still curious about how well the skills Cave has honed in creating bullet-hell shooters translate into dancing to classical music with a white rabbit in a tuxedo.
3Dims and projectiondesign craft 3D visualization system
As the 3D bandwagon continues to fill, along comes a setup geared more towards research than entertainment. The interactive 3D stereoscopic computer aided virtual environment (CAVE), cutely named Four Space 110, was created by Germany's own 3Dims GmbH and is currently located at the Human Machine Communication Center at Munich University. The installation relies on eight F20 sx+ DLP projectors from projectiondesign and enables users "to be completely immersed in the application with surrounding walls, floor and a ceiling." Within the CAVE, scientists and students can see 12 million pixel 3D images come to life as they study "human–machine interaction and communication," and while the gurus behind it purport that it could be used in car manufacturing / design or electronic modeling, we can only imagine how heavily the virtual reality crowd must be drooling just thinking of the possibilities here.[Via Widescreen Review]
Cave shooters denied XBLA release by Microsoft
Recently Xbox Live Arcade has shown considerable potential as a home for shoot 'em ups, from the Forgotten Worlds-channeling Omega Five to monochrome shooter Ikaruga's looming release. However, to hear talk from 5pb, the devs charged with bringing Cave's nefarious DoDonPachi series as well as its latest shooter Ketsui to XBLA's digital frontier, the platform still has a few nagging hang ups keeping it from becoming a beacon for shmups.Echoing N+ developer Metanet's recent comments concerning what does and does not make it to the service, 5pb spoke out about similar frustrations in the latest issue of Famitsu, revealing that both of its ports of DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou Black Label X and Ketsui X had been summarily rejected for release over XBLA, with Microsoft claiming that it's "going to cut down on faithful arcade ports." Only faithful ones?We agree that there is certainly a glut of arcade nonsense on XBLA, but this is equivalent to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 5pb and Cave are reportedly now working to bring both games to market through traditional retail channels in a defiant effort to show Microsoft "that their decision was wrong." Now all we need is a publisher with an eye for niche Japanese releases to pick the games up for release outside of Japan. Altus, are you listening?[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
More Shoot-em-ups incoming from Japan
As a console that is doing rather poorly in Japan, the 360 receiving two exclusive games from a Japanese developer with a large following is news indeed. The buzz is that there will be two full retail releases exclusive to 360: Ketsui, and DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou Black Label both of which are shoot-em-ups of the old-school hard-as-nails variety. Similar to Ikaruga, Ketsui and DonDonPachi involve controlling a ship while the screen scrolls by and you're assaulted by numerous waves of enemies who shoot in increasingly difficult-to-dodge geometric patterns. With the rumors surrounding the classic Radiant Silvergun and confirmation of Ikaruga, but nothing concrete on either game, things have been hard for shmup fans. Now, the manic pace of shoot-em-ups isn't for everyone, but for those of us who are fans this confirmation is just pure sugar. [Thanks, Gabriel Gray]
Eight frantic minutes of Ketsui DS
When we last previewed Ketsui DS, the shoot'em up was a barebones affair, a boss-rush remake of Cave's original arcade game. At an event last weekend, however, Ichiro Mihara, publisher Arika's vice president, revealed a versus mode in which players fly through a full stage to build up a "box score" lead over their opponents and hold it for three seconds. Perhaps more compete stages will find their way into the final product?Mihara also announced that Ketsui DS would feature three difficulty settings, the hardest setting being unlockable after finishing the default difficulty. The easy setting is designed to be "clearable for the young women office workers at (our) company." Judging by the bullet-choked video we've posted above, most of us will need that easy setting.Though Arika hasn't yet scheduled a release date for Ketsui DS, the company does plan to include a superplay DVD containing high-scoring footage of the arcade game with each copy. See also: BulletGBA shoots us in the face[Via CAVE-STG]
A daintier side of Cave
You may be familiar with Cave as one of the biggest names in modern 2D shooters. Now you can make that "modern 2D shooters and DS adventure games about waltzing princesses." Ohimesama Debut (Princess Debut) is a game about a middle-school girl who switches places with an identical-looking princess from a parallel dimension and dances with princes in her stead.Gameplay involves moving the stylus to match a sequence of prescribed shapes, which correspond to dance moves. At the end of the performance, you'll be able to watch a replay. It seems simplistic, and it probably won't require the same amount of precision as, say, DoDonPachi, but we kind of want to see what Cave's up to with this game. Maybe they just really wanted to get in on the DS princess game wave.
Arika's Ketsui DS trailer is boss
Though Nanostray and its sequel have kept the shoot-em-up genre alive on the DS, their action seems watered down when compared to Japanese-developed shmups. Even with its bullets slowed and patterns simplified, Ketsui's arcade-to-DS remake is remarkably more frenzied than Shin'en's efforts.We're not sure yet whether or not developer Arika plans to restrict Ketsui DS to just a boss rush mode due to hardware limitations, but even Mihara, the main man behind the game's handheld production, has reportedly admitted that this would be "a bit of a waste if it was made as such." Either way, after watching the promotional trailer above, we hope Arika will find some way to commercially release the title. See also: BulletGBA shoots us in the face[Via NeoGAF]
Virtually Overlooked: Cave Story
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.Doukutsu Monogatari (Cave Story) is a free-roaming side-scrolling action adventure game developed over five years by a Japanese designer who goes by Pixel. You can download Cave Story right now and play it on the computer on which you're reading this article, PC or Mac. It's completely free. We have a copy on our own computer that we've played through many times. So why do we want to pay money to play it on the Wii? Because it's that good.
AOU 2007: Cave's Muchi Muchi Pork shmup released (from its sty)
This new vertically-scrolling shmup from ace DonPachi developer Cave is a 100% pork-based product, whatever that means. Muchi Muchi Pork is playable at AOU 2007 and, according to Dengeki, it features a "Lard Gauge" that can power a "Lard Attack." How cool is that? What else we know: there's a two-player versus mode, Cave's booth girls were wielding frying pans, and the theme song goes like this: "Muchi muchi pork! Muchi muchi pork! Muchi muchi! Muchi mu-chii!" (Seriously.) Muchi Muchi Pork will be pigging out in Japanese game centers from the end of April.
