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Milestone Shooting Collection 2 bundles five shmups on Wii
The first Milestone Shooting Collection for Wii came to North America as Ultimate Shooting Collection, and combined Chaos Field, Radio Allergy, and Karous into one delightfully cheap collection of vertical shmups. Milestone is developing a followup in Japan, which contains everything the first disc offered, plus two more games. Milestone Shooting Collection 2 includes all three of the aforementioned games, plus Radio Allergy Noir (a version of which was released as a standalone, full-price Xbox 360 game) and Illvelo, which was once planned for North American release but canceled. Perhaps North American publisher UFO Interactive will give Illvelo a second chance by bringing this collection over. If you want the import, it's out in Japan on December 30. You can see more of each game at the official site.
Wii Fanboy Review: Ultimate Shooting Collection
A compilation of shooters on the Wii may seem a bit unnecessary or even redundant. The Wii already has what could be dubbed the "Ultimate Shooting Collection" -- though not on a single disc. The Virtual Console is loaded with a surfeit of shooters, including many of the best games in the genre's history. The Ultimate Shooting Collection, in comparison, is composed of just three games, some or all of which you may never even heard of. But just like there usually is an argument for a new game over an old one you've played, there is content of interest here that doesn't exist in the downloadable space. The games in Ultimate Shooting Collection are a great showcase for the evolution of the shooter genre, which may seem stagnant or even dead, in the modern age. Even with the piles upon piles of existing shooters, there aren't any like these on the Virtual Console.%Gallery-37210%
Ultimate Shooting Collection delayed once again? [update]
[Update: UFO tells us that they are working toward a January 19 release.]The last time we mentioned UFO Interactive's US release of the Ultimate Shooting Collection, it was to report a delay. We, uh, have some bad news. Maybe. According to Amazon and Gamestop, the compilation of Milestone shooters (Radio Allergy, Chaos Field, and Karous) will miss its December 15 release date by at least a month. Gamestop's new date is January 20, as is Best Buy's. Amazon places the release at January 31. We've sent an inquiry in to UFO to verify the delay and, hopefully, specify the latest for-real release date.We're now convinced that Radilgy is cursed. In December of 2006, O3 Entertainment announced plans to release the colorful shmup in February of the next year. It was then delayed until March, then delayed a few more times before being cancelled in June.%Gallery-37210%
Ultimate Shooting Collection targets December release
Yes, the localized version of Milestone's Ultimate Shooting Collection may have horribly generic boxart (seriously, compare this to the Japanese box and weep), but we still want the game badly.Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait. Previously, the game was scheduled to come out on November 11th, but as it isn't in our homes right now, we had to assume it had slipped. When contacted, publisher UFO Interactive confirmed our worst fears: the new release date is December 15th, right in the middle of the Christmas rush. Pew pew your way past the break for a trailer.%Gallery-37210%
Good news and bad news about Ultimate Shooting Collection
The latest screens of Milestone's Ultimate Shooting Collection provide us with at least two interesting pieces of information: first, that UFO Interactive is using the "Radio Allergy" localization from O3's failed Gamecube release of Radilgy. The situation with Radio Allergy makes us think that Milestone themselves, rather than O3, did the English translation and logo, otherwise UFO would have had to deal with O3 to publish their material.Second, the screens tell us that hey, UFO is still promoting Ultimate Shooting Collection! It may actually come out! Though, it's been, uh, delayed again, to November 11. GameStop is showing some new boxart as well, that's less ... identical to the Japanese look.
A Milestone for Wii shooter fans
Good news for people who want even more space shooters on the Wii: the Milestone Shooting Collection, a three-game bundle including Chaos Field, Radilgy and Karous, has been picked up for U.S. release on September 23 by UFO Interactive. Chaos Field was released here on the GameCube in 2005, but the other two games are completely new to us -- partly because the GameCube release of Radilgy was cancelled.When Milestone announced this item for Japanese release last May, it was going to be a retail release of Karous only. Then Milestone decided to throw a couple of bonus games on there, and then it became the "Shooting Collection." The bundle is probably the only way it could ever get picked up by an American publisher. And $30 isn't bad at all for three games, even in the age of downloadable games!
Milestone Shooting Collection release date shot down
The Milestone Shooting Collection, featuring Karous, Chaos Field, and Radilgy, has been delayed until "TBA 2008," according to retailer NCSX. It was once planned to be released this month, but NCSX said that retail preorders for the game were "apparently ... insubstantial." Insubstantial for a shooting game. We're guessing retailers had yet to see the stylish boxart when orders should have gone out.Even though the collection was never announced for localization, we were hoping for it. Radilgy was already cancelled once, and we hoped that it would come along with Karous via this disc. But now it's been (effectively) cancelled again before the Japanese release. Not a good sign. Maybe shmups on the Wii face too much competition from the Virtual Console?
Milestone emphasizes bonus games on Karous Wii release
First it was just going to be Karous, then Milestone decided to toss Radio Allergy/Radilgy and Chaos Field on the disc. Now the package is officially called Milestone Shooting Collection Karous Wii, and it's being released in Japan on March 27th. Karous has been enhanced with some slight waggle: you can now swing the Wiimote in order to swing the sword weapon. It sounds kind of distracting to have the controller waving around while you're trying to make precise movements. We would like Classic Controller/Hori stick play with this title, so we hope that the waggle is optional (and that the game supports the Classic).Radilgy and Chaos Field seem to have been left untouched from their Gamecube iterations. Not that we mind -- the only difference we want to see in Radilgy is in the crucial "being released in the U.S." category.
Karous 3-pack official for Japan
Retailer NCSX started taking preorders for the Japanese Wii release of Karous. It's got a product code and everything, so this is definitely a for-real thing. Unfortunately, the breathtaking, minimalist boxart used on the product page is not.We're glad to see that developer (and apparently publisher) Milestone is in fact including Chaos Field and Radilgy on the disc, which will release March 27th at a cost of $49. We can only sit and wait for news of a localized version; hopefully O3 will see fit to try again to release Radilgy in the U.S. They didn't quite make it with the GameCube version.
Karous (and more) coming in March [update]
We've seen a few snippets of news on the journey of Karous to the Wii so far, but now it looks like we're starting to get a little more information. The Dreamcast shooter is set for release in Japan in late March, and the game will include, as a bonus, both Chaos Field and Radilgy. We're assuming the latter two won't be updated, which is just fine. We'll be too busy shooting everything that moves (in various ways, in various games) to care.Even better news? Since it seems that Karous is going to be localized by O3 Entertainment -- who also published the other titles in these parts -- we should get the game with bonuses complete on this side of the ocean. Here's hoping, anyway.Update: Looks like there is no deal between Milestone (the devs) and O3 Entertainment to publish in the United States. Milestone is currently looking for a U.S. publisher, however.
E307: Karous dodges bullets, makes it to Wii
We were tunneling out of our pile of press releases, and found something interesting: a game called Crow from O3 Entertainment with a release date of TBA. O3 Entertainment was the publisher of Chaos Field and the cancelled Radio Allergy, both of which are Milestone shooters. Milestone's followup, Karasu (often transliterated as Karous) has a title that means "Crow." Karasu was announced for the Wii in Japan.Putting it together, we can only arrive at one conclusion: REPLY HAZY TRY AGAIN. Wait, hold on. Stupid Magic 8-Ball. Oh, right-- O3 is localizing Karous for US release. That's better.
Radio Allergy cancelled
Radio Allergy, Milestone's "Wii Compatible" shooter for the Gamecube, has finally been canned by publisher O3 Interactive after months of delays. We like cel-shading, and we like shooters, so we're a little sad. In a statement to Cubed3, O3 said that there was a hope of putting Radio Allergy on the Wii. No plan, but a hope.Aeropause then speculated that this hypothetical Wii release would be bundled with Karous, the current "last Dreamcast game ever" from Milestone, or-- even better, both Karous and Chaos Field, Milestone's first "last Dreamcast game ever." We do like the idea of more games, but we don't have any evidence of that right now. All we know is that we aren't getting Radio Allergy any time soon. At least we can all download the papercraft patterns from the Japanese website! Video game papercraft beats actual video games every time.
DS gets Hearing Training
The march of training games continues into uncharted territory. Now there's a game to improve your hearing and listening skills! DS Chounoryoku tests the frequency range of players' hearing, and asks them to identify tones and spoken words. We can't figure out everything that's going on, but it's all hearing-based, and the art is surprisingly poppy and attractive.There are also musical selections for aural relaxation. All of this from Milestone, who usually develops shooters like Radio Allergy and Karous. Their Chounoryoku homepage has a weird promotional video that doesn't really show the game at all.%Gallery-3488%[Via Famitsu]
Karous blasts onto the Wii
Old school gamers rejoice; vertical shoot-em-up Karous is headed for the Wii. Karous was released a couple of months ago on the Dreamcast and currently stands as the last game released on the system.We've already talked about how many classic shooters are available on the Virtual Console, so it's nice to see a new release joining the party.The cel-shaded shooter is hardly a genre classic, but does add something a little different to the Wii's library. Who knows, if sales figures are good, a few other shmups might find their way over. Radiant Silvergun on Wii, anybody? Now we're dreaming ...There's no release date yet, nor any confirmation of a U.S. release. Keep your itchy trigger fingers crossed.
