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Real Ultimate Buying Power today on Amazon [update]
"One skilled in the art of stealth -- Nintendo DS". That's the hint Amazon is offering for a Gold Box deal that will go up today at 6PM PST. We don't know the exact identity of the offer, but we can speculate! Our guess is Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, which just happens to be one of the best games of 2008. What a delight it would be to get it at one of the best prices of 2008! Other ninja-related games we can think of offhand include N+ (another honoree!), Ninjatown (wow, a lot of ninja games in our top 10), Tenchu: Dark Secret (not so great), various Naruto releases, the Izunas, Ninja Reflex, and Taito's Legend of Kage 2 -- which you can get for cheap right now. [Update: it's Ninjatown for $20!]
DS releases for the week of October 6th
An interesting week for releases around the globe, though the news will, of course, be dwarfed in the wake of all things DSi. Among this week's noteworthy titles are Prey the Stars (at last!), and Korg DS-10 for Europe. Bleach: Dark Souls Crash: Mind Over Mutant Imagine: Babysitters Imagine: Fashion Designer New York Kage Densetsu: The Legend of Kage 2 Pop Cutie: Street Fashion Simulation Prey the Stars Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals
Taito producers talk Exit DS, The Legend of Kage 2
We spent most of this year enthralled by the prospect of Space Invaders Extreme and Arkanoid DS. Now that they've shipped, we've transferred our Taito game anticipation to the two upcoming games The Legend of Kage 2 and Exit DS. Jeremy Parish interviewed the producers of each game, learning interesting factoids about both. For example, Lancarse, part ofthe Etrian Odyssey development team, is responsible for Kage 2. And for the first time that we've seen, a Taito developer acknowledges the NES Demon Sword as a Kage series game -- before dismissing it. We had been wondering about that! And despite being a Taito side-view game with a lot of elevators (and, yes, some action), Exit was not inspired by Elevator Action. %Gallery-7439% %Gallery-6861% Source - Kage 2 Source - Exit DS
E308: Square Enix's E3 lineup in (a few) pictures
Following the announcement of the titles on display at this year's E3, Square Enix released one screenshot of each of the new games. Above, you'll see the single, very blown-up image of Chrono Trigger DS. After the break, new screen of Final Fantasy IV, Exit DS, The Legend of Kage 2, and Dragon Quest IV. The Final Fantasy IV and Dragon Quest IV screens definitely feature the English versions of the game, but with the other three, it's kind of hard to tell for various reasons! The Chrono Trigger image has no text, so it sort of doesn't matter if the screen has been localized or not. Exit has English text, but it's the same English text found in the Japanese game. And Kage has both Japanese and English elements in its interface. If we hadn't just been told these games were coming out over here, we wouldn't be sure if these games were coming out over here.
Square Enix E3 lineup loaded with sequels, remakes
With 2008's edition of E3 just days away, the role-playing steam engine that is Square Enix has revealed what titles that it will spring on press types as they shuffle past. Of the eleven titles on display, the company's lineup this year is noticeably remake and sequel heavy, with over half of the games representing a return to the well for another drink. Boasting "simultaneous global releases for several platforms," the company has also re-confirmed dates for much of its lineup as well, with the following games also noted as being playable during the show: Chrono Trigger (DS; Holiday 2008) Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS; September 16) Final Fantasy IV (DS; July 22) Infinite Undiscovery (Xbox 360; September 2) Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes (iPod; Now Available) In addition, the remainder listed below will be shown in non-playable form: The Last Remnant (Xbox 360, PS3; Winter for Xbox 360, TBA for PS3) Star Ocean: First Departure (PSP; October 21) Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PSP; January 6) Star Ocean: The Last Hope (Xbox 360; 2009) Exit DS (DS; October 7) The Legend of Kage 2 (DS; October 7) And coming soon to a grocery store near you, Star Ocean: Whole Wheat Clusters.
Virtually Overlooked: Demon Sword
The Legend of Kage seems to be almost universally reviled by gamers for its difficulty and for the fact that about 75% of your time in the game is spent sailing uncontrollably through the air into a fireball or shuriken -- some, like us, like it okay, but it's a hard sell. It's a mystery, then, why Taito thought that it would be a good basis for an unrelated game. Apparently they had enough faith in the high-jumping gameplay that they figured people might like it if they didn't realize it was like The Legend of Kage.
Gamefly lists Exit, Legend of Kage 2 for U.S. release
It looks like Square Enix has deigned to release two more of Taito's DS games! Either that or another publisher noticed how awesome Taito's DS lineup is and decided to take a piece. Gamefly's "Coming Soon" list now lists both Exit DS and The Legend of Kage 2 for release on September 30. What an excellent day that will be for people who like to play games about running from the left to the right. We couldn't be more thrilled, unless this were a 100% official confirmation that we could be sure wouldn't turn out to be a crushing disappointment. We really want to play Kage 2, and we want to help boost the Taito U.S. guy's self-esteem. Read: The Legend of Kage 2 Read: Exit
The Legend of Kage 2 may surprise you
Chances are that if you've played The Legend of Kage for any significant amount of time, the last game you'd buy would be something called The Legend of Kage 2. But this gameplay video for the sequel shows that while they've kept the ninja-in-the-forest theme, Taito has all but tossed out the floaty tree-to-tree jumping and being killed by shurikens in favor of a much faster, much more sword-combat-based game. It's more Shinobi than Kage, and even more fighting-heavy than that.Why would Taito choose to deliberately reference a game that seems to be almost universally hated? They could have called their ninja action game anything they wanted. We hope that enough Japanese gamers see past the name to make Kage 2 a success.
Legend of Kage 2 sneaks out into Japanese stores
Taito's surprisingly awesome-looking Legend of Kage 2 comes out tomorrow in Japan, and we remain hopeful for a localization announcement. We feel confident that it'll happen, too, since parent company Square Enix has decided to release its contemporary retro sequels, Arkanoid DS and Space Invaders Extreme. For now, we can enjoy these new screens from Dengeki and wonder which way we'll end up disappointed: news that it won't be localized, or the actual quality of Kage 2. We won't be disappointed with the number of kunoichi battles, at least -- it seems that female ninja just hate this guy.
The Legend of Kage 2 still looks amazing
If you think that our hunger for side-scrolling action sequels on the DS is sated this week, then you are underestimating our desire to run from left and right and shoot/slash things. In fact, Contra 4 has just made us want more. And The Legend of Kage 2 looks like the same kind of thing: a gorgeous fully 2D update of a NES-era classic. Even if the original is only a classic to us. If the development team behind Kage 2 learns anything from the last 20 years or so of gaming, we hope it's how to make a better Legend of Kage game.From the screens, it looks like they may achieve that. It already looks like they've turned to Ninja Spirit for inspiration. That can only mean good things for the world.
The Legend of Kage 2 details emerge from the shadows
Looks like The Legend of Kage 2 is going for just a little more depth than its predecessor. Not that that's hard, considering that The Legend of Kage had five (brutal) stages that repeated three times. We loved the game, however, and that's why we're as happy about this sequel as 22 of you are.The new game has 12 stages for Kage and 12 stages for his kunoichi counterpart, Chihiro. Though these stages will probably use the same environments, we are hoping for different enemy and item layouts, or Taito's cheating by calling them different stages.There will be over 30 equippable abilities, which are gained by picking up and equipping elemental spheres. According to the GAME Watch article, these abilities will allow players to customize their play style. The NES game only had one style that we were aware of: jam on the attack buttons while jumping randomly and hoping that you'll kill all the bad ninja before getting hit by an unavoidable shuriken.%Gallery-7439%
Poll results: New games in old franchises
Last week, we asked you which of the many upcoming DS sequels to NES-era classics turned your heart to a heart-shaped powerup. No surprises here: the overwhelming majority of you picked Konami and WayForward's Contra 4, which we've been hyping into the stratosphere ourselves. If you voted for Contra 4, CONSIDER YOURSELF A HERO.Of course, all of these games look unfathomably awesome, and are all winners. But in the other regard of receiving votes from DS Fanboy readers, Super Dodge Ball DS is more of a winner than Arkanoid DS, International Track & Field, and The Legend of Kage 2, in that order. The important thing is that you guys cared enough about these games to click on a button within a blog post.
