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Japan gets another shmup: Otomedius Gorgeous, or, Why we need to have another Steel Battalion
While the news that the 360 as a platform is seeing more support from Japanese developers, we do wish that that support was coming to these shores. In a move that reminds us of the good old days of large and unnecessary controllers with even more unnecessary features (hit eject or lose you game save!) the release of Otomedius Gorgeous! will be accompanied by a, ahem, Hyper Stick Pro. Otomedius Gorgeous! is a port of the partially touch-screen controlled popular Japanese arcade shoot 'em up, and to emulate the touch screen the Hyper Stick actually includes a built in touchpad just for this game. As we said, it seems rather unlikely that this title and its crazy controller will hit western shores, but the above picture reminded us heavily of some of the best overblown controllers of our happy memories. True they are totally unnecessary for most any other game, but these things had a charm all there own, and practicality is not one of them. *Sigh* Oh well, you can still check out the hilariously awesome trailer after the break.
Wii Fanboy Review: Star Soldier R
With the WiiWare update yesterday (not to be confused with the European and Aussie update), we decided that we needed to get our review on with Hudson's Star Soldier R. Of course, you all know that we fell in love with the title upon first seeing it and anxiously awaited its release. Now that it's here, is it worth your hard-earned money? Read on and find out!%Gallery-20663%
YES! Star Soldier R seeing release on U.S. WiiWare
Hudson must have been reading our diary, because Star Soldier R is coming to the WiiWare service in the United States. The news arrives via a press release that has just made its way into the inbox of our overlords at Joystiq and we couldn't be happier. We love to shoot stuff (in video games) and we can't wait to shoot stuff in Star Soldier R!Star Soldier R will be releasing alongside the launch of the WiiWare service next month.%Gallery-20663%
Star Soldier R shoots us some fresh videos
If you're anything like us, then the upcoming release of WiiWare is going to mean a smaller bank account total and less time on your hands. After all, there are several quality titles that will be available through the service, one of which is Hudson's Star Soldier R.We don't know if it's the shmup fan in us or the interesting take on level structure (time-based challenges compared to the usual progression of advancing through a set stage), but we're completely smitten with the game. Thankfully, IGN uploaded some new videos to watch, which should help us deal with the waiting.
VC Monday Madness: Super R-Type and Spelunker
This week's Virtual Console releases include two titles on Nintendo platforms. One of the titles just released in Europe this past Friday and is a very competent shoot-em-up. The only problem is, the Virtual Console already has plenty of them already.This week's releases are: Spelunker (NES, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Super R-Type (Super NES, 1 player, 800 Wii Points) As always, be sure to stop back later for our video wrap-up of today's releases.
Bangai-O Spirits saves stages ... through sound?
It's quite possible that this is absolutely the weirdest, yet most incredibly awesome, news DS Fanboy has ever presented. We're going to take a moment to collect ourselves here. Okay, we're ready to go now. You see, current life obsession for one of our bloggers, the quirky and wonderful Bangai-O Spirits, will have a very unique way of saving user-created stages and replays. The game will output an audio file, through the DS's headphone jack, allowing users to back-up the file on their PC. Then, the audio file can be played back to the DS through its microphone (weren't we just complaining about how awesome the mic is and how it's not being used?).One of our own came up with an interesting question regarding all of this: what if you took the file and remixed it with a song from, say, the early 90's? What kind of stage would we get then? We'll just have to wait and find out ourselves.See also: 2008's Biggest Blips: Bangai-O Spirits[Via NeoGAF]
Super Mario Galaxies plays nothing like the real deal
We feel guilty whenever we put the spotlight on these half-baked homemade projects, partly because it's unfair to judge a game so early in production, and partly because we don't take enough time to feature the great homebrew work out there. Even so, we felt compelled to pick on Super Mario Galaxies, if nothing more than to contrast Cid2Mizard's release with the game it owes its namesake to. While Mario is definitely in an outer space setting -- evidenced by the spacesuit and the speckled black background -- and appears to be shooting star bits, the similarities between Super Mario Galaxies and Super Mario Galaxy end there. You won't find any 3D platforming, planet hopping, or manta riding in this homebrew release. That might be a lot to expect from a single programmer, but when a game is titled Super Mario Galaxies, it sets our expectations pretty high.Instead, Super Mario Galaxies is a simple shoot-em-up in which you dodge Bullet Bills and floating sprites that look like Care Bears riding Star Wars landspeeders. Knocking into the latter enemies decreases your life bar, but you can shoot star bits at them to put some numbers in your score. Running into one of the invincible Bullet Bills, however, gives you a Game Over. The game is actually more fun than you'd expect, and we could see ourselves playing it pretty often if it had more depth; just don't expect it to be anything like Super Mario Galaxy.[Via DCEmu]
Nanostray 2 means more boss fights
Sequel Nanostray 2 is going to be jam-packed with boss encounters, doubling the 8 boss fights of the first game into 16 for the sequel. The bosses this time around aren't confined to being just robotic, either. They're organic and offer up more complex attack patterns than before. If there's anything we want besides more boss fights, it's for those boss fights to be more complex.Nanostray 2 is currently slated for a January 15th release in North America.%Gallery-4607%[Via Go Nintendo]
Nanostray 2 trailer and dev diary
The trailer above for Nanostray 2 features a lot of aspects of the game that interested parties would want to see. There is some boss fighting and co-op action, not to mention the requisite amounts of blowing everything on the screen up.If that isn't enough for you, be sure to check out the recently created developer diary for the game over at IGN.%Gallery-4607%[Thanks, Jason!]
Don't stray away from these Nanostray 2 screens
The fine folks over at 1UP have dished out a bundle (what's a good term for more than a small amount, but less than a lot?) of new screens for Nanostray 2, which, we might say, looks like the hotness. We loves us some Raiden and Ikaruga, so this game is currently living in a house on the corner of Right up avenue and Our alley street.Any of you gamers dying to shoot down uncountable hordes of enemy ships with us?%Gallery-4607%
Slew of new titles announced for Wii Ware
Though its potential can't be denied, Nintendo's Wii Ware channel, an upcoming download service for new Wii games, didn't impress us much with the seemingly low-budget titles announced for it so far. Nintendo amended that worriment today at its Tokyo conference by revealing a lineup of impressive projects in progress, turning our "Excitement Level" knob to eleven, one measure greater than what we previously thought the mechanism allowed. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Little King and the Promised Land (1500 Wii Points, March), a "country-building sim," stands out from the bunch, promising an exclusive side story which takes place after the original GameCube game. This marks the fourth entry to the series and the second Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles title announced for the Wii. Square Enix has already made a teaser site for you to load up and immediately close once you've realized that there's almost nothing there yet. Hudson, having kept things on and poppin' on the Virtual Console side for some time now, demonstrated its commitment to the new service by announcing new games like Bomberman, Star Soldier R, and Joysound, the last of which will be a karaoke title. Namco Bandai also chimed in with Mojipittan, a Japanese word puzzle game. As for Nintendo's contributions to the Wii Ware channel, the company announced Dr. Mario (!!!), Pokemon Farm, Puzzloop for Everyone, and Maruboushikaku, all of which appearing to have some form of Mii integration. You can preview screenshots for those titles at the Famitsu links below. Read - FFCC: The Little King and the Promised Land teaser site Read - FFCC: The Little King and the Promised Land screenshots Read - Star Soldier R screenshots Read - Mojipittan screenshots Read - Dr. Mario, Pokemon Farm, Puzzloop for Everyone, and Maruboushikaku screenshots
An ad for a Virtual Console release?!
It's Sunday, and you know what that means -- a new edition of Promotional Consideration! Well, that's what it would mean were this post on DS Fanboy, but since the sign we're featuring is for a Virtual Console title, this will have to be a Promotional Consideration article only in spirit.We haven't come across many Virtual Console advertisements in the states; in fact, we haven't come across any at all. We're reminded of this travesty every morning when we see the lines of blood soaked through VC fanatic JC Fletcher's shirt, traces of his nightly self-flagellation rituals wherein he begs his retro-video-gaming gods to deliver us more ads for classic titles.The Gradius/Nemesis sign pictured above was found at the Musashi-Urawa train station in Saitama, Japan late last May. When was the last time you saw an ad for a shoot-em-up displayed in a public space? As much as we'd love to see Virtual Console advertisements and posters of enlarged screenshots from 2D games brought over to the US, especially for JC's sake, we doubt that Nintendo of America will ever follow suit.
Nanostray 2 meanders under Majesco's wing
As expected, Majesco has announced its plans to publish Nanostray 2, developer Shin'en's sequel to the 2005 shoot-em-up, in North America and Europe. Though the original game was widely regarded as a somewhat mediocre shmup with janky touchscreen controls, its initial limited availability sent collectors scrambling for copies before Majesco eventually restocked shelves with bulkier shipments; hopefully, those troubles will be avoided this time around.Addressing the complaints many had with tacked-on touchscreen features, Nanostray 2 will have three control schemes -- classic control, left-handed touch control, and right-handed touch control. Multiplayer cooperative (multi-card) and duel modes, both played locally, will also be incorporated, as well as online leaderboards. Expect Nanostray 2 to traipse into stores early 2008.%Gallery-4607%
BulletGBA shoots us in the face
With the World's Greatest Shmup Player Tournament coming up, now is the perfect time to try out Takayama Fumihiko's recently updated BulletGBA. The homebrew shoot 'em up simulator has over 300 bullet patterns picked out from genre favorites that you can test your dodging skills against. BulletGBA's 5.0 release adds some new "stages," a remodeled shooting mode, and music tracks from the chiptune champions, Nullsleep. We've got a video of us attempting to last longer than a few seconds with one of the bullet hell patterns, so jump past the post break for a good laugh.
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.
Ordyne blasts onto VC this Monday
Monday sees the release of Ordyne onto the Virtual Console in North America. The side scrolling shooter is one of a whole bunch of Hudson titles coming to the VC in May. Based on Namco's 1988 original, the game casts you as genius scientist Yuichiro Tomari on a quest to rescue your fiancee from the evil Dr. Kubota. Ordyne will go for a wallet friendly 600 Wii points, like other TurboGrafx 16 titles. Of course, we'll give you our thoughts on Monday, as with all Virtual Console releases, in our weekly feature VC Monday Madness.[via Video Game Generation]
Radilgy now Radio Allergy, GCN shooter westbound
Which is it? Radilgy? Rajirugi? Radirgy? None of these. O~3 Entertainment has settled on 'Radio Allergy' for the North American release of Milestone's GameCube port of the throwback arcade shooter. Radio Allergy is due February 2007 for a mere $20.Radilgy made its console debut on Dreamcast this past February in Japan -- yeah, that's right, Dreamcast. A few months later additional versions wound up on PlayStation 2 and GameCube. Radio Allergy is a vertical shmup with anime flair. It's no Ikaruga, but anytime a classic-style shoot-em-up makes it out of Japan it's a blessing.
Christmas sees first VC price increase
Wii owners waking up this Christmas morning expecting to download some classic space 'shmup goodness might be a little surprised at what they have to pay to get it. R-Type, released today on the Wii's virtual console, is the first TurboGrafx-16 game to be available for 800 VC points instead of the normal 600.This didn't come as a total surprise: Nintendo casually mentioned last month that virtual console games merely "start at" the now-standard point levels (NES: 500, TG16: 600, SNES/Genesis:800, N64:1000). They also mentioned the R-Type price specifically in a press release last week, but our eyes glazed over and we misreported it at 600 points. Silly us... we thought the price used in six other TurboGrafx-16 games so far would carry over to the seventh.While R-Type is a bit more popular than a similar game like Super Star Soldier, we can't help but wonder why Nintendo chose this game to break out the first price hike. While a 200 point increase isn't too outrageous, we can only hope this does not represent the start of a trend in ever-increasing virtual console prices.
