adventure
Latest
Ninja Gaiden DS to feature "similarities" with upcoming 360 sequel [update 1]
Apparently, the upcoming Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword isn't going to be as independent as we thought, as it is confirmed in an interview with CVG, by none other than Tomonobu Itagaki himself, that the game will have many similarities with Team Ninja's upcoming Ninja Gaiden sequel set to release on the Xbox 360. Itagaki confirms that not only will observant gamers notice some similarities in the two games' stories, but also in other areas as well (we're assuming some of the levels may repeat, etc.). This news does little to sway our excitement for the game, but what about you, fine reader? Update: Whoops, small typo in the headline. It has been fixed.
Ninja Gaiden DS and 360 "similarities"
Speaking to CVG, Team Ninja head honcho, Tomonobu Itagaki, revealed a teeny tiny little tidbit about the upcoming Ninja Gaiden 2. Those of you who venture outside the safe and comforting walls of X3F may have heard that Ninja Gaiden is making its way to the Nintendo DS. Cleverly titled Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (get it? Dragon Sword?), the game utilizes the stylus to pull off all of Ryu's sick ninja moves. When asked about possible similarities between Dragon Sword and Ninja Gaiden 2, Itagaki responded, "Well... I am personally overseeing the development of everything from the story through to the gameplay elements for both games, so if you're observant you may be able to extrapolate some similarities between the two, yes, and not just in the area of story." We're assuming that Ninja Gaiden 2 won't magically turn any HDTV into a touch screen, so it's likely that the two games will share some other gameplay related features. We have no idea what those would be, and Ninja Gaiden: DS doesn't arrive until the end of this year, so we'll have quite a while to guess. Any ideas?
New details on Doki Doki Majo Saiban
With new screens comes new information on Doki Doki Majo Saiban, the somewhat infamous witch-hunting game from SNK. All we can say is that either we're reading a lot more into this due to our inferior translation abilities, or we're missing something completely. We are, however, happy to announce that there are lots of non-touching screens! We've put them after the jump, along with a few gameplay details.
ScummVM ported to Wii and Gamecube
Here's some fantastic news: ScummVM can now be run on the Wii! Rodolfo Portillo just released a Gamecube version of the program, which allows classic LucasArts adventure games (and others!) to be run on systems other than the old PC's they were designed for.You still have to have the original files, and you have to have a Gamecube SD adapter, but you guys all have your own copies of Sam & Max Hit the Road, right? Right? One other small issue: this isn't a Wii-specific port, so Wiimote pointing is out.
DS makeup game defies mockery with sales potential
We were all set to make fun of Cosmetic Paradise, but then we thought about it and realized that a makeup game on the DS will probably be something of a hit in Japan. Here's our reasoning: All people in Japan have at least one DS-- including little girls. This may be marketed as a "training" game for cosmetics, and the word "training" opens the sales floodgates. Using the stylus to apply makeup is probably a lot of fun for people who like dolls and stuff. We admit, then, that this game is a good idea, from a business perspective, at least. And it does seem to have some adventure game elements, which we support. What do you think? Are there any little DS fans in your family that would enjoy this kind of thing?
Japanese mystery novelist behind forthcoming Tecmo game
Those Tecmo folks, who really love the DS these days, are hard at work on yet another title -- an adventure game with puzzle elements in which the player must solve a mystery (see also: half the DS catalogue). There are a couple of interesting facts about this particular game, though. Besides the standard story mode, Tecmo's latest also offers a mini-mystery mode, with microcases that the player can solve in minutes. The second interesting thing about this mystery game is that the story was written by a mystery novelist! Japanese writer Kyotaro Nishimura is behind the plot and working as a supervisor on the game. And in true writerly fashion, the game has an extremely long title: DS Kyotaro Nishimura Suspense New Detective Series: Kyoto, Atami, Zekkai no Kotou Satsui no Wana.We've long wished for games written by actual authors -- it just makes sense -- so this is a pretty exciting announcement. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed for only good news on the New Detective Series, and we'll keep you updated as we find out more.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma kicks the crap out of dev kits
Along with explaining why Ninja Gaiden Sigma isn't a "remake" or "port", Yosuke Hiyashi talks about his experience with the PlayStation 3 and what he planned to do with the title in a recent interview with Game Informer. While we'd love to make a list describing the main points of the interview, we're going to abstain this time -- not much is brand new to our ears. But we did catch wind of one question that caused us to grin with anticipation. Game Informer asked: Dead or Alive 4 blew up a couple of XBox 360's during testing because it pushed the system too far. Have you blown up any PS3 devkits with NGS? Hiyashi responds: "We've made a couple of devkits smoke, but we haven't had any actually blow up yet...it's really a matter of having a certain goal and then you try to see what you can get the hardware to do to achieve that goal, and by the time you look around you have smoke throughout the entire R&D floor." Awesome! So the PS3 doubles as a type of fog machine, too? Sounds like a win-win situation. If you'd like to catch up on all the NGS news, take a few minutes and read the entire interview -- it's not exactly a short stop, but it's worth it if you want to gather all the current knowledge on the title.
Rumor: Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations
What's the opposite of OBJECTION!? Oh, we know! APPROVAL! A Gamecrazy employee posted this screen from his store's computer system over on the awesome Phoenix Wright fansite Court Records. It shows a game called PHOENIX WRIGHT-TRIALS TRIBU, to be released on September 25. We'll go ahead and deduce that the full title would be Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations, and that since it names Phoenix in the title and not the new guy, that this is a DS port of Gyakuten Saiban 3. Retail computer systems aren't the most reliable sources of information, but we doubt Gamecrazy would make up a title. Plus, we've had evidence that GS3 was going to be localized for a while. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're going to go to Gamecrazy and reserve our copy of the game. If they aren't open yet, we'll just break in. No problem! [Via NeoGAF]
New Gyakuten Saiban 4 screens
We're having a pretty hard time coping with our Gyakuten Saiban withdrawals. Ever since we learned that we wouldn't be able to play the Japanese release in English, we've had to turn to alternate means to get our daily allowance of fake Japanese law. We refresh the GS4 website obsessively, play the translated demo until it hits question-mark land, and shout "OBJECTION" at every opportunity that is even a little appropriate.We found some screens on Famitsu to torture ourselves with. They show the intro to the second case, a witness in Chapter 1, and Chapter 2's defendant. If you want to make yourself feel bad about the lack of Ace Attorney in your life, then by all means, have a look. If you can't handle the wait, we suggest trying to put the whole thing out of your mind.
One Piece Unlimited Adventure gets stretchy, swingy
We'll admit to being somewhat negligent in our anime viewing. To put a fine point on it, we don't know the first thing about One Piece. But we know brawlers, and any such game where you can play as a stretchy-arm guy is okay with us.One Piece Unlimited Adventure uses limited "swing attacks" that are activated by waggling-- specifically, shaking the Wiimote. The high-speed pummeling shown above is such an attack. Check the link for pictures of all the other (significantly less stretchy) characters and their swing actions, and click the post break for a couple of screens.
Prominence, a 3D sci-fi adventure game announced
Indie studio Digital Media Workshop has just announced an ambitious 3D sci-fi adventure titled Prominence. The game will be story-driven with multiple endings, voice acting, and a completely original soundtrack. Puzzles will be both environmental and graphical-based to put the game's pre-rendered panoramic 3D visuals to work.Sounds like an intriguing combination of Myst and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. No screenshots or videos are available at the moment, just some concept renders and a lot of marketing hype. Without working proof that these ideas are coming to fruition, we can't help but raise an eyebrow of suspicion. It's easy to set lofty goals early in the game, especially when you're a small indie developer, but making those a reality could prove a difficult undertaking.
New Brothers in Arms shots
DS games are looking pretty hot lately, but Brothers in Arms is just so gorgeous that we can't help but wonder what the catch is ... like maybe it will give us cancer or completely suck or something. Probably not, but we'll be keeping an eye out for anything that could cause lasting harm, either physical or emotional.While you ponder our weird paranoias, check out the screens. They're after the jump.
Introducing the Zelda Adventure sets (and our jealousy)
Some of you super hardcore fanatics out there probably knew of the existence of these sets long before we did, so humor us if this is the "old hat" to you. We don't know much, due to horrible machine translation (damn lazy robots), other than these sets were purchased online. No idea how much they were purchased for either (again, we curse you lazy robots), but we know we want them.Anyone else have any of these sets?[Via Go Nintendo]
Monster Rancher DS has a surprising developer
We've been keeping a close eye on Monster Rancher DS (or, to use the more exciting! Japanese name, Kaite, Shabette, Hajimeyou! Monster Farm DS). Now we have more reason to be excited, we think. Who has Tecmo "farmed" (heh, heh) the development of this title out to?Cing, for some reason! Cing, who is responsible for Trace Memory and Hotel Dusk, both of which were fairly well-received and high-profile. We aren't sure how their adventure-game development skills will transfer into monster-training, but we're optimistic. Cing at least knows a lot about making good use of DS features. What do you think about the news? Is there another DS-centric developer you'd rather see on the Ranch?
DS wishlist is an excuse to talk about Snatcher
We'd like to thank Racketboy for composing this list of games he'd like to see on the DS. Sure, everyone's got their own wishlist, but they're not online, and they don't all include Snatcher and Policenauts. And we want more opportunities to talk about those two games. He's absolutely right that these games are a good fit for the DS: between Hotel Dusk, Phoenix Wright and stuff like Suda 51's The Silver Case, the DS is pretty much the only system that can be said to be experiencing a graphical-text-adventure boom. It also happens to be the current sales leader. If there were ever a time to shovel all your old adventure games onto a console, this is it.Snatcher and Policenauts are high-quality games that would both sell to and satisfy the Phoenix Wright crowd. Throw a "FROM HIDEO KOJIMA, PRODUCER OF METAL GEAR" sticker on the box and you've got a game that is guaranteed to sell. Here's our totally unsolicited advice for Konami: port Snatcher first, and then if that sells, put some of the profits into translating Policenauts.Other notable games on the list include Metroids (yay) and Pac-Man Vs. We can get behind that, since with Wi-Fi play, we'd actually get to try Pac-Man Vs. against another person for once. Unfortunately, we kind of think that Nintendo is loath to embarrass themselves further by referring back to the GBA/GC connectivity experiment. But more adventure games? That's an easy call.
Penumbra: Overture makes its creepy debut
Announced almost a year ago, the first installment in the Penumbra: Overture episodic trilogy has finally been unleashed. The horror adventure title relies on a proprietary physics engine that allows you to pick up and manipulate almost any object. Combat plays a small role in Overture, but you'll spend most of your time tip-toeing around corners and squealing every time you hear a noise. It's a genuinely creepy game.While Penumbra manages to take a fresh approach to the 3D survival genre, the price and the game's length don't quite agree with each other. The first episode will take you less than three hours to complete, and with a price tag of $19.99, it feels a little steep. The game has remarkably high production value for an independent studio, making the cost a little more bearable. Just think of the warm fuzzy feeling you'll get when you support the little guy.
Footage from the Ninja Gaiden press event
Remember that press event where Tecmo gave us our first glimpse of Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword? Sure you do, wasn't so long ago, but we were only able to gawk at some stills from the event. Well, that is no more as the folks at Game Brink have uploaded video from the event, giving us all a better look at how fluid and graceful the end product is sure to be. As usual, check out the video past the post break.
Direct feed Ninja Gaiden screens
We found some non-scanned screenshots of Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword on Tecmo's website, and we are officially convinced. It looks great. The DS isn't exactly the most powerful system for 3D, but this does a pretty good job of making things look like real things and not piles of jaggies. The graphics actually recall the look and color scheme of the Xbox Gaiden well enough for us to maybe give the stylus-based control scheme the benefit of the doubt for a while. Too bad the nice graphics are all for a game that will cause us to jam our stylus into the freaking screen and stab over and over again, if it's anything like the brutally difficult Xbox version. We loved Ninja Gaiden, but it sure didn't love us.
Itagaki demonstrates Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for DS
Revealed earlier this week, Team Ninja's Head Developer Corey Hart Tomonobu Itagaki took the stage today in Tokyo to demonstrate Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the Nintendo DS. With the controls consisting almost entirely within the touch screen, a live demonstration of this ambitious action title is exactly what we needed after the initial scans left us somewhat baffled. IGN, who was on-hand for the event, walked away fairly impressed with Hayabusa's moves as they say he "dart[ed] about the screen just like his Xbox and PS3 counterpart, performing all the expected moves, right down to leaping between walls to get to higher ground." A bold statement considering the pedigree the series has built on nigh perfect controlling action. With single taps for movements, double taps for jumps and slashes of the stylus for attacks, we're still somewhat skeptical of just how well this will work out, but if anyone can pull it of it's Itagaki and company.
The Dragon Sword deluge continues: screenshots
If you can't seem to get enough of Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, then you're in luck -- because the good folks from Team Ninja are all about giving up the goods. May they never, ever stop. While we've seen a few of these in with the scans, it's nice to look at them all by their lonesome ... and envision how we'll be spending all our free time in the future. Check 'em out after the jump.
