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Help name the next Naruto game
Over at the official Naruto fan community, Hokage's Room, Namco Bandai is asking fans of the anime to help them name the new Naruto game for the PS3. The upcoming title is the next in the Ultimate Ninja fighting series and should be coming out later this year.If you're a Naruto fan, this is an excellent way to get involved with your favorite anime -- especially if you're hyped up for the game. Even if you're not a fan, it might be fun to just drop your suggestion; afterall, how many chances do you have to name a game? It might even lead to a career in game-naming. Perhaps. Check out all the details here.[Thanks Daisuke!]
Gently weep over your DS with Bandai Namco's 99 Tears
We can all think back to particular moments in certain video games that have penetrated the thick, black crust which envelops our hearts and caused us to tear up. Perhaps it was that heartbreaking moment in Final Fantasy VII, or the ending to Shadow of the Colossus. Maybe it was the time your mom made you go to bed while you were in the middle of a particularly gripping Karazhan raid, or when you finally finished Steel Magnolias Adventures, a game so awesome that it hasn't actually been created yet.Bandai Namco is making a pretty heady claim -- not only is their newest game going to make you cry, it's going to do it about 100 times. Calling the aptly titled 99 no Namida (or 99 Tears) a game isn't actually accurate. It's more of a handheld therapeutic crying assistant, providing you with a sad graphic novel to read for 15 minutes at the end of each day, with a brief questionnaire following shortly after, the results of which will help move you closer to the story which will more effectively tug at your heartstrings, and further from the respect of your bros on the wrestling squad.
Neat Accessory Sets of Innocence
We like Hori's themed Protect Cases. They're an easy, inexpensive, and impermanent way to give your DS Lite a "limited edition" look. This way, you can deck out your DS like you spent $200 dollars on a bundle, but then if you decide that the game is terrible or something, you can just toss the cover and not have a constant reminder of your own folly on the top of your system.From the looks of it, Tales of Innocence won't be terrible, and so there will no doubt be an audience for this nice-looking set. It includes a clear Protect Case and a maroon Tales of Innocence extending stylus, for $23. It'll be released on December 6th.
Nodame Cantabile brings classical rhythm gaming to the Wii
Nodame Cantabile on DS was an Ouendan-alike in which you conducted classical music by tapping the screen. The Wii version, called Nodame Cantabile: Dream Orchestra seems to expand on that premise by allowing players to not only conduct, but play multiple instruments as well. We can't exactly tell how the Wii version works-- whether you point at the little note icons before pressing a button, or if the game takes button presses only, but Bandai Namco promises a simple control scheme in the interest of attracting new gamers. We'd kind of like to swing the Wiimote like a baton, but we aren't sure if that'll happen.Of particular interest to us is the four-player mode, in which each player can use a different instrument and play one of the game's 50+ compositions together. We call triangle!
TGS07: Game Center CX, the new game about old games, previewed
1UP's original Retronaut, Jeremy Parish, took in some Game Center CX at TGS, and it sounds as meta-fabulous as we thought. The central gimmick of the game is that you play as two kids who are themselves playing games; they have a Famicom-esque system in front of them and a pile of magazines. Both the games and the magazines are original creations based on classics; the games imitate Galaga, Lode Runner, and others, and the magazines talk about those games in a style reminiscent of Famitsu.We're as bummed about the fact that this game will never make it to the U.S. as we are about the Game Center CX show. We're sure Spike TV or G4 or somebody could make decent money from a subtitled version of the show, but we don't know how big the market would be for a game about it. Too bad for what is basically a love letter to retrogaming.
TGS07: Athletic World features leaning
The more we see of Bandai Namco's Family Trainer: Athletic World, the more we admit that, while the graphics are nowhere near what they should be, the game kind of looks like fun. It sounded like the people playing the demo were having a great time, at least! This gameplay video from TGS shows that Bandai has chosen to brazenly ignore Wii Fit and make its own leaning-based game, although it obviously uses a simpler method of reading your body motion.This mine-car game has (one or) two players lifting a foot off of the mat in order to shift their weight and cause the mine car to turn at the appropriate moment. Jumping is handled by, well, jumping. It kind of looks like the pointer's involved in some way, as well, but we can't figure out how.
The new Family Trainer is a faithful recreation
We know you're all on the edge of your seats waiting for more details about the Family Trainer and the new version of Athletic World. We understand-- we know how long you've been waiting for a sequel to this NES classic, and we know that everyone is desperately awaiting some kind of Wii exercise game.Famitsu sought to feed our frothing demand for Athletic World with a new, close-up picture of the Family Trainer, which reveals it to have exactly the same button layout as the Famicom/NES pad, with a picture in the corner indicating that it can be turned over for the other familiar Power Pad button layout.Except for the colors and the icon designs, this is exactly the same as the original Power Pad. It's even got the grid pattern on the back. There are also a few more photos of actors pretending to enjoy Athletic World, with tiny inset screenshots of the games. The official website is open, as well, but features nothing but the same photos at the moment.We admit that we're kind of leaning (get it) toward this game now instead of Wii Fit, both as an act of retrogamer defiance and because we'd be amused by a new version of Dance Aerobics.
Bandai Namco brings back the Power Pad and Athletic World
Before the Power Pad was the Power Pad, it was the Family Trainer, released in Japan by Bandai. They actually marketed it briefly in the U.S. as the Family Fun Fitness pad, but Nintendo bought the rights, rebranded it as the Power Pad and started packing the peripheral in with NES systems along with a retitled Stadium Events (now called World Class Track Meet).One of the few Power Pad/Family Trainer games was Athletic World: an Olympics-style collection of games including hurdles, rafting, and "Hop a Log." And now, in one of the worst-timed moves ever, Bandai Namco is releasing a new version of the Family Trainer along with a new version of Athletic World. Regardless of the quality of the single screenshot included, is this really the time to introduce a new exercise peripheral for the Wii? We're actually not going to leave that as a rhetorical question. No, it isn't. The Family Trainer has somewhat of a nostalgia factor, but even that's disrupted by the fact that Athletic World wasn't that great on the NES. And its main competition, Wii Fit, has the invincible Wii Sports factor.The best we can hope for is another super-limited release in the U.S., as a moneymaking opportunity. Click on the image to see a larger version (with plenty of family air-paddling!) and click the link for the Japanese press release.[Via NeoGAF]
Soul Calibur IV E3 trailer on XBLM
The E3 trailer for Soul Calibur IV, which we must have missed during all the hubbub, has finally landed on Xbox Live Marketplace. The trailer features the first gameplay footage of the game, and so far things are looking pretty damned good. In particular, we're really digging one of the new female fighters. Wielding a sword and halberd simultaneously, and sporting a full suit of armor, she's intriguing to say the least. Everything else looks like good old-fashioned Soul Calibur fun, only a lot prettier. All of this coupled with the introduction of online play has us fairly excited to get a crack at the full game. Now if we can just get a demo to tide us over until the game's release in 2008, we'll be set. Get to it Namco.
JRPG scan-splosion from V-Jump magazine
A NeoGAFfer called king zell was apparently trying to level up his "Scan Posting" skill, because he created a thread packed densely with all kinds of new images of DS role playing games. There are multiple Final Fantasies, Tales of Innocence, Archaic Sealed Heat, and even an extended preview of Summon Night: Twin Age, which we haven't heard from in quite some time.Be sure to pace yourself and enjoy every thumbnail-sized halftone screenshot, because this is a lot of RPG news to take in at once. There's bound to be something here for you, unless you hate RPGs, at which point you should stop clicking all those image links. We've mirrored the scans after the break, just in case the originals get stricken with a status ailment.
USK lists Warhammer: Mark of Chaos for 360
Ah, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle, better known as the USK or, simply, the German version of the ESRB. We love 'em. Why? Because they constantly tip us off about games that publishers work so darned hard to keep secret. For example, the USK has now listed Namco Bandai and Black Hole Entertainment"s Warhammer: Mark of Chaos for the Xbox 360. A real time strategy title that debuted last holiday to decent reviews, Mark of Chaos would be yet another addition to the Xbox 360's burgeoning RTS library. The 360 game has another subtitle tacked onto it, making the full title actually Warhammer: Mark of Chaos -- Battle March. Whether this means we'll see a completely retooled game or an expansion to the original we're not sure. In an interesting twist, the entry on in the USK database is labeled "GC-Demo" which would lead us to believe we'll see a Mark of Chaos demo before too long. Once again, thanks USK![Via IGN. Thanks, IncredibleBulk92]
Taiko DS can't handle clothed drums
There are few things freakier than dressing a musical instrument in clothes, and Taiko no Tatsujin DS Touch de Dokodon instinctively knows this. That's why the game rejects this activity.Either that or, you know, it's just a bug. Apparently the game has a problem in which you cannot continue playing after you attempt to change costumes in all three save slots. Bandai Namco is correcting the issue, and will have new copies of the game out soon. We would suggest holding off on importing until then, obviously.Is the DS really hard to program for or something? It seems like we've had a disproportionately high number of game-breaking bugs. Well, this makes three that we can count, but that still seems high.
The real games in Namco Museum Remix
Sure, there are some new screens of the new versions of Pac 'n Roll and Pac-Motos, and maybe they do look fun, in a budget party game sort of way, but we glossed right over them for screens of 20+year-old arcade games, because that's how we (Pac'n) roll.We're strange people, we suppose. But when we saw those screenshots of Gaplus, Pac and Pal, and especially our beloved Pac-Mania and its brilliant background image (CRAZYMAN!!), we knew. We got a terrible feeling that we will buy Namco Museum Remix. There. We said it. We only hope we can get the message out to Bandai Namco that we want more real classics and fewer wacky remakes. And please, some games that haven't been released in previous Namco Museums.
The Club Nintendo Gundam tortures retro nerds
We aren't die-hard Gundam fans, but we are fans on a superficial level of cool-looking robot things, and we can't deny a love of free stuff that comes with video games. Even more than that, we're fans of old game consoles, which is why the custom Famicom color scheme on the exclusive Club Nintendo edition Gundam RX78-2 model kills us. We're totally imagining a guy inside that Gundam piloting it with the Famicom Robot.That is it. We are officially moving to Japan and getting Mobile Suit Gundam MS Front 0079 buying a Gundam model and some paint.[Via Dengeki]
Kekkaishi ain't afraid of no ghost
Kekkaishi is a manga and anime series about high school kids who trap demons inside magical barriers in order to protect their haunted school. We think. Not having read the manga or seen the cartoon, we're mostly concerned with the Wii adaptation and the basic gameplay mechanic, which looks fun.You target crazy demon creatures with a reticle, then you apparently draw shapes around them, and fling the Wiimote upward to create barriers in those shapes. Once the monster is enclosed, you hit the B button to destroy it. If you forget the anime license, that actually sounds like an interesting basis for an arcade-style game with potentially enjoyable motion controls. But if you remember the anime license, it sounds like a recipe for wasted potential that we'll never see in the US anyway.
New videos for SD Gundam G Generation: Cross Drive
It's highly unlikely that SD Gundam G Generation Cross Drive will ever make it to the states; obtaining rights for 500+ characters spanning over a dozen different series, most of which having never made it out of Japan, would be a nightmare. Still, we like to keep up to date with the SRPG on the off-chance that a North American publisher might take a risk and pick it up, much like Atlus did with Super Robot Taisen Original Generations 1 & 2 for the GBA.Bandai Namco has updated Cross Drive's official site with a two-minute-and-a-half trailer and a new commercial, advertising its August 9th's release. If you're at all interested in the title, or if you just have a bizarre fetish for chibi mobile suits, make sure to check both of the clips out!See also: Mobile Suit DS Lite
Club Nintendo members get exclusive Gundam figure
And we get exclusive jealousy. To promote the release of Mobile Suit Gundam MS Front 0079, Nintendo and Bandai Namco are giving away neat free stuff. Preorders of the game are rewarded with Gundam 0079 memorial DVD's. And Club Nintendo, purveyor of many frustratingly awesome freebies, is giving away limited-edition Gundam RX78-2 models-- in an exclusive color.There are some new screenshots of the game at GAME Watch, but we don't know if we even want to look. Games are just no fun unless buying them earns you junk you didn't even want in the first place.
Ace Combat 6 demo flies out next week
In the latest episode of GameSpot's On the Spot, In Joon Hwang, Product Marketing Manager for Namco Bandai, revealed that a demo for Ace Combat 6 should be available on Xbox Live Marketplace next week. Ace Combat 6 is the first in the flight combat series to appear on a non-Sony console and also the first new-gen entry in the series. Hwang notes that the game's support system has been revamped, and players will now be able give commands to naval, air, and ground combat units during play. Expect to hear more about Ace Combat 6 from E3 next week. [Thanks, Dark Mobius]
Watch Ace Combat 6 and The Bigs on XBLM
A couple of new trailers landed on Xbox Live Marketplace this morning. First we have a trailer for Ace Combat 6, it's the same cheesy trailer we saw released before, with lots of American pride and important-sounding music (think Armageddon). Our favorite moment is when a woman's voice breaks through the chaos: "I don't know a whole lot about war, but there's something I need to tell you." Yes, the cheese-factor is strong with this one. The Bigs trailer, on the other hand, is straight up balls-to-bat action (still no demo, by the way). You've got big, beefy players, flaming baseballs, and home runs so powerful that they could bring down small aircraft. For those of you without access to your 360, we've embedded it at the top of the post. Enjoy.
SCIV scans: medieval cleavage galore
Hot on the heels of the revelation that Soul Calibur IV will feature online play, images pulled from the related EGM article are beginning to hit the internet. The images come to us courtesy of Xboxygen, and they are quite, ahem, revealing. We are of course referring to the amazingly supported female naughty bits (made even more amazing considering the game takes place in an age before the underwire bra). The image above also reveals a well-wrought thong (or a spectacularly painful wedgie). Ogling aside, the images certainly do look sharp. We also have to point out that one shot contains a dodo. Given that Soul Calibur IV looks to be the last in the series, the fact that it contains an extinct bird seems appropriate. Here's hoping the gameplay does a better job of evolving (ba dum bum, psh!).Hit the "read" link for more images.
