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DS Daily: Welcome, new DS owners!
We're sure that a lot of you are just getting back from stores, where you picked up your $19.99 Konami's Best Edition DS Lites. We're glad Konami solved that DS shortage, and at such a budget price! Welcome, new DS Fanboys, to the fold.We thought it was a little presumptuous of Konami to label the whole system as "Konami's Best", but we must admit, a lot of Konami's best work has been on the system-- two Castlevanias, Lunar Knights, etc. We can accept that. So what do you think about your new systems? And are any of you existing DS owners getting one at the budget price?
Never mind, Castlevania film full suck ahead
Apparently, the rumors were tragically untrue and Paul W.S. Anderson is actually still helming the Castlevania movie. But not just a movie, mind you. He wants a full-on cult franchise. Someone should really tell him that one already kinda exists, Y'know, in the source material. Meaning the games. That, combined with Anderson's "Dracula Begins" remark that keeps being repeated just makes us want to hide until all this blows over. It's a dark day for Castlevania devotees. If you need us, we'll be huddled in the corner, rocking back and forth in time with the music from Symphony of the Night.
Shakeup for Castlevania film
Rumor is that director Paul W.S. Anderson (of Resident Evil and AVP) is off the Castlevania film slated for 2009. There's no word yet on who might take over in his place. We can only guess what horrors the studio might have in store for us next. We're not too fussed; this blogger, at least, was way more interested in this other project anyway. Movie adaptations of video games are just risky and almost never work out as well as we could hope. Is it too much to dream that perhaps the Castlevania movie will just disappear? Just spend that money on making more games!
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for five dollars
Just several months ago, gamers were still complaining about Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow's rarity and unyielding price point. Even if you were lucky enough to find a used copy, buying it would still cost you about $30 at GameStop. Several stores eventually put the game on sale for $19.99, and Konami released a greatest hits version with dreadful boxart, making Dawn of Sorrow available and affordable for everyone to enjoy.The good times don't end there, though. The frugal folks at CAG noticed a couple of weeks ago that Best Buy has been selling the "Konami's Best" version of the game at an astonishing $9.99. Combining this rock-bottom sale with "$5.00 off" coupons scanned from GamePro brings the price down even further to about $5.00! We usually miss out on these insane deals, failing to get to the store in time before eBay hounds pick the shelves clean, but we drove to Best Buy anyway to see how we'd fare. We were surprised to find that our store had over a dozen copies, and that the GamePro coupon worked like a charm! Success!Make sure you take advantage of this sale now, as it ends on April 1st, punishing the fools who've missed out. Head past the cut for the "$5.00 off" coupon.
Virtually Overlooked: Cave Story
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.Doukutsu Monogatari (Cave Story) is a free-roaming side-scrolling action adventure game developed over five years by a Japanese designer who goes by Pixel. You can download Cave Story right now and play it on the computer on which you're reading this article, PC or Mac. It's completely free. We have a copy on our own computer that we've played through many times. So why do we want to pay money to play it on the Wii? Because it's that good.
The top five "traditional" DS games
var digg_url = 'http://www.digg.com/gaming_news/The_Top_Five_Traditional_DS_Games'; The DS is well-known for its unusual design features, the two-screen format and the touch screen. Many of the DS's most popular games make good use of these features, and there are many outstanding games, like Meteos, that make strong enough use of them that they could fairly be said to depend on these features. There wouldn't be too much to Brain Age without the handwriting input, and it is hard to imagine Elite Beat Agents existing at all without either the unique interface or the simultaneous cutscene/gameplay presentation. But for as much attention as the DS gets for its unique features, many of its best games use them in only the most cursory of ways. Some of the best-reviewed, most popular DS games have only optional touch-screen use, or some function that is nonessential to gameplay. Some games squander their second screen on inventories and maps. Many such games not only could have worked just as well on other systems, they are from long-standing series that worked just fine back in the dark ages when game systems only had a single screen and controls were mapped only to buttons. The games on this list are the highest-ranked games according to Metacritic that fall under the category of "traditional" games. In fact, the top four DS games according to Metacritic are all traditional. Each game on this list is an excellent DS game that is excellent independent of the DS' inherent advantages.
Dracula's castle crashes onto XBLA
Dracula's ethereal castle, Castlevania, has officially materialized on Xbox Live Arcade. Of course, we speak of the oft cited pinnacle of the Castlevania series, Symphony of the Night. The game will set you back 800 points and will cost you a few extra seconds than most XBLA games, thanks to its 90 MB size. There are also some other goodies available should you have any points left, including a 150 point theme and a 100 point picture pack. By the time you're done you might as well slap a Konami logo right onto your Xbox.So, who's getting their Castlevania on?
DS Daily: Multitasking
One of the great things about the DS and other handheld systems is that they don't require the use of the TV. Because of this, we often find our DS time and our TV time combined. Portrait of Ruin is bliss by itself, but if we can watch "Darmok" while playing it, it's even better. We're kind of busy here at the bustling DS Fanboy compound-- we have to pack as much relaxation into our downtime as possible. Occasionally we'll realize that between the DS, the TV, and the laptop, we've got four screens in front of us, and then we get a little scared that we're going to go crazy very quickly.What about you, readers? Do you play while watching TV? Or while doing homework, or participating in chats for online classes? Or is two screens at a time enough?
Symphony of the Night whips XBLA next week
Wow. We never thought we'd say this, but Xbox Live Arcade is on a roll. Two weeks ago, we got Alien Hominid, last week was Worms, and TMNT dropped this week. That's three decent titles in a row. How in heaven could Microsoft keep this up? The answer is Symphony of the Night. Marked by many as the official game to whine about now that Worms is out, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night will arrive next Wednesday on Xbox Live Arcade. Most Castlevania fans agree that SOTN is the best in the series, so seeing it on Live Arcade is a real treat. The game provides many, many hours of action RPG gameplay and features either classic or "modernized" graphics and sound. Symphony of the Night will be available next Wednesday for 800 points.Is Xbox Live Arcade finally coming into its own? Dare we dream?
This Wednesday: Castlevania mania straight from Romania
It's, erm, insania. The gist of it being that the whip-wielding vampire-vanquishing adventure into androgyny, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, is going to vanquish vampires and wield whips on Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday (when else?). An 800 MS Point ($10) expenditure will net you both the original version of the game and another that boasts improved HD visuals and sound.But enough talk, have at this gallery of Symphony of the Night images! Fans of Alucard (psst, it's Dracula backwards!) can venture further into the post for a special reminder of their time spent within the dark lord's domain.%Gallery-2156%
Interview reveals Symphony of the Night to include updated vocals
You may remember a little title that got everyone talking a few weeks ago: Castlevania. Ever since its incredible debut, Konami has remained silent on this hotly anticipated revival of Rondo of Blood, the only Castlevania title never to be released in the States. The upcoming Castlevania X Chronicles not only includes a 3D remake of Rondo of Blood, but includes the fan-favorite Symphony of the Night as well. Games Radar has an incredible interview with Koji Igarashi from GDC available, and here are some highlights: After years of working on GBA/DS games, the power of the PSP has been startling: "It's better than what I expected, actually. I'm very happy about the quality. Especially with the graphic quality. The PSP hardware system allows a very high resolution." Symphony of the Night will be getting a few enhancements: "So basically, it's mostly a straight port from the original SOTN on PlayStation. I wasn't happy about the quality of the PlayStation SOTN voiceover, so I'm trying to do something about it on the PSP." Don't forget to check out Games Radar for the rest of this brilliant interview.See also:The Symphony of the Night we won't get
Castlevania's Koji Igarashi: 2D games will never die!
Bringing his GDC presentation, "The Light and Dark Sides of 2D Game Production," to a flag-waving close, Konami's Koji Igarashi defiantly declared (via an enthusiastically projected slide) that "2D games will never die!" Though the Castlevania designer's train of thought seemed to switch several times during the talk -- no doubt exacerbated by the wonky on-the-fly translation -- his point eventually emerged as a light at the end of the tunnel.Igarashi explained that as 3D games grow more complex and require greater effort from artists, 2D games provide an advantage by being easier and cheaper to design. Though he argued that the perspective generally allows players to better judge distance in action games, he was largely focused on the production side of things. Pixel art and backgrounds can be reused throughout multiple titles, he noted, allowing designers to spend more of their time on other aspects of the game.A unique challenge for modern consoles, however, is adapting to the much higher display resolutions. More on-screen pixels means more detailed art, in which case drawing beautiful 2D assets might become just as strenuous and laborious as creating 3D character models. As such, Igarashi is treating the upcoming 2.5D Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles as an experiment -- can the dynamic presentation of 3D titles and the cost-effective design of 2D gaming get along? We'll find out later this year.%Gallery-2095%
GDC 07: Igarashi, "2D games will never die!"
Koji Igarashi, the producer of recent entries in the Castlevania series and assistant director of Symphony of the Night, gave a presentation on 2D games at GDC last week. Specifically, his presentation centered on the differences between developing 2D games and 3D games. Igarashi noted a few philosophical differences between 3D and 2D games, but also noted a few advantages that hadn't occurred to us. For instance, 2D games are easier to produce, faster to design, and faster to implement. Of course, all of this is generally cheaper than 3D production as well.
Mankind ill needs a boxart such as this
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Worst_box_art_branding_ever'; So, uh ... remember that Amazon Castlevania deal that we got all excited about, and encouraged you all to take advantage of? Yeah, about that. NeoGAFfer Reilly bought a copy of Dawn of Sorrow from Amazon, and what you see above is what arrived. Konami has started their own "Konami's Best" branding, and rebranded Castlevania with the lovely new label. If you don't know what the original boxart looked like, it's the one pictured on the new box. We knew nothing of this when we sent you all to Amazon. At least there's still a fantastic game in there.You want to know what's really sad? We kind of want one of these "Konami's Best" copies for our collection.
Barnyard Blast: Swine of the Night
Under any other circumstances, dismissing a game titled Barnyard Blast from an unproven developer would be easy. Given the dozens of games announced every week, it would be an effortless reflex. But upon hearing that Barnyard Blast brings together Castlevania themes with cowboy pigs, we would hold onto the game like it was our first-born. Insert Credit spent some time with an early demo at GDC and enjoyed what little there was to play. Early screenshots show the hog hero creeping through a cemetery with a six-shooter, shotgun, and "slayer" in his inventory. Whether or not the game will include vampire sheep, zombie cows, or other undead farm animals has yet to be revealed.Fans of the Castlevania series have been complaining about its stagnation for some time now. Has Sanuk Software discovered exactly what the languishing genre needs? More pork?
Castlevanias on sale at Amazon
If you live in the US, you have a DS and you don't have both Castlevania games, today is the day you will fix that problem. Amazon.com has Portrait of Ruin on sale for $20.99, and its predecessor Dawn of Sorrow for $19.99. Buy them together, and you get free shipping.That's two of the best games released in the last few years, for less than a copy of Pimp My Ride for the Xbox 360. It's a pretty excellent deal.[Via NeoGAF]
SNK president talks about Neo-Geo and online games [Update 1]
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Nintendo_not_letting_publishers_add_online_functionality_to_games'; Ben Herman, who runs SNK Playmore USA, is almost as excited about Neo-Geo games on the Virtual Console as we are. In a recent interview, he discussed SNK's VC plans and Nintendo's operation of the system in general.According to Herman, who, of course, can't give details, SNK expects to release "a certain limited number of titles per month," which is enough to have us cheering, because that's a lot more than the N64 is getting. It's also a much brisker release schedule than the Neo-Geo ever had. The best news, in our opinion? Herman is interested in the Virtual Console as a means of releasing lesser-known and niche games. SNK isn't sure yet whether the Neo-Geo games on the VC will be the AES home versions or the MVS arcade cartridges. We had no idea there was a difference! Of course, there has to be bad news, and it's kind of big: Herman says that Nintendo is not letting publishers add online functionality to games, VC or retail, and probably will continue this restriction throughout 2007.Herman goes on to talk about Nintendo's console library, saying that Nintendo has all of the code for third-party NES and SNES games and needs only permission to release them. Which means Konami officially has no excuse for the fact that we haven't played Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse on the Wii yet. Konami, you're on notice![Update: added the sad, sad news about online games.]
Castlevania: Poster of Awesome
Okay, so you think you're cool because you got the preorder bonus package with your copy of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. Well, you're right. You are cool, and we are jealous.But here's a Portrait of Ruin promotional item that we can all covet together. This poster comes with the soundtrack CD, and features art from Suikoden character designer Fumi Ishikawa that we wish had been used in the game. Oh, and about the actual item this poster is included with-- did we mention that the actual Portrait of Ruin music is amazing? We almost forgot about that part.This poster is only being included with the first shipment of CDs, and, of course, this package is only available in Japan. We grudgingly accept that; our wallets ill need a drain such as a $21 CD.
DS Daily: What's your favorite WiFi game?
According to our Game Night polls, Mario Kart DS is probably the most universally popular DS game -- or maybe it's just the one more people have. But what's your favorite? Which DS game really makes you want to get in there and fight it out online? Do you like fragging in Metroid Prime Hunters, or the versatility of Clubhouse Games? We'd love to hear about it.
ESRB update: Castlevania!
We brought you the news yesterday of some upcoming Konami wonderfulness on the Virtual Console. Well, we saw something on the ESRB website today that's even more Konami, and even more wonderful; the progenitor of a series that is dear to our fanboy hearts.Castlevania.Warning: if you've grown up on the GBA and DS "Metroidvania" games, or Super Castlevania IV on the Virtual Console, then this game will whip you like some kind of ... weapon. You know, the whippy one? That people whip things with?Naturally, we'll tell you when this game hits the shop-- probably in ALL CAPS.[Via Cubed3]
