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Video proof of the renegade satellite's destruction
Sure, it's one thing to hear about that satellite getting blown to bits, but there's nothing like cold, hard video evidence to really cement our belief in the Navy's extreme skill at hitting fast moving objects in space with huge missiles. Yes -- the video is grainy and hard to make out, but if you can't tell how bad we blew that thing out of the sky... well maybe you're not looking hard enough. See it all go down (literally) after the break.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Alien or zombie threat averted: the spy satellite has been destroyed... probably
Just like the Navy told us, they shot that nasty satellite out of the sky with the kind of laser-like precision they've been claiming they're capable of for years. At right around 10:30 this evening, expensive missiles were fired from the deck of the USS Lake Erie, traveling into space at an excess of 5,000mph, which then slammed into the Alien / zombie-juice / Russian controlled satellite (which itself was traveling at 17,000mph). Right now details are still sketchy on just how much damage was done to the object, but word on the street (aka, from the Navy) is that just about any hit to the satellite would put it out of our misery, due to the speed and trajectory at which it's traveling. The story is still developing, so if any of the zombie spore does manage to reach Earth and spark an undead holocaust, we'll be the first to let you know.
Drone Tactics swarming stores in April
If you ask us, Advance Wars-esque turn-based combat crossed with giant mecha bugs is just too delicious a prospect to swat away. Evidently, Atlus agrees with us. The Japanese publisher revealed it was localizing Drone Tactics late last year, and now we have an exact date for the U.S. release: April 8th.We've also been treated to a further 29 screens of the game (see the gallery below), showing off units that range from bomb-dropping moths to cannon-toting pillbugs, and just some of the 100 customizable weapons and upgrades available in the game. If developer Success Corp. has struck an appropriate balance between said units, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin might find itself competing with Drone Tactics for our valuable SRPG time.%Gallery-14982%[Via press release]
Rondo of Swords puts your entire team to work
Another Rondo of Swords preview has hit the scene, and it's given us another reason to look forward to the SRPG and its unorthodox combat system. Playing through these 40+ hour epics, you tend to accumulate more teammates than you can effectively manage. Who has the time or patience to level up all the Sword Dudes that join your band, especially when you're still trying to train Archer Girl? More often than not, those Sword Dudes spend the game just hanging around, making cynical remarks about your primary fighters. Rondo of Swords has a creative solution to that dilemma -- send those ne'er-do-wells to run some errands. Instead of loafing around and eating Funyuns while your elite crew does all the work, your Sword Dudes can pick up essentials at local shops, level up at training workshops, and tag your MP3s complete simple quests. Way to go, Sword Dudes!%Gallery-14108%
Rondo of Swords: Not your everyday SRPG
We were content to simply give Rondo of Swords the same obligatory coverage we reserve for most other generic SRPGs, but 1UP's Jeremy Parish, the scoundrel that he is, had to ruin it all with a glowing preview of the Atlus-published game, painting it as a "sleeper in the making [that] just might reinvent strategy RPGs."Rondo of Swords takes an innovative approach to combat, tossing aside the usual move-next-to-your-enemy-and-select-attack conventions. Instead, players draw paths for characters that go through their opponent (or opponents!). As simple a change as it might sound, this system allows for a range of new stratagems -- scattering your team to limit the amount of vulnerable characters, carrying out "drive-bys" to attack units before moving out of their range, etc.Throw in an interesting story about royal deception and some pleasing-looking combat cutscenes, and this suddenly becomes a game we can get behind. %Gallery-14108%
First look at Colpile on the DS
Success recently announced their adaptation of the Flash puzzle game Colpile, about lifting and lowering blocks on a grid to match patterns. The first DS-specific screens have been released, with no major surprises. The blocks haven't been turned into alligators or anything. The game retains its signature isometric viewpoint and orange-and-green color scheme, but gets a slight change in the button display: the 'up' and 'down' buttons now appear to be built on the side of a vertical structure containing the puzzle, rather than lined up alongside.Much more significant than the visual layout is, of course, the multiplayer. It includes a training mode which explains the rules, so people can jump in immediately. This is the perfect kind of puzzle game for the DS, because we can only play for about thirty seconds at a time before getting angry. This way, we can just close the DS and go on about our business before trying again.
Drone Tactics is actually pretty exciting
We're pretty sure Atlus means "drone" in the "worker insect" sense, not in the "monotony" sense. If Drone Tactics was really boring, Atlus wouldn't be calling attention to it right there in the title. There's little chance of boredom here anyway! The day we get bored of giant rocket-powered mechanical beetle vehicles is the day we give up on life. Although it would certainly be ironic if the game did turn out to be repetitive and boring!Of course, we think the idea of painting your own custom bug fighting machine sounds awesome all by itself, and that doesn't even take into account the actual combat. Check out the latest trailer and our gallery of buggin' screenshots and get totally excited about drones!%Gallery-14982%[Via press release]
Ro Puzzle gets touched
We recently learned that the phenomenally wacky Joshikousei Nigeru! Shinrei Puzzle Gakuen from Success is a remake/sequel/adaptation/thing of an existing Korean puzzle game called Touch Ro Puzzle. Spencer Yip just happened to be in Korea, so he sought out a copy of the original puzzler to check it out. Via his description, then, we can also get a better idea of how Joshikousei Nigeru works.The twist in this particular iteration of Bejeweled is that matching three or more (monsters) earns you a portion of the game's playfield as your territory, marked by the color orange. Turn a certain percentage of the screen orange and you win! Or, in the Joshikousei Nigeru version, you don't die a frightful death!
Atlus announces Rondo of Swords
Yesterday we found out from Nintendo that Rondo of Swords would be released for the DS in April, leaving us intrigued. Some of us at DS Fanboy (correctly) guessed that it was a localization of Success Corp's Ituwari no Rondo, but that's about it.Atlus cured our curiosity today, though, by providing a press release about the game. Besides copying and pasting the Wikipedia definition of "rondo" for us (gee, thanks, Atlus!), the publisher announced that the SRPG would be coming to the DS on April 15th. The press release also mentioned quite a few times that the game is "epic," making us wonder if we should have read it out loud with epic voices. Other than that, most of the information about the game can be found at the game's official website here.For all our snark, we're really looking forward to this game. The combat mechanic makes use of the touch screen, and the idea of a long, challenging game is especially compelling. Unfortunately, we won't find out until April if the game can deliver on its epic promises.%Gallery-14108%[Via press release]
Success brings more puzzles to the DS
Success has their fingers in a lot of DS pies, don't they? Sleuthing, puzzling and ... now more puzzling. We can't complain, because if there is one thing we'll never get enough of in life, it's puzzles that need solving.Along with browser-based Flash title Crimson Room, the company also snatched up the rights to Colpile, a puzzle game that tasks the player with raising blocks from the ground to create patterns. If text descriptions just don't do it for you, there's always the free Flash version online to try. After giving it a whirl, tell us what you think!
Detecting. It's what we do.
Or rather, it's what we could be doing more of in the future. That's because Success Corp., maker of Touch Detective and Touch Detective 2 1/2, has updated its site with two new detective games for the DS. With both projects currently listed under the name of "Keiji," we're at a loss as to what these could be.Siliconera's Spencer Yip speculates that additional entries in the Touch Detective series are doubtful, but that's fine with us. We'd just appreciate more games in the hardboiled vein of Hotel Dusk: Room 215, or Aksys' forthcoming localization of Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles.
Video: three minutes of Raiden Fighters Aces
GameTrailers has posted new footage of Raiden Fighters Aces, which was revealed last month. Unlike last month's footage, which can be missed entirely if you blink too much, this new footage is much more satisfying. Unfortunately, while the video is much longer than the previous one, it doesn't reveal anything new. We can still see that Aces is a compilation of Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters II, and Raiden Fighters Jet. We'd still like to know if the game is going to be downloadable on Xbox Live Arcade or if it's a full retail title. As we wait for answers to this and other questions (Live co-op, please?) all we can do is marvel at the shootery goodness of it all. Check it out after the break.
Joshikousei Nigeru before it rose from the grave
Joshikousei Nigeru! Shinrei Puzzle Gakuen, our favorite horror puzzle game (by default), has a terrifying secret. We wondered how such a weirdly creative game could get made on a shoestring budget for the Superlite 2500 series. The obvious answer to this question is that it was already made.Joshikousei Nigeru! entered the world as a Korean puzzle game called Touch RO Puzzle. Back then it was a little less haunting and a bit more yay, with cute children and adorably rotund creatures populating a children's-fable-themed world full of bright colors and brighter smiles. Where Joshikousei Nigeru's boxart depicts a frightened young woman gripping a wall in terror, Touch RO Puzzle's features a little monster bashfully peeking in from the edge of the frame. Joshikousei Nigeru! is somewhat of a sequel to Touch RO Puzzle, since the game was released in its original incarnation in Japan. Still, somehow, developer Skonec looked at their adorable puzzle game and saw horrors within. We'd love to know the inspiration for that design decision.
The Nightmare After Christmas: Joshikousei Nigeru! trailer
If you thought that Success Corp. would rely on a cheaply produced trailer for Joshikousei Nigeru! Shinrei Puzzle Gakuen, the newest bargain-priced game in its SuperLite 2500 budget series, well then ... you were absolutely right! We love how the video lulls you into a false sense of security with its unthreatening text and recycled concept art, when, all of a sudden -- a giant, bloody handprint attacks your screen!Thankfully, the eight-second gameplay clip included in the trailer does the puzzle/survival-horror title justice, what with its yelps of pain from well-executed combos, its sickening sound effects of bloody limbs slapping against each other as the puzzle pieces drop, and its partially obscured wraith on the top screen, whose red eye is always watching you while you play, rolling back every now and then to remind you it's alive. Rumor has it, if you get a high enough score, the undead schoolgirl pulls herself out of the DS screen. She crawls towards your shaking body as you yell out for help right before her heavy fingers smack against and close around your throat. And just when you think you're only a moment away from death, you feel her cold form sidle next to you, her grip still around your neck. She sings, her gray lips a half-inch away from your ear, the lullabies your mother used to hum to calm you down when you were a child. This goes on for what seems like hours before she finally lets you die. We thought it was a pretty cool rumor, too! %Gallery-10383% [Via Dengeki]
Collecting new Drone Tactics screens
Atlus released a few new images for March's Drone Tactics, the English-language version of Konchuu Wars (Insect Wars) that has us so very excited. This past year has been very strong for strategy on the DS, and it looks like 2008 is shaping up similarly. We're certainly not complaining; commanding an army of badass mech insects sounds just as much fun as, say, an army of pink squirrels. Maybe we just like armies. When it comes to this army, you can see some of the specific units on the Drone Tactics site, and for the new screens, head on past the break.
Friday Video: Because you need to get excited about Drone Tactics
Whatever you want to call it -- Drone Tactics, Insect Wars, Konchuu Wars -- this game looks awesome, and we (especially Eric) want to make sure you're appropriately hyped. To that end, we've got not one, but two videos for you this week. Above, you'll find the game's intro. After the break, the original video we posted right here at DS Fanboy, the one that got us initially excited about bug wars. Check 'em out and get on the hype train!
Drone Tactics buzzing our way
It may have a new name, but we still burn to get our hands on a little buggy strategy, so it's a good thing Atlus has decided to localize Success Corp's Insect Wars -- now Drone Tactics -- and bring it to the U.S. in late March. So why should you be excited? Because Drone Tactics has it all: RPG and strategy elements, 100+ weapons, 50+ maps, and what's more? Mecha bugs. Sign us up for two copies, so that we may force friends to play with us. Sadly, Drone Tactics does not feature Wi-Fi play, but that's okay. One can't can't have everything, or we'd never buy anything else.Zip on past the break to check out a couple of screenshots from the title, and you might want to check out the website as well, though it's a bit slim on content at the moment.
Joshikousei Nigeru!'s final boxart not so wacky
Remember that bizarre boxart we cracked jokes about for Joshikousei Nigeru! Shinrei Puzzle Gakuen, the budget survival horror-themed puzzler from Success? That cover turned out to be just a placeholder, and the finalized design has been put up at Joshikousei Nigeru!'s recently launched teaser site. The new art seems more appropriate to the game's schoolgirls-in-distress cast, but it's not nearly as memorable as the ghoul lunging for some off-camera cheeseburger (viewable past the break). We're actually kind of bummed that Success opted to not use that silly image. We were planning on turning the bogeyman's open-mouthed expression into the next Jam Sessions dude, photoshopping him into article images at every opportunity.%Gallery-10383%
Izuna 2 has a naughty costume
As a bonus item, Japanese retailer Sofmap is including a collectors' edition box with copies of Izuna 2. The box features artwork of scantily-clad Izuna and Shino relaxing at an onsen, and is designed to mirror the appearance of PC eroge (hentai games.) No, Izuna 2 isn't a hentai game. But it does star female characters with whom plenty of otaku are no doubt obsessed. Publisher Success is partly making fun of eroge, we think, and simultaneously serving and mocking any prurient interest in their characters. Can you imagine an American game made to look like pornography for the purpose of sales? But it's different in Akihabara, where apparently you wouldn't want to be caught dead buying just a DS game and no porn.
Wacky survival horror puzzle game has wacky boxart
Set for a Japanese release this coming January 24th under Success' budget line of games, SuperLite 2500, Joshikousei Nigeru! Shinrei Puzzle Gakuen tasks you with fighting off ghosts and escaping a haunted schoolhouse via Bejeweled-style puzzles. Think Puzzle Quest, except the fantasy and RPG elements have been replaced with creepy dead children.Joshikousei Nigeru! will sell for 2,625 yen (approximately $23.60), which is about how much Success paid whoever decided to use that photo for its packaging art. The pictured ghoul looks less like a menacing spirit than some dude about to eat a cheeseburger. Match three jewels to save your cheeseburger from the wraith! As you can see in the gallery we've put together, there's a lot of fantastic promotional artwork for this game; why weren't any of those images used instead?%Gallery-10383%[Via Ruliweb]
