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Tecmo purchasing Atelier developer Gust
In a move that we're almost certain won't add a third name to its post-merger designation, Tecmo Koei is acquiring Gust Corporation, developer of the Atelier and Ar Tonelico RPG series. Tecmo is purchasing all 495 shares of the developer for ¥22 billion ($28.3 million). We're surprised at that price for the tiny Gust, and we're surprised that Tecmo had that kicking around. According to Andriasang's translation, Tecmo Koei sees the Atelier series as a popular IP, and hopes to leverage it in multiple fields. We're guessing it means more mobile games -- at least until Tecmo recoups some of that 22 billion yen.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma comes to Vita in Japan this February
Team Ninja's PlayStation Vita update of Ninja Gaiden Sigma will arrive in Japan this February, according to the latest issue of Famitsu. Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus is augmented with Ninja Gaiden 3's "Hero Mode," which assists players in experiencing the story by giving Ryu auto-block and auto-dodge. Understanding the story remains a challenge left to the player. If the port is ready for release in Japan by February, there's a good chance it'll end up as a launch or launch window title in the rest of the world. The localization was completed years ago, after all. According to Famitsu, Sigma Plus will be priced at a challenging ¥6,090 ($79) in Japan. Yes, Japanese game prices are nuts.%Gallery-140482%
Ninja Gaiden 3 screens leave quite the mess
Ryu is pretty great at slashing and stabbing, this much we can all agree on. But who cleans up the mess afterward? Magical demon blood-scrubbing fairies? Would it kill you to pick up a mop every now and then, Hayabusa?
Team Ninja dragon out new Ninja Gaiden 3 screens
Team Ninja didn't offer any information when it silently deployed these new Ninja Gaiden 3 screens, aside from some background about Ryu's curse, so we can't say for certain what's going on. Is that fire dragon a Ninpo attack? A transformation? A boss? Whatever it is, it's pretty. What's not so pretty is Ryu's arm. It turns out that, when not surrounded by an aura of blood, Ryu's newly cursed arm is just covered with gross veins or something. Good thing Ryu doesn't ever stand still long enough for us to get a good look at him while playing.%Gallery-138191%
Dead or Alive 5 dishes out another round between Ryu and Hayate
Team Ninja has released the second round of its pre-alpha Dead of Alive 5 showcase. The construction site becomes a destruction fight, with Ryu knocking poor Hayate right into an ongoing car crash. A vehicle hasn't been this useful since the Daytona car made it into Fighters Megamix.
Ninja Gaiden 3's 'Hero Mode' allows more players to experience the story
Ninja Gaiden 3 is Team Ninja's first full Gaiden game post-Itagaki, and it looks like things are progressing a little differently. For one thing, it's got a sort of easy mode called "Hero Mode," which adds automatic dodging and blocking of most normal attacks, to which I can imagine Itagaki's head shaking, making waves in a cloud of cigarette smoke. I asked director Fumihiko Yasuda (who also did design work on Sigma 2) about why such a ... friendly mode would appear in such a typically unfriendly series. "We really wanted to flesh out the story this time around," Yasuda said, "so we wanted people to enjoy that story and get used to the game as it is. In the past the games were really hardcore and we couldn't get players to stay with us and complete the game." Team Ninja is "redefining" Hayabusa's image, and wants people to experience that whole story without dying over and over again or throwing the game into the disposal in frustration.
Hayashi: Ninja Gaiden 3's dismemberment-free gameplay adds meaning to the violence
Ninja Gaiden 3 won't feature the frequent decapitations and other freeform dismemberment of its predecessors. You may think of this as softening the impact of the violence in Team Ninja's famously brutal series, but it's intended to be quite the opposite. In fact, if anything, Team Ninja lead Yosuke Hayashi made it sound even more sadistic. "For Ninja Gaiden 3," Hayashi told me, "we wanted to focus on the act of cutting someone down, and what it's like to actually kill someone with a sword. Once you start lopping off limbs, your enemy goes from being a living thing that you're killing to just a thing." And to hammer the point home (or katana the point home, if you prefer) that these are real human beings you're flipping out and killing, he continued. "When you're actually cutting into a person, and you feel them getting scared, and the blood is spraying right on you, you hear their dying breaths in your ear -- that's the kind of visceral violence we're going for in Ninja Gaiden 3." In the demo level I played, by the way, the enemy soldiers start pleading for their lives as soon as you begin attacking them. At this point you might think, as I did, that you're going to start feeling guilty about cutting into all these bodies. That's ... kind of the idea. "Ryu Hayabusa is a dark hero," Hayashi explained. "If people want to take the easy way out or a cleaner way out -- not killing people -- that's not what the story is about and what Ryu Hayabusa is about. To be a dark hero, you have to do bad things in order to do good."%Gallery-133725%
Dead or Alive 5 in development, heading to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012
There's a brand new Dead or Alive game in development, and it's heading to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi offered "a glimpse in the future" of the DOA franchise during tonight's TGS 2011 Tecmo event, during which he asked that we shut off all recording equipment (thus the lack of a thrilling image above). In a teaser trailer of a pre-Alpha (read: very early) build of Dead or Alive 5, Ninja Gaiden's Ryu Hayabusa faces off against rival Hayate on top of a brightly lit urban area -- perhaps the Shibuya digs we're currently writing this from? Hayashi teased dramatic new levels, and even went as far as to call the game "fighting entertainment," rather than "just a fighting game." (Note: It's a fighting game.) Update: We've added the first teaser trailer above and a ... tantalizing image just after the break. Keep it cool, big guy!
Report: Namco/Tecmo collaboration is a One Piece Dynasty Warriors game
When Namco Bandai and Tecmo Koei put up a countdown site for a new collaboration, we guessed cynically that it was another Dynasty Warriors Gundam game. It looks like we were half right, which means we were twice as cynical as we needed to be. According to Andriasang, scans from Jump magazine reveal a PS3-exclusive Dynasty Warriors-style game based on the One Piece manga/anime series, called One Piece Kaizoku Musou, or One Piece Pirate Musou ("Musou" being the name of the "Warriors" series). Nothing was revealed about the title, except that a video will be shown during TGS -- but, since it's a Dynasty Warriors game, you already know how to play it. This time, you'll be defeating waves of enemy soldiers using your stretchy arms, which is different. [Image: One Piece Official]
Report: 3DS Fatal Frame spinoff uses 3DS cameras as in-game camera
It's kind of the perfect idea: match the Fatal Frame series, in which characters see and fight ghosts through a camera lens, with AR tech like that in the 3DS. And, if early reports out of the latest Famitsu are accurate, we'll soon get the opportunity to see if that idea is executed perfectly. Called "Spirit Diary," the game interacts with an included "AR Notebook" whose functions are curently unknown. In the game, you and a young girl investigate the cursed book. Other modes include AR minigames and a battle mode in which players fight using "spirit pictures" of themselves. It is currently unknown whether this game will be published by Tecmo, who handled most previous Fatal Frames, or Nintendo, who published the Wii Fatal Frame -- and then neglected to release it outside of Japan. [Image: Fatal Frame 4]
Namco Bandai and Tecmo Koei count down to new collaboration
Bandai posted a teaser site today featuring a countdown to a "Namco Bandai Games Inc. X Tecmo Koei Games Co., Ltd." game. Being a teaser site, no other information, let alone platform or game type, is offered. It's easy to come up with dream collaborations between these two companies, like, say a Ninja Gaiden fighter by the SoulCalibur team, or Tales of Rygaria. But ... it's probably just a fourth Dynasty Warriors Gundam game. Officially, we'll find out in seven days. Famitsu leaks usually tip us off well in advance of these countdowns, though. [Thanks, Andreas.]
Here's how you play 'Champion Jockey' for Kinect and Move
"Finally," thought the Tecmo Koei Europe rep. "Champion Jockey: G1 Jockey & Gallop Racer for Kinect and Move will allow me to put my pantomime horse racing skills to use." He'd spent his life practicing pantomime horse racing, and wondering why he had. Now it was paying off. Two more videos after the break show his supreme confidence and effortless proficiency at bouncing with his hands held out. There's also a Wii version, but there is unfortunately no video demonstration of its gameplay, leaving us only to imagine the smirk for ourselves.
Dead or Alive: Dimensions reclassified in Australia
Dead or Alive: Dimensions has been reclassified "M" (Mature) by the Australian Classification Board for "violence and sexualized gameplay." The game, which previously held a PG rating, recently had its status revoked for unspecified reasons. The most likely cause for the reclassification has to do with fallout from Sweden, where the game is no longer being distributed due to "underage" DoA characters being placed in risque situations within the game's "Figure Mode." This isn't the first example of Australia changing a rating after the media picks up on a game's questionable content.
Dead or Alive: Dimensions classification revoked in Australia
The Australian classification for Dead or Alive: Dimensions has been revoked. Without a classification, the title can no longer be sold in the region. We are currently contacting Tecmo Koei for more details. This likely has something to do with certain "underage" DoA characters (who aren't yet 18) being placed in risque situations within the game's "Figure Mode." The mode caused the game's Swedish distributor, Bergsala, and Nintendo to pull the game in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
Wii U's Ninja Gaiden 3 based on 360/PS3 version
Though still presented under a working title, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge is one of the first third-party games to be announced for Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console. Fumihiko Yasuda, lead on Ninja Gaiden 3, told Joystiq that Razor's Edge would be based on next year's Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, but would offer some changes beyond the addition of a subtitle. "Ninja Gaiden 3 for PS3 and 360 is the base of the Wii U version," Yasuda said during an E3 meeting. "Of course, we understood that we would need to implement a particular gameplay experience with Wii U, so we are studying what we can do with that console. We're thinking of different modes and different combat action -- something different." While Team Ninja attempts to figure out the best, ultra-violent uses for Nintendo's controller-screen hybrid, it remains in the planning stages for a 3DS Ninja Gaiden game (announced at E3 2010). As it's so early in development, Yasuda could only suggest that it "may not be a sequel to Dragon Sword."
Ninja Gaiden 3 gameplay trailer has Ryu Hayabusa back at his old tricks
For some folks, "old tricks" might mean smooth dancing moves, or a suave ability to hit on the ladies. For Ninja Gaiden 3's Ryu Hayabusa, it means flipping out and murdering people with a katana. Take a peek for yourself -- carefully! -- after the break.
Dead or Alive Dimensions review: Comedy masterpiece theatre
Team Ninja does not make life easy for game reviewers. Dead or Alive Dimensions, a sort of anthology volume combining all four Dead or Alive fighting games on 3DS, is clearly a great translation of the series to a portable format, beautiful to look at, and also more accessible than any DOA game to date. It's also marred by some terrible decisions, mostly around the presentation and the structure. As I played, it kind of felt like everything awesome about DOA Dimensions had been intentionally paired with a huge mistake. However, after a period of deep reflection and soul-searching, I came to the conclusion that the awesome parts are sufficiently awesome to outweigh most of the janky stuff, and a lot of the janky stuff turns out to be super hilarious anyway. Besides, the technical criteria for a successful DOA game are if the female characters' pendulous chests display soothing, hypnotic waves, and occasionally people get knocked off of waterfalls, and in both categories this game passes with flying colors. Colors flying right off of a waterfall.%Gallery-124728%
Tecmo Bowl Throwback dives over the pile onto iOS
Tecmo Bowl Throwback, last year's retro-revival for PSN and XBLA, has been ported to iOS and was released today. iTunes lists the features of the $7.99 port as largely similar to the console game: 30 teams in all, two of which are All-Star squads with customizable rosters, plus Preseason, Season and All-Star game modes. The first two are standard football fare; All-Star mode allows players to pit the game's two All-Star teams against each other. Early iTunes reviews suggest issues with older hardware, so it's probably something to keep in mind if you're looking to tap your way into the end zone. Also, it seems that the iOS port has no online multiplayer -- that's a fumble.
Rumor: Ninja Gaiden 3 loses the store, may add Move support
Reports are coming in that the latest issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine is full of new info about Ninja Gaiden 3. NeoGAFfer RatedRSuperstar summarized the article, noting a few salient points about the Team Ninja sequel. Reportedly, the difficulty level "won't be toned down for casual gamers," which means Team Ninja is making the game "more accessible" in a different way. In addition, it packs competitive and cooperative multiplayer, with at least one mode supporting up to eight players. There's also a possibility of Move support. The weapons store is gone, in favor of weapons that "upgrade over time." According to RatedRSuperstar, "Blood is back" as well. Having seen the purported scans, that's an understatement. Imagine a ninja covered in melted Twizzlers. [Thanks, Andreas!]
Dead or Alive: Dimensions yanked in Sweden, Norway and Denmark
Dead or Alive: Dimensions won't be available in Sweden, because it potentially violates the country's child pornography laws. The title will also skip Norway and Denmark as a result -- all three territories are covered by the same distributor, Bergsala. Eurogamer Sweden has a joint statement from Nintendo and Bergsala in which they claim to "have decided not to release the game in Sweden, for various reasons." However, neither company wished to list the reasons. Allegedly, the genesis of the drama involves a forum poster noting that three of the DoA characters are under 18 years of age, which could violate Swedish law when placed in risque situations within the game's "Figure Mode." Animated images have been subject to child pornography laws in Sweden since 1980.
