Nippon Ichi announced that it had five DS games in the pipeline back in February, at least threeofwhich have been revealed since.
Amongst those five was an unnamed "management sim," and NIS has now revealed The Combini DS: Otona no Keiei Ryoku Training (The Combini DS: Adult's Management Power Training), a game that focuses on the smooth running of a convenience store.
Although the game's title hints at a piece of training software for store management wannabes, there are also town-building elements present here, with the success of your store influencing the growth and wellbeing of your town. You'll also have to deal with rival stores competing for your business, and maybe get a chance to bully your minimum wage employees about. There'll be no paid overtime or crafty cigarette breaks in the stockroom in our virtual store!
Head to the checkout past the post break for more screens.
Cash cow -- Nintendo chooses you! As they so strongly hinted, it appears from this scan that CoroCoro Comic magazine has revealed the next Pokémon game from Nintendo, called Pocket Monsters Platina (Pokémon Platinum).
We can't read the scan (because it is both tiny and Japanese), but TheTanooki's summary of the article describes it as the next game in the Diamond/Pearl series, with Giratina on the cover. It features an online version of the weird Underground feature from Diamond and Pearl, an Emerald-like "Battle Island," and some new forms for critters like Giratina and Shaymin.
According to TheTanooki, Platinum will be out in September in Japan. All of this is classifiable as "rumor" right now, but that scan looks pretty real.
The website for Cave's princess-impersonating dancing game, Princess Debut, features a lovely activity that is probably designed for little girls, but is kind of fun anyway. In keeping with the theme of not actually being a princess, you can design a DS cover out of fake rhinestones and then print it out! If you aren't feeling creative, there's even a template available to color in.
Ideally, you'd affix this to the system by slipping it inside a transparent cover, but you'd probably be okay using just a little tape. Alternately, you could just mess with the editor for fun. But then how would your DS get any more princess-like?
Everyone who dug Professor Layton and the Curious Village (see: the entire DS Fanboy staff and its readers), then you'll be happy to know the series continues on unabated in Japan, as Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel has been announced for the region. Level 5 has confirmed that the title will release to eager gamers in Japan sometime in the fall of this year. As it stands right now, this is believed to be the last entry in the series of games.
A teaser site has launched, which you can check out here (or by clicking the "Read" link below). Who else is ready for another dose of Layton goodness?
The website for the Dragon Quest V re-remake (probably to be titled Dragon Quest V: Heavenly Bride in its probable U.S. release) has been updated with character art and a little bit of history about the game. Most importantly for English readers, it's been updated with screens -- tons of them, in one- and two-screen format. You can look at pictures of the party (tiny horse and carriage and all) walking in towns, fields, and dungeons and pretty much get the idea.
Dragon Quest V appears to be cleaning up beautifully, proving that even if developer Artepiazza isn't the most adept at creating Wii RPGs (except by default), they're certainly up to the task of recreating RPGs on the DS.
Start your Friday with a bit of an English refresher -- and some zombie-dispatching! Sega has created a short Flash demo for English of the Dead, recreating the multiple-choice training mode. In this mode, a zombie will run out and threaten you with two rubber mallets. Then, a Japanese sentence (our Flash player doesn't have Japanese language support, hence the gibberish) and a partial English translation will appear. It's up to you to choose the correct English word on the bottom screen, and compel the zombie to jump into a trap door!
You actually have to wait a long time before the zombie will attack you. Presumably this is more challenging if you don't know English.
Denjiro Sensei no Fushigi na Jikkenshitsu (Professor Denjiro's Mysterious Laboratory) isn't about manufacturing Chemical X or assembling interocitors or any other activities you'd associate with mysterious laboratories. Instead, it deals with regular old science, which is itself awesome (and blinding).
Mysterious Laboratory contains quizzes about elementary-level science, including topics like weather, magnetism, electricity, and geology. But it also features minigames that both simulate experiments that can be done at home and instruct kids on how to perform the experiments themselves. Some of the activities include creating boomerangs and some kind of air cannon! Some of the minigames do not involve events for kids to replicate: seen here, the "hit a burglar with lightning" minigame.
We didn't really know much about recent Japanese release That's QT until Siliconera took the time to write about it. Despite the sickeningly cute title, though, we think this import sounds pretty interesting -- especially for Project Runway loving types like this writer. Most importantly, you don't have to be a pro at Japanese to try this import. You may miss out on bits of dialogue and backstory, but you'll still be able to play it simply enough.
The goal in this game is to start a successful fashion line. This doesn't mean that you "design" clothes, but rather, the outfits you "create" will be based on what people say to you in the street. Luckily, you don't have to know exactly what they're saying; just make sure to memorize any highlighted Japanese characters.
Beyond this, though, you also have to manage a little boutique in which your clothes will be sold. You can wear your outfits around town to show them off, and hope that will inspire customers to come to your store. Then, if your store becomes successful enough, you can open a new one and face different rivals.
Clearly That's QT is too niche for everyone to enjoy, but if you're into fashion or management sims, it might be worth a look.
Matrix Software has been in the press most recently for their work on the remakes of Final Fantasies III and IV. Before that, they had their own original action RPG, Alundra, which was released in the U.S. on the PlayStation by the decadent Working Designs.
Their latest project is another original work, this time for Marvelous: an action RPG called Avalon Code. From what we can see in the scan, it has impressive 3D action on the top screen, with an art style reminiscent of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. The bottom screen appears as a book, and shows information about onscreen monsters, as well as your inventory. New details should show up for this game by the end of the week; until then, squint away in wonder!
Cave's Ohimesama Debut (Princess Debut) didn't turn into a hardcore shooter since we last heard from it. Cave is still bravely making a cute game about a faux princess learning to dance and collecting silly clothing. It uses a variant of Ouendan-style precision dragging to control various ballroom dance moves.
The "Dance Action & Adventure Game" features magical-girl-style transformation sequences for the all-important outfits, and even a "watch mode" that allows you to replay dances. We're still curious about how well the skills Cave has honed in creating bullet-hell shooters translate into dancing to classical music with a white rabbit in a tuxedo.
More ER than Scrubs, THE Gekai (TheSurgeon) takes a far more serious approach to surgery than Trauma Center. It might be worth a closer look come June, but for now we're far more interested in THE Shouboutai (The Firefighting Crew), partially because there's nothing quite like it on the DS (there should be more games about firefighting anyway, given that it oozes with the potential for drama and heroism), and also because our addled memories still fondly recall Burning Rangers on the Saturn. Actually, Burning Rangers is the main reason we're interested in this. Okay, the only reason. We wouldn't count on D3's firefighters carrying jet-packs, mind.
Head to our new galleries for the fresh screenage, though don't be expecting either of these to make the journey west.
Marvelous and developer Asmik Ace will release a DS game based on the Tokyo Majin Gakuen franchise on August 21. The supernatural anime and manga series are in turn based on the Tokyo Majin Gakuen: Kenpucho series of adventure/RPG games on the PlayStation and Playstation 2.
Last year, ADV licensed Tokyo Majin, about high school students who fight the undead, for American release. The DVDs are still coming out as of this month, but the series' web site goes nowhere. We're not sure what that says about ADV's confidence in Majin, though we doubt they're going to pursue this DS game. We aren't sure if it's popular enough over here for another company to try to grab some of the revenue, either.
We knew about the last two volumes in D3 Publisher's Simple DS series: Vol. 39 THE Shouboutai (Firefighter) and Vol. 40 THE Gekai (Surgeon), both of which are games that involve real-world tasks. But the three entries in the series preceding those were unknown to us. They happen to be rooted in the everyday world as well, in a much less game-like way than the others. In fact, they're training non-games for the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication).
Vol. 36 THE Arc de Minitsuku! TOEIC Test Bunpou Tokkun(Master the Arc! TOEIC Intensive Grammar Training), Vol. 37 THE Arc de Minitsuku! TOEIC Test Listening Kyoka (TOEIC Listening Enhancement), and Vol. 38 THE Arc de Manabu! TOEIC Test Hajimete (Study the Arc! Beginning the TOEIC) all focus on different aspects of the English test, which is used to determine English proficiency for business use. We hope they were at least made to a higher standard than other Simple titles, or that nobody relies on them as study aids. If they are actually okay, D3 may be on to something: their usual low budgets would translate excellently to "games" that rely almost entirely on text menus.
Read: Vol. 36 THE Arc de Minitsuku! TOEIC Test Bunpou Tokkun
Read: Vol. 37 THE Arc de Minitsuku! TOEIC Test Listening Kyoka
Read: Vol. 38 THE Arc de Manabu! TOEIC Test Hajimete
If Doctor Who were an American TV show, the associated game would be a 3D platforming shooter called Doctor Who: The Official Video Game and featuring monotone voice acting from the show's stars over awkward 3D models.
But the very British Doctor is instead coming to the DS (and PS2 and PC) in Top Trumps: Doctor Who, a themed video game version of the popular Top Trumps card game, which involves comparing various statistics printed on cards. It seems a bit more ... restrained than a shooty action game.
Top Trumps: Doctor Who will feature, in addition to the main Trumps game, a story mode in which players can control the Doctor, Martha, Captain Jack or even one of the monsters from the show.
Siliconera's Spencer Yip picked up a copy of Oshiri Kajiri Mushi Rhythm Lesson DS, possibly the only game this year on the DS about learning rhythm from a cartoon bug who bites people in the rear to help motivate them. He has written up some details of the rhythm gameplay found in the single-player Rhythm Lesson mode. Unsurprisingly, the game isn't a revolution in anything but concept, but it does sound like a cute multi-instrumental rhythm game.
The many instruments are played identically -- by tapping on the screen in response to audio and visual cues. Said visual cues include the Butt-Biting Bug flying towards groups of stars; when he contacts a star, the player is to tap the screen. Successful taps increase a meter, which, when full, triggers a butt-biting vignette. The lessons unlock special games like the voice-training lesson, in which players actually sing into the mic.
We're still a bit flabbergasted that the weird song about biting butts became popular enough to support a game, which is now a real thing that someone bought.
Nippon Ichi announced that it had five DS games in the pipeline back in February, at least three of which have been revealed since.
Cash cow -- Nintendo chooses you! As they so strongly 
The website for the 
Denjiro Sensei no Fushigi na Jikkenshitsu (Professor Denjiro's Mysterious Laboratory) isn't about manufacturing Chemical X or assembling interocitors or any other activities you'd associate with mysterious laboratories. Instead, it deals with regular old science, which is itself awesome (and blinding).
We didn't really know much about recent Japanese release 
The 
Marvelous and developer Asmik Ace will release a DS game based on the Tokyo Majin Gakuen franchise on August 21. The supernatural anime and manga series are in turn based on the Tokyo Majin Gakuen: Kenpucho series of adventure/RPG games on the PlayStation and Playstation 2.
We knew about the 
If Doctor Who were an American TV show, the associated game would be a 3D platforming shooter called Doctor Who: The Official Video Game and featuring monotone voice acting from the show's stars over awkward 3D models.
