As expected, Majesco has announced its plans to publish Nanostray 2, developer Shin'en's sequel to the 2005 shoot-em-up, in North America and Europe. Though the original game was widely regarded as a somewhat mediocre shmup with janky touchscreen controls, its initial limited availability sent collectors scrambling for copies before Majesco eventually restocked shelves with bulkier shipments; hopefully, those troubles will be avoided this time around.
Addressing the complaints many had with tacked-on touchscreen features, Nanostray 2 will have three control schemes -- classic control, left-handed touch control, and right-handed touch control. Multiplayer cooperative (multi-card) and duel modes, both played locally, will also be incorporated, as well as online leaderboards. Expect Nanostray 2 to traipse into stores early 2008.
WordJong fills a noticeable void in the DS's puzzle game lineup: word games. That makes it interesting by default. Luckily, it's also pretty interesting in and of itself.
WordJong is basically Scrabble and mah-jongg mashed up together into a pile of tiles. Each tile has a letter on it, and you arrange those tiles into words, gaining access to more letter tiles as you clear the top and sides of the pile. Bigger words and less common letters give you more points as in Scrabble. It interestingly provides two separate modes of advancement, one based on the traditional video game level structure, and the other on Brain Age-style daily gaming.
Hudson announced a sequel to Bomberman Land Touch! along with new Bomberman Land games for the PSP and Wii. Whoa, catch your breath. A Bomberman sequel? We know it seems impossible, but it's true. Hudson finally figured out that they can make money by selling Bomberman games. This time, the publishing will be handled by Hudson's parent company, Konami, rather than Atlus.
The new game features an RPG-style Story Mode, otherwise known as "stuff that gets ignored in favor of regular multiplayer Bomberman," and over 40 new minigames, known as "oh, it has minigames? I didn't notice because I just play Bomberman."
What can't be ignored is the 4-player online Battle Mode, which the first Bomberman Land Touch had as well. It's another opportunity for us to lose over and over again to the Game Night community! Check out the link for the first screens, and blow up the post break for a look at the press release.
Those who might find themselves so engrossed in Pokemon as to sit around in dark rooms pondering the state of trades that goes on in Pokemon Diamond & Pearl may enjoy the satisfaction that comes from the dim glow of a computer monitor piercing said darkness. On that computer monitor is none other than the Global Trade Station.
The Global Trade Station keeps track of trading in the game on a worldwide scale, showing what trades are occurring in each territory of the game's release. Think your Pokemon are worth more than someone is offering? Refer to the site (which, we might add, looks pretty darn spiffy).
Regular readers will recognize Majesco's latest game announced for the US, Eco Creatures: Save the Forest, as Ecoris, the FernGully-esque RTS that came out in Japan just last month. We thought for sure that this niche title would never make it stateside, but we're happy to see Majesco prove us wrong.
Billed as "the first eco-conscious game for the Nintendo DS," Eco Creatures has you leading a woodland army against the pollution and industrialization taking over your Mana Woods. In addition to battling your friends locally (single-card download play and multi-card) and online, you'll also be able to create your own maps to play. Look for Eco Creatures: Save the Forest to plant itself in North America early 2008.
Level-5 is set to bring a very unique title to the DS in Japan. A soccer game with RPG mechanics, Inazuma Eleven was first revealed via Famitsu magazine in Japan. The game will charge players with taking on rival teams, all while controlling the action with the stylus.
As if that weren't enough, the game is also going to support wi-fi, allowing players to battle each other online as well as exchange things. The game will also feature over 1,000 different characters.
You can't get a weirder combination of genres and, because of that, we're instantly interested.
In checking out the weekly wi-fi stats, one user over at GAF noticed that two offline titles had shown up in the findings. Utilizing a user-created program, it was found that Nintendogs connected to wi-fi 6 different times and Yoshi's Island connected 4 times over two different days.
Now, whether this is misinterpreted information or the first signs of a re-issuing of these games with wi-fi compatibility is anyone's guess. What we wonder about, however, is if these games are re-issued, will anyone pick them up?
Arkanoid is not especially well-suited to multiplayer. In fact, Breakout and its ilk serve as a single-player alternative to Pong: the sentient or AI antagonist is replaced by an immobile target set that requires as much precision and reflexes as the opposing paddle would (Of course, Arkanoid complicated things by adding enemies, but those are still more obstacles than opponents). When we first saw the news about Arkanoid DS, our thoughts did not go straight to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. We never said that this game would be totally awesome if it were online.
But it is awesome. And it is online. Sort of. Arkanoid DS will feature online rankings, which are perfect for a classic arcade game. We look forward to sharing our humiliatingly low scores with the gaming public. We also look forward to hearing the new music from Taito's house band, Zuntata. The original Arkanoid music was sparse, limited only to a short tune at the start of the game and cues at new levels and deaths, but it's all great.
When Konami announced that its rumored remake would be for Track & Field, we had to excuse ourselves and spend some alone time in our cars, sobbing, coming to terms with the fact that we'll never receive another Boot Camp or Rocket Knight Adventures title. Our whimpering quieted a bit when we heard that the Olympic-themed game would have guest appearances from other Konami franchises like Silent Hill, and we might have even smiled a little when we saw that Sparkster was on the roster.
The most promising thing we've read in previews for New International Track & Field, however, is its commitment to providing a robust online experience. Players will be able to battle against up to three opponents, enter custom tournaments and official competitions, and grab downloadable content, all with Nintendo's WiFi Connection service. There will also be leaderboards and an in-game ticker tape that updates you on the progress of your friends and rivals. Developers, take note: This is how you add online support to your DS games.
If you're not too confident with your LOLDS photoshopping skills, there's always another option that you might want to consider -- actually buying the Nintendo DS Lite Browser. Spending money is for chumps, we agree, but with Amazon's day-long sale, you can feel significantly less chumpy about parting with your cash.
Usually selling for $29.99, the web browsing application has been discounted down to $21.99 at the online retailer. Throw another $3 item on your order, and you'll also be eligible for Amazon's Free Super Saver Shipping. You'll be loading up random images of anthropomorphised pets in no time!
If you enjoy making puzzles in Picross DS, then we've got the contest for you. See, Nintendo of Europe is looking for the best and brightest puzzle creators in the region to submit their master works, entering them in the contest to win fame and stardom. The best fan-made puzzles will be included in an upcoming puzzle pack!
The contest is open right now and ends on August 27th, so you'd better get cracking. The winning puzzles will then be included in a "Best of Europe" pack, available for download, from August 31st until September 7th. Then, another puzzle pack combining the "Best of Japan" will be made available from September 10th until September 14th, revealing the winners of a similar contest going on in that region.
When we last heard from Mikoishi Studio (Phoenix Wright cell phone port), the Singapore-based developer was putting together an unnamed MMO for the DS. We're not sure if those ambitious plans have since been abandoned, but the company has just announced that another of its DS titles will be shipping to Japan by year's end, eventually making its way to North America and Europe early 2008.
Dropcast, a puzzler with a cartoonish/gothic theme from the looks of its artwork so far, will support four-player local competitions with a single card, as well as four-player matches online. Gamers will have three multiplayer battle modes and four single-player modes to choose from. So far, Mikoishi hasn't revealed much about Dropcast's actual mechanics, save two details:
"In the solo mode, Dropcast players have to race to remove squares and shapes before they fill the screen."
"In multiplayer mode, a player taps two or more squares of the same color to 'send' them to flood the screen of his opponent."
Truth be told, we always find ourselves enamored with these quirky titles put together by smaller studios, more so than with most other big-budget releases. Some days, when we're stuck reporting on ridiculously pointless items like Pokemon headphones, these games are the only things keeping us from ending it all.
Square Enix's newest Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates trailer is packed with nearly six minutes of boisterous combat scenes, dungeon-roaming recklessness, and much more! The clips that show everyone working together to put out a spreading fire with water barrels are definitely our favorite parts; it makes our hearts ache knowing that we'll never find more than one other person to play with, if even that many, when the game finally comes to North American next spring.
The brief preview of the cooperative ARPG's online component is nothing to get excited about -- players can trade their painted and personalized moogles. Yep, Square Enix actually managed to come up with something worse than MogNet.
Being able to customize your character's appearance (ninjas!), though, as you can see from the screen grab above, is the dog's bollocks. The extended movie also demonstrates that you'll be able to flip the action from the top window onto the bottom screen, using your stylus to direct spells and ranged weapons. Jump past the post break for the embedded video.
Sure, we know, we could just fold up a piece of paper and knock everything off a table, but there's no excuse not to be excited about the inclusion of paper football as a side game in the next iteration of Madden. There are a number of other additions coming to the handheld version as well (like some much-needed improvements to gameplay), but this is certainly the one we're most giddily excited about. Could this be an offshoot of EA's take on the casual game revolution? If so, it's an aspect we're favoring, and we can only hope that paper football matches are part of the coming online elements. Because, really, if we have to be in close proximity to our sliding-paper opponents, what's the point? We've got some scrap paper around here somewhere ....
We understand that though most of our readers aren't familiar with the Front Mission series, there are still a number of you who, like us, have a deep-seated need to command giant, customizable mechs on an SRPG battlefield. Pocket Gamer has a preview of Front Mission DS that will get you up to speed on the Square Enix remake, outlining the various phases of combat from start to finish.
Their hands-on impressions also shed some light on the game's campaign details, touchscreen controls, and wanzer customization. It's disappointing to hear that the head-to-head multiplayer mode will be limited to local wireless matches only, but given Square Enix's online support shenanigans so far, we're not surprised. Front Mission DS arrives in North American stores this October 23rd. Plan your budget accordingly.
As expected, Majesco has announced its plans to publish Nanostray 2, developer Shin'en's sequel to the 2005 shoot-em-up, in North America and Europe. Though the original game was widely regarded as a somewhat mediocre shmup with janky touchscreen controls, its initial limited availability sent collectors scrambling for copies before Majesco eventually restocked shelves with bulkier shipments; hopefully, those troubles will be avoided this time around.
Hudson announced a sequel to 
Those who might find themselves so engrossed in Pokemon as to sit around in dark rooms pondering the state of trades that goes on in Pokemon Diamond & Pearl may enjoy the satisfaction that comes from the dim glow of a computer monitor piercing said darkness. On that computer monitor is none other than the Global Trade Station.
Regular readers will recognize 
Level-5 is set to bring a very unique title to the DS in Japan. A soccer game with RPG mechanics, Inazuma Eleven was first revealed via Famitsu magazine in Japan. The game will charge players with taking on rival teams, all while controlling the action with the stylus.
When Konami announced that its 
If you're not too confident with your 
Sure, we know, we could just fold up a piece of paper and knock everything off a table, but there's no excuse not to be excited about the inclusion of paper football as a side game in the next iteration of Madden. There are a number of other additions coming to the handheld version as well (like some much-needed improvements to gameplay), but this is certainly the one we're most giddily excited about. Could this be an offshoot of EA's take on the casual game revolution? If so, it's an aspect we're favoring, and we can only hope that paper football matches are part of the coming online elements. Because, really, if we have to be in close proximity to our sliding-paper opponents, what's the point? We've got some scrap paper around here somewhere ....
We understand that though most of our readers aren't familiar with the 
_thumbnail.png "Defenders of Law, Inc: Crime in Willburg (PC Screens)")
