With XSEED recently revealing its intentions to localize Game Center CX: Arino's Challenge (U.S. name: Retro Game Challenge) for the North American market, we thought now would be an opportune time to feature an English-translated commercial for the Japanese game. Really, we'll make any excuse to post about this interesting title.
A quick rundown of the Game Center CX show and DS game, for those of you who didn't read about the release the first dozen times we posted about it:
Game Center CX is a Japanese television series in which comedian Shinya Arino plays popular "retro" games
In the Indies Zero-developed DS title, players are sent back in time to the 80s by Arino
Players have to complete challenges in eight Famicom-styled games, like Star Prince (Star Soldier clone) and Guadia Quest (Dragon Quest clone)
There are a lot of great "meta" touches to the game, too -- a child version of Arino befriends and cheers you on against his older self, you'll have access to instruction manuals and Game Fan Magazine issues with tips and cheat codes, and Arino will even ask you if you're going to the bathroom sometimes when you pause the game.
Anyway, jump past the post break for the commercial; we've also included photos from train advertisements and a segment from the show as bonuses!
Scavenging for screens of rare and awesome DS games in the making is a tedious yet rewarding task. Oftentimes one will be granted a tiny sample of media from an upcoming RPG, while sometimes being rewarded with decent scans from the best game ever. What's the second-best game ever? Tales of Hearts, that's what -- and we have a couple of new screens that fit right around the middle size-wise.
Along with the rather colorful display right here, you can check out another dialogue shot after the jump. The Japanese has us scratching our heads stupidly, but the game itself looks good. Tales of Hearts is scheduled for a Q4 2008 release date in Japan, and we want it. In the meantime, check out the empty, pretty official site.
We already showed you a snippet of the Shonen Jump scans for Tales of Hearts, but Gamekyo recently added more, this time showing off some enticing (albeit tiny) screens.
Like some of you, we're trying not to put our hearts into Tales of Hearts, just because we don't want them broken if the game doesn't get localized. Normally we're localization optimists, but after Namco Bandai decided to work on the Wii's Tales of Symphonia as well as the 360's Tales of Vesperia, but not the DS's Tales of Innocence, we've been a little bitter. We won't even mention our still stinging wounds over Tales of the Tempest, even if it wasn't too well recieved -- except that we just did. We've said it before, and we'll say it again: if any system deserves catering to niche audiences, it's the DS.
Rant aside, enjoy the lovely screens! We'll just be out back, crying softly to ourselves.
The SD Gundam G Generation Cross Drivelimited-edition DS Lite was released in Japan on August 9 of last year. It's one of the coolest LE Lites released, with its simple, clean design, featuring the logo found on Amuro Ray's RX-93 v Gundam. And now, for as long as there are units left, it's available to U.S. audiences -- at a reasonable price, which is somewhat of a novelty for one of these systems!
Retailer NCSX is clearing out their supply of Cross Drive Lites for $158.90. Sure, it's $30 more than a normal DS Lite, but it's a better expression of Gundam fandom (fandam?) than actually buying a Gundam game.
Recent V-Jump scans reveal that a Dragon Ball game is in the works for the DS. While we don't have many details on the game, it's going to be an action/adventure title that delves into the background of the Dragon Ball saga. We also know that the controls will be similar to those in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, as the player will use the stylus to perform actions and lead Goku around the screen.
From what we saw in the tiny scan screens, the game looks to be shaping up pretty nicely. We've never been too into Dragon Ball ourselves, but if we were, we'd be over 9,000 kinds of excited right now.
We already knew Taiko no Tatsujin's characters are pretty darn cute from playing the games, but this clay anime series, officially produced by Namco, makes sure we'll never forget it. Though it's supposed to be a show for children -- it originally aired on Japan's Kids Station channel, if that's any indication -- we've found ourselves totally drawn into the adventures of Wada Don, Wada Katsu, and their clay friends.
A total of 26 episodes were put out over two seasons in 2005-2006, and the first seven are subtitled and available to watch on Youtube. Like the clip above, each Taiko No Tatsujin Clay Anime episode is only four minutes long, so you could feasibly watch the entire collection of translated videos in the time it takes you to watch a single episode of a much less interesting anime.
On the topic of Drum Master, Siliconera has an excellent preview and walkthrough of Taiko no Tatsujin: 7 Islands' Adventure, which shipped to stores in Japan just last week. Combine that with these menu translations, and you've got nothing stopping you from importing the rhythm game!
Taiko no Tatsujin: 7 Islands' Adventure comes out in Japan -- and ships out to happy importers -- this week. Along with more screenshots, GAME Watch included the full (as far as we know) song list. We thought it might be nice for people interested in the game to know what's in the game, so we translated, or transliterated, the song titles and linked to a video of each one. Except for the Fukoumori theme, which we couldn't find.
The game's music falls into six categories: J-Pop, game music, Namco originals, children's songs, classical music, and anime. Well, functionally, they fall into one category: stuff with beats. Check after the break for the list, and please watch some videos so we don't feel like we've wasted our time.
Those of you who pay attention to Japanese sales have probably noticed that week after week, Taiko Drum Master DS sits comfortably in the top thirty. It may not sell absurd quantities (according to Famitsu, usually around 6,000 copies per week as of late), but it can't be argued that the game has legs, especially considering that it debuted nine months ago. In fact, it's the only third-party game for a Nintendo system that shows up on the charts with such consistency.
It was only a matter of time, then, before the game hit the 500k landmark. We're glad to see Namco's game doing so well, and hopefully the DS sequel will find similar success.
Gundams are huge -- 50-foot-tall mechanical monsters that leave great shockwaves as they traverse the battlefield. Except, of course, in strategy games like Emblem of Gundam, in which Gundams are tiny, thumbnail-sized sprites, rendered so small due to the need to cram as many as possible onto the screen.
The latest screenshots put aside the cinematic presentation in favor of the real game, which has a lot of numbers and a lot of little robots. Custom teams can be built from a stock of mobile suits on each side. Each unit seems to add to a team's total attack and defense value, which seems to affect the first-strike ability of the attacking team.
Taiko no Tatsujin: 7-tsu no Shima is turning into the Love Boat of DS rhythm games: a massive confluence of guest stars at various levels of notoriety. Also, much like The Love Boat, the music is great.
Not only will Doraemon, the Oshiri Kajiri Mushi, and characters from Namco Bandai's own The Idolm@ster be popping in, but the seven titular islands will play host to even more game characters. Adorable little animate tiles from Mojipittan (a version of which is launching on WiiWare today) will dance, presumably to "Futari no Mojipittan," the game's signature tune. Characters from the horror/comedy manga (and, of course, DS game) GeGeGe no Kitarou spook it up, as do characters from the similarly gothy-cute Fukoumori. The Spelunker (of Spelunker) is no doubt happy to get a break from heights for a while.
Finally, yes, those are the Power Rangers -- sort of. Our Power Rangers have undergone countless team, costume, and even show changes, because the Japanese shows from which they use footage (pretty much everything in costume) change. The latest such Japanese show, and the one represented here, is Engine Sentai Go-Onger.
Duel Love may seem controversial, but it's just another DS training game. There are training games on the DS that cover all sorts of subjects, from driving to cooking. Why not one about caring for high-school boys who take part in a secret fight club? And, uh, nipple rubbing?
Think about it this way: what if you were to come across a kid who just got beaten up in a tournament-style fistfight, in such pain that he can barely whisper a request for a massage? How would you attend to his bruises? How would you know how to give him the most effective massage? That's where Duel Love comes in.
Apply gentle pressure to the post break to see a couple more videos!
If this trailer doesn't melt your cold, embittered hearts, then you might as well resign yourself to a life alone, never loving anyone because you're just a tin man. Okay, maybe we took that too far, but come on! Smiling drums, happy music, ninja cats ... it's all one giant bundle of cuteness.
We told you yesterday about the various instruments in Taiko Drum Master: 7 Islands' Adventure, and this video shows them in action for a few seconds. We also love the customizable elephant Taiko drum, and -- can we reiterate -- ninja cats!
Rhythm games and quirky Japanese titles are right up our alley, so we enjoy this series because it incorporates the two. Is anyone else getting pumped for the next Taiko Drum Master?
It's odd for a Gundam game trailer to be in English, since there's only about a 0.1% chance that such a game will end up in English-speaking markets. The language choice of this trailer is also strange, considering that it's on the official Japanese website for the upcoming title, Emblem of Gundam.
Maybe Namco Bandai knows that everyone in Japan is going to buy the game anyway, so they're trying to encourage imports.
In any case, if you'd like to check out the newest trailer for Emblem of Gundam, we've tucked it away after the break. It doesn't tell us much about this title that we wouldn't already expect, but it will help whet the appetite of the Gundam fanboy or girl inside of you.
Warning: The video will autoplay if you venture past the break.
Further securing its place on our list of games that need to be imported, Taiko Drum Master: 7 Islands' Adventure will feature more than just a drum. Siliconera reports that the game will include six other percussive instruments, like a tambourine, a bell, and, well -- some other types of drums. There may even be more instruments at hand, but we're going to guess that it stops at seven, since there's a "seven" in the game's title (eat your heart out, Sherlock Holmes).
It may be a rather simple addition, but it's a nice enough change to add a little bit of freshness to the Taiko Drum Master series. If your looking to import this game, you won't have to wait long; it's set to release in Japan on April 24th.
When we scrub sweat off of anime men, we like to make sure we do it right. That's why we were glad to see this helpful Duel Love chart, showing us the various moods that a proper sponge scrub can elicit. According to the chart, the boy with the blue-tinted hair really likes that right nipple rubdown, to the point of the game being even more disturbing than it was before.
Somehow, the game manages to get even more risquè, with shower scenes encouraging you to blow away the steam that's hindering the view. You wouldn't want to miss anything, right? (We kid.)
That last bit sounds more like a voyeur-in-training game to us, though. Ut oh, we hope we didn't just give anyone any ideas.
Scavenging for screens of rare and awesome DS games in the making is a tedious yet rewarding task. Oftentimes one will be granted a 
Those of you who pay attention to 
Gundams are huge -- 50-foot-tall mechanical monsters that leave great shockwaves as they traverse the battlefield. Except, of course, in strategy games like 
It's odd for a Gundam game trailer to be in English, since there's only about a 0.1% chance that such a game will end up in English-speaking markets. The language choice of this trailer is also strange, considering that it's on the official Japanese website for the upcoming title, 
