We like Hori's themed Protect Cases. They're an easy, inexpensive, and impermanent way to give your DS Lite a "limited edition" look. This way, you can deck out your DS like you spent $200 dollars on a bundle, but then if you decide that the game is terrible or something, you can just toss the cover and not have a constant reminder of your own folly on the top of your system.
From the looks of it, Tales of Innocence won't be terrible, and so there will no doubt be an audience for this nice-looking set. It includes a clear Protect Case and a maroon Tales of Innocence extending stylus, for $23. It'll be released on December 6th.
1UP's original Retronaut, Jeremy Parish, took in some Game Center CX at TGS, and it sounds as meta-fabulous as we thought. The central gimmick of the game is that you play as two kids who are themselves playing games; they have a Famicom-esque system in front of them and a pile of magazines. Both the games and the magazines are original creations based on classics; the games imitate Galaga, Lode Runner, and others, and the magazines talk about those games in a style reminiscent of Famitsu.
We're as bummed about the fact that this game will never make it to the U.S. as we are about the Game Center CX show. We're sure Spike TV or G4 or somebody could make decent money from a subtitled version of the show, but we don't know how big the market would be for a game about it. Too bad for what is basically a love letter to retrogaming.
A NeoGAFfer called king zell was apparently trying to level up his "Scan Posting" skill, because he created a thread packed densely with all kinds of new images of DS role playing games. There are multiple FinalFantasies, Tales of Innocence,Archaic Sealed Heat, and even an extended preview of Summon Night: Twin Age, which we haven't heard from in quite some time.
Be sure to pace yourself and enjoy every thumbnail-sized halftone screenshot, because this is a lot of RPG news to take in at once. There's bound to be something here for you, unless you hate RPGs, at which point you should stop clicking all those image links. We've mirrored the scans after the break, just in case the originals get stricken with a status ailment.
There are few things freakier than dressing a musical instrument in clothes, and Taiko no Tatsujin DS Touch de Dokodon instinctively knows this. That's why the game rejects this activity.
Either that or, you know, it's just a bug. Apparently the game has a problem in which you cannot continue playing after you attempt to change costumes in all three save slots. Bandai Namco is correcting the issue, and will have new copies of the game out soon. We would suggest holding off on importing until then, obviously.
Is the DS really hard to program for or something? It seems like we've had a disproportionately high number of game-breakingbugs. Well, this makes three that we can count, but that still seems high.
It's highly unlikely that SD Gundam G Generation Cross Drive will ever make it to the states; obtaining rights for 500+ characters spanning over a dozen different series, most of which having never made it out of Japan, would be a nightmare. Still, we like to keep up to date with the SRPG on the off-chance that a North American publisher might take a risk and pick it up, much like Atlus did with Super Robot Taisen Original Generations 1 & 2 for the GBA.
Bandai Namco has updated Cross Drive's official site with a two-minute-and-a-half trailer and a new commercial, advertising its August 9th's release. If you're at all interested in the title, or if you just have a bizarre fetish for chibi mobile suits, make sure to check both of the clips out!
As if packing 500 characters, 300 mobile suits, and over 120 stages from 15 different Gundam series wasn't fan service enough, Bandai Namco plans to release a special edition DS Lite bundle with SD Gundam G Generation Cross Drive. The customized, crystal-white handheld will feature the same red branding seen on Amuro Ray's Rx-93 ν Gundam in the animated film, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.
It's doubtful that the strategy-RPG game or the DS Lite will ever make it stateside, so interested parties will likely have to settle for importing when the title hits Japanese shelves this August 9th. The bundle's 21,840 yen price tag comes out to approximately $183, but expect to pay a premium if you're buying from an online shop. Head past the post break for a look at SD Gundam G Generation Cross Drive's packaging and screenshots.
Treasure Gaust, BandaiNamco's Pokemon-esque monster game that uses magnetic fields to generate monsters, is headed toward a Spring 2007 release in Japan. We've got some new screens that show off the battle mode, which is more Pokemon Stadium than Pokemon Ruby, in that it is presented in full 3D. We like the pseudo-cel shading they've used.
Treasure Gaust's battling appears to be more action-based than Pokemon, as well. Players pick three creatures and battle with an opponent's three creatures in an underwater arena. You can capture defeated enemies to train them as partners. If a monster-collecting game with more action and more mysterious natural forces sounds good to you, then this may be exactly the game you're looking for! At least, it's as close as anyone's ever going to get to that specific description. We hope Banco decides to localize this one, because we're eager to play with the magnetism gimmick.
No, it's not another training game. Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan (Word Puzzle Mojipittan) is a Scrabble-style board game from BandaiNamco in which players use characters from the Japanese hiragana syllabary to spell words. Therefore, it's really, really, really hard to play if you don't know a load of Japanese words, and basically impossible if you can't read hiragana.
Mojipittan has appeared on other platforms before, but as the Shockwave demo says, "The stylus makes it simple!" We suggest giving the demo a shot and seeing if you're up for some wordplay. The bouncy music and adorable tile mascots may convince you to enroll in Japanese classes.
Rumor alert! NamcoBandai is allegedly planning a load of new, and new-ish, games in their Tales series for Nintendo consoles. The rumor gives titles for three new (potential) games, one of which is headed for the DS. If internet rumormongering is to be believed, Namco is working on a 2D sequel to the oft-ported Tales of Phantasia.
We can't comment on the veracity of the rumor's specifics, but it seems likely that more Tales games are headed, in abundance, to every platform that Japanese gamers like. Not only has the series already made its dual-screened debut, RPG-spamming has been their modus operandi since before the DS was popular. Now that the most popular console in Japan by far is also the cheapest to develop for (being a handheld), continuing the trend seems like a Tale of the Obvious.
1UP's original Retronaut, Jeremy Parish, took in some Game Center CX at TGS, and it sounds as meta-fabulous as we thought. The central gimmick of the game is that you play as two kids who are themselves playing games; they have a Famicom-esque system in front of them and a pile of magazines. Both the games and the magazines are original creations based on classics; the games imitate Galaga, Lode Runner, and others, and the magazines talk about those games in a style reminiscent of Famitsu.
There are few things freakier than dressing a musical instrument in clothes, and Taiko no Tatsujin DS Touch de Dokodon instinctively knows this. That's why the game rejects this activity.
It's highly unlikely that SD Gundam G Generation Cross Drive will ever make it to the states; obtaining rights for 500+ characters spanning over a dozen different series, most of which having never made it out of Japan, would be a nightmare. Still, we like to keep up to date with the SRPG on the off-chance that a North American publisher might take a risk and pick it up, much like Atlus did with Super Robot Taisen Original Generations 1 & 2 for the GBA.
As if packing 500 characters, 300 mobile suits, and over 120 stages from 15 different Gundam series wasn't fan service enough, Bandai Namco plans to release a special edition DS Lite bundle with SD Gundam G Generation Cross Drive. The customized, crystal-white handheld will feature the same red branding seen on Amuro Ray's Rx-93 ν Gundam in the animated film, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.
No, it's not another training game. Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan (Word Puzzle Mojipittan) is a Scrabble-style board game from Bandai Namco in which players use characters from the Japanese hiragana syllabary to spell words. Therefore, it's really, really, really hard to play if you don't know a load of Japanese words, and basically impossible if you can't read hiragana.
Rumor alert! NamcoBandai is allegedly planning a load of new, and new-ish, games in their Tales series for Nintendo consoles. The rumor gives titles for three new (potential) games, one of which is headed for the DS. If internet rumormongering is to be believed, Namco is working on a 2D sequel to the oft-ported Tales of Phantasia.
