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Play Bangai-O and Naruto at this week's Anime Expo

Posted Jul 1st 2008 10:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: News

Want to get your hands on Bangai-O Spirits before its August release? Then head on over to California and go to this year's Anime Expo. Not only will you get to play this gem of a game, but the entire DS Fanboy staff will envy you for your hands-on Bangai-O experience.

Another DS game that will be playable is, of course, Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2. Would you really expect the orange-clad Ninja not to make an appearance? So, if you plan to stop by the Expo, make sure to check out D3 Publisher's booth (901) for some fun times on the DS.

Gallery: Bangai-O Spirits

Gallery: Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2

Absolutely Lovely Children exist on the DS

Posted Jun 26th 2008 2:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: News, Screens, Imports

More manga/anime adaptations head DS-ward, this time in the form of Zettai Karen Children (Absolutely Lovely Children). Konami grabbed the license for the series and is making it into an RPG for the DS, which comes out on September 4th in Japan.

We never heard of Absolutely Lovely Children before, well, yesterday, but the story focuses around three young girls with ESP. It's not uncommon for people to have ESP (in this manga/anime-verse), but these ten-year-olds have the highest level of the power. The government thus forms them into a seemingly elite unit known as "The Children."

Since more details on this recently-announced-yet-soon-to-release game have yet to surface, it might be worth checking out some of the screens below to see if the style appeals to you. Keep in mind, though, that Zettai Karen Children DS: Dai-4 no Children probably won't be localized outside of Japan.

Gallery: Zettai Karen Children DS: Dai-4 no Children

[Via Siliconera]

Daily Bangai-O Spirits videos are a welcome trend

Posted Jun 26th 2008 9:30AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Video

Let us make our position on this subject absolutely clear: any website that wants to post new videos of Bangai-O Spirits between now and the game's August 12 release has our blessing. For that matter, we'll be happy watching playthroughs of new stages long after the game is out. The video above, from IGN, is especially awesome, featuring numerous enormous scatter bomb shots in a level devoid of anything but missile-firing enemies (which feed the scatter bombs).

The two videos after the break feature the game's gentle first level and a bizarre gimmick level in which the player hits soccer balls with the bat weapon as they fall from a chute, pinball-style. There certainly appears to be enough variety in the level designs.

Gallery: Bangai-O Spirits

Continue reading Daily Bangai-O Spirits videos are a welcome trend

Bangai-O videos lift our spirits

Posted Jun 25th 2008 9:30AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Video

These English-language gameplay videos of Bangai-O Spirits give us a look at a few of the game's weapons -- the yellow Shield "weapon" there seems like a good choice for obvious reasons (including the number of bullets on screen and their tendency to blow you up upon impact). The "Mix" icon in the weapon selection screen (which can now be read) indicates that the two chosen EX weapons can combine into a new scatter bomb attack. Amusingly, within the first few seconds, we see the demo player fail a level. That's the mark of a hardcore game!

The video after the break shows off two of Spirits' more labyrinthine levels, as well as the awesome bullet-destroying "Sword" attack. We cannot express how thrilled we are that the release date is approaching. There hasn't been a DS game yet to match the few minutes of demo time we've had!

Gallery: Bangai-O Spirits

Continue reading Bangai-O videos lift our spirits

Kindred Bangai-O Spirits

Posted Jun 24th 2008 2:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News

Bangai-O Spirits is packed with amazing features -- the level editor, the Sound Load system, the shooting of stuff. But as if that weren't enough, it also has co-op. It's local, and limited to two players, both of whom require their own cartridge, but everyone should probably have their own Bangai-O Spirits anyway.

You can be joined by another shooty robot in any stage in Free Play -- which means any stage. This includes stages you've created yourself or transferred via Sound Load. IGN's Daemon Hatfield reports a lot of slowdown, especially in multiplayer, but slowdown in Bangai-O games is inevitable given the nature of the super attacks, and may even be part of the design.

Gallery: Bangai-O Spirits

Bangai-O contest winners available for download

Posted Jun 10th 2008 7:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Imports

At the end of May, Treasure announced the winners of their Bangai-O Spirits stage contest. The 1st place winner, MKLL, received a 50,000 yen prepaid debit card, a soundtrack CD, and a Bangai-O Spirits t-shirt (which we'd like to see) for the "Tokimeki Doukasen" stage. The 2nd place winner, NeoGAF's Sp0rsk, won a Wii in addition to the soundtrack and shirt. All the contest-winning stages are now available for download and play via Sound Load.

That means that we won a bunch of downloadable stages that we're going to grab now and hang onto just in case they work in the U.S. version of the game. We wouldn't be surprised if these contest-winning stages made it onto the cartridge anyway!

The sweet sounds of Bangai-O Spirits in Europe this August

Posted May 21st 2008 5:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Imports

European shooter fans (and people who listen to us) will be playing MP3s into their DS Lites along with us this August. D3 Publisher of Europe announced today that they will publish Treasure and ESP's Bangai-O Spirits in Europe. While no actual day was named, the release is planned for August, which is, at least, more specific than "Summer," "Q3," or "Soon." Just save some of your game budget for an August expenditure.

We couldn't be happier to see Bangai-O Spirits being released so soon in Europe, because it means that (as long as you guys buy it) we'll have even more players hard at work making us awesome stages.

Gallery: Bangai-O Spirits

Bangai-O Spirits: first English screens!

Posted May 10th 2008 12:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Screens

We're pleased to report that being able to read all of the text on the screen in Bangai-O Spirits does not ruin the hype for us. Obviously. We got by just fine on limited Japanese skill during our GDC playthrough, but we are dying for a chance to explore all the options and menus in full. Our gallery is now rife with delightful English screens. Now you can see which weapons are being displayed onscreen!

More importantly, now that screens of the English menus are available, we can see that stages in the Edit Mode are divided into categories. "Treasure's Best" must be the new stages we were told would be added between the Japanese and U.S. releases. We find it interesting that the puzzle stages are separated, as well.

We're so happy to see progress being made! Get here soon, Bangai-O.

Gallery: Bangai-O Spirits

[Via press release]

Bangai-O Spirits boxart hits the highlights

Posted May 4th 2008 12:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News

The new boxart for the U.S. version of Bangai-O Spirits keeps it fairly simple. You've got your robot, who appears big on the box but is quite small on the screen; there are some projectiles flying off in every direction, and lots of delicious giant fruit. That's the core of Bangai-O, all right. The box could do with some kind of visual representation of the level editor, or perhaps an effusive quote from DS Fanboy. We understand that the omissions were probably done in the interest of keeping it simple.

As expected, Amazon has updated the listing for Bangai-O Spirits with the new August 12 release date. So the delay is (not really) official (but really likely).

Gallery: Bangai-O Spirits

Bangai-O Respite: Possible two-month delay

Posted Apr 22nd 2008 5:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Rumors

Normally, the idea of waiting longer for Bangai-O Spirits would totally ruin our day, but to be honest, we were relieved when we saw that Gamestop has changed their release date to August 12th (Amazon still says June 24th). There is just way too much DS stuff coming out in June -- especially for people of a 2D action/shooting persuasion. It's a bad situation not only because it's really expensive to get all the new stuff at once, but because it forces non-crazy people to choose, hurting sales of everything that comes out then.

We don't expect Bangai-O Spirits to be a massive hit (though it should be), but we at least want all the DS shooter fans to be able to space it out a bit from Space Invaders Extreme, in order to maximize its sales in that group.

Gallery: Bangai-O Spirits

Bangai-O stage contest and some backhanded encouragement

Posted Apr 18th 2008 12:45PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Imports

If you happen to have a Japanese copy of Bangai-O Spirits, or if, like us, you just like the idea of more free stages being available, then you'll be interested in the Bangai-O Spirits original stage contest being held at the website right now. Well, mostly if you want new stages.

With real prizes on the line, like a Wii, a 50,000 yen prepaid debit card, and an iPod nano (not to mention the original t-shirt given away with each prize, which we're dying to see), we're sure it's open to residents of Japan only. Entrants are instructed to submit a replay along with their stages, to show how to get through them. Treasure must expect extreme creativity!

As if to boost the confidence of amateur stage designers, the latest set of free stages, from Continue magazine, are way lame -- like "Counter" here. That shouldn't be so hard to beat!

[From the intro page, click on the white, moving box to access the contest page.]

More Japanese publications get Bangai-O Spirits stages

Posted Apr 7th 2008 9:45AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Imports

Two more Bangai-O Spirits custom stages are available on the official Japanese homepage, representing two more Japanese game media outlets. The Gemaga stage (pictured) is in the form of the site's mascot, Liruru (or Rilulu, or -- you get the idea). The ITMedia stage is made in the image of the site's logo. Who do we have to talk to to get our own Bangai-O Spirits stage?

Even more awesome than logos and mascots (it's possible!) is this stage made by NeoGAFfer Lee_N, which replicates Area 1 of the NES Bionic Commando. If you don't think that's completely, insanely amazing, get the heck out of here, you nerd!

Friday Video: Brinstar Spirits

Posted Mar 28th 2008 8:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Friday video

Another set of Bangai-O Spirits stages to save

Posted Mar 28th 2008 2:15PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Imports

We've been talking about Bangai-O Spirits stages a lot lately, but, well, we don't want to miss out on any stages just because the U.S. game isn't out yet -- and we don't want any other future Bangai-O players (you are out there, right?) to miss out either. The fan community, while small, seems to be enjoying the feature and sharing. The media is also taking advantage of the fact that they can easily host Bangai-O content on their own sites.

Dengeki made some stages of their own that are absolutely worth a look -- they decided to use the stage components to make playable art pieces. No idea how the image to the right will be to play, but it sure is cool-looking! In addition, two more stages and replays have been added to the official Bangai-O Spirits website.

We're hoping that the American media will get into the act when the game comes out over here. Oh, wait -- that's us. Well, then, we can confirm that they will.

Gallery: Bangai-O Spirits

Bangai-O Spirits uses the world's best level-sharing network

Posted Mar 27th 2008 5:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Fan stuff, Imports

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