This is just one of the rather gruesome sights that can be found over at the new site for D3's budget survival-horror Simple DS Series Vol. 42: THE Haioku Byoutou (Simple DS Series: Vol. 42 - The Abandoned Building). Even though our chances of seeing this game in the west are as good as Fido there ever fetching a frisbee again, we still spent an enjoyable fifteen minutes scouting around the site, taking in loads of screens and some genuinely eerie footage of the game.
Hit up our gallery and see some of the sights for yourself, but keep your flashlight close.
There's so much DS software love in the top ten that we don't know what to highlight! If pressed, though, we'll have to choose Densetsu no Stafi 5, because 1) Stafy is just the cutest and 2) it performed better than the rest. Band Brothers DXis inching toward 200,000 sales, though, and will probably hit that landmark next week.
The other DS love goes to Hana Yori Dango: Koi Seyo Onago, an otome based on an anime/manga/j-drama. Although the chances of it happening are about ... zero ... we'd love to see that one localized, as Hana Yori Dango is one of our guilty pleasures. Last but not least, we'll mention the sometimes inappropriateGegege no Kitarou, which debuted in ninth. (Oh yeah -- there's also Derby Stallion, but really.)
Software sales gave DS hardware a small boost, but Nintendo's handheld is still stuck behind the PSP:
PSP: 56,998 (559)
Nintendo DS: 48,540 (1,085)
Wii: 41,768 (2,757)
PlayStation 3: 12,458 (1,901)
PlayStation 2: 10,405 (1,363)
Xbox 360: 3,807 (969)
To check out the Japanese software sales numbers and rankings, just click past the break. (Our apologies -- we could only find translations for the top ten games!)
Before today, "Fall" was the most specific release date we had received for Pokémon Platinum, and that's not really specific at all. It's like, a whole damn season.
Three cheers for GAME Watch, then, as the Japanese site has revealed Platinum will launch in Japan on September 13th. That's a mere 60 days before (part of the world) gets addicted all over again! Fingers crossed we don't have another eight month wait for the localized version (as we did for Diamond and Pearl).
Ever since our scout came back with information from the enemy lines, we've been wondering how we would gain more information on upcoming Saihai no Yukue (The Baton's Whereabouts). Thankfully, we remembered we had a whole closet full of the little guys, so we just plucked one out and sent 'em off.
According to him, Famitsu has a rather lengthy look at the title, documenting the different stages of the game. Initially, there is a strategy stage where the players sets up all their pieces, which then transitions into battle. There's also a Persuasive mode, which looks to us like a way to move the plot along. It's kind of an interactive chat with the NPCs.
The most recent Japanese charts showed us that musical instruments have more legs than horses, as Band Brothers DXjumped up into the first place spot. Meanwhie, Nanashi no Game made its debut in the top ten, but only sold a total of 30,000 copies.
Hardware sales were also interesting, as the DS stubbornly held onto the second spot:
PSP: 56,439 (2,442)
Nintendo DS: 47,455 (1,429)
Wii: 44,525 (3,955)
PlayStation 3: 14,359 (3,614)
PlayStation 2: 11,768 ( 4,095)
Xbox 360: 4,776 (328)
With the Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G craze finally starting to quiet a bit, we don't think it will be too long before the PSP dips closer to DS sales (as long as Nintendo's handheld can maintain its own momentum). Enough about the future, though -- it's all about the now. So, go on and see how software fared last week in Japan by clicking past the break.
Game Watch has a plethora of new screens for Away: Shuffle Dungeon. They run the whole gamut from gameplay shots, down to concept art of a variety of the title's NPCs. There's also some nice information available, such as brief descriptions of all the NPCs and how they play into the game's story.
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.
What better way to celebrate Independence Day than by putting the faces of governmental figures on a sticker? The real story behind the above isn't quite that hilarious, actually. Late last month at the G8 foreign ministers' meeting in Kyoto, this beautifully redone DS was spotted, alongside stickers bearing the faces of the ministers. All that's missing is a sticker on the DS, though frankly, that Lite is way too pretty to muck up with stickers.
We'd probably do it anyway, though, for the lulz.
Gallery: Limited Edition Lites: A History of Sadness
Oh, Japanese gamers, how we love you -- after all, only you would buy 150,000 copies of Derby Stallion in one week. Such sales were enough to put this DS horse racing sim into first place, above Band Brothers DX and even the Wii's Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Besides Derby Stallion and Band Brothers, another DS title that made it into the top ten was Higurashi no Naku Koru ni Kazuna, a murder mystery visual novel.
The beauty of it all is that this DS software success managed to propel DS hardware into second place, barely skating past the Wii:
PSP: 58,861 (490)
Nintendo DS: 48,884 (12,285)
Wii: 48,480 (7,443)
PlayStation 3: 17,973 (2,363)
PlayStation 2: 7,673 (1,327)
Xbox 360: 5,104 (2,549)
To see sales numbers and rankings for the top ten games, just click past the break.
According to Spencer over at Siliconera, the DSVision store isn't all it's cracked up to be. The launch of the service has left him wanting, considering there are only 30 items available in the online store, with users expecting much, much more from the launch of the service.
He does admit that the pricing is favorable, however. Episodes of television shows are only $2, with digital manga fetching $3 per chapter. The books on available on the service range from free for a trial to $6 for a 1,000-page novel.
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.
So, apparently the game isn't getting a visual overhaul in the slightest, as, should our memory serve us correct, the images in the scan to the right look exactly like the original SNES title. Hey, we're not complaining! Who has any right to complain about Chrono Trigger getting re-released for the DS? Nobody, that's who!
Seriously, we're so stoked for this game, we doubt any other happening could ever rival it. Actually, if Abraham Lincoln and George Washington rose out of their graves to take part in a zombie steel-cage match, it would probably rival Chrono Trigger. But, Chrono would still win.
Even though we have our own flash carts, we can't help but covet DSVision. We'd like to see for ourselves how an official cart compares to our own -- not to mention, this demo video makes the service look pretty rad. While it doesn't seem like there's too much downloadable content on the official website yet, we like that all different kinds of media (anime, manga, movies, novels) are readily available in one place.
Unfortunately, most of us who don't live in Japan have to adopt a "look but don't touch" policy if we want to do the nifty official things shown in the video, as we lack something vital for buying content -- a Japanese credit card. We're used to not having as many cool toys as our friends in the East, though, so we'll just suck it up as per usual.
Not one, but two amazing RPG announcements have been made for the DS this morning. First up, a timeless masterpiece of epic proportions -- second, a brand-new addition to the acclaimed Tales series. We could go on about what we prefer, but it really doesn't matter. Life is good.
Tales of Hearts has been scanned from Shonen Jump and shipped over the intertrons for your viewing enjoyment. The image is skint on details, but two characters make an apperance in anime and real ... human form. The release is scheduled near the end of the year -- just hope it makes it to America, unlike another awesome game.
Yes, that's cooked puppy.
559)
2,757)
