Hey folks, it's time for another giveaway. This round we'll be hooking up two lucky readers with copies of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. Also, one of those lucky two readers will get a free Pokemon T-shirt that Nintendo sent over with the game. If it isn't your size, we'd suggest you give it to one of your cousins or something.
What's up for grabs:
One Grand Prize winner will receive Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (valued at $35) and one Enter the Dungeon T-shirt
One runner-up will receive Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (valued at $35)
In order to enter, you must leave a comment telling us what your absolute favorite Pokemon is. You can leave a comment once per day, and before entering, make sure you are a legal and current United States or Canadian resident (excluding Quebec) and at least 18 years of age. The giveaway starts now and ends on Sunday, August 10th at 11:59pm ET. Don't forget to give the official rules a read, as well!
Best of luck to all of you and, as always, thanks for reading DS Fanboy!
Posted Jul 25th 2008 10:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News
The Japanese release date for Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia might not seem like useful information to you readers out west, but the desperate, Castlevania-starved gamers among you will at least now know the exact day their import copy will begin its trans-Pacific journey towards their hands -- October 23rd, 2008.
Furthermore, considering that the US release for Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin was only three weeks after Japan's, we also now have a general idea of when Order of Ecclesia will see its stateside release -- mid-November.
Perhaps the publisher will keep the promise it made back in March to aim for simultaneous worldwide releases with its new titles? It's unlikely, but we can dream ...
Gallery: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Gallery: Cid and Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon: Maze of Time DS+
Yesterday, we spent a little time talking about roguelike games, with the review of Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns. This particular brand of dungeon crawl has been prettypopular on the DS of late, which means, of course, that we've got to ask you if you're into it. Do you enjoy the occasional roguelike experience, or do you find them frustrating? Perhaps uninteresting? Inquiring minds and all.
Izuna may not be the most legendary of figures in the world at large, but around here, she's a star. She's only unemployed in the ninja sense; she's got other gigs on the side. And for a second time, she's back with a roguelike challenge set to kick you all around the dungeons. Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns is a lot like its predecessor -- it's tough, it requires more than a bit of caution, and there are a lot of silly jokes about boobs and being in a game. If you didn't play the first one, that's okay; feel free to pick up the sequel, as all you'll miss out on is a little bit of the backstory and relationships between characters ... none of which is particularly important. The story of Izuna 2 is merely stage-setting. It gives you something to watch between dungeons.
Not all of us are up to the challenge of a brutalroguelike, and that's okay. In fact, that's what roguelike-lights such as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon are for. Just because said games don't beat your spirit to a pulp, though, doesn't mean they're not enjoyable, especially for Pokémaniacs.
Today's a good time to become an explorer of time or darkness, as both Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness are being offered as Amazon's deal of the day. Each one is currently on sale for $22.99, and will be until 12:00am PDT. Yet, if you're not familiar with the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, you might want to check out our review of the game (well, games) first.
If you enjoyed Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja (or at least thought you might), then there's good news: the sequel is just as charming, just as engaging, and perhaps even a little more fun than the original. The sequel has a lot of new things, including a second baby step toward making Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns a hair easier on your sanity and frustration levels.
That's right -- while Izuna's games definitely fall under the roguelike label, they're a fingernail easier than the traditional dungeon crawler. That doesn't make them any easier to me, but the hardest of the hardcore may scoff at Izuna's differences, while the rest of us can actually attempt the game without "accidentally" dropping the DS or anything. What's different? In both Izuna 2 and its predecessor, when you die (and will you ever die), you keep your levels. In keeping with the roguelike tradition, you lose everything else, but it's not absolutely everything in a square-one sort of way. Izuna 2 adds something else on top of that: the tag team system. And that's where things get a little sticky.
Making sure that you get the message -- the message being "Chocobos are really cute; buy our Chocobo games" -- Square Enix has posted trailers for its two recently revealed fall-bound Chocobo titles, Cid and Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon: Maze of Time DS+ and Chocobo and the Magic Storybook: The Witch and the Girl and the Five Heroes.
As you might be able to tell in the promotional clip and the game's title, Cid and Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon is an enhanced port of Chocobo's Dungeon (released in the U.S. for the Wii this week) with more focus on Final Fantasy regular Cid. Given the nature of roguelikes, this DS release doesn't look like that much of a "downgraded" experience compared to the Wii version!
The Chocobo and the Magic Storybook clip isn't nearly as epic, but if you're enough of a Chocobo fan to have read this far into the post, you'll likely want to watch it anyway. Jump past the break for more of the flightless, chubby bird.
Gallery: Cid and Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon: Maze of Time DS+
As a promotion for its Virtual World -- yes, it's a virtual world titled Virtual World -- Square Enix held a special event in the beta 3D space unveiling two new Chocobo titles for the Nintendo DS -- Cid and Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon: Maze of Time DS+ (fall 2008) and Chocobo and the Magic Storybook: The Witch and the Girl and the Five Heroes (winter 2008).
Cid and Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon: Maze of Time DS+, as you can guess, will be a roguelike starring Final Fantasy figures Cid and Chocobo. This will actually be Square Enix's fourth Chocobo Mystery Dungeon entry, an enhanced port of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon for the Wii, now with new jobs and a storyline told from a new perspective (Cid's).
The chances of this one coming to the U.S.? Given the current"surge" of roguelikes hitting the States, it's very likely we'll get this one! You can preview some of Cid and Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon's first screenshots in our gallery below.
The second title, Chocobo and the Magic Storybook: The Witch and the Girl and the Five Heroes, follows 2007's Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales, a minigame collection with RPG and card-battling elements. If you remember our favorable review for the original game, we called it "just about the cutest thing ever." Screenshots below!
Gallery: Cid and Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon: Maze of Time DS+
Gallery: Chocobo and the Magic Storybook: The Witch and the Girl and the Five Heroes
Do you enjoy the Izuna character portrait comics on the official website? If not, you probably haven't read them, because they're delightful. Atlus is now offering a chance for the fans to share their own Izuna comics, and get a shot at some free stuff for doing so!
All you have to do is pick one of four templates (each one featuring interactions between different Izuna characters), add text to a form, and submit your hilarity to Atlus for judging. The winner gets a copy of Izuna 2 and all the posters -- even the one that they didn't pick for Amazon copies!
Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns is about more than mini-posters and sexy ninjas -- a lot of work goes into getting a game like this localized. Not only does a good localization team have to focus on the translation, but they also need to fix any bugs or problems that gamers found in the Japanese release. Apparently, fixing bugs for a roguelike is especially hard and frustrating, as you might have guessed.
Here's the Quality Assurance stat breakdown, according to Atlus:
Number of testers on Izuna 2: 6
Number of DS systems almost thrown against the wall: 6
Number of system-type bugs our testers reported: 104
Number of text bugs our testers reported: 259
Number of times the testers nearly gave the project lead a heart attack with a fake system bug: 3
Number of bugs our testers reported to which we responded: "That's not a bug, that's the way this game works:" 17
Number of monkeys we could have hired to do their job: 0
The production diary is actually a really interesting read that not only Izuna fans, but also people interested in the localization process should give a look. Besides, we always appreciate more insight on how the other side of the gaming industry works.
The Izuna 2 poster situation has officially become ridiculous. Atlus has revealed that the cover of every copy will not feature the same mini-poster on the reverse; rather, each copy will have one of two pieces of arttwork. In addition, they've released the winning design from the Amazon poll.
With the Gamestop-exclusive poster, there are now four different Izuna 2 posters. Each copy ordered from Amazon or GameStop will include two, one of which can be chosen. Crazy people can try to collect them all by ordering one copy from each retailer and just hoping for two different posters on the boxes.
We couldn't decide which was more awesome -- these new screenshots for Shiren the Wanderer DS 2: Demon Castle in the Desert, or the fact that Chunsoft went out of its way in 2001 to promote the original Game Boy Color title, Shiren the Wanderer GB2, with bags of steak-flavored chips (In case you're late to the party, STW DS 2 is a roguelike remake of STW GB2).
So, we went ahead and featured both the crisps and an image of Shiren's long-lost and perpetually hungry brother, Pekeji, in our article image. Hopefuly, publisher Sega will have a similar potato chip promotion with STW DS 2! Even better, maybe they'll eventually localize the chips along with the game?
But even that isn't enough coverage for Ninja Studio's roguelike heroine: GameStop orders of Izuna 2 will ship with yet another mini-poster featuring a more dressed, but no more demure, Izuna than the others. You could probably get away with having someone see this one on your wall.
We predict a minor swell of unopened Izuna 2 copies on eBay shortly after release, sold by people who just couldn't choose a poster.
While Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns comes with a spiffy reversible boxart feature, that's not the only bonus male Atlus fans can expect this July. There will actually be another mini-poster included with the game -- a much more risqué poster, at that. Here's the catch: in order to get one with your copy of Izuna 2, you have to order it from Amazon.com (which means the promotion is only available for folks in the U.S.). Atlus tells us that there are only a "limited" number of these special edition copies available, so take that as you will.
Atlus is also holding a voting contest to see which one of two posters (shown in full after the break) will be included with the software. When we last checked, the two options were almost neck and neck, with the first one taking a slight lead.
If your lecherous curious eyes want to see the uncropped posters featuring Izuna and Shino's scantily clad figures, just click past the break.
Posted Jun 18th 2008 8:45AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns featured some fairly risque alternate boxart in Japan, where initial shipments were packaged in H-game-like boxes with art of Izuna and Shino bathing in an onsen. The American box for the game may not be modeled after erogames, but it does feature some extra pinup-style art of the title character.
In an absolutely lovely trend, the Izuna 2 boxart has been revealed as reversible, like the boxart for Victorious Boxers Revolution. However, instead of alternate boxart on the other side, the reverse of Izuna 2's cover is a mini-poster of the title character. Nice to see Atlus treating a niche game like Izuna as such a deluxe product.
The Japanese release date for Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia might not seem like useful information to you readers out west, but the desperate, Castlevania-starved gamers among you will at least now know the exact day their import copy will begin its trans-Pacific journey towards their hands -- October 23rd, 2008.
Izuna may not be the most legendary of figures in the world at large, but around here, she's a star. She's only unemployed in the ninja sense; she's got other gigs on the side. And for a second time, she's back with a roguelike challenge set to kick you all around the dungeons.
If you enjoyed Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja (or at least thought you might), then there's good news: the sequel is just as charming, just as engaging, and perhaps even a little more fun than the original. The sequel has a lot of new things, including a second baby step toward making Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns a hair easier on your sanity and frustration levels.
Do you enjoy the Izuna character portrait comics on the official website? If not, you probably haven't read them, because they're delightful. Atlus is now offering a chance for the fans to share their own Izuna comics, and get a shot at some free stuff for doing so!
Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns is about more than mini-posters and sexy ninjas -- a lot of work goes into getting a game like this localized. Not only does a good localization team have to focus on the translation, but they also need to fix any bugs or problems that gamers found in the Japanese release. Apparently, fixing bugs for a roguelike is especially hard and frustrating, as you might have guessed.
Not only is Atlus including a fold-out poster on the back of the Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns boxart, they're bundling one of two provocative posters with Amazon orders of the game as well.
While Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns comes with a spiffy reversible boxart feature, that's not the only bonus male Atlus fans can expect this July. There will actually be another mini-poster included with the game -- a much more risqué poster, at that. Here's the catch: in order to get one with your copy of Izuna 2, you have to order it from Amazon.com (which means the promotion is only available for folks in the U.S.). Atlus tells us that there are only a "limited" number of these special edition copies available, so take that as you will.
Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns featured some fairly risque alternate boxart in Japan, where initial shipments were packaged in H-game-like boxes with art of Izuna and Shino bathing in an onsen. The American box for the game may not be modeled after erogames, but it does feature some extra pinup-style art of the title character.
