Do you enjoy the Izunacharacter 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.
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.
Posted Jun 13th 2008 7:00PM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
Confirming Nintendo Power's statement, Ignition Entertainment sent out a press release announcing their intention to release Success's Tornado in North America. Surprisingly, the game isn't even close to being released in Japan yet: Success's barebones Tornado website still shows an "undecided" release date.
As Toki, a member of the Cosmic Cleaners, Tornado players must use upgradable Tornado Machines to clean up the world and reclaim all the items, people, and buildings that a malevolent Prince has stolen from Earth. Like Katamari Damacy with a different rotational axis. The focus is on acquiring unique items, and completing levels in the Story Mode unlocks them in Arcade Mode for replay and continued collecting.
The first English screens are available in our gallery. Take them for a spin, why don't you (oh man, sorry about that).
Likely capitalizing on this year's box office release for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, developer and publisher Success has announced a new adventure title that features a very familiar-looking archaeologist.
Sporting a dusty brown fedora hat, Jonathan Westwood stars as an escape route specialist in Johnny's Epic Escape Campaign (Jonny no Dasshutsu Taisaku Ikusa). Though he isn't armed with a whip and he doesn't have a short Asian sidekick named Short Round, Jonathan will be escaping from four different scenarios that sound a lot like Indiana Jones movie titles:
Akumu no Gamble Night (Nightmare Gambling Night)
Nessa no Nuikyuu (Labyrinth of Hot Sand)
Nuifu kara no Sasoi (Invitation from Hades)
Wasurerareta Kaizokusen (The Forgotten Pirate Ship)
Johnny's Epic Escape Campaign hits stores in Japan this August 26th, the same day Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opens in Japanese theaters. Swing into our gallery below for screenshots from the game!
The Windy x Windam website now reveals more of the Ninja Studio fighting game's cast. Of the new additions, you'll recognize Shino, who joins Izuna from Ninja Studio's Izuna roguelike series. The game's Vega (agile, masked, and creepy) quotient is being filled by the green-haired G, while the role of the Big Grappling Guy has gone to ... Big.
The "system" area features a couple of new screenshots, including one of G transforming into some kind of monster. In addition to the life gauge and "boost" gauge, there's a circular "Windam Gauge" that seems to have something to do with power. Super attack gauge, maybe?
There's a wallpaper of the boxart image in the "special" page. We're still not sure of Ninja Studio's ability to create a fighting game, but what they have so far looks neat!
Now everybody has remembered that, hey, Tactical Guildtotally still exists, Famitsu has decided to post a blowout of screens from the game.
In truth, it's not the prettiest game. In fact, it's visually closer to the original Final Fantasythan Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (which kind of explains why the game is ¥1000 cheaper than most DS titles), but we totally dig those chunky, shamelessly retro sprites. Famitsu also has some nice art of the game's protagonists to gaze and coo at, along with the usual ridiculous haircuts and clothes; buttons, for example, are serious business.
Take a turn to run past the break for more screens.
Another of Success's mysterious summer releases has been revealed. Yawaraka Sensha is your basic match-three-or-more puzzle game, in which touching an area of three or more contiguous same-colored items will cause them to disappear. But we totally love it simply because of the license. Yawaraka Sensha (Soft Tank) is a series of Flash animations about adorable baby tanks who are simply too cuddly and delicate for war.
In addition to the main puzzle mode, which tells an original story, there are (adorable) minigames, the ability to customize a lil' tank, and even a mode in which you can mess with a Yawaraka Sensha and promote various reactions. For the first time, we now want to hug tanks.
Since it was fleetingly mentioned over two months ago, Success Corp.'s mid-priced strategy RPG Tactical Guide has flown so far under our radar as to be almost undetectable. Fortunately, it didn't elude Siliconera's sharp-eyed Spencer Yip, who spotted the game on the site of retailer Rakuten, where it has been listed for an Japanese release on August 28th.
Said listing proved to be a decent source of fresh information on the title, revealing that the game would offer a choice of three heroines, each of whom has a "good" and "normal" ending, 71 quests (and several other sub-quests to complete), a job system (of which little is so far known), and the screens you see in the gallery below.
Will it come to the west? We wouldn't bank on it, but at least there's plentymoreSRPG goodness planned for not-Japan.
We recently reported that the renter/retailer put up a listing for Tornado, which was assumed to be a localized version of the Japanese game sharing the same name. Now according to a blurb in most recent issue of Nintendo Power, the Katamari-like game is indeed confirmed to pop up in North America, although no timeline details were given.
Nintendo Power also reveals that Tornado will include some microphone blowing elements, which worries us a little bit. As long as the game doesn't overdo it, though, we can't help but think that this will be a nice addition to the DS library.
Success's Genmu no Tou to Tsurugi no Okite has gotten us interested in dungeon RPGs like no other, due almost entirely to its visuals. While most dungeon games are bland, Genmu's default look can be likened to a black light poster. The alternate visual scheme, which is retro black-and-white line art, is also amazing.
You can play a little trial of the game, if you'd like the full Genmu no Tou experience. The arrow keys move you around, A is your main action button, B cancels, X confirms attacks, and Y turns the map on. You may not be able to read the text, but you can listen to the fantastic music and brute-force your way through some bats. If you like the way it looks, check out a bunch of screens in our gallery.
It was hard not to look forward to Drone Tactics. Not only are strategy games easy to love on the DS, but anything with giant stompy robots that are also bugs is an attention-grabber. But that's a tough area to break into; the SRPGs in the DS library are just so darned good that any newcomer needs to have something special on offer. Are the insects in Drone Tactics enough of a draw?
The answer is, unfortunately, a little more complicated than a simple "yes." At times, Drone Tactics really shines, but it takes a little time and effort to get there.
Drone Tactics launched a few days ago in the U.S., introducing a novel combination of insects and strategy to our DSes. The game already appeared as one of our suggested alternatives to Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, so how does it stack up against Intelligent Systems' gem? Look! Some people answered that question for us:
Game Informer -- 70%: Game Informer's Adam Biessener served up a second opinion on Joe Juba's review, remarking how Atlus' game isn't what it first appears to be: "At first glance, this seems to be yet another piece of kid-friendly shovelware, but there's actually a decent game hiding under the sub-Saturday morning cartoon presentation. The RPG elements in this grid-based battler are thin but well thought out, and the combat itself features several reasonably balanced rock-paper-scissors relationships that make for interesting tactical decisions."
Nintendo Power -- 70%: Nintendo Power follows a similar tune, snickering at the story, but praising the core gameplay: "The result is a storyline that will elicit nothing but eye-rolls and nasal snorts from anyone over 12, but the game at the core of Drone Tactics is surprisingly well-made." [June 2008, p.87 -- excerpt found at Metacritic]
Games Radar -- 80%: Meanwhile, Games Radar gave Drone Tactics its best review to date, singling out the title's lifespan and customization options as the best bits: "Another high point is the high level of customization the game allows. You choose the paint jobs and decorative emblems. You choose the bugs that go into each battle. You decide the weapons and armor that each bug carries into battle. You even get to put together your own deck of preferred battle cards. The further you go in the story mode, the more your insect army starts to feel uniquely "yours." [...] It'll take you 40-plus hours to finish the story mode. Longer if you try to complete all of the optional badlands missions. That's 40-plus hours worth of awesome battles and addictive customizing."
The comparisons between Tornado and Katamari Damacyare extremely evident, but there's one major difference: Katamari Damacy games are available outside of Japan, whereas Success's title has yet to accomplish that.
In fact, Tornado hasn't even released inJapan yet. It was originally scheduled to come out last year, but later become delayed indefinitely. Oddly enough, though, GameFly has a listing for a DS game called Tornado. Can it be the same game? Perhaps -- we hope so, at least. We wouldn't mind having a portable Katamari-like game release in North America for our favorite handheld.
Whatever this game is, it's being published by Ignition Entertainment and has a GameFly release date of September '08.
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! 
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