The worst bit about big industry events for impatient bloggers and readers? The game assets. Oh Lordy, the assets. An absolute landslide of screens, usually scattered about across, ooh, dozens of pages.
But not at DS Fanboy! Not on our watch! Because we wub you, readers, we've collected a big old stack of new screens for your viewing pleasure and placed them all after the break of just one post. This post, in fact. From the well-known to the obscure, we'd be amazed if there's not at least one game that appeals to everyone past that line of blue text. Mario & Luigi 3, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (right), Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel, Shining Force Feather, and Picross 3D is only scratching the surface, so make the jump!
We've had our (first) gushing moment about a Phantasy Star Online iteration on the DS. Now it's time to think semi-critically about the development. We know that we like online gaming on the DS, and we like action-RPGs on the DS. But most of our ARPGs have been single-player, and our online gaming competitive.
Simply put, will the kind of longer-session multiplayer questing work on the DS as well as it did on the Dreamcast and all those other systems? Do you look forward to that kind of experience on a handheld? Obviously, people in Japan dig it (see: Monster Hunter Portable, Phantasy Star Portable). To us, there's something strange about this style of play on a handheld, and yet something quite appealing.
Siliconera interviewed Gregg Nolan, a product manager at Konami, about the upcoming Elebits: Adventures of Kai & Zero and how it diverges from the Wii game. Obviously, the most notable change is in the perspective; and, with the perspective (and the necessary control changes) comes a genre change: Adventures is now an action-RPG.
Helping you on your adventure are 50 new "Omega Elebits," elemental creatures different from the normal electricity-generating Elebits (who also appear). And they shouldn't cause players to backtrack through the entire game to catch them all. "We didn't want to make Elebits: Adventures of Kai & Zero a game that was too difficult. We want it to be a pick up and play, fun experience that anyone can play. You are going to find the Omega Elebits when you need them."
From Nolan's comments, it sounds like the adventure-style Elebits DS games are planned as a new, continuing branch of the franchise separate from the grabby Wii games. "Mukaitouge-san who is the producer of the first one basically said that the DS experience will be the next direction for the next DS experience. The first Wii game will be the story and the starting point for the next Wii game."
Which means that yes, there will probably be more Elebits games on both systems.
As usual, Square Enix showed a new trailer of one of their most anticipated games, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, at DKΣ3713, and as usual, that trailer was not released to the public (see also: closed-theatre Final Fantasy XIII trailers at TGS). We may not be able to see the trailer, but attendees were, and we can at least read their descriptions.
According to IGN's Jeff Haynes, the trailer introduces "an additional 14th member (of Organization XIII) who happened to be female that resembled Kairi." The trailer shows single- and multiplayer gameplay including multiple Organization members.
And if the trailer impressions aren't enough, Haynes even played the game. Apparently, the computer-controlled partner in single-player is actually capable for once: "In many cases, he would land two or three strikes before we had a chance to, which was particularly useful when we were surrounded."
That's The World Ends with You for the lot of you, though any Japanese readers might know by it a seemingly happier name. But no matter what you call it, doesn't that acronym just rock your pretty pink socks? Seriously, stop reading and say it aloud. Do it right now. Let the letters roll off your tongue and perhaps you'll get a tantalizing taste of the title we've been raving about for the last few months. You also might sound a little silly. My bad.
But what's that? You've already played The World Ends with You? Good for you! I might be treading well-worn ground with this week's edition of Gaming to Go, but Square Enix's latest epic deserves mention for one simple reason: it makes fighting fresh, fast, and -- most importantly -- fashionable. Tired of tedious turn-based battling? Tired of donning drab, colorless garments whenever you step into the war zone? TWEWY might be just what you need!
What other game actively rewards you for playing in short bursts? That feature alone makes The World Ends with You an easy recommendation for a gamer on the go. Hit the jump if you need further convincing, you fashionista, you!
It's been almost three months since the launch of the teaser site for the Blue Bomber spin-off Mega Man Star Force 3, but finally Dengeki has posted the first screens.
These include several shots of the new side-on view that was promised for battles (as previously used in the Battle Network series). It looks like the hotness, if we're honest, but we're hoping they kept the old vertical battling display in as an option for us crusty traditionalists! Hit the "Source" link for the full set of shots.
You would think that homebrew developers would have learned not to "borrow" Blizzard's franchises after the company's lawyers crushed the unofficial StarCraft DS port under their heels, but that's not the case!
For his first DS project, French programmer Le Rodeur has decided to create Diablo II: Sorceress Adventure, an unauthorized side-story for the dungeon hack featuring the female witch class.
The very early alpha (v. 000.1) released so far has very little worth noting -- a tiny sorceress sprite that you can move on an empty, tiled field. It's certainly not as far along as the StarLite alphas, which had buildable structures, touchscreen controls, and even basic multiplayer support. You can pretty much see everything the demo has to offer in the screenshot after the post break.
Perhaps all of these fanmade games will finally convince Blizzard into developing for the system? Probably not! For now, we will have to settle for these doomed projects and photoshopped images of characters playing DSes.
Our unfaltering love of dinosaurs makes us want to also love any video game having to do with such awesome and mighty creatures, like Dinosaur King. Yet, once again, the juxtaposition of cartoonish graphics with real-world imagery leaves us uneasy. We were really feeling it until the anime sprites showed up out of nowhere. Perhaps we need to actually see the show this is based on to understand the allure.
At the same time, thoughts of digging up fossils, having a dinosaur compendium, and fighting dino battles are incredibly tempting. Too bad Sega didn't forgo the license and just hunt for the meat of it all. The music in the trailer makes one thing clear, though: dinosaurs rawk. Not that we needed another confirmation of that fact.
Interested parties can also check out the new screens in the gallery below.
E3 news is still trickling in, but we wouldn't be the DS Fanboy you know and love if we neglected to tell you how to buy cheap games.
The latest hot sale is something we've seen before -- The World Ends with You at Amazon for $29.99. Yet, that offer quickly went out of stock way back when, and many of you poor, unfortunate souls didn't get a chance to nab it at the time. In fact, from what we understand, the game is still hard to find at certain locations.
You can still get the title minus the "Square Enix tax," though, thanks to Amazon's revisiting of its previous sale price. This is a game that's actually worth all $40, too, so $30 is definitely a bargain.
[Update: Well that lasted a good ... half hour. Those of you who are set on the sale, it might be worth it to keep checking in at Amazon throughout the day. As of this moment, though, it seems that the price has gone back to $39.99.]
[Update 2: Well, what do you know, the price has gone back down to $29.99 again. That's one small step for man, and one giant "woot" from mankind. Once again tipped by supa_s -- we think he must have the magic touch.]
Put this in your logbook: Avalon Code looks resplendent. Matrix Software has already demonstrated its mastery of the DS hardware through its remakes of Final Fantasy III and the soon-to-be-released Final Fantasy IV; and if the latest dozen screenshots are anything to go by, Avalon Code and its mop-topped hero can stand proud next to either of those. Thank goodness it's heading this way!
While the main Mega Man series is about to have its first new release in nine years, the universe of Mega Man spinoff games continues to expand as rapidly as ever. The latest is Ryuusei no Rockman 3, the third in the Mega Man Star Force series, which is itself spun off from the Mega Man Battle Network games.
Capcom will sell Star Force 3 artwork at Tokyo's World Hobby Fair, and while we probably won't have the opportunity to go buy a poster or a commemorative fan, we can look at the new character art featured on those items. In the newly detailed portrait of the Mega Man character, we can see the Hunter VG device that enables the new "Wizard" monster-summoning system.
Maybe the company completed a journey for the mystical Dragon Balls and summoned the Eternal Dragon, because short of magical intervention, it would be hard to create what Dragon Ball DS has become: a licensed Dragon Ball action-RPG that looks really, really great. It's Goku: Phantom Dragon Ball, basically.
Even in scans, the sharp 3D graphics come through, and the stylus controls seem enjoyable. Shown above: the maneuver for performing the Kamehameha: scratching back and forth quickly across the screen, then slashing forward -- all while brightly colored kana spell out the signature halting "ka-me-ha-me-ha."
If this successfully rips off the Zelda style, players could be in for a good time. We're excited -- if only because we're pretending it's a stylus-controlled Dragon Power remake.
Summer in the northern hemisphere officially starts today, which means one thing: sharing strawberries with a loved one in a tranquil hay meadow as you soak up the rays grabbing cheap games in the sales! The folks at HMV know the heat turns us Brits into mushy-minded impulse buyers, and so they've gone and slashed prices on approximately 30 DS titles to around the £12 - £15 mark. Here's the best of what's on offer:
We already know that the It's A Wonderful World+The World Ends With You remix album will sound amazing -- one only needs to play the game or listen to samples of the compilation on Square Enix's dedicated site to appreciate that Takeharu Ishimoto's magical soundtrack is one of the best this year -- but the packaging of the album will also look totally classy.
Unlike the original soundtrack, this album contains tracks from both the Japanese and the North American and PAL editions of the game. It hits Japan (and the iTunes Store) on July 30th, when it will retail for ¥2,100 ($19).
Square Enix announced the lineup of their DKΣ3713 last week, but neglected to mention which of the displayed games would be playable and which would be shown only as closed-theater video presentations. DS fans lucky enough to attend the exclusive event will find themselves extra lucky: both of the DS games on display at the show, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Sigma Harmonics, will be playable. That means that we may get some new information or gameplay impressions from this show.
According to a Famitsu magazine interview with Tetsuya Nomura (as translated by NeoGAF's duckroll), 358/2 Days is in the midst of being "tuned and balanced." Feedback from attendees will help shape the final game.
The worst bit about big industry events for impatient bloggers and readers? The game assets. Oh Lordy, the assets. An absolute landslide of screens, usually scattered about across, ooh, dozens of pages.
We've had our (first) 
Siliconera interviewed Gregg Nolan, a product manager at 
As usual, Square Enix showed a new trailer of one of their most anticipated games, 
It's been almost three months since the launch of the 
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E3 news is still trickling in, but we wouldn't be the DS Fanboy you know and love if we neglected to tell you how to buy cheap games.
Put this in your 
Summer in the northern hemisphere officially starts today, which means one thing: 
Square Enix announced the lineup of their 
