Atlus sent out bad news for people eager to start making dungeons: Master of the Monster Lair, the American release of Global A's Dungeon Maker, has been delayed from its September 2 release date to October 21. This is, of course, only an inconvenience to those hoping to make dungeons on the DS and then share them wirelessly with friends. You remain free to build your own dungeons in real life, provided you have the capital and make sure to obtain the proper permits for construction.
New screens are in the gallery, so grab your magic shovel and start digging through them!
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.
Were you looking forward to getting a piece of Izuna with your copy of Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns from Amazon? You'll have to way a little bit longer, dearest fanboys; there's been a bit of a mix-up and the posters have gone missing. The folks at Atlus offered up profuse and unending apologies in today's newsletter, and promise that the posters will be in the mail soon.
So far as we know, this only affects the posters with the Amazon copies. If you were getting a poster from GameStop, we're guessing that'll still be included, and of course, you still get the reversible boxart.
For those of you looking to play something brand new this week, you're out of luck. Instead, Nintendo offers us a chance to catch up with some demos me might have missed in the past, allowing folks to download these up until next week. So, if you missed out last time, get on it!
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.
Just last week, we found out Luminous Arc 2 was slated for localization (at last!), and since then we've been on the receiving end of a few fresh new English-language screens. We've already slipped in a little humor of our own in our coverage of the title, but conveniently, this time they've done all the work for us. Check out the latest screens while we kick back and relax.
Atlus has also put up the game's official English-language site (move your mouse around the front page for some motiion-sickness-causing lulz), as well as a trailer. Hit it up after the break to learn all about the horrors of anti-witch prejudice, battles, and rings.
Atlus has unleashed further shots of its dungeon-building RPG Master of the Monster Lair. Mostly, these depict some of the rooms that will be available to players from the get-go, including a musty cellar (apparently, hobgoblins are drawn to these), a warrior's dojo, a king's bedroom, and rooms featuring a hearth or water features. No jacuzzi in which orcs and goblins can unwind yet, but there's still hope, right?
There's also a brief glimpse of the game's local wireless mode, in which players can share their dungeon creations with friends; we're only sorry that none of our friends are likely to buy this. We need new friends, frankly.
Clearing up doubts on whether Image Epoch's bootytastic SRPG sequel, Luminous Arc 2: Will, would ever come stateside, Atlus has announced that it is localizing the game for this fall.
Why would you want to buy a lower budget Final Fantasy Tactics Advance knock-off, especially when you could just get Song Summoner for the iPod instead, you ask? We have an easy answer for that: online multiplayer battles. Also, big butts.
Luminous Arc 2 will retail for $39.99, significantly higher than most other DS titles, but each copy will come in an oversized box containing a CD with selected songs from the soundtrack. Presumably, it's the same CD that was released with the SRPG's preorders in Japan.
Enjoy three video clips from the English-translated game after the break! Interestingly, the voices are still in Japanese; we wonder if Atlus will leave the Japanese audio track intact?
Thinking of expanding your horizons a little? Perhaps you need more from the gaming life than just a few simple squares. Perhaps you want...shapes?
Good news! NEVES has them. Seven of them, in fact, which is enough to create like a jabillion 500 different puzzles. You, dear reader, can have these pointy shapes too. There's this demo thing freely available on the net, or you can dig a little deeper in your pockets and shell out two tens for the real deal.
Yuke's puzzler takes classic Chinese tangrams into the modern realm with great success. Solving one of the many short brain teasers in NEVES is an experience decidedly different from a typical video game, emphasizing peaceful thinking over sweaty palms and razor-sharp reflexes.
Sound appealing? If gaming breaks are the only way you stay sane, NEVES might be just what you need to unwind. Come along with Gaming to Go and see for yourself why a relatively unknown title in the DS library is one worth checking out!
As DS fans, we play lots of games. There's just no getting around it, because the system is up to its eyeballs in great titles, always. So, we're often busy with this or that.
We imagine you game quite a bit on the handheld, too. So, we have to ask: what is your recent favorite game? What game have you played lately that has blown you away? A little game called Space Invaders Extreme? Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2? Well, what game have you played lately that has been just plain great?
We've already established that having the Atlus name on the front of a box is usually A Very Good Thing, and look! Somebody at Amazon must clearly have been listening to us, as the uber-retailer has the following Atlus-published titles up for sale:
Rondo of Swords -- $19.99
Draglade -- $13.39
Ontamarama -- $10.04
Contact -- $23.44
Touch Detective 2 1/2 -- $9.99
That's not all -- while we were scrounging though Amazon's bargain basement section, we found a couple of other potentially worthy additions to your DS library:
Children of Mana -- $20.09
Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble -- $10.04
You can also get Ping Pals for $4.29. But like that deserves a functioning link.
It's Monday again, which means it's time to check out what the Nintendo Channel has in store for DS demos. Like last week, we don't get much in the way of new stuff to play on our DS, but it's not about quantity here, it's about quality. And, this week's lone demo has that in spades:
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!
There's one thing you need to know right up front: Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 is one of the best DS games to date, even without the benefit of some of the things that were added to the Wii entries in the medical franchise. The gameplay is much improved over the already-excellent first title, and the biggest complaint made by the original's detractors -- the difficulty -- is mitigated here by the inclusion of a range of difficulty settings. The result is pretty close to spectacular.
But when the gameplay is so good that there are few complaints, it's a lot easier to nitpick other aspects of the title, and we've got nitpicks in spades. That's all they are, though: tiny complaints that hardly matter. Under the Knife 2 should be remembered as one of the most satisfying experiences on the DS. Unfortunately, that's not likely to happen.
Atlus sent out bad news for people eager to start making dungeons: Master of the Monster Lair, the American release of Global A's Dungeon Maker, has been delayed from its September 2 release date to October 21. This is, of course, only an inconvenience to those hoping to make dungeons on the DS and then share them wirelessly with friends. You remain free to build your own dungeons in real life, provided you have the capital and make sure to obtain the proper permits for construction.
Were you looking forward to getting a piece of Izuna with your copy of 
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