Category Archives: Gaming News

New Shin Megami Tensei IV Trailer Looks The Same, But Has A Few Things Added

I was about to chastise some sites for being ultra late on news that we already broke weeks ago. Then I noticed something off with this trailer. The trailer for Shin Megami Tensei IV looks the same, starts the same, sounds the same. Then things seem off once the Titan shows up onscreen and doesn’t have that… er, titanic voice. Then you hear that line some seconds later. I thought there was a lag in the audio. New stuff becomes apparent at the 2:24 mark. For those who don’t know Japanese (or were fighting over how some of those names were spelled), they finally introduce the characters and their names in Romanji characters. Considering they’re supposed to be samurai, the names sound rather western. International samurai perhaps? A new character, Steven, is briefly shown sitting in a chair in some demonic looking chamber. A bit more fusion is shown off as well.

『真・女神転生IV』セカンドトレーラーノーカット版 [Youtube, via Kotaku]

Nintendo Direct UK: Release Date Narrowed Down For Fire Emblem Awakening, Guild 01 Games Coming To eShop

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From left to right: Liberation Maiden from Suda51, AeroPorter from Yoot Saito, and Crimson Shroud from Yasumi Matsuno

Today Nintendo of Europe held a Nintendo Direct Press conference for European fans focusing primarily on 3DS software. It touched on a few things like New Super Mario Bros. 2 add-on content, Virtue’s Last Reward, and a new Pushmo game. I won’t cover the whole thing, but if you want, you can see the entire presentation here. One of the more notable announcements is that Fire Emblem Awakening now has an approximate release date of Q2 of 2013. Another bit of awesome news is that three of Level 5’s Guild 01 games are coming to Europe. They are Suda 51’s Liberation Maiden, Yoot Saito’s AeroPorter, and Yasumi Matsuno’s Crimson Shroud. Many had doubts that the games, or Guild 01 for that matter, had little chance of coming westward due to the quirkiness of the project. It’s nice to see that the download space is still a viable venture for these types of games.

Again, watch the video for the full lodown for things to come in Europe. Just remember that not all your hear may not apply to the U.S. And… real quick for us in the U.S…. Pullblox is Pushmo, Style Boutique is Style Savvy, New Art Academy is just Art Academy, and that Koopa Shell trophy is awesome.

Nintendo UK Announcement [UStream]

Ain’t No Love Lost Between Oddworld Inhabitants Founder And EA

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In an interview with GamesIndustry International, Oddworld Inhabitants founder Lorne Lanning dished some dirt about his company’s fall after the release of Stranger’s Wrath, and the poor marketing and business choices made by the game’s publisher, EA. In the interview, he mentions how the money made on games EA publishes don’t go back to making more games and funding developers. “Our agreement is, you won’t be seeing our profit being spent on Ferraris and shit like that… Our profits are going back into games so we can ultimately raise to the point where we can grow our audience…” He went on to state, “The owners [EA] are flying jets, do you think they care about the customers just one fucking per cent? Not at all.”

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Project Giana Title Finalized, Release Date Announced, And A New Trailer Is Up

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Previously on Project Giana news, I made a small mention about Black Forest Games letting the fans decide on the project title. Well lest week, voting ended, and the game will be called Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams. They even showed off their snazzy new logo for the game as well. Along with this reveal, they announced that Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams will be released for PC on Tuesday, October 23th. The game is still vying for a Steam release through Steam Greenlight.

Moving on to the trailer, we can that some elements from Giana Sisters DS are coming back, like the bubblegum power-up and those weird, snake-y suction-cup vines. And it looks like Machinae Supremacy and Chris Huelsbeck will be providing more than just that one song heard in the initial trailer and demo. A couple of bosses and a snow level is also showcased. There’s even a swimming section in the game, which is surprising considering all water in Giana Sisters DS was instant death.

Still no word on any other platforms Giana will be launching on.

[Via Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams Facebook page]

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Available October 23rd [Youtube]

Hurst And Kirkhope, Among Others, Want To Make A Real Banjo-Tooie Successor

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Once again, Rare is in the spotlight over something fans are just clamoring for since the lukewarm release of Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts. A small group of former Rare developers (who run game developer Crash Labs), including Steven Hurst and Grant Kirkhope, want to make a new Banjo-Kazooie game, or at least somewhat. The Twitter account MingyJongo was started to gain support for the idea from fans. In the profile, it states that they want to create a “spiritual successor” to Banjo-Tooie, the second game in the series. So this may or many not be an actual Banjo game, but play very similar to one. Maybe it could be a Sabreman game? Who knows. One Twitter user asked why these guys don’t use Kickstarter instead to bring the project to life, to which Mingy replies “You’re spending other peoples money & what happens when you need more time/money? We’ll worry about funding when we know exactly what IT is.” A good point. The other question would be that IF they do make a Banjo game, is Microsoft going to keep it or let it go? Maybe those rumors a while back might mean something…

For now they only need support on Twitter. So if you want to see something happen with this idea, go there and hound them!

Ex-Rare Developers Join Forces To Create A Spiritual Successor To Banjo-Tooie [Nintendolife]

MingyJongo Twitter account

Tekken Producer Proposes Project X Zone Localization, Cross Your Fingers

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Ever since the news of Project X Zone‘s small chance of localization caught steam, the efforts of the PXZ Localization Community have picked up. According to an FB post, the leader of the Facebook Group, Anthony, took to Twitter to ask Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of the Tekken series, what it would take to convince Namco (the game’s devs) to bring the game Westward. His response was “I think they don’t localize that. That is unpopular out of Japan.” Not a good sign, but it almost echoed the statement from that Namco rep in the previous article. However ten minutes after that, Harada came back with this tweet, “I’ll ask project marketing team. ‘Let’s localize.'” Things were starting to look up. Finally several hours later, Harada did the deed and followed up with, “I proposed localization of Project X Zone.”

This is an unprecedented move in the efforts of the PXZ Localization Community. Harada is a well respected man in the videogame business, especially in the eyes of the Tekken community (and harbinger of shuttin’ fools down). Not sure how much involvement he has in the project, but his characters are in the game. Not that his characters in the game might matter, but his position in the company might have some kind of impact. Still, there is a chance that is proposal may not be considered. But the fact that it’s even being proposed in the first place by someone in the company might give Namco enough of a hint that people outside Japan want the game as well. It could be the beginning of something big. Fingers crossed guys!

PXZ Localization Community (aka 100,000 Strong to Localize Project X Zone) [Facebook]

Missed Module’s Shatter Live Performance? Watch It Here!

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Last night Jeremiah “Module” Ross performed at the San Francisco Bath House in New Zealand. He was doing the music from Shatter, which was rife with Electronica goodness. Since the concert was in New Zealand, the time difference was pretty immense, and most of use were either sleeping or at work. But Module was nice enough to archive his performance on YouTube for the public that missed it. The actual performance begins around the 1 hour mark. Before that is the opening act. So have a listen and enjoy. And remember that Shatter is available on PSN, Steam (I believe), and is part of the current Humble Indie Bundle.

Module Shatter Live (Archive)

New Trailer For Shin Megami Tensei IV Surfaces

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Some time ago a trailer for Shin Megami Tensei IV surfaced. It didn’t show much in the way of gameplay and story, but it did show some scenes that looked to take place in multiple eras. But now a New trailer has surfaced, this time from Atlus themselves. We can see more actions being performed with the armbrace that was shown briefly in the previous trailer. From the looks of it, it looks like a augmented reality device the main character wears to get info on his surroundings.

On the action side of things, the dungeons are your usual MegaTen demonic fare, with battles reverting back to the old-school first person view (instead of all characters being visible like in Nocturne, the 3rd mainline SMT game). Very briefly (around the 1:35 mark), we can see that battles are not random and are initiated by pixel-men. The enemies themselves are sprite based. A little bit after that, we can see what looks to be a fusion taking place, a series staple. The music from the website can also be heard.

More info on Shin Megami Tensei IV will be divulged this Saturday during the Tokyo Game Show.

『真・女神転生IV』セカンドトレーラー [Youtube]

Nintendo Is Publishing Bayonetta 2 In The U.S., Yet…

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Why is SEGA’s logo popping up on the Japanese and European trailers? What is this witchcraft!?

To bring you up to speed, Nintendo revealed this morning that Bayonetta 2 will be coming to the Wii U and Nintendo will be publishing the game (much to the chagrin of some gamers out there). I was very happy to see that the game is very much alive and not cancelled as it was feared before Summer began. I was also happy to see the game in much more capable hands since SEGA has no idea what the hell to do with Platinum’s games lately. This had me thinking that SEGA has let go of the franchise (since they were the publisher of the first game and held the rights to it). Then I saw the European trailer Kotaku used to break the news. At the end of the trailer, you can see SEGA’s logo. Same applies to Japan. So what gives? Update: The U.S. trailer also has the SEGA logo at the end.

SEGA responded to the questions via Twitter, stating that “Bayonetta 2 is developed by Platinum Games and published by Nintendo. SEGA is working with both as an advisor to the project.” So this gets me wondering about the rights to the game if it’s exchanged hands or not. Though we can infer from another tweet regarding potential SEGA references that… the IP rights questioned won’t be answered anytime soon. I guess we’ll know more as development continues.

[via SEGA’s Twitter]

Nintendo New York Press Event Wrap-Up

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The Nintendo Press Event Wrapped up in New York this morning, and some surprises popped up. We now know thew Wii U’s Price… or rather, prices, and its launch date. A New service was revealed for the Wii U. Another attraction was shown for NintendoLand. New modes were introduced for New Super Mario Bros. U. A once SEGA property is now in Nintendo’s hands. Project P-100 gets its final name. Monster Hunter was shown. And Finally Activision showed off what they’re bringing, including its multiplayer powerhouse. Hit the jump for the full breakdown of what was shown at this Press Event.

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Final Fantasy Illustrator To Be At New York Comic-Con

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In a newsletter sent out last Friday afternoon, it was revealed that Final Fantasy illustrator Yoshitaka Amano will be at New York Comic Con next month. If you’ve played a Final Fantasy game ever in your life, you’re probably familiar with this man’s artwork. In recent years he’s mostly done work for the Final Fantasy series’ logos. But back then he was the main man behind the artwork of Final Fantasy and designing many memorable characters like the Warrior of Light, Firion, Cecil, Gilgamesh, Terra, and Kefka. I sure as hell would like to see this guy myself as he was one of my biggest inspirations growing up when I did anime art. Not much else is known as to how people will meet him (if it’s either by a panel, an autograph signing, or running into him). All we know is that he’ll be there both Saturday and Sunday. I’m sure details will be ironed out as the convention draws nearer.

Anime Guests [NYCC Website]

Howard Calls Nester A Little Shit In This Unreleased Howard & Nester Comic

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If Nintendo was never going to put another severed head on the cover, there was no way in hell this comic was going to be printed. Howard Philips (via Tiny Cartridge) uploaded to Facebook a comic he received when he left Nintendo to join Lucasfilm Games (now LucasArts). Howard & Nester was a series of comics featured in Nintendo Power featuring Howard Philips’ namesake and the little troublemaker Nester (named after the NES). It looks harmless at first glance, then you read what’s being said by the characters. In one panel, Nester says “Space Bastards,” then Howard calls Nester a “little shit”. Then Nester proceeds to remind Howard that he was “a junky for years and years.” Nothing being in our adult eyes, and pretty obvious is was just for the enjoyment of the NP team and Howard. The comic even references Howard leaving to join LucasFilm Games. It probably kicked ass working at Nintendo Power back then, what with the laid-back writing and humor in this comic. Still, it’s sad that the ol’ comic’s going down by then end the year.

You can see the full comic after the break.

Howard And Nester Comic [Facebook, via Tiny Cartridge]

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G4 Is Dead, To Be Rebranded Early Next Year

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We knew this day would come. We saw the beginning of the end with Adam Sessler And Kevin Pereira leaving the network earlier this year. We of course recounted the beginnings of the network in our recent podcast episode. According to a report from Variety, parent company NBC Universal is going to rebrand the network early next year to appeal to the “modern male.” According to the report, G4 is “undergoing a rebranding.. that could involve a name change and take G4 in a direction reminiscent of GQ.” In other words, it wants to go the route of Spike TV, but be more sophisticated about it. Not sure about the sophisticated part, but the guy route looks more plausible since… well go watch it now (if you have it) and see for yourself. It’s been going in that route since it decided to show more Cops and Cheaters and less games.

As we explained in the podcast, G4’s been in the middle of a massive identity crisis as of late with no good ending in sight. G4’s demise is rather reminiscent of the current struggles of print publications like GamePro and Nintendo Power since most gamers are getting their news and reviews online. While a videogame network like G4 would have a better time in getting more immediate news, it also had to compete with the gamers themselves since they’re most likely playing their games on the very TVs they watch G4 on. Couple this with much executive meddling on NBC Universal’s part when it bought the network, and this was just one big recipe for disaster. No word yet on what the fate of some of the hosts of G4’s own shows will be. They’ll probably be retained, but will stick out even more like a sore thumb once the rebranding is in effect. Some will remember G4 (and its compatriot Tech TV) as a time when the videogame medium was finally hitting the mainstream and becoming more legitimate. But with the network not being what it once was, some will see this as long time coming.

So long G4. So long. Here’s some Youtube Channels to remember them by.

NBCU eyes upscale makeover for G4 [Variety, via Kotaku]

Capcom Wants Shorter Development Time And Smaller Teams To Pump Out More Games

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You know that scene in Moonstruck when Cher slaps a guy and yells “Snap out of it!” I want to do that right now with Capcom. According to a report from Gamasutra, to recoup lost revenue and profits this year, they plan to restructure the company to allow for smaller teams to work on games and to also make these games faster. Their reasoning is that, “the company admitted that the decline was down to it releasing ‘only a few major titles‘ over the course of the year.” I’m having a hard time believing this because here we have a game that is a crossover of two big fighting game franchises, another game with a demo of a hotly anticipated game, and said hotly anticipated game coming out later this year. And yet they don’t realize that the regular consumer is starting to become privy to the business practices behind Capcom (thanks in part to us, the internet-going gamers telling them this). And also, Dragon’s Dogma only sold because it was going to have a demo of Resident Evil 6 (think Zone of the Enders with the MGS2 demo). Rather than admit that they are at fault for screwing the average Joe over (and themselves as well), they answer with “well, we just need more games out there.”

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Ace Attorney 5 Announced, Hachi Seeks His Fancy Tie and Wig

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He’s here to kick ass and provide evidence. And he’s all out of ass…

After several years of languishing in the depths of the “Shit We Don’t Talk About Because We Need To Focus On Re-releasing Our Fighting Games” closet at Capcom, website “My Nintendo News” revealed that the latest issue of Famitsu (basically the premier video game magazine in Japan, and part time Mos Eisley Cantina) features the announcement of the long-awaited Ace Attorney 5, in development for the 3DS. Yup, no “Investigations” spin-off this time, or Layton crossover. It’s an honest-to-goodness mainline installment. This news has me…slightly excited.