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

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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The Wired Fish Podcast S3 – Episode 6

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Ahoy! In this episode of The Wired Fish Podcast, we ponder about THQ’s money troubles and how they hope Darksiders 2 will save them. Then we talk about Next-Gen Expectations and what people expect from the next generation of gaming. Finally, we discuss about the Free-to-Play model giving rise to Pay-To-Win.

Time-Table of Contents after the break.

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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]

Night-Time Listenings Wrap-up: Week of 9/3/12

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This week was all about intro themes. We flipped dimensions in Chrono Cross. We retold a tale with Soul Blade. We traveled the wasteland with Wild ARMs 3. We schemed with Ishtar in Ninja Gaiden II. And finally, we got all our items with Metroid Prime Trilogy.

If you want to see the music as it goes up (and not wait every Saturday for these wrap-ups), remember to go to our Tumblr page and follow it. Music for Night-Time Listenings goes up every weekday at 10PM

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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.

Actual photo of Hachi’s room when he heard the news.

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SEGA Heritage Collection Announced, Contains Jet Set Radio, NiGHTS Into Dreams, and Sonic Adventure 2

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Looks like Jet Set Radio ain’t dead after all! SEGA has announced a new collection of games under the SEGA Heritage moniker. Think SEGA Vintage, but for more recent games. The first wave of this collection will include Jet Set Radio HD and will be available to on September 18th and 19th on PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively. PS Plus subscribers will get JSR one week early. Sega Saturn classic NiGHTS Into Dreams then makes loops and link in October. No specific date for that yet, but at least we know it’ll be within that month. Same goes for Sonic Adventure 2, the game some considered to be the last great 3D Sonic game before its decline (and somewhat revival with Sonic Generations). All three games will cost you $9.99 each. No word if they’re will be some sort of bundle price once SA2 is released, but there ya go.

SEGA Heritage Collection Trailer [Youtube]

A Pair Of Trademarks Renewed: The Last Guardian and Skies Of Arcadia

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Two trademarks, from two companies, for two hard to grasp games got renewed. First was The Last Guardian from Sony. The ever-tardy game from Team ICO had its trademark expire, making everyone fearful that the game was going to be cancelled. The fear was made worse when reports arose that Kenji Kaido, a Producer at Team ICO, had left Sony and the team. It the midst of all the fear and speculation, Sony reports that they had actually renewed their trademark the same day it expired. So there’s still hope yet for the game’s release.

The other trademark that got renewed was Skies of Arcadia. NeoGAF user Jcgamer60 unearthed a trademark renewal form from Trademarkia. The trademark was renewed on July 11, 2012. One would think that this would mark a Summer release. But today’s Labor Day, and nothing’s come out of it. Fall release perhaps? This high-flying sky-pirate RPG was first released on the Dreamcast to rave reviews and gamer praise. When the Dreamcast fell, it was was ported to the Gamecube as Skies of Arcadia Legends. Both times the game had a limited release (former because of the console’s abrupt end, latter because… well who knows). So many never really had a chance to play this game the two times it was released. I almost had a chance myself back then. The closest anyone had to play the game was in Valkyria Chronicles where Vyse and Aika were available to recruit into Squad 7. This might become the best chance for many (including me) for finally play this game and see what all the hubbub was about.

Panic Not, SCEA Filed Another “The Last Guardian” Trademark [TheSixthAxis]

Skies of Arcadia Trademark Renewed. Sega’s next HD release? [NeoGAF, via RPGSite]

Project X Zone Might Get Localized If It Does Well In Japan

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Project X Zone, the big crossover SRPG/Fighter between Capcom, Namco, and Sega, is close to release in Japan. Some of us at TWF want to see the game released here. However Namco never showed signs of bringing the game over to the West. That is, until now. According to 100,000 Strong To Localize Project X Zone, someone in the community was able to talk to someone from Namco Bandai (the developers of the game) during the GameStop Expo in Texas this week, and the rep said that they’re waiting to see if the game sells well first. On their Facebook page, they say that they’re “waiting to see how PXZ sells in japan first before they start getting the license again from Sega and Capcom.” It goes on to state that if it does come over, it’ll be in late 2013/early 2014. 100,000 Strong does stress that an earlier rumor of some characters being nixed if it was localized is completely wrong.

Remember though that this is still all speculation. Even if the game sells well in Japan, there’s still the possibility of the game not making it over. But hey, at least they’re saying something and are aware now instead of staying silent like they’ve doing since the game’s reveal.

[via 100,000 Strong To Localize PXZ]

Night-Time Listenings Wrap-Up: Week of 8/27/12

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And here we are in the end of Composers’ Month where we detailed Nobuo Uematsu. We had a triple dose of Final Fantasy with Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy IV, and Final Fantasy VI. We lived 1000 years with Lost Odyssey. And finally, we told a story with The Last Story.

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Atlus Re-Does Shin Megami Tensei IV Website, Adds Kickass Music

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Fresh off the leak of the the Shin Megami Tensei IV trailer, Atlus updated the website for the game. Instead of a shot of the city and somber music, we now have black and white background with an outlined silhouette of what could be the main character. As Siliconera points out, the bottom of the image says, in Japanese, that Devil Summoner Soul Hackers will contain the first trailer for SMT IV, with then concludes with “And then…” What could this point out to? More info on the game when the 3DS port/remake Soul Hackers is released? Maybe a direct link to Soul Hackers and SMT IV?

Who knows. but for now, let’s enjoy that awesome music on the website now. I wanna say it’s Shouji Meguro (since he took over all composing duties for the MegaTen franchise since Nocturne), but this doesn’t sound like the band/soundset he usually works with. One thing’s for sure, if this game’s gonna have music like this, it’s gonna be a hardhitting and atmospheric soundtrack.

Shin Megami Tensei IV Website Says: “And Then…” [Siliconera]

Shin Megami Tensei IV Website

Online Gaming Nights : WKC2 Wind Dragon, Dark Souls Testing and Operation Raccoon Shitty

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I’m back with more awesome moments and bloopers from my time playing games online. Fellow editor Prota is also present in these clips along with a couple other friends. Remember to change youtube’s settings to HD, I still don’t know how to get the embed defaulted to HD yet and the standard image looks like shit!

To start, who likes watching epic battles against a generic big monster? Who also likes watching the local wizard panic at the last second while all her teammates are down and she’s one hit from dead? Perhaps you also like White Knight Chronicles 2? While I’ll be the first to say that the single player campaign (for the WKC2 arc) is shit, there’s a lot of fun to be had if you can get some friends online for multiplayer.

We went into this fight waaaaay underlevelled, and what should have been a 4 – 5 minute battle became much more than that. Personally, I’m the kind of RPG player that prefers an incredible fight at a handicap to being so powerful that the enemy is decimated. Those with similar taste might enjoy the show, check it out!

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