The Obscurer Tribune # 23

My copy of Mushihime-sama Futari hasn’t arrived yet. Nothing else even remotely matters, so I’ll just stop here and let you move on to this week’s obscure gaming news:

---------



Hot on the heels of Mushihime-sama Futari’s 360 release, we’ve finally got a date for Cave’s next arcade port, ESPGaluda II – February 25th is the day! No word yet on whether this one will be region-free like Futari was, but head over to this blog post for photos of the cover art as well as the faceplate packaged with the Limited Edition, and over here for info on a first-print OST CD bonus (which will hopefully work out better than the item beneath this one). I’ll be letting you know as soon as this one goes up for pre-order: you’d all better know what to do!

Speaking of which, there’s a bit of unfortunate news concerning Futari…while the game itself turned out excellent (so I hear, anyway), some of the “bonus” content isn’t getting to people it should be going to. You might recall being told that all first-print copies of the game would include a DLC voucher card for “Version 1.01” of the game, and thus assumed that if you pre-ordered you were sure to get one, right? Wrong – for some unfathomable reason, 1) Not all pre-order copies that were shipped out are from the first printing and 2) Not all retailers are shipping out the first-print copies in the order that the reserves were made, and thus even people who got in line for the game months in advance are receiving second-print versions without the bonus. It’s really too bad, as everything else about this release is stunning – if Cave offers some sort of solution to this mess I’ll be sure to mention it here. More info on the differences between printings can be found over here.

Milestone continues to support the Wii, as its first direct sequel, Raidrgy Noah, will be following its predecessors to the system on February 10th in Japan. Meanwhile, over here we’re still waiting for news on the multi-delayed Illvelo…(Uncle Topher coverage here.)

The WiiWare remake of Pahlanx now has an official site, as well as a trailer – the game itself is out later this month. Over at the shmup forum people are wondering if the “Tiny Phalanx” minigame from Zero Divide might be included…probably not, but it’d be neat if it was.

The Darius Burst official site, for its part, has updated – check out the “Special” section for two music clips and a commercial. More importantly, the “shenanigans” alluded to recently appear to be solved – apparently Taito got permission to use the tune of that Japanese jazz song (“Goodbye My Love”) as inspiration for the game’s main theme (openly titled “Goodbye My Earth”). Pardon me as I stroke my beard and smoke a pipe in a condescending, pensive fashion…

I’m told that this page confirms that the Limited Edition of Senko no Ronde Duo for the 360 will come with a drama CD – this means absolutely nothing to most people (myself included), but if you’re into imported collectibles it might be up your alley.

A fellow shmup forumer pointed me towards Atomic Super Boss, a fun Flash game that pits you against a bullet-spewing boss who never dies – the longer you last and the more times you blast him, the higher your score (and you can even unlock some sort of secret if you die on every one of his patterns! Everyone wins!). One of the better ways to waste time that I’ve stumbled across in awhile.

I’m a week and change late on this one, but gravity-based shooter Gravity Crash (formerly known as “Project V”) came out on PSN recently, so if this sort of setup appeals to you give it a try.

Doritos is holding another XBLA game development competition, and a couple of shooters are possible contenders – one interesting concept is The Artifact, which takes a standard scrolling shooter and infuses it with the dual-stick controls found in many “arena” shooters, as well as some interesting ways to use manipulated weapons to hit difficult enemy weak spots. A more traditional entry is Skies Ablaze, which takes a “Touhou”-style shmup and adds a Gunstar Heroes-esque weapon system, as well as a Twinkle Star Sprites-esque versus mode. As the front page notes, both are quarter-finalists, so keep an eye on ‘em, and toss ‘em a vote if they tickle your fancy.

It’s a testament to the series’ craft design that they’re still putting out R-Type figures after all these years – a new die-cast model of the Rwf-9-A (I forget the exact name of that one…or is that just the fancy term for the plain ol’ Arrowhead?) is due out in late March, though it’ll cost you a pretty penny (like you were expecting anything else).




Vive la France! It was recently revealed that the French publisher for BlazBlue would be releasing the game not only on 360 and PS3, but the PC as well – as the article points out, chances are that others might follow its lead, but until then Parisian gamers can lord it over less-enabled countries’ fighting fans a bit.

Last issue I included a quick item on the Bayonetta “cameo” in Virtua Fighter via a Premium Theme for the former game – as it turns out, just after I posted issue # 22 I discovered that somebody had sprite-edited the witch into a BlazBlue screenshot as well. Better late than never, right?

…well, maybe not in the case of the latest King of Fighters movie trailer. I’d probably prefer “never” on that one (DToid coverage here). Then again, Japan does its own thing when it comes to live-action Street Fighter, complete with goofy Engrish, people on oversized puppet strings, and lots of cheesy, sparky explosions – all that’s missing is Jackie Chan in a Chun-Li outfit. That one’s at least openly aware of its own limitations, and only lasts a few minutes total.

On brighter KoF fronts, there’s this new Vanessa figure, whose shamelessly fan-servicey charms are more difficult to resist than the usual plastic fare, methinks…(DToid coverage here.)

The ESRB has rated Super Street Fighter IV. Prepare for flexed gluteus. Also, de BLOO updates us on some scattered tidbits about the game, and lets us know that it will not be using GGPO technology for online play – we might see it again at some time in the future, Capcom’s VP clarifies, but not now. Finally, PS Home users (all three of you) should have some new SF4 outfits available – as the article says, feel free to go wild.

Speaking of glutei, Cham Cham fans can check out some artwork of her to be featured in the fan-servicey Queen’s Gate series. As you might expect, some semi-NSFW-ness here, as Paku Paku isn’t the only one lacking ample derriere coverage. Credit to Mognet Central for the original link.

In case you’ve ever wondered how any fighting “tournament” can require one individual (i.e. you) to battle against everyone in a set order, without any semblance of brackets or the like, Johnny Cage (via CollegeHumor) is curious too. Gotta say, he has a point. (DToid coverage here.)

Nilcam briefly mentions a few things he’s doing to prepare for the US release of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom – oddly, penning Doronjo/Morrigan fan fiction is not among them. Most curious. He might be interested to hear the rumors of a fightstick bundle for the game…which the front page appears to have confirmed! The front page also has some info on a fake game Capcom promoted which featured both its and Marvel’s characters as Mega Man bosses.

While this section usually deals with tourney fighters, I’d be remiss not to link you to Excremento’s list of his favorite arcade scrolling beat-em-ups. Of course, make sure to check out randombullseye’s similar series from a little ways back, starting here.




Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey has also been rated by the ESRB, and as it turns out will be only the tenth game in DS history to be slapped with an “M” label. Most of the SMT games I’ve played are at worst “borderline” M games in terms of “traditionally” objectionable content (blood, sex, etc.), so something tells me that the somewhat-misleading “demon” element of the story is the driving force here once again – in a couple of months we’ll see for ourselves. The front page contributes some screens and info on the limited-release “password” system for unlocking certain demons – the latter sounds like a bit of a pain to me, but the game otherwise looks tasty so far. Atlus Japan is apparently hiring debuggers, so there may be something else in the works too…we hope!

While we’re still looking for more news and info for Sakura Note, Audio Inc., the developer behind that game, is apparently already releasing another slightly offbeat DS RPG, called Space Agency. Some of the mechanics revealed so far sound similar to Contact, also from that developer – a Contact sequel has been hinted at in the past, though more info is needed to establish a link between that game and this one, if any exists. A publisher for our market is already being sought, though if they find one hopefully the Engrish in the accompanying trailer will be cleaned up. (DToid coverage here.)

Kudos to Siliconera for keeping up with Yggdra Unison, and recently posting a few more early impressions. Definitely a bit weird, but that just makes me more eager to try it myself.

At around the same time that we get the Wii version of Shiren the Wanderer in the West, Japan will release Shiren 4, the latest DS iteration. Still waiting to see whether or not Atlus USA springs for that one – sales of the aforementioned Wii game will likely factor into their decision in some capacity.

Some more scans featuring the next Super Robot Taisen OG Saga game (still need to shorten it more, but I’m getting there) have appeared in Famitsu, featuring characters old and new, including a pair from a Japan-only PS2 Original Generation entry. Credit to Mognet Central for the original link – some screens and a video of this bunch in action can also be seen here.

The Tribune first mentioned NIS’s Classic Dungeon (aka “3D Dot Game Heroes Without the 3D”) an issue or two ago, but now some new info has appeared, along with a trailer – the most intriguing item is a description of an odd “party” system which sort of combines supporting characters and equipable items. There’s a link to some screens and such too. The company also revealed that Absolute Hero Modding Project will be out on March 11th. Finally, here are a few details about Badman 3D’s multiplayer mode.

It’s also been awhile since we last heard much of DS RPG Glory of Heracles (aka “Yeah, Greek Mythology’s Been Anime-ized Too”), but we now know that we’re getting the localized version in mid-January. This series actually goes back a good long ways, but this is the first we non-Japanese have seen of it – let’s hope it manages to stand out in an already-crowded RPG library on the system. (DToid coverage here.)

So Atlus is publishing a story-heavy RPG about high-schoolers solving mysteries involving supernatural phenomena, specifically cursed cards of some kind. The next Persona? Nope, Atlus has apparently gotten a tentacle around the long-running Tokyo Majin Gakuen series (which was spun off into an anime), the latest entry of which is subtitled Hara Shi, and releasing for the PSP. I know next to nothing else about it myself aside from the additional info found here, but maybe someone more familiar with the series could comment on whether the characters and premise could make a decent game…

Another late one, but at some point Square apparently gave the iPod the Monster Rancher touch, creating an SRPG called Song Summoner that created units based on the music files stored on your device. Now they’re porting the game and its unreleased sequel to the iPhone – I’ve yet to surrender to Apple’s consumer call to arms myself, but off the cuff would anyone unlike me out there be interested in seeing this one localized?

In case you’re wondering just how thick a downloadable sausage the PS3 version of Record of Agarest War will be, an Aksys representative estimates that it’ll be somewhere from 8 to 10 gigs. Of course, you could also pick up the 360 version, which will be disc-based – thankfully, unlike overseas, both will have the same content, so go with whichever floats your boat.




Despite EA’s big cheese asserting that Mirror’s Edge “deserves to come back”, the fate of the (potential) series has been in doubt lately, especially considering the spate of downsizing occurring at EA. It does, however, seem that there is at least an iPhone offshoot in the series’ future, featuring side-scrolling gameplay but keeping most of Faith’s maneuvers from the original game. Not too much else is known right now, but it is nice to see that thing haven’t come to a complete standstill on this front yet. (DToid coverage here and here.) Also, I was unaware that there’s actually a comic mini-series based on the game – I can’t remember the last time I went to a comic book store, but I might just have to check this out…

We’ve finally got a trailer for Data East Arcade Classics courtesy of the front page, as well as a price point, a reasonable 20 bucks. Said trailer says the compilation will release in January, though the accompanying article says February – guess we’ll find out soon enough what the deal is!

Speaking of companies from days past, ol’ Vic Ireland has struck again, as he’s had a hand in bringing Sunsoft back from the dead in the West, starting with a Virtual Console release of the original Blaster Master while hinting at a future project which should make Working Designs aficionados “very, very happy”. The article guesses that the return of Albert Odyssey is nigh – anyone else want to take a stab at it? I’d like a Western release of the PS2 fighter collection with Waku Waku 7 on it (especially if they’d exchange Galaxy Fight for Astra Superstars), though that’ll never happen.

Hot on the heels of the equally-unlikely Tomena Sanner, uber-Japanese WiiWare title Muscle March is coming our way, courtesy of the kooks at Namco-Bandai (looks like Cho Aniki Zero has some company too!). Now, if someone decides to localize President Cat, the (un?)holy trifecta will be complete. Check the front page for the English trailer!

I honestly forget if the Tribune ever covered Owl Boy, but if it didn’t it should have – anyways, in case you’re wondering whatever happened to it, DToid recently asked the developer, and it turns out that the main programmer had to leave awhile ago, and the search for a replacement since then has been a long and arduous one. They guarantee that the game will be finished at some point, though – here’s to hoping it’s sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, the front page’s faithful coverage of Raskulls continues, this time with a huge gallery of images – the accompanying text teases “another reason” to be excited for the game that’s yet to be revealed, so look for a corresponding update soon.

A few more details concerning Puzzle Quest 2 have been revealed – the game will (initially, at least) release for the DS and on XBLA sometime in the spring, and will (of course) include new classes and stuff for them to mess with. Whoever came up with the original Bejeweled concept can probably play the game with real-life gems by now – at least they’re making sure to address the load time issues from Galactrix. (DToid coverage here.)

This might end up belonging in the RPG section for all I know, but for now it’s here, since we know so little – Capybara, the bunch behind Critter Crunch and the finally-released Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes, is at work on a collaboration iPhone project known as Sword and Sworcery EP. The company’s got some worthy projects under its belt, so this thing (whatever it is) should be worth watching.

---------

That’s what I get for going with the cheap shipping option…or being too destitute to go with much else, seeing as I really shouldn’t have bought the game in the first place. Anyways, ‘til next time, thanks for reading and keep gaming obscurely.

---

LOOK WHO CAME:

BulletMagnet   

Diverse   1

Das Inchworm   1

Batthink   1

chuchoyei   1

Smurgesborg   1

Demtor   1

Ashley Davis   1

TheCleaningGuy   1

Tyler Jones   1

Overcrowd   1

Chris Carter   1

Elsa   1

Stephen Turner   1