The Obscurer Tribune # 35

I’ve already done more than enough damage for one day, so I’ll just move on to the news items:

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ESPGaluda II is out on the 360 this week, my copy should be en route as we speak (as should yours, OR ELSE), and it’s time to unleash one last deluge o’ links – first up, in case you haven’t already checked out the game’s official site or its Achievements list (in Japanese), there they are. Moreover, as was the case when Mushi Futari was released, someone’s posted a video showing off the bevy of options at players’ disposal, as well as some footage of Arrange mode. Prepare for the latest round of shmupping nirvana!

On a slightly sadder note, time to put one hopeful rumor about the DeathSmiles localization to rest – Aksys has said outright that it has no plans to bring the corresponding joystick along for the ride. Time to go back to guessing what might be included in a theoretical limited edition. Also, apparently the fans aren’t the only ones sick of waiting for the Dai-Ou-Jou Black Label X patch.

I was tempted to delay this issue’s publication for a day due to this item, but decided against it – if my Japanese-reading shmup-mates are correct, according to this blog entry there are several new announcements coming from Cave at the “Shooting Festa” on Saturday. Guess readers will have to wait until next week (or just look around themselves, here for instance) to find out what they are! Also, in case anyone’s interested, Japanese achievements have also been posted for Ketsui X.

More good news for DSi owners – Aa Mujou Setsuna, which was recently announced for Australian markets as Metal Torrent, is also coming to America sometime in the Spring – check out the first trailer! And that’s not all – Reverse Shooter is also being localized under the thoroughly ridiculous title of A Topsy Turvy Life: The Turvys Strike Back. The spirit of Mobile Light Force lives on!

By now Radirgy Noah for the Wii should be out in Japan (official site here) – more than that, apparently it includes an “Arrange” mode, based on the developer’s previous shmup, Illvelo (which, by the way, we Westerners have been waiting untold months for). Called “Calories Off”, details are currently scarce regarding how it plays, but the extra content is always appreciated.

Most unlikely shmup news item of the week – believe it or not, Konami has trademarked “Otomedius” (basically “Gradius with boobs” if you were unaware) in the USA. Considering that the game is A) A shmup, B) Several years old, C) Loaded with impractically-dressed anime girls, and D) Not that good, I’m honestly at a loss as to why they might have bothered…a localization at this point (or any point, really) would gobsmack me, that’s for sure.

It would appear that a concrete US release date has finally been nailed down for Sin and Punishment 2 on the Wii – June 7th. Europe has even more reason to rejoice, as they’re getting it a month before us (DToid coverage here). Also, the cheesy-sounding subtitle Star Successor has been attached to it – I guess leaving the “2” there might not have made marketing sense since the first game never “truly” made it here, but couldn’t they have tried a little harder on that front? Anyways, also check out a trailer in which stuff blows up, as well as some possibly-changed graphics.

If you’re still not sure whether or not you should go for Blaster Master Overdrive, check out the Gamer Limit review for some more recently-posted impressions. On the local front, while the Tribune first made mention of Decimation X some time ago, Boerns has more to say on it.

In case you need to up your “random silliness” quotient, look no further than this (bikini) brief exchange with pair of the guys localizing Cho Aniki Zero. Also, while I think this trailer has actually been out for awhile, watch it again.

I missed Dracula: Undead Awakening when it first appeared on the iPhone, but the folks at GamerLimit step in to inform me (and you) of how the game’s recent PSP Minis release turned out.

I’m personally not a big fan of Iridion or Nanostray, but even if you’re in the same boat this interview with the co-founder of their developer, Shin’en, is worth a read, as it offers a bit of insight into how a notably small development team works and other noteworthy tidbits.

In the mood for a really stupid run-n-gun? If so, Shooting Chicken Revenge on XBLA Indie Games might be up your alley.

Yeah, so I notice a Tomopop link at the bottom of DToid mentioning two more Touhou figures, specifically of Sikieiki and Komachi. And, of course, proceed to link you over there.




It shouldn’t come as any surprise that a bunch more screens for Super Street Fighter IV are coming out after the most recent character reveals – anyways, here’s one such batch, featuring Ibuki. Also, on the c-blogs Blindfire has some news about alternate costumes that’ll be included with pre-orders at Amazon and Best Buy – as it turns out, European pre-orderers will have some choice as to which items they get (Front page coverage here). trunxkam45 also gazes into his crystal ball and attempts a guess at the mythical Hakan’s design.

In related news, some more info on the iPhone version of Street Fighter IV has come to light – as in the original Street Fighter II, you’ll have eight characters to choose from (Abel being the only “new” one to make the cut) and the package will cost you ten bucks. There’s a video in the article too, so make sure to have a look at it. (DToid coverage here.)

SNK’s apparently decided that it’s time for another try – King of Fighters XIII has been announced, and will be shown off in late March. Not much else is known at this point, except that the game will sell a bazillion copies even if it’s exactly the same crap as XII but with jiggling Mai boobs in it. Sigh… (DToid coverage here.)

Japanese brawlers (especially the especially “eccentric” ones) can expect BlazBlue: Continuum Shift to hit home consoles at the beginning of July, and moreover can look forward to some sort of Limited Edition to waste even more space on – rumor has it that an art book and Noel mini-figure will be included. The rest of the world continues to wait…but at least we have some new screens and art in the meantime.

Since our ol’ pal Itagaki is apparently too busy these days to (try to) justify the existence of Dead or Alive, and even moreso its spinoffs, somebody else from Tecmo takes a turn explaining to us how DoA Paradise is not, in fact, degrading to women at all. Glad to have cleared that up!

The site’s most recent Street Fighter IV tourney has concluded, with KD Alpha coming out on top via an all-Dan final match – check out the full results, as well as an invitation to the next one of these once Super comes out, on Jesus H Christ’s blog.

The latest coffee table item for fighting fanatics looks to be Street Fighter: The Complete History, due out next month – stuffed full of interviews artwork, and who knows what else, the series so far will soon be available in book form.

In case you needed to see a slightly-different Japanese version of the Tekken movie trailer, there it is – there now, your day is officially complete (and possibly ruined).

If your goofiness quotient needs a “fightier” spin, click here. On a similar note, while we first mentioned Photo Dojo some time back and weren’t going to do another item on it, after this video appeared on the front page that quickly changed. I wonder what these guys could do with Avatar Showdown…




Agent North, lucky dog that he is, gets to play Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey a month before most anyone else does – thankfully, part of his job is also to post a review for the rest of us. It certainly doesn’t make the wait any easier, though!

Meanwhile, Atlus just keep on pumping out the Official Blogs for its games – their latest release on the RPG front is “Cecelia’s Tale”, which covers the second main character of Hexyz Force.

On a related note, if you’re concerned with how the localization of 3D Dot Game Heroes might turn out, this chat with a few of the fellows over at Atlus ought to ease your fears a bit – oh, and they also confirm that we’ll be getting the Spelunker content. In addition, in case you weren’t aware that the game has a Facebook page, its latest entry has a few shots of the different types of swords you can use. (DToid coverage here.)

If you’re keeping an eye on the likes of Classic Dungeon, be sure to click here for about as detailed a set of impressions for it as I’ve managed to track down so far.

Destructoid takes its turn at reviewing Last Rebellion, courtesy of The Artist Formerly Known As Unang.

The impressions of and thoughts on Shiren the Wanderer just keep coming – the transfer of the series to a “full-fledged” console (not to mention that they localized it) seems to have made a bit of a splash.

It’s already been reported that some new DLC characters would be featured in La Pucelle Ragnarok, and now we’ve got a glimpse of one of them – it’s Ellie, a character first seen in Angel’s Present who previously made an NPC cameo appearance in La Pucelle. She’s free to obtain, unlike most NIS downloads, so hopefully others follow her lead.

Speaking of DLC, had you noticed that the English voice track appears to be missing from the latest Valkyria Chronicles challenge pack? Well, you’re not alone – the Japanese voices do work, though. On the portable front, in case you’ve been playing an import copy of Valkyria 2 on your PSP, check here for a list of passwords used to unlock some extra stuff.

Additional news for the more-oldschool-than-me: a limited edition of the Japanese release of Etrian Odyssey III will come with phone cards, folders, and a calendar poster, plus a soundtrack sampler if you pre-order. It’s only available via Famitsu, but we can at least hope that Atlus USA has a bead on the goings-on overseas.

As usual I’m not exactly overflowing with iPhone knowledge, but I’d guess that at least a few of you played a rather well-received RPG for the platform known as Zenonia – well, if you liked it you can look forward to next month, when the sequel comes out. Oh, and this review of Across Age might also be of interest. Finally, Square has dropped the prices on several of its iPhone titles through the beginning of March, if you’re interested.

The Tribune has put up a few items devoted to Ragnarok DS, but not too far away in “cute online-to-DS ports” it turns out that there’s also a Maple Story DS coming out…in Korea, anyway.

If you’re hoping that Idea Factory finally comes through for us this time, check out the screens and art of Spectral Force Genesis featured on the front page.

Once again, Europe’s sometimes-excruciating wait for new titles comes with a silver lining – in this case, they’re getting Half-Minute Hero t-shirts!

Also, as Ms. Bennett says, “Oh my Goddddd.” Yes, Virginia, there are Persona 4 papercrafts! For free, even!




Another Fragile preview showed up this week, this time right on the front page.

A new “Featurette” has appeared on the official Trauma Team website, by the game’s story writer, and it includes a video at the bottom, so stop by for a look.

Some semi-unexpected Super Meat Boy news – not only is the game indeed coming to XBLA, but it’s actually releasing there before arriving on WiiWare, where it was originally announced (and with online features to boot). The PSN, in the meantime, is still kinda out in the cold. (DToid coverage here.)

Any of you remember Music Gun Gun, that oddball rhythm-based light gun shooter from Japanese arcades that the Tribune mentioned some time back? As it turns out, the latest version features a cameo by none other than Hatsune Miku, aka She of the Abnormally Long Bluish Pigtails. Oh, and more than twice the content of previous editions.

One of the avalanche of recent release date announcements is one we’ve been waiting some time for – the WiiWare version of Cave Story has finally been slated for March 22nd. It’s also been reported that the extra modes alluded to at earlier junctures will be available right at the start, with no additional downloads needed.

Another interesting-looking iPhone title is Mimeo and the Kleptopus King, a platformer which switches between various graphical styles based on various console generations – someone who actually owns something to play it on will need to tell me how it is once it comes out!

If you enjoyed their Genesis RPG Beggar Prince or their recent Lynx shooter Zaku, be sure to read this interview with homebrew developer Super Fighter Team.

Further proof that the Japanese are different from us – when an executive over there watches profits plummet during his watch, he doesn’t beg for a bailout, he actually, y’know, resigns. Unfortunately, we’re talking about the President of NIS here (who at least hasn’t collapsed any global economies lately), but either way we once again hope that brighter fortunes await the company from here on out.

The votes are in, and this is the design that readers have chosen for the new Prinny-themed t-shirt over at RosenQueen – Disgaea fanatics now have yet another new item to complete their collection.

I’m generally not all that big into “mystery”-type games, let alone homemade stuff based on them, but I must say that this Snatcher cross-stitch pillow is an exception.

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ALERT: In case you hadn’t already seen it, I finally gave in to my baser instincts and entered the Muscle March Wii contest – there’s some worthy competition out there, so make sure to stop by and cast your vote (especially if I manage to make the Top 5)! Good luck to all of my fellow competitors!

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I’d better just stop there, say “thanks for reading, and keep gaming obscurely”, and not show my face (or other bits) in public for awhile.

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LOOK WHO CAME:

BulletMagnet   

Batthink   1

chuchoyei   1

Smurgesborg   1

mourning orange   1

Ashley Davis   1

Kraid   1

TheCleaningGuy   1