The Obscurer Tribune # 45

Okay, it’s settled – before you see another Tribune issue from me, I am finally going to finish up an honest-to-goodness NOT-Tribune post that I’ve taken way too long to finish, and post it here. Expect it next week!

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The coming U.S. version of DeathSmiles just keeps sounding better and better – not only is the “Mega Black Label” extra content included on the disc, but the recently-released “Mega Black Label 1.1” add-on, which has even more additional stuff, will be there too. If the conversion is done well, this could be one of the best shmup values ever – just in case I need to say it again, ALL OF YOU MUST BUY THIS. In related news, this video offers a look at a new DeathSmiles premium theme that was recently released in Japan – no indication as to whether it’s coming along with the game, though. Also, the Achievements list for DeathSmiles II can be viewed (in Japanese) over here. Translation pending…

There’s been no “official” word on this, but PAL gamers should definitely hope that this listing is hinting at something real – if it’s accurate, the region will be seeing the excellent Raiden Fighters Aces on their shelves by early August. It’s up at Amazon too, so fingers crossed!

The ESRB, meanwhile, has rated Darius Burst, so it looks like the USA will be getting the game at some point, in some form – those details should hopefully follow soon. (DToid coverage here.)

Both NCSX and Play-Asia have put Strike Witches: Shirogane no Tsubasa up for pre-order, and list the release date as July 29th. Moreover, we’ve finally got a few minutes of gameplay footage to look at, via this link.

Last week it was confirmed that Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype would be releasing sometime this month – now we’ve finally been informed of an exact date, namely the 25th for the US, and the 26th for Europe. Price is around 13 bucks. (DToid coverage here.)

The front page has posted a video of the first stage of Sin and Punishment 2, complete with English voice acting. Valuable life lesson of the day: impaled by a huge pointy rafter? No worries (at least if your wound is eerily glowing)! The European version of the game is out now, and believe it or not the cover art is pretty great!

Here’s a new feature on Rockin’ Android’s upcoming offering of Gundemonium Collection on the PS3 – a couple of fellow shmup forum denizens are actually quoted therein, heh.

In case you missed the overall results of the Dream-Build-Play competition, shmup entry Duality ZF was rated the best game submitted from Canada and the 5th best offering overall. Congratulations! If you want to see more of the game, check out a semi-new gameplay video over here.

The latest bit of homebrew buzz around the shmups.com forum is Hero Core, a combination of Section Z and Metroid done in a super-retro graphical style. Check out a trailer here, and download the game (and its predecessor, Hero, among others) over here.

Shin’en has re-released the arranged soundtracks for its two Iridion games as downloadable files – also, did you know that the first game began as an Amiga project?

QuickTimeEvent is pretty happy to see Raystorm HD available for download – for those disappointed that nobody outside of Japan could play the title on a PS3, there’s some small hope that it might happen eventually. Unfortunately according to this official source thanks to Sony the game will never be available in its original 4:3 aspect ratio display – no way to confirm that this is how it all came to pass, though.

Dr Light ate your Magicite not only has one of my favorite user names ever, but also reviews Zombie Panic in Wonderland.

As mentioned in this c-blog, there’s a competition going on for score attackers in XBLA Indie game You Will Die, and the top banana will earn himself 10,000 MS points. You’ll need to get your score in by August 1st and adhere to Twin Galaxies verification guidelines, so if you’re up for the challenge start practicing now!

Over at Nukezilla (nee Negative Gamer) they’re holding a shmupping contest of their own, for Shoot 1Up – this one only lasts ‘til Monday, though, so you’ll have to move fast!

This week’s “Reserve or Regret” roundup at Tomopop includes a bunch of Touhou figures – I forget whether the Tribune has mentioned them all, so there they are in case I’ve missed any. Last week’s Ernula figure is also in there, along with a few other previous appearances from down in the “RPG” section. Of course, the site’s coverage of the Treasure Festa has even more.

Have some more fan-made Star Fox nonsense.




Hmmm, now who’s the new face that just appeared on the King of Fighters XIII site? Yup, looks like K’ is back – time to throw some more sunglasses at people! It also looks like the game’s first pseudo-palette swap has appeared, in the form of another Thai boxer called Hwa Jai, who hasn’t been seen since the original Fatal Fury – the fourth video down on this page shows him being beaten up by Vice. This guy and Adon probably stop for drinks together at the end of the day, laughing it up at how they “can’t believe those suckers called us back”.

We’ve still got awhile to wait for Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but the game’s assistant producer assures us that development is “approaching a climax” – once again, interpret that as you will. In more important news, Mega64 lets us know that they already took care of making a trailer for the game a decade ago – glad somebody’s staying on top of things!

Remember when BlazBlue fans in Europe got a shot at creating the game’s cover art for their region? Well, it looks like it’s our turn – if you can submit a piece to Aksys by June 4th, your masterpiece might end up on the shelves of fight fans everywhere…well, not exactly, as this art will appear on the inside of the cover sheet, but you can still win a copy of the game.

Assorted Super Street Fighter IV snippets continue to trickle into the c-blogs – SephirothX offers some impressions while Nyktharas gushes a bit. On a semi-related note, nilcam offers some tips on getting the most out of your PS3’s internet connection for playing matches online.

It looks like Hollywood is taking yet another shot at Street Fighter…sort of. Someone who has worked in the movie industry for awhile is releasing a short film adaptation with Capcom’s permission, promising to do the license justice – check the link for a pair of teasers, or just watch the complete short over here. (C-blog item here.) Moreover, there’s a new fan-made effort, Beginning’s End, out this week as well – that one can also be watched in full.

Not as high-tech as the previous two fan creations, but The King of Famicom is still a hoot to watch – see if you can spot all the references to other fighters that the creator snuck in there.

Speaking of movies, and since I’m apparently incapable of going a week without posting some cheesy DoA item or other, here’s Mr PORC’s latest “VGAISF” (Video Game Adaptation in Short Form) of the Dead or Alive movie. Belly button nanobot injections and mid-air bra donnings? Check!

Not completely fighter-related, but djmctool’s c-blog about growing up scrubby is worth a read.

Attention, all those involved in nilcam’s “PS3 Fight Club” – the full roster can be found here, and some other updates and things are here and here. Commence beatings!

Game Informer’s website has posted a countdown of some of their favorite and least-favorite Mortal Kombat fatalities – the look back certainly got a few chuckles out of me.

Looks like the iconic Ryu of Street Fighter has a new figure on the way – it’ll apparently be a pretty impressive structure, too, at a foot and a half tall. (DToid coverage here.)




Trinity Universe is now up for pre-order on RosenQueen – moreover, in similar fashion to Sakura Wars: So Long My Love, apart from the regular edition there’s also a limited one, which is bundled with a hardcover art book and will run you ten bucks extra. The game’s official page has also received a handful of updates – more screens and videos are on the way, but a few lower-quality versions of the former can be viewed early at this location. Finally, RosenQueen wants to make a (fan-servicey) Giclee print of the game’s art – go here to vote in your favorite choice for this distinction, and you might win said print for yourself.

A new trailer has appeared for Atelier Totori, briefly showing the main characters in motion.

For the moment this “leaked info” concerning Neptune is probably best labeled a rumor, but it still sounds like a riot if it’s true – not only will there be characters and countries on hand to represent consoles and game companies, but apparently some obscure Sega characters may make cameo appearances as well! There’s also talk of costume changes of some sort (not too surprising) and an ability to summon pictures from your PS3 photo album in battle (now THAT sounds more interesting).

A bunch more screens and art for Ni no Kuni can be found at the Dengeki link in this article.

Siliconera shows us a few of the character profiles for Xenoblade, including a Chu-Chu-esque round fluffy critter – wonder if he’ll also end up duct-taped to a cross in amusingly sacrilegious fashion. A couple more plot details and a new video (featuring lots of running around) can be found over this way – you might also be happy to know that the game includes a handful of time-saving features. Specifically, you can access warp points to get around, adjust the in-game clock to access time-specific events more quickly, and save anyplace you want – sounds good from here.

A few more characters have been revealed for Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki – one of the new playable vast members is from Ys 7, and the other from, as you might expect, Sora no Kiseki. More interestingly, two characters from Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch, an earlier Legend of Heroes game, are appearing as “support” characters.

Two of the fellows at Siliconera publish some of their back-and-forth tweets concerning Hexyz Force. One of the two goes by the name “TheCleaningGuy”…hmm, somehow sounds familiar…hey! Dude, that guy on Siliconera totally stole your SN!

Siliconera is also trying one more time to sell you on 3D Dot Game Heroes.

Those merciless buggers at Atlus (and their pre-order Junpei hat) already conned me into snagging Persona 3 Portable, but if you’re not the gullible dope I am, perhaps this second “Walkthrough” video could affect your opinion instead. (C-blog item here.)

It’s been a little while since we heard anything about Witch’s Wish for the DS, but apparently Natsume is intent on sneaking it onto shelves later on this very month. Hopefully they’ll release a bit more information on it between now and then…

More front page rumors regarding Valkyrie Profile 3 – while it was previously reported that the game would be appearing on the 360, more recent conjecture suggests that the “main” parts of the series will remain in Sony’s fold, in this case as a PS3 exclusive. Hopefully we can actually, y’know, confirm some of this one of these days.

It doesn’t seem like very long ago that the Tribune first stumbled upon Sword and Poker, a combination of Texas Hold ‘Em and Puzzle Quest for the iPhone – lo and behold, it’s already scored a sequel. Any fans of the first planning on coughing up the two bucks for it? Especially considering that a former MegaTen guy is involved.

I recall having heard the name Zenonia, a Korean action-RPG for the iPhone and other mobile devices, but never paid much attention to it – anyways, in case you’re more into this game than I am, let it be known that it’s coming to the DSi. Nerd that I am, the first thing I thought when I saw the embedded trailer was the bit of Ikaruga-related shmup humor that could be wrought around the protagonist’s name.

Siliconera also posts a comment questioning the appeal of the “Junpei’s cap” pre-order item for Persona 3 Portable…not that such doubts apply much to me, as that was the straw which finally broke this camel’s back, sucker that I am.

mjemirzian doesn’t like Record of Agarest War very much (personally I think he was a tad hard on it, though some of the criticism was certainly deserved). He does like Elven Legacy, however – hopefully when he next mentions an SRPG he likes he’ll post a screen or video to give us a look at it, as I’m rather curious about some of the stuff he writes about.

Psycho Soldier, meanwhile, pens a lengthy, spoiler-ridden account of her Persona 3 experience.

I’m not sure exactly when this happened, but I noticed that Gamestop’s price for Atelier Annie has dropped to twenty bucks new – if you haven’t given the game a chance yet, consider it! If you want an overview of the game, here’s mine from a little ways back.

You already knew that a premium box set for the Persona: Trinity Soul anime was coming, and you even knew what would be in it – now, though, you can see what it’ll look like.

ANOTHER Clalaclan figure? I’m starting to lose track…anyway, Tomopop showcases her in a maid outfit…odd choice, isn’t she supposed to be royalty or something? Well, that sort of thing never stopped the fans before. By the way, the swimsuit figure of her from last issue? She’s brought some friends. Also check Tomopop’s Treasure Festa coverage for some more Aegis as well as Selvaria in Technicolour.

Old news, but someone over at Kotaku just got his hands on a big ol’ Valkyria Chronicles artbook, and shares a few of the pictures on the site.




The Trauma Team news items just don’t stop coming – first up, yet another Featurette is up on the official site, offering a few words on the unlockable “Specialist” difficulty level and “Doctor Medals” (pseudo-Achievements, apparently), and some more screens from the front page. Moreover, Amazon’s not the only place offering pre-order rewards for the game – reserve a copy at Gamestop and get five bucks off the 40-dollar MSRP. I swear, I’m dropping my HMO and signing on with Atlus.

After teasing the possibility for a bit, Xseed has revealed that it’s bringing Ivy the Kiwi? to the USA. It would appear that both the Wii and DS versions should be out sometime over the summer – Yuji Naka also has a few words to add. (DToid coverage here.) Some slightly depressing story info is also here.

A couple more screens for the Rocket Knight remake have appeared on Kotaku – Dtoid follows up here.

The final code for Sakura Wars: So Long My Love has been revealed here on the NISA employee blog. If you don’t have an account there, the codes to unlock everything are 921364580098 (PS2) and 838907974058 (Wii). Enjoy!

We got our initial look at the first of five comic-esque art styles (basically the “classic super-hero”) to be utilized in Comic Jumper a little while ago – now we know what to expect next, namely a “low fantasy” flavoring a la Boris Vallejo and others of that sort title “Nanoc the Obliviator”. Somehow I don’t expect the smiley guy to actually smile very much in this chapter! Check out the stuff released for it so far on the official site here.

Some time ago I mentioned that a collection of every DSiWare offering from G.G (plus some new games, for a total of 30) would be released on a cart – now we’ve got a trailer for it, as well as a confirmation that around half of the total stuff on there will need to be unlocked. I’ve never played any of these, so I can’t speak to their quality myself…hopefully we don’t have another Action 52 on our hands.

I’d never heard of indie platformer Enough Plumbers before this week – allow trunxkam45 to enlighten you about it. Free iPhone offering Superstar Chefs looks worth checking out as well.

Gushing about Beyond Good and Evil is kind of in vogue these days, but what the heck, I can’t argue with it.

A whole slew of miscellaneous figures from across the genre spectrum at the Treasure Festa have been posted here – I spy some BlazBlue, some Metal Slug (more shots of that here), some King of Fighters, some Nocturne (yay!), some Plenair…unless my eyes deceive me, I THINK there’s also some Otomedius and Samurai Shodown in there as well. And is that an Atelier character? Dang, I hafta look for some screenshots now…

Sucker that I am for sprite work, I have to link you to Edco’s showcase of work by himself and others for Ace Yeti Trapper.

A fellow shmup former has posted a nice bunch of pics of a new arcade that opened recently over in Japan – man, it’s tough not to miss that scene in at least SOME capacity.

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Hopefully the new post I promised above will not include unsightly body hair or ridiculous costumes of any kind…no promises, though. Anyways, thanks as always for reading, and keep gaming obscurely.

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BulletMagnet   

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TheCleaningGuy   1

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