Phew…sorry that this edition is so, well, late, but since the server move I’ve had a bit of trouble posting any new blog entries. The admins are still working on it, but as of this moment it seems that we were at least able to figure out enough to make a post, so without further ado here’s a bountiful backlog of off-the-radar gaming tidbits!

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I forget whether or not I reported in the past about homebrew shooter Exception getting an arcade port – either way, there’s a bit of new media about. I haven’t played it yet myself, but if you either download the PC demo from here, or watch this shaky-cam video of the arcade version’s location test, you’ll see that it looks like a cross between Gradius V and Bangai-O, with a hint of Rez (stage 4’s boss, particularly). Not 100 percent sure how the mechanics work, but if you check the official page you might be able to get an idea (if you read Japanese, anyway). What do you think are the odds of this one ever seeing the light of day around here?

Elsewhere in doujin-ville, some of you might be interested in Crescendo Symphony, a side-scrolling shooter that recently debuted on XNA – while made in Japan (the first offering from there on XNA, apparently), it’s available to users in ten countries, the UK and USA included. From here it doesn’t look like anything groundbreaking, but it’s only 240 points so it (hopefully) can’t be THAT bad of a deal – the creator, nakfiv, has said that he’d like to create more XNA stuff, so see for yourself if you’d like to see that happen. (C-blog coverage here.) On the other hand, two additional shmups have popped up beside it, and both look pretty awful…look at the size of that player ship!

Elsewhere elsewhere in doujin-ville, if any of you have ever played the rather nice Zen-Ichi (if not, there should be a free demo out there), the creators’ blog, according to some fellow (bilingual) shmuppers, is talking about a hi-res graphical update coming soon. Keep an eye on the Tribune for more solid information as this develops.

Ack, one more doujin item for you, but it’s a doozy – first off, check out this video. If you’ve played any of Cave’s arcade shooters before, you’ll likely recognize several elements borrowed from there for DoDonWashi (a play on the company’s most famous shmup, DoDonPachi) – the overall look most closely resembles Ketsui, though you can also spot seeming tributes to ESPGaluda and a handful of others in there as well. According to the developer’s website, the thing is entirely mouse-controlled, and while it can’t be released in its current form because it uses actual assets from the arcade games, he plans to eventually put it out once it’s been suitably modified. High hopes for this one!

Anybody else remember the old PS1 arcade port of Raystorm, aka Layer Section II? Whether or not you do, it’s getting a high-def remake, and is coming to XBLA and WiiWare. I personally prefer its predecessor, Rayforce (released here on the Saturn as Galactic Attack), but there are some nice features in the sequel, hopefully the HD version turns out decent. (DToid coverage here.)

In case you haven’t played Strikers 1945 Plus before, and were curious about its PSP release, check in here for a brief synopsis – one thing it neglects to mention is whether this port retains the arcade version’s rather unpalatable practice of only giving you two lives per credit, as opposed to the traditional three. Anyone able to shed any light on that? Also, a quick note as to exactly what’s happened to Psikyo’s IP library since the company went bust.

According to Amazon, Milestone’s shooter Illvelo is going to be released here on September 15th – moreover, it’s also going to boast the ugliest cover art that I’ve seen in a long time. I just hope to God they don’t mess up the game itself…

G.Rev has been updating its YouTube channel with character-centric videos for Senko no Ronde DUO, recently released in Japanese arcades – I wasn’t a big fan of the original (the poorly-received Wartech: Senko no Ronde), but early buzz on the sequel is good, so here’s to hoping. Also, if you like the music from the videos, a soundtrack has been announced.

Again, I’m going to have to trust my fellow shmup forum-ites on this one, but according to them, if you take a look at the official Tecno Soft website (in case you were unaware, they’re the company that made the Thunder Force games, among others), aside from a few links concerning a new model kit and the recently-released Thunder Force VI (which was actually done by Sega), they’ve announced that their remaining IPs are going up for sale. I can’t say what this means for what remains of the company, but one can only wonder if a new Herzog, Elemental Master, or Hyper Duel might come out of this…

Have you, like me, suffered untold sleepless nights as you waited for Diverse to do his next shmup-centric “Indie Selections” feature? No? Well, now you have no reason to, because it’s out! Read up and download this stuff, now!

I don’t game on (or own) and iPhone, but for those of you who do the front page’s trailer for Space Invaders: Infinity Gene ought to be worth watching. From what I saw, the game really doesn’t look a whole lot like Space Invaders at this point (a scrolling screen? sacrilege!!, but if it’s still fun it shouldn’t be a big deal – apparently a fellow c-blogger thinks it is, so check his impressions too. (EDIT – By now there’s a front page review for this, so, uh, read that.)

Over here you can see a (thoroughly unimpressive) trailer for Daiseioh, spiritual sequel to Shin Chuuka Taisen (aka The Monkey King), recently localized here as Saint. No, I haven’t played it.

Not a shmup, but I’ll put it here anyway – while I personally wasn’t particularly impressed with R-Type Tactics (localized as R-Type Command) on the PSP, a sequel looks to be on the way in Japan, bearing the unusual subtitle “Operation Bitter Chocolate” (uh…). Anyway, it’s due on shelves (and downloadable via PSN) at the end of October, comes with a free soundtrack, and will support both multiplayer battles and downloadable missions – if this one follows the original to our shores, are any of you folks interested? Oh, and by the way, as this trailer demonstrates, it’s not humans versus Bydo anymore – as our species tends to do, we’ve turned our weapons against each other in this installment.

Aw heck, here, have another “not a shmup” shmup listing – a demo for the latest Touhou tribute/offshoot, Scarlet Symphony, has been released. While it uses several of the “classic” Shanghai Alice characters, it plays mostly like an old-school Castlevania – if that sounds interesting, give it a download. Check out a video over here.

Finally, have a gander at this page for some pretty darn nifty game-related models from the most recent “WonderFest” show in Japan – also click on this page at the shmup forum to see a couple more.




European fight fans, are you sick of waiting for BlazBlue to finally make its way to your continent? Well, the delays might be a pain, but it looks like the PAL version of this game might include a handful of things to ease your pain including not only new moves and such for existing characters, but new roster additions altogether! Heck, according to this front page item, the publisher is even asking fans to submit their ideas for box art designs – believe it or not, this may well be the definitive version of BlazBlue. Fingers crossed, guys!

The Street Fighter IV costume mods continue – no nakedness this time, but you do get a pair of Zangief alterations dolled up as Hulk Hogan and Mr. T., complete with spiffy new background music. Prediction for next one to surface – He-Man versus Shredder. By the way, in case you’re interested in actually downloading and trying some of these various skins out, as opposed to just looking at movies and such of them, there’s a link in here. Also, check out these (rather scary) Zangief and (somewhat NSFW) Chun-Li and Cammy figures.

Have a look this-a-way for a lengthy and informative interview with the producer of the US version of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom – insert grumbling gripe regarding lack of Doronjo mention here.

Well I’ll be darned – Fate: Unlimited Codes managed to earn itself a front page preview! Will wonders never cease…anyways, if you want a basic overview of how the thing works, give that link a look.

Looks like Ignition (which published King of Fighters XII around these parts) sent the DToid crew some statues – check out Leona here and Terry (complete with Failure Hat) here. On that note, thanks to nilcam for pointing me towards this interview with one of the guys from Ignition regarding KoF XII – be sure to check out part two as well.

In other Ignition/SNK news, the US release date for Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny has been pinned down to sometime in November – the game still doesn’t look particularly promising to me off the cuff, but if any 360 fighting fans (this one’s not coming to the PS3, for whatever reason) are interested, they’ve got about three or four months to wait.

A pretty big hunk of new Tekken 6 media can be seen at this location – in all, there are three videos and 15 screenshots to feast your eyes on. The series’ “nick the guy’s foot and you can juggle him skyward” style never appealed to me much, but there are plenty who disagree with me on that, so enjoy! Speaking of which, looks like the Cardboard Tube Samurai costume isn’t going to be the only Penny Arcade/Tekken 6 crossover – head over to the game’s official site and the first page of a comic created by PA is available for viewing, with more on the way. (DToid coverage here.)

Meanwhile, apart from BlazBlue, Europe continues to receive a stream of weird stuff from over East – the latest announcement concerns DS fighting game Windy X Windam, which includes a cameo from unemployed ninja Izuna. Apparently the thing wasn’t very well-received in Japan, but hopefully some fixes are in order – our across-the-Atlantic readers will need to let the rest of us know whether we should be hoping for a piece of the action in our neighborhood, or just grateful that we won’t have to go anywhere near it.

Zen Pinball fans, are you jealous that Pinball FX players got a Street Fighter-themed table, and you didn’t? Well, that’s about to be rectified. (DToid coverage here.)

Those more versed in anime than I will have to let me know if Magical Girl Lyrical Nonoha is one of the few decent series out there or just another piece of big-eyed sparkly trash, but either way the series is getting a fighting game on the PSP early next year – other than the handful of very generic tidbits mentioned at the link I’ve got no idea what exactly the title will entail, so hopefully more info will be out there soon.

If you thought the previous item would be this month’s weirdest bit of fighting game-related news, try again, courtesy of Insert Credit (which, somewhat sadly, will soon cease to be updated) – none of you are likely to remember the Asuka 120% Burning Fest all-girl fighting series from way back when, but believe it or not the group that did the music for the games is still around, and performing a live show soon. Moreover, to commemorate this, the soundtrack to the games is being reprinted. If you can read Japanese, check this link.




Several videos (a trailer and three gameplay clips) have surfaced for Shin Megami Trek…uh, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. If nothing else, it’s demonstrated here that in battles, which are in first-person like Devil Survivor, enemies are actually animated at least a little bit, unlike the aforementioned game. Also looks like there’s some scanning to be done, though whether it crosses the line into Metroid Prime territory remains to be seen. (DToid coverage here.

There’s also quite a bit of new stuff out there related to the PSP Persona remake – first and foremost, this video, in which the Head Robot himself (not Mr. Destructoid, the other one) shows and talks about a hunk of the new and tweaked features to be found herein. Atlus has also updated the official page with new character profiles, movie clips, and soundtrack samples, so stop by and have a look. (C-blog coverage here, front page coverage here – also, some thoughts on the soundtrack here.) Finally, it’s been confirmed that the game will launch simultaneously as a retail UMD and as a downloadable PSN title. Off to the side, check out these photos of some custom figure models, as there’s a Persona shot or two in there – whew, I think that’s it.

Gah, nope, not yet - in case you needed another excuse to get hyped about Persona 5, there’s word afoot that Shoji Meguro, traditionally the series’ composer, has been named #5’s producer. (DToid coverage here.) Speaking of which, unang has probably already posted this several times already on here, but in case you (like me) haven’t seen it yet, here’s a lengthy comic which recaps and summarizes the opening sequences of [i]Persona 4[i]. Case closed – let’s get drunk.

On a sadder SMT note, you know what makes me lose faith in humanity? Strolling into a Gamestop and seeing a shelf half-filled with unsold copies of Devil Summoner 2, with the included Raiho plushies looking sadder and sadder as the weeks go by (one of the local employees once quipped that soon I’ll make a visit and find them putting guns in their mouths). Well, if you’ve been hesitant to snag a copy for yourself, Gamestop is giving you five bucks off if you find a copy in-store: please, give Raiho a good home! (Front page coverage here, c-blog item here.)

More new stuff from RosenQueen – first up, they’re offering a special “Alchemic Art Collection” package for Mana Khemia 2 which comes with not only the soundtrack/poster of the retail version, but an artbook calendar and extra outer box. It’ll cost you an extra ten bucks, but there are only 2,000 of them being made, so if you want it be ready to cough up the extra Hamilton. For those more into the figurine scene, aside from the previously-mentioned Pram, there’s also a new chibi Raspberyl on the way (the former will run you sixty bucks, the latter, forty).

Speaking of Mana Khemia 2, for one thing it’s been confirmed that, like the first game, it will have both English and Japanese voice options. Moreover, also like the first game, a PSP version is coming to Japan on October 1st. No word on whether or not we’re getting it too, but the PSP port of the original Mana Khemia got awful reviews, so I’m more eager to hear whether they’ve fixed the problems before anything else. (DToid coverage here.)

The Tribune covered the DS port of cell phone title Yggdra Union: Holy Sword War Tales last issue – by now, a few screenshots have emerged, several of them showing Princess Yggdra making what I call the “region lock THIS, muthaf*ckas!” face (and if you don’t get that reference, you’re one of the many who never read this, not that I blame you).

Before I forget, one more Sting-related item, concerning Hexyz Force, the PSP RPG with a “play as both the light and dark side” theme that first appeared here a short while ago – no major information has been revealed about how it plays yet, but you can check out the opening movie to at least get a taste of the stylistic mindset at work here (and look at pretty pictures). Also, there’s a little in-game cutscene footage to check out.

This periodical also mentioned Trinity Universe, the upcoming NIS/Gust/Idea Factory crossover for the PS3 (not to be confused with the already-released Cross Edge), a few issues back – now, you can watch a lengthy trailer for the game, which goes into most all of the game’s basic features, and shows off what are (imo) the two most interesting aspects of the title so far, besides the obscure star power (quite the oxymoron, no?) – first, the game appears to go the “traditional” RPG route, and largely eschew most SRPG conventions, and second just about everything looks to be in 3D now, so say adios to sprite-ville. The game’s due out in Japan sometime in September; will be keeping an eye out, as usual, for any signs of a localization. (DToid coverage here.)

I know that some of you are more than excited about the 1,876,994th Lunar remake coming soon to the PSP, but it looks like you’ll have to wait a bit longer for it – while the USA was originally expecting to have the game on shelves in November, now it looks like Japan won’t be getting the game until then, and in all likelihood we’re going to have to wait until December. Oh well, more time to dig out that Ghaleon punching puppet for the festivities.

Are you and your DS suffering from a pronounced lack of questionably-dressed anime witches? Well, it looks like some relief may well be on the way, as some new stuff has surfaced for Luminous Arc 3, which is due out in Japan sometime this winter. No word concerning this title on our end yet, but odds are pretty good that it’ll follow in the footsteps of the first two games at some point.

A bit more info has been released about a handful of upcoming RPG-ish games – first, there’s a bit more info on Valkyria Chronicles 2’s class system and a handful of screenshots in here, as well as a new trailer for Tears to Tiara Gaiden: Mystery of Avalon (which shows a fair amount of in-game footage) over here.

Well well well…the Tribune already announced that “soul breeding” SRPG Agarest: Generations of War was coming to Europe, but believe it or not the USA is getting it too…as a download-only PSN offering, under the (yet again) rearranged title Record of Agarest War (is this an attempt to get the attention of Lodoss fans or something?). In any event, I for one am (yet again) surprised that this is even headed our way at all, so I guess we’ll have to take what we can get on this front. (C-blog coverage here.)

Random snippets-wise, a little additional background info and some new screenshots for Blood of Bahamut have come into the open, two new videos for Sands of Destruction are up for viewing, and a recent interview with Namco’s localization producer about Magna Carta II can be read here. Also, just in case you thought Atlus was done spoiling you with Demon’s Souls stuff, they also decided to toss in a soundtrack CD with all pre-orders; how they do it, I don’t know, but I care even less. Check the front-page item here.




Artists, start your pencils! Head over to the recently-updated Muramasa: The Demon Blade official site and click on the “Fan Art Contest” link – Ignition’s accepting “Muramasa-inspired Japanese-style fan art” entries from now until the game’s release date (September 1st), and the grand prize winner will win a thousand bucks and have their art “featured and publicized” in some fashion (five runners-up receive a copy of the game). Only U.S. residents can enter, unfortunately, but you can submit more than one entry (though only one can be picked to win, obviously) - judging will be based half on “originality” and half “imagination,” so use both your noodle and nimble fingers to earn some stuff! Speaking of websites, Atlus has launched a new site for Trauma Team, so spend a little time there too.

If you need some inspiration for your artwork, DToid’s front page has a lengthy G4 video, a shorter trailer, and a Momohime character portrait for your perusal – I sound like a broken record at this point, but the more I see of this game, the more I want it. Moreover, if you pine for Vanillaware titles of days (not very far) gone by, this Velvet figure might be up your alley; finally, a quick but intriguing comment from Vanillaware’s “George” Kamitani can be found here.

On a similar note, I forget, did the Tribune make previous mention of Dust: An Elysian Tail, an upcoming 360 Indie Game that somewhat resembles Odin Sphere? I honestly forget…well, whatever, there’s a new trailer out, and it’s looking pretty darn impressive. (DToid coverage here.)

If you don’t instantly know what I’m talking about when I say “Rooster Hat Confirmed”, click that link and find out. Immediately. (DToid coverage here).

All anyone has to go on at this point is a lone, ambiguous flyer, but it would appear that NIS is working on something for the PSP – no title, or even a genre, is given, but pictures do show a hero who can apparently be “modded” with different parts, including the obligatory Prinny-themed stuff. More as it develops.

Perhaps not quite as obscure a figure as usually appears on here, but this interview with Rhianna Pratchett is still worth a read – anyone who writes up lines for a character who excitedly instructs you to mercilessly slaughter happily-hopping sheep and fuzzy baby seals can’t be an uninteresting interview subject. Oh, and she also was involved with Mirror’s Edge, which invokes my inherent bias to include her even if that wasn’t the case, so there. Also, click here for a few words from the president of Marvelous Entertainment – he’s also usually good for a bit of interesting discussion.

Up for one more interview? It’s also not about any particular obscure game, but you should still take the time to read this great interview by a fellow DToider with one of the few remaining head honchos of a “real” arcade in the USA, as there are lots of interesting questions and insightful answers to be found therein. Too bad there’s almost nobody like him within a bazillion or so miles of where I’m at.

No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! is one of a handful of under-the-radar PS1 puzzle titles that I’ve always wanted to try, but have never gotten around to – if you’re in the same boat as me, a fellow c-blogger has a nice summary of the game to give you an idea of what to expect whenever you do get ahold of it. A random spring-loaded boxing glove, an exploding oven, and a horny teddy bear, for starters.

Another pair of upcoming indie games I hadn’t heard of, thanks to Diverse for mentioning them – first off, Hammerfall puts you in control of a flying craft equipped, not with guns or missiles, but “standard” melee weapons (swords, axes, hammers, etc.) attached to a swinging arm, and you attack simply by moving your craft around (via the mouse) and letting momentum do the rest. Second, make sure to take a peek at some prototype footage for an atmospheric-looking title known only as “Project Q” – definitely going to keep an eye on both of these. Oh, and while you’re at it, also, check out Tower of Heaven on the front page.

Grouchy, cynical type that I can sometimes be, I have a tendency to gripe about super-expensive, over-choreographed, drama-ridden “traditional” weddings that tend to cause more stress than they’re worth and start marriages off on a bad foot, and am always happy to see couples that do something a little more low-key, a little different, to buck the trend a little – moreover, if such a wedding is Katamari-themed, well, what more can I say? Well, except that I can’t wait to see what’s in store for future anniversaries. (DToid coverage here.)

Nothing obscure featured herein, but you should still watch this if you haven’t already.

Finally, I have no flippin’ idea what’s going on here, but watch it anyway. Then stand back and very slowly take this fact in - somewhere, other people are somehow playing this. Also, if Muscle March wasn’t a bizarre-enough Wii title to make you roll your eyes and sigh “only in Japan”, perhaps this will do the trick.

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Phew, still with me? Hopefully I can get back to a more “regular” publishing routine soon, once the kinks in my blog are worked out – either way, thanks as always for reading, and keep gaming obscurely.