Well, I finally got that article I’d been promising for the past few weeks finished…whew! Now to get to work on that new series I’ve been promising even longer than that…first things first though, here’s this week’s offbeat gaming news recap:

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Famitsu has a feature on Darius Burst, which includes some new art and screenshots, plus a whole bunch of Japanese text – an intrepid shmup forum translator says that the page speaks, among other things, of a “Burst” mode which gives the player only one life in exchange for full weapon power from the beginning (DToid coverage here). The official site has also updated. Finally, game music buffs who like to keep up with this sort of thing can find some information (also in Japanese) about the Zuntata members doing work on the game, along with a previously-linked trailer, over here.

Well, this Tuesday was supposed to be when Illvelo for the Wii would release…as of now I can still only find the game listed on Amazon, and moreover it’s labeled as shipping in 1 or 2 months. The heck? Is this thing out or not?

SNK is apparently unwilling to tick off its fans more than once – after being exposed to heaps of (really silly, IMO) griping over the fact that Mai Shiranui wasn’t included in King of Fighters XII, they’ve made sure to include her on the playable roster of KoF Sky Stage. Click here for some screens, art, and even a short video of The Jiggle Queen in action (though since this game is viewed from a top-down perspective, most of the point of having her here is kept out of players’ view anyways Ah, sweet irony).

Looks like Playstation Home is getting R-Type: Flash of the Void, which looks like a rail shooter from here – probably not worthy of the series name, but as the article says, it’s free to play.

A few issues back I mentioned Zaku, an Air Zonk-esque homebrew shooter for the Lynx – by now the game is finished and available for order on the official website, so if any of you have been craving a new Lynx shooter for…well, probably quite a while now, show some support and pick up a copy if it looks to be your style.

On other doujin fronts, in the wake of Last Hope: Pink Bullets, the game’s soundtrack can now be pre-ordered – some samples are downloadable here and here. A bundle including both the game and soundtrack is also available.

A few notable shooters are going downloadable – first up is the rare Neo CD shmup Chotesu Brikin’ger as well as the original Parodius, Knightmare, and a few other old shooters for the MSX, all coming to the Japanese Virtual Console. I haven’t tried Brikin’ger myself, but despite their historical value most of the the MSX games really don’t play all that well imo, so I’d recommend those only as curiosities, if at all. Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ, on the other hand, wasn’t too bad for a budget title, and should also work out decently as a DSiWare download (in Europe, at least). Say what you will about the game and its faults, you certainly can’t accuse it of false advertising.

To the best of my knowledge our ol’ pal ZUN hasn’t announced a new Touhou game recently, but a lucky glance at the bottom of DToid’s front page enticed me to follow this link over to Tomopop, where a pair of new figures for Reimu and Marisa are showcased. “Cuteness overload” is certainly an apt description.

Also only marginally shmup-related, but it looks like the Pizza Hut promo items are not the only recently-revealed guests of honor in Phantasy Star Portable 2 – as fate would have it, shrine maiden Sayo Yuuki of the Shikigami no Shiro series is making an appearance, running a shop where you can pay her to pray for your party and give them beneficial effects in the process. She won’t be in the demo version, though, so players can’t meet her until the retail version drops.

Also not a shmup, but still rather cool-looking – check this c-blog for some info on Teeworlds, which is kinda-sorta like a “versus” version of Bionic Commando, or at least looks that way.




The box art for the US version of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom has been revealed, but as Siliconera notes there appear to be only 25 characters depicted, as opposed to the 26 previously reported. Has the rumored Yatterman # 2 been dropped? Guess we’ll have to wait to find out. (DToid coverage here.) Also, Gamestop is including a bonus for those who pre-order the game, namely a set of 8 trading cards – if you’re really lucky you might get one signed by the game’s producer.

An intro movie for BlazBlue: Continuum Shift is also making the rounds – nothing that you wouldn’t expect from an Arc Systems fighter (characters, guitar riffs, shiny explodey things, etc.), but that’s okay.

The front page has a rather lengthy translated interview with some of the Super Street Fighter IV crew about the design mentality and process behind new character Juri. Apparently another similar interview is in the pipeline – gonna have to see if anybody translates that one. Also, a couple of notable Street Fighter artists have gotten some time in the spotlight lately, here and here.

Looks like a handful of bug fixes for the PS3/360 versions of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 are being implemented soon, so hopefully the unblockable Cable (ughh) that has been giving you (more) nightmares (than usual) will soon allow you to get a decent(er) night’s sleep (sometimes).

On a related note, Joystiq has coverage of the recent Capcom “Fight Club” event in NYC, including a photo gallery and a video of some goofing around in SSFIV’s practice mode with Juri and Dee Jay. Kotaku has another video as well as a more word-centric article on the event.

PsychoSoldier shares her unboxing of the Tekken 6 limited edition, complete with artbook and joystick. She’s dangerous with that knife, let me tell you. Speaking of which, apparently Guinness has already started writing down win-streak records for this thing. By the way, remember those YouTube clips of especially stupid moments from the old Street Fighter cartoon? Here’s the Tekken equivalent. Though this might be even more embarrassing.

Speaking of unintentionally(?) hilarious fighting game media, be sure to take a little time to watch this presentation of a particular Mortal Komat 4 ending from back in the day. I wonder if DC comics knew this evidence existed before licensing out their superheroes…anyways, the fun might not be over, as it looks like something both new and Sonya Blade-related may be in the works.

I probably missed this back when it was new, but either way in case you need a Hakumen move list you can wear, the Aksys store has you covered – if it’s not still prominently displayed on the front by the time you read this, just search “6B”.




Well hello there, ladies. A new trailer for Ar Tonelico III is out, featuring some funky music as well as a bit of in-game footage. My inner Gust fanboy is pleased, and wants MOAR. Also, here’s the developers’ latest Oneechanbara-esque excuse for further fan service, as if you cared.

On other lady-centric JRPG fronts, a pair of trailers for Luminous Arc 3 have appeared – I can’t glean a heckuva lot from them at this point myself, but odds are good that Atlus will end up doing it for us at some point.

Not quite the “official” announcement that we’ve been waiting for, but the PlayStation blog is telling us that 3D Dot Game Heroes will “definitely” be coming to the US, and that more info is on the way. Sounds good, we’re waiting! (DToid coverage here.)

The front page has a rundown of the latest bunch of updates on the official Persona 3 Portable site, most notably a handful of new wallpapers and a video showing a bit of the previously-mentioned Persona 4 crossover.

By the time you read this Adventures to Go! should already be on store shelves, but in case you wanted some insight into certain facets of the game (most notably the plot), give that link a click. I personally think the concept is actually kind of neat, but I’m still not quite sold on this…

It looks like some Canadian players may be having trouble getting ahold of Half-Minute Hero, since Quebec province will not carry games that aren’t English/French dual language, and XSeed couldn’t afford to give the title the additional translation. A bummer, as the game’s pretty cool – guess some of our northern neighbors will have to pick up a copy online instead. (C-blog rant here.)

If you have access to the Japanese PSN store, this weekend you can finally snap up the demo for Valkyria Chronicles 2 on Sunday. Hopefully some impressions will be out and about in time for our next issue!

Demon’s Souls players need to beware…well, more than they already have to, that is. It looks like Atlus is preparing to unleash something on unsuspecting adventurers (and suspecting ones too) come Halloween…even greater challenges and rewards than usual are promised. Think you’re up for it? (DToid coverage here.)

The latest entry on the Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! blog reveals that NIS has another contest going – send in a Badman-themed art piece with some sort of “winter” flavor by mid-November and you could win some stuff (check the link for pics). Anyone on DToid planning to give this a shot?

The Sakura Wars: So Long My Love official site has updated, adding some new info to the Characters and System sections – we’ve got ‘til January to wait, so we might as well be up on the latest, right? The ever-reliable unang also notes a few things about the translation here.




The front page has both a “Ten Minute Taste” and an early review of Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble. Apparently respectable fathers in Japan are expected to teach their kids how to effectively stare down and wallop other kids…who knew? By the way, over in Japan the developer has announced a PSP sequel – Badass Rumble is actually a PS2 port, so perhaps this signals a platform shift for the series.

European players’ latest reasons to rejoice come courtesy of publisher Rising Star Games, who are bringing Fragile, Half-Minute Hero, Avalon Code, and several other interesting games to our friends across the Atlantic early next year. Now if only the RGB TV signal format had caught on over here at some point…

As the article says, an ESRB listing already pretty much confirmed this, but now that Tomena Sanner’s Western release is REALLY official we might as well mention it again.

Meanwhile, Mr. Holmes makes up for a few days of missing Super Meat Boy updates here – make sure you do the same. The highlight is a 3-year-old attesting that the game is “harder than Dora, but not Mega Man.” It has also been confirmed that LL Cool J is playable. Really.

The Tribune first linked to a fellow c-blogger’s mention of Hammerfight some time ago, but now the game is available on Steam, and apparently pretty darn hard if Anthony is to be believed. Escort missions? Dunno about that…

Another fellow c-blogger, with a team of fellow developers, has finished a new game, and wants the community to try it out. Titled Igneous, it tells the heartwarming story of a Tiki statue’s high-velocity volcano escape attempt – check out the official site for a trailer.

Diverse’s latest public service announcement regarding the latest goings-on in indie-ville concerns a game called Au Sable, as well as an older title called Yume Nikki which shares some similar traits. This batch looks a little too mind-trippy for me personally, but I’m still kind of curious…

It’s like Cross Edge in CCG form, but even dorkier! A fellow c-blogger makes us aware of a Weiss Schwarz, a card game which pits a whole bunch of video game (Disgaea, Persona, King of Fighters, etc.) and anime (Haruhi, K-On, Lucky Star, etc.) against each other – I can only imagine the licensing issues at work behind the scenes, but either way it’s too geeky not to feature here. The actual product can be found here, though last I checked they’re currently out of stock, and only boosters are available.

Okay, so Niero apparently had a chat with his neighbor. Who works for a porn company. About a licensed anime game which involves swatting bad guys with giant nose hairs. And how this somehow allows them to relate on a very personal level. Needless to say, there was no way I wasn’t including this here.

Speaking of weird, apparently over in Korea Taito has licensed out the Bubble Bobble theme tune for use in ramen commercials. Next up: the New Zealand Story kiwis for kimchi!

Finally, has Ms. Davis’s long-awaited costume for Atlus-o-Weenie finally been revealed? Coy as usual, she leaves us to wonder…

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Before I head outside to hide in the bushes and greet any passing mischief-nighters with my Handy-Dandy Garden Hose of Justice, allow me to thank you as usual for reading, and encourage you to keep gaming obscurely.