Get out your noisemakers, because this issue of the Tribune happens to have a round number attached to it! Or you could just read the past week’s obscure gaming news as usual, since there’s certainly plenty of it:

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I’ll start this section off with a shmups.com forum exclusive, kinda – one of our members, drboom, actually managed to get Mark Alpiger, who you may remember from The King of Kong, to come over and play a bit of DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou. The old school meets the new, screens are yelled at, the Japanese are repeatedly insulted, and quite the intriguing case study is had – the video of the first play-through is right over here.

Still no sign of Illvelo on the Wii, but at least it appears that the game hasn’t completely vanished off the face of the earth – Amazon is now listing the game’s release date as February 16th. There’s also a suitably weird trailer up for it now, though the “coming 2010” bit at the end makes one wonder why the earlier release dates were even brought into the equation. The wait continues…

Another blast from the past is coming to WiiWare – a few of you might remember Phalanx, a side-scroller which was ported from the X68000 computer system to the SNES and GBA (though most people only know it from the box art). This iteration will apparently be based most closely on the X68K original, but will also include some new features – more details to come, hopefully.

I’d never heard of the anime Sora Kake Girl before this item, but apparently there’s a DSiWare shmup based on the license, a side-scroller in which you can switch between “ship” and “mech” modes a la Hyper Duel. It’s only five bucks, so if you’re looking for something to download to your (Japanese) DSi there are worse risks to take…we hope.

Also, just in case you don’t already have enough venues through which to play the original R-Type, the game is now coming to iPhone – as the writeup points out, it’ll definitely be interesting to see how its brand of gameplay translates…

Another shmup forum denizen made me aware of Holy Hell, an upcoming homebrew puzzle/shooter for the GBA. The videos currently available make the game look pretty simple overall (reminds me a little bit of Zoop, with auto-scrolling added in), but I’ll keep an eye out for some more solid information.

So, how much do you REALLY like Darius? If you’re out to prove your devotion, you might want to import the Special Edition of Darius Burst – for about 100 dollars you get the game, a hand towel and a “Best of Darius” soundtrack CD. If I read the page correctly it looks like most of the music on the disc is from Darius Twin, which has my least favorite song list in the series – bleh, go figure.

As promised, here’s the last part of Siliconera’s translated Sin and Punishment 2 discussion: now you have until the game’s Western release date to try to digest it all. By the way, Phoenix Gamma wants you to buy it. If you don’t he will f***ing cut you!

Smash T.V. fans might want to take not of what one of the game’s original programmers has to say over here – according to him, before Midway went kaput the company was working on a next-gen follow-up, and moreover he holds out hope that the game might yet be finished by new IP owner Warner Bros. As the article notes, considering the resurgence of twin-stick shooters of late it’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility – could we be returning to the Pleasure Dome before much longer? Stay tuned… (DToid coverage here.)

Remember Lose/Lose, that shooter someone made which would delete files from your computer as you shot the enemies therein? The creator intended it as a discussion piece, and didn’t think anyone would actually play it – as it turns out, people have indeed played it, to the point that “high-score” boards exist. He discusses this bizarre state of affairs in here.




Another lengthy (to the tune of nearly eight minutes) trailer for the new Toshinden is available for viewing – as the article notes, there’s loads of voicework going on here, and moreover pre-orders will receive a drama CD. Does all the pizzazz mean that we’ve got an especially full-featured game on our hands, or does this indicate that too much emphasis is being put on the wrong areas? Time will tell…

Last issue revealed that BlazBlue was coming to the PSP: this time around, if you click here you’ll find a link to a whole bunch of new screens of the portable version that you can check out. If any of you out there tried the game on the PSP via remote play, how does this stuff compare visually?

Darkstalkers fans continue to wait for a new game in the series, but in the meantime at least they can take some comfort in seeing their favorite character in comic book form. Udon is putting out another three issues in January, which will introduce a handful of characters from the game which were previously absent from the comics – hopefully buyers are willing to actually read them, as opposed to hermetically seal them in plastic and shut them away in a vault.

Over on the c-blogs, Hoygeit shows us a layout for a fightstick featuring everyone’s favorite British butt-baring secret agent (no, not Jim Sterling, the other one).

Despite already trying to get a group together to face off against some fellow gaming sites, de BLOO apparently isn’t worried about stretching himself too thin, as he’s starting up another tournament, this one for DToid only. If you’re up for some friendly SFIV competition this coming Sunday, sign yourself up.

Speaking of tournament, Wry Guy has posted the latest bits of progress related to his King of Fighters ‘98 tourney, specifically focused on his training matches with Squirrelygy. By now he and I have sparred a few times, and frankly I wonder if he’ll be able to fit all of the requisite “needs improvement” items into one c-blog (but I did manage to take down his Saisyu once!). All entrants should also see this post for instructions on how to get in on the chat channel he’s set up.

On other amusing KoF fronts, have an exceedingly silly Photoshop image.

NihonTiger lets us know that over next door at Tomopop they’re giving away a rather mean-looking Blanka statue – if you’re in the market, head over and toss your hat into the ring. (Front page item here.)

On slightly less savory fronts, some fan artwork of Chun-Li has been illegally lifted to shill for some online flash game, not to mention that a Street Fighter IV Snuggie knockoff (presumably officially-licensed this time) exists – some further intriguing details on that one here. God bless the free market.




The official site for Sakura Wars: So Long My Love has updated again, with a few new wallpapers and character profiles. Also, while I don’t know who originally put this together (probably unang), it still cracked me up.

If you liked the characters of the first Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier (still working on that abbreviation, obviously), good news concerning the sequel – it looks like the entire playable cast, including the guests from Namco X Capcom and Xenosaga, will be making reappearances in Exceed. The original article is a bit unclear as to whether they’ll all be playable again, though these Famitsu scans (credit to Mognet Central for the link) and this lengthy trailer confirm that they will be. The latter link also details the LE, which will include 2 CD soundtracks (for this game and its predecessor) and an artbook as well as a box to put it all in. The official site has also updated, so check that out too – if you’re not suffering from Boob Overload by then.

Did you also like the playable bunch of the original Valkyria Chronicles? More good news then, as not only are Alicia and Welkin back for an encore in the PSP sequel, but a handful of original characters from the anime and manga are also making their bona fide video game debuts – the link has a few screenshots. On the c-blogs, meanwhile, Petrovay has some brief impressions of the Japanese Valkyria Chronicles demo – not too many details, but just the fact that he labels the game “pretty much exactly like the PS3 original” in many aspects is reason to get a bit excited all by itself.

In retrospect, I probably should have seen this coming. A little while back, Square acquired Taito. What does Square mostly make? RPGs. Taito made them too, back in the day – as such, it was a head-smacking moment for me when I saw the announcement that Square will be releasing a new Lufia. It’s been ages since I played Rise of the Sinistrals, and no platform for this latest entry has been announced yet, but somehow I’m still rather glad to hear this. (DToid coverage here.)

Last issue mentioned that the U.S. release of Record of Agarest War had been pushed back, for reasons to be revealed – as it turns out, Aksys is not only enhancing the PSN download with the extra stuff added to the Japanese 360 release, but they’re bringing over that same disc-based 360 version over as well! The press release is worth reading for a few additional lulz – either way, this is quite a surprise, and will probably enrage some overly-moralizing types, which means I must buy this. (DToid coverage here).

A quick interesting note about the upcoming Sands of Destruction for the DS – while the story is on the dark side as the genre goes to begin with, originally it was intended to be even more grim with humanity being forced to serve not only as slaves, but as food (and a couple of munchings would appear on-screen). Marketing concerns toned things down a bit, but it’s still interesting to wonder how it might have come across if things had been left as they were.

Kinda-sorta following in the footsteps of Dokapon Kingdom with perhaps a dash of Culdcept thrown in is Dice Dice Fantasia, a board game/RPG hybrid coming to the Japanese PSP in December. While I’m inherently wary of games that put too much emphasis on dice rolls, the genre is certainly not an inherently lost cause – the link has an eight-minute video up if you want a general idea of how it looks.

While we here in the West are busy enough waiting for more concrete info on our version of 3D Dot Game Heroes, the developers have added another possible layer of interest to the proceedings, asserting that porting the game to the 360 is entirely possible, and that if the publisher makes the request it’ll almost definitely happen. The question for us is, how willing are we to wait on that possibility?

Japan got a PSN release of Vagrant Story some time ago, but it looks like Europe is finally getting a second shot at it – no concrete release date as of yet, but it’ll hopefully give our cross-Atlantic neighbors enough time to prepare to relive one of the worst protagonist hairdos in RPG history!

Some new screens and such for Shiren the Wanderer 4 are now available, including some info on a new skill system and…a weird banana character, probably not inspired by the one in Kenka Bancho. Of course, the more burning question is when I’ll finally decide whether or not this game belongs in the “RPG” or “Misc.” section, instead of switching the placement up every issue without even meaning to.

Apparently a group of fans has recently put out an unofficial translation for Brandish 2 – more importantly, they’ve also released, as they title it themselves, an obnoxious trailer. Fun as this is, I’m still more interested in the Japanese PSP remake, which is supposedly good – of course, we’ve yet to get a particularly good Falcom PSP game localized, for whatever reason.




Hmm? What’s this that the front page is linking to? Information about a new DS game from the Henry Hatsworth developers, involving a mixture of platforming, exploration, and monster raising? How to respond to this turn of events? One word that comes to mind is SOLD!!

It looks like Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes is being nudged back, bit by bit…last I checked the game was going to release later this month, but according to Gamestop we won’t be seeing it until December. There are already several reviews for this one out there already, so presumably the game is finished – wonder what the holdup is?

Speaking of which, ANOTHER delay for Fragile on the Wii? Looks that way – the title was already bumped back recently from January to February, and if Gamestop’s listing is to be trusted by now it’s been nudged again to March. I half-wonder if the reason for all the delays is the cumbersome new words they keep adding to the game’s title.

Any of you out there who were hoping that SNK would get around to releasing Arcade Classics Volume 2, you’ve got it – kinda. There is indeed another 20-game SNK compilation coming, but it’s actually called Arcade Classics 0, and while few details are available outside of its recent ESRB rating blurb, all indications are that this collection will be made up mostly of the company’s earlier titles. I was somewhat underwhelmed by Volume 1, personally – come on SNK, get a bona fide Volume 2 (and Blazing Star) out there already!

On the downloadable front, 0D Beat Drop released earlier this week on XBLA – while it’s certainly not the first puzzle game featuring “music elements”, unlike many titles which simply tie the beat to your actions here you’re encouraged to actually drop pieces in time with the music for the best results. Moreover, you can even import your own music if you’d like - some footage of a 4-player match can be viewed here. On a somewhat similiar note (no pun intended) comes Symphony, which should probably have been featured in the Shmups section, but either way transforms players’ music into enemy shooter patterns, with the results looking a little bit like Rez. (DToid coverage here.)

A handful of D3’s “Simple” series budget titles have made it here, but most have remained Japanese exclusives – it appears, however, that we’re getting a few more, most interestingly The Block Kuzushi Quest: Dragon Kingdom, aka Arkanoid with some fantasy elements. Could this be to Breakout what Puzzle Quest was to Bejewled? Keep an eye out for the game under its localized title, Beta Bloc.

I know pretty much nothing about the anime Nodame Cantabile, but it’s come to my attention that there was a DS game for it released in Japan, a rhythm title featuring classical music. Another game based on the series has been announced, though there’s no word on whether or not it’ll play like the first one – hopefully it’s the same basic framework, as Mad Maestro could do with the company.

Looks like PSP owners have some more pinball headed their way, as the ESRB has posted listings for a series of games called Pinball Heroes, themed off of Uncharted, Hot Shots Golf, and a few others. In my experience digital pinball tends to be either excellent or awful, and the tweaks needed to cross the line are not major ones – let’s hope this batch get the development attention they deserve.(DToid coverage here.)

Mr. Holmes updates us yet again, this time on the status of the WiiWare port of Cave Story, which has been delayed for quite a bit now – apparently it’s been resubmitted for approval, so hopefully it’ll be available soon, though an included image suggests that a bit of sprite color editing might be in the cards. We’ll only know The Meaning of the Yellow for certain once the game is out.

I’m a bit late on this one (what else is new?), but one of my fellow shmup forum-ites recently made me aware of an indie side-scrolling game with RPG elements called Aztaca – as the name suggests it takes place in a South American tribal setting, and moreover its design style reminds me of Soul Bubbles, which can only mean good things. Apparently a demo is out there, and the full thing is available on Steam – check out a trailer and some straight gameplay footage.

Looks like we’re not quite done with after-the-fact Halloween items yet – as luck would have it, our very own EarthbounderNess is this year’s Atlus-o-Weenie WINNAR thanks to his simply ravishing “alternate costumed” Kanji. Congratulations to you, sir!

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Guess that does it for this week – just as a precaution, I figure I ought to mention that my schedule’s in a possible state of upheaval at the moment, and while nothing’s set in stone the possibility exists that the Tribune (and this blog’s output in general) might become a bit more irregular than it’s been. Not like too many people will be even remotely affected by this if it happens, but I’ll just throw it out there just in case. Anyhow, thanks again for reading, and keep gaming obscurely.