The X Button

Winds of Hate

There'll be no X Button next week, because I want to mill around with thousands of other geeks at the San Diego Comic-Con. Look for coverage of the various game-related s there, many of which are being held by Capcom.

In fact, Capcom might reveal two new games at the show. Keiji Inafune, of Mega Man and Dead Rising fame, already promised to bring up a new title at his Thursday , and it could be anything from Mega Man Legends 3 to that long-demanded Legendary Wings sequel. Or something that doesn't have Legend in its title.

Meanwhile, Street Fighter IV producer Namco vs. Capcom are also contenders. Or Ono could surprise everyone and announce a new Rival Schools, Cyberbots, Tech Romancer, or Star Gladiator. So if you're a long-rooted fan of fighting games, pay attention to Ono's this Saturday around noon, and be the first to hear about him unveiling a brand-new Cadillacs and Dinosaurs game. Hey, it's Comic-Con.

NEWS

NEW LOCALIZATION STUDIO ROLLS OUT RECETTEAR
Niche Japanese RPGs are doing surprisingly well here in North America, but there's one section of the market that's largely ignored by publishers over here: indie games, or “doujin” games if you want to get all Japanese-game-geek about it. Carpe Fulgur is a newcomer to the world of translating games, and they're taking on that indie scene with a cute little RPG-simulation called Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale.

It may be an indie PC title from 2007, but EasyGameStation's Recettear could for an official release in Japan's world of lighthearted, graphically basic RPGs. The game finds a girl named Recette Lemongrass struggling to manage a shop after her jerkbag father runs off and leaves her saddled with debts. With the help of her fairy sidekick Tear (get it?), Recette fusses over displaying items, cleaning up, and keeping the store's mood upbeat and welcoming.

In order to actually acquire things to sell, filthy capitalist Recette hires local adventurers and s them in scouring local labyrinths. Here's where the dungeon-hack RPG emerges, as the characters trek through levels filled with monsters, traps, and assorted valuables. The roster of dungeon explorers starts with a neophyte swordsman named Louie and a hard-drinking thief named Charme, but, as the game's Japanese trailer suggests, Recette acquires more exploitable proletariat help with her ever-expanding shop.

Then again, if she doesn't turn a profit and pay her bills, Recette ends up homeless and presumably dies from exposure or malnutrition. That's life in the free market of Recettear. Its balance of shop-tending and dungeon-crawling is engaging, and despite the character art and the game's unrated status, Carpe Fulgur assures players that it's entirely innocent.

Carpe Fulgur already has a demo available at the game's website, along with a detailed Q&A page. They seem quite realistic in their goal of selling a game that they it will invariably be pirated, and I can only hope that enough people actually buy this thing to keep Carpe afloat. EasyGameStation has a number of other interesting titles in their catalog, and among them is Duo Princess, an unlicensed sequel to Square's Threads of Fate. That one probably won't make it over for obvious reasons, but there's a wealth of promising games in Japan's indie circuit. Recettear is merely scratching the surface.

KINECT GETS A PRICE AND A PACK-IN
Rumors and leaks revealed the price of Microsoft's motion-sensing Kinect peripheral a while ago, but now it's official: the sensor bar is $149.99, it's out August 3, and it comes with Kinect Adventures. Microsoft also has a $299.99 system bundle that includes a 4GB-drive Xbox 360, a standard controller, and the Kinect thing. And Kinect Adventures, of course.

Unsubtly inspired by the success of Wii Sports as a pack-in, Kinect Adventures has twenty or so mini-games that show off the Kinect device's sensing capabilities, which, Microsoft has emphasized, track the motions of the player's entire body without the need for remote controllers. The challenges in Kinect Adventures include various obstacle courses, raft-rowing, and a Breakout-style wallball game. It'll serve as a good showcase for the device, even if other games will doubtless use Kinect in more interesting ways.

IN BRIEF: MEGA MAN UNIVERSE IS INTERESTING, BLEACH IS FULL, AND DODONPACHI IS RESURRECTED
I must it that I expected Mega Man Universe to be a swiftly forgotten side project when word of it first leaked. But it's a major title for Capcom, if the game's first promotional video is any indication. It shows no gameplay, but it promises good things, including the chance for Mega Man characters to pull off moves stolen from Street Fighter II's Ryu (which would make sense if you played the Mega Man X games) and Arthur from Ghosts 'N Goblins. My favorite part of the trailer, of course, is the ending.

Think Bleach: Heat the Soul 7 is going to be just another PSP-based Bleach fighter? Well, it probably is, but it's doing two important things. It'll have a wireless four-player mode just like those awesome Bleach fighters that Treasure made for the DS, and it'll have 84 playable characters. To date, no Heat the Soul games have been released in North America, but I have no doubt that some Bleach fans will import the seventh one when it lands on September 2.

Some shooter fans weren't too pleased when Cave, one of Japan's biggest developers of old-fashioned 2-D shoot-'em-ups, released an iPhone version of ESPgaluda II. Shooter fans like their games served in arcades or as enhanced console titles, after all. Well, Cave is making a new DoDonPachi now, and it's on the iPhone. Cave's video announcement shows next to nothing of the new game (and it amusingly pretends that the original DonPachi doesn't exist), but DoDonPachi has always been Cave's most predictable series in of appearances. It's usually about high-tech jets gunning through fields of equally high-tech foes and heavy storms of bullets, with perhaps some cutesy anime girls thrown in to pilot those jet fighters. That's all I'm willing to predict until Cave shows more of DoDonPachi Resurrection this summer.

REVIEW: WINDY X WINDAM

Developer: Success/Ninja Studio Publisher: Graffiti Entertainment Platform: Atlus did with the Izuna games. Atlus? Eh, I hope they don't pick it up. We want a smaller American company that slips this out the door without anyone noticing. What?! Why? So all the collector types will think it's going to be rare. C'mon, why else would anyone buy it? Because it has…I mean…oh. Exactly.

NEXT WEEK'S RELEASES

ARC RISE FANTASIA Developer: Imageepoch Publisher: Ignition Entertainment Platform: Nintendo Wii Players: 1 MSRP: $39.99 Arc Rise Fantasia has fairly good credentials, we must it. It's directed by Hiroyuki Kanemaru, who's worked on RPGs since the 16-bit era, with his most prominent contributions made to Namco's dub. Besides, early impressions might be irrelevant, as some people are reporting that the game's already out in stores. Get Excited If: You want Wii RPGs so badly you even played Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga.

BLAZBLUE: CONTINUUM SHIFT Developer: Super Street Fighter IV, as they're both upgrades to last year's biggest fighting games. Yet Continuum Shift limits itself to four new characters at first: there's the overcoat-wearing, sword-wielding Tsubaki Yayoi, the besuited Hazama, and two new robot girls named Λ-11 and μ-12. The game's engine also saw some refinements, including new rules about guard-breaking, blocking, and Astral Heat moves. The truly interesting (and controversial) angle comes with the game's extra three characters, all of whom will become available for a week or so after the game's release. The tonfa-wielding squirrel-girl Makoto, the werewolf butler Valkenhayn, and the magical-girl Platina the Trinity will all cost about eight bucks apiece, judging by the Japanese version. Of course, you don't have to buy them, and you can just enjoy the energetic, bizarre anime excess of BlazBlue without squirrel tails or butlers. Get Excited If: You've already picked out the squirrel girl as your new main. Or if you understand what “main” means in fighting-game parlance.