The X Button
Non-Arcade Edition
by Todd Ciolek,
Who's looking forward to the PlayStation 3 edition of two games already available on the PlayStation 2. Shut up. Both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus are fascinating adventures, even without invoking any Games As Art claptrap, and I'm eager to play Shadow with a consistent frame rate. I think I'll draw the line at importing the Japanese edition of the collection, though it has an nice artbook, separate cases for each game, and a classy slipcase.
It's unfortunate that there's no company doing for games what The Criterion treatment.
It'll never happen for several reasons, ownership rights chief among them. Yet it'd be great to see a collection that preserved and polished all sorts of important games from Pengo up through Portal 2. Perhaps it'd also include Duke Nukem Forever. Hey, even the Criterion camp let in a Michael Bay movie.
NEWS
SOLATOROBO COMING TO THE U.S. AFTER ALL, OR SO WE THINK
Many people, myself included, were dismayed that Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, Nintendo's Euro branch.
Why so much palaver about a late-stage DS game? Well, Solatorobo is a follow-up to Tail Concerto, a PlayStation action game and the debut of Cyber Connect 2 (then known merely as CyberConnect). Tail Concerto was a charming game with no substance, but Solatorobo improves on everything. The game tracks a dog-man named Red and his multi-purpose robot as they explore floating islands inhabited by various beast-people. There's a lot to be done, as Red's Naruto games and middling RPGs, really wanted to make Solatorobo all these years.
So it's good to see Solatorobo picked up by a certain North American company. The only real worry is that some players will be put off by the animal-people characters. That's why it's important for Solatorobo fans to show that they're not creepy nutcases. When you reserve your copy, be sure to wear clean cat ears, make polite conversation by asking the clerks their opinions of the hottest female characters from Sonic the Hedgehog, and refrain from peeing on the carpet as you trot out of the store on all fours.
GAME REPUBLIC FOUND DEAD, INTERNET MEMES QUESTIONED
The most depressing stories in the game industry most often involve something shut down before its time: a game canceled in a near-finished state, a magazine or website abandoned by its publishers, or a game company forced out of business. The economy has driven a lot of game developers under, and the latest to fade is Game Republic.
No minor startup, Game Republic emerged in 2003 under the direction of franchise. Only Genji received a sequel, and it's now ed only because of that giant enemy crab's weak point and the resulting meme.
Dogged by the closing of business partner Brash Entertainment, Game Republic had trouble getting attention in recent years, even when they were trying new things. The developer's last two projects branched out a little by exploring two-character cooperation: Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom found a human thief guiding around a huge, sasquatch-like beast, while the less-lauded Knights Contract paired a medieval warrior and a reincarnated witch. Sadly, the unkind reception for Knights Contract closes Game Republic's career. The developer's website and offices were shut down, and there's no word of Okamoto's next venture. Let's hope that he and the rest of Game Republic surface elsewhere, as every depressing closure in the game industry seems to lead someplace new.
NORA AND THE TIME STUDIO HAS NOVEL IDEA, LONG TITLE
Nora and the Time Studio: The Witch of the Foggy Forest looks the part of a typical Japanese RPG: it stars a young girl named Nora who runs her own magical laboratory out in the woods, where she crafts all sorts of goods and has all sorts of little lighthearted adventures. But Nora and the Rather Long Subtitle is also the work of Atlus to publish the whole thing for the DS.
The game's resume may not stand out by itself, but Komori devised an interesting premise for Nora and the Time Studio. Instead of just mixing elements together, Nora controls time itself. She can speed up the temporal flow to age tinctures or rot meat, or she can rewind an object's shelf-life to break it down into its component parts. There's also an RPG to be played as Nora goes exploring with the warrior Karuna, the beast-kid Keke, the adventurer Lutz, the ore hunter Elsie, and the amnesiac mage Mellow. It's not quite Chrono Trigger, but Nora and the Time Studio may well have just as much beneath its surface as Etrian Odyssey. It's out next month in Japan, with no American release in sight. The Atlus backing gives it a better chance of coming over than most recent DS RPGs, at least.
SAINT SEIYA GOES DYNASTY WARRIORS, SHUN STILL NOT REALLY A GIRL
The Dynasty Warriors series is well-suited to many anime, as it's all about slashing through entire battlefields full of enemies. There are shiryu, Hyoga, Aldebaran, Shun, and Ikki are all depicted as playable characters, though that likely won't be the entire roster. Also likely: Saint Seiya Chronicle never coming to North America.
ROUNDUP: JUNE
DEATHSMILES 2X Cave is a strange company. In recent years, Cave has tried to introduce its many shooters to North America, and ESPgaluda II, Dodonpachi, and an original Mushihime-sama game all hit the iPhone. When it comes to full-fledged console games, though, Cave's throwing its weight behind the Deathsmiles series. Yes, the Deathsmiles games are those side-scrolling shooters filled with cutesy anime girls that give many a mainstream player pause. Whatever the logic, Cave licensed the original Deathsmiles to Aksys last year, and now Cave's put the Japanese version of Deathsmiles 2X on the Xbox 360's Games On Demand service. The game sends several young witches into a Christmastime aerial battle against the forces of Satan Claws, resulting in many huge explosions of enemy bullets. Fortunately, the heroines are all armed with two different types of attack, enemy-seeking familiars, and the ability to fire left or right. The last of these options may not sound very impressive, but it's highly refreshing in the world of horizontal shooters and their fixed, forward-firing ways. It's a shame that Deathsmiles 2X looks noticeably uglier than Cave's previous efforts, reflecting a 3-D visual composition instead of the developer's typical sprite-based style. And while it's full of the intense, bullet-dodging grace that Cave does rather well, it's also a bit pricier than most of the shooters on Xbox Live (and it's entirely in Japanese). Devoted fans of the genre will get over the untranslated text, the awkward look, and the rampant creepy anime-fan concessions. Casual players might not be so easily swayed—and they'll find that Trouble Witches Neo delivers much the same thing at a third of the price. |
CAPCOM The “Arcade Edition” subtitle has dubious meaning here. This installment of Super Street Fighter IV first arrived in arcades last year, but it could just as easily (if less concisely) be called Evil Ryu and Oni Akuma and Yun and Yang Edition. The update adjusts the minutiae of combat and adds a new channel of high-level matches to be viewed, but the true selling points are the four new characters. Granted, Evil Ryu and Oni Akuma aren't all that new; most of their moves cover familiar ground, though they're given enough unique touches to stand on their own. Yun and Yang are far more interesting. They're not the most striking characters from Street Fighter III, but they're quick, varied, and rather fun to play (and apparently overpowered). It's a slim upgrade for those who want a larger roster, preferably with Street Fighter IV versions of Elena, Rolento, and other characters from the franchise's history. But Arcade Edition has a lot for those devoted to tournaments and other competitive hobnobbery. The upgrade adjusts the character balance in countless ways, setting a few new priorities, fixing some exploitable openings, and basically forcing just about every player to tweak strategies for his or her favorite character. That's how Arcade Edition truly sells itself to the Street Fighter faithful. There's also a full version of the game shipping next week, which likely won't interest anyone but PC owners, who went without Super Street Fighter IV. As for me, I'm just buying the Arcade Edition upgrade so I can do that one move where Yang rolls across the floor and then kicks the other guy into the air and it's totally awesome. |
WIZARDRY: LABYRINTH OF LOST SOULS Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls makes a few concessions to modern RPG trends: the characters, all crafted either by players or at random, have stylish looks that evoke anime design without being cheap about it (though the female dwarves unfortunately resemble ten-year-old girls). That's all surface polish, of course, as this is a Wizardry game through and through. Story's kept to a minimum as players recruit a party, plow through complex labyrinths, encounter all manner of creatures, gain levels, and…well, die a lot. Such are the rules of the dungeon hack, and Wizardry insists on careful strategies and level-building. Fans of modern RPGs will wonder where the theatrical summon spells and fully voiced cutscenes are, but Wizardry has much to offer anyone who's been through dungeon rides like Etrian Odyssey and emerged wanting more. |
Developer: Cave 
Developer: Acquire NEXT WEEK'S RELEASES
DYNASTY WARRIORS: GUNDAM 3 Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 brings back half-fond memories of the Anime Boom Years, when North American game companies were willing to bring over all sorts of anime-based titles, including Castlevania. |
RESIDENT EVIL: THE MERCENARIES 3D This isn't the Resident Evil game set during the zombie-stuffed final days of Raccoon City—that's Operation Raccoon City. And it isn't the one that's all about Jill Valentine's adventure in between Resident Evil 4 and 5—that's Resident Evil Revelations. No, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is a 3DS revamp of the Mercenaries modes from previous Resident Evils, which makes it the least interesting of the franchise's harvest. Yet The Mercenaries 3D has its place. There's no extensive preamble about kidnapped Presidential daughters or bizarre incidents. Players are dropped into an area swarming with brain-starved zombies and tasked with killing the local boss or simply slaying as many undead as possible. The game features only 30 such missions in eight locales, though there's co-op play and a lineup of familiar characters: Rebecca Chambers, Barry Burton, Claire Redfield, Albert Wesker, future Resident Evil 4 boss Jack Kra, and masked Umbrella security solider Hunk. The giant block of Tofu from Resident Evil 2 is apparently not invited this time. But there's the option to fire while you're moving, going against the Resident Evil standard. And that's better than a block of processed, knife-wielding soy. |
Developer: Omega Force 
Developer: CAPCOM Also Shipping: The complete version of Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
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