The CESA Game Awards were held in Japan on October 27th. Dragon Quest VIII's producers Yuji Horii and Akihiro Hino won the top honors. The game was also awarded for best sales. Sega's Toshihiro Nagoshi (former Edge magazine columnist, and frontman of Amusement Vision, where he produced insertcredit.com 2003 game of the year F-Zero GX), was on hand to give a speech about his Ryu ga gotoku, the controversial yakuza-in-modern-Shinjuku-Kabukicho action-adventure-fighting simulation in the vein of Sega's much-loved Shenmue series; the game, which Nagoshi FREEly admits is a revision of Shenmue, is also scripted by famous Japanese noir author Seishu Hase, a possible dark horse candidate for insertcredit.com game of the year 2005, and was voted most-looked-forward-to game of the future. It will be released on December 28th, 2005. We look forward to it!
This week's Big Famitsu Poll is utter fluff: "What do you think of the new PlayStation 2 color, 'Satin Silver'?" 50.2% of those polled stated, "I guess it's alright." 21.2% stated "I guess it's not alright." The remaining 28.6% remain undecided, or else fearful of telling a lie if they say something. Ho-ho!
An FAQ guides readers to getting their Animal Crossing game on Nintendo DS (available on November 23rd!) to work properly online. The most-FAQ seems to be "Is it hard and confusing?!?" To which the answer is, "No!" We all know most of the details about Nintendo and Buffalo's clever little USB gizmo that turns your home PC into a DS broadcasting station (and we all know that McDonald's is setting up thousands of Wi-Fi stations all over the United States). However, let slip in the FAQ is the information that Japan will have 1,000 "Nintendo Wi-Fi Stations" in game stores at the time of the launch (I wonder if they'll have maybe some benches to sit on -- they don't even have benches in the train stations, anymore), which, in addition to the 3,000 "Free Spots" in Tokyo, makes the game pretty wired. The other big question is "I can play with anyone?!" This question is asked with some trepidation; the answer is, "Anyone you give your secret password to." Of course, the standard "see someone on the train and jump into their game" rule applies. The game is currently the number-one seller on Amazon.co.jp, and it stands to sell a ton when it's finally released. Says Famitsu: "It's like Nintendogs for gamers!" Nice way to put it.
Nothing interesting on the charts this week -- except this one thing!! It seems that the PSP version of Brain Training, which is made by the exact same university professor and his team of three computer programmers and a dog (I mean that affectionately; it's a precious piece of software) as the runaway-bestseller DS version, is the number-three game in Japan this week. It sold 45,857 copies. The DS version sold 22,257, with 683,346 copies sold to date. Will it break a million? Who knows -- the PSP version is out now; maybe that will hurt it. I root for it! Also of some interest is that the PSP Brain Training is published by Sega. It's like 1992 all over again -- only not!
Super Princess Peach sold 29,164 copies. Go Peach! Fumito Ueda's current favorite game, Burnout Revenge, sold 20,504, which is great, I guess. Next week's issue will show Wanda at the top; that ought to be real nice.
Acquire's Shinobido scored a 8, 9, 8, 9, tying it with Psi-Ops for highest-scored game of the month. Hm.
A reminder that God of War is being released in Japan on November 17th! I wonder if Akio Otsuka does the voice of Kratos? The official page doesn't say . . .
New details on Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros., which there are videos of online somewhere. It's looking much, much more interesting now. Mario can wear koopa shells!! And they give him special powers according to the color?!? What?!! And there's even a wireless two-player cooperative mode??!! A short interview in the issue reveals that the man behind the game's production and level design is none other than Takashi Tezuka, producer of the original Super Mario Bros. and Zelda games, which is to say it might be great. He says, of the two-player mode: "There will be parts where you must cooperate; still, I thought it would be most fun if it was basically competitive." Is this to say that the two-player mode will be more-like Zelda: The Four Swords? Because that would so work in a Mario game. Tezuka furthers this optimism by saying "it's not just about getting to the goal first -- there are . . . other factors." Also in the interview: every level ends in a flagpole, and the original Mario theme will return as in-level music, though Mr. Koji Kondo is also making new music. Exciting!! This is, essentially, a . . . new Mario game, then?
Also reported is that Japanese convenient store Mini Stop will be selling "Koropote" -- "Korokke Potato" -- from November 4th. "The finest potatoes from Hokkaido, bite-sized, fried and coated with butter studded with coarse black pepper. Eat with ketchup. Only 189 yen." Famitsu's readers have never once complained on online forums that the magazine devotes a page a week to new convenient store food items.
A large interview with Mr. Ishii, the producer of Children of Mana on the DS! He says: the game's story is not "connected" to the other titles so much as it's "pretty much just the same story, retold." Sounds like Soul Calibur. Though it's definitely "More of an 'Episode Zero' than an 'Episode One.' When asked if two players who have chosen the same player-character (there are three to choose) can play cooperatively, he answers "Yes." This question is perhaps too detailed; between the lines, I realize that the wireless multiplayer in this game will let two players' quests intersect. That is, I can start a quest, you can start a quest, I can play on my own, you can play on your own, and if we decide to play together, we can do that. So my high-leveled friend can help me beat a low-level dungeon? Sounds like Diablo. The multiplay supports up to three players, and will not be online. You can trade weapons! The bottom screen will, as speculated in online circles, serve as your equipment/item menu. Most excitingly (or irritatingly, if you don't like this sort of thing), you're able to attack your party members! This makes fighting a bit more strategic, and playing with friends in a room full of household objects that can be used as weapons kind of dangerous. Also, you apparently don't get experience points if you don't fight. This could be good -- if it feels good. I will touch it when it's released, and tell you how it feels.
Revealed in the closing pages is that Ryu ga gotoku (mentioned above) will have arcades, and possibly some Sega classics will be playable. Hoy! Also, Rogue Galaxy will have some really radical graphical effects when you put on new pieces of equipment. Meaning -- pretty much, customizable costumes. Very interesting to me, especially, who wished Dragon Quest VIII would have had more costumes for its heroes. Well, Level-5 heard our call, it looks like.
In closing, Japanese television and film actress Yumi Shura will perform the voice of Joanna Dark in the Japanese version of Perfect Dark Zero. Um. Well.
