Trailer: Atelier Annie

And once again, NISAmerica brings us a niche Japanese game! You have to thank NIS for things like Rhapsody and Disgaea. It's a hit and miss with these niche games though. Let's hope Atelier Annie is a hit for the West so we can get more of them in english. :D



Apparently, there won't be any dubbing this time around. Word is unconfirmed if this is due to budget constraints or just for the hell of it.
Either way...
Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island hits us all by October!

Review: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

First Impression:
Ah, another Layton game! About time that it came out as it's been out in Japan for a while now. Luke and the Professor are yet again off on another whirlwind adventure and chasing after a mysterious box that kills those who try to open it. Sounds like fun. Let's do this thing.

Gameplay:
Like the game before it, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, you control Professor Hershel Layton and his young apprentice Luke as they solve a great baffling mystery. This time, Layton's going after a mysterious box and somehow, this involves a train ride.
As always, the entire thing is stylus controlled. You use the stylus to do most everything: move around, investigate your surroundings, open up the menu and solve puzzles.
AND BOY WILL YOU BE SOLVING PUZZLES.
This world seems to be a strange alternate universe where people spend their time thinking up brainteasers and almost everything reminds someone of a puzzle. Tapping on a vase of flowers might remind Layton of a puzzle. Talking to someone on the street will suddenly cause them to challenge you to solve a puzzle they've been thinking of. Strange world. Not complaining.

As far as I've observed, puzzles can be categorized into a few major types: There are your visual puzzles which have you staring at something for a long while in order to figure out just what the puzzle needs. There's your math oriented type which makes good use of the memo feature seeing as you'd end up writing your equations there. There's the maze type which has you solving a maze and... my love-it-or-hate-it, the slidey puzzle. You know. The one that has you sliding pieces around the board to form a picture or get something from point A to point B?
During puzzles, the top screen has your hints and puzzle explanation while the touchscreen has your puzzle itself. You have a memo tab which you can tap to bring up a translucent white sheet over your puzzle. Handy for mazes and such where you have to trace over parts or mark them. If you're stuck, you can buy a hint for one hint coin with three hints per puzzle. The first hint is usually pretty obvious while the last hint is usually all you need. Sometimes.



Normally though, your screen looks like this (as pictured above). You have a map on the top screen and on the bottom screen is a large static picture of your current location. Here, you can interact with NPCs, click through dialogue and poke around (quite literally) for puzzles and hint coins.

Over the course of the game, you get to unlock several other goodies which make the game much more enjoyable. First is the camera which you have to put together much like the mechanical dog from the first game. (Where the hell is that dog?!) After you put the camera together, something cool happens.
Second is an overweight hamster. Some puzzles give you hamster toys as prizes and using these toys, you make tubby walk. The more steps he takes, the fitter he gets. (If only it was that easy...) The hamster exercising scene happens with somewhat 3D-ish generated images. Not bad.
Third (And my personal favourite) is a tea brewing section. Some puzzles award you with tea leaves and these tea leaves can be combined to create different sorts of tea.



Last words:
It looks, feels and sounds kinda like the first game. Level 5 took the rule of "If it's not broken, don't fix it" which is good for this sort of thing. All in all, you can say that Professor Layton is a puzzle book done in such a way that it doesn't feel like a boring puzzle book. Fans of puzzles will be happy. There are a LOT to do.

Protip:
-When you reach a new location TAP EVERWHERE. You never know where a hint coin or a puzzle may be hiding. Try windows and lamps and little pebbles on the ground.
-If you miss a puzzle, they go into Granny Riddleton's shack where you can solve them without penalty.

---

Rating:
Graphics: 5/5
I'm fond of the graphic style used for the Professor Layton games. They're crisp and clean. The animated cutscenes are a treat. The backgrounds are colorful and detailed.

Gameplay: 5/5
Everything is controlled by the stylus. One tap brings up a menu, interacts with an NPC and scrolls through dialogue. The puzzles are numerous and vary in both type and difficulty. Some are easy, some are total headscratchers. Both make you think, which is good. The minigames are a great addition. All in all, this is a good pick up and put down game which you can play in bursts of hours... or five minutes.

Soundtrack: 4.5/5
The sounds are nice and the background music played during puzzles I find rather relaxing. Some other tracks aren't all that memorable though. The voice acting isn't tooth grating (Did they get a new voicer for Layton? I'm not quite sure.) and though some people may hate Luke's voice, I rather don't. XD;

The Look and Feel: 4/5
Menu isn't at all awkward. Everything's laid out before your eyes the minute you pull up the menu. Navigation is easy and fairly simple. Some puzzles are easy to miss though but thankfully, they get gathered in one place if you miss their location outright.

Rating: 9/10

Review: Fossil Fighter

First Impression:
I like dinosaurs. Growing up, before I'd had this strange obsession with dragons, I was obsessed with dinosaurs. Naturally, time to check out a game with nothing but dinosaurs and dinosaur battling.

Gameplay:
I suppose I have one formula for this game:

Dinosaur King + Pokemon + Spectrobes = Fossil Fighter.

You play as a boy who journeys to an island to learn how to be a Fossil Fighter which is technically a pokemon trainer who uses dinosau-- right. Vivosaurs, as the game calls them.
Much like Spectrobes, you can find prospective new members of your team by digging them up off the field and cleaning them. However, you can only revive Vivosaurs once you find their heads. Revival is automatic and any other body parts you find from the same vivosaur are added in to give extra experience points and attacks.



And the main point for finding these Vivosaurs and making them stronger? For battling, of course! Your character's main goal is to be a Master Fighter and to have the strongest team of Vivosaurs on the island.
Battle is a simple point and click affair. at the start of each round, you have a set number of FP which are consumed with every attack. Some attacks cost 30 FP, some 50, some 100 or more. Your FP are recharged with every round.
Each team can have up to three Vivosaur in battle at once. One Vivosaur stays in your attack area, the other two in your support area. Those in your support area give status boosters to the attacker and sometimes minus status to the opponent's attacker.



At first, only one dig site is open to you. In order to get to more places, you have to level up your fighter rank by passing a Level Up Exam. One takes place after you've completed the story events of your current chapter.
Level Up Exams are composed of a Cleaning Exam and a Fossil Battle. You will be given a point limit to reach for your cleaning and obviously, you have to win all your battles. You start off with one battle and eventually, you'll have to get through a preliminary battle.
Of course, there's more to island life than just digging up fossils and battling. Where else would an intrepid young adventurer be without foiling an evil plot or two? This game's Team Rocket comes in something called the BB Group (Big Bad Group? I'm not sure. You make the call.) and chapters usually end with you beating a member of theirs or their leader.

You have the option of using the stylus or the button controls. Either one works rather well. Obviously, only the stylus can be used during a cleaning session. On one other note, I was pretty surprised about how fast your character runs, really.

Last words:
I can't help but compare this game to Dinosaur King and Spectrobes unfortunately, because it just reminds me of them so much. I have to say that I've enjoyed this title more than I did those two. it takes the enjoyable qualities of both games and brings them together. There are plenty of dinosaurs to dig up and collect which can hold my interest for a while as I seek out my Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Also, it doesn't have Spectrobes' annoying wannabe wapanese vocabulary. I swear. Several dialogue points in that game made me wanna choke something.
Fossil Fighter is targeted for a younger audience. It's easy to get the hang of and the battles aren't all that tough.

---

Rating:
Graphics: 3.5/5
The entire thing is done in a simple sort of 3D. The characters aren't all that memorable but they do have a colorful palette to work with. They... also kinda move weird, IMHO. Of course, prolly just me.

Gameplay: 4/5
The battle system requires good timing and some strategy which is good. Needs more brains than a button masher. Working for good fossils makes it worth it, as well as looking for parts to power up your team. Pretty fun. Lots to look out for and do.

Soundtrack: 3.5/5
Audio cues are quite important in this game, I think. Sound cues help locate fossils on your radar and they can help while cleaning a fossil. That's good... sometimes bad if you need to play and keep the noise down. The BGM unfortunately isn't too memorable. It's pretty generic.

The Look and Feel: 3/5
The menus are slightly strange. Instead of one menu where you access everything, they've assigned the menus to three separate buttons. X takes you to your status screen and the fossils you're carrying around. Y takes you to your team menu and the list of all the Vivosaurs available to you and start takes you to the save and options screen. Would've been easier if they'd just put it all in one menu screen.

Rating: 7.5/10

Heart Gold and Soul Silver announced for English Release!

A few months ago, pokemaniacs around the world were treated to a bit of good news: the return of Gold and Silver as HeartGold and SoulSilver. We held our breath, hardly believing the news. For the more pessimistic, it was more of "Oh no. Yet ANOTHER pokemon game." and for the fans, much screaming and fangasming was to be had.

Be prepared to fangasm yet again.... for I bring you...



THE ENGLISH TRAILER.
Now go watch it! No further commentary from yours truly is needed. Shoo! Git!

Speculated release is Spring 2010.

Good things come in threes?

More details emerged about Rune Factory 3. Lots of details, really! Japanese release date is set on October 22. Those who pre-order get a nice swag kit with a drama CD and an book containing character illustrations and an original comic.



Fanmitsu also revealed other things about the game:
Your character, Mais can turn into a monster which shows you another side of farming life. I wonder how much fun can be had if you prowl around as a werewolly...
Also new to Rune Factory 3 is the Active Seed System.

Active seed grow immediately when planted and can do a number of useful things like help in battle or with the things you've planted in caves. So far, three Active Seeds have been revealed:



Jack:
-Has a pumpkin-like form
-Sucks up enemies and deals damage

Haslider:
-Shaped like a leaf (Lilypad?)
-Can be used as a floatation device over bodies of water.

Mizubasou:
-Floral in shape
-Generates water for sown seeds

Also, Fanmitsu revealed two more eligible young bachelorettes for Mais' perusal. The so far cast list is as follows:



Shia
A kind girl who took care of you when you were unconscious at the beginning of the game. It's because of her recommendation that you started farming.

Touna
A silent girl who works at the city's weapons shop. Why she avoids relating with people is apparently a secret.

Chocola
A girl who dreams of being a chef like her father and now works at a restaurant in town. Despite her tiny size, she has a huge appetite.

Marion
An apprentice witch who also serves as a nurse in town. She dreams of being either a fine doctor or a sorceress like her grandmother. She's childhood friends with Chocola, whom she used as a guinea pig for conducting tests for her magic cures



Rune Factory just recently grew on me... Of course I'll have my eye on this one. No english release has been scheduled as of now but considering that the first two games have been ported... well... three time's a charm, I suppose!

Via [Siliconera.com / Andriasang.com ]

Oh... oh yes please...

Yup. You're seeing it right. Luminous Arc 3: Eyes. Marvelous has started to promote it. Now I know most of the population has mixed reactions about the LA series but I for one rather liked it. The first game... I believe I have to take another look at but the second was actually quite fun. I'm rather mad for the character designs and the characterizstion for some of the cast.



LA isn't a crazy intimidating SRPG which is what made it fun for yours truly. Me and SRPGs, we have a love-hate relationship. I want to love them but they hate me sometimes.

This time around, you play as a student of the Ulgard Magic Academy and inbetween fights, you'll be interacting with your party members and other students. There seems to be a bit of a dating sim aspect with this too, much like the past two installments.
Image Epoch (Sands of Destruction, 7th Dragon) is handling development and Yasunori Mitsuda has been credited as sound producer. The game's due out this winter in Japan. So far, no English release has been scheduled but knowing Atlus... we'll prolly see one come 2010. As Luminous Arc and its sequel has been ported, there's a good chance this'll come up, too.



No doubt I'll have my eye out on news related to this game.

via [Siliconera/1up.com]

Review: Wacky Races Crash and Dash

First Impression:
Ah, Wacky Races. What a part of my childhood. I remember watching this along with Laff-A-Lympics on Saturday mornings. Now everyone thinks I'm ancient. Now that they've decided to revive a game kids today won't prolly know... Will I be able to have fun and reminisce the insane episodes and the randomness of it all? Will I find myself playing a decent racing game that will prolly be fun to spread around to other people I know? Will anyone under twenty actually pick this up? More importantly, will I be able to play as Dick Dastardly? Let's find out, shall we?

Gameplay:
I was expecting a racing game. You know. You're in control of a character in a car and you try to beat other racers. I was expecting control using the directional pads and have a camera angle akin to Mario Kart.
Oh man, was I wrong.

Wacky Races puts you behind the wheel with the entire cast at your disposal. There's no one to unlock. Everyone's there to begin with, from the Slag Brothers to Penelope Pitstop minus Dick Dastardly. Minus major points from yours truly as my one wish of getting behind the wheel of the Mean Machine was shot down. There are no alternate cars to unlock, no extra powers, nothing but an alternate difficulty setting. THAT'S IT.
The rallies play like an episode of Wacky Races: you have three tracks to race in and in the middle of the races, Dick Dastardly tries to stop you from advancing by sabotage and dirty sneaky tactics. In the game, these are represented by mini games. If you pass, you retain your race position. If you fail, you end up at the back, bringing up the rear.



Much like the cartoon, you also get powers. There's an offensive booster which helps you speed up and damages your opponents' cars, an offensive which has you poking the other cars with the stylus to damage them, an aerial power which has you flying over the rest of the cars and a booster that makes you zoom right ahead of the competition. You activate these powers by tapping the icon when it becomes available after you pick up a powerup on the track.

Everything is controlled via the STYLUS. Yes, you heard me. The stylus. You put the stylus in front of your car and move it in the direction you want to turn. There's no way to accelerate or slow down. Now I don't know about you... but that makes racing a bit.. I don't know.. Awkward? The challenege of getting in first place lies in using your power ups and passing Dick Dastardly's minigames of doom.
And the last stretch to the finish like... Oh BOY.
This involves BLOWING into the microphone and scratching on the touch screen with your stylus while your car goes on autopilot. Why? I don't know. It works. I don't know why. But it works.



Last words:
If I was looking for a racer, I'd pick up Mario Kart. I suggest getting this from a rental. Once you've played it, you prolly won't want to play it again... unless you're a big Wacky Races fan. Even if you are, I'm not really sure you'd like it all that much. This game is a once in a lifetime experience: Once you've experienced it, you don't need to experience it again.
I was sorely disappointed by this game. If they'd stuck to the behind-the-wheel camera and kept the powerups and the minigames... this might have been a good contenteder for Mario Kart due to sheer nostalgia power.

---

Rating:
Graphics: 3.5/5
Alright, I'll give them points for retaining the classic Wacky Races look. The characters are done in a clean 2D during cutscenes and character portraits. The cars however are done in a semi-3D. Nice looking. The tracks however... are slightly grainy. They were trying to do the 3-D on 2-D methinks..

Gameplay: 2/5
Seriously. This would have been a fun racing game if it was done LIKE A RACING GAME. The top view doesn't do much for gameplay and controlling your car with the stylus was purely ridiculous. For Wacky Races, ridiculous is good... but that was a SERIOUSLY bad idea. The finish line stretch... SHEER. MADNESS. Horrendous idea. Once again, they tried to incorporate the touchscreen where it wasn't needed.

Soundtrack: 3/5
Nothing too memorable about the sountrack... but it was rather authentic. Points for nostalgia factor... and the fact that they kept the voice of Racing Commentator Guy. (did he have a name?)

The Look and Feel: 2/5
It looks good... the minigames were kinda fun, I admit... but apart from that, it kinda sucked majorly.

Rating: 3/10

Screenshots: Phantasy Star Zero

After a long moment of silence, it seems that some screenshots of PS0 have emerged... confirming an english release. Thanks to news on Joystiq, it seems that Sega IS working on the English port. Hopefully, we'll see a release by fall of this year as promised.

Click on the picture for more images c/o Joystiq.



via[Joystiq.com]