September sees a good amount of interesting/popular games:  7 multiplatform (Wii, PC, PS3, 360) releases, 8 PS3 releases, 3 3DS releases, 3 DS releases, 1 PSP release and 2 Xbox 360 releases. Don’t forget this only includes interesting or potentially popular games, and it maybe be missing what will be hidden gems. We never know.

So read on and see what you’ll be buying!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Dead Island 9/06 (PC, PS3, 360)

As far as I’ve seen, it just looks like L4D with slower gameplay and maybe a deeper plot (or at least some character development). Not interested.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 9/06 (PC, PS3, 360)

Seems like a God of War rip-off with a space marine and orks… I’ll keep an eye out just in case it ends up being a competent action game, but I’m not keeping my hopes up.
(Note/correction/whatever: The demo was very unimpressive… it’s a clumsy hack n’ slasher with the controls of Gears of War which just doesn’t work for action like this… BUT the jetpack level in the demo was fun… I guess jetpacks DO make everything better… it’s a rental)

NHL 12 9/13 (PS3, 360)

*insert same text as madden release from last month*

Resident Evil 4 HD 9/20 (PS3, 360)

It’s RE4… I shouldn’t need to say much more, because you already know if you want an HD version of that.

Resident Evil Code: Veronica X HD 9/27 (PS3, 360)

I’ve never played Code Veronica… So I don’t have much to say here.

X-Men: Destiny 9/27 (PS3, 360, Wii, DS)

Haven’t seen much of this… it seems like a possibly interesting beat ‘em up with RPG elements. Doesn’t look too bad, but it’s a rental for me.

Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny 9/27 (PS3, Wii)

I had no idea this was even coming. But I’m also not terribly familiar with Rune Factory so I have nothing to say about it.

PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES

Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten 9/06

Disgaea always kicks ass. Nothing more to say. Buy this!

Resistance 3 9/06

First sucked, second sucked but had fun online, this one will probably also suck (don’t know about the online, don’t care). I’ll rate this game a “boringfps/10″

God of War Origins Collection 9/13

Portable lameness, redone in HD!

White Knight Chronicles II 9/13

Includes the first game with the modified engine from the sequel, so, if you don’t get bored of this fast, you have a LOT of content to go through here.

Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland 9/27

The Atelier series is generally great. I’m pretty hyped for this one

ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection 9/27

Ico looked boring to play (haven’t played it myself, just judging from the boring-looking gameplay videos I’ve seen), Shadow of the Colossus was stupidly boring (a game where you spend most of the time basically doing nothing isn’t terribly exciting), not hyped for this at all.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy HD 9/27

Despite having all the old splinter cell games, I haven’t played them…. May be worth it, I wouldn’t know… yet.

Child of Eden 9/27

Wasn’t interested in the 360 release, not interested in this one.

3DS RELEASES

Star Fox 64 3D 9/09

This is my favorite N64 game, by far. I must have completed it over 100 times as a kid, and I still replay it from time to time. I’m pretty hyped to see it with even better graphics and 3D, should be quite interesting.

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection 9/13

This game is great. It features amazing pinball tables like Funhouse and Pinbot and Taxi, and is overall really fun to play. One drawback on the 3DS version though… as far as I can tell, it’s missing 5 tables that are in the PS3/360 version: Tales of the Arabian Nights, Medieval Madness, No Good Gofers, as well as MAYBE Jive Time and Sorcerer that are in all the other versions…. If you have a PS3/360, get those versions, Wii if you don’t have a PS3 or 360… This is a nice alternative, but the HD versions kick its ass.

Frogger 3D 9/20

This actually looks really interesting. It’s classic Frogger gameplay, but in various environments, featuring a lot of new gameplay elements… I may check it out.

DS RELEASES

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 9/19

Loved the first one, and the other games in the previous Monster sub-series. This should also be great.

Kirby Mass Attack 9/19

The videos I’ve seen make it seem like a Kirby/Pikmin hybrid… looks pretty fun.

Solatorobo: Red the Hunter 9/27

Random Action-RPG, actually looks cool.

PSP RELEASES

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 – Innocent Sin 9/20

Oh, this is actually the first time this comes out in the US. I know people will point me to Persona 2: Eternal Punishment on the PS1, I will point out that it’s actually a different game from the first Persona 2, one that takes place in a parallel world. So yeah, this could be interesting.

XBOX 360 RELEASES

Otomedius Excellent 9/01

It better not get delayed AGAIN. Well, I don’t have a 360 anymore, but, if I did, I would be all over this. It actually looks like a solid Gradius game.

Gears of War 3 9/20

It’s Gears of War. You’ve played one of the 2 before it, you’ve played this one.

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There’s 3 multi-platform games, 2 PS3 games, 1 Wii game and 2 PSP games.
There might be a DS release (that duke nukem game that shows up on every release list for every month but never ends up coming…. and wasn’t it renamed? Whatever), but I’m not holding off for it, so I might as well not list it. Surprisingly, there’s not a single game coming on the 3DS in April… not even shovelware (well some sites have 2 shovelware games in april, but others have the same games in May, so it’s impossible to know/care). Strange.

Read on and see what’s coming!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Michael Jackson The Experience 04/12 (PS3, Xbox 360)

A Michael Jackson rhythm game. I haven’t seen anything about this, despite a Wii version already being out for it… Not expecting greatness, but at least the music will be good.

Portal 2 04/19 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

That seems pretty interesting. There are some new gameplay elements, so it should feel like a fresh enough experience from the first game… Hopefully. And there’s co-op this time, which could be interesting.

Mortal Kombat 04/19 (PS3, Xbox 360)

Terrible. Or at least that’s the conclusion I came to after playing the demo. It’s supposed to be the big revival of the series, but it’s actually WORSE than Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. The only advantage it has on it is that it’s more violent. Well whoopity-fucking-doo, the gameplay is still stiff and just not intuitive whatsoever, and it still uses the prehistoric idea of having a button to block. Heck, the gameplay was actually better in MKvsDCU. This is pathetic. All it has over other modern fighting games is that there’s a lot of content… which doesn’t mean much when the basic gameplay isn’t any good.

PC releases

Darkspore 03/29

I had the opportunity to play the beta of this game… sadly it didn’t work on my computer (the game froze during the logos). So I’m waiting for the final version, hoping it works. It’s a highly customizable Diablo-style RPG, with what seem like instance dungeons, and you can change characters on-the-fly. This looks really good, I can’t wait to try it out.

PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES

Prince of Persia Classic Trilogy HD 04/19

Classic Trilogy? Are Ubisoft forgetting that there were PoP games well before the ones on PS2/Gamecube/Xbox? Are they even old enough to be considered “classics”? Anyways, this includes all 3 PoP games from the last generation, all of which are much better than the terrible reboot that came out on current-gen consoles. It’s probably possible to get them all on PS2/Gamecube/Xbox for less than it will cost on the PS3, but it’s still an interesting collection.

SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs 04/19

Not a series I’m terribly familiar with, and I did hear that it was simplified compared to previous entries of the series. I have no idea really.

PLAYSTATION PORTABLE RELEASES

Patapon 3 04/12

I didn’t enjoy the previous 2 games in the series much… But other people did, and this should be enjoyable for previous fans of the series.

Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection 04/19

That’s very interesting to me, what with FF4 being my favorite in the series. It includes a remake of the original game with fully updated graphics (not sure if it has the extra content from the GBA version though), an Interlude story which bridges the story between the original and After Years  (apparently it’s 15 hours long, which is nice), and of course it also includes After Years with all additional chapters. This seems like a really awesome package. I’m quite interested.

WII RELEASES

Conduit 2 04/19

The first Conduit sucked. As such, I didn’t keep up with any information about the sequel, but I’m not expecting it to be any good, just like the first one. I might give it a rental to see if I’m wrong, but I’m not holding my breath.

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So this month we have: 18 3DS games for its launch, 10 multi-platform titles, 4 interesting DS games, 3 PS3 exclusives, 2 PC exclusives and 3 PSP games. There should be interesting games for everyone in March. And keep in mind those are just the interesting/popular titles, no shovelware in there.

Read on!

3DS LAUNCH!

March 27th 2011
Ah yes, the 3DS by Nintendo is finally coming out. Dave, who played it at E3 last year, was quite impressed with it, and, well, let’s face it, it’s a Nintendo handheld so it’s 100% sure to be a great handheld system (call me a fanboy if you want, you still know it’s the thruth… and no, the Virtual Boy is NOT a handheld system), and it’s 100% sure it’s gonna sell well (heck, it’s already sold out in Japan, selling almost half a million in a day). It features an analog stick, multi-touch touch screen, motion-control, multiple cameras that can take 3D pictures and of course a 3D screen that doesn’t require glasses (which is awesome) that can have the 3D effect de-activated if you don’t want it/can’t see it. The launch price is 250$, which is fair. The launch is a bit on the weak side, and there’s no dates for the currently announced “big” games (Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, Paper Mario, KID FUCKING ICARUS), but what does it matter, the system’s lineup will end up being great sooner or later.

Launch Titles
Pilotwings Resort
Steel Diver (I haven’t seen much about this, and what I did see didn’t look terribly interesting, but people are excited about it)
Nintendogs + Cats
Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (will be worth getting if you don’t have the console versions… looks very impressive graphically)
Samurai Warriors: Chronicles (this actually looks quite interesting)
The Sims 3
Madden NFL Football
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
Ridge Racer 3D
Super Monkey Ball 3D
Bust-A-Move Universe (Probably won’t be worth getting if you have another version of bust-a-move)
Asphalt 3D
Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D
Rayman 3D (didn’t this come out on the normal DS? yeah, it did, the only apparent difference is the 3D effect)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Shadow Wars (It’s a turn-based strategy game)

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Fight Night Champion 03/01 (PS3, Xbox 360)

I played the demo for this. It sucked. I loved FNR3, and then realized that it sucked in comparison to FNR4, which was REALLY well done and ended up being very underrated. This, on the other hand, seems to use a similar graphical style to FNR4, but the camera angles are dynamic and completely changed, making the gameplay harder to get a hang of since you can barely see what you’re doing, and the actual fighting is very downgraded from FNR4, with half the punches you could do being removed, and less control over where you can hit, and NO control over where you block. I might rent it, but the demo left me REALLY unimpressed.

Beyond Good & Evil HD 03/02 (PS3, Xbox 360)

Oh, I didn’t know this was coming out. I actually don’t know much about this game, I never ended up playing it last generation despite having many chances of buying it, and people constantly telling me how good it was. So yeah, this could be a chance for me to finally check it out.

Dragon Age II 03/08 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

I played the first Dragon Age. It was incredibly boring to me, and I lost interest after about an hour. The fighting system was dull and I had no interest in the story and characters. But I know that other people loved it. Though, from what I’ve heard, this is a downgrade from the first game.

Homefront 03/15 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

Crappy brown military first-person shooter, nothing to see here…. OH, but, if you pre-order it with OnLive, you can get the Onlive Console, as well as that piece of shit Metro 2033, both for free. That’s pretty interesting at least.

Crysis 2 03/22 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

The first Crysis was basically a standard brown military FPS, but the Nanosuit added some variety and fun features. This seems like more of the same. It has an advanced graphics engine, but from what I’ve seen it’s no different from the first game gameplay-wise.

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars 03/22 (Everything)

It’s a LEGO game. Yet again based on the Star Wars series. It’s probably gonna be a fun and popular game, the LEGO games are rarely really bad.

Dynasty Warriors 7 03/22 (Xbox 360, PS3)

Dynasty Warriors! There’s hundreds of enemies, and you have to button-mash to kill them all! Those games are generally fun to play, despite the simple fighting system. Killing tons of enemies is very satisfying. So yeah, this should be good enough.

Rush’N Attack Ex-Patriot (03/29 for the PS3, 03/30 for the 360)

Oh, that’s really interesting. Rush ‘N Attack, also named Green Beret in its original arcade release, was a very simple but very fun side-scrolling… hum… platformer? Brawler? Either way, your main attack was a fast stab with a knife that killed almost anything in one hit, and each enemy type had a different method to fight them, like different timing for jumping before stabbing and such. You also got different weapons which have limited ammo. It got pretty tough. This looks a bit different from the original, and graphically it has similarities to Shadow Complex. This is hopefully going to be awesome.

Shift 2 Unleashed: Need for Speed 03/29 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

The first NFS Shift was surprisingly good. It wasn’t as deep and well-made as the big simulation racers such as  Forza and Gran Turismo, but it was still very fun. So this should be good.

Space Channel 5 Part 2 03/31 (PS3, Xbox 360 (maybe))

I put this in the multiplatform section because, while the Xbox 360 version doesn’t have an official release date, it should be coming either at that date, or close. Anyways… the original SC5 was a fun rhythm game with a very fun and simple gameplay and a cool presentation, so this should be just as good. Never played it though, so I’m interested.

NINTENDO DS RELEASES

Pokemon Black and White versions 03/06

Pokemon is always awesome. Great simple RPGs all the way through. This is probably gonna be great. Not much more to say here really. This one features a completely new set of pokemon, so that means the caves won’t just be populated by Geodudes an Zubats. EVOLUTION!

Atari’s Greatest Hits Volume 2 03/08

A big compilation of badass Atari 2600 games. There’s a lot of really awesome games in there like Yars’ Revenge, Millipede, Star Raiders, Demons to Diamonds, Warlords and various others.

Okamiden 03/15

A “cute” version of Okami. It seems to have a lot of similarities to its PS2/Wii grand-daddy, with some top-down puzzle segments. It should be really good, I have high hopes for this.

Monster Tale 03/22

Oh look, a game made by a completely new developer that no one has ever heard about, gotta have at least one of those every month… Well I think this looks really interesting. You have a sidescrolling action-platformer on the top screen, and the bottom screen seems to be where (I think) you train a monster using the touch screen to make it fight its own battles and such, and, from what I’ve seen, you can summon the monster to the top screen so he can provide support. I think it looks good.

PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES

Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel 03/15

I was never a big fan of the Ar tonelico series. They somehow never had the same fun feel as the Atelier/Mana Khemia games which these are pretty similar to. Apparently this is going to be the final game in the series, so fans of the series should check it out. I’m not too interested though.

Yazuka 4 03/15

I have yet to play a Yakuza game, but Dave was a big fan. This should be pretty fun.

PlayStation Move Heroes 03/22

Sly, Ratchet, Jax, Daxter, Clank and a few more team up in this multiplayer 3D platforming action game. Obviously it makes use of the Move controller and it’s required to play this. Could be interesting. Maybe Dave will check it out?

PC RELEASES

Shogun 2: Total War 03/15

The original Shogun: Total War was a fun Strategy game. I was terrible at it when I was younger since it’s sort of complicated, but I still enjoyed it. This should be pretty cool as well.

PLAYSTATION PORTABLE RELEASES

Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle 03/08

Phantom Brave was an amazingly fun Strategy RPG on the Playstation 2 by Nippon Ichi. The story and characters were fun, the fighting mechanics were actually pretty unique to the SRPG genre, and it has the usual grinding present in Nippon Ichi games.

Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy 03/22

The first Dissidia was a really fun and unique fighting game with fast-paced fighting and a nice cast of fun characters to use, each with their own play style. From what I’ve seen the gameplay here is nearly identical to the original, but it adds more characters and probably balances some things out, and it adds a few new elements like assists. I’ll get it eventually.

The 3rd Birthday 03/29

Oh, a new Parasite Eve!  Not a series I’m terribly familiar with, but this looks not too bad. It seems more action-oriented than the other PE games, but it should be interesting to play.
*EDIT* Dave tells me that fans of the series who played the japanese version have been highly disappointed in the game. So you might want to not keep your hopes up too high.

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Being a fairly tame month, there’s only a few interesting releases: 3 multiplatform games, 2 PS3 exclusives, 3 DS games and 1 PSP game.

Read on!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

DC Universe Online 01/11 (PC, PS3)

Having seen the beta version of the game, I think it looks pretty fun. It’s an MMORPG, with an action-based gameplay style, and lots of customization, and it’s set in the DC universe so you’ll see a bunch of familiar vilains and superheroes. It seems interesting enough. At 15$ a month it’s definitely steep though.

Mindjack 01/18 (PS3, 360)

Well I’m not actually expecting this to be any good, what with it being a standard cover-based shooter, but it does have that mind-hacking element that enables you to control other people and machines, which might potentially make this interesting… Maybe.

Dead Space 2 01/25 (PS3, 360, PC)

The first Dead Space was a fairly good action-based survival horror-like game, and this one seems to be very similar to the first, other than the fact that it continues the story, and it has multiplayer for some odd reason (seems like it could be fairly good though). If you were a fan of the original, this should be just as good.

PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES

LittleBigPlanet 2 01/18

The first LBP was an okay game. It had its problems, like the huge floatiness of the platforming which kinda annoyed me, but it sported a very interesting level design tool that could make not only platforming levels, but a bunch of other stuff. I’ve seen Tetris, shmups, calculators, and more. LittleBigPlanet 2 seems to be going even deeper with its level building system, with people in the beta making really bad FPS, or really bad fighting games. I’m joking here a bit, but what we’ve seen of LBP2 for now is very promising.

Mass Effect 2 01/18

I really wasn’t a big fan of ME2. It felt more like Gears of War with very minor stat-customization and lots of really boring conversations. I enjoyed the first one a bit more (though the huge amounts of boring conversations in that one annoyed me as well), but people LOVE this game, and it getting a superior (apparently) release on the PS3 is quite a big thing. It apparently lets you do some of the major choices from the first game before getting into the actual game, which is interesting, though maybe not as much to some people as it would be to actually play the first game, but I guess releasing a port of the first game could have been too annoying for BioWare to do… or something.

NINTENDO DS RELEASES

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective 01/11

This looks like a very fun adventure game. You play as some guy who died. You “relive” other peoples’ last few minutes before dying, and you can posses objects to hopefully change the character’s destiny, saving their lives. It definitely looks very interesting.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded 01/11

Hmm… After looking at some gameplay videos, it looks essentially identical to the first KH game at least gameplay-wise…. until it becomes a turn-based RPG. It will probably be a good game, since the only KH game that I found to be completely unplayable was Birth by Sleep (damn loading times), but it still remains to be seen.

Plants vs. Zombies 01/18

It’s Plants vs. Zombies port! It’s good on the other platforms it’s on, so it should be just as good here. And this seems to have a few new modes, it has versus and maybe some other stuff. Should be worth playing. Again.

PLAYSTATION PORTABLERELEASES

Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! 01/11

Yay! A Prinny sequel! This time you play as a thousand Prinnies questing to get Etna’s stolen panties back.The original was a tough game with very strict platforming and fun boss fights. This one looks just as good, except now there’s an Asagi mode, where you play as a Prinnified Asagi, who has different weapons, which looks really awesome.

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The moment I saw the trailer for this game (well, the japanese version of the trailer really, but the english one really hyped me up), I knew I had to pick it up. Not only is the title one of the most awesome I’ve ever seen, the actual gameplay and potential depth of the game made it really interesting.

Read on and see if it’s as awesome as the trailer makes it look!

Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Date of Release: October 26th 2010
Platforms: Playstation Portable

Genre: Rogue-like Dungeon Crawler RPG
Rated T for Teen

What is good about this game
Presentation
The graphics have a very NIS style to them. I you’ve played Disgaea/La Pucelle Tactics, you should have a pretty good idea of what it looks like. I’d say it’s a bit more colorful, but just around the same style. The dungeons also feature 3D graphics in the same style as Disgaea. So this is definitely not a big departure from previous NIS games. If you like the look of previous NIS games, this should be right up your alley. I personally really like it. The character design is fun (Darkdeath Evilman looks especially cool), the monsters look fine, and the different areas, while not overwhelmingly well done, do the job well enough.

On the audio side of thing, it’s not too bad either. Just a quick mention on the music(more about that later), it’s all very fun and well done, usually very fitting of the situation, but most of it is very “heroic” in style. The sound effects are also quite good. The voice work kinda varies. For the most part it’s very solid: Pirohiko and Etranger are the characters you’ll hear the most, and, for the most part, they sound good. Most side-characters are also very well voiced, but there are distinct times where the voicing sounds stiff and lacks emotion. It’s not too often though, and most of the time it’s not TOO noticeable.

Base gameplay
It’s actually fairly simple, but quite fun. As per most Rogue-like games, you control one character, and move them through a grid. Each movement takes one turn, in which any monster in the  map can move as well. Each attack also takes one turn. You can use special attacks, which require casting the attack (which “stores” it) taking one turn, and later “activating” it, choosing your target within the special attack’s range. As you walk around and beat enemies up, you will find items lying on the ground, or find them as drops from killing enemies: some that can be equipped, some that can be thrown to damage/give status ailments to enemies, and money. You also gain experience points from beating enemies, which level you up.

Walking and attacking leads to your character losing EN. This can be made slower or be completely stopped by using the proper equipment/skills. When your EN goes down to 0, you lose 1 HP per turn, and it can kill you. To recover EN, you can eat meat and certain equipments. There’s certain equipments/skills that enable you to eat different things that wouldn’t usually be edible. Also, attacking/getting hit will weaken your equipment. To the point of barely giving any stat boosts at all if they’re at 0% of durability, and removing whatever special effect the equipment gave.

As you progress through a dungeon, you unlock “Unlosing Mode” (when your meter next to the HP is full), which enables you to boost any stat, to varying usefulness. For example, Unlosing SPD enables you to do a ton of moves/attacks without anything else in the map being able to do anything. Another weird feature is the Barriers…. which I don’t really understand, and it’s largely reliant on a piece of equipment I never use, so I never got around to figuring out if it was useful at all.

It’s really quite simplistic most of the time, but it works, and it’s definitely fun if you enjoy this type of game.

Dungeons and boss battles
The dungeons and boss battles are actually quite interesting. Most dungeons have some kind of gimmick: having to use hookshots to get to other rooms, flying with a balloon to reach higher plaforms, disappearing rooms, collapsing rooms, and various other things, there’s some good variety here. How you travel through one dungeon will be completely different from how you travel through every other dungeon. It’s predictable for this genre, but the dungeons are randomly generated, so going through a dungeon more than once doesn’t mean you’ll be going through the same thing every time. Randomly generated also means random invisible traps (all of which you can be rendered immune to).

The boss battles are fairly similar. Rather than just being “bash on the boss until it dies” all the time, each boss has a gimmick. Sometime there’s a hint, sometimes it’s obvious, and other times you’ll never figure it out unless you ask online. One has you redirecting lasers, another has you thrown bombs… the boss fights can be quite interesting, and each are very different. Good stuff here.

Story
I actually quite like the story. It’s definitely very humorous, but it’s not without its strengths. Demon General Darkdeath Evilman(most awesome name for a vilain ever) has kidnapped Super Baby (a baby who is supposed to save the world according to prophecy), and threatens to destroy the world. The Unlosing Ranger wakes up late and rushes to the scene, but, on the way, he gets hit by a car and dies, but not without giving his morphing belt to a random bystander (you), who must go save the world in his place. Since he’s a newbie, the new Unlosing Ranger fails and almost dies, but is saved by the WHS (World Hero Society), who transports him to their base on Bizarro Earth, an alternate version of Earth where all the inhabitants are actually alternate versions of people on Normal Earth. You do your training there, going through dungeons in hopes of getting strong enough to fight the final boss.

One thing I like of the story is the concept of Bizarro Earth. Each chapter gives you one “target”. You find the person’s “equivalent” on Bizarro Earth, and help them solve their personal issues, which mirror the issues that the Earthling has, which in turn affects the person on Normal Earth. I actually find that this is a very nice plot device to move the story and character development forward.

As for the humour… well, before even actually playing the game at all, I was laughing at every other line of dialogue, it’s really well-written. There’s jokes thrown around everywhere, no matter the situation, and also references if you can catch them. Heck, the game starts by warning you that “there is only one battle in this game, but it is very epic” (or something to that effect), which is very funny, and actually true (the rest is training to continue that one battle). If you’re in for the laughs, there’s some to be had here.

Depth
Each time you start a dungeon, you’re level 1. As you progress through the dungeon, you level up and get stronger. When you either die or complete the dungeon, all the levels you accumulated go into your total level, and, when you total level gets high enough, you get stat boosts to your base stats. So, despite being level 1 at the start of every dungeon, you can be a stronger level 1 character than before. But that’s not anywhere near where the depth of the game starts. And total levels aren’t the biggest thing here, as the game sort of gives out levels like crazy, and there ARE exploits so you can powerlevel.

After a few missions, you get access to the Shadowgram, a big grid where you can implant items (which turn into chips) into the main character’s body, which raise your stats. But that’s not enough. As you level up, you will be able to unlock more spaces in the grid, leading to more leveling up. In addition to chips, you can place big, strangely shaped “boosters” in the shadowgram, which will increase certain things: capsules let you “save” items in your inventory when you’re in a dungeon (keeping them if you die), containers let you carry more stuff, and others will increase the power of certain equipment types (and more can be found in mastery dungeons). And then, in the shadowgram, you have spaces that have “hero energy source”, which can direct streams of energy to boosters, which will make them stronger depending on how long the energy stream is and such. There’s a lot of depth in just the shadowgram.

You can also make equipment itself stronger. I haven’t experimented with that a lot yet, but you can use items to synthesize various equipments together, which will make them stronger. And you can also take passive bonuses on other equipments and implement them on the equipment you want. In addition to synthesis, equipment also comes in different ranks, so 2 longswords can have different strength depending on how high-ranked they are. But one very interesting thing I never noticed until it was pointed out to me: your equipment not only affects your look, stats and various passive bonuses, but it also changes the background music depending on the type of equipment you have. That’s pretty crazy.

In addition to all that, you can also customize the WHS base. You can put various types of facilities to your liking (house to store stuff, hospital to use the shadowgram, blacksmith to repair equipment, caravan to meet you in the dungeons to give you limited access to facilities and sell you stuff, and much more). Most facilities have a one-use power you can do in the middle of a dungeon (getting food from your wife in the house, getting one repair from the blacksmith, etc). In addition to deciding which facilities you want, you can set the employees you want to whichever role you want in each facility. You can get more employees from the Mastery Dungeons, each with its strengths and weaknesses (making them better for certain jobs), as well as more or less base stats (useful for when you meet with a caravan in the dungeon, the stronger they are the least likely they are to die on the way).

I’m most definitely forgetting something here, as I have yet to experience everything here, but there is clearly a lot of depth in the game. And it definitely becomes a grindfest. If you’re in for that, you’re gonna love it.

Dying isn’t a good thing
While dying isn’t THAT bad, since you get the levels you have added to your total levels AND you get a phobia, which in turn gives you more EXP if you kill enemies of that particular phobia, it’s still punished in the game. First and foremost, you lose all your unsaved items/unstored items, including your equipment, and are left only with an Unlosing Cape. That can be fairly annoying, especially if you’ve been going through a dungeon and getting good stuff on the way. Also, you lose all your money. So while there are benefits to dying, the bad stuff that happens balances it out.

Post-game content
The game takes around 22 hours to complete the first time (at least for me, I was total level 979 at the time). But there’s still much to do after finishing the main game.

The game has multiple endings. Somewhere around 18 different endings. On your first playthrough, you get the “Normal Ending”, which is entertaining, but, when you restart, you can get a variety of endings if you can manage to beat Darkdeath Evilman earlier than the final chapter, and certain chapters have alternate endings as well. Not exactly post-game content, but there’s a lot of content that I’d rather do post-game: hunting for powerful equipment, finishing mastery dungeons, finding the Dengeki dungeons to find various anime characters (from: Ore no Imouto, Inukami, Durarara!!, Bacanno!, Dokuro-chan, Kino’s Journey, Toradora, Shakugan no Shana, Spice and Wolf, and a few more), which gives you costumes which apparently affect your stats, and of course your look.

There’s definitely a lot to do after you’re done with the main quest.

Anything negative about the game?
Not really… Though there are some parts that annoyed me. It’s really minor things.

The story might be really entertaining and wacky, but it does try to convey a message. But that’s not a big problem. It can be about the environment, or about bad parenting, or about bullying and various other things… and it’s SO ANNOYING. The problem is that they’re not subtle about it. They shove it in your face and the conversations here are just obnoxious and they don’t stop. WE GET IT, bullying is bad. No need to keep talking about it.

Minor thing: when you pick up items, or if an enemy spots you in a dungeon, Pirohiko (the previous Unlosing Ranger) and Etranger comment on it, and there’s this big sprite that comes on the screen, blocking most of the mini-map and part of the place you walk on. Really annoying.

It has minor glitches. The most noticeable one, that I did experience once, is that if you’re in a dungeon and put your system in sleep mode at the wrong time, it can take away some levels away and remove all your items.

Another minor problem to me is that you have to replay the whole game every time you go for a different ending, which could end up being pretty annoying. At least you can skip cutscenes/dialogues.

Oh, and, having played both versions of the game, the UMD version has noticeably longer loading times.

…Yeah, that’s about it. Some other people might not like certain elements that I do like, Rogue-likes aren’t that popular, partly since most of them aren’t anywhere near as good as ZHP, or they might find but, to me, this is a very fun game.

Overall
Z.H.P. is a very fun game. There’s lots to do, the story is fun, the characters are fun, the dialogue is funny, the jokes are quite funny and the game can last quite a long time.

While there are some annoying things, as mentionned above, there’s really not much BAD about the game. The character and gameplay as a whole is very customizable, and everyone can play the game in a different manner.

NIS got another masterpiece on their hands, no doubt about it.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- Deep leveling systems
- Fun gameplay
- Really good story
- Funny

Cons
- A few minor problems (described above, not big enough problems to have separate cons for each of them really)

The Save Factor
The game costs 30$, may it be the PSN or UMD version, and it’s definitely worth it.

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This time there’s releases on every system which is good. 3 DS releases, 2 PC releases, 3 PS3 exclusives, 2 PSP releases, 1 Wii release, 2 360 exclusive releases and 10 multiplatform releases. Everyone should at least find one interesting game to play in here.

So yeah, read on to see what possibly interesting games are comming in september 2010!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

NHL 11 09/07 (PS3, Xbox 360)

The canadian equivalent to Madden! Every year, a new Madden game comes out and sells millions in the US and Canada despite being the same game as the year before. This also happens with the NHL. Same game as the year before, but with new players. And it sells like crazy in Canada, moreso than Madden.

H.A.W.X. 2 09/07 (PS3, Xbox 360)

I don’t have anything to say about this one… I haven’t played the first one, and I won’t play this one.

R.U.S.E. 09/07 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

This looks like it could be not too bad. I played the beta a few months back and, while it did nothing for me, I can see why some people might be really interested in the game. Though it probably loses a lot of its audience with the previous release of Starcraft 2… It really shouldn’t have been delayed.

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions 09/07 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, DS)

Will this redeem Spider-Man in the video game world, after the disaster that was Web of Shadows? Well, it definitely looks really interesting, with 4 different Spider-mans (Noir, Amazing, 2099, Ultimate), each with its own gameplay elements and graphical style. I’m quite interested in trying it out.

Front Mission Evolved 09/28 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

A new Front Mission game! But… this one is an action game? Weird choice. I know lots of fans are pissed that the game isn’t a turn-based strategy game like the other games in the series. But, from what I’ve seen, it still looks fairly decent. I don’t know if it’s going to be as good as Armored Core, but it should be worth checking out.

Dead Rising 2 09/28 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

I’m one of the very few who wasn’t impressed by the first Dead Rising. The actual gameplay just wasn’t very fun. Yeah, finding various things to kill zombies with was entertaining for a few minutes, and there was a good number of enemies on screen, but it got old fast, and the actual objectives/story and such just gave me no incentive to play. Maybe the sequel will fix the problems I had with the first? Well, at least you don’t have to take pictures this time, big plus.

Quantum Theory 09/28 (PS3, Xbox 360)

Constantly called the Gears of War on PS3 (despite it being multiplatform). I actually haven’t seen any actual gameplay for this… I’ve seen a screenshot, and a cinematic trailer, but that’s it. From the information I’ve seen it does have interesting concepts (like the tower constantly changing in real-time), but I’m not too hyped for it. Run-off-the-mill TPS. (NOTE: I have no idea if this release date is right, and will edit the post if it ends up being false)

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock 09/28 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii)

It’s Guitar Hero… The setlist I’ve seen, though I don’t know if it’s official, is kinda lame, even if it does feature a handful of good songs. (and a handful of those being  available on rock band…)

FIFA Soccer 11 09/28 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, DS)

I’m not too familiar with the FIFA series. I have no idea if it’s just like Madden, where it gets a roster update and not much more every year. But hey, this series is incredibly popular, so it’s on here.

PC RELEASES

Sid Meier’s Civilization V 09/21

I actually never played a game in the Civilization series. I don’t know why. So I have no idea how they’re like. But they’re a pretty big deal usually. So this could be worth playing.

Final Fantasy XIV Online (Collector’s Edition) 09/22 Final Fantasy XIV Online 09/30

It’s a Final Fantasy MMORPG! Again! I didn’t check lots of information on it, since frankly I don’t care for games that require you to pay every month to play . But, from what I heard of friends that played the beta, it seems like it’s a very well-done game. I can definitely see it getting big.

PS3 RELEASES

EyePet 09/07

How long ago was this announced? I didn’t think it would actually come out, but here it is. It has Playstation Move functionalities for when the Move comes out later in the month. It… also really doesn’t interest me. I think some of the technology in the game is interesting, but the game itself doesn’t seem like something that I’d want to play for more than 2 minutes.

Playstation Move (also comes bundled with Sports Champions) 09/17

Well, it was frequently joked that Sony would eventually copy the Wiimote, but lo and behold, here it is… except with a stupid ball on top. So, to buy enough to play 1-player games, you need to spend 170$ (Camera, 2 Move controllers since some games require that, the Navigation Controller (AKA Nunchuk)). Maybe more if you want to play with more than one person at a time. The little gameplay for this thing I’ve seen shows that there’s, depending on the game, up to half a second of delay from when you do something with the controller and it actually happening in the game. That’s pretty bad. I have no good expectations for this. Let’s wait until it’s more properly supported… maybe it won’t end up being as bad as I’m expecting, you never know. (NOTE: Dave, who tried the thing at E3, tells me that, if there’s delay in the input, it’s barely noticeable… or maybe it depends on the game, I wouldn’t know)

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland 09/28

I quite like the Atelier series. Usually pretty fun RPGs, with fun alchemy systems and a good battle system. It has been a while since this was released in Japan, but we’re finally getting a taste of it… after Japan already got a sequel… YAY!

XBOX 360 RELEASES

Otomedius Excellent 09/07

Gradius with half-naked loli anime girls. Do I need to say more? Well, I can say that it’s a disc release, so it’s going to be way overpriced like all shmups that get disc releases.

Halo: Reach 09/14

It’s Halo.

WII RELEASES

Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame 09/07

A side-scrolling Batman beat ‘em up. It seems  similar in gameplay style to The Adventures of Batman & Robin on SNES. Looks like it could be good. (There’s a DS version coming too, though my expectations for that one aren’t too high… but it does have DS/Wii connectivity which is a small plus)

NINTENDO DS RELEASES

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future 09/12

The Professor Layton series is a solid puzzle game series. I actually quite liked the first one I played (which was the second in the series). It had interesting gameplay elements and good puzzles. I have good expectations for this one as well.

Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City 09/21

The Etrian Odyssey series is pretty fun. It uses a very classic style first-person RPG gameplay, including the classic difficulty, but changes it around slightly with some JRPG elements, and an automatic map-making system.

SONY PSP RELEASES

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep 09/07

A new Kingdom Hearts game, which, from what I recall, takes place before the events of the first game. The KH series is generally very high quality, even the DS game which wasn’t nearly as good as the PS2 titles, so I have high hopes for this.

Phantasy Star Portable 2 09/14

I have yet to play a Phantasy Star game that isn’t Phantasy Star Online(though I’m hoping to change that very soon). So I have no idea what to expect from this, nor do I know if I’ll end up playing it. We’ll see.

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I was planning on doing a full review of this game before playing it. But then I put the UMD in my PSP, and after seconds of playing I thought “Wait a second, didn’t I play this before?”. And after checking it up, I did… and heck, I even reviewed it over a year ago. That’s right, Metal Slug XX is actually just a PSP port of the 2008 release of Metal Slug 7 on DS. Yeah… I wasn’t expecting that (since I didn’t inform myself on this game other than knowing it was coming out).

So instead of doing a full review, since I already did that, I’ll just give my impressions on the ports quality.

Here goes! Just a note, this will be a really short review.

Developer: SNK Playmore
Publisher: Atlus
Date of Release: February 23rd 2010
Platforms: Playstation Portable (PSP)

Genre: Side-scrolling action platformer
Players: 1-2
Rated T for Teen

What’s changed from the DS version?
Well, not that much really… Just a small list here:

- The graphics are a whole lot better. On the DS they weren’t too great. At first they might seem a bit lame and stretched out on the PSP, but changing the display settings to “clear” puts the game in a window of sorts and it looks perfect.
- THERE’S MULTIPLAYER! Yeah, this feature was somehow missing from the DS version, but now it’s here. The problem? It’s local multiplayer only. Finding another person with a PSP is hard enough, so finding another person with a PSP AND this game is gonna be next to impossible.  Still, HUGE improvement over the DS version.
- The difficulty is increased from the DS version. On the downside, there’s no option to have limited continues, so you can die as much as you want without caring, even on the Hard difficulty. That’s… a bit stupid, since they could have easily just given us an option to choose how many continues you want.
- Minor changes to levels. Some have alternate routes, the Prisoners of War (POW) are sometimes in different locations, there are changes in weapon locations, and weapons in general (some were changed or removed/added). Some slug vehicles also have minor modifications.
- Leona(from King of Fighters) as a downloadable character. I didn’t try her out, but she’s basically a fusion of all the other characters, having all of their skills (sometimes just a bit less good), and the extra skill of being able to keep her weapons when she dies (unless you use a continue). That sounds pretty badass if you want to pay to get access to her (and it only costs 1$ so it’s really not too bad).

And that’s really it. Other than those minor changes, the game is identical to its DS counterpart. The ports quality is really good, keeping the gameplay intact and making the game a lot better visually. The addition of multiplayer is probably the best addition, though good luck finding someone to play with.

The game itself
You run, you shoot, you jump, you throw grenades, you get killed millions of times… It’s Metal Slug.
If you attack enemies from far away, you shoot, but get up close and you use a melee attack instead to one-hit kill them. If you go change the options for this(I don’t know why it’s not default), holding the Square button lets you auto-fire. Pressing the Circle button throws a grenade, which does splash damage and more damage than the basic weapons. Shooting Prisoners releases them and, if you touch them, they give you items for points or weapons. You can hold up to 2 weapons in addition to the basic handgun, and switch between them with the R button. There’s also various vehicles which can take multiple hits and

You have 6 characters to choose from. They all basically play the same, but they all have minor differences like different damage on certain weapons, or special melee skills, or taking more hits, so there’s some gameplay variety there.

The game is really hard, with tons of bullets and enemies on the screen at once, making it really hard to avoid everything. But the infinite continues kinda downplay the difficulty. If you’re really into it though you can try to finish the whole game without using a continue, and THAT’S really challenging. It’s really short if you just play it through using continues non-stop, but it will take a very long time to master every level and be able to finish it without continues.

Overall
Yeah, told you it was gonna be a short post. Though frankly any review for a Metal Slug game would be just about this short.

This is Metal Slug as it has always been. Fun, really hard, fast-paced, and all sorts of awesome. If you haven’t played Metal Slug 7 yet and you have a PSP, it’s definitely worth checking out.
There’s one thing that I find weird, and it’s that they called the game “Metal Slug XX”. Why not “Metal Slug 7 X” or something like that, to at least let people know that it’s the same game as on the DS? Whatever… It’s a nice little game for fans of the series, and it’s really fun to play, just like… every other game in the series.

And it’s $20, so it’s really not expensive either.

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There’s lots of good releases, a few that aren’t too great, but overall it seems like it should be a really good month. Let’s go and see what March has in store for us gamers, shall we?

As usual, the multi-platform releases are toghether, the exclusive releases are in their own sections, and japanese releases are marked accordingly.

Read on!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Mega Man 10 3/01 on Wii, 3/11 on PS3, 3/31 on Xbox 360

Probably the month’s biggest release for me. I’m always in for some old-school Mega Man 8-bit action. Not sure why there’s super delayed releases for the PS3 and Xbox 360 (seriously… 30 days later on the 360? Why?), but I’m very excited for this, so I’ll probably get it on Wii. And the easy mode might make the game a lot more accessible to casual gamers, or modern gamers who are used to games holding their hands too much.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 3/02 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Another sequel to the popular franchise. To me it’s just a generic war FPS, but I’m sure lots of people are hyped for it, and from what I’ve seen it looks decent.

Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition 3/09 (PS3, Xbox 360)

A new edition of RE5. The DLC comes in it, and there’s some new content as well. Not really what is new in it though. But if you loved the first version and want to see the new stuff, or haven’t played it and want to try it out, this should be well worth getting.

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space 3/09 (Wii, PC)

Sam & Max, season 2. Made by TellTale games, this continues the famous duo’s quest of… hum… being incredibly weird and random. Should be well worth checking out for fans of the first season. Which reminds me, I should finish that first season someday…

Final Fantasy XIII 3/09 (PS3, Xbox 360)

One of the most awaited games in a long time. And one I’m quite hyped for, despite the kinda negative opinions we hear from japanese players. It still looks quite good, the combat looks fun, and I doubt it will really disappoint. To me it looks like a step up from 12. And it’s been in development for a really long time, SE can’t really have screwed it up too much, right? RIGHT?

Resonance of Fate 3/16 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Tri-Ace’s latest RPG. I actually have no idea what this game is like. It’s probably gonna have underwhelming sales because it comes out a week after FFXIII, but it might still be an interesting game… since it’s from Tri-Ace. I’ll definitely give it a try sometime.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening 3/16 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

An expansion to the critically acclaimed  Dragon Age Origins. From what I’ve heard it adds quite a bit of content, so fans of the game should really enjoy it.

METRO 2033 3/16 (PC, Xbox 360)

I only saw one gameplay video for this… And I really am not impressed with what I’ve seen. Looks like it will be a boring generic FPS, with no online and little content. But I might be wrong, and might rent it if I have nothing else to do one day(and if the reviews are higher than I expect them to be). I know there’s a bit of hype on the internet for this, so I’ve added it to this list…

R.U.S.E. 3/23 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

This looks like a really fun RTS with some cool quirks and it seems to use different tactics than other RTS out there. I definitely want to give this one a try.

Just Cause 2 3/23 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

I know nothing about that one. Nor have I heard of the previous game in the series. This looks like the average open-world game where you can cause any kind of chaos you might want. I’ll probably rent it, but I don’t have very high expectations from what I’ve seen.

Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City 3/30 (PC, PS3)

Finally the PC and PS3 get the 2 expansion packs for the popular GTAIV. I didn’t really like GTAIV, but lots of people have, and this is a long awaited release for people who don’t have a 360.

Hokuto Musou 3/25 (JAPANESE RELEASE) (PS3, Xbox 360)
(wow, the boxart looks just like Just Cause 2′s… yay for originality?)
A Fist of the North Star(Hokuto no Ken) game, which plays similarly to Dynasty Warriors… With more exploding heads probably. Definitely sounds like an interesting idea. Hopefully there’s gonna be an American release one day.

Wii RELEASES

Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon 3/16

From what I understand, this is a sort of Survival Horror game, with anime visuals. I know nothing about it, but I know it’s quite hyped in the Wii’s “core” community.

Cave Story (on WiiWare) 3/22

It’s been delayed so much no one though it would finally come, but there it is. Unless something goes wrong again, you’ll be able to get your Cave Story action on Wii on March 22nd.

Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love 3/23

There’s also a PS2 release coming, though I didn’t list it here… Anyways, this is a strategy RPG where you control mechs, as well as a visual novel-like game it seems (which affects stats in battle). I’m not exactly sure what it’s gonna be like, but the fact that it’s the first Sakura Wars game to make it to the US makes it an interesting release. Should be worth at least checking out.

Red Steel 2 3/23 (found a second release date saying 3/26 with a WiiMotion Plus)

The first Red Steel was a pretty lame FPS. This one apparently makes use of the WiiMotion Plus to correct the original’s shortcomings. Though I have no idea if it really adds much, I have yet to play it so I have not much to comment in that sense. But I definitely want to check that one out someday.

PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES

Yakuza 3 3/09
(I can’t be the only one not to like this boxart…)
A quite interesting release on the PS3 release. It’s a very loved series, and I know quite a few people who are hyped for it. It was still unsure for a while if it was even gonna come out in America, but there it is.

God of War III 3/16

God of War. The lower tier in the action game genre that was spawned by Devil May Cry. Featuring pathetic QTEs, one of the lamest characters in all of gaming, and boring(though good-looking) combat, it’s an example of everything that sucks in modern gaming. Yet people can’t do anything but be excited for it. I.. don’t get it. But this is a very hyped game that will generate a lot of sales, I won’t deny that. Whatever it is people like about this series, this one will have it all, and fans won’t be disappointed, that’s for sure… Since it’s exactly the same gameplay-wise as the first game, just technically better-looking.

Ryu ga Gotoku 4 3/18 (JAPANESE RELEASE)

Well, just as we get the third game in the Yakuza series over here, the fourth one comes out in Japan. Nice…

XBOX 360 RELEASE

Perfect Dark 3/02 (this comes out on the XBLA)

Well, I just found out that this was coming. I don’t know how I missed that either, since Perfect Dark is by far my favorite console FPS. This is a remake of the original on the N64. This has updated graphics, but the same old gameplay, which I think is awesome(I don’t think any modern console FPS has better gameplay than this… but that’s just me). It also has some cool online implementation which enables more than the usual 4 people in one match, in combination with split-screen play (so you can have 4 people in split-screen playing with more people online at the same time). OH, and it has multiplayer maps from Goldeneye 007 as well, awesome.

PC RELEASE

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight 3/16

I almost forgot about that one. A new Command and Conquer game! Should be good, I might check it out someday.

DS RELEASES

Sonic Classic Collection 3/02

This includes all 4 Genesis Sonic games. 1, 2, 3 and Sonic & Knuckles (pretty sure it includes Sonic 3 and Knuckles too). It’s a nice little collection, and in total should cost just a bit less than getting all 4 games seperately on the Wii Virtual Console(hopefully, otherwise there’s no sense in buying it). Though there are so many compilations of this, some with MORE games, it might not be really worth it.

Spectral Force Genesis 3/11

Not sure what this is exactly, but from screenshots it seems like it might be a Strategy RPG… For some reason the name sounded familiar, so it’s on the list.

Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver 3/14

More Pokemon! Yay! This one comes with the PokeWalker accessory, which enables you to carry a pokemon around to make it gain experience. And it’s a remake of the best pokemon games in the main series. Cool stuff.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey 3/23

From various info I’ve found this sounds a bit like Nocturne, which is pretty cool. Though it takes on a more futuristic theme this time. One game I definitely want to check out.

WarioWare D.I.Y. 3/28

I don’t like WarioWare. Not my thing really. But fans of the series can now make their own WarioWare mini-games, which I’m sure they’re very excited for. Heck, even I want to check it out, see what the various options are in here. (This is also getting a release on WiiWare)

Monster Rancher DS 3/30 (I see multiple release dates for this one including April 1st, so if I need to I’ll mention it again in my April 2010 post)

WHOA!!!! FINALLY!!!! I’ve been hoping for this for a long time. This is the second Monster Rancher game on the DS in japan, but the first never came out here, and it’s some kind of miracle that this one is coming here at all (with Tecmo thinking the fanbase is too small for the game). I can’t wait to play this one, I played the hell out of the GBA games in the series.

PSP RELEASES

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony 3/02

Another remake of Lunar. There’s been multiple versions of this very same game, though the one I played was on GBA. This features new upgraded graphics and… I don’t know what else really. RPG gamers who haven’t played any of this game’s millions of versions might want to check it out, and older fans of the game might like to revisit it in an upgraded format.

Blazblue Portable 3/09

This features new modes and new unlimited versions of characters, but otherwise it’s the same BlazBlue we know and love… with downgraded graphics.

Zettai Hero Kaizou Keikaku 3/11 (JAPANESE RELEASE) (currently known as “Absolute Hero Modding Project” in english)

Nippon Ichi’s newest game is coming out in Japan! It features incredible customization, dungeon-crawling gameplay, lots of content and it looks to have Disgaea’s trademark humor style. I won’t be playing the japanese release, since it seems to have way too much japanese text for me to handle, but people with good japanese skills who are NIS fans should definitely check it out.

Prinny 2: Toukou Yuugi! Akatsuki no Pantsu Daisakusensu!! 3/25 (JAPANESE RELEASE)

MORE NIS GOODNESS! This one features similar gameplay to the first, with some modifications, and a new “Asagi mode” with Contra-like gameplay(or at least that’s what the screenshots lead me to believe). I definitely can’t wait for the American release for that, but people who are too impatient should have little trouble playing this language-wise, since it’s a platformer. It’s sure to feature hard as nails gameplay like the first though.

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As usual, I’m not listing all the games coming, just the interesting ones. And no, there’s no interesting Xbox 360 exclusives in February as far as I can tell.

Read on and see what February has in store!

Multi-Platform Releases

BioShock 2 02/09 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

The first Bioshock was a pretty fantastic game… apparently. I only played through a very small portion of it and it did seem like quite an interesting game. Playing as a Big Daddy might be a nice change of pace from the first. One of the Behemoths this year, that’s for sure.

Dante’s Inferno 02/09 (PS3, Xbox 360, PSP)

God of War done right? Seems like it. The demo left a much better impression on me than the whole of the God of War series, that’s for sure. Will it be a good adaptation of the original poem? Probably not, but it doesn’t seem too bad. The PS3 gets a special edition for the same price as the normal 360 edition too. There’s also a PSP version coming, but it looks pretty terrible in comparison.

Aliens vs. Predator 02/16 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

I don’t know about this one. All I really saw about it was a few screenshots, and the special edition. What I’ve seen of the game itself looks fairly generic. The Hunter Edition includes a FaceHugger though… Interesting… too bad it’s not a live one.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing 02/23 (Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, DS)

A kart racing game with Sonic and other Sega characters. I do wonder why Sonic needs a kart at all… Anyways… it looks pretty fun. Probably won’t be better than Mario Kart Wii, but whatever. Also, the Xbox 360 version includes Banjo-Kazooie as playable characters… too bad it’s their lame design.

Nintendo Wii Releases

Shiren the Wanderer 02/09

The DS version was a sub-par Dungeon Crawler. I didn’t really enjoy it. I don’t know what the Wii version brings to the table, but it might be interesting.

Data East Arcade Classics 02/16

A random collection of arcade games by Data East featuring: BurgerTime, Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja, Burnin’ Rubber (Bump n’ Jump), Caveman Ninja, Crude Buster, Express Raider, Heavy Barrel, Lock ‘n’ Chase, Magical Drop III, Peter Pepper’s Ice Cream Factory, Secret Agent, Side Pocket, Street Hoop, Super Real Darwin, Wizard Fire. Not much I really recognize, but it might be a fun little collection.

Playstation 3 Releases

White Knight Chronicles International Edition 02/02

Whoa, it’s actually coming out? That took a while. Looks like it could be one of the heavy hitters on the PS3 this year. It seems like a very interesting RPG.

Star Ocean The Last Hope: International 02/09
(don’t even know if this is the actual boxart, I saw like 3 different ones…)
The Xbox 360 version was quite good. Yes, it was actually good, despite what… just about everyone thinks. The combat was quite fun, the story was not too bad, and it was a good experience overall. This one adds more characters and… I have no idea what else. But it brings the experience to PS3 users, which is a good thing.

Heavy Rain 02/23

I’ll be honest and say I have no interest in this game. A game completely based on QTEs doesn’t really feel compelling to me. It has some interesting story-telling elements that sound pontially interesting, but the gameplay itself looks meh at best. I’ll probably rent it…

Last Rebellion 02/23

A turn-based RPG by HitMaker. You can switch between 2 characters during battle, both with different movesets and effects (one attacks physically, the other uses magic). And each enemy have different weakpoints, with different reactions when you hit said weak points. This could be interesting. ALSO, it’s gonna be $40 new. Sounds good to me.

DS Releases

Yu-Gi-Oh! World Tournament 2010 02/06
(didn’t find a box art, so I found a card featuring a wombat instead)
The Yearly Yu-Gi-Oh game. Hopefully this one doesn’t have any FUCKING motorcycle stages.

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth 02/16

An Ace Attorney game with Miles Edgeworth as the main character? Very interesting. This one seems to concentrate a bit more on the investigations segments though (as the name suggests).

Ragnarok DS 02/16

I actually did an import review of this one. It’s an okay take on the Ragnarok gameplay, but this time it’s single-player instead of the usual multi-player online gameplay. There is SOME multi-player if I recall correctly.

Estpolis: The Lands Cursed by the Gods JAPANESE RELEASE 02/25

The Lufia 2 remake. Really hoping for a US release, but fans of the series who have good japanese skills should definitely give this a try. I definitely can’t wait to play this, even with the completely new gameplay and modified character designs. The orignal Lufia 2 is still my favorite RPG, and taking another stab at it is a great idea.

PSP Releases

Armored Core: Silent Line Portable 02/04

I’m not very familiar with Armored Core. I played part of For Answer, and thought it was pretty fun (though I never got very deep in the customization), with fast-paced gameplay and nice robot designs. This actually seems like just a port of a PS2 game, though I’m not 100% sure.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 02/16

I had no idea this was coming. SOCOM was never a very interesting series to me. Maybe it’s because I don’t really like “realism” in games. I don’t know…

Metal Slug XX 02/23

It’s Metal Slug. This time with 6 playable character (and Leona as a seventh downloadable character). Should be good, just like previous Metal Slug.

PC Releases

Star Trek Online 02/02

I have no interest in this game and its high subscription fees, but Trekies finally have an interesting MMO to call their own. And from what I understand it doesn’t look too bad. Yay?

NES Release

Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril (February 22nd)

Is it cheating to add this to the list? Kinda. It’s a homebrew game, made by one guy. All the graphics, music and level design all made by him, as well as all the programming. It will come on  an actual NES cartridge (no ROMs will be publically released for a while because of a contract with the site that will be selling the game), which is awesome since it’s gonna be playable on the actual NES. It’s gonna be sold at RetroZone, so probably around 32$ for the game. The game basically seems like I Wanna Be The Guy, but easier, and a bit more fun. Check out the trailer!. And here’s a demo(requires an emulator). I’m pretty excited for this.

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Just a few notes here:
1. This is using knowledge we have as of the writing of this post (December 27th 2009). We obviously can’t see in the future, so we can’t predict delays, or unnanounced releases.
2. We will not update this list as the year goes by, unless there’s lots of demand for it.
3.  This only includes “interesting” games, so no shovelware and such.
4. We also include games that might not come out in 2010, but that there might be a remote chance of them coming…
5. If we’re missing something don’t hesitate to tell us.

So let’s do this! Read on and see what interesting games are coming out in 2010!

3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)

This could be one of the best games of 2010. 8-bit style using 3D models with blocks instead of pixels, gameplay that’s a combination of the first and third Zelda games, leveling, powerful swords, a bunch of items… What kind of gamer can say it DOESN’T look awesome? A stupid one, that’s who.

The 3rd Birthday (PSP)

There’s… really nothing I can say about this here, because I’ve never played a Parasite Eve game. But it looks like it could be really good.

Alan Wake (360, PC)

This has been hyped and hyped for a long time. I have no idea how it’s gonna end. But it definitely looks interesting.

Aliens vs. Predator (360, PC, PS3)

An FPS with Aliens, Predators, and Marines. Yay.

Army of Two: The 40th Day (360, PSP, PS3)

The first one was pretty popular. This one features… exactly the same gameplay as the first. So if you like the first, you’ll like this one for sure.

Bayonetta (360, PS3)

We might as well say this right away: This was a candidate for GotY 2009. But we decided to wait since it wasn’t out here yet (despite both Dave and I having played the japanese version). And it would be unreasonable having the same game winning in 2 GotY awards in 2 different years, right? This is the best Action game since DMC3, and nothing will even come close to touching it in a while. The PS3 version is just a bit inferior, but it’s great nonetheless, no doubt just as good as the 360 version. It’s worth buying no matter which console you have.

Brink (360, PC, PS3)

This looks like a generic FPS. I really have nothing to say about this. It’s getting tons of hype, but I can’t help but feel it’s not gonna be anything special. There’s some interesting ideas, like different objectives depending on the class you choose, but it’s probably not gonna be anything really special.

Bioshock 2 (360, PC, PS3)

The first Bioshock was an amazing game… apparently. I’ve only played a bit of it and it seemed solid. This time you play the role of a Big Daddy, which could end up being really cool.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (360, PS3)

A third-person action Castlevania… They failed with the idea around 4 times already, maybe this will be the time where they’ll get it right. And with Kojima on board, they could be hitting gold here.

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (PC)

C&C games are usually really good RTS, so this one should be no exception.

Crackdown 2 (360)

I don’t know what to say about this one… I played a bit of the first and found it to be a bit boring… Like inFamous but nowhere near as good.

Crysis 2 (360, PC, PS3)

Crysis finally gets a sequel. Maybe the developers will learn to optimize their game instead of making it such a ressource hog this time.

Diablo 3 (PC)

It probably won’t come in 2010, but we can still wish, right? Diablo 2 is still a great game after TEN YEARS(seriously, has it already been 10 years?). I’ve been playing Diablo 2 a lot in the last few years and I definitely can’t wait for the sequel.

Dante’s Inferno (360, PS3)

Dante’s Inferno is God of War done right. It does have some of the problems GoW has, but it feels a lot better than GoW both in combat and in the story. It’s based on the famous poem, but it probably doesn’t have much to do with it outside of the title and the basic premise.

Darksiders (360, PS3)

This looks like a mix of Devil May Cry (basic combat), Gears of War (shooting) and GoW (crappy QTEs). It looks interesting enough, but I’ll give this a rent before actually trying it out.

Dark Void (360, PC, PS3)

The first “Vertical Third-Person Shooter”. Videos I’ve seen makes it look pretty boring, but there’s some interesting ideas here, so I’ll definitely try it out.

Dark Void Zero (DSiWare)

If there’s something ACTUALLY interesting about Dark Void, it’s this “demake”. An 8-bit side-scrolling action prequel of the game which looks really fun. I don’t really care about Dark Void, but I’m pretty hyped for this version at least. Only problem? It’s going to FUCKING DSiware. Good job limiting the number of people who will be able to play this Capcom… I’m not getting a DSi for this. Put it on WiiWare dammit!

Dead Rising 2 (360, PC, PS3)

More zombie-killing madness, while removing the boring picture-taking element from the first. Should be really fun.

Dead Space 2 (360, PC, PS3)

The first Dead Space had a nice mix of third-person action and horror elements and made for a really fun experience. The second one should be as good.

Deus Ex 3(360, PC, PS3)

I haven’t played the first 2 games, so I really have nothing to say here… Sorry.

Duke Nukem Trilogy (PSP, DS)

Not sure about this. It’s supposed to come out both on PSP and DS, but nothing is really known about it. Other than this.

Estpolis: The Lands Cursed by the Gods (Lufia 2 Remake) (DS)

Hopefully there’s gonna be an English release for this. A remake of the best games in a great RPG series, with completely new gameplay (3D action game instead of 2D turn-based RPG), revamped character designs, re-written story… Should be badass if the gameplay works well.

EA Sports MMA(360, PS3)

Well… I’m not a huge fan of the UFC, and UFC Undisputed 2009 was pretty boring. But this is made by EA Sports, who made the awesome Fight Night Round 4 (well, not the exact same team…), so maybe it won’t end up being as boring. The ground game will probably make or break this game, so hopefully it’ll be well done here compared to the clusterfuck that was the ground game in UFC Undisputed 2009.

Epic Mickey (Wii)

Not much was shown about the game. So I really don’t know what it will play like. But from the info we’ve seen, it looks like it might be interesting.

Fable III (360)

I didn’t really like Fable 2 at all. All I really expect for this is Molyneux promising a ton of crap that won’t be in the final game, just like before.

Fallout: New Vegas(360, PC, PS3)

A new Fallout game. Yay. Probably not gonna be a lot deeper than a Fallout 3 expansion, but whatever, should be fun anyways.

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, 360)

It’s Final Fantasy 13! Of course it’s gonna be a quality game. It’s been in development for a while too, so like most people I have high expectations for this.

Final Fantasy XIV (PS3, PC)

The latest in MMORPGs, basically a sequel to 11. Should be interesting for fans of the genre. If I get chosen for the beta I’ll be sure to give it a good try.

Game 3 (360)

The Behemoth’s third game. No name yet, and the gameplay hasn’t been given a proper explanation yet either. But it could be pretty interesting.

Golden Sun DS (DS, duh)

After being teased and rumored for years, finally we’ll get to play a sequel to the GBA’s popular RPG series. Should be badass.

Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)

The fifth in the popular simulation racer series, taking years to actually come out. Will it surpass its competition? Can’t wait to try it out, if not only to see the FT-86.

Green Day: Rock Band (360, Wii, PS3)

Yeah, Green Day getting their own band-centric Rock Band… A completely random choice, but with proper care it could at least get an interesting setlist. And it can get imported to Rock Band 2, so it could at least have SOME use.

God of War 3 (PS3)

The demo is terrible, showing us that the developers don’t want to do anything more than “God of War with better graphics”, instead of actually using all the potential the series has. God of War could really be a great series, but the crappy combat, massive amounts of badly done QTEs and uninteresting characters just makes this a really lame action game. But it’s on here nonetheless since it’s gonna be stupidly popular for no good reason.

Guild Wars 2 (PC)

Hum… No idea what to say about this one, since I didn’t even touch the first one….

Halo: Reach (360)

It’s Halo…

Heavy Rain (PS3)

This is a game I’ll just rent and play through once (if it’s interesting enough). There’s some interesting story-telling ideas, but the gameplay itself looks really boring.

Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! 2: Time To Tighten Up Security!

Almost forgot this one in the list. The first game was one of the winners in our GotY awards, and this one looks even better. Awesome.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (PSP)

A prequel to all the Kingdom Hearts series, taking place 10 years before the first, featuring Keyblade Masters other than Sora of course, and Xehanort. Should be interesting.

Just Cause 2 (360, PC, PS3)

All I’ve seen is a weapons trailer for this. Not really sure what it’s about, but it’s been getting some hype at least.

The Last Guardian (PS3)

The latest title by Team ICO. No idea if it’s actually coming in 2010, but whatever, it’s on this list since it might. Should be pretty good.

Lost Planet 2 (360, PS3)

The demo was pretty terrible, so I have no hype for this. But the first one was popular, so maybe it’s just the demo that was bad.

Mega Man 10(360, Wii, PS3)

FUCK YEAH! CAN’T WAIT TO PLAY THIS! I’m always in for more 8-bit Megaman awesomeness.

Mass Effect 2 (360, PC)

The first game was really good, and the second one looks awesome as well, maybe even better. Can’t wait to check it out.

MAG (PS3)

This looks pretty boring. Just look at the crappy  boxart, it couldn’t scream GENERIC any louder than it does now. The gameplay looks like a total mess since no one will really bother to work as a team despite that being the main idea of the game. The 128 vs 128 idea is good by concept, but the execution… Lame. But maybe that’s just how it goes in the beta, and that in the final game people will actually play it properly? We’ll see.

Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond (360, PS3)

Maybe side-scrolling action shooter action in the style of Contra is a much better fit for the character than a sub-par third-person shooter. We’ll see.

Max Payne 3 (360, PC, PS3)

More Max Payne is always a good thing, right?

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP)

It’s Metal Gear, on the PSP. It looks pretty good, though from what I’ve played of the TGS demo it felt more like a shooter than a stealth game. But that might just be the TGS demo.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising (360, PS3)

Nothing is really known about this game. But it should be interesting. Though we’re not completely sure that it’s coming in 2010.

Metroid: Other M (Wii)

A Metroid game made by Team Ninja? That’s enough to pike my interest. It looks to have multiple play styles, with some third-person, some side-scrolling and some third-person. U definitely can’t wait to play this.

ModNation Racers (PS3)

This could be the LittleBigPlanet of racing games. If the track building tools are good and if the racing itself is well done it could be really fun.

Monster Rancher DS (DS)

OH SHIT! Finally! This is the second Monster Rancher game on the DS in japan, but the first one to reach the DS in America. Definitely can’t wait to try it out.

Microsoft’s Natal and Sony’s Wands

Hopefully we’ll get to see how those 2 are shaping up this year.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 (360, PS3)

A sequel to what was a pretty fun and AWESOME-looking Naruto game, if this corrects the issues in the first(especially balancing, Itachi was way too strong), it could be pretty fun.

Nier (360, PS3)

I have no idea what those games are about. Both Nier Replicant and Nier Gestalt will come on 1 system each, and each seems to share multiple similarities… But that’s really all i know about it.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Wii)

Nice, more No More Heroes. The first one was pretty good, though it lacked polish. Maybe this one will correct this?

Okamiden: Chiisaki Taiyo (DS)

Finally Okami on the system it always felt it was meant for. Should be good. No US release announced yet, but it should come someday.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (360, PC, PS3, Wii, DS, PSP, Cake)

A sequel to the Sands of Time trilogy. Hopefully they don’t make it boring like their pathetic attempt at a “reboot”.

Project Needlemouse (Unknown)

There’s no actual name for this game yet, but it’s a new side-scrolling Sonic game on console… PLEASE SEGA DON’T SCREW THIS UP!!!!!

Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver (DS)

Remakes of the most beloved games in the series. Nothing more to say.

Puzzle Quest 2 (DS, PC, probably everything else)
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I guess Galactrix didn’t count as a sequel. Should be pretty fun.

Quantum Theory (360, PS3)

So this is japan’s Gears of War clone, but with a more Fantasy tone to it? Looks okay, we’ll see.

RUSE (360, PC, PS3)

Ah, now this might be really cool. Not sure if I’ll play it, but it has a lot of new and interesting concepts for an RTS.

Red Dead Redemption (360, PC, PS3)

Looks quite interesting. Haven’t played the first game so I have nothing to compare it to though.

Red Steel 2 (Wii)

This was supposed to come out in November 2009, but didn’t. It’s supposed to take advantage of the Wii Motion Plus, but gameplay demonstrations didn’t show anything that couldn’t be done without it. So I really have no idea how this will end up. It definitely looks better than the first one though.

Rocket Knight (360, PC, PS3)

ZOMG, a new Rocket Knight Adventures! Awesome! Should be really fun.

Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (Wii, PS2, though the Wii version will apparently be a bit better)

The first Sakura Wars game to come to the US. I have no idea what the series is about, but it might be worth looking at.

Sin and Punishment 2 (Wii)

The first never came out in the US until recently with the Virtual Console (I really should check that out…). The sequel looks like massive fun.

Starcraft 2 (PC)

So this is finally coming out? Cool. Too bad they went for that stupid “1 campaign a year” idea. But it’s obviously gonna be a great game.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International (PS3)

It’s finally coming to the PS3, with more stuff than in the 360 version. The 360 version is pretty good, so this one should be fun as well.

Singularity (360, PC, PS3)

A first-person shooter… You can control time for combat and puzzles, which could be really interesting.  It’s probably the only FPS I’m interested in in 2010.

Splatterhouse (360, PC, PS3)

It’s been a while since a new Splatterhouse game came out. And… considering it’s a modern take on an old game I have low expectations for this. But I might be wrong.

Star Wars:The Old Republic (PC)

A new Star Wars MMO and it looks pretty fun. Star Wars fans will have something really cool to play together.

Star Trek Online (360, PC)

To counter the new Star Wars MMO, there’s a new Star Trek MMO as well. So Trekies will also have something to play as well. OH and Leonard Nimoy is in it.

Tatsunoko VS Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (Wii)

We didn’t think this would come to America, but it is coming. With new characters, including Zero! Awesome.

Tales of Vesperia (PS3)

No idea if it’s actually gonna come to the US, but hopefully it will. Not that I really care since I already have it on my 360, but it’s a pretty fun game so more people should experience it.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction (360, PC)

I’m not very familiar with Splinter Cell, but what I’ve seen from this one is really interesting. I’m really interested in playing this.

Split Second (360, PC, PS3)

A racing game with things constantly crashing and exploding and changing the track every lap. I think you have control over those things but I’m not 100% sure. It definitely looks interesting.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

The first one was great, this one looks just as good. And Yoshi is here! Can’t wait to try this game out.

Super Street Fighter IV (360, PS3)

So from what I understand there’s 10 extra characters compared to SFIV, or so teases tell us. So it could be well worth checking out for fans of the series.

Trauma Team (Wii)

A new Trauma Center game. Looks fun.

Ushiro (PSP)

An RPG where you posses people to advance through the game, and when fights come by you control the ghost itself and fight other ghosts. The graphical style is really nice japanese horror-ish anime-ish look.

White Knight Chronicles (PS3)

Oh, it’s finally coming? Nice. Not too sure about the gameplay and such since it’s been a long time since I’ve checked anything about this game. But it looks quite fun from what I remember.

Valkyria Chronicles 2 (PSP)

It’s strange that the sequel is coming to PSP. But if it keeps the same gameplay as the first, it should be pretty good.

Yakuza 3 (PS3)

It’s finally getting released in the US, just before the fourth comes out in Japan. Took them a while.

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