We've been feeling colorful, Japanese and quirky lately so we figured we'd look up some Beautiful Katamari news and good thing for us, there is news to be had. Recently released is a brand new Japanese Beautiful Katamari trailer (viewable above) that was released for TGS and it features some gameplay, trippy visuals and a little Japanese boy narrating the action. Actually, we aren't sure what the boy is talking about and it's kind of creepy, but a good kind of creepy.
Also, Xbox360Achievements.org posted a complete list of achievements for the game and oddly enough they add up to a 1250 Gamerscore. Now, we aren't being naggy, but shouldn't the retail game's Gamerscore be capped at 1000 with an extra 250 possible via downloadable content? Unless they're including extra content in the retail version, but then again that doesn't make sense. Ah heck, it's 1250 and we don't know why. That's about it for Beautiful Katamari news, now your day will be 219% happier.
Australian gaming website gameplayer is reporting that Capcom will be making three "huge announcements" next Wednesday as part of their Tokyo Game Show press conference. Gameplayer received such news from attending the Activate Asia 2007 where they learned about the three Capcom announcements, but refuse to share the juicy details. So, Capcom could announce new sequels, new games, new exclusivity or the adjective "huge" could mean something more along the lines of new outfits being released to the XBLM for Dead Rising. Not saying that that would be a bad thing, just very none "huge". Next Wednesday ... TGS ... Capcom ... big announcments ... stay tuned.
Posted Sep 12th 2007 2:15AM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
With leaked screenshots and a brutally dubious countdown clock making an appearance yesterday, how could we not have seen this announcement coming.
This morning (afternoon in Japan), during Microsoft's pre-Tokyo Game Show press briefing, Team Ninja's own Tomonobu Itagaki took center stage to announce Ninja Gaiden 2 and that it will be headed to the Xbox 360 exclusively in 2008. Itagaki then proceeded to do an on stage demo, showing off the game's pretty dismemberment effects and began praising the 360 stating that it is "the best game console on the earth". And who are we to disagree? Congratulations fanboys, we're getting some bloody Ninja Gaiden 2 next year exclusively on our Xbox 360 ... get excited.
Microsoft's global marketing maestro, Jeff Bell, recently shed some light on the sorts of things we can expect from the company at the Tokyo Game Show next month. Speaking to Canada.com (Canada has its own website?), Bell responded to questions about Microsoft's 2008 lineup, which some have been curious about in the wake of the company's E3 presence, which focused solely on 2007 titles. Bell rattled off names like Halo Wars, Fable 2 and Alan Wake, but noted we won't see anything about them until after the holidays. The most specific Bell gets about TGS is, "the Tokyo Games Show will be a place where we show off new elements." New elements of what exactly we have no idea. Games, we would hope.
Bell also spoke of Microsoft's goal to push the concept of publishers launching games simultaneously on both Xbox 360 and PC. In Bell's words, "We want people to develop once and publish twice," an attractive proposition to be sure.
Finally, Bell went on record saying that he welcomed the success of the Wii, noting, "If it does grow the market, good for all of us." He further stated that he takes no issue with people owning both the Wii and Xbox 360 as both "are very different experiences." He's not all buddy-buddy with the competition, however, as he states that he and Microsoft "definitely want to win," and notes that only two big franchises still aren't on Xbox 360. He is of course referring to Metal Gear and Final Fantasy. Bell concludes by saying that Microsoft is at the "tipping point" where developers are keen to work with them as the install base continues to grow.
Expect to hear plenty more about Microsoft's plans at the Tokyo Game Show, which runs from September 20-23.
An interesting turn of rumored events have surfaced regarding Team Ninja's sequel to the beloved Ninja Gaiden franchise and its console future. According to Gamespot Korea (which is in Korean, so have fun reading that), they've "confirmed" with a Japanese gaming insider that Ninja Gaiden 2 will be released on the Xbox 360 and will be shown on the 360 at the Tokyo Game Show. They supposedly will be demoing the game on a 360 due to their strong relationship with Microsoft and because they probably love having fists full of cash. Also interesting to note is that the Japanese tipster said that a PS3 release wasn't detailed yet, hinting at a possible timed exclusive for the 360. Juicy stuff.
But remember kids, we're nearly required to file this Ninja Gaiden 2 news in the rumor / spec folder, because of all the vagueness. Heck, we can't even read the Korean Gamespot story to confirm its text. But we have to admit the thought of Ninja Gaiden 2 on the 360, at the TGS and being a timed exclusive just makes us giddy.
Tweak Town, while attending the Taipei Game Show in Taiwan, came across a Black Xbox 360. Of the pictures shown, there was no sign of any HDMI port, although it could be hidden by the AV adapter. So this is one of two things, either it's the "Xephyr" Xbox 360, and we can expect to see it sometime this spring, or it's a black dev kit. Whichever the case, the images do spark an interesting conversation about Microsoft eventually updating the 360's specs to compete with the PS3. We'll let you be the judge with the pictures after the break.
Well folks, TGS is over, finished, kaput. As such, it seem only fitting that today's content is more oriented towards western audiences -- note also that there is no Japan exclusive content today. Here's the sweet sweet candy:
Battlestations Midway trailer Eragon trailer Import Tuner Challenge trailer Need for Speed Carbon trailer The Darkness trailer Mass Effect Picture Pack (free!) Battlestar Galactica (United States)
TGS Showfloor video 3 video F.E.A.R. demo
We discussed the F.E.A.R. demo earlier: if you played the OXM demo, there's nothing new. With all this content, it may be time to start clearing out some of that old E3 stuff. Meanwhile, X06 inches ever closer. So, everybody make some room, download each and every one of these trailers, watch them, and then come back here and discuss them. Discuss them, I say!
So, you're at the Tokyo Game Show and you want to play one of those new fangled Xbox 360 RPGs like Blue Dragon, Trusty Bell, or Lost Odyssey. Then you probably shouldn't have had that bag of bran muffins and coffee earlier, because that is one long line. 1UP is reporting that show goers were waiting in line for up to two hours to get a chance to play Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. The article notes that lines aren't uncommon, and that the Squeenix line is longer, but it does show that the Japanese have a marked interest in these two titles. Could the 360 actually be gaining ever precious mindshare in Japan? With only 100,000 (recently discounted) PS3s this holiday and only a minor price difference between the Wii and the 360 Core System/Blue Dragonbundle, only time will tell.
You read the headline, there's a demo of F.E.A.R. available on Marketplace right now. Our more astute readers will no doubt notice that this demo is exactly the same as the demo available some time ago in OXM. Giving it another go this morning, X360F wonders whether or not F.E.A.R. can stand out among upcoming blockbusters like Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Vegas. Also, it may just be us, but why does this game require such a monster PC to run? There are plenty of particle effects and the textures are all very high res, but the geometry just doesn't look that impressive -- again, see Gears of War and Rainbow Six.
Still, if you haven't picked up the demo through OXM, you just can't beat the price (hint: it's free).
If you're like us, you may have been too busy actually playing games this weekend to notice that the TGS content is still rolling in. So, a quick summary of what's been released yesterday and today is in order. Here you go:
TGS Showfloor video 1
TGS Showfloor video Day 2 (Japan)
Game Creator Interview (Japan)
Xbox Live The Party #5 (Japan)
Xbox Live The Party #6 (Japan)
Xbox Live The Party #7 (Japan)
TGS Showfloor video 2
TGS Showfloor video Day 3 (Japan)
Gamers' Interview (Japan)
Xbox Live The Party #8 (Japan)
Xbox Live The Party #9 (Japan)
Xbox Live The Party #10 (Japan) Vampire's Rain Trailer (Japan -- AKA Rain in the west) Forza 2 Customization Trailer Forza 2 Theme (not free) Virtua Tennis 3 Trailer NBA Live 07 Trailer NHL 2K7 Trailer
As we said, we've been too busy rocking DOA4 online with our blogging buddies (or Championship Poker in Ken's case) to check out most of this content. Has anybody out there checked out the Vampire's Rain trailer? Is it different from the one released during E3? Leave us some comments and tell us what's hot and what's not.
A new video of Eternal Sonata (the western name for Namco's Trusty Bell) has popped up over at GameVideos. More than just a showcase for the pretty environments, fans will be happy to know that the video shows off the game's previously unknown combat engine. The combat, as far as we can tell, is similar to Grandia but with real time elements. Each character has a limited amount of time to execute real time combos and spells. Then the enemy has a similar amount of time to retaliate. One might assume that higher level characters have more time to act. At any rate, it might give turn based haters a reason to take another look at Eternal Sonata. Turn based haters ... sounds like the name of a band. See the video after the break.
Here's the rundown of today's Marketplace content.
Fuzion Frenzy 2 demo
Portal Trailer
TGS Showfloor video 1
TGS Showfloor video Day 1 (Japan)
GM Sensui Interview (Japan)
Xbox Live The Party #1 (Japan)
Xbox Live The Party #2 (Japan)
Xbox Live The Party #3 (Japan)
Xbox Live The Party #4 (Japan)
Not much for those of us outside Japan., but the Fuzion Frenzy 2 demo is certainly welcome. We guess that whole "no demos on Friday" thing is pretty much dead by now.
We know, it's been a slow couple of days if you don't like RPGs, and even though X360F is the one that brought you videos of all this turnbasedcrap, we feel your pain. As such, we'd like to make amends with not one, but two videos of games that don't star doe-eyed pixie people with spiky hair. The first is a very long video of Viva Piñata that you can see above. The second video -- one we imagine is more interesting to action fans -- is of Lost Planet. Make sure you watch for the multiplayer madness at the end.
If there is one completely memorable moment for us in the Microsoft TGS press briefing, it was seeing DOAX2 announced as a "sports" title. That ... is hilarious. Xbox.com has posted two videos of the Microsoft TGS briefing. One is the entire briefing, full of Japanese goodness, and the other is only Peter Moore's remarks. The whole conference clocks in at just under an hour. There are no trailers or anything we typically associate with press briefings so, if you don't speak Japanese, we'd suggest you stick with the Peter More video.
The conference does a good job of emphasizing all things Japanese -- complete with Peter Moore humbling himself to Pac-Man creator, Toru Iwatani. Of course, Blue Dragon gets its fair share -- Sakaguchi-san talks it up for quite a while near the end. Perhaps the most bizarre bit is Microsoft's marketing slogan for Japan: "Do! Do! Do!" Let's hope that didn't come from the same marketing team that did all those "playtests" of the original Xbox control.
We'll go ahead and say that things look better than they have in the past for MS in Japan. As usual, it's the games stupid, and Microsoft showed up with more actual Japanese titles than ever before. Will it help? Who knows, but they're definitely heading in the right direction.
Another day, another batch of content. TGS rolls on, and Microsoft gives us more to drool over. Now, without further ado, today's content:
Vista Game Montage Fusion Frenzy 2 trailer (Weren't we just talking about this?) Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom trailer Team Fortress 2 trailer Table Tennis trailer (Japan only)
TGS Theme
We haven't had a chance to watch any of these, but we'll give you the skinny once we do. If anybody spots one of these trailers floating around the interweb, send us a tip and we'll post it.
Australian gaming website gameplayer is reporting that Capcom will be making three "huge announcements" next Wednesday as part of their Tokyo Game Show press conference. Gameplayer received such news from attending the Activate Asia 2007 where they learned about the three Capcom announcements, but refuse to share the juicy details. So, Capcom could announce new sequels, new games, new exclusivity or the adjective "huge" could mean something more along the lines of new outfits being released to the XBLM for Dead Rising. Not saying that that would be a bad thing, just very none "huge". Next Wednesday ... TGS ... Capcom ... big announcments ... stay tuned.
Microsoft's global marketing maestro, Jeff Bell, recently shed some light on the sorts of things we can expect from the company at the Tokyo Game Show next month. Speaking to Canada.com (Canada has its own website?), Bell responded to questions about Microsoft's 2008 lineup, which some have been curious about in the wake of the company's E3 presence, which focused solely on 2007 titles. Bell rattled off names like 
An interesting turn of rumored events have surfaced regarding Team Ninja's sequel to the beloved Ninja Gaiden franchise and its console future. According to Gamespot Korea (which is in Korean, so have fun reading that), they've "confirmed" with a Japanese gaming insider that Ninja Gaiden 2 will be released on the Xbox 360 and will be shown on the 360 at the Tokyo Game Show. They supposedly will be demoing the game on a 360 due to their strong relationship with Microsoft and because they probably love having fists full of cash. Also interesting to note is that the Japanese tipster said that a PS3 release wasn't detailed yet, hinting at a possible timed exclusive for the 360. Juicy stuff.
