Import News… From The Future!: Earth Defense Force PS4 Bound

Posted on September 12, 2013 by geelw

Given the formerly budget priced series’ loyal following since it appeared as part of the Simple 2000 lineup on the PlayStation 2, it was pretty much a given that D3 Publisher and developer Sandlot would be bringing gamers a new EDF game on Sony’s upcoming console. Import gaming site Siliconera reports that there’s a game in the works, which is awesome to hear. No news on how far in development it is, who’s making it (no doubt it’ll be Sandlot’s first title on the new hardware) or what the intended release date is.

Of course, just hearing this news is enough for me and I’m hoping Sandlot can finally make an EDF game with a stable frame rate when the going gets tough on those crazier maps. Granted, the series is known for its sometimes wonky technical issues (that don’t stop the games from being a hell of a lot of FUN, mind you), but given the PS4’s power under the hood, it would be fantastic to see a locked in 30 or even 60fps in the new game even with all those giant bugs, robots and buildings blowing up into assorted pieces. OK, I’ll take a solid 30 at this point, as even thinking of double that is a bit of a pipe dream unless Sandlot gets some help in optimizing whatever engine they’ll be utilizing. I’d gather it’ll be an all new in-house bit of tech, as the EDF 4 engine had some issues on the PS3 that weren’t in the Xbox 360 version of EDF 4.

As usual, we shall see… stay tuned for updates.

And NO, Dream C Club: Host Girls On Stage is most likely NOT coming to North America. Like it or not, that’s TOO niche for even D3PoA to even consider unless they want to sell something like 5000 or so copies of a game (at most) and be happy with that.

More Apologies Are in Order (But At Least I Stayed Out of Trouble This Time)…

Posted on September 9, 2013 by geelw

So, yeah… here I am last week making an absolutely terrific fool of myself (whee!) next to two of the stars of the hilarious and soon to be released in Japan comedy from Toho Studios’ King of Gomen Nasai (The Apology King). I need to remind myself to not sit in the front row at these screenings so this stuff doesn’t happen, but I survived doing this hastily choreographed routine (about 90% wrong, but I got the ending part mostly OK).

As for the film itself, it’s great fun and pretty surprising on a few fronts, but I don’t think it’s getting a North American release any time soon. That’s too bad, as it would be nice to see more films like this pop up on cable after their theatrical runs are over and done with. Oh well – the best I can hope for is a Blu-Ray or DVD once that’s out in Japan or another territory I can import an English subtitled version from. Oh yeah, sorry for exposing you to this blackmail photo that now CAN’T be uses to blackmail me!

Pre-TGS News: SCEJ Drops Plenty of Vita Bombshells Plus a Late PS4 Release In Japan…

Posted on September 9, 2013 by geelw

Weird, wild stuff going on overseas, as Sony is surprisingly bringing out a redesigned, less expensive Vita in different colors with 1GB of on board memory, an even more inexpensive Vita TV device that will let users play Vita and other PlayStation titles, watch movies and more plus a whole load of so far Japanese-only info including the release date of the PlayStation 4 in the territory. The big surprise on that end is the PS4 is shipping out AFTER the North American and European launch, which is something of a first for a Sony gaming console if I’m not mistaken.

Back to the Vita for a second – Sony has also announced a new 64MB Memory Card as well as price drops on its other proprietary memory cards for the handheld. The 64GB card will retail in Japan for 9,980 yen (about $100) and the new pricing on the currently available cards is as follows: the 4GB card drops to to 1,480 yen (about $15), the 8GB card to 1,980 yen (about $20), the 16GB card to 3,780 yen (about $38) and the 32GB model to 6,480 yen (about $65). Meanwhile, as noted above, North American and European gamers will get their PlayStation 4’s a few months earlier than Japan, as a February 2014 launch window was revealed. According to a few news sites, the reason seems to be Sony having issues meeting high demand for the console worldwide and probably targeting more units for the US and Europe first thanks to greater demand in those countries.

Finally, the launch title lineup for Japan was revealed as well, but we’ll take a peek at some of those titles in another post shortly. My fingers are of course, crossed that these price drops and new products pop up here in the US, but as always… we shall see…

Apologies Are In Order (And Quite Fitting, Today, At That)…

Posted on September 4, 2013 by geelw

Ha and double ha. Apologies for the slowness of posts lately. Actually, today is just dopey because I had some computer issues that took a wee bit too long to figure out what was wrong, but that’s been taken care of. Amusingly enough, I have a film screening to attend in about 3 hours for Toho’s King of Gomen Nasai (The Apology King), and yes, it’s a comedy if you haven’t gathered by the trailer above and that goofy Ringu-inspired video below in this post. I’ll most likely whip out a review of this one afterward, as it’s too weird to ignore. Back in a bit. I may be back before Pumpkin Hour, in which case, I’ll have a new post or two up then.

One Piece Pirates Warriors 2: Big to Small Changes Make Bringing the Pain Much Better…

Posted on August 28, 2013 by geelw

It’s a great thing that One Piece Pirates Warriors 2 demo on display at Namco Bandai’s press event a few weeks back was timed or they’d have had to drag me away from the controller. I’m a big fan of the Dynasty Warriors/Sengoku Musou series and the games that use the same formula and/or game engine and while last year’s One Piece game was solid, it had a few flaws in the ointment that made some parts slightly annoying. OPPW2 completely nixes the quick time events from the original’s boss battles and has a more free form style in terms of how much there is to do and how you can get it all done. There’s a new leveling system where you can used earned gold to train characters and even the ability to temporarily switch characters during gameplay by building up a special meter.

Developer Omega Force is at the top of its game here, packing the huge battlefields with even more enemies, ridiculously stylized (and hilarious) special attacks and that trademark Musou gameplay that’s addictive and challenging on the higher difficulties. As with the first game, the wacky art style of the anime translates fantastically to 3D with the assorted cast members retaining their exact likenesses and expressions from the show and bringing more to the table thanks to a dev team clearly having a blast doing what they do so well. I keep wondering when Omega Force will finally do a Tekken game in this style or even better, a crazy Namco Bandai character mash-up that’s part Musou, part Super Smash Bros. (of course, some hard core Nintendo fans will want to beat me up for even suggesting this, but I can handle it).

Like the first game, North American gamers are only getting this as a download through PSN while Japan gets this as a disc game, download and as a separate Vita release. Granted, this is exactly the sort of niche title that won’t move as many units as it will in its home country, but I think Namco Bandai should bend a wee bit and reach out more directly to the fan base just to see if they’d indeed buy this as a disc if were to be made available. Even better would be both One Piece games on a single Blu-Ray if possible for a fair price, but as usual, that’s more wishful thinking on my part. Anyway, US gamers get this one soon (September 3, 2013), so keep your eyes peeled and your fingers limber. You don’t want to seize up from a bad case of “controller claw” or anything right as that boss battle gets underway…

Memo to D3Publisher of America: GET Oneechanbara Z: Kagura With NoNoNo! Localized ASAP (Please!)

Posted on August 8, 2013 by geelw

Oh, this is just TOO insane to pass up, people. Sure, the west never got the original Xbox 360 version of Oneechanbara Z: Kaugura (boo!), but this enhanced PS3 version is ab-so-lu-te-ly screaming for a decent localization and US release. At least in my book as a longtime fan of this crazy niche series of games. I’ll import if I must before Japan melts into the sea, but man, this needs to come out here. And yeah, on a damn DISC at that. I bet if D3PoA were to take a poll on its facebook page and a few other places, they’d find enough people willing to buy this as either a one minimum print run disc or (yuk) a PSN-only download. In other words, I’m betting they’d say a hearty “YesYesYes!” to NoNoNo!

I’m going to bug D3 about this here and if YOU want to see this, you should too. Not D3Publisher in Japan, by the way – you want to annoy the US branch and you UK gamers need to bug the crap out of Namco Bandai Games there, as they’re the ones who handle publishing D3 stuff out your way. I’d rather give my ducats to D3PoA than Play-Asia, but if my hand is forced, it’s going down hard… er, take that as you will.

KILLER IS DEAD Import Walkthroughs: Game Empire HD Does It Again…

Posted on July 31, 2013 by geelw

I hadn’t realized that this had shipped out in Japan (well, it’s officially out tomorrow there… wait, it’s tomorrow there already, right? Oh, my head hurts…) until I poked around in my inbox and spotted these Game Empire HD play through videos. There are four so far, but I’ll only run two here so as to not ruin too much of the fun. I absolutely LOVE that the menus are in English, which means I can import this and play it (but I’ll hold out for the US version just to support Xseed Games here) and it certainly looks as if Suda 51 and grasshopper manufacture had a blast making this one, so strap yourself in and enjoy the ride. Er, this isn’t for the kiddies, kids – so break out the blindfolds or go put them in the broom closet with a flashlight, a box of Popsicles and a funny hat or two.

Things to Do When the Real World Stinks (One)…

Posted on July 24, 2013 by geelw

(thanks, Game Empire HD!)

OK, I actually didn’t do anything TOO productive today other than blow through 34 missions in Earth Defense Force 4 and take a bunch of notes for my review. Ive got a long way to go, as the game has got 94 missions total (eek), four character classes and five difficulty levels. I most likely won’t solo the entire game through ALL the difficulty levels before starting my review, as EDF games are made for seriously long play time. I’m probably going to complete Easy and Normal, but I’ve already played some missions on Hard and Hardest just to see how tough they are (they’re tough, but beatable), but haven’t gone near any Inferno maps yet because I need my sanity for the rest of the week. Which so far consists of a meeting to see a new game tomorrow, a screening I may or may not attend (it’s a bit last minute) and a bunch of stuff I need to write up from this week and last.

Er, that’s about it… I guess. Oh, right – I’ll add a few Random Film reviews in a bit. I haven’t watched anything in a few days, so I’m thinking I need a decent old comedy or really bad “B” movie to get back on track. My brain is still packed with mud a little from reality and I made the silly mistake of watching the news this evening (blech… too much crap going on in that real world and too many crazies at the wheel all driving off different cliffs). I’d go bake a pie or something, but I haven’t done that in oh, maybe a dozen years or so, I have no ingredients and I’d probably end up eating the whole thing once it cooled. Who doesn’t like pie?

Morose Monday Made Markedly More Meaningful…

Posted on July 22, 2013 by geelw

Well, let’s see now: coming home from a funeral: gloomy! Coming home TO a nice surprise in the mail (thank you, Play-Asia!) and a double surprise (I’d forgotten to cancel a big Namco Bandai press event for tomorrow morning, which is actually a great thing as it gets me out of the house and not sitting around moping) plus tax (another event on Wednesday and I think one more this week) mean life goes onwards, bumps in the road aside. OK, off to squash some bugs – I may post one more thing before midnight if I haven’t collapsed from being a wee bit too tired. It’s been a really long day…

Random Film of the Week(end): Swing Girls

Posted on July 21, 2013 by geelw

Shinobu Yaguchi’s 2004 comedy gem, Swing Girls is more or less a cross between High School Musical and School of Rock (before both of those were big things in the US) as well as a riff on the old “Hey kids, let’s put on a show!” style of old Hollywood film making from the days of Andy Hardy and a boatload of other fun fluff musicals. It’s a fun and summery family friendly flick where there’s nothing offensive happening, there’s not a single gunshot fired and the only death here is one that’s part of the plot and it’s not a human being that gets it. Yes, I’ll actually spoil things by running a clip below the jump just because it’s probably the best use of the Louis Armstrong version of “What a Wonderful World” you’ll ever see as well as the funniest bit in a film full of them.

The movie works so well because it’s full of deadpan moments and flat out funny portions where paying attention to dialog and visual detail add more laughs. It’s a film that’s not pretending to be anything other than a homage to those old musicals and while it’s not flawless, it’s definitely worth tracking down if you like movies that guaranteed you’ll get a grin going that lasts for about as long as you’re in front of that TV or monitor…

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