Thursday, September 21, 2006

Gintama DS: Yorozuya Daisoudou

In an alternate reality version of old Edo, aliens known as the Amanto have invaded. High above the populace, airships glide across the skies and aliens walk amongst the masses. To add insult to injury, the Amanto passed an edict where all swords are banned, effectively putting an end to the samurai class. Or so they thought...

Enter Sakata Gintoki, a samurai who carries a sword and engages in all manner of freelance missions. Sakata is joined by an apprentice named Shimura and an alien girl named Kagura who has a pet named Sadaharu. Together, they are known as the Gin-Chan Freelancers. The Nintendo DS Gintama game features the escapades of the Freelancers as they work all manner of odd jobs to repay a ¥1,000,000 debt. «NCS Game Notes»

Yu Yu Hakusho DS: Ankoku Bujutsukai Hen

Yusuke Urameshi is a rough and tumble tough who's name is whispered amongst the student body of Sarayashiki Junior High School. Bad ass to the bone, Yusuke has no reservations about punching out rivals such as the brutish Kazuma Kuwabara. One day, Yusuke interacts with a little boy who is playing soccer near a busy street and warns him to stay away from the road. A few seconds later, Yusuke's words are unheeded as the little boy dashes out into the middle of the road to retrieve his soccer ball. With blazing reflexes, Yusuke leaps into action and pushes the boy out of the path of a car and takes the full brunt of the impact himself. Moments later, Yusuke's spirit is listing above his body and an adventure that spans the Spirit World soon begins... «NCS Game Notes»

Chaos Wars + Bonus DVD

Four developers - Atlus, Aruze, Red Entertainment, and Idea Factory - pool their resources together and share 36 of their branded characters in a tactical strategy game which features faces from many franchises. The somber Beyond the Grave and Rocketbilly Red Cadillac appear along with Alice, Karin, and Yuri as main characters who share the stage with a bustling cast roster. Characters featured in Chaos Wars hail from Gun Grave, Gakuen Toshi Vara Noir, Blazing Souls, Generation of Chaos, Growlanser, Shadow Hearts, and Shinki Gensou Spectral Souls.

Chaos Wars is played in familiar tactical strategic fashion where players marshal a party of adventurers and battle foes by choosing attacks and magic from a menu of options. At the outset of the game, the party of two tackles a couple of goldfish-like creatures that counter with weak blows. The game play follows the same design specifics of Idea Factory's Spectral Souls franchise and might be mistaken for a game from the series were it not for the large assortment of new characters. The movement phases in Chaos Wars use a free roaming system where a circular perimeter decides the range of movement. Once a target area is selected, the hero rambles over and stands pat as he waits for the next command. «NCS Game Notes»

Blokus Club Portable featuring Bumpy Trot

Originally released on the PS2 late last year, Blokus Club went on to sell 100,000 copies in Japan. Blokus Club brings its brand of block puzzle action to the portable confines of the PSP. To the uninitiated, Blokus Club looks like a mish-mash of Tetris and Othello but it's not so.

Gist: The game is played by four players who start in the corners of a play board that is 20 x 20 squares large. As the game commences, blocks that are segmented into 2-block, 3-block, 4-block, or 5-block shapes are slapped down on the screen from the starting corner. A player has 21 block shapes to choose from with which to lay down on the playfield and are stored in their respective quadrants of the screen for each player. The only rule for positioning a block is that each new segment must be laid down diagonally and contiguous with the previous block.

By ways slow and steady, the players take alternating turns and make their way across the screen while putting down blocks. A player's progress may be blocked by the other players with their own block drops. Although your own blocks cannot be directly contiguous with each other, they can be planted contiguously against an opponent's blocks when creating diagonal matches. As the play board fills up, lack of space becomes an issue for dropping blocks. He/she who uses up the most blocks wins. In addition to the standard Blokus Mode which always features 4-players (COM or wireless participants), there's a Blokusduo mode which pits 2 players against each other and a Bumpy Trot board game mode. «NCS Game Notes»

Yua Aida's Sexy Casino

Take a trip to Las Vegas and play casino games with Japanese AV actress Yua Aida. Games of chance to indulge in include Gold Rush Black Jack, Gold Rush Poker, and Gold Rush Roulette. By prefacing the casino games with the words "Gold Rush," they are empowered with special and mysterious qualities. We'll update this space once we figure out what those qualities are. Perform well at Poker or Black Jack and win cash and special prizes such as private moments with Yua. By private moments, we mean short video sequences where the player shares intimate moments with the attractive actress. Continue to win at the tables and score even more quality time with Yua where she dallies around in in skimpy outfits and offers herself up for personal virtual encounters.

Yua Aida broke into the adult business as a gravure model in 2003. In January of 2004, Yua made her adult video debut in a little movie dubbed Pichi Pichi where she played a student with a graduate dissertation centered on the idea of ecstasy. Since her first film, Yua has appeared in 35 additional movies as of September 9, 2006. Titles include "Curved Line Beauties," "South Pole," "Teachers Bang Bang Class," "Erotic Female College Student," "Sexual Yoga," and "If Yua was Yours."

Please note that Yua Aida's Sexy Casino is an all-region UMD-Video which may be played on USA, European, and Japanese PSP handhelds.

Mihiro's Sexy Casino

Take a trip to Las Vegas and play casino games with Japanese AV actress Mihiro Taniguchi. Games of chance to indulge in include Gold Rush Black Jack, Gold Rush Poker, and Gold Rush Roulette. By prefacing the casino games with the words "Gold Rush," they are empowered with special and mysterious qualities. We'll update this space once we figure out what those qualities are. Perform well at Poker or Black Jack and win cash and unique prizes such as private moments with Mihiro. By private moments, we mean short video sequences where the player shares intimate moments with the attractive actress. Continue to win at the tables and score even more quality time with Mihiro where she dallies around in in skimpy outfits and offers herself up for personal virtual encounters.

Long before Mihiro Taniguchi broke into the adult video business, she was a well known as a gravure model who appeared in magazines, books, and television shows. In March of 2005, Mihiro made her JAV debut in a movie titled Little Angel where she played an literal angel who flutters to Earth from the heavens. Since her first film, Yua has appeared in 21 additional movies as of September 21, 2006. Titles include "Love Dreamer," "Things happened in the School," "Cute Nurses Sex Therapy," "Mihiro in Lewd Wonderland," "Mihiroism - Sincere Me," and "Gothic Lolita Collection."

Please note that Mihiro's Sexy Casino is an all-region UMD-Video which may be played on USA, European, and Japanese PSP handhelds.

Metal Gear Solid: Bande Dessinee

Using the Metal Gear Solid comic books from IDW Publications as source material, MGS: Bande Dessinee transfers all 12 volumes of the comic into digital form and adds sound effects and spot animation to bolster the static nature of the original. Instead of flipping through pages and risking deadly paper cuts, readers may pore through the MGS comic stories on the crisp widescreen of the PSP. Stare at the action with mouth agape as Solid Snake does his stealth thing on panels of sketchy artwork by Ashley Wood and stories by Kris Oprisko.

Once a comic has been read, readers may perform a "Mental Search" of the just-read book and look for items or characters on a 3D navigation screen. Once a subject has been found, it may be added to an MGS data library for perusal later. Data may also be shared with fellow PSP owners by way of Wifi transmission. As bits of information are culled and collected, a robust amount of data may be pooled together for a Who's Who and What's What of the MGS comic books and overall MGS universe.

Some early preorders will include a bonus Metal Gear Solid Bande Dessinee PSP stand which measures D: 70mm ×W: 80mm × H: 50mm. The stand features a vertical S design and is meant to be used to prop up a PSP on a table to give your hands a rest from clutching the handheld all day. The stand is also useful when its time to watch a UMD-Video movie...