The original Daigassou Band Bros was one of those games that sold and sold and sold for months on end which eventually turned into years. Every time NCS restocked the game, we thought, "Okay, that's going to be the last shipment and we won't ever need to restock it again."
Weeks later, the game would sell out and we'd scramble for restock from vendors in Japan and Hong Kong. The game was that good and its only other equal in terms of sales volume was the original Jump Superstars which coincidentally was also published by Nintendo.
When summer rolls around, Ninty will release the proper sequel to Band Bros which is titled Daigassou! Band Bros DX. Rhythm gamers can look forward to over 30 music tracks and over 50 instruments to use including a guitar, piano, trumpet, and even the beeps and boops of the 8-bit Famicom. Similar to the original game and the expansion pack, the songs are from the classical, video game, animation, and J-Pop genres. Since the word "Band" is in the game title, up to eight participants in the local area can link up wirelessly and jam together to accompany sweet melodies which blare forth from the NDS' speakers. Preorders are welcome to ship on June 26, 2008 at JPY4800 or US$46.90 from NCS.
In the original Dokidoki Majo Shinpan! game from last year, a lad named Akuji Nishimura was recruited by an angel to ferret out a witch who had hidden herself in the population of Seirei Takagamine Junior High School. Sounds easy right? Just look for the pointy hat, the snaggle-tooth, and the oily boils on her face.
Alas, it wasn't going to be that easy and Akuji had to touch, fondle, and inspect a number of girls to find a "witch's mark" to verify the witch's identity. One interesting dynamic we noticed in the original game was the way breasts behaved when touched with the NDS stylus. In the world of Dokidoki Majo Shinpan, merely touching a girl's bosom would send the twins wobbling as if they had been juggled and jostled by a mysterious force. The game sold well (big surprise) and SNK has begun prepping the Japanese market for the next installment of the game.
When summer rolls around, Akuji Nishimura reprises his role as a sleuth who gets an eyeful when hunting for clues on unsuspecting maidens. The bosom will be targeted as expected but the derriere can also be wobbled and inspected during the course of a thorough investigation. Preorders are welcome to ship on July 31, 2008. NCS has also opened up preorders today for a limited edition of the game which includes a number of goodies such as a special CD, a student guidebook, and angel/devil mascots.
Capcom was once the king of 2D fighting games but the torch has been passed to young(ish) turks such as Arc System Works and Type Moon of Melty-Blood fame. Last year, Capcom hired Arc System to develop a new 2D fighting game based on the characters of Sengoku Basara and the location tests were for the most part positive. Since the game was originally built on Namco's 246/256 arcade hardware, Sengoku Basara X (Cross) is expected to make a smooth transition to the Playstation 2 when it's released later this summer.
Date Masamune and Sanada Yukimura lead a cast of 10 characters (Chousokabe Motochika, Honda Tadakatsu, Maeda Keiji, Mouri Motonari, Uesugi Kenshin, Oichi お市, Oda Nobunaga, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi) who use weapons and special attacks in a 2D brawler that's evocative of Arc System's other works. The control scheme uses four buttons to lash out a weak attack, a medium attack, a strong attack, and Engun which calls upon a supporter or striker to rush into the battlefield and provide offensive assistance. The longer you hold off on calling for support, the stronger that support becomes when it is eventually summoned. NCS is accepting preorders for the regular edition of the game and a limited edition which includes a Character Voice CD which contains 31 minutes of speech and a set of 47 Theme/Character Trading Cards. Preorders for both versions are welcome to ship on June 26, 2008.
Think back to the worst day you've ever had. Now multiply that feeling by 100 and you'll know how the protagonist of Disaster feels... Monolith's next game falls into the survival genre where a hero named Ray (just Ray) has to overcome the ravages of multiple natural disasters in order to stop a band of special forces malcontents. A bunch of malcontents armed with a live nuke. Mother Nature's acts of terror in the game include a tsunami-fueled tidal event, exploding volcanos, and bowel-jarring earthquakes. The confluence of multiple disasters leads to outright chaos and disarray as Ray makes his way through a calamity-filled USA.
NCS is starting preorders for the Japanese version of Disaster: Day of Crisis (ディザスター デイ オブ クライシス) today but please note that a European version may be released at around the same time. If that information turns out to be correct, we will give our customers the option of switching their preorders to the European version since the game is in English. For now however, we are only accepting preorders for the Japanese game which ships on July 3, 2008.
The year 2008 is the 20th Anniversary of Famicom Wars which was originally released on the 8-bit Famicom all the way back on August 12, 1988. Nintendo has kept the wars rolling on the Gameboy, the Super Famicon, the Gameboy Advance, and the Gamecube. USA gamers know the series as Advance Wars on the GBA and more recently Battalion Wars on the GC. With the Wii becoming the platform of choice for a new generation of gamers, Nintendo starts preorders for a Wiimote waving version of the game where armed forces go to battle against opposing forces.
Similar to the earlier Famicom Wars titles, players attack on all fronts by marshalling infantry, tanks, planes, and ships. Whereas the earlier games featured 2D combat animated encounters, players take direct control of a soldier and attendant battalion, a tank, or another vehicle and attack the enemy in action-packed sequences. Preorders for the Japanese version of the game are welcome to ship on May 15, 2008 but please note the USA release (Battalion Wars 2) has been available for a few months now and is currently in stock from NCS.
Gundam games have invariably placed players in mobile suits but that changes when MSG: Operation Troy ships later this summer. There's the ability to maneuver a Gundam or a Zaku on the battlefield but gamers can also opt to take on the role of a grunt. That's right, a lowly soldier who wears combat fatigues and runs around providing a semblance of support or resistance to the mighty robots that tower above him. In addition to trudging around on foot, soldiers can also climb into abandoned vehicles such as tanks, jets, and even mobile suits whose pilots have gone AWOL or worse. Missions featured in the game allow soldiers to battle other soldiers or take on imposing Mobile Suits that have the power to decimate entire swaths of foot soldiers in one fell swoop.
Preorders are welcome to ship June 26, 2008 and Namco Bandai will give away a bonus code card in 50% ratio so players can download additional data for the game at no charge.
The Biohazard 4 umbrellas were originally released with the Japanese Playstation 2 version of the game in 2005. Our records show that we received a total of 480 umbrellas and the shipping cost per unit from overseas was US$23.11 each. If we had known they'd be that expensive to ship, we would have refused them before they were dispatched and rescinded our preorder offer. The umbrellas incur dimension weight shipping charges because of how lengthy they are.
Fast forward a few years and the Biohazard 4 game is long gone but we still have a few boxes of umbrellas. We would prefer to sell the umbrellas for this much but it's unlikely we'd move many of them at that impressive level. We'll settle for for US$68.90. Larger Photos and Additional Details.
