Friday, November 06, 2009

NDS Sakura Note Imanitsu na Garu Mirai - New, In Stock

NCS Product Synopsis
«©NCSX» Boy meets girl but that's not the only encounter of note. A girl named Nanami Yoshida has just transferred to the protagonist's school but she's also attracted the attention of the discarnates in town...
Sakura Note begins with the player-named protagonist in bed but mom rouses him from his slumber and sends him off to school. While at school, a short tutorial teaches players the basic mechanics of the game in a seamless introductory sequence. Outside the school, a portion of the town may be explored but note that many exits are closed and not available at the outset of the adventure. To view where to go next, look at the town map on the top screen and a blinking red dot or arrow will show where the protagonist has to mosey onto next.

Early in the game, the protagonist befriends a dog who leads him to a mighty cherry tree that's filled with blooming blossoms. An odd and excitable humanoid-creature gives the skinny on the healthy cherry tree and tells of another tree in town that's mysteriously ailing. It is during this tree scenario that the protagonist eventually meets Nanami Yoshida while following the dog whom we named "Woofy." Nanami and Woofy eventually run off and leave the protagonist to ponder what he has learned...

After every major event in the game, an icon appears on screen which looks like a hamburger and allows the player's progress to be saved to the game card. Three save-slots are available. Our recommendation is to save your progress before fighting the first scenario pig boss. He's a tough guy.

NDS Summon Night X: Tears Crown - New, In Stock

NCS Product Synopsis
«©NCSX» It's been a decade since the Celestia and Delteana Kingdoms called an uneasy truce and halted their warmongering. At the time of the truce, the two sides traded princes to solidify their peaceful intentions. Prince Noin from Celestia went over to the Delteana Kingdom and Prince Dylan made Celestia his new home. In the ten years since the truce however, the rumblings of war are afoot once again and the two princes are placed into precarious positions that test their loyalty and obligations.

The game allows players to choose between Dylan of Delteana or Princess Farah of the Celestia Kingdom as the protagonist. If Dylan is selected, the game starts with a ceremony where the two young princes are exchanged to their new homes. Princess Farah bids farewell to her brother Noin with a loud and screeching goodbye. The years pass and the next scene shows Dylan and Farah as teenagers. A whiny animal named Muu Muu accompanies Farah which provides a bit of comedic foil.

If Farah is selected as the protagonist, her story also begins with the prince-exchange ceremony and Dylan has become her close friend and confidant. The creature named Muu Muu is also by her side. Whichever character you choose, your initial party will consist of Dylan, Farah, Muu Muu, and a palace guard. Shortly after the first encounter against two blue blobs, a flashback will play which recounts a time when Dylan and Farah were children and how they first met Muu Muu. Unlike previous Summon Night S-RPGs, "Tears Crown" is an RPG where the top NDS screen shows the local area map and all the action takes place on the touch screen. The game features a large amount of speech which is remarkable for its clarity and quality considering that it's all stored on a little game card.

PS3 3D Dot Game Heroes - New Import, In Stock

NCS Product Synopsis
«©NCSX» A few years ago, Banpresto produced a whole line of toys and trinkets based on dot-designs featuring old school Nintendo characters. Tomy also released a series of toys dubbed ".s" or "Dots" where pegs were punched into boards to create dot-graphic designs of retro-game characters. Dots were big and they're making a comeback once again this year in From Software's 3D Dot Game Heroes.
Touted as a conventional RPG with an unconventional graphical style, From Software uses uniform component cubes to create every character and object in the game world for a striking visual impact. Most modern game designers generally try to make their characters appear somewhat lifelike and smooth with no hint of the frames and pixels that make up the hero or heroine. From Software goes the other way and makes sure that pixels and blocks are clearly evident in the game.
If the intention was to pay homage to the 8-bit games that old-timers grew up consuming, then they've succeeded in spades because the references and tributes are all there (menus, music, sound effects, etc).

PS3 World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 - New, In Stock

NCS Product Synopsis
«©NCSX» Konami continues to tweak and refine their acclaimed Winning Eleven property and another edition is making its way to the Japanese market in November. The focus in WE 2010 is on "The ultimate individual skills" and "The ultimate team player" where players are endowed with 300 new moves, seven feints, and skills which help the entire team. To add to the realism of the player movements on the field, Konami used motion-capture techniques to render new animations for the soccer players as they motor down the field. The control scheme has also be upgraded to a 360° control scheme which replaces the 8-way controls of the earlier Winning Eleven games.

From the Publisher
WORLD SOCCER Winning Eleven 2010 kicks up the excitement with enhanced on-field action, graphics, and innovative control features that make the gameplay more realistic than ever.

PSP Dissidia Final Fantasy - Universal Tuning - New, In Stock

NCS Product Synopsis
«©NCSX» In a 1998 interview in Next Generation Magazine, Trip Hawkins (founder of EA) said the following: "The way I look at it is when you make a sequel you can't sell them the same game because they already own it. What they want is to continue to play the game they know they like. It shouldn't surprise us. If you look at our parents or their parents and the kind of games that they play, they will pick a sport like golf or a game like chess, and they will play it their whole life. If somebody is a golfer, they might well try another course or buy a new set of clubs, but they still want to play the same game."
In the past few years, Square's business model has been one where a sizable amount of the company's revenue and profits have come from remakes, re-releases, and rehashes. As Trip said a decade ago, people want to play the same game and Square is more than happy to oblige. True to form, Dissidia Final Fantasy Universal Tuning is a re-release of the USA version of Dissidia into the Japanese marketplace. It's also the second time Dissidia has been released in Japan this year. NCS expects no less than two more re-releases under "The Best" and Square's own budget re-release label within the next 2 years.


Product/Game Features
» English speech and Japanese subtitles
» Combatants are balanced for more equality
» Arcade mode from the USA release is included
» Character tweaks and tuning selections

PSP Jigen Kairou - New Import, In Stock

NCS Product Synopsis
«©NCSX» Sony's Mugen Kairou was released last year on the PSP and the game featured 3D spatial manipulation of levels to create passages and new realities for the onscreen walkers. The sequel to the game titled Jigen Kairou is a 2D platform puzzle game where players hit switches to activate platforms, interact with in-game objects, and manipulate obstacles to gain passage. Similar to the original Kairou, simple line-drawings are used to represent the stages and the characters that walk and run onscreen. The main actor in the game is accompanied by "echoes" which are helper characters who can toggle switches or perform various tasks to assist the lead actor in his journey through the world of echochrome.

The music and sound effects in the game possess the same haunting lilt and echo effect as the original "Kairou" which jibes well with the stark presentation of the stages. In the first level (A1), players have to toggle two switches to build "bridges" to reach the exit. Stage A2 isn't much more complicated but adds the task of removing obstacles to reach the exit. There's a little surprise at the end of Stage A2 before the protagonist is allowed to leave but additional surprises may be encountered throughout the game. As players conquer the early levels, later stages progressively ramp up in difficulty with new challenges that require thought and proper manipulation of switches, items, and other obstacles shown on each stage. After successfully completely a level, you're given the option of replaying in case you're interested in improving upon any mistakes or mishaps that occurred during your initial performance.

PSP Personal 3 Portable - New Import, Partial Arrival

NCS Product Synopsis
«©NCSX» The beautiful seaside city of Minato-ku serves as the backdrop for the latest Persona adventure where players adopt the role of a transfer student who commutes daily from dormitory to school. Persona 3 introduces creatures known as Shadows which appear during the midnight hour and wreak all manner of havoc. To combat the threat, the protagonist teams up with fellow students including Yukari Takeba, Mitsuru Kirijo, and Junpei Iori who all have the power of Persona and the ability to battle the Shadows.

At the outset of the game, the player-named protagonist arrives at his dormitory and is greeted immediately by the winsome Yukari Takeba who approaches with a gun holstered to her thigh. She seems apprehensive but a redhead named Mitsuru Kirijo approaches from behind and reassures her that it's only the new transfer student. After greetings, Yukari takes the player to to his room which is at the end of the hallway on the second floor. The next morning, Yukari knocks on the door and protag's already all dressed up and ready to go. The two take a monorail over the sea to the Moonlight School where Yukari leaves him near the entrance amidst a row of lockers. After buying a drink, head off to the administrative office to register for school and eventual class...

Persona 3 was originally released on the PS2 in 2006 and the PSP conversion features new elements such as a selectable difficulty setting (Beginner, Easy, Normal, Hard, Maniacs), an upgraded battle system, new events, and the option to play the game as a female student instead of the default male student from the original game.

X360 World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 - New, In Stock

NCS Product Synopsis
«©NCSX» Konami continues to tweak and refine their acclaimed Winning Eleven property and another edition is making its way to the Japanese market in November. The focus in WE 2010 is on "The ultimate individual skills" and "The ultimate team player" where players are endowed with 300 new moves, seven feints, and skills which help the entire team. To add to the realism of the player movements on the field, Konami used motion-capture techniques to render new animations for the soccer players as they motor down the field. The control scheme has also be upgraded to a 360° control scheme which replaces the 8-way controls of the earlier Winning Eleven games.

From the Publisher
WORLD SOCCER Winning Eleven 2010 kicks up the excitement with enhanced on-field action, graphics, and innovative control features that make the gameplay more realistic than ever. The game's stunning cover, featuring the new faces of WORLD SOCCER Winning Eleven, Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona/Argentinean national team) and Fernando Torres (Liverpool/Spanish national team), makes the game hard to miss.