PS3 Arcana Heart 3 Hori Real Arcade Pro - New Import

NCS Product Synopsis.
«©NCSX» Hori takes the Real Arcade Pro 3 joystick, paints it red, and pastes Arcana Heart 3 artwork on top. For added value, Hori also throws in not one but two sheets of colorful Arcana Heart decals. The decals may be applied to the surface of the joystick although we wouldn't recommend it.
   A housing in the back of the joystick stores the USB cable when its not in use so that there's noticeably less clutter with this version of the HRAP3. Hand grips on both sides of the joystick also allow for easier hefting when moving the stick around. All 8-buttons on the joystick may be set to auto-fire. All preorders are shipping this afternoon.

X360 Arcana Heart 3 - New Import, Partial Delivery

NCS Product Synopsis.
«©NCSX» From Examu's eX-BOARD hardware to X360, Arcana Heart 3 goes home this week. The storyline in AH3 takes place 2 months after the events in Arcana Heart 2 and dire events have been set in motion by an organization named the "Drexler Institution" which threatens the destruction of Japan.

   The fighting ginger named Aino Heart is back but she's not the focal point of the third Arcana Heart game. The lead heroine in Arcana Heart 3 is a blonde girl named Weiss who appears to be a humorless 14-year old student. She's really an operative working for Valkyria which is an arm of the Drexler Institute. The rest of the cast of the Arcana Hearts game also return such as Saki Tsuzura, Angelia Avallone, Kamui Tokinomiya, Maori Kasuga, and Mei-Fang. Each girl is accompanied by a unique "Arcana" which is a powerful being who supplements the girl's fighting skills with a repertoire of special attacks and powers.

   New to AH3 is the "Force Gauge" which allows for the use of a move called "Extend Force" which is a close cousin of the "Arcana Burst" move. The best news of all? Arc System handled the game conversion themselves from Examu kit to X360.

X360 Arcana Heart 3 Limited Ed - New Import, Partial Delivery

NCS Product Synopsis.
«©NCSX» From Examu's eX-BOARD hardware to Xbox 360, Arcana Heart 3 goes home this week. The storyline in AH3 takes place 2 months after the events in Arcana Heart 2 and dire events have been set in motion by an organization named the "Drexler Institution" which threatens the destruction of Japan.
   The fighting ginger named Aino Heart is back but she's not the focal point of the third Arcana Heart game. The lead heroine in Arcana Heart 3 is a blonde girl named Weiss who appears to be a humorless 14-year old student. She's really an operative working for Valkyria which is an arm of the Drexler Institute. The rest of the cast of the Arcana Hearts game also return such as Saki Tsuzura, Angelia Avallone, Kamui Tokinomiya, Maori Kasuga, and Mei-Fang. Each girl is accompanied by a unique "Arcana" which is a powerful being who supplements the girl's fighting skills with a repertoire of special attacks and powers. New to AH3 is the "Force Gauge" which allows for the use of a move called "Extend Force" which is a close cousin of the "Arcana Burst" move. The best news of all? Arc System handled the game conversion themselves from Examu kit to X360.

   The home conversions of Arcana Heart 3 are based on v3.01 of the arcade game and includes a new Story Mode, a Training Mode, Online Network Play for up to 6 fighters, and two screen aspect modes (4:3 and 16:9). The limited edition of AC3 includes an All Art Works Character Pin Set.

PSP Another Century's Episode Portable - New Import

NCS Product Synopsis.
«©NCSX» Bandai's Another Century's Episode was born on the Playstation 2 where it ran for three volumes. The third game on the PS2 was supposed to be the final A.C.E. game but then Bandai revived the series on the Playstation 3 with A.C.E. R. in the summer of 2010. To ring in the new year with mechs, Bandai brings the franchise to the Playstation Portable.

   What is A.C.E? Think of mechs from popular and some obscure animation series and then imagine them in combat. Not just any staid combat however but fast-paced action where agile robots duke it out with swords and guns. The roster in ACE: Portable includes mechs from the following animations:

» Aura Battler Dunbine
» Blue Comet SPT Layzner
» Brain Powerd
» Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion
» Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows
» Macross F
» Metal Armor Dragonar
» Nadesico The Prince of Darkness
» Overman King Gainer
» Z Gundam

   Early preorders ship with a bonus A.C.E. Portable mech illustrations booklet which spans 24 glossy pages.

General Updates

Snow Storm «©NCSX» A fairly large snowstorm hit the City last night but it wasn't as massive as the storm from a couple of weeks ago. Traffic should be moving normally today but if there's any issues with snow cleanup, please note that outgoing shipments may be delayed this afternoon.

Incoming Shipments    The snow probably shouldn't affect the import shipments that are coming in but if there are any delays this week, the snow = culprit.

Nintendo 3DS Region-Locked    NCS expects to start preorders for the Japanese Nintendo 3DS next week but please be advised that the hardware is region-locked and will only play Japanese software. This region-restriction applies to both card-based and downloaded software.

1Up: What Japanese Devs really think Part 1: http://www.1up.com/news/japanese-devs Part 2: http://www.1up.com/news/japanese-devs-part

NDS Nicoli Sudoku PSP - Third Collection - Import Preorder

NCS Preorder Synopsis
«©NCSX» Sudoku is a game of logic and numbers where the digits 1 through 9 are placed within a 9x9 play board. Sounds simple enough but the rules dictate that each number can only appear once in any one row or column. Furthermore, the 9x9 board is broken up into nine distinct 3x3 areas that can only hold the numbers 1 through 9 in its squares and no number may be repeated in each 3x3 area.

   If that sounds like your kind of game, Nicoli's bringing out a PSP version of their popular Sudoku puzzle collections. One of the oldest Sudoku producers on the planet, Nicoli started doing business in 1980 and still creates all of their Sudoku puzzles by hand. A poor but diligent slob in Nicoli's offices painstakingly uses his experience and skill to create a Sudoku puzzle that probably takes 15-30 minutes each. Due to Nicoli's meticulous creation of Sudoku puzzles, every Japanese newspaper syndicates the company's puzzles for their daily readers.

   In addition to the Sudoku puzzles, Nicoli also includes three bonus games that they specialize in producing: Slitherlink, Masyu, and Yajilin. All four games support game-sharing and ad hoc connectivitity for multiple players. Preorders are welcome to ship on March 10, 2011 at JPY2800 or US$36.90.

NDS Starry Sky Planet (Hoshizora Planet) - Import Preorder

NCS Preorder Synopsis
«©NCSX» Hoshizora Planet was originally released in 2000 for the PC but it's coming back to the Japanese market with a remake by Cyberfront.

The twinkling of the stars in the night sky...
Equals the amount of people's joy,
The amount of people's sorrow
The amount of meetings and separations,
And the number of forgotten dreams.

   The protagonist in Hoshizora Planet has been away for seven years but he returns to his hometown. Everyone's older and he notices that his childhood friends including Souma Ranko, Hoshimi Hitomi, Sasha Norberg, and Sanada Kyouko have all grown up into beautiful women. Shortly after he returns however, an incident causes him to remember a tragic event that took place seven years earlier...

   The PSP remake features new scenarios scripted by creator Hajime Yamada, new graphics, additional character voice snippets, and story changes. Preorders are welcome to ship on March 10, 2011 at JPY5800 or US$68.90. A limited edition is also available for preorder which includes a Vocal Album (Soundtrack) and a Special Booklet (illustrations, interviews).

NEWS General Updates

Slow Striker «©NCSX» Our shipments of DC Fast Striker are still in transit from NGDEV but they should arrive this week. We'll probably never use DHL for European shipments again but the Christmas and New Year holidays were likely factors in the slow delivery.

Holiday in Japan Yesterday    We forgot that every second Monday in January is Seijin no Hi or Coming of Age Day in Japan... which sort of messed up this week's early release chances for Arcana Heart 3. Due to the holiday yesterday, all new releases are on regular delivery schedule for later this week.

Nintendo 3DS    Preorders for the Japanese version of the Nintendo 3DS should kick off next week if alerts from suppliers are correct. We watched a bunch of the Nintendo World 2011 exhibitions over the weekend and Kid Icarus 3DS looks good.