NIS America announced today that the release date for Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy in the West has been changed to June 9th in North America and June 5th in Europe. This PS Vita dungeon RPG was previously announced for release sometime in April but those plans have changed.
When Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy is released it will be available digitally as well as at retail. To go along with this announcement NIS America has released a new batch of screenshots showing off the various character portrait options in the character creation system that players will have to use before taking the fight to the Variants.
The Order: 1886 has been slated as the next big PS4 exclusive to be born out of the AAA development machine. Developed by Ready at Dawn and with the backing of Sony as a publisher, this game has some significant weight behind it. The game is gorgeous to behold with an interesting design for the characters and the graphical power to showcase them. The setting itself is a new IP which explores an alternate history which is equal parts steampunk and gothic horror.
Heading down to the Australian headquarters of the fictional order (the refurbished ‘Hero of Waterloo’ at the Rocks in Sydney) a couple of days ago. I grabbed myself a tankard of ale and tried to learn as much as I could about the secretive order. I got some hands on time with the game but due to the fairly short duration of the levels, I did not gain too much more insight beyond the fact that the controls have been improved significantly and that bugs have been ironed out. The combat is satisfying and draws from well-established mechanics in third-person cover-based shooters. There wasn’t something as interesting as the thermite rifle from my colleague’s playthrough of the game.
I was also given the opportunity to watch a playthrough of two levels by one the developers. The first level showcased the aforementioned 3rd person shooter gameplay as the Order set about to infiltrating a fancy looking estate. The second level was more interesting as it showcased combat with one of the lycanthrope antagonists (“half-breeds”). It was interesting to see the design for these villains, but it is unfortunate that encounter largely came down to being quick-time events. It was a shame that the two levels I could play through during the event, only had human foes for me to fight.
Unfortunately the hour was late and I had to cut short my time with the game to get home before various ghoulies could ambush me on my stumble home. The game is to be released on the 20th of February of this year and is a PS4 exclusive.
Viz Media recently announced their acquisition of the publishing rights to the new Shounen Jump manga series My Hero Academia.
The first volume of Kohei Horikoshi’s popular action series will be released in North America in August, and will carry a rating of ‘T’ for Teenagers. The series began serialisation in the Weekly Shounen Jump magazine in July 2014. Two tankoubon volumes have already been published in Japan.
Horikoshi was born in Aichi, Japan, in 1986. In 2006, he received a Tezuka Award Honourable Mention, and debuted in Weekly Shounen Jump in 2010 with Oumagadoki Doubutsen (Oumagadoki Zoo) after creating several short stories for Akamaru Jump (now known as Jump NEXT!). Barrage, a space battle fantasy adventure series, was the second title he created for Weekly Shounen Jump, and is currently published in English by Viz Media.
Viz Media describes My Hero Academia:
What would the world be like if 80 percent of the population manifested extraordinary superpowers called “Quirks” at age four? Heroes and villains would be battling it out everywhere! Becoming a hero would mean learning to use your power, but where would you go to study? U.A. High’s Hero Program of course! But what would you do if you were one of the 20 percent who were born Quirkless?
Middle school student Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero more than anything, but he hasn’t got an ounce of power in him. With no chance of ever getting into the prestigious U.A. High School for budding heroes, his life is looking more and more like a dead end. Then an encounter with All Might, the greatest hero of them all gives him a chance to change his destiny…
Nozomi Entertainment recently announced their acquisition of the Please Teacher!anime and the sequel spinoff Please Twins!.
Nozomi Entertainment plans to release Please Teacher! as a 13-episode DVD collection in summer 2015. The series, directed by Yasunori Ide (Bastard!!), featuring character designs by Hiroaki Gohda (Amagami SS and Love, Election and Chocolate) and animated by Daume (Strawberry Marshmallow, Shiki), first aired in Japan in 2002 on the WOWOW network. It ran for 12 episodes with a single OVA episode being released later that year.
Nozomi Entertainment also plans to release Please Twins! as a 13-episode DVD collection in summer 2015. The series originally aired in 2003. This spinoff focuses on new characters, however many characters from Please Teacher! make an appearance.
An official website for the series has launched, which is available here.
Viz Media has just announced their acquisition of the Ultraman manga series. Inspired by the 1966-1967 Japanese sci-fi superhero TV series, this 2011 manga adaptation is updated with new elements to appeal to a new generation of fans.
This adaptation was created by Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi for Japan’s monthly comic magazine Hero’s. The English translated version will be available beginning August 18, 2015, under the Viz Signature label.
Eiji Tsubaraya’s Ultraman series has become a major Japanese pop-culture phenomenon since premiering nearly 50 years ago in Japan. Several adaptations of the series have been produced since then. The original live-action series is still available on DVD in North America with dual audio.
If anyone reading this can remember how hard it was to find a copy of Pokemon Stadium on the Nintendo 64 when it first released then you know that’s how hard it is to find an Amiibo on the store shelf (that’s not Link, Mario or Pikachu). I recently described my own Thursday morning rush experience when Wave 3 was released. To try and remedy the situation, Nintendo Australia is restocking certain Amiibo over the coming months.
This is a very general announcement and it’s not stated which Amiibo are being restocked or when, but in an interesting move Nintendo Australia have revealed it will be sourcing the Amiibo stock from other regions and have stated the packaging may not be of the standard Australia/New Zealand type. Most likely the stock will come from Europe where the packaging is identical. Amiibo can be used in a number of titles including Super Smash Bros. Wii U and 3DS, Hyrule Warriors and Mario Kart 8 most noticeably.
The 21st of March will see the release of 6 new Amiibo in a new collection titled the Super Mario Bros. series and will feature Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach, Bowser and Yoshi. Wave 4 of the Smash Bros Collection are due out sometime in April and will include Robin, Lucina, Pac-Man, Wario, Ness and Charizard.
UPDATE: Seems Target have began receiving their restocks already (25th of February) and based on the packaging the Amiibos are coming from Japan.
Following FUNimation’s announcement of the English dub casts of Assassination Classroom and Death Parade, they have revealed the dub cast lists for three more of the anime titles they acquired from the summer 2015 season.
Here is the dub cast list for Tokyo Ghoul √A:
Kaneki – Austin Tindle
Touka – Brina Palencia
Tsukiyama – J Michael Tatum
Yamori – Christopher Sabat
Rize – Monica Rial
Hide – Clifford Chapin
Nishiki – Eric Vale
Hinami – Lara Woodhull
Mado – Kenny Green
Amon – Mike McFarland
Ayato – Todd Haberkorn
Eto – Lindsay Seidel
Tatara – Chris Wehkamp
No announcement has been made about an English dub for the first season. The dub of the second season premiered on Wednesday at 9:00pm ET.
Next up is the dub cast list for World Break: Aria of a Curse for a Holy Swordsman:
Moroha – Clifford Chapin
Satsuki – Felecia Angelle
Shizuno – Jad Saxton
Gen – Michael Jones
Angela – Morgan Garrett
Edward – Seth Magill
Jin – Garret Storms
Mari – Heather Walker
Maya – Tia Ballard
Sofia – Alexis Tipton
Tanaka – Sonny Strait
Tokiko – Trina Nishimura
The English dub of this series will premiere on Sunday the 22nd of February at 11:05am ET.
The English dub of this series will premiere on Saturday the 21st of February at 12:58pm ET.
As with their previous announcement, FUNimation has confirmed that there will be a DVD and Blu-ray release for each of these series following the release of the uncut and uncensored Japanese home video releases. The dubs will be revised for the home video releases.
Viz Media has just announced their upcoming release of the fifth limited edition Blu-ray box set 5 of Ranma 1/2. The details are as follows:
Episodes 93-115 will be featured across three discs. The Blu-ray set will feature a 32-page booklet with episode summaries for every episode. On-disc extras will include the textless opening and ending animations, series trailers and the “We Love Ranma Part 5 – We Love Collecting” segment. The set has a suggested retail price of $54.97 USD and $63.99 CAN.
The standard edition DVD set will not feature the special segment or the physical bonuses. It has a suggested retail price of $44.82 USD and $51.99 CAN. Pre-orders for both editions are now available ahead of its March 3, 2015 release.
If you happen to be a big fan of Sexual Chocolate, now simply called Mark Henry, then you’ll be happy to hear that WWE 2K15‘s latest piece of DLC focuses entirely on Mark Henry’s rise to dominance during his time of putting various superstars into the ‘Hall of Pain.’
This DLC is priced at $13.45 and is available with the Season Pass and in this DLC the 2K Showcase: Hall of Pain will feature Mark Henry’s highest profile matches from 2011-2013 including his battles against Kane, The Great Khali, the Big Show, and even Randy Orton.
Full details about what is included in the DLC, as well as a trailer for the DLC, can be found below:
2K Showcase: Hall of Pain
Story focused on top matches for WWE Superstar Mark Henry
Playable WWE Superstars (2011 versions): Mark Henry, Big Show, Kane, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Sheamus, The Great Khali, Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan and Ryback
Playable arenas: SmackDown (2011), Vengeance (2011) and WrestleMania 29
Big titles these days either suffer countless delays or require some sort of day 1 patch to fix many of the games problems and Slightly Mad Studios and Bandai Namco have opted for the former. Yes, Project CARS is delayed again. The ultra realistic racing simulator will now release on April 2nd for PC via Steam as well as Xbox One and PS4 in Australia and Europe. April 7th is the release date in North America for the Xbox One and PS4 versions. The release date prior to this change was March 20th. The game was originally slated to release in the first quarter of 2014.
Head of Studio at Slightly Mad Studios Ian Bell had this to say on the delay:
“Moving the release date was not an easy decision to make, as we know our fans are eager to get their hands-on on Project CARS… but we know that these extra days will allow us to provide the best game experience that our fans deserve. We assure you the wait will be worth it when the game does arrive early April”.
A very talked down Wii U version should also be close to completion by this time but no release date has yet been given. You can check out our impressions of the game here.
