Naruto’s former enemy turned ally Gaara, the Fifth Kazekage of the Sand will be receiving a much anticipated new awakening in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution. Gaara will be able to summon the One-Tailed Beast known as Shukaku as a giant true awakening and unleash his devastating power against opponents in the heat of battle. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem young Gaara will be receiving the revamp treatment and will most likely have the same move set he had in Naruto Storm: Generations. You can check out some screenshots of the Shukaku in action below. Kankuro will also be receiving his Sasori puppet as his new True Awakening and will feature in a new Team Ultimate Jutsu with his sand allies Temari and Gaara.
Other new additions to the game include being able to accessorize your characters in the online mode to stand out from the crowd with different equipment such as a giant battle axe or wearable scrolls. Players will also be able to have their online characters fight for them in Network Clone Teams to have them train and gather items while players are away from the game. Continuing the trend set by Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, Storm Revolution will also be receving a PC release via Steam with the release date being confirmed for the 16th of September. The game hits the PS3 and Xbox 360 in Australia on the 11th of September. You can check out the newest trailer for the game below the gallery.
The mystery action sequel Psychometrer will be going on hiatus in Kodansha‘s Young Magazine. The sequel to the shonen manga Psychometrer Eji will make an announcement in this year’s 38th issue of the magazine with no specific date on when both of the magakas will return with the series.
The manga series revolves around high school delinquent Asuma Eji who uses his psychometric powers to help police inspector Ryoko Shima solve mysterious criminal cases.
Yuma Ando and Masashi Asaka have been writing and drawing the sequel since 2011, before that they worked on the original Psychometrer Eji from 1996-2000 which ran in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine. The original manga has been published into 25 volumes with the sequel currently on its 14th. A new a spin off series of Psychometrer called Debusen will be serialized within the magazine, which will go on sale in Japan this month on the 18th.
Since the announcement of the anime, more information has been revealed about the cast and the crew for P.A. Works new original title.
The Shiro Bako official twitter account confirmed the names of those who will be working alongside director Tsutomu Mizushima for the series; Junri Kimura (Nagi no Asukara), Haruka Yoshimura, Haruka Chisuga, Asami Takano and Hitomi Ohwada have all been cast for the anime however their assigned characters have not been revealed yet.
Original Character design will be done by Ponkan8 with Animation Character Design assigned to Kanami Sekiguchi, Sekiguchi has worked on various projects including Fullmetal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell. Series Compositor for No-Rin, Michiko Yokote, will be Shiro Bakos Series Supervisor and director Mizushima will also be in charge of Sound Direction.
More information about the characters plus a PV will be revealed during Comiket 86 tomorrow, keep your eyes on this site for more information as it comes in.
One of the big draws of Razer’s Nabu Smart Band is the ability to integrate with mobile apps for socializing and gaming. Razer and game developer TenCent announced their partnership at Gamescom 2014, which will see TenCent integrating the Nabu’s fitness capabilities into Timi Run Everyday. Using the Nabu’s fitness tracking capabilities, hours slept, calories burnt, and steps taken will provide gamers with in-game rewards.
Timi Run Everyday is a side scrolling platformer that is already partnered with the Razer Nabu’s first big partnership, WeChat. Both WeChat and Timi Run Everyday are wildly popular in China. A specially branded Razer Nabu will be available for Timi Run Everyday fans to purchase at the Nabu’s launch. The special edition will contain a code for exclusive in game rewards.
Razer continued their push for developers at Gamescom. Wargaming, Techland, Shortbreak Studios, and Halfbrick have all signed up for the Developer Program and are considering integrating the Nabu with their products. Razer announced a European-centric developer portal to help bring EU-based developers into the fold. The 500 attendees at Respawn 2014 will be able to pick up $1.00 Razer Nabu developer units. Those who missed out and qualify for the Nabu Developer Program can still pick up a heavily discounted Nabu through the official developer portal.
The Swapper was first released on PC in May last year, gathering a decent amount of press and strong reviews. A year later and it has made its way to all of Sony’s machines and has a Wii U release coming in November. That year long gap has been a good thing, as the PlayStation port (done by Curve Studios, who also had a hand in Velocity Ultra and Stealth Inc.) manages to bring an excellent experience safely to a brand new home.
It’s a side scrolling sci-fi puzzle platformer, but that predictable and oft used combination is exploited to the full. The Swapper is incredibly atmospheric, full of elegant puzzles and design, and effortlessly weaves a strange, almost frightening world around the player. I loved it.
Story
Although The Swapper has been around for a while I had no idea about the details of the plot, at least nothing beyond the fact that the main character uses a gun that can create clones and swap his (?) consciousness into them. Having completed the game that ignorance feels like a great starting point: there is an abandoned space station, you must explore it.
The story unfolds in a very organic way- The Swapper opens up and lets you poke around the world at your own pace rather than funnelling players into cut scenes. A lot of it is in your own head, and for someone who loves this kind of thing the opportunity to fill in the blanks was fantastic. The Swapper tells its story like a novel more than a game.
It’s a wonderful piece of science fiction too. It uses its main mechanic – the Swapper gun – to provoke massive head spins of thought revolving around life, the universe, and everything. Within ten minutes it had me pondering on the nature of thought, the value of life, what consciousness really is, and how defined we are by our physical selves. Games don’t tend to take anything from science fiction but the setting and window dressing, so it was a delight to find The Swapper so effortlessly thought provoking.
Gameplay
Strip away the story and The Swapper is still an excellent puzzle game. The main character is equipped with an experimental gun that can create up to four copies of whoever wields it. The copies can be created on almost any spot within the player’s line of sight, which is controlled separately from movement and represented by a beam of light.
Placing a clone then progresses to swapping into it, allowing the character to cross gaps between platforms that a traditional jump can’t clear. Swapping into a clone for the first time is an odd experience; is the body you left behind still you? If it dies does all of you live on? To add to that feeling of unease whatever movement the player makes is echoed by every clone on screen, opening up a bevy of tricky situations that make for fun and satisfying puzzles as well as complicated and heavy trains of thought.
The collection of obstacles is lean but well exploited- if an area is lit by blue light a clone cannot be created there, and a swap cannot be made in the glow of a red light. Purple light is a no go zone for both, and the character doesn’t survive well when falling from a height. Throw in a few switches and the odd moveable crate and you have the entire repertoire of The Swapper.
It has a beautiful difficulty curve that lures you in, builds up your ego, and then suddenly squashes it flat. The puzzles never feel like they’re impossible though,with solutions that don’t come immediately often hiding just a small change of perspective away. Twisting your brain into that new perspective might take two minutes or twenty, but it always comes accompanied by a satisfying rush.
Picking up the orbs at the end of each puzzle helps to open up more areas of the space station to explore. There’s no set order to the puzzles within any one area, and progression is usually possible without grabbing 100% of the available orbs. I was far too hooked on the experience to risk missing anything, backtracking through the station to solve every last puzzle for fear of missing out. That never usually happens in puzzle games, and it’s a testament to the game design that I didn’t bat an eyelid about trekking from one side of the map to the other.
Audio & Visuals
The Swapper looks like nothing I have ever played before. In fact it feels like nothing I have ever played. The art and sound are put together so damn well that it’s impossible not to sink in to the atmosphere. The space station is another world; a desolate but beautiful one that can completely capture the imagination. Screenshots don’t do it justice it all. Take a look at the box art -the light of it, the shimmering particles- and imagine that brought to life. Imagine it brought to life on a large screen in a dark room, with no sound but that of the game – sparse music, echoing footsteps- and you have the start of it.
This was all created by digitising real world clay sculptures, a technique that is beginning to pop up in games like the upcoming Vanishing of Ethan Carter. That game will be digitising real world buildings and environments rather than clay models, but the underlying idea is the same. It works to great effect in The Swapper, and as mentioned above, is best experienced alone in the dark!
Overall
There are a lot of great games out there, but most don’t leave such an immediate and lasting impression. The Swapper feels new, alive, complete; I really found no fault with it. It’s a wonderful puzzle game, a beautiful artwork, and a thought provoking experience. There isn’t much more to be asked for.
With this release the opportunities to play The Swapper have expanded from PC to handheld and the last generation, but if you have the chance then take advantage of the PS4 version (it’s a cross buy game to boot).
Just lock yourself away and play the whole thing in one go.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Overview There are some weird games on the market and the whole concept of Akiba’s Trip Undead & Undressed can be one of the weirdest ones in the last few years. Vampire like creatures have been staple enemies in many games before the zombie hoard invaded everything, but the way that players must defeat these vampire like beings is probably the most unique method yet. That being said, does Akiba’s Trip Undead & Undressed warrant a purchase?
Story After blindly accepting an offering for rare figures, the otaku player (who can be named whatever the player wishes) finds himself strapped to a table surrounded by strange men. It is revealed that these men have transformed the player into a Synthister, a man-made vampire like creature capable of draining the life energy from people. Only with the help of a mysterious woman named Shizuku who attacks those keeping the player captive are you able to escape.
With the help of Shizuku the player is able to resist falling into temptation like other Synthisters and brings her to his friends, the Freedom Fighters of Akiba (Akihabara), to warn them that the city is in danger of being overrun by these monsters. With Synthisters able to blend in like everyone else and only a few people capable of determining who they might be, the Freedom Fighters are in for quite a fight, especially when a more supernatural aspect begins to come into play.
Now Akiba’s Trip Undead & Undressed may have a unique premise, a ton of hilarious dialogue, and Akihabara makes for a great setting, but it unfortunately does very little to actually dig much deeper into the more complicated issues that begin to arise later in the story. Much of the story is presented at surface level only and it is worth noting that this is a standalone story and the lack of detail is not because it was originally the second game in the series.
This lack of in-depth detail spreads to the characters themselves as many of them are, once again, surface level archetypes as very little character development occurs in the game. There are different choices that players can make throughout the game that affect their “affection” level with four of the female characters in the story which is a nice touch, as each of these girls have a unique ending, many of which are rather touching I will admit, that adds to the replay value.
Gameplay Defeating a creature that is similar to a vampire sounds like it might be simple being that almost anyone can list off their various weaknesses, but one weakness that every type of vampire has is sunlight and that is the player’s only weapon as well as their weakness. You see, the only way to defeat Synthisters is to strip off all of their clothing and expose them to sunlight; this includes their shirt, pants, and any headgear they might be wearing.
As such combat involves the player attacking their clothing more than the enemy themselves, targeting the head, body, and legs with different face button combos. Once an enemy’s clothing is damaged enough it will appear disheveled and flash red, allowing the player to hold that area’s face button to strip that article of clothing from the enemy. Players can gain additional XP and defeat enemies faster by chaining together strip attacks by having numerous enemies weakened at the same time by taking part in a series of quick time events. If you happen to have a high enough strip counter, you can even perform a special finishing move that makes the enemy even drop their underwear.
The problem is, the player is just as susceptible to damage and being stripped and burned away in the sunlight. As such players must block and avoid damage and “straighten out” their clothing by holding L1 to recover health. Players can equip all different types of clothing, either purchased from a store or obtained from defeated enemies, to customize their character as they wish, with clothing having higher durability levels and various weapon types offering different attacks, plus special weapons with unique combos of their own.
The combat is simplistic but very fun at the same time and players can even choose to upgrade their equipment with the help of their little sister Nana back at the Freedom Fighters’ headquarters, MOGRA. That being said, even on some of the highest difficulty levels the game has to offer the player can easily find themselves overpowering weaker opponents if they happen to upgrade their equipment to much.
Outside of the main storyline Akiba’s Trip Undead & Undressed offers a ton of side-quests that will see the player traveling through many areas in Akihabara as they finish these tasks that range from defeating roudy fans or stalkers, to tracking down special items, or even completing tasks for your dear shut-in sister. While these side-quests are completely voluntary, many of them are rather funny and they really help extend the life of the game as it is entirely possible to finish Akiba’s Trip Undead & Undressed in under eight hours.
Those looking for some replay value will find that Akiba’s Trip Undead & Undressed does offer a NG+ mode that allows the player to carry over all equipment and money from their last playthrough, the chance to change your character model, as well as a bonus option to display what choices will increase your affection level with certain girls. The title also features an option to fast-forward through dialogue you have read already, which is a nice touch.
Visuals Now before anyone attempts to get up in arms about the fact that Akiba’s Trip allows the player to strip enemies down to their skivvies, the fan service level is very equal as not only do there seem to be more male Synthisters than female at times, XSEED has made the effort to include extra strip CGs for the main male opponents in the game to equal that of the strip CGs that are already in the game for the main members of the female cast.
That being said, Akiba’s Trip Undead & Undressed offers an amazing looking replication of Akihabara with nicely detailed buildings and a great layout that even has various promotional videos playing on televisions around the area giving players plenty of references to catch. Even the loading screens reference various Akihabara shops as well as various video games and anime that were being released around the time the game was released in Japan. Heck, one of the main fake anime talked about throughout the story uses character art directly from one of Kaworu Watashiya’s works.
Unfortunately the character models themselves can leave something to be desired as there generally isn’t too much detail to be found here on either platform. It is also worth noting that the PlayStation 3 version of the game does suffer from drops in frame rate, the Vita version feels like it is on par with the PS3 version, featuring the same amount of frame rate problems and some longer load times.
Audio With the release of Akiba’s Trip Undead & Undressed XSEED has included both the newly recorded English voice track as well as the original Japanese voice work. Players can choose to switch between them at will and I must say that outside of one character, the English voice work is handled incredibly well and breathes some extra life into a few characters. Unfortunately the player’s little sister Nana seems to go a complete character change when you switch voice tracks and although the English dub features plenty of bro-terms, her voice work is a step down from that found in the original dub.
Outside of that there is a decent set of background music used throughout the game, with the aforementioned videos offering an extra touch as they promote Disgaea 4 or Conception II in the background and treat the player to those games’ opening themes, even though Akiba’s Trip’s opening is great in its own right.
Overall Akiba’s Trip Undead & Undressed is a very strange game but that is a good thing. Although the storyline can leave a bit to be desired, the amount of humor and the cast of characters do a great job making up for that fact. The novel concept of stripping enemies of their clothing to defeat them and the great setting of Akihabara teeming with anime and Japanese references makes for a fun game that feels a bit bare at times but provides a satisfyingly enjoyable experience.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Today Sentai Filmworks revealed the English dub cast for Gatchaman Crowds, which makes sense considering the series is set to be released on Blu-ray and DVD in less than a month. The company revealed that Kyle Jones will be the director for the dub while the English cast as follows with the character listed first and the voice actor second.
Hajime Ichinose Jessica Calvello
Sugane Tachibana Corey Hartzog
Joe Hibiki Ty Mahany
Utsu-tsu Carli Mosier
PAI-MAN Luci Christian
O.D. Clint Bickham
Rui Ninomiya Shannon Emerick
Berg Katze David Wald
President X Jenni Strader
J.J. Robinson Leraldo Anzaldua
Gatchaman Crowds is set to be released on September 2nd and those wishing to pre-order the anime can do so herefor the Blu-ray version and here for the DVD release.
Today MangaGamer announced that they are creating a hard copy of another one of their PC titles and the latest eroge to get this physical treatment happens to be Demon Master Chris. The company has opened up pre-orders for the game which will be shipped out on September 1st.
The title can be pre-ordered here (18+ Only) for $16.95. Demon Master Chris is a 3D Dungeon RPG following the story of a conjurer named Chris who has found herself lost in the demon realm and the only way to fight against the demons she encounters is to strip them down and make them her companions to avoid being raped by these lesbian creatures.
During EA‘s press conference at Gamescom BioWare announced that they are working on a new game called Shadow Realms. Jeff Hickman, the Studio General Manager, described the title as being similar to a pen and paper style game.
Shadow Realms will be set in a modern fantasy world where a team of four heroes must do battle against one player who is the “Shadow Lord” that controls all kinds of evil creatures. This 4 vs 1 approach will feature an overarching storyline that will be episodically told and is scheduled to be released for the PC sometime late 2015.
Today Bethesda took the time to announce that they will be selling a season pass for their upcoming survival horror game, The Evil Within. The season pass will be priced at $19.99 and include three planned add-ons for the title with two of them following a story driven experience as players take on the role of Juli Kidman who is Sebastian Castellanos’ mysterious partner from the game.
That isn’t the first piece of DLC to be released however, as the first will place players in the role of “The Keeper” who is better known as the Boxman where players will navigate through a collection of sadistic mission-based maps.
