In this weeks instalment of a series that is quite infrequent but often entertaining comes a music video from the Japanese power-metal band: Galneryus. The song in this excellent video is called Everlasting and is from one of my more favourite of their albums, One for all – All for one.
The band itself has been around since around 2001 and have been active right up until the present, with their latest EP “Kizuna” being released in late January. At present the band has 7 primary albums, with a bunch of compilations, singles and the like floating around out there. The band has also gone through a few members in their line-up, with only a couple of constant members that have been around since the beginning, which is why if you listen to their work, their vocals are seemingly different.
The first trailer for Saint Seiya Omega, the hotly anticipated and long awaited sequel to the original Saint Seiya, has been released. The trailer shows off the first footage of the upcoming series, including the Saints themselves and even Seiya in action.
You can watch the trailer for Saint Seiya Omega below. The new anime series is set the premeire this Spring 2012 anime season on the 1st of April. Currently there has been no confirmation of a Western simulcast effort for the series, but there is still the chance that could change.
Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think in the comments section. Does it get your cosmos burning?
Details surrounding the next opening and ending theme songs for the popular shonen anime series Hunter x Hunter have surfaced. In an image leak from an upcoming edition of Weekly Shonen Jump, it is revealed that come April 15th, 2012, the series will begin using a new opening and ending theme song.
The new opening will be done by Masatoshi Ono, who as you may recall did the first opening theme song ‘Departure’. The second opening is set to be a sequel of sorts to the original ‘Departure’ and will be titled ‘Departure – Second Version’.
The second ending song will also be in the hands of Masatoshi Ono but this time not as a solo act but as part of the legendary Japanese metal band Galneryus. Galneryus, fronted by Ono will perform the second ending theme titled ‘Hunting for your Dream’.
Both songs are set to debut in episode 27, where the Heaven’s Arena story arc is set to commence.
While the trailer for Ciel no Surge was a great little reveal at Gust’s stage event in Akihabara, their true reason for holding the event was to reveal that they are working another Atelier title for the PlayStation 3. Currently the title is simply called “Project A14” and it will feature characters by a brand new designer, though Gust was tight lipped about who the new designer is.
There will be more details released at the end of March in Dengeki PlayStation magazine Andriasang reports, though it has so far been revealed that the game is in fact a brand new Atelier series and has no relation to the “Arland” series of games such as Atelier Rorona, Totori or Meruru. The theme for A14 will be “The Promise Begins” and is currently set for a June release.
At yesterday’s Dengeki Game Festa Gust revealed a a new trailer for their upcoming PlayStation Vita game Surge Concerto: Ciel no Surge. For those who don’t know, players must take care of a girl named Ion who has lost her memories and try to restore her memory over the span of a year.
The trailer can be seen below and anyone who has played the Ar Tonelico games will instantly recognize that Ciel no Surge will use the same type of music as those titles, which makes sense considering Ar Tonelico’s director is also working on this game.
Currently there has been no mention of this title making its way overseas, though with many JRPG titles being released courtesy of NIS America in recent years, and the fact that Gust was recently purchased by Tecmo Koei there is a very good chance at least one of those companies may acquire the license for a Western release.
Well… at least that is what an anonymous source has reported to Gamerzines. This source has stated that not only is there an HD version of Shenmue 1 and 2 being made… they are already finished! To top that off they have been finished for over a year now and are currently pending release on both the XBLA and PSN…
Now this is obviously one gigantic rumor at the moment because Sega hasn’t said a single word about the Shenmue series for quite some time. This source even goes on to say that Sega is sitting on these HD remakes while it figures out what to do with a possible Shenmue 3. If this is indeed true Sega, just release the games already, your fans will download them without a second thought after all these rumors.
Next month Soulcalibur V is meant to start receiving costume DLC on a monthly basis. While we’ve seen some screenshots from the Japanese version of the game detailing various outfits that will be released here in North America, we have yet to see these outfits in action.
That is until now when the below YouTube video appeared, providing us a look at all the various DLC pieces that can be acquired, such as school swimsuits and maid outfits. Sounds like there will be plenty of Japanese influences in the Create a Warrior section now.
All of the costumes will be available through the”Cepheus Store” which looks like it will be added during the patching of the game on March 21st where Namco Bandai will be balancing and fixing over 240 things in the game. Currently no pricing has been revealed nor has Namco Bandai revealed whether or not individual costumes will need to be purchased or if players can buy entire sets.
Next week, on March 25th, Beelzebub will be finishing off its TV anime series with its 60th episode. Beelzebub is the story of a high school delinquent named Tatsumi Oga. Oga ends up tasked with raising Beelzebub, the son of the Demon King, who will grow up to destroy humanity. As sons of Demon Kings are usually expected to do.
Those that like watching a complete series instead of waiting week to week can probably get started watching the first 59 episodes already available on Crunchyroll. Then be set to finish the series when the last episode is put up after airing in Japan.
While the TV anime series comes to a close, the manga series continues to be written and released by Ryūhei Tamura in Weekly Shōnen Jump where the news was first dropped.
Charadium II Developer: On5 Platform: iPhone Release Date: February 21, 2012 Price: $1.99 DOWNLOAD NOW!
Overview
Many years ago, when it was cool to use Yahoo! Games as a source of entertainment, I would spend hours playing Grafitti – a small game that let players take turns drawing random words while a crowd guessed away. Charadium is the first game I’ve played since then that stays true to the concept of a live drawing game, with that age-old Pictionary theme kept in the forefront of the experience. Of course there still are differences to be found though, as this romp has more features than an iOS user could ever want, with modes for both multiplayer and single player fans alike. Even with all that though, one still has to wonder if this art-studio in an app has enough charm and appeal to actually remain relevant for a long period of time. What’s the answer? Here is my review for Charadium II for the iPhone.
Gameplay
Pick one of three words. Doodle it with your finger for a crowd. Let the madness begin. That’s honestly the gist of Charadium as when it comes to actual mechanics, there is very little needed to do other than draw or guess words. Thankfully, there are four separate modes in Charadium that each target a different audience and even though the gameplay rarely changes, I would think any budding artist would be sure to find their flavor in a short time. The first element that any recent “DrawSomething” fan will notice is that there are 8 drawing utensils at the player’s disposal at all times (a major step up), with 18 different colors to choose from to create your own masterpiece. Players can use the pencil for quick accurate strokes, a paint brush for much thicker lines, and even a “magic” pen that instantly connects corners and gives any sketch a professional look. The variety is plentiful, and never once did I feel like I needed more art supplies to draw out the words I was given.
As far as modes go, the “meat and potatoes” of Charadium is of course “Classic Charadium”. This mode lets players take turns guessing words, where each participant has their own chance to draw. Whenever it is your turn, you must pick from three different terms, and then draw out your visual representation of that word in true artsy form. The canvas itself overlays the chat, and even though there is a full fledged guessing game going on behind your doodle, the busy chatroom never interferes with what you’re doing and can even assist the player as seeing those random guesses can give you a better idea of how to make your picture more obvious. To make things more chaotic, each player only has a short time-span to draw their word and if they fail to do so, hints will start to appear to the crowd that narrow down what your picture could be. For instance, if I am drawing “Banana”, the crowd would begin to see B _ N _ _ A. This lightning round set-up ensures that no-one acts as a spoiled sport and does nothing, and allows players to jump-in and out of games on their own without worrying about ruining anyone’s experience.
King of the Hill works in almost the same nature, but has the player who guesses the word draw next. This mode is a bit more competitive, but the only problem I had with it was that many eager artists would draw out the word with their finger, rather than a picture. There is a disciplinary vote-off option to counter-act this behavior (or the very common doodles of male genitalia), but with three votes required it can be a bit hard to garner support from users who are all performing the same frustrating actions, meaning it may take a while to find a room with a mature user base.
Ping-Pong mode is a completely different game altogether, ditching the timer and live gameplay to let players draw on their own schedule with up to 4 friends allowed in a session at once. As fun as all three modes can be, the terms you are given can hamper the experience. Even though there is a large variety of words overall, I still found it hard to draw out a word like “termination” in such a short time, and other offerings can be just as complex which seem to make users want to spell out their word rather than guess it. Those who are completionists though are sure to love the many achievements offered for performing up to par, as each player can rise through the ranks based on their personal scores and feats. I never once experienced any lag in a live match, and everyone seemed to be having fun when the entire room were participating in rounds as they should.
If you dislike the whole “live” game aspect, there is a drawing app included that lets you practice or just paint what you want at your own leisure. Yes, I know. There are tons of apps like this, but I still found myself using it almost as much as the main game and the option to save and send pictures makes the small inclusion have plenty of reasons to come back to again and again.
Visuals/Audio
It’s really hard to play critic with the visuals of Charadium, as you literally control how good your drawings are, so we won’t cover graphics in this area. The presentation of Charadium though could use a bit of work though, as having a keyboard take up half the screen can make the game feel a bit limited if you are playing with anything other than an iPad. For a game based on art, I also found it a bit odd to see generic menu design as the main hub for modes leaves a bit to be desired and comes off as a bit cluttered, overall. Of course this won’t effect the game for anybody and is more of a nitpick, but hopefully we can see that addressed in a future update.
There isn’t much to say in terms of sound either, as all the player will ever hear are minor effects when words are guessed. Again, this is also not a huge gripe, as I doubt many of you will be too worried about hearing a tune play while you are trying to guess some random sketch. The sound effects are chipper though and do their job at making you feel like a winner when needed.
Overall
Charadium may be a bit generic by design, but still reigns supreme when it comes to multiplayer drawing titles on the iOS. Boasting enough tools to assist any budding artist in creating almost any term imaginable is enough to make this casual title appeal to the masses, but the competitive modes included within are sure to interest the more hardcore due to the addictive nature of the game, making Charadium suitable for all. Yes, there are plenty of other contenders out there at the moment, but before you draw something, you should try Charadium instead as it truly captures what gaming on the device is all about. Simple and addictive fun.
The Japan Game Awards are coming up in honour of those Games and their creators who have made significant contributions to the industry as a whole, which as we all know is one of Japans key World class industries. There a 4 major awards to be presented at the ceremony starting with the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry award which commend a group or individual who has made an impact on the development of the overall video game industry in the country based on recently released titles and work. The Game of the Year division is the most involved and features the Grand Award, the Award of Excellence, the Global Award and the Best sales Award, all open to titles released in Japan between April 2011 and March 2012 time frame. Also in this category on offer is the Game Designers Award which recognises uniqueness, creativity and innovation. Future Division is very true to its name and basically reads like a scout award that is on the lookout for highly regarded titles that are judged by a panel to be very promising for future development. The Amatuer division is highly regarded and is given out to commend creative original titles, regardless of the fact they could be large groups of a developer working from a small office.
The Computer Entertainment Suppliers Association has been hosting the Awards to recognise and highlight excellence in game development since 1996. The Japan Game Awards are importnant as they recognise more the the title itself but the team behind it in an effort to raise awareness to their well respected gaming industry. The Japan Game Awards has a strong affiliation with the Tokyo Game Show recognised as a leader in gaming exhibitions, something which should open its scope to more gamers.
The Commendation ceremony is to be held at Makuhari Messe on September 20th as part of the Tokyo Game Show and is open to all members of the industry as well as all those from the public.
