After recently announcing PokePark 2: Beyond the World for the Wii, Pokemon Company International have now gave us a new trailer for the unexpected sequel. If you are unaware, this follow-up will feature the same adventure style gameplay that lets players now take control of Pikachu, Oshawott, Tepig, or Snivy while playing mini-games with many Pokemon that inhabit the game’s two worlds.
This clip shows us some of the unique abilities that these mascots will possess, as well as mini-games such as a rhythm action style dance-off and several other activities that fans should enjoy. There still isn’t a date or even an official word on localization at the moment (but we know that is coming) for PokePark 2, but for now you can watch the new trailer down below.
Remember way back when Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was announced it was mentioned that the game would have some sort of Kinect functionality? Well it was detailed this weekend at New York Comic Con and 343 Industries revealed whether or not we will be able to flail around in front of our televisions in an attempt to shoot an Elite.
No need to worry about that, as the Kinect functionality was announced to be mostly voice commands. When players are in the Anniversary mode of the game, where everything is all fancy looking, they can say out loud “Analyze” and the game will then add enemies or other things to the game’s database. Also players can say certain actions and they will be performed, including throwing a grenade when the player says grenade. Sounds nice and harmless for non-Kinect users but a nice addition for those with a Kinect.
Recently, Level-5 announced during their big conference that they will be releasing a new anime titled Yokai Watch. The anime as you can imagine will be focused around yokai and a watch of some kind. Level-5 will also be releasing both a game and manga based on the series.
You can check out the spirited Yokai Watch trailer below, which features the scenes of the anime as well as a short clip of the game.
What do you think of the new Level-5 project, Yokai Watch? Will you be watching Yokai Watch? Let us know in the shoutbox or comments section.
There has been much hate for Capcom’s Marvel vs. Capcom 3 final boss Galactus but it seems that this big powerful bad guy will be available to be played somehow in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. Capcom’s strategy manager Seth Killian revealed over the weekend during New York Comic Con that Galactus will be a playable character in this new skinned release.
Galactus will have his own game play mode though they were not able to go into more detail at the time. How do you think he could be added in to the game? Perhaps he could have his own little mini-game where you destroy planets, or a survival mode where you beat down all the other characters?
As the sun sets on Level-5 World, the Hiro headed developers are releasing the trailers from their press conference Level-5 Vision. In this trailer for Ni No Kuni for the Playstation 3, there is a mix of gameplay and animation. The animation is done by the legendary animation studio Studio Ghibli. The colourful designs mixed with great gameplay is sure to be a winner for Level-5.
But what about those countries on the other side of the world? Well, the West is going to receive the Playstation 3 version in 2012. The game will be published by Namco Bandai instead of Level-5 themselves, despite opening an US office earlier this year. They are still young, though, so this is understandable. Europe won’t miss out, as they will also receive the game. So… will Australia receive it? A good chance if both North America and Europe will see a release.
Viz Media has made an incredibly controversial decision to end their print run of Shonen Jump magazine in April of 2012. The magazine which is itself a U.S. version of the massively popular japanese magazine of the same title, has run in the U.S. since 2002, meaning that it will have been a 10 year run next year.
Some fans saw the writing on the walls, when Viz Media announced the magazine was going to change the magazines schedule to lessen releases a year from 12 to 10.
While some fans will be disheartened that the magazine is ending, they will be pleased to know that Viz Media is replacing it with a new version of Shonen Jump titled Shonen Jump Alpha, which will be released entirely digital and on a weekly basis featuring chapters fresh from Japan. Several manga will be featured in the weekly Shonen Jump Alpha, such as: Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Toriko, Reborn!, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan and Bakuman.
What do you think of this shocking news? Let us know in the shoutbox or comments section.
It was a busy weekend at New York Comic Con, especially for Aniplex of America. This weekend they announced when anime lovers in North America can expect to see Puella Magi Madoka Magica outside of Japan. Aniplex will be releasing the series on both DVD and Blu-ray on February 14th which means you can give the anime lover in your life an anime DVD for Valentine’s day.
The next two volumes of the series will be released on April 10th and June 12th. To make things better, Madoka will also be receiving an English dub and they have released a few big names for the dub, with Christine Marie handling Madoka’s voice and Cassandra Lee taking on the role as Kyubey. When it is released fans can expect to pay around $40 for the DVD and $50 on Blu-ray. Or if you feel a bit free with your money you can spend $95 and receive not only both the DVD and Blu-ray version, but also a soundtrack, collectible postcards, double sided poster, Kyubey sticker and a 24 page booklet. Sounds good no?
While Viz Media may have announced that they acquired the license to release Tiger & Bunny in North America sometime in the future, they did not say whether or not the series would actually be receiving an English dub to go along with it. That is until the New York’s Comic Con this weekend when Viz Media revealed that they would indeed be releasing an English dub of the series.
Viz is currently in pre-production of the dub and no voice actors have been announced. There is some more news though, as Masayuki Ozaki, the General Manager of Overseas Development at the anime studio responsible for Tiger & Bunny, Sunrise, revealed that the next bit of information for the franchise would be revealed on November 13th. Any guesses as to what this potential next step could be?
I’m taking a break from my usual Playstation news reporting to bring news from Com2uS, developers of a few iOS games for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. First up, they are updating two of their bigger games to be compatible with the new iOS 5. Both Tower Defense HD and Slice It! will have support for Apple’s new cloud service, iCloud. So, if you are playing on the go on your iPhone and decide to switch to the iPad version, access to the iCloud will allow the player to pick up their save data from the iPhone version and continue playing on the iPad version. Other iOS 5 features will also be supported.
The second bit of news related to Slice It! The popular geometric slicing game is now available for the PC via the Mac App Store. It will feature over 200 puzzles plus have some added features. The main new feature will be a timer. It will add an extra challenge to the game. The game will feature different elements that can throw off any gamer. It will cost US$4.99.
I am not a iOS gamer or a Mac gamer, but I do wonder why is the main feature on the PC version a timer. Timers in puzzle games are very common. Oh well.
Katanagatari Volume 2 Premium Edition Studio: White Fox Publisher: NIS America Language: Japanese with English Subtitles Release Date: September 20, 2011 Price: $55.99 Blu-Ray/DVD Combo – Available Here
Overview:
Earlier this year in July an anime series was released that was unlike most of the other shows we have seen in North America. While the story may have been a bit formulaic the show contained one of the most unique art styles that I had ever seen and that show was Katanagatari. Katanagatari’s rough English translation means Sword Story and it was originally a Japanese light novel that was written by Nisio Isin back in 2007 and was finished in that same year.
Now the Katanagatari which I reviewed in July was only part one of the series, and NIS America has now released their English subbed version of the second half of the series effectively bringing the storyline to a close. In this final volume, does the story of Shichika and Togame reach a satisfying conclusion? It is extremely recommended to read the first part of the series’ review first.
Story:
With one half of the series down, Shichika and Togame are also halfway through acquiring all of the swords (Klesha Bringers) that Togame has set out to find. However one of their biggest threats begins to loom, Shichika’s sister Nanami who has managed to acquire one of these swords for herself. To make matters worse the Maniwa Ningun and Princess Denial who is Togame’s rival all begin to move towards acquiring all of the swords including those already obtained by Togame.
With all three forces moving to gather Shikizaki Kiki’s Klesha Bringers tensions rise and the battles will only grow to be fiercer. So many forces are beginning to clash at once but only one can remain the victor. The only problem is, will Togame and Shichika be the last owners of the mysterious swords or will they fall to the rest of the forces moving against them? And what is the reason that everyone seeks the collection of twelve Klesha Bringers?
In my review of the previous season I went into detail about how each episode of Katanagatari followed a rather rigid formula. Now while the formula is still here, where every episode involves Shichika and Togame encountering a Klesha Bringer owner and defeating them. However there is much more going on in the background than in previous episodes.
Namely the other factions moving around including Princess Denial heighten not only the tension but also provide constant chances for interactions between the rival groups that could explode at any moment. The appearance of Shichika’s sister finally begins to reveal that he is much more than just a living weapon and this is quite apparent towards the latter half of the series as his emotions begin to take shape.
One of the biggest draws to the storyline of Katanagatari is the developing relationship between Shichika and Togame. Over the course of the series we have seen the two become quite inseparable and the
transformation of their interactions with one another is something that is great to see in every episode. Unfortunately for this, the amount of dialogue that is presented at any given time is something that seems to always separate the viewer from the experience. Nothing is left to be inferred, everything is explained and given and this can cause a significant separation emotionally from any scene.
This is all the more apparent near the very end of the series as an emotional roller coaster comes out of nowhere. While some viewers shouldn’t have any issue feeling the impact of the drama that they are seeing on screen, some will simply just wonder why an ending like that would have happened. For those that do feel the impact however, it will be quite heavy as Katanagatari does end quite satisfyingly and the ending will stick with you long after you have ejected the discs from your player of choice.
Artwork:
There is plenty that can be said about an artist that stays true to its art style. Thankfully Katanagatari is a series that has taken its art style and made it their own without changing anything over the course of the series. Every character has a unique and amazing look about them, something unlike anything you have seen before. This doesn’t even touch upon the artwork available in the art book which only heightens the pleasure one can derive from this series’ artstyle.
While man shows can pride themselves on having a very complicated and detailed artwork, but few can take such basic designs and make them something great. Everything in the world of Katanagatari is made to look like something one would find in an art book, whether it be the environment that the characters are currently in or the battles that occurs in every episode. Those looking to see a series with a unique appearance need look no further than Katanagatari.
Audio & Subtitles:
The series continues to provide exemplar music. Each episode has a different ending song and animation which is stellar for a series with as much quality in the music. The reason the music is such a pleasure to the ears is that it mixes both modern music and classical music to provide an amazing atmosphere and usually ending songs blend well with the animation. To top it off, the fighting music is absolutely perfect as it seems to have been recorded to go along with the actions that the characters would be taking in the fight.
Now the voice actors are all the same for the main characters, and the newer characters that we are introduced to are provided great voice work that manages to fit the character well enough. This is a must for a series that is so dialogue heavy that viewers will become disinterested if the voice actors didn’t pull off as great of a job as they did here.
Now it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise as volume 1 of Katanagatari was only English subbed with Japanese dubbing, but the only voice track in volume 2 is for Japanese. Which of course means you will need to read along with what the characters are saying to understand what is happening. Thankfully the subtitles are easy to read and did not contain any grammatical errors that I was able to discern from watching each episode.
Extras:
NIS America’s release of Katanagatari Volume 2 comes with a combination pack of two DVDs and two Blu-ray discs. Each one of the discs contains some of the series’ clean ending animations and songs which is a plus. Each part of volume 2 is held within a slim case each with a nice piece of artwork on the cover but that is nothing compared to the collective hardcover slipcase. The slipcase contains amazing artwork for the series which rivals that of the first volume, making it a challenge to see which one should deserve a place on your shelf.
The hardcover artbook for volume 2 is named ‘The Epic of Shichika’ and what an epic it is when you open up the pages. The artbook is the same size as the slipcase and is full of amazing artwork as well as song lyrics, episode breakdowns and a glossary for any complicated words or references that could be difficult to understand. If there is anything that can be said about the way that NIS America creates their premium edition’s it is that they create bonus content that no buyer will have remorse over.
Overall:
Katanagatari Volume 2 provides the series with a needed boost to help bring the story to a close. While the amount of dialogue can sometimes provide some separation from the characters to the viewer, the developments in this latter half of the series helps dispel some of the problems which plagued the first half. The series shrugs off some of the formulaic ways of volume 1 and provides a very enjoyable storyline with amazing action, a wonderfully unique art style and a satisfying ending.
