I’m not sure I can say the transition from anime to games has generally been met with staggering success in the past, so have Sega struck gold with their tactical RPG on the DS?

Well, no.

I guess I should elaborate at least a little on that sentiment. The fact that the game carves out a new story, instead of just rehashing pieces of the original series is certainly a point in its favour, and a point that more developers should take into consideration when transitioning a game from a long-running series such as Bleach. Not only that, but this story is written by Tite Kubo, a name fans will recognise as the creator of Bleach, in which you play one of a set of twins created especially for this game.

However, it’s unfortunate that that remains the most positive thing I can say about the game. While dropping the fighting format of the previous titles shows a willingness to broaden the series, it also pits the game against some heavy hitters of the genre, such as Fire Emblem or Disgaea – and when compared to those titles, it doesn’t fare too well.

The format is essentially the same, placing you on an isometric grid with control over your various pawns like an adrenaline-fuelled game of chess. It’s the little things that combine to letting it down, from a lack of movement of the camera that hinders the view and makes the top screen’s map an essential addition rather than a pleasant addition, to the over indulgence of text conversations.

I like a good story, and I appreciate when a game wants me to become involved, immersed and genuinely care about the characters, but when I spend a hefty amount of the game tapping A to funnel my way through yet another conversation, I’m going to lose interest eventually. Perhaps this decision was made to veer off the preconceived notion of “another fighting game” that the series may have felt it was plagued with, but it was a step too far. I lost track of the amount of times I went to another character’s house for dinner.

It’s a shame these scenes left a sour taste, as the involvement with the existing Bleach universe is tremendous. You find Urahara longing to open his own shop and free himself from the shackles of the Soul Society, Gin Ichimaru at a time before he reeks of pure evil, and Rangiku Matsumoto at a time when any mention of cleavage is about twelve steps past inappropriate.

Outside of the main plot, you engage in “free time”, which is the game’s way of letting you flesh out the story by allowing you to interact with the characters you want to. The choice in the order you watch these can also affect your game, as each day is placed on a path and each scene takes up a certain amount of action points; use too many and you might overshoot a bonus, too few and you might end your free time early.

If you are a die-hard Bleach fan, this game has an entertainment factor that will draw you in as you immerse yourself in the world of the anime (or the manga, however you enjoy your poison). If you aren’t one of those people, then there isn’t a lot of potential here and your Strategy RPG fix would be better served in Disgaea, Final Fantasy: Tactics or Fire Emblem.

Scribblenauts was easily one of the most innovative titles of last year, so it’s really no surprise that 5th Cell is working on a sequel. According to GoNintendo, an article in Nintendo Power details the latest iteration of the game, stating it will contain more than 10,000 new words and 120 new levels, with the bulk of the words being focused on adjectives.

Perhaps the best news to come from the article is the fact that 5th Cell specifically addresses the games  controls, which were more than frustrating for some, especially when trying to pick up or manipulate small objects.

The game is scheduled to be released in the fall, though the article makes no mention if it will be this year, or perhaps a later date. More details are sure to surface as 5th Cell opens up concerning their new title.

I’m pretty excited, as Scribblenauts was one of the best games I played on my DS last year. I can’t wait to see a sequel with improved controls.

Source: Joystiq

The weirdest thing about Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is that very little of the game relates to being an attorney; instead, it’s all about the investigations. In previous installments, we were already assigned to a case before investigating crime scenes, so we were looking for clues to use in court. Ace Attorney Investigations turns it into mere detective work.

In AAI, players assume the role of Miles Edgeworth – prosecuting attorney and rival of the series’ usual protagonist, Phoenix Wright – to do all the things that Phoenix did in the other games, except not as fun. Aside from Phoenix being a more interesting character, the coolest thing about Miles Edgeworth in the previous games was his sort of enigmatic aura. Unfortunately, no man is ever as interesting as his mystery.

Those who have experience playing the Ace Attorney games will find AAI to be familiar. Just like the older games, we examine the mystery of a murder that happened under strange circumstances. There are ‘investigation phases’, wherein the players examine scenes related to the crime and search for clues that can help indict someone for the murder.

Instead of just picking up clues and interrogating witnesses, AAI allows us to piece together points of “Logic” – observations about the state of the scenes, which can be combined to reveal new facts. For example, in the beginning of the game, we have two points of Logic: “The murder occurred in my office”, and “A key is needed to enter”. By combining these points of logic, we gather that there’s no way the murder took place in the office by accident; the killer must have been looking for something that he believed to be in the office.

I enjoyed this concept, as it was a fun way to progress the investigations. The only problem is that it’s incredibly easy to combine the right points of logic with guesswork. At some point, you won’t be able to finish the investigation phase until you combine certain points together, but there’s usually only two or three, so it’s never difficult to just piece them together at random.

The progression of Ace Attorney Investigations is similar to the previous games. There are the aforementioned investigation phases, and there are also “trial” phases, where we listen to witnesses’ testimonies in court and point out falsities using evidence.

Well, the trial phases exist in AAI, but they don’t take place in court. They take the form of listening to other detectives’ and investigators’ theories on what happened and disproving the theories, or listening to a witness’s account of what happened and showing the inconsistencies, much like the previous games.

The main difference in the game’s progression is that it doesn’t feel as segregated. Normally, there’s a long investigation phase followed by an equally long trial phase. AAI still keeps them separate in a way, but you switch between the gameplay modes a lot more frequently.

Personally, this wasn’t enjoyable, mainly because we wind up playing investigation phases more often than trial phases. The investigation phases have never been as much fun as the trial phases, in my opinion, so it seems peculiar to make a game that emphasizes the more boring aspect, as opposed to the unique aspect that makes the Ace Attorney series stand out from other similar games.

Since Ace Attorney Investigations takes place out of court, the narrative takes on a slightly different shape. Instead of all the cases foreshadowing an epic final case, there is a complete ongoing story from start to finish, as Miles Edgeworth finds himself in the middle of several cases that deal with an international smuggling ring. Accompanying him in his investigations are friends – both new and old – all of whom want to bring the smugglers to justice.

This sounds cool, but there’s something underwhelming about it all. Take for example, the dialog. Countless conversations consist of detective Dick Gumshoe – the series’ trusty-yet-inept detective – saying something that isn’t very bright, and everyone making fun of him.

I wonder how many times we’re supposed to enjoy that gag, performed the same way every time? What made Gumshoe more entertaining with Phoenix Wright at the protagonist’s seat is that he kept his comments to himself. Inner monologue allowed Wright to say funnier things, and we didn’t have to feel like we were kicking someone while they’re down.

The game also goes to painstaking lengths to feature cameos. Not all the cameos are bad, but some of them seem so absurdly contrived that I can’t help but wonder why they were there in the first place. For example, there’s a point in the final case of the game where Edgeworth is investigating a room for clues. After we’ve found all the clues we can find, the police bring in a trained dog to look for clues.

Somehow, the dog finds a clue in the fireplace of the room that we didn’t find – but we should have been able to. It was a large object that we could have easily been found in the fireplace had we used our eyes. Why have that scene, other than to have us think, “Hey! That’s Missile, the crime dog from the first game!”? Does bending over backwards for fan-service really reap such benefits that we should do it at the risk of making our protagonist look too inept to find an obvious object?

Overall, the main problem with the narrative is that there’s simply no mystery. There’s an awful lot of drama, which the series’ fans – sans myself – seem to enjoy. But, the mystery aspect is simply lacking. It’s usually extremely easy to figure out who the murderer is in each case, and sometimes, the killers themselves don’t even go to great lengths to hide it.

So, instead of the cases being about determining the murderer, they’re more about tediously showing the killer all of the proof that they did it. It reminds me of a chess game where the winner is obviously determined several moves before the checkmate (as they usually are), making the remainder of the game nothing more than the formal process of going through the motions.

Ultimately, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth just feels pointless. Think about it: all of the investigations we conduct in this game lead up to an arrest, followed by a trial. In the previous Ace Attorney games, we assume the role of an attorney just after the arrest was made.

In other words, these types of investigations all must have taken place preceding the investigations that Phoenix Wright conducts to prepare for the trials – you know, the ones where Phoenix finds all the defendants innocent. It made me wonder, “Is some attorney just going to find all these killers that I arrested innocent in a court of law?” Which investigation is the real exercise in futility: the one leading up to the arrest, or the one following the arrest? I think I know the answer.

Since it first saw release in South Korea in August of 2001, Ragnarok Online (or RO for short) has built a huge following.  It has since been released all over the world – its player base growing exponentially in the process.  In fact, there are over three million registered users in North America.  In a post WoW world, that’s not too shabby.

While fans wait for the sequel to arrive, Ragnarok Online 2: The Gate of the World (which has been in limbo since it was announced in 2005), they must tide themselves over with Ragnarok DS, from publisher XSEED and developer GungHo Works.

Ragnarok DS represents a distinct departure from its online counterpart, in that it isn’t an MMO.  Instead, Ragnarok DS follows the single player adventures of Ales, an orphan full of regret from the loss of his mother, and full of spite for his father’s abandonment.  From the very onset of the game, it’s clear that Ales isn’t going to be the coolest protagonist you’ve ever seen.  Overly whiny and single-minded, he’s a bit of a jerk.  But hey, it worked for Cloud Strife, why not Ales?

In fact, the similarities to Final Fantasy don’t stop there.  The game takes place in the world of Midgard (one letter removed from the setting of Final Fantasy VII’s Midgar).  However, there is a pretty clear cut gap between Ragnarok DS and FFVII.  This is due to the simple fact that FFVII had characters you cared about.  Ragnarok never really does.  Instead, the cast found here is simply annoying.  Thus, your favorite character in the game will likely be the one you who whines the least.

The story here centers around Ales and a mysterious girl named Sierra.  In the process of escaping pursuers with an unnamed adventurer and scientist, Sierra falls off a cliff.  After that, she is discovered by Ales.  But hey, guess what!?  She’s developed amnesia!  That’s right, in an incredible burst of originality and ingenuity, instead of following RPG conventions and thrusting cliche’ numero uno onto the player’s character, the developers instead bestow it upon your primary companion.  This plays out precisely as it usually does, except now your character is tasked with explaining the tutorial.  Great.

For all the complaining I’ve done thus far regarding story, fans of the online game will most likely enjoy it.  After all, there’s significantly more to be experienced here then there is online, so it’s certainly better than nothing.  That said, there’s nothing particularly engaging or new about this tale.  You pick up various companions along the way, each representing a typical mainstay of the RPG genre, and none of them shows much growth.

Naturally, the shortcomings of the storyline could easily be forgiven if the gameplay itself were any good.  Saying that a game needs a great story to be fun is like saying that one needs to do a Quad to win gold in Men’s Olympic Skating (which, guess what Russia, you don’t).  They needn’t go hand in hand. Sadly, what we find here isn’t anything special.  Let me preface this by saying that the combat in Ragnarok DS is by no means terrible.  It’s actually quite adequate.  However, like so many other aspects of the game, it’s just monotonous, verging on plain boring.

Considering how much grinding the game forces you to do, in order to find a specific item or reach a minimum level to properly progress, the combat would have to be pretty excellent to hold your attention.  Instead, it consists of tapping an enemy, causing your character to continuously attack the creature until it’s dead.  That’s it.  Occasionally, as you level up, you’ll gain new skills and abilities, which you keep track through a bar on the top right of your screen.  These skills can be selected and used in combat.  However, this also breaks the flow of combat, as you must then re-select your opponent to begin your assault anew.

Speaking of which, this brings up one of the few truly bright spots in this title.  The screen layout is absolutely brilliant in its execution.  Informational bars alerting you to your team’s status, as well as the powers and skills available to you, are all collapsible with a simple tap of the stylus.  Not only that, but navigating the menus to upgrade and level up and your companions is streamlined and simple.  However, that isn’t enough to save a game that falls a bit short in most other areas.

Most notable of those shortcomings is the audio.  The soundtrack is overwhelmingly average.  There’s little to no variation between tunes.  Often times, you’ll find yourself soldiering on to get to the next area, just for the sake of hearing some new music, only to have it be just as annoying as the last.  However, it can be said that the music does slightly improve as you move through the game, so if you’re in this for the long haul, things do get a little better.

Visually, the game is a bit of an oddity.  This is one of the few games I’ve ever seen in my life that looks better under closer speculation.  The game offers you three camera views.  “Zoomed out”, “sorta zoomed out”, and “way too close to play with.”  No, those aren’t the official names of the views, but they are quite fitting.  When on the “way too close to play with” setting, the artistic style of the game is interesting, and will certainly please fans of the online games.  However, as the name may have clued you in, the camera on that setting does not show nearly enough of the surrounding area to merit true playability.  Move to one of the other two options, and the game becomes a pixelated and an uninteresting mess.

This is a shame, because for the most part, the game features some truly interesting and cool looking character designs.  The same cannot be said for the environments you traverse, as those are mostly bland and uninspired.  It’s a shame that the team couldn’t figure out a camera option that really suited the level of detail they’d put into their characters.

Finally, we arrive at the online portion of the game.  While not retaining the MMO qualities of the online title, Ragnarok DS still allows you to take the fight online with up to two other friends.  However, instead of allowing you and your pals to take on quests that relate in some way to the story, or the many guilds in the game, you are instead relegated to “The Mirage Tower”.  To reach the tower, you and your pals must unlock the Sograt Dessert area first.  The tower itself is simply a test of stamina, with over fifty levels to battle through and the possibility of getting rare gear.  The multiplayer is actually quite cool, in that you can customize your character to offer something to differentiate between you and your friends.  However, the mode itself doesn’t offer much lasting value, and you will soon lose interest.

Overall, my time with Ragnarok DS wasn’t awful.  There were times when I genuinely got into the grind of leveling up and getting new equipment.  However, the game can become so unnecessarily tedious and dull that you won’t really see yourself following all the way through to the end.

Certain design choices simply don’t work out, like the camera options, but others pick up the slack, like the incredibly simple-but-perfect screen and information layout.  While there is a lengthy adventure to be had here, it’s not a certainty that you’ll want to get all the way through, as the story isn’t exactly inspiring.  However, I would definitely recommend this for fans of the online game.

A press release from The Pokemon Company has finally been translated by Bulbagarden, and points to another new Pokemon RPG title being planned for 2010.  This would be in addition to Pokemon: SoulSilver and Pokemon: HeartGold, the two remakes of the classic Gold and Silver entries in the series.

According to the press release, the Pokemon team is hard at work on what they are calling an “inventive rebirth” for the series. Accompanying the press release was a blog entry from Junichi Masuda, long time composer and recently appointed director of the Pokemon video games.  That blog entry is shown below, followed by the press release, both in their (now translated) entirety.

Blog Entry

“Finally Japan, it has been announced without problems!!

Clap Clap Clap !!!

Though, that’s not someone else’s problem…(*sweats*)

Of course, development is all being done in-house.

Now, Game Freak’s development department are eagerly working on development with the aim to exceed every Pokemon game made before now with innovative software!

By the way, for the purpose of giving more information…
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl have indeed really sold 17,150,000 copies around the world (5,800,000 copies domestically in Japan).
(Tokyo’s population is approximately 13,000,000)

With great enthusiasm, we are trying our best to surpass Diamond and Pearl! Everyone, please lend us your support!

Please have great expectations!

On the 7th of February (Sunday), on Pokemon Sunday, Masuda will appear in an emergency video?
Now that you know, please watch it. You should be able to get some news!

Ciao!”

– Junichi Masuda

Press Release

“Pocket Monsters series all new production under development for release by the end of 2010

2010, January 29th.

The latest news from Pokémon Company Managing Director Ishihara Tsunekazum the developers of the Pokémon series Game Freak, and Distributors Nintendo, is that the new work in the series is under development for release on the Nintendo DS by the end of 2010.

Since the first games in the series, Pokémon Red and Green in 1996, the distinctive characteristics of the games around the world has changed, with trading and battling between different versions. Customers around the world have rated the games highly, and around the world over 130,000,000 Pokémon games have been sold.

Pokémon games for Nintendo DS have made use of the two screens, touch screen and Wi-Fi features in their play. The new games, the first completely new work to be released since the release of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl 4 years ago, games which have sold 17,150,000 copies (5,800,000 games in Japan), are planned as an inventive rebirth, featuring completely new ways to play and new Pokémon.

Please look forward to game details and news from now until release.”

– The Pokémon Company

So what do you guys think?  Is it possible for a new Pokemon RPG to “exceed every Pokemon game made before now”, or has the series become too repetitive and serialized for your liking?

Video game company MumboJumbo today revealed that they are victorious in a $4.6 million lawsuit against beloved publisher PopCap games, renowned for titles such as Plants Vs. Zombies and Peggle.  The reasons cited for said lawsuit?  Fraud and breach of contract, among other things.

“The law allows you to do plenty of things to be successful in business,” said MumboJumbo’s attorney, Marty Rose.  ”However, it does not allow you to commit fraud or interfere with a company’s business relationships. The jury’s verdict is a clear signal that this type of business conduct is not going to be tolerated.”

According to the specifics of the suit, PopCap was accused of damaging the business relationship between MumboJumbo and a “key retailer”, by spreading false statements about them.

To be honest, this in no way lessens my adoration of PopCap titles, and I will continue to buy them, as long as they continue to be as much casual fun as they have so far proven themselves to be.  What about you folks?  Has this effected the respect you had for PopCap?  Or are you too busy playing through Peggle right now to care?  Let us know in the comments.

Source: Game Informer

Sands of Destruction certainly lives up to its name in certain respects: there are a few characters that seem to get off on being extremely violent, to the point where it’s disturbing. Just as well. If one plays their cards right, “destruction”  is the only adequate word to describe what happens when the heroes engage in combat.

However, the way in which the title suggests a story about the destruction of the planet is the one place where I’m left wanting. It’s a pity, because the premise of destroying the world to bring about its salvation had a lot of potential. Maybe some ideas are better left untouched?

In the world of Sands of Destruction, humans are generally treated as lower-class citizens by Ferals: anthropomorphic animals of varied species from wolf, to shark, to elephants. Some humans simply resign themselves to such a fate, while others fight back. However, there is one radical group of human anarchists with a very extreme perspective; the World Annihilation Front believes that the state of world affairs is so awful, that the only recourse is to bring about its end.

Enter Kyrie, a young, sheltered country bumpkin that you’ve seen in so many different anime and JRPGs it makes you sick. Our naïve hero du jour finds out through a contrived series of events that he has some sort of latent power to destroy the world. Soon enough, a member of “The Front”, Morte, finds Kyrie and prompts him to destroy the world. It’s not that simple, though; Kyrie has no idea how to use the power at will. So, Morte decides to take him with her, hopefully helping Kyrie discover how to bring about Armageddon.

Thus sets the stage for a story with a very grave premise. Morte brings Kyrie along with her because she is sure that, upon seeing how terrible things are outside of his backwater village, he’ll definitely see that the world’s destruction is the only way to relieve the world of its blight.

What makes this disconcerting, however, is the tone of the storytelling, as so many of the story cutscenes are deliberately funny. Sure, there’s important exposition here and there, but it’s so mired in goofy jokes and general lightheartedness that it’s hard to take the situation seriously.

Rarely seen are any examples of human oppression by Ferals, and what examples are seen are not nearly enough to support the notion that the world is beyond any hope. In fact, you see far more instances of humans and Ferals coexisting in harmony than any grave injustices against humankind. This does not reflect well on the World Annihilation Front, who come off more like a bunch of rebels without a cause rather than a group of humans who are truly doing what they think is in their brethren’s best interests.

Speaking of “The Front”, the absolute worst part of the story is that the first half of the game focuses more on our heroine, Morte, than Kyrie.  Her main reason for wanting to destroy the world is the extreme oppression from Ferals, but she comes from a remote village where humans and Ferals get along great. Why on Earth, then, would she want to destroy the world? If the majority of the human race is discriminated against by the Ferals, then, more than most other people in the world, she should understand that the ability to coexist is possible.

She supposedly puts on a gruff n’ tough act to guard the fact that she’s a caring person with a soft side, but it’s a hard sell when she takes such a liking to the genocidal orders given to her by the World Annihilation Front. Morte is just a terribly unrealistic, unlikeable character – a pile of contradictions in the most unbelievable, deplorable way.

Thankfully, the supporting cast sports some really interesting characters, especially Taupy – tragically pronounced “toe pee” – who is remarkably well-characterized without the need for a tragic backstory (although the game manages to tack one on for every character, anyway). He is a bounty hunter, a consummate professional, wise, well-traveled, and quite the charmer. When a character acts and reacts like a real person, I believe that no need for overstated character development exists.

Finally, I will admit that the story gets pretty interesting later in the game, when the narrative finally starts focusing on Kyrie. But, the foundation for the serious story premise is nowhere to be found by the end, and the story ultimately falls back on a bunch of predictable, seen-it-all-before plot points.

Despite being a country bumpkin who works as a chef’s assistant, Kyrie, like all other typical JRPG heroes, manages to be crazily skilled with his weapon of choice. Kyrie and co. do battle by way of a familiar turn-based JRPG combat system. The main twist is that each character has two types of attacks: Flurry Attacks, which are multi-hit attacks that deal low damage, and Blow Attacks, which are single, powerful attacks with special abilities (increased critical chance, possibility to inflict status effects, instant death, etc.). Each hero also has a few offensive and healing spells in their arsenal, allowing each character to fulfill a variety of roles.

In battle, each character gets a few Battle Points (BP) per turn. Each action done by a character costs 1 BP, and items end the turn instantly. There are, however, ways to get additional BP during your turn; the first critical hit a character lands will net them an additional BP, and they will also get one extra BP for every 10+1 hits they land (i.e. a BP is gained when the combo reaches 11 hits, 21 hits and so on).

All abilities are leveled up with Customization Points (CP), which can be used to level up an ability’s attack/healing potency, accuracy, or even reduce the amount of Skill Points (SP) needed to cast a spell. After leveling up a Flurry/Blow Attack or Spell a certain amount, a character learns a new respective attack or spell. Instead of equipping Flurry/Blow Attacks, they are used in sequence. For example, when Kyrie does a Flurry Attack, it always starts with “Flurry Attack 1″, and the next Flurry Attack used in that turn will be “Flurry Attack 2″, as long as he has learned it.

Unfortunately, thanks to the skill Customization system, combat is absurdly easy to break. The problem lies in Flurry Attacks; after just a few hours of gameplay, Flurries deal much more damage than Blow Attacks. Even worse, after leveling up an ability to level 7, players are given the option to either raise the level cap for an ability, or they can choose to “Fortify” the ability.

Forifying a Blow Attack causes the special effect associated with it to occur more often. On the other hand, Fortifying a Flurry Attack allows the character to “chain” one Flurry Attack into the next. For example, if Kyrie Fortifies his “Flurry Attack 1″, using it in battle will perform “Flurry Attack 1″ and “Flurry Attack 2″ using only 1 BP instead of 2 BP. Fortify all of a character’s Flurry Attacks, and, well, the damage dealt by Flurry Attacks is completely above and beyond that of Blow Attacks, which do not chain together when Fortified.

With all a character’s Flurry Attacks chained together, characters not only do ludicrous amounts of damage, but they get high combo accounts, which rewards them with even more BP in combat, allowing them to use their strong attacks even more in one turn. Combine this with the fact that all healing spells in the game target every character, heal for 50-90% HP, cost almost no SP, and can simultaneously remove status ailments and even revive fallen characters, and you have yourself the easiest RPG ever created. It’s almost like playing Doom with God Mode enabled, except that, over time, you become even more godly.

Despite this super-easy mechanic, I did have fun with the combat. It’s quick enough that it doesn’t feel tedious, and it’s pretty hilarious how your characters become unstoppable killing machines that can only be defeated if an enemy can kill off the whole party in one turn (and, no, it never happened to me).  Just don’t expect the combat to be a challenge.

The puzzles, on the other hand, are done quite nicely. Most of the dungeons have a different puzzle or gimmick to them, making them all pretty interesting to explore. It may not be the best dungeon design ever, but it’s a cut above the usual cookie-cutter dungeons that populate most RPGs. Kudos to Sands of Destruction for that.

In the end, though, I’m not sure who would enjoy a game like this. When the story isn’t completely contradicting itself, it’s relegated to predictable RPG fare. Although I was in the right mood to enjoy unnecessarily easy combat, I don’t think I’m wrong to assume that the majority of players will find that boring.

At some point along my journey with Kyrie and co., I asked myself, “Why destroy the world, anyway?” I guess, at some point along the way, the writers asked themselves the same question, only to find that they had no adequate answer.

Good ol’ Pokémon. For over a decade now, you have been to little boys and girls (and creepy, grown men) as cake is to us fatties. Easy, sweet, and delicious, and after it’s all gone, you’re hankerin’ for some more. With the release of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver looming on the horizon, Nintendo and Game Freak have announced that each copy of the game will be bundled with the Pokéwalker.

A neat little device, the Pokéwalker will let players take their Pokémon everywhere they go, without the need of their trusty Nintendo DS or DSi. Hit the jump for more details about this great Poké-accessory!

With the addition of the Pokéwalker, players will be able to wirelessly transfer any one of their Pokémon from either of the two games to the palm-sized gadget. With Pokémon in “hand,” they will walk virtual routes as you walk around in real life, collecting Watts that are used within the Pokéwalker to find hidden items and encounter and catch wild Pokémon that are exclusive to the device itself.

Anything collected on the Pokéwalker can be transfered back to the DS or DSi, which will unlock in-game routes for further exploration, and any Pokémon placed in the device will also gain experience as you walk around, even gaining a level once placed back into the game. It works similar to the Pokémon daycare found in many of the installments, but with a much greater level of depth and interactivity.

I’m not exactly sure how the community will receive this, as carrying around a miniaturized Pokéball may be a little embarrassing, even for the young’ns. But don’t be afraid when you see a twenty-four-year-old with a Pokéball dangling from his jeans – he’s not a creepy pedophile. It’s probably just me.

Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver hits the shelves March 14th. Will you be using your Pokéwalker?

Dungeon Crawlers are like the cockroaches of the gaming world (in a good way): despite how archaic they are, they never seem to really die. Considering they were one of the first genres ever created, back when most games were just lines of text, perhaps old fans will never grow tired of them.

Fighting Fantasy is one of the few old-school crawlers released this year. So how did it turn out? Does the new franchise recruit some potential new fans, or does it just stick to the same alienating crawler mechanics that dedicated fans know and love?

Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain’s graphics consist of 3D and faux-3D visuals, the former of which are pretty impressive for a DS game. By faux-3D, I mean that all of the game’s enemies and characters are actually sprites that constantly turn to face you in order to protect their two dimensional farce.

Story wise, the game is just about as deceptive as its character models: there’s barely any to speak of, and most of the script is generic, with little dialogue choices. But that won’t really matter to most of you, given that the majority of your time is going to be spent completing quests and killing monsters.

The game’s control scheme works very well, with one caveat: the combination of touch-screen and button-based controls are hard to constantly compensate for at times. One minute you’ll be holding the DS with both hands, strafing and turning, and the next you’ll have to touch something on the screen in a split-second to interact with it (a hasty escape through a door, perhaps).

Fumbling around for your pen (or, as I did, just opting to quickly hit the screen with my thumb) gets really annoying after a while, and the game could have benefited from an alternate control scheme that uses a button to talk/interact.

Additionally, you have to look exactly at a treasure chest on the floor to open it; this can get really frustrating, as you’ll constantly side-step chests. However, moving with the d-pad and looking with the face buttons is probably the best FPS scheme the DS could ask for; Metroid Hunters fans (and non-fans for that matter) will feel right at home.

Despite the solid core controls, early game combat is a bore. Until you obtain more advanced spells, encounters mostly consist of trading blows (mashing the attack button) until one of you dies. For most close combat enemies, it is possible to dodge a bit, but this only prolongs the encounter. Luckily, as the game progresses, enemies will gain long range tactics and abilities, allowing you have more fun dodging them.

Thankfully, the game auto-saves upon entering every room in the game, but the tutorial even hints that relying on it can get you into trouble. For instance, running through multiple rooms with little to no healing items will spell inevitable death, so make sure you hit up the hard save orb stations every chance that you get.

It’s a minor gripe, but since there are barely any healing items to speak of towards the beginning of the game, I found myself leaving the DS idle while my health slowly regenerated multiple times, but this is quickly rectified after finding your first merchant about an hour in.

Once you get a few hours into the game, you’ll feel more at home with your character: spells will open up, and more strategies will become available for downing those super hard monsters. After you’ve beaten the game (in around ten to fifteen hours), you’ll find a new game+ option, allowing you to continue with all of your gear and statistics on a higher difficulty level, which is set up in a pretty cool way. If you’re so inclined, there’s also an option to beat it again, and try out new builds for your character.

Reports of this game being too hard are fairly over-exaggerated, and, as far as dungeon crawlers go, this is one of the easier games in the genre. For example, Fighting Fantasy has a mechanic that reloads the enemy spawns in any given room after loading an auto-save. What that means is that if you’re having too much trouble with a given room, you simply reload the enemy cache, and you might find easier enemies to deal with.

Another given with the dungeon crawling genre is the fact that some rooms with have really tough enemies, but there’s a fairly simple strategy to counter that: just leave the room and come back later. I found that after a few levels or so, those enemies were much easier to take down, and in fact, I only had to lightly grind until about halfway through the game. You’ll even find a green dot on your radar pointing you to the next story event. If I had one bit of advice for newcomers, it would be to abuse spells and ranged attacks: don’t be tempted by hand-to-hand combat!

Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain isn’t a “bad” game, it’s just missing one key ingredient for the most part: identity. Unless you get your jollies hacking away constantly at the same handful of enemy models, you won’t find much of a reason to keep trekking through, but those who do will have a blast.

Admittedly, I haven’t been closely following Dark Void, the new Capcom IP due out in January. All I know is that it is coming to the 360, PS3, and PC and involves strapping on a jet pack and zipping around like the Rocketeer.

According to GameSpot, Capcom is also hoping to expand upon the fledgling franchise’s mythos by releasing a digital download prequel in the same month. Curiously, Dark Void Zero will not be arriving on the respective platforms’ download services but on DSiWare, and it’ll look like an NES game.

Seriously.

In a stroke of hilarious brilliance, Capcom has fabricated a story of an unreleased game developed specifically for the PlayChoice-10 arcade cabinet. Years later, the game was unearthed from deep within the Capcom vault and served as the inspiration for the current-gen “reimagining.” Now you can play the “original classic” on your DSi!

You jump. You shoot. You fly. You even have to blow the DS mic to get the “cartridge” to work properly. It’s totally bananas and I’m loving it! You can catch some more gameplay footage right over here.

It seems that Capcom is on a big NES kick lately. Mega Man 10 gets announced and now this? Some practical joker on staff must have been swapping all the office calendars and making everything think it’s 1989 again.

When one considers Dragon Ball Z, thoughts of excessive grunting, seizure-inducing special effects, and poor animation bogged down by countless filler episodes come to mind. In the gaming realm, this translates to numerous fighting games over a broad range of platforms with very little to show for itself.

Very rarely is the manga/anime adapted correctly to appease fans of the series and gamers alike, and even then the select few are merely above average and never truly remarkable.

To coincide with the recent Japanese revamping of the series that started a phenomenon (known as Dragon Ball Kai), Monolith Soft and Bandai have released Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans, an RPG retelling of the Saiyan saga, beginning with the end of the original Dragon Ball and running through till the start of the Namek timeline.

Can the high flying action transgress genres and keep its appeal through a turn-based, role playing scope?

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade and are not quite familiar with the world of Dragon Ball, Attack of the Saiyans is a great place to become immersed in the strange, but interesting lore. If you have absolutely no prior knowledge of who Goku is, what a “Kamehameha” is, or think the dragon balls are a giant, flying lizard’s testicles, then following the story may be prove slightly difficult, especially with some of the horridly slow moving dialogue.

For those who do understand what a “Masenko” is however, the game opens right at the end of the original Dragon Ball, focusing on the completion of the tournament and Raditz’s arrival, and ends shortly after Vegeta’s departure from Earth. It touches on all the major events and leaves most of the anime filler by the curbside, with the exception of a few interesting adventures that envelope well into the RPG playbook.

Although the story is brought across well, DBZ has never really been about storytelling. Fighting has always been the focus of the series, and Attack of the Saiyans is no different. Breaking from its 3D fighter past, the game successfully captures the spirit of DBZ combat, in a JRPG style that is far from revolutionary, but quite enjoyable nonetheless. You’ll have have your fair share of random encounters, but battles are swift and never feel dull or unnecessary. Boss fights are good and plenty as well, even moreso as you get past the half way mark.

Like most other games in the genre, the battle system is input-command driven, with normal, special, and ultimate attacks, items, and defending at your disposal. Emphasis is placed heavily on the use of your special attacks that range from all out combinations to a rage-induced barrage of energy blasts.

Special attacks, as well as the uber powerful ultimate attacks, can be combined with other character’s techniques to deal even more devastating damage. These skills can only be utilized once the Rage Gauge (see: limitbreak) has filled; by receiving or dishing out the hurt. It’s not particularly innovative, but it sure is a blast to decimate the Saiyans with a trifecta of Kamehameha waves. Like any other RPG, these attacks come at a cost to your MP, or in this case, the Ki meter.

The one unique aspect of Attack of the Saiyans’ combat system comes in the form of the Active Guard. Right before an enemy is set to attack, a small manga-style symbol will blip above the character who will be attacked. With quick reflexes, you’ll have to tap either Y, X, or B as the blip appears above the top, middle, or bottom character of your Z-Team, respectively.

Though it doesn’t completely negate damage, a successful Active Guard will diminish the amount of damage received by about a quarter, which proves vital against the frequent hard-hitting bosses you’ll encounter. Its no groundbreaking addition, but it’s a welcomed enhancement to the turn based RPG that will keep you alert throughout all fights, rather than just major bosses. Nothing kills a JRPG faster than mundane, monotonous combat.

If you’re a fan of the series, you may be wondering how Monolith Soft managed to adapt the ultra fast-paced action that is Dragon Ball Z, into a slow, turn base role playing system. I too thought the same, but I was pleasantly surprised as dove back into the series. Foregoing the “traditional” cell shaded style, the game adopts 2D sprite based artwork that closely resembles Akira Toriyama’s famed work in Chrono Trigger.

Every attack appears much like its manga/anime counterpart, complete with over-the-top light shows, excessive shouting and high-pitched Japanese voice work. It’s definitely not the prettiest game of the franchise, as the more graphically inclined 3D iterations of the DBZ series are far superior, yet it holds a certain nostalgic touch that works quite well.

A Dragon Ball Z game wouldn’t be complete without the ability to call upon the eternal dragon to grant the Z Fighters wishes. The dragonballs, as well as Shenron, the eternal dragon, are an integral part of the overarching story, but also grant access to a wealth of side content. The seven dragonballs must first be collected across seven different areas on the world map.

Once the balls are gathered, Shenron can be called to grant wishes that will bestow a large amount of EXP, AP or Zeni on the player, as well as powerful equipment. You can also use the wish to battle the game’s secret, most fearsome foe; a force that fans of the series will instantly recognize. The main story will last anywhere between 20 and 25 hours, but if you plan on taking on the secret boss, you’ll have a major grind-fest ahead of you, pushing your playtime up a dozen hours or so.

Though it doesn’t do much to innovate the genre, Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans is a very solid JRPG expereince. Supported by unique artwork, a more concise story, and the original Japanese voice actors, Attack of the Saiyans is quite possibly the greatest DBZ game ever developed, in terms of overall quality. It may not feature the intense fighting that fans have grown accustomed to, but it certainly is a successful transition for the series: a transition I hope to see built upon in future releases of the franchise.

Some of you may have seen this teaser for a new Transformers game during the Spike VGA’s. Today publisher Activision released a few new details pertaining to High Moon’s upcoming action/adventure game.

Sub-titled “War for Cybertron,” the new title will serve as a prequel. Like the previous Transformers game, players will be able to play as both Autobots and Decepticons through two unique campaigns. According to Activision “The AUTOBOT campaign tells a story of heroism to save their home planet against overwhelming odds. The DECEPTICON campaign tells a story of an unquenchable thirst for power to control the universe.”

What separates War for Cybertron from previous Transformers titles is a newly revamped multiplayer. Activision promises “team-based online co-op” as well as “a variety of intense, online multiplayer game modes.”

War for Cybertron is currently slated to arrive on the PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and Wii sometime in 2010.