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Posts with tag namco-bandai

Europeans can train their families in September

Posted May 14th 2008 9:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: News

Many of you folks in Europe have probably already decided whether Wii Fit interests you, but those of you paying attention know that there's another exercise game for the Wii that's aiming to compete with Nintendo's software. Yes, we're talking about Athletic World: Family Trainer (aka Active Life: Outdoor Challenge in U.S. markets).

Perhaps you prefer video game exercise on a mat rather than a Balance Board, or perhaps there's room for two fitness-based games in your life; if either of these conditions apply, though, you'll have to wait a few months to pick up this title. Atari recently announced that the game will reach Europe in September, which is just enough time to make it useless for bathing suit season -- alas.

[Via press release]

Fresh Mario Super Sluggers scans step up to the plate

Posted May 14th 2008 4:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Screens

Courtesy of CoroCoro Comics, we've got some more to gawk at concerning the once-named Super Mario Stadium. Now it's being call Mario Super Sluggers, which is an improvement in our eyes, and is to feature, as you'd expect, a plethora of characters from Nintendo's famous franchises. We're glad to see Mario is heading back to the diamond again!

The scans show off some interesting aspects of the game, including what looks like a kind of special catch system when playing in the outfield, which lets you rob players of home runs. Also, the player-specific abilities seem to be returning, as well as the themed stadiums in which you'll play ball. In the scan, you can see what appears to be Luigi throwing a kind of tornado pitch. Interesting, to say the least.

Namco Bandai financial report reveals Taiko no Tatsujin Wii

Posted May 14th 2008 2:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Imports


Buried in the latest Japanese Namco Bandai financial report, in a chart showing their sales projections per game for 2008, is the first mention of a Taiko no Tatsujin (Taiko Drum Master) game for Wii, planned for late this year. The company released Ennichi no Tatsujin (Festival Master), a spinoff minigame collection, as a Wii launch title, but this would be the first for-real Taiko on the Wii. They expect to sell around 500,000 copies, the same as they project for Family Trainer.

We're anxious now for an official reveal, because we want to see how the controls will work. Will it use a drum controller, or will players be asked to air-drum with the Wiimote and Nunchuk? There's also the third, more unlikely, option of hitting a drum with the Wiimote, though that would get expensive.

[Via GoNintendo]

Japanese preorder bonus dawns for Tales of Symphonia

Posted May 5th 2008 11:00PM by Candace Savino

Adding to the ever-growing list of "cool stuff Japan gets that we don't," Bandai Namco is offering a sweet preorder bonus with Tales of Symphonia. The RPG, which releases in Japan in late June, will come with a Dramatic DVD for gamers that preorder the title. The DVD will include original animated scenes that add to the game's story, which sounds like a pretty nice extra to us.

We're sure the DVD will never see the light of day outside of Japan (officially), so the rest of us will just have to be content to look at screens and pretend that's dramatic. Some new screens might help you with such a task, so just click on the "Read" link below (or the picture above) to check them out.

Gallery: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World


[Via Gemaga]

Family Ski heading to Europe in June

Posted May 1st 2008 3:00PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News



We've already witnessed Europe (and particularly Britain) going absolutely potty for Wii Fit, and it won't be long before the region gets its next Balance Board compatible game.

Luckily for Namco Bandai, it's one of their games. Family Ski (it'll be keeping the Japanese name for its European release, though whether it gets the angry U.S. boxart is still a mystery) will be reaching the pistes of Europe on June 13th, just in time for when the folks there start getting bored of Wii Fit, and disused Balance Boards begin to clog up closets and attics.

Gallery: We Ski

First Mojipittan DLC spells 'money' for Namco Bandai

Posted Apr 30th 2008 12:45PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Imports, WiiWare


The WiiWare version of Namco Bandai's popular, impossible-to-localize puzzle game Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan (Word Puzzle Mojipittan) got its first add-on pack today. For 200 Wii Points, an additional 30 puzzles, along with new background music for those puzzles, can be downloaded from the Wii Shop, which actually doesn't seem like such a bad deal.

The stages in the pack range from easy enough for children to "Ultra Hard," and have themes like "Countries of the World" and "Sweets." We aren't sure how themes in Mojipittan work -- spelling words in just the appropriate themes seems like it would be pretty hard!

More details on monsters in Tales of Symphonia

Posted Apr 28th 2008 9:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: News

Some of you may not be fond of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World's fighting-with-monsters scheme, but we think it looks pretty neat. Spencer Yip from Siliconera gives us an even more in-depth look into the system than before, reporting that you can ditch your entire party (with the exception of the main character Emil, of course), for a party full of monsters, like in the screen shown above.

After you battle monsters, you'll often have a chance to negotiate with them and have them fight for you. It's not as simple as "catching" them all, though, since some monsters will refuse to join your party if they have a grudge against one of your other allied creatures. Since the game provides 200 different species of monster that you can fight with, which we think this can add a lot of depth to this Tales rendition. As long as you don't become obsessed with collecting them, that is, because then you might as well be playing something else.

Drawing more similarities from Pokemon, these monsters also evolve. However, you can cause their evolutions by serving them certain foods, so the cooking system in the game should be pretty interesting. We're not sure yet, though, whether these are true, outward-and-inward evolutions, or just stat alterations (as we reported before).

Those of you who are looking forward to this title still have a long wait ahead of you. The RPG is set to hit North America in Q4 of this year.

Gallery: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

What's the deal with Beautiful Katamari?

Posted Apr 25th 2008 5:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Rumors


It's been a very long time since we've heard anything about Beautiful Katamari and the Wii. And, seeing as how the game has been out on Xbox 360 for quite some time now, we were done thinking that it would ever grace Nintendo's console. Thanks to select retailers' online shops, however, hope is slowly being restored.

Major retail chains Target and Wal-Mart are both listing the game on their respective websites, while Buy.com lists the game with the same price ($29.99), but states it's "temporarily sold out." Even rental service Gamefly has a section up for a Wii and PS3 version of the game.

So, what's the deal? Who knows at this point, but the Wal-Mart page points to an August 29th release, so perhaps we'll hear something soon? We're not going to get our hopes up like before, but we'd be lying if we said we didn't want this to happen.

[Thanks, Zack!]

Read - Wal-Mart listing
Read - Target listing
Read - Buy.com listing
Read - Gamefly listing

Namco Bandai pops in with more Mugen Puchi Puchi screens

Posted Apr 21st 2008 3:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Imports, Screens, WiiWare


Namco Bandai has unwrapped a release date for Mugen Puchi Puchi Wii, the WiiWare rhythm game based on the toy based on popping bubble wrap: June 24th. No word on a U.S. date yet, though we are crossing our fingers (with bubble wrap between them).

Not only will you have the ability to pop bubbles by pointing at them and pressing 1 or 2, you'll be able to smash them en masse with a Wiimote on its side, as if rolling over them with a rolling pin. You'll even be able to use the remote to slash through the bubbles.

The game's 40 stages help provide even more variation, from a snowman level to an ikura donburi level in which you pop salmon roe (ewwww), and even the excellently named "Namco Old Games Stage."

Pictures of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

Posted Apr 17th 2008 8:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Screens


More delightful media has emerged from the Namco Bandai Editors' Day event! We've updated our gallery with new English screens (and a few inexplicable Japanese screens) of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World.

The latest game in Namco Bandai's milked-to-death RPG series (though the relative milked-ness of the Tales name may not have any bearing on the quality of this game!) features a new twist in the form of 200 unique monsters, all of whom can (and, perhaps, gotta) be caught. You can swap out monster party members and alter their stats with various foods.

Dawn of the New World will dawn on the shelves this fall.

Gallery: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

We Ski videos leave us anything but chilled

Posted Apr 17th 2008 7:00PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: Video



We Ski continues to take the tundra lightly look like an infectious bundle of fun. Just check out the folks in this first English-language trailer for Namco Bandai's ski-me-do, giddy with excitement as their chibi avatars pull off stunts and swerve effortlessly across the slopes. That'll be us! Soon! With each passing trailer, we find ourselves wanting to play this more and more -- with the Balance Board, naturally (though four Balance Boards won't be cheap).

This latest round of footage came from Namco Bandai's Editor Day event, and there's more past the break.

Gallery: We Ski

Continue reading We Ski videos leave us anything but chilled

Namco introduces We Cheer for Wii

Posted Apr 17th 2008 1:30PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News, Screens


If you have a problem bringing it in real life, perhaps you should check out Namco's upcoming game, We Cheer. And now that we finally get a look at it, we must admit that we are feeling kind of the same as when we first heard about it: meh. Honestly, does this look good to you?

We'd say it's a nice title for the young'ns, but, to be honest, if it was our kid, we wouldn't let them play a game with all these girls in ridiculously skimpy cheerleading suits. It just stinks of Bratz. Are we alone in feeling that way?

Gallery: We Cheer

Active Life: Online Preview

Posted Apr 17th 2008 10:30AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Video


1UP checked out Active Life: Outdoor Challenge, Bandai Namco's alternate-universe, nostalgic take on Wii Fit, at yesterday's Bandai Namco press event. As producer Daisuke Uchiyama explained to the site, the game is less about scientific measurement and management of fitness, and more about being active and having fun.

The preview did indeed seem fun, especially the mine-car event -- though there was some difficulty coordinating two players. "The entire experience actually felt like "controlling" a Disneyland coaster like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad or the Matterhorn Bobsleds," 1UP's Andrew Fitch said.

If Outdoor Challenge takes off, more games using the Family Trainer mat could be on the way. Apparently the company will conduct surveys to determine the kinds of things that different regions would want to control by stomping.

New scans feature Disaster, Super Mario Stadium

Posted Apr 10th 2008 4:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Imports, Screens


Click for larger image

We were a bit shocked to receive any kind of update at all about Disaster: Day of Crisis, much less a release date. Monolith's survival adventure is one of those games that disappears for months at a time, then pops up with just a few screens. For some reason, we think of it as perpetually on the brink of cancellation. But Nintendo's serious enough about releasing it to, uh, print a page in a retail pamphlet about it! Interesting factoid: Bears are now natural disasters.

Another page (after the break) tinily reveals new screens of Super Mario Stadium: Family Baseball, which was just announced for the U.S. as Super Mario Sluggers. From the title, we know that the new game will be developed by Namco Bandai and will share gameplay aspects (though certainly not controls!) with their Family Stadium games. Miis will also be playable!

Continue reading New scans feature Disaster, Super Mario Stadium

Daikaiju Ultra Battle Coliseum destroys Tokyo, preserves copyright

Posted Apr 7th 2008 12:45PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Imports, Screens


Namco Bandai's new huge monster fighting game, Kaiju Big Battel Daikaiju Ultra Battle Coliseum, features a wide array of familiar, but legally distinct, monsters in your everyday city-destroying scenarios. There's the big flying thing! The walking lizard guy! The robot!

Coliseum, it turns out, is an adapted version of an arcade game called Daikaiju Ultra Monsters, which has also been adapted into a TV show from Ultraman producers Tsuburaya Productions. Thankfully, Namco Bandai has swapped out pretty much everything from the original game. While the arcade game is one of those card-based things that are so popular in Japan, Daikaiju Ultra Battle Coliseum uses Wiimote motions to control the (ultra) fighting.

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