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Posts with tag atlus

Born for Wii: Cubivore

Some games are a little out there. You've got your No More Heroes brand of weirdness, where collecting coconuts is as commonplace as mass murder and sexual innuendo. On another level, there's Katamari Damacy, where rolling entire cities into a ball is a perfectly acceptable way to repair the cosmos. And then there are the games that are so bizarre, so inexplicably removed from the norm, that they transcend weirdness in a way few things ever have. One of the games is Cubivore.

Though it was released for the GameCube six years ago, it's still hard to believe that Cubivore found its way to the West. Thanks to Atlus, a company known for publishing titles that don't exactly have mainstream appeal, one of the most inherently Japanese games ever made was displaced from its home turf. Cubivore's eccentricity is also its greatest strength -- those few gamers who weren't turned off by its quirkiness discovered an adventure like no other, a fight to survive and evolve into a stronger, faster animal...thing. Its unique, hilarious, downright fun, and Born for Wii.


Gallery: Born for Wii: Cubivore

Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Contra, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

Go Baroque without spending a lot

Sales on Atlus games have become more common in this hardware generation, but it still feels special and a little bit transgressive to buy an Atlus-published game for less than it cost at release. Of course, novelty is hardly sufficient reason to buy Sting's Baroque, but there's also the fact that it's a pretty good game -- and some people may be starved for a Wii RPG experience by now.

Amazon is featuring both the Wii and PS2 versions of the sorta-roguelike as their Deal of the Day, for a scant $16.98. At that price, you could buy both versions for comparison purposes and still pay less than regular price. Or you could save money!

Gallery: Baroque

Abnormous new Dokapon Kingdom info


Atlus sent out a series of descriptions of some of the random events that occur in the "blank" yellow spaces on Dokapon Kingdom's game board. One of the advantages of a video game over a real board game is that rather than just, say, a "Chance" card, the random events in Dokapon Kingdom can be pretty complex, and otfen involve paying off various lowlifes and robo-lowlifes to mess with other players. Robo-agent, for example, will accept contracts to assassinate other players, in the guise of Robo-Sassin. Other players can make counteroffers, sending him right back.

Random global events can occur at the start of each week of gameplay,which, as the name implies, affect everyone. Examples given include "Wabbit Explosion," in which the board is overrun with the "Wabbit" enemy, "Epidemic," which forces players to pay health care costs for the towns they own, and "Abnormous Disaster."

In addition to having a really unusual name, the Abnormous Disaster affects every town on a continent, wiping away tax revenues. It's helpfully labeled "bad news" in the game, as if "abnormous" and "disaster" didn't convey the message.

Gallery: Dokapon Kingdom

Win Dokapon and more in exchange for your dignity


It's (sort of nearing) that time of year again, when cosplayers can pretend to be relatively normal people. Halloween brings with it the Atlus-O-Weenie costume contest! The beloved niche game developer/publisher wants you to dress up like an Atlus character for a chance at the fabulous prizes pictured above, including swag like signed Trauma Center, Persona 4 and Growlanser memorabilia, a copy of Dokapon Kingdom, and a "Large hardback promotional poster of an Atlus title of your choice."

You'll be able to submit pictures from October 1 through November 3. Last year, the entries were entirely Persona-related. Surely a Wii Fanboy reader can buck the trend with, say, a Bonk or a Willy the Rockin' Kat!

Fanswag: Baroque goes to ...


Well, our latest giveaway has come to a close and it's about time we crowned a winner. It was a tough decision (not really, we choose the winner via random drawing), but we managed to do it. Who won? It was none other than:
  • comtar, who is a fan of Run Saber
Congrats to our winner and thank you all for entering this giveaway. Better luck next time!

Fanswag: Get lost in Baroque


We've got another giveaway for you all, with the prize being one copy of Baroque. Folks who enjoy the roguelikes will likely want to bounce on this one. Or fans of Atlus overall. Either way, free stuff is good stuff.

How do you enter? Simply leave a comment telling us what your favorite Atlus game is. If you've never played an Atlus title before, check out Wikipedia. You can leave one comment per day, between now and 11:59PM ET on Monday, September 1st, which is when the giveaway ends.

As always, this latest giveaway is only open to current and legal residents of the United States and Canada (excluding Quebec). Also, entrants need to be at least 18 years of age. Read up on the official rules right here.

Gallery: Baroque

Profit from a bounty of Dokapon video

Several new Dokapon Kingdom videos have appeared on IGN, showing various aspects of gameplay, from combat to movement around the board to recruiting outside help in your quest to obtain money. The combat is standard RPG fare, with the menu items assigned to directions on the D-pad. For an RPG to be an appropriate party game, we would expect the combat to be simple and quick -- nobody wants to sit there and eat Funyuns while you're trying to calculate the number of AP needed to protect against poison and also get a hit in on the nearest flying enemy.

As usual with the IGN player, you can find more videos -- of the adventurous ASS, whose player is definitely not juvenile in the least -- on the sidebar thing.

Dokapon Screendom


Atlus sent out a nice screen update of their board game-RPG hybrid Dokapon Kingdom, which can be described as "upbeat" and "cute" -- and now "beefy" as well, thanks to the screenshot above.

For reasons entirely unrelated to impossible cartoon bodybuilding, we're eagerly awaiting the release of this game. Basically, Board Game Top Shop on the PlayStation is so awesome, and we see a potential successor in the wacky anime-ness and competitive money-grubbing found in Kingdom.

The art used in Dokapon happens to be pretty great as well -- even in non-flexing screens.

Gallery: Dokapon Kingdom

E308: Dokapon Kingdom trailer is a delight



Atlus sure knows how to make a trailer exciting -- you can forget needing that cup of coffee after watching this.

While our interest was only mildly piqued before by the adorable-looking boardgame-meets-RPG known as Dokapon Kingdom, this video really managed to put the title on our radar, nearing the "Do Want" list. As for destroying friendships? That's fine by us. We never really liked those people we called "friends" anyway. Atlus also promises an enriching single-person experience, too, in case you've already burned those briges long ago without developer Sting's help.

Dokapon Kingdom should be hitting American shores on October 14th, retailing at $40.

Gallery: Dokapon Kingdom

Dokapon treasure hunters may find real gold


Dokapon Kingdom is all about acquiring as much money as possible before the end of the game. Sting is cleverly extending Dokapon's pecuniary theme into the game's promotion by offering buyers money. Specifically, gold coins.

The Dokatto Kinka! Present Campaign (Thudding Gold Coin Present Campaign) offers gold coins to people who respond to a survey on Sting's mobile phone site. Three Doka-fans who answer the survey between July 31 and September 30, will be awarded 100,000 yen ($953) worth of gold. We don't expect Atlus to hand out gold coins with the American version of Dokapon Kingdom, but maybe we can get a poster of some gold coins!

Wario Land Shake gets dated for Europe, among others

We've been following Wario Land: The Shake Dimension for quite some time now. After the numerous scans and screens, we're about ready to hear something on a release date for the game. Well, as ready as we are in North America, it looks like Europe is the only region with a cemented release for the game. Wario Land: The Shake Dimension will release in Europe on September 26th.

Aside from that game, Nintendo of Europe also dished out release dates for plenty of other Wii games, including Baroque (July 18) and Manhunt 2 (August). To check out the full list, head on past the break.

Continue reading Wario Land Shake gets dated for Europe, among others

Trauma Center makes it to Australia ... stat

The Wii-eager Australian customers were all happily discussing which games they would purchase when Nintendo's hot new console hit the shelves on December 7th, 2006. Plenty of gamers were looking forward to Trauma Center: Second Opinion, which was shaping up to be a quality title.

After a miniscule eighteen months, TC:SO has now been rated by the OFLC for release! Yes, it apparently takes that long to bring a completed game to the shores of ridiculous retail prices. Aussies are used to delays for other big name games like Super Paper Mario and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (which still isn't out), but this one really takes the cake. It's worth noting that there still isn't an actual release date -- it's merely been rated. So, is there potential for a two year Australian delay for a US launch title? You bet!

Forget the emergency room, this one is long dead.

Fifteenmania

GameStop's Game Days sale doesn't really hold too much of interest to Wii owners, other than maybe $20 copies of The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return, and Frontman guitars for $40. However, concurrent with the temporary markdowns done for this sale, GameStop has marked down Compile Heart's cephalopod puzzle game Octomania five bucks, to $14.99. Amazon has also marked the puzzler down to $15.

Octomania involves rotating 2x2 grids of octopi one space at a time to shuffle them onto a grill, in order to make takoyaki. If that's not enough to make the thing irresistible, it's got a wacky story mode and, most importantly, online play. Of course, that means you'll have to convince other people to buy and play it.

Gallery: Octomania

Atlus hates friendship, announces Dokapon Kingdom

Last week, Atlus sent out a cryptic, humorous "apology" letter from "Player 4," asking forgiveness in advance for humiliating other players in some unannounced game. As it turns out, the teaser was for a localized version of Sting's Dokapon Kingdom, announced today for Wii and PS2. Dokapon Kingdom is a four-player board game/RPG that emphasizes shifting alliances and betrayals between its players, being dubbed a "friendship-destroying party game."

The Dokapon Kingdom website features wallpaper, a description of the game's story (in which monsters attack and heroes vie to save the kingdom and earn money from the king), and introductions to three of Dokapon's venal characters.

Dokapon is scheduled for an October 14th release, for $40. After the post break, we've got a trailer and a larger version of the image used in the boxart.

Gallery: Dokapon Kingdom

Continue reading Atlus hates friendship, announces Dokapon Kingdom

Wii Fanboy Review: Baroque

I'll be frank -- when I first started Baroque, I hated it. Being thrown into such a strange and ugly world with the barest of backstories was completely disorienting. I had no idea where to go or what to do, and didn't have the luxury of taking my time to explore because my vitality meter was plummeting from the get-go. One character (known as the Coffin Man) kept yelling "goddamnit!" at me, and when I finally got to the place where I was supposed to be, it wasn't long before I died.

If I hadn't been reviewing this game, I probably would have quit right there. But, since it's (clearly) considered bad form to write a review after only twenty minutes of playtime, I trekked on -- and I'm extremely glad that I did. Once I delved deeper into the world of Baroque, I realized that first impressions aren't always the best impressions.

Now that you've kindly read through my personal aside, let's move on to the actual review, shall we?

Gallery: Baroque

Continue reading Wii Fanboy Review: Baroque

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