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Posts with tag bandai-namco

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]

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

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."

Giant monsters are coming to Japan

Posted Apr 5th 2008 2:30PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: News

There aren't many details about Daikaiju Battle Ultra Coliseum, but Namco Bandai is bringing the game to Japan this summer. All we know is that it's a fighting game, involving giant monsters. While that's not much to go on, it sounds pretty fun to us -- taking a giant robot (like the weird guy pictured to the right) and beating up on a Godzilla-like character or other monster would be too cool.

Hopefully we'll see some trailer footage soon. Thanks to the freeloader and the nature of fighting games, if this one incorporates just the right amount of cheesiness, it might be worth the import.

[Via Siliconera]

Check out Sky Crawlers in motion

Posted Apr 1st 2008 7:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Video


Should you happen to be as excited about Sky Crawlers as we are, you might be interested in this trailer -- even if it's just a total tease. We can't tell much about the game from this video, but it sure does look nice. We like the oldschool planes, too, as opposed to modern jets, but maybe that's just us. Here's hoping that more info on Sky Crawlers gets released soon!

Gallery: Sky Crawlers



[Via Gemaga]

Breaking sweat with more Family Trainer shots

Posted Mar 26th 2008 8:00PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News, Screens



GAME Watch has posted new shots for Bandai Namco's Athletic World: Family Trainer (known in the U.S. by the far blander -- not to mention inaccurate -- moniker of Active Life: Outdoor Challenge), as well as lots of snaps featuring people jumping on, crawling across, and twisting on the Power Pad Family Trainer mat that ships with the game. Oh, and leaning, obviously. We hope it's sturdily constructed!

If you've been keeping up with our coverage, you'll have already acquainted yourself with the events on display, but hit the "Read" link below to gawk at plenty of new screenage.

[Via Jeux France]

Sky Crawlers gets more screens and a website

Posted Mar 24th 2008 10:35PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Screens


If the time is just crawling for you until Sky Crawlers comes out, at least there's now an official website for the game to keep you busy. The site is in Japanese, but it's not too hard to click on buttons and hope for the best.

There's not much to see at the moment, though, except for the snazzy screens we've conveniently added to the gallery below. So, those of you who are afraid of the cold, harsh arms of the internet don't even have to leave the safety of Nintendo Wii Fanboy for now.

Reminder: Make sure to click on the "Hi Res" button when viewing the photos, or else you're just a fool.

Gallery: Sky Crawlers



[Via NeoGAF]

We're not cheering for We Cheer

Posted Mar 23rd 2008 4:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: News

It turns out another cheerleading game that's not Ouendan is coming to the Wii. Can we get a facepalm, please?

Not that we have anything against cheerleading. We're just curious why there's a sudden revival of the sport, which has inspired two companies to bring it to the Wii. Seriously, people, it's been years since the Spartans SNL sketches or Bring it On made the general public view cheerleading as anything other than an excuse to ogle cute girls.

Nevertheless, joining THQ in the pep parade is Namco Bandai with a game called We Cheer. There's no word yet on whether Namco's game will involve the balance board, too, but we think it's a safe bet (think We Ski).

We hope this is the last cheerleading game we'll ever have to write about; unless, of course, iNiS feels inspired to bring an Ouendan adaptation to the Wii. We'd be totally fine with that. Seriously, iNiS, make it happen.

*Note: Looking up "cheerleader" in Google Image Search is absolutely scandalous.

Sky Crawlers screens soar past our expectations

Posted Mar 21st 2008 8:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Screens


We have one word to describe Sky Crawlers: Gorgeous. Yes, looks aren't everything, but we're too busy mopping up our own drool to care about such technicalities. Also, since the game is being made by the same people behind Ace Combat, we're going to bet that the gameplay in this will be just fine. At the very least, the controls sound solid. Simply enough, you move your plane around with the Nunchuck, and then point and shoot with the Wiimote.

The best shots of the game are in our gallery (below), but some more Famitsu screens are posted after the break. So, click away if you're looking for some nice Wii eye-candy.

*Note: The pictures look best when viewed in their full resolution, so make sure to click here to see them in their glory. If you prefer, you can also click on the "Hi Res" button in the gallery.

Gallery: Sky Crawlers

Continue reading Sky Crawlers screens soar past our expectations

Ace Combat team making Wii flight sim

Posted Mar 18th 2008 5:00PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News


Click for larger version.

Remove Petit Copter from the equation, and pickings are awfully slim when it comes to Wii flight sims. So what's a budding Biggles to do? Pray for a Wii update to the absolutely flawless* Pilotwings 64? Well, that's one option (and something we do on a daily basis anyway), but Bandai Namco is hoping to provide another in the form of Sky Crawlers, a flight game based on an animated film that's to be released on August 2nd in Japan.

The latest edition of Famitsu has the first shots of the title, in which the Wiimote doubles up as your throttle, and the nunchuk is used to steer. Even though the film is based on a fantastical premise -- youngsters fighting a war organized by adults as a form of entertainment -- the game features realistic visuals.

In summary, we're keen to see more of this, particularly as it's developed by the same team behind the Ace Combat series. With any luck, we'll be able to banish the craptacular likes of Wing Island from our memories forever.

* Seriously, don't argue with me here. Like, seriously. I have maimed for less.

Mojipittan supports Wi-Fi, still doesn't support English

Posted Mar 13th 2008 1:30PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Imports, Screens, WiiWare


We're a little wistful when we look at the new Wii Ware Kotoba Puzzle Mojipittan. It's a game built around making Japanese words, so there's kind of an inherent problem with localizing it. The Wii Ware version, just like every other version, is therefore locked away in Japan forever.

But it looks so fun! And the use of the hiragana syllabary means that novice-to-intermediate Japanese learners could play it a little without having to worry about kanji. This particular iteration of Mojipittan, in addition to only costing 1,000 Wii Points, has another feature that makes it especially interesting: online play for two players.

In addition to the normal Scrabble-like game, this Mojipittan features a "War Mode" in which players battle over board territory with their words, with the winner occupying the most space.

We Ski gets the Kirby treatment

Posted Mar 13th 2008 9:45AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News

The Japanese boxart for We Ski (Family Ski over there) used a simple ski-resort signage theme. It may not have been the most exciting boxart, but it's pretty nice-looking, and kind of serene. Very vacation-y. The American boxart dials the serenity way down and the excitement way up. We expect the totally extreme skiers here to be headed back to the lodge to slam some Chibi Mountain Dew. Except for the guy in the back, who just came along because there was an extra ticket, even though he doesn't really like skiing.

The facial expressions remind us of Nintendo of America's frequent edits of Kirby boxarts. Nintendo knows that if we're going to buy a game about a spherical pink baby, he had better be one angry baby. A few examples can be found after the break.

Continue reading We Ski gets the Kirby treatment

Family See-saw Fighting Trainer

Posted Mar 12th 2008 1:30PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Imports, Screens


Namco Bandai has released new screens of the events in Athletic World: Family Trainer, including a couple of new games that weren't covered in the last roundup. "Kenken Step" involves dodging stone idols that move toward the player (we think), and "See-saw Fight" is actually a kind of Twister/Simon/DDR thing in which players hit a specific spot on the Family Trainer mat in response to onscreen cues, with see-saw level representing performance.

Amazon now has a boxart for the American version of the game, called Active Life: Outdoor Challenge, as well as a potential September 20th release date and a $60 price. Since it's impossible to talk about this game without comparing its sales potential to Wii Fit, we'll say this: ironically, this game's game-ness may be its biggest liability. Wii Fit makes a concerted effort to be an exercise program with some little minigames in it, focusing on things like weight tracking and exercise training and such. Outdoor Challenge is a video game that requires movement. The "expanded audience" will be more interested in the "serious" exercise tool, and gamers will still find Outdoor Challenge too non-game-like.

But on the other hand, $60 is probably less than Nintendo will charge for Wii Fit.

Bubble Wrap Keychain: The Game for Wii Ware

Posted Mar 11th 2008 2:15PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Imports, WiiWare


Bandai's "Mugen Puchi Puchi" keychain was a huge success in Japan, fulfilling the near-universal love of popping bubble wrap. The draw is that it simulates bubble wrap but never runs out (the name translates to "infinite pop pop"), and playing wacky noises on every hundredth pop. It's as bizarrely compelling as it sounds.

And now it's going to be a bizarrely compelling video game! Ouchi de Mugen Puchi Puchi Wii is a game based on the premise of "oh, hey, bubble wrap!" You'll be able to squeeze bubbles with the Wiimote, scoring combos based on popping in time with the game's music. Each of around 40 stages will have a different background, music, and bubble popping sound! The game will also randomly test your stress level, which is almost guaranteed to be chill. We're calling it right now: this is our most-wanted Wii Ware game. Bandai Namco has to do the right thing here and localize it.

Animal-things of Symphonia

Posted Jan 28th 2008 12:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Imports, Screens


Two "Centurion Spirits of Ratatoskr," some kind of spiritual protectors, will join your party in Tales of Symphonia: Knights of Ratatoskr. The first is a grey, sort of feline Pokémon-looking creature called Tenebrae who works with the power of darkness, and is responsible for protagonist Emil's status as a Knight of Ratatosk. The second is a cat-child-thing called Aqua, who is unsurprisingly expert with water-based abilities. Aqua works with party member Richter.

We can't quite determine if the attachment between these Centurions and party members means that they'll be relegated to a support role or if they're in the party. We think a big magical cat-monster would be a pretty good asset on the team.

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