Nintendo Wii Fanboy

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!

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!

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.

Usually our irrational love for hybrid games is sated on the DS, but not the Wii. In the instance of Dokapon Kingdom, though, gamers (with Japanese or modded Wiis, at least) can experience a quirky mix on Nintendo's non-portable system, too.

So, what particular combination does Dokapon consist of, you ask? Simply enough, this title is a board-game meets RPG. From what we can tell, the Wii version is actually a port of the PS2 game that was released last November, but it's probably safe for us to assume that most of you never played it the first time around.

Should you be interested, the game releases in Japan this June. If you don't have a Wii capable of playing Japanese games and are worried that Datel's Freeloader might not work, though, you can look into the non-port DS version of Dokapon instead.

In any case, we've made a gallery of Dokapon Kingdom for your viewing pleasure (aren't we just the greatest?), and also posted some Famitsu screens that can be seen beyond the break.