Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Daiseiou, which means "Great Sage King" or "Great Wise King" is a manga based on the Chinese Monkey King story that has been adapted and remade countless times, most recently in the game world as Starfish's The Monkey King: The Legend Begins.

It appears that the legend is continuing: Starfish is working on a game based on Daiseiou, which is also a 2D side-scrolling shooter with the player as the Monkey King flying on his cloud (though this one also features Space Harrier-style segments). For two games in the exact same genre about the same subject matter from the same developer, the styles couldn't be more different -- Daiseiou's detailed, painted-looking style is a sharp contrast from the colorful chibiness of The Monkey King. There's nothing but a single (but pretty excellent) piece of artwork on the official website right now, but you can see plenty of screens at Famitsu.

The Previews magazine product description (as presented on retail website BadgerComics.com) for a new manga based on Castlevania: Curse of Darkness includes a list of the manga's selling points, including planned promotions by Konami and publisher Tokyopop. According to the list, the manga will be: "Cross-promoted with the 2008 video game releases, which include games for the Nintendo Wii and DS (Fall 2008)." The text reads differently in the preview image (seen above), with specific platform references excised. However, it does still read "2008 video game releases."

Unless someone at Previews just made a huge typo, not only is there a Wii Castlevania game (as has been rumored many times), but it's coming out this year, along with Order of Ecclesia on the DS. Is it wrong that we kind of hope they're talking about Rondo of Blood on the Virtual Console instead of another 3D game? An original 2D console Castlevania is far too much to expect. We're actually kind of excited about the Curse of Darkness manga on its own merits! Too much Castlevania for our poor hearts to take!

[Via Wiiz]

We're vaguely excited about Soul Eater, even though we aren't sure we should be. We aren't the biggest anime fans in the world, but the comments on the initial Soul Eater post suggest that there's good stuff to be found in this universe, and the concept of a school for weapon creation certainly holds promise.

But as high-quality as Square Enix's games usually are, and as interesting as this game concept sounds, we have to be wary of non-RPGs from the company. There are a lot more The Bouncers, Ehrgeizes, and King's Knights in Square's history than there are Einhänders. For that matter, the crowds of generic enemies suggest a possible Kingdom Hearts-alike, which seems like a good idea given the sale of Kingdom Hearts.

We threw in the towel last week when we mistakenly identified GameFly's Victorious Boxers: Revolution mockup as the finalized design, but now we're scrambling into the ring to retrieve the surrendered cloth. "Uh, sorry about that! It must've slipped out of our hands!"

Dynamite Glove, a community site for the Hajime no Ippo series, received a first look at publisher XSeed's actual packaging, and it is a thing of beauty. This is the sort of box that we could run up the Philadelphia Museum of Art's steps with, holding it above our heads once we've reached the top, hopping up and down in slow-motion as the training montage fades out.

Those of you who would still rather have Ippo's fighting figure on the front will be happy to hear that the jacket is reversible, the opposite side using artwork from the Japanese cover. Jump past the break for a better look at both boxart designs.

Publisher XSeed will be bringing Victorious Boxers: Revolution to the US (Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting Revolution in Japan), but the boxing game's manga-tastic cover won't be coming along for the trip, at least according to the packaging design on GameFly's product page.

Instead of the crowd of expressive faces -- determined, vengeful, and contemplative -- that we saw with the Japanese boxart, we'll be getting this victory pose silhouette and a ho-hum logo. While we understand that Hajime no Ippo isn't as popular in North America as it is across the Pacific, it would've been nice to have at least seen Ippo, the series's hero, on the cover.

Victorious Boxers hits store shelves this September. Bob and weave past the post break for a look at the game's dramatic packaging art in Japan.

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode isn't exactly a great game. In fact, it's more like an awkward agglomeration of a lot of not-that-great games into one game that is mostly mediocre. But somehow, out of its many imperfect elements, it manages to deliver an impressively James-Bond cool story that motivates players to continue the experience.

As a manga-based sports game, Eyeshield 21: Field Saikyou no Senshi Tachi has more in common with Mutant League Football than any release of Madden. The different teams have special attacks corresponding to their bizarre mascots (e.g. Devil Bats and guitar-playing Spiders), and players celebrate touchdowns by firing automatic weapons into the air. What's not to love?

As Siliconera's import preview explains, Eyeshield 21 cuts the American sport down to its very basics. The abridged playbook offers only four options, you don't actually control your character when running, and almost every gameplay aspect is handled through timed mini-games with the Wii remote.

This streamlined approach might sound like all the fun has been taken out of the game, but Eyeshield 21 keeps players entertained with continuous action and a high-octane soundtrack. If you're still not convinced, head past the post break for some gameplay footage.

Whether or not you're a fan of the anime Bleach, it's hard to argue with a good round of ass kickery. One of the first things we thought of when the WiiVolution was first introduced, way back in the long ago time of 2005, was a fighting game. What better use for the controller than beating down your best good friends?

Bleach looks to do just that. This new trailer is equal parts gameplay footage and hot Wiimote-swinging action. Check it out after the jump.

Honestly, we think we deserve some sort of prize for resisting the temptation to concoct a hilarious headline that involves the words "Bleach" and "Wii". Feel free to make your own--just be careful when you choose to inflict them upon us and the countless fans of the manga and anime series.

Sega has unveiled a teaser website for a forthcoming Wii Bleach adaptation, though "teaser" may be somewhat of a strong word to apply to a single image and some cryptic text. We can only assume (and hope) that it promises a hyper-stylized, cel-shaded adventure with plenty of wiimote-waving swordplay. The Wii won't be a success until someone makes one of those, right?

[Via 4cr, Thanks Hobbes!]