News from Play Asia

Welcome to this week's Movie/Music news roundup, containing all new Japanese and Hong Kong Video and Music releases from this week listed at Play-Asia.com. Around 250 new items are covered in this week, including new J-Pop, Anime as well as Japanese, Hong Kong and Western movie releases and much more.

Here's a summary of all new releases that were published between Saturday, March 10th and Friday, March 16th. If some specific item that you are looking for is missing, please don't hesitate to contact our customer service with your request.

J-Pop Music releases (139)
Anime Soundtracks & Drama CDs (18)
Video Game Soundtracks (1)
Hong Kong Version Music releases (9)
Blu-Ray Disc Movies (3)
Hong Kong Version Movie releases (13)
Japanese Movies (8)
Non-Japanese Movies / Japanese Version (21)
Anime DVD releases (3)
J-Pop DVD releases (27)
Misc. Japanese DVD releases (2)
Idol DVD (11)
UMD™ Video & Music (1) ...

via joystiq

Not that Pokémon -- only the second best-selling game franchise evar -- needs any marketing spin to excite sales of its predestined two-headed spawn Diamond & Pearl, but Nintendo does seems eager to herald the game's impending arrival as a sort of "My First Celly" for DS toting youngsters eager for chatter. Of course, this is simply the ability to chat with registered friends using DS's VoIP capabilities, enabled by the new Pokémon game. While it's a far cry from pending productions and possibilities proposed by the competition, VoIP on DS is a little used feature that has the potential to be a unique selling point.

Sure, it's tethered to Wi-Fi hotspots, but the technology offers the promise of safe communication -- in terms of both who your kid be talkin wit' and potential costs (or lack thereof) -- for concerned parents looking to serve their whiny offspring. Then again, DS VoIPin' lacks the much desired 'prank call' feature. With mischief muted, your preteens are gonna have to settle on playground gossip. That, or they could actually engage in some good ol' pocket monster melee. Imagine that.

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are scheduled for release on April 22. ...

Mhorpheox posted this news:


Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

While we were surfing the halls at the Moscone Center during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week, game developer Renegade Kid LTD. was out as well shopping around its original IP for the Nintendo DS: a survival horror-style first-person adventure by the name of "The Ward."

The Ward, currently without a publisher, puts players in the role of a man lost inside a mysterious hospital filled with horrifying beings. Players will have to use their smarts to figure their way out of this ward without, you know, dying while trying.

Players will look and aim via the touch screen, offering a similar control scheme to Metroid Prime: Hunters, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, and Bionicle Heroes on the Nitnendo DS. The Ward will offer advanced 3D graphics and effects, including a real-time flashlight to really set the mood as players investigate the darkness.

Details are light on gameplay mechanics, but the development team hopes to have the game ready to go this fall.

via ign ...

via ign

The Nintendo DS continues to prove itself as a hugely versatile platform, and come June in Australia and New Zealand, gamers will get the chance to see another example of what it can do. That's the release month for Anno 1701 - a strategy title set between the 17th and 18th centuries, thanks to a new publishing agreement between German-based Sunflowers and Disney Interactive Studios.

The series originated on PC, and is one of the most successful PC game franchises of all time in German-speaking countries. Anno 1701 is at heart an empire-building sim, allowing players to explore new worlds and interact with a wide array of characters, and the DS version is being developed from the ground up to take full advantage of the system's dual screens, with stylus driven gameplay. Wilhelm Hamrozi, CEO of Sunflowers underlined this, saying that: "When expanding the property onto other platforms, we don't simply port the game design, but we develop new concepts that satisfy the familiar high standards in terms of quality and gameplay appropriate to the platform". In addition to a number of features unique to the Nintendo DS version, the game will also feature multiplayer for up to four players. ...

via ign

Last year Majesco gave us Cooking Mama on the DS. It was a killer cooking game, a bit on the shallow side, and a little too simple to be considered one of the best games of the year, but despite our gripes with the game, it was still a ton of fun to play. In fact, along with games like Brain Age and Big Brain Academy, Cooking Mama still remains to be one of the top titles we shove into the face of non-gamers. Cooking Mama doesn't have the speed of Wario Ware or the depth of the brain games, but it does have a simplistic charm and a loveable concept that anyone can - get ready for the pun - sink their teeth into. We couldn't resist.

And after we were done ripping through the DS version in a matter of hours (yes, it was that addicting for a few of us), we eagerly awaited the inevitable Wii announcement that would promise skillet flipping, egg cracking, pot stirring, and chop chopping. As expected, the announcement came, and like many other DS-to-Wii transitions the game stays extremely true to its roots, ups the graphics just a bit, and delivers nearly the game gameplay concepts.

Garnishing the beef broth like a freakin' champ.Now that we've had a chance to take the game for an initial spin, whipping up a couple dozen dishes in the process, we'd be sugar-coating the truth to say we aren't at least a little disappointed. The style is there, the "Engrish" speaking is there, and the cooking is definitely there, but the overall feel of the game is just a bit more detached and less personal than its pocket predecessor. The game is by no means bad (in fact we keep coming back to it; proof that the charm is still there), but the transition from stylus to pointer is a bit too direct for our liking.

In Cooking Mama: Cook Off, players will step into Mama's kitchen, practicing and preparing a variety of dishes from around the world. Whether you take your time in practicing each step before attempting a full serving, or if you're more into the straight-forward improvisational challenge, the ultimate goal is to pick your poison, prepare the food step-by-step, and impress Mama enough to gain access to more dishes. The better you do, the larger your recipe book gets. Simple, but entertaining.

Go flan go!Where Cooking Mama: Cook Off is a bit of a letdown is in the way you interact with the game, as the Wii remote's primary function will be the IR control. In the DS version players would draw to slice food, grab ingredients a physically place them into pots and pans, or trace designs to fold gyoza or stir ingredients in a pot. While there are a few of these actions in the Wii version - players will literally stir with the Wii remote, chop up and down, and saw back and forth through slabs of meat - many of the actions are still done simply with a cursor, so cutting meat is more about tracing a line, and adding ingredients is a click-and-drag movement.

The split between the two types of play (cursor and action) are still about 50/50, so you'll still be mimicking moves to pull off cooking maneuvers quite a bit, but the feeling is just more of a detached experience. Cracking eggs, for example, centered around physically touching the egg on DS, and slamming the stylus down to crack it. Now it's done by moving the Wii remote softly from left to right. Once you make the move, the game interprets it and gives you the outcome. The feeling of cooking is still there, but the tactile experience is lost with the incorporation of IR.

That isn't to say players should write this one off, as there's still a ton of content for us to explore (two-player mode will have to wait for another day), and dozens and dozens of recipes for us to master. In addition, many of the actions - such as coating a pan in butter or whipping a bowl of eggs - feel much better with the Wii controller than they did on DS, and that many of the actions that do support Wii gestures instead of IR add to the overall experience a ton. It's going to come down to how many of those actions are in the remaining parts of the game, and whether or not they make up for the lack of tactile feel during the other portions.

On the presentation side, Cooking Mama's transition is a decent one, and while the graphics aren't meant to be mind-blowing the game displays in 16:9 and 480p, and has a crisp look to it. Icons are large, colors are vibrant, and the audio is still just as lively (and crazy) as it was on DS. The addition of a worldwide theme for the dishes (each region has specific methods for cooking) and the "Everybody Cook" multiplayer mode could go a long way in the end. ...

via ign

Less than a month ago, IGN Wii traveled to EA LA to play a near-final version of Medal of Honor Vanguard for Nintendo's new console. You can read our first impressions right here. Now, we've got reviewable code for the game. So the big question is, what's changed, if anything, and on top of that, are the controls improved since we last saw the wartime shooter in motion? Keep reading for an updated look at the Wii FPS complete with new console-specific 480p / 16:9 screenshots.

We've gunned our way through several hours of Vanguard on Wii so far and the shooter successfully throws players into battle-heavy situations complemented by scripted sequences and visuals that, in our estimation, are prettier than anything in Call of Duty 3 for Nintendo's system. The music and audio portions of the game are a cut above most efforts, too.

That being true, Activision's FPS has Medal of Honor beat where movement is concerned. Vanguard brings to the table a variety of Wii-mote options, including the ability to tweak the sensitivity of turning speeds. However, regardless of which setting is chosen, the process of turning around and about in the environments is generally more sluggish - not Red Steel-level bad by any stretch of the imagination, but indisputably slower than Call of Duty 3. The upside is that as soon as you hold the A button, you activate the iron sights - essentially a scoped-in sniper view - where you can very easily and accurately target and shoot down enemies. It feels great and it's very responsive. We actually prefer the iron sights sniper control in Medal of Honor to Call of Duty 3's, even as we prefer the general maneuverability through levels in Activision's shooter.

Vanguard includes what some would call the Holy Grail option for Wii first-person shooters: a fixed-reticule mode. Before you jump up and down and cite the developer as the savior of the genre, though, be aware that its fixed-reticule is essentially a presentation trick and not the real deal. Although the reticule stays centered, the screen doesn't move around with your Wii remote. Actually, it took us only a few moments to determine that the fixed-reticule was still operating within the confined of a typical bounding box; as soon as you drag beyond the box, the screen begins to move -- you merely lose the ability to precisely target enemies and objects within the invisible field.
You move through the battlefields with the nunchuk's analog stick and aim with the Wii remote. EA has more intuitively mapped some functions to the pointer and nunchuk, too. For instance, you can perform a quick 180-degree turn merely by flicking to the left with the nunchuk. Meanwhile, to hurl a grenade, you simply point at the area you want it thrown, press the B button to lock the spot, and then make a tossing motion with the Wii remote. Easily our favorite feature, though, is the ability to target around corners by leaning with analog accuracy using the nunchuk's stick. We find ourselves using it all the time, especially since there are so many situations that require iron sights-enhanced gun battles.

You don't drive vehicles in Vanguard, but you do man turrets and many of the levels begin with a cinematic paratrooper sequence - after all, you are a member of the 82nd Airborne Division. These sub-stages, if you want to call them that, are over far too quickly for our liking because they both break up the monotony of standard run-and-gun gameplay and add quite a bit of atmosphere to the overall experience. You're usually in the air for about 30 seconds before the ground play resumes, but you do have control while you're up there. Pull back on the Wii remote and nunchuk and you'll slow your descent; push forward and you'll speed it up. And you can even steer left or right by pulling back on one controller and pushing forward with the other.

Vanguard boasts much-improved graphics over Call of Duty 3. Not only are the environments more diverse, but the textures that skin the stages are crisper. On top of that, the action is complemented by advanced real-time lighting effects so that when you shoot down an Italian soldier in a darkened alleyway, your gun's muzzle-fire will illuminate the walls in quick, short flashes. It will also highlight other soldiers, which also looks fantastic. The framerate, though, is less fluid than the mostly smooth make-up of Activision's game. In fact, we're currently playing through a level filled with lots of grass and rain where the fluidity dips well below 30 frames per second. Vanguard supports both 480p and 16:9 widescreen modes on Nintendo's console.
We'll have more on the title as we lead up to the review, including a report on the game's multiplayer mode. ...

When we first saw Victorious Boxers in action during one of Nintendo's trailers during the Tokyo Game Show last year, we instantly wanted it. The Victorius Boxers series, predominantly a Japanese franchise, has seen a handful of releases worldwide (including the United States and Europe), so while we weren't expecting to see it reach our shores, we remained cautiously optimistic as we witnessed anime brawlers beating the ever-loving hell out of each other.



Now that the Japanese sits has gone live, new details on the series have surfaced along with it, and while there's still no word on a worldwide release, buzz is growing for this action-packed Wii brawler.

On the Victorious Boxers Japanese Website (translated into Hajime no Ippo Revolution), the development team shares a ton of information on the game, including multiple game modes, story tidbits, and specifics of the Wii technology designers are currently working with.

As the main highlight of the site, Japanese-reading fans (or smarty-pants Babel Fish users) can step into the development offices, sharing interviews with the producer Mr. Yoshihara, check out production photos and Japanese screens, as well as a few snippets of flash demos. One of the more interesting facts about the game centers around control, as there seems to be two modes of play. Players can either hold the nunchuk and Wii remote like boxing gloves (similar to Wii Sports Boxing) to deliver blows, with the gripping of shoulder buttons seemingly used for some sort of dodge or parry mode, or the game can be split into a targeting-specific mode, where the Wii remote's onscreen cursor is used to pinpoint where your boxer's intended hit will land.

While there's been no announcement for Victorious Boxers Wii to release outside of Japan, the series has already seen a worldwide release in the form of Victorious Boxers: Ippo's Road to Glory, published in late 2001 by Vivendi Universal for the PS2. IGN contacted Vivendi to get a statement on the status of Victorious Boxers Wii, but it was unavailable for comment at this time.

via ign ...

via ign

Capcom has an all new adventure title in the works for Wii, the latest Famitsu reports. Tentatively titled Treasure Island Z (Takarajima Z in Japanese), the game gives players control of a cute little pirate named Zack, who's out to solve puzzles and discover the legendary treasure that was hidden away on Treasure Island by the great pirate Barbaros.

The game is played primarily with the Wiimote. You move a pointer around on screen, pointing and clicking on places of interest. Zack moves to investigate. The pointer turns to a star shape when you're pointing at something worthwhile, like a lever or a tool that's been dropped to the floor.

Solving puzzles requires both finding items and coming up with different ways to use the Wiimote. Let's say you find your path blocked by a tree. Search the area, and you'll find a saw. Once you have this item, you'll have to hold and slice the Wiimote back and forth like you would a real saw. Figure out the correct means of operation, and you'll be able to chop down the tree.

Some of the items provide hints to their proper use. In one area, you'll recover an umbrella. Figuring out how to open the umbrella is one part of the puzzle. There's a button on the umbrella, which suggests that you should press the equivalent button on the Wiimote.

Puzzles start off simple but promise to get tougher as the game progresses. If you're having trouble, you can consult a friend for hints. The goal is to clear the stages without getting any hints. Prior to the start of a stage, the game shares with you the percentage of testers who were able to clear the stage on their own, so you can get a feel for the difficulty.

Treasure Island Z has a colorful, cartoon-style look that could remind some of Power Stone. In fact, the game's director is Eichiro Sasaki, known for his work on Power Stone 2 (as well as Resident Evil Outbreak). The producer is Hironobu Takeshita, who previously worked on the Breath of Fire series.

This original Wii adventure will hit Japan some time in 2007. A US release has yet to be announced. ...