The long-rumored new Nintendo DS was announced at the Nintendo Fall Press Conference last night. As was recently reported by Nikkei Net, the new Nintendo DSi contains both a music player and a camera (two cameras actually). It also features a larger screen, improved web browser, SD Card slot, and access to the Nintendo Store. It does not, however, have a Game Boy Advance slot anymore. So be prepared to download all those GBA cartridges you’ve held on to. We’ve got some more pictures after the jump.
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Check out the Powet.tv review of this game.

Swagshow, a venue not unlike our own here at Powet but limited to YouTube videos, managed to make their way down to E3 and capture some footage of the two new Castlevania games, Order of Ecclesia and Judgement.

Order of Ecclesia already had some footage released that’s been floating around the net, and this video just provides greater coverage of the Glyph system that the game uses, as well as a bit of dialogue between main character Shanoa and her mentor Barlowe. The Glyph system is interesting in that you can assign glyphs to each hand to attack with, using either the same glyph for both or different glyph for each. As has been mentioned before, the action will be combination of styles from previous recent Castlevania games such as Symphony of the Night or Dawn of Sorrow, with a traveling map similar to oldschool classic Simon’s quest.

As for Judgement, we only get to see a small snippet of playtime. Playable characters revealed are Simon Belmont, Maria Renard, and Alucard. Though gameplay seems fluid and the characters seem to move and attack well, the game thus far looks like a clone of Soul Calibur….with zombies. However, I will hold off on my contempt for the game until I get to watch the full thing when it’s released.

This fall will be a heavy time for Castlevania fanatics, as it’s been announced by Konami that both of the newest titles of the acclaimed series, “Order of Ecclesia” and “Judgement” will be released sometime later this year.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, reported upon earlier, is the Nintendo DS title following upon the footsteps of previous games such as Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow in terms of gameplay, as an action-adventure 2D platformer. It takes control of newcomer Shanoa as she searches for the lost Belmont family while battling the minions of Dracula.

Castlevania: Judgement, if you haven’t heard yet, will be a 3D fighting game; a first for the series. (for obvious reasons) Castlevania characters from all over the series continuum will be thrown together in a style leechingly-similar to Soul Calibur to fight one another in a (hopefully) non-canon battle royale. A even more shocking twist is the hiring of Death Note’s Takeshi Obata to do character designs, completely overhauling pre-existing designs mostly coming from series-usual Ayame Kojima.

This fall will surely prove to be an interesting turn of events for Castlevania fans. Many debates have already begun as to the fate of both games as numerous fans, while liking the usual-style Ecclesia is going with, denounce Judgement as straying too far from the Castlevania norm and claim it to be merely Konami’s cash-maker. Come this autumn, we’ll see what’s what when both games are launched to brave public scrutiny.

If you missed out on the original SNES game or the Playstation re-release, you’ll be given a new chance this holiday season to get your hands on one of the best games ever made, period.

Square has seen fit to re-release Chrono Trigger. Sounds like they’ll be tossing in a ‘new dungeon’ as well as modifying the game to make use of the dual screens and some touch commands. But, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it: They won’t make it a 3D conversion like some of the recent Final Fantasy games on DS. This video above is from the Playstation version. No word if those new anime cut scenes will survive to the new DS version, but all are available on youtube if you’re clever.

If you never played Chrono Trigger, and there are a lot of you, then know this: its the only Japanese RPG I ever played, and I played it enough to see all the endings, including the very hard one. Its the classic story of boy meets girl, girl falls into time warp, boy saves girl, robot punches dinosaur, world falls into peril, magic kingdom summons alien, etc, etc. But its really fun with engaging combat options that do away with random battles and grinding, as well attacks that combine character abilities, and enough time travel puzzles to make Marty McFly’s head spin.
Join us in our forums to talk about what you loved about the game, or leave a comment asking us what the fuss is about.

Official press release follows
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A few months ago, I did a special on the first half of the Final Fantasy series, where I briefly touched upon this iteration of the series. With Final Fantasy IV hitting the Nintendo DS shortly (as evidenced by aDam’s video review of it below), hardcore FF fans will want to check out its predecessor as soon as possible. This remake is the first and only international release of Final Fantasy 3. It blends together what made the original version of the game unique with some new innovations that help keep it fresh for today’s gaming audience.
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Final Fantasy IV for the Nintendo DS comes out on July 22nd. I’ve gotten my hands on the Japanese version of the game and put together this review of all the new features of the latest incarnation of my all time favourite game.

Read on for contest details.
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Well, it’s been confirmed by several accounts, including Konami’s official website that Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia was indeed the game that featured screenshots that were leaked some time ago. Slated for a fall release, Order of Ecclesia features newcomer protagonist Shanoa as a member of the elusive Order, who has been trained as an agent to be used against Dracula’s forces when the Belmont family mysteriously vanishes. New tidbits featured are, as mentioned, a female main character, which is a first since IGA took over the series and eliminated Gameboy’s Castlevania Legends from canon for the same reason. The other new feature is a glyph system of fighting, which is mentioned as akin to Aria of Sorrow’s tactical-soul system.
An interview with series producer IGA maps out these new fighting systems and a few other interesting aspects of the new game, including new artwork not of the anime-genre of Dawn of Sorrow or Portrait of Ruin, but neither from series’ usual artist Ayami Kojima.

Another interesting bit of Castlevania news has been rumored as to the next Castlevania game after Ecclesia, which has been confirmed as being for a console. The title “Castlevania: Judgment” has been registered by Konami almost right on the heels of Ecclesia, and whispers from Japan hint that the console of choice very well might be the Nintendo Wii. The real reason this is interesting is because IGA had stated long ago that he was frowning at the idea of having a Castlevania on the Wii due to obvious gimmicks that would be associated with the Wiimote and a whip-weapon system. Only time will tell if these rumors, like the ones for Ecclesia, prove to be true.