Ready? It’s the second of our three-part coverage of TGS 2007!

In this installment, we cover:

Soul Calibur Legends
Oneechanbara R
Final Fantasy IV DS
Sony Presser

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Famicom Dojo – TGS 2007 Special – Part 2

Show notes at FamicomDojo.TV:
TGS 2007 Special, Part 1

Episode links after the jump!

[Read the rest of this entry…]

What at first started as just a bunch of gossip on the GameFAQs forums has turned into something quite a bit more. A thread (which has been since deleted) started by a confirmed VIP of Konami America (supposedly a translator of the localization team) produced some interesting tidbits of information, including a supposed beta image of the upcoming game in production which can be seen to the right.

The game’s supposed name? Akumajo Dracula: Ubawareta Kokuin. (Castlevania: The Stolen Seal)

Of course this leads to much speculation and many denouncings by the Castlevania community, who are skeptical of the image, after a hoax game (the falsely titled “Duel Moons”) a few years back managed to fool even members of several gaming news sites. This new rumor could very well be the same photoshopped nightmare. What also make fans raise an eyebrow is the fact the image portrays the main playable character as a female protagonist – something series producer IGA has stated he doesn’t like doing. (secondary female characters are fine though, it would seem)

So, with no official word from the Konami bigwigs, and only an image and one man’s words to go by, we’ll just have to see if this is another hoax, or if it could be the first we see of the third 2D Castlevania DS game that has been confirmed by Konami. Once I know, you’ll know.

Rescued from the incinerator, where it was left by careless interns, comes the first of three parts in our Tokyo Game Show 2007 Special for Famicom Dojo!

In this installment, we cover:

No More Heroes
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
Wii Family Trainer: Athletic World
?????? Doko De Mo Yoga (Yoga Anywhere)

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Video Netcast
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Famicom Dojo – TGS 2007 Special – Part 1

No More Heroes comes out this Tuesday, January 22nd. I highly recommend you reserve a copy, since that might be the only way you get to play it!

Show notes at FamicomDojo.TV:
TGS 2007 Special, Part 1

[Read the rest of this entry…]

You can get the movie through one of the links below:
Play-Asia
Amazon Japan

Note that you will need a region 2 or region free DVD player to play this movie.

When I first played Metroid Prime Hunters on DS, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was an elaborate Quake III mod. Now id software’s less PC-specific branching out to consoles, mobiles, and portables is getting us a port of not only Quake III Arena but also their FPS classic (and my first introduction to floating-gun-gaming) Wolfenstein 3D.

Says John Carmack of id:

“…we’re currently looking at potentially two more DS titles in the next year a Wolfenstein title and a Quake Arena title. Wolfenstein 1 being done in concert with a mobile title, the Quake Arena title would be DS specific”

Now cross your fingers for WiFi support.

from Advanced Media

New York Times reports from an interview with Daniel A. DeMatteo, the COO of GameStop, that they’ll be re-organizing their stores this fall to accomodate the massive influx of DS players, Wii Warriors, and Guitar Heroes.

In particular, he describes a whole rack just for music and rhythm games and more shelf space dedicated to family friendly games like Mario Kart, Nintendogs, LEGO Star Wars, and more. Frankly, I’d expect this from a larger retailer. I’m surprised a Target or Walmart hasn’t already done it. As a described “core” gamer by those who are catering to these “Casuals” I have to wonder how this will cut into shelf space for more refined titles like Bioshock and Assassin’s Creed, and even well known games like Mario Galaxy. I mean, there are now tons of old people playing Wii Sports and training their brains, but doesn’t GameStop owe it to themselves to turn these casuals into core gamers too? Putting up a shelf with nothing but music and rhythm games will mean for sure coverage with Rock Band and Guitar Hero, but will they also pull out older and lesser known titles like Elite Beat Agents?

Can the casuals and cores live together? Leave a comment.

Image from nataliedee.com

On Monday September 3rd, starting at 8:30pm Eastern Time, the Powet.tv gaming community will be having a Pokémon Diamond and Pearl game night. What this basically means is that all Powet.tv members can go online at one time and engage in battles and trades with each other. With the large group we have there should be an oppurtunity to have constant battling at a time when you know people in your friend list will be available to battle. To participate please do the following:

1) Get a friend code! Post it in the Pokémon Diamond/Pearl Friend Codes thread or as a comment to this post.

2) At 8:00pm EST or later, add all the friend codes from the list at the end of this post, also available in this thread, to your Pal Pad. Feel free to start adding them earlier but to avoid having late comers left out of potential battles please remember to update your friend codes before starting to play.

3) Assemble your team of 6 non Legendary Pokémon, go to the basement of a Pokémon Center and talk to the girl on the left to go online.

4) Accept an invitation to a battle or chose “Invite” to challenge someone who’s online to a “Single Battle” or “Double Battle”. Please select a “Lv. 50 Single” or “Lv. 50 Double” which will take whatever 6 Pokémon you have in your team and set their level to 50 for the match. They will keep whatever moves they have but their stats will be what they would have at level 50, so competition should be more even.

Before you openly make fun of your competitor please keep in mind that voice chat is active during battles so when you speak into the mic in your DS, the opponent will hear you.

Trading is encouraged. Talk about what you’d like to trade while battling, and then change your team, reestablish your Wi-Fi connection, and trade accordingly.

For more information and discussion drop by the forum and check out this thread.

Thanks to Captain Genius for the spiffy banner.

Please keep reading for a list of what are considered to be restricted Legendary Pokémon and friend codes.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Fast on the heels of Dracula X Chronicles, that has a scheduled release date of November 13th, series producer Koji Igarashi seems to feel the need to pump out even more Castlevania for fans to digest in the coming months. Two new games have been announced as in production, one for the Nintendo DS, and another exclusive to cellphone gaming.

Castlevania: Order of Shadows has been announced to be a cellphone-exclusive title to the series and will be released in September to most of the major service providers, including AT&T and Verizon. The game is to be a side-story in the series, and will feature the protagonist stylings of Desmond Belmont, and his sisters Zoe and Delores. (where they though these would be good names for Belmont’s is anyone’s guess….narcotics may have been involved) One can only attribute this Konami’s sudden change from consoles and handhelds to cellphone-exclusive gaming to other games of it’s ilk, such as God of War: Betrayal. Whether or not this game will be inducted into the series storyline as canon has yet to be determined.

The other Castlevania game in production has been confirmed by Iga as being again for the DS handheld system, and promises it “will not be a remake like Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles and will be all new“. Any other information as of right now is shoddy at best, and any other solid leads as to what kind of game this will be will most likely be unveiled at Konami’s Spring Gamer’s Day. So, we have a good deal of time before anything substantial is released.

A final note is Iga’s mentioning of a future Castlevania title being released for the Xbox 360, and possibly the PS3 (if it’s sales pick up). Nothing other than this teaser has been mentioned, and won’t probably until after the release of the future DS game. We all can only hope that this long-awaited jump into the next-gen consoles means either a high-quality 3D game in planning, or a grandscale 2D game that would hopefully be the next Symphony of the Night. One can only dream.