Japanese Releases News, Japanese Releases Features - Page 13 of 17

Taito plays it safe in bringing back a classic.

Whilst Atari's Breakout and Super Breakout pioneered the arcade block-breaking games that are well-worn cliches today, Taito's Arkanoid really took the idea to the next level and no one's improved upon it since. The game concept is pretty simple: a bar at the bottom of the screen is used to bounce a...

A little bit of madness and some exciting Arcade Classic surprises coming to the Japanese Wii next week, whilst the Japanese DSiWare service comes out of a dry spell.

On the WiiWare front we have four titles coming out next Tuesday: Muscle March from Namco Bandai for 800 points features body builders and a...polar bear...trying to catch the people who stole their protein powder by matching various..

Su-mo! Su-mo!

Back in 1987 Tecmo released Tsuppari Oozumou for the Famicom. This was the first (and one of the only) sumo wrestling games to come to home consoles and was basically a button masher at heart where the object, like real sumo, is to force your opponent out of the ring or put him on his back like a fat unruly turtle. A sequel followed on the Super Famicom, but the character design was..

It's VC week!

Next week is a VC-heavy week for Japan with only one WiiWare title and four Virtual Console titles. The Japanese DSiWare front has been quiet since the 1st of the month which saw the release of the viewer for downloading videos from the latest Nintendo Wii channel: Wii no Ma. Shika Gari (sic) or Deer Hunt is a simple deer-hunting title and the sole WiiWare release for 500 points..

BECAUSE YOU DEMANDED IT!

Remember Contra? After Green Beret (Rush 'N' Attack to Americans) it was the definitive run-and-gun game from Konami which saw two games in the arcade and ports and sequels on home consoles. I cannot say I ever played the latter, but the former I remember well. Despite being punishingly difficult (to me, anyway) there was something compelling about it that caused me to..

This week sees some catching up and another Rebirth!

After last week's focus on the new streaming media channel from Nintendo with no new Japanese WiiWare or VC content, this week we're back to the standard 7 releases. Most of these are catching up with the NA/EU territories, but there's a couple of new titles in there as well including one that...

Japanese gamers are finally getting the Art Style WiiWare titles

Nintendo's unique Art Style WiiWare titles have already been available in North American and Europe for some time now, but Japanese gamers have been left out in the cold. That's all about the change with the announcement that Nintendo is finally bringing its three Art Style titles to the Japanese WiiWare service on May 12th for 600..

Another six releases for our Japanese friends.

I'm sure many in the PAL/NA territories will be green with envy and I've got to say I'm going to have a hard decision to make here. You see amongst the three WiiWare releases coming to Japan next week is Bit.Trip.Beat. Given that there's no projected release date for Europe whatsoever, can I resist temptation, especially when the game is only 500..

Only 6 games for Japan in May (Not counting yet to be announced arcade games), but it's quite a good selection.

May seems to be a Famicom month of sorts - 4 of the 6 games planned for release are for Nintendo's original console. And they're not exactly obscure games either - Final Fantasy and Famicom Wars (The first in the "Wars" series, which includes Advance and Battalion Wars) will..

Green shades anyone?

In Japan you simply cannot have a download release list that's less than four games and next week will be no exception with a mixed total of six. Only two WiiWare releases: World of Goo published by Nintendo themselves for 1500 points -- I think everyone knows what this game is by now! Hajiite Block Rush from Agenda for 500 points -- this one looks very pretty, but I'm not..

Nippon Ichi delivers an oddball game as only the Japanese can.

It's literally called Let's Zenryoku Hitchihaiku!!!!!!!!! (yes nine exclamations!), which I guess you could translate as Let's Totally Hitchhike, Dude! (the "Dude" is my personal addition) and it's a recent release to the Japanese WiiWare service which I just had to try out after seeing videos of the game in action. Without..

Takashi Shimizu is working on a game adaption of his classic Ju-On film series

Who doesn’t love having the pants scared off of them? There's nothing more exhilarating than the feeling! That’s why it’s welcome news that Takashi Shimizu is working on a new horror game for the Wii, which is tentatively called 'Feel'. It’s based on his hit horror films of the Ju-On series that included the..

Another week, another 5 releases for Japan.

It's true the Japanese have another week with a mix of VC and WiiWare content, but Wii owners in North America and Europe need not feel the usual pangs of jealousy (well, I guess that depends on how much you've been wanting to see a couple of these...). On the WiiWare front we have a couple of things that will likely stay in Japan and something we already..

Taito delivers another enjoyable update to an arcade franchise.

For those who aren't familiar Puzzle Bobble is a late-90s arcade puzzle franchise from Taito featuring Baburun and Boburun from Bubble Bobble. Fans in the rest of the world may remember this game better as the ill-titled "Bust-A-Move." It's had five arcade iterations, two of which were ports on the Neo Geo MVS (Bust-A-Move..

Capcom and Nintendo team up to bring a special edition Ace Attorney DSi to Japan.

Fans of the Ace Attorney series will probably go wild at the prospect of owning the recently announced limited edition DSi that features the emblem of the game's police force, Taihokun. Over the years the series has been going from strength to strength, and now has 4 localised Western DS versions along with a string..

Another games tsunami hits the Japanese Wii Shop!

You know I just bought 6000 Wii points for the PAL service expecting a ton of new WiiWare and Virtual Console Arcade titles to appear imminently. I may be somewhat impatient, but it's extra disheartening to see two single-release Fridays in a row and then the nearly non-stop flood of content hitting Japan week after week. Next week the Japanese..

Nintendo surprises by publishing this off-beat balance game from Fyto.

When I saw there was a bonus WiiWare update in Japan for some reason I was intrigued to see both games were from Nintendo. I was even more intrigued with the look of one of them: Kimi to Boku to Rittai (You, Me and Shape). The visual style and sparse soundscape reminded me of Intelligent Cube from the Playstation, but I..

More? They get more?!?

Incredibly after a super Thursday in Japan which saw a six title release on the brand new Virtual Console Arcade and two new WiiWare releases from Nintendo, Japanese Wii owners are still getting two new WiiWare releases and two new VC releases! I hope the rest of the world gets treated equally well for a change. WiiWare releases are: Let's Hitchhike from Nippon 1 for 1000..

Lots of big surprises for Japan next month - Multiple famous game series are going to get another installment on their VC very soon. Of course this includes some Nintendo offerings as well!

The full list for April (And the last update of March) in Japan is as follows: Famicom: Takeshi no Chousenjou (March 31st) Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Super Famicom: Der Langrisser Kirby's Dream Land..