Japanese Releases News, Japanese Releases Features - Page 9 of 17

Portable Driller action is Go!

Namco's Mr. Driller is certainly one of the greatest arcade puzzle franchises ever, and has even surpassed its arcade heritage on home consoles in the the past decade of its existence. Whilst Drill Land remains the franchise pinnacle, subsequent releases on WiiWare and DS have still been fun entries in the series, providing plenty of drilling action for

Japanese downloads go on a diet

There's still something being offered in each category next week, but this has to be one of the lightest Japanese download weeks we can remember with only four games on offer across both platforms. WiiWareDiner Dash (1000pts - Hudson) — Hudson is pretty good about doing worldwide releases close together so you should probably expect to see this restaurant game..

Dig Dug II: a new action film from Michael Bay

Tom Create are no strangers to the Nintendo download scene having released a WiiWare "card battle" game and three budget DSiWare games last year. Earth Saver was the last DSiWare game from them in 2009: a puzzle game with a play mechanic very much like Namco's Dig Dug II, but a setting like a millennial disaster flick. The Earth is threatened..

Western indie games heading for the Land of the Rising Sun

Marvelous Entertainment is launching a new "World Game Parade" label for WiiWare in Japan, bringing over indie games from Western developers which might not otherwise have seen the inside of the Japanese Wii Shop. The release dates haven't been announced yet, but the first four games have been named and listed on a promotional..

Test your "Chicken Bird Soul"

The DS has become massively popular in part due to the number of games on it which claim to test players cleverness in some way. These are typically referred to as "brain training" programs and they've clearly been embraced by a large audience of people that enjoy being tested on math skills and such. This application appears to be a parody of these games in..

A revamped PC Engine game comes to WiiWare, more Mega Man on the VC and a DSiWare gaming assault next week in Japan!

The Wii only has two downloads next Tuesday, but they're both hotly anticipated releases for strategy and retro fans. DSiWare is where the real download action is though, with no less than seven releases - all of which appear to be bona fide games this time! WiiWareNectaris (1000pts..

Pipe Mania plus Apollo Space Progam plus Sky TV?

Whilst Nintendo's Intelligent Systems development team might be better known for the Fire Emblem series, on the download front they seem to be cutting loose with a lightgun shooter on WiiWare and now a puzzle game for the DSi. At first glance it looks like the classic puzzler Pipe Mania, but that's only because you've got some kind of fluid going..

Space Invaders Extreme 2 comes to DSiWare

Space Invaders is a video game icon: even people who don't play video games are likely to recognise the bitmap images of the Invaders thanks to Taito's persistence in keeping the brand name alive via product licensing, video game sequels and home console ports. The celebration of the 30th anniversary of Space Invaders saw the release of a new WiiWare game..

One-third of MaBoShi reborn on DSiWare

If you've played 3-in-1 WiiWare game MaBoShi, then you'll recognise Moyasu Puzzle Flametail as the "Square" game -- you know, the one that wasn't played with a single button press? The gameplay in Flametail is largely the same as MaBoShi's Square, but there have been some graphical enhancements and the addition of power-ups and a new play mode..

WiiWare catch-up, a couple MSX ports and a sprinkling of DSiWare in Japan next week

The slow start to the year continues to be slow, but at least there's some quality releases to be had. WiiWareExcitebike World Race (1000pts - Nintendo) – Better late than never for this well received update to the Famicom classic. Virtual ConsoleQuarth (800pts MSX - Konami) – Some gamers outside of Japan might..

Three big-name titles. And one slightly less big.

Things are pretty bleak on the Virtual Console in Europe at the moment, but that isn't stopping Japan from continuing to bring more awesome downloads to the table. It's pretty easy to guess what game is being released to build up hype for Mega Man 10, and Nintendo will be releasing the Super Famicom in their beloved war series. Meanwhile, Konami..

More Phoenix Wright, more N64, more DSiWare anime photo frames!

It's still a small update, but after a mini-break WiiWare has returned along with the first new N64 game in nearly a year on the Virtual Console. Not to be left out there are five new releases for Japanese DSiWare -- though only two are games; one being a new puzzler from Nintendo. WiiWareJanken Party Paradise (500pts - Studio Zan) –..

Another light week for Japanese downloads.

Nintendo corporate seems to be imitating the European division when it comes to the Wii in Japan with a second week of VC-only downloads: only one title this week for the little white box. The DSi fares a little better with five new releases, some of which are actually games! Virtual ConsoleSalad no Kuni no Tomato Hime (500pts Famicom - Hudson) - Known..

WiiWare takes a back seat, more MSX and the usual load of DSiWare.

Well, the WiiWare releases have been sparse recently and next week there will be none. Wii owners will at least get a Virtual Console update; though with a couple of Konami shooters that frankly looked better in other incarnations elsewhere, it will be small comfort. The DSi, on the other hand seems to be back to true form with six..

A quiet start to the new year.

The Japanese Wii and DSi shops have seen some massive updates this past year much to the envy of 'net-reading Wii owners in other territories, but Nintendo are taking it easy at home with a mere handful of releases to start 2010. WiiWareBoku wa Plarail Untenshi (1000pts - Takara Tomy) -- This is an example of a gaming staple in Japan: the train driving simulator. As..

"Here he comes from the sky!" -- Namco Bandai are planning to release a new Ultraman fighting game on the Wii in 2010.

Ultraman is the silver-suited hero who stars in the television program: Ultra Q: Ultraman: Special Effects Fantasy Series, which was a spin-off of the television series Ultra Q. Due to its initial popularity in Japan the show has spawned numerous imitators, sequels and remakes --..

No robots, but plenty of rock-em, sock-em action!

You might remember a plastic toy called "Rock'em Sock'em Robots" ("Raving Bonkers Fighting Robots" in the UK) in which two robots were fixed on either side of a platform and pressing buttons caused them to punch each other senseless until one of their heads popped up, only to be reset for another go. That's pretty much the same..

More strong support in the new year.

Japan received a few high-profile Virtual Console games this month, but Nintendo's continuing their strong support in the east straight into next year - The first month will already bring them more great titles. Hudson finally shows some more NES support, while Quest is releasing the N64 sequel to their fantastic SNES strategy game Ogre Battle. Nintendo releases..

Another great old-school shooter for WiiWare

Most of you will probably remember Phalanx as a SNES game, however that was just a port of a game that was developed for the Sharp X68000, a home computer sold exclusively in Japan from 1987-1993. The Sharp X68k (as it was commonly known) used hardware similar to arcade systems of the time; as a result it was capable of running some quite impressive..