Arc System Works is bringing another dose of elaborately costumed female fighting to home consoles in Japan with Arcana Heart 3 hitting the 360 and PS3 there on January 13th.
I rather enjoyed the one dose available on the PlayStation 2 here, and at no extra charge gained an anecdote involving an gamestore employee convinced that surely Kingdom Hearts was what we meant to say, but no in fact, Hearts differ from Highlanders in that there can be more than one.
Cave’s released a trailer for one sweet 360 disc that brings together shooters Pink Sweets and Muchi Muchi Pork, set to release on February 24 in Japan with a standard and limited edition – either one sure to satisfy the quota on bullets, eye candy, and pigs.
Fellow Cave enthusiasts can hit the official site here, or catch the trailer after the break.
Sanrio epitomizes all things cute in Japanese culture. In fact, Sanrio/Hello Kitty was my introduction into Japanese culture. I grew up in a town populated by Japanese immigrants back in the 50’s, resulting in many Japanese stores. Sanrio was one of them, and I can remember my grandmother taking me there to get pens, pencils and various stationery for grade school.
Sanrio is currently celebrating their 50th anniversary with “Small Gift” festivals in Los Angeles and Miami and a touring pop-up store hitting select cities in the US, featuring rare collectors items only available on the tour.
Gamesugar visited Small Gift in Santa Monica, CA, held at Santa Monica Airport’s Barker Hangar. The venue is perfect for a massive festival that includes an art show, gift shop, game booths, miniature golf course, arcade station, face painting booths, and a Ferris wheel. We could barely hold it together ten feet from the entrance because everything oozed of cuteness. Most of my time was spent at the arcade station, playing retro games and yelling at the pinball machine.
Check out plenty of photos from the event at our Facebook Page.
Cave’s bullethell blast from the past hit Xbox Live Arcade with all the trimmings this week, plus a few features I wouldn’t have anticipated. Running through modes and stages, I can’t shake the thought that Guwange would make a spectacular Wii title. That isn’t intended to veer completely off topic, but has just been floating around in my brain while tackling the core of this game – controlling two physical objects on screen simultaneously.
Each of the game’s three playable characters is linked to a shikigami, an entity that player’s can summon at their leisure, and also one that each character seeks to free themselves from, the driving bit of narrative beneath the barrage of bullets standing between the player and that goal. At first this can result in several shades of retina overload, keeping track of two objects on-screen while Cave’s fine sprites vanish beneath the chaos of color changing bullets and loose change, until survival seems like sheer luck while pushing the analog sticks of the 360 controller in all directions. But a one size fits all difficulty setting, generous screen display and co-op options, as well as three modes to suit all possible tastes should help the uninitiated quickly discover an elegance at work that speaks to Cave’s well earned legacy as shooter royalty.
I’ve got a hunch that some of you might be up for taking an early spin with The Nameless via the Japanese demo for Valkyria Chronicles 3. I’m hoping to find time to check it out tonight myself, but why should you wait for me to play and blab about it when you can grab it for yourself right now!
This Japanese boxart for a Mister Donut themed DS game makes me hungry but also raises an important question – when are we going to get Tim Hortons The Videogame? (Or Starbucks for those on the other side of the border.)
I’d also be curious to know if the game allots time to contemplate life. I’m all for kids learning how to make coffee properly, but since I’m given to believe that this release joins a series of career games, wherein the other careers have been nurse, teacher, veterinarian, I can’t help thinking that if those are the jobs your friends have while you’re making donuts all day, you’d want some free time to ponder where you took a wrong turn.
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