Square-Enix is serious about conquering the west, and has announced it is publishing two more DS titles to prove it.

Atlus’ Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure - another hardcore RPG from the masters of quirk - will be hitting European shores in Spring, as will the portable take on Nippon Ichi’s classic strategy role-player Disgaea.

This is a very good sign that one of Japan’s biggest publishers is willing to expand its portfolio - as it should mean those of us living in the oft-ignored PAL regions get to play some more of the idiosyncratic titles which often fail to make the journey over to Europe. 

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Nope, not here, sadly. While the site continues to play silly buggers, I’ll just have to link you to them - they can be found here, on Famitsu’s webpage. It’s only a click away - go on, I dare you.

Anyway, it’s looking particularly stat-packed with all sorts of bewildering menus and numbers spread across both screens. It’s looking like this is going to be a deep one, folks. Hopefully we’ll get to see a little more of the game in action soon. While I imagine there’s plenty of satisfaction to be had in watching these little figures go up as your crew grows and your ship gains more parts, let’s have a bit of action next time. Admittedly, there are some shots of a short anime film (which could well be the game’s intro sequence) but most medium-budget DS games have those these days.

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A really interesting story about an educational experiment has emerged on the Learning And Teaching Scotland site, which essentially proves that Brain Training’s claims about sharpening your mind are absolutely spot on.

The study saw one group of children given the DS title for ten weeks, with the children allowed to play the game for between fifteen and twenty minutes in the morning. A second group started a Brain Gym program - a series of physical movements thought to improve learning and performance. The third set of students had access to neither.

After these training periods, the children were given two tests they’d already completed before the training took place, with the results from the two sets (before and after) compared - and some interesting findings emerged. While the Brain Gym students saw an improvement in the maths test results and a reduction in the time taken to complete the test, the DS group saw the most significant advances - particularly in the completion time, which was massively reduced. Evidently, the way that Brain Training grades you according to time taken as well as accuracy had an impact on the students who trained daily.

It’s yet more good press for Nintendo, who can’t do much wrong in the eyes of the mainstream media at the moment. That may all change should the furore about GTA: Chinatown Wars turn tabloid focus onto Nintendo for allowing the game onto its popular handheld system, but evidence so far suggests it’s just Rockstar in the dock once again.

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Not satisfied with one appearance on a Nintendo console this Christmas, wild-haired snowboarder Shaun White will be making his handheld debut in cel-shaded form, as Ubisoft moves from balance board to touchscreen on November 13th.

Shaun White’s Snowboarding will feature a host of unique features on DS, with stylus controls guiding you down the slopes, sending you leaping off ramps and pulling off tricks with slides, circles and taps on the touchscreen.

You’ll also be able to customise your ‘boarder’s look with decals, while up to four players can compete online via Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection - a host of modes, including straight races, point competitions and ‘king of the hill’ challenges will be included.

As the site’s being awkward this evening, I’ll hopefully be able to post the pics tomorrow, but it’s not a million miles away from the Tony Hawk DS games. Fingers crossed that it plays as well as the Birdman’s handheld adventures, as they worked very well indeed on DS.

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Sorry, we’re having some technical problems on the site, and I can’t upload pics - click here to see the Wii Music boxart

Nintendo’s first-party massmarket-friendly titles like Wii Fit and Wii Sports (and even the likes of Mario Kart Wii) have had pretty minimalist, stylish boxarts. Expecting the same for Wii Music were you? Well, Nintendo has a surprise in store, with this bright, rather busy and - let’s be honest - slightly tacky looking cover art for its latest casual-pleaser.

The appearance of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection logo next to the Touch Generations tag also gave me pause - is Wii Music’s target audience really going to bother that much with the online options? Isn’t part of Nintendo’s reluctance to truly embrace online down to its understanding that casual and non-gamers aren’t quite as web-savvy as their hardcore counterparts?

It’s going to be interesting to see whether Wii Music really does have as big an audience as Nintendo thinks. I predict that it will do okay, but won’t come anywhere near the level of success that Fit, Sports and Play have achieved. Now watch as no-one will be able to get a copy over Christmas for love nor money.

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It’s typical that Nintendo should wait until I’m away at a press event before deciding to announce a load of stuff.

Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City is the new title - though it’s not that new if you’ve been following recent news, because it was announced as the Australian name recently, too. It’s a little bit literal for my tastes, but apparently there’s some kind of problem with the word Folk.

It’s set to be joined by Let’s Wave Our Arms About And Pretend We’re Playing Musical Instruments (aka Wii Music) and Disaster: Day Of Running Around Rescuing People And Listening To Papa Roach (you can guess that one). Wii Music will be out on November 14th, with Animal Crossing following sometime in December. The lack of a definite date leads me to believe that Nintendo of Europe will literally be releasing it as soon as it’s all been translated, and is holding back on cementing a launch week because it doesn’t want that to change at all.

Below is the first-party list in full. Nice to see Nintendo publishing Korg DS-10, too (but boo, hiss at Rhythm Heaven and Kirby being pushed into next year):

October:
10: KORG DS-10
24: Disaster: Day of Crisis

November
7: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
7: Trauma Center: New Blood
14: Wii Music
21: Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia

December:
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go to the City
Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2

Q1
Kirby Super Star Ultra
Rhythm Heaven
Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir

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Japanese developer Level-5 is big news at the moment. The Professor Layton developer is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and now it’s self-publishing, it’s announcing titles left, right and centre. There are a few on other consoles, of course, but it hasn’t abandoned the console on which its breakout hit appeared, with the DS getting a new Inazuma Eleven RPG, and - perhaps more interestingly - forthcoming adventure Ninokuni.

It will be the first 10th Anniversary product from the studio, and Level-5 has big plans. Not only will a book be bundled with the game - named “The Magic Master” and containing magical crests and spell recipes to assist players - but all the animated story sequences will be produced by the legendary Studio Ghibli, world renowned Japanese animators.

The prospect of this anime giant working with such a talented developer is a mouthwatering one, to say the least. And Level-5 has hinted that a console version is planned too - what better companion to the DS game than a Wii version?

Exciting stuff. It’ll be a while before this hits Japan, so don’t expect word on a western release any time soon.

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Platinum Games’ please-let-it-be-amazing operatic space RPG is featured in this week’s Famitsu, with screens showing off its anime-inspired characters, and a few shots from what appear to be story cutscenes.

The game reportedly focuses on  ship combat - you won’t be fighting individual enemies, but instead captaining battleships in the depths of space. I’m sure this would seem a little strange if there are too many skirmishes, so I’m hoping for a low encounter rate and lengthier, more tactical scraps. Though it seems you’ll be controlling more than one craft - modules can be collected to upgrade your fleet, while crew members can be recruited, whose skills and abilities affect the stats of your ships.

Elsewhere in Famitsu, there’s news on another forthcoming role-player from Sega, 7th Dragon. Its mechanics seem very similar to Etrian Odyssey save for the lack of cartography, and the loss of the first-person perspective. But there are seven different classes, each with four different looks, skill trees for each class, and four characters per party. There’s just one main objective - kill all the dragons. Knowing Etrian Odyssey, this will be far more difficult than it sounds.

Further good news comes in the form of a sequel reveal. Family Ski : World Ski & Snowboard will be hitting Japanese Wiis this November. The original was an underrated, relaxing piste-em-up, and the promise of more balance board shenanigans on the slopes is an enticing one.

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This month’s edition of UK gaming bible Edge is hitting subscriber doormats today, and there’s a cover feature on Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Aside from some pretty damn positive hands-on impressions of the portable title (with praise even for the touchscreen minigames) there’s a section dedicated to one facet of the game which is bound to send tabloid editors into apoplectic fury.

Because Chinatown Wars contains a drug-dealing minigame. Drug dealing on the DS. Won’t somebody think of the children, and all that.

According to Edge, “you can make a ton of cash out of buying and selling six types of drug within the game, gaining experience of market conditions and geographical nuances in order to maximise your profits.” The screenshot above said description shows you can potentially get your hands on heroin, coke, ecstasy, acid, weed and downers.

It’s an interesting idea, which Edge suggests is “surprisingly fleshed-out”, and coupled with the glowing reports on the game’s unusual cel-shaded visual style (which has allowed Rockstar to keep the action fast and frantic without compromising on style) Chinatown Stories looks like an excitingly mature addition to the DS library. Just don’t expect the mainstream press to think similarly.

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‘Proper’ Famitsu has reviewed Disaster: Day of Crisis, with the score coming in at a healthy 31/40. Which makes me very optimistic about the game, which should be in my possession by this time on Friday at the very latest. Early impressions will be forthcoming. I’m expecting a fairly arcadey experience with a decent story and hopefully pretty good replay value with the score-attack feature.

In other Famitsu news, the Cube remake of the original Resident Evil is next up for a bare-bones ‘Wii-make’. Which might not ordinarily seem like good news, but then it could well hint that we might just see that remake of Resident Evil 2 that we’re all clamouring for. After all, what other possible reason could there be to re-release both Resi Zero and REMake on the Wii with nothing added?

…

Okay, what other possible reason besides making a fast buck?

There’s some other exciting stuff in this week’s Famitsu, but I’ll save that for my next post, because it all deserves closer attention.

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