Square Enix's attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Final Fantasy VII with their Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series of games hasn't been going too well so far, especially in North America. The Vincent Valentine vehicle Dirge of Cerberus for the PlayStation 2 was mediocre at best, and the mobile game Before Crisis featuring the Turks still hasn't made it to North American shores. Basically we have a slipshod shooter and Advent Children, a well-crafted yet ultimately shallow CGI movie. Now, Square Enix has released Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for the PSP, a true prequel to the PlayStation original, which follows the career of Cloud's inspiration, soldier Zack Fair. Has the rebirth of FFVII finally delivered compelling gameplay, or are we better off just replaying the original?

Loved or Loveless? Activating combat mode...

Crisis Core Launch Party Report Shows Sephiroths In Short Supply

Scores of Final Fantasy fans queued up for the official Square Enix launch party for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, but we're a bit disappointed in the lack of ill-fitting costumes and obscenely sized swords present at the event. Flynn's report on GayGamer of the launch festivities may be lacking in comically enormous weapons and crowd-pleasing spiky hair, but it is full of tales of dedication. The first two fans in line braved a eight hour drive and a nine hour wait in line to be the first to score some Crisis Core. Hopefully, these two were rewarded beyond a simple limited edition t-shirt.

More photos of regular Joes sporting gargantuan swords await you at GayGamer. Just don't go expecting to see droves of fandom friendly outfits. Bummer.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Launch Party [GayGamer]

Tomorrow (Wed.) will see the Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword launch party at the Nintendo World Store in New York City from 2pm - 6pm. The game's producer and director Yosuke Hayashi will be on hand to sign autographs and met and greet the crowd. If you purchase the game there you will be granted one of those nifty Dragon Sword Ninja styli. There will also be demo stations set up around the store so you can try before you buy.

Also, as I reported last week, tonight is the launch party for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII at the Sony Metreon Center in San Francisco. The event goes from 6pm - 9pm and space is limited to 200 people.

And if that's not enough for you, our own Crecente will be attending and telling you all about his adventures at the Tecmo event in New York. Launch events, ho!

Week In Games: Shoot The Core

The wait for more Final Fantasy VII is almost over for North American gamers, as this week's biggest drop is arguably Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for the PSP. It joins a pair of well known ninja in the week's new releases, which is also heavy on action and real-time strategy. A slew of Wii shovelware hits, excluded from our list of new releases, but there's something for everyone!

Let us know what you're picking up this week in the comments.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)
This fanfic fodder prequel to the PS One classic Final Fantasy VII makes its way stateside.

Dark Sector (PS3, Xbox 360)
Sci-fi. Third-person shooter. Black ops. Krull.

Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (DS)
Team Ninja brings stylus stabbing action to the DS.

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (PC)
C&C 3's first expansion features more units, more wrath.

Crisis Core Comes To North America This Spring

The next Final Fantasy VII spin-off game milked from the teat of Square Enix, Crisis Core, finally has a North American date—March 25, 2008. Square Enix nailed down specific (and non-specific) ship dates for a handful of 2008 releases, including the next title in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series to follow Dirge of Cerberus and Advent Children. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was a massive success for the PSP in Japan and I suspect it'll do okay over here, too.

The RPG experts also pinned down dates for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates for the Nintendo DS (March 11, 2008) and Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors (February 26, 2008) for the Wii. Slightly hazier is the spring 2008 release window for The World Ends With You, previously known as It's a Wonderful World. Hundreds of hours of text-reading, level building fun awaits you.

Press release with more in the way of details is post jump.

Simple 2000: The Japanese Hardware Chart

The PSP extends its winning streak to week three as sales of the PSP Slim and the continued love-in for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII make for strong sales. And look at those Xbox 360 numbers! Over 5,000! In a week, that is, not the total number of Xbox 360s sold to the Japanese. Blue Dragon may have outsold Halo 3 during its first week overseas, but Master Chief is moving consoles.

The Wii was slightly down again, the PLAYSTATION 3 overtook its predecessor and some Game Boy micros were sold. Your sales chart awaits below.

• PSP - 102,809
• Nintendo DS Lite - 72,895
• Wii - 24,143
• PLAYSTATION 3 - 13,105
• PlayStation 2 - 12,980
• Xbox 360 - 5,215
• Game Boy micro - 229

Simple 2000: The Japanese Software Chart

While in Japan this week, we saw four times as many commuters sporting PSPs as we did ones rocking the Nintendo DS. Must be that half million strong group of gamers hooked on Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Or maybe it was due to a strong debut from Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus, which snuck in just behind Square-Enix's PSP hit. Plenty of new debuts this week, including Mario Strikers Charged which had a solid, if unspectacular first week. Top ten before the jump, twenty more after.

Here are the weekly sales for September 17th through the 23rd, courtesy of Media Create.

01. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP) - 109,000 / 595,000
02. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus (PSP) - 93,000 / NEW
03. Pokémon Fushigi no Dungeon: Toki no Tankentai (DS) - 85,000 / 385,000
04. Pokémon Fushigi no Dungeon: Yami no Tankentai (DS) - 75,000 / 344,000
05. Katekyoo Hitman Reborn!! DS Flame Rumble Kaien Ring Soudatsuen! - (DS) - 31,000 / NEW
06. Mario Strikers Charged (Wii) - 28,000 / NEW
07. Kiniro no Corda 2 Anchor (PS2) - 24,000 / NEW
08. Mario Party 8 (Wii) - 22,000 / 779,000
09. Samurai Warriors Katana (Wii) - 17,000 / NEW
10. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (DS) - 16,000 / 331,000