I'll spare you the full plot, but it involves Toki and his Cosmic Cleaners collecting stolen items using their tornado machines.

What this boils down to is some quite Katamari Damacy-like gameplay, with a very DS twist as you use the stylus to whip up a tornado that sucks up whatever you have been asked to recover.

Must play hell on your touchscreen - better invest in a new protective film.

[Tornado]

In the short amount of time until we have left we're all burned to a crisp by Blue Dragon Plus' western release, you can enjoy the attached press release, which highlights the creative superteam of Sakaguchi, Toriyama and Uematsu, as well as "exciting RPG elements" like "item collection" and "character progression." What, no mention of menu navigation?

Ignition Entertainment Acquires Exclusive Video Game Publishing Rights to Blue Dragon Plus for Nintendo DS™

Property Slated to Release Across North America and Europe in March, 2009

Glendale, CA – September 16, 2008 – Ignition Entertainment Ltd., a UTV Enterprise, a worldwide publisher and developer of videogames, in conjunction with AQ Interactive invite gamers around the world to "Awaken the Power Within" when Blue Dragon Plus for Nintendo DS™ breathes fire across North America and Europe in March 2009.

Directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, Blue Dragon Plus features character designs by Akira Toriyama, and a soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu.

Currently a top-rated show on Cartoon Network in the U.S., the story of Blue Dragon centers on a young boy named Shu and several of his friends who possess the ability to control phantom shadows that mirror the actions of their masters. In Blue Dragon Plus, one year has passed since Shu and his companions defeated the tyrannical remnant of the Ancients, Nene. In the midst of the battle, the world split in two and now consists of a myriad of “cubes” that exploded from its depths. King Jibral notices a mysterious cube in the distance suddenly start to move violently, and from it he sees the Shadow of a Balaur, a three-headed dragon, emerge. The enormous and sinister Shadow is just the beginning of the new turmoil and devastation to come.

"We are thrilled to be able to take Blue Dragon Plus to market,” said Ajay Chadha, President of Ignition Entertainment. “Out-of-the-box thinking and effective marketing are the cornerstones of our success, and this acquisition relays our standing commitment to that. Clearly our partners have as much faith in Ignition as we have in their products!"

“Ignition Entertainment has proven to be an excellent partner for us and we look forward to working together with them again with the launch of Blue Dragon Plus in North America and Europe next year,” said Tomoyuki Takechi, CEO of AQ Interactive Inc.

Blue Dragon Plus Features Include:
• Single Player Campaign With Over 30 Hours of Game Play
• Legion vs. Legion
o Control up to 16 humans and Mecha Robos to fight against a horde of enemies
o Equip your units with items and alter their composition to bolster their strength
• Exciting Real-Time Battles and Shadow Fights!
• High Quality Dual Screen FMV’s Showcasing More Than an Hour of Story Events!
• Exciting RPG Elements Such As Item Collection, Character Progression and Robot Customizations

ABOUT IGNITION ENTERTAINMENT LTD:
Ignition Entertainment Limited is a UTV Media Communication company. Ignition was created by a core team of gaming industry veterans with the purpose of building upon their successful track record to develop and publish within the international games industry. You can find more information about Ignition Entertainment Ltd. At www.ignitionusa.com

ABOUT UTV SOFTWARE COMMUNICATIONS LTD:
UTV Software Communications Ltd. is India’s foremost Media & Entertainment Company with leadership position in four Verticals that includes Motion Pictures, Broadcasting, TV Content and Interactive (i.e. Animation and Gaming). Listed on the Mumbai Stock Exchange with the Motion Pictures business listed on the AIM, London Stock Exchange. Walt Disney Inc. holds a strategic stake in UTV. It has subsidiaries with offices across India, the UK and USA. More information on the group is available at www.utvnet.com

ABOUT AQ INTERACTIVE:
AQ Interactive consists of the main development company, three development studios - ARTOON CO., LTD., cavia inc., and feelplus Inc. (all are consolidated subsidiaries) - and a US-based marketing services agency, XSEED JKS, Inc. AQI is involved mainly in the planning, development, and sales of videogame software. Since its inception in 2000, the group's main objective has been to offer high-quality entertainment products to our users. The group mainly sells videogame software created by their three subsidiaries domestically in Japan , as well as sell licenses for the same software overseas. AQ Interactive also acquires distribution rights for videogame titles created overseas to sell them in Japan . The three subsidiaries each have distinctive development studios and create videogame titles for the company. For more information, please visit: http://www.aqi.co.jp/en/index.html .

The website features new trailers, screenshots, character bios, wallpapers, and a nifty night scope mechanic that has you hunting down seven vampires to gain access to the hints and tips section of the site. Perhaps they should just release this for the PS3?

Vampire Rain: Altered Species [Official Website]

Hit the jump to find out.

Loved
Comic Book Cut Scenes: Adding to the fun look of the game is that the game present cut scenes in comic book panels, even making you turn your DS sideway to read through them. It's the type of really nice touch that I wish was seen throughout the title.

Art Design: One of the first things that attracted me to Teenage Zombies was it's interesting art design and while it doesn't quite live up to that amazing concept art, it still offers a neat look for a DS title.

Fun Health Boosts: Instead of dishing out hearts or some other hackneyed health pack, Zombies regain health by eating their fallen brain opponents. They also score a mega health bonus by finding the body parts of a zombie and then reassembling them in a timed mini-game that using your stylus.

Hated
Repetitive Level Design: While the game has an interesting approach to level design, featuring maps that wrap around one another, I was pretty much over them about half way through the game. There's not a whole lot of new concepts introduced to the game after you've played it for a few hours.

Limited Abilities: The game's three zombies, which you can hot-swap during gameplay, each have one special ability and a handful of items they can find to do different things, but it's not enough to sustain the game over it's 30-plus levels. It feels like you've exhausted the game's bag of tricks soon after you've started.

Odd Save System: Saves in the game aren't always automatic, instead you'll sometimes have to find books lying about to save your position in a world. What makes this frustrating is that that's not always the case, so it's easy early on to expect an auto-save and not get one.

Wonky Controls: The game's mechanic, which really just features to buttons and the D-pad, are a little wonky when it comes to precision. For instance it can be hard to use Lefty's stretchy arm to grab a ledge and activating a button can at times be hit or miss. When this leads to a death it's beyond annoying.

Not Much Substance: The game could have used a bit more substance, in the way of plot, enemies, characters, special abilities, something to give it a bit more life. Sure it has a collection of mini-games, but they're not all that fun and the sense of humor didn't quite work for me, though I'm sure some will love it.

Teenage Zombies is a pretty straight forward scroller with a twist. It's got plenty of spirit and tries to do something different, but in the end I found the game more of a task to play through than a joy.

Teenage Zombies should find an audience among fans of 50s-esque Zombie parodies, I just don't fall into that group. What the game had to offer delivered about an hour of fun game play, everything after that felt like a chore.

Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys! was developed by InLight Entertainment and released on April 17 for $30. Available on DS. Completed single player mode on Normal difficulty.

A lot of Japanese publishers are commenting about coming into and developing in the Western market, but I don't think that a lot of Japanese companies are taking as many risks as they used to... You've got Devil May Cry 4, Metal Gear Solid 4. No one's really taking the risks with original IP. They think the answer is to come to the US or come to Europe and found development studios which would appeal to the West. I don't think that's the answer. People are just not taking that creative risk anymore.