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Reviews
Chaos Rings Review: Ring Around The iPhone
From the creators of Final Fantasy and Wild Arms comes Chaos Rings, a 3D iPhone role-playing game that can’t possibly live up to its pedigree, can it? With Wild Arms studio Media Vision handling development, art designs by Final Fantasy VII art director Yusuke Naora, music by anime and video game composer Noriyasu Agematsu, and…
By Mike Fahey Published April 30, 2010 -
RayStorm Reborn Next Week
Scrolling shooter fans have every reason to get fired up over Xbox Live Arcade next week, when Square Enix releases the remake of Taito classic shmup, RayStorm HD. RayStorm HD takes the lock-on shooting action of Taito’s 1996 arcade game, slaps on a fresh coat of HD graphics, widens the playing field, and tosses in…
By Mike Fahey Published April 30, 2010 -
What Is This, Just Cause 2, Or Katamari Damacy?
Just Cause 2 has an amazing grappling hook technique, but it’s got limits: you can only attach it to one thing (either two objects to each other or one to yourself). Lucky for us PC mods know no limits! This is Bolo’s Patch, for the PC version of the game, which gives you multiple grappling…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 30, 2010 -
Kingdom Hearts Figures Might Be Too Damn Cute
Kingdom Hearts fans, who we know like things cute, will surely snap up these new figures from Square Enix, which are not only based on Kingdom hearts characters, but are incredibly, impossibly cute. There are five available – Sora, Cloud, Tifa, Axel and Riku – with the catch being you need to buy them as…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 29, 2010 -
Space Invaders Rendered In Fine French Silver
Taito and silverware maker Christofle have buddied up to offer the Space Invaders fan a chance to express their love of the 1978 shoot ’em up in style. Meet the multi-use silver Space Invader “fashion accessory,” coming soon. According to Square Enix—which owns Tatio—the fine silver invader is “suitable for use by both men and…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 28, 2010 -
This Is How You Open An Arcade
With all the talk about gloom and doom and often hangs over arcade gaming, it’s nice to see a new arcade open. And open with style. On April 28, Taito opened a flagship arcade in Yokohama, Japan, complete with execs from parent company Square Enix and 30-year-old celebrity Maomi Yuuki. Oh, and Gaspard and Lisa…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 28, 2010 -
Now You Have Seen A Dragon Quest Slime Meat Bun
A look at Luida’s Bar as seen on Game|Life
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 28, 2010 -
Not Everywhere Has This Final Fantasy XIII PS3 Controller
Japanese role-playing game Final Fantasy XIII might already be out in the West and Japan, but the localized version is not out in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Yet. To mark the release of the Chinese-language version of the game, Sony is releasing a special FFXIII-branded PS3 controller. Priced at the equivalent of US$90, the controller…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 28, 2010 -
Final Fantasy Company Ready To Release “Edgier” Games
Square Enix, the company best known for its Japanese role-playing games Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games, is ready to release some of the more “extreme” games in The Land of the Rising Sun. Square Enix has been localizing Western games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (pictured) and is poised to release racing…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 27, 2010 -
Just Cause 2 DLC Brings Inventive New Ways To Cause Explosions
Want some parachute thrusters? How about a half-shotgun, half rocket launcher? All this and more is coming in two sets of Black Market downloadable content for Just Cause 2. As if there weren’t enough ways to cause havoc in Just Cause 2, Square Enix has tapped the black market to bring even more power to…
By Mike Fahey Published April 23, 2010 -
Xbox 360 or PS3 Version: Which Is More Popular?
In Japan, role-playing game Nier has been released in two flavors: Nier Replicant for the PS3 and Nier Gestalt for the Xbox 360. Which version do you think is more popular in Japan? So in Japan, the most popular version is, wait for it, the PS3 version. Shocking! The difference between the two versions is…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 23, 2010 -
Final Fantasy XIII PlayStation Home Items Come To North America
Let your Final Fantasy fanhood ring across the hallowed halls and cubbyholes of PlayStation Home today, as Final Fantasy XIII avatar items, costumes, and spaces make their way to North America. You might recall the gear that made its way to the Japanese version of PlayStation Home last year. The costumes transforming avatars into generic…
By Mike Fahey Published April 22, 2010 -
Weed + Rap + Chrono Trigger
Many rappers rhyme about marijuana. But how many of them do it to the Chrono Trigger soundtrack? Grass-roots (geddit?) rapper Wiz Khalifa, perhaps best known for his “Say Yeah” single, has released a mixtape dubbed Kush and Orange Juice for free online. That was nice of him. And this song is, as one commenter points…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 22, 2010 -
Nier Art: An East vs. West Comparison
Upcoming Japanese action role-playing game Nier is getting an English language comic book. How does it compare to the original Japanese art? They’re…different. It’s not a matter of which one is better or worse. Here are two different stylistic takes on Nier by accomplished artists. On the right is the Western comic art. On the…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 20, 2010 -
Just Cause 2 Multiplayer? Somebody’s Working On It
While we never reviewed it, know that I played a lot of Just Cause 2, and I loved it. The only thing that would have made it better was some multiplayer, and, hey, what do you know. Look at this. Similar to mods for the Grand Theft Auto games on PC, some guys are working…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 17, 2010 -
Dubbing Or Subtitles? Take Your Pick!
Typically, there are two ways to bring media from one language to another language. One is to subtitle. The other is dubbing. Do you have a preference? Subtitling allows the original language (and in turn, mood) to remain in tact, while dubbing allows players to take in the visual elements without having to worry about…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 16, 2010 -
Final Fantasy XIII PS3 ‘Nearly Doubles’ Xbox 360 Version In U.S. Sales
First month figures for Final Fantasy XIII are in, with the North American version of Square Enix’s role-playing game epic moving more than 1.3 million copies in the United States. The vast majority of those were on the PlayStation 3. According to an early statement from Sony Computer Entertainment, the PS3 version of Final Fantasy…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 15, 2010 -
This Sure As Hell Isn’t Dragon Quest X
Dragon Quest X, unsurprisingly, was not revealed today by Square Enix. Instead, another Dragon Quest Wii game was, Dragon Quest Monsters Battle Road Victory, nary an X in sight. What is Dragon Quest Monsters Battle Road Victory? It’s a Wii port of a Japanese arcade game, one that utilizes a trading card collecting mechanic that…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 14, 2010 -
The 4 Heroes Of Light May Be Your Next Final Fantasy Fix
Square Enix may be bringing its lovely looking Final Fantasy spin-off stateside, with the company trademarking The 4 Heroes Of Light, a still unofficially announced video game from the RPG publisher. More than likely, that’s the Western name (or part of the name) of Hikari no 4 Senshi: Final Fantasy Gaiden—a role-playing game that features…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 13, 2010 -
New Dragon Quest X Details Teased By Japanese Man-Egg Show, Suspiciously
Dragon Quest maker Square Enix has been awfully quiet about the series tenth game, announced in late 2008 for the Wii. Will a Japanese variety show featuring a man-egg finally reveal more about the highly anticipated Dragon Quest X? According to a posting on the blog for Japanese TV program Tama Newtown, spotted and translated…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 13, 2010