This Week in Famitsu

Weekly Famitsu #1186

Cover Story

For the next few weeks Famitsu will be exclusively unveiling brand new PS Vita games in each of their issues, leading up to the Tokyo Game Show. This week's cover story takes a look at four of those games, all of which will be playable at TGS.

Sports fan's rejoice! Sega is bringing its popular tennis series over to the Vita with Power Smash 4, this time taking full advantage of the Vita's gyroscopic and touch screen controls. Additionally, you can also use the Vita's camera to take a picture of yourself and then map your face onto your custom character, so YOU can really play the game.

The Vita will also be the proud home of the latest entry in the still young but incredibly popular fighting game series BlazBlue, with BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend. Extend includes all of the previous Continuum Shift characters and content, including all of the console DLC, as well as a brand new fighter: Relius Clover the Puppeteer. The online mode will have new rule options like 2-on-2, 3-on-3, and even 2-on-4 battles. [EDITOR'S NOTE: It was revealed shortly after the publication of this issue that Extend will also be coming to the PS3 & 360 as well!]

Next up is Malicious, which is going to be a direct port of an upcoming PSN title of the same name. In this game, you are tasked with defeating a group of dangerous monsters, known as ...dun dun dun...the Malicious! The gameplay is a boss-rush challenge, where instead of normal stage progression you start out each area in a giant fight against a boss and their minions. Players use the Cloak of Ash to do battle, which is capable of morphing itself into various forms that can be used for a wide range of up-close and ranged attacks, as well as defensive maneuvers. As you defeat different bosses you gain new abilities; however, since you are free to challenge any boss you want at any given time (just like any MegaMan game), you will have to discover the correct order in which you must challenge the Malicious.

The last of this week's Famitsu exclusive PS Vita game announcements and the game featured on this week's cover is also this week's Weird Game Found Only in Japan...how 'bout that. Shin Kamaitachi no Yoru is what's known as a “Visual Novel.” Just what the hell is a visual novel, you ask? Well, the "gameplay" consists of mostly static graphics (think a painting) supported by text-based dialogue, through which you ultimately solve whatever the central problem of the story is. It's like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” game, if any of you are old enough to remember those books.... The original Kamaitachi no Yoru was released for the SNES in 1994, and told the story of a murder mystery involving Toru and his girlfriend Mari. Since then the series has sold almost a million copies across many different platforms. The brand-new PS Vita game maintains the unique visual style of the original, which showed its characters as blue silhouettes, while introducing a whole new story and taking full advantage of the Vita's abilities. It will also be completely voice acted. Look for this to be a Vita launch title in the States when everyone would rather watch their books than read them.

Featured Games

Gundam Extreme Vs (PS3): Exclusively for the PS3, Gundam Extreme Vs is the first home console version of the INCREDIBLY popular arcade title of the same name. The game plays like Steel Battalion and Street Fighter mashed up with one another. In the arcades, players picked their favorite Gundam from the innumerable entries in the series and proceeded to beat the crap out of each other both locally and online against a multitude of opponents. Yes, online. Arcades in Japan have internet connections, and the games are wired together so players can play each other across the country. The coolest thing about the arcade, which we have seen personally, is that while there is a traditional coin-op cabinet version, there is also the POD. The POD is a giant white spherical cock-pit that is meant to give the feeling of piloting a real Gundam, because one day Japan IS going to build one of these things for real, so they might as well start training pilots now. There has been no mention of a cock-pit home peripheral...yet.

Ni no Kuni (PS3): Ni no Kuni is a collaboration between Level-5 Games, best known for Dragon Quest VIII & Professor Layton, and the beloved animation house Studio Ghibli, creators of My Neighbor Totoro & Spirited Away. The game is an RPG that follows the adventures of an orphaned 13 year old boy named Oliver and his fairy companion, Shizuku, as they travel to the Second Kingdom (you could also translate that as 'Second Country', but kingdom sounds cooler), a world parallel to his own, in search of a way to bring his mother back to life. This game looks gorgeous beyond belief, and if you can believe it, looks just like you are playing a movie made by Studio Ghibli. We absolutely cannot wait to play this one and will definitely be posting a review/hands-on with it when it is released in Japan this November.

Hardware Sales: Weeks of 8/1-8/14

• Nintendo 3DS – 214,821 units
• PSP – 41,790 units
• PlayStation 3 – 19,171 units
• Wii – 18,680 units
• Nintendo DS – 5,562 units
• Xbox 360 – 1,875 units
• PlayStation 2 – 1,050 units

Top 5 Selling Games: Weeks of 8/1-8/14

• Everyone's Rhythm Heaven (Wii) – 129,423 units
• J. League Pro Soccer Club 7 – 127,293 units
• Kirby Mass Attack (DS) – 117, 790 units
• Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airu Village G (PSP) – 102, 963 units
• Super Pokemon Scramble (3DS) – 91, 613 units

This week's sales number encompass two weeks worth of data, as Famitsu is still trying to play catch up from the vacation they took. We hope you enjoyed this week's Famitsu, and look forward to more coming soon!

Submitted by: Aaron McKeever and Sherrie Blackwell