This Week in Famitsu

Weekly Famitsu #1185

Cover Story

Famitsu has declared this summer to be the 'Summer of Monster Hunter', thanks to the soon to be released Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airu Village G for the PSP (now that is a LONG name) and Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD for the PS3. Did we mention that the annual Monster Hunter Festival just took place, too?

Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airu Village G (phew) is the sequel to the popular Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airu Village (I'm not typing that again...). Basically, while there are monsters for you to hunt like any other game in the series, Monster Hunter Diary is more of a simulation game. You play a Felyne (the cat-like species that helps out the player in the main Monster Hunter series) as they talk to their fellow villagers, complete quests, and try to attract more Felynes to the village they are building. The game is something like Animal Crossing and Monster Hunter put together, if you can imagine that. It also offers cross compatibility with Monster Hunter Portable 3rd G by allowing you to transfer your custom Felyne from Diary. Various other items and weapons can also be transferred as well.

Moving onto the more 'normal' entry into the popular series, Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD is a PS3 version of the same named (less the HD part) PSP game. The game features full HD visuals with completely overhauled textures and 3D support. The best part of all is that save data can be shared with the PSP version, which allows you to play both on the go and at home. The game is part of a new PlayStation 3 series from Sony called PSP Remaster. This series features PSP titles customized for re-release on PS3, taking full advantage of all the PS3's capabilities, especially the better graphics.

We've said it before and we will say it again, Monster Hunter is CRAZY popular here in Japan! It's so popular, in fact, that Capcom holds an annual Monster Hunter Festival here. This year's happened just recently, with attendees enjoying a wide range of exhibits, all of which were Monster Hunter related. They posed for pictures with near life-sized inflatable versions of some of the more popular monsters, compared their footprint to those of monsters featured in the game, had a chance to meet with some members of the development team, enjoyed food based off of the game, and competed in a tournament to crown the ultimate Monster Hunter Champion. Japan loves its Monster Hunter.

Featured Games

Shinobi 3D (3DS): The long anticipated return of the fan favorite series will feature the classic side-scrolling action gameplay players have loved since the original. However, the game features a brand-new highly stylized art style and introduces a combo system which allows you to switch between melee, ranged, acrobatic, and ninjitsu-magic attacks. The game will also feature a new parrying system allowing you to dodge incoming attacks, even while in mid-air.

Resident Evil Revelations (3DS): Revelations harkens back to earlier titles in the Resident Evil series by offering a more strictly limited supply of ammunition and more emphasis on exploration and puzzles. It still keeps itself current, however, by keeping the popular control scheme and camera style of Resident Evil 4 & 5. It also features a new item, the supply scanner, which can be used to detect hidden items. The game takes place between Resident Evil 4 & 5 and follows Chris and Jill (separately, as they both have their own unique partners in this title) on one of their first missions with the BSAA.

Hardware Sales: Week of 7/25-7/31

• PSP – 33,582 units
• PlayStation 3 – 21,324 units
• Wii – 17,066 units
• Nintendo 3DS – 15,819 units
• Nintendo DS – 6,592 units
• Xbox 360 – 1,957 units
• PlayStation 2 – 1,046 units

Top 5 Selling Games: Week of 7/25-7/31

• Everyone's Rhythm Heaven (Wii) – 83,325 units
• Queen's Gate Spiral Chaos (PSP) – 72,903 units
• Devil Survivor 2 (DS) – 62,246 units
• Taiko Drum Master Portable DX (PSP) – 24,494 units
• Sengoku Basara Heroes Chronicles (PSP) – 23,207 units

Apparently, Japan saw the news about the 3DS price drop as well. That's the lowest in the sales rankings we've ever seen it since we started doing this. Regardless, we hope you enjoyed this week's look inside Famitsu. We are now caught up again after our vacation, so they will now be back on their regular schedule. Thanks, as always, for reading!

Submitted By: Aaron McKeever

This Week in Famitsu

Weekly Famitsu #1183 & #1184

We're baaaack! And where have we been for the past two weeks, you ask? Well, in Japan, the end of the week of August 7^th and the beginning of the week of the 14^th are known as the festival of Obon. Obon could be best described as a mash-up of Thanksgiving and All Souls Day put together. Family members return to their ancestral home, enjoying each other's company and praying for their deceased relatives by going to the family grave and cleaning it. During this time, many businesses close or have limited hours, and Famitsu is no exception. Famitsu always releases a double issue before Obon begins, in order to allow its employees to go home and be with their families. Unfortunately, these double-numbered Obon issues are always notoriously light on new content, and this issue was no exception.

The double issue was basically a re-hash of the same content that Famitsu has been publishing for the past month or so, just with a bit more details on some games. The cover story this time around is an interview and photo shoot with a popular Japanese model, which is not really an interesting read. Famitsu also takes a look back at the all the comings and goings from Comic-Con 2011, but since our very own Corey Hall was actually there and is writing a lengthy first-hand account of his experiences (look for the first of these articles later this week) this is also a non-starter. So, what does this double issue of Famitsu actually offer? This:

Games To Play During Summer

Famitsu put together a great list of over 100 games that you can enjoy during the summer time, no matter what situation you might find yourself in. The list is way to long to cover in its entirety, so we decided to only list Famitsu's top picks in each category. There is something on this list for everyone.

• Games You Can Play On Vacation: The Legend of Zelda (3DS), Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix (PSP), Professor Layton & The Mask of Miracles (3DS)

• Games You Can Play By Yourself: L.A. Noire (PS3/360), El Shaddai (PS3/360), Catherine (PS3/360), inFamous 2 (PS3), Dynasty Warriors 6 (PS3), The Last Story (Wii)

• Games You Can Play With Friends: Little Big Planet 2 (PS3), Monster Hunter 3^rd G (PSP), Everyone's Rhythm Heaven (Wii), Taiko Drum Master Portable DX (PSP), Puyo Puyo (DS)

• Games You Can Play That Make You Happy: Scribblenauts (DS), Nintendogs & Cats (3DS), Dance Central (360 Kinect), Portal 2 (PS3/360) [huh...]

• Games You Can Play Online: Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition (PS3/360), Killzone 3 (PS3), Marvel vs Capcom 3 (PS3/360), Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3/360)

• Games You Can Play To Have A Summer Fling: Love Plus + (DS), Dream Club Zero (360), Amagami EbiCore + [How I Learned To Stop Worrying & Embrace] (PSP)
  

Hardware Sales: Week of 7/18-7/24

• Nintendo 3DS – 32,381 units
• PSP – 27,056 units
• PlayStation 3 – 22,935 units
• Wii – 16,939 units
• Nintendo DS – 7,568 units
• Xbox 360 – 1,526 units
• PlayStation 2 – 1,155 units

Top 5 Selling Games: Week of 7/18-7/24

• Everyone's Rhythm Heaven (Wii) – 130,781 units
• Sengoku Basara Chronicle Heroes (PSP) – 77,017 units
• Taiko Drum Master Portable DX (PSP) – 42,389 units
• No More Heroes Red Zone Edition (PS3) – 40,050 units
• Real Powerful Pro Baseball 2011 (PSP) – 38,964 units

Next week we will be back to a regular schedule for 'This Week in Famitsu', assuming there are no other ancestor worshiping holidays on the horizon. See you then!

Submitted By: Aaron McKeever