Activision has announced that it will continue to milk the Guitar Hero franchise, revealing that five new iterations, including one based off of the works of Van Halen, will make their way to store shelves in 2009, according to Eurogamer.

The releases of Hard Rock Van Halen, Guitar Hero 5, DJ Hero, and Band Hero will span four platforms (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and PS2) and should occur within the span of a few months during the second half of the year. Activision also has plans to release another Guitar Hero: On Tour title for the DS during 2009.

It seems that, for the time being, the oversaturation of the rhythm game market will continue unabated. 

According to Gamasutra Square Enix has plans to open a US studio based in Los Angeles for the purposes of creating an action game based on an original IP (assumedly for the 360 based upon the job descriptions.) It should be interesting to see how this pans out in the end. Square Enix, original IP, and action game aren't usually phrases that you see lumped together. I'm personally just excited to see what sort of art direction we can expect to see from this new studio. I'm going to be really disappointed if it's full of man-tough space marines rather than my beloved effeminate Gackt copies. In the end, I'm just glad to have had a chance to use this image.

General

* Removed "A Mask for All Occassions" as criteria for the "Hallowed Be thy Name" meta achievement.
* Replenishment: Players below level 50 can now benefit from this effect.

Racial

* Blood Fury: No longer triggers global cooldown.
* Shadowmeld: The cooldown will now start on use instead of on break.

Druids

* Druid talents points have been refunded. Players will need to visit a class trainer to relearn spells and abilities.
* The Swift Flight Form is now available on the trainer at level 71, requiring 300 riding skill, and Flight Form learned.
* Bash: The interrupt from this ability will now work on targets who are immune to the stun.
* Berserk: Now clears the cooldown on Mangle Bear.
* Earth and Moon and Moonfury (Balance) reduced from 5 ranks each to 3 ranks each.
* Eclipse: Buff duration extended to 15 sec and bonuses doubled. The cooldown has been increased to 40 seconds.
* Growl: Cooldown changed to 8 sec.
* Insect Swarm: Tooltip corrected to indicate it does not affect hit chance with spells.
* Nature's Swiftness: This ability will no longer give chances to trigger Omen of Clarity.
* Omen of Clarity: Will no longer be triggered by the Honorless Target buff gained when entering the world.
* Survival Instincts will no longer be on the Global Cooldown.
* Swiftmend: now benefits correctly from Genesis talent.

Hunters

* Aimed Shot: Added to Barrage and Improved Barrage talent.
* Animal Handler: Now increases your pet's expertise by 5/10. (No longer increases the pet's chance to hit.)
* Aspects now have a shared cooldown category of 1 sec and no longer have a start cooldown.
* Aspect of the Dragonhawk: New aspect added that combines the benefit of Aspect of the Monkey and Aspect of the Hawk, available at level 75 and 80.
* Aspect of the Monkey: The Dodge chance has been increased from 8% to 18%.
* Aspect of the Viper: The per attack mana regeneration has been reduced by 50% but this ability now generates 4% of maximum mana every 3 sec. In addition, the per attack regeneration now also works on melee attacks.
* Disengage now fails if you're rooted and is no longer on the global cooldown.
* Hunter vs. Wild: The attack power bonus from this talent now applies properly to Hunter pets. In addition, the bonus attack power will now be recalculated properly from equipping items.
* Improved Aspect of the Hawk: This talent no longer causes incorrect mana costs when interacting with the Rapid Recuperation and Improved Steady Shot talents.
* Mana cost of Disengage has been lowered to 5% of base mana, down from 14%.
* Pets
o Rake (Cat), Scorpid Poison (Scorpid): Lowered damage of all ranks.
o Stampede (Rhino): Lowered the knockback to 10 yards.
o Raised the damage of exotic attacks: Spirit Strike, Lava Breath, Froststorm Breath, Acid Spit, and Stampede.
o Lowered the cost of pet specials from 25 to 20.
• Thrill of the Hunt: The mana gained from using this talent with Explosive Shot is now 1/3 of the normal amount per critical strike (but gets 3 opportunities per cast.) • T.N.T.: Explosive Shot can now only trigger this talent when it is initially fired.

Mages

* Arcane Potency: The additional crit bonus is now consumed immediately on cast of a travel time spell, so it is no longer possible to make two spells benefit from one charge. (Ex. Fireball followed by Fireblast.)
* Blast Wave: no longer receives double the intended critical strike bonus from Combustion.
* Burnout: Now consumes extra mana as intended when livming Bomb gets a critical strike.
* Deep Freeze: Now consumes a charge of Fingers of Frost when used.
* Focus Magic: Now works properly when mages with this talent use the ability on each other.
* Frostfire Bolt: The periodic damage effect from Rank 2 of this spell now benefits from spell power gans.
* Living Bomb: Mana cost reduced to be the same as Arcane Explosion.. It no longer causes the caster to stand up when the final explosion occurs and it is now possible for each mage to have Living Bomb active on a target.
* Master of Elements: Now works with Living Bomb.
* Molten Fury: This talent no longer prevents Ice Lance ranks 2 and 3 from dealing triple damage against frozen targets.
* Reduced the mana cost of Fireball, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Explosion.
* Torment the Weak: Now works correctly when the Mage also knows the Molten Fury Talent.

Paladins
* Art of War: No longer increases critical strike damage on Judgements, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm, instead increases all damage done by those abilities by a smaller amount.
* The Avenger's Shield bounce distance has been reduced to 10 yards (from 15).
* The epic ground mount is now available on the trainer at level 61, requiring 150 riding skill, and the non-epic mount learned.
* Blessing of Might: Rank 8 points increased slightly to prevent from being overwritten by BattleShout 8 that has a shorter duration (also applies to Greater Blessing of Might 3.)
* Blessing of Sanctuary: It is no longer possible to have both Blessing of Sanctuary and Greater Blessing of Sanctuary active on a target at the same time.
* Crusade: No longer applies damage bonus twice to critical strikes.
* Divine Plea: This spell's duration is no longer affected by haste.
* Divine Purpose: Rank 1 of this ability will now correctly determine its chance of remove stun.
* Enlightened Judgments now increases range by 15/30 (was 10/20).
* Eye for an Eye: No longer breaks crowd control effects.
* Hammer of Justice: The interrupt from this ability will also be redirected when the stun is redirected. In addition, the interrupt will now work on targets immune to stun.
* Hammer of the Righteous: Tooltip corrected to indicate it does 4 times weapon dps instead of 3.
* Infusion of Light (Holy) now affects Flash of Light too, reducing its cast time down to zero and can be used while moving.
* Judgements: The debuffs from Judgement of Light, Judgement of Wisdom, and Judgement of Justice will no longer be applied if the Judgement spell itself misses.
* Judgements of the Pure: Haste increased to 3/6/9/12/15%.
* Repentance PvP duration reduced to 6 sec.
* Righteous Defense cooldown has been lowered to 8 sec (was 15 sec).
* Righteous Vengeance: No longer increases critical strike damage on Judgements and Divine Storm, instead applies a DoT effect similar to Deep Wounds.
* Seal of the Martyr: Tooltip for Judgement damage was incorrect and has been fixed.
* Sheath of Light: Now correctly benefits Judgements of Command, Blood, and The Martyr.
* Shield of the Templar now also reduces all damage taken by 1/2/3%.

Priests

* Binding Heal: Now only consumes one charge of Holy Concentration per cast.
* Borrowed Time: Charge no longer consumed by spells with a base cast time that is instant.
* Devouring Plague: The bonus coefficient has been increased to be on par with other DoT spells. Base damage on ranks 7,8, and 9 decreased to partially compensate for better scaling.
* Divine Providence: This talent now also reduces the cooldown of your Prayer of Mending spell by 6/12/18/24/30%. With 5 points applied, it takes Prayer of Mending's cooldown from 10 sec to 7 sec.
* Divine Spirit: Now can be refreshed properly on self after logging in and out or zoning. (Also applies to Prayer of Spirit.)
* Guardian Spirit: A target may now have only one Guardian Spirit active.
* Healing Focus: Now works properly with Penance.
* Improved Divine Spirit: No longer improves Divine Spirit after untalenting sometimes.
* Inner Focus: Now works properly with Mind Flay, Mind Sear, and Penance.
* Prayer of Spirit: Will no longer stack with other raid spell power buffs.
* Shadowform: Devouring Plague, Shadow Word:Pain, and Vampiric Touch cast in Shadowform deal increased damage percentage equal to the player's chance to get a spell crit on their target.
* Shadow Word eath: The self-damage from this spell can no longer be reflected or redirected.
* Vampiric Touch: The Spell power coefficient has been doubled and no longer triggers Replenishment when other priests cast Mind Blast.

Rogues

* Combat Potency: Now only works with autoattacks (no more Shiv.)
* Fan of Knives changed to be castable with no targets, further improved the visual affect and it no longer plays an impact on the caster. Now benefits correctly from the Find Weakness talent.
* Killing Spree: The rogue is now untargetable during the duration of the spree. In addition, no longer sometimes selects dead targets and no longer breaks stealth on nearby targets.
* Riposte: Duration of this effect no longer reduced by other effects that reduce disarm duration.
* Shadow Dance: The cooldowns on Sap, Garrotte, Ambush, Cheap Shot, Premeditation, Pickpocket, and Disarm Trap are no longer increased while this ability is activated.

Shaman

* Flurry: Now grants the proper number of charges when it triggers.
* Improved Fire Nova Totem: Increases the damage done by your Fire Nova Totem by 10/20% and your Fire Nova totem has a 50/100% chance to stun all targets damaged by your Fire nova Totem for 2 sec.
* Lava Burst: The base damage has been increased by approx. 10%.
* Maelstrom Weapon: Tooltips corrected to correctly describe the chance for this talent to be triggered.
* Riptide: The initial heal amount has been increased on ranks 3 and 4 and periodic healing has been increased on all ranks.
* Stormstrike: Other shamans can no longer consume charges of your Stormstrike, and each shaman can have their own stormstrike on the victim.
* Storm Reach is now called "Elemental Reach" and now includes Lava Burst.
* Thunderstorm: Mana gain has been increased to 8%.
* Tidal Mastery: Now correctly applies its critical strike bonus to Earth Shield.
* Tidal Waves will now also proc with Riptide.

Warlocks

* The epic ground mount is now available on the trainer at level 61, requiring 150 riding skill, and the non-epic mount learned.
* Demonic Sacrifice: The buffs from this ability will now be retained properly when logging out or zoning.
* Demonic Empowerment: This talent no longer gives excessive threat to the Warlock's Voidwalker.
* Destructive Reach: Now properly reduces threat on Chaos Bolt and Shadowflame.
* Drain Soul: Rank 6 now properly deals additional damage ot targets below 25% health.
* Haunt: The cooldown has been changed to 8 sec, and refreshing the Haunt will trigger the heal from the existing Haunt.This ability will no longer heal for incorrect amounts or fail to heal when the Huaunt damage was the killing blow.
* Inferno: The Infernal is now useable indoors and the tooltip has been updated.
* Master Demonologist (Felhunter) will now also reduce damage taken by Holy.
* Ritual of Doom: Now works correctly even when the Warlock already has a pet (dismissed the existing pet.)
* Shadowflame: Damaged increased approx. 75%. Coefficients unchanged.
* Shadow Embrace: Now works on ranks 1-4 and stacks properly with multiple applications.
* Soul Link (Demonology): Increased from 15% to 20%.

Warriors

* Armored to the Teeth: Grants only attack power( as intended) and recalculates the bonus immediately upon learning any rank of the talent.
* Bladestorm: Now breaks all snares and roots on the warrior when activated.
* Bloodthirst: Cooldown reduced to 5 sec.
* Deep Wounds: Now works properly with Heroic Throw.
* Heroic Throw: No longer gains increased damage from the warrior's agility.
* Improved Rend changed to 10/20%.
* Rampage: Can now be triggered by off-hand Whirlwind damage.
* Rend: Damage has been adjusted to be less base and more weapon based.
* Rend: Ranks 9 and 10 now do 35% more damage when the target is above 75% health instead of 4 times damage when the target is enraged. Sudden Death: Now has 3/6/9% chance on hit instead of 10/20/30% chance on crit.
* Titan's Grip: Changed to 12% penalty instead of 15%.
* Vigilance: Now properly transfers threat generated by heals.

Professions

* The level requirements required to train gathering skills have been removed.
* Alchemy
o Reduced the effect of Elixir of Mongoose and Elixir of Major Agility.
* Inscription
o Glyph of Crusader Strike: Now reduces mana cost by 20% instead of increase damage on stunned and incapacitated targets.
o Glyph of Flame Shock: Now extends duration by 6 sec and prevents Flame Shock from being consumed by Lava Burst.
o Glyph of Lava: Glyph of Earth Elemental removed and replaced with this glyph. This glyph increases coefficient on Lava Burst by 0.1.
o Glyph of Mind Flay: Now sets snare to 10% instead of removing it.
o Glyph of Rejuvenation: Now works correctly when the target is not self.
o Glyph of Shiv: Replaced with Glyph of Vigor, which increases maximum energy by an additional 10 for those with the Vigor talent.
o Glyph of Shadow: Glyph of Mind Soothe removed and replaced with this glyph. This glyph increases spell power by 10% of spirit for 10 sec after critting while in Shadowform.
o Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain: Increases damage done by Mind Flay when SW:P is present by 10%.
o Glyph of Sinister Strike: Chance increased to 50%.
o Glyph of Souls no longer removes soul shard cost. It instead reduces the mana cost of your Ritual of Souls spell by 70%.
o Glyph of Spirit of Redemption: Tooltip corrected to 4 sec. extra when the glyph triggers.
o Glyph of Strength of Earth: Replaced with Glyph of Lava Lash which increases the bonus from having Flametongue Weapon by 10%.
o Glyph of Trueshot Aura: Now increases Aimed Shot crit chance instead of increasing attack power bonus.
o Glyph of Totem of Wrath: Replaced with Glyph of Elemental Mastery, which decreases the cooldown on Elemental Mastery by 30 sec.

User Interface

* For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Items

* The war against spelling errors continues: many items have had typos removed or their functionality clarified.
* The item quality on several quest rewards was incorrect and has been altered.
* The phoenix summoned by Ashes of Al'ar has had his flame trains restored.
* Guardian's Band of Subjugation now correctly grants universal haste.
* Girdle of the Warrior Magi now has a socket bonus.
* Some one-hand spell power weapons are now main hand only.
* Heart of the Dragon should now provide a consistent amount of Ranged Attack Power.
* Loatheb's Shadow should now provide a consistent amount of Ranged Attack Power.
* Spirit-World Glass now correctly has a cooldown.
* Discerning Eye of the Besat procs should now be more obvious.
* Focusing Lenses now have a cooldown.
* The Horseman's Reings should again function in Dalaran.
* Haute Club Membership Card no longer prompts players to open it.
* The buff granted by Frenzyheart Insingia of Fury now has a correct tooltip.
* Harness of Carnal Instinct no longer has bonus armor.
* Boots of the Protector have been brought in line with protection paladin itemization changes.
* A tootip error in the Glyph of Spint has been corrected.
* Grilled Sculpin now correctly grants Ranged Attack Power.
* Libram of Souls Redeemed should now only affect Holy Light.
* Legacy items that had both melee and spell critical strike rating have been integrated to the unified rating.
* Held in hand books created by Inscription are now Bind on Equip rather than Bind on Pickup.

Bug Fixes

* Fixed an issue that was affecting terrain rendering on GeForce 3 and 4 Ti cards. Those that added the command Set fixedfunction 1 to their config.wtf file should remove it to avoid a decrease in performance.
* Glyph of Rupture: The tooltip has been corrected.
* Hunter: Ferocious Inspiration will now apply raid-wide, as intended.
* Hunter Pets
o Sonic Blast (Bat): Will no longer ignore LoS.
o Bad Attitude (Croc): Will no longer ignore the Longevity buff.
o Thunderstomp (Gorilla): Will no longer have a physical coefficient instead of a magical one.
o Gore (Bore): Fixed an issue where a wrong value was being applied.
o Savage Rend: Corrected typos in the tooltip.
* Mage: Burning Determination will now work properly.
* Mage: Living Bomb's "explosion effect" will now be properly classified.
* Priest: Holy Reach (Rank 2) will now increase the radius of Divine Hymn properly.
* Priest: Inner Focus will now properly increase the critical strike chance of the talent Penance.
* Shaman: Totem of Wrath tooltip updated to reflect that it affects all crit chance and indicate that it increases Spell Power (instead of just damage).

 ”Okay, so let's do a conservative estimate, and say even 1 million of these counted subscribers are still in their free month. That leaves 9 million paying subscribers who, at the $15 fee, are generating $135 million every month. Hell, even if you adjust that to, say, $120 million (since many subscribers may be paying for slightly discounted 3- or 6-month subscriptions), that still means Blizzard more than recouped their entire upkeep costs over a four-year period in just two months."

Get ready, the expansion (World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King) is due out in stores on November 13, 2008.

"We're looking forward to launching Wrath of the Lich King and finally giving World of Warcraft players a chance to take on Arthas and his minions," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Until then, we'll continue to refine and playtest the expansion content to make sure it provides a highly polished and entertaining experience."

The expansion will be available in Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on November 18.

• The Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, a 208-page book featuring never-before-seen images from the game.
• An exclusive in-game pet: Frosty, the baby frost wyrm.
• A behind-the-scenes DVD containing over an hour of developer interviews, the Wrath of the Lich King intro cinematic with director’s commentary, and more.
• The official soundtrack CD, containing 21 epic tracks from the game, along with exclusive bonus tracks.
• A mouse pad featuring a map of the newly opened continent of Northrend.
• Two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game March of the Legion™  starter decks, along with two exclusive cards available only in the Collector’s Edition. 
  

Attention, World of Warcraft fans: WoW Insider is reporting that Wrath of the Lich King, the next WoW expansion, is no longer in alpha and will soon be entering beta. This means that those selected from the pool of entries for beta access should soon be getting their invites.

Blizzard has a website set up that contains information for those of you who get beta keys, like how to create a Blizzard account and access client files needed to play.

Remember, there are quite a few beta scams out there, so make sure you're careful with where you disclose your account information.

• AWAY Shuffle Dungeon
• Babysitting Mania
• Cooking Mama World Kitchen
• Major Minor's Majestic March
• Marker Man Adventures
• Our House
• Wonder World Amusement Park
• Zoo Hospital

• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
• Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
• Sim City DS 2
• Dissidia: Final Fantasy (1, 2, 3)

Role-playing games have been a big part of Sony’s console success both in the United States and abroad for the PlayStation 2. They are hoping to continue that trend on the PlayStation 3 with one of the system’s first RPG’s, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom. Sony Online is very familiar with the hack and slash genre with hits like Everquest and Champions of Norrath. Does Sony have a hit in the making or is Untold Legends another run of the mill role-playing title?

Overall the story and game experience are solid. You go on a near 20 hour exploration in the land of Dureth. In the beginning you are given the chance to choose one of three fighters - the warrior, scout, or mage - and then you can choose to play in one of four levels of difficulty. Both the inclusion of three different characters and four difficulty levels does provide a nice variation in play and gives players the opportunity to go back, especially considering each fighter has a slightly different story to tell.

From there, you are chosen by the king to go out and extinguish the barbarian unrest by facing wave after wave of enemies. Soon enough though, you realize that the king himself is killing his own people and now it’s up to you to stop him.

Like most other RPG’s, the game allows you to level up by gaining experience and various orbs in a variety of colors. Red orbs are for health, blue for mana, and yellow for essence. As far as experience goes, killing enemies will boost your statistics which in turn can be used to level up one of nine spells included in the game. Meanwhile, essence is used at checkpoints to upgrade a wide variety of items for you including new armor, upgraded weapons, and more.

One other nice thing in the game, although very small is the fact that friendly fighters join your cause once in a while. The fighters include villagers, animals and more, and you actually have the ability to give them armor and weapons. The only thing with these characters, however, is that they don’t stay forever. They’ll show up on occasion and then disappear.

Of course, you can’t talk about Untold Legends without discussing a key fact about the title and that is online play. Dark Kingdom does allow gamers to play with up to four people from any save point they have in the single-player game and you can then continue your quest offline after you’re done playing with friends. Overall this was one area in which Sony’s developers did a very good job.

Finally, the score from the Prague Orchestra is a very nice compliment to the game. Sadly, the voice acting couldn’t live up to the same standards and seriously needs an overhaul.

The big problem with Untold Legends is once you actually get into battle. Whether you’re the warrior, scout, or mage, all of them basically require you to push X and square repeatedly to pull off various attacks. Sadly this is what the game mostly requires of you and even the magician or mage is quite capable of hand-to-hand combat. Thankfully though, Dark Kingdom doesn’t solely rely on fighting and instead does have a few puzzle solving elements too.

Aside from the repetitive hack and slash nature of the game, there are some serious flaws in the game and environments. Although there are lots of characters on-screen at times, the result of this is some significant slowdown. On top of that, environments are rarely interactive unless getting stuck on or in objects is your idea of interactive. Add to that the fact that load times are rather long for a next-generation title and there’s little question this title was rushed to market.

As for the graphics, they look ok, but the environments are sparse. Most levels feature a few rocks and barrels and then much of the rest of the area is wide open space. What gets worse than that is the fact that areas will actually look empty and then enemies magically appear from nowhere. Meanwhile, the camera in Untold Legends is pretty rough too. Walls, trees, rocks, and more will get in your way during battle and block your view of the action.

Sadly, the last thing that needs to be mentioned particularly for a PlayStation 3 launch title is the exclusion of the motion capability in the SIXAXIS controller. Unlike just about every other launch title on the market, Dark Kingdom doesn’t utilize it at all.

Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom isn’t a terrible experience on the PlayStation 3, but it certainly isn’t the role-playing game most are hoping for either. Instead, it’s probably more of a title for RPG fanatics as the game’s graphics and repetitive gameplay pull it down. Certainly there are some good elements to the game like its online play and various upgradeable options. In the end though, Untold Legends sticks to its roots and doesn’t quite feel like it’s made the jump to the next-generation.

The game has very repetitive hack and slash gameplay that utilizes just a few buttons.

Graphics look decent, but the game suffers from slowdown and a poor camera.

Voice acting isn’t very desirable, but the music score is very impressive

Not a very enjoyable experience because of the gameplay and the fact it doesn’t feel next-gen.

Online mode should give players a bit more to do, but still suffers from poor hack and slash.

]]> Tue, 05 Dec 2006 21:55:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/ahoy_a_boatload_of_new_ps3_screens http://www.gamebump.com/go/ahoy_a_boatload_of_new_ps3_screens http://www.gamebump.com/go/ahoy_a_boatload_of_new_ps3_screens# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.The original author is Evan Lahti.

In addition to WEBZEN’s unmatched diverse product showcase, Nam Ju Kim, CEO, WEBZEN Inc., is scheduled to give a special presentation at the convention on July 27, 2006. His presentation to attendees, which will include many of the world’s most respected game industry icons and veterans and high-level Chinese government officials, will cover successful global strategies for video game companies.

We will probably hear more news about Gran Turismo at next months Tokyo Game Show.

Sony Computer Entertainment America has revealed new imagery for Game Republic's Genji 2 (working title) on the PlayStation 3. The game is set three years after events in the PlayStation 2 original (]]> Wed, 31 May 2006 14:53:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/snk_playmores_full_e3_lineup http://www.gamebump.com/go/snk_playmores_full_e3_lineup http://www.gamebump.com/go/snk_playmores_full_e3_lineup# The King of Fighters 2006 on the PlayStation 2 and Metal Slug Anthology for the Wii. The lineup with descriptions, courtesy of SNK Playmore, is included below.

THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2006 (PlayStation 2 – Fall 2006): THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2006 is an original 3D fighting game designed specifically for home consoles, and produced by noted artist and designer, Falcoon. Currently celebrating its twelfth year as one of the most popular fighting video game franchises in the history of gaming, THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2006 will continue to build on the series’ rich history with several new characters, as well as many returning favorites. KOF 2006 will feature characters from THE KING OF FIGHTERS: MAXIMUM IMPACT and a number of hidden characters. A special gift with purchase will be offered featuring the first Anime series for THE KING OF FIGHTERS.

METAL SLUG ANTHOLOGY (Nintendo Wii, PSP System – Fall 2006): In celebration of the 10th anniversary of one of the greatest action arcade franchises of all time, SNK PLAYMORE will release METAL SLUG ANTHOLOGY. METAL SLUG ANTHOLOGY will feature six great METAL SLUG titles from the arcade. Included in the collection will be METAL SLUG, METAL SLUG 2, METAL SLUG X, METAL SLUG 3, METAL SLUG 4, and METAL SLUG 5. Bonus materials will be announced closer to launch.

SNK VS CAPCOM CARD FIGHTERS DS (Nintendo DS - Fall 2006): SNK brings its card battling series to a new generation of gamers. SNK VS CAPCOM CARD FIGHTERS DS is the first new game in the series since 2000. Players build decks of characters pulled from the annals of SNK and Capcom gaming history for the ultimate strategic battle.

METAL SLUG (Game Boy Advance – Fall 2006): The original arcade classic that started the series comes to the Game Boy Advance. METAL SLUG for the GameBoy Advance features non-stop action packed 2D missions and classic over-the-top boss characters to challenge gamers’ skills. Battle General Morden and his evil forces with a huge array of weapons at your disposal.

We will have more on this title as it becomes available.

SNK is continuing the King of Fighters franchise, long after the demise of the Neo Geo hardware, with the latest game in the long running series, King of Fighters: NeoWave. The game is named after the Dreamcast based Atomiswave arcade hardware and will be again an Xbox exclusive.

If you’ve played the series before, this game is another in the long line from the King of Fighters series. In the game, players choose a team of three fighters from over 40 characters and battle it out. The game includes some characters not featured in the arcade like Vanessa, Seth, Ramon, Kusanagi and Kim.

A slight difference in this game is the inclusion of three different fighting styles to select like super cancel, guard break and max 2. Super cancel lets players cancel special moves into other ones by taking a hit on the super meter. This results in some very interesting combos. Guard break causes the super meter stock to convert into an indefensible attack. Finally, max 2 gives you more attack power as the super meter consistently refills. This also results in the ability to perform hidden super moves when a life meter is just about empty.

One other gameplay addition this time around is heat mode which allows your character to increase their attack power. Utilizing this does result in less health though and it can be a real risk to pull off.

Graphically the game looks a little bit better than previous versions as the developers touched up some of the details and even mixed 2D and 3D. The backgrounds are pretty solid too in that they are now in full 3D, meaning the game overall is just finer looking.

King of Fighters: NeoWave is shaping up to be a pretty solid fighter from SNK as the only problem appears to be a lack of modes to play. Despite that, NeoWave is expected to feature an impressive roster of 43 characters and the ability to utilize three different fighting styles meaning there is plenty of combinations to keep players busy for some time. Add to it the continuous play with Xbox Live and NeoWave is looking like a can’t miss fighter for fans of the series or brawler happy people everywhere.]]> Tue, 04 Apr 2006 17:24:00 -0500 Tim Grube http://www.gamebump.com/go/kingdom_hearts_2_ships http://www.gamebump.com/go/kingdom_hearts_2_ships http://www.gamebump.com/go/kingdom_hearts_2_ships# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

“KINGDOM HEARTS II is a perfect demonstration of what can be created when two companies with astounding resources come together,” said Daishiro Okada, president and COO, Square Enix, Inc. “The result is an absolutely stunning video game that will engage gamers of all ages in multiple worlds both familiar and new."

“The creative collaboration between the Disney and Square Enix production teams has resulted in a game that is not only innovative but truly remarkable in scope,” said Graham Hopper, senior vice president and general manager, Buena Vista Games. “With the addition of new worlds from Mickey Mouse’s classic screen debut in ‘Steamboat Willie’ to the current film franchise ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ KINGDOM HEARTS II covers the spectrum of Disney properties.”

Be sure to read our full review by clicking here. The game has a suggested retail price of $49.99 (USD).]]> Wed, 29 Mar 2006 18:14:00 -0600 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_kingdom_hearts_ii_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_kingdom_hearts_ii_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_kingdom_hearts_ii_ps2# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

Very few game sequels are even half as anticipated as Kingdom Hearts II, the second installment in the immensely popular Disney and Square Enix collaboration franchise. The game marks the return of Sora, Goofy, and Donald in the search for King Mickey, who has apparently freed himself (and Riku?) from the horrors behind the "dark gate" witnessed at the end of the original. The gang's new adventure once again spans several worlds - some old, some new - taken from Disney's archive of "most celebrated" animated films. As with the game's predecessor, KH2 features a cast of both Final Fantasy and Disney characters, from now familiar classics like Final Fantasy VIII's Squall (Leon) and FFVII's Aeries to Sleeping Beauty's three good faeries. Yes, the only franchise able to successfully base itself in the Disney realm is back, and it’s certainly worthy of its predecessor.

After a very lengthy and mysterious prologue that centers around a mysterious boy named Roxas and reminds the player of events that occurred in the

Some tweaks made. Menu system a touch cumbersome. Same great action as original.

More visual flair and pretty cutscenes utilizing in-game graphics. Gorgeous CG and effects.

I still love the franchise’s use of music, though KH2’s musical theme could have used reworking

You’ll really enjoy visiting favorite Disney worlds and speedily slaying foes.

You’ll like it enough to finish it and probably play it again. Nice draw-in factor.

]]> Tue, 28 Mar 2006 12:39:00 -0600 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_kingdom_hearts_ii_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_kingdom_hearts_ii_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_kingdom_hearts_ii_ps21# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

Very few game sequels are even half as anticipated as Kingdom Hearts II, the second installment in the immensely popular Disney and Square Enix collaboration franchise. The game marks the return of Sora, Goofy, and Donald in the search for King Mickey, who has apparently freed himself (and Riku?) from the horrors behind the "dark gate" witnessed at the end of the original. The gang's new adventure once again spans several worlds - some old, some new - taken from Disney's archive of "most celebrated" films. As with the game's predecessor, KH2 features a cast of both Final Fantasy and Disney characters, from now familiar classics like Final Fantasy VIII's Squall (Leon) and FFVII's Aeries to Sleeping Beauty's three good faeries. Yes, the only franchise able to successfully base itself in the Disney realm is back, and it's looking equally as fantastic as its predecessor.

After a very lengthy and mysterious prologue (which I certainly won’t spoil for you here) that reminds the player of events that occurred in the ]]> Sat, 25 Mar 2006 20:17:14 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/brothers_in_arms_3_for_ps3 http://www.gamebump.com/go/brothers_in_arms_3_for_ps3 http://www.gamebump.com/go/brothers_in_arms_3_for_ps3# Brothers in Arms series for the PlayStation 3, tentatively titled Brothers in Arms 3. We'll have more information as it's revealed. Originally written by Shiva Stella]]> Tue, 07 Mar 2006 18:03:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/age_of_kings_announced_for_ds http://www.gamebump.com/go/age_of_kings_announced_for_ds http://www.gamebump.com/go/age_of_kings_announced_for_ds#
This new Age of Empires game introduces turn-based strategy and features five different civilizations (Britons, Franks, Mongols, Saracens, and Japanese), hero units (Robin Hood, Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan), 50+ technologies for research (chemistry, siege craft, spying) a combat advisor, wireless multiplayer up to four players, and all the musical treats from the PC version.

"Age of Empires has set the gold standard for real-time strategy games and its global audience continues to grow," said Ken Gold, VP Marketing, Majesco. "Our portable version provides an exceptional game experience by taking advantage of the new DS features, and we are excited to have such a high-profile and well-regarded property spearhead our DS lineup for the back-half of 2005."

Age of Empires: The Age of Kings is scheduled for release this holiday season. Originally written by Shiva Stella]]> Tue, 14 Feb 2006 21:37:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/kof_maximum_impact_maniax_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/kof_maximum_impact_maniax_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/kof_maximum_impact_maniax_announced# SNK Playmore has announced King of Fighters: Maximum Impact - Maniax for the Xbox.

The game is the first original King of Fighters to come out for the Microsoft console. Maniax will include Xbox Live support including head-to-head, tournament and re-match modes. The game will also include an interesting new feature where you can pause the game and take a picture of your favorite fighters in game and you can choose between English and Japanese language in game.

King of Fighters: Maximum Impact - Maniax is scheduled to release for the Microsoft Xbox June 2005.

Check out these first screenshots of EverQuest 2: Kingdom Of Sky for the PC. The expansion is due out on February 21.

]]> Fri, 06 Jan 2006 17:14:00 -0600 Tim Grube http://www.gamebump.com/go/wrestle_kingdom_for_xbox_360 http://www.gamebump.com/go/wrestle_kingdom_for_xbox_360 http://www.gamebump.com/go/wrestle_kingdom_for_xbox_360# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

Check out these jaw-dropping visuals below.

Thanks GameWatch!]]> Fri, 23 Dec 2005 12:24:00 -0600 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/square_launches_dq_yangus_site http://www.gamebump.com/go/square_launches_dq_yangus_site http://www.gamebump.com/go/square_launches_dq_yangus_site# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

In more interesting Square Enix news, the company has launched the official site to Dragon Quest Yangus, an RPG probably being developed by Level 5 that pulls from ]]> Mon, 19 Dec 2005 13:20:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_peter_jacksons_king_kong_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_peter_jacksons_king_kong_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_peter_jacksons_king_kong_ps2# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by John Godfrey.

Video games based on movie franchises. Yeah, I know, nobody really wants to hear about them because unfortunately, the majority of games based on movies are cheap cash-ins designed to pocket even more money for the movie studio based on whatever blockbuster is getting a lot of buzz from the gaming demographic. However, things are changing, as movie directors are realizing more and more that the interactive medium can be used to further the experience from the films and be more involving, immersive and expressive as technology continues to evolve. They’re just beginning to realize that this is no longer the Pac-Man, Pong and Space Invader era. Peter Jackson had a big hand in the Peter Jackson’s King Kong game, making sure that his vision was adhered to the entire way, but does it make for a good game?

Director Carl Denham has happened across a secret map, to a place never believed to be in existence - a place that time has forgotten. What better place to shoot a movie, right? The game kicks off with a few explanatory scenes - actual footage from the 2005 Peter Jackson movie - of Carl discussing this; finding the leading lady; boarding the ship; and then crashing at Skull Island. The story is established in mere minutes and then you take the reigns controlling Jack Driscoll, the writer behind Denham’s film. You trek across Skull Island with a team comprised of Denham, the leading lady Ann Darrow, and Hayes and Jimmy, at first finding shooting locales and filming footage, until it’s discovered that a variety of dinosaurs, huge creepy-crawlies like bats, millipedes, crabs and scorpions also inhabit the island. There’s also an ancient tribe that’s not too happy about your surprise visit and a giant gorilla named... Kong. The game then becomes about gathering any crew you’ve become seperated from and leaving the island alive.

It’s only a matter of minutes into the game when you’re thrown into a situation of having to protect yourself from creatures and making sure the rest of your team is also alright, a gameplay mechanic that you’ll see carried across for the rest of the game. When the action starts you’re introduced to the games superbly simplistic control scheme. It takes a second to learn and it’s easy to use. A quick run-down is: L2 aims weapon, R3 zooms weapon, R2 does a double act of the action button and firing the weapon, R1 reloads your weapon and X lets you talk to other characters and take their weapon. It’s that simple, and it works like a charm. You can only carry one weapon at a time (after all, this is Skull Island, not San Andreas where you can find a gun shop and liquor store on every corner), ammo is rare on the island and whatever you find is courtesy of care packages dropped by the pilot in your team circling the island. You can carry a spear, which there are plenty of on the island thanks to the native tribe that inhabits it, or a bone which can also be thrown like a spear, at the same time as you carry a firearm, though the spear must be dropped before you can use the firearm again.

If this was just your traditional first-person shooter, the way the weapons system works in King Kong probably wouldn’t fly in it, but because of the scenarios created in the game, the weapon system is incredibly successful. You have to always think about conserving your ammo because you don’t know when you’ll find another weapon crate; when fighting a handful of millipedes you may instinctively use the spears surrounding you against them because you don’t know if there may be a raptor or T-Rex around the corner that you’d need a firearm for more than a giant bug. Of course, when the fast moving dinosaurs enter the scene you usually run out of ammo quick and the game becomes purely about survival and using the environment to your advantage, weaving around stone columns that the dinosaurs can’t fit through or hiding in an ancient stone building while you think of a way to distract the dinosaurs. This could mean killing another nearby creature to get the attention of the predators, so that they’ll be too busy eating it while you leave, or in a situation where a gate needs to be opened, you could divert attention to yourself by shooting at the dinosaurs and running through columns so that their attention is on you while your team opens the gate.

Besides the shooting element, the game also relies on the use of physical puzzles. The puzzles all focus on the fact that you need to go through gates at certain parts of the game to progress. To open the gate you usually need two people to crank the gate open. Sometimes a peg is missing and you must search the area for it. Sometimes when you find the peg it’s behind brush which you cannot pass through and must set a fire, but the nearest fire may have been a little ways back, behind obstacles like spiders and water. It then becomes your initiative to somehow get that peg into the post and open the gate to proceed. It sounds like an extremely simple premise, which it is, but every time it happens there’s a new spin on it and new variables which always make it interesting. 

Of course, the other component to the game besides the first-person shooting segments with Jack is the third-person element featuring King Kong himself. Kong’s segments find you swinging across the jungle on tree limbs, running on vine-covered walls, and fighting whatever beast wants to take Ann away from you. It plays part like a platformer and part like a wrestling game once you start fighting the other creatures on the island hand to hand. The fights can be particularly exciting to watch, especially when Kong enters rage mode by pounding his chest - the colors become desaturated and the lighting blown out as Kong delivers lethal slow-mo blow after slow-mo blow. 

While all this action is taking place you may be surprised that there is absolutely NO HUD. That’s correct, no heads up display, no little meter that tells you whether you’re almost dead or out of ammo; instead there are visual and audio cues that more than do the trick. As for ammo, every time Jack reloads he’ll say something along the lines of "It’s okay, I’ve got enough magazines,” “One magazine after this,” or “I’m dry,” so you always know what your weapon status is just by hitting reload. I would say this method works even better than an HUD, because with a HUD, even if it’s for a mere half a second you have to look elsewhere on-screen than the action to see what your status is during the heat of the moment, the moment where it matters for you to know how much ammo you have is the moment in the game that it’s hardest for you to check it. As for health status, when you’re critical you’ll hear your heart beat faster and see the screen go red, and that’s when you know you have to get out of danger or die in one more hit. If you manage to get away, and take a few moments to collect yourself so the screen is no longer red, you’ll be recovered from the incident and ready to move on.

Video and audio effects are used well throughout the game. First off, the game is letterboxed on 4:3 televisions and that adds so much to the movie feeling, the way the picture is composed in a widescreen format is instantly more compelling than one with a simple 4:3 ratio (if you don’t like letterbox you can turn this off in the options, as well as be able to get a weapons HUD). Whenever Jack is scared you can hear his breathing become faster and more erratic, this in turn makes you feel a bit more scared about what may be just ahead of you. Whenever a huge beast like a T-Rex roars in front of you, the camera will shake and the screen will blur to further enhance the frightful experience. The graphics in the game in general are simply gorgeous, the first few levels especially. I was wondering how the team managed to get all of these textures to work with the PS2’s limited memory, as well as great character and environmental models, with random rock formations and foliage everywhere. The lighting is also fantastic - both the fire effects and natural lighting are very realistic. The music in the game is very cinematic and fitting with such a game, and the sound effects are top notch; the sounds of all the creatures are harrowing and can give you a jump now and then. The cast comes back to voice their characters, so that movie authenticity is added there as well. 

Though King Kong is a great game, it is notoriously short, maybe clocking in around six hours. The shortness is probably due to the game’s other problem in that it is very linear. Though this is not instantly recognizable through playing some parts, because it is a dense jungle in most of the game and you’re simply following whatever path is clear for you, you realize later on you’ve pretty much been on a straight path the whole time. What’s even worse is that the Kong segments might as well have been on rails. When Kong goes through the jungle, swinging on trees and running on walls covered with vines, you simply hold forward as the direction to run or swing and press square to jump or speed up. Apparently, it’s impossible to jump too early or late during these sequences, so you don’t even need to worry about timing or accuracy. I just found myself holding forward and continuously tapping the square button like a Track and Field game through all of Kong’s “jungle chase” sequences. When it comes to fighting, the Kong segment becomes more interesting, as you have to fight off many small creatures at once or face off against big foes like the T-Rex; this portion plays a lot like a simplified wrestling game and can be quite dramatic to watch but repetitive to play, consisting of only button-mashing.

I really wasn’t expecting this much from a movie license, but King Kong obviously had a lot of work go into it to make it something more than just a movie cash-in. Though it is very linear and very short, it is excellent at creating a rich visual, audio and emotional experience in an extremely cinematic manner. Fans of the upcoming movie should definitely pick this one up as it does both the movie and the video game format justice, but casual gamers ought to give it a rental first, because you’ll probably be able to beat it before you have to return it and make your decision based on that.

Simplistic controls and premise, but the situations make the game tense and fun.

Really beautiful textures, models and lighting effects, has a cinematic flare.

Excellent cinematic score, edge of your seat sound effects, star voice talent.

You always want to see what lies ahead on the Island, but your voyage ends up short.

Like a movie once is enough for a few months. You can go back and unlock things.

]]> Mon, 05 Dec 2005 11:23:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/ubisoft_announces_ds_titles http://www.gamebump.com/go/ubisoft_announces_ds_titles http://www.gamebump.com/go/ubisoft_announces_ds_titles# Ubisoft has announced more titles they will be bringing to the Nintendo DS, they include Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, King Kong, Bomberman and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory.

Star Wars and Splinter Cell are expected to release this spring followed by Bomberman this summer and King Kong around Christmas 2005. Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft said, "We are proud to offer one of the most diverse line-ups of any major editor. Racing, platform, stealth, or action - there is truly something for all tastes."

This follows Ubisoft's previous release of Rayman DS, Sprung and Asphault: Urban GT.

Stay tuned for more as we get closer to these Ubisoft releases.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is the latest installment in the famed Dragon Quest series, originally helmed by former company, Enix, and now distributed under the Square Enix moniker. The game was developed by Level 5, the people behind Sony’s Dark Cloud series (most notably Dark Cloud 2), and features characters designed by Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball Z fame. DQVIII also marks the series’ transition to full 3D, making the game one of the last and finest visual treats we’ll probably encounter on the PlayStation 2. From the simple gameplay mechanics to the splendid presentation and the dozens upon dozens of hours you’ll spend just playing through the main plot, DQVIII is a definite winner this holiday season – despite its lack of inventiveness and originality.

DQVIII begins with a cozy introduction of the primary cast; you’ve the silent, heroic youth; the hero’s bigger, uglier sidekick, Yangus; the giant toad, King Trode; and the lovely Princess Medea, who is presently a horse. Some grave misfortune has fallen upon King Trode, as his entire kingdom has been ravaged by uncontrollable thorn bushes and he and his daughter have obviously been cursed – transformed into creatures – and the soul survivor of the incident is our nameless hero. The fiend responsible for the curse is a jester-mage called Dhoulmagus, and King Trode has employed our hero’s aid in ascertaining Dhoulmagus’ whereabouts and forcing the maniac to reverse the spell, which of course Dhoulmagus has absolutely no intention of doing.

During the initial stages of their quest King Trode’s little gang stumbles upon two other characters who have set their sights on Dhoulmagus as well – lovely Miss Jessica, the game’s sex appeal, and the wanton Angelo, who is much more interested in gambling and having a good time then acting out the duties of his templar knights – and so the gang grows from a common goal: the painful defeat of the sinister Dhoulmagus. Though the story’s premise is simple and direct, numerous twists and turns (which I won’t spoil for you) abound, and plot progression is presented via lively, shortened cutscenes. Those tired of extensive, dramatic dialogue in the Final Fantasy/Star Ocean franchises will find this a welcome addition, while those who crave more engaging plots will still be satisfied with DQVIII’s offering.

The gameplay is as simple as DQVIII’s plot– players run around the stunning environment in search of the next town and leads of Dhoulmagus’ location. En route you encounter random battles that pit numerous opponents – usually three to five – against the party of four. Upon entering the battle gamers can opt to fight, flee, intimidate (attempt to frighten monsters away), or set tactics for the rest of the team (if desired, the remaining three characters can be set to various battle stratagems other than the default “follow orders” selection, like “show no mercy”, “don’t use magic”, and “focus on healing”). Party status is displayed along the top of the screen while attack commands are on the bottom, and these consist of attack, defend, items (i.e., health), abilities (learned weapon skills), spells, and psyche-up (raise attack power). Attacks are quick slices or thrusts with an equipped weapon, and all attacks are shone in bright orange figures while remaining health for the party briefly displays in subtracted white text.

For a slight twist, you can target a single opponent with certain weapons while others enable you to select all of them, inevitably dealing less damage overall but weakening all the foes on the field. Although this is hardly innovative for an RPG, it does make random battling easier, as some of the foes quickly wipe your party. The game makes use of some very difficult, random opponents strewn between masses of easy victories, which keeps players on their toes. Monsters also increase in difficulty when night approaches, and this is a significant draw of the in-game clock; if you really want to level-up, just go out at night and prompt a lot of random battling. The whistle command, which summons foes to the group, is very convenient during leveling sessions and enables you to avoid all the unnecessary running around to trigger fights.

One unique aspect that breaks the repetitiveness of random battling is the different twist in status effects. Rather than stick to the plain poison, paralysis, or cursed effects that every RPG includes, DQVIII also makes use of dancing fevers and hand puppets. It’s humorous to catch characters laughing uncontrollably or snapping their fingers as they do a little dance. Yet another intriguing difference between DQVIII and many recent RPGs is the methodology for acquiring skills (abilities) and spells, as they’re learned in a different manner; after a character levels, the gamer is granted stat points to distribute among five selections, i.e. Yangus features a “humanity” selection along with “axe, club, scythe” and “fisticuffs” (barehanded fighting). After so many points are allotted to a selection, it grants the bearer additional attack abilities and spells (heal, fire, etc). Each character has a unique fifth listing akin to Yangus’ humanity; the unnamed hero utilizes courage while Jessica aims for sex-appeal and Angelo focuses on (much needed, and probably often used) charisma. It’s a light, straightforward twist that keeps the focus on the gameplay and plot premise rather than on stat manipulation and skill acquisition, which is very fitting giving the game’s simplistic atmosphere.

As this is the first DQ game entirely done in 3D, it’s important to note that Level 5 has managed to maintain the stylistic, anime feel of the characters on a realistic backdrop. The game has a fantastic, familiar presentation that adequately and aesthetically transitions the series to full 3D, with cell-shaded characters reminiscent of the Dragon Ball series thanks to the employment of Akira Toriyama, the anime’s character designer. The party is detailed if not stereotypical, and all characters perform even the slightest of movements fluidly. The hero’s orange coat flutters as he walks, characters blink their eyes and breathe easily, Jessica’s hair blows in the subtle breeze, and a slight shadow follows our hero’s footsteps.

The immensity and beauty of DQVIII’s world is simply astounding. The game features a non-demanding in-game clock with regular days and nights, such that you can trace the sun’s path as it rises in the east and sets in the west to a glorious display of orange skies. During the night the skies appropriately darken, a thousand stars appear, and the moon shines brightly down upon the party. In the daytime light, fluffy clouds float overhead and the sun’s rays strike the camera. The landscape is a lush, vivid green dotted with detailed trees, blades of grass, flowing waterfalls, and superb ground texturing. As the player explores the pleasant countryside he glimpses stray animals lazily grazing across the hills, small streams and ruins, tiny cottages, and the typical dirt road. Dust kicks up from our hero’s feet as he runs along in search of the nearest town, and foliage rustles in the gentle wind. To say that the series has successfully transitioned into the 3D world is an unbelievably crude understatement.

Level 5 included a beautiful, lovely orchestral soundtrack to accompany the game’s splendid visuals, and the two combine for a spectacular presentation. Sweet violin music fills the air as the party wanders from town to town, and each village has its own theme. Little ambient noises – characters running, doors opening, monsters snarling, etc – support the audio along with superb voiceacting. Characters in DQVIII occasionally feature heavy accents, and while they’re all varied – Jessica has a proper British speech while Yangus uses a thick, slum-British (nearly Australian, complete with “crimey” and missing consonants) – they also aptly fit their characters, and none appear too overdramatic or out of context. Overall, Level 5 has done a magnificent job in localizing the game.

Though DQVIII is cited as having more than 50 hours of gameplay, Level 5 again went a step farther and included some side-quests and various minigames. You can scour the land for mini-medals for a particular princess, exploit King Trode’s alchemy pot for some fun item creation, and even prowl the casino grounds for honest, high-betting action. The alchemy itself deserves particular mention, as players can spot item recipes (which the game automatically logs for you) from most any bookshelf, which makes fashioning any number of special, more powerful items incredibly convenient.

Considering how wonderful the game has turned out, you really have to forage for its faults, the primary of which for DQ fans is that the game offers nothing terribly groundbreaking for either its series or genre; if you’ve played any other turn-based RPG, the reason you're so instantly at home with DQVIII is that it’s an upgraded game of yore, better tailored for the nostalgic than those demanding a more innovative way to spend 50 hours.

The game’s small cast and stereotypical characters aren’t as engaging as those found in other, modern RPGs, which you may forgive depending on how well you take to each character. The previously mentioned voiceovers, while very well-done, do make abundant use of accented dialogue, which could easily drive those more comfortable with typical, American English completely insane.

I’m also not a fan of DQVIII’s more personal save system, as it involves trekking to church every single time you need to save. Churches are dotted throughout the countryside, and while there’s usually one less than ten minutes away from the current field location, why spend a minute rushing to a church to fly through some chatty nun’s dialogue every half hour? Save-anywhere systems work best when they’re placed inside a simple save menu or activated through an automatic checkpoint; however, it’s understandable that the game’s cozy atmosphere is amplified by the church “adventure log” system which, if you’re a theologian, makes perfect sense – where else would you go to “get saved”?

My last gripe concerns the random battles and the intentionally dumbed-down AI. As swarms of easy battles are strewn with the occasional difficult batch of foes, you’re sometimes going to die just by stepping outside of town (and when you die, you lose half your money). To combat this, Level 5 has opponents that will actually stop attacking to groom themselves or get jiggy while your team stands there, weapons at the ready. This system is rather functional, so I’ve no idea why Level 5 also has opponents that literally recast spells that can’t affect your team members because they’re already affected or immune. If this is to further counteract the super difficulty of some random battles, why not just make all the worse foes nocturnal? Enemies that recast the same ineffective spells over and over are just stupid.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is going to please series fans with its gorgeous transition to 3D while newcomers to the franchise will be astounded by the pleasant visuals, welcoming atmosphere, direct plot, and simple gameplay. Unfortunately the game doesn’t have an innovative leg to stand on, which may disappoint some DQ (and RPG) fans. The accents are a little overdone, but add to the title’s atmosphere. Overall, Dragon Quest VIII is just an extremely enjoyable, beautiful, nostalgic, and engaging RPG for the PlayStation 2. This charming, atmospheric RPG is not to be missed.

Not original, but still very solid and fun to play through. A good (but not dramatic) plot.

Extremely good. A beautiful transition to 3D. Cute character/enemy design. Gorgeous environs.

Not as intense as the visuals, but still very solid. Heavily accented characters aren’t for all

You’ll really enjoy playing through it and probably get addicted very quickly.

High for an RPG, but I’m also counting draw-in factor and side-quests.

]]> Tue, 15 Nov 2005 21:16:00 -0600 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_kingdom_of_paradise_psp http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_kingdom_of_paradise_psp http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_kingdom_of_paradise_psp# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

The PlayStation Portable’s quality line-up is a slim one, with Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Wipeout Pure – a launch game – garnering most of the acclaim. The handheld’s RPG line-up is even slimmer: Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade is the only decent RPG the system has, and that’s rather degrading considering Sony’s long-term relationship with Square Enix, which is currently developing titles for the GameBoy Advance and DS. To offset this significant drawback to PSP ownership, Climax has developed an action-RPG for the PSP: Kingdom of Paradise. While the game does have its drawbacks, it quickly becomes clear that it’s the best (action) RPG the system has to offer. Whether that says more for the game or the handheld is up to you.

Kingdom of Paradise is set in the land of Ouka, more than 300 years after the Seima-Ouka war. Though Seima itself was an advanced civilization looking to expand its empire, it still lost to Ouka, a continent divided amongst five clans: the Suzaku, Kirin, Byakko, Genbu, and Seiryu. The game casts players as Shinbu, a former Seiryu disciple who was exiled from his clan as punishment for a stupid, childish act. Shinbu quickly meets up with Sui Lin, a Seiryu disciple who is fleeing the Seiryu temple and the death and destruction the Kirin forces have wrought there. Sui Lin informs Shinbu that their master – indeed, their entire clan – is dead, and that if they want to rebuild the Seiryu they’ll need to locate their clan’s special sword, which was stolen by the Kirin. Soon it becomes apparent that the Kirin are after all the clan swords, and the remaining lords, urged on by Shinbu, have to present a united front against the Kirin if they hope to avoid the Seiryu’s fate. Though the story is simple and predictable, it’s adequate for a handheld title and provides a decent backdrop to the game’s events.

As an action-RPG, Kingdom of Paradise makes heavier use of combat skills than it does a storyline or leveling-up. The game features a two-fold combo system consisting of bugei scrolls and kenpu (attack forms). The bugei scrolls are all aligned with a particular clan, and each clan has an element (fire, earth, metal, water, and wood). Once you’ve acquired a significant amount of kenpu for each clan, you can add the pieces to your appropriate bugei scrolls to create elemental combos; each bugei scroll houses a distinct number of kenpu slots, and these slots are in turn numbered to correspond to particular kenpu forms. The completed combos are fun to watch, and you can even create your own combos via “free form” bugei scrolls, which enable you to choose the most devastating attacks from varied clan forms and string them together. The system sounds extremely complicated and is quite unintuitive to manage, but players quickly adjust.

To add a creative touch to combat, Climax also utilized the elemental clan forms in chi attacks, which are essentially short, decisive magical attacks that you charge up via square. Each clan has its own special elemental chi, and as some elements are weaker/stronger in relation to others, some strategy is used in determining the appropriate chi (or even attack form) for any given opponent. The Kirin, for example, are the primary bad guys and are aligned with earth attacks, which are weak to the Seiryu’s wood attacks. As Shinbu begins the game as an ex-Seiryu, he’s immediately got access to the Kirin’s greatest weakness and players waste no time in leveling up their wood chi, which progresses with each use. This system also applies to basic combo attacks; using Genbu (water) attacks against the Kirin drastically prolongs the fight, as the Kirin’s earth attacks are strong against water. For added combat depth, the system can also easily work against you; when fighting a Byakko (metal) opponent, Shinbu is automatically disadvantaged, as metal is strong against the Seiryu’s wood attacks; in short, you’d better focus on acquiring as many different kenpu and chi forms as you can, and thankfully kenpu is dropped by fallen opponents.

Enemies in Kingdom of Paradise range from the typical Kirin swordsman to the unusual mythological beast (giant scorpion, Diablo creature, etc), and all are smart enough to run up and start swinging as soon as they spot Shinbu. Opponents also include thieves, archers, and some animals (for instance, bats). For the most part, you encounter them as you’re en route from point A to point B, and as the game features some of the most expansive environments I’ve seen on the PSP, you fight often. Kirin pop out of the water, jump over bushes, drop from the sky, and once defeated, crumble to the earth. Enemy attacks are extremely simple and usually consist of the one-two swipe variety, which gives Shinbu and his occasional traveling companion (Sui Lin) an immediate advantage, further extended by the Kirin’s total abandonment of chi. Players can literally go through the game using only wood bugei and chi, slaying masses of Kirin while they traverse Ouka.

Climax’s action-RPG makes great use of these large environments, and the game’s five regions are connected via long roadways always visible on the world map as well as the simple overlay map. The landscape is dotted with foliage, poisonous pools, lakes and ponds, rushing waterfalls, large rocks and cliff sides, and good, detailed texturing. You can easily spy wood graining in the floors and the mythical inscriptions on stone monuments. Clouds float overhead, and at appropriate times players can stop to gaze at beautiful sunsets. Chi, the most vivid visual display during gameplay, is bright and colorful and visually supports all of Shinbu’s fancy combat maneuvers. Characters are equally as detailed and creatively designed (with Shinbu perhaps the only exception), and the game makes use of full, console-like cutscenes with model close-ups and actual lip movements, though characters do lack any significant change in facial expression.

The game’s audio elements are quite impressive, as ambient noises like footfalls and attack swipes add to the satisfying (albeit strange) presentation. Climax opted for voiceacting over plain text for dialogue, which gives the game a quirky aspect and is definitely unique for a PSP title. Some of the voiceovers are spot-on and very realistic, while others sound like they’re ripped from a very cheese anime. Climax also provided a real soundtrack for the game, which is another pleasant PSP bonus; music is either very lively or slow and sweet, embellished with flutes and chimes. The battle theme does a nice job of establishing an exciting mood as the Kirin rush you.

There’s a multiplayer, ad hoc option for those with friends harboring PSPs and their own copies of Kingdom of Paradise, and the game loads up your saved Shinbu, so the player with the most advanced Shinbu wins. In a refreshing move, Climax also added infrastructure support for gamers who’d love to download extra kenpu and other, exclusive online content. However, you’ve first got to hop on your PC to acquire a password to enter on your PSP’s download page, which seems like an unnecessary mess. Why not just include the password in the game manual?

Quite possibly the game’s worst point, besides its somewhat lackluster intrigue, is its missing block feature. Though you can block by mashing the same button you use to attack, you’ll rarely pull it off, as once caught in an enemy’s combo you’re nothing but juggled meat and absolutely powerless to defend yourself. Added frustration comes from the fact that once Shinbu does manage to remove his face from the floor, he tends to go right back down again, as the game uses an auto-targeting feature that doesn’t completely and accurately target. Shinbu will stand and look in the vicinity of his opponent, but not directly at him; this means that certain swipes in Shinbu’s combos are going to miss his enemy entirely, while his enemy’s attacks will strike Shinbu dead-on. The only way to combat this painful gameplay aspect is to hope you can stand and circle your opponent faster than your opponent can start swinging again, and this – at best – is 50/50. Expect a lot of unnecessary deaths because Climax left out a functioning blocking mechanic – a shame for any action game.

Perhaps to counter this problem, Kingdom of Paradise has very stupid bad guys. Enemies stand and wait for Shinbu to approach, which leaves them open to his sword-throw attack; you can literally spend ten minutes tossing your sword at opponents who are off-screen. If you do decide to plunge head-first into the foray, the Kirin will surround you and stand there, so you can attack them at your leisure. To spare yourself the misery of slaying imbeciles, just use your chi, which – beyond level one – is way too powerful. Why even bother using your sword when you can just blast foes with a single chi attack? This is further compounded by the game’s strong/weak elemental system, which is used only superficially, as the majority of opponents are Kirin (earth) and easily bested by Seiryu (wood) attacks. And dodging a dead thief’s bomb isn’t skill – it’s a cheap attempt at adding difficulty.

The menu system used for managing bugei and kenpu is simple, yet overly complicated, with very unintuitive controls; you’ll catch yourself cycling through pages of kenpu instead of equipping a bugei scroll, or un-equipping bugei when you intend to add kenpu to a new scroll. At least at the start, you’ll often be unsure of what button to push to get to the next menu layer that’ll let you do what you’ve already been attempting for the previous 40 seconds, making the menu system cumbersome.

The cutscenes, which have as many cheesy voiceovers as they do good ones, heavily feature poor, sappy, teenage dialogue that tries to put on an adult face by using big or just foul and inappropriately placed words. Coming out of the mouth of an idiot character, “bitch” at awkward moments only serves to cheapen the presentation. A note to all developers: pick a presentation style and stick to it. Burdensome complexities in a light, anime-like action-RPG are both stupid and un-cool. The cutscenes also start with a slight graphical “catch” as Shinbu’s movements freeze the moment before you lose control of him, and stay frozen for two-three seconds.

The game’s camera isn’t fixed, but you can’t control it, either; it moves in and out as Shinbu wanders from room to room, and the area presented on-screen is often too small to adequately determine your immediate environment. This really becomes a problem during boss battles, as you run around the area with the camera constantly moving when you’d much rather just grab it and focus it on a particular spot where you’re fighting, or pull it back so you can see what’s around you.

As for traveling, to break up the monotony Climax included some boxes and jugs for you to break, but these items are far from offering interactivity. There are also times when you needlessly wander the countryside in search of a particular NPC or event trigger, and I say needlessly because the game doesn’t always keep your objectives list updated. When the list is updated, however, you’ll still spend some time just scouring towns for particular shops or NPCs, as the towns are huge and the overlay map lacks any kind of target objectives; there are no dots, triangles, squares, or other symbols of note on the overlay map. You just sort of talk to people and hope you prompt an event.

While Kingdom of Paradise does have several faults, the most hindering being the camera and the lack of a proper blocking mechanism, the game is still the best RPG on the PSP, and also one of the handheld’s better games. Its good presentation, though riddled with quaint, inappropriate dialogue, is bolstered by the game’s strong visuals, console-like cutscenes, and musical themes. If Climax had spent more time tweaking the menu system, adding camera control, and giving us blocking and targeting abilities, Kingdom of Paradise would have been the perfect PSP gift this holiday season. At it stands, though, it’s enjoyable – but also mediocre.

Broken blocking and auto-targeting mechanics. Annoying camera. Over-powerful chi.

A nice visual presentation with polish. Full cutscenes.

Pleasant background music and (some) voiceovers. Good ambient noises that intensify as you near

You’ll enjoy the game, as it grows on you.

Ad hoc support is a nice addition, surpassed only by online content. But no online multiplayer.

]]> Mon, 14 Nov 2005 16:15:00 -0600 Tim Grube http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_kingdom_of_paradise_screenshots http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_kingdom_of_paradise_screenshots http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_kingdom_of_paradise_screenshots# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

Sony has been pretty quiet about Kingdom of Paradise, but the company released new screenshots today. The game is due out on November 15 for the PSP.

]]> Thu, 03 Nov 2005 12:28:00 -0600 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_dragon_quest_viii_journey_of_the_cursed_king_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_dragon_quest_viii_journey_of_the_cursed_king_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_dragon_quest_viii_journey_of_the_cursed_king_ps21# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is the latest installment in the famed Dragon Quest series, originally helmed by former company, Enix, and now distributed under the Square Enix moniker. The game is being developed by Level 5, the people behind Sony’s Dark Cloud series (most notably Dark Cloud 2), and we were fortunate enough to receive an English build to update us on the basic plot, visuals, and gameplay mechanics. Needless to say, we’re impressed – very.

DQVIII begins with a cozy introduction of the primary cast; you’ve the silent, heroic youth; the hero’s bigger, uglier sidekick, Yangus; the giant toad, King Trode; and the lovely Princess Medea, who is presently a horse. Some grave misfortune has fallen upon King Trode, as his entire kingdom has been ravaged by uncontrollable thorn bushes and he and his daughter have obviously been cursed – transformed into creatures – and the soul survivor of the incident is our nameless hero. The fiend responsible for the curse is a jester-mage called Dhoulmagus, and King Trode has employed our hero’s aid in ascertaining Dhoulmagus’ whereabouts and forcing the maniac to reverse the spell, which of course Dhoulmagus has absolutely no intention of doing.

During the initial stages of their quest King Trode’s little gang stumbles upon two other characters who have set their sights on Dhoulmagus as well – lovely Miss Jessica and the wanton Angelo – and so the gang grows from a common goal: the painful defeat of the sinister Dhoulmagus. Though the story’s premise is simple and direct, numerous twists and turns (which I won’t spoil for you) abound, and plot progression is presented via lively, shortened cutscenes. Those tired of extensive, dramatic dialogue in the Final Fantasy/Star Ocean franchises will find this a welcome addition, while those who crave more engaging plots will still be satisfied with DQVIII’s offering.

The gameplay that we sampled is also extremely simple – players run around the stunning environment in search of the next town and leads of Dhoulmagus’ location. En route you encounter random battles that pit numerous opponents – usually three to five – against the party of four. Upon entering the battle gamers can opt to fight, flee, intimidate (attempt to frighten monsters away), or set tactics for the rest of the team (if desired, the remaining three characters can be set to various battle stratagems other than the default “follow orders” selection, like “show no mercy”, “don’t use magic”, and “focus on healing”). Party status is displayed along the top of the screen while attack commands are on the bottom, and these consist of attack, defend, items (i.e., health), abilities (learned weapon skills), spells, and psyche-up (raise attack power). Attacks are quick slices or thrusts with an equipped weapon, and all attacks are shone in bright orange figures while remaining health for the party briefly displays in subtracted white text.

One unique aspect that breaks the repetitiveness of random battling is the different twist in status effects. Rather than stick to the plain poison, paralysis, or cursed effects that every RPG includes, DQVIII also makes use of dancing fevers and hand puppets. It’s humorous to catch characters laughing uncontrollably or snapping their fingers as they do a little dance. Yet another intriguing difference between DQVIII and many recent RPGs is the methodology for acquiring skills (abilities) and spells, as they’re learned in a different manner; after a character levels, the gamer is granted stat points to distribute among five selections, i.e. Yangus features a “humanity” selection along with “axe, club, scythe” and “fisticuffs” (barehanded fighting). After so many points are allotted to a selection, it grants the bearer additional attack abilities and spells (heal, fire, etc). Each character has a unique fifth listing akin to Yangus’ humanity; the unnamed hero utilizes courage while Jessica aims for sex-appeal and Angelo focuses on (much needed, and probably often used) charisma. It’s a light, straightforward twist that keeps the focus on the gameplay and plot premise rather than on stat manipulation and skill acquisition, which is very fitting giving the game’s simplistic atmosphere.

As this is the first DQ game entirely done in 3D, it’s important to note that Level 5 has managed to maintain the stylistic, anime feel of the characters on a realistic backdrop. The game has a fantastic, familiar presentation that adequately and aesthetically transitions the series to full 3D, with cell-shaded characters reminiscent of the Dragon Ball series thanks to the employment of Akira Toriyama, the anime’s character designer. The party is detailed if not stereotypical, and all characters perform even the slightest of movements fluidly. The hero’s orange coat flutters as he walks, characters blink their eyes and breathe easily, Jessica’s hair blows in the subtle breeze, and a slight shadow follows our hero’s footsteps.

The immensity and beauty of DQVIII’s world is simply astounding. The game features a non-demanding in-game clock with regular days and nights, such that you can trace the sun’s path as it rises in the east and sets in the west to a glorious display of orange skies. During the night the skies appropriately darken, a thousand stars appear, and the moon shines brightly down upon the party. In the daytime light, fluffy clouds float overhead and the sun’s rays strike the camera. The landscape is a lush, vivid green dotted with detailed trees, blades of grass, flowing waterfalls, and superb ground texturing. As the player explores the pleasant countryside he glimpses stray animals lazily grazing across the hills, small streams and ruins, tiny cottages, and the typical dirt road. Dust kicks up from our hero’s feet as he runs along in search of the nearest town, and foliage rustles in the gentle wind. To say that the series has successfully transitioned into the 3D world is an unbelievably crude understatement.

Level 5 included a beautiful, lovely orchestral soundtrack to accompany the game’s splendid visuals, and the two combine for a spectacular presentation. Sweet violin music fills the air as the party wanders from town to town, and each village has its own theme. Little ambient noises – characters running, doors opening, monsters snarling, etc – support the audio along with superb voiceacting. Characters in DQVIII occasionally feature heavy accents, and while they’re all varied – Jessica has a proper British speech while Yangus uses a thick, slum-British (nearly Australian, complete with “crimey” and missing consonants) – they also aptly fit their characters, and none appear too overdramatic or out of context. Overall, Level 5 has done a magnificent job in localizing the game.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is going to please series fans with its gorgeous transition to 3D while newcomers to the franchise will be astounded by the pleasant visuals, welcoming atmosphere, direct plot, and simple gameplay. This will definitely be a “must-have” game this holiday season. Expect to pick this one up come November 15 and be amazed. ]]> Wed, 26 Oct 2005 16:22:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_makai_kingdom_chronicles_of_the_sacred_tome_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_makai_kingdom_chronicles_of_the_sacred_tome_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_makai_kingdom_chronicles_of_the_sacred_tome_ps2# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

Nippon Ichi is most likely not as familiar to most of you as, say, Square Enix/Squaresoft. They have been churning out RPGs in Japan for years – most of them selling very well. On this side of the Pacific this company is more notable as the brainchild of La Pucelle: Tactics, Disgaea, and Phantom Brave, all of which were received fairly well by the RPG fanbase here in the states. Earlier this summer, we were treated with Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, and a mere month later, NIS America has blessed us with Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome. Following the same vein as their previous strategy RPGs, is Makai Kingdom different enough to stand out amongst them?



Before I get into anything about the graphics or the gameplay, let me get this out of the way – Makai Kingdom is just plain funny. It continues the trend of comedic value that Disgaea and company set. The script is hilarious and wryly written, and the delivery of the lines is spot-on most of the time. However, I will say that it is weird to hear Crispin Freeman, who voices the main protagonist stuck-in-a-book Lord Zetta, hit some of those spots. I’m used to hearing him in much more serious roles (Togusa from Ghost in the Shell: SAC or Regal from last summer’s Tales of Symphonia).

Now you may be asking yourself, “Lord Zetta is stuck in a book?” Indeed he is folks. The absurdity that is the story is another one of Makai’s funny parts. Lord Zetta is an overlord, and is in fact the most powerful overlord in the universe due to his manna power. However, one day he finds the secret tome in his overworld and sees that the tome predicts that Zetta’s foolishness will bring doom to his beloved overworld. Slighted by this comment, Zetta destroys the book, but in doing so he also destroys his overworld, thus fulfilling the tome’s prophecy.

With Zetta stuck as a book, he is dependent on someone else to do the grunt work for him – that is where you come in. With the ability to bind souls to objects, you will be able to create a small little army to do Zetta’s dirty work for him. What object you decide to bind a soul to will affect the created character’s base stats. A rock, for example, will give a +1% bonus to defense which is ideal for a frontline warrior, whereas a weed will create one with a +1% bonus in intelligence but a -1% penalty in attack, which would have you lean towards making a magician or witch. Of course, you don’t have to make them those job classes, but it would be smarter to take advantage of those bonuses or make those penalties less of a weakness.

This leads us to Makai’s main strength – customization. There are only a handful of job classes available at the start, but as you level up in certain ones, you’ll open up a lot more strong jobs, such as archers, the Nippon Ichi staples Prinnies, and the irresistibly cute Hell Kitties.

As complicated as these types of games are, equipment is thankfully simplified; anyone can equip anything and everything. The catch is that some jobs are better with certain weapons and armor, and by equipping them with those armaments, it will grant them bonuses to stats like attack and movement. The game helps you see what items a character excels with by attaching the word “expert” to the end of the item’s name. It’s safe to say that trying to fill up one of your underlings with “expert” weapons is the route to go, though there are times where you will want to keep someone’s hands empty, which I’ll get to later.

For those familiar with Nippon Ichi’s previous strategy RPGs, Makai Kingdom plays almost exactly like those with a few tweaks here and there. For those who aren’t, I’ll outline the basics of Makai’s. At the beginning of the battle, you use Zetta to invite characters into the battlefield. Instead of the usual grid-type movement most associated with Final Fantasy Tactics, we get a sort of free-roaming moving mechanic. A red circle will show the radius in which the character can move, but you can move him/her anywhere within that circle. Attack works almost the same. A red circle just like when moving will show you where you can attack, and then you use a wire grid frame to select what the unit will attack. Area attacks will not distinguish between enemy and friendly units so going all-out during battles isn’t always the best strategy to use.

Makai’s battle system is turn-based, not initiative-based. This means you can do whatever you want and when you’re finally done, you end your turn so that the enemy can do the same to you. This adds another layer of strategy as you can use hit-and-run tactics since your target can’t move until you have finally ended your turn. Of course, this is a double-edged sword and the computer AI isn’t afraid to pull the same kind of tactic. And because you can have all of your characters act in a single turn, the ability to combo on a single enemy becomes another useful strategy. Having multiple units focus on a single enemy will unleash tons of damage upon them.

I mentioned that Makai Kingdom features some new battle mechanics, the first of which is the introduction of facilities and vehicles onto the battlefield. Facilities are just buildings, but if you happen to have a few characters in a building during a battle, they will receive some sort of stat bonus. Hospitals will restore hit points, placing a character in a school will give them 50% more experience per turn, and characters deployed from a shop will earn money bonuses. It is always advantageous to use facilities, but earning new facilities takes massive amounts of manna (which is earned during fights and definitely takes some time to gather); wishing for a new facility may even cost you the life of one of your units. Also, if a building is destroyed while some units are still in it, you will lose those you had in there for the rest of the battle.

Vehicles, which can be bought if you have the right facilities on the home overworld, control just like a regular foot unit, and is in fact controlled by one of them. The vehicles will take damage before the unit controlling it does, so don’t be afraid to let a vehicle take a bruising every now and then. Suffice to say, vehicles easily have the advantage over foot soldiers as they are usually much more powerful and can cover ground a lot quicker. However, you cannot use any of the unit’s personal skills unless you remove them from the vehicle, which isn’t such a big deal considering that turns aren’t based on initiative.

The last innovative mechanic is extensions. In some battles, throwing an item out-of-bounds or destroying a key character/item will open up an extension of the battlefield. Doing so will make the area larger, in some cases doubling and tripling the size of the map. Battles don’t end when all the characters are defeated – instead Makai Kingdom opts for a points system in which you can choose to end the battle if you’ve met the minimum point requirement or to continue fighting. Because of that feature, it’s smart to find these extensions wherever you can as they usually lead to areas with more treasure and much tougher enemies, which almost always equals more experience.



Makai Kingdom is a great game and all, but I had a hard time shaking the “been there, done that” feeling because this really is just Disgaea and Phantom Brave with a new story and some slightly new battle features despite the back cover advertising it as “much more than just Disgaea with a fresh coat of paint.” It’s basically the same game most of us have been playing for years, but fortunately the additions to the gameplay freshen it up enough to at least give some players incentive to try it out.

The story isn’t all the great either, but then again, I don’t think most people will be playing this game for its story. It’s definitely not enough to play through multiple times. However, for the completionists out there, this game is right up their alley as I can see gamers logging in well over 150 hours trying to get every little facility and vehicle and then laughing on gaming forums about how their first apprentice is now level 9999. (Note: yes folks, levels go past the 99/150/255 barrier here. Hell, Lord Zetta starts out at level 2000)

And as complicated as this game is, power leveling can make things a lot easier. Hit a roadblock? Then head on over to the free dungeons where you can beat up on enemies over and over again until you’re at a level at which you’ll overpower everything on the map. This turns progression into a matter of spending time to level rather than using strategy to win a fight.

The graphics aren’t all that great either. They actually look borderline PSone-ish at times. I don’t mind the chibi characters at all, but the entire package screams “outdated graphics.”

The battle maps are quite a challenge to traverse also. Though the movement system isn’t grid-based, the maps look like they were meant for it as you’ll see plenty of sharp corners and blocky rises everywhere. Trying to position a unit in the spot you want can be a battle itself sometimes. Even worse is targeting an attack. There is a radius in which you can aim an attack, but if you reach the limit, sometimes you won’t even know it because the camera will continue on in whatever direction you were pressing while the target cursor remains trapped on the outer radius of the target circle. It would’ve been nice had they cleaned that up a bit.

Lastly, the throw mechanic seems virtually useless. To throw something, you have to throw whatever you have in your hands, like a weapon, away, pick up the item you want to throw, throw that, then pick up the weapon and re-equip. It’s just too much hassle for so little a reward. The main reason why you’d throw something is to open up extensions and most of the time you can just kill the “key” character to do so. Throwing is really just another unnecessary complication that didn’t need to be left in.



Despite Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Ground retreading a lot of ground that Nippon Ichi has already covered, it’s still a pretty darn good game. This isn’t going to attract the casual gamer, as the amount of micromanaging in this game will turn most of them off, and it won’t push the numbers of a Final Fantasy, but it will definitely satisfy the niche market that is the hardcore RPGer. There’s plenty to do with some hefty gameplay elements that ought to keep them busy for hours on end. If you’ve been a fan of NIS for a while, then you won’t be disappointed at all as long as you aren’t looking for an entirely new experience; for everyone else, be warned that if you aren’t willing to invest a chunk of your life into this, you’ll need to look somewhere else on the shelf.

There is so much to do and master. Your heads will spin when you see the customization options.

Love the chibi characters, hate the outdated graphics.

Excellent voiceacting; some tracks will start you whistling, but others seem recycled.

Its overcomplicated nature zaps some of the fun, but not all of it. Game sports awesome humor.

You won’t play it through multiple times, but you will log 100+ hours if you want everything.

]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2005 17:37:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_shaman_king_master_of_spirits_2_game_boy_advance http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_shaman_king_master_of_spirits_2_game_boy_advance http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_shaman_king_master_of_spirits_2_game_boy_advance# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

Deep Guardian ghost system. Castlevania-style gameplay is always a plus.

Bright colorful graphics and smooth animations complete the package.

Some tracks are nice, most are forgettable. Voices are used sparingly, but are loud and clear.

Again, you can’t go wrong by copying Castlevania.

Game is painfully short, and hunting for all the ghosts isn’t going to add more than 2 hours.

]]> Mon, 08 Aug 2005 19:09:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_makai_kingdom_chronicles_of_the_sacred_tome_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_makai_kingdom_chronicles_of_the_sacred_tome_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_makai_kingdom_chronicles_of_the_sacred_tome_ps21# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Aaron Thomas.

Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome is the latest RPG from Nippon Ichi Software America, who you may or may not know from games like Disagaea: Hour of Darkness, La Pucelle: Tactics, and Phantom Brave. Makai Kingdom is a turn-based strategy game, with plenty of the style you’d expect from Nippon Ichi. Despite being pushed back before, the current release date is July 27th, and it looks like this date will stick.

In Makai Kingdom, you control Lord Zetta, a former ruler who has now merged with the tome that he destroyed because it predicted his downfall. His kingdom now destroyed, it’s up to you to piece together an army and reclaim his kingdom, or what’s left of it.

Combat is turn-based and takes place from an isometric perspective. Some of the combat is standard fare – you can attack with a katanas, battle-axes, and even modern weapons, but it quickly becomes more involved and more bizarre. Not only do you turn everyday objects – like flowers, rocks, and trees – into warriors by adding a soul to them, but you can customize them into a wide variety of classes.

Makai Kingdom also places emphasis on creating buildings, which like troop creation, has its own twist. Building structures to assist an army isn’t anything new, but summoning weapon factories, hospitals, and dog houses to the battlefield certainly is. You can load troops into the buildings, where their attributes will be increased, and then unleash them onto the battlefield onto your overmatched foe.

The battle maps are randomly generated, ensuring that no battle will ever play out the same way twice. The graphics aren’t anything to write home about, at least from a technical standpoint, but they certainly have a distinctive style to them, and any RPG or strategy fan will quickly point out that great graphics aren’t necessary for a game to be great.



It’s certainly not going out on a limb to say that Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome is a game that is going to appeal to a very select group of people. This statement in no way means that it’s going to be a bad game, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to change anyone’s opinion about the genre. In other words: For hardcore fans only.

For a more complete indication of what you'll be in for on this one, view the included movie file of this game in action by clicking here. Can we say  "Tactics with guns and freaky weapons"?]]> Wed, 06 Jul 2005 22:01:48 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_king_of_fighters_maximum_impact__maniax_xbox1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_king_of_fighters_maximum_impact__maniax_xbox1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_king_of_fighters_maximum_impact__maniax_xbox1# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.