Interview: Jimmy Soga, product manager, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony
Lunar is back. The much-beloved RPG that first wowed gamers on the SEGA CD (and virtually every other console since) has returned in the form of Lunar: Silver Star Harmony, which looks to be the definitive version of the game. While the crew works on the review, we decided to reach out to Jimmy Soga, product manager, XSEED Games to answer some of the questions that have weighed heavily on the minds of Lunar fans.
Review: RealView V-Screen (PSP)
The V-Screen from Realview promises “stunning depth enhancement for your PSP games” by making the 2D screen image “look and feel far more realistic and exciting.” At least that’s what the box says. Inside the box you’ll find a plastic case where the PSP goes, with a magnifying glass — the V-Screen — attached at the top that flips out. Peer through that and PSP games should look more three-dimensional, if we’re to believe the box’s description.
Realview V-Screen turns 2D PSP games to 3D
Although it’s been out since January, it’s worth it to note that Realview’s V-Screen can turn all your 2D PSP games into a 3D experience. It works by enhancing perceived depth of field in the graphics to give you something that will pop out more as opposed to looking flat.
This sounds similar to how modern day cinematography works in that your foreground can be more in focus and your background and mid-ground be out of focus and therefore a bit harder to see. However, I haven’t actually seen a demo of the product in action, but we just got one in the house so we’ll let you know howthe visuals play out in coming days.
Realview especially recommends the $39.99 V-Screen for racing games when you’re on the track and trying to tear it up. 2D NSFW content with this screen may be really something to check out (not that we condone such action, heh).
Interview: Talking video games and game journalism with HipHopGamer
I can vividly recall the first time that I met HipHopGamer; actually, the first time that I saw him. I was at an Activision party watching some skinny-pantsed hipsters spin the virtual wax, when I saw a dude bop into the room with a god damned wrestling belt strapped over his shoulder. I thought that this was either the ballsiest mofo around, or the most outrageous – - and it turns out he is both.
HipHopGamer has rocketed to popularity thanks to his self-titled website (HipHopGamerShow) where he hosts weekly video articles (or vidicles, as the man’s coined the series of clips). After listening to HipHopGamer give his enthusiastic insights on his own show, exchanging messages about gaming with him via e-mail, meeting at a Sony event, and listening to him on Torrence Davis’ WarZone over at The Bitbag, I knew it was time for an interview. Check it out.
The crux of the HipHopGamerShow revolves around your patented weekly vidicles. Why did you decide to go the video route instead of writing traditional articles?
When you write people don’t get the full understanding and full emotion of what your message is. With video you can see my facial expressions, and hear my tone of voice when I say certain things [for emphasis]. Also, no one else is doing it. See, it’s one thing to make a video talking about games, but I treat my videos as articles. I provide bullet points, so it’s like a story, so to speak. When I present these vidicles people can understand after the first view as opposed to reading something three or four times to try and understand what a journalist is saying. Also, I love being in front of the camera anyway [laughs].
Metal Slug XX brings more run and gun to your PSP
Atlus doesn’t know when to quit. Not satisfied spoiling us with hardcore ridiculousness like Demon’s Souls and tons upon tons of Shin Megami Tensei games, they deem Feb. 23 the time to bestow Metal Slug XX for PSP upon us. A port of Metal Slug 7 for DS, Metal Slug XX (pronounced “double-ex”) heralds the return of multi-player through the PSP’s ad-hoc connection. Because who wants to run-and-gun solo? That’s just silly.
But the Metal Slug series has always been silly, and this one looks to up the ante with a nice, big cast (Marco, Tarma, Fio, Eri, Ralf, Clark and a purchasable Leona), seven levels in the main campaign and — in a series first — more than 70 missions worth of bonus content. For only $20 that sounds like quite the steel. Er, steal. Ha, like metal? Get it, Metal Slug?
Ugh.
Classic Dungeon Gives 3D Game Heroes The 2D Treatment
The neo-retro love affair continues, and I couldn’t be happier. Continuing the trend of action-RPGs with distinctive 8-bit feels (see Half-Minute Hero and 3D Dot Heroes), Nippon Ichi Software’s upcoming Classic Dungeon looks to bring the pixels to Japanse PSP games on February 18, 2010. Although it resembles your typical dungeon crawler, it has a rather unique gameplay system.
You place your characters on a chart, with your primary character in a central spot and the other characters in surrounding support sports. The primary character is the one that you control when entering the dungeons.
The support characters grow alongside the primary character, advancing differently and earning different skills depending on the structure of the chart you’re using, their position on the chart, and on job of the primary character. As the primary character explores the dungeons, the support characters will come in for assists, acting as shields if you’re about to incur damage from an enemy or trap.
When not in a dungeon, you’re able to freely swap characters between support and primary roles. Additionally, the game offers a variety of charts, some allowing you to set more support characters, and some giving added effects to certain slots.
Classic Dungeon will also feature a pixel editor, ad hoc multi-player, and a switchable soundtrack that lets you jump between the standard score and the bleeps and bloops version. Plans for a U.S. release has yet to be announced, but if you pray to your 8-bit man-god maybe our prayers will come true.
[Hat tip: Andriasang via Gamesetwatch]
Interview: Bo deWindt, Project Lead, Cho Aniki Zero
Aksys Games garnered much attention last week for its rather kick ass Cho Aniki ZERO press release which highlighted all of the mantastic qualities of the upcoming PSP game. After reading it, I knew that I had to reach out to the publisher to wrangle up more details, so I present to you my brief Q & A with Bo deWindt, Project Lead, Aksys.
Is Cho Aniki ZERO a completely original series entry, or a remake/re-imagining of an earlier Cho Aniki title?
Cho Aniki ZERO is a completely original title. They just borrowed the past “Cho’s” concept.
The Cho Aniki franchise is nearly 20 years old and has survived the ever-evolving gaming landscape. Still, the shooter genre, which soared in popularity in the late ’80s to mid ’90s, has become an extremely niche genre regulated to the realm of the hardcore. Are you specifically targeting that demographic that grew up playing Gradius, Thunderforce, and the like, or are you hoping for a more mass market audience?
We usually try to target the mouth, face and sometimes the small of the back.
Capcom Brings the Retro Love to PSN
Capcom, those retro-loving scamps, will release several of their past PlayStation One and PSP titles on the PlayStation Network… sometime soon. The titles include:
- Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded (UMD Legacy)
- Mega Man Powered Up (UMD Legacy)
- Dino Crisis (PlayStation Legacy)
- Powerstone Collection (UMD Legacy)
- Mega Man Maverick Hunter X (UMD Legacy)
- Resident Evil 2 (PlayStation Legacy)
- Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower (UMD Legacy)
- Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max (UMD Legacy)
- Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (PlayStation Legacy)
- Capcom Puzzle World (UMD Legacy)
Resident Evil 2, 3 and Dino Crisis will be awesome portables, but it’s the 2D lovelies we got our eyes on: Mega Man Powered Up, Maverick Hunter X, Darkstalkers, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded, and Capcom Puzzle World. After the jump, a breakdown of the latter titles.
Unbound Saga Now Available From PSN for $15
If you’re looking to smash heads this evening, Rick Ajax and Lori Machete are more than willing to be your tools of destruction with today’s release of Vogster’s Unbound Saga. The digital download tells the tale of two comic book characters who wage war against the book’s creator (“The Maker”) and his minions. I pow wowed with the game’s senior producer not too long ago about the creation of the game and play mechanics; it may prove a worthy read before cracking skulls.
Macross Ultimate Frontier Coming to Japanese PSP; No Chance for America
If you were to ask me to name the biggest influences on my life, Macross would rank just behind, Mama Wilson, MLK, Thomas Paine, and Chris Claremont. It may seem odd to place a melodramatic cartoon aimed at Japanese teens as such a powerful factor, but it was my first exposure to serious themes and circumstances in animated form; it was difficult to worry about the well-being of Wile E. Coyote after he suffered few dozen anvil drops to the head without consequence.
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