PS2 «Aggrogate

18Dec/100

How Big Will 3DS Games Be?

According to an article over at GoNintendo (via Nintendo Life), the 3DS cart will have a capacity of 1GB and can go up to a whopping 8GB. For comparison's sake, the current DS card holds only 512MB, and the PSP's dual layer UMDs can only hold 1.8 GBs of data. Of course it's doubtful that the developers will actually use all that space. But it's good to know that Hideo Kojima won't have to sacrifice his uncompressed audio to port Metal Gear Solid 3 to the 3DS. Of course these could be a great chance to start a new wave retro revival; I, for one, would love to see the PS1 and maybe even PS2 Final Fantasys make their way over to the 3DS. I think there's room for a 3D remake scene to go alone the HD remakes that we're getting.

Tagged as: 3ds, Developers, dual layer, Final Fantasy, HD, kojima, metal gear solid 3, Nintendo, PS1, PS2, PSP, remakes, UMD No Comments

26Aug/100

From the Game: Dragon Quest slime trading figure keychains

Slimes are the most famous "characters" of the Dragon Quest series. They're the series mascots, burbling, smiling lumps of goo that has been a part of the series since the very first game, gotten their own surprisingly good action-adventure spin-off on the DS, and seen their likeness emblazoned across countless pieces of merchandise. That includes keychains.

These Dragon Quest slime keychains are Japanese toys I picked up at E3 2006 from Square-Enix's booth. They're just three out of over a dozen potential keychains, running the full gamut of Dragon Quest slimes. Besides their well-known blue goopy slime versions, there are metal slimes, king slimes, bubble slimes, heal slimes, slime knights, and others. These three are the Sea Slime (blue slime with white shell), Medislime (green jellyfish-like slime), and Platinum King Jewel (clear, jewel-shaped slime).

Tagged as: Dragon Quest, Dragon Warrior, ds, Enix, PS2, Rocket Slime, slime, Square Continue reading

5Aug/100

Disappearing Developers: Izuna Team and Summon Knight Teams Both MIA

First Cavia, makers of Nier and Drakengard, was absorbed into its parent company. Now, Ninja Studio and Flight-Plan have vanished from the internet. Ninja Studio created the Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja series on the DS, one of the few games in the roguelike RPG sub-genre. Izuna never gained mainstream critical success nor did it gain more than a cult following. Flight Plan brought us the Summon Night series and Eternal Poison, which also had a tepid reception and a cult status. The Summon Night series tended to be restricted to Japan with only three titles releasing internationally.

Back in May, Siliconera noticed the Ninja Studio site had went offline and speculated that they had quietly went out of business. More recently, the Flight-Plan site went offline as well, and it is now known that they have officially been shut down. The last game released from Ninja Studio was Tactics Layer, a DS cosplay Strategy RPG released last year, while Flight-Plan's last game was Summon Night Gran-These, a PS2 action RPG that came out in April. Both are exclusive to Japan.