Japan Gaming Guide

Developer Dimps must have mislaid their speed boots. Sonic isn’t usually slow to arrive, but the forthcoming continuation of his 2D adventures has been pushed back to late 2010.

We can’t wait to get our hands on the new game, which will concentrate on Sonic alone and get back to the classic gameplay we know and love. The extra playable characters, that some regard as responsible for the decline of the series, have been dropped for this new episode.

Bayonetta hype is starting to build as the game nears its autumn release. Designer Hideki Kamiya has a history that includes Okami and Devil May Cry, so our hopes are very high for this.

Kamiya-san has promised to “blow the doors off the action genre”. The eponymous heroine is a shape shifting witch who backs up her magic attacks with a cornucopia of firearms and heavy weapons. As with Devil May Cry skilled players will be able to rack up the damage with spectacular combos and special moves. Fallen enemies drop halos that can be exchanged for bigger and better weapons.

Bayonetta launches in Japan on October 29th for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, price Y7980. North American and European release is expected to follow in January.

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Shin Sangoku Musou Multi Raid, or Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce has been out for a few weeks in Japan, but will debut in the US later this month. It’s based on Dynasty Warriors 6, and looks rather good.

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Final Fantasy VII has just been released on the Japanese PSN, and is available for 1500 yen. Naturally the game is Japanese only. If you do speak Japanese then it’s pretty much a must buy. First released almost twelve years ago on the original Playstation, FF7 brought the JRPG into the mainstream and remains one of the great epics in the gaming canon.

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The life of the humble shepherd must have got a lot better with the advent of handheld gaming. Those lonely days on the mountains would go a lot quicker with the help of a DS or PSP. We reckon the superior battery life of the DS would make it the shepherd’s system of choice – but it looks like Sony is trying to redress the balance with the release of Hitsuji Mura Portable (Sheep Town Portable) for the PSP.

The animal-crossing alike game casts you as a duck who, so far as we can tell, has something of a penchant for the bottle.

Have a look at the game’s official site, and see if you can work out what exactly is going on.

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The rather nice looking flower is a peaceful, relaxing new title that let’s you float around collecting petals. The graphics are apparently beautiful when the game is in motion, and the six-axis controls are nicely implemented. It’s good to see different things like this coming out from time to time and it could prove a hit if reasonably priced. It might also be the perfect thing to show Mum if you’re hoping for a nice shiny PS3 for Christmas.

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Wipeout HD is available for download now in Japan. As if those graphics don’t look good enough, remember they move very, very fast.

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Siren: New Translation has been out here for a few weeks now. Famitsu have been running a blog specifically for the game, filled with creepy details. The latest post shows several photos of the female zombies in the game, and a picture of an actress in zombie make up. You can see why the graphics are so lifelike when they went to this kind of trouble.

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Soul Calibur 4 is finally out in Japan today. Game Watch have got an absolute ton of screens as well as a few  manga scans.

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Sony Computer Entertainment Japan is sending giant cats into Tokyo to try and woo the public into buying lots of cat related stuff on the Playstation store. On Sunday the cats danced and let the braver kids have their picture taken alongside them. If you missed them they’ll be back again on August 16th.

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