Japan Gaming Guide

What do we get to start 2009? Super Smash Brothers for 1200 points? A bit pricey, but fans will love it. Elsewhere Wonderboy III and Rastan Saga II might tempt us to part with our Wii points.

Famicom (500 points)

Detective Saburo Jinguji: A dangerous duo – part 1
Legend of Getsu Fuma
Zoids: Revelations

Nintendo 64 (1200 points)

Super Smash Brothers

Master System (500 points)

Fantasy Zone II – Tear of Opaopa

Mega Drive (600 points)

Wonder Boy III – Monster Lair

PC Engine

Rastan Saga 2 (600 points)
Legend of Wind Zanadou 2 (800 points)
Spriggan Mark 2 (800 points)
Champion Wrestler (600 points)

Relics is still on the list for MSX! Could this be the year we finally get to see it?

Here’s one for the kids. Popple and the magical crayon sees you advancing through a pop-up storybook world, using different coloured crayons to solve puzzles. The game will start out very easy and gradually get more difficult as things go on, although not too difficult by the looks of things. This game looks very cute, and it’s hard to resist the appeal of a chicken playing the violin.

Popple and the magical crayon will cost 800 Wii points from January 27th.

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Square Enix have announced Dragon Quest 10 will be a Wii title. That’s pretty exciting news to be sure. Further details will hopefully follow soon.

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It’s not just Santa who’s going to be arriving on Christmas Day. Those cheeky Pikmin are making their Wii debut in Japanese stores. This time around you can use the Wiimote and Nunchuck to control the multi-coloured beasties, which should make the experience even more intuitive and fun than usual.

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If there is one thing the Wiimote does well it’s pretend to be a lightgun, and if there’s one thing Wiiware needs it’s a decent lightgun shooter. Shootanto could be it. Allowing you to team up with another lightgun bearing friend, you can take on a cornucopia of beasts including dinosaurs and giant insects. Not only that, but you can play as a monkey, should you choose to do so. And why wouldn’t you?

Shootanto goes on sale December 9th for 600 Wii Points.

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Here is December’s Virtual Console release list:

Famicom (500 points)

Atlantis no nazo (the mystery of Atlantis)
Salamander
Ninja Kun – Majou no boken (Ninja Kid – The witch’s adventure)

Super Famicom (800 points)

Super Nobunaga no Yabo: Zenkoku Han (Nobunaga’s Ambition)

Master System (500 points)

Super Wonderboy Monster World

Megadrive (600 points)

Earthworm Jim

PC Engine (600 points)

Space Invaders – Fukkatsu no hi (day of resurrection)
S.C.I.
Jigoku Meguri (Bonze Adventure)
Fire Pro Wrestling 3 – Legend Bout

And you poor MSX fans can spend another month hoping Relics will come out.

Sonic World Adventure/Sonic Unleashed is coming to all platforms in all territories over the next few weeks. Here are some screens. Recent Sonic games have been fairly poor, but there’s something of the old titles in these level designs. Let’s hope this marks a return to form for the blue hedgehog.

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Animal Crossing is only a month away from blowing the dust off our much neglected Japan Gaming Guide Wii, which has seen very little action this year, apart from the odd Wii Fit session. That should all change on November 10th though – we’ll be first in the queue to pick this up.

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Nintendo announced a surprise Wiiware release for next week. Maru Bou Shikaku or circle, stick, square, will come out on October 10th and features three different puzzle sets based on the eponymous shapes. From what we can see of the game, the circle section involves a large swinging pendulum, the stick section is a kuru kuru kururin like dodgefest and the square section might possibly be some kind of Arkanoid clone.

What looks interesting is that players will be able to join with a pair of friends and play all three game types at once. If there’s some kind of interaction between the different puzzles then this could be a good party game.

Might be worth checking out, although we’re still waiting for Lost Winds to come out in Japan. Come on Nintendo, sort it out.

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There’s going to be no getting away from this game soon. On October 16th Nintendo’s much hyped Wii Music finally hits the streets. After the success of Wii Fit, Miyamoto san and co will be hoping this manages to make as much noise with the gaming public.

The official site has just launched and comes complete with video clips of Miis making music. Wii Sports veterans will no doubt see some familiar faces as they look to have used the same characters.

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