Japan Gaming Guide

Having trained themselves silly in every subject under the sun, DS owners must surely be among the most educated people on earth. Whilst other gamers might pick up a disturbingly large knowledge of weapons and military terminology, those on the DS are able to learn about nearly every facet of human knowledge. Maths, Beauty, English, Japanese and now – Trains.

A train game launch would normally be minor news, but in Japan, at least, such a thing is a cause for celebration. What better way to celebrate than to dress up as a train driver and dance while a bald bloke plays keyboard nearby?

The snappily titled Tetsudo Zeminaru Oteshitetsusen let’s you show off your train knowledge with a range of tests and quizes. It can be yours in January for a mere 2800 yen. Bald bloke not included.

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Though already out in America, Kirby Super Star Ultra is released here in Japan on November 6th. If relaxing, non-taxing platforming is your thing, then snap this up.

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The first person DS shooter, Dementium, has raised a few hackles at the Japanese Association of Psychiatric Hospitals. The head doctors are concerned that the game may encourage negative stereotypes of the mentally ill and have asked for it to be pulled from shelves.

The game is pretty gory, players have to trundle round a mental home and defend themselves against a bunch of zombified human experiments. Whether the said zombies are really going to affect sane people’s views on those with genuine mental illness is pretty questionable, but if you’re planning on buying Dementium, it might be wise to hurry up about it.

[Read, via The Raw Feed]

A few screens from Sega’s forthcoming Shining Force Feather:

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A ballet game is coming out for the DS this December. Classic Ballet features 4 player action and looks to be a fairly generous title. As well as the expected make up and clothing customisation there are also ballet exercises to perform using the stylus, and diagrams showing proper ballet techniques. There will be a light RPG storyline to play through with performances to take part in after you’ve finished your training.

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Pokemon Platinum has, inevitably, gone platinum, almost selling the required million copies within two days of release. The appealing collectible creatures are still hot property, twelve years after the original release of Pokemon red and green.

[Read, via Kotaku]

Here are a couple of pics of Inazuma Eleven. The game is a soccer RPG for the DS from Level 5 software. It has been out a few weeks in Japan and looks pretty fun. You have to find and recruit players to your team. The recruits have different skills and special abilities that you can then use to help you win matches. Sort of like a football hybrid of Pokemon and Suikoden by the sound of it.

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Nintendo have just announced the release of a wireless network adapter. The device will allow you to connect your Wii and DS to a home network. Judging by the diagrams on the site, you won’t be able to use it to connect other devices, such as a PC, although we can’t confirm this yet. The adapter costs 5800 yen, which seems a bit steep if you can’t use it with other devices. For the record, the Wii connects to most standard wireless adapters without problems, although the DS needs to piggy back off the Wii’s connection.

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Pokemon Platinum is out on September 13th in Japan. The game is a remake of Diamond and Pearl and promises mysterious new Pokemon to collect as well as items to trade over wi-fi.

If you’re a fan of the adorable little creatures, you won’t want to miss it.

[Official Site]

DS Vision, the new anime download service is due to launch soon. From August 20th, Japanese DS owners will be able to download and watch anime on the small screens. It costs 3000 – 4280 yen to purchase an SD card with a pre-installed movie, with further charges for each title you download.

The service is launching with a whole load of Pokemon titles, but will hopefully expand quickly.

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