Japan Gaming Guide

The original Soul Calibur is due to resurface on Xbox Live Arcade. The weapons-based fighter is one of the most critically successful games of all time, ranking at number six on the gamesranking.com chart. That also makes it the best fighter ever, and a fairly essential purchase.

The only reason we can think of not to buy it is if the brand new Soul Calibur IV turns out to be better. Both games are coming out this summer.

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There are a couple of reasons to check out Xbox live arcade over the next fortnight. April 2nd sees the release of Mr Driller Online while a week later is the game shooter fans have been waiting for: Ikaruga. Both these games will set you back 800 MS points.

[Read, via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Xbox 360 owners should see Omega Five appear on live arcade sometime today. The Hudson developed side shooter is looking like a pretty wild ride. Wired took a look at the game last June and described it as playing like Gradius, but with human characters.

It looks to us like a decent addition to arcade’s strong complement of shooters.

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A load of new info has just come out regarding Just Cause 2. Interviewed by Playstation World magazine, lead designer Peter Johansson revealed that the sequel will aim for “more scope for exploration and experimentation than the original.” Side missions have been ditched, which will hopefully make the game’s much vaunted freedom less of an illusion and more of a reality.

There’s a brand new island to explore – Panau in South East Asia. Rico will have to destabalise the island, remove it’s dictator, Baby Panay and return with his former CO who has gone AWOL on the island.

The island will feature a wider range of environments with snow capped mountains complementing the jungle setting.

Just Cause 2 launches in January on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

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The Xbox original section of the live marketplace is set to expand heavily over the coming year. According to Surfer Girl, over 100 titles are coming including such classics as Jet Set Radio Future and Panzer Dragoon Oorta. The unconfirmed rumour is pretty exciting for those of us eager to play older games without having to dig around our dusty cupboards, or actually go down the shop and hunt for them.

This list is probably intended for the US market, we expect Europe to get a similar list of titles, but who knows about Japan? We still don’t have movie downloads, and the Xbox originals we have so far are different to those in other regions. (Fahreinheit, we want Fahreinheit!)

Head past the break for the full list of titles mentioned..

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A lot of people are having trouble with Xbox Live at the moment, so if you can’t log in, find people to play against or download stuff then don’t panic! You’re not alone.

Microsoft have announced that they are aware of the problems, they are very sorry, and working hard to get things sorted out.

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Japanese site gamespark has ended the year with a list of the top 20 Xbox live arcade games. The rankings are based on the ever-popular metacritic scores.

Top of the list? Castlevania Symphony of the Night – a truly awesome game which I missed on the PS1 and was very pleased to get the chance to try last year. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords comes in at number two. I loved this game but wasted an astonishing amount of time playing it and have had to delete it from my console to stop myself firing it up again. Third is the mighty Geometry Wars.

Looking through this list reminds me of how much the Arcade has changed the way I play games. Games like Puzzle Quest and Castlevania are things we’d have overlooked at retail, but got to enjoy thanks to the wonderful fluffy impulse pricing they get on the Marketplace.

Head past the break for the full list of games.

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2008 is starting with a bang on live arcade – Metal Slug 3 is coming to the service this Wednesday. The side scrolling shooter was due to put in an apperance some time ago but size restrictions meant it had to be held back. For 800 points this is a really fun game, and a great way to start the year.

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At last the Xbox 360 is going to get motion sensing controls. According to the spreading rumours a first party add on will bring tilting and shaking to the MS console by the end of next year.

Following the Wii’s lead hasn’t really worked on the PS3, we’re not sure how well it will translate to the 360 either – however the rumour is that the new design is being handled by ‘Gyration’ the company that designed the original Wiimote. If they can integrate the Wiimote’s technology into the 360 pad then it might be worth checking out.

[XboxFamily, via  Gaming Today]

Halo 3 is getting a couple of tweaks in an update tomorrow. The playlists will be adjusted to accommodate the new maps that Bungie are rolling out. If someone in a lobby doesn’t have a map, it won’t be used, so there’ll be no getting booted off if you haven’t forked out for the downloadable extras. A very good move in our opinion, plenty of games have seen their online userbase divided down to nothing after being split by downloadable content. It’s nice to see Bungie catering to everyone in this respect.

There’s also a change to the objective based games – VIP will be removed. A further update on December 18th will add a ‘Team Hardcore’ playlist to those already on offer.

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