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The tri-Crescendo-developed Namco Bandai RPG, Fragile, will eventually make its way to Europe, GameSpot reports. Sometime in early 2010, Europeans will be able to get their own taste of this post-apocalyptic title following Seto, who is believed to be the last living human being. It’s kind of like I Am Legend, but, like, bearable.

Made by the same team behind Eternal Sonata, Fragile is currently set to release in North America during the holidays courtesy of XSEED, and will arrive in Europe via Rising Star Games.

Fragile arrives on European shores early 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Screens, Imports

Retro Game Challenge comes out in North America next week, but Japan is already one game ahead of us — the sequel, Game Center CX: Arino no Chousenjou 2, comes out there on the 26th. Famitsu has screenshots of two brand-new games in the sequel, and four … kind of new games.

Guadia Quest Saga is a sequel to the original game’s Dragon Quest-like RPG, released late-ish in the (fake) Famicom’s lifetime, in 1991. GunDuel, the sequel to StarPrince, is a vertical shmup with much more detailed backgrounds.

Four “rare” games are only available in the (in-game) game shop, presumably because your character can’t afford to buy them! Cosmic Gate: MASA-X version is a port of the first game’s Galaxian-like shooter, made in the style of MSX computer games. Rally King EX is a special “time trial” version of the original’s racer, and StarPrince SA is a special version of StarPrince in which players have just a few minutes to accrue a high score. Perhaps weirdest of all is Karakuri Ninja Haguruman: Koume Version, which was (in the alternate universe of the game) a special release of Haguruman with the hero sprite swapped out for his sister Koume, given to members of that character’s fan club!

Game Center CX 2: New screens of new old games originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Screens

If the time is just crawling for you until Sky Crawlers comes out, at least there’s now an official website for the game to keep you busy. The site is in Japanese, but it’s not too hard to click on buttons and hope for the best.

There’s not much to see at the moment, though, except for the snazzy screens we’ve conveniently added to the gallery below. So, those of you who are afraid of the cold, harsh arms of the internet don’t even have to leave the safety of Nintendo Wii Fanboy for now.

Reminder: Make sure to click on the “Hi Res” button when viewing the photos, or else you’re just a fool.

[Via NeoGAF]

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Filed under: Imports, Wii Ware

Bandai’s “Mugen Puchi Puchi” keychain was a huge success in Japan, fulfilling the near-universal love of popping bubble wrap. The draw is that it simulates bubble wrap but never runs out (the name translates to “infinite pop pop”), and playing wacky noises on every hundredth pop. It’s as bizarrely compelling as it sounds.

And now it’s going to be a bizarrely compelling video game! Ouchi de Mugen Puchi Puchi Wii is a game based on the premise of “oh, hey, bubble wrap!” You’ll be able to squeeze bubbles with the Wiimote, scoring combos based on popping in time with the game’s music. Each of around 40 stages will have a different background, music, and bubble popping sound! The game will also randomly test your stress level, which is almost guaranteed to be chill. We’re calling it right now: this is our most-wanted Wii Ware game. Bandai Namco has to do the right thing here and localize it.

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Filed under: News, Imports, Screens

The first reaction we had to Family Ski was surprise that it didn't use the Wii Balance Board. Skiing, which relies so heavily on leaning (we think) seems like a natural fit for the wobbly step, and Nintendo agrees. But these screens, coupled with diagrams of the game's ski-pole-simulating control system, make us think otherwise. Using the Wiimote and Nunchuk as ski poles is a pretty great idea, and the motions look fairly representative.

For example, to crouch, you rotate the Wiimote and Nunchuk away from each other, as if you're rotating your hands to hold the poles up so you can assume a lower stance. And to turn, you move the controllers to one side, keeping them parallel.

It's clear that with the simple, representative motions (and the cute chibi characters), Family Ski is aiming to be the Wii Sports of falling down a mountain. Whether it achieves this goal is a matter of how Wii Fit's skiing works, and how well these controls work, as well as loads of marketing. At least Featureless Wiimote Diagram Guy is doing his part!

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Filed under: News, Screens

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Filed under: News

Now that we can see the Tales of Symphonia: Knights of Ratatoskr trailer without taking Dramamine first, we can clearly see Tales of Symphonia's protagonist Lloyd in the final shot there. So he'll be making a cameo appearance, at least, in the new game. Siliconera pointed out the cameo, using the skill of maybe having played Tales of Symphonia.

But that's not the only Bandai Namco game Lloyd is wandering into. Via an appearance as what looks like a playable character in Soul Calibur Legends, Lloyd will instantly double the series' foppish dandy quotient (FDQ). But hey, having more Namco series characters in Soul Calibur Legends brings us one step closer to our dream of fighting as the Prince of All Cosmos.

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Filed under: Imports, Screens

Nodame Cantabile on DS was an Ouendan-alike in which you conducted classical music by tapping the screen. The Wii version, called Nodame Cantabile: Dream Orchestra seems to expand on that premise by allowing players to not only conduct, but play multiple instruments as well.

We can't exactly tell how the Wii version works-- whether you point at the little note icons before pressing a button, or if the game takes button presses only, but Bandai Namco promises a simple control scheme in the interest of attracting new gamers. We'd kind of like to swing the Wiimote like a baton, but we aren't sure if that'll happen.

Of particular interest to us is the four-player mode, in which each player can use a different instrument and play one of the game's 50+ compositions together. We call triangle!

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