Thursday, January 03, 2008

Karous - Preorder, Ships Mar 27

Milestone gathers together three of their Dreamcast titles and stamps them onto a single disc for the Wii as follows:

» Chaos Field
» Rajirugi
» Karous

All three games are vertical shooters with similar play mechanics where the ships are capable of shooting, shielding, and slashing. In the case of Karous, Milestone adds Wiimote waving functionality to the action so that swishing the Wiimote activates the slashing action so you're like a real live swashbuckler... without the swagger. Preorders are welcome to ship on March 27, 2008.

PS3 Armored Core for Answer - Preorder, Ships Mar 19

Ten years after the events of Armored Core 4, the Ravens return for more carnage and warfare. Game features in "for Answer" include cooperative online missions with voice chat support, a new Easy Mode for beginners, the use of "Assault Armored" mech which can create a local area explosion to damage adversaries, and machinery called "Vanguard Over-Booster" which appears to be a mighty thrust mechanism which bolts onto the back of an Armored Core. Preorders are welcome to ship on March 19, 2008 at US$65. In addition to the Playstation 3 version, NCS is accepting preorders for the Xbox 360 version.

House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return - Preorder, Ships Mar 19

Just about everyone enjoys killing zombies. They're just the walking undead so there's not much remorse when hacking their limbs off or blowing them apart with a high caliber hand cannon.

Sega knows this.

The company encourages zombie slaughter by bundling together two undead killing games - House of the Dead 2 and House of the Dead 3 - in one Wii DVD which ships on March 19, 2007. Preorders are welcome at US$49 each.

Evangelion EX School Swim Uniform v2.0 - Preorder

Sega Toys has started preorders for a pair of Evangelion inspired figures featuring Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley. The girls are dressed in white school swimsuits with their names printed across the chest. Rei measures 12cm or 4.72" tall in her seated position and Asuka stands 17cm or 6.69 tall. Asuka wears an ankle bracelet and her knee is covered with a little bandage. Both figures are fully painted, assembled, and ready for display.

If the artistic style of the figures appears familiar, that's because they're sculpted by Akio Watanabe aka Poyoyon Rock. Akio has designed characters for Popotan, Hoshizora Kiseki, Magical Canan, Nurse Witch Komugi, and others. Pricing is set at US$18 per figure and preorders are welcome to ship in mid-late May 2008.

General Updates

To Heart 2: Tamaki Kousaka Restock
A small supply of the Daiki Kogyou produced Tamaki Kousaka 1/5 Scale Figure was restocked yesterday and new orders are welcome. Our supplier may also be able to re-supply the black bikini version of the Tamaki figure but we'll update our website if they're able to ship this week.
PSP Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku Super Premium Box
The second shipment of the Suzumiya Super Premium Box arrived earlier this morning and most remaining preorders will be shipping today. We were unable to fill one reservation that was submitted by a customer after we closed preorders a couple of months ago but we'll try to get that last piece directly from a retailer in Nihongo in the next few days.
Japan Still on Holiday
Most suppliers are still on their New Year's holiday but they'll return on January 6. The Tokyo Stock Exchange has also been closed since December 28, 2007 but the bourse will open tomorrow for a half day of trading.
PSN Network Card JPY5000
Playstation 3 owners hoping to download GT5 Prologue (JPY4500) on the Japanese PSN are in luck with today's restock of the JPY5000 PSN Cards.