Making hard look easy with everyone’s favorite freaks.

Flat-chested firecracker that she is, Master Etna wants dessert and she wants the very best. So it’s up to her vassals to attain all the right ingredients. So, you have 1,000 Prinnies to beat some nasty, nasty levels and bosses, and trust me, you’ll use a lot of these lives as the adventure gets more and more difficult.

At heart, Prinny is a very well-executed game. You know exactly what you’re in for from the very first level and that is pain. There are no power-ups, though some levels offer vehicles. You get a dash, double jump, butt slam (that can be bounced for combos), and ground and air knife attacks. Jumps are rigid, so once you are in the air, there is no changing trajectory. Levels aren’t terribly exciting, with a mix of platforming elements that we’ve seen since the days of NES. Boss fights are, you guessed it, hard. You have to stun them and then beast with knife attacks.

The great thing about a game such as Prinny is that it is pretty easy to sum up the experience. It’s a hard platformer with simple, checkpoint-based level designs and a basic moveset that lets you accomplish just what you need to do. Jumps are precise, lives are completely expendable, and the entire experience is a mix of anger and accomplishment. The presentation is top-notch and the dialog is pure NIS gold. It’s an easy decision, you either like this type of game or you don’t. The PSP may not have quantity, but it definitely has some quality titles, this being my stand-out thus far in 2009.

New DLC for Fallout 3 arriving in March.

The Pitt allows you to travel to the post-apocalyptic remains of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and become embroiled in a conflict between slaves and their Raider masters.  Explore a sprawling settlement ravaged by time, neglect, nuclear radiation, and moral degradation. The Pitt is filled with morally grey choices, shady NPCs, new enemies, new weapons, and much more. (more…)

More arcade shooters make life better!

There’s been a listing over at Amazon for a few weeks now for Raiden Fighters Aces, but it didn’t give a lot of detail and, just to make it a bit harder to verify, listed the publisher as Zoo Games.  As it turns out the publisher is Valcon, which would explain why the friendly people over at Zoo had no idea what I was talking about.

Now that the question of publisher is sorted out it can be confirmed that, yes, Raiden Fighters Aces is getting a US release at last.  A Valcon rep has verified this.  The release date of March 24 is an estimation by Amazon, so don’t mark your caldendars yet, but it’s going to get here sooner or later.

Raiden Fighters Aces is an anthology of the three arcade Raiden spin-offs- Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2:  Operation Hell Dive, and Raiden Fighters Jet.  There’s a demo on the Japanese marketplace, so check it out if you’ve got the appropriate account.

So long good friend.

It’s official. We’ve just lost one of the best arcades in the US. Tokyo Game Action is to remain closed and will be liquidating all their assets in May due to flooding that hit them on December. Why does this have to happen to such an awesome establishment with such great people? I’m literally speechless right now… (more…)