minna ni naisho dayo

Looking Ahead: May 2005

OK, so I must admit, I shamelessly ripped this idea from Mr. JonnyRam, but I thought it would be a good way for me to get familiar with everything that's coming up in the next month so I can try and plan appropriately. I'm not necessarily going to buy all these games (in fact, I probably won't buy most of them), but here's what I've at least got my eye on right now:

Pokemon Emerald (Nintendo, GBA, May 1, USA)

Do I want this or not? I'm not quite sure. I reviewed it for EGM but I can't decide if I want to dive deep into it like I did with LeafGreen or if I want to forget about it forever. I'm afraid the addiction might be coming back though, so maybe I'll pick up my own copy when I'm in America for E3 and give it another go...

Bomberman DS (Hudson, NDS, May 19, Japan)

Judging from the screens I've seen so far, this doesn't look all that special, but Bomberman never was about the graphics -- if it's got decent multiplayer play, it might be a blast (ooh, bad pun), especially since it wouldn't involve any messy cables.

Bura Bura Donkey (Nintendo, GBA, May 19, Japan)

I don't think I'm going to get this, but I'm curious how it turned out. It's called DK: King of Swing in the West, and I think it's been out in Europe since February or so. Has anyone tried it? Is it worth playing, or should I just forget about it?

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (Nintendo, GBA, May 23, USA)

Ooh man, I can't wait for this. It took all the energy I could muster to refrain from buying and playing through the Japanese version last fall, and now that it's just a few short weeks away, I'm starting to get really antsy. The previous Fire Emblem had an awesome English localization (and better animation than the J-version), so I'm really hopeful for Sacred Stones as well. I still wish they would've brought over Fuuin no Tsurugi first, though...

Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana (Nippon Ichi, PS2, May 24, USA)

I think I'll wait for this to go down in price, since I already have a gold disc from reviewing it in EGM, but I look forward to adding this to my library at some point. I hope more niche games like this get localized in the future, provided they can get through SCEA's rigid approval process.

Ys IV: Mask of the Sun ~A New Theory~ (Taito, PS2, May 26, Japan)

Taito's Ys III remake was pretty disappointing (more on that soon), but early screens of Ys IV look a whole lot better, so I'm really excited for it. I should have a gold master showing up any day now, in fact, so I'll try to post some impressions as soon as it does. In the meantime I hope to start playing through the original PC Engine and Super Famicom versions so I can pinpoint what changes get made to the remake.

Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana 2 (Gust, PS2, May 26, Japan)

I wouldn't have played the first Eternal Mana if it weren't for EGM (look for the review in the next issue!), but now that I did, I'm eager to check out the sequel. The English localization was really good for the first game, so I'm not sure if I really want to play the sequel in Japanese, but at the same time, I don't want to wait another six months (or probably more) before I can play it in English. In any case, I'll probably check it out if I can find it cheap or borrow it from someone.

Berwick Saga: Lazberia Chronicle Chapter 174 (Enterbrain, PS2, May 26, Japan)

I haven't played TearRing Saga yet, but I've been meaning to pick it up, and now that I'm actually sitting here writing this, maybe I'll go out and look for it when I grab dinner later tonight. TearRing Saga was basically "Fire Emblem for PlayStation," produced by Shozo Kaga, one of the main people responsible for the Fire Emblem games at Nintendo during the Famicom and Super Famicom days. He left to start his own company, and TearRing Saga was their first game. Berwick Saga is the PS2 sequel, and if it's even half as good as any of the Fire Emblem games, it'll probably be worth playing.

Namco X Capcom (Namco, PS2, May 26, Japan)

I definitely can't pass this one up. I just hope it's as good as it has the potential to be. With Monolith developing, I imagine it's probably going to be pretty high quality, but I hope it doesn't have twice as many Xenosaga characters as every other franchise in the game. :)

Space Invaders Pocket (Taito, PSP, May 26, Japan)

Did anyone ever try the DS version of Space Invaders? I'm curious how it turned out. It certainly didn't look like it needed to be on DS, but I'm still a sucker for old-school arcade games, so I want to play it. Hopefully it'll be in bargain bins soon enough, as it doesn't look like it's worth more than 1500 yen or so. I assume the PSP version will be pretty similar, so I'll probably do the same thing and wait for it to get cheap before trying it out.

That's all for now. I'll try to do this again next month if I can manage it, but no promises. :)

Posted by john tv at May 1, 2005 04:26 PM