Nintendo and Tecmo Koei are collaborating on a Zelda Warriors game!

As everyone who knows me knows I have a slight obsession with Tecmo Koei's Warriors franchise, and I love how the developers over there keep turning the formula to a range of different Anime/ Manga and JRPG franchises.

A Zelda Warriors (tentatively titled "Hyrule Warriors") game on the Wii U is perhaps the strangest release yet in the franchise, but absolutely, completely welcome.

Announced on tonight's Nintendo Direct, all we got to see was a brief bit of action, but it was enough to sell me on the idea. It's going to be exciting to follow this one in the future, because the Warriors franchise is most famous for a range of features we don't see in Zelda games - dozens of playable characters for a start.

However it turns out this will be a big boost for the Wii U in Japan, where the Warriors games are typically chart toppers, and for obvious reasons this will be an exclusive to the Wii U.

If you've never played a Warriors game before, why not go grab Dynasty Warriors 8 and get a feel for just how entertaining this franchise can be?

Read More

Preview: Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z (PS3)

Preview by Matt S. 

A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to play an early build of Tecmo Koei and Comcept's collaboration project, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z. I was more than a little impressed by that early build, as Keiji Inafune's new zombie slasher seemed to be channeling the Goichi Suda philosophy towards game design, and I'm always up for more of that kind of action. With this new build I got a chance to delve deeper into the first couple of levels of the game, and I'm impressed to see where the game is going.

The first preview offered a simple highlights package, and as such there was always the danger that as wildly oddball that experience was that it would be like the trailer of a bad comedy film; all the good stuff is in that two minutes and the rest of the experience would prove to be quite pedestrian.

Read More

Dead or Alive's characters are having the kind of Halloween party I'd attend

Because Tecmo Koei knows they're going to sell, they've gone and done a massive DLC release: one free spoooooooky stage and one new costume for each character to celebrate Halloween.

Read More

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z has just hit the top of my "do want" list

Preview by Matt S. 

I was able to get some hands-on time with Tecmo Koei and Keiji Inafune's upcoming Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z. It's a game that didn't really appeal to me beforehand - it's another zombie game, after all.

But then I started to play and something happened. I played for five minutes, put the controller down, pulled out my phone and navigated over to Wikipedia. I just could not believe that Goichi Suda wasn't involved in this game. And he isn't, but it still surprises me that he isn't. From that moment on I was interested; its fair to say of all the Japanese developers out there Suda is the one I respect most for his taste in surrealism and subversive art, and any game that is able to successfully emulate what Suda does has my undivided attention.

Read More

Review: Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (PS3)

Review by Matt S. 

Let's get this out of the way before we start the review; if you want to know what I think of Dead or Alive 5's jiggling breasts and microkinis (yeah, that's a technical term, go Google if you're brave and not at work), click on this link for an earlier opinion piece. And, if you want to read a spirited debate over whether that opinion piece is legitimate or not, check the comments at the bottom.

So this review doesn't need to talk about breasts, bounce, or exploitation. That's out of the system (though I'm always up for some chat about Hitomi. See you fans in the comments, 'k?). Believe it or not, and putting aside the series' reputation, there's a lot to talk about with Dead or Alive 5 that doesn't involve double D's, and I'd like for this review to focus on them.

Read More

Review: Atelier Meruru Plus: The Apprentice Of Arland (Vita)

Oh how I love Meruru. I discovered the Atelier series with Rorona. It became my favourite JRPG franchise with Totori, but Meruru is something else entirely; this is the perfect traditional, turn-based JRPG as far as I'm concerned.

Read More

Review: Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire (Wii U)

I'm not sure what miracle it was that convinced Tecmo Koei to release a Romance of the Three Kingdoms onto the Wii U Virtual Console, let alone in the West. What's even more miraculous was that it was released in the Australian Wii U Virtual Console too, and we never get those kinds of games out this way.

Read More

Atelier Rorona is getting a remake for PS3 and Vita? Ohboyohboyohboy

Well, colour me surprised by this news; despite being the first game in the Arland trilogy, Atelier Rorona is appearing on the PlayStation Vita last. The good news is, unlike Atelier Totori and Meruru, this isn't going to be a straight port; the game's getting a complete makeover.

This is just as well because as much fun as Rorona is, it was relatively raw compared to Totori and Meruru. Some elements of the game were just not balanced as well and the game struggled just that little bit more to keep player's attention through its entire campaign. 

We hope the remake fixes all this. The new Rorona has save game sharing between PS3 and Vita, and is due for release in November in Japan. Its full name (when translated) is New Atelier Rorona. 

While you wait for that game, why not check out some of the other series? Perhaps Totori, or Meruru on the PS3 or Vita? Or even Ayesha, which is the start of a new trilogy. They're all good. 

Read More

Tecmo Koei posts double-digit growth for the first quarter

Tecmo Koei has been one of the more consistently profitable developer/ publishers in Japan in recent years. This trend continues with the company posting a 10.9 per cent year-on-year growth in sales for the first quarter of the financial year.

Read More