Namco Bandai

Just the other day I was thinking about Namco Bandai’s upcoming noir action game Dead to Rights: Retribution. Being a huge fan of DtR on the PS2 I’ve been keeping a close eye on this reboot/reimaging of the franchise.  After being on the under the radar for awhile, Namco Bandai has released some new screens and a trailer of the bloody violent goodness that is DtR: Retribution.

Unless you’re an enthusiast of fantasy games developed by Japanese studios, chances are you have no clue about Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. Developed by Folkore developer Game Republic, Majin revolves around a young man who stumbles across a ruined kingdom. With the help of his new and rather large friend named Majin, the two go on a quest to eradicate the dark forces at hand and bring peace to the land.

Perhaps posting these now is a bit futile since God of War 3 is coming out next week but Namco Bandai have released some new images of the upcoming film based Clash of the Titans game. The last time the game had any media for it was back in December and we still haven’t seen the game in motion yet. Usually in most cases this would point to the game being in a dire condition, which would be suitable since it’s a movie tie-in game. But for some reason I still have a smidgen of confidence in the game.

Even at this early point in the day it looks like Monday is making itself out to be screenshot day.  With the release of new Alan Wake screenshots and now with these new screens of Splatterhouse it looks like the usually slow news day that is Monday is off to a nice start.

In the past I’ve remained quite optimistic about the live-action Tekken movie.  Even though the bts photos weren’t too hot and the trailer didn’t exactly set the world on fire I remained true to my feeling that Tekken would just be a nice goofy action movie.

A while ago images from a Japanese magazine were scanned to show the first hint that there was going to be a follow up to Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm. True confirmation didn’t show up until today in the form of an official press release, images, and trailer from Namco/Bandai. It’s very good to see that things seem to be progressing rather quickly for the game, after a two year hiatus from the original, and that we should be seeing the title this fall.

Perhaps I have unrealistic expectations but for some reason I think the upcoming Tekken movie, yes there’s actually one coming out, could be good. Yes, that statement probably sounds extremely idiotic after we’ve gotten a never ending stream of crap video game films for the past ten years but signs are pointing to Tekken being a solid and extremely faithful adaptation of the games.

One game that I fear may become lost in the massive sea of Q1 releases is Namco Bandai’s Dead to Rights: Retribution.  Announced earlier this year the game caught my attention since I was a fan of the first Dead to Rights game on the PS2 and I was quite surprised Namco Bandai resurrected the franchise after two awful games on the PS2 and PSP.

Naruto is hitting the Wii in yet another game and this time it’s Naruto Shippuden Ryujinki.  I have no clue what the hell is going on in this trailer as my knowledge of Naruto is limited to watching a few episodes on the Cartoon Network but quickly giving up due to the constant filler episodes. 

From what I can see in the trailer all the characters one would want in a Naruto game are present such as the pervy guy with the long hair, that pale fish looking guy and of course some other ninja peeps who I have no clue what their names are.

It’s common for a game to perhaps borrow an idea or major feature from a popular game such as games borrowing the cover mechanics from Gears of War which itself was taken from the game kill.Switch.  However, we sometimes see a game that so unabashedly copies a particular game or a series of games that you can’t help but shake your head in disgust.  The latest game that will surely evoke tons of groans from gamers is Namco Bandai’s Inversion.

It's always pretty interesting to see how games are marketed. Sometimes things are kept pretty straightforward with standard commercials featuring game footage or a brief comedic sketch of some sort.

With Halloween around the corner I guess Namco Bandai wanted to make sure people haven't forgotten about the 3D remake of the classic game Splatterhouse which is why they must've released these new images from the game.  Originally set for release earlier this year Splatterhouse has had its fair share of development problems with Namco Bandai pulling developer BottleRocket off the project due to missed milestones which resulted in Afro Samurai developer Surge Entertainment becoming the new dev team.

After wowing us with lush visuals and top notch storytelling in Heavenly Sword developer Ninja Theory is ready to show us their latest game titled Enslaved. If you’re a fan of stories told in a post-apocalyptic setting and really enjoyed the key elements in Heavenly Sword then you should enjoy what Ninja Theory is cooking up.

Last week Japanese game magazine GameWave reported the PS3 would be getting a new Gundam game in the form of Gundam vs. Gundam Next.  I guess a few wires must’ve been crossed in translation or GameWave was just screwing with folks as it has been confirmed via Famitsu PSP that Gundam vs. Gundam Next will be coming to the PSP and not the PlayStation 3.