Dungeon crawler Unchained Blades is coming to North America on PSP and Nintendo 3DS in 2012. Originally released in Japan as UnchainBlades ReXX, Unchained Blades is directed by Toshio Akashi of the Lunar series, while the game’s story was penned by Grandia series veteran Takashi Hino. Probably the game’s most feature is the ability...

TNT Racers
Developer: Keen Games
Price: $9.99
Platform: PS3, PSP, Xbox 360, & Wii

TNT Racers ‘tracks & tricks’ subtitle seems a bit misleading once you play the game. I came in expecting a kart game mixed in with some race tracks and tricks to pull off in these tracks. All I got were race tracks with the occasional ramp to do a small jump off of. I don’t mean to start off in such a negative light, but I just thought that was worth noting to anyone considering to 2 friends I brought over to play it thought it was going to be a Joe Danger-ish kart racer when they saw it. TNT Racers is actually a pretty solid (albeit simple and content lacking) kart racer that hits most things you’d expect in the genre in the right ways. (more…)

FIFA 12
Developer: EA Sports
Price: £44.99/$69
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, 3DS, PSP, Wii

Well the football season has started once again and that can mean only one thing; there’s a new FIFA game out for the masses to pretend they’re actually the best players in the world. I kid, I love football games but this is actually the first FIFA game I’ve owned since World Cup 98 came out on the N64 so I really am coming at this as a new comer. Should probably mention at this point that as a proud citizen of her majesty’s British Isles, I will always call football; football and never call it soccer. Just to make sure there’s no confusion. EA have been proudly making sports games for 20 years now, a fact they boast about constantly in FIFA 12, and they’ve been making the FIFA series itself since FIFA International Soccer graced the stores back in 1993. Obviously the series has come a long way since then, but old football games were fun and uncomplicated so has the realism brush been used too heavily? (more…)

At Konami’s Press Conference in Japan, the company announced games in partnership with tri-Ace. The first of which is Frontier Gate, a PSP RPG. A downloadable demo will release September 15 and players are able to carry over their save file into the final build of the game.

Konami and tri-Ace also briefly touched on Beyond the Labyrinth, a 3DS dungeon crawling RPG, revealing a trailer and announced that Tokyo Game Show attendees will find out more by playing the demo on the show floor. Screenshots and trailers for both games found below. (more…)

Atlus released a batch of screenshots for Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2: Innocent Sin for the Playstation Portable. Why? The game has never been released in North America ever! Folks who pre-order will receive a 10-track CD for free, hey, you waited 12 years…might as well get a soundtrack. (more…)

In what marks the longest headline ever, Atlus has announced extremely limited pre-order incentives for Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2: Innocent Sin for the Playstation Portable. Every launch copy of the game will include a free mini-soundtrack CD featuring 10 tracks from the game’s musical score. (more…)

Having the opportunity to attend Aksys Games and their panel Publish Hard with a Vengeance, I didn’t know what to expect from a small Japanese game publisher. Lets just say Aksys felt very much at home at Anime Expo. The publisher announced two brand new titles that they are bringing over to North America, both supporting the PSP platform.

Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom is serving up a bunch of hot men as their unofficial, official marketing slogan. Fans of the otome genre will love how players take the role of a female protagonist and have the option of going after androgynous looking men in a graphic novel, dating-sim type setting. Aksys possibly looked at the success of their hit game, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors as inspiration to bring over more narrative, text-based games like Hakuoki.

Fate/Extra, another PSP title from Aksys, players will either start as a male or female protagonist in a dungeon crawl like game. Servants accompany the character on their journey, similar to the anime, featuring Saber, Archer, and Caster classes and offer opportunities to level them up through experience and the like.

Aksys has revealed that both Hakouki and Fate/Extra will receive premium packages available at retail launch but no further details were given.

Konami is bringing its starred franchises to the HD consoles: Metal Gear Solid, Zone of the Enders, and Silent Hill.

Both Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and Zone of the Enders HD Collection will be heading to Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The Metal Gear Solid HD Collection include Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The MGS HD collection is slated for release this November. (more…)