A few days ago, with a nice flash animation Banpresto revealed the next title in Flight-Plan-developed ‘Summon Night’ series: Summon Night Exthesis. In a not-too-surprising move (seems that the latest, ‘Tales of’-inspired, ‘Craft Sword Monogatari’ game is still one of the best loved GBA titles in Japan), ‘Exthesis’ will adopt a 2D action RPG formula this time, not unlike ‘Zelda: Kamigami no Triforce’. The official site also shows some tiny screenshots and artwork pieces. Check them out; a quality sprite-based, PS2 action RPG is something you don’t see every day. Planned for a spring ’05 release.

Adventure Player is an upcoming PSP title from From Software, which just might push a few of the hardcore types over the edge towards a purchase. It’s an adventure game making utility/game, which will allow the creation of ADV, puzzle and quiz games, which can then be uploaded and distributed to others. Likewise, content can be downloaded, to be saved on the memory stick. The games are developed on the PC via a program called Adventure Player Studio, which will be downloadable when the game is released. Three game scripts will be available upon release, including Echo Night – and more scripts will be made available by From as time wears on. They hope to partner with other companies to make adventure games downloadable in this way. The patching and fan translation potential is huge here. The game will hit retail in June for only 3,990 yen. Thanks to GS, presumably our pal hiro, for the news.

KOF Neowave is coming to PS2 on June 23rd. Hide your children. Thanks to big boss Hiro at GS for the news.

More info and imagery for SvG – the Idea Factory crossover fighter being developed by IGS. There’s an official site, and some extra images over at Game Watch. The game has fared decently in location test, according to chupiler – as yet unsure of two things: how the ‘slow’/chaos break system works, and what board it’s on. Anyone with the info, give me a mail.

According to the UK’s Develop Magazine (Feb. Issue), Polygon Magic, creators of Slap Happy Rhythm Busters among other things (tondemo crisis!), is entering the european market. Their first steps will simply be assisting with graphics (ala their work with Rumble Roses), but who knows what the future may bring? They are represented at this point by Hairymoose.

Thanks to reader Aron for pointing out this interesting almost IC-wolf-ish game: odd man in. Created by an acoustic folk singer, the game is described as a combination of Survivor and Reservoir Dogs – it’s essentially an interactive mystery played on the web, with eliminations. You can currently sign up for the newest game: All’s Well That Odds Well.

Conspiracy Entertainment, long considered dead by nearly everyone (and who released Bangaioh in the west), has announced that they will be publishing a game from Cyberfront for the PSP. Read the GamesIndustry.biz story, and marvel at the jargon. Cyberfront has been painted by Conspiracy as some sort of supergroup, responsible for such titles as puzzle bobble 2, fatal fury 3, raiden II, when in fact they just published PC ports. Next, the article mentions Conspiracy’s previous deal with the ‘japanese’ company Hyper Devbox, which is actually based in france, but has an ‘available office’ in japan.

All jargon and misinformation aside, Hyper Devbox is bringing Idea Factory’s Generation of Chaos 4 to western PSP audiences, so that can’t be anything but good.

Starting April 19th, and going through May 18th (to coincide with E3), there will be an ‘i am 8-bit’ art show in hollywood. Here’s a description from the curator, Jon Gibson: “Basically, the core concept is about 100 artists
painting their videogame memories, be it “Mario Bros.” to “Dig Dug” to
“Galaga.” Basically, anything old-school goes (absolutely nothing modern).
We’ve got lots of talent involved, including Gary Baseman, Daniel Peacock,
Gary Taxali, Ashley Wood, Luke Chueh, Joe Ledbetter, Thomas Han, and a slew
of other great guys. Even veterans of the gaming scene like Doug TenNapel
(creator of “Earthworm Jim”) and Steve Purcell (creator of “Sam & Max”).“

The official site is here. There’s plenty of pixel art, plush work, and other oddities – take the image to the left, for example, titled “Duck Hunter S. Thompson.”

Wataru Maruyama, who edited my work at the now-defunkt Gamestar (interestingly, it started out as a much different concept…), has a series of blogs now. For some reason he’s decided to break them into three parts. Here’s the main one, with splinters The Game Stylist, about game design, and costume get!, about fashion in games. Curious internet destinations, all.