Retro Gaming Australia

In a recent interview with Edge, Shigeru Miyamoto has once again expressed interest in reviving the Super Nintendo classic The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Last year, Miyamoto stated A Link to the Past (which he produced) was the game he would most like to see remade for the Nintendo 3DS. Miyamoto confirmed that while he would still like to see an enhanced 3D port or remake of the original game, he would be much more interested in creating a new game perhaps “based on, or starting from, A Link to the Past.” Miyamoto went on to say “I think it’s important to bring some really new software.”

“To be very honest and open, it really depends on the directors that have time at the moment as well,” he said. “Some directors, I can give them the title and I know they will do something great with it. Other directors I’m not so 100 per cent confident [in], so they’re the ones I’d rather take a more remake approach to the title.“

A Link to the Past is my personal favourite of the Legend of Zelda series (hence the site banner) and I would truly love to see the title revisited, preferably by way of a new game. However, it would appear that such a game will not come into existence until Miyamoto can entrust the title to the right game director. That’s A-OK with me; I’ll happily continue to wait with bated breath.

Raven Travel Studios pays tribute to 80s run ‘n’ gun games with Cast of the Seven Godsends, a Ghosts ‘n Goblins-esque side-scrolling action game available “soon” on XBLIG and PC.

Boasting retro-style hand drawn graphics and large stages in various fantasy locales, the game pits legions of enemies and some rather large bosses against the player who is armed with projectile weapons, some magic and a lot of jumping.

Throughout the games six stages, seven ‘Godsends’ can be collected and invoked to enhance your weapon (resulting in 40 weapon variations) and unleash magic. Thirty-five magic attacks are available through the use of these Godsends with each of the game’s five weapons.

To celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary, Nippon Ichi Software is developing a new RPG as the first part of their “20th Anniversary Project”.

Little information has been revealed about the mystery title which made its first appearance in Dengeki PlayStation via some artwork. The title is being produced by CEO Shuhei Shinkawa, directed by Masahiro Yamamoto, and features character designs by Noizi Ito.

The artwork revealed three of the RPG’s characters; Renya (pictured), Ririel and Mizael. In an interview with Dengeki, Ito stated that she is designing approximately twelve characters, including main and sub characters. The character designs have an angel and devil theme with a comical twist, such as angels and devils wearing maid and butler outfits, Ito revealed.

The RPG’s platform is yet to be announced, but we expect more information soon as the title is currently planned for a 2012 release in Japan.

Source: Andriasang

Nintendo of America has registered the “supermario4.com” domain, but what does it mean?

Earlier in the year, Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata announced they were working on a new 2D Mario game for the Nintendo 3DS. Could it be that this promised 2D Mario adventure is going to be Super Mario 4?

Many would argue that Super Mario 4 already exists, as Super Mario World was subtitled “Super Mario Bros. 4” in Japan. Perhaps the lack of such a subtitle for the western release of Super Mario World leaves Super Mario 4 wide open for use by Nintendo of America. This wouldn’t be the first time that audiences outside of Japan received a Super Mario Bros. game of a differing name, with the Japanese release of Super Mario Bros. 2 being known as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and the western release of Super Mario Bros. 2 (the redeveloped Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic) being titled Super Mario USA in Japan.

However, the recent domain registration might not relate to any currently planned project and may simply be Nintendo purchasing domain names to prevent others from using them.

Discovered by an IGN reader, the supermario4.com domain name was registered in April of this year but has apparently been in existence since 2007. Visiting the URL reveals no clues as to it’s meaning, it simply redirects to Nintendo’s country selector page.

So, now we play the waiting game.

Capcom, Namco Bandai and Sega have revealed to Famitsu that their collaborative project is a 3DS strategy RPG called Project X Zone (pronounced Project Cross Zone).

The three way crossover features characters from some of the companies’ most well known titles, and combat will see them teaming up and fighting in pairs such as Ryu with Ken (Street Fighter), and X with Zero (Mega Man).

Twenty-five characters have been confirmed thus far (see below), with more to be announced.

Capcom

• Ryu and Ken (Street Fighter)
• X and Zero (Mega Man)
• Demitri (Darkstalkers)
• Dante (Devil May Cry)
• Chris and Jill (Resident Evil)

Namco Bandai

• Sanger Somvold (Super Robot Wars)
• Jin and Ling Xiaoyu (Tekken)
• Kos-Mos and T-elos (Xenosaga)
• Yuri and Estelle (Tales of Vesperia)
• Kaito and Black Rose (.hack)

Sega

• Shinguji Sakura and Ogami Ichiro (Sakura Wars)
• Pai and Akira (Virtua Fighter)
• Kurt and Riela (Valkyria Chronicles)
• Ulala (Space Channel 5)
• Touma (Shining Force EXA)

Shu Yoshida, President of SCE Worldwide Studios, has today announced that the much-loved RPG The Legend of Dragoon will be available May 1 as a PSone Classic on the US PlayStation Store.

The Legend of Dragoon was developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, and released in 2000 for North America and 2001 for Europe.

This turn-based RPG sees players take the role of Dart, the spiky-haired protagonist, as he embarks on a heroic journey to save his childhood friend and protect the world. The title has nine playable characters and eight Dragoon Spirits which transform characters into a more powerful form – a Dragoon.

Rockstar has announced that Max Payne Mobile, an optimised port of Remedy’s neo-noir classic Max Payne for mobile devices, will be hitting iOS on April 12. Android owners will see the title two weeks later, on April 26.

Max Payne Mobile will feature some degree of control customisation, high-resolution textures, HD graphics, and connectivity to the Rockstar Games Social Club.

Sega has announced that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II will be available on PSN and XBLA on May 15 and May 16 respectively.

We will also see the title hit both PC and iOS devices in May, Android devices in June and finally Windows Phone in July.

Episode Metal was also revealed. Exclusive content for owners of both Episode I and Episode II, Episode Metal see Metal Sonic playable in four exclusive stages.

Disney has confirmed development of Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion for Nintendo 3DS, which sees Mickey Mouse return once again to the Castle of Illusion in a homage to the classic Sega Mega Drive, Master System and Game Gear title Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse.

The Castle of Illusion has fallen into the Cartoon Wasteland, an alternate world home to 80 years of obscure and forgotten Disney characters and theme-park attractions introduced in the first Epic Mickey game. Fans of the original title may recall the evil witch Mizrabel, who is back and using the Castle of Illusion to capture currently popular Disney characters and drain them of their ‘cartoon essence’ in an attempt to escape Wasteland.

Players reprise their role as Mickey Mouse, wielding his magic paint brush to draw and erase objects with paint and thinner respectively. The game also has a cool drawing and painting mechanic that lets you create rough versions of objects that magically transform into classic Disney style 2D illustrations. These can then be transformed into full color, fully rendered 3D visuals.

The game is being created by DreamRift (makers of the cult hit Monster Tale for DS) in collaboration with Disney Interactive’s Junction Point, and is scheduled for release alongside Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two later this year.

We at Retro Gaming Australia would love to see more retro-inspired rewards in the Australian Club Nintendo Stars Catalogue. So, it is fair to say we were a tad jealous when we spied the Japanese Club Nintendo offering original polo shirts featuring designs from some of our favourite Nintendo titles.

For 550 points each, members can reward themselves with a polo shirt for which they can choose both the colour (from a selection of eight) and logo from one of six which represent Animal Crossing, Game & Watch, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros.

Personally, I’m partial to the pink shirt with Animal Crossing’s Rover as the logo.