Retro Gaming Australia

After many years and many requests from western audiences, Nintendo has finally announced a re-release of the classic RPG Earthbound.

Earthbound, or Mother 2 in Japan, saw a release in North America in 1995 on the Super Nintendo and has since become one of the most sought after video game releases – with a cart only copy of the title currently fetching US$150+ on eBay. When Nintendo announced Mother 2‘s presence in Japan’s Wii U Virtual Console Trial Campaign line-up, fans cried out even louder for a re-release in the West. Lucky for us, Nintendo heard our pleas and have responded – with Mr Satoru Iwata happily announcing the games release during the latest Nintendo Direct.

Expect to see Earthbound available to download on your Wii U thorough the Virtual Console service sometime this year – in both North America and Europe. Hooray.

When announcing the PSN release of PS1 Classic The Legend of Dragoon earlier this week, Shu Yoshida (President SCE Worldwide Studios) revealed that a sequel was in development.

Apparently, “Legend of Dragoon 2” was in production after Yoshida left SCE Japan Studio and “ [it] was eventually cancelled for some unknown reason, and the team members moved on to different projects,” He went on to write “Some people still work in the Japan Studio, so we talk about the memories of developing LOD when we see each other at company functions.”

It is a shame that Legend of Dragoon 2 never saw the light of day; it would have made many RPG fans very happy.

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

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.