Family Ski Wii Sequel Announced; Now With Snowboards

Namco Bandai have announced that the sequel to their Wii title Family Ski – known on Western shores as We Ski – will be released in Japan on the 13th November this year at a price-point of 5500yen.

Family Skiing World: Skiing and Snowboard will feature two courses upon which players can get their snow-traversing fix, with both of them offering far greater scale than those of the first entry in the series.

The addition of Snowboarding is certainly a welcome one and is one of many reasons that Family Skiing World is looking like a promising title for those looking to get more use from their balance board.

Check out the screenshot above, or copy and paste the following link into your browser for more screens:
http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/1218358_1407.html

Bleach Versus Crusade Wii Gameplay Video

On Thursday we brought you news of new screenshots for the Treasure developed Wii fighting game Bleach: Versus Crusade, and now, four days later, new footage has emerged for the December-scheduled title.

The video shows glimpses of the fast-paced fighting gameplay and seems to indicate that the cel-shaded character models, which looked so impressive in still screenshots, can translate successfully to a 3D space.

Hit the jump to check it out for yourselves.

New Fragile Wii Screens

Namco have released some new screens of their upcoming Wii RPG Fragile: Sayonara Tsuki no Haikyo, which is expected to see a Japanese release before the end of 2008.

Fragile is being developed by the team behind the PS2 titles Seven: Molmorth no Kiheitai and Venus & Braves and will see players take control of a young boy named Seto as he tries to piece together the events leading up to the disappearance of the large majority of the world’s population.

The new images showcase the superb art design that has been prevalent in almost all the media released in relation to the game thus far. Hit the jump to check them out.

New Monster Hunter 3 Wii Video

Gamekyo have got hold of a new – somewhat low quality – video for Capcom’s Monster Hunter 3 for the Wii, currently scheduled for an early 2009 release in Japan.

The footage gives us a brief glimpse of the new underwater hunting feature, which appears to take place at a similar pace to the overland hunting for which the series has made its name.

Monster Hunter 3 is expected to be playable at the Tokyo Game Show in October, but until then check out the new video here.

Level 5 Release Inazuma Eleven Break Screens; Wii Bound?

Level 5 have released the first screens of football-RPG Inazuma Eleven Break, which will hope to build on the mild-success of the DS original by introducing the series to home console users.

The images suggest that Break will be a remake of the DS title, although it is hard to tell exactly which system the game is likely to appear on. The graphics look like a fairly high end Wii game, although there are rumours that it could also be heading to PS3. Level 5 have yet to announce the system(s) that Break will appear on.

Check out the screenshot above or click here to take a look at all the released images.

Major Dream: Perfect Closer Wii Details + Screens

Famitsu have got the scoop on the upcoming Wii Baseball game Major Dream: Perfect Closer with three new screenshots for the game scheduled for a winter 2008 release in Japan.

Major Dream Wii is based on the ‘Major’ manga series, which follows the progress of Goro Honda from child to professional baseball player, and is a follow up to the Nintendo DS version that was released in July of this year.

The game will feature the obligatory Wii-mote swinging control scheme to bat, and will rumble upon impact to indicate a well timed hit. Major Dream is also expected to allow online multiplayer through the Wii’s Wi-fi connection.

Check out the screenshot above, or copy and paste the following link to your address bar to check out the additional images from Famitsu: http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/1217904_1407.html

Pokemon Platinum DS Tops Japanese Charts Once More

Pokemon Platinum has retained its number one spot in the Japanese Media Create software sales chart, selling another 315,000 copies to beat off competition from the new entrant Dragonball DS in second.

Namco Bandai’s title sold a fairly impressive 72,000 in its first week, 9,000 more than Rhythm Tengoku Gold, which rounded out a clean sweep of the top three for Nintendo’s omni-popular handheld.

Konami’s Quiz Magic Academy DS takes fifth place in the charts, while Wii titles Wii Fit, One Piece Unlimited Cruise: Episode 1 and Mario Kart Wii all find themselves among the top ten sellers this week.

Continue our story for the full top 30 listing – DS and Wii entries highlighted.

New Bleach Versus Crusade Wii Screens

Famitsu have released a number of screenshots for the upcoming Wii 3D fighter Bleach Versus Crusade, due for a December 18th release in Japan.

The Treasure developed game is looking pretty impressive thus far, especially the character models, although it will be interesting to see whether they can successfully pull off the cell-shaded look in a 3D space.

Click the image above to check it out for yourself, or copy and paste the following link into your address bar to have a look at all the available screenshots: http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/1217910_1407.html

Famitsu DS, Wii Roundup

It was a busy week for games on the two Nintendo consoles in Famitsu, with news on eight upcoming titles as well as reviews of two soon to be released games.

We have already covered the 7th Dragon and Level 5 news, but there are a number of other RPGs making their way to the DS over the next year.

Sega have been funnelling a large chunk of resource into DS RPG’s recently, and that trend continues with Infinite Space, described as a space opera RPG and slated for a Spring 2009 release. Acquire will tip their hat into the ring with Dungeons and Dams, while December will see the release of Gungho’s Ragnarok Online, which will allow up to 3 players to connect and play together over a Wi-Fi connection.

Megaman 9 Hits Japanese WiiWare

Today sees the release of Megaman/Rockman 9 on the Japanese WiiWare service – the weekly update coming a day later than usual courtesy of yesterday’s Shuubun no Hi holiday.

Capcom’s brave decision to release the game with NES style graphics appears to have paid dividends as reviews for the title have been positive thus far, with WiiWare World scoring it a 9/10, IGN an 8.6 and 1UP a B+.

With such scores already in the bag there is no excuse not to pick up some Wii Points and slap down the 1000 necessary to get yourself a slice of old school gaming at its best. Be warned though, Megaman 9 is just as frustratingly difficult as its fore bearers. Gameplay video after the jump.