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Import Roundup with Super Robot Wars

Steam versions of several titles, including XBlaze Lost: Memories, Tokyo Xanadu, and Aegis of Earth. By itself that isn't major news. Plenty of games head to Steam these days.

Yet this small development reminds me that we've seen more and more Steam cross-traffic in recent years. Previous generations had a greater divide between computer and console, with all sorts of odd little exclusives popping up on home systems without coming to computers (and vice versa). Sure, you'd find PC versions of popular games like Mortal Kombat or Final Fantasy VII, but if you wanted the latest Tales RPG or some even more obscure Japan-made offering, you'd get it only on a console.

That's no longer the case. Bandai Microsoft is no longer in that phylum. At E3, just about all of their Xbox One offerings had PC versions waiting in the wings.

Is this vindication for those Steam s who still toss around the term “PC Master Race” and predict the demise of console games the same way street lunatics predict the fall of civilization? I'm sure both will happen someday, but I suspect that consoles will last as long as they're convenient and stocked with things you can't get on a PC. And when one of those things is Gravity Rush 2, I'll keep my PlayStation 4.

No, this wasn't just an excuse to mention Gravity Rush.

NEWS

ADVENTURES OF MANA TAKES TO THE VITA
I appreciate Seiken Densetsu (released here as Final Fantasy Adventure) was the first real epic on the Game Boy and Secret of Mana was such a marvel among Super NES games that you could sit and watch the title screen unfurl a dozen times over. We live in a much more crowded age, an age where an action-RPG with beautiful pastoral imagery and richly somber music doesn't stand out so much.

Square Enix continues to try, though, and their latest is one of the most impressive Mana revivals to date—all the more so because it's an iOS and Android game. Adventures of Mana is a remake of the original Seiken Densetsu/Final Fantasy Adventure, and it's actually Square Enix's second such attempt. Yet Adventures sidesteps many problems introduced by the Game Boy Advance's pretty but muddled Sword of Mana, as it sticks closer to the original. The gameplay gains some combo attacks and other background features, but it retains the quick-paced appeal of whacking at Rabites, Mushbooms, and other creatures almost too cute to slay for experience and gold.

The remake's graphics are the stuff of basic 3-D mobile games (or the DS Final Fantasy remakes), yet it stays true to the original game's storyline and catchy soundtrack. As a black-and-white Game Boy outing, the first Seiken Densetsu had little room for dialogue, and Adventures of Mana realizes that such brevity favors a simple RPG storyline. It might be the best Mana journey made in over twenty years.

Adventures of Mana came out for iOS and Android months ago, but it recently dropped onto the Vita in North America—a release motivated by fan requests, according to Square Enix. At $13.99, it's a little more than the mobile versions, but that's not so bad compared to some of Square Enix's other pricing demands.

IDOL DEATH GAME TV LEAVES LITTLE ELSE TO BE SAID
Some titles defy all attempts to ignore them. Idol Death Game TV is a good example. D3 Publisher and Witchcraft just announced it for the PS Vita and showed a few screens, but that's enough to merit some discussion.

Idol Death Game TV fills up on the frilly dresses and cutesy singers of Japan's idol industry, but all is not well. Though the Dream of Dreams competition normally decides the best of the idol group known as Project 47, this year's contest puts the troupe in a bizarre mansion and forces them through Death Concerts where an unpleasant demise awaits the loser. The contest also keeps a Pepto-pink creature called Doripaku on hand to explain the details. It looks like the Sneers from The Raccoons or the elephant from The Mouse and His Child.

Due out in Japan this October, Idol Death Game TV clearly apes the devices of The IDOLM@STER, and the game may pander to pop-idol expectations as much as it challenges them or mocks the entire pop-music industry. But it's called Idol Death Game TV.

METAL SLUG ANTHOLOGY LOADS UP ON THE PLAYSTATION 4
If you've followed SNK, you've likely seen a few of their better games on the PlayStation 4: The King of Fighters 2000 and The Last Blade 2 arrived not so long ago, and Metal Slug 3 showed up last year. In a strange development, this week brought the PlayStation 2 version of Metal Slug Anthology to the PS4.

It sounds like a decent offer: the first six Metal Slugs for twenty bucks, as opposed to paying $14.99 for just Metal Slug 3. Still, you'll note that the Metal Slug games slide in quality after Metal Slug 3, with the fourth and sixth coming off as particularly lacking. The best Metal Slug entries (the first, X, and 3) are all on Steam and periodically go on sale, so the Anthology isn't as good a deal as it might appear.

IMPORT ROUNDUP: MAY & JUNE

Adult Swim. Then again, they might have a better game to localize by that point. Best Sight: Tsuyu's frog, which spends most of any match just staring at you.

SUPER ROBOT WARS OG: THE MOON DWELLERS Developer: Bandai Namco Entertainment Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment Platform: PlayStation 3 / PlayStation 4 There are several reasons I wish the Super Robot Wars series was popular in North America. The most trivial: parents across the nation would watch their kids playing the latest Original Generation collision of giant-robot attacks, and they'd ask patronizingly “Is this the game with Masami Ōbari. The Blu-ray is one of those picture-drama deals with images and voices but no interaction, and it shows the women of Super Robot Wars frolicking at beaches and hot springs. It's called Beach Dwellers, so I hope it includes scenes of little battle-mecha defending sand castles and scaring off crabs. Import Barrier: The game isn't region-locked, but if you wait until August you can import an English-language version for the PlayStation 4. Domestic Release: That seems about as far as Bandai Namco is willing to take Super Robot Wars. You won't see a localized version hyped at GameStop, but you can order it without much trouble. Best Detail: The brief shot of the Granteed's fist sprouting a crystal before it punches an enemy.

TAIKO NO TATSUJIN: DOKODON MYSTERY ADVENTURE Developer: Taiko Team Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment Platform: Nintendo 3DS If current trends continue in Japan's game industry, we may well see dungeon-RPG spin-offs for everything. Street Fighter. Cyborg Justice. Assassination Classroom's Koro-sensei, and Rakitama, a hamster-like creature from Kamisama Minari: Himitsu no Cocotama. Rakitam must be popular. Import Barrier: It's more lenient than a regular RPG in of text, but the 3DS regional lockout strikes again. Domestic Release: Considering that Bandai Namco hasn't released a Taiko no Tatsujin game here in almost twelve years, the odds aren't good for an RPG spin-off. Best Detail: Don and Katsu customizing themselves with, among other things, a Dogu mask. You can pretend they're Huitzil from Darkstalkers!

NEXT WEEK'S RELEASES

7th DRAGON III CODE: VFD Developer: Imageepoch / Mages cast spells, Banishers get heavy armor and polearms, and Fortuners wield the power of death itself. That's quite a leap from the little pointy-hatted wizards from the original Final Fantasy.

ASSAULT SUIT LEYNOS Developer: Dracue Publisher: Rising Star Games Platform: PlayStation 4 (digital) Release Date: July 12 Physical Release: Coming in September MSRP: $19.99 Assault Suit Leynos wasn't a defining title on the Sega Genesis. Champions of the console don't mention the game, known here as Target Earth, nearly as often as they do Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Herzog Zwei, or even Alisia Dragoon. But Target Earth brought Genesis owners mechanized space war in superior form, and the formula worked well enough for Masaya to carry it onward into Cybernator (Assault Suits Valken) and several sequels—oh, and LucasArts' closely inspired Metal Warriors. The PlayStation 4 remake of Assault Suit Leynos returns to the original, covering much the same Gundam-style saga of a war waged across the solar system. While the Earth colonies and the Chron cyborg army have battleships and fighters at their disposal, the defining weapons are heavy armed mecha known as assault suits. The player's unit comes with a jetpack, a machine gun, missiles, grenade launchers, laser-like rifles, and other heavy artillery. It's all used in the game's side-scrolling stages, rife with explosions, machines, and the inevitable battlefield tragedy that no Gundam derivative can do without. Assault Suit Leynos looks very much in line with modern side-view shooters like Gigantic Army and Armed Seven, though Dracue put a brighter sheen on the game's numerous robots and machines. Characters now have voices, whether they're overexcited bridge operators or gloating enemy officers, though you're free to turn that off and head for the Classic mode. More than anything, Assault Suit Leynos is tough. It's a shooter from the days when beating a game meant memorizing levels and sharpening your reflexes, and if you didn't like it, you could only hope that the store had a forgiving return policy. We see plenty of difficult games today, but there's no substitute for an unforgiving 2-D shooter.

Gundam X make the list, but not 0080. Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS Force follows the conventions of its larger series: take a mecha into a battlefield against other machines, strafing and circling them as you attack. Robots come with boosters that enable dashing and jumping, though they still move with a hint of robotic weight. Force also plays up strategic squad tactics as much as it does the conventions of an action game, as players can customize and arrange different mobile-suit squads during battle. Yet Force's release remains puzzling. Fans seem to prefer the PlayStation 3 editions of Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS, which offer tighter controls and more in-depth techniques, and Force is really just a spin-off. If Bandai Namco hopes to give Gundam games a stronger foothold, they're banking on a title for the Vita…which is (let's face it) hardly at the fore of the game industry. But hey, Gundam fans should pay attention all the same.

MONSTER HUNTER GENERATIONS Developer: FATMAN Joe!), but I have to be fair. CAPCOM has a hard enough time handling even their popular names these days.

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