THE GOOD NEWS: A NEW PS2 RPG COMING DOWN THE LINE. THE BAD NEWS....

Musical RPG Tenshi no Present. It's full 3D and a lot more twee!

Nippon-ichi Software, creators of the musical RPG Rhapsody (released by Atlus in the US, with an ad strategy comparable to trying to sell Tony Hawk Pro Skater to my mother), have released information on their latest plans. Apparantly, the game (entitled The Puppet Princess of Marl in Japan) was such a sleeper hit that, in addition to the already-planned PS sequel, a third game in the series is hitting the PlayStation 2.

Entitled Tenshi no Present (The Angel's Present), the PS2 entry offers more or less the same gimmick as the original: the game's fairy-tale atmosphere is dotted with musical-style bits featuring singing characters. This time, though, the whole shebang's in full 3D, undoubtedly allowing for game-event choreography that would put the Rockettes to shame (the PS sequel is still 2D). Unlike Rhapsody, the game will be scenario-based, with individual characters' stories intertwining and building up to the end.

Tenshi no Present is coming out sometime in December; the PS sequel, Little Princess 2, hits stores October 26.

Rhapsody was one of Atlus' most touted games at last summer's E3, with sales reps passing out soundtrack CDs to everyone that so much as jogged past their booth. Thanks to a combination of obscure, goofy Japan-ness and a set of music and dialogue that elicits guffaws from the entire family ("We are the fearless PIRATES! We are the most amazing PIRATES! We search for treasure all across the OCEAN! And when we get sunburned we put on LOTION!"), Rhapsody's "E" rating is more likely to stand for "Embarassing" than anything else. Ten years from now it'll be an unsung classic, mark my words. Anyway, news of these two sequels flared the cockles of my frozen heart. Really. I know what I'm writin' Santa for now...

NAMCO PINCHES PS2 TECHNOLOGY FOR NEW ARCADE SYSTEM
I was a little late on this one, but Namco announced a new arcade system, tentatively called System 246, that's primarily based on Sony's PlayStation 2 technology. With the Emotion Engine in its heart, Namco created a boardset that allows the use of CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs and hard drives to store game data. The idea is to reduce the price of arcade machines by providing a mostly off-the-shelf hardware solution to any developer's needs, and Namco plans to provide development and release support to software companies interested in developing games for the platform.

The only game announced so far for the new set is Ridge Racer V Arcade Battle, based more than a little on the PS2's flagship title. It'll debut at the 38th Annual Amusement Machine Show at the Tokyo Big Sight on September 21-23.

Gamers can take this as either good or bad news (and probably not both). On the plus side, Namco will have a sleek environment to produce Tekken 4 or a Soul Calibur sequel on, encouraging smaller companies to enter the arcade field through System 246 in the process. On the other hand, this also means that with Naomi (Sega's Dreamcast-derived arcade system), most arcade machines will be running the same hardware specs as home machines. So then, like, why should I be going to the arcades anymore? Certainly not to be bothered by hyperactive younguns (in the US) or teenage punks and their annoying girlfriends (in Japan), to be sure. The arcade industry is in full slump mode across the globe, and it'll have to find something new very soon - otherwise, game centers on every street corner in Tokyo will be a thing of the past, just like in America.

OTHER BITS

• Oh my

  I meant to post about this way back in V-sen's inaugural issue, but a guy named Kami, who made a NES emulator for the Wonder Swan a month back, has now released one for - get this - Game Boy. In answer to the obvious question, you can move the emulated screen around by holding down Select while moving the control pad.

  If you've got a GB RAM cart lying around, here's how you can use it: Download, uncompress, put a NES game's program ROM at byte location $4000 in FC.GB, put its character ROM at location $8000, and run it. And, no, you will not get a very high frame rate. I've tested Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr and Popeye as all running fine on my end. Kami says he'll release an application to ease file creation, but for now, have fun, hackers!

• Terrors 2. Foxy lady, oon

  Famitsu.com's got pixel-perfect Wonder Swan Color screenshots up. From the top, there's Gunpey EX (same as the old one, except with bonuses based on line colors), Rhyme Rider Kerorican (the NanaOn-Sha-made rhythm game I mentioned yesterday), and a horror adventure game called Terrors 2 that, as you can see, features photorealistic still graphics. Coupled with the Final Fantasy I shots floating around, it's safe to say the WSC can do at least SNES quality in its graphics. It's still too little too late, but... UPDATE: Bandai held a press conference today showing off some more stuff, including screenies of Romancing SaGa (yikesors) and the FF package set. This is good news. Pics will be found here this afternoon, hopefully, but I bet you can find some before then.
• Namco's Japan site posted a set of QuickTime movies showing Time Attack paths to take in the PS and DC Mr. Driller. The site is slow as all wank, but bitheads might want to download them for some guidance through the game's ten courses.

Coming up this weekend - a set of game previews and more missives from the bowels of the black-backgrounded Internet.

-fenegi