As the company has done for previous natural disasters, including last year after Hurricane Sandy, Aksys Games is once again hosting a charity sale to raise relief funds for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan which recently devastated the Philippines.
For the fundraiser, Aksys, via the publisher’s online storefront, is selling collectible merchandise based on Muramasa Rebirth and BlazBlue. These charity items, retailing for $5 each (plus tax and shipping), include:
Muramasa Rebirth Japanese Style Foldable Fan and Abridged Soundtrack CD set
Muramasa Rebirth Lithograph and Abridged Soundtrack CD set
BlazBlue Jubei Plushie
BlazBlue Calamity Trigger Comic Book
Until November 25th, a part of the proceeds (the exact percentage is not given) for these items will be donated to the Philippines relief effort. So, what are you waiting for? Go buy a cool collectible and contribute to charity at the same time. I don’t know about you, but I definitely have my eye on that Muramasa Rebirth lithograph and soundtrack!
Philippine Disaster Relief [Aksys Games]
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PlayStation 3 2D fighting game BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma is scheduled for a western release in March 2014. In addition to a $50 standard edition, Aksys Games will also offer an ultimate limited edition package featuring a 40-page art book, the official soundtrack on CD, and a figurine of Rachel Alucard, plus two additional bonus items exclusive to the North American market.
Those extra goodies will include a reference poster containing a complete move list for all of the game’s fighters, as well as a behind the scenes Blu-ray packed with developer interviews and possibly other content. Obviously those items are still being worked on as they are blanked out in the product shot pictured up top.
The BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Limited Edition will be available for retail pre-order soon at a price point of $79.99. Here’s a closer look at what’s inside:
]]>BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Limited Edition Includes:
– 40-Page Full Color Art Book – Featuring art from the game as well as specially created art by a variety of artists, the BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma art book is a must for any BlazBlue fan!
– Official Soundtrack CD – Composed by famed game creator and musician Daisuke Ishiwatari, listen to the sounds of this new BlazBlue with totally new music!
– A Rachel Alucard Nendoroid – Every LE comes with a nendoroid of everyone’s favorite vampiress with an attitude – Rachel Alucard! Only sold with the BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Limited Edition!
– A Fighting Moves Poster – The BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Limited Edition will include a reference poster with all of the playable characters and their moves! Just for the US!
– Truly Exclusive Special Features Blu-ray – Featuring interviews with Toshimichi Mori, creator of BlazBlue, the Special Features disc will take you behind the scenes of BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma! There may be some other unannounced goodies on the disc as well, so stay tuned for more information!
Yet another quirky niche gem coming to PlayStation Vita this year, Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God is a hardcore rouge-like about a suspended student who undertakes a grand quest to save her friend’s curry restaurant from being run out of town by a new curry chain that has just opened up shop. To do this, the hungry heroine, Pupuru, must find the ingredients needed to cook up a tasty batch of the Legendary Magic Curry. Along the way she can stew other, lesser curry dishes to boost stats while crawling through dungeons.
Yes, that is the actual storyline. I don’t have the imagination to dream up such crazy shit on my own.
It’s only fitting that a game this wacky comes out in an equally wacky yet totally awesome collector’s edition package. Aksys Games is no stranger to putting out great collector’s editions, but the one for Sorcery Saga really takes the cake. Or the whole bowl of curry, keeping with the theme here.
The Sorcery Saga collector’s edition, better known as the “Hot and Spicy, Everything Nicey Limited Edition,” comes with all the necessary kitchenware to enjoy a yummy bowl of curry while playing through the game. Contents include:
A Cute “Kuu-rry” Plate: Straight from the first tower comes Kuu, the always hungry little critter with an attitude! Not only is it “Kuu-shaped” to perfection, but it also features the ever-present companion emblazoned on the surface of the plate!
An Awesome “Kuu-rry” Spoon: Can’t get enough of Kuu? Well, you’re in luck because along with that awesome curry plate, the limited edition also includes a Kuu-shaped spoon! Colored a cheer-inspiring yellow with the almighty Kuu and the Sorcery Saga logo debossed on the handle!
A Bibilious Bib: Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God features an array of wacky, sometimes cuisine-inspired critters that run amok in the dungeons you enter. Why not create a bib out of them?! Featuring many of the monsters and trigger-happy creatures you will face in Sorcery Saga, the bib completes the Sorcery Saga Limited Edition Set!
Aksys’ press release doesn’t give a price, but according to retailer listings the Sorcery Saga limited edition will cost $49.99, just $10 more than the standard edition. So don’t delay–spice up your holiday gaming season by pre-ordering the Hot and Spicy, Everything Nicey Limited Edition
Aksys Games has a nice gaming treat to offer early adopting Muramasa Rebirth enthusiasts.
For a limited first-print run, the overhauled PlayStation Vita version of Vanillaware’s side-scrolling action RPG originally released on Nintendo Wii will be available as part of the Blessing of Amitabha Collector’s Edition, which includes a Muramasa Rebirth themed Vita system skin, face cover and velvet carrying pouch, along with a framed lithograph.
Add another bonus goodie to the stash with a pre-order from Amazon or GameStop. The 5-song Muramasa Rebirth Abridged Soundtrack is all yours with an early reservation.
According to Amazon, the Blessing of Amitabha Collector’s Edition will set you back $60 while the standard edition retails for $40. Read on for more details about the extras before deciding whether or not to make the $20 special edition upgrade.
Muramasa Rebirth is scheduled to ship on June 25th.
]]>Muramasa Rebirth Blessing of Amitabha Collector’s Edition
Muramasa Rebirth PlayStation®Vita system Face Cover by HORI
USA, Inc. – Protect your PlayStation®Vita system with this beautifully crafted PlayStation®Vita system Face Cover made by HORI
Muramasa Rebirth PlayStation®Vita system Skin by HORI
Muramasa Rebirth PlayStation®Vita system Pouch – Complete your immersion with a black drawstring velvet pouch that easily puts your PlayStation®Vita system in your hands.
High Res Framed Lithograph by Vanillaware – Specially made by Vanillaware, this new piece of art for this limited edition is truly one-of-a-kind reproduction (stay tuned for the big reveal of this completely new artwork)!
Muramasa Rebirth Pre-Order Bonus
Pre-Order Muramasa Rebirth at Amazn or GameStop and receive an exclusive Muramasa Rebirth Abridged Soundtrack! Boasting numerous songs from Muramasa Rebirth, this pre-order bonus is a sure collector’s item for any Muramasa fan! Written by famed gaming and anime composer, Hitoshi Sakimoto of Basiscape, the Muramasa Rebirth Abridged Soundtrack features five songs that bring the colors and art of Muramasa to life.
Track Listing:
Track 1：Turbulent State
Track 2：Powerful Look
Track 3：Gods of Heaven and Earth
Track 4：Inscrutable Stratagem
Track 5：Tacit Understanding
Back in eighth grade, a scheduling error stuck me in concert band when my trumpet and I should have rightly been down with the dozers in intermediate. Rather than cut through the red tape and rearrange, the band teacher—who, as I recall, had a disturbing predilection for pink plaid blazers–stuck a baritone horn in my hands and told me to try to keep up. Let’s just say there were some interesting moments involving a Sousa march and the theme from “The Empire Strikes Back.”
Playing Bit.Trip Presents Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien feels a lot like the first three weeks of that eighth grade band class. And I mean that in the most positive—and also the most frustrating—way. Like mastering a difficult piece of music, mastering the jumps, dives, spins and twirls required to make it from point A to point B requires some serious practice. And some even more serious patience.
If you had to categorize this game, you’d toss it in the endless runner pigeonhole—and you’d miss the point entirely. Like the first Bit.Trip game, the action consists of our old pal Commander Video running quickly across the screen, dodging increasingly difficult and speedy obstacles. While the first Bit.Trip game was a big wet kiss to the era of the Atari 2600, Runner 2 embraces both a full-on 3D presentation and the Famicom era, including unlockable levels that seem like they were lifted right off the old-console screen. For old-schoolers, that’s worth the price of admission alone.
But even if the nostalgia’s lost on you, you’d be hard pressed not to be impressed by the presentation here. That is, assuming you can appreciate the detailed level environments that are speeding past while you’re gearing up to nail the timing on the triple-jump that’s hitting in the next half-second. Every object you jump, slide or duck to pick up adds musical notes to a growing soundtrack, so every time you successfully pull it off, you’re adding to the feeling that you’re building something tuneful and beautiful. Kinda like mastering the guitar solo in Pearl Jam’s “Even Flow,” but with better graphics and no Eddie Vedder scowl.
Even though everything’s moving like a grocery-store checkout belt jacked to fifth gear, Runner 2 actually introduces its difficulty curve gradually, so all the jumps, slides and loop-de-loops don’t cause you to spontaneously combust before the first five levels have passed. By the time you’ve survived the forest and reached the volcanoes and lava world, you’ll be using most of your controller’s buttons and sticks in an almost zen-like state, reacting instinctively, like some kind of platforming pinball wizard.
Or, more likely, you’ll be repeating yourself—a lot. Even the “quite easy” difficulty level in Runner 2 can be quite frustrating. Unlike other non-runner rhythm games (think Rock Band), a single mistake yanks you back to the last checkpoint—and checkpoints are few and far between. On the one hand, this can be primal-scream inducing, particularly when you blow an easy step-jump with the finish line in plain sight. On the other, the feeling of personal satisfaction when you finally—FINALLY–ace a perfect run is sweeter than the rush other games offer for task completion.
To offset the intensity, Runner 2 deploys a wicked-fun sense of humor, evidenced by the cutscene narration delivered by none other than the droll Charles Martinet, the guy who also voices Mario. Thankfully, the commercials for dopey products like Mouth Burgers aren’t served up in a high-pitched Italian accent.
The old adage claims that practice makes perfect. In serving up a game whose alternate (and shorter) title could easily be Try, Try Again, Gaijin Games has created a practice exercise that plays out just about perfectly.
Pros:
+ Gradual learning curve
+ Hilarious voice-overs and cutscenes
+ Homage levels to the 8-bit era rock
+ Completing each level feels like a major accomplishment
Cons:
– Being yanked back to the start of the level for a single mistake is scream-inducing
Game Info:
Platform: Reviewed on Xbox Live Arcade, also available on PSN, Steam and Wii U eShop
Publisher: Aksys Games / Gaijin Games
Developer: Gaijin Games
Release Date: 2/26/2013
Genre: Platformer
ESRB Rating: Teen
Players: 1
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Vanillaware’s gorgeous side-scrolling action RPG is making the jump from a console often falsely accused of having no great games to a portable gaming machine wrongly bashed for the exact same thing.
Yes siree! Muramasa: The Demon Blade, first released on Nintendo Wii back in 2009, is being brought back to life on the PlayStation Vita as Muramasa Rebirth. A match made in heaven, I say, as the game’s luscious hand-drawn graphics are sure to look even more marvelous all hi-resed up on the Vita’s glorious OLED screen.
Muramasa‘s mythical Japanese tale is being completely relocalized in English for the Vita with original dual protagonists Momohime, a princess possessed by an evil spirit, and an amnesiac ninja named Kisuke. The game will also feature enhanced controls, including an actual jump button (on Wii jumping was awkwardly performed by pressing up on the D-pad/analog stick), as well as future access to four additional playable characters, each with new story scenarios, via DLC. (Bummer these new characters/scenarios aren’t included out of the box.)
Aksys Games has signed on to publish Muramasa Rebirth in the U.S., however a release date has not yet been announced. Hopefully it’s not too far off, especially with Dragon’s Crown still MIA and seemingly unlikely to surface any time soon. (It’d sure be nice to get Odin Sphere and Grand Knights History on the Vita too, but that’s just me dreaming of things that will never happen.)
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Aksys Games recently hosted a fundraiser for the American Red Cross Hurricane Sandy Relief effort, selling off its fresh stock of Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward wristwatches and donating 100% of the proceeds to aid victims of the super storm that recently devastated the East Coast. Today the final earnings count came in.
So how’d Aksys do? Pretty damn well, I’d say, banking a grand total of $12,920.00, with all watches selling out within 24 hours of the fundraiser’s start date on November 14th. (Whew, good thing I didn’t waste any time ordering mine!)
At $20 a pop, that means they sold somewhere around 650 watches, if my math is correct. Kudos, Aksys!
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A couple weeks ago, Aksys Games launched a Hurricane Sandy fundraising campaign with the release of collectible (and very functional) Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward wristwatches at the company’s online store. They sold for $20 and 100% of the proceeds went directly to the Red Cross for Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts.
Unfortunately, the watches appear to have already sold out–at least the product page is no longer listed–but luckily I was able to order one before they were gone. My watch just arrived and, as promised, I’m back with some pics to show it off. (Yes, I can take it off without fear of death. No lethal injections here!)
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Hurricane Sandy has past, but millions of people are still suffering from the destruction left behind in her superstorm wake. As always, Red Cross is on the job to help with the recovery, and now niche game publisher Aksys Games is stepping up to lend the disaster relief specialists an extra helping hand.
Through its new online store, Aksys is selling wristwatches inspired by the new Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita visual novel adventure game Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward. For a limited time, all proceeds from each watch sold will go directly to the Red Cross for Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts.
The watches are only $20 apiece, so donate to the relief effort and score yourself a neat collectible for your novelty gaming stash. I just bought mine and will update with some pics once it arrives.
Don’t forget to give the game a look as well. I’m still working my way through the story, but so far it’s a wonderfully bizarre and obscure puzzle adventure!
Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward Watch for Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts [Aksys Games Online Store]
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For gamers who get carried away soul breeding with the gals of Record of Agarest War 2 or a bit too turned on by the game’s PlayStation Move Bathtub, Shiatsu, and Massage mini-games (no joke), Aksys Games has the perfect limited edition for the PlayStation 3 strategy RPG coming out on June 26.
Totally Japanese but somewhat surprising for the North American market, Record of Agarest War 2‘s Limited Edition will include an inflatable Felenne Doll, a hand towel that folds up into the shape of a heart, and an art book which will undoubtedly be overflowing with page after page of anime girl pictorials.
If it was just the doll, I wouldn’t think so dirty about it, but the addition of the towel causes thoughts and images to appear in my head that I really don’t want there. Anyone who’s embarrassed about buying condoms definitely won’t want to be caught dead walking out of a game shop carrying one of these, that’s for damn sure.
For those who can look beyond the sexual innuendo and think more grown-up like, the doll, towel and art book should make for unique and extremely rare fan collectibles, all for the standard $59.99 retail price of a regular PS3 game (the standard edition will sell for $49.99).
Aksys will be un-blurring the doll image (Shhhhh! It’s top secret!), showing off the towel’s expanded form, and revealing the content of the art book soon, but these are the specifics announced so far:
– Inflatable Felenne Doll: An adorable inflatable doll that will make a nice addition to any location that you can feasibly place it.
– Compressed 8 x 12” Hand Towel: Conveniently compressed into a heart shape, this towel is the ideal object of your desire for when you need a small object that expands into a full hand towel.
– Collectible Artbook: Titled “Heroic Trials from the Lands of Agarest”, this artbook is a humdrum addition to the many boring books you’ve read recently. Or so we would like others to think…
So, who’s buying? Don’t be ashamed to let us know!
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