Okay, so it isn't Rondo of Blood this week in Europe. Nintendo instead chose to inaugurate the latest Hanabi Festival with the pre-rendered Neo Geo shooter Ironclad and Lode Runner for NES. It's pretty novel in and of itself to have two Virtual Console games in a single week, not to mention a Neo Geo game! They're joined on Wii by the WiiWare version of Military Madness.

• Lode Runner (NES, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)
• Ironclad (Neo Geo, 1-2 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
• Nectaris: Military Madness (WiiWare, 1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
• Elemental Masters (DSiWare, 1-2 players, 800 DSi Points)
• Pop Island (DSiWare, 1-8 players, 500 DSi Points)
• Simply Sudoku (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• Simply Mahjong (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• 4 Travellers Play Spanish (DSiWare, 1-4 players, 800 DSi Points)

Capcom has announced the Japanese release date for Ace Attorney creator Shu Takumi's supernatural puzzle adventure game, Ghost Trick. Japan will be able to put Sissel's spirit into a bicycle on June 24. Capcom has yet to offer a date for North American or European releases beyond simply 2010, but if the game is in a complete state by June, that bodes well for localization sometime in the fall.

However, if you can't wait that long, and you don't mind clicking through a bunch of Japanese text, you can play the TGS demo right now! Capcom posted a flash demo to the Ghost Trick site.

[Via Andriasang]

Nintendo of Europe is bringing back the Hanabi Festival, its occasional celebration of import games, starting March 12 -- and it's bringing what might be the most anticipated import Virtual Console game ever (by us). Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is among the small lineup of games to be released in Europe as part of the Festival, along with Milon's Secret Castle and Lode Runner, both for NES, and Ironclad for Neo Geo.

We aren't entirely certain from the wording, but the announcement mentions Castlevania, and then says that the other games will "continue in the following weeks." So it's pretty likely you're going to be able to buy Rondo of Blood tomorrow. Happy Hanabi Festival!

If you're reading this and you're in charge of business development for a game publisher, and if you're at GDC -- as unlikely as all that is -- please go talk to LukPlus. According to Siliconera, the publisher has a meeting room at the convention, and is actively working to find a North American publisher for its cute DS puzzle game Coropata.

We sampled Coropata at TGS and found it charming, and we'd appreciate the opportunity to do things like buy it in a store and read all the text. We admit that a cutesy, anime-style puzzle game similar to The Incredible Machine may be somewhat of a niche interest, though.

Though there's a lot of content on DSiWare in Japan today, it's almost entirely training stuff. So, it would seem that DSiWare stepped aside to let WiiWare's single release shine this week. (That's probably not what really happened -- but it's a nice thought.)

In any case, Mega Man 10 is up on WiiWare in Japan today, and it's likely to overshadow anything else available this week, including the ancient Moon Cresta:

• Mega Man 10 (WiiWare, 1 player, 1,000 Wii Points)
• Moon Cresta (VC Arcade, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)

• G.G. Series Throw Out (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• Renjuku Kanji: Shougaku 4-nensei (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• Renjuku Kanji: Shougaku 5-nensei (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• Brain Challenge (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• Let's Golf (DSiWare, 1 player, 800 DSi Points)

During PAX last year, Nintendo asked any professional artists who happened to be there to create an animation in the DSiWare program Flipnote Studio. Now, the flipnotes from comic artists like Eric Jones and Christina Strain, webcomics artist Scott Kurtz, and 5TH Cell art director Edison Yan, have finally been posted in a gallery on the Flipnote Hatena site.

Showing what can be done in a few minutes by a talented artist, and building on the excitement of a popular convention, makes this initiative a great promotional tool for the free app (and for the DSi in general), which is why Nintendo waited until six months after the event to release these!

Nintendo is adding an ambulatory flourish to its Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver launch, celebrating the PokeWalker accessory with a guided walk around New York City's Times Square. On Sunday, March 14, Pikachu footprints will be placed around Broadway Plaza, inviting fans to trace the trail of the fictional giant rat, with live demonstrations of the game and accessory along the trail.

Nintendo's usual launch events take place at the Nintendo World Store in Rockefeller Center, but this one is located in (and around) the Times Square Toys 'R' Us. Should you show up at the NWS, you'll just have to do a little extra walking.

It's a fantastic day to be in Europe like retro and retro-style downloadable games. Coinciding with that amazing Bit.Trip Runner trailer, its predecessor Bit.Trip Void is now avaiable on WiiWare, along with the authentically NES-style Mega Man 10! There's even a real retro game available on Virtual Console -- a pretty good one, at that.

The theme even extends to DSiWare, where you can get Dark Void Zero, a promotional game that outshines the game it was meant to promote. You can play it on the DSi XL, which was released in Europe today!

• Zaxxon (Arcade, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
• Bit.Trip Void (WiiWare, 1-4 players, 600 Wii Points)
• Mega Man 10 (WiiWare, 1 player, 1,000 Wii Points)
  
• Dark Void Zero (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• Flips: The Bubonic Boulders (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• Globulos Party (DSiWare, 1-2 players, 500 DSi Points)
• Pinball Pulse: The Ancients Beckon (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• Real Football 2010 (DSiWare, 1-4 players, 800 DSi Points)
• New English Training: Learn with Tempo - Advanced Edition (not available in the UK) (DSiWare, 1 player, 800 DSi Points)

Shin'en, developer of the DS Nanostray games, as well as the recent WiiWare release Art of Balance, has announced a new 3D platformer for WiiWare. Jett Rocket looks like your basic 3D platformer, but slightly smaller in scale, with three areas of the planet Yoroppa to explore. It looks impressive, with graphics that recall Super Mario Galaxy.

With a name like Jett Rocket, you'd expect some kind of powered vehicles, and the game features three: a paraglider, a "Jet Boat," and a "Jet Snowboard." Wouldn't that melt all the snow?

If you want to pretend to cut hair in a Wii and DS game -- and why not? Bonsai Barber was well-received after all -- Little Orbit is preparing Busy Scissors just for you. Not only will you get to simulate "35+ real hairstyles with 7 cutting techniques" with the Wiimote or stylus, you'll get to do so using virtual simulacra of real products from Toni&Guy. It's like the realism (and product placement revenue) of a sports game!

Little Orbit will publish Busy Scissors worldwide this September. If you can't wait to see it (and, conveniently, you're a salon professional or something) you can see the game at America's Beauty Show in March.

For some of us, Final Fantasy XIII over on those big systems will be little but a distraction -- because real role-playing games take place in dungeons. Or, for others, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey will be the perfect game to play during cutscenes. In any case, Atlus is dropping Shin Megami Tensei on an RPG-crowded market on March 23, and sent out the above trailer to remind us all of that fact.

If you're ready to launch an expedition into a game about an expedition into a mysterious demon-filled vortex in the Antarctic, bundle up and check out the trailer.

This week's sole Virtual Console release in Japan marks the debut of a beloved DS developer. The Super Famicom puzzle game Sutte Hakkun, originally created for Nintendo's Satellaview satellite service, is the first game by Indies Zero, who would go on to develop Retro Game Challenge for Namco Bandai. The game itself is a cutesy Lode Runner-type puzzler, in which a character creates and destroys blocks to reach rainbow fragments distributed throughout a level.

On DSiWare, another interesting puzzle game is available: Rittai Kakushi E Atta Kore Da, the game that uses the camera for that eye-catching 3D effect.

• Sutte Hakkun (Super Famicom, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
• Aqualiving (WiiWare, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
• Shunkan Shibu-shibu Tsubushi (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• Karakuchi! Ookago Shiro (DSiWare, 1-2 players, 500 DSi Points)
• Kittens' House (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• Rittai Kakushi E Atta Kore Da (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)

There are plenty of adventure games on DS about solving crimes -- but none of them star the world's greatest detective. Sherlock Holmes, that is. There are already plenty of Batman games. But developer Frogwares and publisher Focus Home Interactive are taking care of the deficiency of Holmes games, with a new original story starring the detective (from an established adventure game series).

In Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Osborne House, Holmes and Dr. Watson are tasked by the British Royal Family with recovering the Queen's stolen genealogical records. To find out who stole the records (seriously? That's the case? It's not an impossible prison escape or seemingly supernatural murder or something?) "you will have to use your senses of logic and observation through dozens of riddles, puzzles and brain teasers of all sorts." No date has been announced by Focus, and we deduce from the company's status as a European publisher that there is no information about a North American release yet.

Gallery: Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Osborne House (DS)

• 
• 
• 
• 

We suggested our enthusiasm for THQ's Beat City may be reduced upon seeing actual screenshots of the rhythm-based minigame collection. We're delighted to report that in addition to sounding like a neat idea, we think it looks pretty interesting as well! It's got an unusual geometric art style.

You can inspect the style of Beat City for yourself in our gallery, and even see storyboard-style sequences that are ... intended to explain the gameplay. We see an assembly line of crows being turned into parrots. We see a loving couple wearing outfits that grow spontaneously more ren-faire. We don't feel illuminated.

We've seen the DSi's camera used as a tilt sensor a couple of times, but Rittai Kakushi E Atta Kore Da (something like Hidden 3D Shapes: There it Is) does something new with it: using the camera's motion sensing to create the illusion of a 3D space, which you explore by moving the DS and changing perspective.

The game itself involves searching these 3D environments for hidden objects. In the level shown in the trailer after the break (which you really should watch to figure out what the hell we're talking about), you're looking for items that, when viewed from a certain perspective, arrange themselves into letters.

Rittai Kakushi E Atta Kore Da will be out in Japan on DSiWare March 3.

Continued →