Given Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie's status as the only game in the main Dragon Quest series to be localized (except for the no-doubt upcoming IX), we watched this Jump Festa 2010 trailer raptly, seeing an RPG world that was both classic and unfamiliar.

Even 14 years after its release, we found ourselves occasionally wowed by the trailer. The boat went underwater! The covered wagon floats! The characters look like every other Akira Toriyama character! (The last one was a different kind of wow). By the time the traditional theme came up, we were thrilled about Realms of Reverie. Too bad it's only coming out in Japan on January 28, with its North American release at some unspecified later date.

[Via NeoGAF]

Did we say January 5? You're actually going to have to wait a little longer for The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces on Wii. XSEED has informed us of a new release date for the Project Aces-developed flight game: just one week later, on January 12, 2010 [edit: Corrected the date.]

While that might not be the best news, the publisher also let us know the MSRP for the game: just $29.99. That's going to make it a lot easier for curious gamers to find room in the crowded Q1 for this somewhat niche game.

Today's European Wii/DSi Shop update includes one of the most cringeworthy localizations in memory. Tecmo's Tsuppari Oozumo Wii Heya, the latest in its long-lived sumo wrestling series, appears in Europe today as ... Eat! Fat! FIGHT! Sure, it's more lighthearted and less a strict simulation of sumo, but Eat! Fat! FIGHT? Really?

A Boy and His Blob and Street Fighter II' (the PC Engine version) arrive on Virtual Console today, and DSiWare has yet another original Q-Games title: Starship Patrol, a futuristic-looking tower defense game in space!

• Eat! Fat! FIGHT! (WiiWare, 1-2 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
• Moki Moki (WiiWare, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
• A Boy and His Blob (NES, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
• Street Fighter II': Champion Edition (Turbografx-16, 1-2 players, 700 Wii Points)
• A Little Bit of... Magic Made Fun: Psychic Camera (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• Castle of Magic (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• Littlest Pet Shop (DSiWare, 1 player, 800 DSi Points)
• myNotebook: Green (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• Starship Patrol (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)

Jools Watsham's prediction of a "February-ish" release for Dementium II seems to have been right on target -- though Nintendo's release schedule wasn't. Rather than the February 2 date listed on that schedule, The company announced that the DS horror FPS will ship in North America on February 16 of next year. Europe will be subject to the horror two weeks later on March 5.

SouthPeak reports that some Dementium II posters are still available to those who pre-order and send pictures of their receipts. Presumably more people will take advantage of the offer now that they now when the game they're pre-ordering will be released.

Nintendo has announced some new Club Nintendo rewards for patrons to spend their hard-earned points on. Don't get too excited!

The rewards are folders and greeting cards. For 300 points each, you can get a set of either Nintendogs or Mario greeting cards; and for 250 points each, there are folder sets of "Mario & Friends," "Toad & Friends," and "Bowser" (each containing three folders and some bookmarks).

These office items might be extra useful for those of you still in school -- or those of you whose jobs don't already tell everyone you know what a huge Nintendo nerd you are. We like them because all the Mario items use hand-drawn Mario art instead of the 3D models Nintendo typically uses.

Do you ever want to go beyond the Kirby games, and explore the deep backstory and complex, rich cast of characters in the Kirby universe? If so, you'll be pleased to hear that manga/anime publisher Viz Media is releasing a 25-volume Kirby manga in North America, joining Zelda and Pokemon manga.

The manga by Hirokazu Hikawa follows "Kirby and his friend, Chirby," trying to return the Star Rod while being pursued by King Dedede. Essentially, it's Lord of the Rings, but with an infantile pink monster who devours everything instead of a hobbit. The first volume will be out September 2010.

[Via Anime News Network]

If the Flash game Continuity were more slow-paced and puzzle-oriented, and swapped out its stick-figure aesthetic for a more opulent, woodgrain look, it would be Rooms: The Main Building. Hudson's DS (and Wii) port of the PC puzzle game, out next spring, turns the rooms of a building into a slide puzzle. By configuring the rooms in the correct manner, the player can navigate between them with doors and ladders.

Why would anyone even dare to enter a building with sliding rooms that threaten to trap you forever? For a birthday party, of course!

At some point, people are going to get spoiled by Atlus's (coincidentally named) "Atlus Spoils" program, in which the company includes some kind of bonus item with pretty much every game it releases. When the publisher doesn't release a game with an artbook or soundtrack or figurine or something, somebody out there is going to be irritated to buy just a game.

That won't happen with Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, though. Atlus announced today that every launch copy of the first-person RPG will include a soundtrack disc. You'll have to wait a bit longer to get that launch copy: the publisher also announced that the release date has moved from the March 10 date found on Nintendo's Q1 schedule to March 23.

When Suda51 said there were big changes in store for the open-world segments of No More Heroes, we didn't expect a change this big. According to GameSpot's preview, roaming around Santa Destroy in search of t-shirts and Lovikov Balls (and odd jobs) has been nixed in Desperate Struggle in favor of a world map.

It should speed up the pace of the game significantly, and we know there were plenty of complaints about these segments of the game, but we'll personally miss tooling around the city on the Schpeltiger. You can read way more details about the game at GameSpot, though we wouldn't necessarily suggest it if you're trying to live a spoiler-free lifestyle.

The release list for the Japanese Wii and DSi Shops are a bit more restrained than the last couple of weeks, offering a much more manageable (read: smaller) selection of downloadable titles. On Virtual Console, for example, Sega's isometric arcade shmup Zaxxon is the only offering. Similarly, there's just one WiiWare game, but it's Phoenix Wright!

DSiWare gets the cool Photo FIghter X, which lets you build fighting game characters from DSi camera snaps. More Paint By DS joins it, this time all about dogs; and in the requisite "puzzle game" positions are a new G.G. series entry and a Jupiter-developed game about rotating blocks to match colors.

• Zaxxon (Arcade, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (WiiWare, 1 player, 900 Wii Points)
• Shashin de Kakutou! Photo Fighter X! (DSiWare, 1-2 players, 200 DSi Points)
• G.G. Series Vertex (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• Kanji Practice First Grade (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• Artist ni Narou! Minna no Nurikai Inu-hen (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• Atelier Deco La Doll (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• Castle of Magic (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• Panewa! (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)

Along with its many software announcements, Nintendo of America made one small hardware announcement this morning. The blue and pink Wii Remotes, first announced for Japan in October, are on the way to North America on February 14. Unlike the awesome black Wiimote, neither the included MotionPlus peripheral nor the Wiimote jacket will be in a matching color.

Still, as Nintendo reminds us, this is your first chance to have a different-color Wiimote for each of four players. Unless you've already solved that "problem" by sticking one of your friends with the (perhaps undeserved) stigma of being Nyko Wand Guy.

The sole Virtual Console release this week is a reminder of a very odd time: when Sega thought Alex Kidd was a viable character. The company took an in-progress Shinobi parody game called Shinobi Kid, and then added the Alex Kidd character. Someone at Sega was under the impression that a game would sell better with Alex Kidd in it.

Also available: more Monkey Island, an expansion of one of Rubik's World's games, and Pallurikio, a cute platformer with a slingshot mechanic. And on DSiWare, it's ... a stripped-down version of Hell's Kitchen!

• Pallurikio (WiiWare, 1 player, 1,000 Wii Points)
• Rubik's Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH (WiiWare, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)
• Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 4 (WiiWare, 1 player, 1,000 Wii Points)
• Alex Kidd in Shinobi World (Sega Master System, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
• PictureBook Games: The Royal Bluff (DSiWare, 1-4 players, 500 DSi Points)
• Hell's Kitchen Vs. (DSiWare, 1-2 players, 800 DSi Points)

The upcoming Japanese DSiWare game Katamuction uses the system's cameras in a unique way: to simulate tilt control. Using Motion Cortex, technology originally designed for motion-based browsing on cell phones, the game uses camera information to sense the direction in which the DS is moved. And what is that technology used for? A game about running away from a dinosaur! Katamuction will be out December 24 for 500 DSi Points.

Fight with Pictures: Photo Fighter X from Nintendo uses the camera to create fighting game characters: you take photos of yourself in various poses, and the game makes a fighter out of it! It's out in Japan next week for 200 points.

click for a Massively Multi-Image Online GalleryRemember Ragnarok DS? If you do, you're likely an avid fan of the Ragnarok Online MMO, and thus exactly the kind of person XSEED hopes to entice with the pre-order bonuses for the DS game.

Pre-orders for the DS RPG will include exclusive in-game items for the PC game, which increase experience, attack speed, damage and other stats when used. In addition, every retail package will have more items thrown in, which increase even more stats.

While at first blush it seems obvious to target people who like Ragnarok with this Ragnarok spinoff, it actually strikes us as kind of odd. People obsessed with Ragnarok have a lot of online gaming in their lives as it is! Are they going to want to jump into some random dungeons with just a few people?

Continued →

Do you like airplanes? Do you like anime stereotypes? Then The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces is what you've been waiting for! XSEED released the above trailer, featuring lots of awesome planes, and lots of inexplicably young people flying them. Well, not inexplicably -- though the details may constitute a spoiler, there is a really weird explanation for everyone's age. Beyond "it's anime."

The Sky Crawlers will be one of the first Wii releases of 2010 -- it's due out on January 5.