The X Button

Attorney Bout

In some ways it's a shame that Gyakuten Saiban 123: Naruhodo Selection isn't poised for a North American release. It's a convenient repacking of the first three Ace Attorney games in one 3DS cartridge, binding together the trilogy that started the comical, captivating adventures of endlessly put-upon defense lawyer Phoenix Wright (and would've stopped there, according to creator Shu Takumi's original vision). Better yet, its translated title would be Ace Attorney 123: Wright Selection, and that perfectly suits a series thick with delightful puns.

On the other hand, Ace Attorney 123: Wright Selection doesn't have much that's new. It adds some higher-definition upscaling, making the three games look a bit like the iOS versions, and there's a rudimentary 3-D feature. It's nice that we have another way of going through the foundation of the series, which manages the daring juggle of stand-alone legal dramas and broader, trilogy-long plot threads. Yet the only original material lies in a separate drama CD that is, of course, in Japanese.

Import Barrier: The Japanese release lets you play all of the games with the same English translation as the DS titles. The only problem is in the regional lockout on the 3DS.

Chances of a Domestic Release: CAPCOM's silent about that, though an eShop release of the game would be quick, easy, and pretty consistent with the low-profile release of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies. But if it never comes here, plenty of alternatives await: the iOS bundle is cheap (if a bit rough), and the DS versions of the games can be had for twenty bucks apiece.

Frivolous Trinkets: The forenamed special edition comes with an artbook, the drama CD, and a pixellike keychain of Phoenix, Francisca, or Godot. By three sets to collect them all, suckers!

The 3rd Super Robot Wars Z took up most of the attention in imports this month, and our own Dave Cabrera gave it a full review. But who needs a glorious pileup of anime robot references when the return of the first truly great arcade game is at hand? I speak of Pengo, Sega's early festival of penguins pushing ice blocks and dancing to classical overtures. And this isn't just regular Pengo; it's Pengo RingWide Edition, which brings the game to modern multiplayer glory.

Ge-Sen Love isn't limited to Pengo, of course. Three other titles lie in this compilation. Action Skills Test is a series of mini-games where the player guides sentai-suited superheroes through whack-a-mole, track meets, side-scrolling brawlers, and other button-mashing challenges. Shooting Skills Test sets out various old-fashioned tests in the tradition of Triangle Service's older Shooting Love titles. CombatZeal is a more elaborate take on the same idea, stringing together longer forays through asteroid fields, tank battalions, and other typical shooter stages, complete with a split-SCREEN mode where players send enemy bullets hurling at each other.

And then there's Pengo RingWide Edition, which does for Pengo what Pac-Man Championship Edition did for that particular Atari-era icon. The Pengo playfield now covers a huge area that up to eight little penguin opponents can explore, and new rules join the old ones. Pengo still shoves blocks to squash Sno-bee blobs, but giant enemies and resurrected penguins (complete with little halos) complicate things. A pity there's no online multiplayer.

Import Barrier: Ge-Sen Love Plus Pengo is region-free, and only a few of the shooter levels present obtuse concepts.

Chances of a Domestic Release: Very slight, but an XBox Live version of Pengo Ringwide Edition would delight us all. Or just me, I guess.

Frivolous Trinkets: The special edition of Ge-Sen Love Plus Pengo comes with a soundtrack CD. Presumably it doesn't include the original Pengo music—or Gershon Kingsley's “Popcorn,” as it's better known.

Some of you may remember Tokyo Majin, a teenagers-versus-monsters show that ADV Films trotted out during the deflating phase of the Big Anime Bubble. It was but one part of the larger Tokyo Majin Gakuen series, which includes video games, manga series, and other proof that it's far more successful in Japan than it was over here. Its creator, Shuhou Imai, plumbs the same depths with Tokyo Twilight Ghosthunters, a mixture of visual-novel storytelling and odd RPG combat. He's accompanied by Tomio Kanazawa, best known for his work on everyone's favorite awful game, Deadly Premonition.

Imai and Kanazawa stick to off-the-shelf premises: you're the newest transfer student at Kurenai Academy, and your first look around the school brings you face to face with ghosts and a secret society that hunts them. As their latest recruit, you explore psychological labyrinths in a bizarre dimen—no wait, that's Persona. Your role in Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters has you planting traps for ghosts and directing your teammates. The storyline progresses through the character cutouts and dialogue common to any visual novel, but here the portraits animate with a pulsing detail reminiscent of the shopkeeps in Dragon's Crown. Your interactions also go into some depth, with each response picking from five different emotions and five different senses.

When not chatting with concerned teachers or romancing classmates, you guide fellow demon-hunters through stages rigged with traps that render ghosts visible and vulnerable. You can switch between area maps and first-person viewpoints, and battles play out in the latter perspective. Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters also sports some music by Nobuo Uematsu, plus an in-depth board game for a side attraction. There's lot to it, no denying that, but will it entice Western audiences when Tokyo Majin didn't? We may never find out.

Import Barrier: All of the in-game dialogue is Japanese, and you know what that means for monolingual anglophones. But both the PS3 and Vita are region-free!

Chances of a Domestic Release: Not too good, considering how Tokyo Majin disappeared in a hurry. Still, it's an Arc System Works release, and that gives Aksys Games an inside chance at snagging it.

Frivolous Trinkets: There are no gewgaws to speak of just yet, but give it time. A music CD wouldn't be a bad idea, what with Uematsu aboard.

The Denpa Men series belongs on that short list of video games apparently derived from paranoid delusions: the titular men are impish, pajama-clad creatures that live in the Wi-Fi waves all around us. Yes, it's just the game's way of generating characters, but I still wouldn't show it to that guy who wraps who raves about CIA Internet assassins and passes out incomprehensible pamphlets in front of the post office.

As in past Denpa Men outings, the little folk are born from the player's 3DS detecting Wi-Fi signals. The resulting Denpa Men come in varying sizes and colors: red ones take less damage from flame attacks, large ones are slower, and antennae-sporting Denpa Men can use various skills. The Denpa Men march forth single-file like Pikmin, engaging in RPG battles as they explore their world. Among the new abilities in Denpa Men 3 is a monster-capturing talent that lets the little guys snare and summon creatures in battle.

Battles aren't the limit of Denpa Men 3, either. Players build worlds around their crew of multicolored, goofy-faced explorers, letting them plant gardens, catch fish, sell items at a market, and decorate their rooms with wallpapers, furniture, and arcade games. It's a bit like a small-scale Animal Crossing, and players can even rent out their Denpa Men to other 3DS owners for in-game money. That's all part of the conspiracy, I'm sure.

Hakuouki is clearly a Thing on these shores with the release of Stories of the Shinsengumi. The series now has the multiple re-issues, the spin-offs, and of course the lavish special edition. Stories of the Shinsengumi's pricier package comes with a comb, a hair pin, an omamori charm, and a nice lacquer-esque box. That's a Thing.

The core of Stories of the Shinsengumi is Hakuouki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom, the original tale of a young woman named Chizuru meeting up with the handsome ranks of the Shinsengumi and unraveling the secrets behind her father's disappearance. Numerous plot threads and endings lie in the visual-novel flow of character interaction, and this PlayStation 3 port has improved character animation. Stories also includes Zuisouroku, a semi-sequel that goes into further depth about the various Shinsengumi warriors. Aksys promises some 20 additional hours of content, though we must remember that game-length estimates have been on the liberal side ever since the days of Chrono Trigger's purported 70-hour playtime.

Yet there's a lot of material within Stories of the Shinsengumi. Most interesting is an unlockable extra story where the characters become high-school students and teachers in modern-day Japan. This isn't quite as elaborate as the recent Sweet School Life, which had the same premise and is currently available only in Japan. But if Stories of the Shinsengumi does well enough, Aksys might just bring another chunk of the series over here.