For over 25 years now, we’ve been hearing stories of how the Dragon Quest games can outright cripple neighborhoods in Japan when they release. We’ve all heard about the supposed Dragon Quest law, that prohibits the game from being released on a school or work day. Indeed, Dragon Quest is a cultural institution in Japan, so combining it with the biggest-selling game system of all time has to be a no-brainer!

Well, Japanese gamers have been playing the game for a year already – the game has seen cross promotion with McDonald’s and several local beverage makers. But in its home country, Dragon Quest IX hasn’t been as well received as we’d expect. The game even dropped to a budget price shortly after release. So finally, after a year of waiting for a domestic localization, English-speaking gamers can finally get their hands on Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, an exclusive to the Nintendo DS. The question on everybody’s minds, then, is it worth the wait? In a word, yes. Yes it is.

Dragon Quest IX is, ultimately, a very traditional Japanese RPG. If you’re not a fan of the genre, then know immediately that this is not the game for you. The game sets players wandering an overworld map and static dungeons in much the same manner we’ve come to expect over these many years, and the menu-based battle system treads mostly familiar territory. It’s not a flavor that everybody gets into. But if the words “turn-based combat” and “overworld map” ring bells, continue on!

Make your hero as cool or as ridiculous as you like.

In Dragon Quest IX, players are given the chance to create their own hero for their main character. It’s a rather simple customization process, letting you select from a handful of body types, gender, faces and hairstyles, and then you’re off and running.

The game casts your character as a member of an angelic race known as the Celestrians, guardians of the mortal realm who protect humans from danger and do good works for their assigned territories. They aim to gather the manifestation of the people’s thanks and faith, which they offer up to the world tree, Yggdrasil. Their goal is to bring the tree to bear fruit, which would herald the end of their stewardship of the planet and ascension to another plane. Of course, something goes wrong and it’s up to the player to set things right.

The game takes notes from earlier entries in the series, when it comes to the day-to-day operation of the game, most specifically Dragon Quest III. Your character can recruit a trio of party members from a local inn to accompany him or her on their quest to save the world, with each character having a special class, or in-game, vocation. Initially, you can choose from the traditional warrior, mage, priest, thief, martial artist and minstrel classes, but later in the game characters will be able to change their class to some upgraded vocations, including gladiator, paladin and more.

Of course, the main thing classes have bearing on are battles, which is what you’ll spend the bulk of your time on in game. But here you have one of the biggest improvements to the game: No more random battles. Many RPGs have eschewed this particular practice long ago, with the Dragon Quest series being one of the last holdouts, but no longer. Whether you’re on the world map or in a dungeon, you can see monsters creeping around on the screen, and you can choose to fight or avoid them at will. Sometimes they’ll notice you, and give chase, and you won’t escape them all, but it’s a vast improvement on the formula that right off the bat, we’re excited to explore and travel far more than in any Dragon Quest game prior.

The battles themselves are pretty traditional – you select each character’s action off a menu, though you can set your companions to act under the auspices of an AI if you like. Dragon Quest IX takes a couple of pages from earlier games here as well, including building up your characters via earned skill points, and a damage-increasing “tension” system that causes your characters to hit harder than normal. Each class also has a unique “coup d’grace” move, which will do anything from increase the amount of experience gained for the battle, reduce MP cost for spells to zero, or provide a guaranteed critical hit.

Dragon Quest IX features other small improvements as well. The alchemy pot is back, though it’s refined a bit and the process lets you work off of found recipes as much as experimentation. The menus are more refined as well, and it’s now easier to buy and sell or transfer items. Nothing revolutionary, but it’s a welcome update to an otherwise dated experience.

The biggest feature of the game, and the most advertised, is the multiplayer. Instead of recruiting characters at the inn, gamers can get their real-life friends’ characters involved in their quest, via local wi-fi play. When entering into a friend’s game, you can roam free at will throughout the world, but if the game host needs your assistance, they can summon you immediately to battle. There are other benefits to multiplayer as well, as some items will be easier to find in one person’s game versus another, and because of the game’s class system, playing multiplayer quests are a great opportunity to beef up some underleveled vocations you might have.

At the feet of the tree Yggdrasil.

As for the quest itself, it is pretty traditional Dragon Quest fare. While there is an overarching plot, the game is mostly built on what amounts to several vignettes that tie into the main storyline somewhat incidentally. Combined with companion characters that generally don’t have much personality, if any, and you wind up with a pretty weak narrative. However, it’s pretty clear that Dragon Quest games haven’t been acclaimed for their storytelling, and mostly they’re an excuse to pick up treasure and fight some monsters. In that function, the story works quite well. And that’s not to say that every character is lifeless. We found the fairy train engineer Stella growing on us, and a great many of the various townspeople you meet throughout the game have some interesting quirks about them which make them interesting to talk to from time to time.

From a technical standpoint, the game is outstanding. Not only is it a great looking DS game, featuring rich textures and a shading style evocative of the game’s concept artwork, but it’s possibly one of the best looking Dragon Quest games as well. Sure, the game’s predecessor on the PS2 had higher polygon counts, but that doesn’t stop Dragon Quest IX from being outright gorgeous.

The game’s sound and music are pretty good too, drawing on series leitmotifs as well as ancient and well-used, but well-recognized sound effects for transitions and battles. They may be dated, but for longtime series fans, it’s familiar and comforting ground.

A whole new world awaits!

Ultimately, it’s a game that will keep RPG fans occupied for a great many hours. The refinements and innovations to the traditional Dragon Quest formula are not only welcome but long overdue, and make for a better experience. It’s a game that’s easy to pick up, but hard to put down. You’ll need to be able to look past the lack of character development and straightforward battle system, though everything that Dragon Quest IX does, it does well. Gamers will also be well-served in seeking out some local friends with a copy of the game for some multiplayer action as well, it’s a unique and interesting way to approach the genre. So if RPG staples tick off your boxes, then you’re in for a treat. We absolutely recommend picking this game up, and giving it a try.

Preordering Sonic Colors for the Nintendo DS or Wii from Gamestop nets you this amazing/ridiculous Sonic the Hedgehog hat. Preorder hats are becoming more and more of a thing, considering similar deals happened with Scribblenauts’ Rooster Hat, and Persona 3 Portable’s Junpei Hat. Even Modern Warfare 2 came with headgear of some kind.

So who’s in for a Sonic hat? Would you even wear it? Would you wear it in public?

[source] Gamestop

In any event, Fils-Aime demonstrated the device on the show, after which he told Fallon that it would be coming out “next year.”

So there you have it. Please update your wish lists accordingly.

The partnership was first proposed by musician Naoya Fujimaki, a musician who’s close to both outfits. As Studio Ghibli had just completed Ponyo, their most recent theatrical release, they were without anything to do.

“I think [Level-5 head Akihiro] Hino really has luck on his side,” he says. “The entirety of Ghibli was free of work at just that moment. Miyazaki may say that he hates games, but being a businessman, Suzuki isn’t going to just let his staff play around all day.”

The game revolves around a little boy named Oliver, who ventures into the world of Ni no Kuni to rescue his recently deceased mother. Accompanied by a sprite named Shizuku, Oliver (and by extension, the player) handles the challenges of Ni no Kuni by drawing symbols from a magic book to cast spells. Players are to be given a physical copy of the book when they purchase the game. In the DS version, this is done via the touch screen. Perhaps the PS3 version will include PlayStation Move support – if so, this will be an absolutely killer app for the motion controller.

With Studio Ghibli working on boatloads of original material for the game, fans will likely salivate at the prospect of getting this new footage in 1080p, a vast upgrade from the DS’s comparatively tiny resolution.

There aren’t any other tidbits of information in the article, aside from the platform announcement. It’s not clear whether the DS version is still coming, or if it was canceled in favor of this upgraded version. Level 5 has scheduled a press conference later this week, so we’ll bring you updates as we get them.

Announced in earlier in the year, Nintendo took the opportunity of E3 to officially unveil their newest handheld and the successor to the DSi: the Nintendo 3DS. Nintendo’s second try at true 3D after the abysmal failure of the Virtual Boy console, the 3DS is a new revision and upgrade of the current DS that will feature true 3D effects without the use of glasses. It also features a built in 3D camera that enables users to take actual digital photos with the 3D effect, though how this feature would be used in actual games has not been shown. We showed you the actual console earlier in the week, but we thought we’d bring you some screen shots from almost every announced 3DS game that was shown at E3. Some of these screens are from actual games running, while others are mere tech shots from the developers who wanted to show what they are shooting for graphics wise. Enjoy!

Animal Crossing 3DS:

Battle of Giants: Dinosaur Strike:

Chocobo Racing 3D:

DJ Hero 3D:

Dead Or Alive:

Ghost Recon:

Hollywood 61:

Kid Icarus Uprising:

Kingdom Hearts:

Mario Kart:

Metal Gear Solid 3D Snake Eater The Naked Sample:

Nintendogs + Cats:

Paper Mario:

Pilotwings Resort:

Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle:

Resident Evil Revelations:

Ridge Racer:

Samurai Warriors 3D:

The Sims 3:

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory:

Star Fox 64 3D:

Steel Diver:

Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time:

Nintendo hasn’t announced the storage capacity of the device yet, but it does have an SD card slot, so similar to the DSi and the Wii, whatever storage space it DOES have can be augmented.

Of course, until we can confirm this with Nintendo, you’ll want to treat this as a rumor. But if we could have a library of DS games in our pocket to play at the tap of a button? Well, let us be the first to welcome you to the future.

[source] Andriasang

No, okay we don’t really believe that either, but it sounded clever at the time. Either way, there’s a Paper Mario game coming to the 3DS. Here are some screens!

We don’t yet know if there’ll be some fancy 3D work in the game, these screens don’t really show it. But that’s ok, it’s Paper Mario and it’s in your pocket. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Were you hoping for 3D? Don’t feel too bad, here are some more screens to tide you over til we have more news on the game. You might be pleasantly surprised!

There’re a lot of games already planned for the new handheld, outside of Nintendo’s own internal development. Some of the titles are just early-stage plans on the part of some companies, but there’s a good chance that most of these will see the light of day, as third parties get on board with the 3DS.

Here’s the full list of games and/or franchises that will see release on the 3DS as we know it right now:

Nintendo
Animal Crossing
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Mario Kart
Nintendogs + Cats
Paper Mario
Pilotwings Resort
Star Fox 64 3D
Steel Diver

Activision
DJ Hero 3D

AQ Interactive
Cubic Ninja

Atlus
Etrian Odyssey
Shin Megami Tensei
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

Capcom
Resident Evil: Revelations
Super Street Fighter IV 3D

EA
FIFA Soccer
Madden NFL
The Sims 3

Gameloft
Asphalt GT

Harmonix
(Untitled Music Game)

Hudson
Bomberman
Deca Sports
Kororinpa

Konami
(Untitled Baseball Game)
Contra
Frogger
Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D “The Naked Sample”
Pro Evo

Level 5
Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle

Majesco
BloodRayne: the Shroud
A Boy and His Blob
Face Racers: Photo Finish
Lion’s Pride: Adventures on the Serengeti
Martha Stewart
WonderWorld Amusement Park

Marvelous
BOKUJYOUMONOGATARI 3D (Harvest Moon to us gaijin)

Namco Bandai
Dragon Ball
Gundam
Pac-Man & Galaga
Ridge Racer
Super Robot Wars

Rocket
Crash City GP
Super Robo

SEGA
Sonic the Hedgehog
Super Monkey Ball

Square Enix
Codename: Chocobo Rcing 3D
Dragon Quest
Final Fantasy
Kingdom Hearts

Take-Two
Carnival Games

Tecmo Koei
Dead or Alive 3D
Dynasty Warriors
Ninja Gaiden
Samurai Warriors 3D

Tomy
Lovely Lisa 3D
Naruto Shippuden Action

THQ
de Blob 2
Kung Fu Panda: Kaboom of Doom
Marvel Super Hero Squad Infinity Gauntlet
The Penguins of Madagascar
Puss N Boots
Saints Row: Drive By

Ubisoft
Assassin’s Creed: Lost Legacy
Battle of Giants: Dinosaur Strike
Driver Renegade
Hollywood 61
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

Warner Bros.
Batman
LEGO

8:30AM – Just like last year, they’re doing pre-show trivia. Some of the factoids are kind of interesting. Apparently more than 177 million Miis have been created worldwide since the launch of the Wii.

9:00AM – The lights are going down! Let’s do this!

9:01AM – Here’s Reggie! Good morning, Reggie! “For gamers, this is the best time of the year.” 9:02AM – “The headlines seem to spin on technology, but this morning, let me adjust that… the only thing that matters is the experience.”

9:03AM – New Legend of Zelda trailer for Wii 9:04AM – It’s a little cartoony looking, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Here comes a video presentation from Miyamoto on the game.

9:06AM – Wii Remote and Wii MotionPlus (plus nunchuck) will be used to use your sword and shield. It sounds like it’s going to be on rails. That’s not exciting at all.

9:07AM – Bill Trinen is on stage, and it looks like he’ll be playing Skyward Sword here. Okay, it’s not on rails. Phew.

9:08AM – Bill can’t really hack it, so Miyamoto “warps” from the video and appears from behind the curtain on stage. Haltingly in English, he instructs Bill to just handle the speech, while Miyamoto plays the game and discusses it in Japanese. 9:10AM – This is actually looking prety cool. It’s all on a 1-1 movement with the sword and shield, and it all plays into each other. To fight the plants, you have to cut them in the same direction as their mouths. Also looks like return of the sword beam by charging it up by holding it skyward (heh), or spin slashes by slashing with both your hands.

9:12AM – Miyamoto twirls his sword in a circle to confuse an enemy and get access to a locked door. Behind it, enemies come at Link guarding themselves with helmets or with their weapons, requiring a slash in the appropriate direction to get around their guard.

9:13AM – Link has some new moves, like a sprint, and new items, like a whip. First on display though… a slingshot. Either it’s not that accurate, or Miyamoto’s not a great shot.

9:15AM – After that, the classic bomb, and the bow. Miyamoto is having some problems with them, and Trinen hits us with a reference to Apple’s wifi failure from a couple weeks ago.

9:16AM – Next up, that’s no boomerang! That’s a remote control beetle! A mechabeetle!

9:17AM – Now, as mentioned, the whip. This one looks cool! It moves organically with the Wii remote, and Link can use it to grab weapons and enemies.

9:19AM – Miyamoto says they’ve been spending a lot of time on the polish, and we won’t see it until 2011. Can’t wait!

9:20AM – It’s a gameplay montage. Firing the beetle to grab bombs, catching hearts with the bow and arrow, and a cliff dive! This one looks like fun. And this is just the top line, Reggie says. The goal is to provide new experiences for everyone.

9:22AM – Introducing “titles that are squarely based on universal appeal.” – Reggie

9:23AM – Talking about arcade games and sports games, like Madden and NBA Jam. But he teases up a new Mario sports game.

9:24AM – Here comes Mario Volleyball! And hockey! And dodgeball! And basketball! It’s Mario Sports Mix, coming in 2011. Already 2011 is shaping up to be a big year for Nintendo. But what about 2010?

9:25AM: “Last December, we set the all time record sales record for a video game system in a given month.” Wii owners actually play their systems more often than other console owners according to NPD, Reggie says. He adds that intent to buy a Wii is also greater than other consoles combined.

9:26AM: Reggie’s using the term “Bridge Title.” Here comes Wii Party. It’s a party game with 13 modes featuring Miis, 70 minigames. There’s like, three people clapping. 9:27AM: Reggie highlights the performance of Just Dance. Here comes Just Dance 2.

9:29AM: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn for the Nintendo DS. Here comes a trailer! Looks like lots of traditional top-down 2D RPG action. Turn-based battles in full 3D. 9:31AM – Golden Sun: Dark Dawn arrives this holiday season. But forget about that, here comes GoldenEye!

9:32AM – Exclusively for the Wii, with local and online multiplayer. Featuring Daniel Craig instead of Pierce Brosnan. Bunches of multiplayer modes including paintball and You Only Live Twice. It hits this holiday.

9:33AM – Here comes Disney Epic Mickey, exclusive to Wii. It “sets a new tone and new direction for Mickey.” Warren Spector takes the stage to talk about it. He’s joined by Adam Creighton, producer on the project.

9:35AM – The game will tap into 80 years of “forgotten” Disney history – “Wasteland.” It’s a ‘quest zone’ where Mickey can get supplies and learn what he needs to do to progress. The game isn’t just about the cartoons, it also features things from the theme parks like the Tiki Room and the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse.

9:37AM – Mickey can use paint and paint thinner to control the world. Players can change the world to save it. “Play style matters.” How Mickey changes the world affects how characters treat him. “Do you use paint to turn enemies to friends, or do you simply defeat them?” 9:40AM – “Travel Zones” are 2D platformers inspired by classic Disney cartoons. They’re showing us one inspired by Steamboat Willie. This looks awesome.

9:41AM – e3.nintendo.com has an interview with Warren Spector conducted by Satoru Iwata.

9:41AM – Reggie namedrops Masahiro Sakurai. He mentions Super Smash Bros., and Kirby. Looks like a new Kirby game. He hasn’t had a starring role in 7 years. Here’s the trailer for Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Oh wow, it looks like it’s all made out of yarn and fabric. 9:45AM – Dragon Quest IX talk coming up, talking stats. 120 Mini Quests, 900 items, 300 monsters, randomly generated treasure maps.

9:46AM – Dated for arrival in the U.S. on July 11.

9:47AM – August 31 – Metroid Other M. Here’s a trailer. Lots of gameplay footage. It’s 2.5D, sort of? 9:50AM – It’s “traveling into emotional corridors that haven’t been explored before.” 9:50AM – Here comes a Donkey Kong Country game trailer. Developed by Retro Studios, it’s a 2D sidescrolling platformer.

9:50AM – It’s got some neat graphical effects, and it’s the original team of Donkey Kong and Diddy, featuring the mine cart levels that folks hated. Donkey Kong Country Returns – “going back to the jungle this holiday.”

9:52AM – “With all the names we’ve mentioned, you may feel your gaming memories sliding into the past. But we’re going to close today, by throwing you into the future of gaming… 3D play, with Nintendo 3DS is on the way.”

9:53AM – No glasses, and “ample game content” on the first day on the market.

9:54AM – It’s rising from the stage, and it’s blue. Here comes Satoru Iwata to talk about it.

9:56AM – 2 screens, one of them with 3.5″ a widescreen display, analog stick, two cameras on the outside. There’s a slider on the side of the device to adjust the 3D depth. Also includes a motion sensor and gyroscope.

9:57AM – A touchscreen and 3D screen don’t get along well, Iwata says, so the smaller bottom screen is the only touchscreen. It’ll feature graphical improvements that “might cause some excitement in the development community.”

9:59AM – It can also take 3D pictures, and play 3D “Hollywood movies.” They aren’t announcing specific plans this week.

10:01AM – Project Sora, from 2009, was an initiative specifically to develop 3DS games. The big launch title? KID ICARUS. WHAT?? “Sorry to keep you waiting,” Pit says.

10:02AM – This looks outstanding, kind of like Sin and Punishment. And the system itself? Super powerful, this looks like a Wii game. Truthfully I’m getting chills. This is an exciting development. And of course, Eggplant Wizards CONFIRMED.

10:05AM – 3DS periodically searches for Wifi spots and other 3DSes “without you knowing.” The hardware supports automatic communication regardless of the software being played.

10:06AM – No charge for online access on the 3DS.

10:10AM – Here come 3rd party devs to talk about their experience with the 3DS. There’s lots of support coming. Capcom, Konami, etc. They’re teasing DJ Hero 3D, Kingdom Hearts 3D, Saints Row, Madden, Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden, Street Fighter, Ridge Racer, Professor Layton and even Metal Gear!

10:19AM – And now here comes hundreds of models with 3DSes strapped to them, for people to try out, and Wiis rising from the floor for folks to try the new Zelda. Neat! And with that, we’re done. Thanks for check it out! Stay tuned later for the Sony keynote!

[photo credit] Kotaku.com