Fire Emblem Awakening out today

Three years after the release of the rather lifeless Shadow Dragon, and five years since we were graced by the excellent Radiant Dawn, gaming’s preeminent strategy series has once again found it’s way to the west with today’s release of Fire Emblem Awakening. While I don’t much care for game reviews when it comes to tripul ay titles or artsy indie games, seeing a relatively niche eastern title sitting over 90 at Metacritic usually bodes well. And while a dumbing-down of the series could have driven those scores – Radiant Dawn was widely and embarrassingly criticized for it’s difficulty – it seems that Intelligent Systems has instead opted to lower the barrier of entry with the inclusion of Casual mode, while still retaining the level of challenge series vets expect. There is no game I’m more excited for this year, and I fully anticipate Awakening to stack up admirably against the sublime Radiant duo.

If it ever ships, that is.

Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem leaves me puzzled, excited

Well, this is a strange one. The assumed strategy mash-up was announced during today’s frantic Nintendo Direct, leaving fans on both sides of the title card wondering if they woke up on the wrong side of reality this morning. While nothing resembling gameplay footage was on display, we were party to some bodacious 2D character art camera pans the Japanese love so much.

As a Fire Emblem fan, I can hardly complain being mere weeks away from the first genuinely excited installment in over five years. And my limited experience with the SMT series – Strange Journey namely – has been a pleasant one. Consider my ears perked and my interest piqued.

First Look: Grasshopper’s Killer is Dead

The next title from the maniacal mind of Suda 51, Killer is Dead stars the arm-cannon wielding, katana slinging assassin Mondo Zappa in this hyper-violent, ultra-stylized actioner. While I can’t quite count myself among the ranks of the Suda faithful, I am interested to see the refinements and changes made from the cult-classic No More Heroes, the fatally flawed 2008 joint that Killer shares more than a passing resemblance to. More terrific bosses, fewer meatbag gauntlets. Please?

XSEED Bringing Pandora’s Tower to North America

XSEED Games today announced a Spring 2013 release for the long-awaited Wii Action RPG Pandora’s Tower, the third of three games targeted in 2011’s Operation Rainfall.

Final Fantasy All The Bravest Announced for iOS

Square Enix has announced Final Fantasy All The Bravest, a manic touch-based RPG exclusively for iOS slated for release January 17th. That’s tomorrow, for those of you keeping score.

Dead Island Riptide Special Edition Features Dismembered Female Torso (Really)

Making the early play for “Bone-headed PR Stunt of the Year”, Dead Island Riptide dev Deep Silver has announced plans to release a 12” dismembered torso statue as the centerpiece of their so-called “Zombie-Bait Edition”. Predictably, this gruesome sculpture has been met with revulsion and bewilderment, prompting this response via Deep Silver’s Twitter.

We deeply apologize for any offense caused by the Dead Island Riptide “Zombie Bait Edition”, the collector’s edition announced for Europe and Australia. Like many gaming companies, Deep Silver has many offices in different countries, which is why sometimes different versions of Collector’s Editions come into being for North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

For the limited run of the Zombie Bait Edition for Europe and Australia, a decision was made to include a gruesome statue of a zombie torso, which was cut up like many of our fans had done to the undead enemies in the original Dead Island.

We sincerely regret this choice. We are collecting feedback continuously from the Dead Island community, as well as the international gaming community at large, for ongoing internal meetings with Deep Silver’s entire international team today. For now, we want to reiterate to the community, fans and industry how deeply sorry we are, and that we are committed to making sure this will never happen again.

At a time where misogyny in gaming is under greater scrutiny than ever, and just weeks after one of the most horrific massacres in memory, it really begs the question: what the hell were they thinking? Or perhaps more troubling still, the idea that this is exactly how it was meant to play out.

After all, they did give us a warning.