Cementing its position as the leading publisher of obscure Japanese titles, Atlus has announced that the dungeon crawling RPG Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns (NDS) will arrive in North America on July 22.

Said to feature more "zany characters and hilarious dialogue with hardcore dungeon RPG gameplay," the sequel begins as Izuna attends a wedding for the free food, only to find her sidekick missing and several foreign deities severely pissed off.

Featuring a new tag team system that lets the unemployed ninja combine her power with that of other party members, the second Izuna was once again developed by series creator Success.

Another entry in the Atlus-developed surgical series Trauma Center is headed to Nintendo DS later this year, according to DS Fanboy report citing the latest issue of magazine Nintendo Power.

Currently titled Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2, the sometimes-realistic surgery title will sport a rebalanced difficulty mode for those who found the original too frustrating.

Other discussed features included promise of improved surgical tools and the exposition of several unaddressed plot points.

Though only the second Trauma Center title for the DS, Under the Knife 2 will mark the fourth entry in the series care of the two Wii editions that have arrived since the initial release of the first DS installment.

Japanese developer Flight-Plan's Summon Night: Twin Age (NDS) is destined for North American shores on May 20, Atlus announced today. The publisher also unveiled a handful of English screenshots and a trailer. The latest in Flight-Plan's long-running Summon Night series, Twin Age brings a stylus-centric focus to the action RPG gameplay seen in previous North American releases Summon Night: Swordcraft Story (GBA) and its sequel.

The game is said to include alternate story paths, numerous battle options, side quests and multiple endings. Twin Age also incorporates weapon crafting and the ability to trade items via local wireless.

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Atlus USA today announced that Persona 3 FES, a 2-disc package including the original RPG title and a new expansion chapter, will be making it to North America on April 22.

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The company promises the new chapter will function as a stand-alone game, delivering over 30 hours of gameplay. However, players of the original title will be able to use their saved games in order to continue the story with old data.

Persona 3 FES will hit the PlayStation 2 on April 22 for an MSRP of $29.99.

Atlus announced today that its customization-focused tactical RPG Drone Tactics (NDS) is set for release on April 8 in North America, and released a handful of new screens.

An insectoid mashup of Square Enix's Final Fantasy Tactics and From Software's Armored Core, Drone Tactics features both traditional turn-based strategy gameplay in addition to a deep character customization aspect, which allows players to swap and modify weapons, power-ups, and squad composition.

The game features a lengthy single-player campaign, as well as local wireless multiplayer. Drone Tactics' April 8 release puts it some two weeks later than Atlus' original announcement of late March.

R-Type Command (PSP), Irem's turn-based tactical twist on its long-running arcade shooter series, will arrive in North America on May 6, publisher Atlus announced today.

Priced at $39.99, the grid-centric strategy game--known in Japan as R-Type Tactics--has players defending Earth by launching an attack into the heart of the Bydo Empire.

Close to 100 different units types, including Bydo craft, will be available for the purposes of armada building, and two players will be able to duke it out via local wireless multiplayer.

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Idea Factory's color-matching puzzler Octomania (Wii) is headed to North America, courtesy of publisher Conspiracy Entertainment and distributor Atlus. It will ship to stores on March 11 and sell for the budget price of $19.99.

Along with the news of the game's impending release, the companies sent over several screenshots of the title in action.

Developed under the supervision of Puyo Puyo creator Masamitsu Niitani, Octomania has players rotating squares to match up octopi of the same color and features two-person online multiplayer via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The game employs a hyper-saccharine visual style to weave the epic tale of a magician who must rid the land of the excess octopi created by a wayward spell.

A recent US study found that surgeons performed better after playing the Nintendo Wii prior to surgery, the Telegraph reports.

Dr. Kanav Kohel and Dr. Marshall Smith of the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Centre in Phoenix, Arizona asked eight surgical residents to put in an hour playing games on the Wii before performing surgery with a training tool that simulates a patient's body in 3D. Scores of those residents that warmed up with the Wii were 48% better than those who didn't.

Some games were more useful than others. Hudson Soft's Kororinpa Marble Mania (Wii), which requires more precise movements of the Wii remote, was noted by researchers as having a greater impact than games that prompt faster, broader movements like Nintendo's Wii Sports.

Researchers are developing specially designed software for the Wii to better meet the needs of doctors looking to tune their skills at home—Atlus' Trauma Center series apparently doesn't fit the bill.

Atlus is bringing Success Corp.'s portable strategy RPG Rondo of Swords (NDS) to North America on April 15, the publisher announced today.

The game tasks players with saving the Kingdom of Bretwalde and its princess after the unexpected passing of its king, which opens it up to an invasion from the tyrannous Grand Meir Empire. Players can use the touch screen to position party members, as well as use the title's errand systems to level up their characters outside of battle.

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Registered users can also use the HD stream.

Atlus today announced plans to bring a strategy RPG entitled Drone Tactics to Nintendo DS in North America. Drone Tactics was originally published by Success Corp. in Japan under the name Insect Wars (on that note, who remembers Battle Bugs on PC?).

It features both the traditional turn-based tactical element of most SRPGs as well as an involved customization aspect allowing players to modify weapons and power-ups on the insectoid robots that make up the game's squads. The strategic element is displayed in 2D with sprites, while robot modification sequences and battles are rendered in real-time 3D.

Drone Tactics features a single-player campaign consisting of several dozen maps, and multiplayer via local wireless. In addition to releasing a batch of screenshots from the original Japanese version of the game, Atlus said it plans to release the North American version on March 25, 2008.

Already released for PS2 in Japan, Sting's remake of its 1998 Saturn dungeon-crawler action-RPG Baroque (PS2, Wii) will be localized for a North American release in February. But the game will also arrive on the Wii, publisher Atlus announced, and retail on both platforms for $39.99.

Set in the post-apocalyptic future favored by many Atlus-published RPGs, Baroque features randomly generated dungeons as well as the prominent musical score for which the original game was known. Sting's most recent U.S. releases include Riviera (PSP, GBA) and Yggdra Union (GBA).

Irem Software Engineering's PSP version of Sekkoia's renowned board game Blokus is on its way to North America in early 2008, publisher Majesco announced today.

Titled Blokus Portable: Steambot Championship, it combines characters from Irem's Steambot Chronicles--a mech-and-music-focused PlayStation 2 action-adventure game published domestically by Atlus--with the simple-though-strategic gameplay of Blokus.

The concept behind Blokus has players placing colored squares on a board, with the goal to have have the corners, but not the sides, touching blocks of the same color. Though the board game only supports up to 4 players, the PSP version will allow up to 16 players to go head-to-head via local wireless multiplayer.

Draglade, the latest Atlus-published Nintendo DS title, heads to stores today. Utilizing a combat system known as "grapping," the game is said to combine rhythm and fighting into one harmonious whole. While it turns out that rhythm doesn't have much of a role in the fights, I was still kept quite entertained.

Draglade is a rather competent 2D brawler at heart, and the story mode provides a nice mix of character customization, one-on-one duels, and sidescrolling beat' em up segments. There's support for local wireless co-op, just in case someone in your immediate vicinity happens to have a DS and a copy of the game. You can even hop online and fight against other players.

It is not, as the back of the box suggests, a rhythm-based fighting game.
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For fans of Japanese RPGs and other quirky games like the Trauma Center series, Tokyo-based game developer and publisher Atlus is a well-known name. But none of the company's works have seen a release on Microsoft's Xbox 360 platform in the states.

That will change next year, as the North American publishing arm Atlus U.S.A. has become an official third-party publisher for Xbox 360, the company announced today. The first two titles coming to the platform will arrive in 2008: Operation Darkness from an unannounced developer and Spectral Force 3: Innocent Rage from Idea Factory.

Operation Darkness is a strategy RPG set in an alternate World War II-era reality, where magic-using soldiers must be utilized to overthrow Hitler's own sorcerous squadrons. Spectral Force 3 is the first in the series of tactical RPGs to come stateside and pits players as a mercenary able to recruit up to 40 characters in the mystical world of Neverland.

Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts for the DS and PSP will hit North America in February. The games are based on Atlus' 1989 Turbo-Grafx 16 action RPG Dungeon Explorer, which was released for Virtual Console early this year, and will be developed and published by Hudson Soft.

Though they share the same name, the two versions feature different storylines and battles. The PSP edition (pictured left) has players hunting down a legendary kingdom and battling demonic foes. The DS version (pictured right) is set centuries later and pits gamers against legions of the undead. In addition to the screenshots, Hudson sent over some concept art from the PSP iteration and the DS edition.

Both games provide opportunity for heavy character customization--including multiples classes and attacks--and will allow up to three characters to battle side-by-side via local wireless multiplayer. The DS version also supports online play via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Industry print publication Game Developer has released its 2007 list of Top 20 Publishers in video games, and the top slot has changed for the first time in the history of the annual feature, with third-party industry heavyweight Electronic Arts ceding the #1 crown to first-party manufacturer Nintendo. The title is the latest in a seemingly unending string of good news for the Kyoto-based hardware giant, which recently saw its stock hit a record high.

EA moved down to #2, with Activision coming in at #3, Ubisoft moving up to #4, and THQ rounding out the top five. Take-Two Interactive and Sega of America took the next two slots. As far as the other first-party publishers, Sony Computer Entertainment came in at #8, one slot above Microsoft Game Studios. Fans of niche Japanese gaming will be pleased to know that Atlus has joined the Top 20 for the first time at #18, while ailing Atari has dropped off.

Game Developer publisher CMP Game Group compiled its list by considering detailed responses from over 300 members of the game publishing community, as well as sales and review data, release portfolios, and employee pay.

A full list of the Top 20 Publishers follows. The full 100-page report is available for purchase from Game Developer Research, with a summary in the October 2007 issue of Game Developer. ... Read more

Killer 7 (PS2, GCN) developer Grasshopper Manufacture's newest game, the open-world beam-sword Wii title No More Heroes, will be published in America by Ubisoft this coming February, the publisher told IGN. The game is being published in Japan this December by Marvelous Interactive.

Like with Killer 7, Grasshopper Manufacture CEO Goichi Suda--known as Suda 51--is the director on No More Heroes, which isn't a sequel but brings the former psycho rails shooter's stylized aesthetic to the Wii title. As hardcore otaku Travis Touchdown, players will explore the open-world environment of fictional city Santa Destroy, California, and use the Wii remote to to become the world's deadliest assassin by dismembering competition.

"No More Heroes is unique in its gameplay--allowing players to combine cool weapons with advanced wrestling moves in their quest to become the world's number one assassin," Suda said. "We've already seen a... Read more

Details and screenshots of the first Wii effort from Odin Sphere (PS2) developer Vanillaware have appeared in the latest issue of Japanese gaming publication Famitsu, revealing a gorgeous 2D side scroller that calls to mind traditional hand-drawn animation.

Titled Oboro Muramasa Youtouden--a name that will no doubt be modified should it reach North America--the game appears set in a mystical rendition of feudal Japan, complete with samurai warriors and a towering blue-skinned cyclops.

An action RPG much like Odin Sphere, the title will make use of the Wii's distinctive capabilities for sword and other attacks. According to the accompanying text, it will compensate for the tastes of both casual players and those hardcore RPG fanatics that love to grind levels.

Published by Marvelous Entertainment, Oboro Muramasa Youtouden is expected in Japan this winter. No word on a North American release yet, though Atlus, which published Odin Sphere in North America, is a likely possibility.

Publisher Atlus today announced a quartet of games for the Nintendo DS, including a duet of music games, a sequel and a half to Touch Detective, and a new entry to its soap opera/sci-fi surgery sim series Trauma Center.

In Draglade, combat will be mixed with music as fighters battle for rhythmic supremacy. Centering around a weapon called the "Glade," which generate tones when used in combat, players will need to follow the beat and use their reflexes to survive. Features include customizable characters, unlockable characters, and multiplayer over both local and online wireless connections.

In another foray into musical games, Ontamarama will have players... Read more