Chrono Trigger, in my opinion the best RPG of the SNES era, is returning! This time to the Nintendo DS.
According to a scan from Famitsu magazine posted on a japanese blog, the game will be an enhanced port of the SNES classic and will be arriving to the portable system in Winter of 2008. This was officially confirmed with an official Square-Enix teaser site.
Wired Game|Life blogger Chris Kohler astutely points out that those gamers expecting Chrono Trigger to come out on the Virtual Console will be disappointed because, well, “Why sell it for $8 when they can slap it onto a Nintendo DS cartridge and get $40?”. And he’s absolutely right. Square Enix fans are absolutely the most rabid of consumers of anything Square Enix related. How many versions of Final Fantasy I have come out? Like 5? How many versions of Final Fantasy IV have/will be coming out? Like 3? (Ok, I’m part of the problem here. I have the SNES and the GBA versions of IV and will be picking up the DS remake when it comes out this summer).
How obsessive was I over Chrono Trigger? I defeated the penultimate dungeon 3 times…in the same playthrough. I cleared through the Black Omen in the 1000A.D., 600A.D., and in 12000 B.C., which to my disappointment did not do anything at all special. I played through the game at least 10 times to try to see all the different endings snuck into the cartridge. I was so gay for Chrono Trigger 
Still, the stupid Square fanboy in me will undoubtedly be picking up this version of Chrono Trigger when its released. This game is probably in my top 3 games of all time and the number of hours spent on this game tinkering with the space-time continuum easily number over 150 across all playthroughs. There’s just something about doing something in the prehistoric past knowing that it will could drastically change something millions of years later.
Chrono Trigger Revived for Nintendo DS
Chrono Trigger DS! -An enhanced port, not a remake.
No surprises here: this past weekend’s Blizzard Worldwide Invitational saw the company announce the next game of their money-printing triumvirate of games with Diablo III. After a week of teasing via splash pages on the Blizzard web site, was there really any surprise? They had already announced WoW: Wrath of the Lich King and Starcraft II: the only real thing left was the Diablo series.
The screens look exactly how I expected them to look like: a hi-res Diablo II. Which honestly is how I would handle the beloved franchise as to not be subjected to the ire of the millions and millions of Diablo fans. Myself one of them. If the original formula isn’t broke, why change it?
At the same time, I find myself to be a bit lukewarm to the announcement. My college days involved me playing a LOT of Diablo and Diablo II, getting totally immersed in the story and the lore. Undoubtedly, I will play through Diablo III to see the continuation of the storyline. However, I can’t help but feel that they’re hitting the same tried and true formula a little bit too well: the barbarian video was basically the previous game rendered in hi-res graphics. To Blizzard’s credit, the videos and screens look absolutely gorgeous. But at the same time, I do not see myself spending nearly as much time with Diablo III as I did with the previous games. Which has nothing to do with the quality of the game but rather the ground already seems well tread. And this is coming from a HUGE Blizzard fan.
Perhaps these feelings will change when I head to Blizzcon in October. But till then, I’m holding back the horses just a little bit.
What I would love to see from Blizzard is a return to some of their older franchises. How about modernized version of “The Lost Vikings”? How about venturing into the stealth action genre by officially resuming work on Starcraft:Ghost? Or…how about a new IP?
Megaman 9 is coming to WiiWare!
The original Megaman franchise will be returning to consoles, according to several scanned images from the upcoming issue of Nintendo Power via the folks at the NeoGAF forums.
From the forums, the supposed roster for the robot masters include Magma Man, Galaxy Man, Jewel Man, Tornado Man, Concrete Man, Hornet Man, Plug Man, and Splash Woman(!), covering all the traditional weather environments as well as including a robot mistress for the first time in the series.
While it’s definitely true that the Mega Man series has perennially jumped the sharkman (the phenomena of the early games in new Megaman series starting out well and then degenerating into crap), what makes this case extra special is that Capcom is seemingly returning to its 8-bit roots for this game and styling it to match the old NES era sprite graphics.
The Blue Bomber has always held a special place in my heart as the first third party NES game I have ever played. Mega Man 2 and 3 are some of my all-time favorites on the console and just the mention of this incredible news brings back memories of early morning gaming sessions as a nine year old throwing metal blades at those stupid bats in the Woodman stage. Props to Capcom: this is a good move!
How about Mega Man 2 and 3 to the Virtual Console to accompany 9, eh? EH!
Mega Man 9 – CONFIRMED for WiiWare! Time to clean out yo fridge!
OMG: Retro-Styled Mega Man 9 on WiiWare
