Highly speculated and very much a rumour at this stage however, many fans regard Resident Evil 2 to be amongst the best in its series so a remake would be highly welcome. The attention and love that went into the original Gamecube remakes were fantastic but sadly came at the wrong time for Nintendo’s cubed console. With the success of Resident Evil 4 though on the Nintendo Wii, gamers have been crying out for the second game in the franchise to be remade with the same amount of love and attention to detail.

We as gamers can only hope and wish for it to happen as it is very unlikely that a Resident Evil 5 port will be coming to the Nintendo Wii which is a shame. Perhaps then a remake would fill the void and then the question rises… Which game would you look forward to more?

The latest news seems to suggest so. Its not new for Square-Enix to buyout a company as not only did Square merge with Enix previously, they also acquired Taito back in 2005. Tecmo is a company currently in turmoil after lead developer Tomonobu Itagaki resigned from the company due to alleged ‘unpaid bonuses’. He also released a press statement to the media straight away which caused a stir on the internet, with many fans adoring him and respecting his work at Team Ninja with the Dead or Alive series and Ninja Gaiden, while there were many others as well loathing him for his rock lifestyle and crybaby tactics. While one man doesn’t always define a team, for Team Ninja (and Tecmo) it would be akin to Hideo Kojima leaving Konami.

If this merger does come through it will help boost Square-Enix’s profile greatly in the West because a huge proportion of their games are RPG based, of which takes many years to develop. With franchises like Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden, Monster Rancer and Rygar just to name a few to play with, they will also inherent a talented team to develop other genres.

This could also let Square stretch its wings more in the fighting arena after developing a very action centric Final Fantasy game in Dissidia. Imagine a Dead or Alive fighting engine but with Final Fantasy characters, since Namco has allowed 3rd Parties to have characters of their own in Soul Calibuer IV, this could be quite a coup to cash in on both popular franchises. Do you think this is a good move though for Square-Enix to start diversifying? I can’t see Square-Enix allowing a game like Final Fantasy: Volleyball Edition but I’m sure it won’t stop eager (and perhaps over-excitable) fans from wishing so!

UK distributor Manga Entertainment have done a deal to bring more anime titles to our shores thanks to US publisher Funimation. Have a look at the list below!

* Black Blood Brothers Series 1 Part 1 (November 10th 2008)
* Ghost Hunt Series 1 Part 1
* Itsudatte My Santa!
* Jy-Oh-Sei: Planet of the Beast King
* xxxHOLiC Series 1 Part 1 (October 27th 2008)

Its not a bad selection at all, with ecchi fans being happy with Itsudatte My Santa and a strong showing with Ghost Hunt and xxxHOLiC. I have seen most of Black Blood Brothers and found it rather average throughout, with very little keeping me coming back to it. I have not seem Planet of the Beast King although the title almost makes it sound like some ero title!

My first ever cosplay (just think costume play merged together, it’s the anime term for dressing up) was back in August 2005 when I attended Ayacon (3 day anime convention that took place at Warwick University). I was really into Full Metal Alchemist at the time so when I was mindlessly searching eBay one day many weeks before the convention and happened across an Ed Elric cosplay I just had to have it.

I sent off my measurements and waited patiently, a few weeks later my costume came and I excitedly tried it on parading it around the house to my Mom and sister, who as you can imagine thought I was a bit of a freak. They didn’t get anime and they certainly didn’t get cosplay so it was a common reaction… for them to think I was a freak.

My first couple of cons I crossplayed (play on the word cosplay means dressing up as someone of the opposite gender… In my case I dressed up as male anime characters), never quite daring enough to dress as any of the cute or sexy anime girls that had far more interesting outfits.

TaroTard as Luke Fon Fabre from Tales of the Abyss

(Read more…)

I don’t play many MMO games myself so was just browsing around and found this Korean game by Pentavibion that looks pretty interesting. Its a Third Person shooter with MMO undertones with quite a bit of character customisation and multiple skills to use during the game, of which it seems to use up an energy bar, akin to K.I/Chakara/Super Energy when enabled. The different skills vary from turning invisible, enabling wings to gain a height vantage and clear obstacles, a speed boost for running and a temporary turret shield amongst other abilities. An open beta was announced on the 13th August so if this looks like your cup of tea then give it a whirl! While these videos are of the Korean version, there is a European release available and I believe it is also PSP bound.

European S4 League website - http://s4.en.alaplaya.eu/

Check out the below video though for some promotional material to get a better idea of what the game is about.

Here is a gameplay video of S4 League in action!

Anyone who has played this though, what are your opinions on it? Sadly for me I suffer from motion sickness so cannot play FPS much at all, however the other games on the portal look rather interesting, of which I might cover here on eMagi.

As part of the shakedown from Amecon, there will be a series of interviews and diaries from new to seasoned cosplayers here exclusively on eMagi.co.uk. However this post concerns a certain site known as Cure. Never heard of it? Well then this might be a good opportunity to have a gander at a very impressive Japanese community of cosplayers at Cure with over 300,000 members and an average 50 million page views a month!

For those who cosplay or just want to get some ideas from some of the people that do it best, then why not join up and make your own profile there! Also if you are a cosplayer and have attended Amecon, previous cons or indeed the MCM London Expos then please get in touch as we at eMagi would like to hear from you!

The latest in the line of Naruto videogames appears on the Playstation 3 and boy does it look good. Sticking true to the hit anime, the game makes great use of cel shading techniques to bring the anime to life in 3D form. The game offeres multiplayer Vs modes while also providing a story mode which mirrors the timeline of the anime itself which is a neat mode also found in previous titles. Another nice addition is that you can select from the original Japanese Audio tracks or the dubbed English one in game to your own preference. It should be available now to download on the Playstation Store as a demo!

This is a little late in the day but here it is! If there is any incorrect information though listed please notify me so it can be corrected.

Following the streaming of the dub of Welcome to NHK, Crunchyroll has acquired the licences to stream for free (and pay to download) these following series:

Some of these I have seen already such as Kite: Liberator and Peace Maker Kurogane (of which I really enjoyed) so its quite a decent haul and of course the plus point is - Its 100% Legal and Free!

Great news for such fans of the original series! It was leaked from a BONES anime studio document that listed an animator, Yasuhiro Irie as the Full Metal 2 director and rumour spread.

In an official statement by BONES President Masahiki Minami, it stated that no document existed but was pressed about a possible sequel to the highly popular Full Metal Alchemist anime. Minami responded with:

“It hasn’t been decided yet. We are interested in doing them. As original science-fiction works, they were extremely fascinating. With these kinds of dramatic story lines, I feel that there’s a lot we could do potentially.”

How would you feel about a sequel? I thought the series ended rather well so it would be interesting to see which route is taken once the dust settles…