Bleeding Thumbs - May 09

By Jonti Davies

Aside from the scary 'zombie hunt through Africa' that was Biohazard 5, recent months have been a bit dull in Japan's game-scene so I decided to relax and let my bleeding thumbs heal over. May isn't going to be a particularly good month for gamers either, but it still marks an improvement over April and gives me an excuse to pick up a joypad again. Pity my blistered digits.

The first big release in May is Konami's Winning Eleven Playmaker 2009, which kicks off on the 14th and is a Wii exclusive. Like last year's version of this football ('soccer') game, Playmaker 2009 puts you in charge of the movement and play of your whole team via an on-screen cursor which you can direct using the Wii's unique remote control. It's a lot deeper tactically than the PlayStation and Xbox versions of Winning Eleven (aka Pro Evolution Soccer), but it's also a different kind of game; one that gets you to look at the entire pitch rather than just where the ball is at any given moment. Definitely worth a shot for Wii-owning footy fans around Japan. 

On the 21st, Xbox 360 owners in Japan at last get to play Mass Effect, a sci-fi RPG that had the press spewing superlatives until their guts were empty... 18 months ago. Quite why it's taken this long for a Japanese version of Mass Effect to appear is unclear, but perhaps Microsoft just hired a crappy translation company to do the localization work. I don't know. Anyway, it's a classy game. There's also an English-language Japanese version (if that makes sense) of MLB 2K9 out on the 21st, which must be good news for baseball-loving Xbox 360 aficionados. Again, I'm guessing - I don't know the first thing about baseball, other than the fact it seems a bit like an English game called rounders, which we used to play at school back in Blighty.

Also on the 21st, we get a new RPG from Kyoto mega-kaisha Nintendo: a title called Takuto of Magic, 'takuto' being taken from the German word 'Taktstock', which means 'baton'. Magic Baton, then. It looks like Zelda crossed with Pikmin, and is controlled via a virtual takuto that can be used to perform magic spells and stuff. Obviously the Japanese version is entirely in Japanese, but even nihongo-ignorant gamers should be able to get something from this; the action looks fairly self-explanatory, so you'll only be missing out on the story - and the story is probably as clichéd as that of any other Japanese RPG. "There was a legendary dragon in a lost kingdom whose supply of magic crystals had run dry, and then there was a big war over some sandwiches, and now you and your little elf friends need to save the world from an alien invasion." Or whatever.      

Meanwhile on Sony's PSP, again on the 21st, SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 turns up to remind everyone how great this Osaka company's games once were (actually, even SNK's new games are pretty decent). This compilation features 16 Neo-Geo classics, most of which genuinely are classics. (I'm not just going to use the term 'classic' that lightly.) Highlights include the M*A*S*H-style wartime fun of Metal Slug, overbaked football and golf sims in Super Sidekicks 3 and Neo Turf Masters, the run 'n' gun antics of Shock Troopers, and half a dozen beat 'em ups from the mid-1990s. Not bad at all for ¥3,980.  

Most of May's interesting new games happen to arrive together on the 28th. Tokyo-based strategy game specialist Koei brings Shin Sangoku Musou 5 Empires (aka Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires) to the PS3 and Xbox 360 formats, again offering players the chance to feud in feudal Japan. The complete disc-based version of Sony's PS3 curio The Last Guy (previously an episodic downloadable game only) promises an excellent, if odd, experience: you have to run about interactive Google Maps, rounding up helpless citizens and shepherding them to safety zones before they're devoured by nasty monsters. I was hooked on last year's downloadable Tokyo version of this game, but the disc release will take you all around the world. Get it if you're after something different.

There's also a local Japanese versions of hi-spec tennis sim Top Spin 3 (on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii) out on 28th, just in time for Wimbledon, strawberries and cream, and all that. Beyond that, PS3 owners can get some stealthy air combat from Tom Clancy's HAWX, while Xbox-heads have a 'bullet hell' of a 2D shoot 'em up to work through in Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi Extra, and Nintendo DS enthusiasts get once again to encounter Capcom's legal comedy series via a new title called Gyakuten Kenji (aka Miles Edgworth: Perfect Prosecutor). All that on the last videogame release day of the month - never mind your thumbs, just take care of your saifu.  

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