Entertainment Electronics Blog

The tower defense title Savage Moon is about to take its act on the road. Fluffylogic has announced that the formerly PS3-exclusive tower defense game will soon be on the PlayStation Portable.
“For the last few months FluffyLogic personnel have been toiling away in an underground bunker to produce the mobile incarnation of the game: Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign – featuring new weapons, new bugs, news maps and new gameplay,” wrote producer Ana Kronschnabl and designer Tom Rawlingson the PlayStation Blog.

New bugs include the Drainer, which emits a “bio-magnetic pulse-field” that can disable human technology, with the humans having developing the Sniper Tower in response. The latter’s name is pretty much self-explanatory, featuring the ability to seek out and destroy the deadliest bug on the map.

Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign is also introducing the ability to play as the Supreme Commander of the armada. Players will be able to take a tactical approach to the bug squashing, with the ability to concentrate their resources into different areas.

The original game was launched on the PlayStation Network last winter. No specific date for the PSP version, but it looks like we can expect it sometime next year.

Sony has managed to stir up quite a controversy with the release of the PSP Go. Whether it’s because of its omission of physical media, the lack of a UMD-to-digital conversion program, the crappy “bonus” that North Americans got for purchasing one… there’s more than a few reasons that have caused gamers to complain about the newest iteration of the PlayStation Portable. Now even Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, is questioning some of the choices that Sony has made.
Speaking with The Washington Post, Fils-Aime suggested the Go has a “fundamental concept problem in terms of ‘Who’s it for?’ and ‘What’s the benefit?’” And it’s difficult to provide solid answers to either of those questions. For current PSP owners, upgrading to the Go would leave their UMD collections worthless (and trust me, this is not a pleasant realization). Newcomers to the PSP are left to buy only games that are available on the PlayStation Store, and at the price that publishers set — no taking advantage of eBay, used games at GameStop, or a friend’s selection of games. And either way, $250 is awfully pricey.

Fils-Aime’s comments will ultimately only add fuel to the intense debate between the Goers and no-Goers out there. Don’t expect Sony to suddenly change directions because one its competitors doesn’t publicly agree with some of their decisions.

In Japan this week, Namco Bandai Games released the first details for Ar tonelico III, the latest in the RPG series that’s been released faithfully by NIS America over in the States. The new title, a PlayStation 3 exclusive, is set to go on sale January 28 over there for 7329 yen.
The first new game in the Ar series for about two years, Ar tonelico III is once again built around the concept of Song Magic, sung in a unique language known as Hymnos. This magic is the key to both the story and the battle scenes; it can also only be wielded by Reyvateils, who just happen to be really cute anime girls. Aoto, the hero, jouneys with two of these Reyvateils, Saki and Finel, in his journey.

As in previous games, you have the ability to “dive” into the minds of these Reyvateils, helping them unleash their full set of magic. Unlike previous games, though, the heroines have multiple personalities they can switch between, which can alter what abilities they have during battle. In addition, you can pick up parts of songs while diving into the girls’ minds, which you can then put together to form your own magic in the midst of battle.

More information on Ar tonelico III will be unveiled at the Akihabara Entertainment Festival 2009, set to take place this Sunday in Tokyo.