After eight weeks on top, Nintendo's Mario Kart Wii was ousted from the top spot in Media Create's software chart list by Sega's Pro Yakyuu Team o Tsukurou! On the flip side, the PlayStation Portable is still enjoying a comfortable lead against its other hardware rivals. You can read the hard numbers to both the hardware and software charts in Japan by clicking on the "read more" link found below.

Umihara Kawase fans rejoice - not only is the game being ported over to the Sony PlayStation Portable, but it's also going to have quite the polish job. New stages, new artwork, a replay function that keeps track of your speed runs should you choose to try and blaze through the fields in the fastest time possible - Marvelous Interactive is certainly piling on the goodies as far as quirky platforming on the PSP is concerned. Check out the entire scoop in the full article.

Marvelous Interactive has announced that a PSP version of Umihara Kawase will be released in Japan next year. They've got a website up and the first couple of screens released.

Already, we're hoping that North America gets a port of this gem in the future. For those who aren't familiar with the cult classic, more details behind the link, as well as a video demonstrating what the gameplay is like.

While giving way to Sylvain White as the director for the Castlevania movie adaptation, Paul W.S. Anderson remains part of the project as a producer. In a recent interview, Anderson shared that the Castlevania movie's shooting will likely begin in a couple of months.

This is because they want the script to be done before the impending writer's strike. "I'm hoping to get a script for it in two or three weeks. And I'm hoping it's great. Sylvain White is directing it, and we're hoping to kind of make it a pre-strike movie. So it kind of shoots in the next couple months," said Anderson.

It was reported a while ago that Rogue Pictures wanted a complete overhaul to the Castlevania script. According to earlier reports, the previous plot of the planned Castlevania movie revolved around a knight from Transylvania hiding from the Turkish Army in Dracula's castle.

The video game franchise Castlevania from Konami first appeared in 1986 on the platform Famicom Disk System.

  

If you've been keeping tabs on the new Star Ocean series Square Enix has planned for the PSP, then you'll be pleased to know that the once teaser site for Star Ocean: First Departure has a few new additions since it first went live last month.

In addition to the native Fellpool characters already in the character profiles section, the technological advanced humans, namely Ronixis J. Kenny and Iria Silvestoli, have finally joined the list. You might also be interested to know that they've expanded the World section, which details the different areas in the game, spanning from the Earth Federation to the planet of Roak. Of course, the entire site is in Japanese but you can easily navigate through the English titled menus easily enough.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the first Star Ocean story, it traces the story of Ratix and his friends from the planet Roak. When a strange disease infests their planet, a pair of humans from the Earth Federation (Ronixis and Iria) arrive and tells the native Fellpools that an alien civilization has plans for the underdeveloped race.

For such a good game, it's sad to see that this game never got the recognition it deserved when it first came out on the Super Famicom. Now that the remake is well on its way for the PSP, new gamers and old fans alike can experience where the well-loved RPG series all began. Hopefully, we'll be seeing updates for Star Ocean: Second Evolution soon as well.

You can check out the official site through the read link below.

There's an interesting survey conducted by small online research firm WhatJapanThinks regarding the preferred consoles by Japanese kids. The population consisted of around 1,165 elementary school students and the results are quite intriguing and interesting:

• Nintendo DS 82.2%
• Nintendo Gameboy Advance 39.8%
• Sony PlayStation 1, 2 or 3 37.4%
• Nintendo Wii 35.3%
• Nintendo Gamecube 31.4%
• Nintendo Gameboy, Gameboy Micro 19.8%
• Nintendo 64 15.2%
• Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES) 15.1%
• Nintendo Famicom (NES) 11.9%
• Sony PlayStation Portable 10.5%
• Microsoft Xbox 5.8%
• Sega Saturn 5.1%
• Sega Dreamcast 4.8%
• Other 16.4%

Take note that this survey is not reflective of the whole Japanese market and is just true on a certain market segment. Nonetheless, like we said, the results are quite interesting.

Star Ocean talks has been brewing for a couple of years now and hopefully all questions will be answered when this year's Tokyo Game Show begins this month. Bear in mind though that it was only yesterday when we have finally confirmed, through scans, that Square Enix is indeed resurrecting the Star Ocean franchise with First Departure and Second Evolution.

To prepare for the event, Square Enix has just opened two separate teaser sites dedicated to each title. No new information can be found on the said websites except for the promise that more will be revealed at TGS 07. It was also mentioned before that character art will be redrawn and new dialogues and voice overs will be implemented for these games.

Star Ocean: First Departure will focus on the story of Ratix from the original Star Ocean game which was released on Super Famicom. On the other hand, fans of Claude from PSOne title Star Ocean: The Second Story will be delighted to know that their idol will be back in Star Ocean: Second Evolution.

This link will take you to the site dedicated to First Departure while our Read link below will bring you to Second Evolution.

Probably because it's the "in" thing, remakes seem to be making such a big impact onto the new generation of handhelds nowadays. The Final Fantasy series has already made their much awaited comeback for the Nintendo DS with Final Fantasy III. Now, another old-school RPG series steps onto the PSP handheld with upgraded cinematics, voice acting and much more.

Star Ocean is set to receive a facelift when it finally upgrades itself onto the PSP platform. Scans from Famitsu have confirmed that the first two games of the Star Ocean series will have all new cinematics and redrawn character art, as well as voice overs and whole dialogues written into the new games. Star Ocean First Departure will follow the story of Ratix from the original Star Ocean released on the Super Famicom, while Star Ocean Second Evolution will be based on Star Ocean: The Second Story (PS2) with Claude as the hero.

Old players will be able to relive the adventures of Ratix and Claude in their respective Star Ocean games, while new players can acquaint themselves with the humble beginnings of this engrossing RPG series. Tri-ace, the developers, want more than creating a remake for the games. They want to make players feel like they're going through completely new games.

People will have to wait a while for the these new incarnations to hit the shelves as they are still in development and so far have a TBA release schedule slapped on them. When they do come out, however, they'll definitely be games that hardcore RPG gamers will want to look into. So until then just stay tuned for any more updates we may have on them.

 

   

Take note of the capital S in the title. (It's not a typo, this writer just felt the need to put emphasis on the plural of Star Ocean, you'll know what we mean in a bit.) Square Enix held a Pre-Conference Meeting at its HQ in Shinjuku and let's just say there was a deluge of new info about the upcoming titles.

Squeenix is definitely giving the Sony PlayStation Portable a lot of love. They're releasing three Star Ocean titles, two of which are for the PSP. Yup, you read that right. Star Ocean: First Departure is a full makeover'd version of the original Super Famicom video game (it was only released in Japan). Second up is Star Ocean: Second Evolution which is also a remake for the original PSOne Star Ocean: The Second Story. Star Ocean 4 is still under development by the original devs for the series, tri-Ace. There wasn't any info on what platforms it will be released on and an ETA.

Shinji Hashimoto announced a new Wii title under the working title Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu. It will be released in honor of the 10th anniversary of the Chocobo franchise. Reportedly, it will serve as a follow up of the DS Chocobo Tales and will feature familiar characters and locations. The difference would be that the title will focus on dungeon gameplay instead of a bunch of minigames. Producer Yuki Yokoyama concluded:

Finally, a word for those who enjoyed Chocobo Tales, we are including something special that should be very familiar to you to discover, and I hope you're looking forward to this title as much as I am.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers were discussed by Akitoshi Kawazu, executive producer of the series. He indicated that Ring of Fates will be coming to Nintendo's handheld and will be utilizing the DS' WiFi capabilities. Ring of Fates will be more focused on traditional action RPG gameplay with good special effects. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates will be released in August 23 in Japan - a bit later than what Square Enix had planned. A short in game footage for The Crystal Bearers for the Wii was shown featuring sky ships and other impressive elements.

Lastly, the Square Enix announced Final Fantasy XII: International Zodiac Job System (definitely a mouthful) which is scheduled for a August 9 release. Hiroyuki Ito, producer and director for the title indicated that a secret DVD will be included. The North American version of the game will be English dubbed and will feature a 16:9 widescreen mode. According to Ito, "the Zodiac Job System now enables players to create characters that adhere more closely to classic Final Fantasy job systems, like White Mage, Red Mage and Black Mage."

Looks like we've got a lot to expect from Square Enix this year. Expect more goodies as when the party really begins. Stay tuned.

It looks like Final Fantasy fans would be celebrating earlier as Square Enix has just announced the release date of the remake.

Square Enix is starting its celebration of 20 years of Final Fantasy with a remake of Final Fantasy I and 2 for the PSP, originally seen on Famicom/NES. They were last seen as ports for the PSOne and the GBA - but don't hold your breath just yet, the dates are for the Japan release. The US release is yet to be announced.

For the first part of the anniversary, Final Fantasy I's port is set for release in April 19 this year and will retail at 3,800 yen (that's around US$ 32). Final Fantasy II will hit the shelves late May.

We've yet to see what sort of makeover was done to the ports but let us hope they make it as good as we're hoping for. And let's hope we see it soon.