Finally, the first screenshots from Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes have made their way to the Internet. Not only that, 1UP also managed to get a first look at the game, and we've got the details right here for you guys. Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes is the latest fighting game for the popular anime and manga series. It's a reworking of the Japanese title Naruto: Narutimate Hero Portable. (Thanks to everyone who commented and pointed out this blogger's mistake).

The gameplay here is reportedly a "King of Fighters-style team battle mode (three-on-three)." Players will be free to pick their own team from the 20 characters available in the game, and players will also be able to upgrade their team members' individual abilities like attack and speed. These created profiles can then be sent to other PSPs via local Wi-Fi connections.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes also has an interesting skill system that can give characters new skills based on who else is in their team. Think combo attacks from Suikoden 2 and the Ino-Shika-Cho attack from the series. An example is if you choose to put two rivals together in one team, you may end up getting a devastating new attack.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes is currently slated for a late summer release. In the meantime, check out the first screenshots from the game below.

More screenshots after the jump!

  

What's new with Bleach 4's website? Well, there's some pretty interesting stuff that just came in, apparently. Heading over to the Japanese site, you'll find that they have now opened the new Battle and Partner Characters windows.

Now, if you don't speak, read, or write Japanese, you might encounter some problems, as even Babelfish can't help you with this one. See, the site's done in Flash, so it is next to impossible to have Google translate it. Ironic how you'd now rather have good ol' unreliable Engrish than nothing at all, eh?

But anyhow, it appears that there are two new characters introduced this time around. The sailor fuku-suited girl with long, braided dark hair is Lisa Yadōmaru. Her profile reveals that she is ambidextrous, being able to switch between her left and right hands when wielding her zanpakutō. She also doesn't seem to be the most amicable among them, as she's got a pretty short thread of patience, being easily irritated. Oh, and she likes to read erotic manga, especially Josei manga. How 'bout that, huh?

And then there's Kensie Muguruma. This cool teenager wears his light grey hair short, along with several piercings, and usually donning a basketball jersey with cargo pants. In Chapter 219, he emerges to switch places with Lisa to contain Ichigo. Also wielding a zanpakutō, Kensei is also known to have some powers that are energy-based, which he used to blow Ichigo's hollow form's arm off.

Anyway, apart from this, the pre-order page is now up, so if you can't wait to get your hands on this game, make sure to check out the Read link below. Oh, and again, you would need a Japanese translator with you.

  

For those who are familiar with the anime-manga Fate/Stay Night by Type-Moon, this is good news. Fate/Tiger Colosseum, as everyone read from the last report, is a fighting game from Japan-based game developer">Cavia and Capcom.

Who's your favorite duo? Would it be Shiro and Saber, Rin and Archer, Ilya and Berserker or Shinji and Rider? Fate/Tiger Colosseum is a 3D fighting game where players would be able to select their favorite characters from the Fate/Stay Night series. Checking the scans, the characters were zapped with the chibi ray. Cute, but will it live up to its popularity?

Players can choose to play multiplayer vs brawler or go into story mode in Fate/Tiger Colosseum. Whether this will come to shores outside Japan is still unsure. So PSP owners, stay tuned for more info regarding this fighter as it is reportedly coming out later this year.

The website insert credit reports that Capcom has announced yet another manga-adaptation for the PSP. According to the write-up, the new action fighting game is called Fate/Tiger Colosseum, and is currently on Cavia's working table.

Fate/Tiger Colosseum is actually based on the best-selling manga Fate/Stay Night of Type-Moon. There are no details yet as to the actual content of the game, but just so you won't be leaving here empty-handed, we'll give you a quick rundown of what the origin, Fate/Stay Night, is all about. Maybe from there, we can have an inkling of what to expect from the up and coming Fate/Tiger Colosseum.

Fate/Stay Night was released on January 2004 and instantly became one of the most popular visual novels in history. It got so popular, in fact, that it earned the moniker of "highest selling visual novel" of 2004. Later on, it became a PS2 title. The story basically revolves around a two-week period in a young mechanic's life, Shiro Emiya. The background of Shiro is interesting by itself. A decade ago, his parents died in a fire, which also destroyed a big part of the city.

Shiro was lucky, as he was saved from sure death by Kiritsugu Emiya, a man described as enigmatic.  Kiritsugu turns out to be a sorcerer. The foster father also then reveals that his ambition in life is to become a "Hero of Justice", but here, he unfortunately fails. So, Shiro then takes it upon himself by promising that he will devote his life becoming what his foster father failed to become.

There you go. That's pretty much the synopsis of Fate/Tiger Colosseum's origin, Fate/Stay Night. Again, we don't know how much of Fate/Stay Night's elements will be incorporated in Fate/Tiger, but rest assured that we will be on it as soon as we catch wind of some more news on this.

The game Dragonball Z: Shin Budokai - Another Road, published by Atari and developed by Dimps, is one of the most anticipated games for the PSP. Like the other games in the series, this fighting game will have the aerial battles and giant fireballs that fans of both the manga and anime will enjoy.

The video titled "Don't Make Me Angry" features various Dragonball characters fighting it out and pulling off their super moves. To those who can recall Dragonball 2 for the SNES, the super attacks resemble the "meteo attacks" you could perform. Other things to notice would be the quality of the in-game animation, which quite frankly is one of the best we've seen for the PSP.

Dragonball Z: Shin Budokai - Another Road is slated to be released on March 20 this year in the US and April 13 in Australia. The game will have an MSRP US$ 39.99. Check out the video and see if the game catches your fancy.

Fans of popular Japanese manga Bleach will surely have a grand time checking out these new screenshots from the Japanese official site of Bleach: Heat the Soul 4. But apart from these spankin' new images, we also have some updates for you on the characters that you'll encounter in the game.

Reportedly, a hefty number of 70 characters will be making appearances in Bleach 4, although not all of them will be playable. But among these will be 20 new faces for you to get to know better. Most of these appearing characters will be "Partner Character", or so Babelfish says, "to offer various no-claims bonus and to reverse the situation of a badly committed combat."

So there. Bleach Heat the Soul 4 will be heating your PSPs on May 24. But until then, keep it posted here for more details, and enjoy these screens.

More Bleach HTS 4 screens over at Full Article.

First announced back in December last year, the popular Japanese manga continues to make its rounds on the PSP with the fourth title off the Bleach series.

Jeux France reports that Bleach 4 will have users engaging in heavy combat they've grown used to with the previous titles. Environments are rendered in full cel-shaded 3D and new characters from the series will also be introduced, including Shinji Hirako and Sagaruki Hiyori. Players will also reportedly be able to use up to three characters to gang up on your enemies during combat.

No word about a North American release just yet (as usual), but just in case you're planning on heading to Japan, you might wanna go there in May when Bleach 4 hits Japanese shelves.

More screens await in the Full Article!

Itching to get your hands on foreign games that are spreading unhindered fun overseas? Yeah, it does suck when hot games end up not being available in your territory. Not that you have anything against those within your reach. But hey, you can never get enough of good games, right?

No need to fret cos we have here the list of import game releases for the week of January 14. Modified Air Combat Heroes (M.A.C.H.) flies in, along with the racing/drifting action, manga-based Initial D Street Stage. Now, while Initial D is not exactly spankin' brand new, this version does cover the "best" of the action, so you might want to check that out.

Wizardry Empire III: Haoh no Keifu is an RPG, which basically still rings reminiscent of the RPGs old school. With your character moving in first person, you explore dungeons and kill monsters. Typical, but not so, unless you understand Japanese. Then there's Talkman Shiki: Shabe Lingual Eikaiwa. This one basically is a voice-activated translation software. Hmmm...maybe we should get one to finally get rid of those butchered online translations.

As a manga, Bleach is a phenomenon in Japan. The comic book charm was then channelled to PSP game adaptation Bleach: Heat the Soul. At first, fans were extremely grateful that SCEJ and developer 8ing came up with this game. But with three titles already out in less than two years and another one coming up, the quality of the titles are now in question.

Wait, haven't you heard that there's a new Bleach game coming out? Well, it's the fourth one for the HTS series. The game's official website just opened today. Though there's nothing much to see there for now, visitors can take a look at the section dedicated to characters.

The first title of the series was just released last year and as mentioned, there's another one coming up some time in 2007. Currently, there's a general feeling among fans that SCEJ has been milking the manga more than necessary. Issues encountered with the first titles included problems with frame rate, gameplay, player responsiveness and the incomplete roster of characters.

Personally, I'd also prefer to wait for a well-thought, well-developed title than to have an onslaught of undercooked ones. We hope the marketing strategy being employed here by Sony wouldn't backfire as Bleach is so loved in Japan. We certainly don't want this game to leave a bitter taste in the fans' mouths.

Cosplaying. It's weird, it's goofy, and in some cases, it's Narutard-extreme. Whatever the case, anime otaku and gamer alike love the idea of dressing up as their favorite characters come convention time; everyone wanna see how far they can push their luck impersonating their favorite manga/pixelated hero.

We found these vids over at TechEblog, which are all fan-made skits of all our all-time favorite games. Kinda shows you what a dedicated gamer can do when they've got a bit of money, creativity, and a helluva lot of time on their hands.

The first video up is a skit on Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. It was made by students over at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. Hmm, early concept for the Wiimote?


The video up next is a homage to everybody's favorite tactical espionage game (Not you, Sam...). This MGS skit was done way over in Taiwan, and we gotta admit, we like the way they adapted an abandoned building for the game's original Arctic setting. On a side note, their Meryl looks cuter than the original, in a Tifa sort of way.

Click on the jump to see the rest of these skits!