shining guardian souls

Unfortunately IGN has been at it again, this time hinting at a real-time version of the highly acclaimed Advance Wars series for the Gamecube called "Cube Wars". This was originally attributed to a passing mention in IGN's Gamecube mailbag a couple of weeks ago. Given the success of Advance Wars on the GBA in North America - the first versions to even see release here - I expect that there is some truth to this. Putting the game into real-time takes a bit of the purpose out of the game (I can hardly imagine playing Command & Conquer with a controller), but I'm still adding it to the E3 watch list.

In another GBA to Gamecube move, a significantly upgraded Fire Emblemwill be released in Japan later this year. As Fire Emblem is another long running series that first appeared in North America on the GBA, I hope to see the eventual release of the Gamecube version here. Slightly jealous of PS2 owners who got to play Disgaea, I think the Gamecube is due for this type of tactical strategy.

There's equally good news for the GBA - the success of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has softened the relationship between Square-Enix and Nintendo enough to produce a port of Final Fantasy I & II, and there is further speculation that the elusive Final Fantasy III would be ported as well, a game that fanboys have been lusting after ever since they learned of its existence. One thing seems to be guaranteed though, and that's a brand new Final Fantasy adventure for the GBA.

My hopes for Shining Soul were high indeed, and now the sequel has arrived in stores to fairly indifferent reviews as well. Things have much improved since the last installment - which is good - and the co-operative adventuring still has my attention. Now that I'm more or less done with Sword of Mana I can probably give it a try. Unfortunately, Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon is the victim of a badly designed cover, and should hope that fans of the series will look past it for a faithful adaptation. Kind of like Age of Wonders: you'd have a better chance explaining the hype surrounding Franz Ferdinand than why I picked up that box at my local software shop. But I'm glad I did.

In a recent edition of Gamespot's Rumour Control a version of Treasure's 1996 classic Guardian Heroes for the GBA was mentioned. Maybe I really do hold a special place in my heart for Treasure's side scrollers, because I also have fond memories playing this game on a friend's Saturn back when it was released. It was a frenetic and crude action/RPG, and if anything reminded me of Street Fighter Alpha with the ridiculous melee combos you could perform on your enemies. The gameplay was similar to any side-scrolling beat-'em-up, but Guardian Heroes provided you with multiple storylines to travel through. Depending on dialogue with NPCs it would take you on a completely different quest, which was refreshing for a console RPG at the time. A direct port has been denied, so I suppose Treasure is creating an entirely new adventure. There is a rumoured September release for a Japanese version - but neither Sega or Treasure has confirmed this.