The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 10

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 10

On this edition of the Nerd Fortress Podcast, we have more of the same as the last episode in terms of news, but not without a live audio demo/review of the legacy Dragon Dagger. Then, Devin and myself talk about Austin St. John returning to the Power Rangers fandom,  go over the character information for the upcoming Power Rangers Dino Charge including Judd Lynn's return to the franchise, the news about a Chinese tokusatsu posting episodes in English on it's official Youtube channel, then move onto anime news featuring the digital remaster of Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro, the latest updates for Sailor Moon Crystal, a new acquisition by Sentai Filmworks, and so much more on this newest episode of the Nerd Fortress Podcast.

Editor's note: This episode was originally recorded on March 12th, so a lot of what you guys will hear news wise will be pretty much outdated. It took me almost 3 months to edit this episode which was also very unexpected as well as unprofessional so I do apologize for that. There's reasons behind it which I have explained in an announcement/update that I mention in the beginning of the episode so if you haven't listened to it, please do so to get a better understanding of what happened.

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 9

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 9

On this late edition of the Nerd Fortress podcast, we tackle a whole lot of news including the botch or free promotion for TV Nihon at the New York City Toy Fair, new information regarding the Kikaider reboot, news about another premium Bandai ranger key set featuring the villains of Kyoryuger, then talk about the announcement of the Dragon Ball Kai version of the Buu Saga, talk about the newest acquisitions for the Toonami block, Black Lagoon and Blue Exorcist, talk about a new anime based on model kits other than Gundam, have another edition of the "Douchebag of the Week" involving a Japanese police Sargent in his 50s throwing away his career for a $20 Kamen Rider figure, the latest news regarding a remake of Final Fantasy 7, as well as the release date for Shinji Mikami's latest game, "The Evil Within and much more in this episode of the Nerd Fortress Podcast!

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 8

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 8

NOTE: It took much longer than usual to edit this episode yet again! Chalk it up to laziness as well as procrastinating this time around! Also, please disregard the minor talk about the Winter Olympics since those are now over. Please be aware that because of Devin's unnecessary stuttering issues which do cause a bit of frustration when editing episodes. Will try to have episode 9 up when it's finished editing. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

On this edition of the Nerd Fortress podcast, we go over the latest power Rangers news with Saban's decision to skip Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters and head for a Kyoryuger adaptation instead for next year, talk about the fan poll for the upcoming Heisei Rider Vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen featuring Super Sentai, then switch to anime news by talking about the announcement of Soul Eater Not spin off which has absolutely nothing to do with Soul Eater, and then talk about the announcement of a anime and manga adaptation of Seiken Tsukai no World Break, as well as an anime adaptation of the visual novel game, Kamigami no Asobi, and then the return of the "Douchebag of the Week" feature involving a 47 year old unemployed man being arrested for uploading manga, and also discuss the news of Neon Alley shifting to a free "Video On Demand" service, and so much more on this latest edition of the Nerd Fortress podcast!

Please send us you're comments, criticisms, feedback, etc. by emailing us at OfficialNerdFortressPodcast@Gmail.com or send them to our Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr pages!

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 7

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 7

NOTE: This episode of the podcast took longer than usual to edit because I was grieving over the loss of Justin Carmical a.k.a. JewWario and I also had to work around my co-host's constant stumbling and stuttering issues again so please forgive me for how much longer than usual it took to edit this episode!

On this edition of the Nerd Fortress podcast, we start the episode off with some very sad news with the death of Justin Carmical, better known as JewWario, then talk about the latest news with Nintendo as well as have some exclusive news from the Nintendo financial results meeting, then find out that the Assassin's Creed series doesn't have an actual ending after all, go back to Nintendo for a little bit by explaining the situation with the Wii U's gamepad, as well as go over Nintendo's lifetime hardware and software sales from the Famicom/NES up to now excluding the Wii U, and I vent out my anger and rage with the recent news about a live action Ghost in the Shell movie that's just gotten off the ground and much more on this edition of the Nerd Fortress podcast!

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 6

In Memory of Justin "JewWario" Carmical 1971 - 2014

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 6

We don't have a topic for the 2nd week in a row, but that didn't stop us from talking about the latest about the Toei Japan Channel as well as the return of Hiroshi Fujioka and his role of Takeshi Hongo, in Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen featuring Super Sentai, go over the character profiles for the 5 core members of the upcoming 38th Super Sentai, Ressha Sentai Tokkyuger, give our thoughts on the premiere debut trailer for Power Rangers Super Megaforce, talk about Nintendo's ongoing financial troubles and what it generally means for us consumers, go over some latest anime acquisitions from Sentai Filmworks and talk about a notoriously violent manga that will be getting an anime adaptation that will most likely never air on Toonami and more in this edition of the Nerd Fortress podcast!

Tragic news and update

Sorry about the unexpected delay of the latest episode of the Nerd Fortress podcast everyone, but all of you will understand why hopefully. Last Thursday, a very important as well as very well loved person known as Justin Carmical, better known by all of his fans and friends as JewWario took his own life and died of a self inflicted gunshot wound.

For those of you who didn't know him, he created a show called "You Can Play This!" where he featured Japanese games from the Famicom, Super Famicom, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Sega Genesis a.k.a. Mega Drive, Playstation, Playstation 2, PSP, and the Playstation Vita that were never released here in Europe or North America for whatever reasons where you didn't exactly have to know the Japanese language to play those games.

I'm still in such a huge state of shock and disbelief because it was Justin who got me into import gaming as well as looking for Japanese import games that never came out or got released here in Europe or North America. It was also because of him that I learned how to play Famicom games on my NES model 101 a.k.a. the "Top Loader" by using a method to play Famicom games on an NES as well as get myself a copy of one of the games that he reviewed, Samurai Pizza Cats as well as how I managed to get myself a Super Famicom for $20 on Japangamestock.com and somehow find myself a used mint condition copy of Final Fantasy VI in it's original Japanese language.

I sadly never got the chance to ever meet Justin, but I would go to his live streams that he did on his channel at Twitch.tv/Jewwario and would sometimes see how he was and it would take him a while to notice me in the chat because of the fact that there were lots of people that also wanted to chat with him because of his personality as well as the fact that he was very laid back and just an overall very interesting guy to talk to! He was also a big Kamen Rider fan which helped inspire him to come up with the Fami-Kamen Rider series that he tried out which didn't end up working too well for him unfortunately!

Justin also had this sense of humor that made you want to laugh because of the fact that he also incorporated his own improvised bits of comedy in his shows as well and brought that with him whenever he was at conventions or doing live streams on his Twitch channel.

I would miss his streams a lot because of the fact that Twitch can be a piece of crap, or I would forget or sleep in or whatever. But I do wish that I would have gotten to know him better like everyone else that he was friends with did! I don't think any of us will learn why he decided to take his own life the way he did, but Justin never seemed like the kind of person who would hide his feelings from people or anything like that. I'm still very confused and perhaps always will be when it comes down to the reason why he decided to take his own life!

I've been depressed and have been diagnosed with depression in the past, but it never got as bad to the point that I wanted to kill myself because I am very fortunate enough to have friends as well as people I can talk to that I can rely on and trust to keep myself grounded. Major depressive disorder isn't a disease or a sickness, it's a mental disorder which is something that a lot of people don't seem to comprehend or understand. If you ever have thoughts of wanting to harm yourself, get yourself help immediately!

It's just very sad as well as unfortunate that it took Justin's untimely death for a lot of people in the gaming community to realize how depression of any kind can affect you and the tragic as well as unfortunate loss of somebody you care about afterwards as well as many other things. But Justin knew that we all loved him and appreciated what all of his fans have done for him over the years and that we will all truly miss him! Justin did have a profound impact on me as well as the fact that he changed my overall view of gaming and got me to actually check out the world of import gaming, and I thank him for that very much.

I just wish that I could have met him while he was still in this world and got to know Justin more!

R.I.P. Justin! As The Sorrow from MGS3 once said, " Don't be sad... we'll meet again someday."

 Because of this, episode 6 of the Nerd Fortress podcast will be dedicated to Justin's memory, and is basically the main reason why it's taken me longer to edit the episode than it did last time, so please forgive me for that. It will be up either today or Wednesday so please keep an eye out for when the episode is released, thanks!

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 5

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 5

After a long holiday break, as well as an unforseen event with my co-host Devin The Cool, the first episode of the Nerd Fortress podcast for the year of 2014 is finally here! On this first episode of 2014, we go over the Youtube content ID fiasco which is threatening some well known Youtubers livelihoods, as well as give our thoughts on the recent premiere of the English dub of Space Dandy airing on Toonami and the impact that it could have on the anime industry in the future, and then we talk about the very sad and untimely passing of JEFusion founder Geki Dan and talk about the impact that he left on everybody that knew him in the underground tokusatsu fandom as well as much more on this first episode of the Nerd Fortress podcast for the year of 2014!

Another update on what's happening

Nerd Fortress Podcast Update

Listeners may be wondering "Why hasn't there been a new episode?" for more than quite a while now. Truth is that going back and re-watching Kamen Rider Wizard is going to take some additional time so I decided to hold off on it as a topic for the podcast for now.

The other main reason is that Devin and myself have been doing other things lately and have decided to talk about the previous generation of gaming consoles since the next generation of consoles are coming out in the next 2 weeks starting with the Playstation 4 on November 15th here in North America and then the X Box One on November 22nd in Europe and North America. Also, we are going to try and get this episode recorded before the holidays start here in North America which means that would be our last show of 2013!

And the 3rd reason is that I've been mostly busy playing Batman: Arkham Origins and Kamen Rider: Battride War on the PS3 which have really taken a lot of hours to get through as far as the main storyline goes for both games, but I will go into more detail about both games on the next episode.

We will definitely keep you guys posted!

You can follow us on Twitter for further info and updates on the podcast!

My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSentaifan

Devin's Twitter: https://twitter.com/devinthecool

You can also send us comments, criticisms, feedback, suggestions, etc. at OfficialNerdFortressPodcast@gmail.com and also get a hold of us on Facebook and Tumblr! Thanks for being patient as well as your understanding and sticking around with us.

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 3

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 3

On this episode of The Nerd Fortress Podcast, I give my opinions and thoughts on Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures and then Devin and myself go over the history of the Angry Video Game Nerd as well as James Rolfe, and then we talk about what happened at Tokyo Game Show briefly, and then I go on a bit of a rant with Hideo Kojima's recent obsession with realism, then we talk about some other stuff like the beta of Valve's Steam Machine, the recent passing of Nintendo's former president, Hiroshi Yamauchi and much more on this edition of the Nerd Fortress.

Please send us you're comments, criticisms, feedback, etc. by emailing us at OfficialNerdFortressPodcast@Gmail.com or send them to our Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr pages!

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 1

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 1

After a year long hiatus, the Nerd Fortress podcast is back!

On this very first of many episodes of the Nerd Fortress podcast, we talk about our memories of the Metal Gear franchise and then talk about news from PAX Prime including the release date for AVGN Adventures, and Mighty No. 9 as well as mention the release of Cowboy Bebop on blu-ray from Funimation, share our thoughts on Suda 51 and his games, and much more!

Newest info on the PS4 and XBox One

If any of you have been living under a rock, or don't have excellent internet connections and still prefer actual gaming magazines for you to get you're latest gaming news, the Playstation 4 and the XBox One have both been announced. Microsoft had originally intended the Xbox One to be a console version of Valve's Steam platform on the PC, but it was so badly explained as well as marketed that tons of 360 fanboys and fangirls switched to the PS4 because of Microsoft's security concerns and because of this whole public relations nightmare, Don Mattrick resigned from his post as the President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft and became the new CEO of Zynga, who's best known for social media games like Farmville and Mafia Wars.

Microsoft has also been doing a lot of back-peddling to try and repair the damage done earlier this year when the Xbox One was announced and the PR nightmare that followed soon after while Sony Computer Entertainment divisions in both America and Japan have unveiled the Playstation 4 as well as announced the price which makes it $100 cheaper than the $500 MSRP that Microsoft is charging for the Xbox One! Fast forward to the present where just recently Sony finally announced the release date for the PS4 at the Gamescom trade fair in Cologne, Germany.

The Playstation 4 will be available to everyone in North America on November 15th and will be released in Europe on November 29th which will also be when the console will be released in Australia and will be available in 32 countries! Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn't released an announce date for the Xbox One, and the release of the console will be delayed in the European countries. A list of launch titles for both consoles have recently been released for both consoles which will be released during the first 3 months of both respected console's release dates.

Both consoles will have Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4, and Call of Duty: Ghosts released on them as well as the latest entries in the Madden and NBA franchises. Also, keep in mind that a lot of the games coming for this holiday season will also be coming out for the PS3 as well as the 360 since both Microsoft and Sony will still be supporting these consoles for a few more years. The only real difference that you will see will be the graphics and the visuals because the graphics and visuals are supposed to look much better on these next generation consoles, but as to how much better remains to be seen.

For a full list of launch games that will be available on day one as well as within the launch window, please check out: List of PS4 launch titles and List of XBox One launch titles and take a look at the comparison chart located here at: Playstation 4 Vs. Xbox One Comparison Chart before making you're decision!

E3 2013 Overview and my personal opinions

For everybody that's a gamer, the Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 for short is the time of year where we all get to find out what's coming up for the current generation and for the big 3 in the gaming industry to show off their best software and also show off live demos of upcoming games that are currently being developed.

Exactly 2 weeks ago, Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One and even though the console itself is an amazing piece of technology, there's just a whole lot of things that Microsoft is doing wrong with this console like having you to be connected to the internet for a game authorization process every 24 hours, being highly restrictive when it comes to used games and wanting to loan games to any of your friends for example. If you want to let a friend borrow a game for the Xbox One, you have to have them on your friends list on Xbox Live for 30 days, and you can only do this once! That's right, you can say "R.I.P." as far as letting friends borrow your games is concerned!

With all of this now being public knowledge among the gaming public, this absolutely hurt Microsoft's press conference at E3 this year. The new trailer for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain was debuted to kick off the press conference, then the senior vice president of Xbox, Don Mattrick and Metal Gear series creator, Hideo Kojima came out and said a few words then went straight to the games.

Among these games were Below, Crimson Dragon, Dead Rising 3, D4, Forza Motorsport 5, Halo 5, which is a part of the new Halo trilogy being developed by 343 Industries, a Killer Instinct reboot, Kinect Sports Rivals, Quantum Break, Ryse: Son of Rome, and Sunset Overdrive which are all Xbox One exclusive games.

Electronic Arts and Ubisoft then had their press conferences which I'm not really going to go into since they are both developers and publishers for Microsoft and Sony, except for the fact that Aisha Taylor hosted the Ubisoft press conference for a 2nd year in a row and did a much better job than she did last year! Then the Sony press conference began after a bit of a delay just to make sure that everything was working properly and to correct a few things which is an E3 tradition at this point by now!

Sony then came out and showed off their list of impressive games with absolutely very amazing graphics which can also be applied to the games showed off for the Xbox One. And then, Jack Tretton who is the CEO and president of Sony Computer Entertainment of America came back out and began a series of rapid fire jabs at the Xbox One by putting all of our worst fears for the PS4 to rest by saying that we can still let our friends borrow our games, trade them in at Gamestop, it won't require any sort of online authentication for disc based games, and purchasing a game means that it is owned by the consumer forever!

Nintendo decided not to have a press conference this year for E3 for whatever reason and had an E3 edition of their Nintendo Direct online show instead. Nintendo showed off a great amount of games for the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U as well as some indie games for the Wii U version of their E-Shop and also showed off a  montage of the 3rd party titles that would be coming to the Wii U. They also showed off actual gameplay footage of Bayonetta 2 which will be a Wii U exclusive which doesn't sit right with the people who payed for buying the original on the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3. Nintendo also showed off some new games for the Wii U and the 3DS including Super Mario 3D World, a sequel to Super Princess Peach released for the Nintendo DS on February 27 of 2006, Pokemon X and Y for the Nintendo 3DS which will be the Pokemon franchise's official 3D debut, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and last but certainly not least....

Yes, there is going to be a new Super Smash Bros. for both the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS sometime in 2014 which is next year, and that the secret characters will be none other than the villager from the Animal crossing series, the "Blue Bomber" himself, Mega Man! Or as he's known by his original name in Japan, Rock Man (ロックマン). And just recently, the Wii Fit trainer was revealed to be another secret character for the game as well. And it's not the Mega Man from the box art of the original Mega Man game on the NES that was made for Street Fighter x Tekken, it's the actual Mega Man that we all know and love and am happy to see returning for another guest appearance!

There's games that I didn't cover, and that's perfectly fine because this is just an overview of this year's E3 from my own perspective! Microsoft, just what in the world happened to you? It's because of what their practices are for the Xbox One that a lot of loyal Xbox fans are going to be buying a PS4 instead of an Xbox One which is very shocking. It seems to me that Microsoft is doing everything that Sony did with the Playstation 3, but just much worse. And Microsoft has continued to either give people the run around, or flat out ignore the issues that a lot of people are wondering about with the Xbox One, and only more than a few details have been 100% concrete which is ridiculous!

Sony came right out, guns blazing and did the complete opposite of what Microsoft did at E3 despite the fact that they showed off what they had in terms of games and they even showed off what the Playstation 4 console would look like. And not to mention that Sony actually showed that they give a damn about their consumers, which is something that Microsoft is hardly doing at all with their consumers which include the now former Xbox fans that have been with them for 7 and a half years. And it must have took some very serious balls for Jack Tretton to be up there on that stage and deliver the verbal pounding to Microsoft by saying that they wouldn't be doing the exact same things that Microsoft are doing with the Xbox One and bullshit everybody with shit eating grins on their faces.

Microsoft introduced the Xbox One, but didn't focus very much on games and focused more on the multimedia aspect of the Xbox One by touting it as a replacement for your cable box even though you still need an internet connection and a subscription to a cable provider. The only mistake that Sony made when it revealed the Playstation 4 was not show off the actual console which was rectified during their presentation at E3 this year. Xbox One does have some awesome games, but most of them are going to be on the PS4 and the PS3 as well as the PC for all of the PC gamers out there, but that's not enough to justify a $500 console with restrictions on used games as well as what you can and can't do with your console that you just purchased!

Sony is the exact polar opposite of what Microsoft is doing and they are actually listening to their consumer base which is a very good thing. Nintendo had a good showing as well even though they didn't have their own press conference which ended up working for them in the long run and they are on even ground with Sony even though Nintendo has their own set of problems to deal with. If this was going to be how Nintendo did their presentations for E3 from now on, it wouldn't bother me a single bit because this gives them much more time on what they want to focus on and how they are going to be presenting their latest and future lineup of games without having to do anything like they did at E3 last year which would make perfect sense.

With all of that being said, here's my verdict for E3 2013:

#1. Sony

#2. Nintendo

#3 for the 4th year in a row: Microsoft

Anyways, sorry this blog post was a bit long everyone, and hope you enjoyed reading my opinions and thoughts on what happened at E3 this year! Will let you guys know what happens with the podcast on my personal twitter, so stay tuned!

Playstation 4 has been announced!

This past Wednesday at Sony's super secretive event, Sony finally announced the Playstation 4!

And it looks like that it's going to be more socially focused. Unfortunately, the cell processor that powered the Playstation 3 will not be powerhouse for the new console which has been coming back to biting Sony in the butt as of recent times. And there will also be personalization which is something that everybody likes!

Here are the official specs for the console itself!

There will also be new things that people have been asking Sony about for years, like cross game chat which can be found on the X Box 360, as well as a new controller which was also shown at the Playstation Meeting 2013 event in New York City. The new controller does away with the traditional 'Select and Start' buttons which have been a mainstay for the console ever since the original Playstation console and replaces them with a 'Share' button which will allow gamers to share their victories or favorite moments of what they are playing by scanning the last few moments of gameplay, tagging it and then returning the player to said game of choice. And gamers will also be able to share their images and videos to their friends on social networking services like Facebook and twitter.

The traditional "Select and "Start" buttons have now been replaced by an "Options" button!

The Playstation 4 will also enhance social spectating by enabling gamers to broadcast their gameplay in real-time to friends by using live internet streaming services like Ustream. During live broadcasts, friends can make comments on the streamed gameplay and, if a gamer gets stuck on a challenging level, friends can also join the game in completely new ways. For example, friends can offer health potions or special weapons when a player needs them most during actual gameplay.

Some other differences with the new controller is that it will have a sensor for the Playstation move accessory as well adjusted shoulder buttons, new analog sticks, a new directional pad and a touch screen and it will also support motion detection thanks to a three-axis gyroscope and a three-axis aceelerometer and improved vibration!

The controller also features several output connectors. A stereo jack which will allow the connection of a headset to speak and hear audio simultaneously, a micro USB port and an extension port are also included. It can be charged via microUSB, a dedicated charging station, or the console itself when the console is turned off.

There is of course, some bad news though here! The Playstation 4 will not be backwards compatible with the 3 previous Playstation console games because of the cell architecture of the Playstation 3 and a new cloud based streaming service made possible via Gaikai, a company purchased by Sony, which will render Playstation, Playstation 2, and Playstation 3 games and stream them to the Playstation 4.

You also won't be able to carry over everything which includes you're game saves from the Playstation 3 to the Playstation 4 either!The main reason for this also has to do with the architecture between the 2 consoles. However, Sony is considering transferring some games over if things aren't too demanding in terms of emulation. All of the PSN games as well as the game saves for them won't be carried over either unfortunately!

The thing that really strikes as weird or just plain worng is the fact that the actual console itself wasn't shown because even Sony doesn't even know what the design of the console will be and will possibly be determined and made for Sony's E3 presentation this June at the Los Angeles Convention Center! The PlayStation 4 will be released during the holidays later this year.  

Could Sony be announcing the Playstation 4?

We all know that Sony has been secretly developing the next Playstation without much information leaking out and every bit of information that has managed to get out has been classified as strictly rumor! But as of last March, a plethora of news concerning the successor to the PS3 has been made available including some of the specs, and even anti-used games measures which will combat the used gaming market. However, this information is purely speculation and hasn't been confirmed or denied by Sony!
The successor to the PS3 is code named "Orbis" and the code name for the new console from Microsoft is code named "Durango" and that Sony was going to let Microsoft go first by announcing they're new console, but it seems like this isn't going to be the case! 
Recently, this video was posted on the official Playstation Youtube channel as well as the North American Playstation blog which basically tells us that Sony will be having an event on February 20 of this year. The event will be held in New York City and will be livestreamed on the internet which is only 5 days away from the 'Destination Playstation' event starting in Arizona which showcases the biggest and best games that Sony has on it's plate for the year ahead.
Meanwhile, members of the gaming industry press as well as investors have been handed an invitation to the event which have offered no further information which has added more fuel to the fire when it comes to the rumors of Sony and the Playstation 4! The only thing that we do know so far is what the specs of the development kits will be for the developers who would want to develop games for the new console and not much else.
Development Kit Specs: System Memory: 8GB Video Memory: 2.2 GB CPU: 4x Dual-Core AMD64 "Bulldozer" (so, 8x cores) GPU: AMD R10xx Ports: 4x USB 3.0, 2x Ethernet Drive: Blu-Ray HDD: 160GB Audio Output: HDMI & Optical, 2.0, 5.1 & 7.1 channels
Please keep in mind that these are the specs for just the development kits and not the console itself! We will just have to wait until February 20 to see whether or not the Playstation 4 will in fact be revealed before E3 or something completely different. I will be keeping you guys updated with further news as it becomes available! 

Killer is Dead trailer screams Suda 51

Recently, Killer is Dead which is the next game from the crazy and insane mind from Suda 51 was announced! The same person who gave us other games like Killer 7 and No More Heroes among others.

The game follows 35 year-old Mondo Zappa, a suit-wearing executioner responsible for taking out heinous criminals with a katana. Kind of a long the lines of No More Heroes, except that Mondo's katana isn't a light sword.

There is a gun that can turn into a drill is embedded in Zappa's left hand—an augmentation he has no memory of getting. The weapon becomes increasingly powerful during the game, and it can be used to absorb enemies' blood for a powerful "Adrenalin Burst" slash attack. Also included in the blood is "dark matter", which can apparently be changed into energy.

The American born Zappa works at an "executioner's office", managed by Brian Rozen, who was also augmented, to become a world-class executioner.

Joining Zappa is his boss at Rozen's firm, the cat-suit wearing 25 year-old British born Vivienne Squall. Mika Takekawa, who is 20 years old, is Zappa's assistant. After an earlier incident, she met Zappa and then started living with him because she can make excellent soft boiled eggs, which is his favorite dish.

And then, there's the evil Victor, a criminal who is dressed kind of like Mozart—if Mozart had glowing eyes, skeletal features, and green skin. Victor manipulates human emotion through song and aims to bring evil to the world.

Besides the international characters, the game uses various backdrops, such as old Western houses and Japanese buildings. Previously Goichi Suda said that Killer is Dead isn't a sequel to Killer 7, but that it does take cues from the previous title. If you have seen the pictures from the article in Famitsu magazine, the cel-shaded artwork does have a Killer 7 vibe to it!

A trailer for the game was recently uploaded to the Famitsu magazine's Youtube channel, and it has English subtitles for everyone who doesn't understand Japanese so you can read along to get a better grasp of what's going on.


Killer Is Dead will be out this summer for the PS3 and the X-Box 360 in Japan! There are no plans for an international or North American release at this time, but we will let you know if and when an international release or release for North America is revealed.