Alien Syndrome
Alien Syndrome is a sequel to an old arcade game of the same name and takes place some 20 years after the original. Featuring over 80 different weapons, hundreds of armors and items, 3 difficulty modes, ad hoc multiplayer, and over 40 levels, Alien Syndrome will keep any dungeon crawler busy for a while. The game is probably best described as a top down shooter with added RPG elements.

Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars
Are you ready to make some crazy money? Crazy Taxi for PSP is actually a collection containing the original Crazy Taxi and the sequel, Crazy Taxi 2. In Fare Wars, you’ve got access to all the original crazy moves, over 30 crazy mini-games, and crazy modes you remembered from the original games. Added bonuses include a customizable soundtrack based on your own music from the memory stick and local multiplayer games in head to head battles. We’ve had some fun replaying this in the office and it’s a welcome addition to anyone that’s been looking for a Crazy Taxi fix.

Crush
I’m a huge fan of Crush and think that every PSP owner and puzzle fan should check out this game, it’s just that good. Crush uses a unique concept, taking 3D environments and “crushing” them into a 2D plane. Since the environment is in 3D, you’ll have to rotate game world to find the best places to crush and gain access to different areas of the level. Need to get atop a ledge, but can’t jump to it? Simply look top down, Crush, walk over to the ledge, unCrush and you’re where you need to be. The challenge then comes in working with the basic rules of the game – for example, some blocks you can or cannot traverse in the 2D plane, but can’t get across in 3D, or vice versa. If you missed Crush before or just want to replay it, now’s an excellent time to pick it up.

Full Auto: Battlelines
If Crazy Taxi is a bit too tame for your racing needs, Full Auto Battlelines might be the fix you need. Full Auto is all about car combat, destructible environments and an ‘unwreck’ ability that allows you to create opportunities out of mistakes. Unwreck is, like it sounds, an ability that allows you to escape a bad decision and rewind time to avoid that bad turn or unexpected hazard.

Sega Genesis Collection
If you are a Sega fan and want some game to satisfy your classic game lust, this is the title for you. The Genesis Collection features 28 games and 5 unlockables, including favorites such as Sonic 1 & 2, Phantasy Star series, Shinobi, Vectorman 1 & 2, and the Golden Axe series.

Iron Man
Based on the blockbuster, Iron Man PSP gives you the chance to head into battle as Tony Stark within the Iron Man suit. If you are familiar with the basic plot of the Iron Man movie, the game is essentially the same with a few additions, including new encounters from other Marvel villains within the Iron Man universe.

Sonic Rivals & Sonic Rivals 2
Sonic Rivals is a different take on the normal Sonic the Hedgehog experience you might be used to. Rivals is best described as racer, you compete against other characters from within the Sonic world, pick up powerups, tackle bosses, and fight to stay at the front of the pack. Bosses? Yes, there are some unique play ideas at here that have you competitively and cooperatively downing bigger enemies. On top of a solid game, you’ll also find unlockables cards that give you some insight into the past Sonic series.

Super Monkey Ball Adventure
Monkey Ball for the PSP actually comes in a different style of game than the previous series additions. You play not only Monkey Ball puzzle stages you are familiar with, but also play in larger open world areas with platforming, missions, and mini-game, hence the Adventure name.

As noted, back at the Sega Blog, we’re doing a bit of additional coverage on the PSPgo titles. Some of us are revisiting old games we enjoyed; others are picking them up for the first time. Head on over and read my write up on Crush and look for new blogs about some of our other games in the days to come.

I’m Christopher Kaminski, the US Producer on Valkyria Chronicles, here to update you on a couple of things. First of all, we’ve released a few new trailers recently that showcase some of the main characters: Squad 7, Welkin and Alicia. As we approach launch, we’ll be showing off more of the key units who appear in the game’s imminent release!

Now let’s dig into the meat of this post. I’d like to tell you how the pre-launch event we had at the Sony PlayStation Store in San Francisco last month went!

Eager fans lined up to meet and get an autograph from our most-esteemed Producer from SEGA Studios Japan, Ryutaro Nonaka. Each person walked away with a limited edition autographed box sleeve, a handy item to have when they pick up a copy of Valkyria when it comes out in less than two weeks (November 4th!).

We even had Alicia Melchiott to greet the fans!

This was a great opportunity for everyone that attended the event to get a little sneak preview hands-on with the demo before anyone else. For those of you curious about how Valkyria Chronicles plays, it’s been available on Qore for the past 2 weeks, and hits the wider PSN today.

We raffled off some very cool items such as the official soundtrack from the game, toy figures Nonaka-san brought with him from Japan, signed art pieces from the game and of course the Sony PLAYSTATION 3! Pictured below are some of our lucky winners!

This was Nonaka-san’s first trip to San Francisco. He really didn’t know what to expect from this visit. Afterwards, he told us how genuinely overwhelmed he was by everyone’s enthusiasm for the game. He really was really excited to meet all the Valkyria Chronicles and SEGA fans and appreciates everyone coming out to support the game. Just look at that face in the picture above. He really hopes that everyone will enjoy playing Valkyria Chronicles as much as he enjoyed working on it!

He also took time to answer some of your questions, sent in by readers of PlayStation.Blog:

1. What games or other materials would you say were inspiration for this game?? What inspired you to put Vyse and Aika in Valkyria Chronicles?

The game’s fundamental story wasn’t really influenced by any other games. The reason for the “Skies of Arcadia” characters appearing had to do with staff like Chief Director Tanaka and Chief Artist Kanazawa and other folks who had worked on “Arcadia” as well. Since we had around 50 soldiers to create for the game, we decided to add them. “Valkyria Chronicles” and “Skies of Arcadia” take place in different worlds, but try not to overthink that too much. Besides, for players unfamiliar with “Arcadia,” they won’t even realize that these characters aren’t just other random soldiers.

2. Why did the team choose the watercolor painting art style for this game?

We wanted to show the triumph of the human spirit, even amidst the hardship of war; to do this, we felt it necessary to show not just the reality of the battlefield, but of real, human characters and emotional drama. This led to us creating the CANVAS system, our new graphic engine, to really show a sort of warmth and caring touch by creating imagery that looks like hand-drawn watercolors. To generate this real-time, hand-painted look takes quite a lot of processing power, and I think that we’ve accomplished what we set out to do.

3. Without spoiling anything what can you tell us about the storyline?

There’s an Empire, and there’s the small country of Gallia, which is a member of a confederation of smaller states. The Empire invades this small country, and so the heroes, including Welkin, who’s just this normal guy, along with Alicia and her military comrades, get wrapped up in this war. There are also legends of something known as “Valkyria,” and that’s something that plays a big part in this battle that these people get caught up in. You’ll have to play the game to find out more, though.

4. Is this game friendly to newcomers of the genre?

The user has a lot of freedom in this game (like the ability to select what units to bring into battle and how to set up their squad, how to utilize their squad on the field), and the fundamental gameplay mechanic is rather simple. I think that even beginners should be able to have a fun time with this game, and that they’ll get used to how it all works very quickly.

5. Are there any plans for downloadable content, expansion packs?? Any other unusual additions?

In Japan, on 8/8, our first batch of download content was released. This includes a new side-episode that centers on some of the side-characters, as well as a new extra-hard difficult. At the end of October, we hope to have our second content set released. (This will center on the Imperial Army’s Selveria squad fighting against the Gallian army in another additional episode). Plans for download content for the overseas releases are still to be determined.

All in all, the event went well and we were very happy to see everyone playing and enjoying the game. It was great to meet everyone and thank you for taking the time to come out to support Valkyria Chronicles.

For more information on the game, visit www.valkyrichroniclesgame.com.

Thank you!

You might be wondering, what makes this event so special. Glad you asked! There are a few things:

Play the demo! We’re giving all the attendees the ability to play the super-exclusive pre-release demo of the game. It comes out next month, but you can be the first on your block to give it a whirl!

But wait, there’s more!

Raffle! Do you like stuff? I know I like stuff and I’m guessing you do too. Fortunately for you, we’re giving stuff away! We’ve got a super secret raffle going with exclusive prizes we had made just for this event.

Special Guest! The Japanese producer, Nonaka-san from Sega Studios Japan, will be attending and signing autographs. We’re really excited to have him come out to visit and meet you guys.

More Special Guest! I even hear rumors that someone will be all dolled up in an Alicia costume (no, not me).

You might want to know where you should go to experience all this fabulous stuff. Wonder no more:

9/26 (Fri) 5:00-9:00PM
PlayStation Store at the Metreon
101 4th St, San Francisco, CA
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Now for those of you who (unfortunately) won’t be able to attend – here’s how you can participate: Ask your Valkyria Chronicles questions for Nonaka-san (the producer, remember?), and he’ll answer them in a future blog post. Just put them in the comments area below, and we’ll make sure he sees them when he gets in from Japan.

Hope to see you there!

The graphics in Valkyria Chronicles appear similar to an animated watercolor painting, with a bit of the colored-pencil-sketch action seen A-ha’s 1980’s “Take On Me” video. As you’ll see in the video below – it really works.

Speaking of the video, it features Sega Associate Producer Christopher Kaminski detailing the unique battle system found in Valkyria Chronicles – it completely takes the Strategy RPG genre “off the grid.”

We’ll have more on Valkyria Chronicles here on the PlayStation.Blog as we near its November release date.