Look! It's a rare, collectible, plush squirrel! Do you even need me to tell you what game this an Amazon-exclusive pre-order goody for? No, of course you don't, not because it's obvious, but because you will buy ANYTHING to get your hands on a rare, collectible....did we mention collectible? A rare, collectible, plush squirrel. This isn't just some average, run-of-the-mill, mass-production plush squirrel. You don't give a squirrel like this to a baby and let it chew on it for hours. No. This is a vacuum-sealed in a glass case squirrel. *drools*

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Back at E3, we had a chance to check out some of the titles Natsume is publishing in the US. Titles like Rune Factory 2 for the DS. It's of course the second Rune Factory game, which is best explained as Harvest Moon meets fantasyland. The game's going to be out this fall, and here's something I didn't know about it: Rune Factory 2 has over 9,000 words of text. That's a lot of text! For those not into the fantasy element, the DS and the Wii will both see new Harvest Moon games. Bring on the farming and marrying!

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Harvest Moon publisher Natsume has a new IP - it's called Princess Debut, a "rhythm and adventure game for girls" coming to Nintendo DS in spring.

It sounds a little bit rhythm-action, a little bit dating sim (not the hentai kind of dating sim, of course). Players become a princess and have 30 days to master dance moves and woo one of six princes to be their partner, over the course of a branching, event-driven storyline before the dance portion begins.

There are 20 different outfits, 14 endings and 18 different musical styles like Waltz, Latin, Dance, Tango and Ballroom. Natsume knows its audience (e.g, me) — I'm generally not into "games for girls" per se, but multiple endings, tons of unlockables, romance and rhythm gameplay? Seriously, I'm so there.

Admit it, guys — this sounds kind of cool to you, too, right? Right?!

Dance Into a Prince's Heart With Natsume's Original IP Exclusively For DS

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The Harvest Moon farm/life sim franchise is coming up on ten years old! Natsume will toast the anniversary with not one, but two new games "later this quarter", and promises tons of commemorative goodies, too.

There's Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness for DS, and Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility for Wii. And yes, there will be pre-order bonus stuffed toys.

Please hold the girl jokes, but as a fan, I think this news is amazing. Especially because the screenshots, handily provided for you after the jump, show that in the Wii version, you can ride on an ostrich. Horses are so ten years ago. And screenshots for the DS version (one of which seriously shows a girl saying "Wow, it's bigger than I thought"), reveal not only that the possible girlfriends are as decision-wrenchingly cute as always, but that the top screen map will actually show you where townsfolk are so that you can visit them.

Full announcement after the jump.

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One of my favourite games at last year's E3 was Natsume's Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon for the Nintendo DS, a bizarre melding of Harvest Moon farming with action RPG. Now Natsume announces the imminent arrival of the sequel, Rune Factory 2, heading to the Nintendo DS this fall, featuring all of the monster-fighting, girl-wooing, crop-planting action of the original with an all-new storyline and the ability to eventually take on the role of your son, should the aforementioned wooing work out for you.

Natsume will be showing off the new title next month at their E3 booth, traditionally known as Paradise to Harvest Moon fans. We'll see if we can't stop by and give the old hoe a go.

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Corporate confusions! When Harvest Moon developer Natsume decided to found a pachinko company a few years back, it could've picked any name for the new company. Natsume didn't and instead gave the pachinko company a corporate game moniker we all know: Atari. Here's what the CEO of Atari Inc. says about the company's name on its English page:

When naming our new company, we desire to maintain these objectives. We also thought of a Japanese word, "atari", used in the expression such as: A World of Hit business is counted by "How much you earn if you hit atari"; Pachinko is a game to aim "atari"; and thus in such a world by working hard We want to come up with big atari (big hit) machine!!. So, summing all up, we decided a company name, "Atari Inc."
Participating in all the business areas and projects, our top rated development staffs are aiming to reach literally the Biggest Atari by collecting all their wisdoms and ideas.

I know the 2600 was never big in Japan, but don't these guys know? Or Care? Maybe that's a good conversation starter. "No, we're the other Atari."

Greetings [ATARI Inc via Insert Credit]

Japanese RPG fans, rejoice. Japan-based publisher Marvelous Entertainment announced a co-publishing partnership with L.A.-based XSeed, who's best known for Shadow Hearts: From The New World and Wild Arms 4 and 5. Through the deal, Marvelous, who among other titles publishes Natsume's Harvest Moon series, gains more North American presence, while XSeed gets to publish some of Marvelous' upcoming games in the U.S.

Slated for a Spring 2008 US launch, the first title they'll co-publish is Valhalla Knights 2 for PSP, a sequel to the April 2007 RPG that the two companies also co-published.

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Omega Five! Great little shooter. The Xbox Live Arcade game features an unlockable "retro mode" where the game's graphics and the sound go 16-bit! You know what, that's pretty neato. The score was done by game music vet Hiroyuki Iwatsuki, who apparently has been inspired more by game music than anything else. (Word has it he hadn't even heard the Beatles until he started working in the game industry!) Iwatsuki says this about XBLA:

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Hudson's Xbox Live Arcade shooter Omega Five may have been unfairly lost in the noise of the thunderous announcements of Rez HD and Ikaruga for the Xbox 360, but anyone interested in shmups simply must take a moment to learn more about the game. Developed by a five-person team at Natsume, Omega Five immediately won me over with one of its playable characters. She's not only sporting some revealing Brazilian cut bustier get up that's apparently perfect for space battles, she immediately cemented the game's similarities to my personal favourite arcade shooter of all time, Forgotten Worlds.

Unlike Forgotten Worlds, you won't purchase weapon upgrades from shops. However, there is an undeniable series of moments, enemy types and aesthetic decisions that invoke memories of Capcom's futuristic shooter.

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As blank Dreamcast disc supplies begin to dwindle, could Xbox Live Arcade become a new haven for scrolling-shooter fans? With games like Triggerheart Exelica, Ikaruga, and this game here, Hudson's Omega Five coming to the platform, shmuppets might have good reason to pick up a 360 in the coming months. Omega Five is a a hardcore side-scrolling shooter featuring 360 degree shooting, five characters with unique special attacks and weapons, and local co-op. It looks gorgeous, and with Natsume working with Hudson it should either end up excellent or inadvertently a farming sim. Welcome to the age of digital-delivery shmuppery!

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