Lumines Supernova coming to PSN this Fall

I've mentioned this on my blog before, but I love me some Lumines. I've played plenty of both Lumines and Lumines II on my PSP. Despite how much I like the series, I haven't yet purchased one of the console versions yet. This is mostly due to the XBLA version's silly pricing format and that Lumines Plus is largely what I already own. I think I will take my first real dive into console Lumines this Fall. Q Entertainment recently announced that a new version of the music-based puzzler will be hitting the PSN (on PS3) this Fall called Lumines Supernova. This new iteration will contain new skins in Challenge Mode plus other previously featured game modes like Time Attack, Puzzle, Mission, and Skin Edit. There will also be two new modes. The first is called Dig Down Mode where you have to use falling blocks to get to the bottom of an already filled area. The other new mode is Sequencer mode which lets you make your own backround music for the game. It seems like a pretty good package. If you haven't played Lumines yet, I'd advise either looking into this game when it comes out or finding one of the PSP games. It's a really addictive block-dropping puzzle game infused with music. There's no price yet, but I'll try and update my blog with more details or at least when I've had a chance to play Lumines Supernova myself.

(Thanks to IGN for the info which can be found at the following link: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/907/907342p1.html and thanks to Joystiq for the screen which you can find more of at this link: http://www.joystiq.com/photos/lumines-supernova-1/)

Team Ninja to Show Three New Action Games at TGS

I just got a bit more excited for TGS. IGN reports that at the Tokyo Game Show next month Team Ninja will introduce three new action games. Many (myself included) have been wondering what was up with Team Ninja since Tomonobu Itagaki left a few months back and it seems we will find out in a little over a month. Tecmo president Yasuharu Kakihara said at a press conference today that three new action games targeting a worldwide audience from Team Ninja will be introduced at TGS. What those three games will be is unknown at the moment. Games like Dead or Alive 5 or Code Cronos who were in development before Itagaki left are good guesses (though these may or may not fall into the action category). I wouldn't mind seeing either of those (especially Code Cronos since it's a bit more of a mystery to me). Seeing a new DS game would be good too as I enjoyed Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword quite a bit. Since it would be a shame to not use the technology they built for the DS again, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the games was on DS. Plus, I couldn't imagine them having three games to show for consoles. I'd love to see what they could do with the PSP though that's a bit unlikely. It's also possible that a new IP not related to the DOA/NG universe is in the cards. I would imagine that Team Ninja would eventually have something unrelated to the Itagaki era, but it may be a bit soon for something like that though I wouldn't rule out some sort of CG teaser trailer. Anyway, this is just another reason to be excited about this year's TGS. I'll have more coverage of TGS leading up to and during the show in October.

(Here's a link to the original news story at IGN: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/907/907295p1.html)