National Console Support Daily Journal

Bloody Roar is in stock this morning for the Playstation. After a brief moment with the final version, we can say that the graphics are on par with the arcade original's quality. The scans that we posted two days ago are not indicative of the caliber of the final product. The game itself is very good and plays well. One may liken it to a Tekken look-alike with flares and rings of illumination that shine with each punch, kick or special attack. Changing from human to beast will also effectively knock an opponent out of your way with a blast of changeling force. Hudson calls the transformation from man to beast the "beastification" system and touts the strategic considerations that the transformation ability adds to the gameplay. NCS Price: US$58

NCS

From one beast to another...the beastly dragons of Bobble fame make another appearance on the Playstation with another arcade conversion. Puzzle Bobble 3DX is a 1:1 port of Taito's arcade puzzler but adds a number of modes for the home console gamer to enjoy. A ranking mode, competition mode, collection mode and edit mode are all available The collection mode is a sampling of stages from dedicated Puzzle Bobble fans who have designed their own levels. The edit mode gives you a chance to design your own level and save it to a memory card. You can then hope to have your clever designs included in a future Puzzle Bobble release. NCS Price: US$58

NCS

Finally, we have the regular version of Falcom Classics for the Saturn today. The special edition came in on Monday and is selling very well, thanks in no doubt to the large number of PC-Engine fans that remember those PC-E RPGs with fond recollection. We also have a miniscule quantity of Bio-Hazard: Director's Cut but they may all be spoken for and sold out by today. NCS regrets the poor showing but the game was under-ordered by everyone since the USA version came out first. Now, everyone wants the Japanese version since it is un-edited and shows everything. We will attempt to source more copies for next week.

NCS

An update has been posted in our arcade products section for a shipment of arcade JAMMA boards that we received this past Monday. Admittedly, the design leaves a lot to be desired but it was a quickie. A stock list of MVS cartridges will also be posted by tomorrow in the arcade section for our MVS customers. We receive MVS and JAMMA stock on a bi-weekly basis but up until now, we had only offered it to operators and resellers. The home market for arcade products is not as pronounced as it is in Japan but we can try to change that a bit by offering stock at reasonable prices.

In the past couple of weeks, there have been many questions as to the exact release date of X-Men vs Street Fighter. We had posted November 24 as the date that we would be getting it. We are aware that the Japanese street date is November 28 but we assure everyone questioning the earlier date that we will have it on the 24th. That is, barring any acts of God that interrupt or even doom the flight that our cargo is on. NCS has collected many, many pre-orders for this title and we would not do so if the date was not assured. As mentioned before, the price for XM vs SF with 4M ram card will be US$70.

NCS

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