Start saving your rings

UDON Entertainment has revealed a huge History of Sonic hardback book for launch in North America this September.

It's the same book as Pix'n Love Publishing announced for Europe, though it doesn't look like North America will get the cool embossed gold foil cover. The book itself spans nearly 300 pages and has been produced in conjunction with SEGA Japan, with developer interviews, concept art and more.

The asking price for this slice of hedgehog history? A mere $49.99 when it hits in September. Or pre-order it from Amazon for $31.81.

One of gaming’s classic characters gets his first-ever art book retrospective in a massive new tome from UDON!

In-stores this September, from UDON and Diamond Distribution

TORONTO: Celebrating more than 20 years as the official mascot of video game giant SEGA®, Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the most recognizable video game characters in the world! With over 70 million games sold, hundreds of episodes of his TV series, countless licensed tie-ins, and a comic book series that’s been running non-stop since 1993, FANS KNOW SONIC, and now UDON has teamed up with Pix’n Love Publishing to bring fans the ultimate guide to SEGA’s spiky blue speedster— The History of Sonic the Hedgehog!

The History of Sonic the Hedgehog is a hefty 300-page hardcover book debuting this fall, featuring everything you thought you knew… and much more… about the famous “blue blur!” The book has been a true labour of love for the crew at Pix’n Love Publishing, who partnered with SEGA of Japan to produce the original French edition earlier this year! The new UDON Edition of The History of Sonic the Hedgehog features all the same great content, but with a complete English translation for North American fans!

The History of Sonic the Hedgehog covers every 2D and 3D Sonic game in detail, ensuring that every generation of Sonic fan will find a lot to love! The book also details every spin-off game, every crossover, and even rare cameo appearances by Sonic across the gaming universe! Whether you’re looking for a detailed history, character profiles, promotional art, game packages, or even rare concept art, you’ll find it in The History of Sonic the Hedgehog!

The History of Sonic the Hedgehog is the book that fans of this series have been waiting for, and whether you’re an avid gamer, a Sonic comic reader, or just have fond memories of this series, you’ll want a copy on your shelf!

Key Features:

• Beautiful 300-page hardcover collection in a unique “widescreen” format.
• Sonic’s longevity and popularity is rarely matched in video games! He’s appeared on more than 15 video game systems and in more than 100 games, including the recent fan-favorite Sonic Generations for PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft!
• The Sonic the Hedgehog video game series’ covered in this volume have sold more than 70 million units!
• The Sonic the Hedgehog comic line from Archie has been running non-stop since 1993, with over 300 comics released! Sonic has also appeared in manga, novels, picture books and even colouring books, but this is his first-ever art book appearance!

Click here to pre-order The History of Sonic the Hedgehog through Amazon.

The History of Sonic the Hedgehog

Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 300, Colour
Size: 9.25? wide X 8.5? long
Price (U.S.): $49.99
ISBN: 1-926778-56-1
ISBN 13: 978-1-926778-56-3
In-stores September 2012.

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At last

Popular message-swapper Nintendo Letter Box got an update today that lets you write and draw with coloured ink.

European 3DS owners can simply scan the QR code below to go straight to the update, which adds five coloured inks to the free application: red, blue, green, purple and orange. Black remains an option too.

To scan the QR code below:

• Hold L or R on the 3DS Home Menu to bring up the camera.
• Tap the chequerboard option — this opens up the QR reader.
• Align the frame with the QR code and it will offer you a link.
• Press A.

North American users can simply visit the eShop to be prompted to update.

To select the new colours tap left or right on the D-Pad. Note that you can only use one coloured ink per letter, so you can't draw multi-coloured masterpieces.

This update is now available around the world.

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Lick of paint

WayForward's eShop favourite Mighty Switch Force! is getting revamped for the Wii U's download store.

Mighty Switch Force! HD is currently on course to launch alongside Wii U later this year, with all-new graphics akin to the hand-drawn style of Wii title A Boy and His Blob. It'll also include all the extra content recently released for the 3DS version, and if time permits there'll be new content too.

Would you go for some Mighty Switch Force! on Wii U or do you prefer your switching to be a little more portable?

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Fan service

The Last Story finally hits North America this month, so it's a good time to learn a little more about the game's development.

This documentary by French site Sidekick.fr explains more about Mistwalker's background, The Last Story's original concept as a much darker game called Lost World and more. It's well researched and slick, and well worth a watch.

Make sure you read our The Last Story review for more on Mistwalker and Nintendo's Wii RPG.

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Straight to the top

Sony's fantastic physics-bending Gravity Rush hit Vita in late June and easily walked away with our Game of the Month award.

As our Gravity Rush review explains:

It's a game that defies expectations almost as frequently as the physical properties it’s built upon. A surreal narrative is complemented by genuinely ground-breaking gameplay mechanics, and while it’s not always flawless, it culminates in one of the most outstandingly original experiences of the year.

A true must-have title for Vita owners, and one of the best PlayStation games of the year so far.

Honourable mention: Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown.

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Conquers all

June wasn't a great month for game releases it must be said, but the long-awaited arrival of Pokémon Conquest netted it our Game of the Month award in June.

A blend of Japanese strategy series Nobunaga's Ambition and Nintendo's beloved pocket monsters, it straddles the middle ground between the two RPG approaches, creating something engaging and unique in the process.

As Joe Walker put it in our Pokémon Conquest review:

Pokémon Conquest is a game that no one asked for, but many will enjoy — fans of either series will be drawn in by the familiar and be taught to love what’s new. It does just about everything right, though there are shortcomings: more Pokémon being included would have helped, as would a deeper story — these are little more than nicks in the armour. Pokémon Conquest absolutely stands with Pokémon Snap and Pokémon Puzzle League as one of the best spin-offs the franchise has seen.

European Pokémon fans have to wait a few weeks to get their hands on Conquest.

Honourable mentions: Bomb Monkey and The Last Blade.

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Coming soon

Gamebridge has announced it's bringing DSiWare game creation software Petit Computer to North America this summer.

The package serves as an introduction to the BASIC programming language that's powered games for decades. If you're not artistically inclined you can use the 512 pre-packed sprites and 256 backgrounds, or using the DSi's touch screen to draw your own.

After you've finished coding and tweaking you can share your creations online with other users by generating QR codes using a PC or Mac. This way you'll be able to pick at others' code to see how they've created their titles, a feature we can see being very popular.

Petit Computer is out on DSiWare and in the eShop later this year. You can find out more at the Petit Computer site. Want to see the sort of thing you can create with it? Here's a DSiWare rendition of Out Run:

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Petit Computer

Petit Computer is the American name of a Japanese DSiWare title called “Puchicom” by Smileboom. “Petit Computer” will be released by Gamebridge in America in Summer 2012.

Petit Computer is a BASIC programming language tool for DSiWare. Using the virtual keyboard on the Touch Screen, users can enter programming commands to create their own BASIC source code.

The first version of the software was released in Japan in March 2011 and has received a large following of users in Japan. The first version only allowed users to save their program source code within the Puchikon program, preventing users from exchanging their source code. As a result users have been videoing their code and uploading the video to youtube.

Do you recognize any of these?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDTPketCpMc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJYmkN0RZno&feature=relmfu

In February 2012, one year after the release of the original version, Smileboom released a new and enhanced MkII version of the program in Japan. MkII has several major improvements including the ability to save your BASIC program source code to a SD card. Using a computer to access the Petit Computer website users can then convert their source code into QR Codes so others can read-in their programs using the Camera in their Nintendo DSi or Nintendo 3DS as a QR Code reader.

It is the latest MKII version that Gamebridge will release in America this summer as “Petit Computer”.

Features
Petit Computer is DSiWare for your Nintendo DSi/3DS. Many Nintendo DSi features can be accessed by Petit Computer using the BASIC programming language.

Fast and colorful sprites, BG screens (screen mode specialized for drawing backgrounds), graphic capabilities, and Touch Screen input are supported by the Nintendo DSi.

Petit Computer comes preloaded with 512 sprites. It also includes 256 BG chips for use in backgrounds. And by changing colors and rotating, the world of possibilities gets even wider.

You can use MML syntax to simultaneously play an 8-channel melody and trigger 16 sounds at once. The available 128 basic tones (instruments), 68 drums, 8 patterns of PSG (duty cycles), and noise can be freely combined to create the sounds you want.

Petit Computer comes with features that allow other people to see the programs you create. When you have a friend nearby, you can use your Nintendo DSi's Wireless Communications feature to exchange programs.

And when you want to release a program to an even wider audience, you can save it onto an SD Card, load it onto your PC, and then use a browser to convert it into a QR code that lets you easily make your work public. These programs can then be loaded onto a Nintendo DSi by using its camera to scan the resulting QR code.

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And thirty seconds of clarity

Capcom-Namco-SEGA strategy RPG Project X Zone might not make sense just yet — we blame all that pesky Japanese writing and dialogue — but its blend of tactical turns-based battles and all-out chaos makes it fun to watch.

The trailer below shows what the game looks like in action (though you'd probably already figured that part out) with footage of fights, maps and dialogue taking up distinctly different positions on the scale of "interesting things to see in a game trailer." It also wins points for showing Resident Evil's Chris and Jill taking down a Blubon from House of the Dead, a winning appearance from Die Hard Arcade hero Bruce McClane and enough nerdy nods to make this an enjoyable game of I spy.

Project X Zone lands in Japan on 11th October. None of the companies involved have spoken about a Western release, but we'll keep you posted.

[youtube:uMcMpAc1Ppg]

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Rec-rec and tennis

While we don't know what the Platinum reward is for Club Nintendo members, we do know what games you can spend your Coins on in the coming weeks.

Wii Virtual Console

Mario Tennis (Nintendo 64) — 150 Coins. Available until 22nd July. Read our Mario Tennis review to see if it's worth the coins.

DSiWare

Electroplankton: Rec-Rec (download only compatible with 3DS) — 100 Coins. Available until 15th July. Worth the moolah? Find out in our Electroplankton: Rec-Rec review.

Make your choices now. Or save your coins, that's an option too.

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Beastly

Yesterday we told you about Monster Hunter 4's spring release in Japan, announced yesterday alongside a new trailer. This is that trailer.

Like last year's Monster Hunter 4 concept video, this trailer shows off new terrain features, the ability to climb on monsters and destructible surroundings. It also teases new monsters alongside returning favourites Rathian, Tigrex and Rathalos.

Now how about some news for Western Hunters, Capcom?

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