The title of the game offers a pretty good description; Neverland Card Battles is a fantasy-themed card collecting RPG. The game, produced by Yuke’s, was released last week in the ‘States. The fundamental game play involves building a deck, drawing cards, and using them against your opponent’s cards. Defeating an opponent will earn you new cards with which you can improve your deck and move on to tougher opponents. The twist is that battles take place on gridded map. Each grid square that you land on will add one point to your territory score, or mana. These points allow you to summon and keep monsters on the board, as well as perform magic.

The game features 2 modes: story and versus. The story mode only includes 16 different levels, but the replay value is high thanks to 200 unique cards to collect. Versus mode allows you to play against a friend using different characters (sadly, ad-hoc support only).

So, how well do the mechanics work? The difficulty is well balanced. You can challenge new opponents at your own pace, choosing to either build your deck in the easier levels or plan your moves carefully in the more difficult ones. I do have one complaint about the game play - you never seem to have enough cards. You can only draw one card per turn. So, if you play a full hand in one turn, it can take you another 5 turns just to get a full hand again. There are times when you will have to spend several turns running away from your opponent until you even get a playable card.

The biggest downfall in the game, however, is the graphics. The top-down board view looks great, but as soon as you enter attack mode or shuffle through your deck, the graphics take a big dive. Editing your deck should be simple enough, but it becomes troublesome due to the fact that all your cards look like abstract pixel art. The animation in attack mode looks like it belongs on the Gameboy Advance.

The storyline attached to Neverland Card Battles isn’t great either. To its credit though, the game does features some pretty good voice acting.

Overall, Neverland Card Battles is really fun. The first time I popped the game in, I wasn’t that impressed. However, the game drew me back in again and again. If you can set aside the weak graphics, lame story, and minor game play bumps, then prepare to lose your evenings over this addicting title.

While instant messaging would be a lot more convinient with a Qwerty keyboard, the PSP’s built-in texter will have to suffice. In any case, it’s great to see third parties developing apps for Sony’s handheld.

You can check out this post for more information.

Despite the major flaws in the original Valhalla Knights, the game sold extremely well. Of course, money speaks for itself, so it wasn’t a total surprise when Valhalla Knights 2 was announced at TGS this year.

The trailer above doesn’t show a whole lot. Some artwork, japanese dialogue, and a few seconds of gameplay footage. If our issues with the first game do get resolved in the sequel, this could potentially be a very satisfying RPG.

The game takes place many years before the original Kingdom Hearts games, dubbed Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. The PSP exclusive appears to feature a much darker graphical theme. Perhaps this is all part of the story… or maybe just a clever marketing ploy.

The “secret” Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep PSP trailer

In any case, the game looks pretty exciting based on the little CGI trailer. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more in the coming months.

If there’s one way to sell PlayStation Portables, Final Fantasy is the golden ticket. The PSP-exclusive prequel to Final Fantasy 7, Crisis Core, was released in Japan last week.

Based on the latest data from Japan, FFVII: Crisis Core has already sold over 470,000 copies. That is insane. Not Monster Hunter insane, but insane none the less.

The release of the game has also revived PSP console sales. Aprox. 100,000 units were sold last week in Japan, just managing to beat the Nintendo DS. Do you think this positive trend will last? Or was this a one-week wonder?

Three words: I… can’t… wait!

The video game flavor in Japan doesn’t always align with the tastes of the rest of the world, but I believe they are really onto something with Monster Hunter Freedom 2. I’ve played short press demos of the game, and seen plenty of videos, but I plan to finally pick up a real copy tonight.

Unfortunately, the game seems to be somewhat of a rare find. I’ve been keeping an eye out for it over the past few weeks, and have only spotted the game at one store: Fry’s electronics. Target, Best Buy, Fred Meyer’s, K-Mart, and EB Games either didn’t have any copies or weren’t displaying them on shelf.

I can understand some draw backs to the game in the American market. For starters, the multiplayer side of the game is the main focus. Since Ad Hoc is the only mode supported, finding other Monter Hunters to adventure with can be a SERIOUS challenge in the giant, roaming suburbs of America.

Secondly, the game is essentially a mature Poke’mon spinoff with waaay too much gameplay for one person to ever complete. This style of gameplay only seems to popup in MMORPG’s here in the US (and Europe too for that matter).

What a shame. In any case… if you can get your hands on it, it’s worth the money.

New badass desctructive Crisis Core video

Why must they tease us so?

1. eBay’s Buy It Now sellers
Now, everyone knows about eBay. However, most people tend to focus on the auction side of the site. In my experience with eBay, auctions can sometimes force you into a price range that you originally wouldn’t have even considered. Try checking out some of the “buy it now” prices. You will be surprised.

2. Online forums
Keep an eye on some different internet discussion forums. Transactions aren’t as straight-forward, but you can try to bargain down the price. PSP-Vault is a place to start.

3. Local pawn shops
In my area, the best place to buy used consoles is EB Games. While typically more expensive than interet options, you will at least know exactly what you’re paying for. Pawn shops tend to be a gamble. I’ve seen used PSP systems without a power adapter priced at $200, and others that include 5 games for a mere $80.

I hope this helps you in some way! Just don’t get too obsessed with finding the absolute cheapest price in the world. At some point, you have to value your time over money. Good luck, and happy shopping :)

The first one is that there hasn’t been a whole lot to write about, except the launch of the new PSP slim. My second excuse is that I have been completely tied up with switching jobs, moving, and the coming school year.

I will also admit that my supply of PSP games has been running dry. Which is a bummer. Send me some more free games, Sony!

Anyways, I will gradually start updating on a regular basis again. Just hang tight, subscribe to the RSS feed, and pick yourself up a copy of Monster Hunter Freedom 2.