Sega's Bleach: Shattered Blade had a good thing going for them when they reinvented the fighting game style with the motion controls for the Nintendo Wii. A lot of people are now wondering if the trend will pick up with the newer fighting games coming in.

Case in point, writer Spencer from Siliconera asked Jin Okubo, producer of Namco's Soul Calibur Legends, if there was a possibility of seeing the long-standing fighting game series come out with a similar control interface for the upcoming game. Okubo had this to say on the matter:

As far as a Bleach style fighting games that’s a possibility. That’s not something the team specifically has in the works right now, but it’s not something that you can definitely rule out. Right now, what the team has been focusing on reproducing the players actions on screen. Right now, they are focusing on games that link the characters on screen and the player. That’s why we have a game like Soul Calibur Legends now because we feel it really links the player and the character. That’s something we feel a third person perspective game is suited towards. As far as where the [Soul Calibur] series is going to go from here it’s up in the air at this point. Obviously, it depends on how fans react to Soul Calibur Legends, but it could be going in different directions.

So perhaps someday we'll be seeing players brandish their Wiimotes the same way Ivy whipping her opponents in the ring. It's definitely something to look forward to when people finally get tired of the same old fighting games and need a new change of pace in their beat 'em ups. Until then we'll just have to wait for Soul Calibur Legends' release and await Namco's verdict on the matter.

The Tokyo Game Show is looming ever so near and we're prepping up for what the developers have in store for us. One such developer doesn't seem to want us guessing what they're offering come TGS: Sega. Sega's official website has been updated with their line-up for this year and we have to say the the list ain't too shabby. Not shabby at all.

Remember Ryu Ga Gotoku? It was better known as Yakuza on these and Europe's shores. Hopefully, we'll finally see a sequel (Ryu Ga Gotoku 2 doesn't really count as it was only released in Japan) and it's going to come busting to the PlayStation 3. It is currently called Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzen and is scheduled for spring of next year.

Sega is pretty much loaded in titles for the PS3, DS, PS2, and Wii, while the Xbox 360 and PSP rosters are a bit bare. The titles to keep an eye on are Bleach: The Third Phantom, Battlefield of the Valkyrie, Sonic Rush Adventure, and Ghost Squad, among others. Anyway, here's the list with their respective ETAs courtesy of Siliconera.

PlayStation 3

• Imabi Kisou - Oct. 25
• Sega Rally - Jan 2008
• Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzen- Spring 2008
• Battlefield of the Valkyrie - Spring 2008
• The Golden Compass - Spring 2008

Wii

• Ghost Squad - Oct 25
• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams - Dec 13
• Mibiru & Tebri – Jan. 08
• The Golden Compass - Spring 2008
• Fushigi no Dungeon - Furai no Shiren 3: Karakuri Yashiki no Nemuri Hime - 2008

The rest of the list comes after the jump!

Cute little girls and long deadly swords shouldn't really mix, but fortunately for us, Bleach: Shattered Blade for the Nintendo Wii makes it work like a charm. Skeptical? Take a gander at these latest screenshots and see for yourself what's new with the title that lets players take up sword and sheath in the fight of the afterlife.

Looking at the screenshots, it looks like the game is coming along pretty nicely. The graphics look fluid, the special effects executed quite cleanly and the characters rendered to resemble their celluloid counterparts to the last detail.

The backgrounds do look just a bit plain, but as it is, the combat visuals are just too pretty to ignore. And it looks like Yachiru, despite her small size, is perfectly capable of handling her own against the cast's taller members. I mean, would you just look at her skewering the dude in the baggy pants? Cute and deadly.

As fighters go, Bleach: Shattered Blade looks to be something special. Enjoy the screenshots!

   

Here's the latest for the soon-to-be-released Bleach games: the US will be getting the same playable content as the Japanese version so they will also enjoy the same unlockable content and characters. In short, everything from the Jap version will be intact.

Bleach: Shattered Blade for the Wii promises to be sword-wielding fun using the Wiimote. It will have a total of 32 playable characters and features multiplayer combat.

Bleach: The Blade of Fate for the DS features a new kind of battle system that takes advantage of the two screens. To read more about the aspects of each game, check out our previous article.

Bleach: Shattered Blade and Bleach: The Blade of Fate will both be released this October 9. Hey look, screenshots!

    

Bleach fans in Europe have a couple of reasons to be happy as Sega just announced two new titles based from the animated series. The new video games are namely Bleach: Shattered Blade and Bleach: The Blade of Fate for the Wii and Nintendo DS respectively.

This time, the Bleach storyline follows the adventures of Ichigo Kurosaki who has the power to see spirits from the afterlife, including warriors called Soul Reapers. Our main hero meets female dead warrior Rukia and received her powers. Kurosaki is then tasked to continue Rukia's mission of defeating the enemies known as Hollows.

"The content of the Bleach story lends itself perfectly to an action packed arcade fighting game with a heavy dose of mighty sword battles. Both the flexibility of the Wii and the portability of the DS have allowed us to bring the intense action of Bleach to a wide variety of gamers," commented Sega European Marketing Director Gary Knight.

The following are some of the features specific to each title. Both will be released during the early part of 2008.

Bleach: Shattered Blade

• Enables players to wield the Wiimote and Nunchuk as their weapons - slashing, jabbing, and lunging in furious battles like a real Soul Reaper
• Exclusive storyline created specifically for the Wii with 32 characters to choose from
• Once a new character is unlocked, players can replay the story episodes utilizing the characters special moves and weapons adding a whole new perspective to the storyline

More features and screenshots after the jump!

  

Online retailer Play-Asia has just announced the commencement of their Summer Smoothie promo, which will provide for a 20% price cut for all select goods in their extensive (virtual) merchandise shelves. Here's a sample of the major deals available for the promo:

• Xbox 360
• Blue Dragon (English/Chinese language version) (Asia, US$ 35.92)
• Shadowrun (US, US$ 47.92)
• Forza Motorsport 2 (US, US$ 47.92)
• PlayStation 3
• Def Jam Icon (US, US$ 47.92)
• F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon (US, US$ 51.92)
• The Godfather: The Don's Edition (Asia, US$ 39.92)
• Wii
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Japan, US$ 31.92)
• Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (US, US$ 47.92)
• Cooking Mama: Cook Off (US, US$ 47.92)
• PSP
• DJ Max Portable 2 (Korea, US$ 39.92)
• DJ Max Portable 2 Orpheus Package ~Night Black~ (Korea, US$ 119.92)
• Bleach: Heat the Soul 4 (Japan, US$ 39.12)
• DS
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (Konami's Best) (US, US$ 19.92)
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All (US, US$ 23.92)
• Final Fantasy III (US, US$ 35.92)
  

Play-Asia's Summer Smoothie is expected to last until July 12, Thursday, and will cover all items in stock, except for those released during the last 30 days. That's the basic rundown of this ongoing discount special - the full merchandise list should be available at Play-Asia's site via the read link below.

The last time we posted about Sega's Bleach for the Wii was December of last year. Since then the game has been out in Japan and though there have been no announcements whether the game will be released in North America or Europe, there's nothing wrong with hoping.

Bleach for the Wii is based on the manga and anime of the same name. Who isn't excited about wielding the Wiimote like a soul slayer and play as your favorite Bleach character? As we can see, nearly every character (if not all of them) is playable. So you can probably choose to play Ichigo, the captains and vice captains, or heck, even Yoruichi.

Anyway, you can check out these screens while we cross our fingers for Bleach's North America release.

The rest of the screens right after the jump!

We never thought YouTube would be popular enough to merit more than some kind of porn-based version of it, but we were mistaken. Instead of simply watching YouTube videos on the Wii, why not watch WiiToob?

WiiToob is pretty mush the equivalent of photocopy of some great masterpiece. You've got the important details you need to see from your copy, but the smudges make it somewhat hellish to wade through everything. What you have here is YouTube made larger, such that the Wiimote can easily access everything through the TV screen.

The YouTube videos they show here are resized for TV viewing. That makes them larger but with the obvious trade-off of being somewhat troublesome to watch.

Still, WiiToob do have a lot of untapped stuff there. They've got subbed episodes of "Bleach," Hillary Duff MTVs, and this Philippine drama called "Maging Sino Ka Man," which, if translation services are correct, means "Whoever You Are." Not exactly a bastion of entertainment for Wii users, but as an old farmer once said to Babe, "That'll do, pig. That'll do."

It's time for us to see more of the moves from Sega's Bleach for the Wii. We've consistently provided you with screenshots, which by themselves look amazing. Now it's time to see if those images provide sufficient testimony as to the real gameplay.

That's why we have here for you two gameplay videos for Bleach. The first one is entitled Sword dueling. True to its name, it simply shows you how the battles would work, as well as provide a preview of the kind of powers you can wield against your opponent. That, and the trademark battlecry of "Hiiiiyyyyaaaa!!!" among fighters when in the thick of the battle.

The second vid, meanwhile, shows how the one-on-one battles can help you perfect your moves, hence becoming the ultimate sword-handler. Anyways, for those in Japan, we're sure you can find these useful in your exploration of the game. It has, after all, come out to retail since the 14th of December.

As for those in the other areas, well, you can just view the gameplay videos so you won't be so out of the loop. The blade-wielding vid awaits after the jump. Enjoy!

Sword dueling

Jump Festa is basically a celebration of all things anime, manga, and gaming. Hosted by Shueisha, the guys responsible for the insanely popular Shounen Jump, the event attracts Major game publishers from all over Japan. We've come to expect that companies like Bandai, Square Enix, Namco, Konami, and Capcom will make major announcements for their  anime-based games or their RPGs at this event.

1UP reports that this year's main highlight is the Square Enix booth. A huge chunk of their upcoming lineup was on display, including Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix, as well as Seiken Densetsu: Heroes of Mana, FF Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, and the much awaited PSP game FFVII: Crisis Core. Unfortunately FF Tactics: The Lion war, and FF XII: Revenant Wings, them Ivalice games, weren't playable.

Squeenix also had a private movie theater showing of footage from their 2007 games, mostly FFXIII-related clips, although 1UP does say that at the end of the reel there was a very brief clip of a face of an armored man grimacing at the camera while in the middle of a battlefield, followed by the text "something new coming in 2007." 1UP speculates that it might be the long rumored MMO sequel to FFXI. New trailers for Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors for the Wii was also shown.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft had a large booth showing mostly Wii games, and Microsoft was pimping Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Table Tennis, and the localized version of Viva Piñata. Sega and Sony, were showing off their Bleach titles for their respective systems.

Capcom had Monster Hunter portable 2nd. Konami had it's new Death Note games (emo alert!)  and a few Yu-Gi-Oh and Prince of Tennis titles. Bandai Namco was also there in full force, with about 42 different Dragon Ball, Naruto, One Piece, and Tales of -insert word here- games.

Given that the TGS FF Versus XIII trailer took a while before it was made public, we're guessing that it'll take a while before we see that supposed FFXI trailer that 1UP is speculating about. We're currently raiding/scouring YouTube and other video sharing sites to see if there any interesting clips and videos of the event that got leaked. We'll update you if we find some treasure. Stay tuned.

For images of the booths (in this case the Square-Enix one) you can go here.

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Gamefront.de reports that at Jump Festa 2007 new trailers for FFXIII were shown on the showfloor. In the new trailer, a new character for Final Fantasy XIII was seen. A blond motorcycle-riding man wearing a Bandana was featured. We'll update you when more news breaks.