The X Button

Time Will Crawl

Like Bandai's other Hybrid Packs, this Macross: Do You Remember Love? collection isn't just a game. In fact, the big selling point is the nice new Blu-Ray edition of the original Macross movie that delighted '80s anime fans and made people sympathize with ditzy idol singer Minmay for the first time ever. And if you get the 30th Anniversary Limited Edition, there's a pack of six mini-posters, the Flashback 2012 epilogue, a booklet, a “magazine archive” of the movie, some line-art cards, a download code for that crappy '90s Macross: DYRL shooter, and five actual frames from the movie reel. Sadly, it does not include the fascinatingly bad dub of the film that many of us unwittingly rented under the title Macross in Clash of the Bionoids.

Oh yeah, and there's a PlayStation 3 game somewhere in all that. It's called My Boyfriend is a Pilot 2012, referencing one of Minmay's songs, and its various missions replicate scenes from the movie. Its perspective isn't limited to the film's hero (and Minmay's one-time boyfriend) Hikaru, though, as the playable ships and characters include other major characters and even a Zentraedi battle pod. And yes, it replicates the Max-Milia dogfight that many still consider the high-water mark of '80s robot battles. It's all reminiscent of the fairly solid Macross Last Frontier game that was bundled with last year's Macross Frontier film. A shame we'll have to wait until 2025 for the Macross Plus 30th Anniversary Hybrid Pack.

Import Barrier: There's no regional lockout, so the game will run on a U.S. system. The same goes for the movie, just in case you were wondering.

Chances of a Domestic Release: Not good, due to those nasty legal knots tied by Robotech. That again applies to both movie and game.

Taiko no Tatsujin made a brief trip to America back in 2004, when the PlayStation 2 hosted it as Taiko: Drum Master. That was it for the series as far as Western releases went, but the Taiko games went just about everywhere in Japan: the Wii, the DS, the PSP, the iPhone, the Android, and, of course, the arcade. The 3DS game retains the same basic idea that the arcade games put forth and the DS ports adapted: players tap the screen to simulate pounding a taiko drum, all while happy-faced mascots WadaDon and WadaKatsu look on and other characters frolic to the beat. This time around, those characters include Doraemon and his entourage, the pop-star recruits of The Idolm@ster, and felynes and other beasts from Monster Hunter. Synth-voiced virtual diva Hatsune Miku and her little friends also show up to cavort, which seems entirely appropriate for a music game.

Yet this installment of Taiko no Tatsujin adds a story mode in line with its subtitle, translated as The Little Dragon and the Mysterious Orb. In an RPG-like quest, WadaDon (or is it Don-chan?) and the little dragon in question travel a fantasy realm, confronting enemies in battles that conveniently play out like regular Taiko no Tatsujin musical levels. Of course, players can skip all of this and head straight for the multiplayer, which allows up to four 3DS systems to join together.

Import Barrier: It's a simple, easily understood game, but it's also a Japanese 3DS game. And that means it's region-locked.

Chances of a Domestic Release: None too good, considering how long it's been since Namco brought a Taiko game to a U.S. console.

Time Travelers is an adventure game, one those titles driven by plot and dialogue and melodrama. And it's likely to be the biggest adventure game of the year. Why's that? Well, it's backed by the production values of Level-5 (Professor Layton, White Knight Chronicles) and it's directed by Jiro Ishii, who was behind the critically acclaimed adventure game 428: In a Blockaded Shibuya. Time Travelers is set in Tokyo as well, but with a broader focus. It starts 18 years after an abyss called the Lost Hole unfurls above the city and destroys much of the urban landscape. Less than two decades later, the city's rebuilt with a space elevator and a mysterious power source and everything.

Ishii drops a variety of characters into this futuristic mystery. Yuri and Mikoto are introduced as two high-schoolers on the edge of romance, but Yuri struggles with unpleasant memories (possibly that Lost Hole deal). Hina Fushimi's a low-level TV reporter, and she's tracking a notorious terrorist called Skeleton. Terrorism also figures heavily into detective Soma Kamiya's backstory, as some revolutionaries force him to join them by kidnapping his wife and child. Kyugo Shindou bills himself as the inventor of a time machine, but he's really just a con man. Lastly, there's Ressenti Man (get it?), a college dropout whose prolonged unemployment leads him to don a superhero costume and patrol the streets. Time Travelers mixes all of these stories together in one plotline where even simple choices can change everything. The action itself is rarely more demanding than a properly timed button-press, but players can also stop time at certain points, further altering the storyline.

Import Barrier: You'll get nowhere without understanding the dialogue, but at least the PSP and Vita versions aren't region-locked.

Chances of a Domestic Release: Minimal, though Level-5 keeps an eye on overseas markets.

Persona has earned a rare honor. With Arena, it joins Final Fantasy and Tengai Makyo among the few RPG series popular enough to get their own fighting games. And this isn't a shaky side project rushed out by the developers of Twinkle Queen or anything. Atlus turned it over to Arc System Works, makers of Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, and the only good Fist of the North Star fighter. So Persona 4: Arena sports the same brand of high-resolution animation that looked so darn pretty in BlazBlue. Set not so long after the events of Persona 4, Arena reunites the cast for another investigation of the Midnight Channel and the strange psychological landscapes it hides. This time around, it results in much brawling among the characters: the once-nameless hero Yu, martial-arts nut Chie, average-guy Yosuke, reserved Yukiko, sensitive punk Kanji, uptight detective Naoto, and the goofy little dream-world mascot called Teddie. Persona 3's Aigis, Mitsuru, Elizabeth, and Akihiko are also playable, along with the (mostly) new combat android Labrys. Some may find that a slight roster for a fighting game, particularly when Rise, a party member from Persona 4, appears only as an announcer. Look at it this way: it has more combatants than the original BlazBlue.

Each fighter is two attackers, in a way, as Arena replicates the monstrous Persona alter egos hosted by the characters. These Persona creatures can be summoned mid-battle, and two of the game's four attack buttons are dedicated to Persona strikes and the “Persona Rush.” The other two buttons release light and heavy attacks, suggesting that this isn't as terribly complicated as Street Fighter or The King of Fighters XIII. But there's a lot to the fighting. Persona projections can take damage when they're visible, and players can trade bits of their life meter to help turn the tide of a losing battle. Arena also imports some ideas from its RPG source, as the characters can suffer various status ailments mid-match. That said, a good portion of fans will pick up Arena just to see favorite Persona characters bash each other in manic, hi-res glory, and that's all but guaranteed.