NewNews - Cherry Tree High Comedy Club finally out on Steam!

Official site: http://cherrytreehigh.com/
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/214610/

Finally, Cherry Tree High Comedy Club is available on Steam after 7 months from its official release!  I first mentioned this game back in April and have mentioned it again on several different posts relating to Nyu Media and the games they're translating.  Cherry Tree High Comedy Club is a sort of Visual Novel/Adventure that requires reading and making decisions.  It's meant to be light-hearted and have lasting appeal with an endless mode after you've complete the main part of the game (or so I hear).  As excited as I am for this game, I'm going to wait just a little longer as a possible fall sale might be coming up as well as the annual winter sale considering I have a large back log to keep me busy anyways.  Chery Tree High Comedy Club is out now for $7.99!

GameLight - Mabinogi Bard and Battle changes

Official Site: http://mabinogi.nexon.net/Default.aspx
Source: Youtube Channel coinoptv

Mabinogi has been around since 2004 in Korea and was launched in North America back in 2008 and still receives updates now.  I had stopped playing Mabinogi after one of the updates took away half of the entire back storage from my character and pretty much limited players to half the original size unless they pay for it.  It's typical for a free game to "add" new content and charge for specific ones, but to take away something that was already available and re-selling it just sickened me.  Still, Mabinogi was and still is a really fun casual MMORPG with light-hearted gameplay.

The latest update that launched last month that seemed to have slipped past me is a new "bard" class focus as well as changes to combat so that it's more fast paced.  The Bard focus allows the player to support their party in battle with buffs and assisting damage.  Combat has always been slower and strategic which made it feel less of a casual game in terms of fighting enemies.  It was really tough getting used to the timing and charges of certain abilities and attacks.  What they did is sped up charges and placed cool downs for abilities.  These changes, especially the new combat system, makes me want to pick up the game once more.  Mabinogi is free-to-play at Nexon.net with micro-transaction items available.

GameLight - Cherry Tree High Comedy Club

Official Site: http://cherrytreehigh.com/
Source: Youtube Channel NyuMedia

Indie games have become a more prominent force in the market, but Japan has had indie games for the longest time created by "circles" or sometimes "individuals".  A lot of great indie games have been created in Japan for the longest time and only those who know about them has a chance of trying some of them out.  Certain indie games require a significant amount of reading but are still great games which leave non-speaking Japanese players out of the loop.  Luckily, more translating groups such as Nyu Media are established to give us English speaking gamers a chance to play those awesome Japanese indie games.

Cherry Tree High Comedy Club, although not entirely clarified, is a sort of adventure/visual novel game where much of the gameplay revolves around talking and decision making.  The main character is trying to create a comedy club within her school but is required to have at least 5 members to establish it (this should sound familiar to those who've watched Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu).  So the player goes around earning money, recruiting members, and building up conversational skills to finally get the club up and going.  The game is light hearted with humor, original animé-styled sprites and graphics, laid-back and catchy music, and all sorts of interesting characters.  Talking as a main gameplay concept might sound boring, but if you've played any adventure game like the Sam & Max series, visual novel type games like the Phoenix Wright series (I know it's sort of like a mystery and adventure game too), or any of BioWare's RPGs and enjoyed the dialogue parts of the game, there's a good chance that Comedy Club will be a very enjoyable game to play.  I've never heard of this game before (as I do try to keep up with some Japanese doujin/indie games), but I think it has made me that much more excited that Nyu Media/Capcom is surprising me with a game I've never seen.  I'm very excited about Cherry Tree High Comedy Club and thank Nyu Media for bringing it over to the Western market to give us a chance to play it.

Cherry Tree High Comedy Club releases on April 27th, 2012 on Steam, GamersGate, GameTap, GameFly, Impulse and the Capcom Store as well as their own site up on the top link for $7.99.

GameLight - Angry Birds Space

Official Site: http://space.angrybirds.com/announcement/

Source: Youtube Channel RovioMobile

With the announcement of "The New iPad" (iPad 3), it's no surprise that it would be backed up by killer apps from developers of the market.  Today, Rovio Entertainment uploaded a video of its new game Angry Birds Space.  The game is introduced and talked about by NASA astronaut Don Pettit and how the game's mechanic will work as gravity plays a different part in the game's system.  Sure, this theme and idea has been done many times before by flash game developers for years, but so was the original concept for Angry Birds.  It's sad but true that many popular games on the mobile or social platforms are copies of other existing games, but there's nothing we can really do about it (at the very least know about it).

I'm not entirely against mobile, social, and casual games as some of them actually turn out to be pretty innovative or fun.  Although I'm not a huge fan of the Angry Birds series, I do like the aesthetic and character it gives that has seeped into pop culture.  I also enjoyed the video uploaded and especially enjoyed the demonstration by Mr. Pettit at 1:52.  I'm not sure if other people had the same dreams but as a kid I dreamed of what it would be like in space and do all sorts of crazy zero-gravity activities and so seeing that Angry Bird plush get shot off in zero-gravity made me all giddy inside.  There's no doubt that Rovio Entertainment will find its success once again on Apple products and mobile devices everywhere, especially with "The New iPad's" release on March 14th and its own launch on the market on March 22nd.