Nippon Ichi’s adventure game Infinite Loop: Kojyou Ga Miseta Yume is coming out in about two weeks time in Japan, a Flash demo was out last week for players to get a feel of the game’s high production value and intriguing story. Gpara has a bunch of new screens for the game hyping the anime quality of the character’s expressions, introducing a couple of systems called “Time Table” and “Database”, some breath taking screens from the CG cut scenes and finally a few details about the game’s pre-order gift (a luxurious looking book and a CD).

Source: Gpara

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Online retailer Rakuten has Princess Maker 5 Portable listed as an upcoming PSP game on their website. Produce by Takami Akai, the game that allows players to raise a daughter first came out on PS2 in March 2007 with plenty of new features and differences from past works in the series. Animation powerhouse Gainax is currently porting the game to the PSP and the release date is September 25th in Japan. This will be the second Princess Maker game on the PSP, Cyber Front published Princess Maker 4 Portable back in 2006.

Source: Rakuten

Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is less than two weeks away, I haven’t pay much attention to this since PSP is pretty quiet in terms of software line-up in the US. With no major western developed games coming after God of War: Chains of Olympus and Secret Agent Clank, we only have predictions to look forward to. IGN, who probably is the most active media outlets in chasing after Sony for news on PSP’s future, has their wish list for the event, their second E3-related wish list for PSP, read the first one here.

Patapon 2, PSP 2 and Ready at Dawn Studios developing new title for the PSP 2 are their predictions this time. The original Patapon was first unveiled at E3 2007, will Sony do it again this time? I absolutely love the visuals and gameplays of the game, there should be plenty of new mechanics to try out for a sequel if Sony is indeed working on it. However, Loco Roco 2 seems to has the better chance of being shown here.

PSP 2, phew! It feels good to just think about how it would look and I really wouldn’t mind a touch screen feature at all. The recent patent filing makes this prediction much more likely but I really wouldn’t put too much expectation in this. As for Ready at Dawn Studios making games for the new PSP, if that’s so, why announced they’re officially done with PSP development then?

Go: IGN PlayStation’s Most Anticipated Games of E3 2008

Sega details the two ways of getting the demo for Phantasy Star Portable, a demo UMD will be distributed through selected gaming stores in Japan while the rest of us can grab it from the PlayStation Store. As reported earlier, Sega is pretty generous with the demo, you can play the whole of the first chapter and five missions from the multiplayer mode. As a result, it’s 301Mb in size and the usual way of distributing demos via “Browser” or website just isn’t reliable enough. The date to remember for this is July 14th.

On the other hand, the game’s official website gets some updates following the Weekly Famitsu report. There are more characters introduced, a TV commercial and finally something Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G fans will be really familiar with, downloadable missions are being planned in future.

Capcom make sure the Monster Hunter craze will carry on till this summer at least with Monster Hunter Summer Course ‘08, the event offering helps for those who stuck at Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G. Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto will be the headmaster again with planner Shintaro Kojima the instructor. The exact content of the event, to be held in three locations, but it shouldn’t be too different from last year’s event (picture above). Capcom will start taking students for the event next Friday at MHP 2ndG’s official website.

Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G is the latest Japan-only game to be featured in GameSpot’s “Import Friendly” video series. The five minutes long video offers a brief overview of the series, MHP 2ndG’s success in Japan and how their staffs feel about the game. It didn’t quite answer why it’s import friendly though but it’s nice to see how Western media view the game. The game is currently on a discount ($34.90) at Play-Asia.com if it convinces you.

Go: Import Friendly ep. 07: The Monster Hunter Series

According to Enterbrain, PSP is the best selling system in Japan for the first half of 2008 with 1,964,461 units sold, Nintendo Wii is at close second with 1,720,263 units while the DS is third with 1,593,844 units. PSP’s success is mostly due to Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, which is the top selling software with 2.3 million copies sold in little more than three months time. Dairantou Smash Bros. X (1,666,323 copies) and Mario Kart Wii (1,526,664) occupy the second and third place for software sales. As noted by Mainichi, it will be interesting to see how PSP performs “Post MoHan” and this summer.

Source: Mainichi

Hudson added the Star Soldier series to its upcoming PC Engine Best Collection compilations for release in Japan this September. The titles included are Super Star Soldier, Star Soldier, Soldier Blade and Star Parodier. Among the bonus content appears to be a movie featuring commentary by Takahashi Meijin, master player of the series. The two other PC Engine Best Collection are Tengai Makyou Collection and Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Collection, both coming at the end of this month in Japan. Soldier Collection (PC Engine Best Collection) is available for pre-order at Play-Asia.com for $29.90.

Note: SeaFooD, your wish is granted :)

Geze, Qubelley, νGundam HWS and Mega-Rider are among the new MS revealed in Weekly Famitsu’s latest follow up report of Gundam Battle Universe, due out in two weeks time in Japan. Missions from a couple of works from the series were also revealed. Expect some screens tomorrow, or just check out the scans after the jump for more info. Also check out the 15 seconds TV commercial of the game in from this direct link found on the Japanese PlayStation Movie Channel.

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After the tough battle with Narugakuruga and company last week, it’s time for some lighter downloadable quests for Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G. Two new DLC will be available tomorrow. “Famitsu Sakura Mai Season” will see players taking on three pink colored monsters (Baba Konga, Pink Rathian and Yian Kut-ku) to win a special ticket while the much tougher “Challenge Quest 08″ features the sub-species of Shougun Gizami, Furu Furu and Diablos.

Source: Famitsu