Bandai updated Naruto Shippuuden: Kizuna Drive’s official website with some information on “Four Man Cell Action”. The system basically allows players to fight monsters with three other team members. Also shown are screens for “Kizuna Link” which allows players to team up with others to deal huge damage to a dying enemy. The multi-player focused game is set for release in Japan sometime this year.

The upcoming issue of Weekly Famitsu spend three pages explaining the Pilot Making part of Gundam Assault Survive. As you can see from the scans, things you can customize include name, genre, face type, hair style, abilities, birth place, voice type, initial skills and MS parts. My initial report on the game can be read here.

Selected from more than 20 options, Megane Kikuya’s final illustration for .hack//Link box art (click for larger view) is certainly a great piece of art. “I purposely picked deeper colors to point out the scale of this RPG. There are 11 characters in the illustration, four of them drawn in full body, this is the most time consuming work I have done in my life.” she says.

I’m hardly a big .hack fans but this title grabbed my attention for some reasons. The game is apparently the final episode in the series and will have our hero Tokio travel back in time to meet all the characters from the series and partner with more than 30 of them in the game for their adventure. The recent Weekly Famitsu (online version here) report look into its “Cross Over Events” and revealed a couple more characters. There is also an interview with series creator and CyberConnect2 boss Hiroshi Matsuyama, who says that while there will be manga and animes of the series in the future, this will be the last .hack game… unless .hack//Link “sold too well and someone order him to make a game”.

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Gundam is another series that found its new home in Japanese PSP and after four successful games, the Gundam Battle team is launching a new series with a new title called Gundam Assault Survive featuring animes that have never appeared in Gundam Battle series and a couple of brand new systems, Linked Map and Teamworks. Here are some of the early info revealed in the recent Weekly Famitsu, who also did an interview with the producers.

Hirono Kay, producer from Bandai Namco, shares the reasons behind launching a completely new series. “With Gundam Battle series, there are things that we couldn’t produce due to various reasons. This is also the time I feel we must move on to new directions.” “By adding new content and revising the system of the previous games, we manage to further refine its mechanics but it make parts of the game too complicated. We feel it’s time to start from the beginning to make it easier for new players.” added Yagi Masanori, producer from Artdink.

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Another great trailer from Namco for God Eater, out this Feb 4 in Japan. Game looks blocky at times but it sure looks fun. Also love the anime opening movie. Game is $54.90 at Play-Asia but will be waiting for the yet-to-be-confirmed English version :)

A product listing at Amazon Japan seems to suggest that our next Gundam game will be Gundam Assault Survive, set for release in the country this March. Judging from the title, it’s probably not the latest game in the Gundam Battle series (Gundam Battle Universe screen above), which already have four PSP games so far. The answer will probably in the upcoming issue of Weekly Famitsu this week.

Update: This is more or less confirmed by another online retailer Rakuten who says this is currently under development by the Gundam Battle team. It appears to be a team-based action game with maps that change in real-time. Among the anime to be included are Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny and Mobile Suit Gundam 00, MS count is more than 300 units and the amount of characters included is said to be 100. Customization plays a big part on the game too with features to create your own character.

“Bullet Edit” is the latest features to be introduced for God Eater, Bandai Namco’s next big PSP title coming this February in Japan. You will probably remember the game’s Deus Ex Machina weapon system and its three different forms. In Gun Form, players can customize their bullets with five different “Modules” from the various setting like Type, Elemental, Distance, Path, etc to come out with something cool like the above screen.

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Five days is all you have to wait to play Naruto Shippuuden: Narutimate Accel 3 now. Hope this final preview from Shonen Jump will make the wait less painful :) Game is $54.90 at Play-Asia and $57.99 at YesAsia.

Here’s the first of two videos that developers CyberConnect2 will show their “Super Play Techniques” for Naruto Shippuuden: Narutimate Accel 3. Game will be out next Thursday!

Namco begins its promotion for God Eater with this 15 seconds TV commercial. The game will only be out February in Japan but you can check out the demo now.