354 Production

Congratulations to THE IDOLM@STER sound team at NAMCO BANDAI Studios! They claimed the top award in the sound category at the 2012 Computer Entertainment Developers Conference (CEDEC) ! Three members of the team pose with the award below. Note that they are all being totally awesome by wearing the 7th Anniversary Concert exclusive iM@S Producer-style ANIM@TION EDITION neckties ! Mr. Nakagawa, Mr. Uchita, and the Sound Director, Mr. Ishihara, pose with their award The award was given for “Surpassing the bounds of game music, J-pop songs from a game.” The full description for why they received the award reads as such: “The light J-pop songs created by the virtual-idol producing NAMCO BANDAI Studio Sound Team have surpassed the bounds of game music, brilliantly achieving things such as: appearing as opening and ending music for a television anime, realizing a dedicated 2-day concert at the Yokohama Arena, and having character single CDs hold 5 spots in the Oricon Weekly Top 10 chart...

So I got THE IDOLM@STER2 First-run Limited Production Edition today for PS3! I was so excited! I would have gotten it the day before yesterday, but I just didn't get home early enough to pick it up from the post office. Anyway, I picked it up yesterday, and there was no stopping me. First, a shot of the box. The box it came in next to my 360 copy of iM@S2 When I picked it up, it was lighter than I had imagined, and I it seemed a little small to get an A1-sized tapestry in it, but opening up would show my fears to be unfounded. Unpacking it all, I found everything I'd hoped for. The contents of the shipping box I unrolled the tapestry and the poster to take a look and them, as I had bought the game specifically from Gamers to get them. They are pretty awesome. The A1-sized tapestry The B4-sized poster I also opened up the foil packet to see what was on my anime film strip. Turns out it's the same as the Gamers postcard I got with the set. I wonder if maybe ce...

I just saw the banner today about the iM@S Social Game (temp name) coming out at the end of November. Although I had seen the blog post when it came out yesterday, I hadn't gotten around to reading it and sorta forgot about it. Anyway, it's certainly an interesting idea, and I'm curious how it will turn out. It seems that there will be over 100 girls to produce, including the already present 765 Production idols. I do hope the 876 Production idols will be available too, but no news on that. It will apparently be on Mobage . You will put together a team of 5 idols that you will produce from those over 100 girls and you can do jobs with them, raise their abilities through lessons, and have concert battles with rival idol teams. So far, it sounds a lot like regular iM@S, but with a lot more idols. But then they say they're going for some kind of card battle type game. So I'm curious as to what they're going to do with that. I was already getting my card battle ID...

The first DLC for iM@S2 PS3 has been announced ! The video is below. So the most exciting part of that was the end! I'd read from ANN a few days ago that Miku was going to be iM@S2 PS3 as DLC, but I got the impression from the article that maybe she'd just show up in the DOTOP TV as a PV with her song, and maybe show up as a rival at a festival. But she'll be in S4U! as well! That's awesome! Ok, sure it's not quite as awesome as if you were able to produce her in the regular game, but it'll still be amazing to have her in S4U!. I hope that she'll work the same as the other idols and you'll be able to choose her songs, clothing, stage, and stage partners. Looking closely at video though, it looks like "World is Mine" is to be Miku only though. I still hope it means there are Miku versions of the iM@S songs so that you can still put her with the other idols on stage. I'm really looking forward to it. As for the other DLC, it seems like th...

So just the other day, I tried out the Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Demo on my Xbox 360. It was an interesting experience, but I'm not sure I like it a lot. First thing I want to say is that my comparisons will mainly be to Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. I think that's reasonable, considering that was the last game in the series to come out on the Xbox 360. Anyway, there are two modes in the demo, fighter plane mode and attack helicopter mode. I tried plane mode first. There are two control schemes you can choose for plane mode. One is called Standard, and the other one is called Original. Standard is an easier mode where the plane auto-levels in the absence of control inputs, and you simply push the left control stick in the direction you want to go. The rudder is still a separate control though that can be used for yaw adjustments. The demo defaults to this control scheme. Original gives you full control, making the x-axis of the control stick control the plane's roll...

So I've been busy the past couple weeks, so I wasn't able to update, but here's a quick rundown of a few missed iM@S updates. First, is belated Happy Birthday to Ryo! His birthday was was on September 15th, as shown in Ryo's official character profile .. Unfortunately, there was no love for Ryo on the iM@S anime website, so you don't get the wallpapers, banners and twitter icons this time. Next, the Official IDOLM@STER Blog announced that a new opening song will be used for the iM@S anime next month! It will be called CHANGE!!!! (Wow that's a lot of exclamation points!). The single CD for it will then be released on November 9th. It will have a first-run limited edition version in a Digipak with a DVD, which will at least contain the non-credit video of the new iM@S opening featuring this song. The first-run edition will be 1,800 yen with tax, and the standard edition will be 1,200 yen with tax. Finally, there has been some updates on the details on the con...

The official IM@S blog brings us new details on G4U! First off, Although the video has been up since the beginning of August, I never linked it, so for those who haven't seen it yet, here is the G4U! playthrough promotion video. G4U! VOL.1 will be on the beach, and as can be seen from the video, the featured outfits are swimsuits. G4U! VOL.2 will be in a school classroom, and we get two school related outfits, one being the school uniform, and the other being the school swimsuit. There are no details yet on further volumes of G4U!. As posted previously, G4U! VOL.1 will be included in the the PS3 [THE IDOLM@STER 2] First-run Limited Production Edition Special Box, while subsequent volumes will be included in the [Anime & G4U! Pack] for each anime Blu-ray. The IM@S blog warns however that like the Special Box, the Anime & G4U Packs will also be limited production, so to be sure to pre-order if you want to get the later volumes of G4U!. And it has been confirmed that a fil...

Official news on IM@S 2 for PS3 and G4U! Vol. 2 comes by way of Dengeki Online ! Some of it confirms what I posted previously, but there is a bunch of brand new stuff too. First-run Limited Production Edition (19,800 yen, tax included) PS3 Software [THE IDOLM@STER 2] Anime Blu-ray [THE IDOLM@STER Vol. 1] Complete Production Limited Edition Vocal CD [PERFECT IDOL 01] Newly commissioned novel Voucher for priority event ticketing Digipak case with commissioned illustration by Atsushi Nishigori Special Pin-up Box to hold all 9 Blu-ray volumes of the anime PS3 Software [THE IDOLM@STER Gravure for You! VOL.1] Soundtrack CD for [THE IDOLM@STER 2] [Monthly Idol Gravure VOL.1], a seasonal idol support magazine For Monthly Idol Gravure VOL.1, Haruka and Iori are the "PUSH GIRL" for it, which I'm guessing means they're the featured idols. As for the PS3 game, it will have a new song and a new costume for Ryuuguu Komachi. The song is 七彩ボタン (Seven-colored Button)...

Nooooo, if this source is correct, IDOLM@STER 2 is coming to PS3 on October 27th! Now I might need to buy it again! It will include all the clothing, songs, and accessories up through DLC catalog 3, and it will also include "READY!!", the new anime opening song. I wonder if it will include Little Match Girl? Anyway, I'm actually kind of sad that it's losing Xbox 360 exclusivity. Hopefully it'll be a good port though; I still want people to experience IDOLM@STER favorably. It might be interesting if it did some kind of hook up with the PSP versions to unlock stuff if you had their save data. I doubt it though. Update: After reading more stuff on the internet, it seems they will be releasing some kind of super edition of the game that includes a the first disc of the anime as well. This site says this edition will contain: PS3 Game "IDOLM@STER 2" PS3 Game "IDOLM@STER Gravure for You! Vol. 1"* First Blu-ray disc of the IDOLM@STER anime (Lim...

Keeping in mind the advice I got from you all on things to keep in mind when doing arcade stick artwork, I have created a second design. I think this one should still look fine even when hands are covering most of it while in play. Still don't know if I should do something with the buttons or not. Once again, any comments or suggestions are welcome. Thanks! New and improved(?) arcade stick artwork design After some advice from another friend, here is an alternative. Perhaps more improved?

The IDOLM@STER blog announced that Bushiroad is releasing the IDOLM@STER 2 Trial Deck this weekend! It will include the GO MY WAY! climax card, and a the BK MANIAC event card. It will sell for 1,300 yen (tax included). Need to pick it up sometime! Go my way, whoo!

After modding my Mad Catz Fightstick TE recently with the Toodles MC Cthulhu and Imp v2, I started thinking about maybe replacing the artwork on it with custom artwork as well. I put together a quick design with gimp...well, it would have been quick if I could use gimp properly.   Anyway, what do you guys think? Feel free to leave impressions and suggestions in the comments.

Just found out today about a fighting game to be released by Examu (the makers of Arcana Heart) and Aquaplus, called AQUAPAZZA -AQUAPLUS DREAM MATCH-. It's kind of crazy that this exists. I remember playing many years ago a doujin Aquaplus character fighting game called Queen of Heart (by 渡辺製作所, no longer active), and I would never have expected an official fighting game to eventually happen. So far, it looks like the game will have at least the following Aquaplus properties in it: Routes To Heart To Heart 2 Comic Party Tears to Tiara Utawarerumono It will be for the TAITO Type X 2 hardware, and it will use the NESiCAxLive service. The first trailer is below, and the second trailer can be watched on the official website .

Hi, I'm Kuukai! I'm new to the blog, but I'm a longtime friend of AmakaseP and we have similar interests! I have no idea how to use Blogger, so bear with me! When Famitsu first ran the headline "Brand-New Sakura Taisen Game Underway" I pretty much joubutsu-ed in my pants. This excitement quickly subsided due to it being browser-based and a general lack of information, but now it's back! As they announced before, the game is an online browser-based game being developed by TRINITY.GS and published by RoCWorks Co., Ltd., but with all the art and concept work being done by Red Company. I didn't know what to expect, but probably should have. Feast your eyes on Daiteikoku Gakuen! Sakura Taisen: Taishou Rōman Gakuentan , newest game in the Sakura Taisen series, is a high school simulation game! It's like they combined Sakutai with Tokimemo Online! It seems like it will feature all of the characters we've met up till now, plus the players thems...

This video is full of references, I'm pretty sure I don't even get half of them. Most of the characters in it are Touhou, and I'm familiar with Buront, but not so much the other people that show up in it. The references I do get for sure are Gundam SEED, GaoGaiGar, Nadesico, Giant Robo, and probably some other stuff I forgot to mention. Anyway, it's a video with nice animation, so take a look and see what you can recognize. <a href="http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9161505">【ニコニコ動画】【東方陰陽鉄】ユメみるOP【手描きパロ】</a> External Link This video is based on Shoot the Bullet, and has some nice animated Aya going around taking pictures, and of course being attacked while doing so. <a href="http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9166766">【ニコニコ動画】【東方】明星ロケット【アニメOP風】...