What you can do to help out those suffer in America terror attacks?

* Donate to America Red Cross
* Read full details here: A Plea on Behalf of the American Red Cross
* Donate to United Way fund to help the victims and their families.
* Donate to Salvation Army to help the victims, by calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY.
* Provide tips and info to the FBI about these attacks, visit http://www.ifccfbi.gov

- September 17, 2001 -

P L A Y S T A T I O N   /   P L A Y S T A T I O N   2

- Square and Disney's PlayStation 2 Disney RPG Kingdom Hearts will become the first Square-All-Star RPG title, it will feature characters from the Final Fantasy series, including Wakka, Tidus from FFX, and Sephie from FFVIII. All characters will appear in childhood form to match the theme of the game. (From Madman's Cafe)

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- Namco has postponed the release date of Monolith Soft's PlayStation 2 RPG Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Wille zur Macht from December 2001 to February 2002, seems like the game requires additional development time than expected.

- Sunrise Interactive announced that they will release the PlayStation 2 SRPG game Sunrise Eiyutan 2 in Japan on November 29, for 6800 yen. Those who pre-order the game in advance will receive a 32 page full color premium booklet, which contain illustration and original picture of Sunrise Eiyutan 2 and G-Breaker.

- Kadokawa Shoten has postponed the release date of their PlayStation 2 puzzle game Building Tapir from September 17 to November, due to the terror attacks in America. The motif of the game is to blast dismantlement of buildings in foreign countries.

- Enix has confirmed that the highly anticipated PlayStation RPG remake Dragon Quest IV is scheduled to release in Japan on November 22, for 6800 yen.

- Activision has delayed the release of Spider-Man: Enter Electro for PlayStation from September 18 until further announcement, because in the game Spider-Man will climb on a New York skyscraper which resembles the World Trade Center.

A R C A D E   /   O T H E R S

- The Console Charts and Arcade & Most Wanted Charts are updated.

- Sega is developing a new arcade racing game called Initial D: Arcade Stage, based on the anime series of the same name. Full details of the game will be revealed at the JAMMA Show.

- Konami is planning to release the latest motion sensing arcade game Tsurugi in arcade next month, a samurai action game in which you slash the enemies with your sword, and dodge the attacks with your body.

- SNK will release a new Neo Geo arcade action game called Zupapa by the end of September. Zupapa is a Bubble Bobble / Snow Bros type action game, in this game you can play as the hero Zupapa or the heroine Zupipi, in each stage you can knock down the enemies with your punch, or pickup the little walking creatures Zukos and throw them to the enemies. You need to knock down multiple enemies to get high scores and powerup items.

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H A N D H E L D S

- The Super Robot Taisen series is finally hitting WonderSwan Color. Banpresto will release the WonderSwan Color version of the game - Super Robot Taisen Compact for WonderSwan Color in Japan on December 13, for 4800 yen.

- Square announced several new WonderSwan Color titles in development at the Weekly Jump manga magazine in Japan:

• Hanjuku Eiyuu (December 2001) - remake of the classic SFC simulation RPG game where you use egg warriors to battle.
• Romancing Saga (December 2001) - remake of the classic SFC RPG game
• Makaitoushi SaGa (Winter 2001) - remake of Square's first GameBoy RPG game, known as Final Fantasy Legends in US
• Dice de Chocobo (TBA) - the popular PlayStation Chocobo monopoly board game is being converted to handheld system.

- Here are some new screen shots of Bandai's WonderSwan Color adventure game Inu-Yasha: Kagome's Sengoku-Jidai Journal, the game is based on the highly popular anime series Inu-Yasah from Rumiko Takahashi. scheduled to release in Japan on October 18, for 4500 yen.

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G A M E C U B E

- Nikkei News reported that about 60 - 70% of the initial shipment of Nintendo GameCube were sold through to customers, about 280,000 to 300,000 units where sold in the first 3 days of launch. The launch of NGC was relatively low-key comparing to the recent hardware launch such as GameBoy Advance and PlayStation 2.

- GameCube sales affected by America terror attacks? According to game shops in Japan, sales of Nintendo GameCube is losing momentum after the launch on September 14, although there was a line of 130 people in front of the big game shops at the day of launch, but sales have slow down a little after the first date, which seems to be caused by the rainy weather, the economy condition and the news of America terror attacks.

X B O X

- Idea Factory announced that both Ex-Chaser (RPG) and Neverland Saga (Card Battle) are scheduled to release in Japan simultaneously with the XBox launch on February 22, 2002.

- Success announced that they are working on a new XBox cooking love simulation game called Bistro Cupid, in this game you manage a restaurant for one year, your mission is to become a cooking master. You will have chances to develop friendship and relationship with 12 different girls in the period. a playable version will be exhibited at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show.