Last week, we had a mammoth of a game release with Devil May Cry 4. It's not going to be any different this time around, with the much-awaited Lost Odyssey by Mistwalker finally making its US debut. Other noteworthy games in this batch are Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts, RPG Maker VX, and a slew of other titles. Hit the full article for the rest of the list.

* Article originally posted Feb 11, 2008 at 01:12AM

Can't get enough Castlevania games on the Nintendo DS? Homebrew developer Frosty Chaotix is cooking something up that may become a full Castlevania adventure soon, which is a remake of the original. Details on Castlevania: Devilish Resemblance await at the full article, so make that jump!

Download: Castlevania: Devilish Resemblance

It's been a while since we last heard about the Castlevania movie, and now we get news of the ambitious project being postponed due to an ongoing writer's guild strike. Will this game-to-movie adaptation ever see the light of day, or has it been killed outright with a stake to the heart and silver bullets to the spleen? Check out the entire scoop in the full article.

Back in October, Paul W.S. Anderson shared that production for the long-planned Castlevania movie adaptation will soon go full swing. Prior to all this, it was believed that the story of the Castlevania movie project will revolve around a knight from Transylvania hiding from the Turkish Army in Dracula's castle.

Well, you can all forget about that as the official plot of the movie has just been revealed. The plot after the jump!

Vampire hunters Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin wowed TGS 2006 audience with their adventures inside Dracula's castle in Konami's Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. Using the best of their abilities, Jonathan and Charlotte team up to foil vampire artist Brauner who is planning to summon the legendary vampire, Dracula, by using the power of magical portraits. With Brauner are his daughters Stella and Loretta.

The gameplay video features much of the action that players will expect and what the characters must undergo to be able to defeat Brauner. This includes slaying creatures of monstrous size, life-threatening traps, escaping big rolling stones and other challenges. The game is set to be released on November 16 in Japan and December 5 in U.S.

Download: [TGS 2006: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin gameplay video]

Lunar Knights Django and Sabata are at it again, and this time, they're going into space. Presumably to kill space vampires.

Space vampires?!

Well, Django and Aaron are vampire hunters and these latest batch of screenshots depict a spaceship or two blowing stuff up, so as weird as it is, it seems logical to assume something like that, right? It's from Kojima productions anyway, so you can assume the newest version of any game they come out with is bound to have a couple of surprises. From the paraSOL system of switching between characters to having a "pet" elemental you fuse with named Toasty, there's no denying the Kojima spark of weirdness is here.

Click "Full Article" to check out the rest of the screens!

  

Konami has just released five new screens from the second installment of the Castlevania series to be released for the DS, the Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.

Set in World War II, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin will allow players to take on the roles of childhood friends Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin. Jonathan is a vampire hunter while Charlotte is gifted with magical powers and sorcery. Players will be able to switch freely between Jonathan and Charlotte to use the abilities of each in battling with vampires' army.

The game will also support the handheld's Wi-Fi connection, enabling players to combine the powers of the two characters to use combo attack, which will also come in handy to pass through some of the areas in the castle. Together, Jonathan and Charlotte will work to to thwart a plan to resurrect Dracula's Castle and unleash a reign of evil upon the world.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin will hit the shelves on November 24 in Europe, and is rumored to have a US and Japanese release on December 5th. Meanwhile, here are more screenshots to give you a glimpse of the game, enjoy!

Buy: [Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin screens]

    

Konami has released their upcoming fall releases, but sadly, there are no next-gen titles included in the list. But it's all good, we know you guys are luvvin' your DS and PSPs, right?

This fall, Konami will be bringing two animated franchise series to consoles: Warner Bros.' Xiaolin Showdown and Winx Club. Winx Club: The Quest for the Codex is based on the animated series which currently airs on 4Kids TV. Also set for release this fall are Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and Marvel Trading Card, both of which actually seem interesting, and will most probably bring out the cute little kid in you (okay, maybe not so much the 'cute' part...? Haha).

Slated for a fall release for both the DS and PSP are Marvel Trading Card Game and Xiaolin Showdown. Also available for the PC, Marvel Trading Card Game features the complete gang of characters: Spiderman, X-men, the Avengers, Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four, The Hulk, etc. You can also go online in cross platform to take on your foreign friends. Xbox and PS2 users will also get to play Xiaolin Showdown, where you get to flaunt your martial arts skills, wits, and the mystical powers of the Shen Gong Wu to save and protect the world from evil.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin comes to the DS with new adventures of vampire hunter Jonathan Morris and his magical friend, Charlotte Orlean. Join the two as they stop Dracula from being resurrected in the midst of World War II chaos. Winx Club: The Quest for the Codex will also be making its way into the DS this fall, enabling players to dance, fly, and design outfits for their avatars in mini-games. Also made available on the GBA, you can trade unlocked clothes and accessories wirelessly with your DS and with the Link Cable for the GBA.

Winx Club will also be clubbing with your PSPs via Winx Club: Join the Club. Join the fab fairies from the Alfea school as they try to come between Lord Darkar and his power-tripping plans by securing the pieces of the emblem before Darkar gets to them and uses the emblem's magical abilities to fulfill his dark and sinister plans. Be sure to check back with us for Konami's next-gen releases as we will be updating the site with more news on game releases.

The newest Famitsu revealed a release date for Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin in Japan. Hopefully, they'll be announcing a release date for North America soon as well. The Japanese release date is November 16th.

If Konami wants Castlevania out before the holiday shopping season, they'll release it shortly before or after the Japanese date. However, Castlevania isn't exactly a kids' franchise that will sell tons over the course of the holiday so it's not a sure thing. Any of your parents ever ask the sales clerk for a gothic vampire game?

A translated interview at NeoGAF gives us some more details on Bleach DS 2nd. The game will see a huge improvement to the online system, or at least that's what the developers are going for. Also, they are increasing the number of cards, or reifus, that you can use to four. They're giving that system a complete overhaul as well seeing as some felt that a few cards were overpowered.

The original characters will also receive some tweaking. The new characters, two of which are confirmed to be Urahara and Ikkaku, will also be as balanced as they can make it. It looks like they'll be listening to player feedback!

The game is looking to be more and more interesting. It is, after all, the famed developers at Treasure. The story arc that this game will be based on wasn't too shabby either. Hopefully the filler ends so we can see the next game based on the actual storyline and not this vampire stuff.