Go window shopping with these newly released screens of Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop 2, courtesy of Namco Bandai.

Now here's something that Paris Hilton and her prissy friends wouldn't probably enjoy playing, because instead of them shopping, they'll be playing the role of shopkeeper and stand on the opposite side of the counter. In the game, players will work in different mall stores to tend to customers' needs, with the help of their favorite Tamagotchi pets.

As a sequel to the earlier released title of the same name, Corner Shop 2 will feature all-new shops like the Bowling Alley and Sushi Bar, but will also feature your old favorites like the Flower Shop and Concert Hall.

Get to stack cheeseburgers, load wasabi onto pieces of sushi, and hand tailor gym bags with pink ribbons, and more, as you work your way through the game. However, remember that in order to gain "Gotchi Points," you'd have to tend to your customers well...thus, no spitting on the cheeseburgers and no boogers in the sushi, alright?

And as a reward for being a good shopkeeper, the Gotchi points you earn can be used to buy new outfits, stereo systems, etc. for your Tamagotchi partner. Players can also connect to their friends via wireless to trade items, give gifts, or send each other screenshots and notes. Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop 2 will be released for the DS this winter. While waiting in cue, why don't you check out these screenshots we have for you and let them remind you of a world of pink puppies and butterflies and everything nice.

More screens await after the jump!

Remember 1996? The year when the world was invaded by a bunch of handheld digital pets that made you feed them, play with them, and then laughed as you watched them die? Well, it's ten years later and those critters are back. Yes folks, the Tamagotchi virtual pet brigade is staging a comeback.

Atari and Bandai's Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop for the DS is but the opening salvo in the virtual pets' revenge. In the game, players open speciality shops, and develop their businesses by serving customers needs through mini games that utilise the Nintendo DS touch-screen functionality. Open up a shop, serve your customers' needs, and play some mini-games on the side on your way to achieving 'royal' shop status.

Sound grand? Check out the screenshots below for a taste.

Check the rest of the screens after the jump!

At the Tokyo Game Show 2006, attendees were asked to vote for games from a field of 650 titles not yet available in Japan. Tokyo University Professor Emeritus Takeshi Yoro headed the committee in determining the winners  and awarded 11 game titles that look promising:

    • Elebits (Konami) for the Wii
    • Gyakuten Saiban 4 [Phoenix Wright 4] (Capcom) for the DS
    • Gran Turismo HD (Sony) for the PS3
    • The Eye of Judgment (Sony) for the PS3
    • Heavenly Sword (Sony) for the PS3
    • Seiken Densetsu 4 [Dawn of Mana] (Square Enix) for the PS2
    • Tales of Destiny (Namco Bandai) for the PS2
    • Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (Konami) for the PSP
    • Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (Capcom) for the PSP
    • Blue Dragon (Microsoft) for the Xbox 360
    • Lost Planet (Capcom) for the Xbox 360

From the list, it's clear that Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are all winners. Check out the images from the awarding ceremony.

With all the excitement that has been brewing up as the Tokyo Game Show draws ever nearer, the organizers have decided to release a map which shows the general floor layout of the event. Fans who will be lucky enough to go there will know exactly where to look for that Square Enix booth (and hopefully find that Aeris cosplayer).

As the map shows, there will be eight entrances to the event area. Restrooms, the food court, the information counter as well as the medical emergency corner (for those who are bound to swoon over the new games) as well as the lost and found corner are indicated. Also, as the map shows, the main hall will be dominated by Sony, Square Enix, Capcom, Namco Bandai, Konami, KDDI Corporation, Sega and mobile service provider NTT DoCoMo.

Another thing to note is that sections have been set aside for game schools such as the Digital Entertainment Academy Corporation, the International Art and Design College, Yokohama Digital Arts and The Institute of Yoyogi Animation, so people who are thinking of studying in order to get into the game industry would probably find it a good idea to drop by that area. A section for development tools and middleware has also been allocated, where workshop space has even been provided.

A separate area has also been designated for shopping, and there will also be an area for children, as well as a video games museum.

For the lucky ones who will be flying to Japan by the end of the week, go forth and take these maps with you. Don't forget to bring your digicam and several extra memory cards.

View the Hall Map and additional Section Maps after the jump!

We previously released a file that contained the list of games that'll be making an appearance at the Tokyo Game Show. Unfortunately for most of us who don't have much Nihonggo skills to show for, looking through that list didn't do us any good. So, here's a list of the games for the PSP, DS, Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 in English. However, not every one of these games will be released in North America. It's just they're in English. Oh you know what I mean. Here's the juicy list.

PSP Games	Developer
Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception	Bandai-Namco
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology	Bandai-Namco
Tales of Phantasia: Full Voice Edition	Bandai-Namco
Bounty Hunters	Bandai-Namco
Gundam Battle Royal	Bandai-Namco
Gunpey Reverse	Bandai-Namco
The Doko demo Gal Mahjong	D3 Publisher
Daito Giken Koushiki Pachislot Simulator Yoshimune	Daito
Blokus Club Portable with Bumpy Trot	IREM
Mahjong Fight Club National Competition Version	Konami
Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops	Konami
Metal Gear Solid Bande Dessinee	Konami
J League Winning Eleven 10 + Europe League 06-07	Konami
Silent Hill Origins	Konami
Valhalla Knights	Marvelous Interactive
Fish Eyes Portable	Marvelous Interactive
Pilot Academy	Marvelous Interactive
Homestar: 21st Century Navigator	Sega
Sony Computer Science Kenkyuushitsu Kenichiro Mogi Hakase Kanshuu Nou ni Kaiketsu Aha Taiken!	Sega
Ore no Dungeon: Desire and Adventurous Spirit	Sega
Lost Regnum	Sega
Metal Slug Complete	SNK
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core	Square-Enix

The full list awaits after the jump!

The Japanese sales numbers are in, and guess what? A PSP game is in first place! It's true! Check it out for yourself:

01. (PSP | Bandai Namco) Tales of Phantasia Full Voice Edition - 66,263 [NEW]
02. (NDS | Nintendo) New Super Mario Bros. - 53,011 [3,027,038]
03. (NDS | Square Enix) Final Fantasy III - 49,475 [598,476]
04. (NDS | Nintendo) A Fresh Picked Tingle's Rose Coloured Rupee Land - 32,792 [NEW]
05. (NDS | Nintendo) Brain Training 2 - 32,054 [3,151,912]
06. (NDS | Nintendo) Shaberu! DS Cuisine Navi - 25,458 [445,191]
07. (GBA | Nintendo) Rhythm Tengoku - 24,676 [148,108]
08. (NDS | Nintendo) Animal Crossing Wild World - 24,027 [3,205,762]
09. (PS2 | Sega) Phantasy Star Universe - 20,431 [140,633]
10. (NDS | Nintendo) Mario Basket 3 on 3 - 20,372 [288,136]

DSL: 113,831
PSP: 29,141
PS2: 19,882
GBASP: 2,104
GBM: 1,801
360: 1,094
DS: 1,058
GCN: 696
GBA: 13
XBX: 5

There's a PSP game in first, but the hardware sales are just the same as usual. What's interesting to note is that the DS Lite sells over a hundred thousand units every week. There's only been one week this entire year that the DS didn't sell over a hundred thousand units. However, Sony is only going to put out 100,000 PS3s on launch day in Japan! Expect to see massive damage in Japan. Massive.

Read more of the article after the jump!

Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy, a sidescrolling beat 'em up based on the hit anime and manga franchise, has finally been announced for a North American release. This game will follow the anime and not the manga. It will follow the entire series, but whether or not it will include the storyline of the movie is unknown. The movie was used as the ending for the series, so not being able to play scenes from the movie might make the game feel unfinished.

Players will use the touch screen on the DS to perform alchemy which, as you might have figured from the title of the franchise, is an important part of the game. You'll be able to transmute ordinary objects into weapons just like Edward Elric does in the anime and manga.

The game has two main modes of play: Story Mode and Character Mode. Story Mode follows the story of the Elric brothers, Edward and Alphonse, which involves the Philosopher's Stone. The Character Mode allows you to play as one of six characters (Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Roy Mustang,  Alex Louis Armstrong, Izumi, and Scar) and unlock scenes from the anime.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy will feature the voice work of the cast who did the English dub. A lot of unlockables including, but not limited to, talking character alarm clocks, character galleries, and audio video galleries will be available. It'll also have over ten touchscreen mini games like "Whack-A-Homunculus" and "Fullmetal vs Flame."

Fullmetal Alchemist is my favourite show so I can't wait to see how this turns out! Bandai Namco is expected to ship the game this fall.

The Tokyo Game Show is coming up and Bandai Namco has announced what titles they'll be showing at Japan's biggest gaming event! Many of their biggest franchises will be at the show so there's a bit of something for everybody. Bandai and Namco are merged, but we'll list their titles by which company is developing it.

PlayStation 3
Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight (Bandai)
Ridge Racer 7 (Namco)

PlayStation 2
Battle Stadium D.O.N. (Bandai)
.hack//G.U. Vol.2 (Bandai)
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (Bandai)
Captain Tsubasa (Bandai)
JoJo's Bizzare Adventure: Phantom Blood (Bandai)
Naruto: Konoha Spirits (Bandai)
Digimon Savers: Another Mission (Bandai)
Rider Kabuto (Bandai)
Gundam Seed Destiny: Rengou vs Z.A.F.T. II Plus (Bandai)
Tales of Destiny 2 (Namco)

PlayStation Portable
Gundam: Battle Royale (Bandai)
Gunpey-R (Bandai)
Tales of Phantasia: Full Voice Edition (Namco)
Ridge Racer 2 (Namco)
Bounty Hounds (Namco)
Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception (Namco)
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology (Namco)

Nintendo DS
Tamagotchi: Corner Shop 2 (Bandai)
Gintama DS: Yorozuya Daisoudou (Bandai)
Gunpey-R (Bandai)
Tales of the Tempest (Namco)

GameCube
Battle Stadium D.O.N. (Bandai)

Xbox 360
Culdcept Saga (Bandai)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Operation: Troy (Bandai)
The Idol Master (Namco)
Trusty Bell (Namco)

Took quite some time to get all that from Japanese into English! Bandai Namco is just churning out title after titles, especially titles with "Gundam" and "Tales of" in their names! According to this list, they aren't showing any of their Wii games. Weird considering the PS2 version of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi is being shown. Guess it won't make launch after all.

GameFront has the Japanese box art for Tales of the Tempest. The game has been delayed countless times now and has finally gotten itself into a October 26th, 2006 date. It obviously didn't want to be too close to the mammoth franchises of Final Fantasy and Pokemon. This means that there is still time for a box art change. It's not really one of the best we've seen so far, maybe the North American version will be different?

The Tales series is the most popular RPG series behind Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Well, it's also less popular than Pokemon, but that's not considered a traditional JRPG. Even if Bandai Namco doesn't localize it for a North American audience, Nintendo of America likely will. Keep your fingers crossed!

  

The pre-order bonus for the Japanese version of Tales of the Tempest has been announced. Now that Final Fantasy III is finally out, Bandai Namco seems to be finally revealing more about their DS RPG. If you pre-order the game, which will cost the standard price of 5,040 Japanese Yen, you'll receive an artbook and a DS card holder. The card holder should be useful for keeping an extra game or two in your pocket without losing it! The game will be released on October 26th, 2006. No English release has been announced, but hopefully Nintendo will fund one like they did for Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Phantasia.