Onimusha CT
International Distributor: Capcom
Local Distributor: Electronic Arts Taiwan
Platforms: Chinese for PC and PS2
Taiwan release: This month
Onimusha, set in 16th century feudal Japan, has long been a favorite of PS2 gamers, with its action appeal strengthened by a hero based on the pop and cinema idol Takeshi Kaneshiro (
The game, available in Japanese and English in PS2 versions, has now been released as Onimusha CT for the Chinese market. The Chinese edition is being released both on the established PS2 platform and the PC platform. While the second game in the series is currently available in Japanese and English, with a third scheduled for release later this year, the Chinese edition is a localized version of the first Onimusha game.
The survival/slasher game puts you in control of Samanosuke, a samurai warrior with many hits to his credit, not least taking out the evil warlord Nobu Nobunaga (1534 to 1582) in a daring assassination. As Onimusha CT opens, it is payback time, with Nobunaga back from the dead and ready to get even. The game scenario starts off with Nobunaga kidnapping Samanosuke's childhood sweetheart, and what follows is, naturally enough, the rescue of said sweetheart by brave hero.
In its mixture of horror (the ghost of Nobunaga and his demonic forces) and sci-fi fantasy genres, Onimusha CT bears some similarities to Resident Evil.
Splendid atmospheric graphics help give artistry to the slasher genre, and for those who care about such things, Takeshi Kaneshiro also took a part in creating the sounds and backing music for the game.
Cultures 2: Gates of Asgard
International distributor: JoWooD
Local distributor: T-Times
Platform: Chinese for PC
Taiwan release: this month
Cultures 2 by JoWooD continues a strong line of Sim City-type games. In moving to the second generation, the designers have extended the scope of the game to encompass the whole world, allowing players to experience cultural development in a whole range of cultures.
One of the biggest differences from previous games has been the incorporation of role-play elements into what is basically a city-building game structure, so that personality is added to the factors of production and construction.
Each character in Cultures 2 has their unique life experience. This can be sketched out by the player as the character grows and develops, marries, has children and dies -- all in response to the economic conditions that the player is able to create.
At the same time, the character is able to take jobs, study and generally seek to learn and adapt to the world around him or her. The combination of role-play in a Civilization-like game means that the various wars affect not just faceless military units, but the characters who inhabit your world.
The cartoon-like computer graphics have a fresh simplicity to them, with the costumes and architecture of individual cultures reflected in the appearance of the game characters.
According to Antonio Lu (
"You need to establish schools and provide job opportunities so that your society can go on developing," he said. "By putting these different gaming formats together, it is hoped that Cultures 2 will appeal to both fans of role-play and of building/production games, Lu said.
X-Men: Wolverine's Revenge
International Distributor: Activision, Marvel
Local Distributor: Unalis Technology
Platform: English for Xbox and PC
Release: PC this month; Xbox in June
If you haven't had enough of X-Men 2 at the cinema, why don't you relive the film through X-Men the game, which takes as its lead character Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman. The game establishes details of Wolverine's past that are only hinted at in the movie.
It reveals that Logan had been part of a experiment to produce X-men fighting machines. When the experiment failed, the test subjects were injected with a drug to destroy them. Logan must find the antidote in 48 hours, before the drug kicks in.
The structure is fairly predictable and cuts out many of the other characters that made the first X-Men movie so appealing, but is nevertheless a fast paced puzzle-solving and action game that has little that is new in terms of game play, but plenty of appeal in terms of marketing tie-ins.
In addition, there are short missions to enhance Wolverine's skills and secrets to discover along the way, as Logan gradually discovers more about his past.
The Lord of the Rings -- The Return of the King
International Distributor: Electronic Arts
Local Distributor: Electronic Arts Taiwan
Platforms: English version for PC, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, GBA
Taiwan release: Fall 2003
Electronic Arts has announced the Taiwan release of The Lord of the Rings -- The Return of the King in versions suitable for all main gaming platforms under the EA Games label.
Based on the third part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, to be released by New Line Cinema this Christmas, it will give gamers a chance to sample aspects of the film before it is seen by cinema audiences. The third-person game allows players to take control of a choice of major characters including Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Sam and Frodo.
An all-new multiplayer co-op mode will let players form their own Fellowship before embarking on their journey through Middle Earth.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located