Son Goku and the Z Soldiers are getting ready to take on their biggest challenge yet: entertaining Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 owners! With the development expertise of Namco Bandai, we're optimistic that we'll have another smashin' good time throwing fireballs and unleashing combos in Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit. We've got the first three official screens handed down by Atari, so go to the full article and have a look at those.

Microsoft has finally announced a concrete release date for video game Blue Dragon in Europe. If you haven't heard about this one yet, take note that Shu and his friends will be arriving in your retail stores on August 24 with a price tag of 44.99 Euros and that's roughly around US$ 60.

Microsoft is aiming for this RPG title to "change the landscape of Xbox 360 gaming". They may be on the right track with renowned producer Hironobu Sakaguchi and his development studio Mistwalker being on the helm of this project.

As if those names aren't super enough, the character designs for Blue Dragon were done by Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball Z) and the music was provided by composer Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy). Given these names, don't get the impression that Blue Dragon is all about sugary coatings as its story is rather deep and engaging as well.

More updates on Blue Dragon as we get them.

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*UPDATE* We promised you a Blue Dragon update and we've got one for the gamers in North America. Europe will get the upcoming Xbox 360 video game a few days before North America, who'll get to see it on the shelves in August 28. Be sure to mark your calendars.

Originally posted on June 28, 2007, 8:45 A.M.

Sure, they look like Akira Toriyama's DBZ characters, but that's because he made those guys too. To your right is the very first image of the upcoming "Blue Dragon" anime, which will be heading to Japanese televisions this coming April.

According to the handy online translation services, the story will veer slightly or expand upon the exisiting tale told in the Blue Dragon game, though not much has been said as to what we should expect for these additions and tweaks. Still, it looks good, it's got dragons, and watching an RPG-turned-anime is always a sight to see.

The action begins on April 7, with shows occurring every week at 9 a.m. on TV Tokyo.

Blue Dragon comes straight from a powerhouse combination of Akira Toriyama (Dragonball) and Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy). It is the story of Shu and friends as they (of course) take an adventure to save the world.

Tag team developers Mistwalker and Artoon haven't announced a U.S. release date for this breathtaking RPG. In Japan, people reportedly stood in line to get copy and the title sold around 70 thousand copies on during its first week on the shelves.

Click on the link below to get a taste of the action in taste of the action in Blue Dragon.

Download: [Blue Dragon: Forest Fight]

And so with December 7 having finally arrived, the highly-anticipated RPG title from Mistwalker for the Xbox 360 has finally roared to life in time for its Japanese release. With that thought in mind, one also has to remember that Blue Dragon is Microsoft's attempt to woo the Japanese market, and so they had to make it extra-special by offering the Blue Dragon Core System Premium Pack for a mere 29,800, or only about US$ 259.

So what makes this bundle such a sweet deal? Well, besides getting yourself a game title that involves the Holy Trinity of Japanese RPGs who are, namely, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Akira Toriyama, and Nobuo Uematsu, the lovely box which the guys at 1up have managed to obtain contains the following goodies:

• an Xbox 360 core system
• a Blue Dragon faceplate
• a set of five miniature figures of the Blue Dragon lead characters
• a Blue Dragon mini-calendar
• a copy of Blue Dragon with a reversible foil cover

At this moment, we are once again finding ourselves wishing that we lived in Japan instead. Those lucky, lucky people...

More images of the goodie pack after the Jump!

If the kid heroes of Mistwalker's Blue Dragon roar, are we supposed to hear their shadows roar too? If the videos are to be believed, the shadows will definitely roar, and these kids will beat the stuffing out of tons of baddies. While we feel bad for the evil folk who are going to get a collective butt-whooping, we're happy for the rocks!

For this quick little article on Blue Dragon, there won't be any kicking of talking rocks like the savagery of our earlier gameplay post. Rather, we'll be talking about just how well Akira Toriyama's shadow beasties cry. Battle cry, that is.

Jeux France unearthed a couple of new promotional pictures for the game, including some really nice close-ups of our heroes' shadowy companions. Not only that, but they've got some pretty impressive looking poses, especially for Saber Tiger and Blue Dragon, who look like they're roaring at enemies. Of course, for a shadow called Minotaur, he looks less than intimidating with a thinking man's look.

Is he going to kill us with mind bullets? We certainly hope not. In any case, enjoy these new screens, and whenever you see Saber Tiger, keep in mind the famous mantra, "I am woman! Hear me roar!"

 

A picture's worth a thousand words. Xboxygen just posted these scans they picked up from the V-jump magazine, and it covers more art for the upcoming RPG title Blue Dragon. Okay, so we can't exactly read Japanese, but Yardarm51 over at  Xbox360fanboy.com was quick to point out how these scans worked.

From left to right, the scans are meant to provide a basic game overview, and the first scan with plenty of Toriyama-san's artwork covers the world where the game takes place, the second page covering some of the supporting characters we'll be seeing, and the third page covers the various bits of tech we can expect in-game.

The last page, while lacking in pretty pictures, provides for interesting news: it says that this issue V-Jump has an enclosed DVD with extra unreleased game info. Enjoy your viewing, and let us know if you can get your hands on this DVD.

 

For those who are eagerly anticipating Mistwalker's release of Blue Dragon, here's something new to get your fidgety fingers on. The official Blue Dragon website has been updated early this week, and now they've uploaded new pics and a video to boot. The holy trinity of Akira Toriyama, Nobuo Uematsu, and Hironobu Sakaguchi is delivering a whole host of special tidbits for gamers.

If you check the latest vid at the site, it features a whole score of non-playable characters that you'd be able to meet, greet, and do the Hokey-Pokey with. Ha! We kid. But with animated characters brimming with life like these guys, you'd really wish you could see them all dance and parade around the screen with trumpets, whistles, and confetti!

All those NPCs sure remind us of a lot of other Toriyama creations. There's a Piccolo-looking guy with a bandanna, a quasi-super-saiyan monkey with a huge battle axe, and what seems to be the long-lost brother of Lucca from Chrono Trigger. See if you can catch them all in the vid below!

The download is just 12.6MB, but if you want to watch the streaming version, the official Blue Dragon site is behind the "Read" link below.

Download: [Blue Dragon NPC vid]

When people hear the phrase "360 Achievements," gamers would race like vultures to a carcass to take a shot at the prize. But when you're talking about the achievements for an upcoming game like Blue Dragon, fans of Nobuo Uematsu, Hironobu Sakaguchi, and Akira Toriyama would rush like millions of sperm cells to an egg cell (hey, we're talking academically, here!).

Japan's release on December 7 is just a month away. While that might be a long enough wait to make you anxious, the Western market would have to wait even longer for an unannounced 2007 release. Well, it's sure going to be worth it, right?

Here's the list of achievements (thanks to duckroll from NeoGAF for the translation!) - and might we add, those are pretty interesting achievements, too:

• (5) Successful Back Attack - Successfully pull off a back attack
• (30) 100 Back Attacks - Successfully pull off 100 back attacks
• (5) Successful Simultaneous Encounter - Successfully pull off a simultaneous encounter
• (30) Simultaneous Encounter, Over 10 Parties - Successfully pull off over 10 parties of simultaneous encounters and defeat all the monsters
• (30) 100 Monster Fights - Set up over 100 monster fights
• (30) Rare Monster "Ousama Unchi-kun" - Defeat Ousama Unchikun
• (30) Rare Monster "Golden Unchi-Snake" - Defeat Golden Unchi-Snake
• (30) Rare Monster "Gold Mecha Robo" - Defeat Gold Mecha Robo
• (30) Mechat Shooting, ST1, Perfect - Clear Mechat shooting with no damage
• (30) Wagon Defense, Perfect - Clear wagon defense with no damage

Is it just us, or are achievements lists getting shorter these days? No, duh! They're behind the "Full Article" link!

Microsoft's marketing department is starting to step it up in Japan as it has recently released these two TV spots for the Xbox 360 game, Blue Dragon. Short and sweet, these two videos show our hero Shu with the rest of his party up against some baddies and bosses which hint at a good, long fight.

Made by Mistwalker, this game is the one that Microsoft is hoping would endear them to the Japanese audience, especially since the Xbox 360 doesn't have a following there quite as large as the one that it enjoys in North America and Europe.

The project is also headed by three of Japan's most prominent figures in the realm of game-making, namely Hironobu Sakaguchi, Akira Toriyama,and Nobuo Uematsu. These names alone have already piqued the interest of many Japanese gamers, and from the looks of it, Blue Dragon seems like one game that won't disappoint.