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The RPG creation game with a very appropriate name, RPG Maker DS, has just raised the bar on itself. Famitsu reports gamers will not only be able to share game data locally, but also online via Wi-Fi Connect. You'll be able to swap the smallest of things, like items and monsters, right up to full games. Now if that doesn't scream replay value, we don't know what does.

Of course, this news really only affects Japanese gamers, as a localization isn't that likely. Still, that's not to say there isn't any hope you'll be able to play the thing, especially considering that there's already an English-speaking community established for the game.

[Via SIliconera]

While we have analysts like Michael Pachter to tell us the future of gaming, Famitsu has Yusho Fukuda, a real astrologer (well, as real as an astrologer can claim to be). Why bother looking at market trends and such mumbo-jumbo when the stars have all the information about the game industry's upcoming plans?

What totally specific insights did the cosmos reveal to Fukuda for Famitsu's end-of-year issue? "A game will come out in the first half of the year that will touch off a major boom," Fukuda writes, as translated by 1UP . "And another game will follow upon that in the second half." Also, there will be delays, disputes between publishers, and "we may see a price drop in hardware or software in November."

Fukuda offered predictions for each of the hardware companies as well. Nintendo will advertise a game all summer and release it in the fall; Sony "will release a hit game in 2010 that is based off an older title and will attract attention for games based on history and that feature a large cast of characters;" and Microsoft will sell a game this year involving "adventuring around the world, or examining a map and doing something based off that." Since astrology is a hard science, all of this is 100% guaranteed to happen exactly as Fukuda predicted.

If you're reading gaming blogs on a regular basis, Tetsuya Nomura needs no introduction. While Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is by no means finished, Nomura is already talking about what's next. In the latest issue of Famitsu (via Siliconera; scan can be seen here), he confirms two additional projects: one that is already fairly far along in development and another unannounced project that's "not entirely new."

Aside from Birth By Sleep, Nomura's other known projects include Final Fantasy Agito XIII and 3rd Birthday, a new game in the Parasite Eve series. Keep an eye on Famitsu's site, where the full interview will soon be available.

Are you bored with the unspoken, yet powerful sexual tension between Resident Evil 5's protagonists, Chris and Sheva? Yeah, we are too -- that's why we're so excited about these scans from the latest issue of Famitsu (as uncovered by Siliconera), which reveal that the second chapter in the game's Alternative Edition DLC, titled Desperate Escape, will let you play as Jill Valentine and Josh Stone. In case you didn't recognize that last name, Josh Stone is actually a pretty popular British female soul singer. Seems like a weird choice, but what-evs.

Okay, Josh Stone is actually the BSAA member who helps out Chris and Sheva throughout the game -- mostly through the deus ex machina helicopter rescues for which the series is well-known. But wait -- if you're playing as Josh Stone, who's going to come rescue you at the end of the game in a helicopter? This could be bad, folks.

Though scans of the actual article have yet to appear, the table of contents for the latest issue of Famitsu reveals a new No More Heroes game for Xbox 360 and PS3, called No More Heroes: Eiyuutachi no Rakuen (Heroes' Paradise).

With recent statements from series creator Suda 51 that the next No More Heroes game would be made for the Wii's successor, and that he sees the current controls scheme as the ideal, we're inclined to believe that this is a port of the original game, undertaken by publisher Marvelous -- much as it has expressed its interest in doing. We'll find out more when we can see the scan!

Update: The scans are up, showing a ported version of the original game with updated graphics and a new "Very Sweet" mode in which all the female characters are wearing less. According to the scan, it'll be out in Japan on February 25.

The latest issue of Famitsu confirms what a USK rating hinted: Phoenix Wright is coming to WiiWare. Capcom is porting the DS games (or, if you'd rather, the Game Boy Advance games) to Wii one at a time, to be released in Japan starting December 15. Judging from what we can see (which isn't much -- portions of cell phone images of screenshots), the graphics aren't enhanced for Wii at all.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney will be available in Japan on December 15 for 900 Wii Points, with the two Phoenix Wright sequels following on January 26 and February 23 for 1200 Wii Points each. The original case added to the DS version of the first Ace Attorney will be out on March 16 for 300 Points.

And now begin the process of reminding ourselves that we've already played all of this content, and just because it's being released again in a different format doesn't mean we have to buy it again. The fact that no announcements have been made about a North American release should help.

While Street Fighter may be the perfect symbol of man's inhumanity to man, we always considered SFII's bonus stage (which used the punching of a car as a John Henry-esque metaphor for the struggle to maintain humanity in the face of an industrial age) as the more poignant symbolism. Capcom appears to agree, as some new Famitsu scans seem to indicate that the car-punching bonus stage will return in Super Street Fighter IV.

Also depicted is the barrel smashing mini-game, though that doesn't represent anything ... except that it's fun to smash barrels.

As expected, Nintendo didn't openly announce the new, larger-screened DSi in response to a Nikkei article mentioning it. In a statement to Famitsu (as translated by Siliconera), Nintendo said, "Our company is not doing any interviews. We believe this article is speculation." Of course, that is merely a comment on how Nikkei arrived at that information, and not a denial of the information.

It's familiar, as well. Nintendo of America said almost exactly the same thing about Nikkei's early reveal of the DSi, so we wouldn't dismiss the possibility of a DSi upgrade yet. We're checking in with Nintendo of America to find out more.

[Via Siliconera]

Assassin's Creed 2 head Patrice Désilets and MGS: Peace Walker head Hideo Kojima had a war of compliments in the most recent issue of Famitsu. It seems that the two gentlemen have a bit of a game industry bromance going on, lauding the other's current project in a back and forth translated by 1UP. "I think there are three games that stand out above the rest of the pack in the remainder of this year. One is Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, one is Uncharted 2, and the third is Assassin's Creed II," said Kojima.

"If I had to give my impression of Peace Walker, I'd have to say that I want to play more," Désilets responded. "It was great fun; I can't wait for the retail version." Kojima expanded a bit on his appreciation for Désilets' "focus on game design" over style, and said that he's currently considering the possibility of them "maybe, kinda" going steady. Okay, we made up that last part.

While plenty of games press and hardcore fans flocked to 2009's Tokyo Game Show, attendance was down versus last year, and developers noticed. "The total attendance is down from last year, but myself, it felt less like a crush of people and more like a fun festival atmosphere like we used to have," Hideo Kojima told Famitsu in an upcoming feature.

But not every developer looked favorably on the late-September show. Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya pointed out that only three titles out of the 12 awarded 'Future' prizes at the Japan Game Awards were non-sequels. "That seems to go crossways with the term 'future' in my mind and it's frankly kind of sad," he said.

Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi revealed he was "a little disappointed" that there were very few Japanese-made titles positioned for the worldwide market. However, he does note the titles meant for Japanese consumption puts the industry (in the East) on a stable base. While Fumito Ueda -- currently working on The Last Guardian -- noted that he is extremely excited about offerings from the West, specifically Modern Warfare 2. "I feel a serious sublime beauty in all of Infinity Ward's FPSes," he told Famitsu, despite qualms that Western companies came to Japan to push their wares rather than discussing innovation.

According to Akihiro Hino, head of Level-5 -- one of the busier booths at TGS 2009 -- the show felt "kind of plain." However, he does agree that the show offered a lot of games he personally wanted to play. "So in that respect," he noted, "TGS was great." If you consider waiting in line for 180 minutes to play one title great, we agree.

[Via 1UP]

We bet you didn't know Bayonetta was a (numerically) flawless game. As it turns out, it is ... at least according to Famitsu, which just gave the game a perfect 40/40 review -- the first perfect score given to a game available on Xbox, incidentally. It's no secret that the Japanese mag has been handing out perfect scores at an accelerated rate these days. Of the twelve games to receive a perfect score -- Bayonetta included -- six were awarded in the last two years. There are only so many reasons we can imagine that Bayonetta would receive such high scores.

First, it could be that Bayonetta is just a really good game. Second, it's possible the editors of Famitsu really have a thing for hair witches. Given the involvement of Hideki Kamiya -- one of the principal minds behind Devil May Cry -- it's probably the former. At least, we certainly hope it's the former.

Ever the consummate hype man, Hideo Kojima is fluffing up Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker by teasing an apparent system-selling feature. "I haven't announced this yet, but there's another feature in [Peace Walker] that will surprise people, to the point where they'll want to go out and buy a PSP right now!" Kojima blabbed in the latest issue of Famitsu (as translated by 1UP). Short of some sort of in-game subliminal advertising (hey, these guys like to experiment), we're thinking The Two-Hundred-and-Forty-Nine-Ninety-Nine-Dollar Feature -- or maybe it's just "The Buck-Seventy Feature" -- could get lost in translation. After all, the two Peace Walker features that have been newly revealed seem distinctly Japanese in their appeal.

Also plucked from the pages of Famitsu, is the revelation that Peace Walker will feature Yamaha's Vocaloid software. (Yeah, we'd never heard of it either -- just wikipedia it.) If we understand it correctly, Vocaloid will allow certain weapons in the game to sing and scream. Mm-hmm, sounds incredibly annoying.

Also revealed: Those 2D-illustrated cut scenes? Yep, like this one. Well, they're interactive. "For example, if you zoom in on the scene where you first meet Paz, you can see the uniform she has on under her coat, and then what's under that," art director Yoji Shinkawa explained ... rather creepily. "It's an idea I came up with while thinking about what makes games different from movies or animation. I think it's pretty interactive." Hopefully, not too interactive.

Gran Turismo 5's Kazunori Yamauchi says he could give you his studio's next entry in the venerable racing-sim series right now ... but he won't. Speaking with Famitsu last week (translated by 1UP), the Polyphony Digital studio head explains that while "We could release it any time we want," he's more interested in trying to give the game "that classic GT-style." And though "daily progress is slow," the Japanese developer assures us that "it's still going forward at a steady clip."

Unlike the PSP iteration's somewhat lackluster feature set, Yamauchi intends on going "way beyond gamer expectations" with GT5, even confirming the export of cars earned in GT PSP to next March's PS3 sequel. We're hoping he goes way beyond our expectations as well and delivers the game to other territories in a more timely fashion.

The new game being teased by Koei Tecmo -- the one with the flowers? Um, yeah, it's actually about punching people: As predicted, the game's been revealed by Famitsu as Fist of the North Star Musou (officially, just Hokuto Musou, or North Star Musou) combining Koei's populous Dynasty Warriors series with the venerable manga series, and it's the smartest thing Koei has ever done with the Warriors series since the original idea.

The Fist of the North Star franchise follows a martial artist named Kenshiro who wanders around a post-apocalypse Earth, using his "Hokuto Shinken" style to fight gangsters that prey on hapless innocents. Why is this series so perfect for Warriors? Because it's a well-known universe in which it's perfectly believable for one guy to beat up a couple hundred enemies with his bare fists. This license will not require much adapting in the transition to a Warriors game.

Hokuto Musou, according to the magazine, will be out sometime next year on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.