Shooting Gameside magazine vol 1

[EOJ]

New Japanese mag dedicated to shooting games. Lots of Cave coverage. First issue is out October 17. Official page:

http://gameside.jp/modules/book/index.php?page=article&storyid=46

Ncsx.com has them up for preorder at $25 each:

http://www.shopncsx.com/shootinggamesidevol01.aspx

[hermosaguy]

I'm definitely in for one.  Here is hoping that it get received well and can roll out at least a few more issues. Not much info on the NCSX page, but I'm curious who their writers are and if it is all original content.

[Hive]

mine mine mine mine mine! 

[EOJ]

Cave games to be covered in the issue:

Akai Katana - Arcade
DDPDFK - 360
Pink Sweets & MMP - 360
Guwange - 360
Dangun Feveron - Unknown Platform
Cave iphone games

Tons of games, old and new, by other companies will also be covered.

[Kaneda]

I really liked Gameside magazine and was disappointed to read in the back of the last one that it would be their final issue, but it seems that maybe the shooter-centric ones they've done (like the recent Darius history one) were popular enough to make a spin-off. Looks good!

[lillin]

So nice to see something like this being published

[DJ Incompetent]

Was the regular Gameside known for covering in-depth strategy sections on games?
I'm curious if that SI Infinity Gene pic looks more to be part of a strategy piece about a particular stage with The Sun attack patterns or if it's for a spread on the history of the game and the pic is just concept art?

[GaijinPunch]

Was the regular Gameside known for covering in-depth strategy sections on games?

Almost zero strats.  The best parts of Gameside were
1: Developer Interviews
2: Lost in Development -- a regular feature on cancelled games (although only about 1 out of ever 3 or so were actually interesting).

I did a couple of interview translations.  The Isuke (Strider) one, and the Treasure Q&A.  It was a good magazine.  Not as good as Continue when it started (WTF happened to those homos?) but definitely worth the hefty price tag.  Some even had older illustrations w/ no logos so they'd make good scans.

This is a very bizarre move though.  They're going from "obscure, but genre-less" to "almost dead genre".  O_o  I fully expect this to not last at all.

[EOJ]

I passed on buying this, and I think I made the right choice. The reviews on amazon are mostly positive, but there is one very harsh 1 star review, from what seems to be a hardcore STG fan, who is very disappointed in this:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4896373480/ref=s9_simh_gw_p63_d0_i3?pf_rd_m=AN1VRQENFRJN5&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0CW33XCEYAK7R9TASPHF&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463376736&pf_rd_i=489986

He says basically half of it is a bunch interviews (these developers/programmers aren't as interesting as you might think - I can attest to this from personal experience) and recaps of games STG fans already know about. There are only 10 pages devoted to doujin games, and it's just some interviews and some pages of small screenshots of games. No talk about strats or scores, and the stuff about the Cave games is nothing new, and little more than adverts.

Unless you have money to burn and are interested in the novelty of it, it sounds like it's better to hold off on this one.

[EOJ]

This sold through the first print, and there is still demand for it, so they're reprinting it for a mid-November release:

http://twitter.com/GAMESIDE/status/29343525938

[dorakyura]

I took some photos of the contents/index (quality is poor but it should be readable). If there's interest I can try to take pictures of single articles.