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Whoa, buddy. Square Enix woke up this week - there's buckets of tidbits coming down the pipeline. Again, they tend to be mostly hand-held, but that's just where the company is right now; they're working to get their foot into a market that is more lucrative than console gaming, and I'm pretty sure this one is.

Let's start with the biggest one: we already talked about Final Fantasy VI coming to the Wii Virtual Console in Japan. Next month, it's getting a new partner in crime: Chrono Trigger. Like Final Fantasy VI, it seems a total no-brainer to bring this one to the States soon; however, there's no announcement yet for anyone in the West. I think you probably can hold your breath, though, if you really want to; again, kind of a no-brainer to bring one of the best RPGs of the 16-bit era over and make a bit of cash from it.

There's new info for Final Fantasy Type-0 this week; it appears that Jump and Dengeki Playstation beat Famitsu to the ball. There's a bit of gameplay info and some new screens from Jump, and Dengeki published some battle screenshots and a bit of early description of how the battle system will work. To me, it sounds a bit like a multi-member-party Crisis Core, with the battles resembling the missions of Crisis Core a bit, as they seem to contain a series of battles which end only when you find and defeat the "lead enemy." To explain the difference in the characters, Dengeku also goes a bit into three of the characters' fighting styles: Ace tosses cards a la Setzer for both attack and defense, Nine is a lancer, and Queen is a swordswoman. Famitsu did catch up at the end of the week, with a big blowout of new screens and even more battle, story, and character information than the other two, including some extrapolation on the party setup - while parties will include three members, you will control only one at a time - switching between the three can be done mid-stream, though. Anyway, my favorite part of info from that rollup is that there might actually be a playable Tonberry character. How great would that be?

Final Fantasy III dropped for iOS this week, at the low, low price of $15.99. When you consider that the DS version is still twenty bucks from Amazon, maybe that's not so bad. The reviews on iTunes are really great so far, but really, how much can you trust reviews like that? I will say that the game looks pretty fantastic based on the screens and video I've seen, but I just can't really fathom using my phone that much for a game. The release of III pays dividends for those who want other FF games on their Apple devices, though: Squenix is dropping the prices of their other games until the end of the month to celebrate. For instance, Final Fantasy is down to $3.99, and Song Summoner is $4.99, both the cheapest they've ever been, by far. Something that's not going on sale is the gallery/calendar/clock Dissidia Duodecim app, which rings in at $5.99 and has some pretty pictures and some functionality that is like what is already on your iOS device, just not as useful. Well played, Squenix.

Final Fantasy IV: Complete Collection released in Japan yesterday, too. andriasang brings us all of the launch info for the game, from adverts to related Dissidia Duodecim content to downloadable wallpaper, the second of which is really pretty awesome.

In Square Enix business news, the company announced this week that they launched a new subsidiary on 7 March called Hippos Lab, with an adorable logo to match. This company allegedly will be tasked with creating original content for smartphones - what this really means remains to be seen, but it could be interpreted that either the wash of smartphone remakes is at its end, or that it might just continue while the new company focuses solely on new games and new IPs. Simultaneously, the company said that the announcement regarding what Canadian city would get the new Squenix studio would come in May, but there's still no word on what games the studio might produce.

Source: andriasang, Kotaku, Gamasutra

In the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that caused horrendous damage and loss of life in Japan not yet a week ago, there have been a number of game companies who, even with their own ability to work and earn money curtailed, have picked up the mantle to donate funds to the relief effort. Level-5, Konami, Capcom, Nintendo, Namco Bandai, this list goes on and on, and as of today it now includes Square Enix, who are throwing 100 million yen of their own into the effort (for the rest of us, that means a little over 1.25 million American dollars, or just over 900,000 Euros).

Have you been wanting to donate money to the cause of rescuing Japan from the aftereffects of this quake? I know Japan has a special place in many of our hearts as video gamers, so I can't blame you for it. If so, maybe you should take a look at Siliconera, who are hosting a raffle with a Cecil Harvey Dissidia figure and some other assorted swag, with all proceeds from the raffle going to the Red Cross for disaster relief in Japan. Alternatively, you can also visit Google's donation page and donate directly.

Source: andriasang, Siliconera, Google

From March 2012 to September 2012, the Smithsonian Institute's American Art Museum in Washington, DC will show an exhibit of video games, with an emphasis on their evolution and change over the generations. But with a limited amount of space, how will they decide which games are included in the exhibit? An online vote, that's how.

After registering an email address, anyone may vote for the games to be shown in the exhibit, with one vote per era per system per genre. Each category (80 total) has three choices, so the final exhibit roster will be 80 games from 240 total candidates. Virtually every major video game system since the Atari is included in the exhibit, with the notable exceptions of arcade games and handheld systems.

The four genres being implemented are Action, Adventure, Target, and Combat/Strategy. Most RPGs are included in the Adventure category. Final Fantasy I, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Chrono Trigger are all included as choices in their respective categories. So everyone, go forth, vote 80 times, and in about two months we'll see which games make it in.

Final Note - laszlow's quick 100% opinionated thoughts and prognostications:

Some of this categorization is puzzling. Platform games (Mario, Mega Man, etc.) are found in both the Action and Adventure categories, and shooting games (Doom, Call of Duty, etc.) are all over the place. I really don't understand the reasoning behind some placement choices. Most of the online forum buzz on the Smithsonian subject is complaints about why game X is in but game Y isn't. Cry me a river.

For now, I'll just talk about CoN games and their odds. Final Fantasy I is dead in the water - it's up against The Legend of Zelda. Nice knowing you. Final Fantasy VII is in a pretty good position - it's up against Lunar and Grandia, and is way more popular than either series. Final Fantasy Tactics is up against Red Alert, so here it comes up against which gamer demographic comes up stronger in the vote. I think that category is FFT's to lose. The SNES Adventure category is Chrono Trigger vs. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past vs. Earthbound. Three games with ravenous fanbases. I think it's a toss-up between CT and ALttP. If any of you are asking 'why didn't FF VI or FF IV make it in?' then there's your answer. They liked Chrono Trigger, Link to the Past, and Earthbound better.

Source: Art of Video Games

At a special Sony event a few hours ago in Japan, Sony debuted their sleek, sexy new PSP. Boasting a 5-inch screen (a PSP 3000 has a 4.2-inch screen), two analog sticks, 3G network connectivity, an OLED touchscreen, a touch-sensitive back panel, front- and rear-mounted cameras, tilt-sensitive SIXAXIS controls, backward compatibility with downloaded PSP games, and no UMD drive. Instead, the NGP (New Generation Portable, the current acronym of choice for the unit) will use a new memory card that stores games and game data with a large amount of flash memory.

Uncharted, WipeOut, Resistance, and LittleBigPlanet will each have games on the new platform, plus new games Little Deviants, Reality Fighters, Gravity Daze, and more. Even though the system cannot read UMDs, I assume that it can still read Memory Stick Duo cards, as it would take a major hit in the backward compatibility claim if it were not the case (I was unable to pinpoint this information). To demonstrate the NGP's backward compatibility to downloadable PSP and PS1 games, a Capcom representative played the recently-released Monster Hunter Portable 3rd on the system.

Many of you probably heard some leaked info about the "PSP2" a number of months ago. While much of that information has turned out to be true (dual analog sticks, touchscreen), none of the leaked pictures were accurate and several of the leak sources claimed that the PSP2 would have a UMD drive.

The new PSP will be out in Japan this holiday season. There is no current news on a release date anywhere else in the world. So plenty of time to save up, right?

Source: Basic info (Kotaku), Hands On (Kotaku), Additional info (Kotaku [again {sorry}])

Depending on which source you trust, Sony is either working on some kind of Playstation Phone or isn't involved in a project whatsoever. Engadget has released images of a leaked prototype of the phone, which looks like a typical slideout-keyboard phone, except instead of a keyboard, there's the makings of a Playstation controller. Along with the typical Sony makeup, it also includes a long touchpad in the middle that reportedly supports Multitouch. The machine would use MicroSD cards.

However, according to Gama Sutra, the initial response from Sony said that this was "definitely fake" and didn't offer any further comment. They changed their stance later from "definitely fake" to "no comment" and saying that it was just "rumor and speculation".

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For me, this is interesting on many levels. First off, from the screenshots and the articles, the phone would be running the Android phone OS - potentially 3.0. As a current user (and lover) of the Android system, this would be a big win for both Google and Sony. Second, despite the title of the Gama Sutra article, this does NOT appear to be some sort of PSP - some commenters are speculating that this could be the PSP2, but it definitely will not have any sort of backwards compatibility with the current PSP system, judging entirely on the MicroSD technology. However, and most importantly, the system specs are much more powerful than the current PSP ("...runs on a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 chip supported by 512MB of RAM. The current PSP, by way of comparison, has a 333MHz processor with 32MB of RAM..."), so it could be the next wave of portable gaming for Sony.

I didn't realize until last week the popularity of the current PSP - I had written it off as an unimpressive and unsupported console, but was completely floored when I wandered into the PSP section at Fry's and saw a ridiculous selection of quality games. It would be an incredible risk to ask gamers to switch their phone to enjoy the next generation of games - especially when the people most likely to enjoy this sort of gaming are probably the same people who are already owners of SmartPhones. They certainly wouldn't convert people over from the iPhone, and current users of the Android system would have to be persuaded to switch over to the new hardware simply for the addition of the gaming functionality.

I kinda hope this isn't true.

Source: Engadget, Gama Sutra

During Blizzcon proceedings today, Blizzard revealed what will be the final class in the upcoming (at some point) epic Diablo 3 - the Demon Hunter. The Demon Hunter joins the Barbarian, Sorcerer, Witch Doctor, and Monk as the five classes that will be available on release date. She appears to be ranged, with crossbows that fire exploding bolts. Not many details have been released yet.

There's a video from Blizzcon available, but it doesn't actually show the class in action - it's an introduction video, FMV-style, and while it doesn't show gameplay, it's still really cool.

Source: Joystiq, Kotaku