News

Yes, it's true - if you just shelled out $70 for a GBA, plus another whatever for an Afterburner, and then took your GBA apart to install it, et cetera, you shafted yourself. Sorry.

The GBA will soon be accompanied by a backlit, foldable version that will cost $99 and play all existing GBA games. No longer will you need to suffer through a dark screen, or the worry that accompanies performing major surgery to install a light. Now you can get it straight from Nintendo.

The unit is shaped much like the original Game Boy, only with a hinge right in the center. This allows the unit to fold into a shape three inches square and only an inch thick. At a premium of only $30 over the original GBA, I see the new GBA SP overrunning sales of the original within three months.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/tech....y_x.htm

Thanks to Narratorway, we now have a new FF6 layout, the first to go online since the original four back at CoN5 launch. It features Shadow, and I'm sure you've seen the art before, but the new layout will appear on any FF6 page or any page that does not apply to a specific game. Keep an eye out!

In addtion, I have added the three Shadow fanarts that make up the layout to the Fanart database, so you may vote on them and rate them any time you like!

Nintendo.com

Well kiddies, the first Final Fantasy game to be released for a main nintendo platform since Final Fantasy III(VI) back in '94 is set to hit Japan in January 2003, according to Nintendo.  Not many details are available about FF: CC for Gamecube, but if you click on the link there are two spiffy screenshots for your viewing pleasure.  One big detail that is mentioned is that up to 4 people can play together buy putting a GBA into their gamecube...  I'm not really sure on how this works because I don't own either system, but it sounds as if Nintendo is trying to revive the great idea of cooperative RPG/Adventuring that was used in Secret of Mana so very long ago...  If someone knows more about the GC and GBA and would like to explain this, then many cookies for you.  

According to FFInsider.net, Square has just announced that Final Fantasies I and II (II never before released in the US) will be released in the US sometime next year.  The article also states that the games will be together on one disc, and sold at a "budgeted price."  The article doesn't say it, but the games will be released for the PSX, not PS2.  The games will be redone quite a bit, with new art and music to take advantage of the leap in technology.  I can't wait for this gem to come out.

We now have opened the Fanart Hall of Fame! Your votes on all of our hundred-plus fanart images are now tabulated for the purposes of showing which pieces are the best on the site. Enjoy!

GamesAreFun.com reports that Enix has purchased Squaresoft, and that Square & Enix have merged to form a new company called ''Square Enix,'' headed by Square President Yoichi Wada.

To any RPG fan, this is GIGANTIC news. Square and Enix are the two biggest RPG developers in the world today, and have been in competition with each other for years, mainly because of Square's ''Final Fantasy'' series and Enix's ''Dragon Quest'' series.

The reason for this huge merger? Square and Enix are merging to cut down development costs, which have become higher in the industry recently.

Enix will primarily be the "controller group" of the merger, even though they are the smaller company. Square shareholders will receive 0.81 a share, since it is a larger company than Enix.

This merger will help out both companies, as Square has been suffering some huge losses since releasing the Final Fantasy motion picture, and Enix has never really been big in America. Thus, this merger will help to soothe Square's profit losses and help establish Enix in the States.

Once again, Square Enix will be presided over by Yoichi Wada of Squaresoft, and the chairman of the company will be Enix's representative director chairman, Yasuhiro Fukushima. The merger is set to take place on April 1st, 2003, the fisrt day of the new fiscal year.

Source: GamesAreFun.com