Namco Bandai and Disney Japan are teaming up to make Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life for the 3DS.

From the trailer, the game appears to be a Disney-themed take on the Animal Crossing formula, but with your character living in Disneyland instead of a random village. To help set itself apart, there’s also some real-time RPG-esque fighting segments.

There are more than 80 characters from the Disney universe to meet, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Winnie the Pooh.

Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life launches on July 11 in Japan. A limited edition gold and white 3DS XL bundle is being released to commemorate the release. It’s priced at ¥24,380 (≈$261).

Source: ONM

A leaked scan from the latest issue of V-Jump confirms that Tri-Cresendo and Namco Bandai are working on bringing an updated version of last year’s PSP RPG Digimon World Re:Digitize to the 3DS.

The port, titled Digimon World Re:Digitize Decode, will have new Digimon to train. So far, Omegamon X-Antibody, Dukemon X-Antibody and Dorumon have been announced.

There will also be two new story missions to play through: The Scheming Demon Lord and The Lamentful X-Antibody.

Digimon World Re:Digitize Decode is planned for release in Japan sometime this year.

Source: Siliconera

Banpresto and Monolith Soft’s crossover RPG Project X Zone will be coming to 3DSes in North America, Europe and Australia this summer.

Released last October in Japan, Project X Zone features characters from various Namco Bandai, SEGA and Capcom franchises in a tactical RPG. The game’s website claims the game features more than 200 ally and enemy characters. This number doesn’t include characters that appear in event cutscenes.

Namco Bandai hasn’t announced a specific release date, but at least we know it’s coming.

Source: Press Release

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Namco Bandai’s arcade-game-turned-Wii-U-launch-title Tank! Tank! Tank! will be the first retail game to adopt a free-to-play model in Japan.

The game will be available for free in the eShop as a demo of sorts. Players will have access to single and multiplayer modes and the basic city map for all of them, but the demo will be limited to three plays per day.

However, players can remove the restriction by purchasing additional DLC.

It’s unknown whether the free-to-play model will be applied to the game in other territories.

Source: My Nintendo News

Now you can enjoy fighting games with arcade-style controls on the Wii U. Mad Catz has released Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition S, the company’s first Wii U fightstick.

Like their premium sticks, the Tournament Edition S uses Sanwa Denshi parts. The only real differences between the Wii U FightStick and the similar 360 and PS3 Tournament Edition S+ models is that the Wii U version plugs into a Wii Remote rather than USB and the 360/PS3 versions have underside padding and interchangable decals.

The Wii U FightStick retails for $160.

Source: Press Release

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Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will be one of the Wii U’s launch titles in Japan, and it will also be one of the first games available in the Japanese eShop.

To make things more enticing, the downloadable version has been priced lower than the boxed copy – ¥6,280 versus ¥ 6,980. There is one major downside to going digital, though. The download comes in at a whopping 16.7 GB! That’s more than half of the available space in the Deluxe Wii U’s flash memory!

It might be time to start looking for some external hard drives or SD cards.

Source: Tekken-official.jp [via Cubed3]

Tekken Ball, the odd volleyball/dodgeball hybrid mode, is coming back for the Wii U version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2. It will be the first time the game mode has appeared in any Tekken since its debut in Tekken 3.

Just like before, there will be different ball types to choose from. In addition to the original exhibition mode, Tekken Ball will include a tournament mode.

Namco Bandai also announced that more Nintendo costumes will be included in the Wii U version of the game. Players will be able to make the Tekken fighters look like Sheik, Captain Falcon and Toad.

Source: Siliconera

Mushroom Battle mode is one of the new features in the Wii U version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

The mode, which some of you may recognize it from its brief appearance in the game’s E3 trailer, seems pretty nonsensical – stars and different mushrooms randomly drop onto the stage, affecting any player who touches them – however, there is actually some strategy involved.

Super and Mega mushrooms (of course) make the player bigger and lets them do more damage, but their larger size also makes them much easier to hit. Conversely, poison mushrooms shrink players, making it easier for them to avoid attacks. Stars work just like every Mario game, granting temporary invincibility and gold mushrooms grant speed boosts.

The game then becomes a delicate dance of figuring out which items to use and which to avoid at what time in order to gain the upper hand.

Obviously, the mode isn’t meant to be a serious mode for super high-level competitive play, but it does sound like a decent distraction worth checking out when the game hits this holiday season.

Source: Nintendo Power

Since Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is coming out much later for the Wii U than the other systems, Namco Bandai is taking that time to add some exclusive bonus content like Nintendo-themed costumes.

In addition to the Mario and Luigi costumes seen during Japan’s Nintendo Direct a few months back, costumes of Star Fox’s Fox McCloud and Metroid‘s Zero Suit Samus will be making their way into the game.

Fox’s costume appears to be based off his Star Fox 64/3D iteration while Samus’ Zero Suit looks to be based on the dumb, wedge-heeled one she wore in Metroid: Other M.

Source: IGN

With Namco Bandai helping out on the next Super Smash Bros., it seems like a Tales cameo would be guaranteed. However, Tales producer Makoto Yoshizumi told Kingdom of Tales that such a decision would still have to come down to Smash‘s lead developer Masahiro Sakurai.

“This is a difficult question! Maybe if we beg Sakurai, it will happen! I know [Tales director Yoshito Higuchi] would love it, but the decision is Sakurai’s. I think it’s still too early to talk about it.”

Yoshizumi went on to say that if a Tales character were to appear on the roster, they would still have to satisfy another important requirement.

“We need to keep in mind that a character can only appear in a Smash Bros. game if he already appeared on a Nintendo console. This is one of the conditions, and many Tales characters do not fulfill it. Of course, some do, like characters from Tales of Symphonia or Tales of the Abyss.”

If the character were to be chosen based on popularity, Symphonia‘s Lloyd Irving would be the most likely candidate. Still, I would like to seePhantasia’s Chester get the spot. There’s already enough sword swingers.

Source: Kingdom of Tales