Thexder NEO Message Board

Folks who couldn't bring themselves to buy Uncharted 2 until they played the demo, well, now's their chance. This week's PSN update adds a single-player demo for Joystiq's Game of the Year for 2009. For those who already have Nathan Drake's latest adventure, the update also includes the $5 "PlayStation Heroes" pack, which allows you to reskin the Uncharted 2 crew with Resistance, inFamous and Killzone bodies. Check out the full PSN update after the break, along with the PSP comics update. Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)

After two relatively dry weeks, the PSN update has finally delivered a few savory morsels. There's Thexder Neo (joined by a free trial version of the game), a demo for Uncharted 2, some new DLC for the PSP version of LittleBigPlanet, and a Creedence Clearwater Revival track pack on Guitar Hero 5. We know! Finally. Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)

Game Arts has another downloadable title in mind after last week's release of its self-published WiiWare puzzle adventure The Magic Obelisk. Takahiro Nishi, producer of Obelisk, told Siliconera that "Our development team is now engaged in the next downloadable game." The experiment in smaller-scale downloadable software must have been a success, then, for the Grandia developer. Nishi declined to name the platform for the new title, but in a previous Siliconera interview, he had nothing but kind words for WiiWare, praising its "easy to work with development environment" and an audience that is accepting of "unique and new concepts like ours." We thought briefly that Nishi could have been referring to the new PS3 version of Thexder Neo, but Game Arts doesn't list either the PS3 or PSP versions of Thexder Neo on its website, indicating that another developer made the updated versions of the shmup classic.

After the ESRB rating for Game Arts' Thexder Neo listed it as a PSP and PS3 game, Square Enix released the downloadable shooter remake on PSP only, leaving PS3 retro fans vexed and un-Thex'd. However, a post on Square Enix's Facebook page reveals that the transforming spaceship/robot will make an appearance on PS3 after all. "With PS3 graphic THEXDER NEO becomes more THEXDER," Square Enix PR staffer Akira Kokushoh said, suggesting that the new version isn't just a direct port of the PSP title. The game will be out sometime in 2010 -- possibly on the early side, since Kokushoh indicated that the game is almost complete. [Via Gamerbytes]

Thexder originally came out in 1985, and has been ported to several different platforms in its lifetime, mostly computers. However, I can say with some confidence that the PSP remake of Game Arts' classic free-scrolling, transforming shmup, called Thexder Neo, is much more enjoyable to play than the retro versions. And people who didn't go to TGS will get to enjoy it soon: Square Enix announced that Thexder Neo will be available worldwide on October 1.

Who doesn't like transforming robots? No one. Square Enix is reviving its classic Thexder franchise on PSP later this year as a download-exclusive title. According to Andriasang, the PSP version of Thexder NEO will feature a new easy mode, additional bosses and a six player online race mode. The game is getting a Japanese release on October 1st -- the same day as the PSP Go launches. Considering the recent ESRB listing of Thexder NEO, we're pretty certain a US release will follow soon afterward.