Russ writes "Two places step up with the deals – one of them perfect for any traveling you may find yourself doing.

Best Buy is offering a 'buy 2 get 1 free' on all DS games. This is ideal for higher-priced titles like Dragon Quest V, Fire Emblem, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time. Well, it's ideal in any case, but the rewards reaped are slightly better for higher-priced items. Problem is, this deal seems to only be in-store.

Target is offering a deal on all Wii games. Buy 1 Wii game at or above $50, get a second Wii game 50% off. Target stores have a lackluster selection of Wii games, so this one might be better off used online."
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TVGB: "It's great to see an original IP doing well, especially when it challenges the norm. Blue Dragon may not have been the most original RPG ever, but with a stellar team behind it - Akira Toriyama, the famed creator of Dragon Ball Z and character designer for such games as Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger (oh yeah!), Nobuo Uematsu, the composer for Final Fantasy, and Hironobu Sakaguchi, the original developer of Final Fantasy - this one managed to boost sales of the Xbox 360 in its often indifferent Japanese market."
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Ars Technica reports: 'Blue Dragon, despite being unable to impress most critics, has been a financial blockbuster with a number of anime and manga tie-ins. Now, Viz Media is teaming up with Konami Digital Entertainment to release a trading card game based on the Xbox 360 RPG.

While it may sound like a strange move to join forces with a company best known for developing and publishing video game series like Silent Hill and Castlevania, Konami actually has a fair degree of familiarity with trading card games, thanks to the fact that it's the company that handled Yu-Gi-Oh's incarnation as Duel Monsters."
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From the article: "Sumthing Else Music Works, Inc., through its licensing relationship with Mistwalker proudly presents Blue Dragon Original Soundtrack. The 2 disc soundtrack album is now available at US retail outlets through Nile Rodgers' Sumthing Else Music Works label www.sumthing.com and digital download service www.sumthingdigital.com and will also be released on iTunes."
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And Cartoon Network gets it. Siliconera has more information.
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360 Gamer writes:

"Mistwalker is looking into making sequels to Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, according to studio boss Hironobu Sakaguchi.

So Gamefront.de is reporting, the father of Final Fantasy told Famitsu Xbox 360 he is currently looking in the possibility of making sequels to Mistwalker's two 360 RPGs. However, it seems that nothing is set in stone at present."
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1UP Staff, 12/23/2007:

"We really should hate attending the Jump Festa videogame and comic show. But the promise of Square Enix titles making their playable debut is way too much to pass up."

"At this year's event, open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, Square Enix was once again the main attraction for the videogame crowd. With the promise of playable debuts for the Final Fantasy fighting game for PSP, Final Fantasy: Dissidia, the new DS Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, and the new mobile Final Fantasy IV spinoff, Final Fantasy IV: The After."

"This year's showcase had Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XIII sandwiching short clips of the Parasite Eve mobile sequel and the Blu-ray version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children."

In addition, Sega, Capcom, Bandai Namco, Nintendo, and Microsoft all have booths at the Jump Festa this year. 1UP's report briefly covers all of them.
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Blue Dragon developer Mistwalker's boss Hironobu Sakaguchi said at a recent Korean press conference: "We're in talks with Microsoft about development of a sequel. Specifics aren't finalized, but there's a possibility that it will be produced as an online title."
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To commemorate the 11/1 release of the Platinum Collection budget version of Blue Dragon, Microsoft has announced plans to distribute the first two episodes of the anime adaptation via Xbox Live Marketplace. All Xbox Live members, both gold and silver, will be able to download the two episodes from 11/15 to 1/15 for the low, low price of nothing.

Blue Dragon continues to air every Saturday morning in the Tokyo area and was also recently released to DVD.
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Since the game's release, "Blue Dragon" has been enchanting RPG fans with its classic story of adventure and excitement. As many have successfully completed the retail story arc of the game, Microsoft Games Studios, wanted to be sure everyone was aware of the multiple downloadable content packages available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

keep your eyes peeled for the third DLC pack ¿ "Shuffled Dungeon" which will be made available on 16th November for 400 Microsoft Points.
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Normally, a McDonalds Happy Meal is designed to lure children to McDonalds. Cash in on a popular brand name, sell some burgers, make some kids happy. Not this one. McDonalds Japan are running Blue Dragon Happy Meals, where kids can pony up their parent's hard-earned yen in exchange for a burger, fries, drink and...Blue Dragon card.
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Over in Spain Bioshock's worldwide success rumbles on, as does Pokemon Diamond on the DS, which claims the # 2 spot. There's also an impressive start for Microsoft's Blue Dragon which debuts at # 3, and movie license Ratatouille on DS, which charts at # 4.
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Sales across the board were quite interesting this week. Compared to last week, hardware sales were up significantly, and the three current generation consoles (Wii/PS3/360) saw pretty big shakeups in their top ten software for the week:

1---Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
2---Bioshock
3---Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08
4---Wii Sports
5---Madden NFL 08
6---Blue Dragon
7---Warhawk
8---Lair
9---Wii Play
10-Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08

-Metroid Prime 3 had a much better launch week than Metroid Prime 2 did - 314k vs. 139k. This is even more impressive considering GC had 2x as many users in November 2004 as Wii has now, and that Prime 2 launched in November, while Prime 3 launched in August. If Galaxy and Brawl show the same type of generation to generation growth (2.25x better sales), then Nintendo is going to make alot of money.

- PS3 is approaching respectable Americas (US,Canada and a bit extra) sales. If it can do 55,000-60,000 a week for a while in the Americas, the business ecosystem of PS3 will improve quite a bit - at least in the West.
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Issue 10 of 360Zine includes a final preview of Halo 3, and news of a complete magazine dedicated to Halo 3 scheduled for release on 25th Sep.
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XBOX 360 completely dominated the Top 10 most requested titles for the week. Both Wii and PS3 didn't even come close.
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2K Games' BioShock rules over the charts again this week while there are new best sellers on PS3, PS2 and Nintendo Wii.

1. BioShock-2K Games (Xbox 360)
2. Halo 3*-Microsoft (Xbox 360)
3. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption-Nintendo (Wii)
4. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day-Nintendo (DS)
5. Nintendo DS Lite w/ Brain Age 2-Nintendo (DS)
6. Wii Play w/ Remote-Nintendo (Wii)
7. Halo 3 Ltd. Edition*-Microsoft (Xbox 360)
8. BioShock-2K Games (PC)
9. Madden NFL 08-EA (Xbox 360)
10. Brain Age-Nintendo (DS)
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According to Disposable Media, Microsoft is likely to bundle a first-party title with the Elite - rumoured to be priced at £299.99 - for no extra cost. Disposable Media believes said title could well be Blue Dragon, given that it is due out in Europe on the same day. Other speculation also suggests a selection of Microsoft titles may be offered...
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The achievement list for Blue Dragon (Xbox 360) is now circulating the net for your viewing pleasure. Without actually playing the game, there isn't a whole lot you can get out of this, but Filefront did get a sense of balance from the listed achievements. Some games seem to have achievement lists that are not so great, but this one looks diversified.
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The newest issue of the British magazine EDGE is in stores as of today and its always interesting to see which games were reviewed and what scores they got. This month some interesting titles have been reviewed, such as: Blue Dragon, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Transformers and GRAW2 for the PS3.

Apparently EDGE didn't really like Transformers and Hour of Victory as both games got 2/10 from EDGE. The British don't really like Blue Dragon and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 as well as both games 'only' got 6/10. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass did really well as it scored 9/10. Check out all of this months reviewscores below.

Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (NDS, Nintendo): 9
Blue Dragon (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 6
Transformers (Xbox 360/PS3/Wii/PS2, Activision): 2
Odin Sphere (PS2, Atlus): 6
Ouendan 2 (NDS, Nintendo): 8
Monster Madness (Xbox 360, Southpeak): 5
Exit 2 (PSP, Taito): 7
Hour of Victory (Xbox 360, Midway): 2
Tenchu Z (Xbox 360, From Software): 6
Calling all cars (PS3, Sony): 6
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (PS3, Ubisoft): 6
More Brain Training (NDS, Nintendo): 7
Anno 1701 (NDS, Disney): 8
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Blue Dragon on Marketplace now just a promised by Microsoft. The game size is about 1.1 GB. Gamers will find themselves exploring and discovering the vast world of "Blue Dragon" as they assume the role of Shu, ¿.
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