Shiren wanders his way west and brings Yakuza with him

Good thing I checked my e-mail because I thought all of the big Sega news was at the Tokyo Game Show booth. First, Sega confirmed they are going to bring Chunsoft's Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer to North America on the Nintendo DS. This makes perfect sense.The DS game will serve as a warm up and introduction for Shiren 3. Since the Dinosaur King anime is about to air Sega is going to localize Kodai Ouja: Kyouryuu King – 7-tsu no Kakera.

Finally Yakuza 2 is coming over, even though Yakuza didn't sell particularly well in North America. I'm guessing here, but it seems like Sega is localizing this because they have plans to bring over Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan in the future. Look for these three games in 2008 and check past the break for short introductions.

Yakuza 2 (PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system): The sequel to the critically acclaimed Yakuza, released in North America in 2006, continues the twisting storyline one year later. Kazuma is named Fourth Chairman of the Tojo Clan and retires from the yakuza life the same day. The person he entrusts the future of the Tojo clan is assassinated by a former allied gang called the Omi. These events set in motion a chain of events that see Kazuma traveling back and forth between Kamuro-cho and Western Japan in a desperate effort to stave off an all-out war between the Tojo and Omi clans. Kazuma will find himself alternately dealing with the police, meeting the ladies, and punching hundreds if not thousands of people really, really hard in this fully upgraded sequel to the critically acclaimed Yakuza game.

Dinosaur King (Nintendo DS(tm)): As Max or Rex, otherwise known as the D-Team, players will collect over 100 dinosaurs, each with its own special moves totaling over 240 in all. Traveling to five different territories around the globe, players will dig for fossils that are indigenous to that region. Once the player has collected their dinosaurs, exciting battles can begin with the evil Dr. Z, a greedy scientist bent on destruction and world domination.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (Nintendo DS(tm)): The game, from the creators of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon,  takes place in a fantastical version of feudal Japan and stars a Ronin (a masterless samurai) named Shiren who travels with a weasel named Koppa. Together they are on a quest to discover the mystical Land of the Golden Condor, said to be the home of the legendary city of gold known as El Dorado. Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer features a turn-based control scheme and an inventory system that harkens to the days of classic 16-bit RPGs. The game will also feature three new areas not found in the original SNES version as well as new monsters, updated graphics and sounds, and a tutorial mode.