If I hadn't been working so much this week I would have gotten around to posting the news I would have wanted, but before long I saw my notepad file filling up a bit more when I got home from work and was too tired to amend it at the time.  Besides, it's better this way since I get to combine what would have potentially been four thread into one big one so it cuts out the potential clutter factor. :P  Anyway, just a rundown on some recent announcements/ presentations for  a few upcoming Wii titles and a DS game. 

Arc Rising Fantasia (cool looking RPG)

http://gonintendo.com/?p=47612

Info only recently broke about this game so not a lot of info available outside of a few bulletpoints through Famitsu.  The game looks pretty damn nice though and I was surprised to see a reader comment that the character designs are being handled by the same person behind Eureka 7's characters.  Off the bat you notice a resemblance to Anemone, Eureka and Moondoggie in the scans showing the characters.  Anyway, bulletpoints below as per usual:

- Image Epoch x Marvelous
- Traditional fantasy RPG
- Luminous Arc staffers on board
- Official Site will be open on 27th June
- Graphics style is similar to tri-Ace games
- 16:9
- 3 character party
- One shared AP gauge between the team, which empties as actions are performed
- multiple attacks are possible, as are massive attacks that will drain a lot of AP
- if party members use the same skills, those skills will be increased
- beasts = Roguresu. These creatures help teach you throughout the game

Producer (MMV): Hideyuki Mizutani
Development Producer (Image Epoch): Ryoei Mikage
Director (Image Epoch): Hiroyuki Kanemaru
Scenario: Takumi Miyajima
Composition/Music Director: Yasunori Mitsuda
Main Character Original Design: Kenichi Yoshida
Roguresu Design: Shin Nagasawa

Castlevania Judgement (WTF, a fighting game?)

http://gonintendo.com/?p=47669

EDIT:  More screens here:
http://www.jeux-france.com/news28056_castlevania-wii-premieres-images.html

The story was apparently brought to light in an exclusive by Nintendo Power.  I actually recall the Judgement title bring brought up in the Order of Ecclesia thread (the new DS Castlevania game) as well as Iga dropping constant hints that Castlevania in some form may end up on the Wii.  This may very well be that game.  The same person that broke the story to GoNintendo also put up a few points of info for the game:

Characters confirmed thus far - Dracula, Simon, Alucard, Shanoa, and Maria Renard.
Classic subweapons - holy water, magic spells, dagger, boomerang
Subweapon use still depends on hearts
Remixed classic Castlevania tunes
Set traps, destroyable environments, enemy monsters interfere with battle
Nunchuck controls character movement, Wiimote used for motion attacks

Interesting project to say the least, but obviously not exactly what people were hoping for and I'm not sure about how integrating common Castlevania systems within a fighting game will work out. (such as still relying on hearts to use secondary weapons) 

Megaman 9 (Confirmed for WiiWare, totally old school)

http://gonintendo.com/?p=47632

For the past couple of weeks the prospects of Mega Man 9 coming to consoles have been discussed on a variety of outlets with ideas on what it would be like and what systems it would be heading to.  Nintendo Power doesn't list the title as exclusive so WiiWare may not be the only platform receiving and even then a Capcom rep was quick to mention that NP doesn't have the full story, so there is even more to it all than the exclusive NP managed to obtain.  Still, it's nice to see a return to classic form and I'm surprised that most gaming communities who have picked up on this aren't split on the game being created to more resemble the older NES titles, most seem to be in favor of it which I didn't expect.  Anyway, just like with Castlevania, obtained bulletpoints are below:

Magma Man
Galaxy Man
Jewel Man
Concrete Man
Hornet Man
Plug Man
Tornado Man
Splash Woman

- Dr. Wily returns
- Story: Dr. Wily blames Dr. Light for robot master attacks
- various level hazards: lava, gravity-defying magnetic platforms, Mega Man clones
- attacks gained from Robot Masters: Galaxy Man’s Black Hole Bombs
- development handled by Inti Creates (Mega Man Zero, ZX, Battle Chip Challenge)
- controls: Wiimote NES style, just as you would expect it to be
- Rush returns
- 8-bit style was chosen to ‘please fans’
- 8-bit music
- 8-bit cut-scenes
- difficultly on-par with NES games
- return of classic enemies, as well as new ones
- Will Protoman be playable? “you’ll have to wait and see.”
- hopes in surpassing the quality of Mega Man 2

Riz Zowad (Wizard of Oz, JRPG style)

http://gonintendo.com/?p=47695

Funky name, eh?  But the title in parenthesis is correct a this is essentially a JRPG take on the classic story.  I know Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ shooter (obviously based on Little Red Riding Hood, among other things) garnered split reactions overall, some taking the project a bit personal, so it's probably easy to assume the same here.  Although that game was a blatant perversion of the classic (and the devs spare no bones about it, it's a project they're having fun with) this one seems to take it a bit more seriously, or at the very least is trying to make a meaningful fantasy game out of it.  At the very least, the game definitely looks nice for a DS title and here I was thinking an RPG couldn't look nice on the portable without prerendered graphics a la Archaic Sealed Heat (though that was only for battle sequences).  However, both this and Soma Bringer are kind of bucking that idea.

I'm not sure of all the details on this game as the only info out there is through Famitsu scans that I'm not sure have been translated or not.  But I do remember that the people behind Wild Arms are developing this one.

For a second there I thought I was looking at Alucard appearing in a Kingdom Hearts game.

That Castlevania fighter already looks awful.. Here's hoping they actually do something good with it.

Megaman 9 on the other hand.. It is being made in the style of the NES Megamans? That's awesome... I'm hoping to see it on the PSN.

The rumormill is speculating that the WiiWare version will look like an NES game, but the PSN/Xbox versions will be more "modern" looking.

I'm looking forward to Arc Rising Fantasia, don't really know why since there's not much info on it yet, it just looks like a good JRPG to me I guess. The graphics are really impressive for a Wii game too (espeically a 3rd party Wii game).

As for this Castlevania Fighter... well I'm not to happy with this news and I don't see how this game's gonna work on a story level. Also most of the characters look like crap especially Maria (they'd better explain in the story when she joined a French brothel) and Alucard (I know he usually looks different in every game but if it weren't for his name up there I'd have no idea that was him).

But still Megaman 9 is awesome news and I'm glad Capcom is getting Inticreates to make it since they did a great job in my opinion on the MMZ and ZX games (going by MMX7 and 8 Capcom seems to have lost the ability to make a good MM game). Don't know how I feel about it having 8-bit graphics, I've always wonder how a new console 2D Megaman game would look now so that's kinda a let down I guess but at the same time I love retro graphics and this also gives them more room to focus on gameplay (not to mention doing things in 8-bit that an actual NES couldn't).

Riz Zowad looks kinda interesting as well. The graphics are impressive for a DS game. Seems I won't have a problem getting my JRPG fix this year.