Three new titles announced for the DS in Japan

The DS continues to warrant plenty of press with its strong sales in Japan. The platform's games were responsible for six of the top 10 titles in the country, with the remaining four belonging to Sony's PlayStation 2, the normal behemoth in game sales. Developers seem keen on continuing the success of the DS, as three more games for the handheld were recently announced.

Capcom will release its next installment of Mega Man on the Nintendo DS. According to the latest issue of Famitsu, the company is currently developing Rockman ZX. Though the title sounds similar to Capcom's long-running Rockman EXE action role-playing series (known as Mega Man Battle Network in English), ZX will be a traditional side-scrolling 2D action game.

The main characters are new, and gamers can choose to play as either a boy named Van or a girl named Ale. This marks the first time that the series will feature a female as a main character. No release date or price has been announced for Rockman ZX yet. For the first pictures of the game, check Capcom's teaser site that just opened today.

Also in the most recent issue of Famitsu is the report that Nintendo is bringing the 1998 arcade puzzle game Puzz Loop to the DS. The new version will be titled Shunkan Puzz Loop (Instant Puzz Loop), and is slated for a March 2 release. The game is being developed by Mitchell, which created the original arcade edition. Mitchell is also known as the developer of Polarium, one of the very first puzzle games that was released for the DS.

The rules in Shunkan Puzz Loop are basically the same as in the original arcade version, except the game uses the DS touch-sensitive screen for controls. The player's objective is to erase balls that are traveling on a spiral path so that they don't reach the center of the screen. The colored spheres can be erased by aligning three of the same hue, which is done by shooting out balls from a launcher located in the center of the spiral. The DS version features a total of 60 different stages, with a boss stage every 10 stages.

Following the steps of Sony Computer Entertainment's Talkman for the PSP, Nintendo is also releasing a line of translation utilities for its handheld gaming machine. Nintendo will release a communication tool named "Tabi no Yubisashi Kaiwachou" for the DS in March. The translation software's name ironically translates to the confusing title of "Finger-pointing Conversation Note for Traveling" in English.

Tabi no Yubisashi Kaiwacho allows the user to communicate in foreign languages by displaying text on the screen. The program can also play back the text in voices. The software will be offered in five different languages: Thai, Chinese, Korean, English, and German. Each program will be sold separately at the price of 2,800 yen ($25).