E3: Koei’s back on their bizarre games kick again

Every few years Koei gets tired of making feudal Asian war simulators and hack-n-slash games and they whip out a few really bizarre titles. Gitaroo Man, Yanya Caballista, and the much-less-bizarre-but-still-more-bizarre-than-Dynasty-Warriors Fatal Inertia come to mind. Well, the stars have aligned once again and Koei has unveiled both Prey the Stars and Pop Cutie! Street Fashion Simulator for the DS. Check out the videos for both, although neither really explains just what the hell is going on… and I love it! Slightly more info and another video after the cut.

Prey the Stars, while sounding like a hip JRPG, is actually a game where you… umm, eat stuff? Think of it sorta like Katamari Damacy, only instead of a big sticky ball you rely on your characters insatiable appetitie to grow larger in order to roll up eat everything in the stage. It looks crazy as hell and will hopefully be just as fun to play, although the emphasis here may be on multiplayer. Prey the Stars is scheduled for an October release in the US.

Pop Cutie! Street Fashion Simulator puts just enough zany Japanese spin on the burgeoning fashion design genre to hold my interest. I tried it in Japanese but got nowhere near the levels of clothes mania seen in the video and without a press release to explain it I’m just as clueless right now.