The World Ends With You (and Your DS) on April 22nd

[Sandman]

What you had plans to go to the World Series this year? Too bad.


The World Ends With You on April 22
Original RPG from Square Enix picks up a release date.
By Andrew Hayward, 02/14/2008

Square Enix announced today that The World Ends With You, an original role-playing game for the Nintendo DS, will ship in North America on April 22nd. The announcement clarifies the spring release target issued for the game in December.

Released in Japan as It's a Wonderful World, The World Ends With You was co-developed by Jupiter, the studio behind Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the Game Boy Advance. The colorful title, which shares some visual similarities with the Kingdom Hearts franchise (thanks to the input of designer Tetsuya Nomura), stars a psychic teen in the Shibuya district of Tokyo.

Check out our hands-on impressions of the import release for more on Square Enix's latest original handheld property.

From 1up (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3166282). I was hoping It's A Wonderful World would get a US release.

[Zabyx]

I assumed this would be about ragnarok.

[Heretic Machine]

I really can't wait for this, but I hope they don't butcher the soundtrack for the US release.

[Spigot]

Awesome stuff, but I loathe the name.

There are too many crazy games coming out this year for me to resist!

[Variable Gear]

Awesome stuff, but I loathe the name.

Would you have preferred It's a Wonderful World?
I know I would have preferred the original title...but anyway...
I'm just happy this game is coming to the US, because I had heard good things (http://www.gamebrink.com/nintendo-ds/3983-subarashiki-kono-sekai-its-a-wonderful-world-review-1) about the import version (http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-9g-49-en-70-2084.html). I can never have enough DS games, and a Spring release is welcome for the World Ends With You. I'm looking forward to coordinating attacks across both screens!
Just don't mess with the soundtrack, Square!

[Spigot]

Would you have preferred It's a Wonderful World?Yes. Yes I would have.

[Evil Avnovice]

'Bout time we got an american release date. :)

[Chimpbot]

After reading those previews and seeing a couple screenshots...I immediately went and pre-ordered it at Amazon. I did this partly because the game looks quite badass...and mainly because it looks interesting and I'd hate to forget about it.

They listed the release date as April 1st. I was slightly amused by this.

[Gorvi]

Awesome. I love the timing of this too, since it's not being released in the already overcrowded month of March.

[Spigot]

Awesome. I love the timing of this too, since it's not being released in the already overcrowded month of March.Or February. I swear, I've had more games come out this month than I did in November, which was the craziest month for games that I can recall.

WTF? Did game publishers suddenly realize that the calendar has more than 3 months?

[ghost]

I'm also glad this is being released stateside. From what I've seen, it looks really interesting. I must share Spigot's sentiments, though - It's a Wonderful World is a much better title.

[Spigot]

I'm also glad this is being released stateside. From what I've seen, it looks really interesting. I must share Spigot's sentiments, though - It's a Wonderful World is a much better title.I guess they thought that people would think it's a game based on the Frank Capra classic :)

"Quest: Find ZuZu's Petals."

"Quest: Get Drunk And Jump Off Bridge."

[Variable Gear]

I guess they thought that people would think it's a game based on the Frank Capra classic :)

Perhaps Square-Enix was too cheap to buy the rights to the name in North America for the It's a Wonderful World title - just like Capcom was with Zack and Wiki (Which should been called Treasure Island Z in the US as it was in Japan) - but, honestly, we'll never know.

[Chimpbot]

I'm also glad this is being released stateside. From what I've seen, it looks really interesting. I must share Spigot's sentiments, though - It's a Wonderful World is a much better title.

From what little reading into the game I've done, it seems like the original title was meant to be taken with a generous dash of sarcasm. I can definitely appreciate this.

The American title is a little more blatant with it's meaning...but at the same time, I absolutely adore such a bleak phrase being coupled with a relatively bright art style.

I, for one, like the new title a lot.

[Variable Gear]

From what little reading into the game I've done, it seems like the original title was meant to be taken with a generous dash of sarcasm. I can definitely appreciate this.

The American title is a little more blatant with it's meaning...but at the same time, I absolutely adore such a bleak phrase being coupled with a relatively bright art style.

The title for the US version definitely wasn't accidental. The story of It's a Wonderful World was adapted into a two chapter one-shot manga in Japan by Shiro Amano called The World Ends With You (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Wonderful_World_%28video_game%29#Manga). Square didn't just pull the title of of thin air, if that's what anyone thought.