I just pre-ordered a copy of The Legend of Legacy (3DS), which means a North American localization should be announced any day now

Actually, I pre-ordered a number of 3DS games--Japanese and otherwise--in the last week or so, with two of the "otherwise" games being Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

Getting back to The Legend of Legacy, though--as I've said before, this Japan-only (for the moment, at least) 3DS RPG is being developed for FuRyu by a bunch of the same people who worked on Square Enix's now-defunct SaGa series back in the day.

That, along with the game's interesting art style and unique pop-up-book world, was enough to push me to pre-order a copy (it's supposed to hit Japanese store shelves on Jan. 22) via amiami.com recently, despite the fact that I'm sure to flounder horribly while attempting to play through it.

While I was pre-ordering The Legend of Legacy, I also pre-ordered a copy of Sega 3D Fukkoku Archives, which combines six of the Sega 3D Classics eShop titles that have been released in that region so far (Fantasy Zone, Ecco the Dolphin, Out Run, Shinobi III, Space Harrier and Streets of Rage) as well as two bonus games--updated versions of Sega Master System's (or Sega Mark III's) Out Run 3D and Space Harrier 3D titles.

This budget-priced compilation is set to hit the streets (again, in Japan only--at least for now) on Dec. 18.

Considering Nintendo announced its intentions to publish Level-5's Fantasy Life in the West shortly after I picked up a Japanese copy of that game, I'm hoping these recent pre-orders of mine will prompt similar announcements regarding The Legend of Legacy's and Sega 3D Fukkoku Archives' overseas prospects.

Hunky Space Harrier

I don't know if any of you noticed, but buried within this post about Darwin Yamamoto's recent trip to Tokyo's retro-games shop, Super Potato, was a brief note about the New Yorker being a designer and illustrator.

Well, a good example of Yamamoto's abilities as an illustrator can be seen in his recent--and rather hunky--portrait of Sega's Space Harrier:

Go here to see an animated version of this portrait, by the way. (The static version, above, was taken from here.)

To see more such portraits of famous and not-so-famous game characters--including Jennifer from Rule of Rose, Vincent from Catherine and Francis York from Deadly Premonition--check out this Flickr set.