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Eastern Mind is continuing its crusade to promote Acquire's Patchwork Heroes (or One Million Ton Bara Bara) to Western gamers by posting another humorous comic set online; this time, though, instead of sharing a fan-made piece, EM has translated and uploaded a series of strips originally published on the PSP title's Japanese site.

The 4-koma strips feature Patchwork Heroes's charming characters, whom you can more of in this story trailer. If you're still unsure what the game's about, it has you jumping onto giant airships, rescuing prisoners, and breaking the craft apart by sawing away sections in a Qix-like fashion.

You can read the comic strips as an online mini-book here. Make sure to also check out Eastern Mind's collection of Patchwork Heroes PSP backgrounds/themes grabbed from the Japanese PSN store (examples after the break)!

Eastern Mind is convinced that One Million Ton Bara Bara -- or Patchwork Heroes, as it will be called when it releases in the U.S. this spring -- is "possibly one of the most interesting games to appear this year" and just as important as other big Sony-published PSP titles like Loco Roco and Patapon.

The site even published a great introduction to the game with lots of screenshots (similar to its other wonderful previews for interesting PSP imports like My Summer Holiday and Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 3), story details, and a run-through of four different levels.

Despite its rave impressions for Patchwork Heroes, Eastern Mind noticed a lack of enthusiasm from North Americans and Europeans for the game. To combat its depression over Western audiences ignoring such a great title, the site produced a cute comic about the upcoming U.S./Europe release using graphics from the game (best viewed by hitting pause on the slideshow, then hitting the arrows).

Oh, and while you're reading about Patchwork Heroes, check out this fantastic cover art for the game's 30-song soundtrack -- with music composed by Hideki Sakamoto -- releasing in Japan on March 24th.

As Aksys prepares the digital download-only PSP release of Cho Aniki Zero for North America this Spring, "neo psychedelic rock band" IDATENTAI put out this animated music video in Japan for the lead single off its album for the testosterone-filled shoot'em up.

The animated video stays true to the Japanese series's wackiness with semi-nude, brawny men flying around and a live action cameo of oiled up hunk "TopGun Tom". There's even an exercise video version for the promotional song (after the break) that features TopGun Tom performing Jowan Lifts and Hyper Media Squats!

I'm having trouble deciding which I enjoy more: this set of Cho Aniki Zero videos or Namco Bandai's surreal infomercial for Muscle March.

[Via Original Sound Version]

SNK Playmore's Metal Slug XX for PSP will make the jump from Japan to North America on February 23rd, which was expected considering the series has a following in the States. What's surprising about the announcement is that Atlus will publish the game, not Ignition Entertainment, which has handled most of SNK's recent titles (e.g. The King of Fighters XII, Metal Slug 7, etc) in the U.S.

The game appears to be a remix of Metal Slug 7, which was released for Nintendo DS in 2008. The PSP edition introduces local co-op gameplay and other content additions, now allowing you to even purchase and download Leona Heidern (from King of Fighters), a seventh playable character with unique abilities, for 99 cents.

It doesn't look like Atlus is bringing the run'n gun game's strange preorder bonus, a pair of boxer shorts, to the U.S., but the publisher is holding a contest with the official PlayStation Blog to give away four pairs of underwear and nine Japanese promotional posters to commenters. So, if you want to play the game in a new pair of boxers, you'll probably have to go out to a store and buy them yourself.

Though Atlus announced the PSP version of Metal Slug XX, it made no mention of the Xbox Live Arcade port recently announced by SNK in Japan. Thankfully, the handheld edition is priced cheaply at $19.99, so you won't feel too swindled if the publisher reveals the XBLA release shortly after you buy the PSP one.

Though Thexder Neo ESRB's rating page indicates a release for both PSP and PlayStation 3, when Square Enix published the downloadable game for just the PSP last October, some presumed the home console mention was a misprint, especially when press materials made no mention of the PS3 edition.

Square Enix, however, revealed through its Downloadable Games page on Facebook that it's still working to release Thexder Neo for PS3 in 2010. "With PS3 graphic[s], Thexder Neo becomes more Thexder," says the company's Akira Kokushoh. "Can't wait to show you. Checking would be almost done!"

For those of you unfamiliar with Thexder, it was a well-received action game featuring a Macross-inspired robot that transforms into a jet. It was originally released in Japan in 1985 for the NEC PC-8801, but both Square and Sierra licensed the title from developer Game Arts (Lunar, Grandia series) and ported it to the NES and several PC platforms.

Thexder Neo is a remake of the original 8-bit side-scrolling version but with 3D graphics. I haven't played the PSP release yet, but from what I hear, it's just as unforgiving as the first one.

[Via GamerBytes]

In other album release news, Konamistyle revealed an upcoming original soundtrack for PSP's Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Along with the game's score, the CD will include the "Heavens Divide" song featured in Peace Walker's trailers, performed by Donna Burke (excerpt embedded after the break).

The CD will ship in Japan with Peace Walker's release there on March 17th (likely appearing on online import shops shortly afterward). There's no word yet on whether Konami will bring the album to North America, though the publisher did end up including a reduced version of the Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots soundtrack with that game's U.S. limited edition bundle. Fingers crossed!

[Via Nobuooo]

If you're still having trouble getting into a Christmas mood, the European PlayStation blog might have the cure for you: holiday-themed LocoRoco: Midnight Carnival wallpapers for your computer and your PSP. The U.S. PlayStation blog also put out backgrounds for the game, and they're near identical except for one slight difference (see after the break).

While you're thinking of LocoRoco, don't forget that Sony released a new Midnight Carnival level pack in the U.S. with three different stages: Shamplin 3, BungaBongo 1, and BuiBui Fort 3. Even if you don't own the game, you can still buy and play the level pack so long as you first download Midnight Carnival's free PSN demo first. Neat!