Quickly! Before Taro beats me to it!
Yoinked from Kotaku and Taro’s appropriately named forums…
Ninety-Nine, the Japanese comedy duo who are perhaps most famous for dressing up as the Mario Brothers for Nintendo DS commercials, decided the next computer game they would target is Sega’s game for beetle-mad kids: Mushi King.
The beetle’s opponent? Boy idoru Eiji Wentz, who looks like a real-life yaoi manga character if I ever saw one…
I <3 Japanese TV
YouTube
Hey, it’s been some time since I posted something that wasn’t “news-related” per se. I just wanted to ramble a bit about the wonders of Oideyo Dōbutsu no Mori, aka Animal Crossing: Wild World.
I am hooked on this game (if you own it, you probably are too!) even though I never played the original version, for the GameCube, I’ve heard that the DS game is just as great or better. According to Media Create, it sold 325,466 copies in Japan in its first week of availability, which makes it the best selling title for the DS.
The gist of the game is that you’re moving to a new town, and you have to furnish and pay off a house for yourself, interact with your neighbours – some of which are pretty crabby, but the dialogue is usually humourous – landscape the town, and participate in various festivals and contests. The seasons change along with the real world, and fun events and items are available for holidays. It is also compatible with the Nintendo WFC (the wi-fi), so you can go and visit the towns of your friends, steal their fruit, buy items at their store, etc. The game lets you program your own town flag, theme music, clothing, constellations and other fun things. You’d think it’d get boring waking up and tending to flowers and turnips every morning, but it’s been two months and I haven’t tired of it yet. (Though all my nice villagers have moved out, and been replaced by angry ones who call me names…)
Anyway, if you’re looking for a yea-or-nay recommendation regarding buying AC:WW…this is it. It’s a fabulous title and will keep you interested for a long time!
Hooray, we’ve got screens! Some tantalizing new shots have been released as a preview of the upcoming Zelda DS title, Phantom Hourglass. Looks like a neat combo between Minish Cap and Wind Waker. More info as I get it, and check out the rest of the images at The Magic Box!
The DS Lite is going to be released in less than a month but it seems your best bet to get one is to either line up all night outside your local Yodobashi Camera or otherwise pay extortionate eBay prices to those that did.
I’m not sure if it’s really worth the fuss. I mean, it still looks like something that you might get from a Happy Meal. But anyway, make sure you keep an eye on the eBay listings. The DS will retail for under 17,000 yen but will probably eBay for more than, oooh, I dunno…30,000?
Meanwhile, in other news, you can’t get a better fusion of Japan and videogames than an origami Nintendo DS.
Source:
Kotaku
Contrary to Nintendo’s announcement last week, it seems that initial suspicions were correct, and a new, upgraded version of the Nintendo DS is indeed in the works. Its confirmed features are as follows:
Weight: 218g (21% lighter than the DS).
Dimensions: 133mm × 73.9mm × 21.5mm (42% smaller).
D-pad reduced to 18.6mm across (16% smaller), face buttons retain same dimensions.
Four levels of brightness, brighter than the original DS.
Retains the Game Boy Advance game port, otherwise known was the Expansion Port / Slot 2, with an included “blank” for when cartridges are not inserted.
Mimics some Nintendo Revolution design features: clean white design, D-Pad with lines, and Century Gothic font face on buttons.
The DS Lite will go on sale on March 2, 2006, retailing at 16,800 yen.
Sources: Nintendo of Japan, Wikipedia
Recently Joystiq reported (sourcing Lik-Sang) a possible makeover coming for the DS this year, to be announced possibly as early as January 16th, according to the import retail site’s Japanese contacts. While I personally would like this to be true, IGN was able to obtain a statement from Nintendo that may quash the rumour or simply hint at the inevitable – I’ll let you readers interpret it for yourself, but I thought it was at least deserving of mention, and if you really want to see a DS remake it’s worth dropping by Nintendo’s site and writing them a well-thought-out e-mail. If the interest is there, who knows?
“Clearly, Nintendo DS continues to be one of the most popular and talked-about video game systems available,” said a Nintendo of America representative this morning. “Through 2005, some 13 million units have sold worldwide. Nintendo is always looking for ways to improve its games and systems, but we have nothing to announce at this time.”
Source: IGN
Following on from yesterday’s post, Kotaku have shed some light on why the Nintendo DS has sold out in Japan – 9 out of the top 10 games are for the DS. It’s not just Mario Kart or Animal Crossing though – Nintendo hit the jackpot recently by convincing older people (and by older, I mean over 40) that playing games can “train your brain”.
Apparently many elderly people feel like they have had a good brain workout after a gaming session on the Nintendo. Well, they got the hang of slot machines pretty quickly, Nintendos should be the next obvious step for the elderly. Next, they’ll get the hang of ATMs!
Anyway, good on Nintendo. Sony and Microsoft have been going “PSP! rah rah PS3! rah rah 360! rah rah” and meanwhile, Nintendo have quietly gone and taken away all their thunder with great games and a clever marketing campaign.
It’s enough to know that Nintendo are ahead by miles when 7 out of the 8 kids in my Kids English class today were playing on their DSs before the bell.
Link:
Kotaku
Personally, I like the DS because it’s a hand held console you can play one handed. What utter genius! It seems I’m not the only one to love the Nintendo DS, although I suspect people have different reasons.
Recently, Kotaku reported that Nintendo Japan had sold 5 million DS consoles in 13 months – apparently the fastest pace in the Japanese games console industry.
Now, it seems that it wasn’t just Nintendo spouting some advertising, since the latest is that Nintendo DS consoles have sold out in Japan!
Glad I already have mine!
Source: Kotaku
With 2 days to go before Mario Kart DS hits shelves in Japan, I thought a sneak preview and spoiler-free review would be of some help to those who are on the fence about buying the latest MK title.
Rest assured that if you’re into racing games, you’ll like this one automatically. Of course, for some of us, “racing” really means Mario Kart in its previous incarnations, and if you enjoyed them then the DS version won’t disappoint. The customary set of 4 cups has returned along with Battle Mode, and old favorites like the traditional Rainbow Road. The game additionally includes a 4-cup set of “retro tracks” that features tracks from the SNES/Super Famicom and N64 versions along with ones from the GBA release and Mario Kart Double Dash for GameCube.
There are, of course, many unlockables. The final two cups in each division/cc must be unlocked by winning gold on the previous cup, making 150cc a challenge, but not an unbeatable one, even if your preferred character is abysmally slow (gamers who enjoy playing Princess Peach, beware of this!). So far I’ve unlocked 3 characters and an extra set of karts in addition to the new tracks.
New items such as the Blooper that sprays ink at other players (is there an official name for this item?) and a Boo that thefts items from other players are new, while many old favorites are back, such as the lightning bolt, and a crazy new influx of blue shells. Some “Special” items (like the character-themed ones from Double Dash are now absent), though the ones that are in the game – the gold Mushroom and Bomb-Ombs as an example – are available to all players, provided they’re back far enough on the track.
The game also introduces a set of one-player “Missions” that are great for killing a bit of time.
Of course, the main attraction is the “WFC”, aka Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Other than experiencing technical difficulties on launch day, the system has performed nicely, allowing players to choose from Regional races, Friends-Only, and Worldwide. Unfortunately, the WFC does lack some organization (text messaging would be nice, or really any other way to communicate with other players, and the coincidental way of both friends having to Search for one another at the same time is a bit of a hassle) but for an initial try Nintendo has done an excellent job. We’ll hope that by the time Animal Crossing DS hits shelves, the WFC will be second nature to them.
It was welcome news to many Final Fantasy series fans that Square was back on good terms with Nintendo, and though they’re still primarily on Sony consoles, we’ve had a slew of announcements lately about games for the DS and GBA…more specifically, ported games which are being rehauled for their new releases, some of them after lying ten years dormant.
The most widely publicized (again) is Final Fantasy III for the DS, a game which was originally on the Famicom and has never seen a remake or been published outside of Japan. North Americans will get their first legal English shot at playing this one. Japanese gamers will enjoy the updated graphics (according to IGN, they will be 3-D) and music.
III (or any other Famicom release) never saw quite the popularity the Super Famicom titles did, which is why it doesn’t really come as a surprise that another upcoming release, for the GBA this time, will be Final Fantasy IV. It is likely that the version ported will be the original Hardtype version, which was also the version used for the Final Fantasy Chronicles Playstation release. (Whether or not another game will be on the cart is yet unknown.) SquareEnix has launched a splash page for the upcoming Final Fantasy IV for ADVANCE website complete with images of the custom faceplate that will be available for the GBA Micro, and brand-new artwork from original FF illustrator Yoshitaka Amano. A micro + FFIV bundle will be available for preorder.
Finally, as though III and IV weren’t big enough news, SquareEnix has also confirmed their plans to release Final Fantasies V and VI (the latter of which is arguably the most popular title of the sprited games), as a set, also on the GBA. They will be released following IV, and all three Super Famicom titles will be “updated” – whether this means new video animation (the FMVs from the Playstation releases are pretty much useless on a 16-bit console) or other features is unclear at this time, but we do know that new towns and bosses at least will be featured.
The street date for IV in North America is December 12, and December 15th in Japan. The other games do not yet have solid release plans.
Source: IGN
And you can get a preview of some of the game images by heading over to The Magic Box!
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