Posts by Candace Savino at DS Fanboy

MLB 2K8 Fantasy All-Stars gets fantasy price

Posted May 13th 2008 2:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Sales

DS Fanboy rather liked Major League Baseball 2K8 Fantasy All-Stars (even if it's a mouthful to say). Those of you that are interested in this odd but fun baseball title should consider picking it up today, though, as opposed to any other day, so that you can take advantage of Amazon's temporary sale.

Until 12am Pacific time, Amazon will have the game available for $14.99. If you don't mind outdated rosters, and you're craving a good, cheap baseball experience on your DS, this title probably won't disappoint. It may not be as weird and wacky as a Mutant League game (ah, if only), but it does offer a refreshing experience compared to some run-of-the-mill baseball titles out there.

Gallery: MLB 2K8 Fantasy All-Stars

Viva Pinata development is 'complete'

Posted May 13th 2008 8:45AM by Candace Savino
Filed under: News

Rare has yet to provide a release date for Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise, but according to the company, the game is now "complete." The announcement came in Rare's community letter, Scribes, which tongue-in-cheekly stated that the software would be sold this Sunday at flea markets. (Because we don't know how high your gullibility meter is, we'll state the obvious -- they were joking.)

Apparently, though, all that's left for the title is the manufacturing phase, so we'll assume that the game will be available for purchase in a matter of months. We've learned that DS carts take about two months to assemble, so could we seeing Pocket Paradise as soon as July or August? Your guess is as good as ours!

Gallery: Viva Pinata DS

[Via Game|Life]

Digging up fossils in Dinosaur King

Posted May 12th 2008 8:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: News, Screens

Oddly enough, screens for a game called Dinosaur King popped up on Sega's press site, but there's been no official word or press release as to what the game is or when to expect it.

Still, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what this title involves. The screens are pretty telling; it looks like some sort of paleontology sim, in which you dig up dinosaur bones and restore the extinct creature's skeletons as completely as possible.

In fact, it sounds very familiar to what we know of We Are Fossil Diggers, a second-party game that was only released in Japan (and happens to be selling quite well over there). Some of the screens for Dinosaur King also hint that the title has an added drama element, though, so we'll wait until we hear more information.

Gallery: Dinosaur King

Meet the heroes of Lagaard

Posted May 11th 2008 5:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Screens

Atlus revealed some of the characters and classes in the upcoming Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard, and while Etrian veterans will recognize the Alchemist and Landsknecht classes, there's also a new Gunner class in the game. As you might imagine, Gunners are marksmen who use guns and ammunition to deal out single-target damage. On the other hand, the Alchemists are magic users and Landsknechts specialize in swords and axes.

Based on those descriptions, you should be able to tell which class each character belongs to by their pictures. If you'd like to give them a look, then, be sure to check out our updated gallery below.

Gallery: Etrian Odyssey II

DS Daily: Mother's Day

Posted May 11th 2008 10:30AM by Candace Savino
Filed under: DS Daily

It's Mother's Day today in the U.S. (and perhaps in other countries around the world, too), so it's only fitting to inquire about our readers' moms. So, does your mother own a DS? If so, what led her to getting Nintendo's handheld? What games does she like? (My own mom is a big fan of Tetris and Flash Focus, but that's about it.)

Do you think the DS is a mom-friendly system? If so, what games do you recommend for moms? Also, share any other Mother's Day related thoughts here, folks.

DS Daily: Have you demoed?

Posted May 10th 2008 10:30AM by Candace Savino
Filed under: DS Daily

Nintendo has an interesting philosophy when it comes to demos -- the company denounces them on the Wii (even though we all know the reason for that is the lack of storage space), but yet offers them for DS games. With the recent launch of the Wii's Nintendo Channel in the United States, many of us have finally gotten a taste of these DS demos, and we have to say -- we quite enjoy the feature.

How many of you DS owners have Wiis, too? Does your Wii have the Nintendo Channel yet, and if so, have you tried any DS demos? Which ones have convinced you to buy (or not buy) a game?

For everyone: what DS game demos would you like to see offered on the Wii? Perhaps you might even want to try the games developed by Japanese seminar students? We certainly do. Of course those aren't technically demos, but we digress.

So, go ahead and share all your demo thoughts here.

Friday Video: Dun dun dun dun TETRIS SONG

Posted May 9th 2008 7:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Friday video

If there's anything that our gaming brethren have taught us, it's that bottles make for great musical instruments when performing video game songs. Even if the video doesn't involve an RC car, we still love this rendition of everyone's favorite Tetris song. You know, the one that goes like this.

Even better is that while performing "Korobeiniki," these folks are clearly having fun with it. That's enough to make us want to drink a few gallons worth of wine ... uh, just to get enough bottles to try this out for ourselves, of course. We also appreciate the stop-motion effect, because it just makes the whole stunt all the more impressive.

Can we request a track from Mega Man 2 for their next bit?

[Via Geekologie]

Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 4/28-5/4

Posted May 9th 2008 5:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Another Week in ...

We realized today that we don't know Japan as well as we thought we did. With our reasoning, a new Gundam game + the popularity of the DS = cha-ching. While the debuting Emblem of Gundam had decent sales for its first week, though, taking the twelfth spot isn't all that impressive -- especially since there was only one new release cluttering up the top ten.

On the other hand, We're Fossil Diggers, Pokemon Ranger, and the Taiko Drum Master DS sequel continued to shine, giving the DS a nice piece of top ten representation. Batonnage managed to reach the half-million mark, while the other two games neared 100,000 copies sold.

For hardware, DS numbers went up since last week, but the handheld is still convincingly behind the PSP and Wii in recent sales. If you want to see the numbers, though, just click past the break. You can check out the software listings there, too.

Continue reading Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 4/28-5/4

Doki Doki Majo Shinpan Duo forgoes nipples

Posted May 9th 2008 4:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: News

Since Doki Doki Majo Shinpan Duo is risqué in its essence, we're not surprised that the boxart would also be rather ... bold. The blue bar that wraps its way around the cover lets perusers of the box see through the girls' clothes, hence the assaulted looks on their faces.

The girl on the left used quick reflexes to cover herself up, while the girl on the right only had a sliver of indecency exposed. The girl in the middle, though? Not so lucky -- not even because her breasts were displayed for gaming consumers to see, but because she has no nipples. Maybe she's related to the guys in Duel Love? Or, maybe that's how you go about proving she's a witch.

In all seriousness, we don't expect SNK to put nipples on the front of the box. Maybe they should have gone with a different design, though, so that the girls wouldn't look like ... well, freaks. Still, we know most guys aren't too picky when it comes to this kind of thing, and will enjoy the opportunity to stylus-poke the ladies of the game nonetheless. Oh, and the little pointing hand in the bottom right says "touch," lest your forget your task.

Top publishers snubbed Myst DS

Posted May 8th 2008 8:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: News

Sometimes, we really wish that we could be flies on the walls of game company offices. Maybe we're just huge nerds (actually, that's a fact), but still, we'd love to hear the reasoning behind some of the business decisions made -- just because we're curious when it comes to those types of things.

Every so often, though, we get a little insight into the industry. Most recently, MTV Multiplayer learned some things about Myst DS from it's license owner, Manny Granillo, regarding why the game was turned down by many of the "top publishers." Granillo doesn't mention which companies refused to publish the title for Nintendo's handheld, but he divulged the reasons they gave.

Gallery: Myst

Continue reading Top publishers snubbed Myst DS

Welcome Big Download (beta) to the family!

Posted May 8th 2008 12:20PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Meta

All you young whippersnappers probably love your computers, but did you know that you can actually play games on these newfangled technology boxes? Who would've thought?

Should you fall into the PC gamer crowd, though, you should check out our new sister site, Big Download. The site's only in its beta version at the moment, so be gentle, but it still has a lot to offer anyone interested in PC gaming. You can hit up Big Download to check out its shiny PC downloads engine, or just meander on over to read the latest gaming news -- whatever strikes your fancy. The site also has some neat-o features, like a file tracking system that remembers your favorite titles, and fee-less access to content such as demos, patches, mods, and then some.

Since it's only in its beta form, though, you may run into a few hiccups here and there. If so, be sure to report them, so that we (and by we, we mean tech savvy people that aren't actually us) can fix those right up.

That's QT brings you into the world of fashion

Posted May 7th 2008 7:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Imports

We didn't really know much about recent Japanese release That's QT until Siliconera took the time to write about it. Despite the sickeningly cute title, though, we think this import sounds pretty interesting -- especially for Project Runway loving types like this writer. Most importantly, you don't have to be a pro at Japanese to try this import. You may miss out on bits of dialogue and backstory, but you'll still be able to play it simply enough.

The goal in this game is to start a successful fashion line. This doesn't mean that you "design" clothes, but rather, the outfits you "create" will be based on what people say to you in the street. Luckily, you don't have to know exactly what they're saying; just make sure to memorize any highlighted Japanese characters.

Beyond this, though, you also have to manage a little boutique in which your clothes will be sold. You can wear your outfits around town to show them off, and hope that will inspire customers to come to your store. Then, if your store becomes successful enough, you can open a new one and face different rivals.

Clearly That's QT is too niche for everyone to enjoy, but if you're into fashion or management sims, it might be worth a look.

Official FFTA2 website advances

Posted May 7th 2008 3:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Fan stuff

We're at that point in the year when time just seems to fly by, so Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift will be out before you know it. That doesn't make the wait any easier, though, so we're glad Square Enix recently updated the official North American website with actual stuff to keep us busy.

Assuming you can make it past the site's annoyingly slow load time, you might enjoy some of the things it has to offer. So far, multimedia and information on the battle system is listed as "coming soon," but there's still plenty to keep you occupied. Mainly, you can look at a few character profiles, and also some of the different races and classes that will be available in the game.

We can already see our summer evaporating right in front of our very eyes.

Gallery: FF Tactics A2

[Thanks, ediblebird!]

New York Times one half

Posted May 6th 2008 1:30PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Sales

With the release of Crosswords DS this week, will a $10 price cut compel you to buy New York Times Crosswords instead?

Amazon's "Deal of the Day" happens to be everyone's favorite alf-loving crossword game (again). While $10 for any game is hard to resist, keep in mind that puzzles from the New York Times are tough -- make sure you have the mental fortitude before picking this one up. You might also want to note, though, that Mother's Day will be here soon, and this might make a nice, cheap gift for DS-owning moms.

Phoenix Wright: Asset Attorney

Posted May 6th 2008 12:45PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Fan stuff

We couldn't help but laugh at VG Cats' recent tribute to the Ace Attorney series. Those of you who've never played a Phoenix Wright game will find this strip confusing (and downright scary), but those of you who are fans of Capcom's lawyering franchise will certainly enjoy it. That is, once you recover from seeing Edgeworth and the Judge in a way that might traumatize you.

Just click on the image above to see the strip in full. Also, check here to see an alternate version of the comic (it's the same strip, but with a different final frame).

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