Because let's face it: you won't be rescuing that Triforce as a pile of ash. In fact, now that we think some more about this, these wouldn't be much good in the Water Temple either, or anywhere that is remotely windy (thus ruling out the Isle of Gust).
Heck, maybe these papercraft Links would just be safer making our desks look totally rad. Glad we agree.
The ancient prophecies foretold of the one time someone would put a custom painted DS Lite on eBay and it would not look terrible. This Hero of Painted DS Lites, now revealed as viper640_0 from the idyllic POWER SELLER VILLAGE, whose earlyeffortslackedmagic.
Now, however, he has acquired the Airbrush of Paint and defeated the Impulse to Use Questionable Color Schemes, and has returned from his quest with the Triforce of Pretty Good Paint Jobs. And, uh, he's selling it on eBay. We would be proud to carry this DS Lite around in Hyrule or even somewhere that existed.
Praised by almost everyone who's played the freeware PC title, Cave Story is considered by many to be the pinnacle of the "Metroidvania" genre, a polished action platformer embellished with endearing characters and a catchy soundtrack. No matter how many times we're reminded of the fact, it always astounds us that the game was designed and developed by a single programmer, Daisuke Amaya, or Pixel, as he's more commonly known.
As you might should know, homebrew developer Ravenworks has been working on a DS port for Cave Story. As it turns out, however, Pixel doesn't own a Nintendo DS, so it would be unlikely that he'd be able to play the port once it's completed. In fact, he hasn't owned a handheld or home console since the Nintendo 64! Isn't it a crime nowadays for gamers in Japan to not own a Nintendo DS?
To keep Pixel out of jail, Ravenworks and the rest of the "All Things Studio Pixel (ATSP)" LiveJournal community raised $410 and put together a care package of handheld treats as a "thank you" for the DS-less developer's work. Here's everything the group purchased and sent:
Onyx Nintendo DS Lite system (laser engraved with Cave Story characters and a message that reads, "Thank you")
R4 cart with 2 GB microSD (for playing Cave Story DS! and perhaps DS development one day?)
So, how did Pixel take to the package? You can read his reaction, as well as the community's reasons for picking those two particular games for their offering, past the post break! We also used this effort as an excuse to catch up with Ravenworks on Cave Story DS's progress.
The website for Cave's princess-impersonating dancing game, Princess Debut, features a lovely activity that is probably designed for little girls, but is kind of fun anyway. In keeping with the theme of not actually being a princess, you can design a DS cover out of fake rhinestones and then print it out! If you aren't feeling creative, there's even a template available to color in.
Ideally, you'd affix this to the system by slipping it inside a transparent cover, but you'd probably be okay using just a little tape. Alternately, you could just mess with the editor for fun. But then how would your DS get any more princess-like?
We're all about the cool arts and crafts people come up with (especially our readers), but this is just too much. King, the company responsible for the ugly DS you see above, will take your handheld and, for a nominal fee, jazz it up with all kinds of different decorations. We're all for classing up our sleek and simple handheld, but these decorations just come off as too busy and tacky.
Of course, such a service is only available to folks in Japan. For once, we're glad that is the case.
A third-party project was underway during the Neo Geo Pocket Color's short (but beautiful) life to add Game Boy and Game Boy Color functionality to SNK's handheld. Ganksoft Entertainment began by working on a software emulator capable of running GB/GBC software on the NGPC. The project was cancelled before the emulator was finished, due to SNK's dramatic exit from the console market. The screenshot shows roughly what state the emulator was in. Of course, with no software, the hardware never came to fruition either.
Would the system's history have been different if it could run its major competitor's games via an obscure, unlicensed peripheral? The Dreamcast says no.
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 youknow 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.
This would probably be your everyday Ren-faire quality whip were it not for one important detail: a Castlevania logo on a metal plate right above the handle. With that little detail, this leather whip becomes your own personal Vampire Killer. Though we recommend you take the Jonathan Morris "keep it in your inventory forever but don't bother using it" approach, over the Simon Belmont "hit every single thing you see with it" approach.
Whips like these were sold on Konami's website a couple of years ago, but are no longer available. eBay user hgswells has put one on eBay for sale to Belmonts and non-Belmonts alike. Judging by the apparent condition in the photo, it hasn't been used to whip even one Medusa head.
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).
Kirby is a smart choice for video game-inspired cooking projects, because his games are eating-themed. In addition, his circular shape is the easiest to recreate in food of any of the Nintendo stable -- chances are you don't have a Samus Aran cake pan. For that matter, based on the general cutesyness of his universe, Kirby could very well be made of cake or something, unlike other Nintendo characters like Mario, who are unambiguously made of human flesh.
For her cousin's birthday, Craftster indeliblechange made 24 sweet cuppin' cakes featuring Kirbies of different colors as well as various Kirbyana. The chili-chocolate (!) cupcakes were decorated using fondant. They look really great!
Sure, it's from a PSP game, but we can all admit that, aside from that small flaw, this video is pretty sweet. Apparently, this PSP game lets you create and download custom stages. From the looks of this recreation of 1-1 in Super Mario Bros., we're sure there are plenty of other sweet homages to other iconic gaming levels available for it, as well. Of course, the only problem with this user-created stage is that it lacks the music from the original Super Mario Bros. game. But, that's to be expected.
Someone let us know when there's a user-created stage that is modeled after the introductory level in Castlevania.
It turns out that staring at red-on-black images isn't so bad when you don't have to cram your face into a machine to do so. This shirt, created for German Virtual Boy fansite vr32.de, almost makes the Virtual Boy's reviled display palette appear ... artistic. As if Nintendo limited the display of the system because it would look cool, and not for technological reasons. It looks great on a shirt, anyway.
It features a Virtual-Boy-as-octopus design on the front and Planet Virtual Boy branding on the back. We doubt that many were made, but for the moment they're available for 17 Euros plus shipping (which would probably be a lot!) by contacting Planet Virtual Boy's DrAetzn.
We know how much you kids love your Squeenix, so we hope you're intrigued by the company's refreshingly new IP, Sigma Harmonics. If you're not, you should still check out it's Japanese website. Even though most of us here at DS Fanboy can't read a lick of Japanese, we've never wanted a game so much before because of an official site. The art looks all kinds of gorgeous, and clicking on the "Story" link makes you feel like you're watching a trailer. We're also fond of the song choice -- it somehow puts hints of noir into a whimsical melody.
Last but not least, there are some wallpapers to download, if you're into that sort of thing.
Blurry pictures aside, this modded and painted Game Boy color looks pretty good! It's been Zelda-fied and is now available on eBay, though the Buy it Now price of $70 seems a little ambitious, but maybe with the upgraded sound and the new look, seller auron5881 might get lucky.
It's starting to seem as though Zelda-themed mods and paint jobs are among the most common for Nintendo fans. How's this rate among all you've seen?
We've seen enough clothing branded with 1-up mushrooms to last us several lifetimes (which is sort of ironic), but other items in lastactioncowboy's new line-up of Nintendo clothing feature characters that haven't been so drastically overused. We've not seen too many Blooper hoodies, for example, while Bob-omb underwear is a new one to us.
Admittedly, probably none of this stuff is as effortlessly cool or obscure as those Sega-themed t-shirts from The King of Games, but then it's also not as horrendously pricey -- just $40 for a hoodie, or $18 per piece of underwear.