DS Fanboy pal Zachary Hinchliffe is powerfully awesome, and you can quote us on that. He's working with Croik of the Phoenix Wright fansite Court Records to translate the Japanese Gyakuten Saiban 4 Flash demo, which actually consists of part of the first case.
It's in a very early stage right now-- essentially, once you get past the intro and into gameplay, the text switches over to question-mark speak that is even less useful than the original Japanese dialogue, but you can at least watch the introduction. And you can set your bookmark now to play more as more gets translated, because we're sure you'll get to play this demo to completion in English before the game gets an English release.
Of course, the Mario theme has been done to death with a variety of instruments and without. But this is Super Mario Bros. 2 and, upon hearing these fine kids rock it percussion style, we're forced to throw up the horns and bang our head with the best of them. Rock on young band folk, rock on!
If the number one complaint gamers have with Puzzle Quest is its limited availability at game shops, then the second most common point of protest would be the Puzzle/RPG's cheating AI. People are just as apt to sing praises about its addictive gameplay as they are to howl over the AI's godlike prescience. We've spent more than a few battles shaking our fists at the game as computer-controlled enemies racked up lucky combos and more extra turns than chicken on a rotisserie.
Sensing that the mob was two forums threads away from storming his house with torches and pitchforks, Infinite Interactive's Steve Fawkner made a public statement assuring players that the AI has no unseen advantages. Having worked on the code himself, Steve reasoned that he's too lazy to have programmed anything that advanced.
If that explanation isn't convincing enough, there are still steps you can take to even the playing field. You can unlock a debug menu by pushing in a complex set of keypresses, allowing you to activate several hidden features. Check past the post break for more details on the cheat code and a comic about Puzzle Quest's AI.
It's that magical time of the week again. Turn out the lights, shut closed the curtains and grab the potato chips. We have ourselves a dirty little secret we need to keep. Check past the post break for the poll results and other details.
Just several months ago, gamers were still complaining about Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow's rarity and unyielding price point. Even if you were lucky enough to find a used copy, buying it would still cost you about $30 at GameStop. Several stores eventually put the game on sale for $19.99, and Konami released a greatest hits version with dreadful boxart, making Dawn of Sorrow available and affordable for everyone to enjoy.
The good times don't end there, though. The frugal folks at CAG noticed a couple of weeks ago that Best Buy has been selling the "Konami's Best" version of the game at an astonishing $9.99. Combining this rock-bottom sale with "$5.00 off" coupons scanned from GamePro brings the price down even further to about $5.00!
We usually miss out on these insane deals, failing to get to the store in time before eBay hounds pick the shelves clean, but we drove to Best Buy anyway to see how we'd fare. We were surprised to find that our store had over a dozen copies, and that the GamePro coupon worked like a charm! Success!
Make sure you take advantage of this sale now, as it ends on April 1st, punishing the fools who've missed out. Head past the cut for the "$5.00 off" coupon.
Nobody's going to believe we're a real Nintendo gaming site unless we have our own obscenely enormous Mario statue, right? This is our credibility we're talking about. This is important. We want people to walk into our office complex and see that we mean serious business. Would you deal with DS no-Mario-statues Fanboy?
Importers extraordinaire NCSX are offering this five-foot tall Mario statue, usually available only to stores, to normal people like us for the low, low price of $3000 plus shipping. Five feet tall may not be big for a person, but for a video game character statue? Man, look at that Mario. It's huuuge.
We love reading about gaming history. Gaming Target has posted a retrospective about one of the most influential series ever, and one that is especially resonant for Nintendo faithful: Pokémon. The article begins with background information on series creator Satoshi Tajiri, and then goes into fairly detailed analysis of not only games in the main series, but the merchandising phenomenon and spinoff titles as well. The article finishes with a preview of the upcoming Diamond and Pearl.
If you're like us and enjoy reading retrospectives, or if you just love Pokémon, then this article is a totally worthwhile read. We encourage you to let them show you it.
Update: Sorry folks, you'll have to wait until Monday for the review.
Eric from Thylus sent us this mysterious package today, causing us much alarm here at DS Fanboy HQ. See, we have ourselves fancy, high-tech robots that sort our mail, delivering it to us each evening before their nightly oiling. Instead, this piece of mail arrived on our doorstep, without a robotic stamp of inspection, causing us to wonder who exactly breached the compound.
We decided to throw caution to the wind and open the package ...
Reader Arun wrote in to us with the above image, showing us a use for that old Wii wrist strap. Sure, it's not strong enough to support someone playing a bout of Wii Sports: Bowling with all of their energy (see: playing like an idiot), but we're fairly certain its role as a strap on the DS Lite is just fine. We wonder what other kinds of straps people are using on their DS and DS Lites ...
How many of you out there have used your old Wiimote wrist strap on your DS?
We've been pretty bad on keeping track of this Game Night thing lately and we understand if you've felt a bit frustrated. Change takes some getting used to (new night, new time), and we're trying our best to get used to it. As such, we've got many different things set up to remind us of it next week (post-it notes, event reminders and a man that is always following us, screaming GAME NIGHT! into our ear), so vote for the game and we'll be there!
Another week means we shine the spotlight down onto another video. This week, it's the seventh (!) trailer for the highly-anticipated Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. In this latest trailer, we're shown:
several different environments
airship navigating the game world
lots of dialogue
a CG cutscene
spell casting and some light battle segments
Basically, the trailer presents the entire Final Fantasy experience. The trailer is playing on the main page (follow the "Read" link) and should you wish to brush up on any of the older trailers, head on into the site and check out the downloads section.
"Sunday, SUNDAY, Sunday, come on down to the Mario Kart DS Slot Car Race Track for some wild, no-rules racing action! Bring the whole family for an afternoon of Mario Kart-style toy racing excitement! Watch some of the best drivers in the business, including YOU and YOUR FRIENDS, take on one of the toughest tracks there is! You'll see twists and turns, thrills and spills, only at the Mario Kart DS Slot Car Race Track! Pay for the whole seat, but you'll only use the edge."
Wow, we didn't even buy one of these slot car sets and we're already having fun with it. Anyone up for simulating the Mario Kart experience in ... well, not real life, but miniature fake real life?
If the official Nintendo headset isn't to your liking, Turtle Beach offers its own solution with the Ear Force D2 headset. Retailing for $19.95 US, the headset is a little chunkier than it's official Nintendo cousin, however it looks as if in the long run the D2 could be a bit more comfortable. Not only that, but it comes in a few different colors (black, white and pink), allowing those of you with a need for matching colors to have the headset that goes with your DS Lite.
For all of you who enjoy the freebies (who doesn't?!), Ubisoft is celebrating the release of the latest line-up of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games, titled TMNT after the movie that releases tomorrow. As you can see above, the party starts Saturday and those who purchase a copy of the game will be given a special gift. What kind of gift? You got us, they do not say; if any of you fine readers out there attend the event, be sure to take pictures and let us know how it was.
You know, we were sitting here, just going about our day, when someone asked us what we thought about imports (it was Jump Ultimate Stars, in case you were wondering). Personally, we don't do much importing, and in thinking about our own trials and tribulations in attempting to bring foreign product to our doorstep, we wondered if many of you avid DS players out there imported. So, do you import or are the importing seas much too dangerous for you to navigate?
If the number one complaint gamers have with 
Just several months ago, gamers were still complaining about 
Nobody's going to believe we're a real Nintendo gaming site unless we have our own obscenely enormous 
Another week means we shine the 
"Sunday, SUNDAY, Sunday, come on down to the 
