The New Gamer might not have enjoyed their stay at Hotel Dusk: Room 215, but they appreciate the work put into creating its memorable characters. Adding onto the unique visual style, each individual has a rich set of expressions and postures to communicate with. When one of the hotel guests describes a mannerism of the game's protagonist, you know exactly what he means by "that serious look in [Kyle's] eyes."
Sonic's toe-tapping idle animation and King Hippo's falling shorts were also cited as great examples of unforgettable character details. Simple idiosyncrasies like that stay with you long after you've finished playing a game. What unique traits have you seen give a collection of pixels an identity? Was it Midna's sigh? Or Dry Bones' skeletal chuckle as he passed you in Mario Kart DS?
The tech experts over at Engadget have got something very cool to present. In the above picture, you can see the DS Lite using WiFi triangulation (rather than GPS) to determine geoposition and relay the data to the user. Being a lone snapshot sent in to the blog, we cannot comment on any plans for a commercial application allowing users to ... well, use this. Instead, we'll quietly pine for such a thing and leave the rest of the commenting in your wonderful hands.
Seriously, those hands are immaculate. What kind of hand soap are you using? They smell nice too ...
Last week, we told you about the best positive use of the DS this month: the DS Meetup group in London and their upcoming charity tournament. Well, the group has finalized tournament details, so we thought it worth updating our readers in London who may be interested in the event, which is scheduled for this Saturday at the University of London Student Union. If any of our readers go, we'd love to hear about it!
Yes, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl will feature Wi-Fi trading and battling, hurray-hurrah. Little did we know, however, that some independent developers (i.e. programmers with way too much free time) were developing an MMORPG version of the franchise based on the original Red and Blue versions. Sister site Joystiq clued us in, and we were rather intrigued.
Upon installation, we noted the extreme "alpha" status of the project. The only system currently implemented is that of battle, and even that seemed shoddy at best. You simply choose your six Pokemon from the standard list of 151 and walk around a grassy field until challenged. The game has a long way to go, and the chances that it can make it all the way past Nintendo's elite legal team seem slim. Try it out if you're bored a Pokemon fan!
And please, Nintendo, take a hint. We really want an official Pokemon MMO.
We've got to say, this charger beats our previous favorite. Sure, that one has USB support, which really drives the value up for us, but this one matches our Wii and cradles our DS Lite in such a loving manner it looks as if the DS Lite is a trophy. Some kind of reward for our hard work beyond our calloused hands and high stress level. The only thing we'd change is the huge Intec logo right on the face of it.
Not that "enjoying yourself" isn't a good enough cause, but this is for a good social cause. DSMeetup.org.uk, a group that gets together in London for DS multiplayer sessions, is holding a charity tournament on March 10, to benefit Comic Relief, who we had no idea still existed, and who continues to raise money for various causes in Africa.
The event is being held to coincide with Comic Relief's "Red Nose Day", which is kind of like Britain's version of the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, but with more comedians and novelty nosepieces. British readers, feel free to correct us.
Participants pay £1 to get into the tournament, and all of the proceeds go to the charity. We admire the DSMeetup group for wanting to do something positive with their DS gaming sessions; the most charitable thing our Game Nights here do are keep us from debilitating, painful loneliness. And even then, only for a few hours.
Eventhough he owns a PSP, Joystiq reader Zach sent in this beaut to the fine folks over there, looking for some props on his masterpiece. Well, he gets them here at DS Fanboy (we'll overlook the PSP) as we wouldn't mind one bit fusing a DVD player with a NES. It's just yet another way we could instill more Nintendo into our lives (never a bad thing).
What do you guys think? Senseless butchering of a timeless console or an ingenious method of putting some life back into dead technology?
There's also one that is pictured lower that was made from a Sega Mega Drive (we've included all of the pictures past the post break, plus a video of one of the guitars in action), but we have to say our Nintendo love has us leaning toward the NES guitar ourselves. Could you imagine? Shredding some classic tunes from NES games such as the Mega Man 2 theme. We imagine under the flap is where the fellow keeps his guitar picks.
Okay, so you think you're cool because you got the preorder bonus package with your copy of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. Well, you're right. You are cool, and we are jealous.
But here's a Portrait of Ruin promotional item that we can all covet together. This poster comes with the soundtrack CD, and features art from Suikoden character designer Fumi Ishikawa that we wish had been used in the game. Oh, and about the actual item this poster is included with-- did we mention that the actual Portrait of Ruin music is amazing? We almost forgot about that part.
This poster is only being included with the first shipment of CDs, and, of course, this package is only available in Japan. We grudgingly accept that; our wallets ill need a drain such as a $21 CD.
The last commercial we saw for this game almost made us pee our pants in sheer excitement as the inclusion of one of our most treasured cartoons as a child, Voltron, was made real. We knew that Voltron would be making an appearance in the game, however we needed to actually see them in-game before our excitement could reach maximum levels.
And now, we get a new commercial over at the official Japanese website and guess what? We're even that much more excited. We're going to have to see our doctor soon if this keeps up.
Modojo's Ryan Morgan took a trip into the underworld of DS games, finding the meanest of the mean villains and delivering stern warnings about them. These aren't the everyday spiny, cloaked, "NOOOOOOO"-bellowing villains we know, the kind that telegraph their evilness to the world, but some more insidious cads who, while they look innocuous enough, will strike and attempt to force you to feed their twisted, evil obsessions.
The biggest offender? The color blue, who Nintendo seems to have collaborated with to render Brain Age players hoarse or even mute from repeated attempts at the Stroop test. Bluuuuuuuuuuuue!
Really, these Touch Detective figures speak for themselves. In fact, they even serve as a great review for the game: cute, yet more than a little creepy, and weirdly enigmatic. They repel us, and yet we want them. We're willing to bet that Mackenzie's gaze follows you wherever you go ....
If a custom Rubik's Cube depicting Mario and Luigi wasn't enough for you, then you might want to check out this. It's some of the best Rubik's Cube art we've ever seen, with tons of cubes being used together to depict a jumping Mario. The amount of time it would take to solve all of these cubes in the correct way, as well as attaching them together to create the desired image, must be a long and painstaking process. We commend such effort and wonder what kind of price an artist would put on such a project.
If you're near a Best Buy store, gather up your $2 bills and get going, because they're in the midst of an epic videogame clearance, and you'll want to get there before the unscrupulous speculator types grab all the stuff to sacrifice to the ravenous eBay. You've got to be wily to get to the goods before the FatWalleters and the CAGs!
We've got a list of all the DS and GBA software on sale after the jump. Don't expect to find all of it-- most of it has been out of stock for months or years at most stores, and the price changed to clear out remaining copies. But we hope you do find what you're looking for in abundance. We wish we could go tomorrow and check it out ourselves. By the time we get there, there won't be anything but cobwebs and tumbleweeds, and those will probably be regular price.
Game Informer has posted a nice preview of the 2007 I am 8-bit art show, along with some of the art that will be featured. I am 8-bit is an annual art exhibition that celebrates classic videogame culture and iconography, with an emphasis on Nintendo and their NES-era thirdparties. It's also the source of some amazing game-related art, like the Donkey Kong-inspired painting shown above, "Mario's Lament" by Reuben Rude. We'd be proud to display any of these paintings, sculptures, or crafts in our own Fancaves.
Just like every year, we'll be gazing wistfully at these previews and cursing our luck for not being Californian or California-adjacent. If you happen to be in the LA area between April 17 and May 12, we urge you to go to Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight and support the very best kind of fanboyism: the kind that manifests in honest creative expression (fanfic excluded).
[Update 1:changed the preview picture to something friendlier.]
The New Gamer might not have enjoyed their stay at Hotel Dusk: Room 215, but they appreciate the work put into creating its memorable characters. Adding onto the unique visual style, each individual has a rich set of expressions and postures to communicate with. When one of the hotel guests describes a mannerism of the game's protagonist, you know exactly what he means by "that serious look in [Kyle's] eyes."
Last week, we told you about the 
Not that "enjoying yourself" isn't a good enough cause, but this is for a good social cause. DSMeetup.org.uk, a group that gets together in London for DS multiplayer sessions, is holding a charity tournament on March 10, to benefit Comic Relief, who we had no idea still existed, and who continues to raise money for various causes in Africa.
The last commercial we 
Modojo's Ryan Morgan took a trip into the underworld of DS games, finding the meanest of the mean villains and delivering stern warnings about them. These aren't the everyday spiny, cloaked, "NOOOOOOO"-bellowing villains we know, the kind that telegraph their evilness to the world, but some more insidious cads who, while they look innocuous enough, will strike and attempt to force you to feed their twisted, evil obsessions.
If you're near a 
