Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.
Though Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has sold exceptionally well in North America, topping the software charts for its PC and console releases, Activision is smart enough to know that marketing the title in Japan, where the DS is king and first-person shooter sales is an oxymoron, requires a different strategy.
The result? Activision actually produced a 30-second spot specifically for the DS version of the multiplatform game ...
Square Enix has decided to streamline the fanart process, appealing directly to the community art website DeviantART with a The World Ends with You art contest. Entering the contest involves drawing new character or background art for The World Ends with You, to be judged by DeviantART staffers and the game's development team! We hope Square Enix gets the fanart they were imagining, and not the fanart that ... DeviantART is known for.
But the real story here isn't the proliferation of cat-eared Sephiroths in the style of The World Ends with You. As reference material for the contest, Square Enix put a bunch of concept art on the site, along with discussion of the game's visual style and inspiration from the team.
Typical -- you finally get your hands on a (sort of) portable SNES, only for someone else to bring out a slimmer, more svelte model three and a half months down the line. Bah. Anyway, this latest handheld Super Nintendo mod is the mightily impressive work of a Ben Heck forum user (whose name we can't locate, due to the forums being down; leave a comment for credit and cookies!), who not only shows off his new baby by playing Star Fox (much like the creator of the last portable SNES -- is Star Fox some kind of modding community in-joke?), but also spends some time listing everything he's squeezed in there.
As it happens, this includes a 5-inch Zenith LCD, a headphone socket, and ports for A/V out and a second controller. Kudos to you, sir, but we think we marginally prefer the retro look of the older, wooden version, even if it is heftier.
This original drawing by Ryan Stegman, penciller of Marvel's Magician: Apprentice, isn't actually that different from any other Zelda fanart you'd find on the Internet, except
it's more expensive, and
it's way awesome.
We never subscribed to the idea of Zelda needing to be dramatic and intense and stuff (which, we suppose, means we're on the Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass "team"), but we can recognize wow-inducing pencil art when we see it, and this drawing instantly evokes an adventure on which it would be dangerous to go alone.
If you're the winning bidder of Ryan's auction, you'll get not only a lovely full-color print (pictured), but the original pencil drawing as well.
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handheld and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com.
As a rule, we don't trust any politicians, especially the ones we want to trust, so it's rare that you'll ever see us championing the merits of any particular presidential candidate. Besides, the electioneering scene just isn't something we want to be a part of, like the straight-edge scene or the liking-music-that-no-sensible-person-should-ever-enjoy scene. We're too laid back and cynical to involve ourselves in the passionate debates these conversations often require.
Still, when one gamer goes to the extreme to express his devotion towards his favored statesman by decorating a Nintendo DS Lite with the politician's face, we take notice ...
Oh man, is that Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime over there, bringing you a giant bag of popcorn? It must be your lucky day!
Too bad it's April Fools' Day! You're not getting any popcorn at all! Nope, it's just another bag of the usual stuff -- disappointment, regret, and the simple pain of living.
Rather than spend your day weeping over missed opportunities and movie snacks, why not peruse our collection of April Fools' Day DS pranks? We've gathered up all of this year's handheld shenanigans we could find around the internet, providing you a concentrated punch of lulz to counteract Reggie's kick to your head.
Square Enix wants you to paint your wagon moogle in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, and they're offering fabulous prizes in return! From April 4th through May 5th, the official Ring of Fates website will accept your custom Moogle Paint jobs. The Moogles will be eligible to compete in one of three categories: Most Fashionable Moogle, Best Culture Moogle or Freestyle Moogle. Freestyle Moogle is just a wildcard-type category, and not necessarily Moogles drawn to look like X-Games competitors. Though if you want to draw some Mountain Dew logos on the little guys, that's probably fine.
Prizes include stickers, signed art, and a "Moogle stained-glass mascot." We wonder if it will come pre-painted?
Gallery: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
Hey, moreSpace Invadersstuff! As long as those pixel Invaders continue to look cool (30 years and counting!), we'll still enjoy looking at stuff decorated with them. The latest item to be honored with the classic ship designs: these two pillows, which measure 45 cm across.
Either design -- the two giant Invaders or the rows of mini-Invaders -- would look pretty dang cool adorning the top of a bed. We don't recommend them as pet pillows unless your pets are extremely short-haired (or have black fur), or your pillow, with its black fabric, would be invaded by visible pet hair.
Ah, IGN, you very nearly had us. Your trailer for a movie based on The Legend of Zelda almost -- almost -- pulled the wool over our young, naive eyes. In fact, this is probably the most impressive, sophisticated April Fools' prank we've witnessed for some time. What gave it away? Well, there's a sliiightly budget feel to some of this. Truth be told, we've seen more convincing Ganons at cosplay conventions, while some of the acting pretty much redefined "hammy."*
Goofy as it is, this is still darn excellent, and certainly more impressive than anything we could ever hope to cook up. So, let's see a show of hands: how many of you would queue around the block for tickets to this?
* Not that this prevented the Lord of the Rings trilogy from being taken seriously. Yes, yours truly is the only individual in the known universe not to enjoy that overwrought, nine-hour bore-fest.
We don't even like yellow that much -- or the Rare-fied Donkey Kong character -- and, still, this limited-edition Donkey Kong-themed Game Boy Advance SP calls to us. It's the allure of the rare item, of course, but it's also that the thing is just so distinctive-looking. Other than the banana color, all that marks this as Donkey Kong-specific is a little "DK" logo.
According to the auction, only 1,000 of these things were produced. And according to the current bidder, it's worth at least $200. For us, it's worth a link to the DK Rap.
Andrew Yoon, who you may know from Joystiq and enemy blogs PSP and PS3 Fanboy, has the benefit of being able to attend launch parties at the Nintendo World Store in New York city. This comes as a perk of living in New York, because for us to attend the Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword launch event, we'd have to hitchhike with strangers and probably ride a mythical beast or two.
For all of the juicy pictures from the event, including the game's development director, Yosuke Hayashi, hit up the gallery below.
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.
Long before Nintendo began its international Touch! Generations campaign to beckon casual gamers with promises of trained brains and improved vision, the company was putting its marketing money behind the original Game Boy to expand its audience to adults.
The resulting commercials were cringe-inducing productions, so much so, it's hard to believe they captured anyone's interest at all. Of course, with Tetris leading the push, the handheld sold like hot cakes anyway, nullifying the ineffectiveness of the ads. But that doesn't mean we still can't dig them up and have a laugh at their expense!
We've probably all done it: lazily daydreamed about how we could take out the bus stop across the road with a rocket launcher following one too many sessions of Goldeneye, or how we'd negotiate a real-life street corner after a night spent on Mario Kart. Or maybe that's just us. Perhaps the line in our heads between reality and fantasy is just a little too blurred. Wouldn't be surprised.
Anyway, the point is, these "games-meet-real-life" collages from Flickr user Pixel Fantasy look quite a lot like some of our daydreams. Featuring the cast of Mario Kart zipping between vehicles down a real street, Link taking on an Octorok in an actual forest, and MarioJumpman having to negotiate a series of real-life platforms to rescue Peach Pauline from the clutches of Donkey Kong, they're simple, but effective.
Sadly, we've hunted high and low for these in wallpaper dimensions (as we particularly love the Mario Kart example above), but to no avail. If anyone can help, be our guest. Otherwise, hit the gallery to see more.
Despite middling reviews and a limited audience due to its hardcore nature, Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer has established an impressive following, mini-communities of masochists spread about the internet's gaming districts. Of course, the dedicated GameFAQs forum is bustling with dungeon-crawling discussions, but NeoGAF and the Penny Arcade Forums are also fine venues for settling your roguelike affairs.
These communities are valuable hubs for not only finding a hero to rescue your felled wanderer, but also for trading stories of Shiren's grand escapes and even grander deaths. It was these sort of tales for the original Super Famicom release that impelled @Play's (a regular column on the roguelike genre) John Harris to seek the game and write up his own playthrough narratives. His accounts in turn inspired many other gamers -- including us -- to try out the Shiren, so you can imagine our anticipation to hear his impressions of Chunsoft's DS port.
John's latest @Play article is a must-read for any Shiren fan; he defends the title against misinformed reviewers, provides an introduction for those of you who haven't decided if Shiren is for you, and shares a huge list of tips for surviving your dungeon trip -- like how to decrease your chances of starving to death! Even if you aren't a Shiren fan yet, here's an opportunity for you to become one! Hit the "Read" link below for John's in-depth piece.
Odds are right around 100% that you've used the burgeoning unofficial Bangai-O Spirits level database -- even if you've never played (or heard of) the game. One player (that we've seen) has turned to YouTube for hosting and sharing of levels and replays. Immediately, Treasure's bizarre decision to make level data into sound files makes sense. YouTube is easy to use for both uploaders and downloaders, and all you have to do is hold an earphone up to your DS's mic to download a level. Other Japanese players are making use of Japan's YouTube-like site, Nico Nico Douga.
This video demonstrates the process. It's also amusingly meta, in that it's a YouTube video that shows someone downloading and playing a YouTube video. It's a better alternative for a blog than just embedding one of the actual levels, since there's no screeching involved.
This original drawing by Ryan Stegman, penciller of Marvel's Magician: Apprentice, isn't actually that different from any other 
