- The person is a child, and
- He or she owns a Nintendo DS?
Avatar: The Dropping Price
Non-Seattleites can now buy a limited DS that is irrelevant to non-Seattleites
Thanks to some enterprising eBayer, the limited-edition Seattle Mariners DS Lite is available outside of the confines of Safeco Field. We aren't really, uh, sports people, but we do know that extreme team fandom usually coincides with proximity, meaning that the people who are all about having the Seattle Mariners logo on a DS Lite probably live close enough to just go buy one. But that doesn't take into account the crazies who collect systems.
Crazies, this auction is just for you. The good news is that eBayer diet_bill isn't asking any more than the $195.99 the unit costs inside Safeco Field. The bad news is that the picture he's using for the auction is the same one used when the Lite was first discovered back in May. It could be that this guy is a) too lazy to take his own picture, b) actually the same person that took it before. But with even the slightest amount of evidence that this isn't an actual picture of an actual product, we advise that you proceed with caution.
[Via GameSniped]
Kingdom Hearts details from Jump Festa
This year's Jump Festa wasn't packed with a ton of new info -- unless, perhaps, you're a big Square Enix buff. A few SE games got some major buzz this past weekend, including our own highly anticipated Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. While we have not yet found video of the playable demo that fans were treated to at the event, we do have a breakdown of what was included, as well as other juicy details on the title. The first, and most important bit, is that the devs are aiming for release this summer. Whether or not they'll make that timeframe is debatable, but DS dev cycles seem to be pretty quick, and if there's already demo action, it might just be in the cards.We have culled some specific details from the demos available at Jump Festa and compiled the information after the jump. It goes without saying that some of this info may include spoilers, so if you're looking to stay away from specifics, you might want to skip it.
DS releases for the week of December 24th
Did it work? It's holiday-ish and everything.
The Twelve (well, thirteen, actually) Sales of GameFly
Video game rental service GameFly has a pretty big year-end sale going on through January 4th for over 30 of its used DS games. Though the carts are all pre-played, each one will come with a new manual and case, so you need not worry about receiving an incomplete set.As usual, we've picked the notable titles out of the bunch and listed them for you, except this time, we've done it in Christmas carol form!
On the twelfth day of Christmas,
DS Fanboy sent to me:
- Twelve Diddy Kong racers Racing ($17.99),
- Eleven Spectrobes for collecting ($15.99),
- Ten Hoshigamis a-SRPG-ing ($14.99),
- Nine Planet Puzzles Leaguing ($19.99),
- Eight Custom Robos a-fighting ($12.99),
- Seven Sim Cities a-building ($16.99),
- Six Bombermen a-touching ($22.99),
- Five of Sonic Rush's golden rinnngggggs ($17.99),
- Four Mana Children ($14.99),
- Three Elite Beat Agents ($22.99),
- Two Mega Man Star Forces ($17.99 each),
- And a Naruto: Ninja Council 3 ($17.99)!
Bad for your health, bad for your DS
You can easily predict the next couple of panels in this strip, but that doesn't make it any less funny! This cautionary comic reminds all the smokers out there why they shouldn't play with their Nintendo DS while sucking on a cigarette -- like smoking, it's just not a good idea in general! Put out that cancer stick, spray some Febreze around you, and join us past the break for the rest of this tragic, NSFW tale.
See also: Cheap stylus gifts that aren't really styli
Streaming Ring of Fates video returns ... in English!
Remember back in June when we had a new video every week for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates leading up to its launch in Japan? Well, with the cooperative ARPG's North American release imminent (March 11, 2008), Square Enix has set up a developer blog similar to the Japanese one we ripped wholesale for its movie updates, except in our barbaric language.
The latest multimedia update on the site has a localized version of the game's opening cutscene many of you have only seen in Japanese, complete with English voice overs! The script isn't as sophisticated as we would like, and the voice acting is far from stellar, but, uh, at least we can understand it all now!
A DS sequel to Shantae rests in our hands
Remember Shantae? WayForward certainly does -- the Contra 4 developer spent two years producing the delightful Game Boy Color platformer, only to see it die a death at retail, its chances cruelly crushed by the increasing obsolescence of its host platform, as well as the rise of the newly released Game Boy Advance. Boasting an engrossing mix of Metroid-style puzzles and neat visual tricks, the game was an unsung gem that emphatically failed to register on the gaming public's radar.A sequel was planned for the Advance, only for the project to be inexplicably shelved with the game 50% complete, but WayForward hasn't forgotten about the series entirely. With the all-conquering Contra 4 now out on store shelves and begging to be bought, the developer has posted a poll on its site, asking whether or not we'd be interested in purchasing a Shantae follow-up, and what platform we'd like it to appear on.
Hence, we implore all of you to hit the link below and get your vote on. If you're still wavering about giving thirty seconds of your time to one of the best DS-related causes we've heard of in ages, go past the break for footage of the canned GBA title.
Then go and get your vote on.
DS Daily: You suck!
At least, we assume there's one game at which you totally suck. We've all got 'em. Maybe it's not consistent, but at least some days you get continuously smoked. But what's the game? Maybe you can't face Contra 4, or you are continually last (and weeping) in Mario Kart DS. Maybe you've given up on Tetris or Planet Puzzle League. Whatever the game, we want to hear about your shame. We'll commiserate. After all, with so many of us hanging around, you're probably not alone over there in your big ol' pail of fail.
Promotional Consideration: Hataraku Chocobo
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.
Square Enix has been pushing Final Fantasy IV hard this week in Japan, advertising the 3D remake with five different CG-filled commercials. We were curious to compare these spots with how the RPG was marketed when it first appeared on the Super Famicom, all the way back in 1991, and the two approaches couldn't be any more at odds!
Continue reading Promotional Consideration: Hataraku Chocobo
Ten down: NYT Crosswords
For about what seems like the fiftieth time this year, Amazon has New York Times Crosswords up for sale as its deal of the day, this time for $9.99. It's a decent portable puzzler, and, though we've featured bargains for the game several times already, after seeing its casual ALF plug, we promised ourselves that we would do whatever we could to support NYT Crosswords. So , here we are, supporting it ... with an internet link.Don't forget that this half-price markdown ends today! Also, if you add another $15 worth of stuff to your order (e.g. ALF Season 1 DVD), Amazon will ship everything for free. Now, peek past the break for ALF's recent interview on The O'Reilly Factor. No, we don't have any idea why he appeared on the show, either.
Reminder: End of the Year Blowout (day twelve)
And while you're blowing out the end of the year and all, don't forget to head over to our two polls and vote for your picks for best games of the year.
Critics' top 10: 2007 vs. kittens
2007 is almost over, and the end of the year brings joyous tidings of List Season. It's the time for taking stock of the last 12 months of gaming, and trying to make sense of it by putting things in numerical order. Join DS Fanboy for our best-ofs, worst-ofs, and other categories-ofs.
When determining the best games of the year, it's a good idea to go at it from different angles: by referencing our own history of reviews, obviously, but we must also look to the wider journalism community. Our reviews, while insightful and entertaining, were not comprehensive. We just didn't play everything. In addition, one reviewer's opinion is simply not sufficient data to make definitive conclusions, even if that one reviewer is me.
So we turned to everyone else in aggregate to see what they thought of this year's releases. We've gathered the top 10 DS games of 2007 according to their Metacritic ranking. Keep in mind that many of these games tied in Metascore, meaning that if we were to rank the games, there would be fewer than ten positions. It's still sequential, but with a lot of tie scores.
We then carefully applied science to these games in order to convert the Metacritic numbers into a rubric we feel more accurately conveys the quality of these games. Head past the post break for Metacritic's top ten DS games of 2007, graded on a scale from adorable kitten video to unbelievably adorable kitten video.
DS Daily: Consoles or handhelds?
So, which is it? Does it depend on what games are out at the moment, or do you clearly favor one over the other?
Bowser is still annoyed with Mario
This may be our second reference to "Still Alive" (aka "that song from Portal") in as many weeks, but some things can't be helped. This time the song is parodied by Rob Balder, and tells the woes of an end boss that Nintendo fans might be more familiar with.That's right, the song features none other than Bowser, and he's not too pleased with Mario. Check after the break to listen to the parody, which is aptly called "Still Annoyed."
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