Reminder: End of the Year Blowout (day eight)
V-Jump teases Kingdom Hearts
With Jump Festa right around the corner, Japanese magazine V-Jump is teasing readers with spot coverage of games we can expect to see at the event ... and that means Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. While there's only one page (which we've tucked away for you after the break), there's a mix of old and new images that should have fans salivating for more. We can't wait to see the footage out of next week's event! There have been so many scraps that we're about ready for a full meal on this one.
Final Fantasy IV ads remind us: CG is great
With the Final Fantasy IV remake out today, Square Enix wants to make sure to get all the crazies out lined up in Akihabara -- and maybe a few 'expanded audience' members as well. To that end, they've debuted a series of short commercials that show off the game's stunning cutscenes. They accidentally left some real gameplay in the commercials too, which you can see towards the end. Final Fantasy VII sold gobs, and its advertising was totally CG-focused, so why change?
But wait, there's more! In addition to the two commercials embedded in this post (one of which is after the break) there are three other commercials on the Final Fantasy IV website. It's so weird to see the Final Fantasy IV characters rendered like this. Especially Cecil, who we used to think of as manly.
[Via NeoGAF]
Continue reading Final Fantasy IV ads remind us: CG is great
Phoenix Wright: Fourteen Bucks for All
The last time we featured a bargain for Phoenix Wright: Justice for All, Amazon was hosting a sale for the courtroom adventure title for $14.99, five dollars less than its list price. That was a pretty great deal for the Ace Attorney sequel, but recent developments in DNA testing and modern technology advancements have made it possible for the online shop to further increase its discount; Justice for All is now available for $13.99! Joys be thine![Via CAG]
Event demonstrations in Mario & Sonic at the Olympics
IGN has dished out four new trailers for Sega's upcoming romp starring both Nintendo and Sega's most recognizable characters. It's also the first game to have both Sonic and Mario in it, although it might not be the one you're waiting for. So, check out the freestyle swimming above and head past the break for three more trailers from the other included challenges in Mario & Sonic at the Olympics.
Continue reading Event demonstrations in Mario & Sonic at the Olympics
Readers' Choice: The best of the rest
Now we want all our comics in DS form
Famitsu has precious few (well, precious two) screens of DS de Yomu Tezuka Osamu Hi no Tori, the DS adaptation of Tezuka's Phoenix manga, but there's enough information there for us to get an idea of the presentation, at least. Basically, the full page appears on the bottom screen, and one panel at a time is zoomed in on the top screen. It's a very similar approach to Marvel Digital Comics' Smart Panels viewing style. We just hope that, unlike with Smart Panels, you are also able to move the panel view around manually in order to see more than just the focal point of each panel.The 12 volumes of Phoenix are being divided into three DS cartridges, each retailing for 4,179 yen ($37). $37 isn't terrible for four books' worth of manga, but collecting whole series in DS format could still become painful quickly.
DS Daily: Muscle memory
While we do in fact find the idea of a video game training game hysterical, we think that Namco Bandai has actually hit upon something clever in the way they're justifying their take on WarioWare (and let's not kid ourselves, that's what this is).As evidenced by the severe pain caused by Contra 4, our retrogaming skills have atrophied as we've spent more time with modern games. Of course, Contra 4 is quite a bit harder than previous entries, but part of our constant failure could still be attributed to lack of practice.
Newer games require different skillsets, and unless we were to cherrypick only the twitchiest games (like Geometry Wars), our abilities to play arcade-style games would continue to deteriorate. Which means that a collection of condensed retrogaming challenges is a great idea, and one that could maybe allow us to keep sharp in a variety of vintage game types.
Do you feel like your arcade gaming skills have gotten worse over time? Have modern games with their save menus and tutorials and careful difficulty curves spoiled you?
Homebrew turns WLANs into music
Last week we told you about the Swiss group "and-or" and their innovative homebrew game, Wardive. As it turns out, they have another interesting homebrew application called Sniff Jazzbox. Instead of turning wireless signals into enemies, though, it turns them into musical notes (or rather, it turns the names of the hot spots it picks up into musical notes). In a sense, it allows you to hear what your environment sounds like.Sniff Jazzbox definitely can't be considered a game, and the music it produces is just a bunch of notes jumbled together, but we like how and-or is integrating adaptable wireless aspects into their programs. See an example of how the app works here.
Strike gold with this new SHOCK! shell
If you're going to spend that much cash modifying your DS to show off your rapper status, why not go all out and glue on some gaudy rhinestones? While you're at it, you should have the system engraved with big script letters: "Doing It Big." When people ask what exactly it is that you're "doing big," you can tell them that it's your bad taste.
Doing that god thing with Populous
The DS take on the classic Populous is set for a release next February (in Japan, at least), and it looks like things are shaping up well. At least, it looks like Populous, and that's what's really important here. Of course, we're interested in more details on the game as well, such as control scheme (stylus only, or a variety of approaches?), but if all we get right now are screenshots, well, we'll take 'em. You can take 'em yourself in our gallery below.Gallery: Populous
Flash card latest: ESA and the Singapore police get their raid on
Bad dudes who pirate, watch out! The ESA just combined forces with the Singapore police force to raid several local stores that were selling DS flash cards, devices that let users download and play pirated games (but also, it should be noted, perfectly legal homebrew applications), and that are illegal under the Singapore Copyright Act. The haul, while not massive (200 devices worth around $5,800 were confiscated), was still big enough for the ESA to submit a press release, in which it warned more raids would take place should the piracy continue.
You may recall how a series of similar raids was carried out in France recently -- looks like the authorities are beginning to really squeeze the pirates where it hurts.
[Via MaxConsole]
Question: What do this lady and the DS have in common?
Answer: they're both record breakers!Obviously, that's pretty much where the similarities end. See, rather than spend 27 years growing its fingernails, Nintendo's handheld has just shattered an entirely different record: the record for most hardware sales in a 7-day period in the UK. Last week, it sold just over 200,000 units, leaving thousands of would-be customers disappointed (reader, I was one such customer).
Incidentally, if you're feeling an uneasy sense of déjà vu, we understand -- after all, it was only last month that the DS broke the exact same record, notching up 191,000 sales in a single week.
Reminder: End of the Year Blowout (day seven)
Bite-sized retrogaming in Our Video Game Certification
We love the concept of Our Video Game Certification: WarioWare-style microgames based on Namco classics. Coincidentally, we love Namco classics. So even though screens of Our Video Game Certification screens are technically just screens of old games with some Japanese text on the bottom, we don't care. Metro-Cross is as great a futuristic foot-racing game in a tiny chunk on the DS as it was in its original full form. Actually, it's probably better: once you've played a few seconds of Metro-Cross, you get it.That may sound like an indictment of the game's quality, but it isn't. The transparency of arcade gameplay is what makes something like Our Video Game Certification possible. If you didn't understand how to play an arcade game within the first few seconds, you were out a quarter.
These are technically the same screens found in the original scan, but those were very hard to see and these are nice and clear.
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