DS Fanboy presents: Game Night 12/13/07
Mario and Link's youthful indiscretions
This GameDaily article on "Mascots Gone Wild" exposes some of the horrible things done by Nintendo's flagship characters (and friends) back when they were young, and needed the money. We're all quite familiar with the CD-I Zelda games, of course, but we haven't talked so much about the similarly abysmal Hotel Mario, also for the CD-I. "There's no jumping, no shell squashing, no recognizable Mario gameplay whatsoever – just opening doors and going through corridors."
Mario's other miscellaneous fringe material -- when he taught typing, was missing, and presided over a gallery of board games -- dominates the list, with appearances from other marred Nintendo characters, including Donkey Kong. Amusingly, Conker makes the list for his Game Boy Color game Conker's Pocket Tales, which failed to be filthy.
Reminder: End of the Year Blowout!
What was the GBA missing? A DDR pad, of course!
Instructables user Jason1820 rewired his Game Boy Advance to accept controller inputs from a Dance Dance Revolution controller, creating the weirdest way to play Pac-Man since the board game. The resulting monstrosity is neither a console nor a handheld, and is really unsuitable for anything but being insane. Thus, we love it.
This guy rewired the circuitry on his GBA to take an external controller, and one that was meant for another system at that. Then he wrote up detailed instructions on how to do it yourself, and added pictures. Meanwhile we couldn't muster the wherewithal to make dinner today, and we'd barely know how to turn on the GBA without the instruction manual.
[Via Wonderland]
DS Daily: The worst gaming gifts
Sure, it's sweet when your great aunt tries to buy you a video game, because she knows you like that Nintenstation, but it's sometimes hard to feign pleasure when you open up a budget Sudoku title or a Shrek game. C'mon, tell us your horror stories. Over the years of gaming, what are some of the worst gaming gifts you've received?
The DS Life: Betrayal!
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handhelds and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com.
He doesn't hear the heavy door being pushed open, nor does he notice that thin stripe of outside light across the room extending its reach to the leather loveseat he's made himself so comfortable on.
He is too engrossed with his new game, astonished with its colors and graphics. The steps of the intruder's boots click towards him on the hardwood floor, heel to toe. Only when the surprise guest stops in front of him and politely coughs does he pause to look up ...
Cheap stylus gifts that aren't really styli
Gaming sites are inundated with holiday gift guides at the end of the year, listing the best and most popular games that everyone pretty much already has (or knows about). Well, we're not going in for that this year. Our gift guide will help you find the best gifts in categories the other sites won't cover -- because we just made them up.
My secret addiction -- the one that has me wearing only long-sleeved shirts and brushing my teeth before coming home, all to hide its telling signs -- is stylus collecting. I can't get enough of these pen-shaped bits of plastic; I'm cuckoo for them, you could say. Every time I make a Play Asia purchase or collect a preorder bonus, I feel like I've lost another part of me, another vital fragment I'll never have again. I don't know what it feels like to be alive anymore.
I've long moved on from conventional styli, using anything I can get my anxious, shaking hands on, the crazier the better. How else do you think I managed to put together this gift guide for alternative styli? Thumb styli, extendable styli, styli with colorful mascots on them -- you name it, I've tried every single one of them, and they don't do a damn thing for me anymore. Forget about those nonsense accessories and read on for my NSFW roundup of styli presents that will change your life ... for the worse. Joys be thine, suckas.
Continue reading Cheap stylus gifts that aren't really styli
Adapt to your environment with Wardive homebrew
Wardive, made by a Swiss art and research group called "and-or," is one of the coolest and most ambitious homebrew projects that we've seen yet. The game changes and adapts based on the player's location, environment, and position. As these factors change, Wardive creates different levels based on the new data. We're not sure if the gameplay is any good, and the game may be a little too experimental, but the concept is certainly impressive.You can read about and download the game here. If you try it, let us know what you think in the comments.
[Via Selectparks]
Five gifts that PAL gamers should import this Christmas
Gaming sites are inundated with holiday gift guides at the end of the year, listing the best and most popular games that everyone pretty much already has (or knows about). Well, we're not going in for that this year. Our gift guide will help you find the best gifts in categories the other sites won't cover -- because we just made them up.Nintendo's indifference towards PAL regions is infamous, but there's arguably less room for complaining when it comes to the DS. See, the DS is (and we do not use this phrase lightly) an importer's dream. It doesn't faff around with region-specific software, there's a huge library of diverse and interesting NTSC-only titles, and the games themselves are cheap. As in, cheaper than they'll be when they arrive in the UK/Europe/Australia six months from now. Frankly, we can't think of a good reason for you not to import.
Which brings us to our latest anti-guide, featuring the five DS-related gifts that PAL regions won't be seeing until 2008 at the earliest -- if ever. All deserve to be imported without hesitation, so read on fellow PAL folk, and prep that credit card!
Continue reading Five gifts that PAL gamers should import this Christmas
Crafter casts Quiltaga, creates comfy tribute
We love gamer quilts for the obvious reasons: we like games, and sometimes we get cold. Big pixels translate perfectly to squares of fabric, as well. We would be happy to pack something like this to keep us warm on some kind of major quest we were undertaking, although about the most epic quest we ever have is navigating the bedroom in the dark without busting our feet.
[Thanks, Mary!]
Training, retro collections and minigames converge, form a DS singularity
After Namco Bandai's Our Video Game Exams, most DS games will just be redundant. The game, coming March 20th, is a series of WarioWare-style micro-challenges based on classic Namco games. According to a translation from GAF's duckroll, the featured games include "Xevious, Mappy, Galaga, Tower of Druaga, StarLuster, Sky Kid, Valkyrie, Family Stadium, Metrocross, Dragon Buster, Shadow Land, Wagyan Land, Idolm@ster."
The challenges include activities like perfectly completing a Challenging Stage in Galaga and getting a home run in Family Stadium. At the end of each session, you're graded on your gaming performance. Normally we're pretty down on minigame collections, but this sounds awesome. The best games in Wario Ware were the concentrated versions of classic NES games anyway, and that's all this is. And if any task is worthy of a training game, it's playing old games. We love it.
The challenges include activities like perfectly completing a Challenging Stage in Galaga and getting a home run in Family Stadium. At the end of each session, you're graded on your gaming performance. Normally we're pretty down on minigame collections, but this sounds awesome. The best games in Wario Ware were the concentrated versions of classic NES games anyway, and that's all this is. And if any task is worthy of a training game, it's playing old games. We love it.
Continue reading Training, retro collections and minigames converge, form a DS singularity
NPD says games help reduce stress, we say Animal Crossing soothes us
According to the NPD, 63% of U.S. citizens play games. 30% of these gamers say they're playing more games than they did last year. Many also cite that games are a way to alleviate stress and help them unwind. We can understand it, because there is something almost zen-like in fishing in Animal Crossing: Wild World. Actually, just about everything in that game is calming and helps us unwind, even picking weeds.
Hori summons an accessory set to complement Final Fantasy IV's release
Another major RPG release for the DS, another Hori accessory set. This latest bundle for Final Fantasy IV's 3D remake comes packed with a trio of items you can buy to showcase your fanboyism and poor money management skills -- a protective system case, an extendable stylus, and an attachable screen wipe bearing the image of a chibi Rydia, FFIV's green-haired summoner.
Like the game, this kit won't be available in Japan until December 20th, but import shop Play Asia is already taking preorders, charging $17.90 plus shipping. Gather your party, stock up on potions, and travel past the post break for more images from this official accessory set.
Continue reading Hori summons an accessory set to complement Final Fantasy IV's release
Super Dodgeball Brawlers: the first American Kunio game
When Siliconera's Spencer Yip interviewed Aksys's Gail Salamanca about Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles, he also submitted a battery of questions about Super Dodgeball Brawlers, many of which were submitted by readers. One reader asked if Aksys would keep the Kunio series characters for the game, rather than making them more generic and American. Telemasca responded with "Yes, we will be keeping the Kunio names for the US version."This may only be significant to us and to the person asking the question (who was, we admit, also us), but that means that Super Dodgeball Brawlers will be the first Kunio game in the U.S. Renegade, River City Ransom, Crash 'n the Boys Street Challenge, Super Spike V'Ball, Nintendo World Cup, and every previous version of Super Dodge Ball were all part of the Kunio-kun series from Technos, starring two rude high-school kids named Kunio and Riki. And without exception, the original characters were excised from the localization.
Another reader asked if more Kunio games were upcoming, and Telemasca replied "We hope so." Not much news there, but if Aksys wants to continue publishing upcoming Kunio games, we're happy to hear it. What a great day for Technos nerds.
Halo DS a reality after all
Hit the break for more pictures! Or, if this tickles your fancy, head on over to eBay and get your bid on.
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