Hey, look, even more English of the Dead stuff! A lot of the screens in the latest update from GAME Watch showed up in yesterday's bundle of screens, but we think this is worth a look anyway. The new screens are organized by chapter and by mode, for a complete overview of the new training game (which means you can see what the Magician boss, and the others we had yet to see, look like on the DS).
Most importantly (to our curiosity), the new screens include this straight-on shot of the new backpack. It's clearly (as clearly as it can be in that resolution) a Japanese Mega Drive in the second model, with the blue button and the red cartridge slot (and the fact that the game is Japanese) distinguishing it from other Model 2 Mega Drive/Genesis systems.
There's plenty of DS languagetraining available for kids in Japan, but language software elsewhere seems to fbe focused on either adults or ... whoever Spanish for Everyone was supposed to be for. Virgin PLAY is taking advantage of this gap by releasing a series of language training games designed for kids, based on Berlitz language training materials. The series also covers the one language that gamers always clamor for in language-learning materials: Japanese.
The first two Mind Your Language games planned for release this summer (in Europe, we believe) include Learn English and Learn Spanish. But Berlitz and developer Spiral House are also working on three more programs to teach French, German, and Japanese, to be released this fall.
Ojaru-maru: Ojaru to Okeiko Aiueo DS isn't necessarily made for adult learners of Japanese as a second language. In fact, it isn't. It's made for children. But the first thing you learn from trying to learn a new language is that being illiterate is pretty much the same experience whether you're 4 or 40. Materials designed to help kids learn to read in their first language are pretty useful for adults learning it as a second language. Unless they're too hard.
Ojaru-maru DS helps you learn to speak and read very basic Japanese. It contains games that train kids on how to read and write the kana syllabaries, and pick the correct numeral classifier for counting different varieties of objects. There are also speaking exercises that require you to pronounce phrases into the DS mic. It's made for Japanese native speakers, but this vaguely approaches the idea of a My Japanese Coach. It could come in handy for at least learning how to read the Media Create listings every week!
Maybe you think this will help you understand Spanish? Maybe you just want a cheap game to laugh at because, frankly, it's just an incredibly absurd journey the main character embarks upon? Maybe, just maybe, you have a hidden lust for talking bulls?
Whatever your reason may be for wanting to purchase and own a copy of Spanish for Everyone, know that it can be purchased for the low, low price of only $20. Gaming retail mega-corporation EB Games/GameStop is selling the title for the discounted price via their websites. We would imagine it's the same in-store, as well.
When we first heard about the My (Language) Coach series, we approached the idea with cautious optimism, and immediately turned to ask your opinion. They're non-games, sure, but they're non-games in an area that may be interesting. The response was overall positive toward the games, though there was plenty of talk (plenty) about wishing for a Japanese edition.
Now that the Coach games have hit, and have been explored in exhaustive detail thanks to Alisha's daily gameplay journal, we thought we would ask again. Anyone out there thinking of picking up a new language with their own personal Coach? Or has Spanish for Everyone undone any goodwill you may possibly have toward DS language training?
It's another day at DS Fanboy, and this week, that means more quality time with Ubisoft's My French Coach. All week long, we're on a mission -- French language mastery! Or at least a valiant attempt to get through as many lessons as possible in seven full days. If you missed the overview on day one, you might want to back up a little. If not, then let's get moving with day three of our language training.
Since I did two lessons yesterday, it only seemed proper to keep that up. Even at this rate, I won't make it halfway through the lessons by Sunday! I may have to step it up to three tomorrow, but that's a lot of French, and my brain is weak and poor, and my mushy Southern accent may get in the way of mastering all that pronunciation. But that's no reason not to try, eh? Today's lessons weren't as complex as yesterday's ... or maybe I'm just getting better!
It's another day at DS Fanboy, and this week, that means more quality time with Ubisoft's My French Coach. All week long, we're on a mission here -- French language mastery! Or at least a valiant attempt to get through as many lessons as possible in seven full days. If you missed the overview on day one, you might want to back up a little. If not, then let's roll on through the second day's excursion with the language trainer.
During the second day's session, I decided to do not one lesson, but two. I also learned that cockiness does not pay -- but the butt-kicking I endured was completely worth it, as I managed to increase my list of mastered words by a great deal, and grew much more confident with the mini-games and various features of My French Coach.
As soon as Ubisoft announced their language trainers, we here at the DS Fanboy offices just knew we'd have to take one for a spin. The real question was ... which to choose? I love studying languages and have made a casual hobby of it over the years, and thus have a little bit of knowledge in a lot of areas. Of the two languages at hand -- Spanish and French -- I struggle more with French, so that seemed like a natural choice for the big test. I love the sound of the language, but the peculiar (to me) accents, the soft, slurring sounds, and all the similarities between the singulars and plurals often leave me mystified. Written French I can handle in small doses, but spoken leaves me struggling. Can Ubisoft's trainer help me master my difficulties in the space of one week? There's only one way to find out!
While, at this point, it seems like a mistake to invest too much of ourselves in the Spanish For Everyonestoryline, we still couldn't help but be a little amazed at the game's ending. Finally arriving at Miguel's house in a cool Jeep, our hero Shawn knocks on the door and asks Miguel for his DS back. Miguel complies and gives Shawn a package that contains his DS, "several puffy dolls," and a plane ticket to France to deliver the dolls to a French friend.
Now, here are the parts that should bother us but don't:
The Jeep leaves after dropping Shawn off, leaving him to walk back home from Mexico (or to the airport.)
The whole "please carry this package for me" thing only adds to the general sketchiness found throughout the game's story, and contributes to the impression that illegal activity is afoot
A bunch of cars pull up to the house afterwards for seemingly no reason
Here's what does bother us:
During the whole trip, guided by his aunt, a talking bull, and then his creepy uncle, and ending at his friend's house, Shawn has no need to speak or understand a word of Spanish, at all. The whole premise of the game is that he needs to learn Spanish! And the bull said that Spanish would thwart evil!
Check this OCRemix thread for discussion of the game's story from one of the designers at developer Humagade (calling himself EEX.) In his words: "Indeed, all the story was intentional :P"
Activision's Spanish For Everyone may not be as inclusive as the title may make it sound. There are a lot of people, in fact, who may fall outside the category of "everyone" that this game purports to be for. Allow us to describe the introduction of the game: Miguel asks to play with his friend Shawn's (brother's) DS for a minute, just as Miguel's father pulls up in a limousine and informs him that it's time to go. The car pulls out before Miguel can return the DS, headed straight to Mexico and trailed by two police cars. Shawn's aunt, a taxi driver, pulls up and offers to drop him off in Tijuana, and to help him learn Spanish along the way. She tells him "They don't call me Gina Vasquez for nothing! I can teach you many things, and Spanish is definitely one of them!"
If that offends you, the game's not for you. If the fact that this sequence was depicted in CD-I Zelda-level art bothers you, the game's not for you. If you don't trust a language training game whose English text is rife with errors, you are just not a member of the "Everyone" that Activision is after. You should be proud.
Activision should be proud too. They've created a series of ridiculous videos that's bound for Internet memedom. The story continues after the break (Spanish For Everyone spoilers ahead)!
Talk about overcoming adversity: Snoopy, the lovable beagle from Peanuts, is getting his own English training game in Japan, despite being a dog. And despite the fact that the comic from which spinoff products would spin off no longer exists.
English Lessons With Snoopy isn't all learning words and phrases from a cartoon dog, however; the whole Peanuts gang, including chronically depressed Charlie Brown, anxiety-ridden Linus, and Lucy, who is just a jerk, will join in the learning fun. Who's more qualified to assist a dog in teaching language skills than five-year-olds?
The main game, "Event Mode," involves touching everything in a scene to see its English spelling and pronunciation. As you explore, you'll trigger animated events within the scene. There is also a selection of English training minigames, and a number of unlockable non-training minigames, including slide puzzles and a Charlie Brown dress-up game. Surprisingly, his clothing choices are not limited to hundreds of identical yellow shirts.
We are impressed by the size and breadth of the Japanese DS market. We still have yet to getone foreign-language program for the DS, and licensed cash-in language training games are already being released in Japan.
For the kindsofgames most Nintendo gamers are interested in, Japanese is a lingua franca (not literally, of course). Nintendo games are often released earlier in Japan than in other regions, if they even get to other regions. The same is true of third-party stuff: so much weird and interesting material never makes it to the West. Therefore, learning the Japanese language is a great way to expand your gaming possibilities.
Given our (my) own level of Japanese proficiency (which falls between novice and mute), we thought it would be interesting to poll the rest of you. Who has studied Japanese expressly for gaming purposes? Have you taken formal classes? Picked up some books? Are you a dutiful Japanesepod101.com listener? Or have you just learned some katakana from the web, for navigating menus?
We'd love to hear about your experiences and your self-assessment of your progress. No need to feel embarrassed about slow progress; language learning is hard. At least that's what we tell ourselves.
Where's our Cooking Navi? What about our Japanese language trainers? In a chat with Reggie Fils-Aime, MTV's Stephen Totilo asked the questions we've been asking since forever. The news, however, is only good. Reggie refers to the localization of Cooking Navi -- which we knew was confirmed for Europe, but from this response, it seems it will head this way as well. Great news! Of course, that localization takes more time than for a regular game, since it's not just a matter of changing the language, but also the cuisine. We're willing to wait. You can check out the full interview past the break, but beware, it apparently only works for US viewers.
Best Reggie moment: Maybe you need it [English Training] ....
According to an EBGames listing, Activision will be releasing a DS program called Spanish for Everyone on October 16th, at a cost of $29.99. Based on a brisk Google search, it appears that Spanish for Everyone is also the title of a defunct PC language tutor from The Learning Company, as well as a DVD-based training system.
It's great that Activision is getting into the language-learning "game," which is still a very new genre for the DS in the US, but we hope more effort is going into Spanish for Everyone than just porting some old PC language software that we'd probably be able to find in a value bin.
Even with a diminished E3, there's no controlling the wave of rumors that hit the Internet every year before the show. Why fight it? From now until E3 hits, we'll be posting one piece of wild speculation every day. Some may be patently ridiculous, and others just might turn out to be true. Even some of the ridiculous ones might turn out to be true! Rest assured, everything will be totally made-up and unfounded. Except, of course, when we speak about all the ass Reggie is going to kick. That part? Totally true.
Rumor: More language training games will be announced, by Ubisoft and others, but no one will manage to hit the one that we want with a Japanese training game. Suspiro.
Hey, look, even more English of the Dead stuff! A lot of the screens in the latest update from GAME Watch showed up in yesterday's bundle of screens, but we think this is worth a look anyway. The new screens are organized by chapter and by mode, for a complete overview of the new training game (which means you can see what the Magician boss, and the others we had yet to see, look like on the DS).
There's plenty of DS 
Ojaru-maru: Ojaru to Okeiko Aiueo DS isn't necessarily made for adult learners of Japanese as a second language. In fact, it isn't. It's made for children. But the first thing you learn from trying to learn a new language is that being illiterate is pretty much the same experience whether you're 4 or 40. Materials designed to help kids learn to read in their first language are pretty useful for adults learning it as a second language. Unless they're too hard.
Maybe you think this will help you understand Spanish? Maybe you just want a cheap game to laugh at because, frankly, it's just an incredibly absurd journey the main character embarks upon? Maybe, just maybe, you have a hidden lust for talking bulls?
Talk about overcoming adversity: Snoopy, the lovable beagle from Peanuts, is getting his own English 
For the 
Where's our 
According to an EBGames listing, 
