With Eco-Creatures: Save the Forest already out in the U.S. and due for Europe on June 13th (interestingly, with the original Japanese title, Ecolis), there's no reason why anyone should import the Japanese game, right?
Play Asia thinks differently and has marked down the environment-conscious RTS to an unbelievable $5! That's banoodles! Basically, starting today until next Tuesday, the game is now cheaper than most of the meals on Arby's menu! You could buy Ecolis/Eco-Creatures for less than the price of a chicken sandwich, a drink, and curly fries.
Speaking of Arby's curly fries, how frickin' delicious are Arby's curly fries? Maybe you should go out and buy some anyway, that way you can eat them while playing Ecolis. It might cheer you up after hours of navigating the game's Japanese menus and frustrating controls.
Europeans who have sat patiently awaiting their chance to check out the eco-friendly Eco-Creatures can now get in on the action. The title has just been announced for the European territory, arriving on store shelves this May. We wish we could provide you with an actual day during that month, but that information isn't available.
Any of our European readers excited about this? Could you care less?
We usually wait until Sunday to post our Promotional Consideration pieces, but we already have something very special planned for tomorrow's column and we didn't didn't want to hold onto this Eco-Creatures: Save the Forest ad for too long lest you completely forget about the colorful game.
The environment-conscious RTS's release went mostly ignored around these parts -- blame it on the rainShiren the Wanderer. To make up for it, we've torn out and scanned a page advertising Eco-Creatures from this month's issue of Nintendo Power. Hit the "read" link or the image above for the full piece. The recycling arrows integrated into the screenshots are a nice touch!
Look sharp, DS owners -- there are a couple of solid choices competing for your funds this week. Our own beloved Shiren is wandering onto shelves alongside the Eco Creatures, and that's not all that's hitting stores. For gamers still wrapped up in other great recent releases, there may be some tough choices ahead. Time to start that stack of games that you'll still be working through by December!
For our friends in Europe -- we sure hope you happen to be Dora the Explorer fans ....
Over the past two weeks, we've previewed more DS games than you can shake a whole pack of sticks at, and we're not yet done. In the final part of our look at 2008's most interesting upcoming titles, we're going to zip through a few last intriguing titles. Some of them haven't settled on anything close to a release date, and for others, there's little information available, but for one reason or another, they're all exciting enough to get us to sit up and take notice.
Unfortunately, they're probably also going to have a serious impact on wallets everywhere. As though we weren't already faced with the prospect of buying tons of games! We've never been happier that DS games are at least cheap.
Should you know the location of a DS Download Station near you and want to give Eco-Creatures a whirl, then today is your lucky day. Majesco has revealed that a demo of the game will be hitting DS Download Stations in the United States starting this month. The demo will be available at over 10,000 stations located in major retail locations throughout the country, residing on units until the month of May (where these cute and cuddly creatures will no doubt have to hibernate for the upcoming winter).
Gui Karyo, Executive Vice President of Operations for Majesco says the company is excited about this, stating that "Eco-Creatures now joins the ranks of Cooking Mama, Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends and Cake Mania as a phenomenal game launching with the support of a great demo available through the Nintendo kiosk program." He adds "We are confident that anyone who tries Eco-Creatures will be compelled to pick up the full version once it ships and help save the world from ecological disaster."
Are you going to be running out to your local download spot to give this a try?
From watching trailers of Eco Creatures, we've come to learn that having an army of squirrels is the best way to go about saving the environment. What we've also learned is that Eco Creatures might be a pretty fun game. There's a certain charm about this giant orange protagonist (Dorian) and his squirrel army, out to stop industrial harm from polluting and destroying their forest. Besides, how many other environmental RTS games can you say you've played? Also, multiplayer battles with level-create aspects are always a plus.
We can't say that we're champing at the bit for this game, but, at the very least, we're looking forward to it. How about you all?
We love Eco Creatures, and it looks like we're not alone! While it may not be surprising to hear that sometimes, some folks in Japan might like things that are cute, we were surprised -- in a good way -- to receive the above picture from reader Shiba-San. A friend made these adorable clay critters, because the animals in Eco Creatures (or, over there, Ecoris) are just begging to be recreated in a variety of media. We heartily approve.
Are you shaping cutesy creatures -- or other game characters -- in your spare time? Show us! We like thingamabobs and doohickeys and swag of all sorts, as well as food and furniture and anything fun ... so long as it's related to Nintendo! Just take some pictures, tell us what's up, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest.
Our favorite environmental RTS is on display once again, this time with some English-language screens. Looks like the localization is coming along swimmingly, and it's only matter of time before we'll be ordering squirrels en masse across the forest.
Eco Creatures: Save the Forest doesn't yet have a U.S. date, but you can be sure we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for the debut of Dorian on this side of the ocean. In the meantime, check out the new screens in the gallery below.
From the first whiff of Ecolis, before it became Ecoris, or even the English Eco Creatures: Save the Forest, we were charmed. We didn't need the details to fall in love with the game's whimsical look or the idea of controlling an army of fuzzy squirrels in our mission to save the forest. We're suckers for anything cute, after all, and this game has delivered on that in spades since we caught our first glimpse.
We weren't alone, either. DS owners seem to love strategy games of all types (it's just part of our epic good taste), and from the start, we clamored together for an English-language release, as unlikely as it seemed. As the details unspooled -- the first amorphous hint of Wi-Fi functionality that was revealed to be online multiplayer among them -- our desire to get out there and prevent deforestation shot into the stratosphere. Ecoris was simply irresistible. One of our readers even turned the fruity hero into a sculpture and plans to follow up with Dorian's furry sidekicks. Even before Majesco announced the game's localization, Ecoris became a phenomenon, albeit a small one.
With our excitement over the announcement that Majesco is going to localize the eco-friendly title Ecoris, we had no choice when it came to selecting what to show off this week. After all, nothing says unconditional love like a clay representation of the game's fruity, gap-toothed hero. Our new favorite deviantARTist, wingsofsorrow, found that cute little face as irresistible as we do ... and she plans to make the squirrelarmy next. We approve.
Got something that makes you particularly proud? We like thingamabobs and doohickeys and swag of all sorts, as well as food and furniture and anything fun ... so long as it's related to Nintendo! Just take some pictures, tell us what's up, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest.
Regular readers will recognize Majesco's latest game announced for the US, Eco Creatures: Save the Forest, as Ecoris, the FernGully-esque RTS that came out in Japan just last month. We thought for sure that this niche title would never make it stateside, but we're happy to see Majesco prove us wrong.
Billed as "the first eco-conscious game for the Nintendo DS," Eco Creatures has you leading a woodland army against the pollution and industrialization taking over your Mana Woods. In addition to battling your friends locally (single-card download play and multi-card) and online, you'll also be able to create your own maps to play. Look for Eco Creatures: Save the Forest to plant itself in North America early 2008.
At last, it's Brain Age 2 time. Who's picking up the bundle? Inquiring fan-minds want to know (and can we touch it? for a dollar?). Of course, that's not all that's available this week, but it's certainly the most well-known title. Anything else tickle your particular fancy?
Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day
I SPY Fun House
Operation: Vietnam
The Settlers
Turn It Around
Slip past the break to see what's out in the rest of the world this week -- especially when it comes to the Japanese releases! Language-imbued importers might want to take note.
What's better than a quick blink of a commercial? A gorgeous long trailer, of course, like the one we have for you after the break. Lightweight's RTS Ecoris is just so insanely adorable that even when we're questioning what we're seeing (is that a cow-demon-vacuum? it's a mystery!), we can't tear ourselves away. We seriously need to pick up that spin move that plants trees. It would really cut down on landscaping costs, though it probably wouldn't be fully appreciated at parties.
It's no secret that we're very interested in Ecoris. With Wi-Fi compatibility included, plus the RTS theme, this game is quickly becoming the recipe for excellence. Even the game's big, spiky protagonist, Dorian, looks like the kind of main character we want in our games: completely ridiculous.
The latest Japanese commercial, which is embedded past the break, shows most of what we said. Keep in mind though that, like all Japanese commercials, the video is a bit shorter than what you're used to.
With Eco-Creatures: Save the Forest already out in the U.S. and due for Europe on June 13th (interestingly, with the original Japanese title, Ecolis), there's no reason why anyone should import the Japanese game, right?
Look sharp, DS owners -- there are a couple of solid choices competing for your funds this week. Our own beloved 
Our favorite 
Regular readers will recognize 
At last, it's 
What's better than a 
_thumbnail.jpg "Prince of Persia: The Fallen King")
