In a recent interview with 1UP, Square Enix's marketing communications manager gave us some insight on the process behind adapting Chocobo Tales' packaging for the US. We happen to prefer the Japanese version's modest artwork over North America's chaotic cover, but we understand that the company had a younger audience to appeal to and a different message it needed to convey.
We've collected DS covers from Square Enix's Japanese and US releases after the post break for you to compare and decide which one you like best. To its credit, the company hasn't completely mangled its DS boxarts so far (The same can't be said about Nintendo's bastardization of Hotel Dusk's cover). How do you feel about Children of Mana's simplified design? Does Final Fantasy 3's stripped packaging appeal to your western tastes? And do you agree with 1UP that publishers have been doing a better job with dressing their products?
After last week's flood, it looks like DS owners are back down to a trickle of releases, but importers take note -- there's 
Mario Hoops 3 on 3 has had so much hype that we were ready for a game full of more fun than a circus. But from the sound of it, all we got were peanuts.
September 13 is the 'birthday' of everyone's favorite plumber, and Nintendo's not letting September pass without a little recognition. Two new DS games this month feature Mario and company: the highly anticipated 
Mario Hoops 3 on 3 is definitely one of the most anticipated games of the season. With all the familiar faces from the Mario series plus Final Fantasy characters on top of cool basketball courts and super slam dunks, we simply can not wait.
We here at DS Fanboy can tell you with authority that 2006 is the year of the threesome. Of course, it's with GameBrink's authority, but who's keeping track? The site recently put up a review of Mario Hoops 3 on 3 that is so hot it burns -- on their rating system, it pulled a 95, outscoring such DS classics as Phoenix Wright and Trauma Center. In fact, the only game to score higher with their reviews was Mario Kart.
We have heard quite a bit about this little Mario sports game. It might be the very first Mario sports we try.
A recent Famitsu scan seems to indicate that the 
