If you've been following Doki Doki Majo Shinpan with the same level of interest as we somehow have developed, then you probably saw our first video footage of the game, taken from a store demo. But that was in a noisy store, shot with a handheld camera, and not really the ideal presentation for game video.
Well, this is significantly more ideal. It's a Windows Media stream of that same video, in much better quality. The only problem-- like we said, it's a Windows Media stream. Expect to wait a bit.
Some promotional items don't require much thought at all. The game's about darts, and the system uses a stylus, so here's a stylus that looks like a dart. You can pretend you're poking a dart board very softly!
The real fun here is using this stylus with other games. You can pretend you're being a total sadist to your Nintendogs, for example. And Dream Skincare? More like Dream Acupuncture. Or, if you prefer, Dream Shredding Someone's Face with a Dart.
[Via GoNintendo]
We've just updated our gallery of screenshots and art from SNK's Doki Doki Majo Shinpan. As is the norm for this game, there's a lot of weird stuff to enjoy.
We'd like to point out the character seen here, who is a retro game freak and therefore totally not a witch so leave her alone. Oh, wait ... is that Athena? Hmm. Either she is a witch and she uses awful games as weapons, or she's proudly displaying a copy of Athena and something is terribly wrong with her. In either case, should you encounter this character in the game, just put your DS on the ground and run away from it until you pass out.
There's also a boy witch, apparently. Good to know SNK is providing equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of sex or sexual orientation, to be uncomfortable. Gotta grope 'em all!
Insects are huge in Japan. We don't mean in the Mothra kaiju sense, but in that they're very popular. Kids like to collect and battle stag beetles (sound like another popular Japanese form of entertainment?) Therefore, a bug reference guide on the DS seems like a pretty good decision.
Quiz & Touch Kensaku Mushi Sukan (Quiz & Touch Insect Encyclopedia) is our kind of non-game: not only does it provide visual and sound information about many species of bugs, but it also has quizzes and minigames about the bugs, including games based on identifying particular insects by sound and color. Librarians and those training to be librarians will probably agree: more reference books should have games in them.
SNK's Doki Doki Majo Shinpan has been doing great business in preorder, and seems to be getting a lot of attention. Now it looks like SNK is responding to this success by marketing the game in ... China! A new translated version of the website has appeared, offering the same content in Chinese. No, it doesn't help us any, but at least they're thinking about some international marketing. That's one baby step closer to an English localization, right?
The Japanese page has been updated too, with the screen cleaner shown above (which some Japan-based reader should really think about securing for us) and new screens of the first-person Magic Battle Mode. Apparently, somehow, you can do something to upset the girls. Just touch the "Read" button to determine if it's a witch check out the screens.
SNK's Doki Doki Majo Shinpan, the already-infamous adventure game about examining young girls for evidence of witchery, seems to have gotten Japanese gamers' hearts beating. The preorder listing for DDMS is now the top-listed video game on Amazon.com's Japan store.
It's currently ahead of the Final Fantasy Tactics PSP remake, Vanillaware's rather delicious-looking Odin Sphere, and even Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. We have to admit, we're happy to see SNK experiencing such success, though it's weird that we think of SNK as underdogs now when they used to charge people $300+ for their games.
Whew. The official Doki Doki Majo Saiban website has been updated, and it looks like SNK's troubling game isn't as troubling as it ... could be. CERO, Japan's equivalent to the ESRB, rated its content a C, which means it is appropriate for ages 15 and up. At least we know it's definitely not full-on pornography, and that following the development of this game is somewhat less like watching a train wreck in slow motion than it was when we thought it was going to get a Z rating (18 and up).
The website also corroborates our idea of the story and gameplay; the player, as a high-school boy, is compelled by an "angel" called Lulu to hunt witches by staring and prodding at girls to make their hearts beat quickly; their facial expressions and the background indicate their level of tension.
We didn't think the awesome Picross DS would ever find its way out of Japan. But Nintendo surprised us, as they tend to do now and then, by announcing that the puzzler will get a European release on May 11th.
They're branding this as part of the Touch Generations series, and mention that it will include 300 puzzles, and features like a "Daily Picross" mode, puzzle creation (with Wi-Fi sharing),and unlockable minigames. For the Americans out there who feel left out-- don't worry! Even if Nintendo doesn't release Picross DS, this European version will have English text, so it's still good news for you, if you don't mind importing!
More news from Success today! Famitsu posted a few screens of Touch Detective Season 2 1/2 (Osawari Tantei Ozawa Rina Season 2/12). It turns out that the "Season" appelation is not just being clever; the game looks identical to its predecessor, meaning that the new content is limited to story, rather than graphics or gameplay. This is fine! We can appreciate restraint.
Also, over at the Japanese home page, a "download" section has popped up with a weird, weird March calendar wallpaper. Feel free to browse around the home page and read the developer blog if you can. Just in case you don't feel like messing around with kanji or Flash, we've provided the wallpaper, and the Famitsu screens, after the break.
Touch-screens have been around for quite some time; why, we can nary remember a time when our fancy high-tech bowling alley didn't use such contraptions as input devices. Attaching one to a portable game system was certainly innovative, but not exactly ground-breaking in terms of new technologies. Multi-touch, on the other hand, is a relatively new and possibly exciting feature that might find its way quite soon to the PC consumer market. For an excellent demo of its capabilities, check out this video.
Our topic today is purely hypothetical: do you think a device like the DS could have benefited from such a technology? Certainly it would have driven the cost higher, but is the touch screen too small to effectively make use of dual inputs at the same time? Can you think of any situations where you sought such magical wonders?
The DS has a myriad of unique features, and as developers quickly learned, it isn't necessarily wise to throw them all into a game as cheap gimmicks. Many titles have used these features as essential elements of gameplay (see: Trauma Center, Kirby's Canvas Curse), but in many cases, we can't help but feel that developers are missing out on the some of the opportunities afforded them by the DS.
Where is our hockey game, in which the stylus is used as a mini-hockey stick to accurately handle the puck? Why don't games with magically-based battle systems allow you to shout a short incantation to activate a spell? Lost Magic had a player draw runes, which was creative, but we've been wanting to bust out dramatic Latin phrases for quite some time.
Do you have any ideas that you think developers should implement? Has the true potential of the DS been fully reached? Only time (and your comments) will tell.
The amount of greatness Nintendo's Touch Generations line of games has touched in the US can only be conveyed through numbers. Around 3.5 million numbers, to be exact.
Yes, you read that correctly, Nintendo's Touch Generations brand, which is shared by numerous titles such as Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!, Magnetica and True Swing Golf, has sold close to 3.5 million copies in the US. Clearly, Nintendo's philosophy of making games "meant for anyone to pick up and play, regardless of their prior gaming experience" is working out for them.
When we aren't busy touching our DS (and Joystiq isn't busy touching on disgusting topics during interviews), we like to casually daydream about Touch Detective. Atlus always does such a bang-up job on their localizations, we feel compelled to seek out their projects and make them our own. Touch Detective is no exception.
It brings us great amounts of joy to report that IGN has put up 4 new videos of the game. You may find them all conveniently located right here.
Set to release this November thanks to Atlus, Bomberman Land Touch contains three modes of gameplay and will support Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service. The three modes of gameplay, which are Story, Attraction, and Battle, hope to keep gamers-on-the-go busy for quite some time. No doubt the Wi-Fi gameplay will offer plenty, in that regard.
These 20 screenshots are the first from the English localization of the game.
We don't normally post about advertisements, instead leaving that up to the ad critics, but this Touch Generations ad just brought some hilarious commentary to our mind. We envision a nice evening out, maybe the couple's 23rd anniversary, and after a few glasses of wine, the husband is feeling a bit frisky once the couple arrive home. "Not right now," she says, shouting "brew" into her DS Lite during an intense round of Brain Age. "I have to get my brain's age down," she quickly follows with. The husband, upset, rolls over and firmly fixes a frown upon his face, falling asleep.
In the spirit of cruelty, we decided we'd come up with our own ad slogans for the Touch Generations brand. Here goes:
Touch Generations: Now having a headache doesn't have to be your only excuse.
Touch Generations: Because you're too old for most stuff anyway.
Touch Generations: "Paddles" are too complicated nowadays.
Touch Generations: You'll be damned if you're paying for another dog from the pound. 6 is quite enough!
Touch Generations: Because reading is for dummies.
Touch Generations: Because you should at least be able to kick your kid's ass in one game.
What kind of brilliant marketing ideas are swimming around in your noggin?
If you've been following Doki Doki Majo Shinpan with the same level of interest as we somehow have developed, then you probably saw our first video footage of the game, taken from a store demo. But that was in a noisy store, shot with a handheld camera, and not really the ideal presentation for game video.
Some promotional items don't require much thought at all. The game's about darts, and the system uses a 
We've just updated our gallery of screenshots and art from SNK's 
Insects are huge in Japan. We don't mean in the Mothra kaiju sense, but in that they're very popular. Kids like to collect and battle stag beetles (sound like another popular Japanese form of 
We didn't think the awesome 
Touch-screens have been around for quite some time; why, we can nary remember a time when our fancy high-tech bowling alley didn't use such contraptions as input devices. Attaching one to a portable game system was certainly innovative, but not exactly ground-breaking in terms of new technologies. Multi-touch, on the other hand, is a relatively new and possibly exciting feature that might find its way quite soon to the PC consumer market. For an excellent demo of its capabilities, check out this video.
The DS has a myriad of unique features, and as developers quickly learned, it isn't necessarily wise to throw them all into a game as cheap gimmicks. Many titles have used these features as essential elements of gameplay (see: Trauma Center, Kirby's Canvas Curse), but in many cases, we can't help but feel that developers are missing out on the some of the opportunities afforded them by the DS.
The amount of greatness Nintendo's Touch Generations line of games has touched in the US can only be conveyed through numbers. Around 3.5 million numbers, to be exact.
When we aren't busy touching our DS (and Joystiq isn't busy touching on disgusting topics during interviews), we like to casually daydream about Touch Detective. Atlus always does such a bang-up job on their localizations, we feel compelled to seek out their projects and make them our own. Touch Detective is no exception.
Set to release this November thanks to Atlus, Bomberman Land Touch contains three modes of gameplay and will support Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service. The three modes of gameplay, which are Story, Attraction, and Battle, hope to keep gamers-on-the-go busy for quite some time. No doubt the Wi-Fi gameplay will offer plenty, in that regard.
