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Get serious with new DS Style screens
We're expecting a load of news when the Square Enix Party starts. For now, we've got new screens from the DS Style series, which is obviously too serious for parties. Specifically, new screens were released of Flower Blooming DS: Gardening Life, Shall We Listen to Classical Music on the DS?, and three World Walking map programs: Italy, France and Taiwan.We could kind of see picking up a DS map program instead of a guidebook when we go on vacation, since we tend to take the DS with us anyway. We are definitely feeling a strong urge to buy the classical music "game" as well, since it's being developed by iNiS. Smart move, Squeenix.
Virtually Overlooked: Taboo: The Sixth Sense [update 1]
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative. Rare has been responsible for many of the most beloved games on Nintendo systems throughout the years. RC Pro-Am, Goldeneye 007, and Donkey Kong Country come immediately to mind when thinking about the company and its history of great games. Taboo: The Sixth Sense is not great, or beloved, or even a game. If it were a game, it would be one of the worst ones on the NES. But if something like Taboo can even have a time, then that time has come.
Get a degree in knowing how to play Big Brain Academy
We haven't read any research on the particular brain-embiggening properties of Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, and we're also quite certain that playing it won't result in an actual degree conferral (which is too bad, because we could use some more of those!) Whatever health or brain-bigness benefits it may have, the game certainly looks cute and fun. Siliconera has posted some impressions of the Japanese version, with plenty of screenshots and explanation of the various minigames involved. We suggest you check it out and dramatically increase the size of the area of your brain that holds Big Brain Academy gameplay details!
Your Hello Kitty research is about to get a lot easier
Ever been asked a question regarding biographical information about a Sanrio character, but you can't answer because you're too far away from your extensive Hello Kitty database? You're in luck, if you get into that very unlikely situation in the future, and you can read Japanese!Hello Kitty's Fashonable Party contains biographies of 300 Sanrio characters, with info about their birthdays, favorite food, and ... probably other stuff too. The game will quiz you about this stuff, presumably so you can memorize it. Fashionable Party also contains a dress-up mode and, predictably, a spate of minigames as well. In this case, though, the minigames are probably welcome since they bring the only actual gaming to the Party.
Play DS while learning to drive
Vingt-et-Un, the developer responsible for some of the weirder Simple 2000 games like The Zombie vs. Ambulance, have created a new entry in D3 Publisher's Simple DS series. Simple DS Vol. 14: The Driving School is a DS program designed to teach the rules of the road, with text-based quizzes and drills. It also attempts to teach driving skill with "practical" driving-instruction segments. This looks great for us, since we taught ourselves to drive on Spy Hunter anyway. We just need to break our habit of trying to drive into 18-wheelers and we'll have it down. While we're talking about this game, we want to complain about the lack of Simple series games in the US. D3 started a US branch, and they currently publish the Naruto games, but the only games we've seen from their hilarious budget series were Break 'em All and Dino Rider. The Xbox 360 just got Earth Defense Force-- we hope that's the start of a trend.
DS Style details emerge-- screenshot-style
The first screenshots of Square Enix's DS Style series of nongames have shown up, and they look ... well, functional. The problem with nongames is that it's impossible to build hype for something that is used just for looking at a map of France, or teaching yourself yoga, even if the software in question is extremely well-designed.These screens answer the biggest question we had about the series: how could a game about listening to classical music possibly fill two screens meaningfully? The answer: dog animations and quizzing you on your feelings about the music.
Cooking Navi goes high-end
Cooking Navi has been a smash in Japan, so it's hardly a surprise that the game would get a sequel. This particular sequel, however, is somewhat of a surprise. Shaberu! DS O-Ryouri Navi Marugoto Teikoku Hotel (Talking DS Cooking Navi Marugoto Teikoku Hotel) is a new version of the game containing recipes from the chefs who cook in the prestigious Japanese hotel.We're thinking about picking up Koei's latest nongame, since we'd love to try some gourmet Japanese cuisine. But we have a concern: isn't Cooking Navi supposed to be about basic recipes and helping regular people make them? Seriously, look at those seven chefs on the box. This interactive cookbook has the potential to be the hardest game on the system.
Hilarious press event promotes hilarious walking "game"
Healthy Walking Navi spokesman and star Duke Saraie led a demonstration of his exercise techniques for members of the Japanese press, in order to promote his first DS program. In addition to showing off some of the exercise routines used in the game, Duke talked about his success with exercise books and DVD's. He said (within the context of a press event promoting this particular product) that the DS software is superior because it's more like one-to-one training. The president of developer Dorasu also gave a presentation, indicating that Walking Navi is only the first of six health games planned.Check after the break for two new screenshots. We've also included our favorite picture from the event, where Duke proves how strong his walk-fu is by teaching reporters about walking while they're sitting down at their desks.
Opera browser boxed, demonstrated
Siliconera got a chance to check out the American release of the Opera browser at SXSW, and they handily took some video of the demonstration, so we can see ... what Japanese and European DS users have been seeing for quite some time. We've been waiting so long for this application. Could it really be on the way?They also got some pictures of the US boxart, which says that the DS browser puts "The Internet at your fingertips". That's somewhat of a strange choice of slogan; as far as we can tell, the Internet is always at your fingertips, except when you use a stylus-based input method.
Learn to walk with Walking Navi
Now that your brain is sufficiently trained, you can begin figuring out how to move around! Okay, so really it presumes you already know how to walk and are interested in walking as exercise. Too bad, because it's a lot funnier the other way. Just like Cooking Navi and Dokodemo Yoga, Duke Saraie no Kenkou Walking Navi (Duke Saraie's Health Walking Navi) is designed so that users can choose their program, set their DS systems down and have directions barked at them while they follow along. Fitness celebrity Duke Saraie will help you warm up, then lead you through your workout. Wait, workout? We want to try this to see what kinds of "workouts" could be involved other than "walk for a while", "walk for longer than the last time", and "walk for a while, but faster".Try Screenshot Inspecting Navi after the post break.[Via NeoGAF]
