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One Shots: Valentines cute overload!
For this Valentine's Day, we wanted to find the best of the screenshots that had been submitted to us -- ones that would embody the spirit of love. Of course, the few screens we do currently have involve either lovely landscapes or battles -- neither of which we thought was terribly appropriate. So instead we figured we'd go out and hunt down a screenshot for today's celebration of all things smooshy and cute. This screen comes from an MMO that just entered closed beta, and that we're working on a story for, even as I write this. Can you guess what this upcoming MMO bastion of cuteness could possibly be? Leave your idea in the comments below!Remember, One Shots is all about you. Without your screenshots, we have no stories to tell. So be sure to drop your in-game screens to us at oneshots@massively.com! %Gallery-9798%
2008's Biggest Blips: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness
Developer: Marvelous Publisher: Marvelous/Natsume Release: June 8 When it comes to light-hearted, adorable games that make us want to smile, the Harvest Moon games top the list. The formula is relatively simple: grow and harvest crops, woo boy/girl, forge friendships, lather, rinse, repeat. Yet, if playing Harvest Moon doesn't tug at your heartstrings even a tiny bit, you're probably the kind of person that eats babies for a living. Not that there's anything wrong with that (in fact, we have an excellent barbecue sauce recipe, if you're interested). In case you need even more evidence that the Harvest Moon series is full of feel-good games, the two upcoming entries for the DS are subtitled Cute and Island of Happiness. How much sweeter can you get without dying from an immediate sugar coma? Borrowing a page from Lost in Blue, Island of Happiness kicks off with your character and a handful of friends stranded on a deserted island. As the game world changes and the number of buildings increases, more and more people start settling there. The game features 100 different NPCs, some of whom are bachelors (or bachelorettes, depending on whether you start the game as a girl or boy) that you can woo and marry. The game also features 3D graphics and utilizes stylus controls, thereby making full use of the handheld's capabilities. We only wish more games could be as relaxing and refreshing as those in the Harvest Moon series. As far as we're concerned, all games could use a good dose of Harvest Moon in them. To prove our point, we've made a few suggestions of game mash-ups that we'd like to see happen. 1. Harvest Moon meets Contra in Super Seed Is it just a coincidence that one of the heroes of Contra is Lance Bean? If you ask us, this game is just begging for a Harvest Moon infused sequel. 2. Harvest Moon meets Resident Evil in Mansion of Magical Itchy ... Tasty Did you ever stop to think that zombies need a little love, too? Did Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine ever take the time to invite the zombies to a festival, or try to gain some heart points with a platter of fried brains? Maybe impaling people is just the tyrant's way of indicating that he'd really like someone to bring him a kebab. 3. Harvest Moon meets Metroid in Metroid Prime: Gatherers Samus has done enough hunting. It's time for her to switch gears. 4. Harvest Moon meets Castlevania in Dawn of Happiness Castlevania needs to turn that frown upside down. Dawn of Sorrow? No thanks, Debbie Downer IGA. 5. Harvest Moon meets Dementium in A Wonderful Ward Ending up in a mysterious place without knowing why you're there isn't uncommon in the Harvest Moon games. If one of these protagonists ended up in Redmoor Hospital, we're sure they'd spend their time planting crops and making friends with the locals. %Gallery-15230% N+ Back Come the revolution
Hello Kitty AR-15 assault rifle makes you wish it was Photoshopped
If the Disintegrator had you quivering in your combat boots, we'd recommend grabbing a bullet proof vest and having a seat for this one. Apparently, a fellow in California has dressed up a (legal) AR-15 assault rifle in Hello Kitty fashion for his better half, and while it'd be way too easy to pass this off as a fantastic Photoshop job, the pictures awaiting you in the read link definitely prove otherwise. Cute never looked so evil. [Via CNET]
Congrats to Blizzard's Slouken on a new baby!
Big grats to WoW Forum blue (and Blizzard UI guy) Slouken on a more-than-epic drop-- he apparently won the roll on a brand new baby last night. Congrats to him and his wife on welcoming the newest member of their guild family into the world. She's super cute!And good to see that, by sitting her right in front of the logo on the t-shirt above, she's being indoctrinated at a very, very early age. No doubt she'll be coding macros, debugging addons, and introducing new arguments and actions into the API in no time.
More clay dolls from Maidemao
World of Raids came across some more of those clay dolls from the other day, and holy moly are they cute. Lookit this Voidwalker! And this hearthstone! Awesome.Her blog is all in Chinese, so it's a little hard to read if you don't speak the language, but here's a gallery of all the new pieces. And there's no word if any of these are for sale yet-- forget about Figureprints, I want one of these of my character.%Gallery-12629%
WoW mud dolls, made by a fan in China
The use of the term "mud dolls" threw me for a second here, but I think the folks at MMOsite mean clay dolls, as they have posted extremely cute little WoW figurines made out of clay. What fascinates me is that not only are these cute and really stylish, but they really capture each race and class-- the Blood Elf really does look snobby, while the Dwarf looks like he's had an extra ale or two.Amazing. No word on if they're for sale or not-- MMOsite makes like you can have one on your desk, but the original site is (of course) in Chinese, and so even if they were for sale there, I wouldn't know. Although I did find the hilarious Ony scene above-- if anyone can translate in our comments, please do.[Via Massively]
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Dream of Mirror Online's cel-shaded look works for it
Our own Tateru Nino has been covering Dream of Mirror Online pretty well (both with a nice hands-on and coverage of the problems with EU players), and now Keen (of Keen and Graev) has written up a few of his own impressions of the game as well. He doesn't go nearly as in-depth as Tateru's hands-on (just mentions that there are a few "kill x boars pigs" quests), but he does talk about how the cel-shading and stylization of the graphics is a real boost for the game, both in terms of playability (the low system requirements are great for pulling in casual players) and in terms of feel. Both Tateru and Keen felt that the world was really alive with characters and story.My original concern with the game was that the gameplay would end up "as cutesy as the graphics are," but according to what we've heard, it's actually pretty in-depth. Anyone else given the world of DOMO a try?
Two cute anime games for Japan
These two games are almost intolerably cute -- our internal cute-ometers are spinning out of control, having long since passed "awwww". The first, Yes! PreCure 5, is an isometric 2D action game from Bandai based on a magical girl anime. The premise of the anime involves, according to Wikipedia, a girl named Nozomi receiving a "Pinky Catch" from a pink butterfly, thus enabling her to transform into "Cure Dream", at which point she begins assembling a team of young girls as "Pretty Cure." Each member of Pretty Cure has her own special attacks, like "Mint Protection!" and "Cure Lemonade!" Hapi Hapi Clover is too cute to be the work of humans. We assume that some cuteness-making computer is working night and day churning out dangerous levels of cute, stopping only for Mallomars and hugs. The game is an adventure game with included minigames (an adorable Breakout-type game is shown in the link); the anime and manga seem to be about rabbits having cute adventures in the woods -- and learning.Read - Yes! PreCure 5Read - Hapi Hapi Clover
Bicycle tire rocks Hello Kitty tread pattern, world wonders why
Just when you thought Hello Kitty had touched everything she possibly could, along comes a bicycle tire (of all things) to prove you wrong. Stock up now for $25.99 apiece.[Via OhGizmo, image courtesy of Nirve]
Seiko Epson shows off UXGA e-paper display
Those fortunate enough to traverse the halls of Embedded Technology 2007 could've seen Seiko Epson's latest wonder up close and in person, but for the rest of us, we'll have to settle for the above picture and a drool-worthy description. The prototype e-paper terminal measures in at just 3-millimeters thick and weighs only 57-grams, and it's even equipped with a USB port. Furthermore, it features a 6.7-inch display with a luscious 1,600 x 1,200 resolution, but the unit on display could only handle grayscale imagery. Also of note, the entire unit was powered by a single button cell battery, which enabled the screen to be redrawn upwards of 1,400 times (at 0.7-seconds per redraw) before running out of juice. Details surrounding its eventual commercialization were pretty much par for the course, meaning your guess is as good as ours at this point. Two more snapshots after the jump.[Via Technabob]
Angel Love Online brings cuteness to PS3
Tetsuya Mizuguchi is known for creating some off-the-wall games. I mean, this is the same guy who helmed Space Channel 5, Rez and Lumines, but Angel Love Online could be the strangest one yet.While the free-to-play MMO features the standard RPG knights, mages and robots, you'll also apparently be able to command humanoid pigs, cats, dogs, zombies with candles on their heads, Native Americans and several creatures the English language has no names for.Although, it's difficult to understand what's going on in the video since it's all in Japanese and the screen is obscured by disturbingly cute characters, Mizuguchi and his team definitely know what they're doing ... at least we think they do.
Today's cuddliest video: LocoRoco Cocoreccho trailer
Little LocoRocos, you're so happy, you make us happy, too. We love watching you bounce and squish. Oh, to tickle a LocoRoco would make us burst with joy. We'd explode with rainbows, of course. (That's a mildly NSFW link, all you weekend laborers.)Sony's PS3 LocoRoco Cocoreccho! "interactive screensaver" um, thing will launch next week in many parts of the world. But the Sixaxis might not let us pet the little creatures. Cocoreccho! isn't quite a game, and we're still not quite sure what it is. But this newest trailer at least annotates some of things players can do, while the earlier video left us guessing.Watch the cuteness after the break, or imagine it on a crisp HDTV with the direct HD feed.
Guitar Hero stuffie for wannabe rock stars
If this is not the cutest game-related item you've seen in a while, then we want to know what is. Unfortunately, it's not for sale (shenanigans!), but the brilliant craftster behind this piece, poisonholly, apparently accepts custom orders. We can't help but wonder if we could get this baby in a special design that looks more like the controller for Guitar Hero III on the Wii ... after all, it just needs another white panel for the Wii remote![Via Hawty McBloggy]
Mimoco releases a whole new batch of adorable flash drives
Have you been looking for that special something to whip out at the big meeting to show everyone that you've got style, class, and money to burn? Well perhaps you should take a peek at the latest set of Mimobot Core Series 2 USB flash drives, which come fashioned in a wide variety of cute-as-all-get-out cartoon monsters, designed by illustrator Dino Alberto. While we can't say that we prefer these to the company's previous Star Wars-themed line, there is something intriguing about this new set, like the fact that these adorable little guys all have an elaborate back-story that's loaded onto the drives for your viewing pleasure -- although you may just want to scrap that to make more room for your "business documents." The drives come in 512MB, 1GB, 2GB or 4GB capacity, and range in price from $39.95 to $109.95.
Tiny little papercraft iPhone
DS Fanboy's Alisha Karabinus sent us this one, and I have to agree with her. While I'm not normally a man to call things cute (except in that derogatory sense: "Oh, you only beat Halo 2 on Normal difficulty? That's cute."), this papercraft iPhone is so tiny that it is, in point of fact, "cute."I'm not sure why Junyang chose to make it so small (other than the obvious fact that smaller things are cute), but it's pretty impressive that he got a papercraft item that size to look so much like an iPhone. He even made a scale charger and cradle for it, and the box it came in. He even replicated the instruction manual for it! He's a madman!But it does look cool. If a more to-size iPhone is your pleasure, there are a few different print-and-cut models floating around. And I'm pretty sure you're just one Photoshop scale away from shrinking it down to a size like this. Of course, in just a few years, they'll be this size anyway ("the iPhone Pico"), but until then we've got papercrafters to show us the cuteness.
Hoodry Pink iPod speaker
Mother's day is just around the corner. Why buy roses when you can pick up a limited edition pink hoody iPod speaker for a mere 120 bucks? It's practically the same color as that old Mother's Day standby red geraniums, but it's way cuter. Unfortunately, when I say "limited" it means that they are only selling about thirty of these things. Also, I can't tell from the picture which kinds of iPods are supported. Still, it's exactly the sort of present to please and surprise a Mac Geek Mom on Mother's day.
Hello Kitty gets her own crock pot
Unfortunately, the Hello Kitty crock pot arrived a tick too late to be considered for any snazzy kitchenware awards, but we're sure it's a real winner in the hearts of fanboys and girls everywhere. Aiming to take the difficulty out of cooking and give even the culinarily-challenged a surefire way to concoct a solid round of soup, the HK slow cooker should handle your roasts, veggie soups, and chowders with ease, and what better to season such delicacies in than a pot full of cute? Sadly, we've no word on price nor where to purchase this fine piece of countertop cookware, but giving your future meals the ability to simmer in cheerfulness is priceless indeed.[Via CNET]
Boomwave??? Bearaphim iPod case
A word of caution to diabetics: this iPod case is so cute and so sweet that it may just turn your stomach, let alone make you need to inject insulin. In a design that's calculated to make people utter "Awwww! Look at the cute widdle iPod case! Isn't it the cutest widdle iddy biddy nano case evah!", Boomwave Products offers a protective nano case with Teddy-bear ears and angel wings. (The wings let you wrap your earbud wires when they're not in use.) And if that weren't enough, each case comes with a matched doggy tag for users to wear so they can feel close to their iPod case even when they're not actually, you know, listening to music. And of course, you'll have a "beary good time" with it. Shudder.
Happy cute-people-playing-bad-video-game-music day
The first thing we noticed when we stumbled across this video of an Asian-British girl playing the Tetris theme was that she was pretty cute. The second thing we noticed was the music was pretty bad. The third thing we noticed was that the video has received over 1.1 million views since being posted last June. Holy crap! All this time we've been trying to pick quality music performances for game music day without even paying attention to how the people in the videos look. But if cute people playing badly can get over a million views, we've obviously been barking up the wrong tree. With that in mind, please enjoy these videos of beautiful people playing not-so-beautiful video game music.
First footage of Hamster Quest: Wheel of Respite
Though this alpha footage could easily be misinterpreted as a record of a hamster's harrowing journey (involving an intricately constructed series of traps, enemies and elevators), the vivid graphics and sweeping orchestral soundtrack make the truth quite apparent. Scheduled for release sometime in 2007, Hamster Quest: Wheel of Respite promises to deliver an epic journey that will engage the senses, challenge the mind and delve into the emotional relationship between a deranged man and his beloved hamster. It says here."Hamster Quest is a full-bodied experience," says Syrian Campbell, the game's lead and only designer. "It has a heart, because you'll become emotionally attached to Mr. Hamstar, the main character, as he attempts to defeat the evil mecha guinea pig. It also has a brain, because some of the puzzles will really stump you. Then, there's the liver and kidneys which, uh, refers to the... other stuff. Which is really cool!"The official Hamster Quest trailer is embedded for your inevitable viewing pleasure after the break.[Thanks Kevin!]
