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Nintendo's DS Lite orders food, shows replays at Safeco Field
Those looking for a little more interaction at Safeco Field this season need only bring their DS Lite and a few extra bucks. This season, Nintendo is trialing the Nintendo Fan Network at the home of the Seattle Mariners, which enables onlookers to "order food and drinks, watch the live television feed of the game, access stats and scores, and play trivia from the comfort of their seat." The quietly introduced pilot program has brought several kiosks to the park, which uploads a program to the DS Lite and enables the WiFi-equipped handheld to take part in the bonus festivities. Eventually, the Big N hopes to expand the system into other stadiums, but for now, Mariners fans can get in on the action for $5 per game, or $30 for ten games.[Image courtesy of Flickr]
What a horrible summer not to be going to Comic-Con
NECA, the company responsible for the awesome Castlevania figure prototypes, has a new Simon Belmont figure on the way. It's a somewhat more faithful sculpture of Simon as he appeared in the first Castlevania on the NES. Unfortunately, only 1,000 units will be produced, and it will only be available at the San Diego Comic-Con.We totally want this, and we are all about pixel art, but we must say that this figure, with its rounded edges and inexact paint job, looks a little more like a cookie to us than an action figure. Which actually gives us an idea! [Via NeoGAF]
A DS Lite dock and a photo of a depressed dog
Japanese manufacturer Sakurado combined into one device two useful features: a cradle to charge your DS Lite with and a photograph of a disconsolate golden retriever. If his doleful eyes and floppy ears become too much for your frail heart to take in, you could always drop another snapshot into the picture frame instead, but you'd first have to endure the pitiful whines of a puppy who's been punished unjustly.The fused dock and photo stand is available at select Japanese retailers for about 1,420 yen (approximately $11.50), offered in white, navy blue, light blue, pink, and black variations. Interestingly, the charging stand uses the DS Lite's adapter for power, rather than its own proprietary plug. Check past the post break, empty leash in hand, for a comparison image of the cradle's various colors.
DS Daily: Machismo
Ever lie about what you're playing? Say, for instance, you're playing Pokemon, which is widely regarded among the non-gaming population (and certain contingents of the gaming population) as for babies, and you, as a non-baby, are asked what's in your DS by a friend. Do you say something distinctly un-baby-like, like Brain Age or the tough-sounding Tank Beat? Or do you stay true to yourself and happily announce that you're training your new Wurmple? Are there other situations in which you consider lying? If, for example, you are playing Brain Age and you're accosted by a gamer friend who hasn't joined the non-game revolution? Or if some bloggers survey their audience and you're playing something that you don't think is appropriately cool?
Animal Crossing cups for you and a neighbor
The Animal Crossing merchandising explosion continues. Soon you will be able to outfit your house only with things that bear Tom Nook's smug face.The latest cash-in is this series of Animal Crossing cups. They come in pairs featuring related characters, like the set with Mable and Sable above, and another set with Tom Nook and his roaming counterpart, Crazy Redd. Each cup holds about 10.5 ounces, and each set of 2 costs $8.75 from NCSX.We like the design of these cups. The colors are nice and happy, ensuring that your Sunny Delight (or purple stuff, you rogue) is somewhat sunnier and more delightful.
Ragnarok 'Online' not as online as you may have thought
Well, we had one day to freak out over a DS MMO. We can all relax now. It turns out that Gungho's planned DS Ragnarok game is not going to be massively multiplayer. It's an action-RPG with some unspecified Wi-Fi use. Maybe, if we're lucky, it'll be online multiplayer on a smaller scale.Okay, here's a thought experiment for you: what's more of a cash-in: an MMO, or a handheld spinoff of an MMO? Oh, well, we like action-RPG's better than MMO's anyway.
505 Games did it, Mum!
European budget publisher 505 Games announced a new title for the children. Because the children are a very profitable demographic our future! The game is called I Did It Mum! and comes in boys' or girls' versions. Both versions are jam-packed with educational minigames like "Toy Train" and "Drive the Car." And both versions are totally for preschoolers, so you have an excuse not to be interested in the thing yourself. But if you have kids, this may be perfect "Playing DS Games Training" to help them get ready for other training games.[Via Joystiq]
Show and Tell: Etch-a-Lite
Sometimes, it's not the size of the collection that matters, but rather the general level of awesome inherent within. Reader Kuthakun owns a pair of DS Lites that are so cool that they're worth any ten regular Lites. He went through Lasatorium to cement further fandom into a pair of white Lites, thus ensuring his place in the DS Fanboy Show and Tell Hall of Fame. Or would, if such a place existed. One of these beauties is shown here; hit the jump to check out the other one. You can see a couple more pictures in the photoset at Flickr.So what do you have lying around the house that you'd like to show off? You too can be in this spot, with everyone cooing over your awesome gaming gear. Just take some pictures and send them to showmeit at dsfanboy dot com. We'll take care of the rest.
Tangram-like puzzle coming to DS to embarrass us
We have a problem with certain kinds of puzzles-- slide puzzles, for example, are damn near impossible for us, and we're quite smart otherwise (really!) It's just some weird mental block that prevents us from rearranging pieces to form a shape. Put us in front of Tetris and we'll drop Alexey Pajitnov's ruggedly bearded jaw, but slide puzzles confound us every time.The same is true of tangrams. We like making abstract shapes out of them as if they were a building set, but we're useless when it comes to matching shapes. So, naturally, we're really excited about Hamekomi Lucky Puzzle DS, which is a series of tangram-like dissection puzzles in which players put together shapes like the Speed Skater and the Cossack Dance (seen here.)
DS Daily: Stand in the place where you game
Have you purchased any sort of DS stand? We admit, it's something we've thought about, but haven't gotten around to (there are so many games to buy instead!), but there are more of you than there are of us, so certainly (maybe!) someone has one. If not, have you also given it some thought? What kind of stand would you like? We can definitely see the benefit for stylus-only games.
Ragnarok Online announced for DS
Better get a DS now if you don't have one, because when Ragnarok Online comes out, all DS shipments will by necessity be diverted to Korea. Ragnarok, for those of you lucky enough to avoid the onset of MMO addiction, is a hugely popular Korean MMO known for its adorable 2D sprites and mascot characters (at least, that's what we know it for.) Like Maple Story, we have no idea if this will actually be a DS version of the real game, or if it'll be a smaller-scale online game, or even online at all. In the same press release, publisher Gungho Online Entertainment announced an aquarium simulator and a flower-arranging game. That's pretty great too.[Via Famitsu]
Guess what kind of game uses the new DS camera
If you guessed any kind of game at all, sorry. If you correctly identified that as a trick question, then you win at DS fandom. That's right, the DS Lite is getting an official camera peripheral, and the first piece of software to use it is Otona no DS Kao Training (Adults' DS Face Training.) In fact, the camera is called the Facening Scan, leaving no question as to its intended use.What's Facening, you may ask? Well, it's a regimen of facial stretching designed to reduce wrinkles and sagging, and to make your face appear smaller.The camera is included with the software, as is a DS Lite stand. You bring your own ridiculous face-- you probably already got your first lesson in Facening when you read about this piece of software![Via NeoGAF]
The DS juggernaut continues to roll through Japan
You guys aren't going to believe this one. Are you ready? Okay -- it seems that the DS Lite is somewhat popular in Japan, and has been for a long time. Wow, who knew?Alright, all sarcasm aside, according to the Famitsu Marketing Data Report for June (covering May 28-June 24), Nintendo is the force driving the Japanese gaming market into the stratosphere. Overall sales numbers for the industry were up more than 25%, and most of that is due to the fact that hardware sales are up nearly 50%. Why? All signs point to the DS. For fifteen consecutive months, the handheld has moved more than 500,000 units in Japan. But it's not all about the DS, particularly when we turn to the software numbers. Combined, software for Nintendo platforms accounted for more than 81% of software sales. With the release of two new DS Lite colors in Japan, it seems likely that at least part of the handheld's success is due to the variety of models available. Not that the DS needs any real help in the Americas, but we're willing to bet that a few new colors might produce results here as well. [Via 1P Start]
The Yakult Swallows have gotta catch 'em all
And by 'em, we mean children. Kids visiting Yakult Swallows baseball games this summer are in for a happy surprise-- or they're going to game specifically for these giveaways. The team is collaborating with the Pokemon Company to give away some stamp cards and stickers.To promote the Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai movie, elementary school students who go to Swallows games starting on the 14th will receive a stamp card, which gets a new Pokemon-shaped stamp at every game. Depending on how many stamps are received, the kids are awarded one of three sticker sheets of increasing deluxeness.
Train your brain in public
Imagine an alternate universe in which arcades not only exist, but are still stocked with new games. Now imagine that one of the biggest and most impressive-looking units in the place is a brain training game. As you may have guessed, it's not an alternate universe! You know, because the coverage on this site is limited to just the one universe.Minna de Kitaeru Zenno Training is an arcade brain training game released in late 2006 by Bandai Namco, created under the supervision of the smartest disembodied head we know, Dr. Ryuta Kawashima. Much like Brain Age, it uses a touch screen to present simple mathematical and logical tasks. But unlike Brain Age, Zenno Training is on a huge screen in the middle of a game center.It's quite amazing how popular brain training has become! We wonder if Bandai Namco expects people to go back to the arcade every day for training. That would be so diabolical!
When you stare at this DS case, the DS case stares back at you
Gametech seems to have a taste for the gaudy when it comes to DS Lite covers, but they totally got it right at least once. This DS Lite case features a kunoichi (female ninja) design in simple white on black fabric. It's cute and striking at the same time.The design looks quite similar to R Stevens' I am Ten Ninjas t-shirt, although much more feminine and much less blocky. We'd love to clothe our DS in such mystery, but at 3,980 yen ($32.26) it's a little pricey for our tastes. But, then, so are most sandwiches.
A bracelet to coordinate with Kuribo's Shoe
We don't know what self-respecting Kuribo (Goomba) would wear images of itself while bouncing around in a giant boot, but then, Kuribos don't even have wrists. So there. Humans, however, frequently have wrist-bearing arms on which we can place bracelets. We also have hands and fingers with which to do the beadwork for these bracelets. Unfortunately, we don't have access to giant bouncy green wind-up boots. Oh, the irony, sort of!
Disney Princess: Magical Jewel almost has good art
Surprise! Disney Princess: Magical Jewel has somehow managed not to be a Bejeweled clone! It even has Jewel in the title and avoided it. Instead, it's a jewel-collecting side-scrolling platformer starring a bunch of Disney princesses.More surprising, rather than using generic character art for their character portraits, the developers went "off-model" to render the Princesses in a sort of cut-paper style. With shading. Okay, we don't know what to call it, but it's a style, and it's nice.The bottom screen doesn't fare as well, looking a little amateurish and flat. But, hey, that's one more nice-looking screen than we expected!
Buffering ... Buffering ... Majo Shinpan
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.[Link goes to a streaming .WMV video.][Via Dengeki]
To build them out of Lego is my real test
... to avoid stepping on them is my cause I will travel across the landsearching far and wideFor a 1x2 blue pieceto finish Piplup's sideThis gallery of Lego Pokemon brings up two questions (for us, at least): first, why are Lego bricks so inherently awesome? And second, why is the Pokemon cartoon's theme song so inherently hilarious?We find the idea of building our own little Pokemon very appealing. Why go through the trouble of catching them in-game to make them fight, when you can build these guys and smash them against whatever you want? Who needs your rules, anyway?[Via GoNintendo]
