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Doki Doki Majo Shinpan has sound?
Here's an interesting item for people whose primary interest in Doki Doki Majo Shinpan is the music: an official soundtrack CD will be released on July 25th. We've only heard a few seconds of drowned-out music from the game, so we have no idea as to its quality.There's also the Doki Doki Majo Shinpan Special Fanbook, which contains artwork from the game and developer interviews, as most fanbooks do. In addition, it comes with a mousepad, two posters, and ... a paper doll. For some reason, we think this is going to be the bigger seller.
Insecticide trailer gives us the backstory
After it was announced late last month, we found ourselves excited as to what Insecticide could bring to the DS. Now that we got a glimpse at the embedded backstory trailer, we find ourselves craving it that much more. The game looks like it will have a lot of charm.Check out the concept art in the gallery below and be sure to head past the break for the trailer.%Gallery-3405%
DIY DS Lite stylus pen
Frustrated with the DS Lite's stubby stylus, but not enough to empty out your pockets for one of those new-fangled, overpriced utensils we're always featuring? Faced with that very dilemma, Sal Cangeloso decided to save himself a few bucks with a homemade solution, trimming the stock stylus and packing it with a bit of rubber into his pen's emptied casing (Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto). Though it isn't a new idea at all, we were impressed with Sal's handiwork and wanted to share the small project with our readers. It looks better than most of the high-end styli we've seen for sale![Thanks, Kris!]
The newest DS accessory: squares of paper
Here's a training game we'd totally spring for: Minagara Oreru DS Origami (Fold While Watching DS Origami). Just like you'd expect, this nongame shows tutorials of origami patterns and invites players to fold along. You can watch the steps as a slideshow with variable speed, or you can manually step through the diagram.The game contains 100 patterns, and has voice controls so you can page through the tutorials while your hands are full! Unfortunately, it costs 3900 yen ($31) which is a little over our origami aid budget. Guess we'll have to stick to folding and unfolding the DS over and over again.
DS Dragon's Lair makes a Daring choice
The laserdisc classic Dragon's Lair is back again, after appearances on basically every system ever built, either in its original form (PC, Sega CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, Game Boy Color) or in some kind of terrible adaptation (NES, SNES, PS2). This time, Digital Leisure is releasing it in more or less original form on the DS, with some ... interesting options. Of particular interest is the ability to control the game via touch screen. We imagine this will involve tapping the appropriate side of the screen. There are also optional move indicators, voice control (?), rumble support, and multiple difficulty settings.And then there's the big feature. You can choose to play the game on one screen, or stretched across both. This allows Dragon's Lair to benefit from the advanced view obstruction technology not available in the arcade version. [Via NeoGAF]
Conjecture Countdown: 14 days to go
Even with a diminished E3, there's no controlling the wave of rumors that hit the Internet every year before the show. Why fight it? From now until E3 hits, we'll be posting one piece of wild speculation every day. Some may be patently ridiculous, and others just might turn out to be true. Even some of the ridiculous ones might turn out to be true! Rest assured, everything will be totally made-up and unfounded. Except, of course, when we speak about all the ass Reggie is going to kick. That part? Totally true.Rumor: Nintendo will announce that they are finally doing away with the 12-digit Friend Code system for Wi-Fi compatible DS games. Instead, it will be replaced by the 24-digit Buddy Password system.
Phantom Hourglass helps kanji impaired
We're not really too good at reading Japanese kanji. We'll be honest and just say it. Our horrible inability to translate the ancient Japanese script has been something that not only gets in our way of enjoying delicious Japanese gaming news, but something that also keeps us from maintaining an equal correspondence with our Japanese pen pal Hiro. We believe he might be getting bored of the magazine clippings we keep sending him. He hasn't mailed us back in months.But, the Japanese version of Phantom Hourglass is set to at least help folks in that region, namely children, with the difficult task of reading the kanji characters. The smart approach Nintendo has come up with is to allow the player, through use of the stylus, to touch the kanji letters and switch to the furigana characters (which allow the reader to phonetically read the kanji), making the dialogue that much easier to read. The furigana characters normally reside atop kanji, but with the small screen size of the DS, Nintendo came up with this different solution.See also: First 6 minutes of Phantom Hourglass shown
Korean retailers relying on the DS
One of the writers over at 4cr lives in Korea, so what better person to gauge the shop owners' and overall market feel over there than him? Nobody, that's who, and according to his latest findings in the busy section of Yongsan (the be all, end all authority on the Korean games market, apparently), the DS Lite is driving sales in the region. This, of course, comes as no surprise, seeing as how the handheld dominates the Japanese market month after month and does its fair share of work in the U.S. and Europe.One shop manager says that without the DS Lite they'd "have virtually no income at all, and it's been this way for months." In terms of volume of units sold, the DS Lite apparently flies off the shelves as the handheld "moves over 200 units a day, and while we don't make any profit on the system itself, we make money off of the games." And, according to him, at least, the "PSP is as good as dead" as sales for Sony's handheld have leveled off months ago.
Nicole Kidman Brain Age 2 ad
Yesterday, we brought word that Nicole Kidman would be the new face set to advertise Brain Age 2, and now we have the ad in which she is featured. The best part of the ad? Her brain age is junk. Yup, let us all grab our tummies and let loose an earth-shattering laugh, for she has many millions of dollars, but at least we can draw a better Koala bear than she can.Check out the ad past the break.
Buy 2, get 1 at Toys R Us again
It's been awhile since we've been able to get some DS games on special at Toys R Us, but the excellent chance at picking up some much-needed DS games has come back. The excellent thing is, though, that the sale isn't limited to just the company's website, allowing patrons inside its stores to take advantage of the offer as well. So, should you be the type of person who hates to wait for things to ship to you, just walk in your local store and you're set.You'll only have until Saturday, however, as the sale only extends until then. And, as always with this sale, the cheapest game you pick up will be the title given for free from the retail chain. So, what will you be getting through the sale? As for us, we'd definitely like to get our hands on ... well, to tell the truth, we've pretty much got every game we could want.[Via Joystiq]
Mario tote for toting whatever people tote
First, a confession: we have no idea what people use tote bags for. Toting things, obviously. But what? They're too big to be purses and too small to be overnight bags. However, we like totes because they're called "totes" and give us a reason to say the word "totes." This one's got a Mario pocket on it, and some appliqued Super Mario Bros. 2 items. It's great work, available from Etsy seller TheFennec for a scant $10. The Sub-Space version looks just like this one, but black, and full of coins. Also, like all of Sub-Con, it's just a dream.[Via Wonderland]
A chibi trailer for Chibi Robo
This commercial for Chibi Robo: Park Patrol is really, really short. Fifteen seconds. It also shows no real game footage at all. But it's about Chibi Robo, which we really don't see or hear enough about. Also it's got some creepy flower things in it!It's mostly just great to see Nintendo putting some advertising yen into Chibi Robo. What are the odds that even fifteen scant seconds will be devoted to it on American television?
Nintendo breaks into Japanese Top 10
When you hear the names Honda and Toyota, does it make you think Nintendo? Well, it will soon, as the Nintendo has entered into the prestigious class of top 10 companies in Japan. Nintendo has beaten even its biggest competitor, Sony, as the company has managed to earn incredible amounts of revenue through its handheld DS system, as well as its newest console, the Wii. As of now, shares in the company go for 46,350 yen (about $375 USD) and it is currently valued at 6.57 trillion yen ( about $53 billion USD).See also: Nintendo is almost worth as much as Sony
N+ probably coming out in Europe
European DS players who want some physics-platforming may not have to import after all. Metanet stated on their blog that Eurogamer was mistaken about the US-only status of N+, stating "We're happy to announce that N+ will indeed be released in Europe." In their tongue-in-cheek correction of Eurogamer, they also confirmed that N+ would indeed be released in Canada as well, not that there was any question. However, Eurogamer responded by saying that they didn't inaccurately report on the release plans. Apparently, publisher Atari told them that they currently had no plans to release N+ in Europe. Perhaps Atari and Metanet need to have a small discussion.[Via Eurogamer]
First Taiko Drum Master DS commercial
Sure, we've had plenty of screens from the game to look over, but footage has been few and far between. Well, thanks to YouTube, we get our first glimpse of the game, courtesy of a Japanese commercial. And, as with all Japanese commercials, its fairly short and completely ridiculous.Check the video past the post break.
Non-Game Boy: Serious games before they were cool
Since the release of Brain Age in Japan, Nintendo has turned their attention toward casual, nontraditional fare for adult audiences. Much of it, like Brain Age, is casual game material with a slight educational slant, but other successful DS releases, like Cooking Navi and Eigo Zuke, are not games at all, but rather educational aids and tools designed to use the DS's unique interface. They're all doing massive business, which makes it difficult to laugh at them no matter how silly they are. But Nintendo was not the first company to attempt to sell application software on a gaming system, however. That distinction probably falls on BASIC Programming for the Atari 2600. Nintendo wasn't even the first company to sell application software on a Nintendo handheld. In fact, Game Boy non-games appeared in 1991. They didn't change the face of gaming. But they make for an interesting historical footnote now, and isn't that better than selling millions of copies? It is for us!
Make a pixel t-shirt
The title is imperative for a reason. Seriously, you should either be working on a t-shirt right now or headed out to Michaels to pick up supplies. Oh, or reading this post. That's totally fine.To make this Princess Peach shirt, HackerZen user Lenore adapted the technique used by a very faithful reader to make his Phoenix Wright shirt, adding the extra step of drawing a grid on the shirt with a washable marker, then filling in pixels to make a big sprite. Excellent.But don't just default to Mario. There are a lot of sprites out there. Get creative![Via GoNintendo]
Picross DS gets downloadable content in the US
We mentioned previously that the European and Japanese releases of Picross DS had weekly downloadable puzzles, some of which were drawn from Mario's Picross and Mario's Super Picross. Well, being total skeptics, we didn't believe we'd see this feature in the US. It's just too cool for us! It turns out we were delightfully wrong. Starting on the game's July 30th release date, players will be able to download new bonus puzzles every week. That should be great for people who, unlike us, will complete more than one puzzle!
Itadaki Street creation vid
Sure, we've known for awhile now the wide range of different characters that would be available in Itadaki Street, but now our imagination gives way to reality. The crew over at Siliconera have posted a video detailing the process of character creation in the game, giving us all who've sat for hours in the dark wondering how one would manifest a digital entity in-game a look at the process. Sadly, the video is on the shorter side, but gives us a look at the wide variety of options available to the aspiring character creator.
WRUP: So many games, so little time edition
With so many excellent games having released this week, no doubt many of you are having a tough time deciding on what new game (or games) to pick up, if any. As for us, we picked up a certain puzzle game and are considering joining the front lines, but have nothing else really planned for play in our DS Lite.What about you, fine reader? Are you going to pick up something new or will you be rocking something a bit older? What are you playing?
