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Dr. Mario to Neurology please
It's a widely known fact that when you construct a puzzle game, you absolutely must use falling blocks. There's just no getting around this convention, as falling blocks tap directly into the power of human instinct, subconsciously demanding that our brains rearrange them in ways that would yield the greatest score. And then Dr. Mario came along and replaced the blocks with pills, truly illustrating the fact that we pitiful humans are simply addicted to moving falling items about so that they fit perfectly in here, over there and oh if I can just swivel this one in time it'll slot right in there.So, we can all agree that Dr. Mario is an essential part of life. But where's the DS version? It seems that the answer can be found in the latest Brain Training title to be released in Japan. According to 4 Color Rebellion, Dr. Mario appears (after a fashion) as a secret mini-game. Looks pretty cool, but we're a bit confused about the way you have to hold the DS to play it. But then, we were also confused by an airplane just the other day. It's made of metal! How does it stay in the air like that?[Via 4cr]
Shock: DS selling well in Japan
It's another one of those days. By now, you should know the drill. A new Japanese hardware sales chart emerges from the dark depths of an accountant's office and it paints a picture of a gargantuan DS trampling the citizens of Tokyo in a Godzilla-like display of might and ferocity. It's a pleasant image, to be sure, but after this week's sales numbers, we think we're slowly becoming desensitized.Watch out, here come the numbers! Nintendo DS: 597,628 (Annual: 3,761,175) PlayStation Portable: 161,332 (Annual: 2,115,069) PlayStation 2: 97,475 (Annual: 1,890,200) GameCube: 36,646 (Annual: 260,601) Game Boy Advance SP: 35,764 (Annual: 680,265) Game Boy Micro: 19,261 (Annual: 403,854) Xbox 360: 5,674 (Annual: 58,267) Game Boy Advance: 906 (Annual: 24,960) Xbox: 141 (Annual: 12,284) Wow, just look at that. The DS outsold the PSP by more than 3 times and outsold the Xbox 360 by more than a factor of 100. What could be to blame for this uncanny success? Mass hypnosis? Unceasing blackmail? Good games? Nah, that couldn't be it.
Electroplankton = best new reason to get a DS
The guys, gals and (we have to assume) benign robots over at Gearlog have already a posted a short and sweet article about the charms of Electroplankton, Nintendo's wonderfully weird musical toy that's due for release early next month. The author, Carol Mangis, is spot-on when she notes that Electroplankton isn't really a game in the traditional sense, but a rather unique exercise in music manipulation. She may also be correct in calling it the best new reason to buy a DS. She may also be a man. A man named Carol. There are plenty of options to consider here.Of course, we're mostly interested in the game because it'll let us lord over perennially happy little creatures, coaxing them into submission with an iron stylus. That's not quite the inspiration that lead to the creation of the game, however, as a letter from the game's creator printed in the manual is keen to point out. "At different times in his life, he variously used and loved a microscope, a tape recorder, a synthesizer, and a Nintendo NES. These devices were the combined elements that sparked the idea." Well, that settles it. I'm off to play around with a toaster, a clarinet, an egg whisk, a baby seal and my DS in the hopes of coming up with an amazing new concept.
Japanese Mario & Luigi commercial
"Mario and Luigi RPG TSOO!" Yes, it's a Japanese Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time commercial, rife with the Hot Mario Bros., adult faces super-imposed on babies and...what's this? In-game footage? In a TV commercial? For a game? Those Japanese people sure are kerrazy. [Via GamersReports]
Nintendo cements Amazon's record Xmas
Gone are the days when "Amazon" referred to a lush South American stretch of land, brimming with exotic animals, untouched rivers and impenetrable jungles. No, that Amazon has long since been uprooted, trampled and burnt to the ground to make way for computer servers to power the modern and decidedly more well-stocked Amazon. That's progress for you.Amazon has made quite some progress this year, with their Christmas sales reaching epic proportions. They've reportedly sold more than 108 million items with virtual carts being filled at a rate of 41 orders per second. It was a blue Christmas for them, as the top-selling items in video game hardware were, of course, the Pearl Blue GBA SP and the Electric Blue DS. Oh, and that PSP thingamabob. Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO was also kind enough to impart some holiday well-wishing. "We are grateful to our customers for shopping with us this holiday season and we wish everyone a happy new year."In other words, thanks for giving us your money and we hope you're still alive next year so you can do it again.
Fifa Street 2 Screenshots
Been dying to play a great sports game that doesn't star a certain portly plumber and is at least somewhat grounded in reality? Well, judging by these new screens of Fifa Street 2, it seems that you'll just have to die a little bit longer. Look, we're sure the game will at least get the basics right. You'll run around, you'll herd a ball into a goal either by kicking it around or slamming your forehead into it and you'll do ridiculous somersaults to celebrate each goal. But I'm just not digging that giant analog stick on the bottom screen. Let's hope that's not the only form of control and that the developer has come to realize (just as we have) that one needs to use that touch screen in more creative ways than simply treating it as a big, flat analog stick.[Via GamersReports]
Nintendo attracts the ladies
And no, that headline is not meant to suggest that playing Nintendo games somehow makes you more attractive to the prettier sex. No, it actually refers to the fact that if you're playing Nintendo games, there's a reasonably good chance that you're female. The journey of self-discovery begins now!The Siliconera crew reports that, according to Club Nintendo membership information, the Touch Generation series in Japan has managed to grab a significantly large female audience. The games that were considered were Adult Brain Training (women are smart!), Nintendogs (women are responsible!), another puzzle-based title, Yawaraka Atamu Juku (women solve problems!) and Woman, Make Me a Damn Sandwich (women can laugh at stupid jokes!). Approximately half of the gamers that bought Nintendogs were girls, with the same holding true for Yawarka Atamu Juku. About a third of those who bought Adult Brain Training were women.It looks like Nintendo is becoming quite adept at tapping into that mysterious and ethereal female market, an achievement that had previously been reserved for games like The Sims. What's the secret? Adorable puppies? Intuitive interfaces? Really good games?[via Siliconera]
GameFly users choose Crossing, Kart and comedy
The GameFly rental chart encompassing last week's temporary gaming action has been released and shows a rather shocking trend amongst DS gamers. Actually, no. That's a lie. The most popular DS game on the service was Animal Crossing: Wild World, followed closely by Mario Kart DS and Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time. Whilst the latter title is firmly stuck in the offline realm, the eagerness of gamers to try out the other two bodes well for Nintendo's Wi-Fi service. Hopefully most of the people that rented those fine games will end up buying them and putting some more money in the developers' pockets (at least those developers that choose to wear pants at all).
New Resident Evil screenies
After watching the video trailer of Capcom's re-REmake of Resident Evil earlier this month, it became apparent that Capcom was making every effort to appease survival-horror fans...well, at least the ones that enjoyed the series before Resident Evil 4 fixed revitalized it. Yes, the static camera angles, obtuse "place the magical obsidian gem into the fish statue" puzzles and robotic aiming have all returned, but the allure of slashing zombies in first-person view and an apparent multiplayer mode will undoubtedly prove much too hard to resist.Still, it would have been far better to see the game drop the fixed camera angles and adopt an over-the-shoulder view with precise, stylus-driven aiming. The environments are all real-time now, so why not? Why can't you use the guns in first-person mode? And how about a Nintendogs-esque mini-game where you attempt to train a chained zombie, only to have him nibble your arm off at unexpected intervals? Ponder these questions while you absorb the new and very bloody screenshots of the game.[Correction: Upon closer scrutiny (thanks el pero de nate), it seems we gave this remake a bit too much credit. The environments aren't real-time, but we still stand by our ideas for making the game better.]
Mario DS pouch
Hats off to whoever designed this neat little protective DS pouch. It would certainly go well with the flaming red Mario Kart system, or would that be a little too much? Now if only someone would do the same with Wario's cap or Toad's ridiculous mushroom helmet.
Electroplankton at Target next month
Electroplankton was one of the games that appeared during this year's E3 as a downloadable demo from the veritable Wi-Fi nexus that was Nintendo's floorspace. After grabbing it from their ethereal streams of data, I spent some time with it in my hotel room. And by "some time", I mean a period of clock cycles which seemed to stretch on for an eternity. I was plunged into a world where I reigned as conductor supreme over constantly smiling amoeba-like creatures, gently poking and prodding them to elicit unique sounds and instantly create my own music. Some have expressed unhappiness over Nintendo's current tune, a little ditty that goes along the lines of "For January this release is timed / buy it if you're musically inclined / don't go looking amongst the mortar and the bricks / for it's only available after several clicks / point your browser to Nintendo / listen to Reggie 'cos he says so." No wonder people are so unhappy - it's a really awful tune. It seems that Target agrees, as according to their Get into the Game website, their stores will be selling the game when it releases on January 11th. Though the game may end up just being relegated to Target's website, there's certainly a fair chance that such a mainstream store would end up carrying a title that would have the most success amongst the Nintendogs audience. There's no reason for such a gaming gem to be restricted to online shoppers only - setting the game up on demo stations in a shop's music section would be a great way to market Electroplankton. What do you guys think?[Via 4cr]
New Children of Mana trailer
If you head on over to Square Enix's World of Mana website, you can catch a glimpse of the forthcoming DS entry in the recently reborn RPG franchise. Children of Mana certainly falls in line with Square Enix's habit of constructing stellar graphics that live up to their bold and thoughtful art design, though one should be warned about the adorable bunny beanbag creatures that feature heavily in the game. Centering on the adventures of Flick, Tumble and Pop (fresh from breakfast cereal mascot auditions), the game aims to attract fans of the classic Mana series in addition to newcomers. The battle system seems geared more towards reflexes than strategic thinking, but with some Wi-Fi cooperative gameplay, it should turn out to be an excellent and much needed DS RPG (that doesn't star a certain portly plumber). To view the trailer, follow the link, click on "Trailer" and then on the "Children of Mana" picture. [via Cubed3]
From the Game & Watch to the DS
Hindsight seems to be a constant in the universe, always keen on pointing out the exact moment in our pasts that led to our recent success or our miserable failure. When gamers aren't looking forward to the next generation of consoles and the realistic ways in which they'll render a fake World War II, they're busy looking back and waxing nostalgic about the good old days of destroying mean-spirited asteroids and shooting through their own ships in order to take out invading aliens. Indeed, we spend about as much time looking back as we do looking forward... which explains this strange pole-shaped indentation on my face.The chaps at 4 Color Rebellion have posted a pretty interesting article that traces the series of design innovations Nintendo has come up with over the decades, right from the Game & Watch and NES to the DS and the Revolution. The most interesting pattern one can pick up on is that Nintendo initially added more and more buttons to their controllers, slapping on some extra plastic for the SNES and creating a freakish trident of analog power for the N64 (an innovation that the competition quickly adopted). Now, Nintendo is reversing that line of thought, choosing instead to remove those frighteningly complex buttons and instead replacing them with different and highly unique control methods. It certainly worked for the DS, but will the industry follow? Putting the Revolution in the picture, it seems we're on the verge of the first major split in controller design, with Microsoft and Sony pulling the chicken wishbone on the other end and hoping that they'll end up with the biggest piece. Or perhaps the PC got it right all along with the classic mouse and keyboard combination (with respect to the metaphor, the PC is a vegeterian and is thus more interested in the cocktail tomatoes than the chicken).Read
Reggie and Major Nelson - when worlds collide
More fallout from the Reggie Event hits us now, with a surprise guest appearing at the Mario Kart DS gathering. Why, it's none other than Major Nelson, whom you may have seen in such popular productions as the Xbox and the Xbox 360. Was he spying on Nintendo's marketing mastermind? Planning a daring assassination? Or...maybe he just wanted to play some Mario Kart."I wanted to see how they did it…and it was a pretty underwhelming event. It was not able to connect via the wireless connection, or play as my nickname ‘Xbox Live.’ On the upside I was able to get my DS signed by Reggie (to “Major” none the less.)" Perhaps the reason he couldn't connect was because his nickname was Xbox Live, thus breaking an invisible rule set by Nintendo to prevent you from advertising naughty things. Or not. The DS and the Xbox 360 may not be competing directly, but the online service models they implement certainly are (especially since the Revolution is likely to have a similar one). That only adds to the amusement of Reggie signing the Major's DS, possibly completely unaware of who it really belonged to. This is most likely due to the Major's inability to connect via Wi-Fi, have his ass kicked and his name taken.[Via Joystiq]
Exchanging friend codes made easier
How long before the act of exchanging friend codes becomes geeky sexual innuendo? Probably not long at all, now that the full power of the internet can be used to spread your unique set of DS numbers to the world. We now know of two websites that can ease the pain of reciting a bunch of numbers into your friend's ear, a process which has to be repeated for each different game you play. Oh, if only someone could have thought up a centralized network populated with universal "Gamertags"...oh well, maybe someday.First up, we have a site called DS-Play. They allow you to sign on and create a little virtual business card for yourself, proudly displaying your screen identity and your frighteningly complex friend code. It's a place where you can log on "any time of day or night and always find REAL people to play against or trade items and facts with." Good, because I just hate losing to those damn synthetic humans all the time. Them and their mad nanoskillz.Another site that does more or less the same thing but promises to keep account info more private (though this protects the identities of filthy synthetic humans), is DSconnect. It'll send you an e-mail whenever your friends are going online with a specific game and the site's creator was even nice enough to add a team page for Joystiq readers, accessible after you sign in. So, which site should you use? We'd tell you, but our feelings towards synthetic humans would cloud our judgment and so we'll just wait for you guys to try both out and deliver a shocking verdict. [Via Joystiq. Thanks Kyle!]
The Reggie event is over
In case you didn't make it all the way to Bellevue, Washington for the legendary Reggie Mario Kart DS meeting, you might be interested in checking out coverage of the event over at the Nintendo forums. Though most of the forum posters seemed to have gotten a kick out of openly worshipping their ass-kicking, name-taking god and running into each other in "real life", not many have given feedback regarding the one question that truly deserves asking.Just how good is Reggie at Mario Kart? If you were there, let us know what you thought of the event and whether or not it altered your outlook on life in any way. Use the tips form to speak to us (about this or any of our other posts), since our comments system is still wallowing in self-despair in her room and says she hates us. [Via Joystiq]
Bad spelling leads to bargains
With words like "pwned", "133t" and "OMGsplosion" splattered across forums and overly enthusiastic websites, it's little suprise that the internet is slowly destroying the English language, reducing hundreds of years of subtle communication to simple emoticons and way, way too many exclamation marks. With that in mind, we'd like to point out how an errant space in the word "DS" led to one guy nabbing a shiny DS and three games for the paltry sum of $93. OMG, indeed.When an item on Ebay is listed incorrectly (example: listing your GBA as a type of a lawnmower) or spelled in a weird way (example: Nitmendo 46), it throws off the search engine and category listings, resulting in fewer people seeing the item than originally intended. And while there is a market for the Sony Gamestation hairdryer, it's not as wide as the one that would be looking for a game console instead. If you're a seller, that means you're likely to get fewer bids and thus, less money. That is, however, a very good thing for the buyer. If you can find an obscure auction, you can definitely look to save a few bucks. The man who scored that "Nintendo D S" on the cheap used a nifty search engine that actually finds auctions with spelling errors in the titles for you. Remember, always capitalize on the mistakes of others.
Pokemon Trozei hits the DS in March
Though it's fun to say it, actually typing out the word Pokémon can prove to be trying at times, as a specific alt-code on the keyboard's numeric pad is required to get that special "é". Note the stylish apostrophe hovering above its head. Some sites may skip it altogether, but here at DS Fanboy we do things right (except when we're trying to be ironic, like in the post's title). Another fun word is Trozei, though it requires considerably less effort to contruct on screen. Nintendo has announced that Pokémon Trozei, a fast-paced puzzle game that requires you to link up specific Pok....pocket monsters in order to score points, will see American release in the fine month of March. Some of the game's positive points are the over 380 different critters to capture, several multiplayer modes and not being Pokémon Dash. With the success of Meteos and to a lesser degree, Polarium, DS players should be eager to get their hands on another puzzler. Oh, and the drawing power of Pikachu and what looks to be an adorably psychotic monkey can't hurt either.
Animal Crossing blue screen of death
I'm not sure what the association is between the color blue and the concept of death, but blue tends to be the color of choice when it comes to informing the player that something has gone terribly, terribly wrong in the game. Perhaps burnt sienna or turqoise just didn't have the clout to convey the severity of the situation, and red would only add to the player's fury. Have you ever encountered Animal Crossing's polite, but unceasingly blue screen of death? [Via Infendo]
Hudson classics coming back
Re-releasing old classics on portable gaming systems? What a novel and hitherto unexplored idea! Those crazy guys at Hudson have plumbed their archives of goodness and yanked out a few classics they thought you might enjoy again and then promptly squeezed them into tiny little GBA carts. You know, those things that go into that bottom slot thingy in your DS.The "Hudson Best Collection" label will see the release of several great NES games, including Lode Runner, Nuts & Milk, Star Soldier, Adventure Island, Bomberman and, er, Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom. Hmm, sounds like that last one should be tossed. Dreadful puns aside, I fondly remember my time with Lode Runner. I loved that game - the tension, the satisfaction of stealing a pile of gold and the realization that....you just dug yourself into a freakin' hole. Again! Man, I hated that game.
