Nintendo DS Lite
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Jammin' Guitar Pick stylus lets us shred our touch screens
We've seen a GameStop.com listing for a product called the "Jammin' Guitar Pick" for a while, but we've been patiently waiting for a picture to show up. Today, one day before the product's release, one has surfaced. It's a very simple idea: a guitar pick with a stylus stuck to it, and it comes in a pack of three for $8. Oddly, the pointier part of the pick doesn't appear to be the part where the stylus is attached.We're just thrilled that someone at Naki thought Jam Sessions was going to be big enough to call for its very own third-party accessory. Too bad the picks are coming out just as word comes out of the game's delay. We're thinking about picking up the accessory now in anticipation, and so we can pretend we're giving one of them sexy solos while we're playing Meteos.
Play! Ouendan! 2! Demo! [update 1]
Those of you who can get to a Japanese download station on March May 10th will be able to try out the highly anticipated rhythm action title Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2. That's right, a demo will soon be available a full week ahead of the March May 17th release date. We're not sure which stage (or stages) will be featured in the demo, but we're really hoping its the one where you get to sell shoes to aliens. We've always wanted to try that.As detailed elsewhere on these pages, the new game will feature many of the characters from the original game, as well as a new playable cheer squad. There's also going to be a versus mode, although online play remains unconfirmed.[Update: Those "M" months are so confusing!]
DS Daily: Survival horror
We were poring over the new Silent Hill 5 "details" today (more like vague statements from Akira Yamaoka about how awesome it's going to be) and all we really know about it is that it's going to be more like Silent Hill 2 (yay) and it's coming to some consoles that aren't the DS (boo). Our first reaction is to be outraged. We love our system and we love Silent Hill and its atmospheric, psychological horror storytelling.But would we actually love them together? The larger question here extends beyond the boundaries of one foggy town: is the DS an appropriate format for survival horror? We had one outing already in Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, which a very trustworthy source tells us wasn't an entirely successful experiment. Alternately, if the major discussion topic doesn't interest you, we can just talk about Silent Hill and how great it is.
DS Daily: The discovery of portability
So we were hanging out on the couch playing some Portrait of Ruin online-- you know, the usual situation. Then the phone rang, and without thinking, we got up from the couch, DS still in hand. Looking down at the system, we discovered that it still worked. Who knew? The DS, as it turns out, is a portable system, which means that it can be used anywhere.We must test the abilities of this system to be played outside of the house! For you, dear readers, and, for SCIENCE! But we need to gather some data before we begin our grand experiment. Specifically, we would like to know what games to take with us. Try to imagine a situation where you are traveling while also playing video games. What kind of game would be best suited for this outrageous eventuality?
Treasure Gaust battle mode screens
Treasure Gaust, Bandai Namco's Pokemon-esque monster game that uses magnetic fields to generate monsters, is headed toward a Spring 2007 release in Japan. We've got some new screens that show off the battle mode, which is more Pokemon Stadium than Pokemon Ruby, in that it is presented in full 3D. We like the pseudo-cel shading they've used.Treasure Gaust's battling appears to be more action-based than Pokemon, as well. Players pick three creatures and battle with an opponent's three creatures in an underwater arena. You can capture defeated enemies to train them as partners. If a monster-collecting game with more action and more mysterious natural forces sounds good to you, then this may be exactly the game you're looking for! At least, it's as close as anyone's ever going to get to that specific description. We hope Banco decides to localize this one, because we're eager to play with the magnetism gimmick.
We love non-games now: Jam Sessions preview
We know Electroplankton sort of covered the musical DS toy thing, but we are so impressed with every aspect of Jam Sessions. It sounds great, it looks fun, the interface, while a little homebrew-looking, is just ... pleasant. Look at that floral background!We now know a little more about Jam Sessions, like that it will come loaded with 20 licensed songs to play along with, complete with lyrics, and that your playing is limited to strumming rather than picking individual notes-- sorry, no solos. You can also change the sound of your guitar, adding distortion and delay effects. There's still no game attached, just songs you can play along with, or freeform strumming.This game (well, toy) just goes so far against what usually gets released in the US in so many ways. It looks totally fun and totally relaxing.Check out a couple of screens after the break.[Via GoNintendo]
Find the differences between Quickspot and this new San-X game
Hint: there aren't many. San-X no Chara Sagashi Land (San-X Character Searching Land) offers the exact same kind of gameplay as Quickspot, with San-X trappings. San-X, for those of you who don't follow the Adorable Junk scene, is a sub-label of Hello Kitty creators Sanrio whose characters are ... different enough in some inscrutable way to be separate from the main brand. So, instead of getting to look at two nearly-identical Katamari Damacy images (sigh) and drawing circles around the differences, you'll be scrutinizing Tarepanda the sleepy panda, Kogepan, the anthropomorphic bread who has depression, and others. And for your troubles you get a gallery of mascot images. Of the same characters you were just staring at.We don't mean to sound down on the game-- we're actually really surprised at what new genres the DS design is encouraging. There may have been 'look at two things at once and spot the differences' games before, but the DS is absolutely perfect for them.We've included a few precious screens after the break.
New Rockman ZX Advent screens and character art
Capcom released a ton of screens today for the new Megaman ZX sequel, Rockman ZX Advent, and they show exactly what we want to see in our Megaman games: running from left to right and shooting at robots, all delivered in gorgeous hand-drawn 2D. We could look at stuff like this all day. Coincidentally, that's kind of our job.In the first ZX, kids use "Biometals" ("Livemetals" in the Japanese version) to transform into robots similar to X and Zero from the Megaman X series, as well as a fused ZX form. The kids from last time, Vent and Aile, have been replaced by a pair of functionally-identical crimefighting children, called Grey and Ashe.They operate a new Biometal, called Model A, which enables transformation into a dual-wielding robot seemingly based on Axl from Mega Man X7, a game that we're glad is on the PS2 (so we don't have to like it).We've included character designs and a selection of screens for you. Bask in their 2D-ness after the break, won't you? We shrunk them down a bit from Dengeki's original display, to make the basking more successful. Over-enlarged DS screens are not cool.
A look at some unsung DS villains
Modojo's Ryan Morgan took a trip into the underworld of DS games, finding the meanest of the mean villains and delivering stern warnings about them. These aren't the everyday spiny, cloaked, "NOOOOOOO"-bellowing villains we know, the kind that telegraph their evilness to the world, but some more insidious cads who, while they look innocuous enough, will strike and attempt to force you to feed their twisted, evil obsessions. The biggest offender? The color blue, who Nintendo seems to have collaborated with to render Brain Age players hoarse or even mute from repeated attempts at the Stroop test. Bluuuuuuuuuuuue!
Bone: DS adventure renaissance continues [update 1]
[Update 1: The announcement was about Bone for the PC and not for the DS. It mentions that the publisher is "focusing on the PC and Nintendo DS markets", not the game. We apologize for the misunderstanding. Thanks to eric c for the correction!]Before the episodic Sam & Max games, Telltale Games were known among adventure game holdouts for their adaptations of Jeff Smith's Bone comic series. They followed a similar business model: periodic, bite-sized chunks of delicious puzzle solving, set in cult comic book trappings.Now publisher Xider is bringing the Bone games to the DS PC and unidentified games to the DS in Europe in 2007. We hope that they decide to bring them stateside as well, and that they don't decide to shoehorn weird touch screen/microphone puzzles into what is supposed to be a pretty good adventure series. It's still possible, but the identities of the DS games have yet to be announced.We're so proud of our little DS, bringing back two of our favorite long-lost game genres: the graphical text adventure and the 3D adventure game.
My Sims coming to US
My Sims, EA's designed-for-Japan take on their amazingly popular franchise, is coming to the US, and bringing its strangely Servbot-esque characters along! We actually weren't sure we'd see this one, since it was made expressly for Japanese audiences.They've set up a web page for the localized release, with an English trailer and screenshots. Strangely, the website doesn't seem to distinguish between the Wii and DS versions at all, and between the simple art style and EA's too-perfect screenshots, we can't tell which one we're looking at, if not both. Therefore, we decree that the game either looks fantastic on DS or not that great on Wii!We're ... kind of looking forward to The Sims again! What a nostalgic feeling. We'll try to remember this feeling in a couple of months when we're rolling our eyes at My Sims Pets Go to College Expansion 2: New Dorm Furniture for Rock Stars!!![Via Joystiq]
Mizuguchi talks Meteos Disney Magic
This brisk Gamevideos interview with Rez, Space Channel 5, Lumines, and now Meteos: Disney Magic creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi is perfect for you if: You're a huge Miz fanboy, and want to bask in his calm awesomeness You don't know how Meteos works, or You want to see some really great close-up videos of the new version in action Mizuguchi discusses basic Meteos gameplay, the Brain Age/"hot dog" style orientation used in the Disney edition, and his own Disney love with an interviewer who doesn't seem to have ever heard of him and may not actually be that interested. At least she keeps her composure, which we would not be able to do, at all. Seriously, we love love love Mizuguchi and his work at Sega, UGA, and Q? Entertainment.The video is after the post break.[Via GoNintendo]
New It's a Wonderful World screens
Some new screenshots of Square Enix's bizarre action-RPG It's a Wonderful World (Subarashiki Kono Sekai) have surfaced, and they are ... interesting! We think that this game is the best use of Tetsuya Nomura's distinctive style yet. We're actually getting something of a Jet Set Radio vibe from the near-future Tokyo/kids in baggy clothes theme, and we love getting Jet Set Radio vibes.The control scheme is pretty clearly on display here, we think-- the arrows represent commands given to the character on the top screen, while the bottom screen is stylus-driven.We're excited! Much more than we ever were about Kingdom Hearts, and not just because that's a mainly-PS2 franchise. Wonderful screens are posted after the break to test your Action-RPG Excitement Potential.
MASSIVE clearance at Best Buy starts today
If you're near a Best Buy store, gather up your $2 bills and get going, because they're in the midst of an epic videogame clearance, and you'll want to get there before the unscrupulous speculator types grab all the stuff to sacrifice to the ravenous eBay. You've got to be wily to get to the goods before the FatWalleters and the CAGs!We've got a list of all the DS and GBA software on sale after the jump. Don't expect to find all of it-- most of it has been out of stock for months or years at most stores, and the price changed to clear out remaining copies. But we hope you do find what you're looking for in abundance. We wish we could go tomorrow and check it out ourselves. By the time we get there, there won't be anything but cobwebs and tumbleweeds, and those will probably be regular price.[Thanks, ali emamdjomeh!]
Gamespot possibly debunks redesigned PSP story
Yesterday, Joystiq reported news about a story in the newest PlayStation Magazine issue about a redesigned PSP in the works. The article said the new PSP would have 8GB of flash memory, be smaller and thinner and would have a built-in camera, but those super sleuths at Gamespot looked deeper into the article and say it isn't true. Gamespot's Rumor Control argues nowhere in the article does it say the new PSP will have the internal memory, but only that Sony purchased the flash memory units. Also, they say a large portion of the article is speculative and includes such terms as "likely" and "if we retooled the PSP."Gamespot's final verdict? Bogus.Whatever the case may be, I think Sony needs to do something to counter Nintendo's DS Lite. Sony is getting slaughtered in Japan, but I'm still not sure if throwing some internal memory, a camera and making the system smaller is really what will make the system any more successful. I would go for the dual analog nubs, though.(Via Gamespot)
New DS colors this September?
The US has been very patient with our white DS Lite's. We have twiddled our thumbs while other countries got way cooler DS colors like blue, pink and black. Now, some of us have been lucky enough to get a black DS (not trying to brag here) and we understand that it is way sexy. Yes, white is appealing and it has a few advantages (fingerprints are harder to see, for example). But we are ready for variety. We want to have to rack our brains over which color we will spend $130 on. Rumors are floating around that we may have that choice yet. September 10, the appointed day, just might bring diversity to our DS Lite in the form of pink and black. Don't get too excited. These rumors have been heard before. We just hope they will turn out to be true. [Via Go Nintendo]
DS Lite + Sock = carrying case?
We remember seeing mistakes like this for the GameBoy Micro and yes, they are still a mistake. Well, if you have absolutely no need for more than one DS game and maybe one GameBoy Advance game? How about if you are wanting to travel light (no pun intended)? Maybe? No, there is no way to justify this. Best thing is they want you to pay $7 for it when you could easily go chop up one of your own winter socks and wham! Instant DS Lite case. We would feel safer keeping this in our backpocket than in that. [Via Siliconera]
Toys R Us DS Lite promo
So you don't want to spend $130 on a DS Lite? What about, say, $111? That number sounds a little better huh? Toys R Us has a special running where you can buy a Nintendo DS Lite for $110.49. We know that you can do this online by entering the code TRUS15P_sd2fh3 when checking out and shipping is included in the $110. But we aren't sure if this is available if you walk into a Toys R Us. Anyway, it saves you a few bucks if you are a saver and saving an extra 20 bucks means the world to you. [Via Go Nintendo]
"Mobile Battery Slim" DS Lite battery charger
Given the DS Lite's already impressive battery life, we're not sure how big a market there is for a mobile battery charger, but if you want to be able to bust out a few more Electroplankton tunes on your next cross-country road trip, this may be just your fix. Exact details are a bit hard to discern, but JTT's "Mobile Battery Slim" will apparently give your DS Lite's battery a boost when your stuck without a power outlet, although it's not clear how much of a charge it'll give you, or for that matter, if you can just power the DS directly from the battery for some non-stop gaming. What's more, while it's obviously designed primarily for use with the DS, it'll also work with FOMA or KDDI cellphones with the optional adapters, or even a digital camera or PSP. The battery itself is charged either through a USB connection or an AC adapter. Look for it to hit the streets in Japan later this month for a reasonable 3,800 Yen (just over $30 US).[Via DS Fanboy]
DS Lite external battery
This isn't the first external battery we have seen for the DS Lite but it is the sexiest if we do say ourselves. Granted the designs are similar, but this one comes with a normal plug and a USB charger. So we have established that the design is nice but one does wonder how much power this little gadget has. The pictures show it working along with a PSP and a camera. The site mentions the date August 19 as well. What do you think? Is this a must have accessory or DS Lite owners? [Via Go Nintendo]
