11 posts tagged “nintendo ds”
It isn't that I become addicted to World of Warcraft. It's simply that when I restart the habit I don't bother to play anything else.
With my Xbox 360 regulated to nothing short of an Avatar: The Last Airbender marathon and the DS waiting for something -- anything beyond Elite Beat Agents, WoW has become the all consuming, ghastly creature in my life that it is typically pegged to be. Fortunately, I don't mind. The Vox guild better known as [This Is Good] is going strong (and if you're playing WoW, using Vox and not a part of it, you need to rectify that). We're clearing dungeons, grabbing "phat lewt" and generally having a great time. It has been a while since I've been able to run with a group that I've actually had fun with, much less could tolerate for entire raids. Essentially, these folk rock.
It's almost a good thing that I've gotten back into Warcraft when I did. With the freelance work rolling back in from the holiday break and my new gig filling out the daytime, I don't have much time for games that aren't for job related purposes. The next game on my list, Crackdown -- which by the way, I've been championing for a good year before the Halo 3 debacle -- has been changed to fit that very distinction, leaving much more time for The Burning Crusade next week.
And as a lore nut, the Darkmoon Faire calls.
The fourth annual ____ Of the Year Awards are upon us! A celebration of the past year in gaming, the awards pay tribute to the games that truly excelled at their craft, as well as those that probably should have never of been released. The awards managed to get Slashdotted last year, so maybe this year someone will just come and throw a rock through my window. Who knows. Let the ceremony begin!
Game of the Year: Viva Pinata (360)
Runner-Up: Elite Beat Agents (DS)
The most underrated and important title this year, Viva Pinata exuded raw brilliance that few games can match. It single handedly redeemed Rare as a competent developer and provided the XBOX 360 with something beyond shooting space marines in the face.
The media loves to pick apart Viva Pinata for missing its primary demographic, amongst other superfluous complaints, but the bullying is never for anything related to the actual design of the game. With incredibly addictive gameplay and depth to spare, Viva Pinata stood head and shoulders above all other titles. I've said it before and I'll say it again. . If you don't like Viva Pinata, you simply have not played it.
Portable Game of the Year: Elite Beat Agents (DS)
Runner-Ups: Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (DS), Daxter (PSP)
A game that a nation of a million Japanophiles couldn't hold back, Elite Beat Agents not only scored with camp value, but it also managed to best it's Japanese counter-part, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan in every conceivable way. That last bit of hype may be hard to swallow for some, but you're also probably white and, news flash, you'll never be Japanese.
Online Game of the Year Uno (360)
Runner-Up: Myst Online: Uru Live
This is the part of the awards where you start to say to yourselves, "You know? 2006 wasn't that great of a year." With games like Gears of War lacking in functionality and half of the free worlds population still playing World of Warcraft, it was up to freakin' Uno to pick up the slack. No offense to Uno, because it's great. . but seriously, Uno?
Action Game of the Year: Dead Rising (360)
No runner-up here. Raw action games were tough to find amongst the hybrids of shooters and adventures and whatnot, but Dead Rising picked up the slack. It's the ultimate homage to the zombie films of yesterday and despite a few flaws (running and shooting anyone?), wading through a crowd of zombies with an umbrella is nothing but sheer joy.
Shooter of the Year: Gears of War (360)
Not to take away from the brilliantly crafted Gears of War, but this was an ugly year for shooters. The Tom Clancy titles, Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six couldn't create an identity of their own. Half-Life 2: Episode 1 would have been great if Episode 2 were right around the corner. . but now it's simply Half-Life 3 in chunks. Prey. . anyone remember Prey? Red Steel? Hah. I'm just messing with you. This was definitely not a good year for shooters.
Adventure Game of the Year: Okami (PS2)
Runners-Up: Bully (PS2), Tomb Raider Legend (360)
Seeing as how Zelda was too busy being the exact same game you've played ten times over (now with waggle-tech!), Okami filled in quite nicely. It also just so happened to be Studio Clover's first great game! Pow! Suddenly, throngs of manchildren have lifted from their seats, wiped the nacho residue from the fingers and declared war.
But seriously, Okami is great! Really!
Role-Playing Game of the Year: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)
Runner-Up: Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime
Last year, Dragon Quest VIII took this honor as the first Japanese RPG since the SNES days that I actually liked. This is, obviously, the return of Western muscle as the flagship of the cause floored just about everyone. Horse armor aside, Oblivion has also been used as the trial and error monkey of microtransactions, but even those have turned out fine.
Racing Game of the Year: Pocketbike Racer (XBOX)
Again, 2006 was seriously not that great of a year for games. With the exception of Namco-Bandai's The Fast and the Furious, I was not compelled to play a racing title for more than 15 minutes this year. And I love racing games. So why did the best one have to come with a double Whopper? It's just not right!
Sports Game of the Year: Fight Night Round 3 (360)
Runner-Up: SmackDown! vs Raw 2006
Typically known as the "NCAA Football Award", this is the first year that it has not won this award. Fight Night, aside from being the proving ground for "Next-Gen Gaming", Fight Night rebounded from a disappointing Round 2 to deliver a truly spectacular experience.
Fighting Game of the Year: Melty Blood: Act Cadenza (PS2)
Unfortunately: We're still playing more 3rd Strike than anything.
The fighting genre is effectively dead. You could count all the fighting games released this year on one hand, including this import gem, Melty Blood. Sure, less people play this in America than Virtua Fighter, but we'll worry about that one next year.
Be sure to come back tomorrow for the Special Awards! Who will take home the coveted P.N.0.3 Award for Worst Game Ever? What was the quote of the year? Which comment will have fanboys and manchildren alike booing and hissing from their mothers basement? Find out tomorrow!
The Vox hasn't been getting much love this week, due to the hectic and entirely left field workload I found myself under with 1UP. Through features, reviews, previews. . You name it, I was pounding away at it. Somehow, I found the time to sneak into two segments of this weeks 1UP Show, which is now available for download. So if you'd like to see me wax awkward poetry about Elite Beat Agents and Viva Pinata, see below.
That would also be me playing Elite Beat Agents. I'd like to apologize in advance for what, I feel, is a ridiculous amount of greats during the "Jumping Jack Flash" portion. Playing on a DS Fatty dev unit is no easy task. Aside from the multitude of hand jobs I've dispensed regarding Viva Pinata lately, I've managed to find the time to start yet another character in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It is currently my anti-drug regarding MMO's as I'm officially on the Burning Crusade bandwagon.
It's the plant beasts introduced in Outland that did it for me. Beasts that can then be skinned by herbalists towards alchemy? Consider my fifteen bucks a month surrendered.
For as much as I like to complain about living too far east in the East Bay, this sale always makes it worth it. It really seems as though no serious gamers actually shop, or even take notice of my local Toys R Us as every year I waltz on in, pick out exactly what I want and then skip on out. This year, Shelby, who is now blond, joined me on this grand adventure that actually started around 2AM this morning. Toys R Us updated their website to reflect the sale an as a preemptive strike, I made a quick transaction
Electroplankton - DS
Tetris DS - DS
Tetris DS - DS, Shelby
While friends of mine may point out that yes, I have talked crap about Electroplankton in the past, I also recognize that I either (a) need to have it in my library for kooky reasons or (b) need to keep a sealed copy around for profit. This morning, we both got up at the crack of noon to stumble into some clean clothes and drive on over to Toys R Us. There, we split the buying and each picked out 3 games each. We walked away with-
Lego Star Wars II - 360
Ridge Racer 6 - 360
Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime - DS
Kameo: Elements of Power - 360, Shelby
Trauma Center: Under the Knife - DS, Shelby
Trace Memory - DS, Shelby
Not a bad haul considering that, in Shelby's case, we went in not really knowing what we wanted. As for myself, all I really wanted was Lego Star Wars II since I kept neglecting to pick that up. Everything else after that was just a bonus. Afterwords, we returned to some left over pizza and some serious Star Wars action. All in all, its been a great Sunday.
If I'm about to go to sleep and you decide to engage in conversation with me, be forewarned that I may or may not remember anything that we talked about. My brain has a great way of shutting off the hour leading up to my passing out, but yesterday my girlfriend Shelby said two things that stuck in my mind until morning.
First of all, she finally had to admit that I was right and that Master Chief does in fact have a rather sexy voice. Seeing as how I am a terrible, terrible influence, she picked up Halo 2 last night to see what the big hubbub was about. Her initial impression? She sucks at aiming. We'll be working on that throughout the week.
As for that second thing, she told me that she wanted a pink Nintendo DS Lite. This isn't anything new as I keep telling her that I'll get her one eventually. "For Christmas" is our running joke. Seeing as how she really wants one and I can't bear to watch her continue to use her DS Fatty, I've finally done something it. Come later this afternoon, I'll be picking her up from the airport and whisking her back to my place where, upon my bed, she will find the following
Complete with a note written on official Halo 2 stationary. It's nice how convenient the world can be at times.
It took a real man to purchase this, and my brown/pink Paul Frank hoodie probably didn't help matters when it came to dealing with the misanthrope of my local Gamestop. Alas, stories of uneducated, Gamestop jerks are a dime a dozen. Right now, Shelby is somewhere between Los Angeles and Oakland, with about 30,000 feet between herself and the planet Earth. I'm certain that she won't have internet access from the airport to my place, so she still won't find out that she is the happy owner of a pink DS for another hour or so.
I'll be sure to return with the reaction shots.
Update: I think it's safe to say that she likes it.
Jared: Still sober and still in the middle of nowhere. To make matters worse, Shelby and I are currently sitting in the hotel lobby, lamenting over the fact that we don't do any Star Wars cosplay. If we did, we'd get to swing around long hunks of plastic and go, "Whoom! Whoom!" The kids outside are getting to do it,so why can't we? Thats probably because when you only cosplay as nurses, tennis players and other such random professions, light sabers just never come into the equation. Anyways, we're still here at Ani-Magic and living outside of our hotel room. Her sister decided to bring a b-b-b-b-boy!
Shelby: So why are we at Ani-Magic in Lancaster? While Ani-Magic is easily the most boring convention to attend... It's still my convention. And it allows me to bring my dog.
Jared: A dog whom is a bigger attention whore than the two of us combined. Doing the couple thing with Eureka Seven is usually more than enough to bring the kids with the cameras to the bar, but with her dog, Momo, joining in on the fun as Holland, nobody even wanted us in the shot! Bah! It's funny though. While we've been together for a full six months now, this week has been one of our best, in my opinion. We've just gotten to bond better than we have in a long, long time and her dog actually seems to respond to me now.
The lounge next to us is bumping the greatest in late 90's booty shaking hip-hop. "Shake Yo Ass" by Mystikal was one of those songs that I'd hope I'd never hear again until I died. And while we can create bipedal robots and artificial hearts,we still have yet to discover just how many licks it takes to get to the center of Lil Kim.
Shelby: It's still a welcome change to the kids running screaming in a language that they don't understand.
While Momo may have warmed up a bit to Jared (and vice versa), my mother now thinks he's beating me. Over the course of this week I have ended up with several horrible bruises that I can't account for. I didn't think the sex was that rough.
Sorry, Mom. I fell down the stairs and into a doorknob.
Jared: As I type this, Shelby has gone off sprinting towards our hotel room in search for the AC plug to this laptop. God speed, tiny woman. Not tiny, however, are the aforementioned bruises that have been afflicted upon her. I've seen enough episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit to know that I should not speak of our actions anywhere -- especially not on the internets. But I will say this. . she fell down the stairs and hit the doorknob.
From the two pictures in this post you can tell that our DS' are playing an important role in this weekend. From playing Animal Crossing every day to Shelby humbling myself at Big Brain Academy (From which I gained redemption), the DS has kept our sanity in tact. We're both too lazy to bother with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connect service, so being able to play the former of those too at the drop of a hat has been a blessing.
For now, it's time to go catch her sister in the act. See you!
With titles such as the cookbook, Shabaru! DS O-Ryouri Navi, having already torn up the software charts in Japan, I was really hoping that Cooking Mama would be a taste of what the Nintendo DS could do for my culinary habits. Unfortunately, as my girlfriend Shelby and I discovered last night, it doesn't quite cut it. That may not be entirely fair. While it's just not possible to follow an in game recipe step by step and come out with perfection, it is, however, a very inspiring tool. Seeing as how we love to cook and I just love anything with egg in it, Shelby and I decided on trying out the hamburger with egg recipe.
Chris may have introduced me to the glory that is the Japanese Tamago Double Mac, it was Cooking Mama that made me realize that this delectable burger was something that could be emulated. The challenge we faced with this little culinary experience was translating the Japanese style of cooking a hamburger into something that we were more accustomed to.
I'm not quite sure with bread crumbs have to do with mixing hamburger meat, but we decided it would be best to leave that out. In fact, our recipe for the hamburger meat itself was vastly different than what is found in Cooking Mama with worcestor sauce in place of soy sauce and milk -- salt and pepper instead of sugar. So already, we're already straying quite a bit from what Mama wants done. The meat, however, was not the most important part of this dish.
It is all about the egg.
Seeing as how I am awful with sunny side up eggs -- and really just eggs in general that aren't scrambled, Shelby stepped in to take control. What you can't see under the egg is the beautifully done burger along with a thick slice of american cheese. Whenever I come to visit Shelby, we always love to cook together. And thanks to Cooking Mama not only did we get to enjoy what we love, but I also got to enjoy one of the best hamburgers I've ever had. Seriously, I don't care if its a heart attack on a bun. It was delicious.
We need Shabaru! DS O-Ryouri Navi more than I'll need a new heart.
Halfway around the world, there are a bunch of slightly out of place white guys I know, roaming around the streets of Japan in preparation for the Tokyo Game Show this Friday. This week of preparation is what essentially amounts to a very large part of the content that will be seen across the various publications, as well as the news you're going to be hearing. Pre-TGS announcements are always a very natural occurrence and this one in particular caught my eye. SCEJ has announced that PaRappa the Rapper is making its way to the Playstation Portable. I have a few issues with this.
PaRappa and I go way back. As the original rhythm-action title, not only do I owe a debt of gratitude to Masaya Matsuura, but this industry does as well. Even when I knew little about the title outside of its art style and general concept, I was completely sold. By the end of PaRappa's first year on the market, I somehow wound up with three copies of the game from people who knew I loved the game to death, yet never bothered to realize that yeah, I might already own it. And while I never did get that PaRappa the Rapper toaster I always wanted, I was still a consumer whore.
Though if you ask me about that sequel I'll pretend like I don't know what you're talking about.
Now that my fanboy status has been cemented, logic dictates that I should be absolutely ecstatic over the announcement. . only that I'm not. Just about everything concerning this retread disturbs me well beyond the notion that Sony doesn't see PaRappa fit for a proper console release. The PSP, for all intents and purposes is dead. Only like Bruce Willis in the Sixth Sense, it just doesn't know it yet. Part of the complete disenchantment with the Playstation Portable is that publishers take the portable part of its name a bit too literally. PaRappa the Rapper for the PSP is a port of the original Playstation release, with the only upgrade being a slight (Very slight) visual enhancement and multiplayer modes which, if Um Jammer Lammy taught us anything, won't be much to celebrate about. This has become quite the stigma for Sony and their portable and one that has been its downfall.
The other concern of mine is that a move like this only furthers to undermine Sony's own PSP Download Service, scheduled to launch with the Playstation 3 this November. The main component of this service being the ability to download original Playstation titles directly to your PSP. Being one of the most memorable titles for the PSOne, how exactly does this help promote this service without shooting themselves in the foot? It doesn't and this is what consumers are going to think of once these two products launch side by side with one having a very good chance of being significantly more affordable than the other.
A revival like this does nobody any good and only pushes a once promising franchise further into obscurity. At this rate, Sony bench warmers like Tomba better make some room for our favorite rapping pooch.
Opposite this terrible way of thinking is a developer that in the last year delivered one of the most exciting and original titles the genre has seen since NanaOn-Sha invented it with PaRappa. iNIS, creators of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! for the Nintendo DS not only want you to experience the joys of a music game, but they want you to do it on your own terms. That lush of a friend of mine, Chris Kohler, has a feature up on 1UP this week that explains just how they're doing this with the US release, Elite Beat Agents. Not only is it a great piece of recent history to brush up on, but it's also very refreshing to see some developers still take a great deal of pride in creating these games where others (Konami, Sony) have merely squandered them in mediocrity.
With titles like Elite Beat Agents making fresh arrivals here in the states while others like Guitar Hero burn up the charts, the rhythm-action genre of gaming isn't fading away like many anticipated it would. While PaRappa may be in license lock down, there is hope that maybe someday, with the continued support of this style of gaming, Sony will come to their senses.
I leave for Palm Springs tomorrow morning for what will be a three night stay at The Parker and four days of the latest from Vivendi and Sierra games. Packing for this trip has not been without drama as this will be what I consider my first real business trip. I place emphasis on the word real because I actually have to represent someone (In this case, 1UP.Com) and not rely on anyone else to do it for me. The drama goes beyond what shirts to pack and to the fatal choice that befalls most gamers when it comes to leaving home for an extended period of time.
In a random fit of luck, I managed to pick up Trauma Center for the DS just in time for this trip. If I hadn't found that, this decision would have been made much harder as it's difficult to sustain oneself on brain training games and Princess Peach alone. Of course, the competing faction is the currently on life support Playstation Portable. Hardly a contest, I know, but there is always one piece of software that will always make this decision a difficult one.
DJ Max Portable.
Yes, I'm still playing DJ Max as I still consider it to be one of the greatest achievements in handheld gaming. I wrote this preview of the game, dating back to February of this year and I still work up the strength to lug around the PSP for the sole reason of playing. It's ridiculous, I know, but thanks to DJ Max it looks like I'll be taking both my DS Lite and my PSP with me to Southern California. Unless of course, that makes my bag too heavy. In that case, screw it. The PSP can stay.
I still have a preview of Enchanted Arms to write up before I can even begin to worry about catching my flight and I'm still fiddling around with the latest build of THQ's soon to be success story, Saints Row. As I say in my preview (That should be up sometime this week over at 1UP), it may be both intellectually, as well as creatively bankrupt, but it's still a total riot. And any game that lets me shoot people in the face with Zangief is alright in my book.
There are a few other crazy situations that I know I'll find myself in while I'm in Palm Springs, but it's nothing I can talk about now. I'll take a stab at blogging while I'm down there.
