08.30.2007 - "Quick note" - We will be doing a kind of site remix in September, and I also wanted to mention this item. If you want a really in-depth look at the Game Boy's over-looked shoot 'em up genre. Later! 
07.30.2007 - "Just simply absurd." - The news has really, really been a bit slow on the handheld front. The PSP saw the releases of games like Final Fantasy II, Riviera, and Tales of the World this month + the announcement of port of the previous PS2 title: Tales of Rebirth. There is also a second Metal Gear Solid graphic novel on the way. The new one will be based on Metal Gear Solid 2 and will feature full voice acting. If you like flash comics like Broken Saints, you should defnately enjoy the over-priced PSP non-game. Speaking of Non-Games, the DS has had a few new announcements recently. Nothing really huge though: a brand new "Tales" game known as Tales of Innocence, a ComicCon confirmation of the soon to be announced Viva Pinata for the Nintendo DS from Rare, and the announcement of Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI on the Nintendo DS. Should be interesting in that these are supposed to be start coming out by the end of the year in Japan. So, this year is the year of 4 in the DS world. We will be recieving Contra 4 in the USA, Final Fantasy IV remake in Japan, and Dragon Quest IV in Japan for the DS. Maybe four is not some sort of harbinger of death after all? The Dragon Quest games being released are part of a three title "trilogy" refered to as the "Castle in the Sky" trilogy of plot lines. I completely expect riots in the streets for the release of the games in Japan. The Game Boy line though is not as fortunate as Miyamoto announced that no one in his team is working on Game Boy Advance titles, and George Harrison of Nintendo of America has announced that he expects the Game Boy name brand to be phased out of the consumer line of products. In respect for the device, I have been carrying my Game Boy Micro with me recently, playing through Final Fantasy VI and Summon Knight 2 again. I would have to say that the truth of the matter is this: Sometimes, only having one screen is all you need. Not that I would be adverse to dual screen ports of either of those titles. In terms of what I have been playing and watching recently? Anticipating season 3 of Avatar: The Last Airbender this September 21st, and looking forward to the next DVDs for When They Cry, Black Lagoon, and the Melancholy of Haruhi Suziyamia. Game wise: I have been playing Metal Slug Anthology for the PSP, which -combined with the PSP verson 2's ability to output games on the television- would have to be the best reason to buy a PSP ever. Also playing through Final Fantasy I PSP, Etrian Odyssey for the DS, and -as mentioned before- Final Fantasy VI and Summon Knight 2 on the wonderful Game Boy Micro.
07.12.2007 - "Oh! That happened!" - Apparently, there was some sort of conference this last Wednesday in Santa Monica, California. After Doug Lowenstien embezzled a ton of money off of the previous E3 conferences, then ran off with his tail between his legs yipping about an "enthusiast media," E3 has not been the same ever since. The proceeding this year was pretty low key, and reserved. I have been to church services with more people attending them than were attending this years E3. Nintendo focused mainly on their new WiiFit Software/Hardware; but that is not important to us. Here is the breakdown of the only things that matter: Handhelds. Nintendo DS - There really was nothing truly new shown off at E3 this year for the Nintendo DS. A lot of items we already heard about and only a few surprises. The surprises being Flash Focus (Vision Training), the US localization of the first Professor Layton adventure game, Atlus announced the localization of Touch Detective 2 1/2, and there was nothing else really mentioned. A lot of games were shown at the show; but they are previously announced, or previously shown titles. Nintendo GBA - The GBA is plugging along as normal with a few movie titles, new Spyro/Crash titles, and not much else. Yes, there will actually be new GBA games around Christmas time. It seems pretty standard as the system keeps rolling along. Sony PSP - The revision of the PSP looks exactly like the old PSP; but it is slightly thinner, slightly lighter, includes 64MB of extra cache space for improved loading times, is missing the InfraRed Data Port, and will retail about the same price by itsself or in special bundles for $199.95. The unit comes in Star Wars White, Piano Black, and Silver. The unit will be out in September. The big deal with the new unit is that a cord will be sold seperately ($29.95) to allow you to hook the unit up to a television for displaying games, movies, visiualizers, pictures, and web browsing. There was only a few new game announcements, most of them were SOCOM style shooters, and then a hideous looking puzzle game called EchoChrome. EchoChrome will be the cause of many a headache to come. I fully expect it to get hugely wonderful reviews from the IGNs of the world; but I expect it to sell like POLARIUM. No drastic revisions, no megatons, nothing unexpected at all. This year, E3 is a non-show. The most exciting news this year would be the announcement of Contra 4; but that happened BEFORE E3, so it really means that E3 is nothing this year. Oh, well. Bring on Tokyo Game Show! 07.06.2007 - "Independances." - It has been quite a bit of time since our last update. A lot of things have happened since then and here is a quick run down on those. Yes, updating is not something I have done a lot of because of time contraints, and a few technical difficulties. However, here you go! These are the most important items we missed divided by category. Nintendo DS The long awaited Contra 4 was announced by Konami. The game uses four player wireless, NO WIFI, lots of shooting action, music from Virt (The composer from so many other awesome games like Shantae, and Drymouth), development by WAYFORWARD TECHNOLOGIES, and it features the return of the main villan from Operation C: The Black Falcon. In short, it will rock everyone and it should be out in time for Christmas. Everyone cross your fingers and pray. The other recent DS announcement was Ragnarok Online for the DS in Korea, no real details on it except that it is not really an MMO; but it does have online play to a limited capacity. I would really like to have that game in the USA. In Japan, a camera for the DS was announced to coincide with a face exercise program The new "E3" is next week and more games will be announced then. Oh, the DS is still selling well in Japan. I know, big surprise. Sony PSP The big deal for the PSP was that a hardware revision may show up at the new "E3" next week. There was also an interesting debacle in that Lumines actually had a glitch that enabled homebrew and thus: downgraders. Sony released a fix for that glitch a bit later. Sony reissued a statement that they will stick by the UMD format, even though retailers like WAL-MART and TARGET will not be carrying UMD movies anymore. Other items! Snowflake Studios has its own site now! Snowflakestudios.info is online and continues to update! Apparently, people (bots?) have been using the Viral Speak script to spam my inbox, so it is now gone. That makes me sad to have to do that; but it was something I had to do. The other bit of news is that Funimation announced the "license rescued" the show Love Hina and all the special related to it. I like that series, and the chance that it will get a new dub, better treatment, and more is rather nice. Thank you Funimation. Well, that would be about what we missed. Later! |
|||||
