snow

And in ushered the new era....

Too little time too much to say, but I'll just make it clear. Sony just came in an in 1 day set the direction of portable gaming for the next 10 years. The PSP is the nicest piece of hardware I've ever held in my hands and it does everything. Want to listen to your mp3s? Sound quality is equal or better than ipods. Store and look at your photos you've taken with a digital camera? Screen quality is amazing. Want to watch movies/videos? Works like a charm.

The interface is very user friendly and very capable and because the system uses Sony memory sticks, you can just pop them out and put them in computer to transfer files back and forth. There's even a usb hookup to connect straight to your computer.

Wireless Lan allows for both great multiplayer ability, but also soon it will be able to connect to the internet through wireless routers and you'll be able to browse and download stuff straight to your system. There's already an "online update" selection avaible in the interface so in the future they can update the firmware if needed.

Everyone in Japan wants one. If you take it out in public people keep coming up to you asking you all about it. Or on a train they'll move around to get a better position to look over your shoulder. You can't blame them, one look at the system and it sells itself. It's just utterly amazing.




People camping out overnight in Tokyo. For good reason too as the machine is selling on ebay and at all the import stores for ~$600 a unit ($200 retail here). I know a few people who picked up a few extra units to sell and have already made over a thousand in profit on them ^^;;




Ridge Racers is very very good. Excellent presentation, 24 tracks remade from all the previous RR games and 40+ music tracks also from the previous games. Control is great, graphics are 60fps and excellent and the music and sound is perfect. Add in 8 player wireless multiplayer and you have an incredible launch title.



Lumines is the new Tetris. Take a deep and new take on puzzle games, add in some of the best music you've ever heard that lets you add to the beat with your actions and you have the formula for the most addicting game ever made. By the creater of Rez (a game that combined 3d on-rail shooters with music), Lumines is a complete masterpiece. I must have put about 7 hours straight into this on the launch day and I really haven't touched the other games much as when your not playing Lumines you're thinking "why am I not playing Lumines right now?" :P


Minna no Golf Portable (known in the US as Hot Shots Golf). Only tried it for a few minutes but it's a solid entry in the best golf series there is. But between RR and Lumines I doubt I'll be touching this for a while.

Ok, will be back with real life in a future update.

Some big events, some small ones

Well for about 3 days straight early this week it snowed. The snow was nice to look at and much more comfortable to live in than the heavy rainfall that surrounded it. Then after a few days I awoke one day to find that it was all gone just as quickly as it had appeared.

Currently it's nice and clear outside with decent temperatures around 3-4 degrees Celcius.

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Besides currently roaming the realm of DQVIII on my boat and hours spent with friends both near and far in..

..Half-life 2 Deathmatch (which rocks btw). Today marked another interesting game day in Japan:


Today was the Nintendo DS launch in Japan. Unlike the Dragon Quest VIII launch this time no one seemed to care ^^;; At the opening of the local store here in Kizukuri, there was exactly ONE person standing around waiting by the store. But then 2 mins before the store opened a taxi came and picked them up. During the first 10 mins the store was open about two people came in and bought a DS, but unlike the US where the system sold out real fast and is now hard to find, it's pretty much everywhere now in plentiful stock.

My first impressions of the actual unit were "Wow, what the hell prototype were they showing at E3!?" Basically the DS prototype I played at E3 in May was not very impressive or interesting so I'm quite surprised the unit turned out well. Here's a breakdown on my thoughts:

+The screens are nice size and good quality. BACKLIGHTING!!!!!!!! yay, even the GBA SP only had front-lighting so it looked nothing like this. I think the last system with backlighting was the sega Nomad but anyhow it makes everything look really good.
+The color pallette and resolution is pretty awesome.
+The speakers are nice and loud unlike every other home system out there. Awesome.
+Touch screen is pretty accurate and works well.
+GBA games look really fantastic due to the backlighting. But it's kinda annoying that they only use 1 screen so you have a dead screen the whole time.

-The sound quality is ok. Unlike the horrible sound of the GBA, it's even better than SNES/SFC sound (it has BASS!) but it's below N64/PS1 level sound. It's sufficient but with the CD/DVD quality sound of the PSP in a week it's nothing to write home about.
-The D-pad sucks. For some reason it's long and skinny like a cross which is a little annoying. Playing GBA games on it can be a little tougher to control than on the GBA.
-It's too big. Not when you're holding the unit necessarily, but the fact is that it doesn't fit comfortably in your pocket and if it does it's gonna pull your pants down because it's heavy. So unlike the GBA which you can keep in your pocket and pull out on trains, with the DS you've really gotta keep it in a backpack/bag.

Ok, now as for impressions of the launch games:

Sawaru (Touch!) Made in Wario: Pretty much the system seller here in Japan. Just as Mawaru (Twisted!) Made was a fresh take on mini-games using the motion sensor, here we get a new game of mini-games that revolve completely around using the touch screen. Really creative games and great 2d graphics show off the system well.


It's Mario 64 with new levels and mini-games. Control is wierd and I've found playing with the pen, though an awkward idea, works the best. Not much too say as I didn't mess around with it much but it's nice having Mario 64 since I never did get around to beating it at the Nguyen's house.


Kimi no tame nara shineru (I could die for you 'aka Feel the Magic' in the US). Another mini-game collection (mini-games are good when you're on the go). This time with stylish visuals and bizarre yet cool music. Seems fun but not as good at Made in Wario.


Mr. Driller Drill Spirits. Umm, it's Mr. Driller not much more to say. I mainly picked this up as the US version got screwed by having an entire story/adventure mode removed because Namco US didn't want to bother to translate it. Also the Japanese version allows 5 player multiplayer with only 1 cartridge something else the US version is lacking.


Band Brothers. This is basically a poor man's Beatmania where you can play any one instrument of a song in Beatmania style or you can have an 8 player jam fest where each person does 1 instrument and together you make a song. The main single player part though is just like Beatmania but the song list isn't as good. It does have some cool old-school nintendo medolies and there is a mode where you can write your own songs and then trade them with other people so they can try to beat your song. It also uses the built in mic. Supposedly you can just hum a tune into the machine and it will pick it up and write it into the correct sheet lyrics...ummm...yea....not having good luck with that so far ^^;; Still a nice little niche experimental title.

So that was the Nintendo DS launch. It came was hyped out with a bang and played out with a whisper. Seems like a solid fun system that is the successor to the GBA despite Nintendo saying otherwise. Now it's on to the PSP and seeing how that fairs.
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