Author: Anne

Gourmet Gaming serves up game-inspired delicacies

I just stumbled upon the most adorable gaming Tumblr! It’s called Gourmet Gaming, and not only does it have a super catchy name and cute pixelated background, but it features weekly recipes for food found in all sorts of video games. There’s everything from the iconic sandwiches from Deadly Premonition to the famous chocolate energy bars of Deus Ex. My favorite so far, however, is the birthday cake from Animal Crossing: Wild World. Don’t you want to eat it right up?

I love how each recipe begins with a story about the game and is concluded with a lovely photo comparing the real version to the in-game food item. Though this cake looks delicious and is certainly one of the dishes I find most appealing personally (because, I admit it, I love Animal Crossing), the dish that I would most likely cook myself would have to be the starkos from Beyond Good and Evil. Which is another amazing game, by the way, and it’s great to see it get some recognition!

Head on over and give Gourmet Gaming some love! What’s your favorite recipe?

Zelda: Skyward Sword is looking mighty fabulous

The more screenshots I see of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the more I realize that this game is truly fabulous, if you know what I mean! See for yourself:

The boss baddie, Demon Lord Ghirahim, has impeccable taste in both makeup and earrings
See what Zelda has to say about that!

Now I don’t know much about Zelda or even Skyward Sword, really, but I’m very pleased by the graphical style of the game and those awesome birds everyone seems to be riding around, so if I had a Wii I’d probably purchase the game eventually. It’ll be interesting to see how the game is recieved when it comes out–from my understanding there’s a fair bit of back-and-forth already about whether it’s shaping up well or just trying to stand up against Ocarina of Time (which, by the way, I still haven’t played…).

In the process of writing the post I stopped by the Zelda Wiki and found out an interesting tidbit about Ghirahim… Apparently one of his ears is pointed and the other is round? I’ve only ever seen the pointed ear so I guess I couldn’t say for sure, but I bet someone’s done their homework. The more you know!

Also, in fairly related news, there’s a great interview with Yoshinori Ono on EGMNow regarding Posion (you may remember a certain post I made regarding her a while back). It’s definitely worth a read! The bottom line is that Capcom officially would like to stay ambiguous as to whether or not she a woman or a transgendered man and let the fans decide how they’d like to interpret her gender.

Ono said it, so case closed, right? What are your thoughts on the whole issue? How about the Zelda, are you excited for the game’s release, or could you care less?

The Great American Game Haul

I’m back! Where was I, you ask? Well, I neglected to mention that I was actually away on a month long vacation to the motherland! I’m back with a vengeance and horrible jetlag, but I have plenty of things I’m psyched to post about, so you should be hearing from me much more often from now on. In fact, I’ve got 3 posts going as I type, all of which should be going up in the next few days.

Regarding my trip: it was a blast! I got to see all my family and revisit some of my favorite old haunts. The whole trip can basically be summed up by the following two photos:

Sugar cookies in the shape of my home state! And cows… because as the old saying goes, there are probably more cows than people in Vermont

Oysters in Florida! Yum yum

Yeah, so basically Shaun and I ate our way down the East Cost. But! We also purchased many a game, which is what this is really about. I organized all the games that made the trek back to our apartment in Australia and took some photos for your viewing convenience! Here’s the first batch:

Actually, looking these over, it appears I’ve missed Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2, which I’m actually working on a review of now. I also received ICO/Shadow of the Colossus Collection for review and I have to say I am extremely excited about that! I’ll probably whip it out of its plastic either tonight or tomorrow since I’d like to get that review finished by the end of the week.

I’m sure you can make out most of the games pictured, but in case it’s unclear, the disc in the white sleeve in the third picture is actually Threads of Fate, which is one I’ve been wanting to play for quite some time. Don’t mention the fact that it’s available for only $6 on the PSN and that I still have $30 of credit, I won’t hear any of it!

Um Jammer Lammy technically isn’t new, as I purchased that one just before I moved to Australia last year. Somehow it got lost in the madness and didn’t make its way over with me back in June, though, so I’m happy to finally have it here so I can give it a go! I’m a very big fan of Parappa the Rapper, hence the necessity of playing Lammy as well.

I could go on forever about these games, but I’ve still got more to go, so I’ll keep it short (but sweet): 999 is another title I’ve been looking forward to playing for a long time, so I’m super stoked that Shaun spotted it, and Atelier Annie for the DS should be fun considering my newfound love of Atelier games. Also, it’s got my name in the title! Oh, and I definitely won’t be playing Dissidia 012. That one’s for Shaun (he’s not even done with Dissidia yet but I couldn’t pass it up).

Glory of Heracles was purchased new from Amazon for a whopping $4 (I’m sure can imagine the smug smile on my face right now) after one of my very favorite game writers, Brad Gallaway, wrote a few positive comments about it on Twitter. It was actually Brad that gave me the push I needed to finally buy a Monster Hunter title, as well! Peer pressure…

Grand Knights History and Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary are both Japanese releases that my mom so graciously picked up for me when she was over in Kyoto on business. The day that Grand Knights History finally made its way into my grubby little hands was also the same day XSeed announced that they would be localizing it… Well, I am certainly elated that they will be localizing it, just not that I picked up a copy of the Japanese version (I’m lazy and would probably have just played it in English, given the chance).

Finally, here are two games I know absolutely nothing about. They were both under $7, how could I resist? And that purple ghost with the top hat in the corner of Gurumin is just too cute. Did I mention that I’m totally jealous of the extent of PSP games available in US stores? I could walk in a store and actually find some PSP games, whereas half the time here in Australia they don’t even carry any! I do regret not picking up a copy of Persona, but I had to reel it in at some point.

So, thoughts? I realize this haul is seriously skewed towards handhelds, but that’s partially because Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny got pushed back, making me unable to through my money at Natsume for that one. Speaking of which, Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove for the 3DS was released the day before we left, but I went to a Game Stop and they said they wouldn’t get it in until this week. Unfortunate, because now I’ll have to import that one.

Let me know if there are any titles in particular you’d like me to tackle first and share my thoughts on!

What to do with $40 PSN credit?

Courtesy of the lovely editor-and-chief at Video Game Writers, I have recently come into possession of $40 worth of Playstation Network credit! Now the big question is: what am I going to spend it on? Right now, my head seems to be full of Playstation classics…

These are just a few of the titles I thought of first, none of which I have ever played. There are still others, such as Bomberman Fantasy Race, that I used to own and wouldn’t mind getting a chance to play again.

Since I can’t decide, I open the floor to you, lovely readers, for suggestions! I’m sure most of you reading this already know my gaming tastes, so hit me with your best shot! I wouldn’t mind some PSP games, either. If I end up picking one of your suggestions I’ll dedicate a post to it, with a special shout-out to you, as well.

Zoroark Pokémon event starts in AU first

Well, now that my pageviews have settled down, back to our regularly scheduled programming!

Do you wish you lived in Australia? No? Well, did you know that the super special Zoroark Pokémon event, where you will be able to download a level 50 Zoroark that knows the move snarl, which is unobtainable in the game, will be starting in Australia a whole 2 days before the rest of the world (the rest of the world being the US, of course). So you want move to Australia now, right?

Ok, sure, it’s not that big a deal that we’re the first country outside of Japan to get this super-special Zoroark, but AU hardly ever comes first for anything, Aussies tend to like to shove it in everyone’s face when they actually do get something ahead of everyone else for once. I know, let’s celebrate with a a chain-smoking humaniod Zoroark in a vest! That sounds like a fabulous idea.

source

Here are the details to get your very own Zoroark: Aussies can head to Toys R Us, EB Games, or Game from September 16th to October 16th, and Americans will be able to download their own dark fox from Toys R Us on September 18th to the 25th. Unfortunately, those of you in the US have a much smaller window of opportunity, so you’ll have to be sure to get yours quick!

I know I for one am happy for an excuse to dust off my copy of Pokémon White. Perhaps I’ll finally get around to beating the Elite 4? Are you planning on getting a Zoroark of your own?

Some ClaDun x2 Impressions

As some of you may already know, I’m reviewing the latest NIS America import for the PSP, ClaDun x2. Though my review won’t be live for another day or two while I finish up my playthrough, I thought I’d take the opportunity to post some nifty screens I took of my characters in action and tell you all what I think of it so far! 
One of my characters getting pummeled while I try to figure out how to take a proper screenshot
First, a confession: I have not played ClaDun: This is an RPG!. I do, however, consider myself rather well-versed on the title, and have made sure I’ve caught myself up to speed before playing ClaDun x2, largely due to the help of one of the most fabulous gamers on the net, Bryan Ochalla of The Gay Gamer. From what I understand, there are two trains of thought when it comes to ClaDun: people either love the customization and the endless dungeon crawling, or they hate it and its steep learning curve and graphical style. ClaDun x2 is more of the same but offers expanded options for virtually everything: there is more customization, more random dungeons, more character classes, weapons, you name it. 
I don’t want to spoil my upcoming review, but I will say this: if any game needed an instruction manual, this one would be it. Unfortunately, ClaDun x2 is only available as a PSN download, and the very short tutorials and in-game dictionary just don’t cut it. In all honesty, I still don’t know some of what I’m looking at on that HUD (namely the negative number next to SP in the bottom left corner. Someone please tell me what it is and why it is negative!). People who don’t want to spend the first couple of hours in over their head will probably not be willing to stick things through long enough to get the hang of the game’s magic circle systems and numerous customization options, which is a shame, because I found that once I stopped worrying about whether or not I was playing the game “right,” I found myself quite enjoying the experience overall.
For those of you who are not familiar with the game, ClaDun x2 is an action RPG focused on lots and lots of dungeon crawling. You control one character at a time, who is your “main character,” and all other characters can be equipped to your main character in order to enhance his or her stats via a system called “magic circles.”  You’ll pick up various items in the dungeons to boost your character’s stats in the magic circles, and in order to maintain a well-rounded party it is important to switch main characters every couple of levels and update your magic circles as you unlock new ones and obtain better items. While this may seem daunting at first, especially without much guidance, I found that after experimenting a bit it really wasn’t as intimidating as I previously thought. 
My 1st character, Apricot, is an ass-kicking guardian.  You can see my sub characters acting as human shields in the top right corner. This is one of the randomly generated dungeons, or Ran-geons. 
With all the character customization and equipping/magic circle swapping, you may quickly find that you’re starting to spend a lot of time in menus and not so much time fighting beasties and nabbing sweet loot. This is one area where I really felt the game could have benefitted from better instruction, so that rather than staring at the screen and wondering what the hell you’re looking at, you could actually be playing the game. But really, your ClaDun x2 experience is what you choose to make it, and once the Ran-geons opened up to me, I quickly lost myself in the superior loot and difficulty they offered. 
It is worth noting, I think, that if you’re looking for the 3 new classes (ninja, dragoon, and monk) you’ll have to replay the pre-made dungeons and beat them within the time allotted in order to gain fame, which will net you various items and unlock a number of important things in-game. 50 fame is what it takes to get the new classes, and even then you’ll need to pay a significant sum for them, so it’s worth doing this early on if you wanted to try the new classes in particular. There is no penalty for creating characters, so it’s up to you to experiment! As of now, I have 6. 
My newest character, a dragoon, getting bashed as I try to take an epic “in action” screenshot for you all
ClaDun x2 is shaping up to be a great retro-style dungeon crawler for the PSP, and bite-sized dungeons make it perfect for a handheld. The lack of story may deter some, but I think it fits well with the style of gameplay, making this a good candidate for short commutes or an hour-long plane ride. Virtually limitless customization options allow you to create music, characters, and weapons if you so choose, and the whole experience can really be catered in such a variety of ways that I think a lot of people who might not even consider picking up this title in the first place could find a lot to like here. That said, many will probably be deterred by the lack of explanation of the game’s systems, and might not be able to stick with it long enough to really begin to enjoy the experience. 
Please look forward to my full Video Game Writers review! 

Japan Envy: Pokémon Center Limited Edition Merchandise

EDIT: Well, thanks everyone for all the page views! People seem to be taking my offhand Ruby/Sapphire remake comment and running with it. Honestly, I’m just saying that others have been speculating of a remake being in the works due to the new Pokémon time Hoenn series. You can read the post I referenced here at Pokémon Aus. If you’re interested in learning more about Pokémon time, please check out this fabulous Pokémon time fansite.

For a little background for those of you too lazy to go digging around over there, Pokémon time is a series of merchandise offered only at Pokémon Centers, and has been around since 2008. It originally started with only the first generation of Pokémon and coincided with Pokémon’s 10 year anniversary and has gradually grown to include more Pokémon from generation 1 and 2, so it’s very possible that the generation 3 Pokémon making an appearance in the 2011 collection are just part of the series’ natural progression and not a sign of a remake. Feel free to speculate as you will! If we were going to get any announcements, they would probably come from the Japanese magazine CoroCoro, where most Pokémon game reveals have been made in the past.

The Pokémon Center. A rare treat for any fan of the internationally adored Pocket Monsters, they are a rarity even in Japan, with only 6 locations in the whole nation. They have proved so popular, in fact, that according to a recent survey they are the 3rd most popular tourist attraction in Japan! Indeed, yours truly has even made her own pilgrimage to the Osaka Pokémon Center:

The Pokémon Center in Osaka, Japan
Pokémon Centers are famous for their exclusive merchandise as well as frequent Pokémon downloads, available only at centers for a limited time. It may be a bit early, but the Pokémon Center newsletter has already rolled out its line of holiday goods, which will include some adorable clear file folders and collectable plush toys featuring Pikachu, Oshawott, Audino, and Cubchoo in Santa hats, riding on a Pokémon-themed train. 
Detail of the illustration to be featured on the exclusive file folders. This Pikachu looks quite like the Pokemon Rumble Blast style Pikachu, if I may say.
Each plush will be sold separately for approximately $15, but will combine to form a complete train. 
And at the bottom of the announcement flyer, there is an interesting little reveal for a series called “Pokémon time.” Pokémon time will only contain Pokémon from the Ruby and Sapphire generation of games, but what kind of merchandise will be in the series isn’t detailed in the flyer. Of course, this has sparked whole new rumors that Nintendo will be revealing a remake of Ruby and Sapphire for the 3DS on September 13th, which is when when Nintendo will be holding their next press conference. 
The Pokémon time series
I actually like these Pokémon Time illustrations quite a bit! I love the pop art style and the color combos. How about that Torchic? (second from the right)
It’s really too bad Nintendo doesn’t distribute these goods outside of Japan. Those of us who don’t have access to a Pokémon Center will have to rely on proxies and eBay for now, unfortunately. 
Thanks go to Pokémon Aus for the info!