Author: Anne

Pop’n Rhythm Impressions

Pop’n Music is hands down my favorite arcade game. Ever. Why it hasn’t expanded to arcades outside of Japan is beyond me, as it’s the perfect example of what makes an arcade experience great: catchy loud music, lots of colors, wacky cuteness, and unique gameplay that can’t be replicated at home.

For those familiar with Dance Dance Revolution, the idea behind Pop’n Music should sound familiar. The aim of the game is to hit nine colored buttons in time with the music, following corresponding colored markers that make their way across the screen. It’s easy to learn but difficult as all get out to master, let me tell you!

To get an idea of what it looks like in action, check out this video:

(Now, I’ll have you know that I can play with all nine buttons, but I’m still much closer to the “unskilled foreigner” in the video ability-wise)

Because of my affinity for the arcade version of Pop’n Music, I felt it was my duty to pick up a copy of Pop’n Rhythm (aka Pop’n Music in the US) when I saw it used on the shelf of my local EB Games. First of all, the box art is adorable!

But unfortunately, when it comes to gameplay, it just doesn’t hold a candle to its arcade brethren. That’s largely due to the fact that Pop’n Rhythm has players using the nunchuck and Wiimote in lieu of actual buttons. The nine buttons you need to hit only appear on screen, requiring you to jerk the nunchuck and Wiimote left and right until your avatar’s hands line up with the buttons, after which you then jerk your hands downward to “hit” the button, much like a game of Whack-a-Mole. It’s horribly inaccurate and gets uncomfortable to do very quickly, especially on some of the harder songs.

Weird, inadequate gameplay aside, Pop’n Rhythm also commits one of the most cardinal music game sins: it has absolutely no unlockable music. What’s the point of playing through all the songs and trying to better your score if there aren’t any additional songs to unlock?! Some of my fondest memories of DDR were of unknowingly unlocking new tracks to groove to.

It may not be the complete failure that Samba de Amigo was on the Wii, but Pop’n Rhythm comes nowhere close to capturing what makes Pop’n Music such an amazing series. For players who have no experience with the arcade version, however, Pop’n Rhythm probably has enough substance to garner a couple afternoons worth of fun.

The moral of the story is that though my husband and I got about a 30 minute session of arm flinging while laughing hysterically as we tried to figure out exactly how to play it properly, I was happy to take advantage of EB Game’s used game return policy and return Pop’n Rhythm from whence it came. Cute box art and animation aside, I don’t think I’d ever want to pick it up again.

What does my mom, pomeranians, and Code of Princess have in common?

Why, E3, of course! I see that puzzled look on your face. Allow me to explain.

My mom and her colleague at E3! 

Let me tell you, humble readers, that you will never know the sheer torture of being internetless during E3 while your very own mother sits in the 3rd row of the Nintendo press conference until you have lived it yourself. That, indeed, was my sad fate while I was in Malaysia galavanting with my husband’s family (and buying a Asus Transformer Prime, which I believe is a pretty good trade, all in all). As such, I’m only catching up on all the juicy E3 news tidbits now, and though I’ve so far been a tad disappointed by what I’ve read regarding the expo, I’ve have managed to wrangle up a list of what I think are the most exciting things to come out of it.

My awesome mom
This isn’t the first year my mom has attended E3 due to her connections with Nintendo via her work for them at IBM (not sure how much she’d want me to give away here, so I’ll leave it at that), but I think it’s worth mentioning again how amazingly awesome she is to brave the throngs of hot, sweaty gamers to be one of the privileged few to try out the Wii U and sit in on the Nintendo press conference in person. And, well, hopefully she managed to grab me some sweet swag in the process, too. Go mom!

Mom at last year’s E3 in the Nintendo VIP section

Tokyo Jungle
I may not have mentioned Tokyo Jungle on this blog yet, but that doesn’t mean I’m not excited for it. A few months ago, my interest in it was 90% vague intrigue due to the fact that you could control a huge variety of animals (Dinosaurs?! I love dinosaurs!), but after listening to the Red Sun Gamer podcast #38 I couldn’t help but become obsessed with the idea of trying this unique title. Imagine my surprise when, buried under the all Assassin’s Creed 3 and Borderlands 2 gushing, there was a miniscule announcement from Sony indicating that Tokyo Jungle would indeed be coming out in English! As a wise man once said: “My body is ready.”

I haven’t checked out the most recent Red Sun Gamer podcasts yet in my rush to catch up on everything since I’ve returned, but I encourage you to give them a listen! They’re all Japanese games, all the time, and I’m told they talk at length about Tokyo Jungle in their latest podcast, #40. 

Code of Princess
Though this year’s E3 wasn’t exactly overflowing with exciting localization announcements, I was surprised, and, admittedly, tickled pink at Atlus’ revealing that they would be bringing Code of Princess to North America. This may solely be due to the amazing art, which I’ve talked about before, but I’m okay with that. That and I’m always up for more quirky Japanese titles for the 3DS!

Granted, there were many disappointments to be had at this year’s E3, as well. Where was Animal Crossing 3D? And for this being the big unveiling of the Wii U, I’ve only managed to be mildly intrigued by it so far. Granted, I haven’t been watching any videos to speak of, so maybe I could get into it all a little more if I actually sat down and watched things in action?

Of course, I haven’t mentioned anything that wasn’t 100% new to me at the time of E3. I’m beyond excited for New Little King’s Story and Harvest Moon: A New Beginning, both of which were announced before the show, and the likes of Kingdom Hearts 3D and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, and Pokemon Conquest, which will be debuting this summer and were all shown at E3.

So, what did you all think of this year’s E3? Is the Wii U all that? Any other exciting news that you think I’ve overlooked? Let me know in the comments!

The Arrival of Shojo Manga Wonderland

As our plane gently glided onto the runway of the international airport in an uncharacteristically rainy Brisbane earlier this week, a package was simultaneously delivered to our doorstep.

Okay, I’m embellishing a little, but the gist of things is I’m back and blogging (Hello! I’ve missed you all!) and I’m extremely excited to share pictures of my contributer’s copy of Shojo Manga Wonderland!

When I said in my original post on the book that my portion in it is small, I meant it. The book stacks up to be a total of 174 pages of shojo writing goodness, but my words only appear on a tiny portion of five of them. Regardless, it’s an amazing feeling to see yourself in print. And with a picture, no less!

Not that we really need to know what it says, but for the interested, I’ll give a brief description: It’s a bio stating that I’m from America, studying boys’ love in Australia, have watched anime/read manga from a very young age, and dabble in translation. Since my dad asked me over Skype when I told him I was going to be in a book whether this was proof that I can really speak Japanese, here you go! I wrote it myself!
The following pages feature four questions regarding shojo manga along with my and the other nine female participant’s answers. Question #4 only got five responses printed, and mine’s one of them, so I guess that makes me pretty cool. 
Again, I won’t go through and translate everything, but this question is asking what got us started reading manga. For me, I started watching the Sailor Moon anime at a young age, and was subsequently introduced to the manga, which then brought me into the larger world of shojo. And the rest’s history! (aside: Mine’s the bubble at the top)
Now, not only is there this interesting discussion I took part in, but Shojo Manga Wonderland is also chock full of great interviews, overviews (including a history of shojo manga), and introductions to notable shojo manga titles. And wait, what’s this?!
Even if you can’t read Japanese, I’m sure you can see the words “column” and “BL” (short for “boys’ love). Now this really is my kind of book! I think it’s safe to say I’ll be spending a lot of time with this puppy. 

Vacation Station

That’s right, yours truly is going on vacation! Shaun and I are headed to Penang, Malaysia, to visit his extended family, whom I have never met before. Cue the nervous anxiety! The approximately week and a half we’re going to be there will be jam-packed, so I doubt we’ll have much time to visit such idyllic beaches as the one posted above.

If you’re lucky, I might come back with pictures of me doing this:

source

Yup, that’s a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. Basically, it’s an event held the morning before a couple is schedule to married (usually in the afternoon), which acts as a formal “introduction” of the bride and groom to the couples respective parents. Since my parents won’t be able to attend, it’ll just be Shaun introducing me to his family… Well, I’m not very up on Chinese wedding traditions, so check out that source link to learn more if you’re interested. We’ll also be having a banquet while we’re there, but it’s more of an after party rather than an actual wedding ceremony. And thank goodness for that, as this will be the third time Shaun and I have celebrated our union since that fateful day in November 2010.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get off my lazy butt and schedule any posts to go up while I’m gone, so things might get a little quiet around here. Don’t worry, I won’t be gone too long. I expect you all to be here when I get back!

Baby’s got a brand new Game Boy micro

Funny how I was just mentioning the enticing allure of all the interesting things I find on the internet in my last post and here I am but a few days later with an item that wasn’t even on my radar until I saw The Gay Gamer‘s gorgeous images of his hot pink Game Boy micro. As you can see, I had to have one! And I think I’m in love.

Is it not the most amazing handheld you’ve ever seen? After a little over a week scouring eBay for the best deal, I managed to find a like new, in-box console (albeit missing the flimsy black carry pouch it originally came with) for a relatively reasonable price considering every other listing I saw was in the triple digits. Now that it’s finally in my grubby little hands, I have to say I couldn’t be happier.

But how small is it really? Here’s a little size comparison for you:

It’s amazing to think we even consider the PS Vita a handheld! Just look at the size of that thing! Granted, the screen is gorgeous in its own right, but the micro holds its own in portability, nostalgia, and absolute adorableness.

Next up, I’ve fired up Mr. Driller A so we can see this puppy in action:

But wait, what’s this? While I was snapping away, the game kept reverting to the opening animation after being idle for a few seconds… and upon pressing start again, I couldn’t help but get this odd feeling that the menu screen was different:

I’m embarrassed to say in all the years I’ve owned my copy of Mr. Driller A, I never noticed that there were two different menu images!

Though the micro is almost uncomfortably small, in all honestly I get a big enough kick out of playing it that I don’t mind having to put it much closer to my face than I do with any other handheld. Well, I admit extended periods of play may not be as comfortable with this as they would be playing GBA games on, say, a DS lite, but so far I haven’t put enough time in to notice.

Now all I need to do is start beefing up my meager GBA game collection!

iPhone Envy: Flick of the Dead and Sleepy-Time Boyfriend

Now, we could talk about Apple love/hate six ways till Sunday, but the truth of the matter is between iTunes, iPods, iPads, iPhones, and, well, “i” everything, they’re seriously making a killing. I, too, had an iPhone once… Well, I still do, but it’s either a first or second gen iPhone and Apple has long since dropped compatibility for it – almost all new iPhone apps require iOS 4.3 or higher, and entries on the online app store come with this depressing little disclaimer:

“Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad.Requires iOS 4.3 or later.” <–– this means I’m out of luck!

I never really felt I needed all of the bells and whistles that come with the iPhone, but one thing always gives me a little pang of regret for not having one of those nifty, sleek devices: all of the apps (game or otherwise) I read about on the internet. Oh, curse you internet, for if you did not exist I would live in a naive bliss where I would not want nearly so many things!

But alas, such is the nature of this hyper-connected world we live in. Luckily, there are so many free apps available, and though I can’t personally play them at this point in time, I can most definitely tell you all about them and why you should go download them immediately.

Flick of the Dead



Remember The Typing of the Dead? Even more ridiculous than the Pokemon typing DS game (well, that came with a bluetooth keyboard for your DS, which is pretty weird…), The Typing of the Dead has you typing as fast as your fingers can to fend of hoards of zombies, and Flick of the Dead, the iOS port, is no different. Why didn’t they name it Text of the Dead is beyond me, though… Regardless, though I feel they probably can’t emulate the satisfaction that comes with typing the words out on an actual keyboard, the app is free and for that alone, I say give it a go.

It’s only available on the Japanese iTunes store, though, so if you’re interested in downloading it use my tutorial and make sure to search for “ゾンビ打FLICK OF THE DEAD” (no quotation marks). It’s also only in Japanese, which means you  might have to flail your way through it, but I personally am of the mind to try everything at least once (especially if it’s free!). As a final incentive, its icon is just too amazing:

Sleepy-Time Boyfriend and Love me, I’m your pet darling

Let me tell you, you probably have no idea how popular Japanese voice actors (aka seiyuu) are, especially among female otome gamers. Only in Japan can you purchase a full CD that just features a single voice actor literally counting sheep for you to fall asleep to. Don’t believe me? Here’s a sample (skip to 2:15ish for some actual sheep counting):
Well, ok, it looks like I managed to pick one of the creepier ones, but you get the idea… This track in particular comes from a crossover with the series Starry Sky, which is an extremely popular otome game series that actually originated from a series of drama CDs that each focus on a single character. It’s rather hard to describe, but the basic idea is that these characters are talking to you, the listener, so there’ll be pauses in the dialogue to emulate an actual conversation. My embarrassing secret is that I’ve listened to virtually all of them… They’re quite funny at times and provide good background noise, and I can imagine they’d be pretty helpful for people looking to practice their Japanese listening skills (yeah, yeah, what an excuse).
Anyway Sleepy-Time Boyfriend is similar in concept in that you are greeted with a selection of twelve handsome individuals to chose from upon loading the free app, each of whom have a number of set phrases they speak to you. It seems like you actually have to talk to them and they’ll reply to you (a random phrase, I assume), which changes depending on whether you’re in “talk” mode or “sleepy” mode. 
The nice thing about this one is that not only is it free, but it’s available in English! From what I’ve seen of the English subtitles, it’s pretty poorly translated, but at least it gets the job done. You can view it on the iTunes app store here. 
Or, for those of you looking for something even weirder, there’s another similar app called Love me, I’m your pet darling. 

Basically, in this one, you’re that little white bird sitting on the guy’s shoulder. Tapping the screen in various places elicits dialogue from the man…who seems to be pretty, er, enamored with his pet bird. But as I always say, it’s free, so give it a go! This one has English in it too and is available in the US iTunes store, so it should be very easy to download and understand even for those who don’t know any Japanese.

As a final disclaimer, I should mention that all of these do have some paid elements to them. I don’t think there’s any hidden charges, but rather a number of additional voice packs (in the case of the two sound-oriented games) or levels (in the case of Flick of the Dead) that must be purchased to unlock, so don’t be surprised if the game suddenly comes to an abrupt stop and asks you to fork out your hard-earned cash to see more.

Will you give any of these a go? For me? For science? If you do, please share your thoughts in the comments!

Many thanks to Rivi’s Adventures in Otome Gaming for introducing me to Sleepy-Time Boyfriend and Love me, I’m your pet darling! 

Find me in Shojo Manga Wonderland

So I’m not really fulfilling my New Year’s goal of posting 3+ times a week… And not for lack of ideas, let me tell you! VGW, translating, and grad school are keeping me surprisingly busy these days, and for that I apologize. Today’s post is going to have to be a quickie, as I’ve got reviews to write and translations to finish, but I’m just too excited to hold it in any longer!

This Japanese book, Shojo Manga Wonderland, is coming out on May 29th, and yours truly is in it! How cool is that? I participated in a forum discussion with a number of female scholars from around the world a few months back, and it’s been included in this amazing looking book all about the history and development of shojo manga. Questions I answered revolved mostly around why I was initially interested in shojo, what my first title was, etc., and though I’m not sure how much of what I said actually made it into the book, it’s still pretty darn awesome. Unfortunately, it’s all in Japanese, so I won’t pressure you all to buy copies for yourself and your friends/family (it’s also academically oriented, so it may not be the most fun for those not invested in the topic).

available on Amazon.jp

Is that cover gorgeous or what? (I may be a little biased, but still) I should be getting my copy soon, and I’ll be sure to whip up another more detailed post when I do!