Japan Envy: A 3DS that’s “A Little Bit Mario”

Anyone watch the Nintendo Direct livestream this evening (or morning, for those of you on the other side of the world)? Well, unfortunately for me, I was in the middle of having a late dinner and managed to miss the greater part of it, but I did tune in for the last 10 or so minutes, which was long enough to see the lovely Monster Hunter 3G trailer as well as a few announcements from Iwata-san.

I’m sure your favorite game news website of choice will be covering all the announcements, so I won’t attempt to summarize what I saw. I did, however, want to point out these adorable 3DS’s that Japanese Club Nintendo members can enter for a chance to win over the holiday season!

Oh, what I wouldn’t give for one of these! Apparently you need to buy 2 Japanese 3DS games and register them on the Club Nintendo site to be entered for a chance to win. Only 1,000 of each design are available.

I have to say I’m going to go against my usual affinity for Princess Peach and pick the Mario-themed design this time–or I should say I would pick the Mario design, if I were given the choice. Oh, to live in Japan and own a Japanese 3DS!

You can see all the trailers and interviews from the Nintendo Direct conference here. They’re in Japanese, of course, but the language barrier won’t stop you from enjoying some of the lovely new trailers, including one for Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance!

Japan Envy: Pokémon x Famitsu for Game Dot Series

No matter how much I try to deny it, I’m a sucker when it comes to Pokémon. I only play the games so much (I’ve only ever beaten the Elite Four once!)… It’s the cuteness of the Pokémon themselves that gets me every time. Honestly, I’ll never pass up a chance to look at Pokémon merchandise.

So when I heard there was a special promotion going on combining the famous Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu and Pokémon, I had to know what it was all about. Well, in celebration of a new series of Pokémon merchandise titled “Game Dot Series” that is launching in December, Famitsu is holding a contest for its readers to determine the sweatshirt design that will be sold at Pokémon Centers across Japan. Cast your vote in, and if yours is deemed the most popular, then you have a chance to win a sweatshirt for yourself!

Lucky for me I have a host family who is extremely, er, tolerant of me, so I voted using their address. I doubt I’ll win since there’ll only be 10 individuals who score the sweatshirt out of all the entries, but I’d be happy enough to see my pick be the one that gets sold in stores. Unfortunately, as always, the contest is open only to residents of Japan.

Pictured below are the four sweatshirt choices. My favorite has to be #3 for both its color and the fact that there is a giant Pikachu made up of smaller Pikachu sprites on the back. Which would you choose?

Top right: “Pikachu looks cute hiding in the pocket!”

Top right: “The directional button has turned into Pikachu? Go anywhere together”
Top right: “Pikachu’s silhouette becomes one big Pikachu!”
Top right: “The hood takes center stage for an exceedingly cool style”

Gender Disparity in Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny

I’ve yet to play a Rune Factory title, and I consider that a crying shame. With my newfound love for the Atelier series and borderline obsession with doing everyday tasks like fishing and furniture purchasing in games like Animal Crossing, Rune Factory, with combined elements Harvest Moon and traditional RPGs, is clearly up my alley. So, of course, I was very excited when I heard there was a Rune Factory game coming out for the PS3. Not only that, but this time it was to feature a female protagonist! Best of both worlds, right?

Unfortunately, a couple of things have come to my attention recently in regards to Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny (also known as Rune Factory: Oceans in Japan). You do get to play as a female, that’s true, but there’s a catch: Azel and Sonia, the male and female protagonists, are trapped in the same body. As such, you’re required to play through the game’s main story as Azel, the male protagonist, before unlocking the ability to switch to Sonia.

Even more frustrating than that is the number of bride to groom options. One of the big draws of Rune Factory, much like Harvest Moon, is the number of potential partner choices available, allowing you to woo the man or lady you choose depending on the gender of your main character. Of course the lack of  a same-sex relationship option is a bit disappointing, even though it’s not surprising. In Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny, though you do have the option to marry while playing as Sonia, the pickings are rather slim: there are only 4 marriageable men in the game, including childhood friend Azel, contrasted by a whopping 10 marriageable women for gamers who choose to play as Azel.

According to Yoshifumi Hashimoto, Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny producer, the decision to keep the number of groom characters low was so that they wouldn’t have to cut into the number of bride characters, given the time it takes to create each one. Mr. Hashimoto, I’m sorry, but that just seems like you’re saying,”we couldn’t really be bothered to make more grooms because we’re really catering this game to men anyway” to me.

Needless to say, I’m a bit disappointed… But that probably won’t stop me from buying the game in the future (Even with all the ladies, that trailer still looks gorgeous). I hope that when Rune Factory 4 comes out for the 3DS, however, they will give gamers wishing to play as the female character an experience that is on par with that of the male equivalent.

Guess who got to play Professor Layton and the Last Specter on Saturday?

Why, it’d be me, of course! I had the honor of going to the EB Games Exposition in Gold Coast on Saturday, which featured all the latest and greatest games available to demo, along with a whole lot of other things I honestly didn’t get a chance to check out. Armed with my first ever press pass and my ever-tolerant husband (I think he’d rather be at home playing games than waiting in line to try a 5 minute demo), I endured long lines and more sweaty men than I’d care to remember to try out all the latest games.

Obviously I played a whole lot more than Professor Layton and the Last Specter, but for the purposes of this post I thought I’d just quickly recount what I thought about one element of the game that I was particularly excited for– the additional game, Layton’s London Life. Let’s face it, I really only got to play the thing two days before it’s officially released in America, but early is early, right?

It was a bit sad to see one lone DS XL hiding in the corner of the Nintendo booth, but as soon as I saw the Professor Layton logo I swam through the masses to get my hands on it–and play it I did, because absolutely no one was interested in trying it except for me. Too bad for them, I guess!

The main story mode was more of the same, really, and since I figured I had limited time I decided to see if I could back out and try Layton’s London Life. I honestly think it was a full version of the game, as I actually got to start a whole new Layton’s London Life save and create a character, whom I gave an incredibly grouchy face, pigtails, and the name “Nimmy.” The character creation is a bit limited but the options available make it fun nevertheless, and I was not one bit disappointed by the lovely Mother-esque graphics.

Though people have been calling London Life an RPG, it’s really more of a lifestyle game a la Animal Crossing. You get to dress up your character, go fishing, pick flowers, and do various fetch quests for a myriad of London’s inhabitants. People who like Animal Crossing are going to find a lot to like about London Life. In fact, I’d hazard to say it’ll hold you over until Animal Crossing 3D finally comes out!

So, in the end, I didn’t really get to play a whole lot of Professor Layton and the Last Specter, and the release date is so close that it seems a little silly to write up demo impressions, but suffice it to say if you’re planning on picking the game, I don’t think you’re going to be disappointed. Oh, and any of you who do better tell me your friend codes so we can visit each other’s Little Londons!

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!