Duality

It’s like Guilty Gear… for the DS… with online play (via WFC)! I’ll write more about it later.

Note: Guilty Gear Dust Strikers seems to really suck. Let’s not acknowledge its existence ever again.

Let me start this by saying that I think the PS1 controller is the worst controller ever made for a mainstream console (”mainstream” meaning the Jaguar doesn’t count). The handles are at awkward angles. The analog sticks are in bad positions. I’ve never liked dual shoulder triggers on each side. And of course, there’s the disconnected D-pad, which I consider to be cruel and unusual punishment.

Sony, being the smart company that it is, chose to retain the same controller form factor when it transitioned from PS1 to PS2. And today, Sony, being the smart company that it is, announced that the PS3 controller will have built-in Bluetooth, wireless tech, and motion/rotation sensors—all in the same form factor as the PS1/PS2 controller. Sometimes I wonder if Sony execs just laugh at us behind closed doors.

Other news: the PS3 will be available in the U.S. on November 17 for $500 (20 GB HD) or $600 (60 GB HD). Yawn. Wake me up when it’s affordable.

Update: the cheaper PS3 model will be missing a boatload of features (HDMI output, Memory Stick / SD / CompactFlash slots, and 802.11b/g).

Last weekend, I played Jump Superstars with another human being for the first time and I must say I’m impressed by the game’s variety and strategic depth. How much of the screen you can see + the range of your opponent’s attacks is much more of a factor than I thought. More than a few times, I caught my friend from offscreen with Jotaro’s crazy range. I’ve been considering building a deck based on reducing your opponent’s view area with the (admittedly flaky) Dio grab -> Neji 64-strikes combo.

err… I’m talking gibberish, huh? Come on, no one else has the game? =( It really is the #1 must-have game—on any console—for anime fans.

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What is Jump Superstars? Jump is a Japanese DS game that takes characters from the weekly manga compilation Shonen Jump and places them in a party-style, 4-player brawler (ala Smash Bros.).

I drank the kool-aid. Now let me tell you why you should all stop hating Wii.

The beauty of Wii lies in its logo and its connection to Nintendo’s current strategy. Looking at the logo, I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to see dotted i’s as people and the use of “ii” to mean inclusion. That’s where Nintendo’s use of ii differs from other companies’ use (such as Intel’s Viiv, where ii clearly doesn’t mean anything). In fact, I like to think that Nintendo started with the ii logo first and then slapped on the W later to reinforce the idea of inclusion.

While Wii certainly doesn’t sound as cool as Revolution, Wii fits Nintendo’s current strategy much better. Wii—and the ii that it contains—is inclusive. Revolution is exclusive: you are either with us or against us. That’s not the attitude that the Nintendo of today wants to put forth. After all, Nintendo is no longer led by the iron-fisted Hiroshi Yamauchi (a man who told Bill Gates to suck it), but by the kinder, gentler Satoru Iwata. Nintendo doesn’t care if you own a PS2, XBOX, and/or XBOX360. Nintendo doesn’t care if the PS3 is at the top of your wish list. Nintendo just wants you to have fun. And that’s what Wii is all about.

I knew the ASUC (student government at Cal) was planning to replace BEARcade with a Gelataria Naia (gelato shop which has another location on Shattuck). I’ve known for awhile, but after not hearing anything about it for months, I thought the deal was blocked. Nope, Bigi informed me a couple days ago during work; BEARcade is gone. I guess like other governments I know, ASUC can’t be talked out of a bad decision.

Immediately after Bigi broke the news, I went searching on Google. I didn’t know what I was looking for. What day BEARcade closed? What attempts were made to try and stop the closure? I wasn’t sure until I found this: a goodbye piece by BEARcade-regular Pat Miller.

Reading it brought back all of my memories of BEARcade—going there after ATDP in the summer to play DDR, bumming around there for hours during my freshman and sophomore years of college, stopping by for my post-work-out beatmania during my junior and senior years of college, and entering one of the summer GGXX tourneys with Bigi and getting our asses handed to us. BEARcade introduced me to some of my favorite games: GGXX, CvS2, drummania, and of course beatmania (5-key, IIDX, and III). BEARcade was where I learned to use a joystick and appreciate well-maintained machines. BEARcade was where I learned to appreciate high-level play and to stop playing (and thinking) like a scrub.

I don’t want to believe that BEARcade is gone. I don’t want to believe that ASUC would so easily dismiss the importance of having an arcade on campus for those that don’t want to hang out at frat parties or ice cream shops. I don’t want to believe that an arcade as well-managed as and as well-regarded as BEARcade was allowed to fade away.

After dismissing DS redesign rumors on January 16th, Nintendo says, “Well actually, we are redesigning the DS. We were just pulling your leg when we said we weren’t.” The new DS, dubbed the DS lite (I know it’s in Japanese, just scroll down for the picture), will be smaller and lighter, have an adjustable screen brightness, and cost a little more than the non-lite DS costs now. It will be released in Japan on March 2nd.

Yes, I’ll be getting one; and yes, snaking in Mario Kart DS will be just as hard—if not harder (because the DS lite is thinner)—on the DS lite.

When it comes to games, my tastes and Xero’s differ by quite a bit. I prefer knuckle-busters while Xero prefers the more-laidback variety. That’s a good thing. Between the two of us, I think we cover all styles of games. If a game is good, at least one of us will like it.

I bring this up because someone posted a comment on my review of Castlevania: Lament of Innocence saying that it is one of the best PS2 games ever. Now, Lament of Innocence has gotten decent reviews from paper and online publications (including 7/10 from my precious Eurogamer). But it remains one of the few of such games* that both Xero and I don’t like at all.

I guess that might not mean much. If you like the game, you like the game regardless of what we say. But it troubles me a little to think that a game we both think is bad (I paid $6 for it and still feel disappointed) is considered by some to be one of the best PS2 games of all time. Sticking with the “third-person action” genre, I know Xero would be quick to say God of War and Resident Evil 4 are miles ahead of Lament of Innocence. I’d be quick to name Devil May Cry (also mentioned in my review) and Devil May Cry 3.

Speaking for my own recommendations, neither entry in the Devil May Cry series suffers from the terrible art direction and lame action that plagues Lament of Innocence. Hey Xero, do you remember your complaints regarding the game?

* the only other I can think of at the moment is Final Fantasy X-2 (8/10 at Eurogamer). I do find the premise of FF X-2 interesting to think about though (what do you do after you save the world? How does the world change after it has been saved?). Then again, maybe it’s because I think Yuna’s kinda cute…

So, I haven’t been posting much because I’ve had to take care of some stuff over my week off in addition to working on the new design and relaxing. But I found something just now that screamed to be mentioned.

You have no doubt been looking around the Google Video beta. That’s where I found this beauty (yes, safe for work. Show all your coworkers! =)). It’s a video of some guy playing level 3 of IKARUGA with his left hand controlling player 1 and his right hand controlling player 2. He full-chains the level and pulls off some crazy, crazy, crazy manoeuvres… maneuvers.

Seeing as how I’ve never full-chained level 3, I’d be impressed by just a single-player run-through. But this—one person controlling both players—is just crazy.

(Then again, it might be two people pulling off an elaborate hoax? Nah, don’t ruin the excitement.)

I’ll be honest: hearing about Microsoft’s troubles with the XBOX360 puts a big smile on my face. As a Microsoft-hater and Nintendo fanboy, I think it’s my right to smile at their troubles, even if I’m over 21 and supposedly an “adult.”

Microsoft’s inability to provide enough consoles is especially delicious. They never said the reason behind the shortage, right? No need really; I think every Mac user knows why. What? You don’t know? It’s IBM’s legendary inability to produce their high-end CPUs in significant quantities, of course.

Ah, the frustrations over PowerMac shortages are now delights over XBOX360 shortages. Really, are people still wondering why Apple dumped IBM?

(Yes, I know Nintendo’s Revolution will be using IBM chips, but I’m not worried. I think the key difference will be that the Revolution isn’t using cutting-edge CPUs—and all those stick-in-the-muds won’t be buying it.)

I finally got Mario Kart DS last Wednesday and have been playing it like crazy to make up time. I’ve already beaten all the 50CC, 100CC, and 150CC grand prix, some of the GP that comes after 150CC, star-ranked all the missions except one, unlocked a few staff ghosts, and showed Bigi “teh pwnage” online. You haven’t done all that yet? Who’s the slacker now, huh? HUH?!

(I like Bigi’s Mario Kart icon: “PWN U FTW!” It’s very theoretical—because he has exactly 0 wins against me at the moment =))

I should write a review for this game. But you know, this is one of those games you don’t need to review. If you own a DS, you should own Mario Kart DS. If you don’t own a DS and you want to play one of the most fun games ever, you should get a DS and Mario Kart DS.

Even if you don’t play through the single-player modes—which admittedly is sometimes like eating your vegetables, assuming you don’t like veggies—I think the sheer fun of online play will keep you enthralled for hours. Yesterday, I played a couple matches against Bigi online. It was only us two (instead of the full online complement of four players), but it was still the most fun I’ve had since the party.

To quote Bigi: “damn. online play is so good”

I’m going to put a region switch on my GameCube.

I think I was reading this list of “top 10 games you’ve never played” at IGN or something—can’t remember how I got there—and one of the entries was Mr. DRILLER: Drill Land. Years ago, Drill Land seemed like it was on track for domestic release. But then, it was never released in the U.S. Seeing it again reminded me of how badly I’ve wanted to play it all these years. That’s when I made my decision.

Admittedly, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but I’m sticking to it. Everything that kept me from indulging in import games—cost of import games, cost of a replacement console (in case I screw up), cost of mod materials, lack of soldering skills—are non-issues now. I’ve already placed my order and Drill Land, Nintendo Puzzle Collection, and a 4.5mm Gamebit (to handle Nintendo’s special screws) are on their way. No turning back now.

Things to get:

• Fine-tipped soldering iron (maybe that ColdHeat iron)
• Thin rosin-core solder
• 30-Gauge Kynar wire
• On-off switch (SPST or DPDT if I want to do the dual-LED mod too)
• Digital multimeter with connectivity testing
• Electrical tape
• Wire stripper (come on, gotta have one at home…)
• … some kind of grouding bracelet or anti-static thingy?

Resources:

• IGN: How to Modify Your GameCube (JP to US mod, but has good disassembly pictures and instructions)
• GameCube Import Mod (covers JP to US and US to JP; nicest button placement out of the links here)
• GCN Mod (JP to US mod, but with high-res photos)
• mmmonkey Game Cube Region Switch (site also has a nice dual-LED mod to complement the region switch)
• Region switch guide (covers three different sets of contacts for the switch)

I know a lot of you are, so Happy 20th Birthday Link! I’ve played several of the Zelda games, though only really enjoyed a few of them. A Link to the Past is definitely up there and so is Four Swords. The 3D versions, while enjoyable to watch my roommate play, never seemed very fun to me.

What are you’re favorite Zelda games?

Yesterday produced one of the greatest news article of all time. Let us all sit back and thank our individual gods that Uwe Boll has quit making video game based movies.

I.E., you may want to wait till you get home to check this out. Don’t ask me how I find these things (and no, I’m not googleing this stuff ;) but yeah…I mean, I may have a Cactaur tattooed into my back, but this guy is insane. Again, it may not be something you want others to see. ;)

While it may not be on the Revolution, Taito is actually making a cooking simulator for the DS. Thought you might just want to know. ;)

A recent post in the Nintendo Forums has sparked a great deal of day dreaming. Well, at least on my behalf. This post was the current list (according to Famitsu) of downloadable games on the Nintendo Revolution and let me be the first to say WHOOO! (There is a possibility that this is merely Famitsu’s “Wish List”, but no one has been able to determine that yet) Now I warn you, this is a long list, but very, very tantalizing. And this is still an early list, as we approach the launch, there’s sure to be more and more games added to the list.

NES

1. 10-Yard Fight
2. Anticipation
3. Balloon Fight
4. Barker Bill’s Trick Shooting
5. Baseball
6. Clu Clu Land
7. Dance Aerobics
8. Devil World
9. Doki Doki Panic
10. Donkey Kong
11. Donkey Kong 3
12. Donkey Kong Classics
13. Donkey Kong Jr.
14. Donkey Kong Jr. Math
15. Dr. Mario
16. Dragon Warrior
17. Duck Hunt
18. Excitebike
19. Famicom Wars
20. Final Fantasy
21. Fire Emblem Gaiden
22. Fire Emblem: Ankokuryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi
23. Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino and Hoppy
24. Golf
25. Gum Shoe
26. Gyromite
27. Hogan’s Alley
28. Ice Climber
29. Ice Hockey
30. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
31. Kid Icarus
32. Kirby’s Adventure
33. Kung Fu
34. Mach Rider
35. Mario Bros.
36. Mario Time Machine
37. Mario is Missing!
38. Mario:Fun with Letters
39. Mario:Fun with Numbers
40. Metroid
41. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
42. Mother (Earthbound 0)
43. NES Open Golf
44. Nintendo World Cup
45. Nuts & Milk
46. Pin-Bot
47. Pinball
48. Play Action Football
49. Popeye
50. Pro Wrestling
51. Punch-Out!!
52. R.C. Pro-Am
53. Rad Racer
54. Rad Racer 2
55. Short Order/Eggsplode
56. Slalom
57. Snake Rattle & Roll
58. Soccer
59. Stack Up
60. Star Tropics
61. Super Mario Bros.
62. Super Mario Bros. 2
63. Super Mario Bros. 2: The Lost Levels
64. Super Mario Bros. 3
65. Super Spike V’Ball/World Cup Soccer
66. Super Team Games
67. Tennis
68. Tetris
69. Tetris 2
70. The Legend of Zelda
71. To The Earth
72. Track Meet
73. Urban Champion
74. Volleyball
75. Wario’s Woods
76. Wild Gunman
77. World Class Track Meet
78. World Cup Soccer
79. Wrecking Crew
80. Yoshi (Mario & Yoshi)
81. Yoshi’s Cookie
82. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
83. Zoda’s Revenge: Star Tropics II

Super-NES

84. Derby Stallion 98
85. Donkey Kong Country
86. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong’s Quest
87. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble
88. Earthbound (Mother 2)
89. F-Zero
90. FX Fighter
91. Fire Emblem: Monshou no Nazo
92. Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu
93. Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
94. Hyper V-Ball
95. Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball
96. Ken Griffey Jr.’s Winning Run
97. Killer Instinct
98. Kirby Super Star
99. Kirby’s Avalanche
100. Kirby’s Dream Course
101. Kirby’s Dream Land 3
102. Kirby’s Ghost Trap
103. Legend
104. Mario Paint
105. Mario and Wario
106. Mario’s Early Years: Preschool Fun
107. Mario’s Super Picross
108. Metal Combat: Falcon’s Revenge
109. NCAA Basketball
110. NHL Stanley Cup
111. Panel de Pon
112. Picross NP Vol. 8
113. PilotWings
114. Shigesato Itoi’s No. 1 Bass Fishing
115. Sound Fantasy
116. Star Fox
117. Stunt Race FX
118. Super Famicom Wars
119. Super Mario Kart
120. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
121. Super Mario World
122. Super Metroid
123. Super Punch-Out!!
124. Super Scope 6
125. Super Soccer
126. Super Soccer 2
127. Super Tennis
128. Tetris & Dr. Mario
129. Tetris Attack
130. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
131. Tinstar
132. Uniracers
133. Winter Gold (FX Skiing)
134. World League Baseball
135. Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario World 2
136. Yoshi’s Safari

Nintendo 64

137. 1080° Snowboarding
138. Animal Crossing
139. Banjo-Kazooie
140. Banjo-Tooie
141. Blast Corps
142. Bomberman 64
143. Bomberman Hero
144. Buggie Boogie
145. Cabbage
146. Catroots
147. Climber
148. Command & Conquer
149. Creator
150. Cruis’n USA
151. Cruis’n World
152. Cu-On-Pa
153. Custom Robo
154. Custom Robo V2
155. DD Sequencer
156. Dezaemon DD
157. Diddy Kong Racing
158. Donkey Kong 64
159. Doubutsu Banchou
160. Dr. Mario 64
161. Echo-Delta
162. Emperor of the Jungle
163. Excitebike 64
164. F-Zero X
165. Gendai Dai-Senryaku: Ultimate War
166. GoldenEye 007
167. Hey You, Pikachu!
168. Jack and the Beanstalk
169. Ken Griffey Jr.’s Slugfest
170. Killer Instinct Gold
171. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
172. Kirby’s Air Ride
173. Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside
174. Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr
175. Mario Golf
176. Mario Kart 64
177. Mario Party
178. Mario Party 2
179. Mario Party 3
180. Mario Tennis 64
181. Mickey’s Speedway USA
182. Mini Racers
183. Mischief Makers
184. Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 2
185. NBA Courtside 2: Featuring Kobe Bryant
186. Paper Mario
187. Perfect Dark
188. Pilotwings 64
189. Pokemon Puzzle League
190. Pokemon Snap
191. Pokemon Stadium
192. Pokemon Stadium 2
193. Pokemon Stadium: Gold, Silver, Crystal Version
194. Ridge Racer 64
195. Riqa
196. Shigesato Itoi’s No. 1 Bass Fishing
197. Sin and Punishment: Successor to the Earth
198. Star Fox 64
199. Star Wars Episode I: Racer
200. Star Wars: Battle for Naboo
201. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
202. StarCraft 64
203. Super Mario 64
204. Super Smash Bros.
205. Tetrisphere
206. The Legend of Zelda DD (Ura Zelda, Master Quest)
207. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
208. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
209. The New Tetris
210. Waialae Country Club: True Golf Classics
211. Wall Street DD
212. Wave Race 64
213. Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey
214. Yoshi’s Story

Man, I can’t wait to whoop some ass in Mario Party 1-3 ;)

Bloody hell…

well…we can still dream…

In a move that may be a surprise to some (I was actually expecting something like this), to quell some of the X-Box 360’s fire, Sony decided to release the price point of the upcoming Playstation 3 today. That’s right. The time has finally come. Will loyal games have to shell out 1000 bucks for a PS3? Hell no!

“Sir Howard [Sony’s CEO] said the PS3 will sell for $300 to $400 and will come with a bundle of games, movies, and TV shows, many of which Sony also makes. ”

300-400 bucks?? That’s it? Good lord Sony! You have just completely erased any consideration I had about buying an X-Box 360 (not that there was much to begin with). Seriously. Shell out 400 bucks now for a minor technological advancement, or wait a few months and shell out the same 400 bucks for an unbelievable leap in technology. And considering the PS3 will have a built in Blu-ray DVD drive and the fact that stand along Blu-ray DVD players cost one thousand dollars, the PS3 is God’s gift to man.

Sony. You always know how to make me feel good. (You can read more of the CNN article if you’d like.)

A year ago today, the Nintendo DS was released in North America. It’s been a long year for the DS but things have finally started to pick up. With the amazing creativity in games like Trauma Center: Under The Knife and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, not to mention the sheer awesomeness of Mario Kart DS, that little system is getting a lot more play time. And the future is only looking brighter. With Animal Crossing, Mario & Luigi, and even Electroplankton (that’s for you, Quad) the future has never looked better. So join me in wishing the Nintendo DS a Happy Birthday!

I’ve got three bits of movie stories for ya today. Firstly, one thing that I’ve been doing in my free time (as limited as it is), is playing The Movies. If you don’t know what that is, essentially it’s a sim game that lets you run a movie studio, but you also get to actually make the movies you produce. You chose the actors, sets, costumes, lighting, sound, special effects, everything. Anyway, after you’re done making them, you can export them or upload them to The Movies online community site. It’s there that other people can watch and rate your movies. With the help of a friend of mine, I uploaded my first movie. It’s not anything to write home about, but I think it’s cool. Anyway, you can view Battlefish Tarantula and please let me know what you think.

Secondly, I got to see the new Harry Potter film today and I have to say that I’m a bit torn. On one hand, it was overall a very good movie. However, when you look at the movie in parts, it cut out a lot of things. And I’m not just talking about things they cut from the book (which was a lot), but there were parts which felt like there was a scene preceding it and they had just removed it to make the film shorter or something. There were several places in particular (the Quidditch World Cup and the Ball) in which this feeling was very pronounced and really took away from the film. However, like I said before, it was overall a very good film and set up the next one very nicely. The ending was so perfectly sad and depressing that I was actually comparing it to The Empire Strikes Back.

Thirdly, I finally got around to watching Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Wow. I can’t even begin to describe how perfect this film was. Everything it did was exactly the way it should have been. You could tell that every little thing in this movie was done for the fans. It’s really impossible to describe how amazing it was. All I can say is that if you’re ever played Final Fantasy VII, you owe it to yourself to see this film. Even if you’ve never played it, you still should see it. For someone like me, who loves FFVII more than anything in the world, it was not only a great movie, but a truly emotional experience. And I’ll admit that by the end of it, I was actually a bit teary-eyed. It’s the culmination of everything good in the world and served to you with a smile. Enjoy.