Eloquent kick to the groin

Before I could get a clear grasp of the situation, I placed an order for this. Ikkitousen I knew was going to be shit, and it doesn't disappoint. Hit detection is quite loose, allowing for some silly combo potential, but it's not award winning fighting by any means. Looking forward to the upskirt shots. Irregular Hunter X is garbage. Nothing else to see here. Rockman Rockman is less offensive, mainly since I never bothered to commit the original Rockman to memory. I'm sure I'd be snapping the UMD in two if I had. It at least features a "classic" mode, which hopefully scales back the amount of rape to the game engine. Haven't tried it yet, probably never will. Only picked this up for the soundtrack CD. This too was a disappointment. More specifically, I only cared about the Rockman X half of the CD. It comes off as less of an arranged album, and more of a collection of covers. Only the guy playing guitar misses notes. Doesn't even have the track I was looking for. I'll admit that I was laughign the whole time I was playing. Shit was so bad it was funny.

PSP stop

I wasted an entire evening yesterday downloading and watching all the TGS trailers from PSN. After all that time I can quite confidently state that all PSP games suck, hard. What the fuck is this shit supposed to be? Are developers even trying? Some of this shit looks below even Saturn standards. (Undead Knights) The most interesting game out of the bunch was a PS2 port. (Persona 3 Portable) Also, the most impressive technically was .hack. It shows what can be achieved when devs apply themselves. The rest of you clowns have no fucking excuses. I actually noticed a few weeks ago how much bigger my DS pile is compared to my PSP games. I guess there's a reason for that. And to think I was actually going to make an effort to pick up a few more PSP games. Out of pity. Not fucking likely now.

Knights in the nightmare

Slow week. Nothing interesting is happening, but by an odd twist of fate two mediocre games about knights are getting released. Valhalla Knights on the Wii, and Undead Knights on the PSP. I don't endorse either one, I just thought it was an silly coincidence. If I had to pick one, I'd go with knights of the undead variety, only because it looks like it tries to utilize a new perspective on a old genre. That and I tried the demo of Valhalla Knights 2 on PSP and it was mind numbingly boring.

TGS edit: I downloaded the demo of Undead Knights. Then I watched the trailer. And promptly deleted that shit off of my Memory Stick. No fucking way, Tecmo.

MSY catz

Play-Asia seems to have gotten a shipment of those MSY/MadCatz FightPads without the Street Fighter IV all over them a month early. Will pick one up to see if they're worth mentioning again. More interestingly, I found a listing for a EX Turbo 2 pad from Hori, complete with a hideous picture. The first one looked horrible too, but turned out very well, so I'll grab one of these to add to my collection. Strangely enough, the P-A listing is for the "American" version, which is listed as coming in Q4 2009, but some places on the 'net look like they already have stock. My biggest problem is why Famitsu didn't tell me about this? Maybe I just wasn't paying attention, which is actually a much more plausible scenario. The biggest difference seems to be the Capcom-style button layout. The analog stick is still under the left thumb. Maybe by the time EX Pad 3 comes out, they'd have figure that one out.

Barriea to access

TGS may be uneventful, but that just means that news from other sectors of the industry (or companies not attending) will be more prominent. Arc System Works decided to put this theory to the test and announced an arcade upgrade to BlazBlue, subtitled Continuum Shift. Rebalanced gameplay, new moves (backported from the console release), recolored stages, and an additional character are present and accounted for. The game will go on test this weekend at the Hey game center in Tokyo.

War begins

The first day of TGS 2009 came and went, and every one seems to have survived intact. As a matter of fact, this year's show is pretty underwhelming so far, much like the AM Show last week. Everyone who's there immediately notices how it's a fraction of it's former glory/ridiculousness. I guess video games aren't so recession-proof as some would like to think? The games are the real show, however, but even in this department TGS has been lacklustre. It's the same story as the AM Show, it's just a chance to get hands-on time with stuff that's been announced last year. No new interesting announcements, unless you were holding your breath for Shin Sangoku Musou Online. This is what happens when SNK doesn't have a booth. Game Of Show is going to have to go to Tatsunoko VS Capcom Ultimate All-Stars for including Frank West of Dead Rising fame, and giving him a super move where he turns into Mega Man and blasts his opponent with the Mega Buster. Best Dressed Booth Babes goes to Acquire. Damn. Too bad Gladiator Begins looks like muddy dogshit.

Give a hoot

I like supporting independent video game "lifestyle" endeavours occasionally. But only the ones that don't come off as pretentious douchebags. Attractmo.de seems to not be there, yet (silly name not withstanding). Can't be very pretentious selling ice cube trays shaped like Tetris blocks. Also, thanks to the efforts of acts like the Korg DS-10 Trio, and various DS-10 users, I'm fast becoming a fan of chiptune music. I've always felt that it was a waste of time to create music that sounded like it came from a video game, without attaching a video game to it, but then again, I buy soundtracks for games I don't own, so who's the real asshole here? Still like some good ole' fashioned rock-n-roll, though, so I picked up the only chiptune album they had for sale that sounded like it wouldn't piss me off, Anamanaguchi's 'Dawn Metropolis.' As pretentious a name as I've ever heard, but they deserve it for for creating their own music, using real instruments, and an NES for accompaniment. It still sounds very chip-y, think NES + drummachine. Decent stuff.

The actual packaging I have a problem with. $7 for a CD-R? I could have downloaded the mp3's and burned them myself, although since the first thing I did was rip the album and put it on my music player, you could have saved me a step by sending me a disc with the mp3's already on it. What exactly am I paying you for? The inkjet cartridge and blank labels? Not even a jewel case, just a plastic sleeve and some inserts. Big let down, guys. Speaking of packaging, why the double box? Seems just a little excessive for a CD and a silicone ice tray. I realize you have cool retro boxes printed up, but damn. Isn't this what made that old Indian dude cry on those TV commercials back in the day?

And you thought I was kidding

I don't mess around when it comes to Tekkaman Blade, yo. What you see here is the third volume of the TV series on Laserdisc. It contains episodes 17-24 on two CLV discs. The discs only contain mono audio, which is a let down, considering that digital stereo is this format's only real advantage over VHS. The less said about that other disc, the better. If you couldn't tell, that's the Toshinden OVA, volume one of two no less. The shop didn't have volume two, so I'll have to hunt that one down on eBay someday. Shudder. Only got it because I'm trying to collect all of Masami Oobari's works on LD. He was something like "animation director" or some shit on this, which meant that he had to make sure that enough of his calling cards were present to make it watchable. Much like the games, the best part about this OVA is the music and sound effects. Ke-ke-ke-ke.

Slim pickin's

Nothing interesting coming this week. TGS starts on Thursday, so everyone is getting ready for that. The closest thing would be Persona PSP-make, but if Mark doesn't dance crazy, no sale. Next week has Undead Knights, but that's one of those things that could be best experienced through a demo, eliminating the need to actually buy the disc. Also, why PSP? I understand the PS2 is no longer an option, but the Wii is a perfectly suitable low-end solution for lazy (poor) devs. Oh well, back to Muramasa and Madworld.

Machine is not amused

The 47th Amusement Machine show (AM Show) is going on currently in Japan. It's pretty low key so far. No one really has anything new to unveil, it's more a chance to get hands-on time with stuff that Sega, Bandai Namco and Taito already announced, or had at the AOU show earlier this year. KOF Sky Stage is there, at the Taito booth, but we still don't know who's making it. One can see a picture of Athena next to Kyo on the marquee, so we can at least confirm she'll be in it. Although we always knew this from the original batch of screens from E3 or whenever that thing was first announced. Deathsmiles II is there too, and we can see a new playable character joining Windia and Casper, Lei, who sports black and white angle wings, and a maid outfit. They're lucky Deathsmiles is so good, or this shit wouldn't fly. Sega has a Tetris cab with a ridiculously oversized joystick, and a very small playable area on the large screen. I can't see this one being seriously fun, it would probably work well for a few drunken laughs, but I don't know about beating the highscore. For more serious Tetris, there's a new Grand Master. Sega also has Shinig Fore Cross, which is not the Shinig Force we're looking for, and Milestone's snorefest, Project Cerberus in their booth. I think 'Game Of Show' goes to this table flipping game from Taito. That's how you know the show was weak.

Friday: Gpara has a nice gallery of the Deathsmiles booth.

The second, last hope

Square Enix announced this week Star Ocean 4 International for release on the PS3 in February of 2010. Similar to other International versions, SO4 will be the overseas version of the game re-released in Japan. It will feature the English and Japanese voice track, as well as subtitles in six other languages. While it's unclear if the system menus will also be multi-lingual, the game will be released in America the same week. Another unclear point is whether there will be a choice for interface style. As we all remember, the original Japanese version featured anime character designs, and bright colors for the menus and battle portraits, while the US version went for a pre-rendered CG look, and darker colors. The one battle screen included in the press release does show anime portraits, while the menu screen has CG. Will there be an option, allowing the user to create their own perfect version, picking between spoken language, subtitles, and interface, or will this be some sort of mutant hybrid that blends everything into a disjointed mess? Hopefully we'll find out more during TGS.

One thing that's perfectly clear about this version is that the player is free to select his preferred target during battle. I find the omission of this in the original 360 version, its inclusion here on the PS3, and its very mention in the press materials quite disappointing. It's pretty much an admission that Tri-ace and SE shipped an incomplete game, and if the player wants the real thing they need to plunk down another $89 for it. The fact that they don't even apologize for this is almost insulting. It's as if, for example, Capcom were to re-release a version of Tatsunoko VS Capcom with a six-button layout. You've made a design decision, stick with it. If it's the right decision, if it wasn't, why did you make it in the first place?

Red convertible

I totally missed the boat on this one, and picked it up a good month after it came out. But that's the beauty of print, it's not meant to be up-to-the-second. This issue is a bit of a cop out, featuring a ranked "Best Games OF All Time" list. I don't see this one teaching me anything new, but there are a few games I never played in there, so I can still manage to get some education out of this one. On a side note, reading articles written in 2009 about Final Fantasy IX or Pokemon is depressing. It has less to do with the authors feelings about the game, and more to do with their issues with getting older. I guess 30 is the new mid-life crisis for gamers?

Do your best

I guess after you go all out on a limited edition, there's not much creativity left over for pre-order bonuses. This measly phone card is what we can expect for out troubles when we pick up Mushihime-sama Futari Ver.1.5 in November. For a game built around an anime girl, this is an especially weak showing. I mean look at some of this shit. You have some time left Cave, shape up.

Much better name

Speaking of stragglers. I picked this up on a pure whim. HKFlix was pimping it in their banner adds, so I went for it. I'm not going to claim Kenta Fukasaku as my new favorite director ever, but I'll note him down as someone who makes entertaining stuff. The problem with new age directors seems to be that they all think they're making music videos. Holy shit, can I have a shot that's not three seconds in maximum length? I still have something resembling an attention span. When he manages to keep the camera focused on someone, it's great. Very lovely framed shots, of very aptly cast folks in vary appropriate roles. Think of the images that "Yo-yo Girl Cop" conjures up in your head. You'd be 100% right. Now go pay $10 for the Malaysian DVD, and get yourself a drink, your night is about to get a whole lot more entertaining. And LOL to my man Tak Sakaguchi as "thug #3." I guess someone needs to pay Zero Team's bills.

Now that's what I'm talkin' about. X-cross Is definitely the better of the two movies here. Probably has something to do with the suspense genre's reliance on long shots more than anything else. One thing I've noticed recently is the prominence of cellphones and other such nonsense in these types of movies. I can't say that I appreciate that. I don't know about you. but when my cellphone has no reception it's not panic time. Maybe that's a terrifying proposition to these kids nowadays, but grown-ass men should know better. Also I'd like to acknowledge the outstanding performance of the players. The main heroine is especially effective in her role.

Fun with spelling: I just realized that Kenta Fukasaku directed the 'Kid's Samurai' short on the Kill compilation. Maybe he is my new favorite director?

Late for the old school

This week we get a few new things, and a few things to pick up at reduced prices after skipping them originally. I wasn't going to pick up Nostalgia for the DS, because I'm tired of picking up mediocre games that get played for 20 minutes then put back on the shelf and never touched again. But then I saw the advertisement for the game on the back of the Muramasa instruction booklet. It's been a while since I saw one of those, and it was the great hand drawn artwork too. "Nostalgia" is right, it's like being 16 again. I think I'll listen to some Korn for the full effect. I _was_ planning on picking up Ikkitousen Eloquent Fist and the Rockman/X double pack, but now I don't know. Hey Capcom, release the bonus music album by itself and solve my moral dilemma for me. I also have the Godzilla Blu-ray's marked down for this Friday. I already spent $80 on Godzilla Final Wars Limited Edition on DVD, so no thanks Toho. I still don't have the US version of that movie though, so I'll just wait for that one. Next week is quiet leading up to TGS. I still don't have a lot of things for November/December, so I expect that to change. In the mean time, I expect a few of the random bits I picked up last week to stagger in.

Tuesday-day: Hey, lookit, I look like a schmuck for trusting numbers on an American website. News at 11. Nostalgia is now scheduled for the middle of October. Solves my problem this week, but it landed right in the middle of two other releases I'm watching. Gah.

Warehouse

Gave this one s quick spin. I need to get my Wii back. The combat is a little simplistic, but fun. Very similar to Gunstar Heroes. Hold the attack button and press a direction to execute an attack. The game is basically a 2D sidescrolling action RPG. Run around, press the A button to talk to townsfolk, run into the woods, get ambushed by six guys at a time, waste 'em, move on, and repeat. It's a very good blend of arcade action and RPG elements, with experience points, levels, and sword attack strength. Defense is a little non intuitive though, requiring the player to use the same button for attacking and blocking. Graphically it looks very good, as we could see in all those screenshots. The art is very lovely, but a little lifeless. Everything is very static and still. Maybe later levels will have impressive effects going on, but the early stages are a little disappointing. For a game that takes it upon itself to carry the 2D genre forward, it doesn't get off to a very good start. The music is very appropriate to he game of this style. Nothing that stands out as mind blowing, also nothing that distracts from the atmosphere. Very fun and easy to just pick up and play, I'll definitely get a Wii back in my house to play this at my leisure.

Millennium falcon-hen

Another one I've had sitting around for a few days waiting to be uploaded. This one is pretty much the exact opposite of the Dreamcast version, which leads to a whole new batch of things done wrong. It's really frustrating to see that sort of amateurish failure from a seasoned developer like Yuke's. One punishes the player for swinging his sword, the other fores the player to mash the attack button to cut through infinite hordes before the cutscene starts. The players sword would get caught on walls in narrow hallways in the DC version, so the environments became generic wide open spaces on the PS2. If Yuke's can combine the two it would be a really good game.

Motion sickness engine

Oh PC gaming, I'll always love/hate you. Unreal is almost ancient by PC standards. Therefore even my circa-2000 rig should run it perfectly. The game may run very well, but for some damn reason, the menu hangs for long periods of time when I try to switch the resolution to anything over 800x600. It never even refreshes the screen at the higher resolutions, reverting back to defaults. I did manage to up it to the next step and decided to just play it while it was still running. After turning off the nausea-inducing "camera bob" I actually managed to clear the first level. Haven't even tried the other games in the collection (Unreal Tournament, Unreal II, Unreal Tournament 2004). I paid the $10 for UT2004, all the others are extras. (I have a feeling UII will not be happy on my system.) Came with a "Best Of Unreal" music CD. Generic techno/metal/orchestral stuff. Free was the right price for it.

I've had this post queued for uploading for about a month now. I finally got around to uploading a suitable picture of the damn thing. I've waited 10 years, a few more days couldn't hurt.

Adventures in DRM-land

AKA iTunes Music Store.

I got myself one of those pre-paid iTunes gift cards to the Japanese iTunes store so I could get the BETTA FLASH Remix 01 single. I did so expecting to have to fight retarded DRM schemes and format incompatibility every step of the way. Luckily, I had none of that with those tracks. They were DRM-free, and my phone plays unprotected AAC files quite happily. Successful purchase = satisfied customer. They even have the cover artwork embedded so the player shows off the nice blue fishie album art when playing. Neat. The single cost me ¥300, while the card gave me a total of ¥1,500 on my account, leaving me with ¥1,200 burning a hole in my digital pocket. I decided I'd pick up some tracks from the Japanese artists I can appreciate. Which brings me to my first complaint against the Japanese iTunes.

The selection is crap. I got roughly a 50% success rate for artists I searched for, using both romanji and kanji to try to increase my success rate. No dice. Some people aren't represented at all. like Kosaka Riyu. While some, like HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR only have a single album, and not the one I was looking for. I guess in a country where one can still make money selling physical CD's, there's no big rush to put your stuff up on download services. Big let down. Not surprising, Bandai Namco is the company that "gets it" the most, offering "special sound files," or bundles of the intro and outro themes for the various anime shows they've produced, like Outlaw Star. Which brings me to the stupidest problem with Japanese iTunes, the DRM. Yep, it's still here.

While other civilized nations are doing everything they can to eliminate stupid, and wholly ineffective, restrictions on digital content, Japanese companies are deathly afraid of this change. Mock surprise ensues. After easily finding and downloading the tunes I liked, and transferring them to my primary Linux work machine I was greeted with the lovable "couldn't play back this format" error from Totem/Gstreamer, and it didn't even offer to find the required plugin (I'm running Ubuntu here). I was expecting this, but not for these files out off all the crap I downloaded. Time for Plan B. So I Googled "strip iTunes DRM." The most competent link I found was a tutorial of how to achieve this using a program called Hymn. So it's back to the Windows box for some hackery. I should have checked the date on that article, because it looks like Hymn hasn't been a viable option for quite a few years and iTunes versions now. There's a replacement product, but thanks to legal ambiguity and scary "cease and desist" letters from Apple lawyers, it's one of those things you need to trawl torrent sites for to get a hold off. Not too mention the only version I found was for the Mac, and I'm not tarnishing my shiny (matte, actually) BlackBook with any of this script kiddie bootleg shit. This was the whole damn reason I wanted legit copies of these songs in the first place, I'm trying to leave my filthy theivin' past behind me. (I already have these songs in my mp3 player.) This wasn't going to happen with software, that was clear. Plan C, then. iTunes offers the convenient option of burning playlists to audio CD's. I figured the DRM was smart enough to throw a hissy-fit if one wanted to burn some precious "protected" files to an open medium like an audio CD, but I gave it a shot and clicked the button. Two minutes later the CD burning was complete. So let's recap, I just paid ¥200 per DRM-ed song, which prevented me from copying said songs to any other computer that wasn't also running iTunes, preventing playback on anything but Windows and Mac OS essentially. It had no problem, though, with me burning those songs, and only those songs, to a plain olde audio disc which I promptly placed into the Linux machine and ripped the tracks into sexy Ogg Vorbis files. Oh DRM, you so crazy. I reminds me of that time I got one of those infamous "Sony rootkit" CD's and ripped the songs into mp3's using Nero's mp3 encoder by selecting the "audio" portion of the mix-mode disc and ignoring the data track. That's 0-2, DRM, wanna go again?

The last bit of silliness from my iTunes shopping experience came from the pricing structure. Apple separates the store by regions because they have to cut different deals with music labels to get them to upload their artists. One of the biggest points that Apple tried to make with iTunes-US was flat rate pricing. ¢.99 per song, $9.99 per album. I don't know if they still keep that up, because I don't care about US iTunes, but that was their shtick in the beginning anyway. In Japan they never bothered with that shit. Song pricing seems roughly steady, but album pricing is all over the map. That's just how the Japanese roll. Want the latest single from some big time pop star? That'll be $20. Her album? $40. That guy? His single is only $12, etc. iTunes not only mirrors this nonsense, they've added their own unique twist thanks to that DRM I love so much. I mentioned that the BETTA FLASH tracks cost me ¥300, that's ¥150 per track. Cool. I noticed though that some of the anime themes were ¥200 per track. I figured that's so all the companies involved with the production with their hands out can get theirs. That's cool, that was my point all along, to compensate the original creators for their work. The ultimate LOLz came when I realized that the ¥200 tracks were the exact ones that were DRM-ed. That's right. You pay _more_ for DRM on iTunes-Japan. For a country known for dumb shit. this is probably the dumbest. Even the Polaks, in their screen-door submarine, have got to be shaking their heads at this one. No doubt it has something to do with licensing issues for the DRM algorithm itself, which, again is just mind boggling. The funniest part came when, armed with this knowledge, I found an artist that had both a ¥200 and a ¥150 version of the same track. Three guesses which one I clicked on.

This concludes my Japanese iTunes adventure. I don't think I'll be doing business again with them. Not until they get Susumu Hirasawa's Forces single at least. After all that, the BETTA FLASH Remix 1 tracks were sort of weak. Worth the ¥300 by themselves, but not really worth the hassle (or markup) of getting the pre-paid card from a middle man. Oh yeah, and their ending theme for the Night Wizard The Animation was one of the albums not available on iTunes, so it's off to CDJapan for the actual physical disc. $12 single + $13 shipping, yahoo.

In the year 20XX

I just wanted to put up a post to highlight that I'm aware of Sting's upcoming PSP RPG for Atlus, Hexyz Force. I don't know a damn thing about this game, though, and I don't keep up with any updates about it. I did just stumble upon its official homepage, where I can see that it has character designs by Sunaho Tobe, and the embedded streaming music clip seems to resemble Shigeki Hayashi's work on Knights In the Nightmare. That's all I know in a nutshell. I'll pick it up when it gets localized at some point next year. Not a very exciting proposition, but that seems to be the norm for gaming these days. Games are announced, they come out, they get bought. Nothing really worth getting worked up over. Maybe I'm getting too old for this shit? Although I will admit to looking forward to Yggdra Unison because I get to play as the Undinies and exact my revenge on the puny human scum.

Hilarity incoming

In a move that could have only been fueled by large amounts of alcohol, SNK Playmore decided they're going to put The King Of Fighters Sky Stage into actual arcades. Ballsy move SNK, this one had better be good, or you're going to wind up looking very stupid in the end. A crappy 800 MSP Xbox Live Arcade game people can forgive, especially if it's in a genre where you don't have too much experience. A crappy $2,000 Type X kit, that's a different story. I hope there is an external developer working on this, for all our sakes. The art is very cool, though, I'll give you that much.

Next best thing to Speed Racer

I think the last time I poster one of those Famitsu leaks it was also about Tatsunoko VS Capcom. I guess I must really like that game or something. Speaking of me liking things, I really like the Tekkaman Blade anime. I guess a lot of other dudes do too, since an updated version of Tatsucap will be revealed in this weeks Famitsu magazine featuring Blade as a new playable character. Now we'll see whose Voltekka is supreme, OG Tekkaman or Blade. (Frankly I smell a "pallete swap," but whatever, I'll take it.) The game will likely be a back port of the US version, which will see a whole bunch of game balance tweaks and fixes. There will allegedly be new characters in that version as well, but I don't think Tekkaman Blade will be one of them. They're actually cutting Tatsunoko characters out of that one. We'll probably see a lot more Capcom guys to make up for it. I wonder if I'll have to wind up picking up both versions to catch 'em all?

(To celebrate, I'll buy some Tekkaman Laserdiscs.)

Day of the tentacle

At last, some new games are coming. Today is the scheduled release for Muramasa The Demon Blade. The game actually shipped out last week, and a few stores started selling it then. Amazon was also willing to offer "release day delivery" for it. I still haven't received my shipping confirmation. Oh well, since I no longer have a Wii, I guess it doesn't matter too much.

Next week America gets Nostalgia, the localization of Nostalgio no Kaze, which for intents and purposes should have been the return of fun to video games. I'm sort of worried this may be another Avalon Code. I haven't heard anything, good or bad, about the game since it released months ago in Japan. Might wait for this one to hit the bargain bins. Which nicely segues into the next topic.

Thursday of next week is the Best re-release of Ikkitousen Eloquent Fist, and Rockman Powered Up/Maverick Hunter X. I wasn't man enough to drop full price on Ikkitousen, but $30 is easier to swallow. I'll just have to keep telling myself that it's a 2D side-scrolling brawler. The Rockman PSP 3D remakes, on the other hand, offend every fiber of my being, but the bundle (it's a twofer) comes with a bonus music CD. I hope that remixed Megaman audio isn't nearly as wretched as remixed Megaman graphics.

Coincidentally, the only album ever released for Rockman X was a terrible arranged version that all but destroyed the greatness of themes used in the game. I have a feeling no matter how crappy the remixes here, they'll be more faithful to the source then that album. (I need some new ringtones. True story.)

Next Friday is also the date Japan finally jumps aboard the future train they helped create. A handful of Godzilla movies are being re-released on Blu-ray, with Hi-Vision* video transfer magic, provided by Sony themselves. Something to do for all those dudes that picked up a Slim over the last few days. Good call Toho. The selection is a little odd, though. Gojira, the first, Final Wars, the last, and Biolante, the one somewhere in the middle. It wasn't even an important enemy. Rodan would have made more sense. They'll get there eventually, it's just odd is all I'm sayin'.

*"Hi-Vision" is an old school term Japan attached to the precursor of today's "high definition" display technologies. It's cool to see the circle is now complete.

Six months ago

Remember that BETTA FLASH concert a few months ago? The one with the Korg DS-10 Trio? Well I do, so you're going to hear about it. I always suspected that the DS-10 remixes were a collaboration between the two groups, and now we have the proof. Turns out BETTA FLASH has a YouTube channel. Thanks for letting me know about it on your website and shit. Its only updates are videos from the show six months ago. Dig that crazy touchscreen improv.

Neverfall Nights

My order confirmation for Neverwinter Nights Diamond is dated from July. It's now September. To add injury to insult, Amazon had the game in stock the whole time (albeit for $10 more). This experience doesn't fill me with confidence towards continued video game purchases from Newegg. The price was very nice, I'll give them that.

I watched the Berserk anime on fansubbed VHS tapes back in the day, and didn't like it much. I kept waiting for the damn flashback to end and for Guts to get back to kicking some demon ass. Joke was one me then. I picked up the recent DVD remastered edition, and realized that the anime is in fact great, mostly due to the fact that, by comparison, modern anime is a complete wasteland. So I got to reading the manga to get the "real" Berserk experience, without any of the edits of the TV show. Good story that. After days of marathon reading sessions, burning through 30 volumes of the comics, I'm caught up to the present day. So to kill time until the next chapter is released, I figured I'd pick up the games. I think I played this for like 30 seconds back in 2000 or thereabouts. Didn't like it much, mainly due to my distaste for the source material at the time. Pretty sure it was a demo, too. With my newfound appreciation for Guts and his merry band, I'll see if I can change my opinion about this one as well. (Probably not. Old games tend to not age as well as old anime. I have a feeling Golden Axe Beast Rider is a better Berserk game then Berserk.)

Phew: This game is fucking awful. And Cam Clark needs to die in a fire.

Presented by Tamsoft

I knew this was D3/Tamsoft related before I even clicked the picture thumbnails. I guess now that Oneechanbara has been handed over to the dirty foreign barbarians, they're going to need a new property to exploit. True to form the game looks like a 3D DS game on the PSP. And happens to share its name with a bad, short film mockumentary, and a Japanese live-action, tentacle rape porno. This just screams D3/Tamsoft.

Sneak attack

Warning: a huge pile of crap is approaching. I was just checking on regional compatibility for an unrelated pile of crap* on Play-Asia.com, when I noticed the banner that said Magna Carta II (Asia region, English language version) is shipping on the 3rd. That's in two days. Oh crap. I try to use Gmail labels and Google Calendar to keep track of pre-orders and releases. I also try not to pre order things months in advance, just to avoid situations like this. I fail. I hope the game doesn't suck. After a strong start, RPG's have dropped off significantly on the 360. And much to my chagrin, haven't picked up on anther console.

*By the by, Guilty Gear 2 Overture (US) can be had for around $30 on assorted online outlets. Still a bit high, but better then the ludicrous $78 I'll have to for over for the NTSC-J version.

Fail 2.0: It looks like I missed another one. Fate/Unlimited Codes Portable will be released this Thursday in the US via PSN. It's only notable for being the first digital-only release for the PSP. I might grab it to help it pass the test.

Wednesday: Just got an email from P-A to let me know that Magna Carta II will now be released on October 13th, instead of tomorrow. Disaster averted.

RAP EX v.1.5

At least Cave knows how to treat their fans. Their second 360 release will get a similar treatment as their first when it comes to peripherals. They've once again teamed up with Hori to slap official artwork on a Real Arcade Pro EX for the upcoming Mushihime-sama Futari v.1.5. I think the 360 now ties the PS3 with the number of RAP editions, despite having more compatible games.

In addition, it would seem the supply of the original RAP EX hasn't been as limited as Hori would like you to believe. They've been trickling out batches of the things for months ever since the official release, and it looks like another one is about to hit the 'net. $149 is a good price, but the shipping will kill ya.