Limit.

When you are playing something competitively, be it an FPS game like Counterstrike or a racing game like Initial D or even a music game like Guitar Hero, you will always have a limit of your own when you play.

Training or learning on your own does help you improve your game, but eventually when you are at the top of your game, there will be a barrier. This barrier is different for everyone (can come late or early) but this barrier is usually a barrier that is tough to knock down because there is (usually) no more room for improvement. At least for the person.

Maybe for example, you reached a pinnacle by scoring a fast time in Mario Kart, but as hard as you try you never seem to be able to beat that guy who was way faster. Eventually you might beat it, or you might not. It can turn into a psychological mess if you stress yourself over it.

Here's my example, with Initial D v3:

This is...or rather, was my best track/weather condition to play in Initial D v3. And I might be second now, but I'm happy to know that I at least managed to snag the top spot for a short while.

When I first started playing this map, I got an early 2'49"737 (see rank 10), and thats with plenty of mistakes. Even then, I continued to improve and I got what I wanted, a 2'49"190 (rank 5), but it took me roughly 5-6 months for this (as well as buckets of money retrying). I thought I was on top of my game....

Until I got beaten.

At that time when I posted the 49"190 up, I was 1st. It didn't take very long for it to get knocked down to 2nd. And then there's the urge to take back the record. And so began the battle against the barrier.

A huge barrier. I actually thought of giving up because there was hardly room for improvement. The feeling went on until during the last game, I saw a big improvement. And the fight went on until I broke the barrier. And scored a 48"787. :D

Which was #1 for 9 months until it got shot down. By that point I've already stopped so I didn't bother to continue. I might be able to beat it...or...naaaah...

More or less I was inspired to break the barrier because of the feeling of rivalry. (The dude that is #1 btw, is a Sarawakian, from Miri IIRC).

Looking back at Initial D, there were plenty of runs which were not at limit yet, but with Version 4 already out in Malaysia, and the fact that I have better priorities with my money now, makes me decide not to pursue such targets anymore.

And recently, just yesterday, I finally reached the limit for now....for Ouendan 2.

There was no other game has managed to push me to display my best before this. Not Ouendan, not EBA, not Mario Kart DS, not Tetris DS, not Counterstrike, and not even Initial D. It was Ouendan 2 which managed to bring the best out of me. Why? I don't know. And to think I spent MORE time each on all of the other games!

Initial Target: 187000000
Current: 188120370

It was an unexpected one. My calculations told me I would be hard-pressed to reach even 185 million. When I got to 187 million, I thought there was NO way I would be beating this.

And 6 hours later, I managed to push that to 188 million. But futile attempts to increase that suggest that I probably have hit the limit for now. Not the absolute max, but it did take a lot of work. (And I managed to get Zenryoku Shonen on Insane all 300'd too :p). Whether I might be able to push this to 189 million....well...that's hard to say.

So for now, thats my limit for both games....in Initial D, I will never go back to test the limit anymore seeing that the newest version has arrived, and as far as Ouendan 2 is concerned...it's not the absolute best score, but I'll have to work hard to increase this further. But I must stress that although it is difficult to break the barrier once you reach it, learning is a wonderful process, and it helps to break the barrier. There are many more limits in life that I have experienced, but it will take me a very long while to blog it all out.

What are your limits? Be it in gaming, or in life, strive on, and you will be able to set new limits for yourself.

Thank you for reading.

My sister's first S rank.

YMCA Breezin' (Elite Beat Agents)

My sister (12 years old) has her own DS Lite, Light Blue's the colour. Once in a while, she'll borrow my games. And she loves to play Elite Beat Agents and Ouendan. So I see her play, and she gets better and better every time she plays. So it's inevitable that one day, she'll get her first S rank. And it's been a long time waiting, since she got a string of As. An in the end, she did. Although it is a pretty close S...but it's still an S eh?

(Oh, and she can spin the spinners better than me too -_- she beats all my spinner bonus scores T_T)

Ouendan 2 R4 SAV with the Elite Beat Agents unlocked.

For the ones who are not bothered to use the Action Replay codes, I have made a Ouendan 2 sav (for R4 and M3 Simply users). This one just enables the Elite Beat Agents from the very beginning. Meaning you have to unlock the songs yourself.

Click here for the save file :) Enjoy!

Note: If you are not using an R4, I suggest looking for the save-file converters out there in the net. Google for them.

Ouendan 1 - Atsuki Kodou no Hate Cheer Girls S rank ALL 300

I haven't scored an all 300 victory in the first Ouendan before this, but I have now :D

My first all 300 run on the first Ouendan :D

At times like this I wished there was a replay option on Ouendan 1 :(

Old, but still gold - Ouendan 1 thoughts.

Simple, is it not?

Browsing through my DS games, I had a quick look at this. It's the first ever Ouendan that would end up getting a sequel and a spin-off. Seeing that I had a few minutes to spare, I decided to pop this back into my DS. And man, does it bring back good feelings about it.

The graphics, sound quality...heck..everything was far weaker than what EBA had to offer. So why did I not get rid of this? (No, I'm not selling this, go somewhere else for a second hand Ouendan). I mean, hey, it's a quick way to get a couple of bucks.

One word: "Memories"

"This guy's insane already. Call the men in the white coats"

Whoa, hold it right there. It's true.

This game reminded me of how noob I was. :p

- Tapping the notes the moment it showed up. >_>
- Spinning AND changing direction on the spinners mid way through it <_<>_> <_<>_>

And it also reminded me of
- my first S rank. Loop & Loop on Normal. What? >_>
- the painfully hard song (then of course) of Ready Steady Go (damn you lifebar)
- How awesome this game was (that lead to the purchase of EBA :p)

After playing RSG Insane (yay S rank, boo 5.9 million :( ), I can say that despite the massive shortcomings (lack of replays, bad graphics), it's still a damn good game to play.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to finish the stage (Shanghai Honey go!) I was playing. Thanks for reading :p

On a roll~ Kira kira no Pop Star @_@

EDIT: Moved to sub-site. Click here.

Pinky Street Kira Kira Music Hour review

Cute ain't it? The title screen I mean :p

No, I didn't pick this up. My good friend picked it up over the weekend when on holiday in Japan so I figured I'd review it. Even if it isn't technically mine >_> but I put quite a few hours into this (Sorry Ouendan 2 :( )

Pinky Street Kira Kira Music Hour, is as is name says, a music game. However, it's no Ouendan with no real life people singing in this, rather you are playing to the instrumentals. Not that it's a bad thing of course.

Once the game started I entered a name (has input for Japanese and English letters, but I did not test how many characters), the blood type (huh?), the type of music I like to hear (there's a selection, and surprisingly "Anime" and "Para-Para" were among them), and finally your horoscope (the words are in Japanese, but the symbol is obvious enough). I'd have reason to believe that this game was targeted more towards the female audience when.....

You are apparently given a "house" of your own in Kira2 Music Hour.

.....the character model looks so much more female. And by the way, I had NO opportunity to select gender.

From what I understand, the game is free roam, somewhat like Ouendan 2, with several locations with different types of music.

Your world map. Small is it not?

So far I've played several of the world locations and the one I liked was the classical music area (the real name escapes me at the moment). In every area you will be able to go into shops to purchase things. Of course, the main attraction of every area is the "music room".

Stages are laid out in a way that you will most of the time end up taking on a CPU.

"You" chatting with the person you are going up against.

The game is slightly more text heavy unlike Ouendan, so you might (or might not) miss out on a few things. Still, it isn't too difficult to play. Gameplay however, you will have to place your DS sideways ala Brain Age.....

The game allows you time to tilt the DS apparently. Btw, the Hori Play Stand proved useful here.

Let the battle begin!

The gameplay is pretty simple. Your objective is to simply outperform the other CPU (who will randomly screw up). As shown in the picture, there are 3 panels. When lit up, they are:

Top being yellow
Middle being green
Bottom being blue.

As the music plays, the upper part of the touch screen (when flipped of course - I'm referring to the black "box" with the green music note) will show the three colours. You are supposed to tap the correct colour panel when the music note (which bounces) synchs with the panel on the box (ala Ouendan's timer circles). The timing is rather strict, and it will be the difference between getting Rainbow (spot on), Kira2 (close) or Good (off but still hit). As long as your lifebar (blue) overpower your opponent's (green), you win! But be careful. A string of mistakes will sink your bar to the wrong end pretty quickly (my full bar sunk completely to the other end after missing two beats in a row. TWO!!!!), especially painful if you are at the end of a song.

On Normal mode, you may also have to slide on the panels if needed. If the panel lits up AND also has a >>>>>> or a <<<<<<<, you will need to slide on the panel according to the direction as well (tapping won't count). You will also sometimes have to slide down on all three panels.

Overall, I say this game is pretty nice. It's no Ouendan, but it's still a pretty solid DS game. The gameplay is a bit too simple, but nevertheless it's still pretty addictive. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to play somemore before I return this :(

You can pick up the game from Play-Asia here.

Speaking of which....Ouendan 2's EBA mode.

Woot Chieftain's gonna cheer on a kid! Woot woot!

'Case anyone doesn't know yet, between 28 June to 11 July, there will be an event for Ouendan 2. (page in Japanese - Announced here) Apparently, if you go to a DS Download Station in Japan (YES JAPAN ONLY stop asking whether will it be in your local game store in the US/Malaysia/wherever) you can download the Agents and the Cat to your DS.

"HOLD IT! Then how the hell did you get it so fast?"
Here's the deal. I don't like getting screwed out of things that could have easily been an unlockable. And it's not like Japan is right next door or anything like that. No, I do not have wads of cash that I can fly to Japan within the next few days. Anyway, it is probably understandable that importers like me do not get such luck with Japan only specials and Nintendo of Japan doesn't recognise imports, but for something like this that they practically KNOW will have loads of people importing (EBA came coz of Ouendan being mass-imported by us non Japanese) I'm not really too pleased.

Google's lousy Japanese -> English translation. Want a better one? I'll do it for you. Only available on 28 June to 11 July in JAPAN DS DOWNLOAD STATION. Not in Japan? F*** you.

So there was only one way of getting them of course - The great Action Replay DS *woohoo*

Before I proceed, I will provide a disclaimer: I will NOT be held responsible if your Ouendan 2 save gets corrupt or anything like that. Please note that the codes below are NOT created by me. I am only providing it here for you, the reader's convenience. If you do not want to take risks with your savefile, I recommend you DO NOT proceed.

Here's the codes, courtesy of someone over at 2ch.

Game ID (you need this for your AR to recognise the game)
AO2J-B9A91626

EBA Mode
220D7397 00000001

I see no need for the (m) code seeing that I got it to work on BOTH the original cartridge and the ROM on the R4 without it.

With the code on, on the difficulty select screen there should be a button of the EBA emblem - That's to activate the EBA mode. You WILL need to trigger the game to save to keep the mode. (Beat a high score or go to options, hit the top-middle button, enter and exit)

But hey, I don't want to use an AR to get them! Is there really no other way?
There has been no way so far in game to unlock them. Definitely not by points (I'm already past the last rank by some distance). So unless you happen to be Japan, and you don't want to use an AR, you're screwed out of them.

And before anyone screams of using the AR as a matter of gaining an advantage in the EBA mode, let me remind you AR-haters that this does NOT affect gameplay whatsoever. All this mode does as explained by Nintendo is to replace the skins of the Ouendan with the EBA. That's it. It is only for decoration (though it looks cool to see Chieftain do the Ouendan cheering :p).

Keep in mind - If you choose to reset your game (as in delete data), your EBA mode is gone.

In which I Ouendan 2'd the day away.

And so I played Ouendan 2 as usual, trying to secure better S ranks. Then I did Music Hour on Insane-Hidden. The try came out....

259 300s, 1 100

Oh yes, that 1 100 is sticking out like a sore thumb. So I spent the next hour trying to all 300 the thing, finally doing it at last! (after X amount of tries - I didn't count)



ALL 300 Music Hour. Take that you stupid game!

And then came Countdown. Doing it on Insane-Hidden as well...and then history repeated itself.

168 300s, 1 100

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Oh and by the way, I didn't manage to get all 300 on this one....first section is so hard to get the timing right *sob*)

[EDIT: I got Glamorous Sky in Hard-Hidden ALL 300'd right after this post. HAH! Take that you stupid game!)

Glamorous Sky ALL 300 with EBA's Chieftain! Take that!

Ouendan 2 vids (previously shown on blog)

Click here. I archived it onto a seperate site now.

A tale of three DS'es (Part 2) - The White and Pink Partnership.

(My first NDSL. Awwwww....:p)

Yup, thats the box. The US version. It didn't have a strap so I curi from my phat DS (I had it at the time so meh :p). Also the edges are pretty dirty (no way to clean it AFAIK unless I rip off that plasticky cover thing). The DSL's pretty good. :P

Opened up....

(That's Shirosaki Rin cheering by the way. :D Go!)

Now, one thing I didn't like about the White DSL was the fact that it collected stains fast. (You can probably spot them on the pic...) I didn't really notice them until Pr1me_Minister told me about it some 4-5 months after owning it (Yes I'm pretty oblivious to the stains). The D-pad, and the buttons (except one...) works fine till now, as so does the touch screen. (The alignment is very slightly off in the center but everywhere else, it's fine and dandy :D)

And when I put it up Flat....

(Baby BANG BANG BANG! XDXDXD)

No, despite mine being the "famous White US DS Lite that cracks", mine didn't so I put it up flat. That's a relief. (Actually, it's pretty cosmetic anyway). And pardon the picture, I'm not too good with the digital camera (just got it back after a long while :) )

So, this DS Lite was pretty fine. Until the R button got stuck and became 50% responsive. (Probably due to MKDS :( ). I already sold off the phat DS at this point of time, and since the R button was pretty important, I figured that it's time to pick up the Pink.....

(Box shot with the Pink DS Lite)

(Tsukasa Hiiragi desu~! Balsamic vinegar FTW!)

This one I bought from Gamers Hideout (no not the subforum in LYN, the shop over at Cineleisure). Recommended by SWATwolf actually. For quite a nice sum, this pink was all mine. And yes, I was criticised left and right for picking pink of all things.

And no, the casing and all are bought later. :p

(The Pink DSL when opened. And yeaaa....99999. Walking the dog everyday helps. Woohoo!)

This DSL served me quite well. It's all fine except for the touchscreen. It's...off. Well, not that bad actually. The left and right of the touch screen are perfectly fine, but.....

(OMG nooooooo!!!!!!!!!!)

......the center is off (not by much). And attribute it to Ouendan all you want, but considering that I've been abusing the White DSL even longer, I'm pretty surprised.

Not that it really hurts, since I'm still playing Ouendan on it despite the White one having a better touch screen. And it doesn't seem to affect me at all O_o

But anyway, these two DS Lites have been such a partnership. I use the Pink one more than the White, but the White one still has its uses. *coughR4cough*. In any case,

(All my DS stuff. Oh, and don't bother looking for the R4, it's not there)

(Oh, and if you haven't noticed the subliminal messaging, buy Ouendan and Ouendan 2 :D)

Nintendo DS FTW. :D

Yes!

This one above is Hard + Hidden SSAY (Sekai wa Sore wo Ai to Yobunda ze). Actual score: 10636410. Did it last night.

If that Cheerleaders+Hidden SSAY took me 3 hours, this one took me at least 12 hours (on seperate days, not one sitting). Quite simply, on Cheerleader difficulty, the cue to hit them is when the markers start to disappear. On Hard, it is 1 second AFTER it disappears (I'm practically tapping on an invisible marker- aka NOTHING). I thank the white line which served as guidance(and I don't think have served me any purpose before :D). This is definitely harder than the Cheerleader one (in Hidden) even though it has less markers.

Of course, the pink Touch Pen Attachment I bought(click here to go to Host Play for review) was a major help. ALL HAIL! :D :D

Finally!

Three and a half hours. A lot of near misses. A lot of WTF moments. But I finally did it.

Here's a little history.

Last Friday, someone over at GameFAQs found out about the hidden timer circle mode. The thing that makes it worth playing was it multiplies your score by x1.5. The very next day, alkaliph (a really great Ouendan player) posted a 9999999 score on Sekai wa Sore o Ai to Yobunda ze Cheerleader difficulty with the hidden circles option on, proving now it is very possible to max out the score counter. (It is - you can score roughly 7 million++ in Sekai wa Sore o Ai to Yobunda ze in the regular Cheerleader difficulty provided you never missed, multiply that and you have roughly...10.5 million?)

So having S ranked this song on the regular Cheerleaders, I thought of trying the hidden circle mode. It was a bit of a chore memorizing where are the quick-double, double, quick-triple, and triple taps. There were SO many times that I could have scored better. (To clarify on this, even though the score counter caps at 9999999, the game continues to count your score; this is reflected on your total overall score/rank menu - And I found out my final score was actually 11258610) So many 100s that were 300s in the other (failed) attempts. But in the end, after the final spinner, it was worth it.

I think I just hit a high point in my rhythm gaming life. :)

(Oh by the way, the screenshot was taken with an Emulator - but I did it on my original cart. I just transferred the replay to my R4 and just so happened the emulator uses the same style of sav with the R4. I don't have my digital camera at hand now, so I had to use this)

Now to watch Lucky Star Ep. 7. Been sitting on my HDD for some time now :p

Ouendan 2 review.

Ouendan 2 is the sequel to the rhythm game Ouendan, released in 2005. It didn't fare so well locally in Japan, but it was a major hit overseas, most import sites having it at #1 at one point. Is Ouendan 2 just as good as the original? I say it's a supreme improvement.

Just like Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents, the main premise of the game has not changed. You tap the beats on screen according to the rhythm. Sometimes there will be slide (also known as phrase markers) which you need to slide to, and there is also the infamous Touch Screen Killer (spinners) which you usually have to spin away. It's a really well done style of play, using the touch screen to its maximum potential.

The songs? These are great Japanese songs from Yaida Hitomi's Go My Way to hyde's Countdown to even Monkey Magic from Orange Range. The songs are very much likeable and enjoyable to beat to. While they are mostly covers they do sound very much alike, very much compared to the original songs (well except one). The scenarios while mostly absurd and really impossible, but it's sort of stuck as a "trend" for Ouendan/EBA.

The difficulty is quite well balanced. Newer players will have no problems jumping in with the Easy and Normal modes, and the veterans of the series will find challenges in the upper dificulties. As for the features, Inis has taken all the good from Elite Beat Agents and made it better. Now replays are not limited to one per song, rather now you have the freedom of saving more than one replay of the same song if you wish. Furthermore now it displays the top 3 scores of the song you have attained.

One complaint of the players of the first Ouendan was the inability to skip intros (a problem in the final song of that game) and it was introduced in Elite Beat Agents and retained again for Ouendan 2. Now they have taken it another step and allows you to skip the endings of every song provided the player has seen it once. It is a very useful feature as it can cut down waiting time.

Is this worth a buy? Definitely. If you're into rhythm games and have a Nintendo DS, Ouendan 2 will keep you entertained for a very long time with massive replay value. Even if you are new to the series, it is very easy to get hooked into playing the game. It is easy to adapt to.

Final score: 9/10

You can purchase Ouendan 2 from Play-Asia. Click here!

(EDIT: I asked my source from Japan to verify, she said most if not all were covers. Thanks Chi-san)