Cancelled

A month plus back I posted regarding me and SWATwolf preordering Gyakuten Saiban 3.

Well....

Cancelled.....

I cancelled the order. Both his and my copy. His because he wants to buy other stuff. Me because I have higher priorities now. Not that I would lose anything because being a Japanese game stocks should be plentiful.

As for the Haruhi DVD preorder, it's still on. Coz I want the DVD :p. Though I just hope it doesn't get taxed or I'll end up dead as I only have just the right amount + a little more.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisou preordered!

Made of win? OH YES!

Around four months ago there was a concert made of absolute win, starring the casts of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu anime. And now...in roughly four weeks the 2 DVDs of the show will be out.

And:

Look at the last item. Nyahahahaha.

A good friend of mine happened to help me preorder the DVD (along with his stuff. Thanks :). Life is indeed wonderful with friends :) I can't wait for the end of the month wheee!

Here's the DVD preview on Youtube:


If you're looking to preorder the DVD you can head over to Play-Asia or Yes Asia here. Be warned though that this is a Region 2 DVD so please check if your DVD player works with it (US = Region 1, SEA/Malaysia = Region 3).

Thank you for reading :D

Gyakuten Saiban 3 preordered.

Preordered Gyakuten Saiban 3 yesterday, along with Steven (SWATwolf)'s copy.

(Yes, obviously there is 2, and yes I used FedEx. The PA coupon that came with Ouendan 2 was of great use. Kakakaka)

I have played the previous two games and it was such a good experience that I decided to pick the third game up. It's definitely worth the money (its already on Best Price too :p). The game arrives on August 23.

You can preorder Gyakuten Saiban 3 here. Or if you are willing to wait for Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations (comes out a month later), you can also preorder it here.

Elite Beat Agents Review

Elite Beat Agents. The US counterpart to Ouendan. How does it fare?

EBA plays like Ouendan. If you've played Ouendan you will feel right at home. You tap along to the beat, slide to the phrase markers and spin (ala touch screen destroyer style) the spinners, usually towards the end of the song.

What sets EBA and Ouendan apart are the characters. Instead of the male cheerleaders you see in Ouendan, you now have MIB-ish agents dancing to the beat. One thing I noticed that unlike Ouendan (BOTH 1 and 2), this one seems to have original dance moves for each song. Yes, you get to see the agents do the YMCA during the song. A rather nice effect. One notable absentee from this game is the combo flames, but I think they were removed due to the theme of the game.

The song selection was made in line for all ages. Classic songs such as September from Earth, Wind and Fire to Jumpin' Jack Flash from the Rolling Stones to recent songs such as La La, Survivor and Sk8tr Boi are present in this game. Is the song selection justified? Yes to some, no to some. Some have great beats to tap to while others are horrendous just playing to it. It's immensely difficult to keep the beat to for certain songs because the song itself sounds weird.

Feature wise, it is a step up of Ouendan 1 with the introduction of replay saves where you can save one replay per song. It is also compatible with the Rumble Pak (although I personally don't find much use for it). You can also skip the intros at the start of the song (but not the end; a feature later implemented in Ouendan 2).]]

Is it a recommended buy? Definitely. It will and has appealed to many, and even if you do not like the song itself, the gameplay will blow you away. I myself didn't like many songs because they were a chore to play to begin with but I grew to like them soon enough.

You can purchase Elite Beat Agents from Play-Asia here.

Shin Lucky Star Moe Drill Tabitachi Review

Lately if you've been up to the news, the DS has been used for learning purposes in Japan. Great isn't it? Shin Lucky Star Moe Drill Tabitachi is just that, a learning game. Is it good?

For those not in the know, Lucky Star is a rather popular anime now in Japan. Hit up your favourite Japanese anime torrent index to find out. (No I will not provide links, but I'm sure Uncle Google glady will). The game in my opinion doesn't really live up to the hype generated from the anime. As a matter of fact I don't think this game really relates to the anime judging from the different voiceovers in game compared to the anime. (Perhaps to the drama CD - Lucky Star had two different seiyuus for each character)

The game itself is pretty easy to jump into actually. There are three main sections in the game. The first one is a fairly basic Mathematics battle between you and the CPU where the premise is rather simple: If you get it correct, you deplete the enemy life bar and vice versa. Getting it wrong will hurt yourself. (Although I am fairly sure the CPU NEVER gets it wrong). You are actually given roughly 2-3 seconds to answer before the CPU answers. But here's something I did not like. It's pretty easy to answer questions like 8 x 9 or 32 - 14. But what if you are hit with a question like.... 234 / 9? Yes, for some odd reason, questions like this show up and while it is challenging, I don't quite like the sudden spike in question "difficulty" when you are blazing through most of the easy questions.

The second section is based on kanji. I can only fairly assume it has something to do with basic Japanese knowledge, though due to my lack of Kanji knowledge, I cannot verify on this. Perhaps someone would like to fill me in on this?

The third section is a simple Japanese-English test. The format of battle is the same as the Mathematics, except this time, it's more of a "fill in the blanks" thing. Basically, the screen will show you the Japanese sentence, as well as part of the English translated sentence. The main purpose is for you to translate the red parts of the Japanese sentence to English. Most of the answers are fairly hilarious (Konata would probably be the one be designing these tests IMO LOL)

Story mode is fairly straightforward and revolves around all three of these "tests". I highly doubt there is much of a story involved if at all. As far as multiplayer is concerned, you can choose to go on local wireless or Nintendo WiFi Connection for a head-to-head battle for the three above tests. Not too fun, but...it is nice to be able to challenge someone far away with things like this I suppose.

Is it import friendly? Not that much. This game is clearly designed with the Japanese in mind, and as a result, if you are planning to import, you will need a sufficient amount of Japanese knowledge to get through (this is important if you intend to play the Japanese kanji test...).

You can get Shin Lucky Star Moe Drill Tabitachi from Play-Asia here.

That's....cute.

Was busy looking through Play-Asia when I saw this. I'm not sure what other purpose it serves besides being a "diary". And that tamagotchi-like device on the box is cute.

You can buy it from Play-Asia for USD48.90(click here). If any of the readers do pick it up do let me know how it works :)

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)

Pokemon Pearl review

Pokemon. It has been around for more than ten years now. From the days of the old 151, it's now expanded very far to the present count of 493. How does the latest entry into Pokemon fare?

An initial view will tell you nothing has changed from the previous RPG Pokemon games. If you have played the previous ones, you will feel right at home. What are the additions to the latest addition? Well, they have changed the battle system, where attacks are based on what kind of attack it is, Physical or Special.

Graphics wise, it's definitely a step up from the GBA, but the graphics aren't all that amazing to be honest. Sound however, is great. Some of the tunes feel very Final Fantasy-ish while some feel very much original. A massive step up from the previous games.

Besides that they have added Wi-Fi connectivity. Previously in other Pokemon games, trading and battling between friends has always been limited to link cable (FireRed, Leaf Green and Emerald GBA games introduced the (defunct) wireless capability but it is not linkable with the DS' wireless connection).Now with the DS and Nintendo's WiFi Connection system, this is no longer a problem. Pokemon trades can be done across the globe. The GTS system allows for trading without friend codes while if you are trading among friends, the friend codes trading is still a viable option.

What I did not like about this game however, is that the game plays slower. While the previous installments were very fast, in this one, it does seem plays at a slower pace. I'm not sure whether is it because of the intense loading or its just plain lag but it is annoying. Also the storyline does get tedious and boring. I won't reveal too much, but if you've played Ruby and Sapphire, I think you pretty much get how the story will pan out.

My verdict? If you liked Pokemon, this certainly is a great entry and well worth adding to your Pokemon collection. However, if you haven't played Pokemon, you will have no reason to venture into the Pokemon world.

Final score: 7.5/10

Click here to buy Pokemon Pearl from Play-Asia! (US version)

The Nintendo WiFi USB Connector - a review

The first review of my gaming blog. For those living under the rock for the past two years, the Nintendo WiFi USB connector turns your computer into a wireless access point to allow your DS (and your Wii) to connect to Nintendo WFC. It's a USB connector so you must have a USB port for it work. (well obviously, but this is in case if anybody does not have free USB ports, well you need one so free one space). You will also need a Windows XP PC. [Note that for Windows Vista users, it is not officially supported at the moment. See here. They ARE looking into it, but no indication of when the drivers for Vista will be out]

Installation is simple. Just insert the CD included with the USB connector, and just follow the step by step instructions. Note that you should NEVER plug in the USB connector before the setup prompts you to do so, this is because Windows may install drivers for it (which will NOT work). Once installation is done correctly, you can use the USB connector. But first, you will need to register your DS with the registration tool. Simply go into WiFi settings for any game with the Nintendo WiFi connection logo in it, and select "Connect to Nintendo WiFi USB connector". Once you do, your DS name should show up on the DS registration tool, simply allow or deny the DS. The DS will also go through a testing phase to see if connection is successful. If it is, it will work for you.

So far, I have not faced any online issues with it. Disconnections are rare (though yes they do happen), but otherwise it is smooth. (This is dependant on your broadband connection as well, if your broadband is having a bad day, so will your connection to WFC). However, the main problem I've heard so far is that it does not support Zone Alarm firewalls. You need to UNINSTALL it completely (disabling it doesn't work). Windows Firewall (included with XP SP2) works well with it, but because Zone Alarm is a commonly used firewall, I feel a need to include this.

Furthermore, the heat issues, while stated in the manual is completely normal, however it can become too hot to handle. After about an hour online, the WiFi connector's heat is very hot, and while it does not seem to be a problem so far, I feel that this problem could be easily remedied.

Please note that this WiFi USB connector OBVIOUSLY only works on the Nintendo DS or the Wii. It does not support the PSP or whatever WiFi gadget you are using.

Overall, despite the heat issues (and the odd firewall problem), this is a great piece of hardware for use with your DS. And trust me, WFC is getting bigger now and steadily increasing. Don't miss out.