The Asian Power Hour

Korean developer Nexon is bringing their flagship MMORPG Maple Story to the portable scene on the Nintendo DS. Due out later in the year, screenshots of the game so far look pretty much like the PC version, but not much news besides the fact that it will have some sort of Wi-Fi capability has been released. Personally, because of the simplistic visual style of Maple Story, and the way that each server uses multiple channels to keep bandwidth to a very low medium, I hope that the DS version will be able to connect to the PC version and allow players on the go to play Maple Story with their PC peers.

Michael Fahey down at Kotaku has speculated on a money transfer system similar to Ragnarok Mobile Mage, however, because of the way that Nexon and it's affiliates use a microtransation transfer system and that the game itself is free to download and play already, I'm thinking this is highly unlikely. Other possibilities could include an instanced world for each DS where you can adventure over Wi-Fi (in different channels) or locally with your friends.

Maple Story has one of the distinct honors of being one of the few MMORPGs that have become professionally developed console games on their own accord (that I know of). Other examples include French Bread's Fight! Ragnarok! PC side scroller and Champions of Norrath, although I think they were just milking the IP to use with the Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance Engine at this point in time.

Lately, Nexon has really been pushing Maple Story in the US. The past few months, there have been an insane amount of ads pushing Maple Story, especially the free part, on social networking sites like Facebook. Being an avid player of Maple Story in Taiwan, I picked up the English version and was a little put off by what seemed to be a gamer population composed entirely of angry little 12 year old boys. I'm not sure that I've heard the phrase "KS!" more times in one night of global Maples Story than in my entire time in WoW.

However way they spin it though, I really hope that this Maple Story Game really is just a portable version of the full game, although making sure that there's enough re-writable memory on the DS cart to download updates may be a problem, so the instanced console based MMO may be very viable. Either way though, I'm looking forward to it! If you haven't played Maple Story, you owe it to yourself to hop on and give it a try, it's a pretty unique MMO experience, if not entirely grindy and full of kids expressing their pre-teen angst.

Maple Story Official Website

On my recent trip to Japan, there were some interesting things that I stumbled across besides my harrowing mountaintop adventure. Rummaging through the various game stores across Tokyo, I noticed a few things about gaming in Japan at the moment that seems to be spilling over into Taiwan through the local PC market too:

There’s a trend in puzzle games lately, especially for mobile phones and the Nintendo DS/Sony PSP. These tend to be the more pick up and play style, quick save, and not terribly new or sophisticated in gameplay, but rather are playing off popular anime/manga/pop culture IPs such as Ah! My Goddess.

Another sub-trend in the puzzle craze is the addition of card based/collecting in almost every single thing I’ve come across. A good example that has come stateside comes in the form of Final Fantasy Fables; Chocobo Tales, and SNK Card Fighters. Although nothing new (Thanks MTG, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc. etc.), it seems to be way overplayed lately. CCGs seem to pop up in the most unlikely places, from arcade based games like Sangokushi Taisen to the purely virtual ones.

Life Simulation games seem to also be a big craze, however, each one seems to have it’s little twist. Watashi no Happy Manner Book is one of these (Coming from Taito, which Square Enix gobbled up no less), with other big name companies pumping more and more out. Life simulation adventures have always been popular, with Konami’s Tokimeki Memorial: Girls Side and Boys Side coming to the DS too, specially under the 1st love subtitle.

On a side note, Tokimeki Memorial: Girls Side is the most popular girls dating sim in Asia, I randomly ran across a store that carried nothing but games like these catering towards girl gamers in Akihabara. Other life simulation games include Otonaryoku Kentei, which is sort of a goofy salaryman simulator, and Nodame Cantabile, which is orchestral themed. There also seems to be a huge market for brain training games, although this is prevalent even in the US.

While there seems to be an influx of newer ideas for the the Nintendo DS, even in Japan, the PSP just seems to be getting an influx of rehashes of old IPs, and nothing I’ve seen is terribly interesting. The two currently best selling games for the PSP are Monster Hunter 2 Portable and Gundam Seed: Zaft vs Union 2, both PS2 games fitted for the small screen and enhanced with Wi-Fi capabilities.

Drifting to and fro through Tokyo, I found some other interesting things. There seems to be a huge influx of software for the Nintendo DS using games to teach English for the TOEIC (Test Of English for International Communication) test in Japan. Nintendo itself has even developed one, Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Motto Eigo Duke. Just going through one store, I counted at least seven of these games, not counting the multitude of dictionaries and kanji dictionaries that fit so well with the touchscreen on the DS. Even the PSP is not exempt with phrasebooks such as Talkman.

Being a big fan of MMOs, I decided to go and figure do a bit of research on the Japanese, MMO market, which really has never taken off. Of the classic computer MMORPGS, there are quite a few in the market, but none of them really have a huge following:

Final Fantasy XI
Front Mission Online
Lineage II
Imagine
Ultima Online
Nobunaga Online
La Frontera
Ragnarok Online
Phantasy Star Universe
Monster Hunter
E10
Emil Chronicle

Out of all of these, most of them are of Korean origin, with the few Japanese ones (Final Fantasy XI, Nobunaga Online, Phantasy Star Universe, Monster Hunter) also available for console, really driving in the point of console dominance in the Japanese market as compared to the rest of Asia.

Oddly enough, World of Warcraft was to be seen in any major retailers in any sort of prominent capacity. Interestingly enough, it seems that even a highly stylized art aesthetic such as WoW has difficulty finding a place in the Japanese market, although Blizzard has done a fine job destroying China, Korea, and Taiwan’s economy. Opium Wars redux anyone?

On a side note, with the big hullabaloo surrounding Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix in Japan, I noticed that the new part of the game, chain of memories, was already dubbed in English with Japanese Subtitles. This leads me to believe an upcoming US release, and also shows the importance of the US market to Japanese game makers, this is getting pretty clear with titles such as Blue Dragon that also had English subtitles right from the get go and the decision for Square Enix to publish Remnant simultaneously.

With the release of the spiritual successor to Princess Crown, Odin Sphere in Japan on May 17th, I'm also very pleased with seeing the US release date, May 22nd. Hopefully this means that US QA teams will be working closed with their Japanese counterparts in the future and hopefully even providing design feedback while the game is being developed.

I’m really interested in all those RFID CCG card games in Japanese arcades and it was a pleasant surprise for me to find out that they’ve only grown in popularity since I’ve last been arcade hopping.

Three of my favorites have even gotten upgrades and expansions:

Quest of D, the dungeon crawling action MMORPG has been updated to version 4. It seems to me that the MMO scene is really moving from subscription and microtransaction base to a pay per play formula in the arcades. Character data and gold is saved on an IC Card and certain items, spells, and abilities are on collectible cards that can be traded and made into a custom deck. Something else that I've been playing that doesn't ascribe to the CCG method is Namco's Druaga Online, a little older, but still a very fun MMORPG. The controls are what really get me, as the entire game is played through the touchscreen and one button. What a lot of these games use is a central console in which you can check your characters stats and edit your base or equipment without taking up a arcade station.

Sangokushi Taisen is now on version 2 and has become popular enough to release a Nintendo DS version that simulates the arcade action fairly accurately. This is probably the game that has become the most popular since I’ve last been in Japan, with rare cards from the game fetching up to 20,000 Yen in card shops. This is a real time strategy game that plays off the Romance of the Three Kingdoms mythos.

Gundam 0079 has been upgraded to Gundam 0083 (Another segment of the U.C. [Universal Century] official timeline in the Gundam Universe). Other than the addition of new cards, nothing has really changed. There are some options I didn’t notice last time which are interesting however. You can now play against either:

The Computer
Players in the arcade
Players across the country

With players of the same faction vying for territory against each other. You are actually locked into the arcade of your choice on your IC card, making it your home base. This is pretty interesting as it encourages and fosters team spirit within each individual arcade. This is another real time strategy game, with a great deal of micromanagement of units involved.

Something I’m really surprised with is the direction that Carddass battlers are going, especially with Sega’s Love and Berry IP. They’ve recently released a peripheral for the Nintendo DS that allows the use of the cards from the Love and Berry arcade version for the DS and vice versa. I think this is absolutely brilliant, and would love to see more crossovers like this.

For the other Bandai based Carddass battling games, something I’ve noticed is that they’re really pumping them out like crazy, mainly because all the graphics in the game are being reused from console games. For example, the PS2 Narutimett Hero gameplay is basically replayed for the Naruto Carddass game, and Dragonball Z Budokai for the equivalent. This gives the kids playing a more exciting feeling that they’re accomplishing something instead of having to master the elaborate moves found in the games.

Nevertheless, these games are still all over the freaking place, a lingering reminder of what the old Barcode Battler technology for the Nes/Snes/GB evolved into. There was a card reader at one time a few years ago for the Game Boy Advance that was released in the US, but it didn’t take off. I’d like to think it was because of the non-collectible, tradeable, and very passively one player nature of the cards which tended to just be games like Donkey Kong or Motocross Mania keyed on a ID card.

Other CCG based arcade games that are out there that I didn’t invest in an IC card in include:

Baseball
Football (Soccer)

Some other interesting arcade trends to come out in Japan in the past few years that have been ramping up include:

Quiz based games, such as Magical Quiz Academy. Recently even Konami has come up with their own version. It’s worth noting that Japan’s arcade gaming culture, which is very separated and solitary is being invaded by these types of games. Custom two to three player seats are commonly seen for these machines as they are also popular with couples or a small group of friends.

“Coin pusher” style gambling games. The old arcade style game where you would aim coins down at a few tiers of coins constantly being pushed (I have no idea what this is called exactly) has gotten some interesting updates. Recently, games have been built into this, with the player aiming at a specific slot to roll dice or advance events. Different ones include:

Monopoly
Taiko no Tatsujin, now on the 2nd Revision.
Dragon Treasure, now on Revision 3.

While Monopoly and Taiko no Tatsujin are dice rolling board style games, Dragon Treasure is really neat, as it is a RPG styled adventure where you would use coins to hit slots to move the character or hit enemies that would move in real time.

However…these games are also incredibly addictive and I think I lost around 2000 Yen in about half an hour playing Dragon Treasure. That was dinner for that day, gone, poof…but hey, it was fun…..and now I’m just glad I’m not in Japan to be tempted to play that game again.

Tokens you earn from these games can be tossed into a coin bank at the arcade that uses a pin number and also a fingerprint reader to track your funds.

The big kicker that I wasn't expecting at all though comes as a blast from the past, specifically the return of the virtual reality pods from the FASA Battletech centers. These have been re-modified for Japan as Gunam battleground simulators pitting Zeon and E.F.S.F. forces against each other. You purchase a IC card that is keyed to a specific side that stores your personal data and can be used to customize your mobile suit with weapons that you unlock through play and achievement. New robots, items, etc. can be unlocked with futher play and stored on your card.

Some other interesting stuff is the ability to join a local guild which is based around each location so you actually have a physical presence for your teammates. My cousin and I actually signed up for a guild and then were surprised to meet the guild leader after one of our matches, apparently he had been yammering at us to outflank the enemy the entire time, but we didn't have our headsets on.

For our next game, there were actualy paper maps and pens provided and we sat down and planned out a strategy before going back in, it really felt like we were in some sort of Gundam squad, and a more experience soldier was planning out an attack against another squad (located at another arcade, and they were probably doing the same thing)
The cockpit itself consisted of a chair with feedback and speakers, two pedals, two flight simulator style controllers, headset, and a 180 degree screen.

The IC card itself is written on with erasable magnetic ink, like Namco's Arcade Mario Kart and has your name, ranking, battles, wins/losses, guild emblem, and arcade location. There are also notebooks at each location for each faction for players to leave tips, or just friendly banter, sort of like an analog localized forum. Very cool, too bad I get mad motion sickness when I play this game. There was also a giant console in the center where players could insert their cards and take care of their stats, robots, equipment, etc. on the bottom screen and watch the current battle unfolding on the top screen.

Something really interesting that I’ve seen lately is the melding of the toy and hobby industry with the game industry. Konami has released a line of action figures that come with software and a code that you can use to unlock the character and accessories that you’ve purchased in the online game version. You can then customize your character both physically and virtually for use in-game and for your own enjoyment.

And it also seems that Will Wright’s game design challenge a few years ago at GDC that produced the “Emily USB drive” has come to fruition in Japan. There’s been a line of figures lately that plugs in to the USB drive on your computer and installs software that pops up on your desktop that emulates the personality of the character that you bought. Very cool, might be hella annoying depending on who you have, like Mr. T or perhaps Alf, but very cool nonetheless.

So to start off, this was probably one of the most enlightening and RPG like experiences I've ever had. I'll classify this experience as an MMRRPG (Massively Multi-player Real Life Role Playing Game) and like the dork I am, I'm writing up the quest progression in my spare time :P.

So I decided to hike the Chichibu mountain range from Mitsumineguchi to Oku-Tama outside Tokyo the last two and a half days. No big deal right, just 37 km, I've done Mt. Fuji before, this should be a piece of cake. I had packed everything I needed, plenty of food, water, emergency supplies, etc. Well, first things first I forgot to take some things into account like:

1. This is not a terribly popular mountain trail, and thus, facilities and er...trail are in short supply. And while 37 km may sound ok, the lack of trail and the insane uphill jaunt made this a lot longer than it should have been.

2. The weather was pretty hella bad the day I started, and it got dark FAST. That was not taken into account. I thought I had 3 more hours of daylight than I got on the first day. Couple this with the lack of trail on the side I went up on and the fact that it was a sheer drop if I messed up. That was no good.

3. Because it got dark so fast, I accidentally took a different trail than I had planned, taking me way the hell off the standard sane person route. I managed to literally bump into a freaking bear on the trail and was faced with a few text based choices: 1. Rip my clothes off and wrestle the bear to the ground, breaking both his arms and his neck in the process, 2. Freak out Time., 3. Hit the bear with my walking stick, or 4. Stand there until it ambled off. Well, normally I would have chosen 1 or 3, but wisely decided to go with 4.

4. Since I took a different trail, I was caught blindsided by hella strong winds coming up the front side of the mountain range.

Well, like an idiot, I didn't take a flashlight since I was counting on much more daylight and messed that up bigtime. However, thanks to the power of the Nintendo DS, I was able to keep scrambling up the mountain with the power of two compact suns in my pocket. It worked fairly well actually, I was pretty surprised. About two hours later in the dark, I stumbled across an abandoned mountain hut.

Well, stumbling inside, I found that while there was no one there, there was a plethora of tools and useful items for any mountain climber, of which a stack of blankets was the first thing that I helped myself to. Well, with gale force winds outside rattling the walls I was finally able to get myself to sleep after thanking my DS by playing a round of puzzle quest. Waking up in the morning was pretty amazing.

The hut itself was in pretty bad shape, but it was obviously set up as sort of intermediate staging area for climbers. There was a really amazing assortment of tools, clothes, medicines, etc. for anybody who came across the place. However, after digging around it felt like no-one had been there in a while, the last dated item I could find was around mid 2006.

There were various books on the wildlife in the area, tools to repair the hut, utensils, a little stove, tons of blankets, shoes, etc. I found a few pictures of what I assumed to be the owner or builder of the shelter, and wow they seemed dated, but I'm hella thankful he built that place.

Now this is where it gets creepier. Digging around I found a pack of cards on a shelf and on closer inspection, it was an unopened pack of original issue Nintendo Playing Cards. From just recalling from memory, Nintendo hasn't issued these things in well over two decades, and I think this particular set is from the late 60's/early 70's when Nintendo switched from cards to Toys, well before the NES days. The price tag states 1100 Yen, which is also indicitive of this time period. All in all, I spent a good hour or so digging through the hut, it was amazing what was in there and really piqued my curiosity.

Now, that was pretty much a punch in the face after my ass got saved by my DS the previous night. I'm not much of a religious man, and I keep saying I believe in fate, but this is probably the first time I've REALLY believed in it. I mean...how much more obvious can you get. I've been pretty conflicted in terms of making the right career move lately, but I think this was the sign I was waiting for.

Breakfasting on a fine meal of Tonkatsu, I left the hut after fixing it up a bit as a sort of returns and climbed the last 3 hours to the top of Kumotori-yama, 2017m straight up from where I started climbing in Yamanishii-ken. I hit up conversation with a Japanese fellow who was going down in roughly the same direction I was and I decided to take an alternate route with him and we started down the mountain.

Winding round and round, it started to get a bit tiring on the news, but thankfully, I had the sensecam I got from Professor Bolas (an experimental camera you hang around your neck). It takes a picture or two every minute. so I had this entire fiasco documented, except when I turned it off when it got really dark and really windy the night before to save battery power. This is a bit of a shame, since I would really have liked to document the actual discovery of the hut and also me almost getting mauled by a Japanese Ninja Bear.

During one of the rest stops my companion stopped to ask me what the camera did and he was pretty impressed, but also pointed out how dangerous something like that was especially for the massive number of peeping toms in Japan. I was really pleased with the camera so far too, because it let me take pictures of places like a crowded subway without attracting attention to myself.

After the hike, my new buddy (Tachi was what he introduced himself to me as) was gracious enough to let me hitch a ride to Central Tokyo, giving me the opportunity to see a great deal of rural Tokyo that I would never have been able to see. After he dropped me off at Mitaka station, I boarded a train back and went back to my youth hostel, exhausted and amazingly satisfied with the experience. This is the kind of stuff that really makes you feel alive, and probably one of the best RPG's I've ever had the chance to play.

You can find pictures from this mind blowing trip on my flickr here:

You'll need to dig a bit through the pics. They seem to have gotten a bit jumbled.
Flickr Stream

I've just finished posting a series of articles on some research I did on my recent trip to Japan. You can find them on my IMD blog, and some more pictures on the IMD Flickr pool. If anyone is interested in more information on anything that I've posted, feel free to contact me or leave feedback. I have a great deal of paper documentation and most of the actual games talked about if you're interested in trying them out. There's also a story about a little adventure I got myself into during the trip that you might find enjoyable.

The picture above is of a random little device I fortunately stumbled across in a flea market in Ueno. This is the TV-NET add on for the original Nintendo (Famicom) that allowed the user to play networked games through their system. I've never seen one of these until this trip and it really shows the foresight of Nintendo in their early days.

IMD Blog

At approximately 1:00 a.m. PST today 5/19, In the distance, I heard the sound of the Korean economy crumbling to the ground as Blizzard released the news that Starcraft II was finally going to be released. The game itself came as no surprise, however, I was fairly shocked at how far into development it was, as it looked like quite a few years of work had gone into SC2 already.

On the subject of games that no one will ever hear about comes Etrian Odyssey, a very very old school style dungeon crawler RPG that comes to us for the DS from Atlus. The reason I very much like Etrian Odyssey so much is the fact that it really is just an updated old school Wizardry/Bard's Tale/etc. style RPG, the kind where you had to map out your path and note locations. The fun part is, that's what the bottom screen on the DS is for, so you can carry all your maps and notes around with you.

Etrian Odyssey also has a great development team, including: Direction by Kazuya Niinou (Trauma Center: Under the Knife), story design by Shigeo Komori (Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner), and sound design by Yuzo Koshiro (Actraiser, Streets of Rage) [Thank you eb "I will consume all independent retailers" games.com for that little blurb, cause I'm too lazy to type all that out myself]. If you've got some time to spare this summer and are sick of the almighty narrative movie, I highly recommend checking it out.

Just a few words of warning, think RPG, think 80's, think text heavy and not as very graphic intensive, don't expect *too much character development as this is the epitome of the RPG character, you. Sorry to gaming blog Verbal Spew for ripping off that title graphic, but it was too damn cool. Check out their site~

Verbal Spew
Probably the best review out there on Etrian Odyssey

There seems to be a recent trend of politically correct activism in Taiwan recently, mostly by changing the name of public structures and areas named after former KMT Dictator and warlord Chiang Kai-Shek. I was fairly surprised during my Christmas break last year when I went back to Taiwan and found out that the airport had changed from Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport to Taoyuan (桃園 [the name of the area]) International Airport. Most recently, the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂) was officially renamed the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall (國立台灣民主紀念館). This comes as a bad decision for me in a very personal way, since I have to type an assload of extra characters now in Chinese.

However, It's refreshing to see this kind of change in Taiwan, even though it's only in name. Taiwan occupies a special niche in Asia, as it's basically been kicked around between several factions in even the last couple hundred years, including use as a piracy haven, Ming rebels, the Chinese mainland, Japan, the Nationalists, and now finally as a "independent" country.

It's interesting as your walk through urban Taipei, as it really not only retains it's Eastern flair, but also a cosmopolitan Western flavor. Taiwan is one of the few countries whose pop culture is not really unique to itself, but more heavily dictated by neighoring countries, mainly Japan, Korea, and China (HK in particular). Since this is mostly a gaming blog, I'd be remiss to point out that both Logitech and Acer reside in Taiwan, and that 2/3 of the world's computer components are produced in Taiwan, although this may change in the future as cheaper labor costs and factories move to China. So next time you pwn that annoying gnome warlock in WoW while drinking an ice cold beer on your couch, thanks to your l33t wireless mouse and keyboard....think Taiwan! ;3

Taipei Times Article

A brief little website complete with cutesy J-Popesque flash cartoon by cell phone OS developer Symbian explaining what amazing technology Japanese smartphones are capable of, and how they're trying to bring these features to the US through their new OS, Symbian 9.5. Watch your brains, as they're liable to asplode.

Boo-Hoo For You!

Verizon Wireless has recently released a new and unique feature through their V Cast Music service. Called V Cast Song ID, this new service supposedly allows users to use their cell phone to id any song (probably limited to what V Cast sells through their service) by recording it with their cell phone, which then identifies it and starts a download.

I'm guessing the software tries to identify key portions of songs, but the question is, how exactly? Anyone have any ideas on this? When I see this, it's almost like looking at the demo system with games that have become mainstay, except this time, it's more passive and spontaneous.

Something else that is similar are those DS Download stations that you see floating around random game stores and Best Buys, however, I'd really like to see something more similar for gaming. Perhaps the next generation of portable game systems would allow users to start digital downloads of games that players might see at a friends house or at a game store.

Imagine, sitting at a buddies place and he's playing a cool new game that you've never seen before, but after playing it for a bit, you're convinced you really like it. You turn on your Sony Playstation Portable Hyper Xtreme Gaming Unit V2.0 and login to your personal PSPHXGUV2.0 (TM) website, where you select the game and start a digital download on your Playstation 4 (You play it with your mind!). By the time you get home, your game is downloaded and ready to play. Cool, very cool. Something even better would be if the game system itself was able to send out some sort of Bluetooth ID to the portable system to automatically send the player to a website to start downloading on the home console.

Regardless, it's a really cool feature, and I don't believe I've seen this kind of feature in Asia yet, kudos to Verizon for taking this initiative.

Official Verizon V CAST Music Page
One of the V CAST Song ID commercials, via D.H.A.D.M.

This is too badass not to share. I'm surprised I hadn't seen this video earlier, I guess I kind of ignored Ken Hirai since he was always so serious and angsty. Well, this newish video proves me wrong, and I...can't...stop....watching.....it. P.S. Youtube, hurry up and set up Movable Type to accept embedded videos, Livejournal can do it, and it's the same damn company.

EDIT: Well, it looks like I just figured out how to embed videos....this may not be a good thing.

The BEST Music Video Ever

Ok, was linked this off of Kotaku. All I can say is...awesome. Simply awesome. I always wondered about some of these dances. My favorite? Probably the Blood Elf and Orc dances.

And here's one of my favorite WoW dance tribute videos, this guy has some serious talent.

Brilliant. Looks like someone's production class project. The dialogue and plot are superb, and if I was a big shot Hollywood producer, I would totally make this movie. In other news, I'm on a youtube trip today, and boy do I have a lot of things to post.

I was shown these by a buddy about a week ago, and it's been stuck in my head ever since. I went out and got the series, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu), since I've heard good things about it. I'm not so sure about this other one though...Lucky ☆ Star (らき☆すた, Raki ☆ Suta) , I try to stay away from the moe stuff for the most part. Massive kudos to whoever did the music though, working in that classic Megaman feel and some little snippets of original music.

First watch...the Original Opening, Sunny Sunny Fun (ハレ晴レユカイ, Hare Hare Yukai):

Now, the Megaman Version:

If you're so inclined, here's some links to a side by side sync, and also a stop motion action figure version. Someone, give this guy a job at Capcom please!

Hare Hare Yukai Side by Side Sync
Hare Hare Yukai Busou Shinki Stop Motion Version

Continuing this two-parter post, here's the Lucky Star Original Opening, Motteke! Sailor Fuku (もってけ！セーラーふく, Take It! Sailor Uniform). Careful, your eyes/ears may bleed from the hyperactive Japanese cuteness overload:

And here's the corresponding Megaman one, by the same guy I would presume. Jeebus Christ is all I can say...Listen closely to the little bits of fandom in the music..awesome.

And here's a side by side comparison:

Motteke! Sailor Fuku Side by Side Comparison

I'm surprised Jack Thompson isn't attributing this to how violent Break Dancing is.

The Original Video, without the benefit of Sonic Booms, and the added bonus of foot on baby sound effects.

As some of you know, I started over on a brand new World of Warcraft server, Antonidas, when the Burning Crusade Expansion hit. Why was this? Well, looking at Bartle's four player archetypes;

Explorer
Achiever
Socializer
Killer

I was really lacking in each of these on my current server (besides the whole 3 hour off time difference). I had seen everything on the Alliance side, and the new content really intrigued me, I had achieved all my goals that I wanted to in a reasonable amount of play, and world-wide PK no longer intrigued me, becoming more of a nuisance than anything else. This was on top of the fact, that BG and battlegroups really cut down on worldwide PvP.

This left the Socializer, and it's probably the only thing that keeps me playing WoW, and brings me back to it. Especially now, with the widespread use of online voice chat programs such as Ventrilo and Teamspeak, I feel that guilds grow even closer now, and while I didn't have much empathy for my last one, I feel a real kinship with my peers in the game, whether through random questing, dungeons, or just shooting the shit. Of course, every group will have it's problem people, and our guild is no exception, but hey, they're the ones that keep me going on this game.

After that rambling, to put everything into perspective, I really think that what you're paying for in an online game isn't the gameplay itself at the core, but the organized world, challenges, and goals that bring together players and form the nexus of their social network. New expansions serve up new challenges and goals for these players, with their guilds and sub-groups to tackle and explore.

Well, going on to the second part of that post. In a real sense of accomplishment, our guild Dis Pater, recently downed High King Maulgar on our server, starting from level 1 in just over 4 months. This is a server first, Horde or Alliance, and we're damn proud of it. The screenshot above is out little victory aftershot. The loot that dropped was quite good for me in particular, but I didn't have enough DKP (Dungeon Kill Points, a type of system used by guilds based on attendance to determine who gets loot dropped in large team dungeons.) to get anything. There's me in the corner, BE mage Ershin. Word.

Our Guild Website! Give us a look if you're ever on Antonidas. PST, PvE

It seems like there's some more exclusive content in WOW, this time, it looks like it's for participants in Blizzard's Invitational Tournament in Korea. A broken-one vendor has appeared near the mana loom in Shattrath's Lower City area with his golden pig, Lucky. Similar to the 2005 Blizzcon exclusive pet, baby "I'm so freaking cute" murloc, players are prompted to enter a unique code to access their 24 karat walking bacon ration. In the pic above, you'll see my character, Ershin engaging in a lengthy staring contest with the little porker....however, the pig was cute specced, and I lost in the end.

I've been rather pleased with a lot of the other, more "accessible" exclusive content that Blizzard has been tossing in the game. This is namely done through the World of Warcraft trading card game by Upper Deck, which is basically...Magic the Gathering with a WoW theme. The "stack" mechanic is even completely replicated, except now it's called the "chain", ooooooooooooo. Players can get special items in-game that they can redeem via the unique code on these cards. Rewards include a riding turtle that increases mount speed by 0%....awesome, and also a picnic set that creates food that gives a "tastes great, does nothing" buff.

Here's a pic of the riding turtle, how cute is that?

I'd really like to see some more of these unique items, as I have yet to come across any on my server. Perhaps there would be another way to make these aesthetically pleasing rewards more accessible to players without assloads of money to blow on a CCG, however....I highly doubt it given the corporate steamroller that is Blizzard.

Now, it's just a question of what the unique pet for Blizzcon 2007 is? More Murlocs? I sure hope so, and on that note, is anyone else going to Blizzcon this year? If so, send me an email, we should get together and bust some chops in the arena! For the Horde!

WOW CCG, or "TCG" as Upper Deck likes to put it.

Well, it seems like one of the bigwigs in the guild managed to fraps the entire fight we had against this boss, and while it may be boring for most of you (probably all to be honest) to watch, I'm posting it for posterity. And hey, give me a break, what kind of music is on the soundtrack?! I was voting for MC Hammer's classic hit, 2 Legit 2 Quit. Still, it feels nice to say, Server First!

I remember when the DDR fad used to be pretty huge in the US, and I started seeing little kids doing crazy moves in the arcade, but I think this song pretty much takes the cake in terms of "hardcore"-ness and "extreme"-ness. It hurts my brain to watch!!!!

Odin Sphere came out this week, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out every freaking single gamestore that I went to in both Los Angeles and San Diego were sold out of the product. Doing a web search through gamestops online website, they were sold out in every area that I knew someone. This was a very positive, yet annoying reaction for me for such a low key game, I was pleased that Odin Sphere was getting some amount of exposure in the US.

It's times like this that I'm really scared at some of the more major gamer personalities out there like the guys at Penny Arcade. For stuff that really flys under the rader, or for games that might not have gotten such great sales, a positive review from them can really turn the tide big time, and I think that Odin Sphere was a great example of that.

Well, I just got back from Fry's with my shiny new copy, so I'm about to sit down and enjoy a few hours with the game. I played a bit of the Japanese version and I was really pleased, so now it's time to unwrap the whole thing and hope I get through it before I start work.

In case you're still thinking about it, you can still readily order Odin Sphere online, and in the meantime, some videos to sway you~

Odin Sphere Official Trailer

Odin Sphere Official US Website

Grim Grimoire Official Japanese Website

I'm not sure if I should be posting this. It's an amazing student piece, but uhhh....well. You'll see if you decide to watch it. Let's just say, awwwwwwwwwwww.

Nintendo DS's are being introduced to junior high schools in Kyoto after an initial experiment showed that student's English scores improved dramatically after using Language based games, versus traditional textbooks.

This is nothing terribly new as far as educational software is concerned, but it's interesting that it's actually completely phasing out "traditional" learning methods as compared to a supplement. The software being used is Chuugaku Eitango Target 1800 DS, pictured above. More and more language software is becoming popular in Japan recently, especially with the sudden success of the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) titles.

Nintendo DS Replacing Textbooks in Kyoto via Mainichi

Here's a "cute" list of the 11 worst trends in video games currently from Gamepro. While I'm not sure how much I agree with the overall structure and ranking of the list, I do feel their pain on no. 1. I really should go ahead and make a similar list for Asia sometime in the future, but I could tell you that no. 1 would parallel on the same as this list....too many damn games with the Romance of Three Kingdoms theme, at least give them decent English voice acting if you bring it over here...or hey, here's a neat suggestion...don't localize the voice! Ooooohhhh....smaaaaarrrtt, didn't think of that one before.

Gamepro's top 11 Worst Trends in Video Games

Destructoid has posted a clever little analysis of gamer archetypes, however, it's still a work in progress. Check out chapter 1 here, and hey, if you're reading this and fall into the closet gamer category, please seek help, send me an email and I'm willing to sit down and talk about it with you.

Destructoid's Guide to Recognizing Gamers; Chapter 1

Wow, Adventure Company, eat your heart out. Just play it, and uh, watch out for the Manticore.

Which Way Adventure

This has nothing to do with gaming whatsover except for a Jigglypuff reference, but I find it so freaking hilarious I can't help but post it. Watch it and revel in it's glory, caution, strong language ahead!

and now...part 2

Via Destructoid, it seems that some gamer with quite a lot of talent in Russia had an assload of free time lately. This amazing pic is a giant collage with little bits and pieces of fandom spattered all over. Imagine....if you were to take a gamer, around 30ish lets say, who had played games since he was a kid and hmm....bashed his skull open and used his brain to paint a collage, with a base paint of hopes, dreams, and good memories, well, this would be that collage. Enjoy!

Sumtink Koolski Frum Russia

This may come as a shock to many of you, but I do indeed have an iPod. However....I think I've used it twice, I got it from a promotion deal with my Macbook, and I just don't feel the need to carry around a years worth of music. However, I was recently browsing Alice's wonderful blog, uh....Wonderland, and was alerted to a Lost game for the iPod.

Being immune to the massive brain washing effect of the recent iPod exodus, I wandered onto Apple's iTunes store to check out what was available for the iPod in terms of downloadable games. I was fairly surprised to find there was a pretty big market for games on the iPod, with even a few independent sites offering homebrew games.

I used to be one of those guys in high school who would twink out their Texas Instruments graphing calculators, and also I used to be really big on games when I still had a working Palm Pilot. There was a freaking massive amount of independent developers, professionally made games, and homebrew for these platforms, but while the iPod is much more popular and prevalent in pop culture, there's not much of a independent homebrew group in place.

I think this may be due in part to the more nerdy and techy groups and culture attached to the former two devices, and the iPod being more a trendy thing, much like those Goddamn Ugg boots. Have I made any mention at American Herd Mentality before? If not, strike one. Going back to the subject, for the most part, the games that I have seen for the iPod tend to go towards casual, with games like Sudoku, Tetris, and Bejeweled.

After looking around, there seems to be a lot of adventure/exploration style games in the independent sector, with the new lost game being the only one professionally developed. There were also a great deal of independent quiz games, which it looks like are independent modifications to the iQuiz game from Apple.

It's a great idea to put these casual, pick up and play games on a device like the iPod, kind of turning it into the equivalent of the cell phone in terms of platforms for games in the United States as compared to Japan. I'm not sure how easy it is to play with the scroll wheel, but I'm gonna pick up some stuff and see exactly how it works, more on this later.

The prices are also much more reasonable than cell phone games, with games set at a standard 4.99. If you're interested in putting any of these games on your iPod, be warned, as they will only work with 5th generation and up iPods. Links follow.

Apple iTunes Games Store
iPod Arcade, Independent Games for the iPod
Some info on iPod DRM and hacking your iPod for games (Near the Bottom)
Install iLinux on your iPod and open up an entirely new library of games!
Wonderland Blog

I accidentally stumbled across my copy of Negadon; The Monster from Mars (惑星大怪獣ネガドン) today, and put it on in the background as I was doing working up some Ouendan 2. I had completely forgotten about this movie, but remembered that I was totally enthralled by it the first time I saw it. What makes Negadon so special is that it's a professional grade short film patterned off the old giant monster movies (tokusatsu [とくさつ]), ie it's like what Hot Fuzz is to Action movies, except that it's all in CG and done by a very small independent group (6 People really).

I had thought previously that Jun Awazu was solely responsible for Negadon, since I was familiar with his previous work, Kidan (キダん), also a homage to the giant robot/monster movies of Japan. However, the quality on Negadon was a huge improvement, and it makes sense that he had formed a studio since then.

What i'm really excited about though, is that Negadon apparently has been released in the US by Manga Video, and has already made the rounds through the screening circuit, although none were in California, which I find odd. Check out the trailer below, and if you want to learn more, there's also a link to the official US webpage, where you can order the movie if you find it interesting. Perhaps a screening sometime for those of you in the greater LA area? We can make Godzilla shaped cookies and have them fight with the Giant Robot shaped Rice Krispies treats.

Negadon Japanese Trailer, Man, that music is so nostalgic.

Official US Negadon Website

This is a really interesting article from gaming website Ars Technica talking about "lone wolf" players in online games. The most interesting viewpoint I've seen is the use of real people in online games to supplant computer A.I. When you think about it though, human interaction is a renewable and constantly shifting resource as compared to pre-programmed A.I. As much as we hate campers, griefers, or John Brennan in online games, they're just part of the vast matrix of different player personalities.

Here's a fun little list from games.net on the best 49 stand-alone games. I'm not sure I agree with this list at all, but its an interesting read. For instance, they've put ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, which I think are very much spiritual successors almost right next to each other. Other games on the list, like Planescape Torment, follow the same kind of idea. The engine and the gameplay are completely identical to previous games, like Baldur's Gate, and I don't think Torment would have ever been released if it wasn't for the success of Baldur's Gate, and it's umpteen sequels.

Games like Psychonauts I can agree with, but in the end, it really is the same type of gameplay and style that you would expect from Tim "Please Make More Stuff for Me" Schafer, wrapped up in a new plot or story. So I guess, what really is this list about, the best premises that don't have sequels, or the best gameplay without sequels.

The Best 49 Sequel-Less Games

A while back, Disney Interactive took a stab at melding a CCG with a video game, and lo and behold, we got Spectrobes. As far as I understand, most of the art assests and programming were done overseas in Japan and India, in that order, with the core creative team at the Glendale studios in good 'ol sunny California.

In Spectrobes, you're basically a space officer/archeologist/alien pokeman trainer. You go around and excavate the fossils of these aliens and then train and evolve them to do battle for great justice. The cool thing about these cards is that instead of using a bar-code (Nintendo GBA E-Reader) or RFID system (Hasbro's Hyperscan System), the cards are basically plastic templates that fit over your DS's lower screen with dots of varying shapes and sizes.

There is a specific order that you have to use the stylus in order to unlock the creature, but essentially, all the monsters are already stored in the game cart. What this means is that yes, if there was a template uploaded online, you wouldn't really need the cards themselves anymore. It's a neat system, however, there hasn't been much ado about the collectible part of the game. I myself picked up a copy of the game a while back, and two of my friends also did, and we all got the same freaking cards. And well...I traded my set to my friend, who traded it to the other guy, and yeah, you see where this is going.

However, it looks like Gamestop and EBgames are offering absolutely free new spectrobes cards. A new one every week, while supplies last at their stores. If you haven't picked up the game yet, if you order it now from their website, you get all three cards at once. Spectrobes did fairly well in the US initially, but floundered, in part of the horrid reviews it got, and the insanely boring gameplay. In Japan, where it was competing directly with games like Sangokushi Taisen DS and Love and Berry, well, it didn't even really dent the market unfortunately. Kudos to Disney for trying something out like this though.

Gamestop Spectrobes Promotion Page
Spectrobes Cards
A closer look at a Spectrobes Card