Magically exported by SEGA earlier last year, the game focuses on two ‘fashion witches’; Love, and Berry. ‘Oshare Majo: Love and Berry’ is originally from Japan where the game became an instant success with young girls, spawning a successful fashion line as well as a portable version of the game for the Nintendo DS. Created as a female oriented successor to the arcade/trading card game ‘Mushiking: King of Beetles’, Love and Berry has clearly surpassed its spiritual younger-brother by being magically whisked to other countries throughout the world on its own diamond powered private jet.
Taking place in the highly competitive (read: bitchy) world of Tokyo fashion, ‘Oshare Majo’ follows the lives of two close friends as they battle it out to be the best dancers with the cutest styles in the land. The game play itself occurs during three separate ’stages’, all located in and around the most fashionable districts of Tokyo. Across the three stages you’ll be required to ‘dance off’ against an opponent (either computer controlled or a real life fashionista friend/rival) by bashing your palm to the beat of the music. As a hugely simplified version of the Bemani games, obviously the game seems focused on allowing everyone to join in rather than limiting game play to those who play a lot of the time. The machine amplifies it’s soundtrack at such a low volume though, sometimes it becomes incredibly difficult to tap along to the beat of gunfire and roadside crashes coming from the other games in the arcade, either that or the game isn’t really designed for a journalist that’s almost twice the size of the unit and nowhere near as feminine as the intended audience.
It became clear pretty quickly that this isn’t only just about tapping a tambourine to the beat of what can only be described as ‘porn music’. It suddenly clicked, that bright pink cutesy card covered in glitter that fell out of the machine and into my large grubby hands, did that have something to do with this? As I was instructed to swipe the card on the machine I suddenly came over with the giddy excitement of a younger me being given a set of keys to the chocolate factory. I was playing dress up with a human shaped mass of polygons. From then on it became a race, an obsession to obtain more and more clothes to dress up my little dancer and together, we would be the best dressed in Harajuku, Roppongi and then, the world! The urge to collect more had overcome me, some times I even obtained duplicates of things I already had but that didn’t stop us, me and Berry, we were taking over Tokyo and that was all that mattered. The cool knit, active parka and miracle foundation were all we needed for success and it was great.
Shortly after my brief period of awe though we hit a terrible block in the road - an extensive summer ball had been announced and everyone was going to be there (especially that bitch, Love) and we didn’t have any new dresses to wear, this simply wouldn’t do. Gold kept leaping out of my wallet and into the machine, soon enough I had run out of funds. No money, no fancy new dress and certainly nothing to wear to the party. For at least an hour or so I was living the dream I had always had, people were respecting my groove and showing love for my style.
As I swiftly vacated the arcade following many strange looks from my crowd, it dawned on me that all I was holding onto from my experience were my tainted memories of my time at the top and several, very expensive pink sparkly pieces of card. My time in the public eye was something that I will always remember. With my tattered persona and negative image sprawled across newspapers, magazines and TV, maybe it’s for the best I bring out those clippers, eradicate my hair and spend some time in rehab - the comedown from stardom can be harsh.
When it was first announced, many people believed that Wii Music was simply a technical demo designed to show off the capabilities of the Wii prior to launch. As time has gone on however it turns out that the game is still being worked on and looks to be slightly more in depth than that.
The game will allow up to four players to join a 6 piece ‘band’ which will perform music along with a set piece of music. With a huge array of instruments each with their own different play style, it’s no wonder Nintendo are quiet on the details as this could take a while to see store shelves. According to the source though, Wii Music will be in stores sometime in 2008. We’ll report on Wii Music more as we hear it.
Going with the recent spurt of ‘casual’ games under the marketing umbrella, 505 Games will be bringing Japanese game ‘Pinky Street Kira Kira Music Hour’ to European DS’s very soon.
Originally based on the highly collectible toy range in Japan (Pinky Street), the game has you play the role of young madam ‘Gaby’ on her search for notoriety, fame and a pair of new shoes, all around the city. I actually had a chance to play this game last year, and past all of the speaking that goes on, is a pretty solid rhythm game. You hold the DS vertically with the touch screen on your right and with an onscreen guitar, you strum away and somehow manage to dance the night away.
[This piece also posted on Rhythm Gamer]
With collectable clothes, shoes and accessories, this is sure to go down nicely with the ‘Imagine’ and ‘Petz’ crowd and will most probably head straight into GAME’s Buy One Get One Free offer. However, if you still can’t stop spinning your way through Ouendan’s dance moves and aren’t afraid of your more feminine side, you should probably think about giving this one a try when it hits store shelfs on the 7th of March.
Fans of the latest iteration of the ‘SingStar’ brand, recently released on the PLAYSTATION 3, have been kicking up quite a fuss in the past few weeks, and rightly so. With over 500 fans of the game signing a petition to increase online activity from within the game.
When it was first announced, SingStar for the PS3 was said to launch with around 30 songs included on the disc, and with over 350 tracks available through the online ‘SingStore’ service. Upon purchase of the game, many players found that the store did not even provide the 100 purchasable extras which were heavily advertised in the manual, in online advertising and in the game itself.
With players in some countries still receiving a ‘coming soon’ message from the service and paying customers still unhappy with Sony’s lack of communication on the issue, it’s up to Sony to respond to the petition and give some form of official word on why this has happened.
Right here is where I would usually give you a description of a game, why it’s worthy of your geek dollars and what rocks about it. Sadly though, the long anticipated video game covering the first eighty episodes of the Naruto anime series comes complete with many bugs which prevent you from actually finishing the game. Taking on the mission structure of Grand Theft Auto, if a mission variable messes up and never loads your stuck in a situation where whatever you do won’t allow you to progress any further. So imagine my disappointment then when after five hours of playing through the game (I’ll forgive Ubi for the mass amount of texture glitches and bad voice acting) I am unable to progress!
It really is a shame, I would definitely recommend this game to all if it wasn’t for the nasty glitches which can prevent you from fully enjoying what is actually quite a fun anime to game affair. Hopefully Ubisoft will issue some sort of update and recognize that this sort of bad beta testing really shouldn’t be allowed - especially after paying a reasonable price.
Video gaming is now one of the largest sectors in the entertainment industry, a successful pastime is one that can be enjoyed by many people from many different backgrounds. There are many reasons why people enjoy video games but I would say that my strongest attraction to the medium is through storytelling.
Nothing gets me more interested in something than an amazing and involving story which actually keeps you attached and interested and your mind thinking.
Many would say that recently released masterpiece ‘Bioshock’ takes story telling in video games up a notch whereas I believe it actually brings it to the same standards as the film industry. If you take both forms of entertainment down to their very core, films and moving image were created and pioneered for their ability to convey emotions and to tell a story. Video games on the other hand were created to take peoples minds off of real life - a form of escapism if you will. 2k’s Bioshock takes what makes film such a powerful medium and converts it into an interactive form.
Following the life of an unnamed hero, we enter into his life a few seconds before a chance plane crash over an underwater metropolis and surprisingly - our hero survives and enters into the utopia. As always, a problem is at hand as we are introduced to a seemingly impossible haven for science and art and the inhabitants have all turned against each other ruled over by the evil creations they put so much effort into creating.
As we venture through the underwater city, you begin to feel like a resident of it yourself, taking a look at the almost forced renaissance and wondering how it could have all gone wrong?
My only complaint about Bioshock is that the whole ride is over incredibly quickly, just like a movie, it’s all done and dusted before we even get a chance to fully contemplate the madness of the situation. Perhaps this is all for the best though, the best movies leave most of the action to your powerful and imaginative brain.
If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend playing through Bioshock, sure, it takes a little more effort to play than your brain dead frag-fest match of Call of Duty 4 but if you enjoy putting a little bit of effort into a decent story, Bioshock is definitely for you.
Upon leaving my house this morning I found this white plastic cube (click the thumbnail for a bigger picture) sitting next to the door on the window ledge. Anyone have ANY idea what it is? Clearly I’m overreacting but I’ve always wanted to be a part of a viral marketing thing.
It has two circular batteries inside and an on and off switch at the bottom - I haven’t found any mention of this from a google search and have no idea what it does.
Anyone seen this before? or even read anything about it? I sure hope it’s not a bomb of some kind!
I was thinking at the time it was some sort of GPS device which would be pretty cool but after finding nothing online I now think it actually doesn’t do anything.
And the winner of the most elaborate booth present at today’s Tokyo Game Show goes to… Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Clearly not satisfied with having the best looking game on the show floor, Konami pulled out all the stops and leaving a lasting impression on visitors. Consider that while standing in line for a twenty-minute hands-on demo, booth babes passed around PSPs tethered to their camouflaged shorts. Having Portable Ops Plus and the attention of attractive women seemed to make the time fly by, and soon everyone was escorted into a closed theater and debriefed on the game mechanics.
Probably a sign reading “MGS4 This Way –>” would have sufficed in capturing the attention of game show attendees.However, instead of merely being escorted to the demo, Foxhound operatives in full regalia were on hand to lay down the mission objectives. Belting out their lines like trained men of war, they even goaded some of the introverted group of gamers into saluting like soldiers. Taking the theatricality of the event beyond what was expected, or really necessary, a siren went off in the middle of the presentation and a planted member of the audience was identified as a spy, escorted out of the room, and dispatched with thunderous gunshots.
Finally we were allowed to play an early mission of the game, surrounded by barbed wire and a chain link fence to add to the effect. Unsurprisingly, Guns of the Patriots comes off as a deeply immersive experience. Players can evade enemy AI by activating their thermal suit’s camouflage function, thereby blending into any environment. A variety of weapons are available to suit all manner of military need. There is even a new-fangled stun knife to bludgeon an opponent without the attendant guilt of committing murder. Old Snake can also interact with the environment in a variety of ways, including crawling into trash bins and dragging unconscious enemies around. The level of detail on every object in the environment is astounding. More impressions of the game itself should be up in the following days.
And for every portable, a Kingdom Hearts. At today’s Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix showed a series of trailers in their Closed Mega Theater, culminating in a trilogy of side stories for the Kingdom Hearts series. The games will focus less on the Disneyland set-up of the previous titles, and delve more deeply into the dramatic entanglements of the Organization XIII. Two of the games feature Roxas as the main protagonist, making Sora and his Disney friends secondary figures of importance. However, seeing as all three games appear to be prequels, players will be allowed to face off against their favorite vanquished Disney villain (yet again).
The first game showed in the closed theater was for mobile phones and titled Kingdom Hearts: Coded. Jiminy Cricket is shown flipping through his notebook and comes upon a block of text reading “We must return to free them from their torment.” He rushes this news to King Mickey, who declares that only one person will do. So the cell phone entry will see Sora fighting without his friends. The trailer featured virtual reality simulations with eerie green lighting captioned “Debugging Mode.” The gameplay appeared somewhat puzzle game-oriented in nature, with time trials and customizable environments. All the familiar Heartless enemies were on display, as well as familiar locales such as Destiny Island and Traverse Town, though all appeared a tad more pixelated that usual.
‘Tingle’, the character who first became a staple of the ‘Zelda’ games back in ‘Majora’s Mask’ just under ten years ago has now been granted his very own video game. Developed by a small Japanese development house named Vanpool, Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland is a rare gem of a game, a diamond in the rough if you will for the Nintendo DS.
It is hard to explain Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland to someone who has not played it, the simplest way is to imagine ‘Link to the Past’ on the Super Nintendo but pair it with the overblown surreal-atmosphere of games like Abe’s Oddysey and the Discworld adventure games, a little bit of Myst and a sprinkling of the anthropological aspect of almost every Zelda game in the past ten years.
Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland is like Zelda in the sense that you must traverse through many lands and dungeons and become acquainted with the towns folk who will help you along in your journey. Complicated fighting systems are thrown aside and replaced with the rupee system. As the story goes, Tingle is cursed by the elder of Rupeeland (a kind of utopia) and as such, has a connection to rupees as though they were his life. At first it is very hard to grasp how this works but after a couple of hours you really begin to see how difficult it must have been to balance this system and perfect it during development.
Every member of the local town just loves rupees and will require payment for pretty much any piece of information. Luckily, said townspeople also have a craving to purchase silly amounts of things off of you but realism is hardly what Vanpool where striving for here. As you work your way into the outside world it becomes necessary to enter battle with monsters in the wilderness, as rupees are the difference between life and death, you lose rupees through fighting rather than life points. Of course there has to be some benefit and that is the items that they drop. You cook up or sell items dropped by monsters for profit thereby earning more money which will bring you closer to heaven.
Tingle is an addictive role playing game which includes elements never really seen before in the genre. Bargaining and collecting are so much more important than leveling up and the surreal nature of every NPC you meet helps contribute to what will most probably become an underrated cult video game. If you do anything with your precious gaming rupees, I highly recommend you support video games like these. Although Nintendo will survive and live on if this game hardly sells 100 copies, atleast it will show that gamers do still want and love originality.
Magically exported by SEGA earlier last year, the game focuses on two ‘fashion witches’; Love, and Berry. ‘Oshare Majo: Love and Berry’ is originally from Japan where the game became an instant success with young girls, spawning a successful fashion line as well as a portable version of the game for the Nintendo DS. Created as a female oriented successor to the arcade/trading card game ‘Mushiking: King of Beetles’, Love and Berry has clearly surpassed its spiritual younger-brother by being magically whisked to other countries throughout the world on its own diamond powered private jet.
Going with the recent spurt of ‘casual’ games under the marketing umbrella, 505 Games will be bringing Japanese game ‘Pinky Street Kira Kira Music Hour’ to European DS’s very soon.
‘Tingle’, the character who first became a staple of the ‘Zelda’ games back in ‘Majora’s Mask’ just under ten years ago has now been granted his very own video game. Developed by a small Japanese development house named Vanpool, Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland is a rare gem of a game, a diamond in the rough if you will for the Nintendo DS.