[Doraemon Nobita to Midori no Kyojinden DS] Good Looking Action Game

This is an action game based on the popular "Doraemon" anime/comic. Here is the official site for game. The story is about how Nobita became interested in a small plant but couldn't grow it because of lack of space. Dorarmon helped him out by using a futuristic drink to make the plant walk, talk and think like normal people. Nobita became good friends with the plant and together they went on an adventurous journey.

There are 3 gameplay movies here in this page. The game play is also explained here. From time to time, you can use the gadget from Doraemon to fight off enemies or solve puzzles. You can also ask for help from your friends like Shizuka, Suneo and Gian. They can also put on those gadgets and help you out in the adventure.

There are also a number of mini-games and you can manufacture new gadgets from items. See the screenshots here.

This game can also be used to provide extra materials for the Wii's game - "Doraemon Wii, Battle for the Gadget King". The details can be found here.

DS Game Sales Data in Japan

According to Famitsu, the number 6 best selling game in Japan from 3/3/2008 to 3/9/2008 is "Soma Bringer" with over 17,000 copies sold during that period. The accumulated sales is over 71,000 copies. It is a very popular RPG game.

In 9th place is "Doraemon Nobita to Midori no Kyojinden DS" with over 14,000 copies sold during that period. This is a very elegant action game from SEGA based on the popular Doraemon comic/anime.

In this reported week, 2 games from DS is in the top 10 spots. 16 of the top 30 game sales spots belong to DS games while 8 belong to Wii games.

[Soma Bringer] Video Trailer

This RPG really looks awesome and deep. I think it has great potential to ported to the North America market.

[Sangokushi Taisen DS] Awesome Way of Taking Down A Castle

This funny looking man actually has a very awesome skill. It costs only 3 units of morale. When this skill is used, the card's attack on castle will increase and the amount of increase will be more when there is less time remaining in a game. I tried it before and when there is less than 10 units of time left, it can KO the entire castle in one blow.

So there are a few ways to use this card. But mostly they are defensive strategies. Since the card has the ability to stay hidden at the beginning of the game, you can sneak to the enemy's castle this way with some luck.

DS Game Sales Data in Japan

According to Famitsu, the number 4 best selling game in Japan from 2/25/2008 to 3/2/2008 is "Soma Bringer" with over 53,000 copies sold during that period. It is a highly acclaimed RPG game.

In 7th place is "Sekaiju no Meikyuu II Shoou no Seihai" with over 22,000 copies sold during that period. The accumulated sales is over 108,000.

In 8th place is "Bokujou Monogatari Kira Kira Taiyou to Nakama Tachi" with over 19,000 copies sold during that period. The accumulated sales is over 55,000.

In this reported week, 3 game from DS is in the top 10 spots. 13 of the top 30 game sales spots belong to DS games while 7 belong to Wii games.

[Hokuto no Ken] Afterthoughts

This game is just awesome. I finished it a week ago and I just kept playing it again and again to enjoy the scenes and the story. It is really a text-book example of how to reuse materials from comics or established franchise in a game. You don't need superior graphics. You don't need 3D. You don't always need online elements. All you need is to be faithful to the core of the materials. You need a good presentation and execution of of your game play to match the materials.

BTW, check out this Japanese online game for Hokuto no Ken - http://www.hokutonoken-online.jp/. It is a MMORPG in which the player can experience the world of the comic. The idea seems awesome but somehow it kind of illustrates my points above.

[Sim City DS 2] Much Better Than the First One

This is the second Sim City game on the NDS platform. It is going on sale in Japan on 03/19/2008. The first one was released in US in June and in Japan in February. The review is actually pretty mixed. The good thing is that the game captured the essence of the original PC game. The bad thing is that the graphics is below decent and there is only a save slot.

So let's see how this sequel will do. Here is the promotional page from Famitsu. And here is the official web site of the game.

And here is a promotional video of the game.

[Mag kid] Fun Casual Game with a Cool Add-on

This is a fun casual action game from Nintendo. It has a add-on that you need to plug into the slot 1 of your DS. The add-on works the same way as a mouse does, tracking the movement of your DS on a surface as you push it around. The interface of the game is all controlled through this add-on. Its objective is to control the main character - "Mag Kid", to move around the house to help a small boy to handle daily chores or funky tasks. "Mag Kid" is essentially a a small piece of magnet. It can attach to metallic objects and pull stuff around to help the boy out, like reassembling broken toys. Another amazing talent of the "Mag Kid" is the ability to copy the enemy's special skills. Inside the house, the kid will meet with a lot of bugs that also reside in the house. They each have their own skills, like shooting bubbles, shooting bullets or can do a dash to charge at the kid and hurt it. And when the kid knocks them out unconscious, it can attach them at its tail and pull them around. And the kid will then also be able to use the same skills as the bugs it is currently pulling.

Here are some more photos of the game box and the DS with the add-on.






The official game site is here. Clicking on the yellow box in the middle of the page will pop up another page to explain the gameplay with the add-on. You can check out this promotional video as well.



BTW, can someone hack this add-on and make it act like the mouse of my PC, with buttons on the DS screen for me to tap on and act as mouse button?

DS Game Sales Data in Japan

According to Famitsu, the number 1 best selling game in Japan from 2/18/2008 to 2/24/2008 is "Sekaiju no Meikyuu II Shoou no Seihai" with over 85,000 copies sold during that period. It is a highly anticipated RPG game.

In 6th place is "Bokujou Monogatari Kira Kira Taiyou to Nakama Tachi" with over 36,000 copies sold during that period. This is a simulation game

In this reported week, 4 game from DS is in the top 10 spots. 11 of the top 30 game sales spots belong to DS games while 6 belong to Wii games.

[KORG DS-10] Synthesizer and Drum Machine for DS

The game is called "KORG DS-10". It makes your DS become a synthezier and drum machine. The The official website is here.

[Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side 2nd Season] Video Trailer

This is the video trailer for this game. Enjoy if you are a fan of this series.

DS Game Sales Data in Japan

According to Famitsu, the 4th best selling game in Japan from 2/11/2008 to 2/17/2008 is "Tokimeki Memorial Girls Side 2nd Season" with over 35,000 copies sold during that period. It is a dating simulation game.

In 7th place is "Mario and Sonics at the Olympic Games" with over 19,000 copies sold during that period. The accumulated sales number over 220,000.

In 9th place is "Naruto Shippuden Dairansen! Kakebunshin Emaki". It is a action RPG game based on the popular Naruto comic.

In 10th place is "Digimon Championship". It is a simulation game based on the popular Digimon anime.

In this reported week, 4 game from DS is in the top 10 spots. 14 of the top 30 game sales spots belong to DS games while 7 belong to Wii games.

[Sangokushi Taisen DS] Fun with the Elephants

So for the first few weeks, I really couldn't figure out a good way of using the elephants. That changed when I discovered this card.

This card has a skill that costs only 3 morale units. The speed and attack will increase dramatically when this skill is used. But it will only move in a straight line and is uncontrollable for a moment.

So what's the use? Now you put this card close to your castle wall horizontally in battle. When there is enemy units crawling near your wall, deploy the skill of this card and sit back and relax. The elephant will push the enemies away from the wall. It will sweep across your wall area and when it reaches one end, it will go back and charge towards the other end. If you place the card near the one end when you use this skill, you can at least swap the wall area three times for the duration of it. And since the attack of the card is also significantly increased, it can really hold its own ground while clearing the enemies off the gate. And since the card can be positioned close to your own wall, you can thus recover its hit point fairly easily. It is a great and fun way for defense.

[Populous DS] Back of the Game Box

This is the back of the Game Box.



The official release date is this Friday. Enjoy!!

DS Game Sales Data in Japan

According to Famitsu, the 5th best selling game in Japan from 2/4/2008 to 2/10/2008 is "Mario and Sonics at the Olympic Games" with over 24,000 copies sold during that period. The accumulated sales number over 200,000.

A new adventure game called "L the Prologue to Death Note Rasen No Wana" came in at 7th. In case you don't know, "Death Note" is a very popular comic in Japan. It talks about a notebook dropped by demon. The owner of the notebook can write any person's name on it and that person will die. One of the most outstanding characters is "L". He is a genius detective who vows to find out the killer behind the large amount of unknown deaths of criminals. And the real killer is actually the owner of the "Death Note". "L" wins over many comic fans with his genius way of solving problems and eccentric behavior. This game is actually about a side story centered around him and it has no relationship with "Death Note" at all.

Mario Party DS came in at ninth. It is going strong and had sold 1.5 million copies already in Japan.

In this reported week, 3 game from DS is in the top 10 spots. 11 of the top 30 game sales spots belong to DS games while 7 belong to Wii games.

[Populous DS] More Details

There are more details revealed from the site.

There will be 5 gods for the player to choose. Each of them is represented by one of the 5 elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind & Wood. Each elemental god can perform a miracle that can be game changing when done at the right time. The following links contain movies of the animation of the miracle performed by the gods.

- Earth

- Wind

- Water

- Fire

- Wood

At the end of the battle, the player can wage war against his enemy with his whole population. This is called the "Armageddon" and the outcome will be determined by the prosperity of the populations.

On each map, there will also be an "Opportunity Egg". Upon finding this egg, various miracles or monsters can appear. The weaker players can turn things around when they touch this egg.

There are a number of different game modes available. Challenge mode is actually the story of the game and the player must play many stages to clear this mode and view the whole story. Free play mode allows player to use the unlocked god and different settings to play a game. The gallery will contain information about the gods and the demons in the game. There will also be a VS mode in which 4 persons can play against each other through the wireless connection. There will also be a mini-game called "Find the Warrior" inside a specific map when the player is using a specific population.

There are a tons of maps for the players to play on - grassland, snow, near a volcano. There are also a bunch of funky maps like, horrow show, Mars, hanging garden, as well. Check it out here.

[Mushishi] Video Clip

Some Translations:

- You can choose to be a boy or girl

- You can collect Mushi(s)

- You can increase experience points by recording the Mushi

- There are more than 100 different Mushi(s)

- You can create your own name as your emblem

- You can challenge the original story

- The main character, Ginko & Tanyu, will be in the game

- There are many information collected from the comics for your viewing pleasure.

[Hokuto no Ken] Details on the Special Edition Keychain

I actually bought the special edition of the game and it comes with a special gift. I talked about this gift before and you can look up the details here. But check out the actual size of this thing. It is huge and thick! Probably too large as a keychain. But may be good as an ornament on your bag.


Also there is a demo version of the game. Here is the link.

[Houkago Shounen] Introduction

This is an adventure game from Konami. The game web site is here.

The game is set in 1970s in a small city block in Japan. The main character's name is Osamu. He is going to move to a new school in a month. Each day he needs to go to school and he has to go back home at night. And the game play is centered around his adventure after school for this last month. He can visit places, interact with other characters and play mini-games.

The one thing that immediately gets my attention is the music. It is so nostalgic. You can hear the theme song from the game web site.

Here is a video clip of the game.

DS Game Sales Data in Japan

According to Famitsu, the 9th best selling game in Japan from 1/28/2008 to 2/3/2008 is "Mario and Sonics at the Olympic Games" with over 30,000 copies sold during that period. The accumulated sales number over 170,000.

Mario Party DS came in fourteen. It is going strong and had sold 1.5 million copies already in Japan.

In this reported week, the top spots all belong to Sony and Microsoft games. Super Smash Bros for Wii did come in first and Wii Fit came in fifth. Only 1 game from DS is in the top 10 spots. 11 of the top 30 game sales spots belong to DS games while 8 belong to Wii games.

A real hidden gem is "Houkago Shounen". It came in at number 22. There is a lot of praise for this game.

[Hokuto no Ken] First Impressions

I actually got this game while travelling in Hong Kong on 02/10. A whole four days before its official release (02/14). I asked the salesman and they said the shipment is always made much earlier than the official release date and they really don't bother to keep the official relase date from the publisher.

Anyway, this game is quite awesome. It follows the story of the comic in the most faithful way. I finished the first two episodes already. The first one is about the introduction of Ken Shio and the second is about his encounter with King. I found that you have to follow the story very closely because the tapping can really happen at any time. And some of the tapping can be quite tricky. However, it does merge faithfully with the story and the kungfu style of the comic.

There is another mode in which the player can use the wireless connection to play some tapping challenges against another player. Also there are character info and famous dialogs to unlock as well.

The only problem I have is that the first two episodes are quite easy. I hope the pace will pick up a little bit more in the later episodes. Another problem is that blood and violence are really the trademark of this comic. And this game is really trying to block them all out. I know that it might not be too good for some of the kids to see all these violent behaviors but still it is like chicken noodle soup without the noodle.

[Sangokushi Taisen DS] Sangokushi Taisen 3 !!!

The latest version of the popular Sangokushi Taisen game is out on arcade in Japan. You can check out the web site here. The game play of Sangokushi Taisen 3 is basically the same. But a new type of card called the "Strategist Card" is added. Also all the cards will be regrouped into just 4 factions: Wei, Shu, Wu and Other. Finally the cards will have a new attribute that can change the power of the strategy that you choose at the beginning of each battle.

The records and the weapons you collected in Sangokushi Taisen 2 can be reused. Also you can reuse some of the cards in the previous version as well. I hope I can see a DS version soon within this year. But currently there is nothing yet confirmed on the NDS platform.

DS Game Sales Data in Japan

According to Famitsu, the 2nd best selling game in Japan from 1/14/2008 to 1/20/2008 is "Mario and Sonics at the Olympic Games" with over 90,000 copies sold during that period.

Mario Party DS came in third. It is going strong and had sold 1.5 million copies already in Japan.

"Layton Kyouju to Akuma no Hako" came in 7th. I have a brief game guide here. There is a link to the web trial version of the game as well.

15 of the top 30 game sales spots belong to DS games while 6 belong to Wii games. 9 of the top 10 games belong to Nintendo platforms.

[Populous DS] Highly Anticipated!!

Populous is very influential strategy game in the 90s. In this game, the player played as a god and the goal is to grow a civilization with divine intervention and manipulation. The objective is to conquer another civilization controlled by the enemy god.

The game will be published by EA in Japan on 02/21/2008. The official game site is here. You can find some screen shots here. There is also a promotional movie here

In this game, you can choose to be one of the five elemental gods (wind, wood, water, fire, earth) before each stage. Each element is strong against one other element and weak against another element. Each elemental gods can also perform different miracles during the game. According to the site, the game supports up to 4 players through download play. But unfortunately there will be no wifi play. Check out some of the screen shots here.

[Nodame Cantabile] A Decent Rhythm Game

This game is based on a popular manga about a talented guy dreaming of becoming a conductor and a weird girl crazy about playing the piano. The manga is so popular that they made a TV drama out of it as well. You can find the DVD box set of whole 11 episodes of the TV drama here

Here is how the game box looks like:

The game is basically a music rhythm game. The player is presented with a map that he can tap on. Tapping on a "Bear" icon will go into a rhythm game. Tapping on other icons will unlock new songs or other hidden items like character info, song info and composer info. There are also a number of mini-games that are related to the story of the manga.

The game official web site is here. There is also a trial version of the game on Yahoo! Japan. It can be found here.

The game is awfully short and the game play is not as sharp and accurate as other music rhythm games you can find on NDS. Only the die-hard fans of the manga will truly enjoy this title.

[Arkanoid DS] Another Classic

This is another classic game brought back by Taito to the NDS platform. You really don't need an introduction for this game. There is a trial version here. Check it out and you will feel at home right away.

The game official site is here. The game is already released in Japan in December, 2007.

One more thing to add is that you can use an add-on controller to play the game using a knob. This is similar to the device I talked about in the "Space Invader Extreme" game previously. It plugs right in to the SLOT-2 of your NDS. The game box above shows the device as well.

[Space Invaders Extreme] Awesome Classic!!

You really need an introduction to this game?

This game is going to be awesome. Wi-Fi battle will be supported. The music and sound effect is cool. There are also special power-ups if you manage to kill specific enemies or clear specific rounds. What more can you add to that?

Apparently the publisher of this game, Taito, can. There is a special add-on to the NDS that allows you turn a knob to move your craft across the screens. (I think this is the same add-on controller Arkanoid DS as well)

The official game site is here. Please make sure you check this out. There are tons of game play movies you can watch here. This game will be released in Japan on 02/21/2008

[Hokuto no Ken] Special Edition Comes with Special Gift

The special edition of the game will come with a special gift. Check out the picture to the left. It is a key chain imprinted with the image of Raoh's legendary horse - the "Dark King" or "Kokuoh-Go". When you press a button on the key chain, you can hear the frightening roar of the "Kokuoh-Go". It is a pretty cool gift for the fan of the manga. I have not been able to find a store that sells the special edition. Both play-asia.com and yesasia.com do not say they sell the special edition of the game. The only online store that sells it is Amazon Japan. Here is the link.

[Professor Layton] A Masterpiece Coming to US?

The "Professor Layton" series is a very smart move by game publisher level5. Right now there are so many brain teaser games on NDS. Most of them make me feel bored. So it is really a breath of fresh air when level5 combines the mini-games and puzzles with a rich story, attractive animation and great voice-overs. Oh! FYI, Maki Horikita, a really cute and famous Japanese actress, did the voice-over for "Luke", who is a student of Professor Layton and a major character in the games. Below is her picture.

The first game in the series is "Professor Layton and the Curious Village". It is coming out to a US release on 02/10/2008. The game is already out in Japan in February, 2007. It received quite a number of outstanding awards there since its release.

The game official web site is here. There is a web trial version. You can try it out by clicking here here

The name of the second game can be translated as "Professor Layton and the Devil's Box". There is no official English name yet and no known US release date. It is out in Japan in November, 2007 and it does very well on the Japanese game sales chart for a while.

The game official web site is here. There is a web trial version. You can try it out by clicking here here

From these trial versions of the games, you can see the game play is very simple. You follow the story and at certain point, a puzzle will be presented to you. You solved the puzzle and the story will continue.

The final installment of the seris cane be translated as "Professor Layton and the Final Time Travel". It is not out yet in Japan. You guys can probably check out the official "Professor Layton" site (http://www.layton.jp/index.html) from time to time to get the latest news. Here is a teaser photo for now.



Let's hope the first "Professor Layton" sell well in US so that we can get all three of them ported here.

[Dorabase] Doraemon Playing Baseball?

This game is selling pretty well in Japan during Christmas. It is based on a baseball manga featuring robotic cat playing baseball. It is a spinoff of the popular "Doraemon" comic.

The game play is actually pretty simple with the touch screen. And as in the original "Doraemon" comic, each robotic cat character has his own futuristic items he can use to help hit, throw or catch the ball. You can check out some of the items here

The game official web site is here

DS Game Sales Data in Japan

According to Famitsu, the best selling game in Japan from 12/17/2007 to 12/23/2007 is "Final Fantasy IV" with over 300,000 copies sold during that period.

Mario Party DS came in second. It is going strong and had sold a million copies already in Japan.

The Dragon Quest IV DS game dropped to the 6th on the sales chart.

At the 9th place is a baseball game based on the "Dorabase" manga. It is a spinoff of the popular "Doraemon" manga. I think I will talk about this game in my next post.

18 of the top 30 game sales spots belong to DS games while 6 belong to Wii games. 9 of the top 10 games belong to Nintendo platforms. This is pretty big.