[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.

[Kekkaishi] Another Manga Game

"Kekkaishi" is a popular manga known for its awesome fight scenes and hilarious characters. The story is about some special people called "Kekkaishi" who has power to create magical barriers that can fight off demons. And there are two major families with descendants inheriting this power. The two families are the "Sumimura" and the "Yukimura". The current "Kekkaishi" from the "Sumimura" family is Yoshimori, a 14 years old boy. And the "Kekkaishi" from the "Yukimura" family is Tokine, a 16 years old girl. Together, they helped to protect a sacred land where the demons can become powerful if they reach it.

The game is coming out at the end of February. Here is the game box.

This is an action game in which the player can control the two main characters of the manga and use them to fight off the demons. Each character has their specialties and the player can call upon one or the other in different situation to handle the enemies.

Yoshimori is much stronger. You can draw a much larger barrier to kill demons and protect yourself. Tokine is faster but weaker. She draws smaller barriers but can draw them more and faster.

Check out the scenes below. The top left button on the lower screen is for switching characters while the top right button is to use the barriers you draw to kill demons.

Actually this is already a sequel. The first "Kekkaishi" game is obviously doing quite well. It was released in May, 2007.

[Taiko no Tatsujin DS] New Taiko Game

The Taiko game is so popular that even the US fans are catching on now. In case you don't know, this is a music rhythm game in which the player can use the two included custom stylus (it is a bit longer than the usual stylus) to simulate playing the "Taiko", the traditional Japanese Drum. There are many J-pop songs and classical Japanese Taiko songs in the game. You can also collect items and clothes for the game's characters, too.

According to a Japan gaming magazine, a new Taiko game is coming up somewhere in the middle of this year in Japan. You can click on the picture below to enlarge the magazine shot.

The game is translated as "The Adventure of the Seven Islands". According to the magazine, the game will include custom stylus, similar to the previous game. There will be a secret item included, as well. 50 songs will be included. There will also be new characters. 4 persons can play the game at the same time through download play with one game cartridge. There will also be a "Versus" mode in which you can play against your friend to see who really got the beat right.

[Mushishi] Mushishi DS

This is a game based on a comic called "Mushishi". The game web site can be found here

The comics won many awards in Japan with its unique atmosphere and mood in the storytelling. In this fantasy world, there are some things called "Mushi" (can be translated as "Bugs") These are unique and amazing creatures that not all people can see. They don't have any fixed form or shape. They also have supernatural powers and are very much in touch with the very essence of life. They are mostly harmless. But when they cause trouble for humans, it is up to "Mushishi" (Master of Mushi, people who can see and interact with Mushi) to help solve the problem.

The story of the game centers around a village. Ten years ago, the villagers and animals all died without particular reasons. Everybody is dead except you. Ten years later, with the help of a Mushishi, the village is rebuilt and people come from other places to live here. But now strange things start to happen again...

You can do some player setting the first time you start the game. You can choose to be a boy or a girl. You can also enter your name as well. After that, you can begin your adventure. (Screenshots) Each day, you are free to explore the village and collect information. You can also try to catch some Mushi (Screenshots) and make records of these creatures (Screenshots). You can collect food and materials for medicine. You can also accept request of "Mushi Healing" and perform "Mushi Healing". The "Mushi Healing" is a way of using Mushi to help solve people's problem. Of course you need to have the correct Mushi to use and know the correct way of using them together with the materials you collect before hand. (Screenshots)

The game progresses when you gain more knowledge of the Mushi and experience of using them. At the beginning, you are basically the understudy of the Mushishi until you learn enough from him. Then you can start helping on the villagers with their problems. You keep using the Mushi to help them and level up in the way of Mushishi until you solve the mystery of the disaster ten years ago. You can unlock the library after you beat the game. It contains a lot of information about the Mushi in the game. There is also some side quests for you to perform as well. So there is certainly some replay value here.

The special edition of the game also comes with a nice "Mushishi" bag (shown below). It is large enough to hold your NDS in it.

The game will be released at the end of January in Japan.

[Nekketsu Koukou Dodge Ball] Dodge Ball, Japanese Style!!

This is a highly anticipated game based on the "Nekketsu Koukou" series. The series name can be literally translated as "Hot Blooded High School". And this time the school boys are out playing dodge ball.

The game web site can be found here. The rules of the dodge ball is pretty basic and well-known around the world. But in addition to that, this game allows you to kick and punch other opponents on the field. You can even pick up stuff on the floor and use it to hit the other guys. Another part of the game play involves a "Heat" gauge on the top of the screen. When you attack other players or hit them with the dodge ball, you can add points to the "Heat" gauge. And when the gauge is filled up, you can perform some stunning team powers-up. In addition, each character has his own special move with dodge ball.

There will be a editor mode in which you can select players to form your dream team. You can then use your team to play against the CPU or friends through the wireless. There will also be a tournament mode in which you can play against teams around the world for the world cup. Finally there is a fun "Brawl" mode in which up to 8 players can join through wireless and they are free to do "anything" on the playing field.

Some of the characters and their special moves can be seen here as well.

This game will be released on 02/21 in Japan.

[Hokuto no Ken] Game Play Screenshots

Hello again! Here are some screenshots of the game play. Hopefully they will explain the actual "Secret Hole Piercing" game play a little bit better.

For the original preview, please click here

DS Game Sales Data from Japan

According to Famitsu, the best selling game in Japan from 12/10/2007 to 12/16/2007 is Mario Party DS with over 160,000 copies sold during that period. The accumulated sale so far since its release is over 760,000 copies.

The Dragon Quest IV DS game came in 4th on the sales chart. This is a remake of the classic role playing game on the DS platform.

"Layton Kyouju to Akuma no Hako" came in 5th. This is the second of the three Professor Layton game produced by Level 5 for NDS. It is translated as "Professor Layton and the Pandora Box". The game story line centers around Professor Layton's adventure in solving various mysteries. The game play consists of many mini-games and puzzles.

14 of the top 30 game sales spots belong to DS games while 8 belong to Wii games. It seems like Nintendo is going to do quite well over this past holiday season.

R4 days are numbered in Hong Kong

According to Ming Pao(a popular Chinese newspaper in Hong Kong), the price of the NDS with the R4 card bundle has increased from HKD1,400 (~USD180) to HKD1,700 (~USD220) since the beginning of the year. The reason behind this increase is due to the false news published by some local game magazines. Several of them reports the outlawing of the sale of any console modding equipment that allows it to play bootleg version of the game. And the R4 card is being used here as the poster child. The real truth is that this change of the copyright protection law is still not yet enforced and is currently under review. Experts said it will at least take 3 more months before the government will start to enforce such law.

Experts said the NDSTT card might be the key to bypass such law because it is not preloaded with the necessary software and the user has to download such software before using it.

Anyway, I think this is a right step in copyright protection and I hope to see more such news coming from other places in the world as well.

Here are the links to the news articles (in Chinese)

http://hk.news.yahoo.com/080105/12/2mgow.html

http://hk.news.yahoo.com/080105/12/2mgox.html

http://hk.news.yahoo.com/080105/12/2mgoy.html

[Hokuto no Ken] The Legend Reborn on DS

This is a highly anticipated action game based on the legendary Japanese comic called "Hokuto no Ken". It is also widely known as "Fist of the North Star". The comic is serialized in the famous Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in the 80s. It is co-created by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara. The story centers around a guy named Ken Shio, who mastered a style of martial arts called "Hokuto Shinken". It is a special style for assassins and Ken Shio is the best of the best in this style.

The web site for the game is here. The game will be divided into episodes. Each episode will consist of a bit of story-telling, followed by game play. Some of the most famous scenes of the comic will once again be presented to the player. There will be 22 episodes altogether and it will tell the story of Ken Shio up to the death of Raoh, who is his nemesis of the first part of the comic story.

And of course the game play is the real fun part here. And the publisher of the game called it "Secret Hole Piercing" action. During the game play, the player will be shown the some legendary "Koma" of the comic, with special instructions for the player to follow or tap using the stylus. There will be a special marker around the "Koma" and the player is required to perform those instructions before the marker reaches its end. When the player correctly performs the requirements, the characters (either Ken Shio or others) will be able to perform their famous moves in the story and it allows the storyline to move on. Just take a look here.

Now this kind of game play is truly utilizing the strength the NDS platform. And the player can now really engage in the amazing martial arts world with the touch screen and stylus.

There will also be a bunch of collectibles like character introductions and famous dialogues. There will also be a quiz mode but of course it will be all in Japanese. The publisher also said there will be some mini-games included as well.

This game will be released at the end of February, 2008. And it can be pre-ordered by clicking the game box arts above.

[Sangokushi Taisen DS] Beginner WIFI Strategy

So now that you know the basic of this game, I bet you must be very eager to play online through Wifi. So how do you play well through WFC? That's a million dollar question that I cannot give you a definite answer. But I do want to give some hints and tips to some beginners to the online world of this fantastic game.

In this post, I am going to talk about a strategy that I think is very suitable for wifi beginners. Let us start first with the key cards in this strategy.

Your deck will need to have one of these 3 cards. These 3 cards have a special skill that can call for asteroids to fall on enemy castle. This attack does a decent damage on the castle hit points. But this skill costs 7 units of morale. The last card above actually has a different version of this skill. It costs only 5 morale units. But the problem is that the card will need to be stationery for a short period of time before the skill is executed while the other 2 cards can cost damages to the castle instantly.

So what is the big deal with these cards? Their special skills allow you to hit the enemy castle without getting to the enemy castle area. So the strategy is around setting up great defense to protect your castle and the key card in the deck. You will need the other cards of your deck to use various skills and abilities to fight off waves of attack from your opponent. And when you have enough morale units left, you can pull off the key card skill to land some hits on the enemy castle. Normally you will not have enough hits to KO an opponent. You will most likely be shooting for using the key card skill at the final moments of the game when you and your enemy both have full hit points for the castle.

So how do I set up the defense? It really depends on your preference. You can have all archer cards in your deck. Many archer cards will have the "barrier" ability so that they can set up barrier in front of them to help out the defense. But this defense does not work well against enemy deck with many cavalry cards. You can also have a bunch of spearman cards in your deck. A line-up of spearman can really help in fighting off cavalry cards. But this defense works poorly against archer cards. You can also think of using a mixture of archer and spearman cards. In my opinion, a group of cavalry cards are not as good as a group of archer or spearman cards in defense.

Why is it good for wifi game beginners? First of all, you really don't need to go to the enemy side of the battle field. So you can limit the movement of your cards within your own side of the field. This really helps me out when I first started because I cannot move the cards as quickly and react as quickly as some of the more experienced players. Also, the battle will usually last longer because you concentrate so much on defense. So I will have more time to study other people's attack strategy and learn from them.

What are the disadvantages of this strategy? First of all, it can be a really boring strategy because the battle can be really long if your defense is strong. Also, the key card skill will require 7 morale units (with the exception of the last card) so you really should not construct a deck with mixed factions. Finally, it is an extremely passive strategy and very often you will get the feeling that you are not in control of the battle.

So can you think of another strategy that is more suitable for wifi game beginners? Please do share and let me know.

[Mitsukete! Keroro Gunsou] A Fun Photo-hunt Game

This is a fun and addictive photo-hunt game based on the Keroro anime. This is the type of game that is perfect for import. The game play is simple and you really don't need to understand a whole lot of Japanese to enjoy it. Two similar pictures will be shown to the player. One will be on the top screen while the other will be at the bottom. The player will need to draw a circle around a place at the bottom screen that he thinks is different from the screen above. Each set of picture will have 5 differences for the player to circle around within a given time.

The official web site for this game is here. The best part here is that you can play a demo version of this game on the site. All you need to do is to find a button similar to the one below on the home page of the site and click on it.

Now the only problem I have with this game is that it is way too expensive for such a simple and short gaming experience. But still I think it is a fun game.

[Ouendan 2] 7 Cultural Observations After Playing Ouendan 2 & Elite Beat Agents

First of all, both games are awesome. I played them again and again. And I want to share with you guys a few cultural differences I notice in these 2 games.

1) In the Japanese version, a lot of the cheering is for folks doing cold, hard and honest work. e.g. One episode shows a fresh-grad interviewing for a job. Another one shows a sumo wrestler busting his big bottom to avoid the close-down of his dojo. There is another one about a passionate doctor helping out poor islanders with various problems. It is just not the same in EBA. The dancing girl is the only character that is really doing a cold, hard and honest work. And she definitely needs some cheering-up to make it to Broadway.

2) In EBA, there are a couple of episodes in which the main characters are just trying to get rich fast. One episode shows an ex-oil-tycoon trying to get back his riches through digging. Another one shows a boat captain going for lost treasure undersea. In Ouendan 2, a couple of characters do get rich. But it is only because they achieve a certain level of success in their corresponding cold, hard and honest work/job.

3) Not quite sure if everybody agree with me or not. The Japanese can sometimes need a lot of help in relationship. In Ouendan 2, there is the young boy trying to open up to his crush through some silly acts. There is also the wolfman having trouble hiding his bad side from his dream date. In EBA, love is more direct. Mr. Da Vinci is right to the point in getting to know Miss Mona Lisa in one of the earlier episodes.

4) In EBA, there are episodes in which the main character is cat or dog. I can't find similar episodes in Ouendan 2. I always think the Japanese and Americans are both very pet-friendly. Perhaps, they can add a few more "Cat"/"Dog" episodes in Ouendan 3

5) There a bunch of disasters for the heroes to save the day in EBA. One episode shows a truck driver saving a zombie-infested city with beans. Another shows a baseball player saving a kid from a fire golem. I think Ouendan 2 is more light-hearted in a relative way. The worst that happens is a giant cat roaming free in the city threatening a small factory.

6) The final episode in EBA is to fight off the aliens while the Japanese got to reverse the global warming trend in the last episode in Ouendan 2. May be it is a reflection of the biggest fear for these 2 different groups of people. I think the Japanese are always more concerned with natural disasters while the American are always more concerned to be under attack.

7) Lovely, energetic dancing girls are always a boost to morale no matter what culture you are from.

[Sangokushi Taisen DS] How to Beat the Final Battle of the Practice Mode with Super Hard Setting?

I just saw this in a forum. Somebody is having problem with the final battle of the practice mode with super hard setting. So let me try my best to dissect this battle and see what the player can do about it.

So here are the 8 cards that the enemy in the 10th battle is going to use.

Actually I don't have one of them as well. It only showed how strong this enemy deck is. The missing one I don't have is the card with "Wu 012" as its ID. It is a cost 3 archer card with hidden ability and the skill of using a strong massive fire attack. However, after the fire attack is used, the card will be slashed automatically as well.

So how do we beat this deck? The key is this card below.

This is what I called the Ferrari of this game. It is a siege card with a skill costing only 2 morale units and increases its speed dramatically. So the plan then is to set up a wall of defense with cards that have low cost, high intelligence point, hidden ability to pull off surprise attack. At the very least, you need five of them. Which five of them is really your choice. As you see, half of the enemy cards are low intelligence high attack cards so the plan is to use this wall of defense to kill as many of these low intelligence enemy cards as possible (with surprise attack) and then regroup the forces to occupy the remaining enemy cards. This will buy you enough time for the Ferrari to go hit the enemy castle and take it down.

One thing to remember is that one of the enemy cards can set a barrier. So you need to look out for the best clear path for your Ferrari to hit the castle wall. You don't always need to hit the castle gate because it is probably well-guarded by the barrier. So don't waste time trying to tear the barrier down with your Ferrari. Your best chance is to hide your Ferrari inside your own castle and thus you can move it around instantly to choose the best straight line when the battle unfolds.

Another thing to look out is the hidden enemy card. Its fire attack can very likely take down your Ferrari as well. So you will need some luck for the AI to not choose your Ferrari as the target, too.