QUARTER POUNDER BIG SECRET
Those crazy fools over in Japan opened a McDonalds store that serves nothing but Quarter Pounders. It’s of course for the launch of the sandwich in Japan, but it’s still pretty nutty.
Edit: Sorry, my brain erased the “no” between Taiko and Tatsujin the entire time I was writing this post… Fixed now! 
Coming from Bandai Namco on December 11th in Japan, is the latest installment of the Taiko no Tatsujin or Taiko Drum Master series. The game features new songs along with old favorites, Mii integration, and 2 player modes. I love this series. I have both DS versions, as well as the GameCube version that was released in the US. The track list is available on Dengeki. I am particularly excited about the song “Umiyuki.” This song was released several months ago in Japan by an African-American enka singer named Jero. I love him. He’s bringing Japanese folk music to a whole new audience by blending enka and hip-hop. Anyway, click the “More” for more screens and stuff.
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The teaser site for Square Enix’s Dragon Quest IX on the Nintendo DS is up. Mmmm… Dragon Quest. The site has a nice picture of a castle or something and a link to the Tokyo Game Show 2008 trailer.
Teaser Site
Via Famitsu
You may know singer/songwriter/actor Gackt as the Japanese voice and likeness for G in Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus and Genesis in Crisis Core. Personally, I think he’s the most beautiful man in the universe and I wish I was as pretty as he is. No adjective that I can think of does him justice. Sexy, hot, omg… Okay, sorry. Anyway, releasing on October 30th in Japan is a “Pachisuro” simulation game. I’m guessing that “pachisuro” is like a hybrid of pachinko and slot machine. That’s certainly what it looks like from the screenshots. But, honestly, I don’t care. It’s Gackt. Did I mention that the game will also feature some of his music? Click more for screens: (more…)
Namco Bandai announced that they will be releasing a PSP premium pack for Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam. So shiny. We need more stuff like this here. And, no, the Madden one doesn’t count. There’s no nifty design etched on that one. (Admittedly, it’s a beautiful blue color, though.) Anyway, the game is releasing in Japan on November 20th.
Official Site
I have only come to love Pokemon in the last year or so. Previously, I could never understand players’ obsession with collecting as many of the little creatures as humanly possible. Then I realized that this obsession was strikingly similar to MY obsession with getting every little thing in RPG’s (eg. defeating Emerald Weapon and getting the Gold Chocobo in Final Fantasy VII). It’s probably worth noting that RPG’s are the only games where I actually give a rat’s ass about achievements or trophies. So when I found out about Afrika, I was intrigued. Instead of cute little monsters with battle abilities, your objective is to photograph all the real wildlife in the African wild. The game was made in collaboration with National Geographic, so there is detailed information and real-life pictures of the animals in the game. (more…)
First, a bit of advice: If you can’t read Japanese at all, I wouldn’t recommend importing this game. All spoken dialog is done in a weird, repetitive jibberish which reminds me a lot of Animal Crossing, so you have to read everything. Also, some of the phrases seem to be from a different dialect. It seems to be Kansai-ben, which is a combination of dialects from the Kansai region of Japan. I’m not totally sure about that, though. Regardless, I’m having a very hard time playing this game because I rely on spoken dialog to fill in the holes of what I can’t read. So I’m finding myself spending a lot of time just wandering around aimlessly, pointing the Wii Remote and things and pressing A, hoping that something will happen. This is mainly because I’m too lazy to use a dictionary and translate every single bit of dialog. It’s simply too time consuming. Based on the few hundred kanji that I do know, I can often make guesses about where to go or what to do next. Still, the most progress I made in the game so far is when I made my son play with me and he would say, “Try clicking on that” or “Mom, go over there.” Between the two of us, figuring out what to do was a little easier.
But don’t let my first paragraph dissuade you! When I can figure out what I’m doing, the game is fun. My son said, “Man, I wish I could understand what was going on. Then I’d really want to play!” (more…)
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