I haven’t played my DS in over a month and a half. Honestly, I just haven’t been in the gaming mood. However, I finally received my pre-ordered copy of Konami’s Suikoden Tierkreis for the DS and that broke my anti-gaming mood. Suikoden Tierkreis is the newest instalment in the series — a spin-off of some sort, making it drastically different from its console counterparts — but it still retains some similarities from the main series. More »

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My real life job consists of being in charge of a youth technology lab. I’ve been told in a training to do whatever I want with the lab, claim it as my own, and leave my mark behind. So I racked my brain for a theme I could use to do a slight overhaul with the place. At first I considered doing a theme based off of classical music composers, like naming each computers after them. However, the idea of kids misspelling “Rachmaninoff” on the sign-in sheet turned me off quiet badly. More »

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Lara and I ventured into New York City for this year’s NY Comic Con at the Jacob Javits Center to see what was poppin’. We met up with some Ningin staff, caught a Yatterman screening and fangirled till our voices gave out. More »

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On January 22 of this year, Denim & Sole released their new line of Super Mario Sneakers. They sort of look like a strange pair of converses with no laces or something. They do have a part of the game on the cover. I do love Mario and Luigi to the bone. But I’m not sure if I want to walk around with this unfashionable pair of shoes. I could buy them and keep them in the box under my bed. I can pull them out every now and then to gaze at them. I could use them as house slippers. Or maybe I could wear them out for just one day to get reactions out of people with a video cam in my hand. Either way, they are a cool pair of sneakers all in the name of the forever famed Super Mario Brothers! More »

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Apparently, Nintendo is “recession-proof”, or so says this article. Even though South Korea is suffering from a pretty bad economic setback, people still want to have some fun in their life, which makes sense. And the DS and the Wii are great for casual gamers, which the article notes on how the gaming user-base has shifted here. Kudos to Nintendo for doing that, even if some their stuff is too cutesy/family-friendly and doesn’t appeal to me. I still love my DS, though!

Although I can’t help but wonder on how if the economy is pretty bad here, how can the South Koreans afford these extra stuff like games and other “frivolous” merchandises. If the poor economy affected me, I know I wouldn’t be spending my funds on materialistic items. But oh well. Whatever makes people happy.

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Or so says this article. But then I read this article and go HUH . . .

I can understand the reluctance from South Korea’s side. I can sort of understand how some South Korean officials do not want everything to be “Japanised.” However, I can’t help but think, uh, sorry South Korea, but Japanese mangas, novels, and etcetera intrigue me more. Heck, even this entry just sort of proves from my side of the world that Japan rocks in certain areas. I admit that I am more biased towards Japanese products and media than I am towards South Korea’s, but I’ll blame that on my Japan-oriented hobbies. More »

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Just mere hours ago, I had a Daewoo TV. Now that I have a new JVC TV, I just realised something: I own nothing that’s Korean-made, with the exception of my cellphone. Hahaha! Seriously! If I put all my electronics together, these are what I have:

* JVC TV (Nicknamed: Pita = Pain in the Arse) * Hitachi VHS * Panasonic DVD Player * Panasonic Stereo * Nintendo SNES * Nintendo GameCube * Sony PlayStation 1 * Sony PlayStation 2

No Korean-made products. I find it very ironic considering where I live. On the flip side, I love my new (well, second-hand) TV. HOMG. Playing video games on it will be a very smexy experience. I already tested it out with one game and am absolutely floored by the big, crisp graphical and audio output.

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When Jerry posted this, it reminded me of Nick and Sam Henline. These two performed a Nintendo Medley duet on the piano at their talent show and won first place. The medley consisted of songs from Mario, Zelda, and Kirby. Later, they also did a Legend of Zelda Medley. A copy of their sheet music can be found here, and click on the cut to see their performances.

I’m thoroughly impressed by their talent. Makes me want to find someone to play video game music duets with on the piano now! More »

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Bad boy Bahamut of the Final Fantasy series will make his debut on the NDS screen.

After a week of a mysterious time clock, Square Enix officially announced the Blood of Bahamut. The game will feature a 3D RPG that can be played as a co-op with 1 – 4 players. It will be presented at Jump Festa expo in Japan at the end of this year.

The story will surround two characters, Ibuki and Yui who live in a fortified city build on a giant (who I assume is Bahamut but looks more like Alexander from FFIX). The giant wakes up during an enemy attack and the heroes must fight to defend the city.

I love Square Enix but why would anyone build a city on a giant?

Official Website More »

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While everyone is focused on the elections (I’m only waiting for the aftermath, the final verdict, THE ULTIMATE JUDGEMENT), I am travelling down memory lanes. With fondness, I remember my arcade gaming days. While my parents were busy with their stuff at the bowling alley, I was left on my own to entertain myself. Often, I had a book to read, friends to play with, and people to talk with. However, most of my times were spent playing arcade games or watching other people play the said games. One of the games that was popular and will forever transcend time happens to be Pac-Man.

Unfortunately, it’s a game I never quite liked along with Tetris. Those two games frustrated me more than anything else. However, the point is, Pac-Man is like Mario. Mario is Nintendo’s icon and mascot. Pac-Man is Namco’s. Whether you are a gamer or not, those two are pretty much a universal symbol. It’s pretty symbolic if something like this happened on Halloween. I mean, how awesome is that?! I think it is. It’s freaking spectacular. I only wished I was there to see it. I would have so wanted to pose with them for a picture.

Ah, such is the life of a gamer/nerd like me. I find the most random things to be made of the biggest win. More »

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If you didn’t know, Nintendo released their new gaming console Nintendo DSI earlier this month to replace the old but popular NDS. Similar to the NDS, the DSI has a double screen (one of which is touch) in addition to some nifty new features. It will include two cameras (one outside and in), a SD card slot, bigger screens, a new interface and some more user options on the startup page.

I love Nintendo but I can’t say I’m jumping for joy here. Supposedly the DSI doesn’t support an R4 card which is a big factor for me as I love homebrew games. Also, they’ve taken out the GBA card slot (for what reason I don’t know) which again limits the game selection by a lot. Some of us still play old school games!

While the camera is a fun feature as there are all sorts of photo editing included, it can’t replace the R4 and GBA. Unless this camera has SLR quality (which it doesn’t), I’m going to stick to my NDS. Sorry Nintendo!

For more information on the DSI, you can read Danny Choo’s review or Kotaku’s coverage. More »

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