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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Sometimes I wish I had a cheaper hobby. As much as I love video games, they really suck my poor bank account empty. It doesn’t help when I have the internet telling me what games are coming out in United States and what games are released in Japan, which I hope some of them do see English localisations! A girl can dream! Now I just need to conjure up more money for these games that interest me in 2009. It’s going to be another expensive gaming year. More »

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If there was one word to describe my gaming style, it would be this: sporadic. I play when I’m in the mood, and with that you can find me playing a game that was released in 2003 right now in 2008. Yes, I do not follow what’s mainstream, but with video games, I sort of try, and I succeeded this year with the DS — again that’s with a “sort of”. Come to think of it, I own three other systems, but I don’t think I touched any of them this year. Oi. Anyway, here are the games that were released in 2008, that were actually played in 2008, not necessarily beaten, and what I consider to be “best” or more like “personal favourites”. The list is in the order by the games’ release date. More »

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Um, wow. I’m actually quite speechless about this. A hacked up Chrono Trigger for the NES of all systems? Why that one? I didn’t think anyone would actually still use the NES in the first place! Well, I know of one person, but she’s not Chinese, so I don’t think she’d play this game and understand it.

And to read that they did the same thing to Final Fantasy VII. Oi. Some people have too much time on their hands! More »

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I cannot believe it’s practically a decade now since I was introduced to Chrono Trigger on the SNES. I feel so old! Regardless, I’ll never forget that day, where a bunch of my anime/video game friends were telling me about this game. I’ll never forget asking them this: why is Lavos dangerous when he’s tiny on the cover? Trust me when I say that I’ll never forget my reaction to the game when I finally played it. Never mind that I freaked out and turned the thing off when I went to 2300 A.D. (the atmosphere and music scared me senseless), but when I finally did play through it, I was hooked. On video games. On RPGs. Thus many sleepless nights came into my existence in my high school and college careers.

A lot of people say this is not only an SNES classic, but a classic for all-time. I agree with that sentiment. This game is classic. So classic that when the game was re-released for Final Fantasy Chronicles, I bought it, and I was thoroughly disappointed by it! The loading times drove me nuts! It ruined the whole experience for me, and I just threw the disc back in the case and never touched it, deciding to stick with the original SNES one. Despite my hatred for the PlayStation version, now a DS port has been released couple of weeks ago. I finally got my copy, and I have started playing it. More »

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Back in January of this year, for about three weeks, I was addicted to Majesco’s Cooking Mama I and II on the Nintendo DS. For some reason, even though I usually don’t care for games like this, I was determined to beat both of them, and I did. I mean, seriously, you just play as Mama and cook different recipes, most of them Japanese-based.

However, I discovered that PETA decided to do a flash game parody — with Thanksgiving coming up and all. It wanted to show the mistreatments that turkeys receive. As the user, you get to play as evil!Mama where you pretend pluck the turkey’s feather, pull its organs out, stuff them, cook them, and etcetera etcetera. I admit, it’s pretty gruesome — making me almost wish I was a vegetarian. After that part of the game, it opens up a new stage where you play as nice!Mama and this time cook a tofu “turkey” dish.

Give it a try here. Honestly, I can say that it seems to work as a pretty interesting propaganda tool. In fact, PETA is also pushing Majesco into making a vegetarian Cooking Mama. Now I think that’s pushing the whole “vegetarian” act a bit too far.

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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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Read Part 1.

Here’s the continuation of my personal favourite list of tropes and cliches for Japanese console role-playing games.

107. Arbour Day Rule: At some point, you’re going to have to talk to a tree and do what it says.

For some reason, this struck me to be the most hilarious thing on the list. I think it’s the “Arbour Day” part that cracked me up the most.

128. First Law of Fashion: All characters wear a single costume which does not change over the course of the game. The only exception is when characters dress up in enemy uniforms to infiltrate their base.

129. Second Law of Fashion: Any character’s costume, no matter how skimpy, complicated, or simply outlandish, is always completely suitable to wear when climbing around in caves, hiking across the desert, and slogging through the sewers. It will continue to be completely suitable right afterwards when said character goes to meet the King.

130. Third Law of Fashion: In any futuristic setting, the standard uniform for female soldiers and special agents will include a miniskirt and thigh-high stockings. The standard uniform for all male characters, military or not, will include an extraordinarily silly and enormous hat.

These laws of fashion are true. I especially agree with the first two. However, I am unsure about the whole “extraordinarily silly and enormous hat” for the males.

More »

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I was introduced to this particular website about six months ago. A wikipedia of tv tropes and cliches? Oh man, this site is like Wikipedia in the sense that it sucks you in and claim your soul for eternity. However, when I accidentally ran into this grand list of (Japanese) console role-playing game cliches . . . I decided that I had to share the ones that struck out the most to me!

5. Logan’s Run Rule: RPG characters are young. Very young. The average age seems to be 15, unless the character is a decorated and battle-hardened soldier, in which case he might even be as old as 18. Such teenagers often have skills with multiple weapons and magic, years of experience, and never ever worry about their parents telling them to come home from adventuring before bedtime. By contrast, characters more than twenty-two years old will cheerfully refer to themselves as washed-up old fogies and be eager to make room for the younger generation. More »

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Although the 2008 New York Anime Festival has passed, we are very pleased to have shared such enjoyable memories with you all. With the help of our devoted readers, we were able to sort through hundreds of cosplay photos naming three as our winners one of which is David Santiago (third place). From our interview with him, we learned that David has an interesting sense of humor and great cosplaying style. His point of view is one of pure engagement that is a truly inspirational take on cosplaying and enjoying what you love most.

Q: Was this your first time cosplaying? A: No I’m not a cosplay virgin lol I believe once in 2002 i cosplayed once, but in 2006 i came back cosplaying, first con at baff in the marriot hotel in midtown then i came back and cosplayed in otakon 2006 from there on i’ve been on a role

Q: What first inspired you to cosplay? A: It’s fun to cosplay and join in with your fellow otaku in a experience that you share with a couple of thousand others like yourself. It’s the one time you can dress as some one you like in a anime or video game and then on the plus act like them unless your character is a perv then maybe not More »

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With Tokyo Game Show 2008 ending, it brought a couple of things that made me go absolutely “SQUEE” about some of the upcoming DS games.

I admit that I’m a nerd. I admit that I’m a gamer. It’s seen as a “bizarre” concept amongst my fellow Koreans, especially the older generations who sees this more for children who do poorly in schools, but do I care? No! Considering my decent GPA in high school and college, I deserve some fun! I like my games! I like my toys. Only problem is that gaming is one expensive hobby that hurts my wallet and bank account the most! Regardless of that, I am eagerly awaiting on a few games that are to come out for the DS — well couple that have yet to have a release date for the English speaking realm, but a girl can dream, right? More »

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