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• The 'Bout Time Report: Dragon Quest IX Gets a Release Date

  The Dragon Quest games have never been known for their timeliness; Dragon Quest VII in particular had a development time so troubled that when it eventually came out, the game had a sorry first-gen aesthetic in a world where both Vagrant Story and Chrono Cross existed. But according to Kotaku, the upcoming Dragon Quest IX finally has a release date--nearly two years after the shocking announcement that the game would be exclusive to the DS. In this case, the DQ team's lack of promptness won't affect them much--as if it ever did before. The passing of time has only seen millions more DS systems sold, which means that Square-Enix is well on their way towards taking over the world. The reveal of DQ on the DS two years ago was a bit of a surprise, but it actually made sense when you stopped to think about it. Dragon Quest was never a series that prided itself--or relied--on visuals; despite what a show-stopping blockbuster VIII ended up being. When it comes to the franchise in general, VIII was a definite deviation; all of the standard DQ trappings still existed, but they were dressed up in the trappings of a lavish late-gen PS2 game--and even more so in the renovated US version. As much as I'd love to see another game in the same vein as DQVIII--which felt like the only authentic RPG of that generation--the format of IX doesn't really matter. Even with a game as relatively ugly as the DS remake of DQIV, that same addictive DQ formula is present regardless of the graphics. Read More... Posted Oct 01 2008, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: ds, square-enix, dragon quest, bob mackey, dragon quest ix

• RPGs Make Me OCD

  Playing Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen has unleashed my inner demons--but luckily for me, these demons are neat, orderly, and keep everything in nice little piles. Now, I'm normally just a neat freak, and I try to keep my OCD tendencies to a minimum; but there's just something about RPGs that turns me into a hand-washing, tile-counting, light-switch-flicking freak, and I'm not sure if I can help it. On the brighter side of things, this behavior of mine makes certain games last, much, much longer than they should. For the darker side of things, please see my last point. When playing console RPGs, there are certain things I just have to do no matter what--and whether or not I need to be on prescription medication should be decided by you, dear reader. What follows is a list of my RPG compulsions: - Talking to everyone in town, then talking to everyone again once an event changes their dialogue. - Checking every desk/drawer/lamp/treasure nook in every possible location. - Not being able to leave or move on from an area until I have the best possible weapons/armor available from said area. - Making sure my status-ailment curing items are always in totals divisible by 5 (this worries me) - Never, ever using my uber-powerful items, even when I need them. You want elixirs? I've got 'em. Read More... Posted Sep 29 2008, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: rpg, ds, final fantasy xii, dragon quest iv, ocd

• Are We Ready for a New DS?

  Get ready for trade-in values to drop; a shocking weekend news post from Wired's Game|Life revealed that Nintendo may be in the mood for another renovation to their popular platform. Game|Life head honcho Chris Kohler breaks it down for all of us who are unfortunate enough to lack fluency in Japanese: Nikkei Net, the online arm of Japan's foremost economic newspaper, reports that the new model will launch this year in Japan and include a camera and music playback. Nikkei's take on the new machine is that Nintendo is moving outside the boundaries of the "game industry" and attempting to create a device that will compete with more general electronics like cell phones. Nikkei does point out that the camera function of DS could be integrated with gameplay, by allowing games to use the photos taken with the hardware. There's no doubt that the DS' 2006 remodel was a much-needed change; it made the system smaller, brighter, and look remarkably less like a toy. I'm one of many who handed down their fat DS to a loved one or stranger for the benefit of a much sleeker handheld--and the DS Lite has been so awesome that I feel no resentment for Nintendo. The changes to this supposed new model aren't quite as drastic as what would be in the DS2 (or whatever Nintendo decides to call it), though they're pretty big nonetheless. But will Americans really fall for a third model of the same product? Read More... Posted Sep 29 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, ds, game boy advance, hardware

• Me VS. Blue Hedgehog

  Just yesterday Bob Mackey posted about his experiences with Sonic the Hedgehog. Naturally, this put me in mind of my own rather odd relationship with Sega's troubled mascot. Back in the days of the 16 bit wars I was deep in the Nintendo trenches, so anything that came from Sega was of the devil. Sonic was an enemy general to be assaulted on any playground where gamers collided in verbal combat. Okay, enough with the war analogies. After growing up and leaving my blind brand loyalties behind, I decided to try and like the guy. After all, with such a large fan following, Sonic games had to be pretty good right? Read More... Posted Sep 25 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: wii, gamecube, amber ahlborn, ds, sonic the hedgehog, sonic unleashed, sonic and the secret rings, gba, sonic chronicles

• Anticipation Time: Dragon Quest IV

  For as much as we like to bitch and moan about innovation in gaming, sometimes it's just nice to be face-deep in a big ol' nostalgia pie--especially if said pie was almost given to us six years ago and then snatched away without the promise of future pie time.  What I'm trying to say with this strained analogy is that the remake of Dragon Quest IV is finally coming to the US on September 16th, and we should all be thankful. If you're unaware of the scandal behind the Dragon Quest IV remake, it's important to know that we almost got it six years ago; released for the Playstation in Japan, Enix promised to bring the game to the States on the back of the instructions of the US-released Dragon Warrior VII.  Unfortunately, Heartbeat, who "programmed" both VII and the IV remake, folded, making the necessary localization re-programming more trouble than it was actually worth.  But honestly, Heartbeat's implosion was really for the best; it allowed Enix to pass the game to a much more qualified team (Level 5), and Heartbeat's take on the series kind of buried the magic of Dragon Quest under a load of crummy graphics (even for a game rooted in nostalgia) and sloppy, buggy menus.  VII was already a turd of a game, but Heartbeat didn't help matters much. Read More... Posted Sep 04 2008, 03:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: ds, dragon quest, final fantasy iv ds, remakes, bob mackey

• Warning: Pictoimage Isn't Really A Game

  Yesterday, my general boredom led me to the Wii's space-gobbling Nintendo channel, in the hopes that something could eat away minutes of my precious free time.  I was luck enough to stumble across a DS demo for Sega's PictoImage, which amazingly transforms your DS into a virtual piece of paper!  Here's the trailer: Yep, PictoImage is the same gimmicky crap that made everyone think the DS was a bad idea back in 2004. Thank god we can experience those same feelings in 2008, what with Ping Pals being a forgotten tragedy nearly four years after the system's launch. Read More... Posted Aug 28 2008, 05:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: sega, ds, stupid, bob mackey, pictoimage

• F--k the Moon

  I hope Final Fantasy IV can see this, because I'm doing it as hard as I can. Last week, I cheerily reported on my ongoing affair with the DS remake of Final Fantasy IV, though I did have some reservations about the moon portion of the game, where I was currently stationed.  This week, I committed the ultimate act of hate you can do to a game: sending it back to GameFly unfinished. For bonus revenge points, I also watched the ending on YouTube. Read More... Posted Aug 25 2008, 06:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: ds, square-enix, final fantasy iv ds, difficulty, bob mackey

• Where is Yasunori Mitsuda?

  Chrono Trigger is coming to the DS this holiday season, and we should all be happy.  If it were any other game, Square-Enix would be lambasted for bringining such a quick-and-dirty full-priced port (plus the typical five-dollar "Square tax") to its brainwashed fans, but this is Chrono Trigger.  Since the game has basically been out of print for 13 years, and available only as a gimped PS1 port for seven of those years, it's nice to hear that we'll get a legal, playable version of Chrono Trigger without a dead save battery and sans loading times.  I don't know what pushed my through the Final Fantasy Chronicles version of the game, but I'm going to go ahead and blame September 11th. One of the nicer bits of news about Chrono Trigger DS is that the soundtrack--one of the best, technically and musically--has actually survived the transition; this is no small feat, what with Square-Enix's GBA remakes sounding both tinny and crunchy.  You can credit the greatness of Chrono Trigger's soundtrack to the SNES sound chip--which certainly was a great tool--but Yasunori Mitsuda deserves most of the acclaim for putting together one hell of a soundtrack.  And it was his first! But in the past few years, it seems like Mitsuda has been slumming by working exclusively on forgettable DS RPGs. This is something the needs to change. Read More... Posted Aug 20 2008, 11:30 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: where is, chrono trigger, ds, yasunori mitsuda, bob mackey

• Gaming on a Train: Final Fantasy IV

  Before I start, let me officially state that DAYUM Rydia is smokin' hot. There, I said it; I'd say it again if I had to. Let's move on, averting our attention to the right only when hormones deem it necessary. One benefit of taking a mass transit vacation--aside from inexplicably being surrounded by Amish people--is that you can kill most of your travel time by playing video games, instead of waiting for stop signs or the odd empty stretch of highway to squeeze in a quick few turns of Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (I have never done this).  On my most recent trip, I had initially planned on dabbling in quite a few different games I'd picked up over the summer, but ended up devoting all of my time to the Final Fantasy IV remake for reasons that say a lot about the decisions I make in life. Read More... Posted Aug 18 2008, 04:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: rpg, ds, nostalgia, final fantasy iv ds

• Play It Again, Sam

  How many times have you bought the same game? I don't mean full on remakes like Metroid: Zero Mission or sports games sequels where they dusted off the old engine and updated the roster. I mean how many games did you repurchase because it was a special edition with some new features, or it was released for a different home system, or it was the hand held version? Read More... Posted Aug 08 2008, 11:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: metroid, remake, wii, snes, amber ahlborn, chrono trigger, ps2, ds, okami, super mario advance, gba, special edition

• Metroid: Wishful Thinking

  I can't get enough Metroid. Already I want to see another entry into the series, be it on the DS or Wii, 2-D or 3-D. Like many I hoped the speculation about the Metroid Dread reference in Metroid Prime 3 indicated a new game on the horizon. For now though, all is quiet on the front. Nobody knows what Retro's current project is or if Nintendo has anything in the works for the series right now. So in the absence of any real information of any sort, I thought I'd share my wish list. Read More... Posted Aug 01 2008, 11:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: metroid, wii, amber ahlborn, ds

• Watcha Playing: Ninja Gaiden - Dragon Sword

  This is my first play of a Ninja Gaiden game. Back in the NES days I was aware of the series but at the time I pretty much only played hop-and-bop platformers. I did buy the original title on the Virtual Console, but VC games are at the bottom of my backlog pile. So, Dragon Sword is my series introduction and it's a pretty darn good one. Read More... Posted Jun 23 2008, 03:00 PM by Amber Ahlborn with | with no comments Filed under: wii, amber ahlborn, ds, ninja gaiden, watcha playing

• Personal Firsts: My Gaming Scrapbook, From A to Wii

  Written by Amber Ahlborn At some point in the 1980s, the year nebulous in my memory, my mom bowled with her team every Thursday night. I loved Thursday nights because dad let me stay up late to watch M.A.S.H. and Benny Hill. Sometimes he and I would hop in the car and go visit mom at the alley, and that was the best. Dad would sit and watch mom bowl. Me? I would squeeze every last quarter I could get out of him. With a fist full of change and dollars soon to be converted into change, I’d walk down to the alley’s hamburger bar, snag a stool, and drag it through the glass doors into the arcade. Without deviation, I’d position my stool in front of the “Ostrich Game” and stay planted there until I ran out of money. I’m speaking of Joust of course, but at that age I could neither reach the controls without a stool to sit on nor read very well. Read More... Posted Jun 02 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: pac-man, metroid, wii, legend of zelda, snes, nes, ico, mega man, atari, gamecube, amber ahlborn, kaboom, katamari damacy, chrono trigger, firsts, pikmin, Playstation, joust, pitfall, star fox, ps2, frogger, super mario bros, ds