i didn't even have to use my AK

Yesterday was one of those days I'd call a "good day." At around 12:30pm, I strolled on over to Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku and picked up three new Game Boy Color games: Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Chee-Chai Alien. Of course, the two new Zeldas are reason alone to be excited -- it's been a while since we've had a new 2D Zelda, and well, I mean, come on. It's ZELDA. Do I need to explain? But I'm also kinda stoked about Chee-Chai Alien, which nobody's probably ever even heard of. 

Chee-Chai is a weird game that uses the GBC's IR port to capture "aliens" hiding in the darkness (it even comes with this strange plastic thing that you stick on the GBC to magnify the IR signal). You capture aliens, "clean" the darkness off of them, and set them free. Or something like that. It's published by Creatures, Inc. whose name can be found on all things Pokemon, so I guess they can afford to take risks on weirdo concepts like this. (Interesting side note -- Nintendo was originally going to publish this game themselves, but later pulled out because their new baby, Game Boy Advance, doesn't feature an IR port. D'oh!)

Anyway though, none of this has anything to do with why I shelled out nearly $45 for Chee-Chai Alien. I did so because the director and main sound guy is none other than Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka. Yes, the Hip Tanaka! I was thrilled to find out this guy is even alive, let alone still making games. If you're not sure who he is, don't worry -- unless you're under 10 or you've been living in a cave for the last 20 years, you've surely heard his work before. This is the guy who did the music for Metroid and Kid Icarus, along with countless other classic old-school Nintendo games (Dr. Mario, Super Mario Land, Game Boy Tetris, Mario Paint, Earthbound -- the list goes on and on). He's like a living legend, IMO, and so I had to support his cause, however odd it may be.

In other news, the long-awaited Metal Gear Solid 2 demo came out today, with a free copy of Z.O.E. packed in (hah), so I'll be heading back to the game shop later in the day to pick that up.

That's all for now. Oh, btw - I originally intended to keep separate journals for game-related stuff and non-game-related stuff, but I scrapped that idea because it's too much work and I mostly talk about games anyway (hah!). Later!

Posted by john tv at March 1, 2001 11:25 AM