minna ni naisho dayo

New Game: Lumines: Oto to Hikari no Denshoku Puzzle (JP)

Title: Lumines: Oto to Hikari no Denshoku Puzzle
Platform: Sony PSP (JP)
Publisher: Bandai

Where: Shibuya Tsutaya
When: December 12
How Much: 3,420 yen (3,591 yen w/tax)

Next up: Lumines. I bought this on launch day as well, but I haven't played it all that much yet. The main reason I bought it is to support Tetsuya Mizuguchi's new company, Q Entertainment, but I also happen to like puzzlers quite a bit so I figured I'd give it a try. Initial impressions are definitely positive, though it hasn't yet "clicked" for me the way it apparently has for so many others (including my girlfriend, who went out and bought her own PSP just for Lumines after playing my copy). Still, I'm planning to spend a lot of time with it once I've had my fill of Ridge Racers and Minna no Golf, so we'll see how things go. But for now, I need to finish up that EX Tour in Ridge... :)

New Game: Ridge Racer DS (US)

Title: Ridge Racer DS
Platform: Nintendo DS (US)
Publisher: Namco

Where: Electronics Boutique
When: December 8
How Much: $29.99 ($32.58 w/tax)

I had a friend pick up Ridge Racer DS for me the day it came out in the US, mostly because I wanted to see if it was as bad as it looked in the previews I'd been reading. What I should have done was had it shipped over immediately so I could've tried it out before PSP Ridge rolled in. Playing it afterwards just makes it look 10 times worse than it already is. It's almost laughable how terrible the DS version looks next to the PSP one. And it also seems pretty pointless to me; the d-pad controls are way too sensitive (the original Ridge on PlayStation from 10 years ago actually controlled better), and the touch screen doesn't work at all in a game like this. Why even bother? All this game can possibly do is drag down the Ridge Racer name.

On a more positive note, at least the name on the cover girl's jacket is cool! :) Here's an even better version, courtesy of the ever-imaginative ferricide:

Considering how butt-ugly the DS version's cover girl is, I think this might have worked as a viable alternative...

New Game: Minna no Golf Portable (JP)

Title: Minna no Golf Portable
Platform: Sony PSP (JP)
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Where: Shibuya Tsutaya
When: December 12
How Much: 4,320 yen (4,536 yen w/tax)

When the PSP launch lineup was first announced, the two main games I knew I'd be buying were Ridge Racers and this: Minna no Golf (aka Hot Shots Golf/Everybody's Golf) Portable.

I've always been a big fan of the MinGol series, especially the three PS2 versions, so the PSP version was a given. So far, it doesn't disappoint: the graphics are great, the controls are very responsive (I kinda miss the pressure-sensitive buttons though), and the gameplay feels spot-on. They threw in some of the character customization stuff from the Japan-only Minna no Golf Online, but otherwise it basically feels like a slightly scaled-down (less characters and courses) version of Minna no Golf 4. Which is more than fine by me, especially for a launch title.

New Game: Ridge Racers (JP)

Title: Ridge Racers
Platform: Sony PSP (JP)
Publisher: Namco

Where: Shibuya Tsutaya
When: December 12
How Much: 4,320 yen (4,536 yen w/tax)

Sorry for the delay in writing up all the PSP games I picked up over the past eight days! I've finally got some time to spare now that I'm back in America for the holidays, so I'm ready to get caught up.

So, Ridge Racers. I'm not sure if I've ever written about it before, but I've been a huge Ridge fan since the original PlayStation version came out back in 1994. I had to write a chapter on it in this PlayStation strategy book I worked on back then, so I played it to death for like two weeks straight, unlocking every secret and basically mastering the game inside and out. I really, really loved the game and its sequel (Ridge Racer Revolution), but I gradually began to lose interest in the series as it slowly drifted away from its arcade roots over the years.

After last year's god-awful R: Racing Evolution, I'd pretty much given up on the series for good. But then, back in April, a friend of mine on the Ridge team who knows my tastes told me they were working on something "I know you'll like," which got me curious. And now that it's here, I can see why he was so sure I'd be into it: Ridge Racers PSP is 100% pure, old-school Ridge Racer -- exactly the way I like it!

I've only played the game about six or seven hours so far (I've completed the entire Basic Tour and now I'm working through the Pro Tour), but already I can say it's the best handheld racer I've ever played, and definitely one of the best in the Ridge series so far. The controls are perfect, the visuals are incredible, the music is classic Ridge Racer and the sensation of speed is just awesome. It's a great showpiece for what the PSP is capable of, too -- far moreso than the original Ridge was to PS1 or Ridge V was to PS2. And let me tell you, tearing through Seaside Route 765 at 350km/h with the Rotterdam Nation remix blaring in the background ranks up there among the best gaming experiences I've had all year. :) I can't wait to get back to it!

I'll be back with more on the recent PSP games soon...

New Hardware: Sony PSP (JP)

Platform: Sony PSP (JP)

Where: Shibuya Tsutaya
When: December 12
How Much: 24,667 yen (25,900 yen w/tax) * - Value Pack

In all the years I've been covering Japanese launches (which is to say, many years), I've never seen anything quite like what went down last night and this morning for PSP. Heading to Shinjuku last night at 11pm to check out the scene at Yodobashi Camera Game & Music, the most popular games shop in Tokyo, AndrewV and I were stunned to see almost 80 people lined up in front of the store already. We knew there would be lines, but nobody expected that many people to be out so early.

So, imagine our surprise when we found out that this was just the BACK of the line. As it turns out, by 11pm, there were 240 people lined up in total, waiting to purchase a PSP. The line was spread out all over the nearby streets. Meanwhile, over in Shibuya, the scene was still pretty quiet with a mere 10 people or so waiting around at Bic Camera.

We decided against staying out all night, since we'd both already preordered systems, so I went home to rest, and then headed back out to Shibuya on the first train just after 5am to try and secure another PSP at Bic. Anoop from IGN had mailed my phone a few minutes earlier notifying me that around 100 people were waiting at Bic, but that they still had plenty of units available. Sure enough, when I got there, they still had loads of stock, so I got in line with Anoop and waited for Bic to open their doors at 7am.

Shortly after arriving, I got a call from Vestal, who was heading to Shinjuku first to survey the scene at Yodobashi once more. I nearly dropped my phone when he told me how many people had gathered there by 5:30am: over thirteen hundred. Yes, more than a thousand people stood in line all night to be among the first to get their hands on a PSP. Can you believe that? Similarly impressive numbers were reported elsewhere -- 1,200 people waited at Ikebukuro Bic Camera, 300 waited at Shibuya Tsutaya, 180 or so at Shibuya Bic Camera, and so on. It was pretty crazy. By comparison, the Nintendo DS launch seemed like a non-event, even if they did push more hardware than the PSP could have ever hoped to (by virtue of the fact that they had more units ready to sell on launch day).

Anyway, around 6:45am, when I was in line at Bic, the most amazing thing happened to me and Anoop. A well-dressed, familiar-looking middle-aged Japanese guy walked past us toward the street corner with a small entourage around him. Nobody else seemed to recognize him, but Anoop and I picked him out on the spot: it was Ken Kutaragi, the father of the PlayStation and the boss of all PS operations at Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. I broke out my camera to take a picture, and what does the guy do but stop and pose for me:

He then waved and started walking in our direction. He walked right up to us and asked us (in English) where we were from and what time we had started waiting in line. I was so shocked at that point that I don't even remember what he said afterwards, but I did chat with him a short bit, and I made sure to congratulate him before he departed. (Woulda been funny to ask him about the PSP's battery life or something, but I was too much in awe of the whole situation to crack any jokes.)

Soon after, we made our way inside Bic and bought our systems. Mission complete.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Starbucks above Shibuya Tsutaya, where we met up with JonnyRam, DCharlie, AndrewV and Greggman and messed around with our PSPs for a while. I have to say, the PSP is far and away the sexiest piece of game hardware I have ever seen. Nothing else comes close. It looks like a sportscar, for crying out loud. I haven't really messed around with any of the games much yet (we played a bit of wireless Ridge Racers, which was nice), but I'll try to drop some comments on those when I write them up here in the next couple of days.

Until then, I leave you with this image, taken during this morning's fun (click on the image to read the text):

Back soon!

New Game: Zoo Keeper (JP)

Title: Zoo Keeper
Platform: Nintendo DS (JP)
Publisher: Success

Where: Shibuya Tsutaya
When: December 4
How Much: 3,800 yen (3,990 yen w/tax)

I had a feeling something might go wrong with my Zoo Keeper order from amazon.co.jp when my confirmation mail showed up saying the game would be shipping on Dec. 2, 2005 instead of 2004. I mailed them immediately to see what was up, and they responded right away, assuring me that it was just a simple system error and that I had nothing to worry about.

Dec. 2 came and went without any shipping confirmation from amazon, so I sent them another mail to see what was up -- sure enough, the game was sold out. So much for that simple error, eh?

Up to this point, amazon's service has been unbelievably good -- did you know they ship for free anywhere in Japan if your order is over 1500 yen? and that it almost always shows up within a day or two? It's crazy, but it's true. So rather than get upset, I simply cancelled my order and went over to Tsutaya to buy a copy there.

So, I finally got my Zoo Keeper. Believe it or not, this is actually the first Success game I've ever bought (heh), but so far I like it a lot! It's a really simple, really low-budget puzzle game, but it's alarmingly addictive, and it's really fun with two players. My girlfriend, who up until now has hardly ever played games with me (I think Katamari Damacy is the only exception), has been playing with me non-stop. We were actually up until 2am last night playing against each other, and we'll probably play again tonight. Single-Card multiplayer play rocks!

By the way: yesterday, the two of us stopped off to have a quick drink at Starbucks on the way home from shopping, and we decided to break out our DS systems and mess around with Pictochat. After two or three minutes, somebody new suddenly showed up in our chatroom. A minute later, a fourth person joined, and then soon after, yet another entered the room. Within moments we were chatting away with three complete strangers (which, by the way, is almost never a problem in Japan -- everyone is polite, unlike the endless stream of jackasses you often run into in American online games). It was great! Only one of them was anywhere near us, too -- we had no idea where the other two were chatting from.

I've always known this sort of thing was possible with DS, but for whatever reason I guess I never expected it to happen so quickly and easily. It was cool! I can't wait to see what this thing (and the PSP) will be able to do two or three years from now. I dunno about you, but I find all this very, very exciting. :)

New Game: Mr. Driller Drill Spirits (JP)

Title: Mr. Driller Drill Spirits
Platform: Nintendo DS (JP)
Publisher: Namco

Where: Bic Camera
When: December 2
How Much: 4,315 yen (4,530 yen w/tax)

After hearing about all the stuff that didn't make it into the US version of Drill Spirits, I decided to go ahead and buy the Japanese version instead. As I mentioned previously, the Japanese version features wireless Single-Card Play for up to five players (very handy) and Dristone Mode, a cool single-player mode that I'll explain in a second. Sadly, both of these features are missing from the US version.

Since Christian is going to kill me if I don't tell him about Dristone Mode, let me explain:

Basically, Dristone Mode is a modified version of the normal single-player game with a slightly different set of rules. For starters, instead of a timer, you have an air supply that starts out at 100%. Every time you use your drill, you lose 1% of your air. Furthermore, if you get crushed by a block (i.e. lose a life), instead of dying, your air supply is cut by 20%. Since each stage is a specific size (300m, 500m, etc.), the point is to conserve enough air to make it to the goal without suffocating. If you run out of air, it's game over.

Along the way you'll come across multi-colored gems called Dristones that grant you special powers, i.e. destroy all blocks of a certain color, protect yourself from one hit, recover some air, and so on. Occasionally you'll also find air capsules that give you back 20% of your supply. The air capsules work the moment you touch them, but Dristones have to be accessed from a special subscreen.

If you've played any of the recent Driller games over the past three years, this mode might sound familiar; as far as I can tell, Dristone's gameplay first appeared in special "Dristone Stages" in the Scenario Mode of Mr. Driller G on PlayStation back in 2001. It resurfaced about a year later in the "Wonderful Pacteria" mode in Mr. Driller Ace on GBA. And most recently, a variation of it was found in the form of the awesome "Hole of Druaga" mode in Mr. Driller Drill Land on GameCube, which also had enemies, bosses and keys in addition to the usual Dristone play.

...And that pretty much sums up Dristone Mode. Now you know what you're missing. From what I've played so far, it seems pretty fun, since it allows you to pause and think about your moves, rather than just burning right through as fast as you can. The version in Hole of Druaga was a bit cooler cause of the whole RPG theme, but this is still quite good and definitely worth seeking out on import if you're a serious Driller fan.

New Game: Chokkan Hitofude (JP)

Title: Chokkan Hitofude
Platform: Nintendo DS (JP)
Publisher: Nintendo

Where: amazon.co.jp
When: December 2
How Much: 3,075 yen (3,229 yen w/tax)

Nintendo's first DS puzzle game showed up today while I was in class. I haven't popped it in yet, but I'm definitely looking forward to taking it for a whirl.

Oh, and an update on the Mr. Driller fiasco -- apparently, not only was Single-Card Play taken out of the US version, but also an ENTIRE GAMEPLAY MODE (Dristone Mode) was removed. What a mess! I think I'll go buy the Japanese version right now. Way to go, Namco!

New Game: Sawaru Made in Wario (JP)

Title: Sawaru Made in Wario
Platform: Nintendo DS (JP)
Publisher: Nintendo

Where: Shibuya Tsutaya
When: December 2
How Much: 4,114 yen (4,320 yen w/tax)

Alas, the DS is finally out in Japan. The first systems went on sale this morning at 7am, though the turnout was nothing at all like last week's crazy Dragon Quest VIII launch. Shibuya Tsutaya had maybe six or seven people waiting in line, and I heard Bic Camera had around 30 or so, a far cry from the 300+ who showed up to pick up DQVIII. I'm sure this is in some part due to the fact that A) today is a regular work day in Japan, B) it's freezing outside and C) most people who wanted a DS for launch day already preordered one, but the small turnout was a bit disappointing nonetheless.

Since I'd already bought Mario and Kimishine from the US, the only game I picked up this morning for myself was Sawaru Made in Wario (to be known as WarioWare Touched! in the US). I'm expecting Chokkan Hitofude and Zoo Keeper later in the day or tomorrow from amazon.co.jp as well. Tonight should be fun -- a lot of friends who bought DS systems today will be gathering together, which ought to make for some interesting Pictochatting, among other things.

Speaking of multiplayer on DS, the Japanese version of Mr. Driller Drill Spirits supports Single-Card Play, whereas the US version does not. How lame! I was going to buy the US version to support the franchise in America (it could use the support; Namco's marketing people haven't been too successful with it thus far), but now that they took out one of the best features of the game, I'm gonna go with the Japanese version instead. Nice work, guys! Your greed just cost you a sale!

In other news, here's a couple of shots of the extremely simple (but slick) Japanese DS packaging (top shot is the front, bottom shot is the back):

That's all for now. More to come when the other games arrive.