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Catching Up: Part III

Seeing as how I just bought my first GameCube game in over two months, I figured today would be a good day to get caught up on GC purchases (and the one GBA game I've picked up since the DS came out). Sadly, I haven't touched any of these games for more than an hour at best, despite wanting to play all of them pretty badly. Just goes to show you how bad my backlog has become.

That's not to say I haven't been playing anything, though. I've been on a bit of an Ys binge lately, playing various Ys games on the PS2, PC Engine and PC, and then of course there's the DS, PSP and my keitai (cell phone), all of which get a decent amount of my playtime. I'm planning entries on both the Ys addiction and the keitai games very soon, so keep an eye out for those.

Now, on to the games...

New Game: Fire Emblem: Souen no Kiseki (JP)

Title: Fire Emblem: Souen no Kiseki
Platform: GameCube (JP)
Publisher: Nintendo

Where: Dreamland
When: April 18
How Much: 6,476 yen (6,800 yen w/tax)

(The subtitle translates to "Trail of the Blue Flame," for those of you who aren't familiar with the Japanese.)

The three Game Boy Advance Fire Emblem games are among the best GBA has to offer, IMO, so it wasn't a very difficult choice for me to run out and pick up the much-anticipated GameCube version of FE the moment it became available (or in my case, two days before it became available...tee-hee). The series turned 15 this past Wednesday, and to celebrate, the first shipment of Souen no Kiseki came with a free soundtrack CD (five tracks) and an awesome desk calendar featuring artwork from all nine games in the series.

I've only played through the first two chapters so far (blame my job, which has been keeping me up until dawn every night this week), but at this point, it seems like about what you'd expect from a GameCube version of Fire Emblem. The gameplay feels almost exactly the same as the GBA games, only in 3D, which is more than fine by me. Curiously, the game features some very un-Nintendo-like bits, such as a fully-voiced intro and FMV cutscenes interspersed throughout play, but at the same time, they seem to have skimped on the character portraits (apparently there's only one per character, no matter the emotion), and the graphics, while cohesive and adequate, don't exactly scream state-of-the-art. Nevertheless, it looks like it'll be another solid entry in the FE series, and I can't wait to dig into it some more.

New Game: Star Fox Assault (US)

Title: Star Fox Assault
Platform: GameCube (US)
Publisher: Nintendo

Where: GameStop
When: February 16
How Much: $49.99 ($52.99 w/tax)

I imported this from America fully expecting to blast through it in a matter of days, but I haven't even popped it in yet. Sad, I know. Especially since I was a huge fan of Star Fox 64 back in the day. From all that I've seen and heard, this is going to be a letdown (the on-foot stuff looks like total crap to me -- why they took a horrible idea from the multiplayer mode of SF64 and turned it into a core gameplay element of Assault is beyond me), but I'm still interested to play through it and judge it for myself.

New Game: Resident Evil 4 (US)

Title: Resident Evil 4
Platform: GameCube (US)
Publisher: Capcom

Where: Electronics Boutique
When: January 11
How Much: $49.99 ($54.30 w/tax)

I know, I know. I should've played through this long ago. Yes, I realize I am missing out on one of the best games this generation, but I promise you, I will get to it soon. It's at the top of my "to play ASAP" list, and as soon as work loosens up a bit, I'll be all over it. You have my word!

New Game: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (US)

Title: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Platform: GameCube (US)
Publisher: Nintendo

Where: Electronics Boutique
When: November 16
How Much: $49.99 ($54.30 w/tax)

This one, on the other hand, I'm not making any promises about. I mean, I still haven't finished the first Metroid Prime (sad, I know -- I got about 3/4 of the way through it over two years ago and then never went back), so who knows when I'll ever get around to playing this one. Do I want to? Yes. Is it a top priority? Not really.

New Game: Final Fantasy I&II: Dawn of Souls (US)

Title: Final Fantasy I&II: Dawn of Souls
Platform: Game Boy Advance (US)
Publisher: Nintendo

Where: Wal-Mart
When: December 23
How Much: $29.96 ($31.76 w/tax)

And finally, we have this little gem. I actually owned the Japanese version for a while and played a good chunk of the way through FFI and a little bit of FFII before selling it off and picking up the US version instead. I aim to play all the way through it someday, but I'm not in any real rush. The Final Fantasy I remake is simply fantastic, but no amount of upgrading, graphical or otherwise, could fix the broken, boring mess that is Final Fantasy II. At least now that it's in English, I may try to trudge through it for the story, but otherwise, I'm not really looking forward to playing it.

Anyway, that's all for today. See you again soon!

New Game: Electroplankton (JP)

Title: Electroplankton
Platform: Nintendo DS (JP)
Publisher: Nintendo

Where: Dreamland
When: April 5
How Much: 4,380 yen (4,571 yen w/tax)

I've still got a bit of catching up to do, but I wanted to take a break for today so I could post my latest acquisition: Electroplankton, interactive media artist Toshio Iwai's latest experiment in computer-generated sound. I honestly have no idea how well-known Iwai is in the west, but personally, I know of him because of an infamous Super Famicom game he made back in the day that was completely finished and almost ready to ship when Nintendo pulled the plug on the project: a music game that was being billed by some as a spiritual successor to Mario Paint called Sound Fantasy. After Nintendo canned it, Sound Fantasy went on to become SimTunes, which was published by Maxis for the PC back in 1996.

Now, Iwai and Nintendo are together again, only this time, he managed to get his game out the door and into stores before Nintendo got cold feet, and the world is a better place for it. Electroplankton is kinda hard to describe, so I'll just link to some brief impressions I posted on Gaming-Age yesterday, and you can go from there.

BTW, the packaging totally rocks:

It comes with free headphones (thus the oversized box), and it's the first and only DS game so far that doesn't have the traditional "Nintendo DS" logo bar down the left-hand side of the plastic case. The genre is listed as "Media Art," which is probably Nintendo's justification for this bold venture into new packaging territory, but whatever -- I just like it 'cause it looks cool. :)

More to come soon...

Catching Up: Part II

Back for another round of playing catch-up with all the new games I've gotten ahold of over the past few weeks. Today's batch: PSP.

But before I get to that, I'd like to proudly announce that my Pepsi Twist Super Mario Bros. Dot Bottlecap Collection is now COMPLETE, thanks to my wonderful girlfriend, who talked a local shop owner into opening up his stash to find the remaining six caps I needed, and JonnyRam (who's also wonderful, I'm sure -- ask his wife), who traded with me for the final cap I needed to complete my collection. Wonderful girlfriend and JonnyRam -- I salute you both.

To commemorate this momentus occasion, I provide for you two wallpaper images I made available on the GAF last weekend, created from photos I took of the combined stashes of myself and AndrewV before I completed my set:

Now, on to the games:

New Game: Wipeout Pure (US)

Title: Wipeout Pure
Platform: Sony PSP (US)
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Where: Electronics Boutique
When: March 18
How Much: $39.99 ($43.44 w/tax)

I used to really love the Wipeout games back in the day, but that love faded after the release of XL (2097 in Europe), and it never really came back. I picked this up based on all the glowing hype it's been receiving from US mags and websites, but I've only managed to spend about an hour with it so far, so it's too early to tell if it's going to be a keeper. I've always preferred F-Zero to Wipeout (Wipeout's floaty controls really irk me sometimes), but so far this seems like I may be able to tolerate it. We'll see. I heard the Japanese and European releases will be a bit more "complete," but what that means exactly I'm not sure. The J-version is out here in a week, so maybe we'll get some solid information then. I just hope it's not so much that I'll regret importing this from the US...

New Game: Dynasty Warriors (US)

Title: Dynasty Warriors
Platform: Sony PSP (US)
Publisher: Koei

Where: Electronics Boutique
When: March 17
How Much: $49.99 ($54.30 w/tax)

Ahh, Dynasty Warriors. You know, looking at the receipt, if I'd have known this was going to cost $50, I probably would've passed. For some reason I was thinking it'd be $40 when I asked my friend to pick it up. In any case, I got this because I've been meaning to get into the DW series forever, so I figured the PSP version would be a good way to start, seeing as how I can play it on the go. I haven't played much yet, but I'm hoping to get into it soon.

New Game: Tales of Eternia (JP)

Title: Tales of Eternia
Platform: Sony PSP (JP)
Publisher: Namco

Where: Dreamland
When: March 3
How Much: 4,780 yen (5,019 yen w/tax)

Even though it's just a straight port of the PS1 version with marginal enhancements designed to take advantage of the PSP's capabilities (namely widescreen, filtered graphics), I still had to buy this the moment it hit stores. The Tales series is one of my favorites, and I never got around to finishing this on the PS1 (it was known as Tales of Destiny II in the US), so a handheld version made perfect sense. Namco did a great job with it, too -- there's practically no loading time anywhere at all, making it almost feel like you're playing on a cartridge. I sincerely hope they decide to release it in the US, though if they do, they desperately need to re-record all the voices, as the English's versions voice acting was absolutely terrible.

New Game: Need for Speed Underground Rivals (JP)

Title: Need for Speed Underground Rivals
Platform: Sony PSP (JP)
Publisher: Electronic Arts

Where: Dreamland
When: February 23
How Much: 4,780 yen (5,019 yen w/tax)

This came out at just the right time for me to want to purchase it. Japan got it a month before the US, giving us a good head-start, and it was just long enough after Ridge Racers and before Shutokou Battle that it felt like I could get some good playtime in with it. And I did. It's a really fun game, though I wouldn't quite place it in the same league as Ridge Racers. But if you're into the NFS games, you'll most likely enjoy it. I'm interested to see how Shutokou Battle (Tokyo Xtreme Racer in the west) stands up when it releases here in three weeks.

New Game: Eiyuu Densetsu: Gagharv Trilogy: Shiroki Majo (JP)

Title: Eiyuu Densetsu: Gagharv Trilogy: Shiroki Majo
Platform: Sony PSP (JP)
Publisher: Bandai

Where: Bandai
When: December 15
How Much: N/A

(The title translates to "The Legend of Heroes: Gagharv Trilogy: White Witch" for those of you who aren't familiar with the Japanese.)

Let it be known far and wide: I am a Falcom whore. I've been so since sometime in the late 80s, when I first laid eyes on Ys for the Sega Master System and Legacy of the Wizard (Dragon Slayer IV) on the NES. I've always wanted to get into the Legend of Heroes series, but I never had a good chance until now. White Witch is the third game in the series, and first in the Gagharv Trilogy, which comprises Legend of Heroes III, IV and V. Even though I got this back in December (props to my girlfriend again; her friend who works at Bandai got us a free copy before it hit stores), I haven't written it up yet because I haven't spent too much time with it. I'm planning to get started on it once I finish up my current Ys binge (more on that soon), so perhaps I'll post some impressions once Legend of Heroes IV: A Tear of Vermilion arrives. It's due out for PSP on June 2, and I'll definitely be picking that one up too.

Well, that wraps things up for today. I'll be back soon!