Geek on Stun

We Couldn't Come Up With Anything Better

The Nintendo DS is now officially known as the Nintendo DS. You can view the new design open
or closed.

Some highlights from the press release include:

• The face buttons and shoulder buttons are larger


• The unit includes a new storage slot for the touch screen's stylus


• Nintendo will announce the launch date, price and game lineup ... at a later date

Still, not excited.

Geeks Gonna Work It Out

Watching these movies on the Playstation 2 DJ Box software gets me really excited. Not that I ever wanted to be a DJ or anything, but it looks fun and functional.

From what I can gather from the videos, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan's DJ Box will allow you rip CD's to a PS2 hard drive (or let you use a set of default tracks) and treat those tracks as if they were vinyl. You can modify the tempo, adjust channels, scratch, crossfade and more. Yes, it's just a PS2 title, and it probably won't replace two or three turntables and a mixer at any clubs, but that's no reason to get your tracksuit in a bunch. It's not like it's a real job or anything.

Katamari Damacy Watch: Breaking News

IGN broke the story that Katamari Damacy was officially coming to North America this September from Namco. In the meantime, keep yourself mildly entertained with this cornucopia of Katamari Damacy themed goods, including tons of great wallpapers, a paper airplane template, bookmarks, and more!

The site is purely in Japanese, so in case you get lost, follow this handy guide which points directly to the "downloads" section.

FFIX WWW

The Final Fantasy XII Web site has been updated. It's in Japanese only at this point, but thankfully the "Skip Intro" button is in plain English. Not a lot to see and do right now, but there are nice renders of the cast and shots of the landscape of Ivalice. The downloads section has something for everybody, including high quality wallpapers for Vagrant Story enthusiasts, lonely Japanese teens and Furries. Enjoy!

Street Fighting Man

I long for Street Fighter 4. However, Capcom is quite content to port 1999's Street Fighter III: Third Strike and 2000's Marvel vs. Capcom 2 to the Playstation 2, and reshuffle the Capcom fighting character deck for titles such as Capcom Fighting Jam (a mash up of fighters from Street Fighter, Street Fighter Alpha, Darkstalkers, and Red Earth). Thanks, Capcom, for letting millions of fighting game fans finally realize the dream match up of Jedah versus Hauzer.

Alas, Capcom has made no mention of a Street Fighter 4. But recently the rumor mill milled some old rumors, letting slip that "development has just begun on the title, with an estimated Summer 2006 release date" and that "it will remain 2D". Spong got a hold of this story, decided to call GameDaily on it and contacted a Capcom rep, who stated:

"We do have various games, as announced, in the 2D fighting genre right now. As far as there being Street Fighter 4 in development – I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous"

Really? You've never heard anything so ridiculous? A rumor that the next version of your flagship fighting franchise is in some stage of development and may possibly come out in 2006 is that unfathomable to you? Huh. Then I feel pretty confident I can safely confirm that the next game in the Street Fighter series is being developed on a cloned version of Hitler's brain. Consider yourselves scooped!

Uo

No, not Ultima Online. You know, Uo, as in Uo Nanatsu no Mizu Densetsu no Nushi or Fish: Legend of Seven Waters and Gods. It's an underwater action-adventure RPG developed by SegaWOW (RIP) and published by Sony Computer Entertainment that was released in Japan earlier today.

Travel the ocean in search of a cure for the dying children in your village, survive on a steady diet of weaker fish and crustaceans, and fight for your life against fisherman, eels and dragons. Be sure to watch this preview video for more details.

The game received a gold rating from Famitsu, but may be too bizarre for localization. There has been no announcement regarding a US release, so your only option may be to import, which means you'll need a Playstation 2 that supports Japanese encoded software.

Well, how about this beautiful pearl white Playstation 2, also released today? Play Asia has them in stock for only $249.95 along with the appropriately colored accessories such as the vertical stand, 8MB memory card and second DualShock controller. With my copies of Vib Ribbon and Metal Slug X gathering dust, along with a burning desire to pick up the PS2 versions of Shikigami no Shiro and Mojib Ribbon, I may actually pick up one of these beautys.

Mega64

Contributing editor Piscopink just dropped these movies on the news desk and it might be the funniest thing I've seen all year. You'll hate yourself for not thinking of it first.

Duality Schemes

I am not excited about the Nintendo DS. At this point, about four months from release, it still seems like a half-baked product, a tech demo with nothing but possibilities. So much is unknown: price, games, developer support.

The one thing I'm sure of is that I'll own one.

And the only thing that has me excited about owning one is the prospect of Treasure developed games on the DS. This machine is made for them. They've explored the concept of duality in two very enjoyable games, Ikaruga and Silhouette Mirage. With two screens to fill up, I'm looking forward to some very exciting Treasure titles.

Treasure has been doing some development for other people's intellectual property recently, aiding Konami with the development of Gradius V, Sega and Hitmaker (RIP) with the Game Boy Advance version of Astro Boy and, with mixed results, Nintendo with Wario World. The Japanese developer seems to succeed when gameplay is 2D-focused, so here are some other companies IP I'd like to see Treasure tackle on the Nintendo DS.

• Pac-Man series - These games have always been compromised when ported to console systems, with the levels modified to conform to a different aspect ratio than the arcade originals. With two stacked horizontal screens, this is no longer an issue. It also opens up the possibilities of each screen affecting the playfield in a different fashion. There is dualism already present in Pac-Man, man and woman, hunter and prey, the living and the dead. Two player Wi-Fi could actually make me buy a new Pac-Man game and save us from gimmicky crap software.
• Mario and Wario - The good and bad goofy mascots could battle it out in alternate versions of the same levels, Mario collecting coins and butt-slamming to his hearts content, Wario snatching up jewels, and each altering the level layout as they progress. Cooperative or versus-style Wi-Fi support could make this even more interesting.
• Salamander (Life Force) - The organic Konami shooter hasn't seen an update since 1996 and could be an interesting experiment. Take your microship and fight dermally or subdermally, inside and outside of arteries and organs.

N

Go play N right now. There are some screenshots right down there.

The Game of Life

I've been playing a few games in real life lately, including "Entertain The Parents", "Buy A Sofa", "Delete Spam Porn Comments From The Site" and "Work On Freelance Projects When I Don't Have The Time". These games aren't a lot of fun, so save your money.

But, I've also been playing "Buy Lots Of Ridiculously Cheap Video Games" which is quite enjoyable. Thanks to the combined efforts of Cheap Ass Gamer, Deal Rush and Byte Size Deals, and with a little help from a co-worker, I snagged Silpheed, Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, Wakeboarding Unleashed, Toe Jam and Earl III, Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, I-Ninja, R-Type Final and R.A.D. Robot Alchemic Drive, all for about $70 total. Many of these games have been on my list for awhile, but some were purchases based purely on the insanely low prices. I'm looking to unload Toe Jam and Earl III, as I have very little interest in actually playing the thing, but everything else is staying in the library.

While I'm definitely enjoying the fruits of the superstore clearances, it does make me wonder about the health of the video game retail business. Does Circuit City feel that the stock situation is so dire as to clear out hundreds of quality titles at $4.99? Does this kind of slash and sell practice ultimately hurt the industry, or send a clear message that moderate quality, a glut of titles, and the standard $50 price point are rubbing gamers the wrong way? This Gamespot editorial leans more toward the doom and gloom side, but makes some very valid and, now reminded of the Atari 2600 25-cent clearance sales at my local drug store as a kid, scary points.

Too many games? Too high a cost? Too little originality? Who knows, but you can never have too many games in your collection.

Super Hyper Fighting Turbo Champion Edition: The World Warriors and The New Challengers

Capcom continues it's stellar line up with Street Fighter Anniversary Collection in August (following the release of Mega Man Anniversary Collection and Way of the Samurai 2) which contains a mix of every game in the Street Fighter II series as well as the final version of Street Fighter III, named Third Strike.

But first come these Nuby manfactured Street Fighter controllers, featuring a proper cross pad and six button layout. Not exactly the best fighting game controllers ever, but they do look pretty damn good.