Game Center CX’s Arino playing Excitebike 3D. If the video here doesn’t load for you — Nico Nico Douga can be finicky like that, and it’s not too friendly with Tumblr’s dashboard — you can settle for a condensed commercial Nintendo posted on its Japanese site.

Want a new reason to hate 3DS region-locking (or region-specific content)? While we’re dicking around with Green Lantern movie trailers on the eShop, in Japan, 3DS owners are watching free episodes of Game Center CX.

Each year brings a new reason for Game Center CX fans in the West to feel slighted. :o(

Buy: Retro Game Challenge ($13.99!)

Import: Game Center CX 2

See also: More Game Center CX posts

[Thanks, KJA!]

tags / shinya arino / game center cx / retro game challenge / arika / nintendo 3ds / 3ds / excitebike / excitebike 3d / ec

Aa Mujou Setsuna’s (Oh Heartless Moment) final stage, recorded by SFKhoa. Thank god the ship’s hitbox is so tiny; I’m unsure how else you’d survive the bullet hell.

Siliconera posted an in-depth preview on how the DSiWare shoot’em up’s bomb/shield meter works:

“It acts as your bomb and shield meter. When you get hit you automatically fire an explosion that changes all of the bombs into point cubes. Each blast depletes the meter a third. If you’re in the red and get hit, you’re toast. The meter recharges over time, but it refills faster if you collect cubes.

Alternatively, you can manually launch a bomb by pressing Y or A. Why would you want to do that? Time it right you can turn a ton of bullets into precious point cubes. However, if you keep triggering bombs your ship will be in the dangerous red zone, which means one hit and it’s over.”

I really hope this somehow gets a release in the States — Arika’s other DS shooter, Ketsui DS, is regarded by many as the finest shoot’em up available for the system, but it hasn’t appeared anywhere outside of Japan. Aa Mujou Setsuna menus are already in English, so localizing the game shouldn’t require too much work.

Buy: U.S. Nintendo DSi (White, Pink, Black and Blue)

Import: Japanese Nintendo DSi (White, Black, Pink, Red, Lime Green, Metallic Blue)

See also: Two more Aa Mujou Setsuna videos

tags / dsiware / arika / aa mujou setsuna / imports / ec

Aa Mujou Setsuna (Oh Heartless Moment), Arika’s DSiWare shoot’em up releasing in Japan next week.

Priced at 500 Nintendo points, this original title from the Ketsui: Death Label developer includes a Pattern mode with set routes for enemies, a Random mode with random enemy routes, a Record mode for tracking stats, online leaderboards, replay videos of your best playthrough, and an option to download replays from the top 10 players.

Here’s another clip showing Aa Mujou Setsuna’s second ship option, which has a narrower shot spread:

Other Japanese DSiWare releases scheduled for next neek include two music apps from Intelligent Systems, both priced at 200 Points: Nintendo DSi Instrument Tuner for tuning instruments with the DSi mic; and Nintendo DSi Metronome for keeping a beat/tempo.

Both are priced at 200 Points and come with cute minigames. Instrument Tuner has Tuner Fight, in which you pop balloons by playing notes written on the balloons. Metronome gives you Donkey Metronome, which has you clapping to the beat to help Mario jump over Donkey Kong’s barrels. It looks really fun!:

Other DSiWare news you can use:

• Nintendo Power revealed TMNT: Arcade Attack, a two-player co-op beat’em up styled after the NES/SNES/Arcade games with eight levels.
• Nintendo Power also says its next issue will have a “major” DSiWare announcement that will “make many of you very, very happy”.
• Australia’s classification board rated Dragon Quest Wars — expect to see this simple strategy game in other Western territories soon!
• Nintendaan uploaded a video showing all of Japan’s DSiWare releases during August.

Phew, that was a lot of stuff for this DSiWare roundup!

Buy: U.S. Matte Black and Blue DSi

Import: Japanese Nintendo DSi (White, Black, Pink, Red, Lime Green, Metallic Blue)

[Via Kotaku, NeoGAF, Andriasang, Nintendo]

tags / aa mujou / arika / donkey metronome / dragon quest wars / dsiware / ec / import / instrument tuner / metronome / nintendo power / setsuna / tmnt: arcade attack / tuner fight

Arika’s Technic Beat has a really fantastic remake of the theme from Libble Rabble (a Namco arcade game from 1983 created by Pac-Man designer Toru Iwatani).

I’ve wanted to share it with people for years, but I’ve never been able to find a video on the internet — until now! Skip to about 3:30 for Libble Rabble, or watch the whole thing (as well as this continuation!) and enjoy more Namco music remakes and remixes.

tags / namco / libble rabble / arika / technic beat / jc