Rhythm Heaven Fever wallpaper, one of a selection of great desktops at the official site (warning: sound!).
I’m almost certain some of our readers have an interest in Rhythm Heaven-type games, so I thought I’d point you to the review I wrote for Joystiq last week. You should also check out Mike Schramm’s gallery from last night’s Rhythm Heaven Fever/iam8bit launch party!
And while I’m pointing out rhythm game writeups at Joystiq, how about a preview of Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure? I was really proud of how that turned out, and I just noticed it has all of three comments. Mannnnnn.
Buy: Rhythm Heaven DS, Rhythm Heaven Fever ($30)
See also: More Rhythm Heaven/Tengoku posts
tags / gaming / gaming / jc / joystiq / meta / rhythm heaven / rhythm heaven fever / wii / wallpaper
The PlayStation Vita’s troubles in Japan, succinctly charted by NeoGAFfer Road.
I did a little Vita evaluating of my own, though I chose the milieu of “absurdly long Joystiq review” instead of “funny chart.” A more voluminous format seemed appropriate given the bigness of the system.
To summarize (though you should totally still read it), I think the Vita is a great game system, with a few weird Sony quirks. In other words, I’m totally biased.
Preorder: PS Vita
See also: More PS Vita coverage
[Via Road]
tags / vita / jc / gaming / joystiq
A story about Cave Story 3D →
I can confirm that Nicalis’s polygonal update of Cave Story is not butt. I can confirm this by having played the damn thing for a bunch of hours.
My review is up on Joystiq right now, if you’d like to read that opinion in more detail. Like all of you, I was hella skeptical about the graphics, only to come to the conclusion over hours of play that I liked seeing a new take on familiar environments, and I really liked the new look of some of them! The new Egg Corridor is awesome. The new Plantation is really strange!
Eric and I were both kind of surprised that this was actually coming out this week. Not really really, because we knew the date and I had that review copy and all, but just in terms of still feeling like Cave Story 3D is something we’d be waiting months for. Does that make sense?
Preorder: Cave Story 3D (November 8)
Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more
See also: More Cave Story posts
tags / cave story / cave story 3d / nicalis / joystiq / jc / gaming / gaming / nintendo 3ds
I meant to share these two links with you forever ago, but I kept getting distracted by Pokemon Spirit comics, Love Plus Christmas dates, and other easy posts that wrote themselves. Enjoy these stale articles!
- JC wrote an excellent Holiday Buyer’s Guide for DSiWare, WiiWare, and Virtual Console titles at Joystiq. Christmas is already long behind us, barely visible in the horizon, but it’s still a great collection of quality releases on Nintendo’s download platforms. Also, if anyone gifted you Nintendo Points cards, here’s how to spend them!
- And I published an obligatory Top 5 list for the year’s best DS and PSP releases at Gamasutra. I was happy to spotlight a couple games that most sites neglected to include in their own end-of-year lists.
Yay for people employing us.
Buy: Special Edition Red Nintendo DSi XL bundle, DSi XL (Blue, Burgundy, & Bronze), Standard DSi (White, Pink, Black, & Blue), Standard DSi Orange & Green bundles
See also: More DSiWare and WiiWare posts
tags / dsiware / wiiware / virtual console / gamasutra / joystiq / top 5
My first WarioWare DIY microgame!
FYI: I’ve reviewed WarioWare DIY over at Joystiq. I thought it was totally boss, and I hope real game designer types don’t hate the game and decide I’m an idiot.
There was a lot of stuff I wanted to say but couldn’t really get in there, but basically, it’s not only a fun thing to make fun things with, it’s also a pretty interesting introduction to programming logic, since you can mess with different actions and triggers and learn how they interact in gameplay.
Also you can make self-referential minigames as a joke. Obviously.
See also: WarioWare DIY: Personal microgames and video game snapshots
tags / warioware diy / joystiq / meta / jc / review
My Zelda: Spirit Tracks review →
Forgive the self-link (about Link), but I just posted my review of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks over at Joystiq, if you’d all like to read some things I said about that game for some reason. I haven’t gone through the comments to see how wrong and stupid I am, but I think the review came out okay.
I totally thought I was over the Zelda series, especially after the agonizingly slow-paced, dour Twilight Princess, but I kind of fell in love with this one!
Preorder: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
[Image: “Spirit Train” by Stalk-chan]
tags / zelda / the legend of zelda / spirit tracks / joystiq / jc
A Life Well Wasted podcast →
A lot of gaming sites (I assume) hope to one day put together a podcast similar to the quality and format of Chicago Public Radio’s This American Life — Robert Ashley actually made one, while the rest of us sat around with the fantasy in our heads, where it existed unknown to our idle hands and the ears of potential listeners.
If you’ve never listened to TAL, it’s an entertaining hour-long radio show (with a shorter television series running on Showtime), each episode collecting stories around a theme, like matchmaking or being afraid to sleep. Ashley’s A Life Well Wasted podcast borrows the format and presentation, sharing interesting interviews on video games and the people who love them, in high fidelity.
The monthly show’s most recent episode, “Gotta Catch ‘em All,” explores the efforts of collectors and archivists, visiting a vintage pinball museum and investigating a Stanford University program seeking to save the history of online gaming. There are only two episodes so far, but already it’s one of my favorite podcasts, which isn’t saying much actually, as I can’t be arsed to listen to any other video game programs other than Penny Arcade’s.
On a related note, our own JC Fletcher had a somewhat cameo in Joystiq’s most recent podcast, lending his vast knowledge of video games no one else bothers to remember. The segment starts around the 01:09:05 mark, and JC’s contribution, though offscreen, is pretty funny!
This was a lot of text for a random link post. TLDR: A Life Well Wasted is a good podcast for a lazy Sunday.
tags / a life well wasted / joystiq / robert ashley / podcast / this american life / ec
