Winter Sonata episode 1 (subtitled), part 1 of 6.

At a time when the site’s tumblarity is at an all time low due to a number of factors — JC vacationing in Tokyo, posting frequency slowed to a crawl, and the super-niche crap I’ve filled the site with lately — why am I driving even more readers away with a schmaltzy Korean drama series?

Because someone is crazy enough to make a DS game out of it, of course — that crazy someone being Seoul-based developer Skonec, who also worked on Tornado, Pictoimage, and that silly puzzle/horror import you’ll hear me mention from time to time, Joshikousei Nigeru.

Scheduled to release in Japan this December courtesy of D3P, Winter Sonata DS features images and videos from the show. You can play mini-games, complete photo puzzles, and answer trivia questions based on the drama. If you have a DSi, you can also take photos of yourself and superimpose them over Winter Sonata locations.

The story behind Winter Sonata actually sounds really interesting — I could totally get into this if I wasn’t already overburdened with current work/life/entertainment obligations. I can see why someone was like, “OMG I love this show so much! Let’s make a DS game out of it!” After all, the star of Winter Sonata, Bae Yong Joon, just received his own DS game in which he introduces Japanese gamers to the Korean language. It could work!

See also: Stylus sale at a South Korean shop

tags / bae yong joon / korea / television / imports / winter sonata / skonec / d3 publisher / ec

I know most diehard Simpsons fans stopped watching the show many seasons ago, their love for the series having died in a presumably hard manner, but if you caught last night’s new episode — the first aired in high definition — you would’ve been treated to a new opening sequence.

One of the coolest things added to the revamped intro, aside from the box of Mr. Sparkle dishwasher detergent and Plopper (a.k.a. Spider-Pig, Harry Plopper), is Terri and Sherri now shown playing portable game consoles:

Is it a Game Boy Micro? A Neo Geo Pocket Color? A Gamestation GS Lite? And what game could they be playing? I posed the question to JC, and he commented, “You can tell they’re not playing a Simpsons game, because they seem to be enjoying themselves OH BURN.”

The full episode is up at Hulu (for U.S. viewers)!

tags / the simpsons / television / ec

“Miracle of the Arcade,” an episode of some mystery Japanese show from the 80s.

“This particular [episode] is about a boy who goes into an arcade when he should be doing his afterschool tutoring classes. There, the shop owner introduces him to a pinball game that is supposed to create a miracle if you get 100,000 points, but nobody’s ever done it before.”

There are no subtitles for the video, but it’s still easy to follow. It’s like an episode of Are You Afraid Of The Dark?, except in Japanese. And don’t even act like Are You Afraid Of The Dark? didn’t own your face, because everyone knows it did. Even the mayor.

[Via Flashing Neon Tomatoes]

tags / miracle of the arcade / television / are you afraid of the dark / pinball