Take Tiny Cartridge everywhere with you at tinycartridge.com/mobile
The video above is just a friendly reminder that the DSi-enhanced KORG DS-10 finally came out yesterday. And unlike the previous edition, which was only available online or via music specialty shops at first, this new one can be found at your local GameStop and the like. I actually spent much of last night playing around with it and was just as impressed (and overwhelmed) by how feature-rich and robust the platform is as I was the first time. Unfortunately, my lack of any musical skills not only makes me ignorant towards all the enhancements, but also limits my ability to create anything meaningful yet again.
Though I personally prefer this earlier demonstration from the first edition; the song’s better IMHO, plus it’s just cool to see four DSs all going at once! And perhaps might not be a bad time to mention that I am a HUGE fan of the producer/director of the project, Nobuyoshi Sano, otherwise known as “Sanodg”. His work on Ridge Racer and Tekken cannot be beat; it’s impossible to chose my favorite song of his, so here’s just one at random, from Ridge Racer 6.
Guest post by Matt “Fort90” Hawkins
tags / korg ds-10 plus / korg ds-10 / fort90 / guest / procyon studios / xseedCosmic Gate special stages EE through 00. I never messed around with this fixed shooter too much, as I was rushing to get to the rest of Retro Game Challenge and I completely forgot about this simple title after unlocking Star Prince.
To access these special stages, input the “Hard Mode” code (down, down, B, B, A, Start at the title screen), activate the warp gate in Level 64, then shoot the portal.
Buy: Retro Game Challenge
See also: Secret ending of Haggleman
[Thanks, Zach Robinson]
tags / retro game challenge / cheat / game center cx / cosmic gate / indies zero / xseed / ecThat’s why we decided to cut this and replace it with the opening you can see in the final game.”
Little King’s Story producer and director Yoshiro Kimura in a Gamasutra postmortem about Joystiq’s JC Fletcher’s Game of the Year.
If only he had been in charge of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, maybe I wouldn’t have spent the first hour of that game wishing I had the sword so I could kill myself with it.
See also: “Buff Miner” by Hinomaru
tags / little king's story / yoshiro kimura / jc / xseed
Hardcore Gaming 101, a collection of informative and in-depth video game reviews, posted an excellent article on Retro Game Challenge (a.k.a. Game Center CX) and its Japan-only sequel today. If you read our “favorite tiny cartridges of ‘09” list last week, you’ll remember we ranked RGC as last year’s most cherished release (though with all the praise we’ve given the game, you likely knew we did that even if you didn’t read the piece).
HG101’s Kurt Kalata isn’t as fanboyish about the series as we are, and he brings up more than a few flaws he found with it. I don’t agree with all his complaints — I really enjoyed Rally King, and I actually like that Xseed localized Haguru-man’s title as Haggleman instead of Gear Man. Still, the two-page article has neat breakdowns and screenshots for each of the faux-retro games, and it shares this funny “Game Computer Floppy Drive System” loading screen from the Detective Kacho titles:
Buy: Retro Game Challenge
Import: Game Center CX 2
See also: Lots of Game Center CX media
tags / game center cx / game center cx 2 / retro game challenge / indies zero / imports / hardcore gaming 101 / namco bandai / xseed / ec
GameStop just dropped the DS port of Grasshopper Manufacture’s weird Flower, Sun, and Rain to $20. While a $10 price drop on the Suda 51-created adventure isn’t as thrilling as, say, the $9.99 price point that everyone will jump on, it’s still a price drop, and more importantly, it’s an excuse to link to this!
Matt “Fort90” Hawkins named Flower, Sun, and Rain his favorite game of 2009!
Not saying it’s the best playing game of 09, but it is without a doubt the most daring and easily the most interesting (the fact that it’s a remake of an obscure, import only PS2 title makes it all the more awkward and fitting).
He goes on to say that it’s okay if you tried the game and couldn’t get into it, which is the situation I unfortunately found myself in. I loved the world, the characters, the creepy, uneasy feeling about everything — I loved everything but trying to figure out the damn numbers for all the puzzles.
Even though it didn’t exactly work out for me, I respect this choice, because it’s interesting. And as someone who nominated Little King’s Story as the GOTY for a major website, I appreciate unusual choices! (I’m totally right about Little King’s Story).
tags / flower sun and rain / jc / xseed / suda 51 / fort90 / grasshopper manufactureEnglish trailer for Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon. Wow, if this were an anime and not an action RPG, I’d watch the fuck out of this. The trailer totally takes me back to my years of spending too much money at Suncoast shops, bringing home DVDs for Voices of a Distant Star and Now and Then, Here and There.
Preorder: Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon
See also: Samples, cover art from Fragile Dreams’s OST
[Via Siliconera]
tags / xseed / rising star games / fragile dreams / tri-crescendo / namco bandai / ec
Cover for Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon soundtrack (not the Japanese preorder bonus disc).
Fragile Dreams, in case you didn’t get the memo, is the new U.S. title for this Namco Bandai RPG. I always forget how beautiful the Wii game’s blue-and-purple tinted visuals are until someone reminds me with a video, “Hey, remember this game? Yeah, it still looks gorgeous.”
The soundtrack also betrays that the game has more going for it than just its exceptional graphics and lonely setting. I’m not familiar with composer Riei Saito (sound designer at tri-Crescendo), but she masterfully matched Fragile Dreams’ music with its abandoned world.
“Hikari” (Fragile Dreams theme) by Aoi Teshima:
“To All People” and “The Girl With Silver Hair”:
Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (and its new awful logo) will ship in the States in early 2010.
Preorder: Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon
[Via Zelda Power, GoNintendo]
tags / fragile / fragile dreams / namco bandai / soundtrack / ec / riei saito / xseed / tri-crescendo
“The Dancing Sword” by kazenokun. That contest-winning piece yesterday has reignited my Muramasa fanart obsession. Click the image for a larger version.
Check out the colors on this image of Momohime jumping… away… from an oni or something. I don’t really know what’s going on in this picture. Fighting, I know that much. It looks really dynamic, anyway.
Buy: Muramasa: The Demon Blade ($46.99)
See also: More Muramasa art
tags / muramasa / xseed / vanillaware / fanart / kazenokun / jc
Haggleman 8-bit plush crafted by Michael Wootton and his girlfriend Jenna Cook. If we lived in a just world, we would have dozens of toys, pillows, and other merchandise devoted to the Retro Game Challenge hero.
Haggleman 3 figures with 20+ points of articulation! Little Zenmai and Cyborg K9 fruit snacks! Koume deodarent! Haggleman Lady pantyhose! Skies the limit!
Yum!
Buy: Retro Game Challenge ($17.99 —cheaper than ever!)
See also: More Haggleman fanart
[Via Michael Wootton]
tags / haggleman / retro game challenge / game center cx / michael wootton / jenna cook / crafts / fanart / indies zero / xseed / namco bandai / ec
Robot Ninja Haggleman fanart by Mike Westfall.
We’ll leave no stone unturned and no door unflipped until we corral every piece of Haggleman fanart scattered across this Earth — as well as art hidden on alternate dimension Earths, or even on distant replicas of Earth copied by advanced alien races who’ve pirated our resources and cultures because they were too cheap to purchase and enslave/mine the real thing.
That is how serious we are about our Robot Ninja Haggleman fanart. Don’t get it twisted.
Buy: Retro Game Challenge ($17.99 —cheaper than ever!)
See also: More Haggleman fanart, mostly from Earth 1-B
[Via Mike Westfall]
tags / haggleman / game center cx / retro game challenge / indies zero / mike westfall / namco bandai / xseed
Amazon currently has my Game of the Year — and soon to be yours if you haven’t played it yet — on sale for $18.49. It’s a wicked deal if you grab a free Haggle Man button and consider that your purchase could help bring RGC’s sequel Game Center CX 2 to the states.
Import: Game Center CX 2
See also: Tiny Review: Retro Game Challenge
tags / retro game challenge / game center cx / indies zero / bandai namco / xseed / ec
Possible new boxart for Ju-On: The Grudge. Inferior in every single way to the freaky boxart we featured last. It’s no longer scary, and now XSEED has added the “Haunted House Simulator” subtitle that is certain to get “hardcore” game duders up in arms. I mean, that is an apt description of it, but it obscures what I think of as a kind of clever, novel design behind an impenetrable wall of “lol casual”.
I even miss the “Scooby-Doo” typeface, which I thought I didn’t like in the last image. Oh well. Having basically no idea where this came from, I don’t even know if it’s the real boxart.
Preorder: Ju-On: The Grudge
tags / feelplus / ju-on / boxart / xseed / jcCongratulations! You have reached
the bottom of the page. The darkness
is finally over…
But there are still more pages to
explore. Please continue readingcontinue reading.
A new day is about to begin!
The End?
