controller code

Ok, so Japanese comedian Tomonori Jinnai decides to take a quick break (on-air) to relax and play a few quick rounds of Tetris. But, this ain’t the game I remember … Green soybean?

[via Japan Probe]

Famitsu has a short write up on all of the races and jobs in this soon-to-be-released new DS game. Now, my Japanese isn’t spectacular, but I’ll give an outline here.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Seal Grimoire, the sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, goes on sale in Japan in Q4 2007, and is TBA released everywhere else. Poo.

“Hiyumu”, the human-like race, are jack-of-all-trades, good at attack and support. The standard and simple race that’s probably good to have in a party.

“Moguri” hit up aerial-assault style jobs. Resembling mice and specializing in engineering skills, they’re the only ones that can surf in the clouds and drop wtfbombs on the enemy.

“Vuiera”, like Hiyumu, are a bit of all-rounders. They have rabbit-style ears and tend to be better for support and healing positions.

“Banga”, being covered in scales as they are lizard-like, are great at tanking, offensive assaults. They’re the ones that will suck up all that high-HP damage while everyone else is laying down the smack on things.

The “Mou”, are the opposites of Banga. They’re delicate but possess powerful magical abilities with which to nuke the living crap out of opponents. And quite honestly, I can’t even begin to tell what animal they look like. In this screen-grab they look kind of like Tails.

[Google mangles translates it here. And I just had to snipe one of their screen shots, they’re purdy …]

I know we all have fond memories of playing Game Boy growing up. I know I did. Tetris matches in the school yard; Super Mario Worlds keeping me occupied, much to my parents delight, while on a long car-ride. Machines that can entertain us have been around a long time. Electronic games, too. Portable games, pocket electronic toys, well, they’re a more recent development. But I sure am glad they’re here.

In this 2 part [part 2] series, I’d like to make a brief trip through the history of portable games. From the Game & Watch to the DS and PSP, we’ve lived with these so-called toys for quite awhile. For some, an entire lifetime …

Read the rest of this entry »

Via 1UP, we learn that the highly-respected Famitsu magazine has given up a review for The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. The regularly relentless reviews by the team, there, rarely praises games for their excellence. However, this time, a near-perfect score of 39/40 was given. It’s no Nintendogs, which, of course, managed to score perfectly.

The sequel to Wind Waker comes out this weekend in Japan and sometime this fall in Europe and North America.

The epic story of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker continues as Link finds himself lost and alone in unknown seas in a new adventure. Featuring intuitive touch-screen controls and innovative puzzles, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass offers new challenges for fans of the series and an easy-to-grasp introduction for gamers new to The legend of Zelda. But time grows short, and only the Phantom Hourglass can buy Link the minutes he’ll need to survive.

I’m a little behind on this, but now I’m even more stoked about the North American release of Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

Many people bashed the cel-shaded styling of Wind Waker, but I was quite a big fan. Needless to say, I’ll be picking this up as soon as it hits English release. Heck, I might even have to pick it up here in Japan and try desperately to figure out what the text says.

controller code is currently run by Paul Kalupnieks out of a tiny apartment in Tokyo, Japan. He’s been a video gamer for his entire life starting on an Apple IIe and Atari 2600 and was a contributing writer for Aeropause. He’s been living in Japan for only a few months but is originally from Toronto, Canada. He’s amazed at the video-games here and wishes he could spend more time in the incredibly popular arcades.

He lives, eats, breathes video games, which is funny since he doesn’t even own a television to play a lot of console games on. Right now, a lot of DS games are being played, including the new Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Which is also funny, because, no, it’s not out yet in English, and no, he doesn’t know (much) Japanese. In fact, it’s going to be really hard to play this game since he has no clue what the hell he’s doing.

Then again, he’s having no problems writing about himself in the third person, which is oddly kind of like playing a video game in the 3rd person, except, well, he knows exactly what he’s thinking and can’t do back flips like Lara Croft or ride on a griffin like his neglected level 60 Night Elf druid. Yes, level 60. With damn nice gear. No, he hasn’t played the Burning Crusade, please refer to here to understand why.

Anyway, if you’d like to get in contact with him, please feel free. He promises he won’t write like this when emailing, srsly.