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Could 'Furu Furu Park' Be Better Than The Classics?

Posted 1/24/08 5:30 pm EST by in Innovation, Japan, nintendo, Retro, Wii


ffp.jpgNostalgia frequently clouds my judgment whenever I'm talking about old games. I love them, I collect them, I generally hold them in higher regard than most new games that are released. But, even I'll admit, sometimes I'm wrong. Some games just don’t hold up against the test of time, and going back and playing them is just a test of my patience.

One of the most consistent game publishers back in the day was Taito. Just hearing the name should bring back memories of dragons, legends, renegades and elevators for some older gamers. They brought to life some of the greatest games and characters ever to be seen. While their name may still appear on new games, they may never reach the height of popularity that they enjoyed in the 1980s. And since Taito was acquired by Square Enix in 2005 they are no longer their own company.

One of the titles that their name has appeared on recently was a mini-game collection, released in the States by Majesco, called "Furu Furu Park." This particular collection of mini-games cultivates some of the most well known Taito properties and repurposes them into a mini-game collection for the Wii. I was curious to see how the re-imagined versions of some of my favorite games of all time worked as "party games." So I played both the "Furu Furu Park" versions of these games, as well as the originals and put them to the test to see if nostalgia would win out against "innovation."

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My Weekend 'Zelda' Toy Haul

Posted 1/7/08 2:19 pm EST by in GameCube, Imports, Japan, Toys, Wii, zelda


zelda_281.jpgThere really is no better way to spend a Saturday night in the city than dragging my girlfriend around New York's Lower East Side looking for video game toys.

While she may have gotten little out of the experience, I was able to find this great little collection of "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" action figures. I try my best to stay up on Japanese gaming toys as they are released, at least for import, but I hadn't seen these come up at all, so I had to make them mine.

My haul included four 4" posable figures: Link, Princess Zelda, the Usurper King Zant and a Wolf Link/ Midna combo. The set ran me $30 at J1toys.com (the store's name is actually a web address - it's so late 90's). While, they might not the highest quality, they are all really well done. They appear to be officially licensed from Nintendo by Yujin, and are part of the SR Series (the rest of the little booklet that came with the set is in Japanese). As an added bonus, the Link figure can hold his sword and shield in either hand, and you can have the figure represent your preferred version of the game.

They have a high level of detail for all of the characters will look great collecting dust on my shelf with my multitude of other game-related toys and tchotchkes, only to be taken down and played with when I feel like acting out the final GameCube "Zelda" game.

Hit the jump for a full gallery of images of the figures.

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Capcom Explains 'Dead Rising' Achievements, Zeigarnik Effect, Possibilities For 'Dead Rising 2'

Posted 12/17/07 5:53 pm EST by in achievements, capcom, Japan, The Achievement Chronicles, Xbox 360


deadrising.jpgRemember "Dead Rising"?

How could you not: Capcom's zombie action-adventure title was one of 2006's bestsellers, enamoring gamers with its classic storyline and everything-is-a-weapon, sandbox-style gameplay.

Another thing the Xbox 360 exclusive had were amusing and fun-to-get Achievements. How did they come up with them?

Game designer Goda Hidehiro gave us his answers via e-mail (which were translated from Japanese). Here's an excerpt about the easiest Achievement in the game:

Hidehiro: It would be "Freefall" or falling 16 feet. I imagine that those Achievements are achieved without the player knowing about them. I'm glad that [one] serves as a good hook to draw people's attention, so that the player might think, "This game has some weird Achievements."

Read on to learn about Hidehiro's favorite Achievements, why he thinks gamers are obsessed with Achievements and what he'd like to see in "Dead Rising 2."

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Preview - Castlevania: Order of Shadows

Posted 8/23/07 4:59 pm EST by in Japan, Mobile, Retro


castlevania.jpg It’s clear that mobile phone games aren’t just for the casual gamers anymore, with publishers translating more and more franchises to your cellular phone. But rather than port over a tinier (and usually crappier) version of an existing game, Order of Shadows is a completely new title in the Castlevania series exclusively for your mobile phone -- and it doesn’t suck.

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Exclusive: ‘Beautiful Katamari’ Soundtrack Details

Posted 8/13/07 12:23 am EST by in Celebrities, Culture, Japan, Music, Xbox 360


beautiful_katamari_whao.jpgThe Katamari franchise is not only known for its innovative gameplay (rolling a giant sticky ball around the world to pick up objects, from teapots to cats to people to mountains), but also its ridiculously catchy soundtrack. Like past Katamari games, the soundtrack for the upcoming Beautiful Katamari (Xbox 360) will have tunes with elements of traditional video game music as well as songs that feature the voice talents of popular J-pop singers. But this time around, the soundtrack is all created and sung by J-pop stars of the '80s, along with new songs created by the developers and old songs from past games.

But why the '80s theme now? "We wanted the songs in Beautiful Katamari to have more energy and understandability than in the previous game," said the developers. "We also wanted to get back to basics by using sounds from the first game in the series, Katamari Damacy. In order to do this, we came up with a key theme for the soundtrack -- the "80s" -- and used J-pop '80s stars to create music to go along with this fun and energetic game."

Make the jump for the full track listing...

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