Let's celebrate Theatrhythm's impending localization with some merchandise

I suppose we all knew it'd happen eventually, but if you haven't heard, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy will be coming out in the US and Europe sometime this summer! How's that for great news? To celebrate, hit the play button on your favorite Final Fantasy track and take a look at some of this awesome merchandise I managed to wrangle up!

First of all,  I have to say I've been warming up to the cutesy art style used in the game. It first appeared in a Kingdom Hearts cell phone game in Japan, and I never found myself very partial to it... But the more I see, the more I find myself starting to like it. I mean, who can resist drinking their favorite beverage of choice out of one of these Theatrhythm mugs?

You can purchase it online here!

Or how about a tumbler, for when you'd rather your drink available on the go?

source

I personally like the color on the tumbler, but prefer the simplistic design of the mug. But it's hard to pass up chocobos!

But better yet, perhaps you already have a trusty water bottle you'd like to spruce up a bit? In Japan they have bottle cases like these all over the place:

source

Love the addition of the plush music note!

There is certainly a lot of drink-related Theatrhythm Final Fantasy merchandise, isn't there? But never fear, the usual cute keychains have also made an appearance:

I'll be honest – that's not my favorite Final Fantasy moogle design (I'm actually partial to the more rabbit-like moogles from the Ivalice Alliance titles, but don't tell anyone I said so), but the chocobo is pretty darn adorable. I particularly like the contrast of the yellow and blue.

And last but not least, we have a special item that I could only find on Kuma's Mad Dog Blog, a Square Enix blog dedicated to their merchandise (the previous two photos were also taken from there):

A tote bag?? Better yet, an unreleased tote bag?? It's a little known fact on the internet that I am actually obsessed with tote bags. They're good for groceries, books... everything, really! Ok, I'm a little obsessed. But I do love something that's both cute and functional, and tote bags really do fit the bill. According to Kuma's Mad Dog Blog, where this image was posted on March 15th, it's a brand new item, and currently no more information is available, so we'll have to wait and see when and where this is released. Admittedly, it is a little on the plain side, but I think owning a Theatrhythm Final Fantasy tote bag trumps all. I think I'm going to make it my personal mission to make sure I get my hands on this lovely thing.

Do any of these items catch your fancy? What would be your ultimate Theatrhythm merchandise? I wouldn't mind some stickers...

Why I'm both intrigued and annoyed by Code of Princess

Before today, I hadn't paid any attention to the upcoming Japanese 3DS title, Code of Princess, but as soon as this box art appeared, it immediately went on my radar.

Is that not a gorgeous illustration? Generally I don't like very busy box art, but I love the colors and attention to detail in this one. Above all, the character designs have me very intrigued – though I am decidedly not in favor of the surprised female knight with bikini armor (more on that later). 

It's always a little thrilling to learn about a game for the first time from its box art. There's nothing more fun than browsing though a game store and coming across a title that looks interesting but you've never heard of, then rushing home to Google it as soon as possible. ... What's that? Yes, I am still living in 1999 and do not have internet on my phone. 

Of course, finding new boxart when you're already browsing the internet is a different thing altogether, but no less fun. I've learned that Kinu Nishimura, the woman behind the illustrations of 9 Hours, 8 Persons, 9 Doors and the more recent Virtue's Last Reward, was in charge of this gorgeous cover as well as the character designs for Code of Princess. No wonder I like them! 

I particularly like the pink haired lady in the middle.

Nothing quite like a swashbuckling guy with big pants and feathers in his hair.

But even with all these exciting character designs, I still manage to find something to gripe about. Brace yourself for my biggest beef with Code of Princess:

Where on earth do I start? Well, admittedly, her sword and cloak are both pretty amazing and display the kind of detail that I love, but my positive comments end there. Not only is she wearing less clothing than is physically possible, but Kinu decided her only armor would be in the form of gauntlets, which is pretty much worthless considering how little else she's wearing. And, though the box art for the game features this lady, who is the main character Code of Princess, in a relatively active fighting stance, this official art, which has already been made into a resin figurine in Japan and is the most popular result when searching Google for Code of Princess images, is about as passive as it gets. She's not only holding her sword in a pathetic excuse for a defensive pose, but she also has a frightened expression on her face, with her arm extended backward in a way that sexualizes her more by rendering her powerless, if that's even possible. I hate to dwell on issues such as these, and of course I know Kinu Nishimura has done her fair share of "sexy" illustrations (999's Lotus, anyone?), but this image takes the cake for portraying a female main character in the worst possible light.

Well, now that I've gotten that off my chest... Is there anything else good I can say about this game? For those who aren't familiar with it, Code of Princess is a 2D brawler that shares many similarities with Guardian Heroes. It also touts an extensive 4-player multiplayer mode, and I've got to say, even the gameplay looks pretty interesting:

Mark that one down in the books, folks: I said even the gameplay looks interesting!

Datable Monsters in Rune Factory 4

I haven't blogged about it yet, for the past 2 weeks or so I've been playing Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility every spare minute I've had. I can't get enough! And it was only $5!

I'll elaborate more in a future post, but suffice it to say I'm hopelessly enamored with these Japanese "life sim" games, as we've already seen with my recent infatuation with Atelier Rorona. Sure, Harvest Moon and Atelier Rorona aren't exactly the same, as Rorona has both very specific time restraints, alchemy, and battle elements, but fundamentally they're both hopelessly cute time sinks that are about as innocuous as games can get (aside from some creepy undertones in Atelier Rorona...).

I'm a bit of a sucker for this kind of art.
And that dragon in the background??

As such, I've always had my eye on the Rune Factory series, but never really delved into them for two main reasons: 1. they didn't have playable female characters like many of the Harvest Moon titles, and 2. I just couldn't figure out what installment to start with. #2 is actually a reason why I also hadn't tried Harvest Moon until now... Do you know just how many there are? But thankfully a super sale and some good timing made the decision for me.

But now that I know more about Rune Factory 4, I'm almost positive this is going to be the entry that gets me into the series whenever it comes out in English. As Natsume has been very diligent about localizing Rune Factory titles, I'm sure we'll be seeing it on North American 3DSs somewhere between 6 months to a year after the Japanese release in July (a bold prediction – let's see if I'm right!).

So what's got me so hyped for Rune Factory 4, when I've never even played a Rune Factory game? As the title suggests, I've got two words for you: datable monsters. Actual monsters you fight in the game will morph into humans for you to date and eventually marry, if you so choose. Pretty cool, huh? I know, I've got some weird interests...

So far, only one female and one male monster character have been revealed. Here they are in their duel forms:

In all honestly, I'm not particularly impressed by their character designs, aside from the fact that the male character, Dylas, looks like a punk rock unicorn in his monster form (which is all kinds of awesome). His human form isn't much to look at, unfortunately, and I find it odd that they decided to keep his ears and tail but have Kohaku, the girl, appear 100% human. Dylas looks like he'll be the token fisherman, while Kohaku will probably be a quiet girl who enjoys spending her time tending to flowers... Not like we haven't seen that before. Of course, you'll have to find them in the wild and beat their monster forms before they'll be datable as humans.

Aside from the datable monsters, which pretty much sold me from the get-go, Rune Factory 4 will finally offer the series' first fully-playable female character. Unlike Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny, which only let you play as a girl after beating the main story as a man, Rune Factory 4 will allow you to choose your gender right at the beginning. Hopefully this means that there will be just as many datable bachelors available to players who choose to be a girl as there are bachelorettes for players who opt to be a guy. Of course I'm perfectly happy to play as a male character in a game, but as I'm a sucker for otome titles, any game that has some sort of romantic element added with women in mind gets extra points in my book.

Other interesting additions for this installment include the ability to date someone you're interested in before marrying them... Very realistic, no? Not so realistic is the reported ability to communicate with dragons. But really, there isn't anything you need to know either than the fact that monsters are datable in Rune Factory 4. Right?

Join the VGW crew for some Mario Kart 7!

source (available as a poster!)

Just a quick heads up to anyone who's interested in playing Mario Kart 7 with me and the rest of the crew over at Video Game Writers – we'll be having a community games night on Tuesday (that should be today for most of you reading this!) the 10th at 5-8 pm PST (8-11 pm EST)! That's Wednesday the 11th at... 11 am for those of you like me in Queensland, Australia. Man, time zones are confusing!

Be sure to register the VGW Mario Kart 7 community code: 07-8039-5578-5488

I will be hopping on and off for the whole three hours, so you'll have plenty of chances to beat race me, if that's something you've always wanted to do. Of course there will be prizes going out to those non-VGW members who manage to top the leaderboards, so there's some extra incentive! (Do you need more of an incentive than the opportunity to race me?)

VGW will also be utilizing some amazing technology for a live podcast that you can sign into via Twitter or Facebook so that you can interact with all of us between the action!

And if you just can't get enough of me, you can register my 3DS friend code so we can play together in the future! It's 5198-2487-0725. Just remember to let me know who you are when you add me, or I won't add you back!

I hope to see you all there!

Japan Envy: A 3DS that's "A Little Bit Mario"

Anyone watch the Nintendo Direct livestream this evening (or morning, for those of you on the other side of the world)? Well, unfortunately for me, I was in the middle of having a late dinner and managed to miss the greater part of it, but I did tune in for the last 10 or so minutes, which was long enough to see the lovely Monster Hunter 3G trailer as well as a few announcements from Iwata-san.

I'm sure your favorite game news website of choice will be covering all the announcements, so I won't attempt to summarize what I saw. I did, however, want to point out these adorable 3DS's that Japanese Club Nintendo members can enter for a chance to win over the holiday season!

Oh, what I wouldn't give for one of these! Apparently you need to buy 2 Japanese 3DS games and register them on the Club Nintendo site to be entered for a chance to win. Only 1,000 of each design are available.

I have to say I'm going to go against my usual affinity for Princess Peach and pick the Mario-themed design this time–or I should say I would pick the Mario design, if I were given the choice. Oh, to live in Japan and own a Japanese 3DS!

You can see all the trailers and interviews from the Nintendo Direct conference here. They're in Japanese, of course, but the language barrier won't stop you from enjoying some of the lovely new trailers, including one for Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance!

Slow Monday

Today literally was slow! I made my first stew, an Irish lamb stew from Frankie magazine, which was quite simple, took 3+ hours to cook, and tastes pretty good! Not that I have many stews in my repertoire to compare it to, but it's a start. Ok, now that I've got that bad pun out of the way...

In gaming news, I finally updated the eShop and downloaded my free copy of Excitebike as well as the 3D Pokedex. I'll admit, I wasn't that excited for Pokedex 3D (I'd rather play an actual Pokemon game then just look at 3D models of them), but I'm all for free things, so I couldn't pass it up without checking it out. Excitebike, on the other hand, was exciting and new for me (ok, I couldn't help it), as I've never played the original before. And after fooling around with it for a few minutes, I've gotta say, it's quite difficult! I don't really understand the mechanics yet, so I either go horribly slow and get bored or try to go too fast and just end up crashing and then cursing at myself for having to wait to go again.

Have you heard about the lack of a save file delete/reset option in Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D? This is another shameless plug, but just today I wrote a pretty in-depth post at VGW if you'd like to read more about it. Basically, though, as a way to combat used-game sales, Capcom decided to give players only one save file, which cannot be erased or reset, so you can only play through the game from scratch once. I personally think this is a horrible decision and will definitely deter me from buying the game in the future (though I admit I wasn't particularly leaning towards a purchase in the first place), but what do you all think? I know used game sales can hurt the developers and publishers, but you shouldn't punish consumers, and rather reward them to provide incentives to buy new games, such as exclusive DLC, etc.

In other news, Shaun and I saw Kung Fu Panda 2 over the weekend. I enjoyed the original well enough, but wasn't going to see the sequel except I kept hearing rave reviews right and left that assured me it was actually better than the original. Story-wise, I'm not so sure I'm convinced it was better, but the animation was so beautiful I didn't really care. Give me fuzzy computer animals and a peacock villain voiced by Gary Oldman and I will go home a happy woman. The fight scenes with Lord Shen, the aforementioned main villain, were mesmerizing. If you want to see some gorgeous animation, then definitely consider seeing this on the big screen (I didn't see it in 3D so I can't comment on that), but otherwise you may want to wait for a rental or skip it altogether.

Recent Happenings–Me at VGW and StreetPass Meets

Well, besides that book review, I've been a little MIA as of late, huh? Time to fix that!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm now a member of the lovely, inspiring team at www.videogamewriters.com! I'll be covering news and some reviews, with a slight angle towards Japan-only releases and news fresh from the land of the rising sun. I believe my first review for them will actually be of Grand Knights History for the PSP in September, and I'm looking forward to it! (thanks to The Gay Gamer for making me aware of this game in the first place!) So far I've written a few news articles, and most notably an opinion piece on Nintendo's decision to exclude DVD playback capabilities while pursuing possible social network connectivity in the Wii U, so if you're at all interested, I'd love if you gave it a read! If you want to be a real pal, show your support for me and the rest of the team at Video Game Writers by following us on Facebook and/or Twitter! And I highly suggest you check out some of the other articles on the site, it really is a pleasure to read (and there was absolutely no mention of booth babes in any of their E3 coverage!).

In other news, we had another StreetPass Brisbane meetup last weekend, where one of our members was kind enough to pass on her copy of Alice in Wonderland for the DS to me! It's one of the only movie/game tie-ins that ever looked any good to me, so I'm excited to check it out.

Another one of our members ordered the giant AR card from Nintendo Club Australia, and he brought it along to the event so that we all could take some snazzy 3D photos of giant Mii's and Nintendo characters. We got a lot of questions and interested passers-by. Here's what we looked like:

Nothing like a bunch of 3DS fans gathering together, I say! In fact, this Saturday has been declared 3DS StreetPass Day by none other than Nintendo, and to show StreetPass Brisbane's support we'll be holding an event on the day, too. I'll be trying my hand at hosting a Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition tournament (wish me luck, I've never done something like this before!).


I'd love to write more but since this post is long overdue, I think I'll leave it at that for now and save the rest for subsequent posts. I don't like how dead things are getting around here!

Recipe for a Very Nerdy Weekend: StreetPassing at the Mana Bar and More!

I don't often do weekend recaps, but this time I think it was sufficiently nerdy enough to merit this post. That, and I wanted to do write-ups on both the Mana Bar StreetPass event I attended as well as the CG animated film Resident Evil: Degeneration, so I figured why not do one big weekend review?

On Saturday, Shaun and I headed into the city for some major window shopping and general bumming around; I, of course, had my 3DS in tow so I could collect some StreetPass hits. For lunch we swung by our favorite Japanese restaurant, Kadoya, where I had their delicious mackerel bento set. We made sure to play a few rounds of Animal Kaiser while we were in the area and had high hopes of scoring a rare card for our efforts, too. Sadly, we did not (and are beginning to think we need to take a break from the whole thing, it's quite the money sink and we haven't gotten any good cards in a while), but Shaun did get a funny picture of me in action:

I think I was captured mid-exclamation

 We spent Saturday evening at home with a family-sized chicken (2 kilos! What can I say, it was on special) and Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008). Both Shaun and I were pleasantly surprised that the CG movie, which takes place between Resident Evil 4 and 5, was actually quite a bit better than we had anticipated. I'd say that if you're a fan of the video game series, you should definitely check this movie out, if you haven't already! Neither of us are huge RE fans, as we've only actually played Resident Evil 5, but the movie was fun and I think it's at least worth a rental.

Expect to see the sequel, Resident Evil: Damnation, sometime in 2012!

 The graphics didn't strike me as particularly impressive, like they did when I first saw FFVII: Advent Children back in 2005, but a couple times during the movie I did notice some pretty well-done effects, especially in the water. The plot was intriguing and pretty well-paced, though I had a hard time understanding what was going on at a couple of points during the movie (I think that's because I'm slow on the uptake sometimes; Shaun didn't have any problems). It definitely is a good fix for anyone waiting for the next Resident Evil game to come along.

There are plenty of shots of Leon being super-cool

Next, we have the StreetPass event at the Mana Bar, an awesome video game-themed bar located right here in Brisbane! Though the event was planned for the slightly-unfortunate time of Sunday evening, Shaun and I decided it was worth checking out, so we hopped on the train to Fortitude Valley and arrived sometime around 4:30 pm. I thought this would be a nice opportunity to spread the word about StreetPass Brisbane and check out this funky venue!

Loved their decor! The Mana Potion was a novel drink, but I'll probably give it a skip next time

Unfortunately, I only got 5 StreetPass hits altogether during the hour and a half we were there, but that may have been due to the fact that we arrived so early. 2 of those were from members of StreetPass Brisbane that attended our event last Saturday, so it was great to see their Mii's level up! Mana Bar also has their own 3DS for StreetPassing, so if you attend the bar regularly, that would be a great way to get a higher level Mii for StreetPass Quest.

The bar itself was smaller than I had expected, but it was pretty cool to see all the TVs with games set up and ready to go (I believe there were 5 in total). Shaun and I played some Mario Kart Wii, watched a bit of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, and Shaun did a couple of songs on Guitar Hero. Later on we picked up this intriguing XBox 360 game called Raskulls and did a 3 player race with Natasha, who we know from StreetPass Brisbane. That game was fun for multiplayer, and I would definitely check it out again if it's on the next time I'm at the Mana Bar. Little Big Planet was also available to play, but I'm not a huge fan of that so we didn't bother giving it a go.

All in all, it was a great weekend! Albeit a little more eventful than usual, so things might be a little more low-key next weekend to make up for it. Though I'm chafing at the bit to see the new Pirates movie, so hopefully we'll be able to fit that in! 

What about you all? Do anything fun over the weekend?

BlazBlue Continuum Shift II Box Art Censored in US

Since this has been nagging me for a while now, I figured I might as well post about it. Back when I heard BlazBlue Continuum Shift II was coming out for the 3DS, contrary to some skeptics (aka my husband), I was actually quite excited about it. See, we played the original BlazBlue Calamity Trigger together in the arcades when we were living in Japan, and the series brings back lots of fond memories for me, even though we never ended up purchasing Continuum Shift for the PS3 when it came out. With Continuum Shift II coming out for the 3DS, I figure it'd be killing two birds with one stone since I don't have any particularly enjoyable games for my 3DS yet and I'm long overdue for a new BlazBlue game.

Honestly, I haven't really been keeping track of BlazBlue. I know they added a couple of characters for Continuum Shift, and figured they'd probably add one or two more for this release. Now that I've seen the Japanese box art for the game, I dare say I've seen a little too much of the game's new characters.

Japanese box art with a lovely sleek black logo bar and...

Hm, well, I guess that's cute? I think she's supposed to be a squirrel. I really am not impressed with her clothing design and whoever decided to make her breasts larger than the other characters on the cover. I'd like to see more of the old guy with the seriously pointy beard–I seem to remember he was a vampire buddy of Rachel's in the first game. I have a feeling he'll probably be similar to Guilty Gear's Slayer.

It seems as though I wasn't the only one who was a little displeased by the Japanese cover choice, as the US box art is much more covered up (hah, I can't help it, the bad puns just make themselves).

US box art is a little more tasteful

I have to admit, though I do like the positioning of the characters so that the one girl's barely covered breasts are no longer a focal point of the image, but I actually dislike the American cover as a whole because it seems too cluttered (and I've gotta say, that black 3DS logo is nice). I think I also preferred the BlazBlue logo in the center, rather than to the side. But we can't have everything, right? Which one do you prefer?

BlazBlue Continuum Shift II is coming to the 3DS and PSP on May 31st (pushed back from the 24th) in both Japan and North America

StreetPass Brisbane's First Meetup

Hello all and sorry for my absence over the past week. I had a couple of posts in the works, but Blogger was down on Friday, so I'll try to make up for it in the next few days. In the meantime, I thought I'd do a short writeup on StreetPass Brisbane's first meet yesterday (if you don't know what StreetPass is, check out my post on it here).

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it to our first meetup!

The weather on Saturday was perfect for having a meetup–sunny but not too hot. Shaun and I set up camp at a bench in King George Square, and within a few minutes our first couple of attendees showed up. Everyone was super friendly and it was fun to finally meet the people behind some of the Mii's I had collected over the past few weeks. We mostly chatted, collected puzzle pieces and battled for hats in StreetPass Quest (did you know it's called Find Mii on my US system and StreetPass Quest on all of the AU systems? I didn't!). There were a few Street Fighter IV battles and I loaded up Nintendogs + Cats to see what presents my corgi puppy had acquired.

It was great to see various people swing by over the course of the hour; some had heard about us at the Pokemon championship in Chermside last weekend, others found the Facebook page while searching for a StreetPass group in their area, and some had read the news article on the Aussie-Nintendo website and decided to stop by. All in all, I believe 9 people attended, but we even had a few random StreetPass hits from people walking by! Though it would've been nice to see a few more people, I still think it was a good start, especially since I had organized the meetup back when the Facebook page had only 10 fans (we have close to 50 now!). With the amount of support and enthusiasm we're getting from everyone, I can only imagine that our next meetup will be even better!

Pokemon Battle Competition Brisbane

Today was the Queensland leg of the AU Pokemon Battle Competitions, so Shaun and I made the trek via public transport (a tiring endeavor, indeed) to the Chermside EB Games so we could catch a glimpse of the action! I originally had big hopes to participate myself, but though my love for Pokemon knows no bounds, I don't think I'm cut out for competitive battling. I have too great a fondness for all of the immeasurably cute yet virtually ineffective Pokemon to stand any chance of making it past the first round. Still, I had fun watching the battles and StreetPassing with the other 3DS owners in attendance. Jamie, the friendly announcer, was even kind enough to do a shout-out about StreetPass Brisbane's first meetup on the 14th!

The competition was fierce at EB Games Chermside

When I first heard that there was going to be an official Pokemon competition nearby, I thought for sure I would want to compete, so I began doing some research on what strategies/Pokemon were the most effective. I won't go into much detail seeing as most of my readers aren't big Pokemon fans (and those who are probably know more than me already, anyway), but needless to say, it's a lot more complicated than one might think! Though we didn't stay too long, I noticed an abundance of Jellicant, Amoonguss, Haxorus, Chandelure, Conkeldurr, Reuniclus, Gigalith, Thundurus, Tornadus, and Whimsicott. That may seem like a lot, but with the amount of people competing, you did start to see a lot of the same strategies (from what I've read of the coverage of other cities' competitions, they've all seen many of the same Pokemon). I'm surprised I didn't see any Excadrill, actually, and would've liked to have seen at least one Stunfisk.

It as fun to watch the battles up on the big screen!

One of the best things about having so many Pokemon fans together in one place was the fact that there were so many 3DS's to StreetPass with! In the hour or so we were there over the course of the day, I got close to 25 StreetPass hits. I also had the chance to promote StreetPass Brisbane, and as I mentioned before, Jamie even made an announcement over the mic for me after I summoned up all my courage to go up and ask him. I met a few people from a forum I frequent and chatted with a guy who organizes Pokemon tournaments in Brisbane who seemed interested, so I hope to see some of them at our meet next weekend.

All in all, it was a very fun event, though it was a shame they held it in such a small store, as there was no space to move around and the room got very hot extremely quick. I hope to attend more events like these in the future, and maybe someday I'll even compete, too!

3DS StreetPass Groups–Increasing the Socailization of Gaming

Some feedback on my previous 3DS impressions post has led me to believe that perhaps I came off as a little too harsh... To clarify, though I am still not entirely impressed with the 3DS's launch lineup, I am very content with the capabilities of the system on the whole, and am excited for numerous games on the horizon such as BlazBlue Continuum Shift II (NA release May 31) and Legend of Zelda: Ocarena of Time in June. I've even gotten a little more play out of Nintendogs + Cats, and I have to admit that it is quite cute. It's always exciting to find, after having the system in my purse on sleep mode all day, that I've encountered another 3DS user and exchanged puppy pictures with them. 

Official image illustrating how StreetPass works

Which leads me into the meat of this post, where I'd like to talk a little more about the nifty StreetPass function of the 3DS. While considered a "useless" addition to some, I was intrigued by the idea of the StreetPass from the moment it was announced. Not only can you randomly exchange Mii data with other 3DS owners as you pass them innocuously on the street to fill your Mii Plaza, but you can send and receive game-specific information that allows you to trade items, battle, and more, depending on the game. Of course, the inherent problem with all of this is that you actually have to encounter other people who own a 3DS, have it with them, and have it in sleep mode, for the data exchange to occur. Some have criticized this function as being useful in an extremely densely populated nation as Japan, but not as much so in larger countries such as the US and Australia, where you might be one of a handful of people in your town to even own a 3DS.

With StreetPass Network, that problem has been solved. Gamers from all around the world have started creating their own grassroots StreetPass groups using the page function on Facebook, and they are all cataloged by the man behind the first StreetPass group to gain fame, Joshua Lynsen. Who said gamers weren't social? If you have a 3DS, or even just a DS, you can go to the network website, find your city, and there's a good chance a group has been made. If not, why not create your own?

In the Mii Plaza, you can view all the different Mii's you've encountered! (source)

That's what I did! Introducing StreetPass Brisbane, the first and only StreetPass group for Brisbane, Australia! Excited about meeting and trading data with other 3DS owners, I searched the StreetPass Network's website for a local group for me... Only to find that the closest one was in the Gold Coast. The kind owner of the Gold Coast StreetPass page suggested I create my own for Brisbane, and the rest is history. Don't mind that right now I'm the only one who "likes" it...

I contacted Joshua at the StreetPass Network and inquired about getting StreetPass Brisbane listed, and within an hour it was up on the site! His website is really much more informative than I could ever hope to be, so I really encourage you all to go check it out! I'm hoping that through some networking, StreetPass Brisbane will be able to grow and succeed like so many of the other groups around the world already have.

Besides joining a StreetPass group in your area, Gamertell has a nice article to help you get started with StreetPass, and hopefully exchange some data with other 3DS users.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that StreetPass Brisbane will be successful enough to do an actual meetup sometime soon! And I hope this post has helped anyone who is looking for more information on how to get involved with StreetPass. Let me know in the comments!

3DS Impressions

The haul!

Though I wasn’t originally planning on getting a 3DS for a while, Shaun and I were lucky enough to receive one from my mom last week as an early Easter present! Thanks, Mom! It’s that lovely blue color, and came with Nintendogs + Cats Toy Poodle and Super Monkey Ball 3D. Now I’ll be the first to admit that the launch lineup for the 3DS was rather lackluster, so unfortunately I wasn’t particularly enthralled by either of these games. Nintendogs is cute (I never played the original, incidentally), but the novelty wears thin pretty quick–especially after taking your virtual dog for a walk and watching it do its business on the street. It does do a nice job of showcasing the 3D capabilities, particularly when your dog jumps up and licks the “screen.” 

Super Monkey Ball is a series that I also have never gotten into, purely from lack of interest in general more than anything else (I haven’t read reviews, I don’t know how popular it is). In Super Monkey Ball 3D you can choose from three modes–the regular adventure courses, Mario Kart-like racing, and multiplayer. I think the first option is where the “monkey ball” comes from, as your monkey of choice will roll around through short courses in a hamster-ball like apparatus, the goal simply to get to the finish line while collecting bananas. Yawn. The racing was a little more interesting, for me at least, and felt kind of like a preview of what a 3D Mario Kart would look like. Oddly, I found the 3D in Super Monkey Ball to be less crisp at higher levels than Nintendogs. As I moved up the slider to increase the 3D effect, I quickly began to see a double-image that really aggravated my eyes. At a lower level the double image seems to disappear and I found it much more pleasing to look at that way. I can’t comment on the multiplayer, but I assume it’s probably very similar to the other modes.

Now on the 3DS itself! I only have a DSlite, so I can’t compare the 3DS to the DSi or XL, but in terms of size and weight, it seems about the same as my lite, only a little thinner. I’m even carrying it around in the same case that I was using for my DSlite. As most of you probably know, the top screen is wider than the bottom, and another notable upgrade is the addition of an analog stick on the left side along with the traditional D-pad. I began playing Pokemon White on the 3DS, which I was previously playing on the DSlite, and have noticed that the slimness of the console means that I have to bend my fingers at a slightly increased angle to press the buttons, which I find slightly uncomfortable. I think it will take getting used to, but isn’t a major downside by any means. What I have found, is that even though I want to use the D-pad for Pokemon, the lower positioning of the D-pad due to the addition of the analog stick means that it isn’t really that comfortable to use the D-pad for long periods of time, where it was fine on the older DS models. This means I found myself using the analog stick just because it felt more comfortable.

I know I touched on the 3D capabilities a little already with regards to specific games, but I’d like to say a few more words on it before I move on. It is, after all, the driving force behind this new handheld!

I have to say I haven’t really been bitten by the 3D bug yet–when I go to the movies I always opt for the cheaper 2D tickets, and when the 3DS was announced I was more excited by the fact that it was just a new system rather than the whole “3D without glasses!” thing Nintendo is going for. So, how does the 3D really stack up, then? Well, after hearing that the 3DS gives people headaches after 15 minutes or less of gameplay, I have to agree. When you’re not used to looking at the 3D top screen, it can be quite eye straining to view with the slider turned all the way up. That said, Nintendo made a very smart move by making the 3D adjustable. I enjoyed playing on a very low 3D setting–I could still see the 3D effect but it didn’t strain my eyes nearly so much. It’s a little frustrating that you have to angle the screen very precisely to be able to see the 3D effect well, though. Even so, all games can also be played in 2D, and they still look nice and crisp. I’m still not completely sold on the magic of 3D, but I’m hoping future titles will make a believer out of me.  

Face Raiders–free with every 3DS! (source)

One thing I find really intriguing about the 3DS is the Streetpass–the idea being that if you walk around with your 3DS on sleep mode (closed, but still on), you can swap information with other 3DS users you pass during your day. With Nintendogs + Cats, you can share pictures of your pets and even send presents to other players. I’m not sure of Super Monkey Ball 3D has any Streetpass functionality, but I don’t believe so. Even without any games, by using Streetpass you can get info on other 3DS players such as what game they are currently playing or download their Mii, which will then be sent to your Mii Garden to be viewed at any time (I believe this also unlocks some mini-games as well). I’ve only tried Streetpass once so far, when I knew I would be around a fair number of people, but regrettably I didn’t pass any other 3DS owners. The possibilities of the Streetpass are really interesting, I think, and I look forward to see how future games will take advantage of this new technology.

Finally, I’d like to comment on Face Raiders, an augmented reality shooter that comes already installed on the 3DS. In this game, you take pictures of faces, which are then used to create these little enemy face ships you have to shoot down. It’s a pretty funny concept, and I enjoyed playing around with it. There’s something oddly satisfying about shooting at your own face. The game also makes use of the camera in real time (hence “augmented reality”), so rather than shooting at faces superimposed on a pre-made background, you’re twisting and turning your hands to move your 3DS around your living room, or wherever you happen to be playing (imagine how silly you’d look in public!). Apparently, though, there is an incentive to play this outside–any faces that show up in the background while you’re playing will be added to your game (source)! 

All in all, I’m really excited to have gotten my hands on a 3DS so soon after it was released (thanks again, Mom!). Unfortunately, the lack of a strong launch line-up means that for now, I’ll probably just be playing my old DS games until something good comes along, but I am certainly looking forward to what the future holds.