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    March 30 -31, April 01/2005 - I'll Get Even With You QOTU: "These Forks be Grand." Well, it's a Thursday through Saturday update. Gonna add the reviews in a bit. But first, a new Philip Rational. Yup. As for news? Nintendo has a contest going on and I had to enter it. They give you a free HAND jobbie thingie. I mean, wow. Is that not cool or what? A FREE HAND! It can do all sorts of hand things with its fingers. You can use the fingers to touch, pet, poke, probe, and generally explore... items, places, people, pets, and food. Thank you, Nintendo. Touching IS good. Thankfully for everyone, there is good news and unusual news too! The latest (21-27th of March) Media Create sales data places Kirby's new DS game in the #3 position at 75,365 units sold. Also out is Egg Monster Hero at #6 and Harvest Moon continues to sell well at #9. The two new colors of the DS also debuted this last week and that has done something to sales of DS units in Japan. The GBA had no top ten game titles. Here are the portables in terms of sales. I have combined the GBA and GBA SP unit sales. 1. DS - 55,825 2. PSP - 43,043 3. GBA&SP - 15,557 Not bad, that makes that weeks handheld sales. 1. Nintendo - 71,382 2. Sony - 43,043 Total Handheld Systems sold that week = 114,425 Using rough math, meaning sleepy math and a calculator, Nintendo owns 62% of the handheld market and Sony owns 38% of the handheld market in Japan. Of course that is of total sold units, for that week. Yes, Nintendo is "losing" soooo badly that you must sign up for this to console me for my sadness. Cheer up though, Atlus has revealed SBK, a BRAND NEW -not a port- version of Snowboard Kids with new and old tracks, plus new and old characters. The new look is much sleeker and more "Maria Bogner" meets Snowboarding meets Anime than the big noses of the past. The current name being thrown for the new game is SBK: eXpresseD. Also considered is SBK: thunDer Summit and SBK: Deep froSt. One of the interesting things right now is that there are a grand total of three hidden characters to unlock that are NOT from Atlus. We've all seen Cloud in Final Fantasy 7 Snowboarding for mobile phones, and Atlus has secured permission from SquareEnix to use Yuna, a Moogle, and Sephiroth in SBK for the Nintendo DS. They will be redrawn to match the style used in SBK. Sadly, no Cloud is available; but a create a kid mode is available that uses the touch screen for touching up boards, and character looks. So, you can create Cloud if you like. Sephiroth's character model is based on the original FF7 style and not the Kingdom Hearts Style. Yuna is based off of her FFX2 style. The Moogle is similar to the style used in Kingdom Hearts. The game is eXpecteD to hit the slopes this November. More will be shown at E3. If that did not cure the winter blues, pay close attention to what I am going to tell you about the latest bit to pass through my sources from Majesco: DS MOVIE Cards are in a testing phase so far and it looks like the bottom screen will be used for player controls, while the top screen will display the movie in full screen. The first ones being tested are a compilation of new Spongebob Squarepants episodes (5 episodes), a compilation of Pokemon Advance Generation episodes (4 episodes) and a sample of the Powerpuff Girls Movie. The picture quality is greatly improved in the new DS Movie Cards in comparison to the old GBA Video Paks and is noticably on par with UMD movies. The increased episode count is good stuff. Although 2 episode DS Movie Cards are being considered as a sub-$10 item. Well, enjoy the editorial, I'll add reviews soon, and the next Viral Speak will be soon as well! Enjoy! Comment? -PAW- Top? March 28 - 29/2005 - At War With The World QOTU: "What? I'm arranging the McNuggets. It keeps them happy." I have been busy hiding eggs all around the world, I mean.. working on.. stuff. There will be a bunch of new DS reviews on Thursday and the newest editorials should be up soon. I can save you the time and trouble of reading it by saying that it's not the strongest racer on the DS. People have asked me if I want to cover the PSP. Well, if you own one and want to write a review, we WILL be covering the system in our section devoted to non-Nintendo family handhelds. Only well written reviews of the unit though. You may also review your DIGITAL AUDIO PLAYERS in that section as well, so feel free to send in a well written review of a Creative Zen Micro, or an iPod. I am working on a review of my own iPod, and I was wondering if my readers would like to pitch in to get me an iPod shuffle - for review purposes, of course! I am dividing this news post into Nintendo x Sony because that is neat. Nintendo related NEWSITY! GOOD - Nintendo is releasing Meteos in June, rejoice and BUY IT. Atlus will be showing off some interesting stuff for the DS, mostly the previously shown off new Snowboard Kids, and a cut-above-the-rest title worthy of your time. Yoshi's Universial Gravitation will be released in the USA in June for the GBA. I forgot the new name, sorry. Kirby's Cursed Canvas will be out in June as well. No word yet on if we get the pink stylus or not. Stylii are always good. Also, the Pink, Blue, White, and Black DS units launch in July. So, you can get yourself Kirby and then get a matching DS unit. It is KIRBY-GASMICALLY PINK! C'mon, put aside your stupid bias and buy a PINK DS. It is pink and you can touch it. It's pink and you can rub it. It's pink and you can blow on it. It is pink and it is GOOOOOOD. Sony related MISERY! Well, Sony lost a lawsuit against Immersion and has been ordered to pay $90.7 million dollars in damages for Sony's illegal use of Immersion's Haptic Feedback Technology. Part of the lawsuit requires the removal of haptic feedback (Rumble) from or the halted sales of over 40 PS1 and PS2 titles as well as the recall and removal of Sony's Dual Shock controllers in PS2/PS1 packages and as a stand-alone product. Microsoft was sued earlier but settled out of court for $23 million as well as purchasing 10% of Immersion's company stock. Nintendo licensed the technology from Immersion. Companies like APPLE, LOGITECH, NUBY, and MADCATZ also license this technology from Immersion. Now onto the PSP! It certainly is selling out everywhere! Oh, wait. It's NOT selling out in the USA. Also, the game Makai Wars that was previously announced as being for the PSP has been canceled. It's final name is Makai KINGDOM and it is for the PS2. I want to talk a little bit more about the Sony/Immersion Lawsuit. So, please bear with these enormous paragraphs that I also posted at Engadget. Amazing how stupid Sony fans can be over this. -_- Immersion invented force feedback controls and patented them. Nintendo thought of using force feedback in console game controllers and owns that patent. In the Nintendo patent, they licensed the idea from Immersion. There are different kinds of patents. In Nintendo's case, it is like Immersion invented the light bulb and Nintendo put the light bulb in a lamp. At E3, we'll see Nintendo putting that light bulb in the DS. Should be interesting. You'll be able to FEEL the game, not just touch it. Picture a brick wall, you break the brick wall with the stylus and you can feel it breaking as you touch it. Not to worry, Nintendo already put out a patent to cover that too. (The new patent still references Immersion though.) Other companies like Nubysoft, Nyko, Madcatz, Apple, etc. all license haptic feedback devices from Immersion. When Wario Ware Twisted comes out, that motor in there is licensed from Immersion. Microsoft tried to skirt around the company by attempting to pull a fast one with the Xbox controller. They were caught and ended up paying to settle the lawsuit, purchased a little stock in the company as a sign of goodwill, and ended up paying for the license. Licensing Immersions tech is a flat fee for most companies. Nyko spent a couple HUNDRED and licensed the tech. Sony attempted to skirt around the company with the Dual Shock and have been fighting with Immersion since before the release of the Dual Shock. This is Sony trying to use the size of their company to hurt people. While I have no problem with large companies, I do not like to see them try and step on smaller companies by STEALING other companies technology. This is comparable to -say- Madonna stealing a song written by a small artist out in Kentucky and saying she wrote the song. That is not fair, is it? While the lawsuit's current status and damage is the result of some serious bile between the two companies, it is not without merit. I'm siding with Immersion on this one. Sorry, Sony, you been stealing from the demon and you got caught. And no, I didn't make up that lyric. So, this has been a fairly good day for me. I picked up a copy of Record of Lodoss Wars, and I just finished watching the last episodes of Revolutionary Girl Utena. My girlfriend is beautiful, I like my new job, I have some awesome anime, Nintendo is PERSONALLY releasing Meteos, and Sony's Computer Entertainment Division has been shot in hand. Hey, if everyone got me an iPod Shuffle, this would be an even better day! Bwa ha ha! Now, SEXY COMMANDO DANCE! PHILIP DANCES SEXY COMMANDO DANCE! SOCK MONKEY SITS THERE SILENTLY THINKING SOCK MONKEY THOUGHTS! Comment? -PAW- Top? March 27 - Starrider QOTU: "I don't if it rains or freezes, long as I got that marshmellow Jesus!" Happy Easter! Look! Spinning Mery!  Comment? -PAW- Top? March 23 - 24/2005 - Fool For You Anyway. QOTU: "If you fail, Munchlax eats your BRAIN." Honest truth! It looks like I will succeed with my month of title references plan after all. Ha! I have DEFEATED YOU, Adult Swim! Well, not much has happened as of late. I suppose I should mention that Eidos is in dire straights and a buy-out proposal was offered by the Bono (Yes. That Bono) backed company Elevation, but a better offer has been made by SCi. SCi is THIS company, not THIS company. Other than that, nothing of note today aside from the hot sexy musings of our resident hot girl Sarah and the neat opinions of our own resident Californian with a Green Hat: Chris. Oh, there are secret rumblings and we have used our sharp as a knife skills to state that many GameStop listings will change an important game name soon. Also, Nintendojo has survived the night and there will be a morning. Oh, there's a new Utada Hikaru commercial out in Japan. In it, she cups a sexy white Nintendo DS and pets the screen loving while the images on the screen bark, growl, and hump the furniture. No, it's not a GiTMO sim. She plays Nintendogs. The real question is which version does she prefer? Wiener Dogs, Taco Dogs, or Chilly Dogs? Comment? -PAW- Top? March 21 - 22/2005 - Heart Turns to Stone QOTU: "You're gonna fall now." Datel has finally gone and done it, they have issued a press release that the Action Replay DUO for the Nintendo DS is almost done. Expect it at their booth at E3, and in stores very shortly afterwards. The ARD fits into Slot 2 (The GBA slot) of the Nintendo DS and allows you to plug a GBA or a Nintendo DS game into the slots on the device. You can download new cheat codes for your favorite Nintendo DS games as well as BACK UP SAVE DATA from your Nintendo DS games. It accesses DS functions via the second slot, so it will be of great interest to those who are working on developing homebrew games for the Nintendo DS. A PSP Action Replay will be available this August apparently. So, filthy cheating humans can cheat on those types of games too. Although most PSP games (Spider-Man 2) are too short for cheating to be anything other than an excuse for COMPLETE LACK OF SKILLS. More later! Comment? -PAW- Top? March 20/2005 - The Damage Is Done QOTU: "Chockful of Progressive BOINKING!" Well, it appears that the newest issue of Nintendo Power reveals that the Nintendo DS free online service will be done in part with GameSpy. Which is kinda cool I guess. The latest issue also reveals Katamari Damacy DS. So, rubbing and rolling go together! Rubbing and rolling.. sounds like the ideal date situation! Also revealed was Goldeneye: Rougue Agent's 8 player multi-player and Age of Empires 4 player mode. Also announced was Shogun Warriors DS and that's cool too. Oh yeah. New Viral Speak. Word. Comment? -PAW- Top? March 18/2005 - Until The End of Time I will love her. QOTU: "Although PSP gets progressively worse, no one dies from PSP itself." Well, not much in the news today except for a few announcements with a little bit of added spice. SquareEnix will show off first details on DRAGON QUEST for the DS later this weekend. Not the slime game or Monsters, but real Dragon Quest. Neat. UBI SOft announced lots of DS games like Prince of Persia, and LUNAR: GENESIS. It's in the Lunar series and it may not be a port. Neat. Other than that, SQUISHY FICTION has landed. Download this 14 or so MegaByte file! It contains a Quicktime movie of goodness and four special edition desktop wallpapers. Get them while they are SQUISHY. I will have a fat Viral Speak on SATURDAY because I enjoy TORTURING my readers and they like it! I hope. Comment? -PAW- Top? March 16-17/2005 - Soul Doctor QOTU: "Don't worry, everything is gonna happy!" Hey! If you go to the new Pokemon movie "Mew & The Wave Guiding hero" in Japan with a Nintendo DS and the Japanese version of Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/Leaf/Fire in the cartridge slot, you get a 3D mini-movie of Meowth to view and -if you have an empty slot in your current party- a mysterious Egg! Well, there you have it! Just in case you cared to know it. Anyhow, onwards toward REVIEWS! Yes, I finally sat down and did some catching up on REVIEWS! Can you say REVIEWS! I know you like it! Here is a list of all the new reviews of old games we have for you! Spot: The Video Game Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town Aliens: Thanatos Encounter Solitare Fun Pak Yeah! Who needs reviews of NEW games? Well, if you do crave new games, don't worry. Reviews are in the works as we speak! Also, there are STILL more reviews to upload! So, be happy! Oh, the lack of an update yesterday was devoted to Dell and their neat faulty AC Adaptor. That is why there was no S.S.U. Don't worry! S.S.U. should be back on for next week! Check back for a Viral Speak and a new column this Friday! Comment? Top? -PAW- March 15/2005 - Head Games QOTU = "Keita Takahashi is the game developer for people who don't make games." Don't worry. I'll defend my QOTU in my next Philip Rational. After analyzing the GDC and all the comments from all the game developers, it is clear that game development has become a pretentious affair where you can create only one or two "art" games and suddenly you're king of the freaking hill. Personally, I think Will Wright is great, I think Peter Molyneux and Andrew McLean are as over-rated as American McGee and the next column will be bittersweet indeed. Oh, Nintendo launched the DS in the UK and sold over 80,000 units in two days. I guess the Nintendo DS did pretty well. Nintendo also showed off productivity software including a Japanese/Chinese/English Language translator where you write out Kanji and it identifies it in ENGLISH. The other productivity software appears to be logic and knowledge trainers. Neither of which will help you if you should get a lucrative career at Sony or EA. I think Nintendo is releasing those DS productivity software titles as a way of tricking you into LEARNING. It will burn like EDUCATION! Anyhow, here are two columns. Hbomb's latest for all of his disciples and umm.. something new instead of a Philip Rational. Don't worry. Read! Comment? -PAW- Top? March 14/2005 - Headknocker QOTU = "They took his Chicken McNuggets.. but they didn't take his freedom!" Quote of the Update returns! Well, Philip quit his job and has decided to run off to join the circus. Fun huh? Anyhow, most of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was consumed in finding a new job. I also got the latest Anime Advocates DVD from ADV for the CMSU Anime Club. I'll post impressions on it in a bit. Still working on a Philip Rational. I will be giving you lots of content. Maybe. Or maybe.. I will just spend my time watching Maburaho again! I'll give you full impressions on the ADV Disc in a bit too. Also, watch out for LIFE IN PUZZLE on Snowflake Studios. It shall ownify you. Comment? -PAW- Top? March 11,12,13/2005 - Blue Morning, Blue Day A "Viral Speak" is why you are here.. right? OH NO! Where is the Viral Speak? Well, I was distracted, so I am taking a three day post to finish it up. The new Legend of Zelda trailer from GDC filled me with Joy. A few other things from GDC were pretty nifty. 1. Animal Crossing DS will be online and FREE. 2. Electroplankton now has an even better chance of coming out over here. 3. Nintendo's Revolution console is wifi out of the box as well as being backwards compatible with the Game Cube. If it is compatible with the GB Player... all good will break loose. But we will have to see. 4. Metal Slug 1 is coming to GBA. YAY! Not bad. Iwata's speech was relatively bomb-tossing free. I mean, Sony's speech was all about how their technology is shiny and everyone should like it. Although the PS3 uses a standard kind of programming. That's good that Sony wants to make development for a Sony console as easy as it is to develop for the other consoles. Microsoft had three main points aside from coddling developers with promises of lax standards. Allard's three main points appear to be this: 1. We want the developers to create partially made -but creative- games that the consumers will have to pay to finish, and build themselves to enjoy completely. No need to make a complete game. The people will pay to work on finishing it themselves. 2. We want you to invite more cooks into the kitchen to work on your soup. In fact, we will send you a few just in case there are not hundreds all ready. Just make sure you pay for it! 3. We want a universal gui across all games that intrudes into your playtime to tell you things in a pop-up window like: "Your power cord is on fire!" "Your wireless controller battery is getting low." "LISTEN!" This universal communism gui will also let you replace that crappy music in your new Mist Walker RPG with something cool.. like.. Ashlee Simpson. Well, to be fair, Microsoft has a few overbearing ideas that sound half cooked, but I think that what Allard says and what really happens are going to be a little different from each other. I think Nintendo and Microsoft will be the major players in this upcoming console war. Comment? -PAW- Top? March 10/2005 - Say you will. Return a bit later. I am all tiredness. I will give you a special reviews only update soon. Tired.. Oh, GDC is happening and soon Iwata will speak.. it'll be cool. Later? Comment? -PAW- Top? March 09/2005 - Waiting for a Girl Like You Well, Wed-nes-day means a New Sarah Speaks Up! So, enjoy it! It's new and flavorful and just for you! Oh, BEWARE OF DATA DESTRUCTION! Nifty, huh? Let us see crap like the PSP with its fancy sound processor do that! Retro-Core forever! Comment? -PAW- Top? March 07 & 08/2005 - Long, Long Way from Home Very little news on the Nintendo side today. It was weird. However, a new Philip Rational and Hbomb's Milk This! articles are up. Monday is mine, Tuesday is Hbomb, and Wednesday is Sarah's day. Pretty cool to be on a schedule, huh? Been playing a game that Atlus sent me recently. Digital Devil Saga. If you own a PS2, rush out and get this game. I'll have an article with overly detailed impressions of the game on Thursday.. since I really can't review it on this site. But, it's awesome. The voice actors and the script are the best damn thing in the game. They got the guy from Cowboy Bebop to voice a character. Also, Amanda Win Lee and other awesome voice actors. And unlike SquareEnix voice acting, the lip flap matches. Check it out, the care put into localization is astounding. It feels good seeing this kind of effort. I hope more Atlus games in the future share this. (Mainly, Riveria) Finally sat down and watched a few OVAs. Tristia of the Deep Blue Sea. Great but short. I also watched Alien Nine. Best discribed as Azumanga Diaoh in Alien HELL. Also saw Gantz and that is pretty violent.. yet.. disturbingly intriguing. Expect some new Suki Nihon reviews on Thursday as well as Minish Cap and some Harvest Moon and Ridge Racer DS reviews! Comment? -PAW- Top? March 04/2005 - Urgent It appears that it is FRIDAY! So, NEW VIRAL SPEAK! Come back for a special Saturday update as well! Oh, I got an e-mail this evening from a very cool individual. Toadwarrior is back! He has a new website and it looks pretty cool. He ran one of the first professional Game Boy sites on the internet. He is in webdesign and such currently. Do click and see his site! See you all later! Comment? -PAW- Top? March 03/2005 - Dirty White Boy Well, all of this month shall be one reference after another and you shall love it. Yes! Lust for the website, LUST! Anyhow, somewhere between listening to "Crazy Train" on repeat and Deerhoof's "Panda panda panda," I lost track of time. Don't worry. The news you can use is that Nintendo is planning on releasing Nintendogs (Puppy Times) in three different and equally cute versions. LOVE IS SHIBA! I'm also tired and silly! Woo! Although.. I have to be careful.. all night tired sessions result in my downloading Winger songs. But speaking of all night tired sessions, I've been playing Minish Cap so much lately that I have almost all the figurines! Once I get those last few.. I shall finish my review. Oh, yes. The SOUND TEST will be mine! It's sweet that Minish Cap is the first Legend of Zelda game with a SOUND TEST. I will be sorely upset if future awesome Legend of Zelda stuff contains no sound test. It will make me unhappy. I have reviews and a brand new editorial from Hbomb to post, but I am tired out as all get out today. So, sleep I must now. Sorry folks. Comment? -PAW- Top? March 01 & 02/2005 - Double Vision. The ides of March have come again! Best get a towel. SO, you want reviews and such? Sure. I shall get those to you in a moment. First however, enjoy a brand new Philip Rational and a brand new Sarah Speaks up! If you watch other sites, you may have seen rumors of a new GBA model coming out. Don't worry! I shall address those in my next editorial. Oh, yes! Enjoy all of everything! Speaking of things to enjoy. News media in Japan claim that Nintendo of Japan is apparently putting out new colors of the Nintendo DS in Japan at these dates. Expect new ones in May over here if this is true. March 24: Graphite Black & Pure White April 21: Turquoise Blue & Candy Pink Also, Famitsu has reviewed Meteos for the Nintendo DS and given it a score of 38. That is 2 points away from a perfect score. This is a Platinum Score from Famitsu. They also reviewed Pac-Pix and gave it a 33 or a Gold Award. A previous Famitsu had reviewed Another Code and given it a 35 (Platinum) score. Apparently all three aforementioned DS games will arrive in the United States. Cing and Nintendo are considering making Another Code a franchise series. This would make Another Code a candidate for an eventual anime OVA as well. Another Code belongs to the same genre as Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, and Broken Sword. New entries to this genre are always welcome. More later! Comment? -PAW- Top?  
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