Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Capcom Japan certainly knows how to treat its fans, as proven by the truckload of extra goodies featured in the Special Edition version of forthcoming Miles Edgeworth adventure, Gyakuten Kenji - or Perfect Prosecutor as it’ll be known in the west.

The package contains a miniature version of the April ‘08 Gyakuten Saiban concert pamphlet, complete with a manga from character designer, Tatsuro Iwatmoto, portraits of Mitsurugi (Edgeworth), Mei (Franziska von Karma) and new rival prosecutor Mikumo, a DS card case, a collection of Kenji promotional videos, and a five-song mini-album containing orchestrated versions of tunes featured in the game.

This can be preordered from Capcom’s e-shop, and it looks like you’ll get a limited-time-only bonus of a Steel Samurai phone strap should you fancy shelling out 9490 yen (£67.26) for this corking collector’s item.

And no, we never get anything this good. And no, it really isn’t fair.

Bookmark It

If you’re a fan of the music in Capcom’s superb Ace Attorney series, you’ll no doubt be disappointed to hear that you missed the chance to hear it performed live by a full orchestra at the Gyakuten Saiban Tokubetsu Hout Orchestra Concert 2008 in April of last year. Unless you were there, in which case well done you.

But if you’re prepared to accept second best, then you can now get your hands on a DVD of the concert from Play-Asia. Fully realising that watching an orchestra play on its own isn’t the most visually-exciting thing ever, the organisers projected images from the games on massive screens throughout, and these are all viewable on the DVD.

There’s also a booklet which accompanies the DVD as a digest of the concert, with commentaries from the producers involved. And it all comes in a fairly posh box with the Japanese Gyakuten Saiban logo adorning the front.

Bit of a collector’s item, then - be sure to get your order in at the not-entirely-OBJECTIONable price of $31.90/£22.46 while stocks last.

Bookmark It

The hound that howled is set to get his own album - yep, the regular Saturday night visitor to your Animal Crossing village, the incomparable KK Slider, will be strumming his merry way through a selection of his greatest coffee shop hits, with a CD set for release in Japan this April.

You’ll get all of the background music from the game, along with that oh-so-hummable title tune, but the most important addition is the selection of tunes that KK bashes out on a weekly basis at his favourite haunt, The Roost. With such a vast repertoire to his name, it seems that the CD won’t feature all his songs - the music-loving mutt needs help to pick the best of his renditions for inclusion on the disc.

Aniplex.co.jp is where all Japanese Crosso fans will be going to lodge their votes - with a closing date of Monday March 2nd to get your choices in. The CD itself is launched on April 22nd, and retails for a price of 2310 yen (roughly £17.20).

Bookmark It

 

After a bit of a shaky start (involving the site breaking down as soon as the thing opened) Club Nintendo has finally opened its doors to US gamers. This is A Good Thing - Club Nintendo in Japan has offered eastern gamers some incredibly cool gifts over the years, while us westerners have had to put up with mobile phone wallpapers and Mario Kart handkerchieves. Well, perhaps not the latter, but that’s not far off the kind of overpriced tat we used to be presented with when registering our Nintendo Stars.

Anyway, Americans now get the chance to own the splendid Game & Watch Collection for DS (a mere 800 ‘coins’), or the two Animal Crossing-themed goodies above - a DS card holder and stylus set, and a pack of playing cards for 600 coins and 500 coins respectively.

Europe’s started getting some cool stuff too, amazingly enough. Though we’re still not getting it as good as the Japanese - they get points for every game they buy, whether it’s published by Nintendo or not.

Bookmark It

After enjoying the daily videos on the official Japanese Animal Crossing site, I was slightly perturbed to find things had changed when I clicked on my bookmarks today - my main worry being that Nintendo has run out of new stuff to show us (and let’s be honest, plenty of the vids were of things available in previous Animal Crossing games anyway).

Now I’m over the surprise, it seems a much more comprehensive site, detailing all sorts of facts about the game’s many features, and generally getting me even more excited about the imminent US release (November 16th - I’m importing).

Naturally it’s all in Japanese, but there are plenty of pics and videos that make most things fairly understandable.

Click on this here link to be whisked away to a world without worry. Well, apart from having to find bells to pay off the extortionate mortgage forced upon you by that darned raccoon, that is.

And for all those who like spending their hard-earned on silly Japanese toys in these credit-crunching times, then bob on over to NCSX, where you can pre-order a set of Animal Crossing keyring projectors. They’re not available until February, but I’d get ordering in case some tat-loving weirdo snaps them all up…

They’re mine I tell you, all mine! (evillaugh)

Bookmark It

I very nearly didn’t post anything about this purely out of my distaste for anything which involves someone replacing a perfectly good letter ’s’ with a ‘z’ at the end. Indeed, Ubisoft perpetrates this crime against humanity so regularly that I’m often forced to delete press releases from the company as soon as they reach my Inbox.

Not today though, because this is pretty cool. It’s basically a box of Rabbids, those loveable boggle-eyed mentalists that have all but ousted Rayman from his own franchise (seriously Ubi - just ditch the limbless wonder and call the series ‘Rabbids’ - no-one would care, and only a couple more would notice).

There are five in the box - a Smile Rabbid, a Scream Rabbid, a Sam Fisher Rabbid (possibly my favourite), an Altair-out-of-Assassin’s-Rubbish-Creed Rabbid, and a blank one for you to scribble your own design on. This will be released in all good game shops (and some crap ones as well) on the same day as Rayman’s Raving Rabbids TV Party is launched - which is  a week on Friday. Or November 14th, if you can’t count.
I have three of these from a recentish press event - I’m missing the Smile one and the blank one, but in their stead I have a Prince of Persia one which presumably isn’t included now said wall-runner is all Canadian and cel-shaded rather than a bit emo and into Godsmack. Anyway, they’re cute and well-made, and if they’re available at a reasonable price you should probably buy them.

Oh yeah - the ‘z’ thing. They’re referred to in the press release as (sigh) ‘toyz’. Stay calm, Chris. Stay calm.

Bookmark It

*Read: expensive

Yep, everyone’s favourite JRPG creator has opened an online store from where Europeans can purchase lots of lovely high-quality merchandise with pricetags to match. See that silver slime pendant above? Yours for only £78.99. Bargain. Still, it is proper silver and everything.

Disappointingly, there’s nothing relating to The World Ends With You. Hardly surprising since the brilliant DS RPG - still in my Top Three Games Of The Year - sold about 89 copies, but a shame nonetheless.

Final Fantasy fans in particular are well-served, though only if you’re keen on non-Nintendo iterations of the series. I might plump for one of these Dragon Quest keyrings - a snip at just £14.99.

Bookmark It

 

Regular readers of this here blog will be familiar with my love for Rhythm Tengoku (and its slightly inferior sequel) so it’s with great delight that I can report that a soundtrack featuring tunes from both games is set to be released in Japan this October.

It’s out on the 15th, costing 5250 yen (about £27 - more than the game costs!) and will come in a 3-CD pack containing a whopping 140 songs. Evidently there will be some variations on those featured, or perhaps we’ll get versions with and without the accompanying sound effects. Either way, it’s an absolute must for fans of the two games, and I hope to be getting a copy in should Play-Asia be stocking it next month.

Bookmark It

 

…in Japan. While us westerners have to put up with papier mache Cooking Guide chef hats, our eastern cousins regularly get their hands on top-notch accessories, and this latest selection is no different.

The DS Game & Watch Collection now has a sequel - available for 500 points - while for 100 points less you can get your hands on a Touch! Generations soundtrack CD (which features ‘classic’ Nintendo songs from, er, Wii Sports and Wii Fit among others). Then you have a pack of Mario playing cards (whose reverse sides piece together to form the cover art from Mario Party 8), some DS card cases in the shape of Mario and Luigi hats (pictured above), some smart DS cases, and one of four different Mario pin badges.

More pics follow after the jump. Life really, really isn’t fair sometimes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

…this time in the form of Super Mario Galaxy enemy gashapon, again from Play-Asia.com.

I can’t say that Galaxy’s enemy design was one of its strongest points - you’re more frequently in trouble from the environments rather than the baddies - but these are cute little critters, and again hugely appealing to those who like to waste their money on videogame merchandise.

Perhaps some figurines of the game’s bosses are in order next? I’d pay good money for a Bouldergeist and a Bonefin model, if any toy manufacturers are reading…

Bookmark It