Quick Updates 2/15

--- Man it took three years but I finally found a copy of the Adventures of Cookie and Cream in an EB Games bargain bin for $6.99. I probably could have gotten it off ebay all this time but it just gave me something to always look for any time I was in an EB Games (we have 5 of them in town, 3 of them within a square mile of each other.) Now I don't know what I'll do when flipping through the piles and piles of used games they can't give away. Honestly if you missed a bunch of the PS2 generation, go thumbing through their PS2 bins. The problem isn't the quality of titles, it's just the fact that I played or owned just about everything remotely interesting in the bins.


If you never got around to Cookie and Cream, don't let the cute exterior turn you off it is prehaps one of the best co-op game experiences of all-time, if not just for the PS2.

--- Speaking of EB Games, they have Moon for the DS for $20 already. I don't know if this will be the regular price point or just a limited thing but rush and grab it. I've always maintained that for $20 you rarely can go wrong with a title. What's strange is Moon was 2009's first must-own title just last month.

--- Going back to last week I said I wasn't entirely sold on Retro Game Challenge. Well slap me once more because it's pretty darn good. But the final selling point for me? XSeed games saying that the chances of localizing Fragile: Sayonara Tsuki-no-Haikyo hinged entirely on the sales of Retro Game Challenge.

Localizing games takes a lot of bank and apparently they need money still even though I've bought Populous DS, Shadow Hearts: From the New World, Wild ARMs 4 (sadly still in the shrink wrap,) Wild ARMs 5 (not in the shrink wrap but not beaten,) Valhalla Knights, Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground, and Brave Story: New Traveler from them. That's essentially everything XSeed's published in the US. I put up with Valhalla Knights and Dungeon Maker. I want my damn Fragile, but at least RGC is actually a much more enjoyable game than the chore that was Dungeon Maker.

So the short of it -- BUY RGC SO I CAN PLAY FRAGILE!



--- QuickJump Network has details on the handheld port of Disgaea 2...obviously in celebration of the impending relase of the new Prinny game on the PSP. The 'article' can be found by clicking.

Looks like some new weapon skills, a new Magi-Change and some new playable characters -- including Asagi, the Red Prism Ranger and Marjoly. It's Disgaea on the PSP, did you really need any more motivation?

--- Pwn or Die Blog presents 10 video game athletes that probably used steroids. Much more interesting than debating the morality of A-Rod.

--- Monster Hunter G for the Wii had its newest trailer released yesterday. I honestly hope Monster Hunter can make it big over here in America. Obviously it'll never reach the same level of fever as in Japan but Monster Hunter back for the PS2 is one of the few online community games I got 'hardcore' into. I don't do MMOs and I don't do FPS deathmatches but Monster Hunter was just darn right addictive and I shed a tear when Capcom finally closed the servers last year even though I had sold the game a while before.

The PSP Monster Hunter games though just never reached the same level thanks to only supporting (to my knowledge) ad-hoc local. It was hard enough finding people around here with PSPs when the game cam out. The complications became ten fold in finding someone with a PSP and a copy of the game.



I hate to rag on the Wii but a huge part of Monster Hunter is playing with other people. Is this really a game the Wii's majority target audience will be into? Will Friend Codes once again detract from people picking this one up? Anyone thinking about picking this up once (if) it comes Stateside?

--- Pretty good article from Final Fantasy Union about the decline of SquareEnix since they merged in 2003. You can click here for it. I'm guessing not too many people realized it was that bad.

But yeah, a year ago Last Remnant was probably my number one most anticipated title of 2008. I knew there was room to be letdown but I didn't expect it to be that bad. Horrible load times and stupid, uninspired gameplay 'strategy' killed it quickly. The other big release, Infinite Undiscovery is also considered a dissapointment but there's at least a few things I can point to there and say I enjoyed the title. Would I tell you to buy it at $60 retail? No, but it's easily worth the $30-40 most retailers smartly slashed it down to after its release.