Mario meets Portal

An epic fan-made trailer of an epic game.

I am always fascinated by game covers and the way they get altered to reflect some cultural stereotypes. This time around, I’d like to have a closer look at the newly released Nintendo DS game Final Fantasy: The four warrior of light. Japanese are as always eager to highlight the human bonds on their game covers. Characters  take often the center stage of game marketing in Japan and countless covers feature the protagonists of the game bonding together to fight off the evil forces.  The western game covers on the other hand focus on the fantasy part, featuring the 4 warriors riding a dragon. While the background might seem less important, it actually plays a major role in underlying the differences between European and American gamers*: The former have a taste of old, refined and subtle imagery, while the latter crave for some dark, gloomy badassness… *Provided that the marketing research results are 100% accurate, which never the case…
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I am always fascinated by game covers and the way they get altered to reflect some cultural stereotypes. This time around, I’d like to have a closer look at the newly released Nintendo DS game Final Fantasy: The four warrior of light.

Japanese are as always eager to highlight the human bonds on their game covers. Characters  take often the center stage of game marketing in Japan and countless covers feature the protagonists of the game bonding together to fight off the evil forces. 


The western game covers on the other hand focus on the fantasy part, featuring the 4 warriors riding a dragon. While the background might seem less important, it actually plays a major role in underlying the differences between European and American gamers*: The former have a taste of old, refined and subtle imagery, while the latter crave for some dark, gloomy badassness…

*Provided that the marketing research results are 100% accurate, which never the case…

Playing: Pokemon White

I got my hands on the latest iteration of Pokeman Pokemon for the nintendo DS, and I have to say that… well, it’s just another Pokemon game. I have to admit that I dig the legendaries of White / Black (here), but not quite the starters. Between a fire pig, a stupid-looking otter and a god-knows-what plant type, there is nothing to get excited about. 

I haven’t played a Pokemon game since Pearl, and I can see that there are some noticeable improvements in graphics and animations. Buildings are now 3D, and the critters are animated during battle. Perspective and distance are taken into consideration (characters and object get slightly bigger as you approach them). Talking about battle, if there is something I really like in this generation, it’s the battle menu UI. Commands and very responsive and come with snappy animations and effects. The biggest disappointment is the crappy definition of the sprites; the pixels are so big you can see them several meters away from the screen… C’mon Nintendo, we are in 2010! 

Nintendo 3DS release date leaked… A tweet from a Japanese DS accessory maker translates: “On November 20th, the 11 goods I designed for use with the 3DS will go on sale simultaneously. Those of you buying the 3DS, please buy them while you’re at it! This will be officially announced on the homepage eventually, lol. Best regards.” His account has been disabled (nocchisan), which leads me to think that this is real… Fingers crossed.
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Nintendo 3DS release date leaked…

A tweet from a Japanese DS accessory maker translates:

“On November 20th, the 11 goods I designed for use with the 3DS will go on sale simultaneously. Those of you buying the 3DS, please buy them while you’re at it! This will be officially announced on the homepage eventually, lol. Best regards.”

His account has been disabled (nocchisan), which leads me to think that this is real… Fingers crossed.

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