Funny how, despite all the X's I got, I still managed to beat the final song on the 2nd hardest difficulty. The hardest difficulty with the female cheerleaders have been unlocked! The vocal power of the female cheerleaders are nowhere near that of the male cheerleaders, however. Kind of a let down. My poor DS is all scratched up. Before Ouendan the touchscreen was still in pristine condition after nearly six months of continued use. Now I can see scratches all over it.

Well... like I said, this GS blog is turning ino my personal diary, so I thought I would mention that. Have a great week, folks! :D

Somehow I get the feeling that my blog is turning into a personal forum diary... ^^;;; Below are a list of my comments on the latest Metroid Prime Hunters debacle. - Metroid Prime Hunters should have been reviewed by someone who is familiar with and likes the series. This is the same point I made for Super Princess Peach. If Peach was as many claim targetted at the female audience, why didn't they get a female reviewer to do the review (like they did for Nintendogs and Trace Memory)? It's like having gamers who don't understand or appreciate interactive adventure reviewing Phoenix Wright and giving it a low score (ala many other sites). I guess that's why some magazines opt for the multi-reviewer system, each with his/her personal views and bias. They usually give less in-depth coverage, but you know whose score you should refer to if the title you are interested in isn't one of the mainstream ones. - Was gamers' vehement reaction to the review justified? In some ways, yes. It was "unforgiveable" from a professional standpoint because GameSpot is one of the most influential gaming publications on the Internet. Yes, reviewers are human and can make mistake, but to make so many factual errors that could have been avoided by playing through a few games, reading reviews from other sites, or simply going through the manual - even verified and screened by any of the GS members - it's almost absurd to assume that gamers would simply let it slip. Really, it isn't so much as the fact that the reviewers were proven fallible as much as the way GameSpot handled the whole issue that's ticking gamers off. Let's hope GameSpot comes away learning something from this. In all honesty, I feel sorry for Bob. He is a good person and you can tell from his video review how distraught he is from the whole incident. - I think what we need is a dedicated DS reviewer. Someone who can appreciate what the DS has to offer, instead of a group of people who obviously consider playing DS games a nuisance routine in their daily job. Nintendo games usually speaks to the heart and soul, and frankly this is not something I am seeing in the reviewers handling the DS reviews.

The things that worries me the most are the games and the drop in price on the PSP. On the DS, we only get quality titles from 1st and 2nd party developers. The DS does have its share of good games from 3rd party Japanese developers, but they rarely make it to the shores outside Japan. And from what we've seen thus far, games made by non-Japanese developers are almost guaranteed to be not just average or subpar, but pretty darn bad. It's similar to the situation N64 and GameCube had. Lots of good games from Nintendo and its studios, but very little from the outside. As consoles came down in price, more and more gamers started to own more than one console. It doesn't take a genius to figure out which console these gamers ended up buying games for and which console ended up collecting dust in the long run. And which console trailed so far behind in market share that it soon became economically unfeasible to be supported further. From the beginning of December to today (March 16), of the 30 DS games released and reviewed by GameSpot, only two got a GS rating of over 8 - Animal Crossing and Age of Empires. Worse, 20 were given a rating less than 7, 13 less than 6. When games are getting scores consistently below 6, it is no longer an issue of taste or preference - they are really bad. Worse still, Animal Crossing was released at the beginning of December last year. And Age of Empires, while good, is plagued with hardware/software issue that can render the game unplayable. In contrast, of the 30 or so PSP games, 11 have gotten ratings of over 8, 10 less than 7, 2 less than 6. One interesting point is that most of these games are in fact ports of old games, many suitable for portable gaming and sometimes enhanced dramatically to take advantage of the new technology. As much as I like the Lite and new capabilities such as Web browsing and watching TV, I am not certain this is the right direction for the DS to take. If the DS is going to beat out the PSP, it won't do it with flashy widgets. It will do it through innovative, quality games, not just from Nintendo but from other publishers as well. Because in the end, it's the games that make or break a platform. Let's face it, some innovative games require the special capabilities of the DS to pull off, but what about the rest? There's nothing preventing Sony from heading down in this direction at all. Just some observations.

While playing Legend of Heroes on the PSP, I noticed this very annoying ghosting effect. Before I checked the issue with my other PSP games, I thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me. Any idea on how to fix this? Please help! It's giving me a big headache! ^^;;;

I've been playing this game for the last ten days nonstop. Save for work and the daily obligatory 15 minute Animal Crossing break, my eyes have been glued to my DS. To make the game more challenging, I elected not to read the signs, use the calm vibe to heal Peach when she gets hurt, or visit the store to buy additional hearts. This game is a lot of more fun when you have to experiment with Peach's powers to figure things out and don't have the benefit of near unlimited healing. Both the artwork and the gameplay is strictly old-school - very anime, very simple, very smooth, very responsive - which is probably the biggest charm of the game. You won't find in Super Princess Peach Mario & Luigi RPG 2 style graphics, which seemed overly lavish at times... Okay, that's all I have for now. Getting back to the game. ^_-

I posted this thread to the DS forum awhile back. I still think this is the case, even as we get closer and closer to the release of a pair of possible AAA titles Metroid Prime Hunters and Tetris. Since majority of the people who picked up the DS during the holiday season need some time to digest the existing library, it probably doesn't matter that there aren't many new top-notch titles right now. Having said that, I am a little disappointed that, aside from the obviously underdeveloped titles, titles with good potential such as Electroplankton and True Swing Golf are also getting subpar ratings. Back in November, it seemed like Nintendo was on a rampage and could have easily gone for the jagular. But several months later we found the DS saddled with games that are consistently earning ratings of 6 or lower. The lack of 3rd party support is obvious, only a handful of companies are dedicated to develop quality titles for the DS and the rest are just trying to make a quick buck by churning out titles that would have been better left undeveloped. The number of TBA titles also seems to suggest that 3rd party are now only rallying to come up with something because the DS sold so well. With this and with the fact that Nintendo has to divide its attention on two fronts between the DS and the Revolution, I wonder if the DS will be able to sustain its momentum solely on titles such as Metroid Prime Hunters and Tetris alone? Just my 2 cents.

Going to get a left wing for my house tomorrow! ^^

Not a single AAA title was released on the DS in the last three months. The honorable mentions are Electroplankton, True Swing Golf, Resident Evil and Age of Empires, but they all fall short of the mark. Two more days to go until Peach comes out... It certainly won't be a AAA title, but this appeals to me on a more personal level.

The season is changing! No more snow! No more snowman! Spring is here! Out with the white! In with the green! La~la~la