Nine Over Ten 9/10

Stop Press!! Diablo III has been announced! Head over to the official site for tonnes of stuff!

Almost all my stuff, my books, my games (all 47 Nintendo DS titles I own), and collectibles are downstairs packed in big brown boxes. My room is half empty after my workstation and bookshelf were disassembled and  wrapped in  plastic. Why you ask. Well, I’m moving to my new house, and into a bigger room, tomorrow!

I’ll still be popping by the old house once in a while, mainly to clean it and more importantly to use the Internet connection pending the availability of a phone line in the new house.

What else I have not packed? There’s the electronic organ and the PS2 (the Dreamcast on the other hand, is in the other house) as well as the PC.

But enough talk for now, time to play some games. But before I go, did you know that Metroid Prime Pinball is going for really cheap at Play-Asia? Only USD 14.90 and it comes with a Rumble Pak. Click here for details

It’s a pretty good week for Nintendo DS import fans as the long awaited sequel to Daigasso! Band Brothers, Daigasso! Band Brothers DX is now available at Play-Asia. Selling at USD 48.90, there’s also free international shipping to certain countries.

The best thing about this deal? Purchase both Daigasso! Band Brothers and Daigasso! Band Brothers DX and get a USD 3 discount off the total price. Click here for further details.

Also available is Bleach: The 3rd Phantom. Unlike the previous Bleach games, this is an RPG. Since its an import title, fans would need some knowledge about reading Japanese before buying this game. Unless of course if you are a collector then that might be a different case.

Bleach: The 3rd Phantom is selling for USD 48.90 as well. Click here for further details.

I managed to catch a movie based on a John Grisham novel last night on TV. Called The Chamber, it starred Gene Hackman as Sam Cayhall, a racist guy and a Klansman who killed two children (albeit accidentally) in a hate crime, and is in death row for that.

Chris O’Donnell stars as Adam Hall, a young lawyer and also Cayhall’s grandson who tries to save his grandfather despite the animosity and contempt shown by Sam towards his grandson and Adam’s late father, who had committed suicide due to Sam’s misdeeds.

With just 28 days before Sam’s execution by gas chamber, Adam exhausts every avenue of appeal but fails, despite getting evidence that Sam wasn’t the only participant in the hate crime. More interestingly is the transformation of Sam from a hateful figure to someone who finally breaks down upon realizing what kind of monster he became.

Sam meets his end in the gas chamber and the movie does have a slightly graphic depiction of that. The movie does raises questions on capital punishment, and while it’s really “eye for an eye”, can mitigating circumstances that warrant a different punishment?

In the case of Sam Cayhall, he was born and bred a Klansman and was used to hate crimes since he was a kid. Does that warrant due consideration when it comes to his actions as an adult? What do you think?

The synopsis for Pixar’s latest animated movie, Wall-E reads as follows:

WALL-E is the story of the last little robot on Earth. He is a robot and his programming was to help clean up. You see, it’s set way in the future. Through consumerism, rampant, unchecked consumerism, the Earth was covered with trash.

And to clean up, everyone had to leave Earth and set in place millions of these little robots that went around to clean up the trash and make Earth habitable again.

Well, I have not watched the movie yet (coming soon to a theater near you) but I have played the movie tie-in on the Nintendo DS. Yeah, you might say that it is another month and yet another movie tie-in but I’ve noticed that Wall-E is following the same trend as Iron Man DS and Speed Racer The Video Game.

These are games that are not made just to cash-in on a blockbuster movie but you can also see an unprecedented amount of polish which a year ago was lacking in this sort of games.

Wall-E is a 3D platformer and just like the movie synopsis, takes place in a deserted/dystopian version of Earth. A clean-up crew of sorts, Wall-E gets to convert trash into cubes which can be thrown at environmental obstacles, switches, enemies, etc. Special types of trash will result in explosive or magnetic cubes which can be used to destroy stuff, or propel Wall-E across obstacles.

The game’s art direction makes good use of cell-shaded graphics and this lends to its charm. Nothing better than many shades of brown and orange to convey a very pretty but dystopic feel. Even the game menus have a certain kind of modernistic style reserved for artsy games such as Planet Puzzle League. T

he sound is not bad as well, with Wall-E making funny noises when he falls over an edge.

My only gripe about the game is that the starting levels are a drag. Basically a over-extended in-game tutorial, these levels will have you jumping over obstacles and turning on switches and nothing else. Gimme something to blow up.

In any case, the game is a little charmer of a movie tie-in and its not hard to recommend it. Wall-E is available at Play-Asia with free shipping to certain countries. Click here for details.

I noticed that the White Game Cube Controller sells for USD 10 cheaper compared to the traditional purple-coloured controller. Even without the USD 10 discount, I would prefer white though, it looks more aesthetically pleasing.

White or black, those are the colours for me when it comes to controllers. Head over to Play-Asia to grab your very own White Game Cube Controller. Click here for more details.

Lots of Nintendo DS games and accessories going on discount at Play-Asia, which got me thinking that there might be a site-wide sale coming up soon. Anyways, what’s for sale? Plenty.

Lets start with games going for USD 14.90 (click on the titles for further details).

• Picross DS (Jap)
• Thrillville: Off the Rails
• Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys
• Major League Baseball 2K8 Fantasy All-Stars

Most of the games are selling at the sweet spot of just under USD 25, USD 24.90 to be exact. They are:

• Orcs & Elves
• Dungeon Explorer: Warrior of Ancient Arts
• Lost in Blue 3
• Transformers: Autobots
• Transformers: Decepticons
• John Deere Harvest in the Heartland

And the rest:

• Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - Ring of Fates (USD 36.90)
  
• Mario Hoops 3-on-3 ~ USD 27.90
• Zekkyo Senshi Sakebrain [Club Nintendo Edition] ~ USD 29.90
• Deep Aquarium ~ USD 29.90

Taking a look at the screenshots of the new Guitar Grip which comes with the new Guitar Hero: On Tour game for the Nintendo DS, I realised that it fits rather snugly into the GBA slot for the NIntendo DS Lite. But what about the old version of Nintendo DS, the one built like a tank?

Any ideas anyone? Or we can wait till June 23rd, get one and test it out. Guitar Hero: On Tour is available for sale on that date at Play-Asia.

God of War: Chains of Olympus and Halo 3 (Korean version with English subtitles) are going for cheap at Play-Asia at USD 32.90 and USD 19.90 respectively.

Also going for cheap is a couple of Famicom Mini Series Titles, Zelda and Star Soldier, both going for USD 9.90 each.

Click on the game titles for further details, or head over to Play-Asia’s bargain bin section for more bargains.

I finally managed to find the box art for the official Nintendo DS Flash Cart, the DS Vision by am3. Here’s a shot of the front cover, taken from Play-Asia’s catalogue (click here for more details)