What d’ya know? Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes is on sale at Play-Asia for just USD 39.90, down from the original price of USD 68.90. Now you can get some Ryu versus Gatchaman action on the cheap (provided you have a NTSC-J Nintendo Wii, or a modded one in the first place).

Click here for further details.

On a bad day,  a song from K.K. Slider can be pretty relaxing, and he is one of the reasons I revisit Animal Crossing DS from time to time. The cool dog is also in the latest iteration of the game, Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Nintendo Wii.

And guess what, Sony Music has just released the Japanese soundtrack CD for Animal Crossing City Folk featuring 39 songs, ranging from relaxing numbers and some hot Saturday night numbers by K.K. Slider (a.k.a Tokeke). Check it out here.

Do you need something “old-skool” to play with your Virtual Console games? Your prayers have been answered (and your wallet soon to be deprived) with the Super Famicom Classic Controller (Club Nintendo Limited Edition).

This official Super Famicom controller for the Nintendo Wii comes at a cool price tag of USD 74.90 with free shipping to certain parts of the world. It has proven to be a slippery fella to get whole off, sometimes sold out on Play-Asia. Now that its back in stock, hurry up and get one already. Click here for details.

I like shopping at Play-Asia. They’ve got some really interesting deals and I’ve them to thank for a major part of my collection of 50+ Nintendo DS titles. Sometimes though, there are deals that can be filed under the category “Simply Doesn’t Make Sense”.

Case in point, the Donkey Konga Drum Controller for the Nintendo Gamecube. Now, this peripheral is going on sale at a discounted price of USD 29.90, down from the usual USD 39.90 (click here for details). Sounds like a bargain, no? Well hold your horses.

Do a little digging and you’ll find that the Japanese version of Donkey Konga, for the Gamecube is on sale as well, selling for just USD 19.90,  down from its previous price of USD 69.90 (click here for details). And guess what, the game comes bundled with the same Donkey Konga Drum Controller!

So even if you are only looking for the controller, which one would you go for?

In order to commemorate the release of Gradius Rebirth on WiiWare on the 2nd of September of 2008, Konami has just released the original soundtrack. A little late to the party (the soundtrack was released on the 3rd of March 2009, months after the game’s release), the soundtrack is nevertheless bursting with tunes.

Tracks old and new along with remixes make up the 34 tracks in this soundtrack. Here’s the description of the soundtrack taken from Play-Asia’s product page:

Revived by Wii Ware, the shooting classic Gradius is once again available for gamers to enjoy. Following the release of the newest game in the series, Gradius Rebirth, is of course, the original soundtrack.

The tracks of the game summons the feelings of nostalgia, but at the same time, the new arrangements of well loved tracks are going to give you a brand new feel as well.

Background music throughout the series are incorporated into the disc with medleys as bonus tracks.

Be sure to check out the soundtrack. It is now on sale at USD 38.90. Click here for purchase information.

Castle of Shikigami III, previously an arcade manic shooter released in 2005, was also release on the Nintendo Wii (US version) back in May 2008. It is now selling at a discount price of USD 19.90. Those of you familiar with the genre (and own a Wii) might be interested to check this bargain out! Click here for details.

There’s little information regarding developing WiiWare games, and the little information I garnered include:

• Development Tool: WiiWare SDK costs around USD 2000
• Point of Entry: Developers must be licensed and approved by Nintendo
• Pricing: Nintendo controls pricing of Wiiware games

Now, compare this to Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE Community Games, whereby you get to create games, submit it online and have people buy the games from Xbox LIVE. The prerequisites are, well, much lower than what would you expect from a platform which has a way better online marketplace experience compared to the Wii (Microsoft could have charged higher for that):

• Development Tool: XNA Framework and Visual Studio Express Development Tools are FREE OF CHARGE
• Point of Entry: Developers pay USD 99 a year for access to XNA Creators Club to submit games for peer review. Once passed, game will be listed on Xbox Live!
• Pricing: Developers sets price between 200 to 800 Points. and get 70% of the total revenue from their game sales.

It’s pretty to see which one is the more accessible and developer friendly, not to mention cheaper option. Nintendo’s coverage on Wiiware development is ridiculously scant, with all my information garnered from sites like IGN and Wikipedia. What’s the point of having an innovative controller in the form of a Wiimote when the point of entry for developers is set very high? And Nintendo’s approach pretty much sidelines homebrew developers.

I don’t know bout you, but I can actually dismiss the following statement made by Tom Prata, senior director of project development with NoA, as hubris:

Basically we’re giving the tools to any developer to make the games that they want to make, and all the dreams and passions that they have and bring them to Wii. We’re trying to encourage the philosophy that a big idea can succeed without a big budget. They decide the content, while we provide the lowest barrier of entry into development as we can for them.

Hmm. I should have pointed out that in the last video game box art post, that Western box art tend to depict the protagonist as heroic whereas Japanese box art borders on the nonsensical.

Case in point: Wario Land Shake a.k.a Wario Land Shake It in its American release:

The North American cover has Wario shaking up a bad guy, in a rather macho/tough guy pose. And of course, the reward for shaking a bad guy up is coins (at least in the game..don’t do this in real life).

On the other hand, the Japanese cover depicts Wario as a greedy bastard (even his tongue is sticking out) shaking up a money bag for more moolah to come out, which is closer to the true nature of Wario as a character (he is a not really nice fella).  And look at all the loot he has amassed.

Sometimes I wonder whether the Wii is actually a souped-up Gamecube with extensive plastic surgery  and a whole bunch of new features to make it look next-gen during its debut (the controller, I must admit, is an inspired choice, one doesn’t need fancy graphics to be next-gen).

The reason why I’m saying this is that a whole bunch of Gamecube games are coming for the Wii, with a little window dressing to support the Wiimote. The “Wii de Asobu” titles have a label on their covers stating the support for the Wiimote (check out the Japanese box art below). Nintendo should have just slapped the label onto Twilight Princess when it came out for the Wii. LOL

Interested in getting any of these titles? Click here for purchase information.

This looks to be an excellent bargain: Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Bundle (it comes with the guitar!) for the Nintendo Wii is going for just USD 49.90. Both NTSC-U and NTSC-J versions of the game are selling at the same discounted price, so click on either of the versions for purchase information.