Tormented by a DS Lite

They taunt me from afar, crying "Buy me! Buy me! You know you want to!".

The thing is, I want one, I need one and I shall have one, just not right now. I went into my local GAME on launch day and both black and white siblings remained (suprisingly), calling me to them like Siren-song. Their sleek new bodies seducing many a hardened gamer and, somehow, managed to work their charms on me.

As I've explained before, I tend to latch onto new consoles or gadgets shortly before launch. It happened with the PSP, the iPod and the Xbox 360 (although to a much lesser extend - I still don't own one). Granted I seldom buy consoles at launch but that didn't stop me buying games. I have Nintendogs and tomorrow I will be waltzing down to GAME with my reward card and store credit in hand to buy New Super Mario Bros.

I've been driving my friend Keri mad with my pining for the DS Lite. She's actually gonna send me her DS until my Lite arrives in around three weeks or so. This means I can enjoy my new games whilst at home, sans PC and PS2s. But, each time I go into GAME, the velvety blackness laughs at me and it's getting so hard to resist. I think the folks at GAME are eventually gonna ban me from the store, I spend so much time in there drooling over the mechandise!

My self restraint has actually been quite remarkable, given my track record with a credit card, but I hope a week of isolation in deepest, darkest Norfolk with a DS with help me survive just a little longer....

It's Pink!

Another day, another shade of DS Lite. This time it's the oddly named Noble Pink (Gotta love the Engrish) but the scary thing is, you just know dozens of women are going to want one. Give me a black (or possibly a navy one) one and I'd be happy.

Sonic Turns Fifteen and Goes Origami Bonkers

It seems hard to believe that the Blue Spiky One is fifteen, it feels like yesterday that I got my hands on Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Mega Drive. I always prefered Sonic and Sega over Mario and Nintendo (and do bear in mind this was during the original Console War of the Ninties).

I still play Sonic games regularly via the magic of *cough* an emulator *cough*, My favourite has to be Sonic 2. I've been paying attention to the franchise as I'm quite looking forward to Sonic Rivals for the PSP and I know the original games are heading for the Wii's Virtual Console.

I was wandering the net and came across Sega Japan's Sonic site and this amazing origami replica of the Green Hill Zone. Guess what, it's completely free! All you need to do if is have loads of patience click here and press the big blue button to download the zip file.

On Days Off

To be frank, I don't know the meaning of the phrase 'day off'. I'm usually busier on a day off doing all the stuff I don't have time to do on other days, like cleaning my little flat, cooking a nice lunch or just looking for something I've misplaced. So when I declared today a day off from reviews, commissions and job hunting, it didn't mean I was in bed till lunchtime (although 9,10am is pretty amazing for me these days). It meant spending most of the day catching up on my record keeping.

Well, okay, the morning was actually spent playing Forbidden Siren 2. The nice folks at Sony sent me a jiffy bag full of code yesterday as I'm writing a review of it for Played.toDeath. I'm a big fan of the series, as any longtime readers of my ramblings will realise and up until the day I returned to freelancing, I've hardly had time to sit and play computer games. This saddens me greatly as gaming is one of the things I really enjoy in life and, even though I was a staff writer on a PSP mag, I hardly ever got the opportunity to play games. Contrary to what most gamers think, staffers on games magazines don't play games all day but I was lucky to play two games a month at work.

So, determined to enjoy my commissions, I actually turned my TV round and curled up on my sofa to play Forbidden Siren 2 for a few hours. Normally all reviewing takes place by my laptop so I can review and play at the same time. I'm half way through at the moment and it's still a damn good game (one I'm determined to champion too). It's been a good month since I played the Japanese version so it's taking me a while to remember how to complete all the missions and my copy of the Siren 2 Master Guide just came in the post last week so I'm determined to put it to good use.

I'm also midway through Rule of Rose, my hectic life has meant the games been siting on my to do pile for a couple of months and it's only now I've actually had the time to sit down and play the game properly. While it's a Japanese game, much of Rule of Rose, from the settings, audio and the maps are in English. Everything else is in Japanese which normally would not cause me any issues except for the weird font that's been used, it's sort of like childish handwriting but with Japanese text. This makes it a bugger to translate but I'll get there eventually, Rule of Rose reminds me of Haunting Ground except it's not quite as good. On a plus note, the CGI sequences are mind-blowing.

Loco Roco (Preview)

After the irritating outing that was Me and My Katamari (second analogue stick, anyone?) I was hesitant about Loco Roco. How could manouvering a blob from A to B be fun?

I finally updated my PSP to 2.70 and then 2.71 last week so I could download the demo from the Japanese site. I'd already had a quick go on the English version, a demo of which was recently included in the trade magazine MCV but the Japanese version was a whole new level and the Loco Roco actually sing. It's the most addictive game since Lemmings and We Love Katamari.

The singing starts the moment you start the level and, regardless of where you move or how many times your Loco Roco split, each one sings the whole way through the level, their tiny lips synched with the BGM! It's amazingly cute and the song itself is toe-tappingly addictive.

The idea of the game is to move your Loco Roco (singular and plural) from A to B by rolling, jumping and splitting but aside from jumping, you don't actually control the Loco but their environment. The L and R buttons allow you to tilt the environment and as you roll and bounce along, the idea is to collect flowers and weird little bugs. The flowers exable you to grow larger and I have no clue what the bugs does as yet, except you get to eat a lot of them.

The story is thus: spiky aliens known as the Moja Corps have come to the land of Loco Roco and you have to rescue the tiny blobs and lead them to safety. The graphics are very friendly, bright colours and simple two-dimensions. But behind that are dozens of hidden passages and rooms which you will only discover as you roll through them.

Personally, I know I'm going to love Loco Roco and I heartily recommend you download the Japanese version of the demo. As if you needed any more convincing, the Japanese site is offering a bonus prize of a special PSP wallpaper and the BGM if you can get a certain number of flowers (16-20). To get it, you need to enter the score you see in the top right hand corner after completing the level on the 'coming soon' screen.

Loco Roco is due out in Japan on 13 July and in the UK a little earlier on 23 June.

Forbidden Siren 2 Cover