Aino's (and Bryan's) Adventures in Animachi, Week Four

Last week was another noteworthy one for the residents of Animachi. Case in point: Mayor Aino found the village's first mushroom growing beside one of its many "special" tree stumps.

She also shot down its second golden slingshot. (Bryan nabbed the first a week earlier.)

As for Bryan, he was stoked to stumble upon the Able Sisters working away on the rainbow shirts that surely will be worn by Animachi's citizens during its upcoming gay pride festivities.

Speaking of gay stuff: Bryan paid a visit to Dunwich (of The Dunwich Hoarder fame) early in the week so he could spend some time ogling the muscle-boy signs that sit outside Mayor Terry's pad.

While there, he discovered that someone named Butch will soon move into town--and then made a mental note to return with "housewarming gifts" (let your imaginations run wild) as soon as that happens.

Bryan also make the trek to Mamemura, the village maintained by Anne of the Chic Pixel blog, last week.

I'm baaaaaaaaack

Those of you who follow me on Twitter already know this, and some of the rest of you likely figured it out for other reasons, but for everyone else: I just returned from a two-week vacation that took me and my husband from Seattle to Aruba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Grand Cayman, Panama and back again (via the "Island Princess" cruise ship).

Don't worry, I'm not trying to brag. I'm only bringing it up because I'm guessing a portion of you guys and gals noticed that things were a bit "off" around here during the last two weeks (I rarely Tweeted, I didn't comment on any recent announcements, etc.) and I wanted to make sure you know things will get back to normal as of today.

I also wanted to touch on a few of the aforementioned announcements that I typically would have talked about had I not been sleeping in, stuffing my face and otherwise chillaxing aboard the Internet-challenged Island Princess. Speaking of which, here are the gaming-related announcements that have caught my eye since we returned home on Friday evening:

* Animal Crossing's 3DS sequel finally gets a North American subtitle: "New Leaf"--Well, it's certainly better than "Jump Out," isn't it? Still, it sounds a bit odd. Not that I really care; I would have pre-ordered it even if Nintendo had decided to call it Animal Crossing 3DS.

* Daigasso! Band Brothers to make a triumphant return in 2013--During the latest Japanese Nintendo Direct broadcast, Satoru Iwata (with a little help from Barbara the Bat) revealed that another entry in this series of portable music games is being prepped for the 3DS and will see the light of day (in Japan) sometime next year. Which means I have to get off my butt and buy a Japanese 3DS pronto.

* The Denpa Men 2 is coming to North America, too--Unfortunately, the folks at Genius Sonority have yet to say when me and my countrymen (and countrywomen) will be getting our grubby little hands on this follow-up to the 3DS eShop title that has attracted more than 40 hours of my attention so far, but that's OK. After all, they haven't even released the original in Europe yet. Still, I hope The Denpa Men 2 earns a spot in our region's eShop sooner rather than later.

* Dragon Quest VII remake 3DS-bound--And not only that, but it'll be released in February. In Japan only for the moment, of course. Not much information has been released about this effort thus far, but what has been released suggests it will be a full, polygonal remake of Square Enix's two-disc PlayStation RPG. Anyway, here's hoping this Dragon Quest title doesn't get stuck in Japan like Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D and Slime MoriMori Dragon Quest 3 did.

* The pink-and-white 3DS XL will see a stateside release in a few weeks--Can you believe it? I honestly thought Nintendo of America would wait until February (you know, for Valentine's Day) to bring this beauty of a system to our shores. Does this mean I'm getting one? I guess you'll have to wait and see. (Gilt.com seems to be the only place you can purchase this system right now, by the way.)

So, did I miss anything? If so, please let me know. Also, let me know what you think of any or all of the tidbits discussed above.

455 reasons next spring can't come soon enough

How can I include 455 reasons in a single blog post? By sharing the just-released 455-second trailer for Nintendo's Tobidase Dōbutsu no Mori (aka Animal Crossing: Jump Out) that can be seen below (and here).

Yes, I actually think every second of this trailer can be pointed to as a reason that spring 2013--which is when this 3DS title is supposed to appear on North American store shelves--should hurry up and arrive already.



My favorite moments of this particular trailer: The cherry blossoms at 1:45, the amazeballs space-themed room at 4:13, the blue fish at 6:13 and the twirling umbrella at 6:58.

Also, I have to say that I love how the grass seems to shimmer in this installment. A small detail, to be sure, but not an altogether insignificant one (in my opinion, at least).

(Via tinycartridge.com)