Question of the day: Have the head honchos at Nintendo and Square Enix lost their minds?

I ask the question above because of a pair of situations that have made headlines the world over in the last few days.

In regards to Square Enix's sanity (or lack thereof), there's Monday's announcement that the company's much-anticipated Wii (and now Wii U, too) title, Dragon Quest X, will be an online RPG. Not only that, but the game reportedly will require an online connection beyond its first few hours (i.e., after the game's introduction, you likely won't be able to play it off line). Oh, and the cherry on top of this bat-shit crazy sundae: According to an official press release sent out by the folks at Square Enix, Dragon Quest X will, in some form or fashion, make use of subscription fees--at least in Japan.

Man, that is one ugly peripheral, isn't it?

As for why I'm wondering whether the brass at Nintendo have lost their minds, consider the following: The current issue of Famitsu magazine includes a "secret scoop" that suggests Nintendo will soon release, alongside Capcom's Monster Hunter Tri G, a peripheral for the 3DS that will provide the portable system a second "circle pad" and a pair of additional shoulder buttons. Unsurprisingly, this reveal has both Nintendo fans and haters alike believing that the company will soon announce the imminent release of a 3DS "revision" (à la the DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL) that will incorporate all of the above-mentioned features.

So, what do all of you think? Do the situations detailed above suggest that the decision makers at Nintendo and Square Enix are a few bits short of a byte, or do they suggest the opposite?

(Via andriasang.com and tinycartridge.com)

I kind of want an R.O.B. too

Here's the thing: I've never used, let alone owned, one of Nintendo's Robotic Operating Buddies (aka Family Computer Robots in Japan).

There's a good reason for that, of course. Actually, there are two good reasons for it. First, the NES Deluxe Set--the one that included an R.O.B. and a copy of Gyromite--was pretty darn expensive when it was released back in the day (late 1985 here in the States). Second, the early word on the street--or the word in my small-town-Wisconsin neighborhood, at least--was that the R.O.B. and the games that utilized it were duds.



Anyway, as is often the case with my gaming obsessions, my childhood lack of experience with the R.O.B. and its games has me (somewhat) clamoring to own one as an adult. Unlike most of the games, peripherals and systems on my wish list, though, I can't really see myself buying an R.O.B. or copies of Nintendo's "Robot Series" titles anytime soon.

Someone calling himself Alan Rappa on Flickr seems to have three of these SAINT Number 5-esque accessories (as evidenced in the photo here and above), though; maybe he'd be willing to give--or even loan--one of them to me? Yeah, I doubt it, too.

See also: 'I want a Famicom light gun'

Speaking of rare PC Engine hardware, what happened to this monitor?

Did you know that the folks at NEC announced both the PC Engine DUO and the PC Engine LT (the laptop-esque portable mentioned in this post) at the Tokyo Game Show in 1991? Well, they did.

At the same show, NEC also displayed a four-inch, clamshell monitor that could be attached to the aforementioned DUO to turn it into what the writers at TurboPlay magazine called "the ultimate portable machine."

In this article (from the August/September 1991 issue of TurboPlay), it's suggested that this sexy little monitor (above) had been released two years prior with a price tag of approximately $600. That assertion seems questionable to me, as that would mean it was released in 1989--the PC Engine's second year on the market.

So, I have a question for any fellow PC Engine fans out there who may come across this post: Was this monitor really released in Japan in 1989, or was it released alongside the DUO and the LT?

Regardless, it's a rather fascinating peripheral--especially given its release date--isn't it?