Reason #406 I could be considered an 'eccentric' (aka bat-sh*t crazy) gamer

Let's make this one really easy: Many a person could--and should--consider me an "eccentric" (aka bat-shit crazy) gamer because I'm seriously considering buying the 3DS game you see below.

How seriously? Well, not as seriously as you may think, but seriously enough for me to add it to my "save items list" over at play-asia.com, at the very least.



For those of you wondering what in the hell you're looking at: It's a soon-to-be-released Japanese 3DS game called Neratte! Tobashite! Rilakkuma Guragura Sweets Tower. (That's Aim! Hurl! Rilakkuma's Shaky Sweets Tower, for everyone who's like me and doesn't know a lick of Japanese.)

Oh, and it'll hit the streets in Japan on Dec. 13 carrying a price tag of ¥5,040 (about $63).

I'm sure at least a few of you are thinking, "That doesn't sound too crazy to me"--especially since I've hardly been shy about expressing my penchant for adorable games. Would you feel the same way, though, if you knew that Neratte! Tobashite! Rilakkuma Guragura Sweets Tower was little more than a cuter-than-it-has-any-right-to-be Angry Birds clone (a fact that is made painfully evident in the video below)?



That last bit is what's keeping me from considering Neratte! Tobashite! Rilakkuma Guragura Sweets Tower too seriously at the moment.

Should I find a copy of this pixelated confection selling for, say, $20 on eBay in the near or distant future, though, I can't promise I'll be able to keep myself from adding it to my collection.

See also: Other reasons I could be considered an 'eccentric' (aka bat-sh*t crazy) gamer

I'm finding myself surprisingly interested in Magician's Quest: Town of Magic (3DS)

Like a good number of North American gamers, I'm sure, I pretty much ignored Konami's Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times after it arrived on our shores in early 2009.

The main reason for my relative disinterest in this Vanpool-developed DS title: The word on the street at the time was that it was little more than an Animal Crossing ripoff.

Mind you, I don't have a problem with game-makers ripping off Animal Crossing; I'm just rarely interested in buying said clones.

All that said, I'd be lying if I claimed I wasn't at least a smidge interested in Konami's fourth Magician's Quest title (two more were released for the DS in Japan), which is set to hit store shelves in the Land of the Rising Sun sometime next month.

As for what prompted this change of heart: I find this game's art style--a few examples of which can be seen in the screenshots above--pretty darn captivating (not to mention precious).

Unfortunately, the powers that be at Konami have yet to say if Magician’s Quest: Town of Magic (that's an English translation of the 3DS sequel's Japanese name, by the way) will be brought across the pond.

Should that happen at some point next year, I'll probably add it to my burgeoning 3DS game collection--assuming I'm not knee-deep in Animal Crossing: New Leaf at the time.

(Via siliconera.com)

Five things I love about Kirby's Return to Dream Land (thus far)

You may remember how I mentioned in this recent post that I've already "beaten" Kirby's Return to Dream Land. I've hardly experienced all it has to offer, though, as I haven't found each and every "Energy Sphere" (this game's take on the star coins that populate the New Super Mario Bros. series) and I've barely spent any time in its "extra mode."

Still, I've played enough of this rather precious Wii platformer to know that I completely love the stuffing out of it--with the five following aspects being chiefly responsible for said love:

1. The graphics--I know some people have complained about the graphics in this game. Specifcally, they've called them "GameCube graphics." Those people are stupid. Even if these were GameCube-level graphics, they'd be wonderful ones, in my opinion, and as such gamers certainly shouldn't complain about them. Well, unless they're stupid.

2. The locales--Honestly, the settings in this game are the best I've experienced in a Wii platformer thus far. They're all bright and colorful, as I suppose should be expected of a Kirby game, but what I didn't expect was all of the little (and sometimes big) details. The background on one late-in-the-game level--which finds Kirby strolling through a cloud-based stage while a neighboring planet spins in the distance--especially blew me away.

3. The abilities--In particular, I'm completely obsessed with the stone one. It is unfathomably fun to jump into the air and turn Kirby into a statue, or a stone fist, or a boulder that then squashes an unsuspecting enemy. (Sliding down a hill and bowling over baddies is a blast, too.) Yeah, I'm evil like that. Also mighty impressive: All of the super abilities that are made available to Kirby throughout the game--each of which are more enjoyable than they have any right to be.