My most popular posts of 2017

Before I start cranking out forward-looking content for 2018, let's take one last look at 2017.

Specifically, here are this blog's 12 most popular posts from last year (arranged in order of most views to least). If you see a headline that doesn't look familiar, check it out. Who knows, you may have missed a real gem.

1. Five overlooked GameBoy Advance games you need to play as soon as possible

2. Ten questions with the guy chiefly responsible for the English fan translation of Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love



3. The best 3DS eShop games you've never played (or, 10 overlooked 3DS eShop games you need to try as soon as possible)

4. Nice Package! (Mizzurna Falls, PlayStation)

5. If Nintendo put me in charge of a GameBoy Classic Edition, here are the 30 games it would include

6. Five favorites: Famicom leading ladies



7. A few thoughts on Golf Story for Switch now that I've put about eight hours into it

8. Five overlooked Nintendo DS games you need to play as soon as possible

9. Nice Package! (Bubble Bobble, Famicom Disk System)

10. Don't mind me, I'm just completely obsessed with Nintendo's Mother at the moment



11. In honor of the 28th anniversary of GameBoy's Japanese release, here are a handful of my all-time favorite GB games

12. My 10 Most Influential Games: Balloon Kid (GameBoy)

I'm not finished with my "most influential games" series, by the way, although I did forgot about it for a while. The same is true of my "Welcome to WonderSwan World" series. Look for new entries for both to be published soon.

See also: my most popular posts of 2016

Seven 'old' games I'm planning to play at some point in 2017

Late last year, I published a trio of posts about the many Japanese and North American 3DS and Vita games I'm planning to play sometime in 2017.

(This post covers the 3DS games I'm itching to experience, while this post and this post cover the Vita games on my "play as soon as possible in the next 12 months" list.)

Despite my current living situation, I'm also hoping to play a number of "old" games next year. Here are the ones I'd like to tackle first:

Clock Tower (WonderSwan)--Why would I play the WonderSwan port of Human Entertainment's first Clock Tower game when I could play the Super Famicom or PlayStation versions instead? Because I want to show my new-ish WonderSwan Color system some love, for starters. Also, I can't help but think that playing this game in black and white could be kind of cool--not to mention surprisingly atmospheric. If only experiencing Clock Tower on a fairly small screen would make Scissorman's appearances a bit less terrifying.

Last Window (DS)--After ignoring it for ages, I finally played through--and thoroughly enjoyed--Cing's Hotel Dusk in 2015. (You can read some of my thoughts on it in this "A Decade of DS" post.) I have a hard time believing this sequel from 2010 will be anywhere near as captivating as the original, but I'd love for my skepticism to be proven unwarranted. Regardless, it'll be really nice to hold my DS Lite--or, you know, my go-to 3DS--sideways like a book again.

London Seirei Tantei-Dan (PlayStation)--A Japanese RPG set in Victorian England that's full of lovely sprite art and turn-based battles? Where do I sign up? Also, why did it take me until late 2016 to track down a copy of such a game? I've yet to even stick my London Seirei Tantei-Dan disc into my trusty PSone system, of course, but I'm determined to rectify that in the coming months. I'm also determined to publish a post about this game's magnificent packaging, by the way, so be on the lookout for it if that sort of thing is your cup of tea.

Metroid II (GameBoy)--I'm one of those weird folks who loved both Metroid and Super Metroid as a teen but then never played another Metroid game. I'm not kidding here--no Metroid: Fusion, no Metroid: Zero Mission, no Metroid Prime and, yes, no Metroid II. That last game is the most appealing to me, and everyone knows how much I adore the GameBoy, so I'm going to do my best to jump back on the Metroid bandwagon (if such a thing still exists after Nintendo's attempts to kill the series) with it in 2017.

Mother (Famicom)--I actually put a few hours into this game a couple of years ago. For whatever reason, though, I walked away from it after that--despite the fact I was really enjoying its rather antiquated (especially in comparison to follow-up EarthBound) adventure. I'd prefer to give it a second chance by buying and playing EarthBound Beginnings on my 3DS (ahem, Nintendo), but since that's unlikely to be an option, I guess I'll either put the Mother cart I bought ages ago to use or, you know, plug the old EarthBound Zero ROM into my emulator of choice.

Seiken Densetsu 3 (Super Famicom)--You'd think someone who absolutely loves the second Seiken Densetsu game, released in North America as Secret of Mana, would've played the third by now. Well, you'd be wrong. I find Seiken Densetsu 3's graphics mesmerizing, though, so look for me to finally put it through its paces by the end of this year. (I'd like to do the same to the similarly gorgeous Legend of Mana, to be perfectly honest, but that may be a stretch given everything else on my plate.)

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (3DS)--When Atlus announced this 3DS  port of it Japanese Sega Saturn game from 1997, I told anyone who would listen that I'd buy it as soon as it hit store shelves in my neck of the woods. Nearly four years later, I've still yet to follow through on that affirmation. Copies of Soul Hackers are pretty cheap these days, though, so I'll do what I can to add one to my pile of 3DS cartridges before this time in 2018.

Are you planning to play any particular "old" games this year? If so, which ones?

My favorite games of 2016 that weren't actually released in 2016

Well, this is the last of my "favorite games of 2016" posts.

I'm sorry the previous pair--here's one, and here's the other, if you've yet to read them--were so 3DS-centric, by the way. The fact is, other than the couple of hours I put into the Chrono Trigger DS port early this year, most of my "gaming time" in the last 12 months was devoted to 3DS titles.

Aside from the occasional "old" game, I mean.

Speaking of which, the titles discussed below, all of which were released before 2016 (most were released years, if not decades, before), are the ones I enjoyed the most this year.

Dragon Buster II (Famicom)--No one's ever going to call this one of the Famicom's best games. Hell, only a handful of folks are likely to call it one of the system's many overlooked gems. Still, there's no denying it's an intriguing title that's worth exploring if you've had your fill with that 8-bit console's "classics."

Just make sure you don't go into Dragon Buster II thinking the experience is going to be on par with, say, The Legend of Zelda or Faxandu or Crystalis. This cart has nothing on that trio in pretty much any area--music, graphics or gameplay. I spent a good number of hours with it in 2016 anyway, though, because I find its stark, dungeon-crawling action strangely captivating.

You see, Dragon Buster II is one of those games that offers players very little information. You're plopped into labyrinthine stage after labyrinthine stage with no map and no direction or assistance other than "find the key that'll allow you to leave." Said key is hidden inside a random enemy, which means you have to stalk each cavernous locale until it appears.

That Dragon Buster II compels despite its barebones premise, and despite its low-rent visuals and utter lack of backing music, goes a long way toward explaining why I devoted so much time to it this past fall.

Great Greed (GameBoy)--I've been meaning to play this Namco-made RPG (known as Bitamina Oukoku Monogatari in Japan) ever since some kind soul brought it to my attention in the comments of an earlier post--or maybe it was on Twitter or Facebook?--a number of years back.

Why did I wait until 2016 to bite the bullet and give it a go? I honestly don't know, although I have a feeling I dragged my feet for a good, long while because I was turned off by Great Greed's one-on-one, Dragon Quest-esque battles.

I'm now kicking myself for being so foolish, as the enemy encounters here are both snappy--and not just because there are so few participants--and a lot of fun. On top of that, the game's soundtrack is shockingly good and its many environments are wonderfully atypical for the genre. (My favorite is an old record factory--complete with spinning disks that have to be strategically traversed.)

Admittedly, the text in the North American version is rough--to the point of being nonsensical most of the time--but even that generally adds to Great Greed's charm. Sadly, I've yet to beat the game, but I'm planning to do just that early in 2017.

Monster Manor (3DS)--My 3DS Activity Log says I've put more than 35 hours into StreetPass Mii Plaza games so far this year. Almost all of that time was spent with the Prope-made Monster Manor, I can assure you.

Although it's not a game you can play for long, all of my five- and 10-minute stints with it apparently added up over the course of the last 12 months.

Monster Manor's the only StreetPass Mii Plaza title I still return to with any regularity, by the way. (Well, other than Puzzle Swap.) Why? I love its part Tetris, part RPG gameplay, for starters. I also love its wacky assortment of guns (the weapon of choice in Monster Manor). Its colorful cast of ghoulish baddies is a plus, too.

Sigh, I'm going to be so sad if this kind of experience isn't replicated on the Nintendo Switch.

SaGa Frontier (PlayStation)--It's been years since I last played SaGa Frontier. Which is a shame, as this weird, non-linear RPG is one of my all-time favorite games. As for why I returned to it earlier this year, that would be the fault of a guy named finchiekins. He approached me a few months ago about playing SaGa Frontier concurrently, with the goal being to record a podcast about it in 2017.

Sadly, I'm nowhere close to completing my playthrough of Lute's story. Still, I'm getting a kick out of revisiting some of my favorite locations in the game, like Koorong, Manhattan and Shrike. I'm also having a blast reacquainting myself with Kenji Ito's rocking soundtrack. More than anything, though, I'm loving SaGa Frontier's mind-blowing battles, which to this day make me giddier than those found in pretty much any other RPG.

Honestly, if I could play this on my Vita, I'd probably plunk more hours into it than any other game in 2017.

Which games--old or new--did you enjoy the most this past year? Share your thoughts and feelings on them in the comments section that follows.

Nice Package! (Moon: Remix RPG Adventure + UFO: A Day in the Life, PlayStation)

I can't say for sure which "modern" game system boasts the biggest and best selection of odd and off-the-wall titles, but I'm inclined to suggest it's the original PlayStation.

Admittedly, arguments could be made in favor of the Famicom (NES), the DS and even the PC Engine, but at the moment I'm leaning toward Sony's maiden console thanks in large part to the pair of games that serve as the focus of this post.

In case this is the first you've heard of these titles, both are wackadoodle adventures conjured up by the wizards at Love-de-Lic, Inc. That name may ring a bell if you're a fan of some other out-there games, like Chulip, Giftpia, Little King's Story and Chibi-Robo! Not that Love-de-Lic developed those titles, mind you. They were made--in part, at least--by former Love-de-Lic employees, though. (Those staffers went on to form Punchline, skip and Vanpool.)

Love-de-Lic itself produced just three games during its disappointingly brief, five-year existence. One was 2000's L.O.L.: Lack of Love, a head-scratcher for Sega's Dreamcast. The others were the titles highlighted in the headline above--1999's UFO: A Day in the Life and 1997's Moon: Remix RPG Adventure.

I spent a number of years pining for Moon: Remix RPG Adventure before I finally bought it. That's because complete-in-box copies tend to be pricey. 

I lucked out and nabbed the one you see here for a veritable steal some months ago while perusing the wares of one of my favorite eBay vendors.

It isn't in pristine condition, mind you, but it's in good enough condition that I'm more than happy with the purchase.

Anyway, I really like Moon: Remix RPG Adventure's whimsical disc label, showcased in the photo above, for whatever reason.

Don't get me wrong, it's instruction manual is nice, too. It's definitely a bit on the "uh, wow" side, as the focus of the following snapshot should make clear, but that's part of its charm, don't you think?

Sadly, I've yet to even slip my Moon: Remix RPG Adventure disc into my adorable Japanese PSone system. I hope to rectify that soon, but I've said that many times before, so who knows when it'll actually happen.

Hell, it's possible the game's fan translation, which has been in the works for ages now, will be out before give this pick-up a go. Oh, well. 

I know for sure I'll play my copy of UFO: A Day in the Life before its fan translation sees the light of day. That's because, as far as I know, no one is working on a fan translation of this curious Japan-only release.



Which is too bad, as both Hardcore Gaming 101's and Wikipedia's write-ups about the game make it sound awfully interesting.

In particular, UFO's Wikipedia entry suggests the adventure on offer here is at least somewhat Chulip-esque. That intrigues me for reasons I can't quite explain, as the month I spent with that 2002 PS2 title a couple of years ago was trying at best.

Here's portion of the entry in question, should any of you want to read it: "UFO: A Day in the Life puts the player in the role of an extraterrestrial attempting to save a group of 50 fellow aliens who have been stranded on Earth. The player must navigate areas that humans and animals inhabit, unable to actually see the alien he or she is trying to rescue. To this effect, the player must use a device called 'COSMIC,' a kind of camera, to reveal the creatures. As more aliens are rescued, more areas open up and different times of day are available for exploration."

Honestly, though, even if UFO: A Day in the Life proves to be a smelly turd of a game, I want to play through as much of it as I'm able at some point in time.

Have any of you played either of these Love-de-Lic products? If so, what did or do you think about them? Let me and others here know in the comments section below.

Also, if you'd like to see a few more snapshots like the ones above, pay a visit to my Flickr photostream.

See also: previous 'Nice Package!' posts

Nice Package! (Ore no Shikabane, PlayStation)

Truth be told, I completely ignored the Japanese PlayStation game known as Ore no Shikabane o Koete Yuke for a good couple of years after I first became aware of it due to its cover art, which I found oddly creepy.



Eventually, I learned more about this Alfa System-developed game, and what I learned prompted me to have a change of heart about it.

Specifically, I learned that Ore no Shikabane o Koete Yuke (Over My Dead Body in English) is an RPG with a really cool art style and an intriguing premise that revolves around the son of a legendary warrior who has been cursed--along with any and all offspring--to age much faster than usual. The only way to get rid of said curse is to kill the demon who put it on you, so that's exactly what you and your spawn are tasked with doing throughout the course of this game (or so I've been told).



Which I guess helps explain why both the box cover and manual cover produced for Ore no Shikabane--or, Oreshika, as it's known in Japan--feature close-up shots of children's faces.



Speaking of Oreshika's manual, it's a real doozy--as in, it's almost biblical compared to your typical, run-of-the-mill PlayStation instruction booklet.

Although most of its many pages are rather boring and are filled with a ton of text (such as the example showcased in the photo above), a choice few feature gorgeous illustrations like the one that can be seen below.

Here's another pretty good example, I think. Plus, the art in the snapshot below includes a bit of beefcake, which is never a bad thing, if you ask me. 

Please accept my apologies for not chronicling via a photo or two the CD that contains all of Oreshika's surely convoluted code. If memory serves, I passed on doing so because the disc in question is of the mirrored-surface-bearing-a-not-entirely-appealing-design variety.



Anyway, I know I say this all the time, but I really am going to do my best to pop this game into my adorable Japanese PSone sometime soon and at least try to stumble my way through its first few hours. After I do that, I'll return here and share my thoughts in some form or fashion.

In the meantime, have any of you played either this game or its Vita-based sequel, which was released in the West earlier this year?

Nice Package! (The Adventures of Puppet Princess, PlayStation)

One of the byproducts of my most recent attempt to learn the Japanese language (don't worry, I'm still working on it, albeit slowly) has been a reignited interest in a certain world-conquering system made by a little company called Sony.

The system in question is the original PlayStation, naturally (OK, so I could've said it was the PS2, but to be honest I've always preferred Sony's first effort in this space to its second), and the focus of my renewed interest in this console has been on its amazingly diverse catalog of Japanese releases.

The game seen below, known outside of Japan as Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, is a good example. I mean, it's an RPG that stars a female protagonist and features all kinds of sing-songy cutscenes.



My original plan was to buy the North American version of this Nippon Ichi-made game, by the way, but I quickly changed course after I came across (while perusing eBay) the copy shown throughout this post.

Granted, it helped that this particular copy carried a surprisingly cheap price tag. (It was less than $5, to be exact.)



It also helped that I found The Adventures of Puppet Princess' cover art to be rather appealing in its Disney-esque simplicity.

The art produced for the front of this title's instruction manual (see above) is even nicer, if you ask me.



The inside of The Adventures of Puppet Princess' manual is stuffed with similarly adorable illustrations, with the ones shown above and below being but a fraction of what's made available to those who pick up copies of this PlayStation game.



Have any of you played some iteration or other of this lovely little RPG? If so, which version have you experienced, and what did you think of it?

See also: other recent 'Nice Package!' write-ups about Hyakumanton no Bara Bara (for the PSP), PoPoLoCrois Monogatari (for the PSone) and my new 'noble pink' Nintendo DS Lite

Nice Package! (PoPoLoCrois Monogatari, PlayStation)

I've looked upon PoPoLoCrois Monogatari, a role-playing game that was developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment and first released in Japan in the summer of 1996, with a curious eye for a number of years now.

I refrained from buying it, though, because of the language barrier. Although I was more than happy to attempt to play through Japanese RPGs as a teen, I've become less and less willing to do so as I’ve gotten older.

Or at least that’s how I felt until I returned to my Japanese studies earlier this year. Now that I’ve got the language’s hiragana and katakana syllabaries down pat (again) and I’ve started learning actual words and phrases and grammar, I’m feeling quite a bit more confident in my ability to tackle an adventure like this one.

Which should go a long way toward explaining why I finally picked up the copy of PoPoLoCrois Monogatari that can be seen in the photos scattered throughout this post a couple of weeks ago.

Although I’ve yet to start playing it, I’m planning to do just that soon. (Specifically, as soon as this night class I’ve been taking, on and off, for the last nine months wraps up in a couple of weeks.)

In the meantime, I thought I’d share a few snapshots of the game’s packaging, which, in my humble opinion, is so pretty that it deserves every whistle and catcall thrown its way.



I find the game’s cover art especially appealing, I’ve got to say—although, really, only a person with a heart of stone would consider it anything less than stunning, wouldn’t you agree?



I decided to include the photo above here, by the way, because the sticker that is its focus shows that, at some point in its life, this particular copy of PoPoLoCrois Monogatari sat on the shelves of Tokyo’s world-famous Super Potato game shop.



There’s no need to explain the preceding shot, though, is there? After all, the art that’s splashed across the top side of this game’s disc is nearly as spectacular as the art that peeks through its case—or at least that’s how I see things.

I wish I could tell you why I failed to snap any photos of the interior of PoPoLoCrois Monogatari’s instruction manual, but at the moment I’m unable to conjure up any reasons. Don’t worry, I plan on rectifying matters this weekend, so look for some of the above to be published on my Flickr photostream within the next few days.

While you wait, you likely could do worse than waste a handful of minutes ogling the lovely sticker sheet that was hidden inside the manual in question.

Help me blow my hard-earned cash on a couple of un-translated Japanese PSone RPGs, too

I know what some of you are thinking. Enough with all of the "I'm learning Japanese and I'm totally jazzed about it" crap! I appreciate where you're coming from, I really do, but I honestly can't help myself.

Although it's still "early doors," as British sports commentators are fond of saying, for me and my studies, I'm far enough along to be able to translate (or look up, if need be) pretty much every word I come across that's written using katakana or hiragana, and I find that pretty darn exciting. Plus, I'm finally starting to learn some kanji and grammar (not necessarily in that order), which is making things even more thrilling.

Anyway, all of the above has me itching to buy some of the Japanese PlayStation RPGs I've long wanted to experience--but previously avoided because of the language barrier--so I can pop them into my trusty PSone-plus-monitor combo and give them a whirl at last. (An added bonus: I figure playing through some of these titles, like The Puppet Princess of Marl Kingdom, will help me expand my vocabulary.)

A couple of the games I'm contemplating at the moment:

PoPoLoCrois Monogatari--This beautiful, sprite-filled adventure is based on Tamori Yousuke's 30-plus-year-old manga series. Sadly, that's all I know about it right now but, really, what else do you need to know about a game that looks a stellar as the one showcased in the screenshot above?

The Puppet Princess of Marl Kingdom--I'm a bit more knowledgable about this Japanese RPG, which was released in other regions as Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (and eventually was ported to the Nintendo DS). What am I looking forward to most about this title? Seeing its flan attack in action, of course.

TwinBee RPG--OK, so this Konami-made joint isn't as much of a looker as the games mentioned above, but I still want to play it. I mean, it allows you to control low-poly versions of TwinBee, WinBee and GwinBee while battling similarly low-poly enemies that look like turnips and carrots. What's not to like?

As always, I'm open to any and all suggestions you may have when it comes to Japanese PSone RPGs I should add to my ever-growing "to play" list, so feel free to name some in the comments section below.

See also: 'Help me blow my hard-earned cash on some un-translated Japanese PSP RPGs'

20 years of PlayStation memories

In case you weren't aware already, Sony's monumental first foray into the world of video-game consoles (after the botched Super Famicom CD-ROM attachment, of course) made its initial appearance on Japanese store shelves 20 years ago today.

(North Americans didn't get their hands on the system until Sept. 9, 1995, while Europeans had to wait until Sept. 29 of the same year and Australians had to wait until Nov. 15.)

In honor of that fact, I thought I'd share some of my "PlayStation memories."

One of my earliest such memories relates to the PlayStation's Japanese launch. I'm pretty sure I wore out the pages of the DieHard GameFan, Electronic Gaming Monthly and other magazines that covered its development and release (as well as the release of the Sega Saturn and the NEC PC-FX). Thanks to those articles, I was all but set to buy a Japanese Saturn from a retailer I can't remember (it was one of the many that advertised within the pages of the above-mentioned publications back then) when I came across screenshots of some of the PlayStation's most newsworthy launch and launch-window titles--Battle Arena Toshinden, Crime Crackers, Jumping Flash! and Ridge Racer.

For whatever reason, the first and last of the above-mentioned games were the ones that nearly prompted me to pick up a Japanese PlayStation rather than a Saturn. Granted, at the time, GameFan's writers, especially, were pushing both of them as being akin to the Second Coming, so don't give me too hard of a time about the fact that I once pined for a game (Battle Arena Toshinden) that later was revealed to be a bit of a turd.

Still, even now it's easy to see why I and others were blown away by the experiences the PlayStation was able to produce. We were coming from the era of the Mega Drive (Genesis), PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) and Super Famicom (SNES), after all, and we were used to pixels and sprites and two-dimensional games. Seeing three-dimensional games that were produced using polygons was mighty foreign, not to mention thrilling, to most of us--especially those, like me, who tended to ignore PC gaming.

In the end, though, I dropped a boatload of hard-earned cash on a Japanese (gray) Saturn rather than a PlayStation, mainly because I was completely obsessed with two games that were released around the same time as Sega's console: Clockwork Knight and Panzer Dragoon.

Strangely, I can't for the life of me remember when I finally bought a PlayStation. All I know is that the system had been out for some time before I acquired one.

I do remember what pushed me over the edge, though: Final Fantasy Tactics. For whatever reason, although the much-ballyhooed (especially at the time) Final Fantasy 7 left me feeling cold--I rented it and a PlayStation system from the local video joint shortly after its North American release--this tactical spin-off had the opposite effect on me. In fact, I was so gung-ho about it that just one week with it (thanks to the same video store I mentioned a second ago) was all I needed to run out to the nearest big-box store and buy both a PlayStation and a copy of this game.

That ended up being both a blessing and a curse, of course, as I quickly became obsessed with Yasumi Matsuno's masterpiece--to the point where I played it for hours on end, often in lieu of completing my homework.

A number of other PlayStation games also have left an impression on me over the years, of course--games like PaRappa the Rapper, SaGa Frontier and Umihara Kawase Shun, just to name a few--but none of them hit me as hard as the one that forced me to (finally) give Sony and its PlayStation console a chance. Because of that--and a slew of additional reasons--it'll always have a place in my heart.

So, those are just a few of my own "PlayStation memories." What are some of yours? Please feel free share them in the comments section of this post, if you're up for it.

What I'm playing for #NISNovember: Marl Jong!! for PlayStation

Those of you who follow me or the Chic Pixel blog (or both) on Twitter probably have already heard that Chic Pixel's proprietress, Anne Lee, has proclaimed this month to be #NISNovember.

For the uninitiated, all that means is that Lee would like whoever is interested to play one or more games that have been developed or published by Japan's Nippon Ichi Software or NIS America at some point during the month of November and then use #NISNovember to tag any social-media posts that are related to your playthrough.



Anyway, thanks to the header above, I guess the cat's out of the bag in regard to which Nippon Ichi game I'm currently playing as part of #NISNovember.

Should Marl Jong!! not ring a bell for you, here's the gist: it's a Japan-only PlayStation game that combines NIS' "Marl Kingdom" characters--featured in games like Rhapsody, Little Princess and Tenshi no Present--with what seems to be a rather basic version of mahjong.



I say "seems" in the sentence above because I'm far from an expert when it comes to mahjong. I know enough to have beaten a few of my opponents in this particular game, though--which is more than I can say about my experience so far with, say, Nintendo's Yakuman for GameBoy.

Although I only recently acquired the copy of Marl Jong!! that can be seen throughout this post, I first became aware of the game some years ago, shortly after I discovered the wonderful world of emulation.
 


Don't worry, I attempted to track down an actual copy of the game as soon as I fell in love with its adorable graphics and accessible gameplay, but accomplishing that feat proved to be rather difficult--until, like I suggested a few sentences ago, I came across one on eBay.

Thankfully, the wait was worth it, as not only is the cover art that was made for Marl Jong!! all kinds of cute, but so is its disc and manual.



Along with Marl Jong!!, I'm also hoping to play one or more of the following DS titles as part of #NISNovember: Atelier Annie, Disgaea DS and Rhapsody. Have any of you played any of these games? If so, I'd greatly appreciate hearing your thoughts (good or bad) about them in the comments section of this post.

See also: 'On the one hand, I'm glad I finally own a copy of one of Nippon Ichi's first PlayStation games, Cooking Fighter Hao'

You don't need to be a Mega Man fan to dig this custom-painted PlayStation

I should know, as I haven't been much of a fan of Mega Man, the character or the series, since Mega Man X was released in 1993.

What can I say? The change in aesthetics just didn't appeal it for me, which I realize is an admittance that's akin to blasphemy.



Still, I'm bowled over by the custom-painted PlayStation that's showcased in the photo above.

It was produced, of course, by the artist who calls himself Oskunk. To see more photos of this creation, check out this post on Oskunk's blog, Custom Art.

On the one hand, I'm glad I finally own a copy of one of Nippon Ichi's first PlayStation games, Cooking Fighter Hao

On the other, I wish I actually enjoyed playing this cooking-themed import.

Sadly, I doubt the latter is going to change anytime soon, as Cooking Fighter Hao has proven to be a monumentally tedious experience for me so far. It was fairly evident from the word go that would be the case, actually, as the game opens with may well be the world's most boring--and wordy--introductory cutscene.

After that, players are transported to a drab, gray arena and then tasked with battling a bunch of SNK rejects in an what can only be described as an Iron Chef-esque competition. Here, though, participants produce dishes by bashing the adorable (well, kind of) animals that scurry about each stage and then pressing the PlayStation controller's buttons or control pad in various ways once the cattle, chickens, crabs and such have been stunned into submission.

Although that may sound acceptable enough on paper (or, er, on blog), in reality it's anything but.

Add to this the fact that the aesthetics of Cooking Fighter Hao would have been considered middle of the road even if they'd appeared in an early Super Famicom release--although I personally quite like the sprites found in the battle scenes--and you've got yourself a rather disappointing PlayStation pick-up.

So why did I buy a copy of it? And why am I happy about it? My knee-jerk reaction is to say that the game was made by the folks at Nippon Ichi and, as such, it would be worth hunting down even if it literally were a piece of crap. After a bit of reflection, I'd add that, despite all of the criticism I've leveled at it so far, I still like Cooking Fighter Hao enough to own a copy of it--especially given the price I paid for this particular copy.

Plus, the game's packaging is pretty nice, as a quick glance at any of the photos strewn about this post should prove. I especially like its cover and disc art, by the way, although the manual sports some nice illustrations, too.

Have any of you experienced Cooking Fighter Hao in some form or fashion? If so, do you agree with my rather negative assessment of it, or have you enjoyed what you've played of it thus far?