A few more thoughts on the 3DS

Now that I've had my 3DS for about a month, I thought I should share a few more impressions and opinions of Nintendo's latest dual-screened handheld. So, here they are (in no particular order):

1. The eShop is a bit of a mess--I like a lot of things about it--a trailer is available for seemingly every game, you can buy games using stored credit cards, you can save games to a wish list, etc.--but I also hate a few things about it. For instance, it feels kind of constricted and suffocating to me--especially when compared to the Wii's online shop. (Which, admittedly, had its own share of issues.) Closely associated with the eShop's claustrophobic design: I have a feeling a lot of games--especially old DSiWare ones--are going to get ignored due to the fact that people simply don't know they exist.



2. I'm glad Nintendo's finally offering game demos to European and North American 3DS owners--Without question, this should have been a part of the 3DS' eShop from day one, especially since demos have been on the Wii's online shop for some time now. Anyway, what really matters is that they're finally available. Sure, there's only one on the North American eShop at the moment, and it can only be played 30 times before it self-destructs (or something like that), but I'll take what I can get. Here's hoping Nintendo opens the floodgates (even a crack) and puts up more such demos--especially of niche releases like Sega's Rhythm Thief--sooner rather than later.

A dungeon-crawling, turn-based, X-rated RPG aimed at gay guys, you say? Put me down for a dozen (or more) copies!

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Checking in on Captain Rainbow's English translation

To all of you who forgot that someone was even working on an English fan-translation of the skip-developed, Nintendo-published oddity known as Captain Rainbow: No worries, I forgot, too.

Now that you've been reminded, though, you'd probably like to hear how things are going with said fan-translation, right?

Well, according to an update that was posted to kirameki.altervista.org on Jan. 15, the project is back on course after taking a couple of wrong turns over the last few months.



Along with that hopeful message, the folks at Kirameki also shared on their site a new trailer, above, which highlights some of the progress they've made in translating this fabulous (in all senses of the word) Wii title.

Here's hoping that their good fortune continues and that they can get this long-awaited (by me, at least) patch out before the Wii U replaces the Wii as my go-to console.

(Via gonintendo.com)

So, I just pre-ordered Grand Knights History

I was on the fence about this Vanillaware-developed, Xseed Games-published, PSP-based RPG (yes, even after begging North American publishers to bring it to our shores) ... until I watched the following gameplay video the other day:



As soon as I saw the curved, globe-like backdrop and the beautiful, Princess Crown-ish (or maybe I should say Muramasa-esque?) characters in motion, I knew I had to pre-order this game--which is set to hit North American store shelves on Feb. 21--and pronto. (If you'd also like to pre-order a copy of Grand Knights History, you can do so here.)

I'm also on the verge of pre-ordering another PSP game, Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom, by the way. And Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time. And Gungnir.

Anyone who can talk me out of picking up any or all of the above-mentioned releases will earn my (and my bank account's) undying love and appreciation.

LEGO SNES

It's not exactly a secret that I'm a bit fascinated by "LEGO artists"--especially those who enjoy recreating game characters and systems out of those colorful, interlocking bricks that most of us toyed with as kids.

For instance, late last year I published this post about a LEGO GameBoy Color, and before that I published about a million posts about Filip Johannes Felberg's LEGO Pokemon creations.

As awesome as all of the above are, I think the LEGO SNES below may be the most awesome of them all.



Of course, I say that in part because it's a damn near perfect recreation of Nintendo's 16-bit system and in part because it houses a real-life copy of the Quintet-developed, Enix-published RPG, Illusion of Gaia.

For more shots of this stunningly realistic piece of LEGO art--it even has a functioning eject button--check out this photo set by Flick user lego27bricks.

See also: Previous LEGO-focused posts