Media Create Sales (11th-17th Dec)

Hardware

1.) Nintendo DS Lite - 319,708
2.) Nintendo Wii - 108,237
3.) PlayStation 3 - 70,942
4.) PlayStation Portable - 48,962
5.) PlayStation 2 - 37,730
6.) Xbox 360 - 17,168
7.) Game Boy Advance SP - 1,867
8.) Game Boy micro - 1,491
9.) GameCube - 1,152
10.) Nintendo DS - 158
11.) Game Boy Advance - 42
12.) Xbox - 3

Software

1. (DS, Pokemon) Pokemon Diamond - 123,573 / 2,119,848
2. (DS, Pokemon) Pokemon Pearl - 97,409 / 1,766,776
3. (DS, Nintendo) Kirby Squeek Squad - 92,173 / 557,634
4. (DS, Sega) Fushigi no Dungeon: Furai no Shiren - 88,242
5. (DS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Brothers - 77,761 / 3,617,021
6. (DS, Sega) Love and Berry DS Collection - 72,841 / 608,545
7. (DS, Nintendo) Jump Ultimate Stars - 71,339 / 349,979
8. (PS2, SCE) Wild Arms 5 - 70,476
9. (Wii, Nintendo) Wii Sports - 69,923 / 318,473
10. (Wii, Pokemon) Pokemon Battle Revolution - 67,607

Comments: Its coming to the end of the year and the charts just says it all really, DS dominates, Wii and PS3 doing steady while X-360 still trying to find its feet despite late optimism about it. PSP is doing ok but not brilliant. PS2 sales are still stunning.
Software wise, well, Pokemon did a decent first week but does it have the legs as the handheld versions (very unlikely), DS software dominated the charts in every way possible whether it was brain training games, or traditional platformers, to massive anime hit games or just a bundle of RPGs, DS stole every headline in every conceivable way.

In other news, tomorrow is Christmas Day. So Merry Christmas :)

SOS Brigade is captured by Bandai Ent.

Well, not a real surprise per say due to their nice little viral site, but Bandai is an interesting choice, i associate them with merchanide.. lots of merchandise (just look at Gundam and those many figurines).. nice addition to the US anime rooster though im not a big fan of Haruhi.. so why am i talking about it? uhh.. hmm... maybe because Haruhi has become such a smash hit with viewers this year, came out of the blue, became an instant cult classic and with an upcoming sequel on the way, things are looking up for the SOS-dan.

In other news, i can use my Wii to surf the net. Hooray!!

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya may be US licenced??!!

Title says it all really, AnimeOnDVD put it on their site and a teaser site is up as well.

December 22nd is to look out for.

http://asosbrigade.com/

Media Create sales (4th - 10th Dec)

Hardware

DSL 309,630
Wii 85,439
PS3 50,171
Xbox360 35,343
PS2 30,460
PSP 28,930
GBASP 1,896
GBM 1,555
GC 569
DS 167
GBA 17
Xbox 6

Software

1. (PS2, Bandai) Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED: Rengou vs. Z.A.F.T. II PLUS - 337,559 / NEW
2. (PS2, SEGA) Yakuza 2 - 274,822 / NEW
3. (NDS, Pokemon) Pocket Monsters Diamond - 98,859 / 1,996,275
4. (XB360, Mistwalker) BLUE DRAGON - 80,348 / NEW
5. (NDS, Pokemon) Pocket Monsters Pearl - 75,206 / 1,669,367
6. (WII, Nintendo) WiiSports - 72,382 / 248,549
7. (NDS, Nintendo) Hoshi no Kirby: Sanjou! Dorocche Dan - 66,421 / 465,462
8. (WII, Nintendo) WII PLAY - 62,863 / 237,160
9. (NDS, Nintendo) Jump! Ultimate Stars - 62,068 / 278,640
10. (NDS, Nintendo) Common Knowledge Training - 55,208 / 720,752

Comments: Wii takes a dive while X-360 sales rises. What a strange world we live in ;) One other mention goes to lack of Zelda in software charts.. oh dear.. has it really died off that fast in Japan already?

In any case, Nintendo still dominates charts, with very healthy DS sales indeed.

Dragon Quest IX coming for DS

http://www.famitsu.com/blog/express/2006/12/ixds.html
http://www.myspace.com/dragonquestix

Surprise announcement really,
1) For being on a handheld console
2) Downgraded graphics (overall)
3) Its an Action RPG (no turn based for us)
4) Wifi network (online?) capability to ensure co-op play

Overall, a very good announcement, DS has officially won Japan.

Me and my Wii!

Yeah, it was meant to be some kind of early christmas present for my bro and rest of the family but we got our Nintendo Wii and we enjoyed it a lot! For a not so bad £240, we got the console, Zelda and WiiPlay.

Wiisports that came with the conole is just fun, me, Faye and Tom played Tennis most of the time, while others like Baseball and Boxing were just fun. Bowling wasn't bad as well and Golf was surprisingly decent despite me hating the sport.

Zelda, im too early in the game to make a review of it, but basically the game is gorgeous! Wolf Link is good and plays surprisingly well, while the control system does take a while to get used to it, its still a great immersive experience.

Wiiplay, well, shooting targets is fun.. and thats about it.. it came with a 'free' Wiimote and that was the reason why i wanted it. Otherwise, not a good game.

Media Create (26th Nov - 3rd Dec) *Wii Special*

Hardware

Wii - 350,358
DS Lite - 176,901
PS3 - 31,436
PSP - 23,917
PS2 - 23,115
Xbox 360 - 4,053
GBA SP - 1,572
Gameboy Micro - 1,252
Gamecube - 821
Nintendo DS - 140
GBA - 22
Xbox - 11

Software

1. (PS2, Bandai-Namco) Tales of Destiny - 269756
2. (Wii, Nintendo) Wii Sports - 176167
3. (Wii, Nintendo) Wii Play - 174297
4. (Wii, Nintendo) Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 139011
5. (GBA, Square-Enix) Final Fantasy VI Advance - 137810
6. (PS2, Banpresto) Summon Night 4 - 115701
7. (DS, Nintendo) Pokemon Diamond - 70190
8. (DS, Nintendo) JUMP ULTIMATE STARS - 66269
9. (Wii, Nintendo) Wario Ware: Smooth Moves - 63954
10. (DS, Sega) Love and Berry DS Collection - 60041

Comments: From the disappointing PS3 launch which only had 2 low end top ten PS3 games, didn't even break a sweat on the DS triumph and shortages galore.. The Wii launched last week in Japan with quick success, lots of first party titles in the top ten with the hardware destroying the DS sales for the week. The most surprising thign to note is that Zelda only managed to get 3rd in total Wii software sales with Wiisports and Wii Play topping the epic game.

Been busy with work...

Argh! Got lab report to finish off!
Argh! Have to buy the Wii!
Argh! I Want to gout tonight!
Argh! Not watched that much anime lately

In any case.. I hear Blue Dragon (X-360) is coming along nicely, with lines and X-360 hardware flying off the shelves... should be a decent boost for Microsoft.

Japan Wii success

Not surprising really but early sales indicate that Wii has been successful with Media-Create and Famitsu data charts saying an almost 90% sellout rate (which is about 350,000 + sales) for the Wii console.
Maybe surprising is how well Zelda and the third party titles sold. WiiSports and Wiiplay sold a healthy ~150,000 each, while Zelda got 3rd place in Wii software sales selling under that number. The third party sales numbers on the other hand are pretty horrendous, with games liek Red Steel pulling in around 10,000 sold, elebits (almost must buy for me) having around 8,000 and shockingly Wing island acheiving only 800 sales. Really poor days for third party developers on the Wii.

Media Create Sales (20th-26th Nov)

Hardware

DSL 201,378
PS3 32,662
PSP 30,815
PS2 26,263
Xbox360 7,007
GBASP 1,264
GBM 1,235
GC 576
DS 212
GBA 27
Xbox 0

Software

1-(NDS/SEGA) Love and Berry DS 421,227
2 (NDS/Nintendo) Jump Ultimate Stars 150,303
3-(PS2/Konami) J-League Winning Eleven 10 + Europe League 06-07 103,365
4-(NDS/Nintendo) Common Knowledge Training 81813/611,642
5-(NDS/Nintendo) Pokemon Diamond 76183/ 1,827,226
6-(NDS/Nintendo) Pokemon Pearl 58158/ 1,539,775
7-(NDS/Nintendo) Hoshi no Kirby 55824/ 352,082
8-(Xbox360/Tecmo) Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 45536
9-(PSP/Sony) Jeanne D'Arc PSP 45387
10-(NDS/Nintendo) NSMB 35086 / 3,451,994

Comment: You know, its getting really (and i mean REALLY) hard to judge whether the PS3 is doing great or not, sure its selling out pretty 90+% of its shipments from these initial weeks but with the lower than expected shipments, shortages, high demand and stuff. Its hard to put my finger on whether PS3 has succeeded in capturing the gaming crowd. Of course, basing this off the Hardware chart, DSL dominates all and PS3 is selling 'heathily' despite the shortages, but then you look at the software charts and theres no PS3 software on it... hmm.. looking further back, the top 30 chart only housed 2 PS3 games at the bottom end of the top 30. Its too early to call it a flop or a success yet, but Wii sales 'should' come next week and it be very interesting then.

One more Wiik

Next week is the launch of the new Nintendo Wii console, mine is already pre-ordered and im 6th in the queue, so no need for a midnight overnight party. Though there is one at new Street Gamestation, where there will be a party of sorts to celebrate the launch, and also a special Nintendo event in London, Oxford Street which is gonna host stars like Ian Wright and uhh.. Ricky from that boxing sport thing.. yeah...

Anyways, im currently being occupied by Jump Ultimate Stars which is an awesome game at the moment, so maybe a review of that next week or something.

Peace y'all

Hold on to your Wiimotes!!

Pretty old news but i have to put this site up: http://www.wiihaveaproblem.com/

The site is about recent problems with the Wii system that has launched in the US about 2 weeks ago, the main problem so far have been the Wiimote strap breaking off when people are playing an intense game of Tennis or bowling on Wiisports. I guess there are other reports being more important like Disc Read Errors and even the Wii system spitting out the discs, but the more than frequent problem is the cheap Wiimote strap.

Hopefully when it comes out in the Uk it gets fixed, but there's a good solution to this.. hold on to your Wiimote!!! If its like a racket, you wouldn't 'accidently' let go of the handle.. <_<

Media Create sales (13th-19th Nov)

Hardware

DSL 128,621
PS3 42,099
PSP 16,690
PS2 15,068
Xbox360 4,050
GBASP 1,199
GBM 1,037
GC 514
DS 182
GBA 30
Xbox 6

Software

1. (PS2, Koei) Sengoku Musou 2 Empires - 97,170
2. (DS, Nintendo) Common Knowledge Training - 78,722 / 529,828
3. (DS, Pokemon) Pokemon Diamond - 68,147 / 1,751,043
4. (DS, Pokemon) Pokemon Pearl - 57,627 / 1,481,617
5. (DS, Nintendo) Hoshi no Kirby Dorocche Dan - 52,177 / 296,258
6. (DS, Nintendo) Magic Taizen - 28,215
7. (DS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Brothers - 22,986 / 3,416,907
8. (PS2, Sega) Yakuza PS2 The Best - 21,154 / 86,292
9. (DS, Nintendo) More Brain Age - 19,349 / 3,431,357
10. (PS2, Bandai) NARUTO Kinoha Spirits - 19,277

Comments: uhh.. what happened to Ps3 software? Can't see anything in the software charts. :P Anyways, PS2 still doing well, PSp hardware falls, DS dominates.. next week? Jump Ultimate Stars!!!! oh.. and Love and Berry.. but thats nothing i want to talk about.

Film Review: Borat

can't be bothered to find the long ass title...

Anyways, first off i have to say that i was never a big fan of Cohen (actor who plays Borat), his jokes with the likes of Ali G have been a total hit and miss thing for me. After its disastrous Ali G film, Cohen managed to hit the right spot with Borat, the film is full of satire and it never gets tired of it.

The main draw of the show is to take the reactions and thoughts of the people around America, like how racist, anti-social, creepy and strange they are. Of course its nothing new and can be shocking sometimes but irs pure genius direction makes this worthwhile to watch. The comedy is great as well, 2 naked men wrestling each other in a Hotel before launching themselves into a conference room is the highlight for me, and totally portrays the show really well as a shockingly disgusting but extremely funny piece of art.

Other jokes like the shape-shifting Jews and trying to greet people on streets of New York are a great smash, its weird but i like it. I never thought of Borat as a LOL film but i got proved wrong, the film destroys the Ali G show and film and has totally raised my expectations of Cohen. The Story isn't much but that isn't the point, watching the reactions of American society is a laugh whether u live in the UK or even the US.

Overall: 8.5/10
Grade: A-

Game Review: Tales of the Abyss

Last week, i finished off Tales of the Abyss, the latest Tales game to hit the western shores.. and by western i mean US shores and forget about the EU. Still i imported it and below are my thoughts on it.

I like to say that i loved Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube, the battle system was action-packed, fast-paced and brilliant, storyline though not the best was sound and flowed quite well and the characters are great (aside from Colette and Regal.. and maybe Lloyd).. but still ToS got into my top RPG of this generation.

Tales of the Abyss now, the battle system is similar to ToS's BUT more action-packed, by this i mean more special moves such as FOF changes, more special attacks, more Hi-Ougi's.. this greatly boosts its Battle aspects from ToS. Coupled with a nicely detailed FSC and C.Core menus, it enhances the strategy of the game as well. Though FSC is somewhat disappointing considering only specific moves can gain advantages and take s awhile to train these moves.. otherwise, great system.

Next, the characters, and just wow, there are some real good gems here, Jade, Anise and Tear are likable because of comedic value or their personality. The rest like Guy, Luke and Natalia aren't as likeable but at least the voice acting is tip top shape to provide the amazing personality of these characters. Its a shame that skit scenes aren't dubbed as well, cause the JPN version have them voice acted and its a real nice treat. Also i have to mention the God Generals who are the 'badasses' of the game, similar to the generals in ToS, their presence makes my body tingle :)

Storyline is unique as well, we.. unique compared with other Tales gaes, no mention of Summons or mana or the usual Tales stuff here, its a totally new storyline and i like it.. though it drags on way too long with the storyline forcing you to backtrack way too much (more so than ToS) and theres also the anti-climatic feel of some dungeons where the lack of a boss to 'reward' you of the hardwork of reaching the final bit of the stage. Otherwise, story is generally solid, it makes sense and the game really tries very hard to cover up so many plot outlines via books, skits, etc..

Difficulty, not difficult at all, aside from maybe 2 boss fights, it was as easy as any other Tales games i've played where alot of the time is spent move-spamming a boss to submission, which works 90% of the time. However, if you decide to do sub-quests like Nebilim or Tales of characters, then things get a lot more serious and strategy is required. And yes, i beat them both, Nebilim taking 2 goes, while Tales of character on my first go.

Replayability, with 40 hours at the end, TotA surpasses ToS by 4 hours on my first playthrough.. i liekd the game, very ddictive and New Game+ mode is always a good addition.. however, i won't be replaying this in a while.. why? Load times. Yes, i know such a minor gripe in many games but TotA makes load times a major gripe. In dungeons, load times between battles are fine, generally 2-3 seconds. On world maps however.. *sigh* a good 7-seconds before start of battle and possibly longer for after battle. Load times hurt TotA alot, and after playing the relatively non-loading ToS on the Gamecube it was really struggling for me to do battles on the world maps of TotA. Not just battles, some scenes load quite a bit and i thought the PS2 stopped for some reason.

Overall, 8/10
Grade: B

Its a great game, let down by constant back-tracking, lack of VA skits and horrendous load times.

It's sad when a rebel tries to act uhh.. rebelious

Yesterday was a hilarious time, it was 1am, after a hard slog at Call of Duty 2 multiplayer, i decided to a final check on GAF before sleeping.. and lo and behold a thread pops up. 'Gamespot Zelda: TP review' ooh!! This is going to be good, everyone expected 9.0+ at the very least considering how amazing the game looks and plays with highly positive impressions and previews as well as the pre-cursor of other sites/magazines giving out generous high scores.

The score? 8.8/10

Wow, did i read that right, no way was that ever gonna pass, the internet started exploding.. literally, GAF members were mad at the score initially, but when they started reading the review, 2 halves turned up, one which are understanding the review but still mad at the score and the other half was just plain mad. The reviewer Jeff main complaints about it were 'tacked on Wiimote controls' and 'nostalgic graphics and sound'.. now, the problems with those two points.

'Tacked on Wiimote controls' felt as though to me that he wanted to play traditional Zelda instead, which is totally fine by me, but the way he said it meant that he just didn't want to play with the Wiimote at all. Maybe when he had the game maybe he had to use the Wiimote and Nunchuk to play the game, and impressions so far have been high positive remarks about the Wiimote, nothing gimmicky about it, it just takes a while to get used to.

'nostalgic graphics and sound' for me sounds like another way of saying 'PS3/X-360 game graphics are better, Wii graphics suck ass' Jeff also pointed out that the game doesn't really evolve from previous games.. aside from the fact of Wolf changing, horse back riding, new items and stuff.. no, not a similar experience at all.. no siree. Really, does Jeff know what he is talking about.. nit picking reviews for the lose. Oh that also brings back the reviw from Gamedaily who gave the game 4.5/10 which is great with the biggest flaw 'Game doesn't look as good as PS3 game' <_<..

Media Create Sales (6th Nov - 12th Nov) *Playstation 3 special*

Hardware

DSL 148,174
PS3 81,639
PSP 19,123
PS2 16,157
Xbox360 3,864
GBASP 1,320
GBM 1,213
GC 496
DS 279
GBA 12
Xbox 3

Software

1. (DS) General Knowledge Training - Nintendo - 102,240 - 451,106
2. (DS) Pokemon Diamond - Pokemon - 78,744 - 1,682,896
3. (DS) Kirby: Squeak Squad - Nintendo - 77,949 - 244,081
4. (DS) Pokemon Pearl - Pokemon - 65,574 - 1,423,990
5. (DS) Kanji Brain - Rocket Company - 33,932 - NEW
6. (DS) New Super Mario Brothers - Nintendo - 27,361 - 3,393,921
7. (DS) More Brain Age - Nintendo - 24,166 - 3,412,008
8. (DS) Winning Eleven DS - Konami - 23,653 - 112,928
9. (PS3) Ridge Racer 7 - Bandai Namco - 21,655 - NEW
10. (PS3) Gundam: sales Target not in Sight - Bandai Namco - 21,310 - NEW

Comments: Amazing isn't it? How after a generally successful PS3 launch that had queues for as far as the eye can see, the occasional bust-ups and obligatory Yakuza/Triad dealings, the PS3 only manages to steal part of the spotlight from the DS, As can be seen, the PS3 sold a good 80,000+ units which is good but not enough to beat the strong legged DS sales which i have to say is almost 1 year on from the inital sellout in mid-holidays and its still selling out from this day.

Software side, RR7 and Gundamn reached the top ten.. just, with the DS taking the spots for the top 8. Surprised? Well, i am. With the hype surrounding the potential of the PS3 and stuff, i expected a bigger software sale for RR7 at least (and im sure Namco/Bandai wanted that as well).

Trivia: DSL hardware sales >>Combined total of everything else.. you just have to be impressed with it.

100th post, therefore, Wii playtest impressions

Came back from the Bullring Wii event, and im confident to say that the Wiimote is just amazing, its not too light, not too heavy, just the right size and shape and fits into my hand like a glove. Very satisfied with the remote. The console itself, now seeing it IRL, its very very titchy, damn, i knew it was small but when u see it in person, damn.
In Bullring they were showing off Wiisports, Zelda, Wii Play and Rayman. I only had time with Wii Play and Rayman (i want to play Zelda on my own). I had a good Duck Hunt session, shooting targets and discs etc was fun, very simple and the remote worked well, no need for exaggerated heavy wrist movements, basically, if you know how to handle a mouse, you be right at home with the remote. It was a bit sensitive for my liking but i got used to it and managed to get 1st place

As for Rayman, it was fun to play, seeing the Rabbits scream randomly was delightful, i played the Cow (Hammer)-throw game and managed to suck at it really really badly :S. Graphics are decent as well, not amazing but nothing to really complain about.

Overall, i be back tomorrow and Saturday to see if any new games are there, i really want to test out Red Steel and WiiSports, but so far, so good Nintendo.

Big Thumbs Up!!

Anime Review: Utawarerumono

Its strange this, Uta is a good anime but like alot of good animes i like, it always fails in one of its key aspects.

When i mean good, i meant that Uta started well with an intriging plot, a good cast of (D&D style) characters and a good setting with lots of action generally. The problem lies when it tries to execute many of the above aspects, its a hit or miss in many cases, for example. the characters, out of the many present, only a very select handful were chosen to be given any form of character development or enough screentime to like them, inarguably, Karura, the kick-ass screen-hogging ass kicker is the top draw, while others pale in comaprison in terms of screen time, development and even the action.
The biggest example of poor execution is the story, the plot is good, shrouded in mystery and tension, it fails to live up to its promise, what with lack of info on Hakuoro, its fantasy turned sci-fi plot is not detailed enough and it feels very very loose.

Its strange though, Uta never tries to acheive anything more than an almost bog-standard fantasy anime, what with the potential it has. The sci-fi style theme at the end is not hard to present as shown by one of my fave animes, Scrapped Princess, but somehow with the 26 episodes here, Uta tries too hard to fit everything in those short episodes and subsequently it never appears more than just 'adequate'.

What is there though is quite fine though, again, Karura rules the roost with her charming, kick-ass ways. Erruru and Arruru are instantly likable, Oboro jobs like hell but a fun character, Benawi is a great character but needed more of him and in general the whole cast really fit their role well. The action (though repeated sometimes) is decent to watch, nothing outstanding, nothing too special, but does the job decently and is not boring at all.
There's a good amount of entertainment aside form the action, with the comedy situations early on, and the drama like stories during the series adding quite alot.

But still, this anime just feels a bit wasted, its too short what with the material given, the story is overly confusing with the characters not given the chance to develop much, but what is still there is good to watch to an extent, sure its not amazing, but it could have been that good.

Overall: 7/10
Grade: B-

Media Create Sales (Oct 30th - Nov 5th)

Hardware

Nintendo DS Lite - 113,097
PSP - 23,725
PS2 - 20,982
Xbox 360 - 6,580
GBA SP - 1,443
Gameboy Micro - 1,299
Gamecube - 647
Nintendo DS - 373
Gameboy Advance - 20
Xbox - 0

Software

1. Kirby DS - 166,131 / NEW
2. Common Sense Training - 159,166 / 348,866
3. Pokemon Diamond - 105,943 / 1604152
4. Wining Eleven DS Konami - 89275 / NEW
5. Pokemon Pearl - 81604 / 1358416
6. New Super Mario Bros. - 31,307 / 3,366,560
7. Brain Age 2 - 27448 / 3387842
8. Kanji Kentei DS - 22,824 / 210,556
9. Animal Crossing: Wild World - 20,691 / 3,389,974
10. Ace Combat X - 17,961 / 78,545

Comment: 9/10 top ten software spots are taken by the DS, not surprising i suppose but still quite interesting though with games ranging from Animal Crossing to Common Sense Training, Nintendo DS really has pushed boundaries and expanded them.
Hardware wise, nothing special, next week, a PS3 special edition chart sales! Can the DSL beat PS3 sales? Find out next week..