Awesome Box Art of the Week: Fantasy Life

Awesome Box Art of the Week: Labyrinth no Kanata

Free Stuff Makes Me Like Nintendo Again

Oh Nintendo...you crafty devils,  just when I am ready to abandon all hope for you, here come truckloads of free games. Last year between the denial of quality games like Xenogears and terrible PR responses to fans, my frustration with Nintendo was reaching the breaking point. I was also very disappointed in Club Nintendo and the lack of quality rewards for American customers. However, things have been turning around recently with the introduction of free downloadable games for 100 and 150 Club Nintendo points. In the past month I have received three free 3DS games from cashing in my points although one was a stinker (3D Classics: Xevious), the other two were pretty descent games.

Nintendo also surprised me with the Ambassador program. Early adopters to the 3DS got 20 free games to make up for the price drop that occurred later in 2011. These free games weren't just shovelware, no the list included hits like Metroid Fusion, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Supposedly Ambassadors will be the only ones who ever have access to these emulated GBA games so that is one helluva deal for those lucky fans who got on board with the 3DS early on and didn't trade it for a PS Vita pre-order. I am lucky to have one of the Ambassador 3DS systems, and currently I have 23 free games from Nintendo. Once again, I am at peace with Nintendo and all is right with the universe.

Code of Guardian Heroes

 Treasure's development team has joined forces with Agatsuma to make a game that plays like Guardian Heroes titled Code of Princess. The game is coming out on the Nintendo 3DS on April 19th in Japan. The character designs are from the legendary Kinu Nishimura of Street Fighter 3 and 999 fame. While she is a female artist, some critics have accused her of designing the lead heroine of Code Princess in an over the top sexist manner that degrades women. Here is the art for this character:

As you probably noticed, she is nearly nude and her armor is very impractical. However, my guess is the team wanted a piece of sexy piece of art to hype the game in Japan. The 3DS is quickly becoming the system of choice for otaku perverts overseas with titles like Senran Kagura and If I Were in a Sealed Room With a Girl, I'd Probably XXX (yes, that is the real fucking title.) So it makes sense to give the advertising campaign a boost with a half naked main character on all the promotional material, she also has a PVC statue coming out soon.

I hope that controversial news doesn't overshadow the fact this is made by the designers of Guardians Heroes. It is one of the best games on Saturn, and this spiritual sequel looks great. The 3DS in America could really use a title like Code of Princess to entice more hardcore gamers into purchasing the system. Also the release schedule for new 3DS games is fairly grim in the US, so any new game is a welcome one. Maybe Xseed or Aksys will grace us with this RPG inspired beat'em up sometime in 2012.

StreetPass Nonsense: Dead or Alive Dimensions Edition

Dead or Alive Dimensions and the 3DS StreetPass makes collecting every costume for every character a nightmare. Each character has three DLC costumes that are free, but must be downloaded on a specific day at a random time only known by Nintendo and Tecmo. Each day one costume is released for 3DS owners that leave their system on all day. Here are the rotation dates for new costumes:
12/08/11 to 01/10/12
01/12/12 to 02/14/12
02/16/12 to 03/20/12
03/22/12 to 04/24/12
The dates go through each character on the roster in order, but if you miss a day, you have to calculate which day it was in the rotation and wait for the next cycle. Yes, it is completely stupid. I'm not sure why Tecmo couldn't simply release the costumes in a week period, or all at once for that matter. Making matters even worse is the randomness of the time, if you don't have your 3DS on at the right time, then no DLC for you. Overall, this is an annoying process for completing your costume collection and should have been an unlockable package for beating the Chronicles mode. Somehow Nintendo makes DLC a complete pain even when the price is FREE.

3DS Region Locked...BOOO!

According to a recent article on Desructoid the Nintendo 3DS is region locked. I think all systems should be region fee, but portable systems being region locked is just...retarded. Portable systems are meant for travel, and some people like to travel abroad. Nintendo doesn't want your foreign money, which is odd considering how greedy they are most of the time (ex. Super Mario Collection on Wii is just a rom of Mario All Stars without World.)
This region lock bullshit makes me a sad panda. I guess I will simply stick with my PSP and iPad. Okay, I am lying I want Super Street Fighter IV: 3DS Edition regardless of this issue.
For the full report:http://www.destructoid.com/3ds-region-block-confirmed-us-won-t-even-read-jp-games-197176.phtml