Boy, time sure does fly! July came and went, and now August is almost over too. I've fallen behind on uploading the July covers for Weekly Famitsu, but here they are.

This month's first two issues finishes off the 5-issue 20th Anniversary celebration. These last two covers features some memorable characters, and there's some nice humor to found on the final issue. For instance, Necky dressed as Leon from Biohazard 4 (Resident Evil 4) escorts Kasumi from Dead or Alive fame while an irritated Ashley tries to get Leon's attention. A Katamari Necky rolls up Animal Crossing characters as well. Putting all five Anniversary covers together to form one big picture will be quite a task, so I hope someone else has done it already...if not, I'll give it a go. Anyway, read on for the issue by issue breakdown!

Continue reading "Weekly Famitsu July, 2006 Cover Collection" »

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The month of June brought us five issues of Weekly Famitsu, and with it came the landmark 20th anniversary of the magazine. To celebrate, Famitsu devoted five issues of Weekly Famitsu to cover the past 20 years of gaming and how Weekly Famitsu involved itself in the gaming world. The first three of those five anniversary issues are presented here.

The covers for the anniversary issues are also special. The artwork shows the Famitsu mascot (Necky) dressed up as notable game characters such as Mario, Ness, Link, Ryu, etc. All five covers sort of connect to create a long parade of game characters from 1986 to 2006. I say "sort of connect" because when you lay the issues side by side, they don't really line up correctly. Anyway, there are tons of great features in these issues, so if you have a Japanese bookstore in your area you might want to see if they still have some issues in stock.

Continue reading "Weekly Famitsu June, 2006 Cover Collection" »

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The August issue of Famitsu Wave DVD features Lei Fang from Dead or Alive Extreme 2. If you've got a region 2 or region-free DVD player, then you can enjoy watching game videos, interviews, and Famitsu antics on your TV. For Dead or Alive fans, the trailer shown at E3 is presented in DVD quality, not to mention the lovely DVD's themselves, which have some nice images of Lei Fang and Hitomi printed on their surface.

So take a gander at the images by accessing this dandy flash-driven gallery HERE.

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Famitsu.com reports today that a limited edition Nintendo DS Lite featuring Final Fantasy III graphics printed on the outer shell will be available August 28, 2006 for 22780 Yen (about $197.23). The DS Lite appears to be the standard white version with four characters from the game along with the Final Fantasy III logo appearing on the front. It seems these will also be stamped with a serial number, though production quantity is unknown at this point.

Follow the link for the article (in Japanese) and to see the full photo:

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/2006/07/12/103,1152678634,56678,0,0.html

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I'm finally getting around to photographing some stuff I've had for a while and one of them is this: the Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright) Houtei Figure Collection. I bought a case of these figures so I could get the whole set. There are seven different figures in all (six normal plus one variant).

I didn't know what to expect from these; I mean, I don't buy too many trading figures because it's sometimes hard to tell if they're gonna look really good or come out really bad. This set is somewhere in the middle, but I suppose I should've suspected that because their pricepoint is on the cheaper end of the trading figure spectrum...

Continue reading "Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright) Houtei Figure Collection Photo Review" »

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Mon-Sieur Bome Collection Vol. 14 and 15 have been revealed as C1 and C2 Kasumi from Dead or Alive!  Set to ship in late August, each figure will cost Y4500 (around $49). For those who don't know, the Mon-Sieur Bome Collection is a collection of pre-painted, pre-assembled PVC figures. These are basically aimed towards those who like garage kits but don't have the skills or time to paint and make them. The collection is known for it's nice sculpts and reasonable prices, and is perhaps the most well-known PVC figure maker. While I like the fact that Bome is doing Kasumi figures, I'm not quite sure I like the pose. Ah well, I'll probably get them anyway.

Continue reading for preorder info, better photos and info about a third version of the figure (Kasumi's black costume, anyone?)!

Continue reading "Mon-Sieur Bome Collection Vol. 14 and 15: Dead or Alive Kasumi" »

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May has come and gone and so has three issues of Weekly Famitsu. What's that? Three issues? Shouldn't there be four? Technically yes, there should be four issues in the month of May since there are four Friday's. But in reality, the month of May has one of Japan's longest holidays--Golden Week. Many companies shut down completely for one week, and I'm assuming that's what happens over at Famitsu. So because of Golden Week, Issue No.909 covers the weeks of the 12th and the 19th. Interestingly, they skip an issue number from 907 to 909.

Continue reading "Weekly Famitsu May 2006 Cover Collection" »

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Here it is, the last issue I have of the The HuBee Network USA newsletter. Released in the winter of 1993, this issue shows an incredible change in layout over the past issues. Gone is the use of cheesy clipart and crude layout design; this issue actually looks quite professional! This issue also utilized red ink to add a bit of color to what would otherwise be a drab, black and white newsletter. It really helps make the newsletter more appealing and eye-catching.

But enough about my general thoughts on this newsletter--let's get to the info inside! Read on for the page by page breakdown...

Continue reading "The HuBee Network USA Newsletter (Winter 1993)" »

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Girl gamers are growing in number and the Nintendo DS has shown to be pretty female-friendly. Enter Keys Factory's Lovely Boston DS--perhaps the most feminine DS carrying case in exsistence. Now, I'm not a girl, but my girlfriend is, and she owns a DS. So when I noticed this being sold at Play-Asia, I asked her if she'd like to have one over the Hori DS pouch she currently had.  She chose the blue one (it comes in three colors: pink, black, and blue).

About a week later it arrived, and I took some photos for review purposes before handing it over to its new owner. It's a small, pleather purse-like case, with feminine graphics printed on it. The word "girl" is printed on it to make it completely obvious that this product is for the female persuasion. A metal chain with little heart charms on it dangles on one side. So cute! At least, that's what I'm sure most girls would say.

Continue reading "Keys Factory Lovely Boston DS (Blue) Case/Purse" »

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I've been tracking two "rare" games for quite some time now: Capcom's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and Konomi's Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix. These two games were fetching high prices on eBay thanks to their notoriety as being "rare", but have recently become...well, not so rare. So what happened?

Let's look at Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. This game is great for what it is- a zany courtroom/detective style game with a great sense of humor and melodrama. It was a sleeper hit for Capcom, who didn't press a lot of games because of its niche-style gaming. The game's reputation in America started growing, mostly through various discussion boards. And then one fateful day, people started to realize that they hadn't seen the game in stores for a while, and upon further searching, this game couldn't be found at any stores! If I remember correctly, it was toward the end of January of this year that this realization had dawned on people that the game they had repeatedly passed up was now no where to be seen.

Mad searching for the game ensued with success stories popping up here and there. People who had never had an interest for the game were now asking if it was worth buying. Prices for the game on eBay kept going up and up. Sixty dollars...seventy dollars...when would it stop?

March 13th. NCS gets a new shipment of Phoenix Wright and sells the game for $35. The crazy eBay prices fall back down to a normal $35-$45 range and life is as it should be...or is it??

Continue reading "Rare Games...That Aren't Rare Anymore" »

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