Posts with tagged with "japan"

I have to admit, I have kind of an obsession when it comes to nerdy video game-themed playing cards, which are called "trump" for some reason here in the mighty land of Pikachu. One of my most favorite sets is these now-topical bad boys, the Dragon Quest Playing Cards! Unlike a lot of uninspired game cards that only featured themed backs or special facecards, every single card in this set is special!

The more often I'm compelled to buy crappy drinks in order to obtain video game-related trinkets, the more often I wonder whether what I'm doing really involves my mouth. With the release of Dragon Quest X imminent (no seriously, it comes out tomorrow), Square Enix has partnered up with Pepsi and their atrocious low-calorie Pepsi Nex soft drink to promote the game in its native land of Japan. With certain drinks it's easy to tell who's getting the bum deal, like when the drink is way better than the toy that's attached, like maybe Boss Coffee sticks a shitty F1 racecar onto it.

I can imagine it now: on April 12, 1991, Hiroyuki Hashimoto is drunk after a long cherry blossom viewing party with his new coworkers, who he pretends to like. He wasn't a good student but he was chosen by this company, so he's stuck here for better or worse. He could have been something more, but couldn't we all have? His duty is clear. With his first paycheck he has deigns on purchasing a new Super Famicom with some of this month's earnings, and he aches for Actraiser, Final Fight, and the upcoming SimCity, all components of the system's strong launch lineup.

Take a look at these two games here. Go ahead, check them out! We have Hogan's Alley there on the left, and Duck Hunt on the right. Can you see any differences between them? I mean sure, Hogan's Alley has this strangely happy-lookin' cop holding a standard issue blue hippie-beater, and Duck Hunt has the goddamned hunting dog there looking way cuter than he ever does in the actual game, they are different games yeah yeah.

I know the box says "nameplate" in huge letters printed overtop of what itself is a sort of nameplate. It even has some kinda holes in the corners to make it look more platey. I get it, this product is about the nameplate! But do you see up there in the upper right corner of the box, how it says "candy," which you can read because you are an expert at Japanese culture and language, and candy is a big part of it?

As I drag my zoom lens over poor Samus' Zero Suit-clad plasticine body I feel sorta like one of the dirty old men at Tokyo Game Show trying to snap upskirt shots of the cosplay girls. Only this girl doesn't have a skirt to get up the skirt of, exactly, and she's Samus. Samus! Perhaps traditionally the Most Clad video game superhero in history, and here she is with legs over nine feet long.

Probably all of you have played Kirby's Adventure for your Nintendo-brand Entertainment System, which means you've seen the cute introduction that plays the moment you power it on! First you draw a circle, then you dot the eyes. Add a great big smile, and presto, it's Kirby! Or, for our Japanese readers, まるかいて　おまめがふたつ　おむすびひとつ　あっというまに. (Draw a circle, two beans, and a rice ball. Just like that!) Yes, Kirby's Adventure makes it easy for anyone to draw Kirby.

If your childhood was anything like mine, you were rarely a stranger to a variety of bizarre schoolyard ramblings and rumors when it came to Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! I remember hearing that Mike Tyson was literally unbeatable, that some boxers could get knocked out of the ring completely if you used the star punch at the right time, and that pressing certain sequences of buttons could charge up your health even after you'd already used the select button trick between rounds.

As I desperately scramble to acquire as much Famicom stuff as is humanly possible before I eventually leave the land of sushi-go-rounds and AKB48, I sometimes come across something that is weird enough to defy satisfying explanation. One of my recent acquisitions in that department was this strange Super Star Force cartridge. Clocking in at double the height of a normal Famicom game, this thing also bears a lot of other weirdness that caused me to pick it up for the relatively low price the seller was asking.

When I carelessly tossed the package of Super Mario 3D Land Gummy into my life-partner's shopping basket the other day, I didn't even realize what it was. I saw Mario on the package, and like a mindless child I just grabbed it off the shelf and hucked it in there without thinking about anything except the fact that I saw Mario, and he is red, and he is my friend, and I like him.