Episode 2: Mysterious Bond

Ink: Even after a month of going out, Tsubaki and Urabe have not done anything physical aside from their daily unidirectional saliva-dosing ritual. This episode is all about Tsubaki attempting to break that rut. Since even holding hands seems irrelevant to Urabe, Tsubaki seeks advice by questioning his friend, Ueno, and consequently ends up asking Urabe about her hobbies. In answer, she produces scissors from on her person and demonstrates a unique skill. This does not lead to any physical intimacy. Urabe does, however, end up inadvertently flashing her underwear in front of Tsubaki and later sanctions the appropriateness of said glimpse. In the following days, a spontaneous hug from Tsubaki draws a furious reaction from Urabe, Tsubaki confronts Urabe about not acting like a couple, and Urabe proves her feelings by putting Tsubaki through an intimate test of trust. Tsubaki’s passing performance is rewarded with confirmation of his bond to Urabe via her specially conjured, emotionally conductive drool. Later, Urabe swipes a finger of drool from Tsubaki’s mouth and steals a dream he was withholding from her, revealing spit as a two-way river that conveys emotion and images — exact images, unfortunately for Tsubaki — between both parties.

Phillip: This episode is interesting for me because of the frustration Tsubaki feels at going so slow with Urabe. It reminds me of The Longest Time in that Tsubaki is prepared to “wait” after he passes the aforementioned trust test. That is an interesting scene to view from an outsider's perspective. And wherever this relationship goes, we at least know that Urabe places a lot of trust in him and Tsubaki isn't the type to abuse that trust. The dream Tsubaki “shares” with Urabe also demonstrate the great sorting house that is the mind. Tsubaki can’t articulate his feeling that the relationship seems to be going nowhere, but through the metaphoric connection with the drool Urabe understands Tsubaki better and puts his mind at rest.

Episode 3: Mysterious Test Tube

Phillip: Tsubaki witnesses his friend Ueno kissing Oka, a girl in their class. This triggers a reaction in Tsubaki: he too wants to kiss his girlfriend. I mean, it’s only natural. But Urabe’s reply is to give Tsubaki a test tube with her saliva in it. He goes home, tastes it and then has a dream where he decides after Urabe sneaks a kiss from him that they should wait until they are emotionally connected. Is this Urabe subconsciously trying to show Tsubaki her way of thinking? It would be interesting and would lend credence to the idea that Urabe is the one dictating the pace of the relationship. But while Tsubaki is worrying about kisses and such, Urabe has to decide whether or not she should accept Ogata’s request to go out with him. In this we see what I can only imagine is a reference to periods, with Urabe telling Tsubaki that she wanted to wait a day to answer Ogata since she could have an “abnormal reaction.” If there were no reaction from Ogata, he would not and could not ever connect with Urabe. This goes back to Tsubaki’s dream reference to emotionally connecting. I don’t want to step into an area I know little about, but it seems to state that girls only go out with guys they know are compatible with them (Urabe and Tsubaki), while guys go out with girls they think will be compatible with them (Ogata and Urabe). Weird dreams are nowhere to be seen in this episode, but it’s relatable to see Tsubaki worry about not being “worthy” enough to date Urabe. But in the end, like most blokes who stay true to their girl, he really doesn’t have anything to worry about.

Ink: I’ll wholeheartedly agree about how natural the need to compare one’s own romantic “progress” to that of your close friends. This naturalness is also represented in the bashful way Ueno and Oka keep themselves a secret. Tsubaki and Urabe are keeping the same secret, but there’s a little less of a bashful sense of it than there is one of unknowing tinged with that inescapable sense of shame that comes from outgrowing one’s youth and desiring what one once thought of as disgusting. Isn’t that what this series is all about, trying to make the unfamiliar and disgusting somewhat appealing? With this episode, especially via the titular mysterious test tube and its mixed tidings as first kiss and passive-aggressive admonishment of the same, the series does an excellent job of getting into the bewildered mindset of a newly sexually awakened youth (in this case, one that longs for a simple kiss against time which seems an eternity).

Episode 4: Mysterious Girl Meets Girl

Ink: This episode reminds me of Marie Howe’s, “Practicing.” Oka decides to befriend Urabe via the lure of home cooking (handfed nonetheless) after casually coming upon hers and Tsubaki’s afterschool spit swapping ritual. The pair of females unwittingly (at first) hold an experiment in the privacy of a dark, deserted nurse’s office via a shared bottle of soda. Urabe doesn’t entertain the notion that her own drool can affect another girl, so sharing a drink with Oka doesn’t pose any cause for caution. The consequences, however, reveal a deeper connection between the two girls that manifests in two ways: Urabe develops a taste for Oka’s cooking, mentioning at one point that her “body rhythm changed,” and it is revealed that not only can Urabe’s spit transfer emotions and mental images but physical wounds as well (skinned knee from a track accident and self-inflicted cut on her hand). Though both girls have boyfriends, they’re very interested in the bond itself and experimenting with it. The magic realism, already offered via transfer of emotions, thoughts, and dreams, gets a welcome physical manifestation, but this whole episode seems an excuse to fettishize the drool exchange by exploiting such themes as lesbianism, cutting, and cosplay (gym clothes).

Phillip: There’s an element of voyeurism to Oka observing Tsubaki and Urabe and not saying anything. I’m not saying that it doesn’t contain themes as mentioned above, but for me the most interesting angle is that Oka could blab to the whole school about Urabe and Tsubaki, but she doesn’t. She wants to keep Urabe’s “uniqueness” to herself. Why does she want to talk with Urabe alone? She says it was because she didn’t want to cause trouble for Tsubaki by approaching him but still, she completely focuses on Urabe. And in the nurse’s office, she drinks cider, an alcoholic drink traditionally, which would lower her inhibitions. What the hell is that scene about? Personally, the mix of two girls, booze and secrets makes it more confessional in nature than anything else, in my mind. Urabe needs Oka to be more human as it were, and Oka with her weird voyeur tendencies needs Urabe to be normal. If you can believe that.

Episode 5: Mysterious First Date

Phillip: After seeing Urabe in her swimsuit in school, Tsubaki decides to invite Urabe to the beach because on a unconscious level he wants to see her on his own in a swimsuit. But like most guys in a relationship, he gets more than he bargained for when, after waiting weeks for the chance to see her, they go to the beach with her sporting a tan after spending time with her family (who curiously we don’t meet or see) and him wanting to see what her whole body looks like. Now most other shows would have him wanting a peek at her undressing, but they don’t do that. Instead we see her untying her bikini skirt to reveal her wearing bikini ends and a tan line where her panty scissors should be. Also, I can’t help but feel the shows producers and writers are trying to show Tsubaki is a good kid, because early on in the episode, the guys are practising goals in school with the teacher but deliberately kicking the ball over the hedge so they can peek at the girls practising swimming. Tsubaki is the one to try and check out Urabe but when he sees her through the hedge he slips and doesn’t kick the ball. Is that Tsubaki self-sabotaging his “shot” at Urabe? It stands to reason, in his mind at least, he doesn’t need to do that because his relationship with Urabe is his and his alone. And before you ask, Ueno sneaks a peek at Oka, so it’s not about Tsubaki having a girlfriend that he doesn’t do it.

Ink: The approach used to introduce the poolside peeping at the beginning was impressively subtle for such a brazen show; winks and smiles, no-one in gym being able to properly kick a soccer ball/football, and the earnestly delivered compliments (instead of jeers) for such, all let viewers know something is not what it appears to be. Unlike Phillip, I’d argue that the only thing sabotaging Tsubaki’s shot at Urabe here is his respect for her, which is genuinely nice to see. Tsubaki’s embarrassment at spying Urabe through the trees, when they lock eyes for a moment, throws Tsubaki off, causing him to miss the ball. I’d like to think his botched peep was a combination of that unspoken warning from Urabe and an inner voice that realized the truth behind her glance. Aside from a couple really well-written and timed jokes towards its end, I think the episode falls apart from there. Don’t let Philip mislead you. Although Tsubaki indeed does not try to catch Urabe undressing, he does swim underwater to watch her body very closely ... only to be saved by a horribly flimsy excuse and an overly accommodating Urabe. Or is that a very forward hint?

Mysterious Girlfriend X is now streaming on Crunchyroll.

One such mission, T35 or "Center River," uses the Fog of War mechanic, which obscures enemies a certain distance away from the player, thus making it difficult to react to the opponent's moves. Like, really difficult.

Case in point: I deployed some footsoldiers, captured a few cities, and set up a tank or two. BOOM, out of nowhere the enemy started bombarding me with rockets and artillery shells from ... somewhere in the Fog of War. Then giant "war tanks" (the most powerful land units in the game) emerged from the fog, barrelling down upon my base and supporting the infantry units that would eventually overtake my headquarters.

Every permutation of moves I tried, every strategy, met with defeat. The most frustrating times were the ones when I felt like I was about to win, only to be struck down by a surprise volley of long-range rockets and anti-tank attacks that drove me back to my base! I simply turned the game off in anger quite a few times.

I searched online for ways to beat the mission, to drive into the heart of the blue team's side of the river and take their HQ. Forum posts provided some nice tips, but my lack of Advance Wars experience made it difficult to fully implement a lot of their strategies. The parade of failures continued.

One more time. One more time. I sent troops across the river and tried to take the island in the center. I set up rockets in major cities. I pushed across the southern bridge with a tank. After dozens of attempts these sorts of things had become second nature. The enemy came at me on the island, and then I made the one important change to my strategy: I sent some decoy troops along the northern bridge, as someone had suggested in a forum post. Instantly the CPU redirected its troops to fight in the north, and my campaign to take the island in earnest had begun.

After over an hour of plugging away at this slow fight, producing units constantly to keep up with the enemy's barrage of attacks, I finally made it across the southern bridge. By redirecting the blue team back and forth with false threats of capturing cities, I managed to sneak an infantry unit into the headquarters and capture it once and for all. A week of frustration and anger and failure ended in glorious victory, and I was reminded of why I dedicated so much of my time to something so frustrating.

Winning is awesome.

Snapshots is a monthly column here at Ani-Gamers in which one of our writers describes and analyzes a particular moment from a piece of media. To read previous entries, click here.

This is, of course, purely hypothetical. It also is the plot behind Devil Survivor 2, the latest game in the Shin Megami Tensei Series. But aside from being the plot of an immersive game environment, it's also a question worth asking yourself. Which is one of the ways the MegaTen series distinguishes itself from others of its kind: by posing a serious question then giving the player a chance to see how their decisions pan out. 

Decision and consequence are something of a rarity in the gaming sphere: while Fable attempts to craft the entire game around free will, Skyrim posts bounties, and Knights of the Old Republic has alternate endings, more often than not the game world is such a far cry from the real one that the message gets lost, or the impact of such decisions are meaningless in the grand scheme. Not so with MegaTen: the world is the player’s own (within reason) and the decisions often mean the difference between survival and death in the face of devastating odds. While not open-ended, the games do allow the player to make important decisions that really do affect how the game ends. 

Devil Survivor thrusts the player into the middle of the action. While combat is a central part of the experience, so is choosing your path while the days play out. It’s not a totally fixed narrative, but rather a massive catalog of interwoven threads that lead the player deeper and deeper into a world on the brink of destruction: demons make pacts with humans for power, the government’s “defenders” attempt to maintain order through questionable means, and a mysterious stranger judges humanity’s worth through technology and philosophy, all while a massive celestial entity plots the downfall of the world should it be proven unworthy. It’s not enough to just survive, no — you need to persevere and thrive against these maneuvering powers, often with little to no information beyond hunches and limited gleams of knowledge. 

Insignificant humanity? Deals with the otherworld? The base nature of mankind? All-encompassing destruction on the whims of a galactic entity? Consequences to one's actions? Is this even the plot of a game, or some unpublished H.P. Lovecraft novel? When was the last time I even asked myself this question? It can be maddening at times, especially when the player might want to “do the right thing,” only to be confronted with several paths that hold both appeal and dread. In other words, it feels like life, and sometimes making the wrong decision stings a little. 

Of course the game gives you weapons: demons, and lots of them. Well, not all of them are pure demons. Many are gods and other mythological figures, but they fill important roles in the upcoming conflict — make pacts to gain their services, use them in battle, and fuse them with other demons to make even more powerful creatures. In the Persona series, these entities serve as an extension of the character’s willpower and psyche. In Devil Survivor, these entities serve the player, but only if he can control and understand them (insert Pokémon reference here). They are limited only by the player’s ambition, and are as powerful as his cunning allows. This level of customization and implementation is rarely seen in games these days, especially portable titles. Mastery of the fusion system is necessary to ensure success — otherwise the player’s party members will die frequently in the middle of the brutally taxing battles.

Case in point: after seven days of struggle against the might of the stars, your goal is upon you. The last of the Seven that have dogged your heels stands ready, and your allies have managed to gain a slight advantage against his ability to banish your demons. You move forward into battle ... and die. Repeatedly. Grinding barely helps. Rearranging skills and magic does little as well. Devil Survivor 2 forces the player to confront the situation from all sides and explore the many roads that lead to victory. Or, in the case of this monster, one road — fraught with devastation and loss. It’s a testament to the power of the game that even in the face of such frustration, a player will keep going until the deed is done. 

The 40 hours or so of Devil Survivor 2 are some of the most challenging I have ever experienced. I often second guessed not only my choices in battle, but also the course of the plot. Do I ally myself with the government, with the rebels, or with myself? How will my choices impact where the story ends up (one of the endings is downright nightmarish if you choose the wrong “side”)? Should I fuse away a valued, proven ally in favor of something else, or do I spend all my hard-earned money re-summoning old demons? Mistakes, while easy to make, are extremely hard to rectify, and foresight becomes extremely important in the end. But all told, Devil Survivor 2 is a worthy challenge to attempt, and even more satisfying to overcome.

Medium: Portable Video Game 
Genre: RPG
Director: Shinjiro Takata
Developer: Atlus
Publisher: Atlus
Platform: Nintendo DS
Release Date: Feb. 28, 2012 (NA)
ESRB Rating: Teen

How to describe Space Brothers? How’s this: I never bothered with the thematically similar Moonlight Mile, so when Space Brothers was announced, I wasn’t too interested. But, much to my surprise, it’s a pretty good series. Hibito is the kind of person I’d like to be: determined, energetic and fun. However, Mutta is the person I’ll probably end up being: down on his luck, unmotivated, and a killjoy. But there’s hope for Mutta. Being fired from his job means that his promise that he and Hibito made to become astronauts has suddenly become a real goal for him to strive towards, however impossible the task is. This first episode has the beginnings of a good story of the greatest of adventures happening to the most ordinary of blokes, and the deadpan humor nicely complements the serious bits. The animation isn’t particularly impressive, but at least it’s competent. I like the leads and I’m looking forward to watching them grow over the course of the series.

Hey I just realized how to describe the series! Moonlight Mile is an anime set in space for people who liked Apollo 13 as kids. Space Brothers is an anime set in space for people who liked SpaceCamp as kids. So there!

— Phillip

Mysterious Girlfriend X

Studio: Hoods Entertainment
Director: Ayumu Watanabe
Now Streaming on Crunchyroll

(EDITOR'S NOTE: That's not a typo. Watanabe and Hoods Entertainment are producing both Space Brothers AND Mysterious Girlfriend X.)

You knew we were going to have to talk about this show eventually. Akira Tsubaki is a typical teenager. He meets a weird girl, Mikoto Urabe, who transfers to his school. One day he finds her asleep at the end of school classes at her desk. After she leaves, he sticks his finger into the pile of drool she left behind on her desk and puts it in his mouth. He gets sick afterwards and she visits him at home to explain that he’s suffering from love-sickness and only her drool will cure him. So he and she become boyfriend and girlfriend.

There, I said it.

Mysterious Girlfriend X is a weird series, from its circus organ score to the insane nature of Akira and Mikoto’s relationship. I mean, she tells him that a little voice told her he would be her first sex partner! There’s a glacial pace to the first episode. Nothing happens with any kind of speed (other than the fundamental ways that Akira’s life changes once Mikoto comes into it). Akira's dream sequences are well animated and they are excellent next to the relative normality to his real life. Plus the character designs are quirky. Unlike some reviews that bash the fanbase for liking something like this, I prefer to simply marvel that something like this exists. We’re usually treated to Japanese school kids having nice, safe relationships, and this is definitely different. It’s both repellent and fascinating and I’m compelled in a strange way to see how this all falls into place. Just don’t ask me to talk about it in anything but relative terms.

— Phillip

Kids on the Slope

Studio: Tezuka Productions, Mappa
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Now Streaming on Crunchyroll

In 1998, director Shinichiro Watanabe created one of anime's enduring classics, the jazz-infused space western series Cowboy Bebop, and in 2004 he came back for more genre-bending antics with Samurai Champloo, a hip-hop samurai adventure. Now Watanabe returns to the director's chair for yet another musical number, but this time it's a little different. Kids on the Slope (Sakamichi no Apollon), based on a josei (women's) manga by Yuuki Kodama, isn't exactly a slice-of-life to the tune of jazz music — it's a slice-of-life about jazz music.

Kaoru has been moving from school to school for his whole life, and after years of meeting new people and getting rejected by local cliques, he's developed an acute case of what appears to be social anxiety. Despite a less-than-warm welcome from his classmates, however, within the first few hours of school Kaoru finds himself in the company of not only the pretty class representative Ritsuko, but the intimidating delinquent Sentaro. Kaoru plays classical piano and Sentaro plays jazz drums, so while their decidedly Boys Love-friendly personalities clash left and right, they're clearly destined to play some sweet jazz music together, thanks in part to some prodding from Ritsuko.

Watanabe's deft touch is already on full display in Kids on the Slope, with excellent pacing, beautiful, slightly shaky camera work, and some expertly placed musical cues. Nobuteru Yuki's character designs retain their angular charm without his conspicious noses, and the animators at Tezuka Productions make great use of soft, watercolor-esque shading to give the show a distinct painterly quality. Realistic, heartwarming, and funny (in an "awww, awkward teenagers" sort of way), Kids on the Slope should be at the top of your list of must-watch shows this season.

— Evan

They also reassured fans that the dub for the Persona 4 anime would maintain the English actors from the game.

As for simulcasting, Sentai also picked up Shinichiro Watanabe's Kids on the Slope (Sakamichi no Apollon) and the romantic comedy Mysterious Girlfriend X (Nazo no Kanojo). Kids on the Slope's first episode premieres on April 12. Mysterious Girlfriend X premieres on April 8.

In the question and answer session, they also mentioned that High School of the Dead is their highest selling title, since "nothing beats boobs and zombies."

Click here for more coverage of Anime Boston 2012.

Half of the game is spent trying to reunite with Malik, and the other half is spent dealing with the surrounding evil. I don't know whether PoP: TFS felt easier due to my lengthy replay of its predecessors or if the new game is just inherently easier, but the lack of a hard difficulty (even after beating the game on a very easy-feeling Normal) may be a clue. Puzzles are sparse and, aside from the select few that subtly require the use of the Prince's Djinn-given powers, can be figured out in a couple of moments upon the first encounter. Similarly, the acrobatic paths required to navigate all the maps are so obvious that one could either compliment the camerawork for guiding the player or chide the level designers for offering up such an unambiguous environment. That said, the acrobatics (which I'll get to later) are what make this game ... especially when you take the fighting element into account.

The games comprising the Sands of Time trilogy have always walked a delicate balance between acrobatics and combat, leaning to one side or the other in any given iteration.  PoP: TFS is no different but rather attacks the issue in a different way. Here, the Prince faces off relatively frequently against hordes of up to around 20 enemies, most of whom don't require more than two sword blows to finish off, whereas the previous games had the player simultaneously facing, at most, five or so moderately challenging opponents. The difference is rather brilliant: make the battle element that of a button-masher to let the player feel accomplished in having dispatched so many minions while saving the real effort and time for the subsequent navigation. While the button mashing does get a bit tedious, there is a semi-decent variety of enemies, a few different combat moves, as well as ice, fire, and wind spells that can make each onslaught different enough to avoid becoming totally stale.

But acrobatics are the bread and butter of PoP: TFS. While the path the Prince must take may be all too easily discernible, that does not mean the path itself is easy. The Prince gains the power of the Djinn and with it can rewind time as well as freeze the flow of water to make it a navigable surface. A specific Djinn, Razia, also gives the Prince her familiarity with the now crumbled kingdom so that broken pieces may be made whole once more (but only one section at a time). Combine those aspects with already familiar movements, like wall running, pole swinging, ledge climbing, and bird hopping, and keeping track of what button does what can become your own worst enemy within maps intricately constructed to test dexterity (the Prince's as well as your fingers’).

Controls are spot-on, but some of the Prince’s moves feel unrealistic (compared to the earlier games).  These range from being able to run straight up a wall after jumping to it, running up walls after hanging statically from some exposed part of it (protruding stone or ledge), and bird hopping.  The action used to accomplish the latter is reminiscent of the 2008 PoP game: a power of flight aspect that just feels entirely out of sync with the rest of the physics in PoP: TFS.  Easily, programmers could have just added another bird onto which the Prince could jump or bring the ledges a little closer.  Believable or not, the gameplay is very fluid, even if it seemed to lag a bit, and the in-game camera, usually the bane of the series, is almost never an issue.

Steve Jablonsky's musical score is both appropriate to the theme of the game and complementary to each level's beautifully rendered aesthetics. My favorite touch regarding the latter is the random placement of sandstone statues, formerly living palace guards, that continually try to hold fast slightly open doors or otherwise stand and lie frozen in place. Their presence adds an eerie ambiance to a palace worn away with an omnipresent evil (sand) that wisps through those same crevasses. However lovingly crafted, cutscenes still smack of the earlier titles’ blocky renderings at times. Given the history of criticism behind the voice acting, it is also worth noting that Yuri Lowenthal reprises his role as the well-humored, sarcastic Prince from PoP: The Sands of Time and PoP: The Two Thrones.

I was so engrossed with the gameplay of PoP: TFS that it felt disappointingly short ... especially with the terse ending. The story is one big action movie cliché, but it's one that's fun to take part in and shares a good deal of elements with the original Sands of Time series. Sadly, PoP: TFS falls short on heart and introspective depth, making it akin to a deleted scene or bonus featurette rather than its own story. The insulting nature of this perceived brevity is compounded by the game’s only other mode of play: an Arena wherein the only wave of opponents consists of an eight-course serving of butter. I picked this title up on a whim one day at Best Buy for $20. If I had paid any more, I think I would have felt ripped off, but Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is definitely worth your time to rent (or buy if the price is right).

I have no idea how they keep coming up with puzzles for the Professor Layton games. I would think that they would have to start repeating themselves more, but Professor Layton and the Unwound Future has an even greater puzzle variety than the previous games. So when the waitress asks you to solve a stacking puzzle before she gets you your drink, you don't have to worry about seeing the same puzzle but with more objects when you talk to her again later; you end up with a slider puzzle or a visual puzzle instead. While I do miss having increasingly complex variations on a single puzzle idea, the variety more than makes up for that. This also eliminates the problem of simply being bad at a certain puzzle and getting stuck as it shows up more and more often.

There are, of course, the slider puzzles and mathematical tricks, but they tend to have a little twist on them that makes them feel new, such as having to solve a slider puzzle in a certain number of moves. To facilitate these sometimes more complex puzzles, the memo system has been redone so that you can use different brush sizes and colors on your memo overlay. Especially welcome is the addition of an eraser brush — no more clearing all of your written notes because you made one mistake. Another welcome addition is the Super Hint, which all but solves the riddle for you. It is available after you use up the other three hints and costs an additional two hit coins. So on those puzzles that you just cannot seem to solve, you now have a way out.

While the plot does feel contrived at times, the puzzles and just plain quirky fun of the character interactions more than make up for it. The addition of more animated, fully voiced cutscenes also adds to the experience and never failed to put a smile on my face. The game is great fun and I look forward to the next Layton game.

[Highly Recommended]

This review is based on a retail copy purchased by the reviewer.

However, what adds an interesting new dimension to the tried-and-true platforming formula of Lost in Shadow is the simple fact that most of the platforms are actually shadows of foreground objects projected on the background. Thus, the game actually forces you to rethink the way your character relates to the platforms he is standing on. Initially the only complexity lies in keeping your mind focused on the shadows despite changes in the objects casting them and the surfaces upon which they are cast, but later the game introduces areas called "Shadow Corridors" which feature more complex ideas like Echochrome-esque 90-degree perspective shifts and even three-dimensional movement.

Just playing as a shadow without any effect on the real world rather limits your options, however, so Hudson includes another character, a small fairy-like creature called a sylph who floats by your side but can become your Wiimote pointer at any time to help you past obstacles. Her main function is to find objects that can be energized and then moved, creating new shadow shapes for you to climb over, but there are some particularly mind-bending sequences where she can be used to move a light source, thus stretching all of the shadows on screen and making it possible to heavily modify the entire shadow landscape.

Some of the individual pieces have been used before (especially the cliché "ruinous fantasy adventure" aesthetic), but the overall effect of Lost in Shadow is quite striking in its novelty, and makes for an experience full of wide-eyed surprise as you are forced to rethink many of the basic physical properties of the platformer genre. Watch out for this innovative title when it hits North American stores on January 4, 2011 and look out for a full Ani-Gamers review in the near future.

Click here for more of our New York Comic Con 2010 coverage

Plants vs Zombies HD

If you have already played the PC version of this PopCap-developed game, odds are you’ve already bought this version too.

Plants vs Zombies is a streamlined take on the "tower defense" genre, wherein you place aggressive plants in your back garden to fend off invading hordes of humorous zombies who are after your sweet, sweet brains. The game oozes charm, and looks even better on the iPad than it ever did on my PC, primarily because the graphics have been optimized for a single screen resolution rather than the innumerable screen resolutions of monitors. Another thing optimized for the iPad is the interaction; controlling everything directly through the touchscreen makes the game much easier and more pleasant to interact with than using a mouse. Like the original, PvZ has a perfectly tweaked learning curve that eases you into the many different gameplay facets that keep the experience fresh for level after level. The only problem is that once your opening strategy is perfected, the game can feel excruciatingly dull running through the same motions every time and you will find yourself wishing for a "speed up" button.

The game is priced at £7, and so can be said to be rather pricey, but considering the amount of hours you can sink into it and the high production values, I would say it is well worth a go.

[Recommended]

Strategery

No, that name is not a typo, honest. Strategery is, as you may guess, a strategy game in the vein of the board game Risk. You invade regions with troops, conquer them, and then place more troops down in your captured regions in preparation of the enemy counterattack. The main draws of the game are its neat, clean art style and randomly generated maps. Every game map looks subtly different, and there are a few options available when starting that slightly alter the way the game plays

Strategery feels well made, moving along at a brisk pace you could never achieve with a physical war game, but this is where my praise ends. The strategy core of the game feels rough and unrefined, lacking any advanced planning potential due to the basic blocky maps it draws. With its current mechanics, every game boils down to making the biggest blob of a county possible and then throwing obscene numbers of troops with no fear of effective counterattack. This inevitability sucks a lot of fun out of repeated play, especially as there are few options available that would spice this up. Including continents or encouraging conservation of troops would go a long way to solving these issues.

Sadly I have been unable to test the online multiplayer as there is no matchmaking and I could not manage to con anyone into playing with me directly. Local multiplayer works fine, but the game boils down to the pattern described above.

While the game includes both an iPad and iPhone version together, I would suggest spending your time and money elsewhere.

[Bad]

Words With Friends HD

For those who have never heard of this before, Words With Friends is a competitive 2-player version of scrabble where you send moves back and forth between each other in a way reminiscent of play-by-email strategy games.

The game handles everything effortlessly, including in-game chat, a complete and accurate dictionary and very nice presentation throughout.

Anyone who has played the iPhone version: yes, it is the same as the iPhone version with an updated interface and shinier graphics. Yes, it is well worth your money even if you forked out for the iPhone version. You can use the same account and play games between both devices.

I heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys word games but can’t get people to sit still long enough to play a tabletop version of Scrabble. If you fancy it, you can play against me; my username is "Elliotpage."

[Highly Recommended]

Geared HD

Geared is a wonderfully simple puzzle game wherein you use a set of gears to link a moving starter gear up to one or more target gears. More gameplay twists are added at welcome intervals to help keep things fresh, and the difficulty curve is exceptionally well tuned. The game has grown considerably since I first bought it on the iPhone and now sports 150 levels as well as a helpful level skip function for when you get really stuck. The graphics are clean and simple, allowing you to concentrate on the puzzle. It even has a very nice win chime once you complete a stage, an encouraging little extra when you have spent 5 minutes staring blankly at the screen.

Geared HD is cheap as hell and amazingly addictive. I can attest to its grabbing power as both my parents love playing it and getting my iPad back from them once they start playing is like drawing blood from a stone.

[Highly Recommended]

Let me know in the comments if any of you find these helpful, and perhaps I'll check out another batch of iPad games.

Reggie Fils-Aime, president of the North American division of the game publisher and console manufacturer unveiled new title after new title in a rapid-fire series of announcements, surely sating the appetites of even the most hardcore Nintendo fanboys. First off, legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto showed off the new Wii Zelda title, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. During an admittedly awkward demonstration (held up by so-called "interference" with the Wii's motion-sensing capabilities), Miyamoto gave us a glimpse into the new control scheme in which the sword is mapped to the Wiimote and the shield is mapped to the nunchuck and the graphical style, which marries the matured designs of Twilight Princess to the cel shading of The Wind Waker while presumably running on the Super Mario Galaxy graphics engine. At the very end of the presentation, Miyamoto tried his very best to gracefully tell the audience that Skyward Sword still needs a lot of work done, and will take until 2011 before it's finished.

But it wasn't long before Reggie launched into what we all expected from a Nintendo presentation casual games. However, much to my surprise, we only saw two new casual games: Mario Sports Mix (think Wii Sports with Mario) and Wii Party (think Mario Party with Miis). The former will hit shelves sometime in 2011, while Reggie promised that we'll see the latter this holiday season. Meanwhile, Ubisoft presented a trailer for Just Dance 2 on the Wii, which will hit this fall.

On the third party front, Nintendo didn't have very much to show off, though the titles themselves were certainly worth talking about. First is a remake (or maybe it's a sequel) of Goldeneye, the beloved Nintendo 64 first-person shooter that has stuck in many gamers' minds as a reminder of the golden days (har har) of Nintendo's consoles. After that was Disney's Epic Mickey, featuring a fascinating discussion of the importance of play style from designer Warren Specter. The game will feature choices between solving puzzles by creating or destroying the environment, which Specter hopes will provide a rich experience that is different for every player.

Meanwhile, Nintendo unveiled the subtitle, a new trailer, and a 2010 holiday season release date for their previously announced Golden Sun DS sequel, now entitled Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Additionally, the Wii will see the release of Kirby's Epic Yarn, the first Kirby console game since the Gamecube's Kirby Air Ride (2003) and the first side-scrolling console Kirby game since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (2000) on yes my friends the Nintendo 64. Kirby's Epic Yarn, which sports an interesting new art style reminiscent of the Super Nintendo's Kirby's Dream Land 3 (1997), is already prepped for release this fall. We also got a trailer for the Team Ninja-developed Metroid: Other M, which will arrive on August 31.

Last but certainly not least, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stepped on stage to present the Nintendo 3DS, a successor to the DS that features a touch screen on the bottom and a slightly larger 3-D screen on the top half (It displays 3-D WITHOUT glasses). The left side of the handheld has a "slide pad" that acts as an analog stick, the insides have a motion sensor and a gyro sensor, and the system can display more powerful graphics than the current DS models. Additionally, the front of the device features two cameras, allowing the 3DS to take 3-D photographs. On the software side of things, Iwata confirmed that the 3DS is capable of playing 3-D Hollywood movies, and Nintendo has already partnered with Disney, Warner Bros., and Dreamworks to provide that content. Finally, a slew of third-party developers, including CAPCOM, EA, Harmonix, Konami, Level-5, and Ubisoft, have signed on to create games for the system, and some of the confirmed games (first- and third-party) are listed below:

• Kid Icarus: Uprising from Kirby/Smash Bros. developer Masahiro Sakurai and Sora Ltd.
• A new Nintendogs game from Miyamoto
• a Metal Gear Solid game from Kojima himself
• an Assassin's Creed game from Ubisoft
• a "completely original Resident Evil game" from CAPCOM

Overall, I was very impressed with Nintendo's press conference. While a lot of the technology (3DS, swordfighting with Wii MotionPlus) still seems a little wonky or hazy [[EDIT: and I was very disappointed in the continued lack of any new IPs]], their presentation was refreshing in how to-the-point it was. Nintendo made it clear much moreso than Microsoft did with their awful Kinect presentations that this was all about games, and whether you are interested in their titles or not, it's hard to deny that they put on a damn good show.

For more news and commentary out of E3 2010, check back with our E3 2010 label page.

Activision Publishing, Inc.
• DJ Hero® 3D
AQ INTERACTIVE
• cubic ninja
ATLUS
• Etrian Odyssey
• Shin Megami Tensei
• Shin Megami Tensei: Persona
• Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Capcom
• RESIDENT EVIL® REVELATIONS
• SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV 3D Edition (name not final)
Electronic Arts
• FIFA Soccer
• Madden NFL
• The Sims™ 3
Gameloft
• Asphalt GT
Harmonix
• Music game
HUDSON SOFT
• Bomberman franchise
• DECA SPORTS franchise
• KORORINPA franchise
KONAMI
• Baseball franchise
• Contra franchise
• Frogger franchise
• HIDEO KOJIMA’S METAL GEAR SOLID SNAKE EATER 3D “The Naked Sample”
• PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER franchise
• WINNING ELEVEN franchise
LEVEL-5
• Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle (name not final)
Majesco Entertainment
• BloodRayne: The Shroud
• A Boy and His Blob
• Face Racers: Photo Finish
• Lion’s Pride: Adventures on the Serengeti
• Martha Stewart
• WonderWorld Amusement Park
• Marvelous Entertainment BOKUJYOUMONOGATARI 3D (name not final)
NAMCO BANDAI Games
• Dragon Ball® franchise (name not final)
• Gundam® franchise (name not final)
• PAC-MAN™ & GALAGA™ (name not final)
• RIDGE RACER® (name not final)
• Super Robot franchise (name not final)
Nintendo
• Animal Crossing™
• Kid Icarus™: Uprising
• Mario Kart™
• nintendogs™ + cats
• Paper Mario™
• PilotWings Resort™
• Star Fox 64™ 3D
• Steel Diver™
• ROCKET Crash-City GP
• VS-robo
SEGA
• Sonic (name not final)
• Super Monkey Ball (name not final)
SQUARE ENIX
• CODENAME: Chocobo Racing® 3D
• DRAGON QUEST® franchise
• FINAL FANTASY® franchise
• KINGDOM HEARTS franchise
Take-Two Interactive
• Carnival Games® franchise
TECMO KOEI GAMES
• DEAD OR ALIVE® 3D (name not final)
• DYNASTY WARRIORS® (name not final)
• NINJA GAIDEN® (name not final)
• SAMURAI WARRIORS® 3D (name not final)
TOMY
• LOVELY LISA 3D
• NARUTO SHIPPUDEN ACTION
THQ
• de Blob 2
• Kung Fu Panda Kaboom of Doom
• Marvel Super Hero Squad Infinity Gauntlet
• The Penguins of Madagascar
• Puss N Boots
• Saints Row: Drive-By
Ubisoft
• Assassin’s Creed™ Lost Legacy
• Battle of Giants™: Dinosaur Strike
• Driver® Renegade
• Hollywood 61 (name not final)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon™
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory™
Warner Bros
• Batman franchise
• LEGO franchise

CLICK HERE to read the original list. (PDF format)

For more news and commentary out of E3 2010, check back with our E3 2010 label page.

The best part of the whole thing is that this is a character who thousands of other otaku have probably fallen in love with. Now that one guy has married her, is she off-limits to everybody else? Oooh, brutal! Maybe you guys will have to start widening your horizons a bit. Think outside the box if you know what I mean.

[via Tiny Cartridge]

Speaking of CrunchyRoll, the website announced a couple of days ago that in celebration of "Global Shinkai Day," they will be streaming three of director Makoto Shinkai's works (5 Centimeters Per Second, Voices of a Distant Star, and The Place Promised In Our Early Days) on Saturday, February 28 for 24 hours only. I've yet to experience Shinkai's critically-acclaimed anime, so I'll definitely be taking advantage of that limited time offer come Saturday to watch 5 Centimeters Per Second, a movie that is unfortunately stuck in limbo, as no North American anime distributor has officially picked it up yet.

Best Buy is cutting down on their in-store anime selection due to the economic situation, but it's not all bad news for anime fans. Select stores will be holding 50% off sales, which will make that Haruhi boxset that you haven't bought yet seem so. much. jucier. ANN has a preliminary list of participating stores, but it's still subject to change.

For those of you who watched the Oscars, you might have noticed that when La Maison En Petits Cubes won the award for Best Animated Short Film, it was not a French animator who stood up to take the award. That's because despite it's extremely French name, Cubes is actually an anime, created by Japanese director and writer Kunio Kato. This marks the second Oscar win for an anime, and the first in the Animated Short Film Category. (Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away won for Best Animated Picture in 2003.)

Finally, on the video game front, Nintendo has announced a release date for the DSi, the third redesign of the bestselling DS platform. The system will launch in the United States on April 5, 2009 in two colors (blue and black) and for an MSRP of $169.99. It will sell millions and will top the NPD charts for months on end, despite the fact that it provides no significant gameplay upgrades to the DS Lite. Such is life in this Nintendo-world of ours...

Another thing you might have noticed from the list above is the open world environment. In between the various levels of the game you’ll find yourself back at the Hunter Base - an area where you’re free to run around and accept missions from other characters, buy items, or re-visit previous levels. Again, while this feature is an appreciated one, it also has its setbacks – namely a lack of substance. There are really only a handful of missions to accept and you quickly find yourself with more cash than you’ll ever be able to spend. It’s a step in the right direction and in future releases we’ll hopefully see a more fleshed out game world.

A traditional feature that does carry over from classic Mega Man is the difficulty. While it’s nothing impossible, I must say that quick saves and save states have spoiled me over the years. While the levels are longer than in previous Mega Man titles I’ve played, Advent does a good job of providing a challenge (especially the final level) without having you throw yourself against the game over and over to get it right. It’s a fine line between challenging and frustrating, and Advent seems to maneuver it quite well.

So, you blast your way through the game, defeat the disappointingly easy final boss, and find yourself staring back at the title screen once more. Normally at this point we’d hit the power switch and say it was a job well done - but Advent throws a bit more content our way in the post game. As you’d expect, you can battle your defeated foes once more, only now the game will reward you with medals for fulfilling certain conditions in the battle, such as using only a specific weapon or damaging the enemy at a certain time. While this is all fine and dandy, my personal favorite would have to be "Mega Man a," a mini-game which has you playing an 8-bit version of yourself in what feels like a classic NES Mega Man title. Oh, and if you manage to rack up all of the gold medals from the robot masters, you can use that 8-bit version of yourself in the main game.

There are really only a few constants in this world: death, taxes, and yearly Mega Man releases. The Advent series seems to have a lot going for it, and the various additions brought out in this game will hopefully continue to be improved upon in the inevitable sequels that are to come. For those of us who remember the Mega Man games as a lesson in traditional platforming action but have grown tired of the newer titles - this might be a good point to jump back in.

good.

• Mitchell "MitchyD" Dyer: Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (360)
• "Ink": Rock Band 2 (360)
• Maxwell "Pigeonflu" McGee: Left 4 Dead (360)
• Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto: The World Ends with You (DS)
• "Yumeka": Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility (Wii)

"Gold or Platinum status is based on the number of Coins earned in a Club Nintendo year. Each Club Nintendo year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30. If you earn 300 Coins during a Club Nintendo year you will reach Gold status. Earn 600 Coins during a Club Nintendo year and reach Platinum status!"

It doesn't seem too difficult to earn a lot of coin if you're an avid Wii or DS gamer, as the breakdown of earning coins offers a decent amount per product:

• Wii games = 50 Coins
• Nintendo DS games = 30 Coins
• Wii Shop Channel games and Wii Channels = 10 Coins

You can also earn additional cash for indicating your intent for buying a game or registering the product within a month of its release.

So if you're interested in grabbing some grab-bags, check it out at Club Nintendo. The Ani-Gamers staff will surely be suckered in to this marketing gimmick in order to earn rad free goodies as well, and we'll be back with reports on product quality for those who are curious.

While Nintendo claims that this revision is a "third platform," we all know what they said about the DS when it came out and squashed the GBA. DS Phat and Lite owners reluctant to switch over should watch Nintendo warily so they don't get caught unawares by a surprise generational shift for the platform.

Finally, a Joystiq post confirms that according to Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime, the DSi will not be coming to the United States until "well into calendar year 2009." Too bad!

Of course, the game pans out almost exactly like every Zelda you've ever played. There are magic stones, a mystical sword, and nine dungeons to complete. Luckily, this game takes a leaf out of Majora's Mask's book and creates a story that adds to the previous game rather than simply mimicking it. This time, you are riding in a boat with two other companions, and the plot ends up being much more about side characters and their personalities than any Zelda since Majora's Mask.

In terms of truly new additions, Phantom Hourglass relies heavily on touch control, to the point where the face buttons never actually perform any significant functions in the gameplay. Link moves toward wherever you point on the screen (a la Animal Crossing), attacks when you pull the stylus across the screen, and uses an item when you tap it on the top-right. That means an almost excessive amount of tapping, which makes one wonder why the face buttons aren't used more. While it's cluttered and hard to learn, I won't deny that it is a refreshing experience for longtime Zelda fans.

Puzzles, minigames, and even driving Linebeck's ship are all controlled by the touch screen, often to great effect. Phantom Hourglass even mixes up the format a bit with boss fights stretching across both screens, adding a surprising new dimension to the game. The other important addition is the use of the touch screen as an interactive map, where the player can take notes and draw pathways: a truly brilliant use of touch control.

The dungeons can often become too easy, a common complaint about the game. However, I didn't find many problems with the difficulty curve, since there practically is none. Instead, there is a sort of difficulty scatter-plot, without any real feeling of increasing difficulty. Exacerbating these problems is a massive, tiring central dungeon. Players will have to brave this terrifyingly long (and timed) fortress at least six times in the game, and since each run is linear, Link restarts at the entrance for every 10-to-20-minute run.

Phantom Hourglass also serves as a reminder that the DS has indeed reached a plateau when it comes to graphical capabilities. The game (rendered in full 3D) looks competent, but not spectacular, just as we have seen with previous first-party DS endeavors like Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, and Metroid Prime. Oh, and I just couldn't get over how downright UGLY Link's bug eyes look in this game.

Finally, Phantom Hourglass packs some multiplayer punch as well, including the touted online mode, the first of any Zelda title. The battle mode is fun, if it sometimes feels less like a Zelda game and more like a strategy game. Sadly, only two players can play at once, unlike the other prominent multiplayer Zelda, Four Swords. I sadly didn't have a chance to play the online component.

Phantom Hourglass is not the revolutionary move to the DS that Nintendo had hoped it would be. It uses the touch screen for nearly everything, and while sometimes this results in a cluttered interface, there are many, many moments when players will find themselves delighted by the brilliance of a puzzle or the ease of control in a certain area. Some may decry difficulty inconsistencies and dungeon design problems, but a charming storyline and fun puzzles make Phantom Hourglass a highlight of the Nintendo DS library and a worthy, if imperfect, successor to the Zelda legacy.

Graphics/Sound:		3.5		Overall: (3.0 stars)
Gameplay:		2.5
Design/Story:		3.5
Lasting Appeal:		2.5

With TWEWY I definitely came for the extensive customization, but I ended up staying for the co-op play, if you can believe it.Being the turn-based strategy game junkie that I am, I have a deep-seated love for endlessly tweaking and adjusting my cast of characters between every encounter (my FF: Tactics game can attest to that).And while this isnât a turn-based game, TWEWY delivers that customizable fix that Iâve come to enjoy so much.From the clothes on your back, to the food in your stomach, to the pins on your chest, everything here affects your characters either numerically, changes their move set, or gives them a special ability.

However, all of these fine details donât amount to much if you canât put them to good use.Luckily, the combat mechanics here will keep you engaged throughout by utilizing both the top and bottom screens of the DS.Up top youâll be using the d-pad, or face buttons, to line up symbols in order to score hits on your opponent.On the bottom itâs the various motions of the stylus that dictate what actions you perform.Sure they both sound simple enough when theyâre separate, but try controlling both at the same time and pretty soon youâll find yourself setting up that auto-play feature.

Now, if youâre like me and canât manage what feels like doing ten things at once, you could always play the game co-op.No, I donât mean wireless co-op, I mean you and your partner sit side-by-side and each controls either the top or bottom screen.Sure there might be some arguments about skipping through dialog too quickly or what items to buy, but being able to devote full attention to both characters at once makes the game much more manageable at higher levels of play.

Aside from missing a true multiplayer component (no, the âlocal co-opâ doesnât count), TWEWY is a game perfectly crafted for the handheld mindset.The missions here never take too long and youâre always able to save on a whim.You can do as much or as little combat as youâd like since the encounters are by choice rather than at random.The game even gives an incentive for you to return by continuing to level up your pins while itâs shut off.Just like the fashion mecca itâs centered around, this game also never sleeps.

TWEWY was a total blast from confusing start to convoluted finish.Believe me, after the credits roll youâll be just as bewildered as I was as to what on Earth just happened.But fear not, once completed youâll be rewarded with a plethora of bonus content â including the ability to replay any day you wish to unlock extra swag and plot info.If you own a DS, put it to good use and check this title out! You have seven days.

Graphics/Sound:		4.0		Average: (3.9 stars)
Gameplay:		4.0
Design/Story:		3.5
Lasting Appeal:		4.0
Overall:		4.0