zipmon

Great review Phil!!

I'm having so much fun with this one, and the gallery with character bios / game origins is a great addition. I honestly didn't know who 2/3rds of these people were, but I'm loving the education!

I really hope Nintendo drops it somehow - region-locking does more than just keep fun games out of people's hands before a (potential) local release date, it's also a language issue.

I live in NA but speak & prefer to play games in Italian. On my US DS that was no problem; just set the system language to Italian and grab the games when I'm in Italy, or import. On the 3DS, the region lock means I can only play games in English, French, or Spanish - even my European DS games, which play in Italian on my DSphat! (North American 3DS models have lost the Italian, German, and Japanese language options from the DS days.)

I've got a second 3DS for EU region games so I can play text-heavy stuff in Italian, but I'd be over the moon if Nintendo decided to drop the region lock!

Thanks for the great review, Mike! I can't wait for these to come to NA!!

Great review Mike!! This looks like a lot of fun, even if it's not going to kick Nintendo Land out of it's nearly-permanent place in my Wii U!

I also can't help but be totally charmed by the Ashley game; it screams Cotton and that's more than enough for me!

@james_squared Glad it's helpful! A trick gleaned from a childhood full of entering magazine contests

For people who want a boxed copy and also a shot at the pin: one of the stipulations of US/CAN contest laws is that you have to be able to enter without spending money (or else it's "gambling", I guess!). Check the official rules, and you'll find an alternate entry method by postcard =)

Awesome review, Martin! The Dreamcast version is one of my favourite games ever - me and my cousin played for an entire summer years ago and are still stuck on the last stage! There's absolutely nothing like hitting the R-trigger at the split second before a zillion missiles converge on Bangai-O to unleash that glorious slowdown-inducing special attack. Bliss!

Anyone else notice the inline skates @ :10!? Bike replacements maybe?

@C-Olimar - The fishing is mainly for gold and sidequests, although you can certainly "collect" them in your inventory too, and each fish has a little description. It's a fun little system, you equip different types of bait to attract different fish. With the flowers, you can use them for their dye, to raise stats, or to attract certain monsters to "Feeding Grounds", or you could just enjoy the colour they bring to your garden!

@snoox - Good question, and the answer is "yes, sort of"! So the Japanese title of these games is Denpa Ningen no RPG - ningen (人間) means "person"/"human being" but can also apparently mean "man" (maybe in the collective sense? not totally sure), which is how they've chosen to translate it here. In the game there are lots of Denpa Men with traditionally feminine names & faces. The healer in my party is named Cheyenne, another of my favourites is named Eva, and then the main hero's wife and kids feature into the story. So there aren't "Denpa Women", at least in name, but there seem to be both male and female "Denpa Men".

tl;dr: There are female characters & I think the term Denpa Men is a lost-in-translation thing.

@Knucklesfanguy & everyone asking about both games - If you can only get one, definitely get Beyond the Waves! They're both great, but this is the better of the two (IMO). To me having a world map to explore, extra equipment, and the online battles is more than enough to warrant the extra $5 over the original on sale.

Edit: Also, I'm 99% sure there'll be a demo of this one coming before too long, because the manual mentions being able to import your progress from one

@NImH That's awesome! Glad to hear I'm not alone!

Great review mate! My sister's been having a blast with this lately, and I'm very happy to see a new Harvest Moon come out that's worthy of the name!

I haven't played a HM since Magical Melody on the GameCube, but I think I might have to start again with this one!

Ah man, what a great game! One of the best racers on a system with no shortage of awesome racers. I played this all the time back in the day, had no idea it could use the expansion pak either!

Great review Martin!

Great review Phil! I've always had a soft spot for this game, and it's so much fun getting to play through it again on the GamePad!

Peach is my weapon of choice, BTW I don't think I've ever even tried Toad!

Wow, that's an amazing update! Definitely hopping on Runner 2 at a discount and the SMB2 discount for people who bought SMW is an awesome idea - hope we see more of those, and I think I'll be poppin' turnips this evening as a result

Awesome interview! Ace Mathician is always my go-to game for showing people how awesome DSiWare can be!

@Netto-kun You know, I think it actually is on sale on Steam atm!

Excellent!! Hoping they patch this in for female characters too!

@Harrison_Peter That's a brilliant vid, ta!

When Art Style talks, I listen! Downloaded Aquia this afternoon and I'm really enjoying it. It's great puzzle gameplay and surprisingly deep (with the different shapes you can play as, it's like three different puzzle games really) with a really fantastic soundscape! I'd say if you like Tetris Attack/Puzzle League and/or Electroplankton you'll have a good time with this one.

Putting aside $7.99 for Earth Devastating B-rank Girlfriend as we speak.

@Five-seveN Haha, I was thinking the same thing - by the time I read the conclusion I was trying to work out where would be the best place to go get some!

Good man, Phil!

@k8sMum =O Chrom is smokin' in that pic!

Sidenote: I would buy a pair of those trunks in a heartbeat. Club Nintendo reward perhaps?

Back on topic, I think changing anything in games from one market to another tends to comes off as a bit silly in hindsight (no pun intended), whether that's altering art like in Fire Emblem, turning blood to ash in No More Heroes, or "localizing" the concept (see: early Persona games with Americanized characters). That said, I think I'd have enjoyed No More Heroes just as much if not more without the blood - if I bought my games by ESRB descriptions I'd take "Suggestive Themes" over "Blood and Gore" any day of the week.

@Flowerlark Glad to help! Have fun with it if you give it a try!

Woah you guys, @Darth_Pascal is right - I just downloaded Tank!Tank!Tank! for nothing and a 60 coin survey showed up in my Club Nintendo account. Surely worth a try for that alone!

@Optimist_Prime You got it!

@Flowerlark Haha don't worry, I find Rabi Laby games ridiculously tough too! This one's got some tricky puzzles, but I definitely think it's easier than either the Rabi Labys or Mighty Switch Force. It's also much more about thinking up solutions than it is about quick reflexes or precise platforming. Of the games you mentioned I think Catrap is the best parallel - Color Commando is about getting from A to B instead of getting rid of enemies, but it takes the same kind of planning and foresight to solve the puzzles.

@DRL Great review mate! This game is one of the main reasons I still break out Animal Crossing on the GCN every once in a while

And big congrats @Five-seveN!

@Optimist_Prime Was going for an art criticism pastiche there, but sorry to hear you found it contrived. In any case, the enthusiasm is for the game itself - I loved it!

@DarkCoolEdge A trim 37 DSiWare blocks!

@Flowerlark What are some other puzzle-platformers you enjoy? This one has a similar premise to Ace Mathician, in that you're manipulating the environment, but the paint lends itself to more hands-on experimentation than Ace's equations do. Also, though the mechanics are very different, I'd say if you liked the Rabi Laby games you'd probably like this one as well!

Very cool! Soundscapes make a huge difference in games for me; I love the audio in Luigi's Mansion DM, and there are plenty of games that I pop in from time to time just to hear the music - Katamari, Balloon Fight, Animal Crossing, Klonoa!

Oh man, I would love to see the Super Famicom Star Stacker over here someday! I love the GB game and have always wanted to play the big-screen version, but the carts are super expensive on eBay. Here's hoping!

Great review, Phil! I'm having a blast with this - it's one of the few Kirby games I'd never played!

Fantastic! Obrigado, @Shiryu!

@zeonox No problem! And yeah, you can spend up to 20 coins in one go, to a maximum of 40 per day. That's enough for a Nemechi-evolution and a few demons, so you can get plenty out of it fairly quickly!

This is all great news, but silly as it sounds I'm most excited about holding B to boot into Wii mode!

Great review, Dave! Shame the game didn't turn out better, the Virtual-On + elemental characters sounded like a great combo!

@cyrus_zuo I'm a big Download Play fan too! And this is definitely a great implementation of it. Only two players can play in a match at a time, but it lets you transfer the game to six 3DS's in one go, so if you have four friends with systems you could get two concurrent two-player matches going very easily!

@Shworange From what I've heard with these preinstalled bundles, you can do a system transfer as normal; once it's finished, AC won't be on the new 3DS anymore, but you can download it from the eShop for free since it merges your purchase history.

@Erikdayo Thanks! They take their data from Metacritic, which had us listed as a 7 by accident, but I contacted them and they very nicely fixed it right away. Should show up as a 9 on both sites now!

@zeonox Exactly, s/he's just for summoning other demons, including some very cool ones that you can't get otherwise! Nemechi has multiple evolution paths too, which each unlock different demons, and you can reset its form whenever you like to go for different evolutions. It's actually pretty compelling, and about the only thing I've enjoyed spending my Play Coins on besides Puzzle Swap pieces!

@DoctorRoXo Wow, that's... not good! Thanks for letting us know!

Wow! I feel like we've been riding a wave of crazy good news re: localization recently! And if Atlus published it over here? Good stuff!!

Well, that's some awesome news! What will 2013 come up with next!?

Holy crap, those are incredible!

Wow, what awesome news!! Wasn't expecting we'd get this one so soon! Fingers crossed for our fellow summoners in Europe/down under too!

Definitely saw this headline right when I woke up this morning and bought it 100%! Would love to see Nintendo make good on this

Woah, @Thomas this is a master class in monster hunting! Awesome!!

Oh man, that's really too bad - hope they figure out a fix soon!

Oh gosh yellow please!! I never would've guessed I'd miss the cradle so much after upgrading to the XL, but I really do! A few hundred CN coins would be much easier to drop on one than $25 from Nintendo's store, too

Andy wins for egg puns!! Can't believe I missed an opportunity for "egg-celent" Have a great weekend everyone!!

Harmoknight!!! Woohoo!!! (Though I'm trying to be good and finish up a review game first )

Ooh excited for the Harvest Moon!! =D

Awesome! I can't remember the last time I was this excited for an eShop update, c'mon Thursday!