I must say, I love to play my Nintendo DS. But having one for breakfast would be epic, don’t you think? Still wondering how they manage to create such a fine toast (if it’s real that is). Any ideas? ^^

Source: newzonfire.com

No related posts.

We’re all very tempted to think that a game like Ninja Golf is unpossible. Well, guess what, it’s not! And no wonder it’s related to Atari, a company that played an important role in the 1983 Video Game Crash. Here’s an animated GIF in case you’re wondering how the game looks like ^^

(Caption reads: Don’t worry about shot force or wind, nothing really matters)

So, waddaya think?

No related posts.

Zerg Swarm pictured on a cake. Looks “delicious” though I would feel bad eating a few drones.

You may be wondering what StarCraft has to do with an Asian-related stuff blog. Well, in case you didn’t know, StarCraft was released more than ten years ago, however, the game is played as a national e-sport in Korea every day, supposedly more than half a million Koreans are playing the game every night, and a great number of international players playing too (I’m one of them). Various major StarCraft leagues exist in Korea, with quite a few number of expectators. Many pro players are treated like movie stars ^^

Here’s an incredible match between Stork and FlaSh, dated 2007:

Click here to view the embedded video.

You may be a little amazed that a game created ten years ago is widely played, but you wouldn’t understand if you are not into it, like me ^^ if you’re up for a game or an IC Cup match I’ll gladly accept.

More cakes via Team Liquid

No related posts.

That’s right, the new installment of the MGS series, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker announced by Hideo Kojima just a while ago, will take place in Costa Rica (my homeland!), apparently in 1974 on the Caribbean Coast province of Limón. Take a look at the trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve always wondered how realistic the MGS games are, and this will finally be my opportunity to have a good idea about it ^^. The idea behind this new Metal Gear Solid is that Costa Rica abolished any militar activity (that’s true just in case, no military in Costa Rica!) many years ago and so it is a good place to set up the new Outer Heaven or sort.

Anyway, I’m really hoping to play this one as it will be fun to see how they think Costa Rica looked more than ten years before I was born. Here’s a picture of Costa Rica, not from the Caribbean coast but you get the idea. I can already start imagining Snake running around!

No related posts.

Initially thought they were Ninja Boots, spotted by Ale Pepino, but the author had an even better idea: Ninja Turtles cosplay boots! ^^;;

Speaking of which, I just learned that TMNT turned 25 this year — just a bit older than me. As a kid, I used to enjoy the animation, movies, had lots of figures, and owned all the Konami games which were classics:

As a video-game developer, even now I find myself playing the classic Konami TMNT games, the best platform games! Did you play them? My favorite is TMNT 4: Turtles in Time, though Hyperstone Heist was a good second place.

Times have changed and the new TMNT look like this, am I the only one who thinks they look horrid?

Times have changed ^^;;

Related posts:

1. Ninja Golf We’re all very tempted to think that a game...
2. Ninja Tennis Last time we had some  going on. Well, today...

Anyone here a diehard Mario fan? I used to be one, but since I don’t have that much time and modern game are not my thing, didn’t play Mario Sunshine or Mario Galaxy through. However, I’m dying for Super Mario RPG 3 (known as Mario & Luigi Saga) for the Nintendo DS to come out in English, epic games! Mario and Luigi Partners in Time was my first Nintendo DS game and I enjoyed every single moment of it — almost as much as I enjoyed Advance Wars.

Via Neta.

Related posts:

1. Nintendo DS for Breakfast I must say, I love to play my Nintendo...

Ever wondered how a Video Game Developer’s Office looked like? Well, the title is an euphemism, since we’re just small developers. It’s quite messy (gotta tidy up a bit), but fortunately I didn’t take a picture of the other side, where various handheld consoles, one a prototype from South Korea, developer boards, modems, a Dreamcast, a CRT monitor and TV, some cell phones, and much more stuff compete for space.

I recently donated my older 19″ LCD monitor to my dad, and got two 19″ LCD widescreen monitors. Dual Monitor is the closest thing to heaven and is great for programing, designing, and watching animé or Jdrama at the same time ^^. As for the other stuff, my mouse is a Razer Krait 1600 DPI, perfect to fit my StarCraft addiction (I’ll blog about it later on). It’s about 10 times more precise and movement-sensitive compared to normal mice, so it’s a bit hard to get used to it firsthand. My Genius speakers are genuine [sic] wood and sound better than my Sony studio headphones. My older MP3’s sound nasty on these speakers, and anything below 128 kbps makes my ears bleed. My Sandisk Sansa is also dancing around there (I hate iPods), my Taiwanese cell phone when I need to text my Chinese-speaking friends (a little tricky to write Kanji though), my 2GB Kingston USB key, my external backup harddrive, and my swimming wristwatch are among the stuff that I can’t live without. Can you recognize them?

That’s another view with our newly acquired Acer Aspire One — perfect for traveling, lightweight stuff, or showcasing our work. I love the fact that it weighs about 3 pounds and battery life is about 5 hours.

As for the pictures, the left side is our just-released project for the Dreamcast Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles.  Here’s a bigger version:

As for the other one, that’s me and my friend from Turkey, in Osaka Castle. I love both Osaka and Osaka Castle, and I hope I can see the castle again in Winter since the ehagaki I bought looked beautiful. Wanna see it bigger?

Japan’s summer is hell, so it was either wearing sandals or walking barefoot. And yes, wearing jeans was a stupid decision.

Anyway, back on track, here’s the trailer from our latest game, both in English and Japanese!

Click here to view the embedded video.

We just started, but I’m happy with how things are working out. I’ll try taking a few pictures of the handhelds we use for development. If you enjoyed today’s article, don’t forget to subscribe to Instant Ramen via RSS or email ^^!

No related posts.

Though a little late announcement, the Sega Dreamcast’s 10th Anniversary was on late 2008. The Dreamcast was one of the most underrated consoles of the time, surpassing the PlayStation 2 in graphics and quality. For some reasons including very bad luck and bad decisions from Sega, the Dreamcast was very short-lived in the Americas, and later cut off from Europe. However, in Japan, the Dreamcast held its title as one of the best modern generation consoles, with official releases years after the console was no longer mainstream.

The Dreamcast fanbase was never dead nor gone, and last November, to honor the Dreamcast, Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles was released as an independent release (同人ソフト), an extensive puzzle game in both English and Japanese!

The game features a professionally pressed CD, an obi strip (spine card collector’s item), and a 40-page full color manual in both English and Japanese. Watch the game trailer below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Why Independent?

In case you didn’t know, the videogame industry is no longer in its Golden years. Similar to Hollywood movies, mainstream companies have turned big and games are no longer good for what they really are, instead, for how much promotion, licenses, or money they have available. Talent is rather lacking on many mainstream games, and gamers now purchase games created for a consumer market. Of course, this  does not go without a toll, and big companies like Electronic Arts (supposedly the biggest videogame company) has cut off 30% and now 10% of their labor force, mostly because they can’t keep up pumping with sales.

同人ソフト in Japan

Contrary to the Western side of the world, 同人ソフト is very common in Japan, in fact and Asia, many artists and talents were actually spotted as independent developers. Actually, the Comiket was created solely for independent releases, and as I wrote a while ago more than 500′000 expectators visited the last Comiket 75 in Tokyo!

One of the gems of independent games is 洞窟物語 (Cave Story), created by pen-name Pixelさん. If you’re into videogames, then your life is not complete if you have not yet played it. Here’s a bit more information about Independent games and reasons to support them ^^

Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles is also an independent release, created by Yuan Works, a team also known as the Yuan brothers, me being half of said team ^^.

That’s me in red!

The game was sold-out in some stores in Japan and Yahoo! auctions that overpriced the game (lucky them!), and we’ve been told that some stores stock in Osaka. We do hope that one day we can see our game in Akihabara! If you’re a puzzle game fan, you may like this one too ^^ I’m good at puzzle games including our own one, and I dare challenge Utada Hikaru for a W&W match!

No related posts.