Death Smiles 2 cosplay at AOU 2009

(tags cosplay, arcade, convention, Tokyo, gothic lolita, loli, Death Smiles)

This is gothic lolita right? Even though the clothes aren't black and white.

This cosplay promotion is for Cave's Death Smiles 2. All I gotta say is thanks Geemaga. This one has better lighting than this other guy's pictures... but his has some background info: (official?) cosplayer for "Spee" (sp?), a 150 cm tall, 15 years old, idoru talent named Eri Yamaguchi. Oh, and here I am thinking that the creases in her face makes her older, like legal or something. One more from Gigazine, with some video.

As for the actual game, Death Smiles and 2, I'll buy them on the Xbox 360, but it will be my first time to play them. It's a Cave shmup, that's good enough for me.

Time Crisis 3 is painful

(tags game, light-gun, arcade, failure)

I'm a pretty weak, dude. I played Time Crisis 3 at the game center above the Kobe Sofmap just for old time's sake. By the end of Stage 1 my arms were hurting bad. I needed the full rest time during the cut scene. I couldn't get past Stage 2 because I kept dropping my arms.

After that went to the bathroom. I accidently breathed my own saliva or something (does this happen often when one gets older?) and involuntarily I started coughing. When coughing I must have pulled an ab muscle because my chest and stomach hurt pretty bad. Down for the count. :-(

I gotta exercise more than playing Time Crisis 3. w00t!

Castle Crashers, is it any good?

(tags game, Xbox 360, arcade, side scroll, beat-em-up)

I didn't really understand the hype for this "delayed" XBLA game, Castle Crashers. The hype did motivate me to make sure to download the demo, though. So I play through the demo once and yes it felt like Final Fight, with upgrade elements. Actually only the hint of upgrades, because the demo timed out on the boss encounter. Stick and run, stick and run, over and over again. At least this game isn't designed to bleed you of your quarters. Eventually I decided it's not worth the 1200 XBLP, for now.

It reminds me that I still want to get that XBLA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game only available in the US (well at least not in Japan).

The second goodbye: closing arcades in japan

(tags game, arcade, failure)

I hear the news about some Japanese arcades closing through Internet, namely through Subatomic Brainfreeze. Obviously I don't go to arcades and I don't buy the monthly magazine Arcadia.

I doubt very much that flagship sites like Taito's HEY or Akihabara's Club Sega are going to go down, so go to Tokyo or Osaka for your hardcore/midcore arcade fix. But I expect little rinky dink or remote arcades in my neck of the woods will be drying up. It seems silly to attribute the arcade downturn to the Wii, because they provide different experiences and cater to different audiences.

Will this mean more experiments in arcade gaming like Idolm@ster, those card-based soccer/action games (the sit-down type for adults), those crazy hardware games like walking the dog or riding a bicycle or using a sword, and gun games dry up too? And what of those get-em-while-they're-young mini-arcade games like Mushi King and Love and Berry that are nested in family-friendly malls and Toys R Us? Never mind the hardcore games from the likes of Cave and SNK.

Consumer home game consoles and high gas prices are taking their toll on Japanese arcades, according to the Namco-Bandai spokesperson. Stay at home is the mantra this recession.