I am gittery…

Your item arrived at 8:54 am on November 19, 2004 in BELLE CHASSE!

Japanese first-day/release-date Sales, 11/18

Rank/Platform/Title/Amount/Sell-through percentage of all shipments
1 PS2 Momotarou Densetsu USA 49,000 26%
2 GC Mario Party 6 31,000 12%
3 PS2 J-League Winning Eleven 8 22,000 55%
4 GBA DragonBall Advance 15,000 25%
5 PS2 Pop’n Music 10 10,000, 43%
6 PS2 Beatmania IIDX 8th Style 5,700, 35%
7 PS2 Zoids 5,200 29%
8 PS2 Meitantei Conan: Daiei Teikoku no Isan 4,700 18%

Although the IIDX sales could have been a bit higher *coughbackupusersnotbuyingcough* that is pretty nice. I am wondering if 9th will be released as this is no where near the 20K that 7th required. I have no idea if Konamistyle sales are included on this number though. Nice Pop’n sale #.

I am starting to loose hope that I will have the games this weekend. My shipment just cleared customs lastnight at 6:30 PM which is …. 9:30PM here.

Things seem to be breaking at my house lately. First lastnight my Pop’n ASC started to act weird and then would stop working. It would make a loud strange sound like I was hitting a button a million times in repetition very fast… almost a buzzing. Then the controler would not work. Then, either by waiting or unplugging it then pluging it back in, the problems ceased after about 30 min and did not come back up for the next 1.5 hours I played…

Then the washing machine broke. It will not drain… WTF?

I have been killing a fair ammount of time with http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/ at work… I am a Turtler. Bizare stuff.

Although I have given up just about all hope that this will reach me by Friday, Pop’n 10 and Beatmania IIDX 8th Style have shipped. I got the 2 - 4 day shipping options so… I guess there is a 33% chance of getting it.

I have already seen a few people linking to torents of the game… Seriously. The gaming community on the internet has gotten pretty disgraceful.

EDIT: Shmups.com needs to stop having so many problems damnit.

EDIT#2!!: I just realised that it is not UPS that gets the EMS football pass off when it hits the USA for the play-asia order! It is USPS, and they deliver on Saturday! w00t!

Mr. Jin reminded me of my 98 hour FFVII session. I have not really thought about that in a while. Right after I got to college I brought a lot of video game items with me (and I was the only person on the campus with a Dreamcast, but that is another story).

I did not actually go to a lot of my classes so when my roommate came to me with a proposition I accepted. The goal was to play through FFVII with out stop until finished. This is probably another reason that FFVII is the last RPG I finished that was over 25 hours.

It was an interesting adventure. We would trade off getting food and leveling up and all that. Around the 46 hour mark was when we first slept. We promised to not make any progress only level up while the other person slept for 5 hours. This was the only sleep we got for more than 30 min stretches at a time for all 4 days. This is to say that we would just pass out while the other was traveling around.

Towards the end we decided to look up a Chocobo breeding FAQ to get the black Chocobo. We found out that we missed picking up a character, but that was ok. We beat the game and then slept for about 14 hours. That was fun, but I have no desire to do so again. I have no idea how Mr. Jin lasted 438 hours.

I completely forgot that Growlanser Generations was coming to the US. Not that I will buy it, but I like that these games still get attention (low graphics, high ingenuity). I don’t think that I have played any of the Working Designs RPGs, but I still have much respect for them. They take some huge chances.

While RPGs and SRPGs still do pretty well in the US the titles that Working Designs puts out (Arc the Lad) don’t really sell too well. I wish there were more companies willing to take the chances with out fear of going under

Capcom Fighters Evolution comes out today. I was thinking that I should pick it up and really put my nose to the grindstone and learn this game. I have tried with a few games, but even the ones that I have spent the most time with I still end up sucking at.

I have gotten decent at both GGXX and SF3:TS, but only to the point of beating people who have little to no experience with the games. Then they usually overtake me if they keep playing. I don’t really get it.

I will never get good at fighters.

In preparation for, hopefully, this weekend I played some Pop’n last night. I played the stuff that I pretty much can’t beat. I realized where I am getting held back at. My left hand.

The stuff that I can’t play yet mainly either a) involves me moving faster than I can right now, b) reading faster than I can right now (I beat Melo Punk – Pure [H] on 4 speed), or c) Using my left hand past the 5 button frequently. These are the things that I need to work on. A lot of EX songs and hyper level 33+ have this.

I found this site “Kids.goo” and it looks like it could help me in my learning a bit. Most of it is Hiragana and the Kanji that is there has Furigana(?). Once I get down my Hiragana charts this might be some good practice. Plus it is like… super cute.

~~Movies~~

The Stepford Wives: While this was entertaining for the most part it never really felt like a whole movie. It felt like a bunch of friends got together and made a really long commercial with a poorly tied together plot. Like those new Tacoma commercials. Anyways it was good when it was good, but just kind of… there I guess. This movie does suffer from a horrible trailer. The trailer gives away almost every interesting plot twist in the movie up until the last 10 min. If you have not seen a trailer yet, don’t. 2 out of 4 Stars.

Cure: Yea, I have kind of been on a Japanese cinematography kick as of late. This one was … different? Better? … than I expected. It was very well filmed and the pace of the movie was great, but it was strange. This seems to be either a trend in Japan or just the movies that I have seen, but the ending never really happens. I mean the light go out and the credits roll kind of thing, but you’re left to make up your own decision of the film. I like this at the same time it kind of bugs me. The sound track, direction and writing are all great in this. It has a mystery over the entire thing and really gets into the duality of human nature. I really liked it, but cannot decide if I want to buy it or not. 3 out of 4 stars.

BioZombie: I think this is an HK movie. Anyways if was as good a zombie spoof movie as you can get. A bit of popular culture (House of the Dead 1 references galore) and some cheesy acting add up to an intended comedy. Don’t get me wrong this does not end up as a “so-bad-it-is-funny” movie, it is funny. The special effects are pretty poor and the acting is laughable at best, but the zombie spoof is nailed. If you liked Return of the Living dead I would recommend this one, otherwise just wait for Shaun of the Dead. 1.5 out of 4 stars.

The Eye: This movie is a great scary movie… for a while. Unfortunately this movie is really spent after a certain point (2/3 of the way through) and starts to get… off track. When it is good it is really impressive. Some of the best camera work I have seen in a while and all the special effects are really damn good. Some Americajin filmmakers could really learn a thing or two from this. There are quite a few loose ends when the movie is finished, but this is due to a narrowing of focus and the rest being dropped. 3 out of 4 stars.

~~Games~~

Not sure how familiar you all are with Cotton 100% but I got the SuperLite 1500 PS1 version quite a while ago and finally got around to playing it for a second time on Sat. I will probably never touch it again as I was inches from the 1CC on my 4th try, but the end boss was absolutely ridiculous. Not only does she move too fast, but if your positioning is slightly off one of her attacks takes up the full screen (like a wall) and then pushes right to left for about half the screen. That is … ok … but she moves to fast. I got to her again and got around the stupid wall of death attack, but she will always run into me while I am trying to avoid her. This is horrible as the rest of the game is too easy and then this is bizarre in difficulty. Unfair is quite the word.

Beatmania and Pop’n ships this week. I need to practice some for the upcomming event of JOY!

~~On a random note~~
THIS is one of the most bizarre “real” thinks I have ever seen. It is like SeaLab 2021 and Harvey Birdman hilarity unintentionally.

Have I ever mentioned that one hit kills on life bar based platformers suck? Super Castlevania IV level 8 is about all I have to say on that!

Strikers 1945 II = 535,100 1-5 Hayate yay.

Yea I will do some movie reviews tomorrow.

Last night, while waiting for the remainder of the baby calls, I wanted something to read. Prior to that I was watching the last DVD of Season one of 24. That ended quickly when I snapped at my wife and she went upstairs. So I am waiting.

I really just wanted to read something in Japanese. Not like Romanji or anything (like the title of the post) but in Hiragana and what not. I am only up to about 30 kana so that was out of the question and I only having one thing (aside from many game manuals) in Japanese.

My mother was one of the last people to call me to talk about my sister’s baby. Somehow I mentioned that while wanting to read something in Japanese I started to practice my kana. Some of you may remember that my mom is a hypnotherapist.

What I need to do, right before I go to sleep, is to picture in my head going down the road of time and becoming more proficient in Japanese. Then after weeks months and years I see myself fluent in it and using it naturally. All I could do was laying bed and repeat “Nihongo-ga sukoshi wakarumasu” in my head.

There is a freshly sharpened pencil sitting on my desk that smells like wood. It is telling me to draw those fun to draw and look at little characters… I think I will.

I am an UNCLE! Sara is an aunt. I am the favorite uncle of Orion Williamson… also the least favorite… err umm the only too!

As of 11-11-04 at aprox. 7:45pm I am the uncle of a 6.9 lb baby boy.

YAY! Now all that worring is over and I can relax. This is also the first time I have ever made 3 updates in one day… I feel like an attention whore.

Ok Flux… I will see your 486,000 1-5 Hayate and raise you 508,000 1-5 Hayate. Are you man enough?