Now through Tuesday, June 21st, get massive discounts on many Xbox Live Arcade titles. Sadly, we own most of the ones listed so we can’t fully take advantage of this deal, but this is fantastic for those of you who are wanting to expand your XBLA library. Read the full story

In their live conference yesterday, Konami started off their presentation with video showing a vault and you heard a voice entering the, now classic, Konami code before going into reel of their upcoming games. Shinji Hirano, President of Konami, introduced himself and welcomed everybody. Hirano-san says that this year, Konami has strong line-up which consists of Konami original IP such as Metal Gear Solid: Rising, Silent Hill, two Castlevania games, Frogger, and Dance Dance Revolution. Read the full story

Castlevania is one of those series that has stayed with me since childhood.  I can still remember playing Simon’s Quest as a kid, then Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow on my GBA Micro, and Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin on my Nintendo DS.  The music, the gameplay, the graphics…It’s all still visible with my mind’s eye.  And now, with the Konami E3 announcement of Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, I get to return to a series I have loved since childhood.

There are five playable characters.  From screenshots, it seems that the playables will be Soma Cruz (Aria of Sorrow/Dawn of Sorrow), Alucard (Symphony of the Night), Jonathan Morris (Portrait of Ruin), Charlotte Aulin (Portrait of Ruin), and Shanoa (Order of Ecclesia).  I’m very happy with Soma, Alucard, Jonathan, and Charlotte.  I’ve never played as Shanoa, so I can’t say much about that.  Obviously, I’d love to have Simon Belmont as a playable character as well, but I can settle for Alucard.  More characters and stages could be added as DLC in the future, if the game sells well.

The first multiplayer entry into the Castlevania series, Harmony of Despair will be released on Xbox Live Arcade this summer as part of Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade event.  Castlevania: Harmony of Despair offers co-operative multiplayer with up to 6 people online (no word if local multiplayer is included), very high resolution dot graphics (over 10 million dots per screen), and more.  Along with co-op multiplayer, a survival mode is included where you can play against other players.  Additionally, unlike previous Castlevania’s, the different areas of the maps connect, allowing enemies to follow through from other screens.

Here are some screenshots that have been released for the upcoming game:

E3 debut trailer:

Who’s ready to make Dracula their bitch?

I am.

-[insert MANKIND ILL NEEDS ANOTHER SAVIOR SUCH AS YOU! here]

Just a few hours ago, Nintendo unveiled the next addition to it’s handheld family, the 3DS. Global President for Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, presented the handheld, and gave us some really great information. The premiere of the device was a big deal. A lit up column rose from the ground, and atop of it was the 3DS.

Unlike other 3D technology out there, the 3DS doesn’t require you to wear any glasses. I think that’s great because I already have to wear glasses. I don’t need another pair on top of my everyday ones. No glasses ensure there is “nothing between you and the experience”. The 3DS boasts a 3.5 light screen display on top, and only the bottom screen is touch. Why? They found that touch screens mixed with 3D didn’t go over too well, and I can’t blame them for wanting to give us the best product possible. In fact, I’m glad they were looking out for us.

It’s been 6 years since the Nintendo DS first launched. Since then they’ve made improvements to the graphic capability and the 3DS will display those advancements. There is a 3D depth slider, where the player can control the depth perception, a new slide pad for analog play, motion sensors, and gyro-sensors. The 3DS will still come with a camera, and all pictures taken can be viewed in 3D. How cool is that?

One huge upgrade is that the 3DS can play 3D movies. No specific details will be discussed at E3 this week, but as the handheld launch gets closer, I’m sure we will know more. At the Nintendo booth, 3DS are on display and viewers can choose from How to Train Your Dragon by Dreamworks, Tangled by Disney, or Legend of the Guardians by WB to watch. The 3DS will still be able to access the internet via Wi-Fi, and even if you aren’t near Wi-Fi, new stages, quests, ghost data, and rankings will be automatically downloaded. Another awesome feature is if you are away from your DS, your 3DS can still communicate with other 3DS and gather new data, items, etc. No authorization required.

Loads of developers are on board with the 3DS, and they even announced who and what titles we can expect. Here is a quick rundown:

• Nintendogs featuring cats
• Kid Icarus: Uprising
• Capcom – Resident Evil. New, original and where players can explore all sorts of secrets, and who knows what can be hiding behind objects at the end of hallways, or even furniture?
• Ubisoft – Assassins Creed
• Square Enix – Kingdom Hearts
• Konami – Metal Gear
• Activision – DJ Hero
• Namco – Ridge Racer
• Level-5 – Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle

At the very end of the presentation, there was a short trailer for the 3DS, featuring Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Reggie Fils-Amie. I don’t know if it’s an indicator of what’s to come, but check it out and tell me in the comments below what you think. If it is, then some pretty amazing things are heading our way.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83GoGHBkdyg

- Me

Back in 2002 I attended the wonderful Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3. It was everything I could have imagined, and more. There was so much going on that I thought I would succumb to sensory overload. Game demos everywhere, lights and neon that made you think you were at Times Square or the Vegas Strip, and people! Oh it was a sea of nerds, and it was beautiful!

I went all 3 days of that convention and my legs were so tired. The trick is to go around to each booth the first day and pillage for goodies. E3 is notorious for giving good swag. I came away with Link and Samus pins for my lanyards, game demos, a huge Sony bag, and a bunch of other stuff.

I was given a job offer from Sega (that couldn’t be accepted for personal reasons… and yeah, that was my dream job btw), and I even got the chance to attend the Sony After Party. There I met Hideo Kojima. For those of you who don’t know who that is, he is the Vice President of Konami and also the creator of Metal Gear Solid. It was such an honor to meet him and I had no idea what to talk about! I did tell him how I laughed at the part in Metal Gear 2 when you can knock on the inside of a locker door where a poster of a bikini girl hangs. When you do that, you hear a “boing!” sound as the fist hits the boob. So funny! Hideo always puts little details like that in every game of his and I think it’s fantastic. I even asked him about the Metal Gear that would be released after that and all he told me was that “there will be a Snake” in it. I can’t tell you how many hours my brain wrestled around with that comment.

What I really found cool was that Kojima-san and his friends all wanted to take pictures with me. I know that a lot of it had to deal with the fact that I am a blonde haired, blue eyed American girl who spoke Japanese but still, it was flattering. Then the icing on the cake happened when Kojima-san asked for my business card. Of course I didn’t have one so I apoligized but he gave me his! There I am, this regular person getting this incredible mans business card! I immediately thanked him for it and told him that one day I hope I get the chance to work with him because it would be an honor and a dream come true. It really would be.

I have yet to call him and it’s been almost 7 years. First off I have no idea what I would say, secondly it would probably be expensive as hell to call Japan. His business card did include his email and I have yet to do that either. I have no idea what to say! Really, what does one say when they are emailing a person such as him?

Lately I’ve thought about it though. Emailing him and saying sorry that it’s taken so long, and to help jog his memory I would attach one of the pictures that was taken but I don’t know. It could be pretty awesome or I could fail…miserably. If I do email him you guys and gals will be the first to know about it!

Here are some of the pictures taken from that Sony After Party, and yeah… my hair was bleached. Oh, you can obviously tell how excited I am by my enormous smile.

From L to R: Some guy who worked on Street Fighter and Suikoden, me, Akira Yamaoka of Silent Hill fame and a Konami employee. Bottom: I have no idea.

From L to R: Hideo Kojima VP of Konami and creator of Metal Gear Solid, me, Takayoshi Sato who is another Konami employee

From L to R: Hideo Kojima, me, Akira Yamaoka of Silent Hill fame and Konami employee

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures even though I look totally different and way beyond excited but if you were there you would probably be that excited too. I did talk with Takayoshi Sato for a few months after E3 and we kept trying to schedule time to get together for lunch but that never happened. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with Akira Yamaoka he did the sound for all of the Silent Hill games, was the main guy behind the 3rd game in the series, and he also worked on the movie adaptation. He was a really nice guy and I have his business card somewhere too.

I would scan them for you guys but I don’t think they would appreciate me giving out their information on the internet like that. Sorry!!

Hopefully I can get into E3 this year. I might make more posts that are tech and video game oriented just because I would want to prove that this blog can qualify for a press pass or something of that nature. Who knows, I might have more pictures this June! Wish me luck!

- She Who Has The Last Word