My dad seems way too amused by the title to the World Ends With You Review (as he read it over my shoulder) and I haven’t the heart to give up the joke, as dumb and easily-missed as it might be (Sounds like a Bond film!) I figured I oughta catch up on my impromptu posting hiatus. You could blame the Wii for it, but it’s actually more my DS’s fault since I downloaded and have since been playing the daylights out of Chosoju Mecha MG. It’s a damn shame that it wasn’t brought over to the States in spite of the niche appeal- the controls are responsive and diverse, and even if it’s a bit dialogue heavy and bogged down by a clumsy overworld map. It’s by far the best giant robot sim on the NDS, though that’s damning it with faint praise since the competition is pretty much Gurren-Lagann and Mechassault. If you have the means and like giant robots, give it a whirl. Remember, the DS isn’t regionified so you don’t need to take a monkey wrench to your system in order to play a Japanese cart. Or a flash cart, if you’re into that kind of thing.

(I am. *cough*)

I find myself enamored with the little things about the Wii, though the motion sensor gimmick isn’t really one of them. Being able to power the system off and on with the Wiimote from the comfort of my bed is one of my favorite features as well as once again being able to plop down in front of the TV set with a buddy and play River City Ransom among others. If only they’d make a remote disc changer, too. After hearing about the legendary battery drain of the ‘motes, I also decided to invest in rechargeable batteries. My MP3 player was burning through them pretty much weekly anyway, so I figure it’ll pay for itself in time.

One question/issue for the bunch out there- does anybody else have screen troubles while running Virtual Console? Mine periodically blinks out to a “Signal Unavailable” error (what my TV does instead of blasting static), aggravatingly enough timed exactly to when an annoying enemy is tailing me in Gradius or when a difficult jump is needed. I’ve heard about the wonderful things VC games do on HD, but mine’s an old fashioned normal set.

I’ll be back soon enough with a new layout and a random bit about a forgotten SNK character. The idea hit me before I found out that there’s an  Urban Dictionary entry about the matter.

(For the record I don’t hate Capcom fighters, I’m just virulently indifferent to them)