Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and enjoy whatever other holidays you enjoy around now! More on the characters in the picture in coming days–it’s a great show called Toradora, for those pre-emptive enough to have a look before I write my review.

I was totally blown away by this fantastic game! It’s got style, it’s got game play and it’s got some actual challenge to it. It’s not hard, so much as it makes you actually think about what you are doing. It’s not just a point and shoot action game, you have to think about how you can most effectively stop your enemies form stopping you first. Once you figure out what you need to do, it’s just a matter of doing it, unlike many modern shooters that seem to be more based on luck than actual thought and skill. You feel a much greater sense of accomplishment when you figure out how to beat a boss in this than you do in other games when you finally manage to live long enough to fill the bosses with enough bullets to drop a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

I could play this game for hours on end and completely lose track of the time. It’s just so entertaining. The consistently fast pace in this game keeps it very engaging and exhilarating–but be careful! You just might forget you should have been in bed seven hours ago!

You start off as a member of a rebel group, fighting their way through wave after wave of well-armed baddies scattered throughout a city in Japan in the post-apocalyptic future. The city is overrun by these strange mutant animals that resulted from an experimental species of animal created specifically as food and raised on the island of Hokkaido. In this post-war future life is peaceful, but as a result; overpopulation has rapidly accelerated and there is a rather immediate need for a more stable and replenish able food source. A group of sceientists genetically engineer a specific creature for the cause, but mutations gradually occur and these new creatures begin hunting their own hunters and eventually escaping the confines of Hokkaido and invading greater Japan. These creatures are referred to as the Ruffians.

Japan was in dire need of some saving at this point and commissioned the Armed Volunteers to save the country, however; they saw it more fitting to oppress the citizens and try to take control for themselves. The last hope of Japan seemed to be lost in the chaos, however; a strange rumor began to surface. A rogue group known as the Savior Group was on the hunt to take out some Ruffians and save the citizens of Japan. What was strange about this rumor was that all the members of the group were said to have been cured of various illnesses via the miraculous power of a mysterious woman known as Achi.

The story follows two teenage members of the Savior Group, Saki and Airan, as they battle the Ruffians and try to retake Japan from it’s seemingly hopeless state. They, like many others, received the salvation of Achi and were healed of their illnesses on the condition that they devote themselves to fighting the Ruffians and saving Japan from spiraling into a state of chaos and despair.

The game plays like a standard, arcade style, on-rails shooter, but it is very unique in comparison and has a much more prevalent story progression than most on-rails, arcade shooters. Everything is very anime themed, from the over dramatic story to the colorful and highly stylized graphics. So if you like a good epic scifi anime adventure this game will sure fill the bill.

Sin & Punishment was a hit Nintendo 64 game in Japan that, for various reasons, never made it to North America. But after an incredible number of requests for it to be included on Nintendo’s Virtual Console it finally made it to the finger tips of millions of Wii owners all across North America. This game was recognized by the game importing community for it’s english voice acting with japanese subtitles, which made it a very popular game to import. Flash forward a few years to the current and now you don’t have to import it! Just turn on your Wii, load up the Shopping Channel and download Sin & Punishment right off the Virtual Console section!

This game was created by legendary game developer, Treasure; a game company known for making some of the biggest cult classic video games, but they’ve laid dormant in recent years. You may know them for Gunstar Heroes or Radiant Silvergun and it’s sequel Ikaruga. They are the creators of many of the most sought after imported games of all time, and now they are back to finally bring their fantastic futuristic adventure, Sin & Punishment, to the western hemisphere!

If you like the good old arcade style rail shooters or epic scifi anime (or even both!) I very highly recommend you give this game a try! It is most certainly worth the mere 1200 Wii Points it costs on the Virtual Console. It is a rather challenging game, but in a way that makes you really want to keep trying to figure out what to do rather than just being frustratingly impossible. Current Gen game developers need to figure out that there is a difference between challenging game play and broken game play. >.>

I’m sure you already know about Tim Burton’s classic gothic movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas, but it’s Halloween today, so it’s pretty much required viewing. As such, I thought it might be something interesting to talk about. Tim Burton has made many other great gothic film like Edward Scissorhands and Corpse Bride, but I feel none of them were quite as fantastic as The Nightmare Before Christmas.

The movie emulates the Disney musical format in a way, but with a dark and gothic twist visually. I found it made the movie very artistically appealing and set it apart from other similarly themed films–aside from Corpse Bride that is, which was basically just a rehash of it’s animation style because the devoted fans just wouldn’t let it end with just one movie. The movie makes use of a sort of claymation appearance, which is a very uncommon animation style. Because of this it allowed a more ‘real’ look to it while remaining surreal in it’s content.

The story follows Jack Skellington, also knowns as Pumpkin Jack–he is looked up to by all the fellow residents of his zany home of Halloween Town. Every year the townsfolk make intricate and elaborate plans to make October 31st the scariest day of the year. Jack is depressed by living this same life every year, planning Halloween. He wishes for something different–he desires variety in his repetitive life. He begins to wonder if there is more to life than Halloween and begins to search for somethiing different.

While wandering in the woods, Jack and his ghostly pet dog, Zero find several trees with doors on them leading to to other holiday-themed worlds. Jack, in his curiousity, accidentally enters Christmas Town, a land of joy and holiday spirit. Jack, fascinated by this unique new world, quickly returns to Halloween Town, where he presents the townspeople with his slightly inaccurate impressions of Christmas. The townspeople, who also become interested in the holiday, agree to celebrate Christmas. Jack leads the attempted festivities as Santa Claus but Sally, Jack’s secret admirer, sees only disaster in his plans.With the unusual Christmas gifts and decorations they create , being more frightening and grotesque than pleasing, it is apparent that she assumes correctly. Jack ignores Sally’s concerns and asks her to create his Santa Claus outfit. Jack then assigns Lock, Shock and Barrel, a trio of mischevious, child-like monsters, to transport Santa to Halloween Town. They, after mistakenly capturing the Easter Bunny, successfully kidnap Santa Claus. Against Jack’s wishes and largely for their own amusement, the trio deliver Santa to the lair of Ogie Boogie, a sadistic, compulsive gambler who plots to play a game with Santa’s life.

Christmas soon arrives and, although Sally attempts to stop him, Jack embarks into the sky on a coffin-like sled pulled by skeletal reindeer, hoping to deliver presents to children around the world; although the townspeople are overjoyed, Sally wanders off alone; defeated. As Jack begins delivering gifts, children are horrified by their monstrous, animated presents, while their parents believe Jack to be a monster attempting to imitate Santa Claus. The military shoot him out of the sky, destroying his sleigh. Although Jack is initially depressed, he realizes he is still the ruler of Halloween Town and can bring joy to the world in his own way.

Sally attempts to free Santa, only to be captured by Oogie Boogie. Just as they are about to be killed by immersion in a foul stew, Jack arrives and challenges their captor. Oogie Boogie flees, placing his complex, sophisticated, deadly gaming machines in Jack’s path as obstacles. However, Oogie Boogie becomes tangled in one of his own machines and is split open, revealing himself to be merely an animated sackful of insects. Most of Oogie’s “bugs” fall into the stew and are boiled alive.

Santa Claus, freed, reprimands Jack, then sets off to correct Christmas by exchanging Jack’s frightening toys for more pleasant hings. This he does successfully. Jack and Sally return to Halloween Town, aided by a reformed Lock, Shock, and Barrel. There, they embrace atop a spiral-shaped, flexible extension of land, while Zero looks on from afar. Sally has been replaced in Dr. Finklestein’s service by another mannequin, leaving her free to live with Jack.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a very unusual movie and is definitely required viewing among your Halloween festivities! If you happen to have not yet seen this wonderful holiday classic I suggest you go check it out!

You can buy the Japanese version and some cool merch at Play-Asia.

Grave Of The Fireflies is a movie written and directed by Isao Takahata, with the help of Studio Ghibli’s animators. But don’t let the Ghibli association fool you; this ain’t no cheery Ghibli flick. This is World War II in Japan–this is hell on earth. This is the bitter tale of the relationship between two orphaned children, Seita and his younger sister Setsuko. The children lose their mother in the firebombing of Kobe, and their father in service to the Imperial Japanese Navy, and as a result they are forced to try to survive amidst widespread famine and the callous indifference of their countrymen. Even their relatives shrug them off, leaving them to fend for themselves.

The movie starts off in the home of a close and loving family in a time of war. The father has gone off to become a war hero aboard the Battleship Maya, but one day the mother receives word of her husbands passing. Soon after discovering the tragic news their town is firebombed, leaving Seito and Setsuko the only remaining survivors of the family. They go to their Aunt, but she doesn’t want them around because she’s having a hard enough time trying to keep her own family fed in this grueling time of war. Seito and Setsuko then leave and take up residence in an abandoned shelter where they struggle to stay alive. After selling the last of their mothers clothes and various other belongings they must resort to thievery to get enough to food to merely put off starvation another day.

Malnutrition from the extremely minimal diet eventually takes the life of Seito’s sister at the very young age of 4, leaving Seito all alone in the world with nothing to live for and nothing to keep him living. He spends his last days in shock and dismay–he has given up on life. He eventually just lays down and lets death take him from the distressing and spiteful world that took the rest of his family.

This is by far the most depressing movie I have ever seen in my life, but it has such a powerful and profound story. I think this movie should be required viewing for anyone, but be prepared for the worst; this movie will twist your heart until you want to reach into your chest and pull it out yourself just to end the pain.

This is the first post in a new section I’m making called Time Machine. In this section I will talk about and review old, long forgotten classics that time has hidden away in our dark and dusty closets. First up is Panzer Dragoon II Zwei. This was a truly amazing game for it’s time; the soundtrack was a feature film quality orchestral backing, which was quite impressive compared to the beeps and boops of that day and age. The gameplay was a spectacle of it’s own; nobody had really done a forced movement path shooter like that before–most certainly not that well. The graphics, of course, for the time were great…but over a decade later they have aged quite a bit. Nothing to squint at and look sideways to be able to tell what’s going on though.

Basically you play as a guy named Jean-Luc Lundi, who lives in a small village where these things called “mutant coolias” are killed. One day Lundi finds one with wings and a glowing green throat which he decides to keep and name ‘Lagi’. Lundi tries to take Lagi out regularly to try to get him to fly and on one occasion a huge Sestren ship called ‘Shelcoof’ destroys Lundi’s village in an attempt to kill Lagi, who is apparently possessed by something called the Heresy Program. Lagi’s green glow grow’s brighter and it starts firing arrows of light from it’s mouth, which is an attack known to be used by the dragons from the ancient age. The arrows of light do not reach Shelcoof so Lundi tries to chase Shelcoof on Lagi’s back. The ultimate goal of the game is to take down Shelcoof.

The gameplay consist of you running around this unusual desert like planet shooting light arrows at just about everything that moves because you are in enemy territory…so basically everything not bolted to the ground is trying to kill you. It’s a pretty simple idea, but the limitation of being on a set path that Lagi follows make for an interesting challenge. The action in this game never ceases. It’s just a constant stream of awesome from the minute the game starts until the minute you get your long awaited revenge on Shelcoof for turning your village into a parking lot.

If you’ve got a Sega Saturn kicking around you should definitely give this game a try. Heck, even if you don’t you should buy a Saturn and try it. There is plenty of really great games on the Saturn…it saddens me that Sega dropped it before it got a chance to make a decent stand.

I decided pictures don’t really do this game justice, so here’s a nice big, shiny gameplay video.

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By the way…you can still buy the Japanese version, which is plenty playable by you English speakers, at Play-Asia!