After visiting the vaguely disturbing Yasukuni Shrine last week, my Dad and I wandered over the road to the Nippon Budokan to have a look at the cherry blossoms that were in tarty bloom. We decided to go inside to take a look at the venue (one of Japan's most prestigious, where the Beatles - amongst many others - played), where I had never been before. Just inside the massive stone walls, there were thousands of people, mainly mid 20s/30s men, queueing up. Figuring it might be some kind of heavy metal concert (there was a lot of black clothing on display), we had a wander to try to work out what was going on. It turns out that it was a concert by Yukari Tamura, a (possibly) famous anime & video game voice actress and Akiba-kei pop-star. The queue was not to meet her, nor to get into her concert, nor even to buy concert tickets, but just to buy the official concert merchandise, including cuddly rabbits, doilies and photos. Not having a video camera, I put my camera on rapid photo mode, and made this little animation of the (really a little scarily long) queue. The music you can hear is from her album. When you're listening, bear in mind that she is 32 years old. Any geeks / Members of her Mellow Pretty Fanclub /Rabid Otaku people who may want to just download it can do so here, otherwise, click the picture below.
I just picked up a copy of this new game for the PSP, 無限回廊. I think it roughly translates as Infinity Loop, although it is being released as Echochrome in the West for some reason. The game involves guiding a little character across Escher-esque pathways. These feature gaps, holes and trampolines which can be hidden by rotating the pathway to obscure the onstruction. If the obstruction is no longer visible, the character treats it as if it isn't there. The pathway can also be rotated so that the character can fall up to a higher leave or jump down to a lower one. It sounds (and is) pretty odd, and is very different from most games around at the moment, but that is definitely a point in its favour. The other notable feature of the game is the design. The whole game is black and white, with simple lines and elegant animation, and features classical music instead of the usual nonsense. It feels totally different from anything else and is beautifully presented. There is also a feature where you can build your own levels, which would be amazing, if it weren't so mind-numbingly complicated to comprehend the final result. The game is also incredibly difficult, and left me with a slightly aching brain after about 5 minutes playing. I'm not sure I would have got it had it been the usual 6000円ish, but for 3500 it was definitely worth buying. Click the picture below for a video...
I am really looking forward to this. I played the Lego Star Wars PSP game for about a month every day on my way to work and it was one of the few games that was actually worth getting a zenclear on. In my opinion, it was one of the best, and certainly the funniest, games to come out for the PSP. There's nothing quite as fun as watching fellow commuters sleep while you slash stormtroopers with your lightsaber, or being leant on by a salaryman with creeping halitosis and taking out your anger on Jabba with your blaster...except perhaps for being Indiana Jones. It looks great from the trailer too - just the right levels of humour and action. I hope that they carry on this Lego/Lucasfilm partnership. I can't wait to play Lego Howard the Duck!
