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HOLIDAYS07: The PSP Must Haves

The PSP Must-Haves

The holiday season is here and there’s nothing to do (besides listen to Grandpa’s fishing stories) and the console is at home.  So you naturally boot up a PSP game, sit back with some eggnog, and jump in to a world previously unseen on a handheld. Of course, it all depends on which game you’re talking about…(Jump!)

HOLIDAYS07: 2008 and Beyond

2008 and Beyond

The PSP naysayers have had a lot of ’splaining to do recently: the PSP’s sales in Japan and America fueled by hot releases skyrocketed and stayed steady after weeks and weeks; the PSP beat the DS in software sales for the first time in months; and a new PSP had naysayers rethinking their “myths” about loading times and battery life. For those PSP owners who are listening to those naysayers saying that the PSP won’t do well in 2008, ignore them and listen up as the future only holds exciting news…(Jump!)

ROUNDUP: The Zune Edition

ROUNDUP 11/4-11/16

Okay, it’s not that we don’t like Microsoft. It’s just that they consistently have a “way” of doing things–abandoning their own creations (DRM WMA, maybe?), pushing products with glitches (XBOX 360), and making mistakes constantly (Windows ME, much?). Their Zune was one of those mistakes–a bulky, outdated player with a mere 30GB in a market where 80GB became the standard. The original Zune had a very old-fashioned standard d-pad with a center button and two other buttons instead of a touch feature that the other mp3 players had. It also had Wi-Fi that was used for Zune-to-Zune sharing (like anybody did that) and video support without the videos. The new Zune2 has been raved by critics alike, who enjoy its new interface, new button system (a touchpad system reminiscent of the Click Wheel), and a flash version. Sure, it’s all around improved, but it screams “iPod Competitor”. Instead of giving us more–for example, a social video community where people could share their videos straight from their Zune, a built-in digital/video camera for taking photos/videos and sharing them, an actual social network (a la Facebook) on the Zune, or an actual video store–they gave us just what the iPod offered. If Microsoft seriously aims to compete with the rest, they need to innovate the market, not crowd it with the same thing. All bets are on : The Zune2’s sales won’t improve. Weekly Roundup after the jump…

ROUNDUP: The Cereal Edition

WEEKLY ROUNDUP for 10/29-11/3 ~ We’ve done compilations of everything we’ve had for the week (see: WWWF, the short-lived Weekly Roundup), but this is one I’m finally committing to. A full compilation of absolutely everything important that went down this week for those of you who love compilations. It’s a quick and easy way to find everything good that happened this week wrapped up into one.

But it’s also a good way for me to tell offbeat stories about things I’ve just wondered about. Had LocoRoco been widely successful in Japan, I could actually imagine a LocoRoco cereal, those Japanese gamers and everyone alike pulling out a bowl and dumping some yellow LocoRoco-like cereal into it, along with marshmallow MuiMui extras. Of course, there is one problem to this awkward fantasy: one, LocoRoco wasn’t widely successful in Japan. But to say that it couldn’t be accomplished is false, because Kelloggs actually produced a Pokemon cereal a long time back. Thanks to the dwindling popularity of the television show, movie properties, and trading cards, it has been discontinued, but even still, there actually was one, right? All the weekly stuff after the jump