Friday, July 11, 2008

Weekly Famitsu Vol. 1023 - New Import, Subscriptions

Cover Subject: Persona 4 / Cover Date: July 25, 2008
«©NCSX» Weekly Famitsu subscriptions (Volume 1023) will ship today. New subscriptions are welcome but please note that your first issue will begin in 2 weeks. Due to the fleeting nature of gaming periodicals, NCS is not keeping any new issues of Famitsu in stock and only yearly subscriptions are being processed for every weekly issue. Thank you.

Notable features and tidbits in Weekly Famitsu Vol. 1023
»
Famitsu's top 100 games of 2008 for the first half of the year is posted up. At the top spot, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G lords over all others followed by Super Smash Bros X and Mario Kart Wii.
» Preview of NDS Chrono Trigger which ships later this year.
» Gundam Battle Universe earns 8/8/8/9
» Special feature on Persona 4 with information on the background story, main characters, monsters, and general gameplay strategies.
» Previews for Wii Captain Rainbow and PS2 Thunderforce VI.

Gakken Chuugokugo Sanmai DS - New Import, In Stock

In the next 20 to 40 years, Mandarin may become the de-facto language of international trade. Need to have a widget built to spec without disclosing trade secrets to an unscrupulous broker? Learn Mandarin so you can speak to the fabricator directly. Get a leg up on the competition with Gakken's Chuugokugo Sanmai language learning software which teaches users Mandarin in a casual setting. Students will learn the basics of grammar, proper pronunciation, normal conversational speech snippets, and useful everyday words for beginners. There's even pinyin transliteration for us yanks so we have some inkling of what's going on. Note: Chuugokugo Sanmai is Japanese language software and is designed for a Japanese-literate audience eager to learn Mandarin.

Touch de Ni-Hao Hitsudan - New Import, In Stock

If you're a Japanese bloke who's headed to the Beijing Olympics next month, you might want to learn a little Chinese. Failing that however, you might want to bring a translator. That's where the Touch de Ni-Hao Hitsudan software comes in handy as an electronic Katakana to Kanji translator with a 17,000 character library. In addition to the translation function, the software includes a number of language learning mini-games, a Travel Assist Mode, a Notepad for scribbling short messages and numbers, and a collection of words that are used in daily conversation. To help a Japanese bloke in his quest for the Summer Olympics, the software also includes a Beijing subway map which shows how to get to the different venues and a map of the Olympic Subway Line 8.

Volleyball World Cup: Venus Evolution - New, In Stock

The first round of the FIVB Women's World Cup 2007 kicked off on November 2, 2007 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium and Spike front runs the event with their release of Volleyball World Cup: Venus Evolution. The cost of the game stands at JPY6800 but we would have priced it at JPY4800 to better reflect the market reality and potential of the product. Alas, the cost of official licensing is dear and Spike had to recoup the bulk of their investment from retail sales. The other source of revenue that Spike was able to obtain was in-game advertising from Mikasa Sports, the Japan Volleyball Association, and Fuji Television. The FIVB World Cup banner also rings the arena.

The Japan Women's Volleyball Team is the featured squad in the game which means their likenesses are recreated in the game in fairly decent fashion. We can sort of recognize super players like Miyuki Takahashi and the five freshmen of the 18-player team: Akiko Ino, Masayo Eguchi, Midori Takahashi, Shuka Oyama and Yuki Ishikawa. Finally, coach Shoichi Yanagimoto also appears in the game. The international teams that made it to the World Cup are all in attendance and players may enjoy an Exhibition Mode, the World Cup Mode, or a World Championship Mode.

General Updates

Playstation Portable GPS Receiver
A batch of PSP GPS Receivers was restocked yesterday and another batch will arrive by Wednesday of next week. New orders are welcome. If we sell out of the GPS later this afternoon, please rest assured that we'll be able to process your order next week.
PSN Tickets
All backorders for PSN Tickets in the JPY3000 and JPY5000 denominations will be processed and sent today. If you're using a Hotmail or Yahoo email account, please check your Junk E-mail folder for the ticket if it isn't in your Inbox by 1:30PM EST. The email will contain a scan of the actual ticket with the code boxed within a red rectangle for your visual convenience.