(data pulled from The Weather Channel on 7-29-10)
This summer, I haven’t had to break out my window fan setup too much, and this is why. I love it.
Remember the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad Taiko no Tatsujin Plus? Now it’s actually got something added to it in the form of a collaboration with infamous Kanagawa hiphopping group Rip Slyme.
In addition to that, several DLC packs beyond the first three have been released, all at Y600 apiece –
- RS Pack: Taiyou to Bikini / Funkastic / Joint / Rakuen Baby / Speed King
- Kids’ Songs Pack 1: Omocha no Cha-Cha-Cha / Detective Conan Main Theme / Yuuki 100% / Ningentte Ii na / Mori no Kuma-san
- Popular Songs Pack 3: Ai Uta / Yume wo Kanaete Doraemon / Lum no Love Song / Linda Linda / Love Story wa Totsuzen ni
There used to be a J-Pop Pack (Kibun Jou Jou↑↑ / Train-Train / Daite Senorita / Age♂Age♂Every☆Knight / Sunao ni Naretara), but supposedly due to licensing issues, they had to pull it off the App Store shelves momentarily.
I’ve currently got just the RS pack for now — the cuts are alright (especially given Funkastic and how I’m used to listening to the long version all the time thanks to Neil Cicierega), the charts are pretty difficult, and the new free song (via an update that also adds Auto Mode by tapping on the nameplate) is icing on the cake.
Now, how about them boss songs, huh? Fun fact: when I was reading the reviews, two out of every three reviews gave iTaiko a low score either because the song packs were too expensive or there needed to be 2000-series songs added; the latter was more common. I want them, too!
Either that or a 500-yen pack consisting of only Wonder Momoi. I’d buy it.
Speaking of Anime Expo, I figure now would be a good time to figure out what I should actually be doing while I’m down in LA. I’m arriving on Friday (mostly because work’s keeping me on Thursday and I totally was oblivious of the fact that it was a Thursday-through-Sunday con — I’m used to this thing called Fanime, yaknaamean?).
Here’s my schedule, as it stands right now:
Friday, July 2, 2010
12:00 PMish: Arrive at the LACC.
3:00 PM: Danny Choo panel. (I’m familiar with Danny, but it’s more like his panel comes right before a panel featuring…)
4:30-7:30 PM: Horie Yui panel and signing ♥
10:30 PM: Hardcore Synergy (AX Edition)
Saturday, July 3, 2010
10:00 AM-1:30 PM: Toradora! US Debut / Kitamura Eri and Horie Yui signing ♥
6:00-8:00 PM: Nihongo de OK
8:30-9:30 PM: Shira Oka panel
Sunday, July 4, 2010
9:00 AM: Danny Choo panel (Black★Rock Shooter unveiling!)
10:00 AM: General Guest of Honor autograph session (feat. Horie Yui, of course)
3:00 PM: Return back to NorCal.
“But Spiritsnare,” you might ask, “What about the gaps inbetween events, like 12~3 on Friday and 1:30~6 on Saturday? I think I did mention MangaGamer and how many guests they have and how none of their events seem to have a schedule yet. So those blocks are basically currently devoted to lunch, the Exhibit Hall in general, and whatever events from MangaGamer pique my interest.
To people I already know (you know who you are ♥), and to people I haven’t met up with in a while (SoCal peeps, holla!), and to people I’ll be seeing for the first time (Mid-Atlantic Technika “Shoreline Crew” and a couple of bloggers), I look forward to seeing you!!
Here’s a carol dedicated to the guests that are making it over to Anime Expo, courtesy of MangaGamer. (Because if I made a carol about guests in general, I’d get stuck on Horie Yui and never be able to stop massugu go massugu go massugu go massugu go. Start singing after the break. Oh, and some of these links aren’t work-safe (this is sorta a carol about MangaGamer, who publishes eroge). You’ve been warned.
Something that caught my eye on a repeat watching of Hidamari Sketch x☆☆☆…Yuno wasn’t supposed to ace that test.
A more proper FanimeCon postmortem for this year, unlike last time, where I just went all drftgy and failed to elaborate any further. On the flip side, most of this is Momoi-related (you’ll see why), so it’ll be like an extended version of my drftgy post with actual backstory. Anyway, here we go!
Out of all of the things released at E3 thus far, Child of Eden, Q Entertainment’s latest attempt at digital synaesthesia (and spiritual successor to Rez), had me wowed. (In second place: Nintendo’s endless amounts of 3DS babes — wait, babes at a Nintendo conference?!)
I’m already formulating a checklist for when I eventually get my hands on the game. The checklist is as follows:
- Kinect setup
- booze
- pair of white gloves
- trance vibration setup (if applicable)
- must play it at night by myself in a dark room, as close to the above setup as possible
Once I think about it, if you take the Kinect setup away from the checklist, it sounds pretty suspect…
*Excluding Ninety-Nine Nights, of course. I hope I don’t have to say that about its sequel…
Two post-Fanime tidbits:
- For iPhone/iPad-equipped fans of Taiko no Tatsujin: Taiko no Tatsujin Plus has been released. It’s a free app that’s compatible with both iPhone and iPad, and instead of paying up front, you pay for song pack DLC (Y600 per pack) instead to append to the one free song that comes with the game. The problem: the first two (of three) song packs are rehashes of the first two iPhone releases! As a percieved apology, however, Namco released an update for the original Taiko no Tatsujin that adds the infamous boss song KAGEKIYO (pictured above) for players who have at least unlocked Oni difficulty (8500 Don Points).
- Fanime, although hectic, was pretty amazing. I’ve got a draft of a longer post sitting around waiting for me to add more to it, but I’m playing the aforementioned song instead. Oh, and my previous post in regards to Foursquare? It didn’t work as I thought it would, mostly because there were only a handful of people that played, and those that did were split between the convention center and the actual “Fanime Con” venue. Oh, well — there’s always next year!!
FanimeCon, Northern California’s biggest anime convention, is coming back to the San José Convention Center this Memorial Day weekend. I’m pretty much prepared — in fact, in about 45 minutes, I’ll be on my way down there to pick up my badge.
As far as social networking prep goes, I’ve opened up my Twitter to public view for the entirety of the event. (I’ll be closing it back up afterwards, of course.)
But what might even be more fun is the fact that there’s going to be over an estimated 15,000 in attendance (based off of 2009 figures), of which I figure a good chunk are tech-savvy.
That’s where Foursquare comes in. Richard Johnson, one of the e-Gaming heads (well, at least last I checked!), set up a couple of venues for Fanime’s main halls. (Then he claimed the mayorships for all of them, natch.)
Now, that badge at the top of this post? That’s the Super Swarm badge: 250 people checked into the same location.
Think we can do this?
I think we can.