February 28th, 2008 - The Resident Tourist (Part 2)
They say that sequels tend to SUCK and I agree with them, whoever "they" are. I dunno. You decide whether you want to come back after this. But for now, it's Putt-Too! Putt-Too! The time is 1:21am as I'm writing this. Book is time unlocked when Singapore reaches noon later today, so stop clicking on that banner repeatedly. All 31 of you!!!

February 27th, 2008 - Site Fixes & Upgrades
Changed some backend items. Cleaned up databases. Upgraded some applications. Will be adding some mods to the site over the next few days. One new feature is the "How To Use" link on top of the Stories page. You may find some tips in there to make your comic browsing a little easier.

February 26th, 2008 - Final Fantasy 7 8-Bit Version!
One of my buddies notified me that there exists a Famicom 8-Bit version of FF7. YES, the Playstation one! It's apparently not some bullshit hack as this blog entry reports in detail. Leave it to those Chinese clowns to come up with something like this eh? I'm not sure whether to be excited or shocked. All I am thinking right now is WTF. And where is the ROM dump?!!!

February 25th, 2008 - Megaman Vs Metroid
Haven't been playing much flash games in a while. Let's try this one. And a mashup at that! Megaman (Rockman for us Asians) goes on the hunt for Samus Aran of Metroid fame. She's pretty tough too. And the music + SFX are classic.

February 23rd, 2008 - Smashing Pumpkins American Gothic
Got around to listening to this Smashing Pumpkins EP even though it has been out for 2 months now. Rose March is really classic Pumpkins, which I sorely miss. Again, Again, Again, Pox and Sunkissed wrap up the 4 track set. Overall, I find these are better songs than those on Zeitgeist. And no, it's not simply because it's acoustic.

February 21st, 2008 - Pete And The Pirates
If you're like me and hankering for a Beatles style Brit sound these days, you give these blokes a listen. Their debut album Little Death just came out and it's unpretentious pop guitar riffs aplenty. I really love Knots. But check out Come On Feet, Disco and Mr. Understanding too.

February 20th, 2008 - AOU 2008
Hmm...OK, I figured something was wrong with the YouTube links in the past few posts and have corrected them. But one last AOU game from Konami. It's a new Bemani music game called Jubeat (pronounced Yubeat). You use a 4x4 grid of buttons to play the songs. Weird! And the buttons have a screen below them!

February 19th, 2008 - Cursor 10
Cursor 10 has been around for some time, but it's still fun. Use your 10 cursors to get yourself to the 16th floor. The game memorizes your cursor movements for each one so you can use the ghost of your other previous cursors to activate switches, break objects etc as you redo the stages. What's the minimum number of cursors needed? What's the highest score you can achieve?

February 17th, 2008 - AOU 2008
More videos from Youtube. The new Type Moon fighter Fate: Unlimited Codes, Capcom's Gundam Vs Gundam and SNK's Samurai Spirits Sen.

February 16th, 2008 - AOU 2008
AOU '08 is under way in Japan and these Youtube videos have been posted! Games I'm most interested in now are SNK's KOF XII, Milestone's Illbelo, Cave's DDP DF (the first part, not the bikini pirates!) and Bouken's Trouble Witches (looks like Cotton!). I'm still not convinced that Street Fighter IV is gonna fly with that non-2D presentation even though it plays in 2D.

February 15th, 2008 - I Was A Cub Scout
I Want You To Know That There Is Always Hope = this synth pop duo's debut UK album. Todd may sound like a kid, but his melodies are quite well put together. Pink Squares has been circulating around for some time, although there are other tunes on their MySpace page worth listening to. I like Save Your Wishes, Lucean and Ps & Qs. Album out Feb 18th.

February 14th, 2008 - Tekken 6
There is something to be said when you spend Valentine's Day in an arcade. Not that I was. I'm just saying. But I saw the 6th iteration of Tekken in Virtualand and must declare that I am still terrible at non-2D fighters. Pressing combos of buttons such as LP,RP,LP,RK,RK,LK,RP confuses me so very much! Gimme QCF+P any day.

February 12th, 2008 - Death Village
Hey, those guys at Nigoro have powered up their puzzler Death Village. New features include the English instructions, tutorial, stage select at the start, a stage editor to build your own puzzles and a network mode to try stages uploaded by other players! If anyone has created stages, let me know or post a new topic in the forum pages.

February 11th, 2008 - Mannequins Completed
The last 10 pieces to the Mannequins collection has been uploaded to Exhibits. These were done in the last week and a half of my army stint. Please have a look. Thanks.

February 8th, 2008 - Muchi Muchi Pork
I saw this in an arcade while doing my CNY visiting. I didn't even know when Zone X brought it in as I know this came out before Death Smiles. I played each of the 3 pork girls and died promptly at stage 3. It feels like a Raizing game under the Cave brand much like Ibara, but the bullets are easier to spot and everything in the game is piggy-related. Porku-Uppu!!!

February 7th, 2008 - Vampire Weekend
And now for something refreshing, New York band Vampire Weekend's debut release is unlike anything I've heard before. I think I'll describe it as afrobeat indie pop. Oxford Comma is seriously infectious with that click drum. A-Punk is punk done in a geeky way. Mansard Roof evokes an insland mood. And Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa's upbeat vibe just makes me smile.

February 6th, 2008 - GONG XI FA CAI
This is a day early, but Happy Lunar New Year to all Chinese visitors! May you have prosperous times ahead in the year of the rat. I'm heading off to a reunion dinner. Hope you have a good one too.

February 5th, 2008 - Retiring From Death Smiles
I played this today the moment I got out of the army just to see if I can still 1CC it with Windia and Rosa. I guess I'm pretty much satisfied with my final max scores and will stop playing this seriously. Unless of course somebody wants to play doubles with me (something I have not tried yet).

February 5th, 2008 - Finally Breathing
After 3.5 weeks of reservist lockdown, I am now free from the asphyxiating confines of deliberate human inefficiency. Now, how does one draw again? It seems so foreign to me.

February 3rd, 2008 - Bemani Top Ranker 2008
Wanna see if you're the best Bemani player in Asia? Konami has opened up a Top Ranker site and they have included Singapore as an eligible country for participation! Games available for the competition are Beatmania IIDX 14 Gold, Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2, Drum Mania V4 and Guitar Freaks V4. Online registration begins tomorrow (Feb 4th). See site for details.

February 2nd, 2008 - Do Don Pachi Dai Fukkatsu
The 5th installment to Cave's Do Don Pachi series has been announced for the AOU Expo 2008 this month, with Dai Fukkatsu meaning "great revival", picking up from the previous "Dai Ou Jou" or "great peaceful death". Will this set the next standard of HARD for shooters? Wonder if the local arcades will be as eager to pick this up as they did Death Smiles and Mushihime Sama Futari?