Monday, February 11, 2008

Something old, something new, something doubled


Every year around this time, i will be away in Singapore to visit my relatives during the festive Chinese New Year. I will also find the time to dropby some of my favourite game stores (assuming they are opened for business) to pick up some games. This year is no different, my haul this trip consist of well, games that i have mainly played/owned already but decided nevertheless to upgrade my current existing copy. I got myself a Gamecube version of Suda51's cult classic killer7, having already beaten the game sometime back on my playstation2. This is basically to drum up some excitement for Suda's newest Wii game No More Heroes as well as to own the definitive version of this game as many have commented the Gamecube version is far superior to the playstation2 version. Not much of a surprise seeing that the game was originally announced as a Gamecube exclusive and development on the platform was well underway before Capcom decided to announce the game on the playstation2 platform. If you never played killer7, it's basically a surreal action-adventure with a lot of style and quirky memorable characters, which seems to be a prevalent style of Suda's now. The game received a lot of criticism back then for it's over-simplistic gameplay but kept fans and critics guessing with it's convoluted storyline and characters. In fact from what i seen of No More Heroes so far, a lot of the criticism for killer7 seems to be addressed in NMH as it looks like a gamey version of killer7 with the same blend of quirky off-beat characters. Speaking of No More Heroes, i did do some fair searching about for the game despite hearing rumours that the game was reportedly banned in Singapore for its violence. Heck i even tried asked some retailers just to see what kinda of response or reaction i will get. Amusingly enough, when asked most of the retailers just response in a whisperly voice "oh we don't have the game or no more stock" like it's a taboo to even talk about it in the open.


I also happened to pick up another Gamecube exclusive, Resident Evil Zero which i earlier played a pre-owned copy just before tackling Umbrella Chronicles. Call it rash, call it paranoid i just wasn't sure if i was able tofind a non-Player's Choice version of this game at that time and decided not to take any chances. I guess my opinion of the game was that i like it enough to buy a sealed copy to replace my existing copy, now i just have to figure out what to do with the other one....




One thing that wasn't on my list was UMD movie for my PSP, yes i have a PSP for close to two years now but have never used it to watch any movies before. Blame it on Sony's insistence to have region-lock on the UMD movie format, i just wasn't able to find any decent region3 UMD for my PSP up till now. The Gramophone in City Hall had a couple of UMD videos tucked away next to their Blue-ray selections and i thought it was too good of an oppurtunity to pass up. A bit implusive, but i can't wait to see King Kong on my PSP, especially since i haven't watched the movie before.





Finally i thought i closed my recap of my Singapore trip with a cover of the latest EGM issue Singapore edition. That's right, Singapore has a gaming community big enough to warrant a localization of the famous videogame magazine, though if you actually pay attention and read the contents it's hard to tell the difference. i always make it a point to pick up a copy whenever i'm there as a keepsake/momento of my trip and this month edition feature a 11-page on the upcoming Street Fighter IV, keep the faith everyone Capcom will deliver!

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