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• Nintendo DSi Has "Figured Me Out," Literally!

  They've finally done it. Nintendo has finally made me want to upgrade my old white DS Lite for a new DSi (haven't decided on color yet, but I'm leaning towards the electric blue). I've resisted for months. I already have two DSes, I don't need one with two 0.3 megapixel cameras, that's just stupid. I don't care if my DS can play AAC audio files, that's what I have an iPod for. And no GBA slot? Yeah, I hardly ever use it, but come on! I should have known Nintendo had an ace up their sleeve when it was revealed a few weeks back that Beyoncé would be doing their advertisements for Rhythm Heaven, a game that I want to encourage everyone in the world to buy and play incessantly. I'm not really a fan of Beyoncé (I could go for a little more "Bugaboo" and a whole lot less "Single Ladies") but I certainly don't hate her and this ad campaign is clearly effective (just look at Professor Layton's sales numbers since the Lisa Kudrow ads started airing...a full calendar year after the game was released!). Having read that the ad campaign was supposed to start this week, I flipped over to the Nintendo Channel on my Wii for a peek. Imagine my surprise when I see not one, not two, but three videos with the coolest, most soulful white boy in the world, Jamie Lidell! Behold, his DSi-inspired-and-powered remix of "Figured Me Out" after the jump. Read More... Posted Apr 02 2009, 01:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: derrick sanskrit, music, korg ds-10, rhythm tengoku, electroplankton, dsi, nintendo dsi, jamie lidell

• Videogame, Non-Game, Old Game, New Game: The Miyamoto Rule

  To the internet-list aficionado, the end of the calendar year is the time of greatest bounty. You like lists, chances are you like pop culture, and nothing gets the pop junkie going like ranking all the crap that came out in the past twelve months. Top ten movies, top ten books, top ten celebrity nip-slips, top ten Billy Mays products, and, yeah, top ten games of the year. We are no stranger to the list here at 61FPS, as you well know from reading our scintillating, thought provoking top tens, and you can imagine how we’re gearing up to deliver all sorts of meaningless judgments on the year known broadly as 2008 (4706, 4705, or 4645 to the Chinese. They seem to be confused.) Over the past few weeks, Derrick and I have had a number of conversations about our mutual contenders, but these dialogues have always ended in a conundrum: what counts as a videogame? Derrick’s smitten with Wii Fit, but is it anything more than a Nintendo-upped Sweatin’ to the Oldies that comes with a snazzy scale? We’re both fans of the Korg DS-10, but, even though you play it on a videogame system, it is an actual musical instrument, not a new sequel-ready game franchise. Does an instrument go on a top ten games list? My personal definition of a videogame has been a work of interactive digital media wherein you follow a set of rules to achieve a goal. Wii Fit, Korg DS-10, and the many other games like them belong in the broader videogame discussion at this point and this is making me re-evaluate just what a game is. Leave it to Shigeru Miyamoto to lay down the single best definition of videogame I’ve heard to date. Read More... Posted Dec 01 2008, 07:45 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, wii fit, shigeru miyamoto, korg ds-10, wii music

• Handjobs for Homebrew: Mario Paint Composer DS

  There's never been a better time to be an independent software developer. College students are designing original concepts that are then developed by established publishers into big games like Portal and de Blob. Small teams working in bedrooms or coffee shops are developing downloadable console games like Braid and World of Goo. And then, of course, there are the homebrew developers, releasing their software often for free or a small donation. Widely seen in less-than-100%-legal light, homebrew software is often a means of "hacking" the platform of choice to add functionality that had not originally been intended. While there's never any guarantee of quality when it comes to these things, there are some fantastic pieces of homemade software out there, and we hope to spotlight a few of them here on "Handjobs for Homebrew" (this is Hooksexup, I can say "handjobs," can't I?) Originally demoed just about a month ago, BassAceGold's homebrew of the Mario Paint Composer for the Nintendo DS was released to the internet masses last week. There have already been a number of homebrew applications to add the painting and animation components of the Super Nintendo classic Mario Paint to the touch-screen handheld, but MPC emulates the feature that always seemed to me (and, apparently, the YouTube community) to be the most engaging element, its cartoonish music composition score. For those who've never played Mario Paint, allow me to explain… Read More... Posted Oct 06 2008, 01:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: nintendo ds, derrick sanskrit, portal, world of goo, korg ds-10, de blob, mario paint, braid, jam sessions, electroplankton, homebrew, lsdj

• Make the Music With Your Games, Kids!

  Written by Derrick Sanskrit Yes, I'm paraphrasing Biz Markie in that title. Thanks for noticing. It should be obvious to readers of 61FPS that I love games where play and music collide. A personal favorite of mine,  Gunpey DS, is an engaging puzzler, but I would be lying if I said that the primary reason I picked it up wasn't its built-in sequencer (click the bottom-most button on the left hand side of this page to see it. No YouTube vids, somehow.) Well, after a year-and-a-half of misuse, it may well soon be time to give up my copy of Gunpey, because Korg DS-10 is coming out soon. Read More... Posted Jun 18 2008, 12:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: alternate soundtrack, derrick sanskrit, ost, warioware, gunpey, korg ds-10, parappa the rabber, band brothers, rhythm tengoku