TGS is finally over, but it's the gift that keeps on giving. Not only am I still trying to adjust to the time difference and struggling to figure out what day it is, but I've also got a bunch of video left from the 3rd day of the show. This was the first day the show was open to the public and it's when things got really crazy. We're talking droids, booth girls, cosplay, games where you scrub down other men, and the longest line you've ever seen in your lives. It's all in this video. Check it out!

You may or may not have seen the segment on On The Spot yesterday where I talk to booth girls about current events and then try my hand at speaking Japanese. If you missed it or you want to see it again, I've uploaded that clip as a user video. I know some people thought I was making fun of the girls and being mean, but we let each one know ahead of time (in Japanese) that we were shooting a humor piece, so they knew what was going on. It was all in good fun!

And we're back to the Zeldaing. What delights await us today?

UPDATES - Last Updated 5:57 PM PST

10:03 - It begins...

10:20 - Kind of a goofy first boss fight. As you'd expect, it's big on the boomerang useage. Just not real clear at first if the thing it looks like you're supposed doing is the right thing to do. It is. Beating him released Leaf, the Spirit of Power, who looks like a fairy, except glowing red. He's going to join my posse. Sweet. Also, at the end of a boss fight, you get a heart container. Talk about bucking trends!

10:25 - Apparently I need to find three of these spirits in order to track down the ghost ship. Power, wisdom, and courage. Triforce anyone?

10:35 - Got the Phantom Hourglass back at the temple of the Ocean King (I knew I'd have to come back here). Now I can search through the temple without getting the life sucked out of me until all the sand reaches the bottom. And before any of you smart alecs out there start whining about how you could just flip the glass over again endlessly, no you bloody can't, and the game addresses that particular contrivance. So nyah!

11:01 - Stealth sequences! Agh! Actually, this section wasn't half bad. Big knight demon dudes you couldn't kill wandered the three floors of the Ocean King temple, and I just had to avoid them while wandering around finding keys and "force gems" (see if you can read between the lines on that one). Some neat traps in this one. Got a new sea chart. I predict more sailing!

11:20 - I must sail northwest, but I need a cannon to break some rocks that are directly in the ship's path. Maybe I should take a trip to cannon island...

11:22 - A copy of Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol just showed up on my desk. On the box is a fat sticker that says "Only at Wal-Mart." That's always a good sign.

11:38 - Cannon island is an island where a guy...makes...cannons... Well, at least there's no false advertising. Had to circumnavigate the entire length of the island to get to the guy, but now I can get all cannon happy on those rocks. Picked up a treasure map too. I'll need a salvage arm before I can get it, though, and the cannon dude hasn't built it yet. Does that mean when I come back, this place will be called Salvage Arm Island?

12:21 - Ran into the ghost ship along the way, and got trapped in a blinding thicket of fog. If you go the wrong way, it resets you back to the beginning of the area. Flailed around in that for a while until a realized Limebeck had hinted about asking someone on a nearby island for help. Sailed back to an island I hadn't been to and got some info by digging a lot of holes with a newly gotten shovel and pilfering some old sailor's journal. As you would figure, the route through the fog is appropriately labyrinthine. Drew the route on my map and set sail.

12:30 - Made it through that damned fog and fought off some pirate ships to get to the next island. I think I'll break here and let my DS recharge for a short bit. Translation: I need a sandwich. More later.

1:15 - To heck with a sandwich, curry in a hurry is the way to go. Chicken Tikka Masala FTW! OK, back to it.

1:28 - This island has a wind gimmick. Big gusts of wind knock me around from time to time, and I just had to blow on a bunch of sacred windmills to get some doors to open. Yeah blowin' on stuff! Wait, what?!?

1:38 - Got legitimately stuck for the first time inside this latest temple, until I realized one of the doors I thought was sealed wasn't. God I'm awesome. While I'm reveling in my own stupidity, I also realized I've failed to mention how totally amazing this game looks. They really did just shove Wind Waker onto a DS cart. You can see the little details Nintendo skimped on to get it to fit, but they're small things. The art style is still amazing, the frame rate never drops, and the camera hasn't screwed me over once yet. Beautiful looking game.

1:40 - Rock Band pricing announced. $170 for everything! Sorry, I know, off topic, but that's exciting!

2:16 - Great second temple. Solid puzzles all around, and the boss fight is nicely tricky. Got the bomb bag here, and the whole level nicely mixed the wind theme with the bomb mechanics. I can definitely feel the game picking up some momentum here. Hopefully it keeps it up.

2:18 - This time it's Neri, the Spirit of Wisdom I've rescued. Heart container! Whoo! OK, break time. More later.

3:22 - Mkay, enough of that "real work" crud. Back to the Zelda.

3:35 - Explored an uncharted island, solved a silly riddle, and picked up the cyclone slate from a giant creepy golden frog dude. This will allow me to travel around via sea cyclones. Boss.

4:13 - So once I headed back to the main island, I had to go back to the temple of the Ocean King, and had to go through all the puzzles I'd solved previously to get to the next area. Bombs helped me circumvent a few of the more lengthy sections, but don't go in without an ample number. I just ran out and ended up having to go back and buy more--at which point, I had to go through the temple AGAIN to get back to that spot. Fun. I really hate it when games make you repeat stuff. I have a feeling there's some sort of teleporting device I'll get later on, but right now this is a little annoying.

4:55 - Mkay, finally got through that blasted temple. A few good puzzles eventually made up for the repetition, including one of those "close the DS shut to solve something" dealies. Now I'm off to another island that isn't on my map. Who makes these silly maps anyway? They're not very accurate.

5:08 - Actually, instead of that, I decided to go buy the salvage arm and go hunt for treasure. I had to yell into the microphone to show just how badly I wanted it. Not the most comfortable thing to do in an office environment.

5:15 - Dug up some extra sand for the Phantom Hourglass using the salvage arm. Gives me more time to live! Salvaging is more of a minigame now, so that's kinda neat. Also, the cyclone slate is pretty neat. You find these little golden frog dudes swimming around, and when you shoot them with your cannon, they stop to chat, and show you a symbol you can draw on the slate to warp back to that point any time. Right, because that's what I do when someone shoots me with a cannon. I exchange pleasantries.

5:49 - Had to sail around for a while until I could remember what I was supposed to do with this crazy key I picked up from the uncharted spot on the map. Then I realized I'd drawn that thing on one of the island maps earlier. This feature DOES come in handy!

5:57 - Just opened up the third temple. Think I'll stop here for tonight and maybe dabble a bit later. Got a concert to go to tonight, so I dunno if I'll play anymore. We'll see. Thus far I like the game a whole bunch, though I'm a little dubious on the game's insistance on forcing you to revisit the same areas again and again. Mainly it's just that damn Temple of the Ocean King. Hopefully this new temple is good. More later/tomorrow!

Howdy all,

Yesterday, a shiny retail copy of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass crossed my cluttered desk, and I immediately let out a mild squeal of utter glee. I enjoyed the Wind Waker more than I probably had any right to, given the obscene fetch quest at the end. Definitely been looking forward to this one, and getting to review it should be a nice change of pace from the generic street racers and endless poker games of which I have been forced to partake lately. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to start in on it yet, as I've been handcuffed to a less-than-stellar other game which shall remain nameless...at least, until the review goes up later today. Rest assured, I'll be getting at least an hour or two in before today's On The Spot demo.

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is, I wanted to try doing something a little bit different with this review. Technically, there's no review embargo for Phantom Hourglass, so I'm free to say whatever the hell I like about it until the review goes up on Monday. As such, I'll be periodically updating my blog with any interesting notes about the game as I play. I'll avoid any significant spoilers wherever I can, but if you'd like to get a little preview of what the game's all about between now and Monday, here ya go. I don't know how long this will last, as I've heard the game isn't much longer than 15 hours, but hopefully there's enough meat to the package to keep this going for another couple of days.

I'll be creating a new blog entry each day, and adding updates infrequently to that day's blog as I go, so be sure to check the page periodically to see if I've added anything. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section. Try to keep them specific, if you can. Questions of "OMG IS IT AWESUMZ?" will be ignored, as hopefully the tone of my posts will let you know if it is, indeed, awesome.

Anyway, with that, let the game begin!

UPDATES - Last Updated 06:09 PM PST

1:00 - Popped in the cartridge. Opening cinematic of seagulls flying by a pirate ship immediately greets me. Link is strattling the front mast of the ship with a %$#*-eating grin on his face. Don't want to guess why. I am also immediately struck as I watch this cutscene that my DS Lite screens are absolutely filthy. It's like Sylvester the Cat ate Lobster over top of this thing. I need some kind of DS squeegee.

1:05 - The game asks me if I hold the stylus in my right or left hand. I choose right, because I am not a child of Satan.

1:11 - Neat opening cinematic with a paper-cutout art style that briefly recaps Wind Waker's plot. Turns out it's an art project by one of Tetra's pirates. Looks like this one picks up very, very soon after Wind Waker left off. Zelda is all Tetra'd out again, hates being called Zelda. Link is apparently a lazy ass, sleeping while he's supposed to be on lookout. Something about a ghost ship. Intrigue!

1:15 - Yep, there's the ghost ship. Tetra's convinced it's got treasure on board, and in a classic bit of plot setup, makes the ill-advised move of hopping on board, only to get kidnapped, or ghostnapped, or something. Link leaps after her, but ends up in the drink. Cut to a scene of Tetra getting sucked down into the ninth level of hell. This is all still the opening cinematic, by the way, so I don't consider this spoilers. I won't be getting as granular with the rest of the plot happenings.

1:17 - Link awakens on an island with a fairy swirling around him. He looks haggard. I think this is how they're explaining why he has none of his items or abilities from Wind Waker. Whee. Fairy's name is Ciela. Apparently she's got amnesia, so she can't help you solve this ghost ship dillema. She directs you toward someone named "grandpa."

1:22 - Met up with gramps. He tells me not to go find the ghost ship. It's evil, like the Event Horizon, or something. Of course I'm going to. He directs me to a sailor who knows more. Ciela's coming with me. This is where the game starts explaining map stuff. It highlights the area near the docks. The map seems to exist on the top screen exclusively at the moment. I assume once I have to start drawing on it, that will change.

1:30 - Second I walk out of the house, an earthquake hits. Apparently there's monsters about. Yay. Before going through the spooky monster filled cave that will take me to the other side of the island (the decidedly less monster-filled bridge got destroyed in the quake), I break rocks for a guy and find rupees in them. He pays me one rupee for my trouble (I made more than that from the rock breaking itself!), and directs me to a tree on the other side of the map that has something neat inside it. Yep, here's where you mark your map for the first time. Either I have Parkinsons disease or it's really hard to write legibly on this thing. I do my best, all the same.

1:36 - Puzzle solving! I need a sword before I can take the monster-filled path. Gramps has a storehouse. There's a code that must be drawn on a sign before it will open. I will leave it to you folk to figure it out. I'll just say that the symbol recognition via the touch screen seems pretty spot-on so far.

1:40 - Gramps has to train me on the sword. I know this is a tutorial, but seriously, did Link falling in the ocean turn his brain into mush? He just saved the princess like one GameCube game ago!

1:46 - If you're going to lock up a cave with a giant door, why would you put the key in a chest three feet away? Early level, I know, but come on now. Also, sword combat is nicely responsive. Nothing but slimes and bats so far, but I've been cuttin' 'em good.

1:49 - Solved a puzzle while having to draw stuff on the map. I think I'm going to stop here for a little bit so I can show this puzzle on On the Spot, and cut some more dudes after that. Seems like a good, early spot to show off. Watch the show, dammit! More later!

4:26 - OTS demo is over. If you caught it, you saw a couple of quick puzzles solved. If anyone noticed that I missed the quick running rat with the key a few times with my sword, that's because I kept trying to tap on it. Fast moving enemies tend not to get caught by that attack very easily. You're supposed to do a sideways slash in their direction to do more of a broad swipe. That works better. So, yeah, I'm just a dumb-dumb.

4:39 - Few questions answered. Gramps is set up as a resident of the island who rescued Ciela when she lost her memory. He's just a kindly old man who knows a thing or two about a thing or two. And in regards to the controls, so far I dig 'em. However, yes, they are very much like the drag-happy controls from Animal Crossing: WW, so if you hated that, you may not dig this. THE BUTTONS, THEY DO NOTHING. NOTHING!!!

4:56 - Went to where the sailor was supposed to be, but no dice. Someone suggests I check out the milk bar. He ain't there either. Bartender says he went to the temple of the Ocean King. Aha, that's what that big temple looking thing is on the top of the island. A temple! Fitting, really. A patron says something about the place sucking the souls out of all those who enter. Maybe I should go buy a wooden shield first.

4:59 - The tree with the special thingamajigger in it? Big rupee worth 100 rupees. Now I can go buy some bombs when I'm done with this quest.

5:03 - Skeletons with souls hanging above them litter the entry way to the temple, telling me they should have made notes on their map, and that enemies unkillable with swords wander the halls. Fun!

5:08 - This sailor guy, Linebeck, is kind of a prick He's trapped in the temple and needs help. Looks like the gimmick here is that certain areas of the floor drain your life, but there are safe zones, often with hearts contained in jars. Anyway, after freeing Linebeck, he gives you a key and rather forcefully demands you find the clue about the ghost ship contained within the temple. Sounds like a plan!

5:17 - Wow. Short temple. Picked up the first seachart in about two minutes. Granted, it's the very first temple. Plus there was a door I couldn't open. Get the feeling I'll be coming back here at some point. This excursion seemed like more of a launching point to get you on your first quest. Sailing for the win! Let's see how this goes...

5:24 - Sailing's super easy. Just plot a course on the seachart, and the boat drives there automagically. You can stop it at any time if there's something you need to do. Went to the first island. Fought some octarocs inside a fortune teller's place, then had to yell into the microphone to get her attention behind a locked door. Yay for microphone useage.

5:39 - Had to wander around the island a bit to solve the puzzle that rescued the fortune teller. Best line in the game so far: "You touched the right places."

5:44 - Yeah blowing in the microphone! This game really is running the gamut of DS gimmicks. Not in a bad way, mind you. To the fire temple!

6:09 - Died for the first time inside the Fire Temple, so I think I'll stop here for the evening. You get the boomerang here, and the temple is filled to the brim with boomerangy puzzles. Drawing the path for the boomerang is neat, and so far the puzzles have been clever, if not super-challenging. Some enemies can only be taken down via the boomerang as well. Specifically the flaming variety. This is definitely a properly involved temple, with multiple floors and all sorts of traps and baddies. There is apparently some evil darkness at the end of this temple, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow. I have domestic duties to take care of this evening, so no more Zelda until tomorrow. Check in tomorrow for more updates!

Dear Nintendo,

My name is Aaron Thomas and I'm a frustrated Wii owner. You see, my problem is that I own a Wii and I have nothing to play on it. I've played and enjoyed Wii Sports (thanks for the free game), but there's not much else to play. I'm a huge Zelda fan, but I wasn't digging the whole "your remote is a sword" thing and gave up after two hours. I'm hoping to get back to the game again, and when I finally get motivated I'm going to play the GameCube version. I thought Wario Ware would be really cool, but I can't play with my friends until I beat the game? Lame. I don't want to sit through that game's idiotic story; I want to play minigames with my friends. I hear Metroid Prime 3 is good, but it sure sounds a lot like Prime (which I didn't like) and Prime 2 (which I never played), so I don't think I'll be buying it the third time around. I think the Mii concept is a cool one, but you've failed to capitalize on it. Why aren't more games letting me play as my Mii?

So where are the good games? I own an Xbox 360 and a PlayStation 3 so I don't want to play some watered-down port with tacked-on controls and lousy graphics. That eliminates stuff like Call of Duty 3, Medal of Honor, The Godfather, Mortal Kombat and the like. I have nobody to blame for myself for not getting around to Super Paper Mario, but the rest of your lineup is so uninteresting poor old Super Paper Mario has fallen by the wayside because I'm not often thinking to myself "What good games are there for the Wii that I need?" because good new games are so rare. It also sounds like SPM has the Wario Ware issue where you force people to suffer through an inane story when all they want to do is play. If you couldn't tell by now, that's one of my pet peeves.

I'm also not a fan of what you've been doing with the virtual console. Now part of this is my fault--I own pretty much all of the great NES, SNES, and N64 games so there's little reason for me to buy them here. But maybe if you guys spruced them up a bit, added extras, new modes, online play, or something to the deal I'd be more inclined to pick up a game or two. I realize that I'm in the minority in that I already own most of these games, but I know I'm not alone in not being able to figure out just what in the heck you're doing releasing so much garbage. Play Action Football, J.J. & Jeff, Milon's Secret Castle, and China Warrior weren't really games people wanted to play 20 years ago, much less today. I'd love to know how many people have purchased Soccer. I'm sure it's dozens. Why are you diluting the service with crap?

I know people are buying the Wii in droves, you guys are in first place, and the company is more valuable than ever, but you don't seem to be doing anything to sustain this momentum. Maybe there's a whole group of people out there that like last-gen graphics and pretending their Wii Remote is a sword, but I'm not one of them. Step it up or my Wii is going to get buried even deeper under crap on my desk than it already is.

Regards,
Aaron Thomas

P.S.
I think online play is here to stay. You might want to come up with an online model that doesn't stink. Oh, and maybe some online games too. Just a thought.

Yesterday I:

- Slept for 3 hours
- Spent 3 hours on the subway
- Tried to steal 50 copies of Halo 3 from Bungie (I was going to give them to you guys!)
- Had a phenomenal dinner on the 47th floor of a skyscraper with an incredible view of Tokyo
- Interviewed the president of Clap Hanz about the history of Hot Shots Golf
- Got paid to video booth babes for a video blog
- Saw Sumo highlights on a Japanese newscast
- Played some games and wrote some previews

Yeah, it was a good day. Check out my latest video for some of the highlights.

Cross-posted from the TGS 2007 blog...

You know, there's just some things that the Japanese have nailed. Take toilets, for example. Hands-down, the toilets in Japan are the best in the world. If I could rip the space-age potty out of my hotel room and pack it in my carry-on when I leave on Monday, I'd do it.

Or ice cream in a bag. You take some ice cream. You put it in a plastic bag. Attach a nozzle at the top and put it in every convenience store in the city, and I'll surely waste thousands of Yen purchasing them and sucking them down.

And when it comes to games--and particuarly handheld platforms like the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP, Japanese have gotten it right again: these things don't have to just run games. They can do a lot more. Walk into a game store in Akihabara and you're likely to see DS games that will teach you how to paint, or help you work on your language skills. Square Enix is publishing a whole series of DS "games" on subjects such as music and gardening.

Another great example I saw today: something called MyStylist for the PSP. Essentially it's a handheld wardrobe organizer, one that helps you coordinate outfits for different days and, better yet, helps you keep track of all of the clothes in your closet.

Here's how it works, with a PSP-camera attached on the top, you can take a picture of each and every item in your closet, and then organize it according to a variety of criteria in the game--including color scheme, the "season" of the particular piece, even how much you paid for it. Later on, you can mix and match the different articles of clothing on your PSP while you're riding a bus or train, or sitting at the dentist's office waiting for an appointment.

Now, granted, MyStylist isn't meant for me. It's a girl-game (or at least a clothes-horse's game) through and through, but as I was messing around with it today, I couldn't help but think how much my wife or sister would enjoy playing with this. Not as a game, but as something that could conceivably make their lives a little easier. As something I'm guessing they might check out on daily basis.

You ask me, MyStylist is a great example of gaming technology put to a logical, practical, and frankly ingenious, use. You ask me, there's an opportunity there for the American market. Here's hoping we see MyStylist--and more of its ilk--come stateside.