News sprang up this morning that seemed custom-created for Offworld: a collaboration between Japanese hipster fashion legend Tomoaki “Nigo” Nagao’s A Bathing Ape label and The Pokemon Company for a line of Bape x Pokemon T-shirts (found via Pink Tentacle via Gus).
The images originate from a blog called World Famous Design Junkies, posted by a guy called Chris Burns, who said news of the project was sent to him via a blog called A Tiny City Printing Press, whose sole author seems to be, uh, a guy called Chris Burns.
Even more strangely: Burns says the images are “© 2009 A Tiny City Printing Press”, which is a bit odd, when you’d imagine they’d be © Bape or Nintendo, surely. So, without further clarification, I wouldn’t get your hopes up on spotting these in your local boutique any time soon, which honestly is no great loss when the designs don’t have anything on Polygraph’s previously / covered official own. Maybe I’m just fantastically under-informed.
I resent having to write this column. I resent being on a train on the way a conference that I also resent. I resent the pretty song that’s playing on my phone. I resent the way the sun is breaking through the clouds. I resent the nice second breakfast I’ll be enjoying in an hour, I resent all the nice people I’m about to meet and all the interesting conversations I’m about to have. Sod the lot of you. I could be at home playing Final Fantasy XII.
Again.
This is not rational. For once, I’ve already played FFXII. Twice, in fact – once in Japanese and once in American. Pretty much the same stuff happened each time. And while it’s always a pretty place to be, the way I’m playing it now – running it through a PS3 so I can be wireless – means that it’s letterboxed and smeared across a fraction of my telly’s unco-operative screen. There are dozens of newer games I could – should – be playing instead.
And more than rational, it’s downright dangerous. I love FFXII with a fierceness which would daunt a nursing lioness, but the more time I spend with it, the more opportunities there are to notice its few shortcomings.
The puzzles really are dreadful, it will surprise no-one to hear. The story occasionally fractures under the strain of obeying simple logic, let alone credible character arcs. The more you ogle the cut-scenes, the more you are infected with creeping dread that Balthier might actually be wearing slingbacks. It gets harder and harder to ignore the oddly saurian ridges that fan out along Vaan’s spine.
(more…)
Just uploaded by Taito: the first video of their recently announced Space Invaders Infinity Gene running on the iPhone.
As expected, shows off the directly touch-controlled, the new a-typically breakneck pace, and a new mode which lets you use your iTunes library as the backdrop for special original stages, though there’s no word yet whether these are dynamically generated or just made available specifically for your music.
This morning I find myself nicely surprised by my local friendly FedEx deliverer, who drops off a package containing one (1) blue flower lei, one (1) Wii AIRLINES ticket from “my living room” to “Wii Sports Resort, Wuhu Island”, and one (1) copy of the game and new Wii MotionPlus accessory.
Amanda Visell’s Salaryphant and Tado’s Ye Olde English Traveler seem a bit nervous about the impending flight, but they’re always fretting about something: what could possibly go wrong?
First thing’s first: throw caution to the wind and extract the MotionPlus from those damned rubber jackets Nintendo continue to insist we use. You think I honestly don’t have the motor skills to keep a controller in my hand without flinging it haphazardly through a window? I’m a grown man.
The first thing you see on booting Wii Sports Resort for the first time: an appropriately in-flight-esque three minute video instructing you on how to connect and disconnect your MotionPlus accessory, all making proper use of and interweaving your wrist-strap through the rubber jacket, of course. At this point, I’m starting to feel slightly chided for having tossed my jacket aside.
But then, ha, ha, no mind! It’s me, it’s my Mii, all kitted out in high-altitude skydiving gear, doing my final harness checks. I remember this from the E3 conference!
And so, in due course, I make my initial dive toward the ‘Wuhu’ Isles, linking and unlinking hands with a few of James Kochalka’s Monster Miis as we plummet in unison and graceful formation.
And as we land, all seems well. I ace my first sword fight like a pro, and the puppy that’s taunted me so many times before on Wii Fit jogs shows similar confident panache and fantastic skill at fetching my clumsily tossed frisbees.
That’s when I remember the game Nintendo also demonstrated at their conference: the three-point line basketball toss. Let’s give that a whirl, I think — and so I bring the WiiMote down to retrieve a ball, and swing upward rapidly as instruc–
This is when several things happen all at once. In retrospect, I believe the sequence of events goes: my WiiMote — given just that extra inch of MotionPlus length it never had before, and me having not fully taken into consideration just how tall I actually am — comes into contact with a fan blade on my ceiling fixture, in turn knocking the controller and my hand into one of the lightbulb encasings, which shatters with a wicked crack, and proceeds to shower me with broken glass.
It is at this point that I begin to bleed, one might not say profusely, but with intent and purpose, a full-on steady trickle if certainly not a gush, and my mind flashes that how on earth did I, and, oh my god, I have, I’ve just become one of those people — those people that have accidents with their Wiis and blog photos of the ‘mote-butt-end emerging from their TV tubes, the living baby-blue silhouette of that now ubiquitous warning message showing people flailing into nearby end-table lamps.
And so, day one of my Wii Sports Resort visit sees me unceremoniously carried limp and dazed from its courts, now forever slightly gun-shy about losing myself so completely to its instinctively direct-mapped movements, in lieu of remaining hyper-aware of my immediate surroundings: a victim to and of the virtual.
And the latest volleys in Team Fortress 2‘s Spy vs. Sniper battle rage on on your torso, with this new pair of T-shirts Valve’s just made available on their store (Spy, Sniper).
Somewhat relatedly, the Soldier has recently taken over the official TF2 blog with predictably hilarious results, including an off kilter portrait for a new set of Steam Community avatar photos, because when the photographer “asked me to act naturally,” says Soldier, “I yelled at him to stop disgracing his family and get a real job.”
And one for the tabletop/prototype set via Raph Koster: The Game Crafter, a new site Koster nicely sums as “CafePress for board game designers”, where creators can assemble — pawn by chip by spinner by card by die by sand-timer — their own games, alongside uploaded art, which can then be boxed and sold, all through Crafter’s site. A small handful of games are available already.
Penny Arcade Expo organizers have announced the final ten indie games chosen from over 150 submissions to be exhibited at the upcoming PAX festival, being held at Seattle’s Washington State Convention and Trade Center September 4th through the 6th, including a number of names familiar to Offworld readers.
The ten finalists include: GAMBIT’s Xbox 360 Community Games featured CarneyVale: Showtime, Tyler Glaiel and Jon Schubbe’s light/dark indie game Closure, Subatomic’s iPhone (and now PSP) tower defense game Fieldrunnners, and Amanita’s Machinarium.
Also included are Studio Walljump’s upcoming WiiWare game Liight, Hemisphere’s Osmos, Tag Team’s Tag: The Power of Paint, Trinoteam’s Trino, Team Shotgun’s Puzzle Bloom (above), and Story Fort’s children’s storybook game What is Bothering Carl?
Visit the official PAX site for more information on attending other events taking place during the three day expo.
And another Autumn Society piece: even just as quick-sketch studies for his eventual submission, illustrator Tim Durning‘s takes on Shadow of the Colossus are looking basically amazing — particularly that foreboding group of colossi on the horizon in the middle, who, even at 10 miles distant are still aware of your every move.
Tilen ‘penmarkermagic‘ Ti’s submission for 8 Bit And Beyond, a games-themed group show featuring members of Philadelphia art collective The Autumn Society. [via GSW]
