KH Re: CoM for NA

YES. Finally! w00t!

Via Kotaku (and probably lots of other places as well; it's big news!)

The remake of Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories for the PS2 will be coming to the states. Unfortunately this is NOT Final Mix, it's just the CoM part. But hey, that's something! The GBA game sucked so much ass; I'm hoping it will be better in full 3D (now complete with lots of voice acting from Haley Joel Osment).

To top it off, the game will launch at a friendly $29.99!

Maybe now I can actually make it through the whole damn game. I always got stuck in Never Land on the GBA.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Chain of Memories was originally released for the GBA 2004. The game takes place between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2. If you've played KH2, but not CoM, note that the intro to KH2 (with all the characters running around on the staircase, and what would be an unfamiliar looking blonde girl in a white dress) is a quick glance of what happens to Sora in CoM. So if that at all confused you, well, now you can play a hopefully more user friendly version of the game to fill in the story gaps. As another note, if you were not previously aware, Kingdom Hearts Final Mix was a "final mix" of Kingdom Hearts (they do this with some of their Final Fantasy games, too) AND a remade version of Chain of Memories (on the same game) that released in Japan oh...early last year? Maybe late the year before? I'm too lazy to check and it doesn't much matter. Final Mix would have been preferable, obviously, but better this than nothing.

Nintendo Wiimote Patent Dispute

These come and go like the waves of the ocean, but this one has some actual merit. Most of these types of lawsuits are ridiculous and hardly make an impact, but this one just might affect gamers all across America. If the suit is carried out, Nintendo would no longer be able to sell the Wiimote in America.

Here's some links for you to read up on the situation:

Game Politics: "U.S. Firm Reports Nintendo to Feds in Wiimote Patent Dispute"
This one is particularly important; not only have they lodged a complaint against Nintendo, but they've also complained directly the the International Trade Commission.

GP: "Nintendo Wiimote Hit with New Patent Lawsuit"
Original news posting; a company called Hillcrest Labs claims that the Wiimote infringes on a product of theirs called The Loop.

Kotaku: "U.S. Internation Trade Commission Investigating Wii Patent Infringement Case"

Kotaku: "Nintendo Responds to Trade Commission Investigation"

Yeah, so.....

There's a leak in my apartment. Maintenance dude said it's the pipe. They're going to come in tomorrow and cut into the sheet rock and fix it. So there's going to be a great lovely mess in here tomorrow. And I get to be home to deal with it all, including the wonderful workers with horrible accents who barely speak English. Some of them are quite nice, but it really is hard to understand them.

While I'm not busy moping and being annoyed/frustrated by this predicament, I will be working on the following:

Review of the anime Natsume Yuujinchou, Telepathy Shojou Ran, Cromartie High School, Chocolate Underground, and Itazura na Kiss, and the video game The World Ends With You.