I’ve known for well over a year now about the upcoming Will Wright game called Spore. I’ve known what it’s about - you start off as like a single-celled organism and go through the entire evolution process right up to an intelligent creature and beyond. I’ve also known that the buzz around the Internet about the game has been pretty good. Lots of people seem to be eagerly awaiting the release. But even though the concept sounds pretty interesting, I for whatever reason haven’t really been all that captivated by it.

That is, I guess you could say, until now. Last week EA released a free downloadable demo for the Spore Creature Creator. I decided I would give it a shot and I’m really enjoying it. The things you can make and the things you can do with the things you make all lie somewhere on the edges of hilarious, cute, depressing, and awesome. I’m blown away at the amount of different ways you can shape and modify your creature and seeing how the different physical traits you give it respond individually to the different actions you can make it perform is really cool. There are also some really great features built right into the game, such as the ability to take pictures (including “animated avatars”) and record video. The video recorder even gives you the option of automatically posting the video on Youtube and THEN lets you send the Youtube link to friends via e-mail. Here’s a short clip I recorded of my first creature:

I think I’m officially excited for the full game to come out.

But not without giving me the opportunity to play some vidyas, learn about upcoming ones, and get some serious hours in at work. Plus, now there’s only a couple weeks left in the semester. Usually this has me really psyched as it means summer break, but this year I plan on taking two summer classes to get caught up on missed hours. I would be registering right now for the classes, but the PIN number my advisor gave me isn’t working. I sent him an e-mail asking him to check it again and let me know if there was a mistake (and if so, to just send me the correct PIN). I don’t like sitting around unable to register and get the classes I want while other people are able to take up seats. I hope this is sorted out soon. If the PIN my advisor gave me is correct, then I need to go to the registrar’s office and figure out what’s wrong.

I found something pretty cool on Friday and I’m a little embarassed that I’m so slow to mentioning it here. Somebody over at WiiNintendo got their hands on Mario Kart Wii and posted a nearly-two-hour-long video showing all 32 tracks. Just like in Mario Kart DS, 16 of the tracks (4 cups) are new original courses, and the other 16 are “retro” tracks from previous Mario Kart games. Go here to watch the video and read his lengthy impressions about it. This is the first major collection of info about the game. Until now MKWii has sort of been slipping in under the radar (most likely due to Brawl) and all I’ve heard is that there are bikes and online racing. Since the 32-track video has been posted other places, I’ll be a little different and post the other video here after the cut - only 20 minutes long, and it has two WFC matches and two battle matches. Take note of how quickly he connects to opponents and begins racing. Also take note of how many racers are in the Battle. It’s old news now that MKWii has 12 racers per race, as opposed to the previous standard 8, but even in previous games we never saw the full amount of racers in VS. Battle mode. Continue Reading »

I know many people quit visiting the Smash Brothers Dojo once Brawl actually came out, but I still check it most mornings. It has become such a routine thing for me, just like checking e-mail, that I gotta say I’ll miss Mr. Sakurai’s daily posts and cheerful, sometimes awkward humor. Even so, since Brawl hit the shelves in Japan, the updates haven’t been as intertesting or entertaining as they were five months ago. Today, however, I noticed something a bit strange. The update is another screenshot collection - evidently you’re able to send him screenshots you take in the game. Either that, or these are just collected from the Smash Service submission feature. Anyway, if you scroll all the way down you’ll find this note:

Thanks for all of your submissions!

Please understand that snapshots depicting inappropriate content or containing inappropriate comments will not be eligible for selection.

To this point, I’ve received a great number of screenshots that focus on peeking at the undergarments of certain Brawl combatants. So let me just say it again—shots like these will never be posted to the Dojo or sent out to users via the Smash Service.

Can’t say I’m surprised this has been happening, but I did have a laugh at the fact that he had to make this statement. But then I started looking a little more around the images. For whatever reason, Sakurai decided to separate photos taken by Americans and Japanese and then give each side a link to the others. I clicked to view the Japanese gallery and browsed and then I found this on the bottom of page 3:

I honestly can’t tell if this is just another joke or if it was honestly missed. I have a hard time believing that a man in his position in his type of career would actually be in charge of maintaining the site all by himself. It’s heartwarming to imagine the Dojo as being entirely his own blog, but to assume he does all of the web design, file maintenance, and translations (into five different languages!) himself is a bit farfetched. At any rate, I have saved the above image and I’m prepared to upload it and edit this post in the event that it gets discovered by somebody in charge and is taken down.

Dojo updates will be done on the 14th, which is Monday. It will almost reach its one-year birthday. Although I would imagine perhaps it already has, if you take in the period of time when all we got was a countdown to JAPAN TIME.