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Nishiura Momokans Win 2nd Nico Baseball Tournament in Extras

July 31, 2009 in Games, Sports by Tom Langston (calaggie) | No comments


Rallying back from 2 down in the bottom of the 9th to tie the score, the Nishura Momokans [西浦モモカンズ] (Oofuri) won the 2nd annual unofficial Nico baseball tournament on an RBI double off a tired Heiji Hattori in the 10th. Ren Mihashi pitched his fifth consecutive complete game and deservingly won tournament MVP. Their opponent, the Baker Street Detectives [米花町デテクテイブス] (Detective Conan), led for most of the game thanks to RBIs in the 6th and 7th by Hiroshi Agasa and Genta Kojima, respectively, and to Conan Edogawa throwing six scoreless innings before being relieved by Ai Haibara to start the 7th.

Hattori came in to replace Haibara in the ninth and that’s when the Momokans’ comeback began. A single by Yūichirō Tajima and a double by Azusa Hanai off the left field wall made it 2nd & 3rd with no outs. Kazutoshi Oki’s sacrifice fly to center drove in Tajima for their first run of the game but then Fumiki Mizutani flied out to center, leaving them with only one out left. Mihashi got on base with a single, pushing Hanai to third in the process, which set up Takaya Abe to slap an RBI single to left to knot the game at 2-2. They had an opportunity to clinch the title without going to extras with runners on 1st & 2nd but Kōsuke Izumi flying out forced the game into the 10th.

Showing signs of fatigue, Mihashi managed to retire the side in order to set the stage for a championship-winning bottom half of the inning. Yūto Sakaeguchi led off with a line out to second but then Shōji Suyama doubled to deep center and both Tajima and Hanai both drew walks, loading the bases for Oki. His double to center on a 3-1 pitch drove in Suyama to win the game and the tournament. (Tajima was close behind Suyama and would’ve been the 4th run but Nishiura only needed one.)
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2nd Nico Sim Baseball Tourney Already in Full Swing

May 10, 2009 in Games, Sports by Tom Langston (calaggie) | No comments


While browsing for Koshien clips on Nico last week, I came across a pleasant surprise. It turns out that the same person who ran last year’s inaugural tournament that pitted 16 anime & manga-based teams against each other in a sim bracket has already started doing it again this spring. This time around (Nico link), the tournament has been dubbed “Koshien Dream Match” (甲子園ドリームマッチ), the field has been doubled to 32 teams, and the game has been upgraded to Pawapuro 15. It took two months but the first round wrapped up on Saturday so if you’d like read those results and the 2nd round matchups, feel free to continue.
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A Not-Quite-Review of Lux-Pain (Nintendo DS)

May 1, 2009 in Games by Tom Langston (calaggie) | No comments


Last month, Ignition Entertainment sent me a copy of Lux-Pain (DS) for review. It was originally developed by Japanese studio Marvelous and uses a visual novel framework in concert with adventure elements. The following are my thoughts about the game after finishing the first four episodes and 5 1/2 hours of play. (I read online that there are 21 episodes in total so I still have much more of the game to play.)

The Basics:
You play Atsuki, a 17-year-old whose family was killed by Silent, a parasite spawned from hate and despair. Operating as part of anti-Silent group FORT (Force for Obliteration of the Rising Terrors), Atsuki goes undercover as a high-school student in Kisaragi City in an attempt to discover the original vector of the Shanghai Incident, which infected 10,000 people in just 3 months and led to thousands of crimes and suicides.

Navigation between areas consists of selecting highlighted regions on an isometric map. Once you enter a dialogue scene, you see shadows of the characters you’re talking to on the top screen. Color changes ripple up through the shadows in response to your dialogue choices and when a yellow gas appears, that means there are Shinen (thoughts) to be read. A “Signum Anima” warning shows up and activating it initiates a mini-game where you have to scratch the touchscreen in order to reveal the hiding Shinen worms. These warnings can also appear when entering unoccupied rooms.
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Shonen Manga Magazines Crossover for DS Baseball, PSP Fighting Games

March 16, 2009 in Games by Tom Langston (calaggie) | No comments


Both Shogakukan’s Weekly Shonen Sunday and Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine began publication on the same day 50 years ago – March 17, 1959 – and they have been doing anniversary celebrations over the past year including the release of a joint issue on March 19, 2008, and the production of two crossover video games: a DS baseball game, Sunday X Magazine Nettou! Dream Nine (website), on Feb. 26th and a PSP fighting game for the PSP called Sunday VS Magazine: Shuuketsu! Choujou Daikessen! (website) on Mar. 26th.
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The Anime Sim Baseball Tournament on Nico

July 31, 2008 in Games, Sports by Tom Langston (calaggie) | 1 comment


Have you ever wanted to see characters from your favorite anime series face off on a ballfield diamond? Well, some enterprising Japanese person set up a 16-team tournament using Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 14 to simulate the matches and posted the results on NicoNicoDouga with some added graphics to make them seem more televised. While there were obvious baseball inclusions such as Oofuri and Dokaben, there were also a few obscure choices like Maple Senchi and shojo manga Muteki no Venus by Ayumi Shiina. An added bonus was that the uploader also took the time to craft relevant chants for each team (i.e. “Star Rise” from Bamboo Blade), which made the whole thing all the more authentic, at least as much as a video game can be real.

Anyway, if you are a baseball nerd like myself and if you want to watch the matches, there is a video playlist containing them in sequence but for those who are not (and also lack Nico accounts), I’m also posting the results after the jump.
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