Radiant Silvergun headed to Xbox Live Arcade

   I've heard about Microsoft trying to get Radiant Silvergun on the XBLA for at least 2 years. At least. The Xbox 360 is the default console for shooters at the moment so it was a no-brainer to get Treasure's little treasure onto the Xbox.

   Radiant Silvergun was originally released on the Sega Titan ST-V arcade hardware so the code probably needed to be ported over, tweaked, cleaned up, and tweaked some more but Treasure's on the job. Microsoft and Treasure announced the availability of RS on XBL sometime in 2011 and the game will include new features such as updated graphics, a cooperative mode, and a SuperPlay feature where players can download play-data from other gamers and watch them in the game. I'm assuming that the resale value of Radiant Silver (Saturn) on Ebay's going to drop from the current average of US$250 to a more reasonable $150 or maybe even $100. Widespread availability of popular and rare games tends to kill the price.

Doperi Petapeta Aru Unchi

   I've mentioned that the company I work for gets a lot of sales listings and product offers every day. It's a little daunting to watch what comes in from around the world every morning in terms of preorders, toys, movies, and software.

   Undoubtedly however, the most interesting and weirdest shit (excuse me) comes from Japan. In the case of the "Doperi Petapeta Aru Unchi," toy, it's literally shit in an assortment of colors. I hear that if you eat a lot of carrots, your poop will look like the crap on the upper left corner of the photo. If you consume a lot of peas as in pea soup, you'll eject the mass that located below the carrot poop. I have no idea what kind of food creates the greasy and shiny black mess that's located on the bottom row, second from the left but it can't be healthy. Maybe fast food that's been double-fried and then reheated and then deep-fried again.

   Yes folk, these toys are on sale in Japan. What's the price you ask? Each piece of crap may be had for a measly JPY100 which is about $1.50. Come and get it.

Twitter is a fad

   Yeah, it's a fad. F-A-D. I said it when the service first started gaining critical mass and I said it again when Ashton Kutcher became the King of Twitter. This is the third time I'm saying it and that's because I tend to reiterate when I'm right. I'll list some other recent fads that have faded:

1) Crocs
2) Wheelies Sneakers
3) Scooters

   Okay, maybe the most recent scooter phase died down a few years ago but it's late and I'm about to wind down for the night. Fads blaze brightly for a short while before they die down and they never regain their popularity ever again. In the midst of a fad's prime, everyone thinks it's going to be the next big game-changer but it never is. It's just another short-lived pop culture phenomenon that's adopted by a lot of people but abandoned after the fad is over.

   How long before Twitter is relegated to the abandoned phase? Give it another year. By then, Twitter will be like Friendster. Remember that social network which used to be THE social network before Facebook ate everyone's lunch? That's Twitter in another year. Come to think of it, that's Groupon in another year too.

Criminal Girls PSP

   Awwwww, don't they look cute? Well, they're not. They're evil girls. CRIMINAL GIRLS. They've been sent to the depths of hell for unimaginable crimes and they're going to suffer for their transgressions.

   That is, unless you get them on the right path to redemption. Punish the girls when they get out of line and spank their bottoms if they get uppity. The PSP Criminal Girls game is an adventure with softcore tendencies and adult themes but lest you think there's going to be any anime-girl-nudity, be forewarned that there's liberal usage of a mosaic filter in force so that any explicit scenes are fuzzed out.

   The Playstation Portable once enjoyed a library of Japanese UMD pornos from a company called Glay'z but sales weren't that great. Criminal Girls isn't porno but it'll probably provide for a few minutes of tittiliation and tease. Just a few minutes, but for some people, that's more than enough.

Belated Birthday Greetings to Mario

   Yeah, Mario turned 25 years old yesterday. He doesn't look a day over 35 but who's counting. Reflecting on my wasted youth, I have good memories of the original Nintendo Entertainment System and all the games my brothers and sisters played on the thing. We even had the Gyromite Robot which we used once and then shoved into the attic. It's probably still there if it hasn't gone into the trash.

   The hottest game on the NES was Super Mario Bros 3. It had everything - running, jumping, raccoon cosplay, and the kind of platform excitement that hooks impressionable kids. SMB3 was released before the age of the internet so only way kids could trade information was by calling each other or by logging into bulletin board systems like GEnie, Prodigy, or CompuServe. Those systems were the precursors to the internet and I recall lively gaming discussions on PC games as well as console games. There was no GameFaqs back then so hunting for information on games wasn't as easy as it is today. It's safe to say I grew up with Mario and I've known him all my life so I had to break down and wish him happy birthday.

Widespread PS3 Piracy

   With news that the PSGroove has been ported over to the iPhone 1G, iPhone 3G, and iPod Touch (first-generation), even more devices are now capable of breaking the Playstation 3 wide open for piracy. I knew Sony was in trouble when I heard from my tweenage cousin (who's hardly ever online or tech-savvy) that he was able to get someone from school to Jailbreak his PS3 with a phone. He didn't specify which phone but I'm guessing an Android phone. I reminded him that piracy was unethical and he responded with the following, "Well, I'm just a kid and I can't afford to pay $60 + tax for a game."

   If the lay people like my little cousin are getting their Playstations hacked, then the malaise of piracy is going to spread fairly far and wide over the course of the next year. I foresee a lot of banning, a lot of patches, and a lot of firmware updates in the PS3's future but the genie's out of the bottle and there'll be no way to trap him inside ever again.