Game Review: The Scruffs

While I was fairly busy this weekend, I did take some time out to play The Scruffs, a hidden object game available exclusively at Big Fish Games. Here is the description from the website: "The Scruffs have enlisted your help to save their beloved family home from being sold. Grandpa Scruff has come up with a solution - an elaborate scavenger hunt to recover valuable artifacts, he's hidden around the house. But in a surprising twist, Grandpa Scruff also reveals that he's been hiding something else - a shocking family secret. Help the Scruffs stave off this looming family crisis and uncover the secret that will change their lives forever."

This was a really fun game. Not only is there the typical hidden object game where you are given a list of things to find in a picture but there are two other mini-games to play as well. In each level, there is a family picture hidden among the other objects. Once you find it, you can play a mini-game where you have to identify 20 'scribbles' on each picture. These 'scribbles' are really easy to find as they are bright and colorful in comparison to the picture. Also, every time you complete a level, you have to piece together an old photograph. Within that photograph is a picture of a special object you'll have to find in one of the rooms in the hidden object level.

Sounds difficult, doesn't it? It's not that hard; it's just not easy to explain. I had a ton of fun playing it and I was sad when the demo ended. Once I have a bit more free time, I think I'll purchase this one.

JDorama Review: Omiai Kekkon

Title: Omiai Kekkon Also known as: Arranged Marriage Broadcast date: 1/11/00 to 3/21/00 Number of episodes: 11 Genre: Romantic comedy Cast: Matsu Takako, Yusuke Santamaria, Sato Tamao, Kubozuka Yosuke, Kawahara Ayako, Imai Masayuki Plot: Nakatani Setsuko (Matsu Takako) is terrible at choosing a man for herself. Shortly after she quits her job as a flight attendant to marry her boyfriend, she finds out that he has gotten another girl pregnant. Depressed, she reluctantly agrees to go to a marriage meeting arranged by her parents. Hirose Koutaro (Yusuke Santamaria), pressured by his boss, meets with Setsuko. Can love truly form from a marriage meeting? What is good: The love square between Tanuma (Imai Masayuki), Mika (Sato Tamao), Ohata (Kubozuka Yosuke) and Kyoko (Kawahara Ayako) is frustrating but interesting to watch. What is bad: Both Setsuko and Koutaro are extremely annoying. Letter rating: D+ Overall: Yet another show that I randomly picked from a list of titles. While Omiai Kekkon wasn't a terrible show, it wasn't particularly good either. I found myself more interested in the secondary characters than I did in the primary. After watching the first few episodes, you can pretty much guess how the show will end for them. However, the secondary characters leave you guessing for awhile. Even in the last couple of episodes, you weren't sure which couples you'd end up with. Sure, there are some good moments for Setsuko and Koutaro but there aren't a lot of them. As for the ending of the show, they should have stopped at the credits instead of doing the little bit after the names finished rolling.

I can't recommend this series to anyone and still stay honest with myself. Perhaps, if you are a fan of one of the actors, you might find a little bit of enjoyment in it but you'd probably do better with a different series.

Music Review: Green Day - Jaded

Artist: Green Day Members: Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass, vocals), Tre Cool (drums) Album: Insomniac Release date: 10/10/95 Video link: live performance from 1998

Lyrics: Somebody keep my balance I think I'm falling off Into a state of regression The expiration date Rapidly coming up It's leaving me behind to rank Always move forward Going "straight" will get you nowhere There is no progress Evolution killed it all I found my place in nowhere I'm taking one step sideways Leading with my crutch Got a fucked up equilibrium Count down from 9 to 5 Hooray! We're gonna die! Blessed into our extinction Always move forward Going "straight" will get you nowhere There is no progress Evolution killed it all I found my place in nowhere

About the song: Jaded is the companion song to Brain Stew. (See the music video for both here.) On both the album and the music video, Brain Stew goes right into Jaded without missing a beat. As a result, it'll be difficult for me to discuss Jaded without referring to Brain Stew.

Billie Joe wrote Brain Stew when he was being kept up all hours of the night by his newborn son. That song (and the accompanying music video) is about exhaustion and the hallucinations that go along with it. Jaded, on the other hand, is more about the rush of adrenaline you get when you are completely exhausted. It's a lot faster and Billie Joe slams through the lyrics at a frantic pace. The two songs are perfect compliments for each other.

Game Review: Jane's Hotel

Jane's Hotel is another time management game I downloaded from Big Fish Games. You play Jane, a woman with big dreams of owning a five-star hotel. In order to accomplish this, you start out with a two-star hotel and work your way up. Of all of the time management games I have played, this is the worst. Everything is extremely linear and there is no way to change that. You can upgrade your hotel but you are not given any choices about how to do it. Upgrades are unlocked by gaining more experience then you have to earn enough money to purchase it. Luckily, you generally get enough experience and money in each level to buy the next upgrade. While the upgrades tend to change what your customers want/need, that's all they change. You don't get a "Jane moves faster" upgrade or an "Additional Chamber Maid" upgrade. As a result, both your character and the maid character end up running around like lunatics just to make the hotel guests happy. Personally, I think the guests should be able to turn the TV on by themselves. There isn't a need for ME to do it for them.

If you are into time management games, stay away from this one. I recommend you go with Cake Mania 2 or Paradise Pet Salon.

Game Review: Paradise Pet Salon

If you couldn't tell by now, I visit Big Fish Games a lot. This time around I gave Paradise Pet Salon a try. After all, I like pets and I like when pets look pretty! The description for this one reads: This is no day at the spa! It's you versus Pet Corp in this fast paced fur flying good time. Your pet spa is competing against the evil Pet Corp. You'll turn a small corner spa into a huge success with fast and hard work. But it's not all about speed. You've also got to plan ahead. Serve hundreds of great pets and people too so you can earn more money to improve your spa by buying upgrades and special treats for your furry clients too. Fur has never been this fun or addictive.

When you start the game, you have to decorate your pet salon and buy some equipment. There isn't a lot you can afford yet so you're pretty much stuck with the free wall color and floor tile with just a bathtub and cutting station. Oh, and don't forget to buy some chairs for your waiting pet owners. They don't leave the store until you are finished with their pet and they'll get angry if you leave them standing for too long. After a couple of rounds, you'll be able to buy some new equipment. This is where the game starts to get really hard. You can only afford to buy one new station and everyone wants to use it. It gets really difficult to juggle all the pets and their wants while keeping their owners happy. I came very close to losing a couple of customers when I first got a health station.

Paradise Pet Salon is basically another time management game. Instead of waiting tables or baking cakes, you're grooming dogs and cats. It can be a fun game when it's not too difficult. However, when you can't afford to buy additional stations to help with the abundance of pets coming in the door, it can get overwhelming. So while I enjoyed the game, I don't forsee me spending the money to buy the full version of it.

Game Review: Build-a-lot

Last night, I decided to break out of my video game rut. I've been playing way too many time management and hidden object games. So I downloaded Build-a-lot from Big Fish Games. The description reads: Become a real estate mogul and take over the housing market as you construct, upgrade and sell houses for huge profits! You can flip houses for quick cash or sit back and watch the rental income pile up. Travel to scenic towns and perform special tasks for the local mayors. Buy blue prints of new buildings to build bigger and better neighborhoods! Can you build an ice rink for the Olympics? A new cinema for the local movie star? Find out in the new strategy game, Build-a-lot!

I usually suck at strategy games but what the heck. It won't kill me to play an hour demo. The game actually turned out to be quite fun! I played through the first three towns. Well, I shouldn't really count the first town since that is the tutorial. In each town, you are given a list of goals to accomplish. They vary from things like 'Build 3 Colonial Houses' to 'Build A Library' to 'Hire 5 Workers.' While each of these sounds like really easy goals, you quickly find that you have to do some financial juggling in order to accomplish them. You start out with three workers, one housing blueprint and you need to purchase materials. To accomplish the 'Build A Library' goal, you need to juggle your finances enough to buy the library blueprint, hire two more workers and purchase 1500 units of building materials. In order to get the finances going, you need to build enough houses to generate enough rental income to buy everything you need. And, of course, there is a timer. If you accomplish all your goals fast enough, you get a blue ribbon for that section.

I know that I haven't really made the game sound as fun as it is. It plays a lot like a time management game but it's more than that. I found it to be a really enjoyable game and I just might purchase the full version so I can play some more.

Playstation 3 virtual world delayed

Taking place this week is Tokyo Game Show, one of the largest video game conventions in the world. Sony president, Hirai Kazuo, announced on Thursday that they will be delaying the launch of 'Home,' the Playstation 3 virtual world service. While the service was originally intended to be released this year, it is now pushed pack to spring 2008. "Home" is an interactive world where players create an avatar in order to do a variety of things, such as setting up their own rooms, playing games with other users and watching movie trailers. Sony hopes that the service will bring about new forms of advertising as well as electronic shopping.

Source: Mainichi

Music review: Barenaked Ladies - Christmas Time (Oh Yeah)

Artist: Barenaked Ladies Members: Steven Page (vocals), Ed Robertson (guitar), Tyler Stewart (drums), Jim Creegan (bass), Kevin Hearn (keyboards & more) Album: Barenaked For The Holidays Release date: 10/5/04

Lyrics: Now that all the snow has fallen It's crunching in below my feet And all the Christmas lights are shining On houses up and down my street And I can see the happy families inside If only for a moment, it's Christmas time

I think I see the children down the street Here they come caroling Now we can hear them, they sing "Oh yeah"

Mr. Johnson bought a Christmas tree He set it up with his family They're opening their presents big and small Mr. Johnson got a big, brown, bowling ball And Sally got a pair of brand new skates And Jimmy got a box of frosty flakes He knows that there's a special little prize inside What a happy moment, it's Christmas time

The carolers are standing in line They sing, "Oh yeah" Oh yeah About the song: I'm not usually a big fan of Christmas music. However, this is one of my favorite songs about the holiday. I particularly love the harmony on the "Oh yeah" parts. In my opinion, Kevin is the weakest singer of the band but his nasally sounding voice is appropriate for a song about family. This song isn't about being a great singer. It's just about enjoying the holidays with your family, even if you only get Frosted Flakes as a present.

TV review: Cory in the House

Cory in the House is the third live action Disney Channel series, along with The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Hannah Montana, aimed at "tweens." A spin-off of That's So Raven, the show revolves around Cory Baxter (Kyle Massey) moving into the White House when his father, Victor (Rondell Sheridan), gets hired as the personal chef for President Richard Martinez (John D'Aquino). President Martinez has a young daughter named Sophie (Madison Pettis), who is usually the foil for Cory's money-making schemes.

I've found that this show isn't as terrible as The Suite Life but it's not as good as Hannah Montana. In most of the episodes that I've seen, Cory thinks up some scheme to make tons of money quickly before he's found out and punished by his father. However, most of the punishments end up as mere slaps on the wrist and do nothing to deter Cory from concocting yet another scheme. Meanwhile, Sophie may be cute but she is extremely spoiled. Nothing will turn me off faster than an obnoxious spoiled child in a series. So while I can sit through the show for a little while, the novelty of the "new kid in the White House" theme wears off quickly.

Jmovie review: Nana 2

Title: Nana 2 Release date: 12/9/06 Genre: Romance, Slice of Life Cast: Nakashima Mika, Ichikawa Yui, Kyo Nobuo, Tamayama Tetsuji, Narimiya Hiroki, Hongo Kanata, Maruyama Tomomi Plot: Komatsu Nana/Hachiko (Ichikawa Yui) finds herself trapped in a love triangle with Trapnest's Takumi (Tamayama Tetsuji) and Black Stones' Nobu (Narimiya Hiroki). When she finds out she is pregnant, it devastates her best friend and roommate, Osaki Nana (Nakashima Mika). Can any of them find happiness in their lives after this? What is good: Nakashima Mika is still the perfect choice to play Osaki Nana. What is bad: The actors for Hachi, Shin and Ren were all replaced. Letter rating: B- Overall: I was really looking forward to seeing how the movie would handle a lot of the issues in this part of the storyline. The script seemed to be very good but the change in casting was a big distraction. In my opinion, Miyazaki Aoi was perfect as Hachi. Ichikawa Yui wasn't able to bring the same naviete and innocence to the character. I understand that Miyazaki Aoi didn't want to tarnish her image with the delicate issues dealt with in the second movie. However, she should have read through the manga to see what the future of her character was before accepting the role in the first movie. Considering how popular the NANA franchise is, I don't understand why she would have thought that the story would have stopped with the first movie. I also understand that the change in Shin's actor was due to Matsuyama Ken'ichi being too old for the role. While this is more understandable, since Shin has a larger role in this movie, it was difficult to accept the new actor as Shin.

While this wasn't a terrible movie by any means, it wasn't nearly as good as the first one. You're left expecting more from the actors, more from the two bands and more from the characters. If you watched the first movie, you'll probably want to watch the second movie to finish the experience. Just don't expect a whole lot from it.