A few games have been announced, recently, that I hope are of interest to you! This may have had something to do with E3...? It seems like a lot of games have been announced in the past week.

Anyway, you’ve probably heard all about these games by now, but I’m just reminding you to care about them, and not about all those other shitty games.

Captain Rainbow is the new game by Skip! That’s exciting! You can read about it here and here and also here. The game was announced by Nintendo, and apparently the fact that it’s made by Skip – while being obvious; just look at it – hasn’t been officially confirmed, so allow me to unofficially confirm it: Hirofumi Taniguchi told me about Captain Rainbow back in January, while we were waiting in line for Fami-mode. So that’s straight from the horse’s sound designer’s mouth.

Probably safe to assume it’s hikarin doing the art; don’t have a clue who’s directing it! I’ll try to find out, but, eh, we’ll all know soon enough.

Rhythm Tengoku Gold – or just Rhythm Heaven, as they’re calling the English version – is the DS sequel to Rhythm Tengoku, one of my favourite games, and certainly my favourite game on the GBA. It’s wonderful and brilliant for too many reasons to explain in a short paragraph; I should do a review sometime. It’s by the same team who made Wario Ware, and you should think of it as ‘the game they made after Wario Ware’, because all the Wario Ware sequels were pointless and stupid, whereas you can tell that Rhythm Tengoku is a game they really wanted to make.

Whether Rhythm Tengoku Gold was made for love, or because Nintendo told them to, I don’t know. But a Rhythm Tengoku game being released internationally is good news, I reckon.

Finally, some wonnnnnderful news for everybody: Game Center CX – previously lauded here, by me – is coming out in English, as Retro Game Challenge! (And so is the TV series it’s based on, apparently.) This means that you, reader of English, will be able to play and enjoy this fun and extraordinary and important game. I really never expected Game Center CX to get an English release, so this news was an exciting surprise!

Dessgeega, in her analysis linked just above, describes Game Center CX – or Retro Game Challenge – as “a fictionalized digital history of the experience of growing up with a magic box full of secrets beneath your tv,” and I think that’s about the best summary anyone could come up with. Everyone reading this should play the game, especially our younger readers, who grew up with the PlayStation rather than the NES. I’m looking forward to hearing what you think of it!

So, those are the games I give a shit about. Is anything missing? Is there an upcoming game I ought to be excited about, but maybe I haven’t heard about it or something? Tell me – I really would like to know.

At long last, I am very, very happy to present the first half of my interview with Kenichi Nishi, the designer of LOL: Lack Of Love, Giftpia, Chibi-Robo, and most recently Archime-DS, soon to be released in Europe and Australia as LOL.

I also interviewed Fumihiro Kanaya, the programmer of Archime-DS, and Miki Tashiro of Skip, the game's publisher. This is because I am an interviewing machine that cannot be stopped.

Click the linky bit to read words -- words about Archime-DS, Skip and Nintendo's bit Generations games; words about Nishi's approach to game design; about his philosophies and dog. Meet a living treasure of the world of videogames.

Second update of the year and I'm already late. It's not my fault! There were monsters.

This is a long, long review of Archime-DS, the latest game from Kenichi Nishi, the creator of Chibi-Robo, Giftpia, and other, similarly unique and neato games. This review is so long that most of it isn't even a review. What is it, instead? Who knows. Not me! I already forgot! It is so amazing and cool and good that my brain just couldn't hold on to it.

I need a cup of tea.