For those not in the known: watch as I turn back the tables of time with this funky, scratchy mix (supply your own beats). About a week ago, Fragcast’s Genki Rocket posted an image of the recently released Okami box-art for the Nintendo Wii, and pointed out one particularly interesting observation: the bloody thing’s got an IGN watermark! Capcom acknowledged the mishap, and has already started offering free replacements to those folks who were perhaps emotionally scarred from this depreciable error or just couldn’t stop laughing.

But it’s not quite over yet! Split-Screen’s Gopal Sathe decided to do some box-art sleuthing of his own, “out of random curiosity” he says. What he found was a Gamespot watermark inside the instruction booklet of Capcom’s Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Gasp! What stunning revelation, that be! So now the question begs itself to be asked: what bored internet lollygagger is gonna sift through his entire collection of Capcom games to check and see what other enlightening mysteries have been left unnoticed for all this time? Only time (and Imageshack) will tell for sure.

Relationships are mystifying. Once upon a time in the far off land of Queens, NY – a lovely lady and I were supposed to meet at a local arcade parlor for some hardcore Time Crisis 3 co-op. Sadly instead, she stood me up with not so much a call, email or telegram! Women. Go figure.

But it’s a damn shame whenever a significant other stops being your significant other, and ensues to be in possession of certain items that clearly aren’t meant to be in their possession anymore. Such a woe has befallen on one particular IGN board member named TELPEURION, and his intentions are pretty clear: to get his ex girlfriend to give back his Nintendo DS Lite, several games, and a bicycle. Although I never look at the specifics, it’s kinda expected you’d want to pressure former associates, and what better way is there when you can take their tooshie down to court. TELPEURION plans to do just that, and we can’t really blame him. After all, stranger things have happened.

So from our side to him, we wish him the best of luck and hope to hear further updates on the situation.

I played Ninja Gaiden a few years back (not the NES version). I still play it. A lot!

It’s quite simple to understand why someone could be addicted to a game like that. Great graphics, excellent sound, stylistic action and ninja combat, fluid controls and an extremely deep combat system all scream at you to keep playing. Add to that various mutators, such as the Master Ninja Tournaments and you’ve got your killer-app. Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox had it all. At the risk of losing gamer-credibility, I’d go as far as saying that Halo was the overrated game on the Xbox - Ninja Gaiden truly showed the world what the box was capable of and how a game should be made. Ninja Gaiden Black came along and added new enemies, a few twists and the legendary Master Ninja tournaments.

But then news came along that Ninja Gaiden was being developed for the Nintendo DS and I went “Oh fuck! Here goes the coolest looking game back to shitty graphics and kiddy gameplay”.

Oh how wrong I was.

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We, at The Angry Pixel, like to believe that we are pretty weird, but in a good way, though many might not agree with the “good” part. So we are always on the lookout for stuff that compliments our image. A normal search on the good ol’ Google always throws up some really crazy and weird stuff all the time. But sometimes, we stumble across something that makes even us go, “WTF!”!

While looking around on Google for some weird gaming peripherals, the search results regurgitated this piece of gaming goodness that has us scratching our heads (for a change!) that such masterpieces do truly exist in the gaming world. So presenting before you, our very first Weird Game Of The Week, Namco’s Chizu Saeki’s Dream Skin Care for the Nintendo DS.

The guys behind the game probably do not have a high opinion about the age-old adage that beauty is only skin deep. So they have come out with a game that will afford the gamers a chance to get all the goodness a beauty parlor has to offer, right on their couch, with their DS. Feed in your Basal Body Temperature (huh?!), weight, your living conditions, your skin type and even your menstrual cycle and it will chart out a beauty regime for you. Give it the details about the time period as in maybe a friend’s marriage date and it will spit out the skin care tips and cooking recipes that will ensure that you are the envy of all on the D-day. The game also includes 34 hour long videos that you can go through at your own pace to get an even more in-depth look.

While we are all game for innovative titles, this one is probably something of an overkill. We wonder how many copies this game has managed to sell considering there is really not much of it on the World Wide Web, and that’s saying something. If you are not on The Net, you do not exist for all practical purposes. We, at TAP, have crossed our fingers least we get to see a, God forbid, How To Conceive A Baby soon. Thank you Nintendo, but if we want to know, we will find it out the good ol’ way.

P.S. If you have been wondering who the guy in the picture is, it’s our Associate Editor, Reggie. I told you! We ARE weird!!

Ever since Team Ninja’s Tomonobu Itagaki decided to resurrect the Ninja Gaiden franchise, Ryu Hayabusa has risen to fame as the greatest action hero in gaming. Making the transition from the calm seas of 2-D to the vicious 3-D waters was never going to be easy, but Itagaki’s sunglass powered foresight made it happen. It is still a mystery why Itagaki-san bet his chips on Ninja Gaiden instead of making some sort of X-Men game…he is the Japanese cyclops after all (never wondered what was behind those glasses?)

Two remakes later (Black and Sigma), we will finally witness a new chapter in Ryu’s saga until Ninja Gaiden 2 hits the Xbox 360 sometime next year. And who would have thought that the graphically intense, action-heavy, extremely mature Ninja Gaiden will see its next chapter unfold on the Nintendo DS? Doubts fogged my mind as a Ninja Gaiden on the DS seemed almost next to impossible (unless it was another cheap 2-D rendition, that’s what all the other devs do, don’t they…the lazy bastards). But here I am, with an early build of Ninja Gaiden DS tucked neatly in my DSLite. So lets take this Ninja Dog out for a stroll and find out if it only barks or bites as well?

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As if Singstar Bollywood and Dance Mela didn’t have our heads already scratching, this queer little number takes it to the next step. Famitsu posted screens of a Mathematics Learning game being developed for the DS, exclusively made for Japan. Why, you ask? Because everyone knows how Indians like to get their algebra on. They like to get it on hard.

Since my understanding of the Japanese language (let alone how to read it) is heavily limited to words like goa, uugu and - if I’m feeling particularly dangerous - pyo, there’s isn’t much from the page I can make out that Google can’t translate for you and make ten times funnier (Update: Tokkan was nice enough to directly translate for me. Apparently, the game is called Let Loose the Indian Mathematics Drill Boasting Mental Arithmatic. Just, wow). But geez, you’d think the art designers would have a reference on hand of what Indian people actually look like. I have no complaints with the middle-aged, dark-skined fella, but have a gander at those women. That’s like the worst drawn sarees I’ve ever seen on a female body. And is that supposed to be one of those cat-vase hats I keep hearing about? Can you say, “ew”?

Thanks to Gagaman for the laugh!

These last two years have been almost like a plethora of revelations for me. Among those major shocks, there are those I concluded in the following: dogs can sneeze (in all my years, I haven’t seen something this hilarious), frogs reproduce asexually (poor bastards don’t know what they’re missing), girls are a big pain in the neck (and hole in the pocket) and that a guy can actually get bored of kissing. I also realized that if I stuck to my motto of PC GAMING RULEZ, I’d be bankrupt before I could spell M-O-N-E-Y. Consoles and handhelds suddenly started becoming brighter prospects and the term “bang for your buck” has started making absolute sense. For those of you who think this is going to be another of those “PC versus Console” articles, sorry to disappoint you. Instead, I’ll be dealing with the question that has been torturing me the most: Are handheld and portable gaming devices ready to kick their console and PC counterparts out of orbit. And the answer? Let’s find out.

And by the way, if anyone wants to discuss the absolute beauty of a sneezing dog in action, do send me a mail… No shit, I’m serious.

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