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Konami's corporate philosophy mentions something about ethics:
http://www.konami.co.jp/en/corporate/philosophy/index.html

How about the ethics of the US military taking the whole male population between 14-60 of an entire city of over 400,000 people, not permitting them to leave prior to battle, then destroying 3/4 of the city?

Oh yeah, it was in "response" to the murder of 4 contractors. Let's be "fair and balanced" here in respect to Mr. Murdoch's fans.

It was a mass-murder, not a war fight. It was a genocidal act of criminal cowardice by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush and their ilk. And we are supposed to go be rah-rah patriots and buy Konami's philosophy and story, let alone their game?

It's blood money. It's the most shameful act of despicable racism by the US military in this entire sham war. And any so-called patriot who defends this is defending a war crime.

Konami: there are no words to describe the level of shame to which your company has gone to make money from a massive crime in what is already a crooked criminal war of racism against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 or Al-Qaeda.

Nothing but FUD here. HD-DVD is 45GB, Blue Ray is 50GB. One Blue Ray disc in no way equations to 4-5 HD-DVDs

Whatever. by the time you max out the layers (8 or 9 I believe) there is a significant difference in capacity. Almost 40G I believe. Plus, that 45G HD-DVD is only a prototype, how cost effective is it?

Metal Gear series? You got one game from one developer and that proves that Japanese developers as a whole don't prefer prerendering? Come on, you can't buy that.

Konami sold more than twice as many copies of Winning 11 and Pro Evolution soccer than they did of Metal Gear, and I believe those stadiums are prerendered.

On top of that, they don't do 100% realtime, as I stated before. They render most of the background and then add realtime objects on top. The fact that they don't realtime every aspect allows the limited number of realtime elements to be of a higher detail level. When done correctly the prerendered elements blend perfectly with the realtime creating a higher level of detail than with prerendering alone.

Like I said before, I am excited about Nintendogs and I'm sure I'll enjoy it. Nintendogs and Dogstation both seem to be the type of game that you can play for a minute, save and put down again. I like the portability of Nintendogs for sure...and the option to share with other people will be a big part of the fun I think.

For some reason the picture I linked to on the Dogstation page was part of the table so it reverts back to the main page every time you try to load it but go to this page http://www.konami.co.jp/am/dog/index.html and click on "Dogs" on the left hand side. That is what they look like as puppies...not that horrible example that shows up on their main page. Look at the puppies under "Dogs" and tell me those aren't Nintendogs cute. You can't deny the Dogstation cuteness factor.

I am excited about Nintendogs although I agree that the game isn't exactly original. You listed some good examples but one game that no one seems to mention when it comes to Nintendogs (or at least no one mentions it on slashdot) is Dogstation for the PS2.

I've played Dogstation and it was pretty fun at the time (I really like obscure, non-mainstream games...the crazier the better) and although this game had a Tamagotchi like feel to it you still had to teach the dog to poop and pee, walk it, raise it, breed it, play with it, feed it and play mini games with it. I'm curious how close Nintendogs will be to Dogstation. I mean, even the name Nintendogs (part Nintendo / part dogs) is like a direct rip from Dogstation (part Playstation part dogs) Look at these pictures from the official dogstation webpage and compare them to Nintendogs.

http://www.konami.co.jp/am/dog/index.html
http://www.konami.jp/am/dogstation-dx/index.html

Actually, I'm going to see if the author of the story (that says there is nothing on the market like Nintendogs) and see if he has played this game and what he thought of it.

Dance Dance Revolution

It's a game that employs a dance mat in which you flail around like an epileptic at a disco to hit the correct button at the correct time.

It truly is quite fun:) But as the parent mentioned, not quite designed with the differently abled in mind.

I have known about DDR and other dancing games for quite a time, but it wasn't until half a year ago when I started actually playing the game, and let me tell you, it's a bliss. Not only you do excercise and listen to pretty enjoyable music at the same time, it also improves social skills if done at the arcade and properly. People gather around watching you dance, and it always feels good to hear some complete strangers say nice things to you, doesn't it?

Myself? I have lost about 10 kilograms, and I can surely lose more. A friend of mine made a hard dance pad out of plywood and had a article written about him in the nationwide GameLand magazine. Now we are in for organizing a tournament. :)

BTW, after getting hooked up to DDR and being long-time Eurobeat fans, we went further to discover other BEMANI games like ParaParaParadise where you dance using your hands to cross infrared motion sensors imitating the para-para dancing style popular in Japan, and many others like DanceManiaX. Go and see for yourself, it's fun!

I have known about DDR and other dancing games for quite a time, but it wasn't until half a year ago when I started actually playing the game, and let me tell you, it's a bliss. Not only you do excercise and listen to pretty enjoyable music at the same time, it also improves social skills if done at the arcade and properly. People gather around watching you dance, and it always feels good to hear some complete strangers say nice things to you, doesn't it?

Myself? I have lost about 10 kilograms, and I can surely lose more. A friend of mine made a hard dance pad out of plywood and had a article written about him in the nationwide GameLand magazine. Now we are in for organizing a tournament. :)

BTW, after getting hooked up to DDR and being long-time Eurobeat fans, we went further to discover other BEMANI games like ParaParaParadise where you dance using your hands to cross infrared motion sensors imitating the para-para dancing style popular in Japan, and many others like DanceManiaX. Go and see for yourself, it's fun!

First came the dancing games, DDR, then the DJ games, Beatmania, then some more crap simulation games. As if the other games don't make people look dumb already, now we'll start seeing people waving their arms in the arcades with these mice.

Hot damn you can! (in the rush to a meaningful first post attempt, I didn't look)

Tiny Tanks!

here

Looks promising. However, Konami should shoot the guy who thougt that sliding text phrases all over the preview would "enhance" the trailer experience.
ick!

The Exertris Interactive Bike combines the fun and addictive quality of computer games with the health benefits of exercise. Using a concept called pedal-to-play, the player/biker is required to use their pedaling energy to power elements inside the game; all games are based on this premise. The bike's interactive gaming system is built on Microsoft Windows XP Embedded -- an operating system that delivers the power of Windows in componentized form and a toolset enabling rapid development of reliable devices.

You know, I've been wishing for something like this for a long time. I get bored out of my mind on traditional aerobic exercise equipment, and especially on days with crappy weather, I have no choice for getting a good aerobic workout indoors (except the obvious, uh...alternative, which is difficult when my fiance is several thousand miles away). For the same reason I enjoy playing DDR and Konami's excellent Mocap Boxing game. I play DDR at home as a workout alternative to treadmills, but Mocap Boxing is too expensive to do every day, but I still go play 5-6 games every once in a while. That game makes my arms really tired, but it's a great workout and really fun.

is actually called combat sumo. I would pay good money to see actual tanks do that in real life. I'd laugh my ass off.

Actually that would be:

without the space in the title

The boxing game you speak of is called Mo-Cap Boxing, and it's produced by Konami, the same company that brings us Dance Dance Revolution, Para Para Paradise, DrumMania and Percussion Freaks (the drumming game you mention), and a wide variety of other motion-sensor and music-based games. Their Bemani division produces all of these (except for Police 911 and Mo-Cap Boxing).

The Korean knock-off is called Pump It Up, and it's produced by Andamiro. It is more difficult, but in my opinion it's not as fun as DDR. The song selection isn't very good. Another Korean knock-off, Techno Motion, basically builds off the Andamiro formula, which says "More arrows *must* mean more fun!" There's also Stepping Selection, by Jaleco, which is the system that is the basis for Britney's Dance Beat. That's a pretty loathsome game there.

Para Para Paradise, for the uninformed, uses five vertically positioned infrared beams placed in a pentagon shape around you. Similarly to DDR, you follow the arrows on the screen and break the light beams at the appropriate time. You don't have to use your feet, unlike DDR - Any body part will do. The orientation of the arrows makes it so that you have to rotate and twist more often, frequently making upper-body motions more efficient and viable. It's named Para Para Paradise because the motions you perform in the game are similar to a type of Japanese karaoke bar dancing called "parapara".

For a good combination of both DDR and Para Para Paradise, try DanceManiax/Dance Freaks. These games have sensors on the front of the machine which you can place your hands/arms/knees/whatever over or under, and foot panels on the bottom similar to DDR.

Bemani makes a lot of other good stuff too (Like Beatmania!), but it's not exercise-oriented, and so I won't mention it here. For anyone interested in Bemani products, take a look at BemaniStyle.com and DDRFreak.

FYI, Konami has an exercise bike that plugs directly into the TV (PDF document). No console necessary.

Unfortunately the document doesn't have too much information on it, but check the bottom-right of the first page for a picture. It simplifies things a bit if you don't already have a compatible console machine and just want some extra kick to help you exercise. Not sure where you can get one, though.

Yeah, how about Drum Mania? The Konami game that this is most directly like (and which has already seen about 7 releases in Japan).

As far as direct knock-offs go, this game is mostly Namco's "answer" to Konami's Drum Mania

In any case, I'm not sure why this was topic-worthy. There are tons of PS2 games available in Japan that you can't get in the US (yet if not ever). Even some, like Space Channel 5 Part 2, that US consumers would recognize.

9th mix? You sure? DDR MAX2 (7th mix) is the latest, and MAX 3 isnt due out for a while, I think..

Yeah, we get screwed in the US in terms of domestic DDR machines.. it mostly boils down to song licensing issues.. they can't afford to licence the songs in America 'cause there's not as large a following.. if they did licence all the songs that are in the Japanese version, the domestic machine would end up being more expensive than the import.. and why buy domestic when there's a more popular, cheaper import?

Given that it'd probably be be cheaper to just buy say, an Ultracade conversion kit than it would be to deal with trying to put an Xbox into a Jamma Rig? plus there's the hassle of getting the Xbox controller worked into a JAMMA rig...
I don't see that happening in the near future.
Then again I never saw myself playing a computerized version of Simon at an arcade either...

Play Dance Dance Revolution!

The Nintendo Power Pad was a great idea in concept, but the system wasn't powerful enough to provide a decent entertainment experience with it. DDR is addictive and fun. If you don't want to play in the arcades where people can see you and make fun of you, then get a home set - It's domestically available for PSX, though Konami has only domestically published two titles, and has a third in the works. If you import, Japan has over ten Dance Dance Revolution titles, and they're almost totally in English anyway, so you'll only need to get a modchip or a GameShark.

Konami also released two DDR games for the Dreamcast in Japan, and a Disney-themed DDR for the N64 (Which is also now available for the PSX) but I don't think they made any first-party dance mats, so you'll have to stick with third-party crap mats if you want to play DDR on your Dreamcast. To my knowledge, nobody makes 3rd-party mats for the N64.

Don't knock it until you've tried it. It's loads of fun, and while you might not be very good at it right away, it doesn't take that much practice to get good. It's especially fun to show off in front of a crowd at your local arcade.

By now, most everyone knows about Dance Dance Revoultion (DDR). However, this used a press-down pad -- which worked well for the most part, but required accurate stepping/stomping quickly on the pad to get the game to work. It also required a bit of effort to get the pads to stay put, and was clumsy at times.

Now IR... There's already another dancing game called 'Para Para Paradise' (PPP) in Japan (roughly a year old) which utilizes IR beams. Instead of stepping on a pad, you swing your body and break the IR lines -- making smooth and catchy moves. (it's also by Konami -- go figure)

Unlike in DDR, where you end up stomping a lot to get the higher scores, the main emphasis in 'PPP' is to look/feel cool, and the fact that your feet dont' have to stomp means it's a low impact activity.

It's great to see more and more games utilizing IR, as this opens up the door for many more types of games that we've never seen before. Ever think you'd play a first-person volleyball game? While certainly requiring more IR beams, it's now a possibility.

PPP is a year-old game, but it's still just as enjoyable (if not more) than DDR. Here's the main page at Konami and some screenshots

Of course, all of these interaction-based games work only as well as the effort you're willing to put into it to make it a real experience for you. I must say I've committed the simulation-game sins -- playing DDR with a gamepad, and playing PPP while sitting down and waving a ruler over the IR ports... LOL.

By now, most everyone knows about Dance Dance Revoultion (DDR). However, this used a press-down pad -- which worked well for the most part, but required accurate stepping/stomping quickly on the pad to get the game to work. It also required a bit of effort to get the pads to stay put, and was clumsy at times.

Now IR... There's already another dancing game called 'Para Para Paradise' (PPP) in Japan (roughly a year old) which utilizes IR beams. Instead of stepping on a pad, you swing your body and break the IR lines -- making smooth and catchy moves. (it's also by Konami -- go figure)

Unlike in DDR, where you end up stomping a lot to get the higher scores, the main emphasis in 'PPP' is to look/feel cool, and the fact that your feet dont' have to stomp means it's a low impact activity.

It's great to see more and more games utilizing IR, as this opens up the door for many more types of games that we've never seen before. Ever think you'd play a first-person volleyball game? While certainly requiring more IR beams, it's now a possibility.

PPP is a year-old game, but it's still just as enjoyable (if not more) than DDR. Here's the main page at Konami and some screenshots

Of course, all of these interaction-based games work only as well as the effort you're willing to put into it to make it a real experience for you. I must say I've committed the simulation-game sins -- playing DDR with a gamepad, and playing PPP while sitting down and waving a ruler over the IR ports... LOL.

... Is Dance Dance Revolution for the dreamcast. But even though the dreamcast had both this and the maracas game as really cool, inventive games you could only get on dreamcast, it still went out of production.

And that was REAL killer apps. Consider how little effective bloatcode would be, if real killer apps didn't do the job.

• Another Kojima interview
• Gaming Intelligence Agency preview of MGS2
• Lots of game footage from preview disc
• Interview with MGS2 art director
• Konami's official MGS2 site

Or is British Columbia the only place in North America being overrun by retarded reality-based Japanese videogames?