Gamertell

Hooray! Nintendo has finally decided that the time is right and the US is finally ready for a Club Nintendo branch of its own. Today (October 2, 2008) at Nintendo’s Fall Media Summit in San Francisco, the very last announcement was that Club Nintendo, a Nintendo loyalty program that rewards customers buying Nintendo games with points/stars, will finally be arriving in the US. The program will supposedly be implemented before the end of 2008…

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At a press conference earlier today (September 2, 2008) in Tokyo, Nintendo unveiled its new hand held console, the DSi.  The newer version of the DS will no longer have the Game Boy Advance slot (how will I ever get to play Tetris again!?) and will feature a bevy of new upgrades.

The handheld will be a bit smaller, have a larger screen and the rumors you heard earlier, have been confirmed as the DSi will have a built in .3 (640x480) megapixel camera and…

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A wonderful program exists outside of North America for people who purchase Nintendo products - Club Nintendo. Club Nintendo is a special program to reward people who purchase games for Nintendo systems.

In regions that have Club Nintendo programs set up (Japan, Europe, South Africa and Australia), games for Nintendo systems come with either a small slip of paper or a card with a numerical code on there. If you register that code with the program, you’ll receive points, known as stars. You can then trade those in for items.

Sadly, this program is not offered in North America, and there are no plans to start a program like it here. To make matters worse, you can’t redeem points from import games. So if you’ve imported DS games and have a stack of slips (ahem) collected, you can’t redeem them. Only people who live in that region can participate in that Club Nintendo program.

Since the Club Nintendo premiums are often incredibly cool and collectible, it is still nice to dream about them. Besides, if you look sharp on eBay, or visit online stores, you may still be able to purchase some of the Club Nintendo items…

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Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm for the PS3 has been pushed back a teensy bit to November 4, 2008. Namco Bandai wants to make it up to fans though, so they’ve announced a limited edition version of the game. For $69.99, fans can purchase Naruto Ultimate Ninja: Storm limited edition and get bonus swag. The standard version will cost $59.99 - but once you hear what the bonuses are, you’ll probably want the LE version…

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Atlus has just announced that all three RPGs released by the company this holiday season will come with soundtrack CDs and have artbook preorder bonuses. Atlus had previously that soundtracks would accompany Eternal Poison, Luminous Arc 2 and Persona 4, and now has decided to offer 60-100 page art books as well. GameStop/EB Games, Amazon.com and Game Crazy are the four retailers specifically mentioned for the deal, but other stores should offer the artbook preorder as well…

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If you are a fan of videogame music in any capacity, you owe it to yourself to check out OverClocked ReMix – a completely free-to-download site that offers some of the most professional sounding remixes (more accurately, re-arrangements) of game-based music anywhere in the world. Recently, the community-run site featured a full album of remixed music inspired by Doom II – titled Delta-Q-Delta, which was completed entirely by a small team of dedicated musicians and artists. Gamertell.com recently had the opportunity to speak with the project leader, Lee Barber (aka “The Orichalcon”) about the nature of “fan art”, crafting professional-grade work on nothing but blood, sweat, and tears, and how the soundscapes of classic games like Doom II lend themselves to such varied musical styles.

Gamertell.com: First off, what got you involved in the OC ReMix community? Were you a musician or a gamer first (or is this a “chicken-or-the-egg” situation?)

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FROM GADGETELL - Our contest to giveaway a set of Axiom AudioByte computer speakers ends tomorrow, the official deadline for entry is Friday (September 5, 2008) at 11:59pm EST, which also happens to be just 24 hours from the time of… MORE »

FROM GADGETELL - Our contest to giveaway a set of Axiom AudioByte computer speakers ends this Friday (September 5, 2008) at 11:59 pm EST. You can check out the full contest post including the rules here, and don’t forget to check out… MORE »align="right"

Like game music? Then you’re probably aware of kick-ass game remix site OverClocked ReMix, where the latest fan-rearrangement album just came out. The project, called Doom II: Delta-Q-Delta, is a collection of tunes from Doom II, re-arranged in different styles by the ReMixers. It’s all free to download, and the quality is excellent (as is par for the course with the site’s level of work).

You can download the whole shebang as a torrent, or grab any of the 13 tracks individually. My personal favorite songs have to be djpretzel’s almost baroque “Red Waltz” and Mazedude/Ailsean’s funky “The End of Hell”, but it’s great, creative stuff all around. The OC ReMix guys (and girls!) were actually in the news recently for their professional work on the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix soundtrack, so they’ve been on a roll lately. Go get downloading if you’re a fan of game music (or Doom II!)

Read [Doom 2 OCR] Also Read [OverClocked ReMix]

As any Japanese video game fan knows, video games and popular music have very close ties in Japan. Singers will have their songs featured in the games. They will be used in advertising campaigns. They may even be called upon for character modeling.

Two weeks ago Important Importables talked about Hikaru Utada, one of the most popular female singers in Japan and her video game connections. This week Important Importables looks at yet another Japanese superstar, Gackt Camui. Gackt is well known for his music, his acting and his contributions to the gaming worldwide. (He’s also incredibly pretty, multilingual and one of my favorite singers.)

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