GameInformer

Me in short...  I'm a dude that loves portable gaming, Nintendo, Digimon, anime and hockey...  Want to know more?  read on...

My Favorite Game:
The World Ends With You (DS/2007/Square-Enix/Team Jupiter) is the greatest video game ever made!  Do I really need to say more?? ...  Yes?...  Well....  The World Ends With You (TWEWY) is a JRPG finally taken out of the typical medieval-style setting and dropped into modern Tokyo.  Actually it's more of an ARPG, but let's not split hairs about it.  Instead of armour, rations and magic you manipulate fashion brands, fast food and psyche-enabling pins to boost your strength or effect your surroundings.  The style, artwork and music are amazing.  In one word, it's Urban.  Heavy outlines, hard-edged design (I think you could cut yourself on Neku's spiky hair...  but I'd still wanna touch it!)  and grafitti-art style make up the visuals of TWEWY.  In terms of music, a variety of awesome, hot beats are played throughout, whether in combat, field or cut-scene settings.  A lot of thought went into making this game feel like you're in the bustling Shibuya district of Tokyo.  From The Scramble, to Dogenzaka, Udagawa and Miyashita Park, this amazing game takes place in the greatest city in the world!  Tokyo.  The story is compelling, the characters well developed, and Neku is the best protagonist I've ever played in a game!  He is also incredibly HOT!  The creators of this title are total geniuses.  TWEWY makes full use of the DS' capabilities with their patented Stride-Cross Battle System.  Neku fights on the bottom screen and his partner (Joshua, Shiki or Beat) fights on the top screen.  You control both characters in combat at the same time!  Neku using the stylus, and his partner by mashing the A/B/X/Y buttons (or d-pad if you're a righty.)  Amazing?  Yes!  Radical?  Well duh!  Magical?  Well... it depends how deeply you get into it, and how attached to the characters you become.  Though one of the lesser-known titles from Square-Enix, it's definitely worth playing if you haven't.  When you do, you will agree, there is no gaming character more awesome than Neku Sakuraba!

Subway banner ad in Japan when TWEWY first released.   Sheesh!!  All I'm looking for is an old poster or ad for the game, and I can't find a single thing!

Well I've gushed enough over TWEWY.  My other favorite game is Kingdom Hearts.  While not a fan of Disney in general, the exception is Walt Disney Animation Studios.  What makes Kingdom Hearts so cool is the idea of combining the cute characters of Walt Disney with the depth, story and style of characters by Squaresoft in one amazing adventure!  Both styles and approaches to animation are so different, it's sweet to see them intersect with this series.  It's also nice to see two very large companies (Square-Enix and Disney) work together on a series (that can't be an easy feat!)  Sora is an amazing hero, brave, pure of heart, a solid friend and my #2 favorite gaming character.  He is also SO SO cute!  If you get to play the game, Sora looks so good as a mermaid in Atlantica, and he looks so adorable (oops...  I mean scary) in his Halloween costume in Halloween Town with his little bat wings.  If you can't tell, I love Sora!  Interestingly, the same guy (Tetsuya Nomura) created both Neku and Sora! This guy knows what he's doing!

FanArt from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories on Game Boy Advance.

Anime/Manga:  We need more of it on TV.  Not all of us have the cash or space to pile-up series of discs and books!  My favorite anime of all time is FLCL (Fooly Cooly).  I like Naota and Ninamori.  The best episode is #3 "Marquis de Carabas."  It's sort of the Ninamori episode.  But episode #2 "Fire Starter" is a really good one too.  Lots of styles smushed into one episode!  They're all basically great, I could watch this 6-episode series a million times and never get tired of it!  Long live GAINAX!  Other favorites include: Digimon (see below), Gravitation, InuYasha, Eureka Seven, DRRR!!, Black Cat, The Big-O, Code Geass, FMA/B and Hetalia (my favorite countries are Sealand, Latvia and Poland.)  I pretty much watch every genre: mecha, shounen, bishounen, mystery, yaoi, comedy, mon, magic, thriller, etc.  You should watch too, there's something for everyone.

Digimon:  Basically I love them!  If you ever want to talk Digimon hit me up.  My avatar pic is the Digimon logo on the back of the cards in Digimontamers (series season 3).  The TV series is awesome!  The card game, not really sure...  I'm starting to get into the video games now, so I'll have an opinion on them at some point.  For me, the real draw of Digimon is in the anime series and movies.  The stories are great.  Every DigiDestined learns about overcoming weakness and adversity, strengthening friendships and growing as a person, with the help and support of their Digimon companion.  My favorite Digimon is Chakmon (Kumamon) from Digimon Frontier and Gomamon from Digimon Adventure.  My favorite DigiDestined?  Too hard to pick.  I basically LOVE all the goggle-heads (they're so cool.)  But if I had to narrow it down, it would be Tai and T.K. from Adventure, Takato from Tamers, and Tomoki and Takuya from Frontier.  If I had to pick one...  I'd probably choose death!  Honestly, it's too hard to decide...  I love them all!... It'd probably be a fight between Tai, Takato, Takuya and Tomoki.  Don't make me choose!!!  So in short:  Digimon RULE!!  And they live here.... on the internet!  So go find  your digital monster companion!  But don't Catch 'em all....  (that's another franchise)  and always remember to watch Digimon subbed, and not dubbed!  It is WAY better subbed (trust me!)  Also, I'm playing Digimon World DS.  If you are too let's be DigiFriends!  Ask for my code!

Below is my Digimon Analyzer.  It's an idea I copied from my friend Icarus on GIO who profiles a different Pokemon each week on his page, I think of it as my digital Pokedex.  As I learn a bit more about Pokemon, I thought I would return the favor by doing the same with Digimon on my page.  Thus, I stole the Digimon Analyzer from the anime series...  enjoy!

Cute, yellow-toned pic of Takato Matsuda from Digimontamers.

DIGIMON ANALYZER

Blizzarmon

"Its battle axe dance is proof of its victory!  It is an expert of battles on ice!!"

A hybrid-level, beast-type digimon.  Blizzarmon's main attacks include Avalanche Step and Gletscher Torpedo.  Featured in Digimon Frontier, Blizzarmon is the Spirit evoloved form of cutie Tomoki Himi and the Beast Spirit of Ice.  He is also the Slide evolved form of Chakmon (my favorite digimon!)  Interestingly, in Frontier, the Beast Spirit proved hard for most of the DigiDestined to control at first.  Tomoki (the youngest) was the only DigiDestined that had pretty good control of Blizzarmon from the start.  His immediate connection with his digimon partners really helped illustrate the strength and depth of Tomoki's spirit throughout the season.

Hockey:  Basically the best sport ever made (football is a close 2nd.)  My favorite teams are: Boston Bruins (2011 Stanley Cup Champions,) San Jose Sharks, and Hartford Whalers (who moved to North Carolina in1997.)  I have a "passing interest" in the L.A. Kings, N.Y. Islanders, and Columbus Blue Jackets.  The Carolina Hurricanes and D.C. Capitals are the only NHL teams I truly hate.  I don't like the Hurricanes because they are the relocated Whalers (of which I was a fan;) I don't like the Capitals because I just plain don't like Washington D.C.  Nothing good will ever come out of that cesspool in the swamp.  Honestly, Washington D.C. shouldn't even have professional sport teams.  The NHL Winter Classic on New Years' Day is AWESOME and I hope it goes on forever!  Welcome back Winnipeg Jets (yet another failed attempt to bring hockey to Atlanta,) and the Columbus Blue Jackets, I hope you become a very successful franchise and the NHL stays in Ohio.

2012 Stanley Cup:  #8 Los Angeles Kings (West) v. #6 New Jersey Devils (East)  The Kings have done AMAZING throughout the playoffs, coming from behind to beat all the top-seed teams in each round of the Cup Finals (the 2d time in NHL history!)  The Devils really held their own against the Rangers, which I think surprised most everyone!  While I LOVE the Sharks, I have to say GO KINGS! as a passive L.A. fan.  The Kings have yet to win a Cup in the NHL (1967-now,) I think Los Angeles is due for this win!!!! 

Finally,  Bronies, Sonic, and Pokemon fans are all over GIO, and totally awesome!  Make friends with them.  And a special shout-out to my favorite GIO buds:  Apricot (the original Mr. Nintendo,) Matt the Hedgehog (my #1 Sonic fanboy), and my Pokebuddies: Icarus, my pants are on fire, and benderstrike64 (Gotta Catch 'Em All!)   I love these guys and they make GIO such a fun place!  I'm keeping them all to myself.... go find your own friends!!   j/k

anime/manga/j-video game fans check out "imagine-nation" on NHK World, a 30 minute news-magazine profiling some of the best stuff coming out of Japan!  They need help naming their new mascot to celebrate their 5th year on-air.  Check this link if interested.  The show is cool.  If you don't get NHK World on TV, you can also watch online, or via their NHK World-Live app (that's what I use to watch on my iPod.)  Also, Justin (one of their reporters) is quite cute!

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/tv/imagine/index.html