games

American Fans Make Their Own Phoenix Wright Musical

Some American fans of the Phoenix Wright series of lawyer video games are creating a stage musical:

With a great amount of work done by the fan “Pleading Eyes”, the four main acts of the game will be conveyed through 30 original songs. There is no word whether the fifth act will be adapted.

Before you ask when the cease and desist requests will be rolling in, you should know that they have received Capcom’s blessing on this project and are speaking with the company on licensing the final product.
While it has been in development since 2007 (before Japan’s version hit the stage, in fact), there is currently a demo reel on their official site, as well as a panel scheduled for April 2011 at I-Con 30, where they will show off an animation for one of their songs.

They got the idea from Japan, where the Takarazuka Revue put on a Phoenix Wright:Ace Attorney musical back in 2008.

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• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

100 Yen: A Documentary About Japanese Arcades

This project began in Summer 2010, I (Brad Crawford) flew out to Japan and spent the entire month of July chasing leads and filming all over the country. I went from Tokyo to Osaka, all the way to Fukuoka on my own dime. However, I was unable to complete all the necessary interviews and capture the entire story. This trip allowed me to make certain contacts and discover the overall arc that this film will follow.

What I want to do is go back with a small crew and proper equipment to round-out the documentary with interviews from key subjects such as Daigo Umehara, Satoshi Numata and communicate with the Japanese public about gaming and arcades in general. EVO 2011, the worlds biggest fighting game tournament, is taking place for the first time in Japan in the spring of 2011. Our goal is to attend and film this event as part of the documentary.

We are also looking forward to interviewing more corporate figures including spokes-people from major game companies such as Capcom, Konami and Taito etc…

This coming November 13th, 2010 we will be attending the Canada Cup, Canada’s Newest and most exciting fighting game tournament. Attendees include Justin Wong, Mike Ross, Ryan “Gootecks” Guitierrez and Daigo Umehara making his fist Canadian appearance. Covering this event will create a great compare/contrast point on gaming and its culture differs from one country to the next. We hope to see some additional Japanese players attend this event to get their perspective on the gaming scene in North America.

The filmmakers are independently creating this documentary using financial contributions from internet users. As of the time of this post, they had raised about $2,000 of their $9,000 goal.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Brain Controlled Gaming: Win a Kiss

“Mezamashi TV” shows off an iPad application that uses a headband to measure neural concentration. If you concentrate hard enough, you can get a girl to turn around. If you are able to relax your brain, you can then receive a kiss:

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Japan Facing a Farmville Invasion

It looks like Softbank is planning to bring social games like Farmville to Japan:

Zynga, the online gaming company best known for its Farmville Facebook game, has received a US$150 million investment from Japanese Internet company Softbank.

The two companies plan to form a joint venture, Zynga Japan, that will develop and distribute social games across Japan, they said in a statement.

Softbank, which holds the iPhone monopoly in Japan, has been beating out competitors in the battle for new subscribers.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)