Apparently, the good folks over at Capcom are big fans of the lolcats internet craze. They love those hilarious kitties so much, that they are offering copies of the upcoming Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations DS game to fans who submit humorous Phoenix Wright screenshots that have been given the lolcats treatment. Winners will also receive Phoenix Wright plush toys, and an Ace Attorney poster signed by the game’s producer, Minae Matsukawa.

In addition to all that, all contest entrants are eligible to receive 10% off of their preorders for Trials and Tribulations from the online Capcom store. So, readers, are you planning to jump at this opportunity to reveal Phoenix “showin’ off his Pokemans?” At the very least, you could save a couple of bucks on what is sure to be an incredible DS title.

Capcom: Trials and Tribulations Contest

Hey everyone! Glad you’re sticking with us so far, it’s helped The Tanooki to grow as a news site and as a Nintendo fan community.

Unfortunately, building a reader base is a double-edged sword. You may have noticed horrendous site issues over the past week in terms of downtime. We’re well aware of that problem, and it’s annoyed us probably more than it has you. The explanation? We seem to be growing so fast that our current host cannot handle our traffic on their servers. As a result, we will have to make the move to a new server over the next few days. We’re going to try and make the whole process as seamless as possible and avoid as much downtime as we can, but we can never be 100% sure what to expect. We could be down for two, three days or you might not even notice any downtime at all. However, we felt the need to explain what the deal is in case we go down for an extended amount of time.

I will continue updating normally as my schedule allows for, while backing-up the site every few hours for safe measure. We’d like to put this all behind us over the course of the next fews days, but we’ll make sure that we’re back to 100% by sometime next week. Please be patient and bare with us through the server move, we’re moving as fast as we can.

Thanks,
Christian & Matt

Some screenshots from the Wii version of FIFA ‘08 below. There are more at the link afterwards, but they’re all pretty much similar shots to these four. Check ‘em out!

Â

Â

GoNintendo

Pocket Gamer recently met up with Zeno Colaço, SCEE VP of publisher and developer relations, at Sony’s DevStation developers conference, questioning him on many things PSP. However, there was a brief mention of the Nintendo DS during the chat.

Pocket Gamer: Everyone seems to have different opinions about PSP, so what’s you view of the platform, especially compared to DS?

Zeno Colaço: Our performance on PSP has been good but people have tended to compare it to PSone and PlayStation 2, where the hardware was always out of stock. It’s a different challenge. We were new to the handheld space. I think Nintendo can take a lot of credit for launching a different type of product for a slightly different consumer and it’s done exceptionally well. I think some of the DS games have been fantastic.

Aww. It’s always nice to hear good things from our friends at Sony!

Pocket Gamer

In what will be the first ever video game concert in Washington, D.C., Video Games Live will be performing at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with the National Symphony Orchestra. Video Games Live consists of performances including pieces from Mario™, Zelda®, Halo®, Metal Gear Solid®, Warcraft®, Myst®, Final Fantasy®, God of War™, Kingdom Hearts, Castlevania®, Medal of Honor™, Sonic™, Tron, Tomb Raider®, Advent Rising, Headhunter, Beyond Good & Evil™, Splinter Cell®, Ghost Recon™, Rainbow Six®, EverQuest® II, and more!

According to VGL co-creator and composer, “We’ve already started inviting as many local politicians and their families as possible. It’s important for us to show everyone how incredibly creative, artistic and significant video games and the culture surrounding them have become.”

VGL will be performing two nights in the capital, on Friday and Saturday, June 29 and 30, at 8 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

Video Games Live

Apparently, every time I check YouTube for another entry into the Short Cuts contest, I get lucky and discover a new video. The newest entry makes Super Smash Bros. come to life- or at least that’s what I took away from this video!

Super Mushroom Brawl

So what have I been up to in the past week? Making my own entry into this contest, of course. I swear that I have lost all communication skills with all this sitting in front of the computer business, but hopefully it will all be well worth it. Here is a sneak peak of the video- now back to work!

Nintendo Short Cuts

Australians in Victoria have a nice treat headed their way. The Game On exhibit, which I briefly went to see at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry not too long ago, will be coming to Melbourne’s Australian Centre for the Moving Image. The exhibit will be arriving for February of next year according to Games Lab curator Helen Stuckey. You’ll be able to see and play on some classic arcade and console set ups, learn about the history of games and game development, and much more.

In addition to Game On’s previously mentioned showing in the great city of Chicago, the exhibit has been hosted in London’s Science Museum and the San Jose Tech Museum. Those in Victoria who are within reasonable distance should consider checking it out, as the exhibit will cover the 40-year history of video games.

The Age
via Kotaku

Why is there no news today? I mean, besides the whole StarCraft II announcement which has seemingly taken over the internet. But what about us strictly console/handheld gamers? Ah well. Here’s a comic that popped up on Kotaku a couple of days ago. Hit the link below (or click the picture, whatever) to head on over to the original site and see the full-sized image.

The artists’ comment? “She doesn’t date badly designed guys.”

deviantART
via Kotaku

I’ve been done with classes about a week, and yet I don’t go home until later Sunday (when most of you will probably be reading this). I have to perform at two commencement ceremonies before I high-tail it out of here and head back to the ‘burbs of the greatest city in the Midwest. I won’t really be available to post on the site until later in the evening, so I’m hoping the weekend continues to be slow and that I don’t miss anything. If there is anything significant, I’m sure either Matt will inform you all, you’ll find out from someone in our forums, or maybe you’ll find something out from our Wii and DS Facebook groups.

Once I get back, however, the wonderful world of air-conditioning and the comfort of home should be enough to revitalize me for a season full of things in store for the site. I don’t want to give too much away, since we still have to finalize a lot of things. But once I get home, work starts on a bunch of brand new things, some of which I’ll briefly hint at here.

• Forum organization overhaul
• The return of weekly lists and feature articles
• Future Tanooki sightings
• A photo contest running through June
• A growing family
• New site banners for the rotation

Some of these may flop before we even reveal them, sure. But we’ll be doing everything we can to make all of these happen, starting when I get back home after a two-hour drive. Forgive me if I feel like taking a nap afterwards, though.

You know, I’m probably not awake yet. Actually, I can guarantee that I’m not awake yet. Once I am though, I’ll have pretty much all day to be here and providing the day’s news to you. Until then, I’ve decided to share a cartoon with you. I recently picked up the complete series of the Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM cartoon series on DVD, which I’ve spent bits and pieces of the past week enjoying. It’s been ages since I’ve seen these cartoons, but I used to love this series. The Archie Comics series was based on it, and I know I’ve got issues #18 through #63 as well as all the mini series, 48-page specials, and Knuckles issues released during that time, all sitting in my closet at home.

I figure there are probably some fans out there of the series, and you can enjoy the pilot episode while you wait for me to wake up. You can find a bunch of these on YouTube, but I think I’ll try and post up an episode of something each Saturday morning.

The rest of the episode after the break!

Continue Reading »