A nice-sized chunk of stuff coming out this March.  First, we open with my usual preface: Nanostray 2, now set for a 3/11 release.  I've sort of become numb to the constant delays, so if it does happen to fall through again, I'll go, "Oh, no prob. There's always next month."  Let's see.... I'm almost certain that I'll be picking up Okami Wii.  The new celestial brush movements look so much quicker and enjoyable to handle from the gameplay videos, and the speed-text/cinematics skip option should be a kami-sent.  Above all, I just respect Okami enough that I'd want to lend it a hand for the opportunity of better sales.  And yeah, speaking of guaranteed sales, there's that other, little-known Wii title.  What do they call it?  Super Brawl something or other?  I know there's some allusion to the destruction of siblings in there somewhere.

I'm on the fence with Contra: Dual Spirits.  As huge a Contra 4 fan that I am, unless they add anything substantial (and really, it's hard to imagine they can add anything else), I just might pass.  The preorder soundtrack CD sounds tempting, but it'd have to have some pretty kickass new material to justify the import price.  But speaking of imports, I'm definitely shelling out for Bangai-O Spirits; just seeing the amount of crap going on the DS screens seems to be worth the price of admission alone.  And then there's Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, which I may save for a later time. 

On the home video front, it's the Blu-ray edition of Enchanted.  CDs, it's The Black Mages III: Darkness & Starlight and drammatica - The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura.  (They just have to do good things with "Earth Painting".... they just have to.)

I have a virtual stack of XBLA games to buy that I've neglected so far this year---Rez, Triggerheart Exelica, Omega-Five, N+ and Commanders: Attack of the Genos, plus Capcom's upcoming Rocketmen: Axis of Evil if it doesn't suck... and here's hoping it does.  Here's hoping Ikaruga gets released on the XBLA this month FINALLY.  And I'm betting SCEA in its infinite idiocy, along with Nintendo, will offer nothing worth my money digitally this month, but they can't do wrong with some classic Castlevania goodness (and Intelligent Qube, SCEA, damn you!).

Nintendo will be getting my money via Super Smash Bros Brawl, and I look forward to pummeling that incompetent mascot's stupid face after coming back to the definitely-not-game-of-the-year Super Mario Galaxy (still have 20 stars to go with Mario).  I'm pretty sure I'll get House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return and Okami on the Wii also, but I'll rent Sega Smash Tennis---Sega couldn't screw that up, right?  The only 360 game I'm getting is Bully: Scholarship Edition, but I'm going to rent Viking: Battle for Asgard and Dark Sector.

As for DVDs, finally, I can watch Battlestar Galactica Season 3.  I may pick up the blu-ray release of Dogma (never seen it) and rent Hitman (I liked the only Hitman game I played, Blood Money).  As for anime, if I open up volume 1 and like it, I'll then pick up Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Complete Collection 2... and here's hoping I do like it.

I may well grab Brawl myself, but I'm actually thinking of investing in some old Saturn games. Tons of stuff I've meant to pursue for awhile and t'aint like it'll suddenly get cheaper.

Japan is FINALLY getting some games this month that have been out in the West for YONKS now.
So I'll most likely be getting Tomb Raider Anniversary on Wii, because it's the only version with exclusive content, and Metroid Prime 3. Also, I might get SSBB although I'm still in no real hurry, contrary to, well, the rest of the world it seems. My interest in fighting games is definitely waning.

I will be ALL OVER Drammatica once it hits stores too.

CDs:

The Black Mages III -Darkness and Starlight-
Sekaiju no MeiQ II Shoou no Seihai Original Soundtrack
drammatica -The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura-
Phantasy Star First Series Complete Album

Games:

Silent Hill Origins (PS2)
Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds (PS3)

Masamichi Amano meets SEGA ~ Best & Wind Music Version and Hyper Game Music Event 2007 EXTRA The Live Album Vol.1 look like interesting VGM releases but for those I'm gonna wait to "sample" them first.  That Metal Gear Solid Essentials Collection for the PS2 is also very tempting but I'm not 100% sure I'll be buying it yet so it didn't make my definite list up there.  I actually own the PSP version of Silent Hill Origins but never finished it.  I'd rather play it on my big screen anyway.  Horror on a tiny PSP screen really doesn't work too well.

-Mike

Just a new PS2 controller after mine met with a tragic end. Okami Wii? Who knows? Depends on the amount of new content, and from what I've read, the game seems on the fence so to speak in that regard. We'll see.

Ryu mentioned Bully: Scholarship Edition. I missed out on the original release, which looked outright charming, so maybe I'll look into that.

Brawl is a definite. I miss the days of Melee, where I'd go to my buddies' house after school and play the hell out of that game, and all the tournaments we'd have in his basement.

As for music, abso-f---ing-lutely nothing. I'm too busy catching up on older releases to be bothered with new ones, sadly.

Also, looking into the MGS Collection thing. http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/05/metal … d-for-ps2/

It says the bundle won't include the bonus discs of Substance or Subsistence. Fine by me, I never used the second disc of Subsistence, but I don't recall Substance having a bonus disc at all.

- Black Mages III, of course. The tracklist looks very interesting. I'm sure it won't blow my mind, but I'm really looking forward to it.

- Omega Five Soundtrack. Sure, I'll take three versions of an awesome OST (original, "retro" and arrange").

- Space Invaders Extreme -Audio Cluster-. Ryu☆ is pretty sweet, and from the vids I've seen the music is right up my alley. Thump, thump, thump, thump, unce, unce, unce, unce!

The PS2 controller met a tragic end how?  As for Okami Wii, the ONLY thing I think they added was progressive widescreen or something---the game's content is supposed to be exactly the same, just with waggle controls.  If you can find anything else, let me know, and I'll pass it along to my friends who have played it once and are not interested in double-dipping.

Hm, I have not been an MGS fan, but I think I might give it another shot with this.  Although, wouldn't it be better to port the Gamecube Twin Snakes over as well or instead of the PSX one?

You might recall the thread where people discussed whether they've destroyed a game and/or peripheral. I mentioned that Tokyo Extreme Racer: Drift 2 was coming mighty close to making me lose it. Well, it finally did.

As for Okami Wii, I read that as soon as they master the Wii technology enough to make it run properly is when they'll consider adding new stuff. Again, this is a big "if", though. Details here:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/okami/capcom-e … 314801.php

And as for Twin Snakes being ported over the original, I really don't know. They took out some things I really loved in the original game (Mei Ling's cute Chinese accent! Where art thou?), and some of the updated cinemas I felt were just way too over the top, even for a game like Metal Gear. Also, Twin Snakes used a different soundtrack than the PSX original (which I felt was far superior). They could do a demo video of the two running side-by-side to demonstrate said differences.

I had missed out on the PS2 version, so I was thinking of looking into the Wii version of Bully: Scholarship Edition myself.  Although I'd heard the frequent bouts of framerate drops are very distracting. 

Yeah, Substance came on one dual-layered DVD - so you'll be getting all the VR Missions extras and perks that came with the original Substance.

Aside from the technical particulars and costs of porting over The Twin Snakes, the PSX version is Kojima's original vision, and to me, it's the better version in just about every regard.  It still holds up unbelievably well today.

My selections from March 2008's releases:

Games:
-Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
-Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (DS)

CDs:
-Contra 4 Promo Soundtrack CD
-THE BLACK MAGES III Darkness and Starlight
-Sekaiju no Meikyuu 2: Shoou no Seihai Original Soundtrack
Ayumi Hamasaki; "ayu-mi-x 6 Gold"
Ayumi Hamasaki; "ayu-mi-x 6 Silver"
drammatica -The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura-
Phantasy Star First Series Complete Album

DVDs:
[None]

My free time has been diminished due to my writing project, so I cancelled everything but Black Mages III. I'll listen to that when I drive. I can't listen to music when I write, whether through normal speakers or headphones. Philip K. Dick was able to write novels while listening to music through headphones. The only thing that seemed to disturb him was his wife and he locked himself in his shed once to get away from her. I don't have a wife, so I don't have to worry about any weird chattering noises.

No DVDs this month either. I don't even know what's out in the theaters.

That's the best f---ing quote I've heard in a long time. Kast, you're awesome!

SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWL!

Let the games begin all over again.

I will see social aspects of my life decline and suffer... begin!