Once Again to Zelda
After three long, looooong months in Shanghai on business, I'm finally back! I landed in Tokyo this past Saturday night, spent a couple of days at home with my friends, then hopped on a plane to the US for a two-week break.

Whenever I come back here, I always stock up on books, magazines and games. The one thing I miss the most about the US is hitting the big book stores every week to see what's new. You can find most of this stuff in Tokyo if you know where to look, but the import prices are usually just high enough to push things out of impulse-buy territory.

Anyway, here's a sampling of what I've picked up so far this trip:



Random stuff, for the most part. Front Mission 2089 was an airport purchase at Narita, but I wound up liking it enough that I decided to track down the US version of the original Front Mission when I got back. Phantom Hourglass I already own in Japanese, but I wanted to check out the localization so I picked that up as well. Otherwise, not a whole lot on the games front so far. That's okay, though, because I brought a few games with me to play on the break, most notably two huge ones that I really should've finished by now: Metal Gear Solid 3 (yes, three), and Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Mark has been giving me crap for nearly eight months now for not playing TP yet, but the truth is, I just wasn't ready for it last year. I played up to the second dungeon when it first came out, but I wasn't feeling it, so I decided to shelve it for a while. Recently, though, I've been kind of in the mood for some Zelda, so I threw it in my bag and figured I'd give it another shot if I had the time.

Then a little inspiration struck. When I got to the airport, I noticed one of my favorite books -- The Great Gatsby -- at the magazine stand. I opened it up, and look what page I landed on:



Yeeeah, I get the message. That pretty much sealed the deal for me. :)

So...I'm about to start over from scratch with the GameCube version. I realized that the Wiimote is what was turning me off to the game before; I couldn't get fully immersed in the experience because of how imprecise that thing is. I'll miss having widescreen for sure, but otherwise, I think I can deal.

In other news...how about that Rockman 9? I am STOKED.