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This is really just a retread of an earlier entry, but here we go, the Obama pin:

After looking at the Obama site and seeing them selling Obama pins (at $2, plus S&H), I couldn't help but think:

I wonder what the Psych for that pin would be?

(Explanation for those of you who have never played The World Ends With You: the player's magic powers in that game come in the form of "pins" - also called, in this case, "buttons." These powers are called Psychs.)

I need something to bump that Square Enix blog entry off the top, so it might as well be something related: my initial impressions of the new Final Fantasy IV game for the DS.

Well, it's in 3D. I'm not sure I really like this. As The World Ends With You proved, the DS can do pretty well with a sort of mixed 3D/2D environment. I think I almost would have preferred something like that.

System:	Wii
Tentative Score:	3 (OK)

I haven't actually finished the game yet or bought any of the optional addons, so this review might change in the future.

In short, it's a very simple city sim in the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles setting. You play as a 10-year old king who uses the power of Architek (the magic to summon buildings) to rebuild a destroyed kingdom.

I do want to start off by saying that I'm not really saying this would be a good idea. But the idea of being able to beat the stupid out of Yoshi with Sephiroth is just too good an idea to pass up.

Descriptions after the jump.

No, Nintendo has not announced that there will be another Smash Bros. - in fact, they've come closest to announcing the opposite.

However, it's still fun to think of characters that should be in the next Smash Bros.. The rules here are fairly simple: the character must have appeared on a Nintendo console as a major character. That's it: the character need not be a Nintendo character, and in fact, by now, probably shouldn't be since Nintendo has kind of hit the bottom of the barrel when it comes to new characters.

System:	Nintendo DS
Score:	3 (OK)

Yet again, this is another game that I played and enjoyed but I'm giving a 3 to anyway.

Unlike Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations where there was literally no new game play elements, this game contains some new things. Unfortunately, it's either underutilized (a couple one-off forensic minigames, some of which are different from the ones in Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney) or downright obnoxious.

The forensic minigames are, sadly, mostly pointless. They're a fun little distraction for the most part, and are basically impossible to fail, but they really offer nothing over simply being handed the evidence.

I've been checking out the "Check Mii Out" channel for a while. For those who don't own Wiis or do and haven't checked out the channel, the channel allows people to submit Miis (customized 3-D cartoon characters) to look-alike contests. The most recent worldwide "Check Mii Out" contest was for "a nice and friendly witch/wizard."

I'm pleased to say that Harry Potter did not manage to grab first place. He did, however, grab second.

And eighth, ninth, and tenth.

And thirteenth.

And sixteenth.

And eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first.

System: Wii
Score: 3 (OK)

No More Heroes has a certain style to it, but it's a rather polarizing style. Either you'll like it, and be able to overlook the rather glaring faults in the gameplay, or you won't, and the flaws might rob any enjoyment.

I tried to download the update to the Check Mii Out channel, and got an error while it was downloading.

No really big deal, except I was rather disappointed with the way the UI handled it. The download UI shows Mario from the original NES Super Mario Bros. running along the screen, gathering up coins that represent ... well, who knows what they represent. Chunks of data, I guess.

In any case, when an error occurs, instead of having Mario die (I'd suggest by Lakitu or a Goomba), they just display an error dialog and suggest trying again later.

Fortunately it did work the second time.