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Urusei Yatsura: Endless Summer Decided to break down and pick up a copy of Urusei Yatsura: Endless Summer from NCSX and use it as a tool to immerse myself in studying Japanese. My first task is to translate the bulk of the manual so I can figure out what I am supposed to be doing.

For now, I am stumbling along in the game mostly getting Ataru slapped around. The graphics are great, and the music is beyond my expectations and features some vocal tracks. I have not been keeping up with my Japanese language studies, and my vocabulary shows it. Hopefully, this will keep me motivated to keep studying. Though, taking an hour to translate two paragraphs proves to be tiring and frustrating. But, it is for my own good.

Random thought… if an old and popular series like Urusei Yatsura can get a DS game, why isn’t there one for Lupin the Third? The touch screen lends itself to any number of thieving type puzzles. Why has there been no handheld Lupin game since the Gameboy? Talk amongst yourselves…

Lum

2 comments

Reed Nelson on

I have that game too, actually. Seems moderately difficult to grasp in full (i.e., unlocking the extra features). I have a few of the graphic novel covers unlocked and viewable, but that's all I've got so far. I got a bit frustrated with unlocking further and gave up.

Great artwork though. Found it interesting that it follows the manga style and largely ignores the anime outside of keeping Lum's VA.

I would hope either DS or Wii see a Lupin game; I could see "Lupin the Shooting" coming to Wii without much difficulty, at the very least. I came up with the obvious lock-picking function for a DS title, but I'm a bit stumped for others. Maybe plotting one's path through blueprints by pen? Bah, it's 1:30am.

I could also see a text-adventure game for DS (see: the PSX Cagliostro or the GameCube game) but I really hope they have something more action-oriented; Japanese text isn't English enough for me.

@Reed

I'm both surprised and not surprised that you have this game. Hopefully, translating the manual will yield some clues on the gameplay. I'm guessing from the calendar and the address book that appears only on certain days that you need to find certain people or places to unlock things on that day.

As for the Lupin touch screen, think of something like Mario Hoops crossed with Dragon's Lair. Tap the screen at the right times and spots to have Lupin duck under sensor beams, jump over traps, reach for a handy gadget, etc.

Goemon could slash his enemies in various places and in various ways depending on your pen stroke. Jigen could have a sharpshooting portion that tests the reflexes. Fujiko, well, she could seduce guards based on how and where your *ahem* stroking is done.

A Wii game would also be cool for the same reasons above. Shooting and slashing via the remote, thief like movements...