Downloadable content overload

Back in the 90's over in Japan they had this really neat add on for the SNES called the Satellaview system. It was basically a satellite modem that could be used to download some exclusive Nintendo games, think of it as a primitive version of the Live Arcade. Via this obscure device Nintendo released eight sequels to Mario's Super Picross titled Picross NP Vol 1-8.

You might be thinking why the sudden history lesson? It just happens that the Picross game for the DS has the most awesome downloadable content ever. For free you can download the puzzles from all of the NP volumes along with the SNES version of Picross and Mario's Picross for the old black and white GameBoy.

I have spent the past week chipping away at the puzzles in the first NP volume and Im only half way done. The amount of content here is fantastic, who has ever heard of something as generous as offering the ten previous games in the series as free downloadable content.

Im giving Nintendo the award for the best downloadable content ever hands down.

Look at me, Im so artsy and alternative!

I have been been playing this fan translated open source doujin visual novel game called A midsummer day's resonance. If youre not familiar with the nerd lingo Im gonna explain what that means while proving what a total non-conformist art fag I am.

The game being open source means that its public property which made it possible for it to be translate it in to English and legally distribute it for free on the Internet. Which should give it major indie cred.

Then the game is a visual novel game, which is pretty the same as a hentai game only without the hentai. A fine genre of games that never become popular outside of Japan. Probably because we westerners dont see the beauty in reading a novel presented in text bubbles accompanied by midi music and anime style art work.

To add to the charm its a doujin game which is a pretentious way of saying its something some Japanese college students put together in their free time. Resulting in the game only having a handful of backgrounds with only two characters ever being seen on screen.

Now that you know what kind of game it is maybe I should tell you something about the story. Its basically a lesbian coming of age story involving magical broken cellphones and alternative realities. So its daring, current and pretty fucking weird all at the same time. Im gonna take a guess and say the students who made it went to a very liberal art school.

If I tone down the sarcasm for a second I can tell you that it really was an interesting experience. As a gamer its cool to be able to try something so completely different from what Im used to playing and seeing how much can be done with very limited resources is impressive. If you have an hour or two of free time I would recommend playing through it.

You can grab the game here.