No, I’m not talking about your gaudy, bejewelled Metallic Rose monstrosity, but rather the software you’d put in it.
It’s fairly safe to say that gamers aren’t the most well rounded people as far as culture goes. Sure, we know our Jaffe from our Sakuguchi, but we’re totally lost on which one is the salad fork. While some of us will always content to be the burger-scarfing, floor-sleeping, t-shirt wearing slob, there are others that aspire to greater heights. That’s why its a good thing that Square Enix is bringing us a bit of culture and style in cartridge form.
They’ve just launched the official web page for a new line called DS: Style. These ‘games that aren’t really games’ give players lessons on everything from popular classical music to flower identification and gardening, all controlled though the Nintendo DS’s handy touch screen interface.
Perhaps slightly more interesting are these July 5th Japanese releases focusing on travel. The “World Walking” travel guides for Thailand, Italy, and France will be very useful on the go. These titles pack in maps complete with landmarks, all navigable (and even zoomable) with the DS stylus. There’s translation tools, currency exchange calculators, a scheduler, and even an alarm clock in these titles, and the best part is that all of this can fit in your back pocket or bag during travel. It’s too bad that there isn’t an English version of a Japan travel guide – we could really use that.
In the near future, Square Enix will be releasing New York and Hawaii versions of the travel software as well as a Yoga lessons title.
