Roughly a year after its humble beginnings in a long and rambling WordPress post, the Clash of the Handheld Titans has come to its conclusion.
Meet Akane. 
Isn't she pretty? ^^
Armed with an R4 and nearly 150 games – most of which I deleted because I probably won’t play them – Akane joins her somewhat stand-offish older brother Hideaki (the white PS2 I got for my 22nd birthday) and her temperamental and slow-witted big sister Natsumi (my temperamental and slow-witted Dell Inspiron 1525) to complete the Reenie Technological Trifecta (at least, until I get a new iPod).
Naturally, I’ve been playing like a madwoman since I got it. I’m in the middle of Chrono Trigger and FFIV DS (yes, Kane definitely sounds like a 40-year-old man) and have just finished polishing off Mario Kart DS so as to be fully prepared for kicking some multiplayer ass. I tried playing Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, but SquEnix got tricksy and implemented some sort of anti-piracy code that causes the game to freeze somewhere in the middle of the prologue. Shame on me. I may actually be buying this one myself. I’ve also been enjoying Cooking Mama (despite the fact that no matter how amazing my takoyaki turns out I still can’t make instant ramen to save my life) and all manner of puzzle games (although Professor Layton and the Curious Village makes me feel like the biggest imbecile ever to walk the face of the planet).
I’ve also discovered that they’ve been coming out with DS accessories for the hopelessly girly crowd. I was looking for a case for Akane, was faced with a lot of garish pink and blue, and managed to dig far enough into the frills to find a black-and-white houndstooth wristlet case. It’s… actually quite fetching, really.
All in all, I’m a happy camper. ^^
