Kotaku (one of the most popular video game sites online) last night posted an article about the arcade scene in Kuwait. They linked to a Kuwait Arcade Database which was put together by a guy called Yousef. Burj Al Abyad is still alive and kicking, leading the pack when it comes to fighting games. They actually hold proper Street Fighter tournaments there. Personally my favorite arcade in Kuwait used to be the Showbiz arcade before they shut down since they had some great old games like Killer Instinct and Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker. Anyway here is the link to the Kuwait Arcade Database [Link]
Eliss is currently my favorite iPhone game. It’s got retro graphics, a great soundtrack and an extremely strange and new style of play. It’s hard to explain so its best to watch the video above to get an idea. Once you start getting into it people watching you play will have no idea what the hell is going on and how the hell you’re playing it because visually there are soo many things going on at the same time. The game costs $2.99 but they have a free version in case you want to try it out. Here is the [Link]
A friend of mine was the lead artist/designer on an iPhone game that just got released called Plushed. The game is a side-scrolling adventure and looks really great with some strange looking characters. The screen shots don’t do it justice so I’ve attached the games trailer above. [YouTube]
If you’re interested the game is for only $1.99 at the Apple Store [Here]
This is the coolest game I’ve ever played on a phone. The aim of the game is to run as far as you can before dying by jumping over obstacles and from building to building. The music combined with the visual style and the simpleness of it all makes this such an incredible game. It’s available for the iPhone and only in the US store but you can play a demo on their website. Note, to jump just click the mouse button. [Link]
Today is the final day of the giveaways. This giveaway campaign was not planned and I actually thought about it right after the post where I gave two tickets away to the IMAX film. I saw the response from just two tickets and thought to myself what about if I could give people cooler stuff and so I quickly scrambled emailing and calling people to see if they would be interested to participate. Choowy Goowy responded right away saying they would and that’s how I managed to get “Giveaway Day 2” out the door the next day.
Since that original post the response has been unbelievable and the campaign completely exceeded my expectations. The response from companies wanting to participate was also incredible and I ended up doubling the length of the campaign because of it. I actually still have enough giveaway offers to make this campaign last a month but two weeks is the limit I set and I decided to stick it.
The final giveaway is going to be from Choowy Goowy and its the just recently released Sony PS3 Slim. Someone had left a comment in the original Choowy Goowy giveaway post asking if we were going to give away a PS3 next, well here it is!
In case you didn’t know already, Choowy Goowy are one of my favorite dessert places in Kuwait. They’ve got incredible cookies, amazing brownies and they also make delicious cheesecakes. They are located at The Avenues but they also deliver right to your door. For more information on Choowy Goowy visit their website [Here] or call them on 22626559, 22620011 or 22597949 (Avenues) to make an order. Their email is [email protected] in case you have any comments.
All you need to do to win this giveaway is to leave a comment below and later on in the evening I will use random.org to select a winner.
Rules: You need to put your proper email in the email field while commenting since the winner will be contacted by email. You also need to respond to my “You Won” email within 24 hours or I will have to make another draw and choose another winner. You can only comment once, anyone caught commenting more than once will get disqualified.
Update: The giveaway is actually a Sony PS3 Slim 120GB (NTSC) with 2 gamepads and 2 games of your choice.
Update2: The post was closed for commenting at around 9PM.
The winner is…
Today we’ve got actually two giveaways in which two different people will win. This means I will draw two numbers tonight and each number will win a different giveaway. What are the giveaways? X-cite are giving away an i-SOBOT Robot worth over KD70 as the first giveaway and a SteelSeries gift hamper thats also worth around KD70 as a second giveaway.
The i-SOBOT Robot is a miniature high-tech humanoid robot that’s fully articulated, has voice command recognition and can speak a vocabulary of over 200 words and phrases. The i-SOBOT Robot can also dance and perform his own special karate moves complete with sound effects. The i-SOBOT can move forwards, backward, side-to-side or diagonally. You can find out more about it by visiting the i-SOBOT website [Here]
The second giveaway is a SteelSeries gift hamper that contains a SteelSeries Warcraft Gaming Mouse, a SteelSeries limited edition Warcraft Gaming Mouse Pad and a SteelSeries 5Hv2 USB Gaming Headset. Steelseries from Denmark are a gaming peripherals giant and the number one e-sports company in the world. They sponsor some of the most important gaming events and will be setting up one before the end of the year with X-cite here in Kuwait. To stay up to date on X-cite’s gaming activities join their Facebook group [Here]
All you need to do to win the giveaways above is to leave a comment below and later on in the evening I will use random.org to select two winners.
Rules: You need to put your proper email in the email field while commenting since the winner will be contacted by email. You also need to respond to my “You Won” email within 24 hours or I will have to make another draw and choose another winner. You can only comment once, anyone caught commenting more than once will get disqualified.
Update: The post was closed for commenting at around 10PM.
The winners are…
I just read on Frankom’s blog that the Sony dealer in Kuwait has an incredible offer on the new PS3 Slim. For a limited time offer they’re selling it for KD69. If they don’t have a decent amount of stock available then they’re probably already sold out by the time you read this.
Note: This deal is just available at their newly opened Avenues branch. It’s located near D*Lush and Nokia.
Update: This is what one reader had to say about his experience trying to get the PS3 Slim:
OK everyone I got it, its 120 GB euro, plays all region games, but the sony shop was horreendous i went at 11:00 am and was # 84 out of 120, it was a big mess, people shouting and old women begging for numbers. two kids even fingered the sales guy back side for a number which caused an even bigger delay, completly dis-organized , but cant blame them selling its for nearly half price, al ghanim is getting it in october for 100kd pre order, sony selling it for 69 is gonna cause chaos, but they should have been prepared to be honest. only good thing is that women dont have to wait for a number, by 12:00 i recieved mine and they had stopped giving numbers out so if you want to go in the evening i dont think there will be any left
Update2: According to Cajie a blog reader, when he passed by at 1PM the stock had already been finished.
I ordered the Pocket Retro Game Emulator from ThinkGeek 10 days ago after reading about it on a few websites. Its a small portable game system that comes with built in emulators that would play games from the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, NeoGeo and a few other systems. Since I am a huge fan of retro gaming and since it would be a great addition to my collection, I ordered the device for $99.
The device has a built in 4GB drive so I quickly copied all my favorite games onto it and realized I still had nearly 4GB free so I copied ALL my Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo games onto it which amount to around 2000 games. I also copied a few NeoGeo games including SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.
The device played everything I threw at it even SVC Chaos which was a huge shock. Not only that but the device also came with the appropriate cables to connect it to my TV so I could play the games there if I wanted to. Some SNES games weren’t running that perfectly for example NBA Jam was running slightly faster than it should and the sound in Donkey Kong Country was a bit strange but the device plays NHL ’94 perfectly which alone would make the game system worth $99. The build quality isn’t that great, it feels cheap and its pretty light. I am not sure how much abuse it would take but I doubt its as durable as a Nintendo DS or PSP.
Now one thing that kinda pissed me off is the fact that ThinkGeek is marketing this device with the name “Pocket Retro Game Emulator”. In reality the system turned out to be called the Dingoo Digital A320. A quick search on eBay for the Dingoo would result in a ton of results with the device priced at around $75. So if you want to buy one that’s where I would look. Will post a more thorough review at a later date.
Note: The device also plays movies and music. Also has a built in FM tuner and an eBook reader. The battery is built in and lasts over 5 hours. In case 4GB isn’t enough the device takes SD cards.
Found this at Sultan Center, its a copy of the Nintendo Wii called except its called swii. It costs around KD9 ($30) and comes with a wireless controller which looks like the wii controller except with a plastic tennis racket at the end. I think the device also plays only one game which is a tennis game with Super Nintendo like graphics. They had a working model on display so I tried the tennis game and it pretty much sucked as you can imagine.
I just found out that there are three people (2 guys 1 girl) at the ministry who’s job is to test video games all day. They play every game that needs to be brought into Kuwait to make sure they don’t contain anything illegal like nudity.
