3 posts tagged “tokyo”
I've been reading video game reviews from this guy for years and decided to run his name through google. Surprisingly I didn't get much. I thought he might have a blog or something but he's fairly elusive compared to some of the other video game editors out there. Nick Des Barres (AKA Nick Rox from GameFan, Aokage on NeoGaf, Blue Shadows sometimes) was an editor with GameFan back in the 90s and now he is the Japan editor for Play. He shares my same interests/tastes so naturally I enjoy reading his reviews. I admit that I've been envious of the guy more than once over the years, as he lives in Japan and plays video games all day (or so it seems).
I think the first time I really took note of Des Barres was with his FF7 review in Gamefan back in '97 which I have posted here in case you missed one of the greatest reviews of one of the greatest games every created.
After GameFan went down the same crew came back with Play. Then in 2005 Play introduced their Japan section in the magazine starring Nick Des Barres and Dai Kohama. Under his profile he stated that he was living in Japan "to make Ami Onuki of Puffy his wife" in addition to soaking in video game heaven. Nick's first entry was an in depth feature on Akihabara which further increased my feelings of envy. I even took this Akihabara guide with me to Akihabara and faithfully followed his map and went to almost every recommended shop in the suggested order. I'd be lying if I didn't secretly hope to run into Nick at Super Potato and we would talk about PC engine games and why the Virtual Boy wasn't successful while dining at Cure Maid Cafe.
Okay so back to my google search. From what I've gathered Nick's parents are/were musicians/actors.
You can look
Another bit: He designed the poster for the first Resident Evil movie. More here. In the article he's introduced as an "aspiring actor", which leads to this. You can see him briefly in the trailer with some goth clothes looking weird. Fast forward to 1:02.
Another bit: Heres a recent post from a 1up blog: (Nick's on the far left)
"
That same night, I also met the legendary Nick Des Barres, aka Nick Rox from the GameFan.
He's something of a legend in the gaming journalism biz, best known for
his ultra-hardcore review of Street Fighter Alpha on Sega Saturn (Blue
Shadows!!!) Turns out he's a super cool, very down-to-earth guy who can
sing a mean anime theme or two. Also, it was crazy to learn that he was
working at GF back when he was 15...I remember reading his stuff when I
was still a "kid," and I'm actually older than him. Crazy!"
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8132259&publicUserId=1002415
Another Bit: here's an awesome site where someone spent way too much time writing about something super geeky. But nevertheless I love in depth analysis like this about something completely stupid and irrelevant. The topic of the web page is where the blue shadows name came from, and it has to do with a SFII Alpha review, actually two. Basically the PSX version scored 100 while the Saturn version scored 95 because the "super shadows are snapped" due to transparency issues on the Saturn hardware.
So that's what I found. I'm still curious about what Des Barres is really doing. He usually gives the amount of time he's spent playing a game in his previews and reviews which is always a ridiculous number like 70 hours. So I assume he spends at least 10 hours per day playing video games, or he doesn't require sleep.
Other than the Play Japan he probably does translation work for game companies and strategy guides. I've seen his name pop up on a few credits for different companies. Anyway, I wish he had a blog somewhere so I could live vicariously though his screen-staring life.
Last week I played an XBox rigged with just about every home console and arcade platform emulator ever made. Super Nintendo, Sega Master System, TurboGrafx-16, Game Gear - it was all there. I played a few rounds of Street Fighter II Turbo Hyperfighting, the arcade version, Bad Dudes on NES, and a full game of the multiplayer X-Men arcade beat-em-up. Several other games glitched, froze, or wouldn't load at all, but it was a fun looking through the catalogs of old games and thinking about where I was and what I was doing when those old games were new. Just seeing the titles to games like Double Dragon, Star Fox, Punch Out, and Chrono Trigger really brought back memories.
After soaking in nostalgia for awhile I remembered one of my favorite spots that I visited in Akihabara - Super Potato. This is a small, hard to find (for me anyway) shop jam-packed with mostly old video games. Lots of old favorites and lots of old games you've probably never heard of. Super Famicon, Dreamcast, Neo Geo, Virutal Boy; it's all there. Definitely a place you would never see in the United States.
Here's a little video tour of the store:
