Matt

I hope they bring this to the US! I imported the first Picross DS when I figured that it wouldn't be brought here... then three months later it shows up, in English and at a fraction of the price :)

I agree that not being able to fine-tune the topics coming up in the Flash Card mini-game is a real hassle for trying to memorize, but playing a mini-game when prompted from a lesson *does* limit it to that category, regardless if it's now "mastered" vocab and not "open" anymore. I really don't see how hand-written flash cards are that much better than this, aside from having tighter control over what you're trying to memorize, and maybe the practice of writing it by hand. It's not perfect by any means, but for $20 you're getting the rudimentary basics, which is more than I had before starting the game. I've since had to buy textbooks and guides for more in-depth learning, but it's a great starting point for those curious about the language.

I've been using My Japanese Coach since launch, about an hour a day of some practice and some lessons, then a few hours on weekends going back through previous lessons. Like others said, the way it quickly mixes in the things you just learned with other stuff in the games is a little rough. I've found that the best way to brush up on words or kana before I've really memorized them is just to do the Lessons again -- when you play one of the prompted games in a Lesson, it only uses that lesson's vocab or kana instead of mixing it with everything else.

When it started hitting me with almost exclusively using kana instead of romaji it was a real kick in the pants, though I've found that playing Flash Cards with the volume off (where I'm forced to read the kana very quickly) really helped with my speed in recognizing the characters.

Overall I'm really enjoying it, it's a heck of a package for the price. My biggest complaint is shoehorning the "Spelltastic" game into the Japanese version -- why is it forcing me to learn the romaji when I'm trying to focus on only kana?! Using the keyboard for romaji in "Fill in the Blank" is also silly too -- I'd much rather it let me write the kana for the words here.

Nice review, picked this up when it launched and I'm loving it so far, on lesson 20 or so right now. Definitely something where you have to keep replaying and replaying to really get it all to sink in. The "Write Cards" game is terrific with practicing kana, very few recognition problems for me, and it's great that it checks the stroke order and stroke direction. Anxious to see how the difficulty changes when I get past lesson 30 and out of romanji!

In their press release they mentioned that it would be a brand-new game, BUT the Rock Band instruments will work fine with it. As long as the cost of entry is just the price of a game disc, I don't think it's that big of a deal.

Why didn't they just use Wiimote aiming to target where to shoot, and the turret aims towards the cursor? Seems like a no-brainer since that's how all the PC clones work. Twisting the remote is painful as a main control scheme, I don't understand how developers don't catch on to this -- I returned Super Monkey Ball within a day because of that same problem..

Whoa wait, Excite Truck *didn't* control that way? I always held it like regular car wheel style and turned it like a wheel --not face-up like a bus wheel, and not tilting like a see-saw. It played incredibly great like a regular ol' car steering wheel. It really looks like it controls exactly the same to me..

It loaded up for me, but tried it at a friend's house and his Wii wouldn't load it (both are launch Wiis). The sad part is that he tried to fill out that repair form from Nintendo, but he's required to send the Brawl game disc along with the unit if he wants it repaired. He didn't buy the game though, we were trying my copy... so it looks like he's outta luck for repairs.

Developers love saying they're "designing with the console in mind", which is just their masked way of saying "we've got mini-games and casual titles!". It's too bad that developers think that that's the right route to go with the Wii to make any money.

I was also very impressed (and intrigued) by this email. I've heard of the game but didn't know too much about it yet, but this email really got me interested. Seeing my name on the envelope was a really nice touch.

For some reason the part that interested me most about the email was the "you will receive another letter shortly" bit. I'm seriously wondering if Nintendo will be sending me another with more information..