Gaming

Innovative Interactive Multiplayer Puzzle Solving Game Originally Invented In Japan Returns To The Bay Area On A Semi-Permanent Basis

NEW PEOPLE, a dynamic entertainment destination bringing the latest examples of Japanese popular culture to North American shores, has teamed up with creative company, SCRAP, to launch a new home for the popular “Real Escape Game” at the notable Japanese Pop Culture venue through 2013.

“The Real Escape Room: SF Vol. 1 – Escape from the Mysterious Room” opens on Friday, December 14^th and will run periodically thru 2013. Multiple game sessions will take place most weekends on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays inside NEW PEOPLE’s 3^rd floor SUPERFROG Gallery space. NEW PEOPLE is located in San Francisco’s Japantown district at 1746 Post St. (Cross St. is Webster Ave.). More information at: www.newpeopleworld.com.

“The Real Escape Room” will be the newly installed, semi-permanent home for the latest version of“The Real Escape Game,” which is an inventive puzzle solving interactive game event, originally created in Japan, which requires players to cooperate and use their intuition and detective skills to solve multiple mysteries within a limited time.

In “The Real Escape Room: SF Vol. 1 – Escape from the Mysterious Room,” players find themselves locked inside a seemingly ordinary room. It has a desk, chairs, a carpet – everything seems normal. But on closer inspection players will find a series of mysterious codes and puzzles that must be solved in order to find a hidden key to escape. The maximum capacity of participants for each game will be limited to 11 people. Game duration is around 1.5 hours (including introductions and a solution walkthrough). More than 10,000 people have played this game in Japan, China, and Taiwan.

The Real Escape Room: SF Vol. 1 – Escape from the Mysterious Room Game Times:

Fridays: 6:30pm, 8:30pm

Saturdays: 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm

Sundays: 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm

Tickets are $28.00 in advance; $33.00 at the door. Tickets and additional information are available at:http://realescapegame.com/rersf1.

“The Real Escape Game thrilled hundreds of players during several sessions held previously in San Francisco, most recently with the Real Escape Game x Evangelion: Escape from an Angel, which was inspired by the hit Evangelion anime series and staged during the 2012 J-Pop Summit Festival last summer,” says Seiji Horibuchi, the President/CEO of NEW PEOPLE, Inc. “We are very excited to again team up withSCRAP to present a brand new installment that will run weekly at the NEW PEOPLE venue. Join other plays and test your powers of deduction and reasoning with this intriguing and fun game!”

About SCRAP Co. & SCRAP Entertainment Inc.

SCRAP Co. (www.scrapmagazine.com), based in Kyoto, Japan, produces the free magazine, “SCRAP” and the Real Escape Game (REG), a new style of live entertainment. Over 200,000 participants have played this game in Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore and the United States. SCRAP Entertainment Inc (RealEscapeGame.com), based in San Francisco, California, is a U.S division of SCRAP Co., and produces REG in the United States.

About NEW PEOPLE, Inc.
Based in San Francisco, California, NEW PEOPLE, Inc. (www.newpeopleworld.com) offers the latest films, art, fashion and retail brands from Japan through its unique entertainment destination as well as through licensing and distribution of selective Japanese films. NEW PEOPLE Entertainment (www.newpeopleent.com), a film division of NEW PEOPLE, Inc. strives to offer the most entertaining motion pictures straight from the “Kingdom of Pop” for audiences of all ages, especially the manga and anime generation, in North America. Some titles include DEATH NOTE, GANTZ, KAMIKAZE GIRLS, and THE TASTE OF TEA.

Star-Studded Campaign Featuring Glee’s Dianna Agron and Modern Family’s Sarah Hyland To Show How You Don’t Have to Be a Gamer to Enjoy Games on Nintendo 3DS Hand-Held

Consumers in Canada will soon see some famous faces talking about their love for the wide array of games and entertainment options available on Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL hand-held systems. On Oct. 1, Nintendo will launch a new campaign called “Play As You Are,” designed to show how all kinds of women and young girls can explore their interests and express their individuality using the portable Nintendo 3DS – whether they consider themselves gamers or not. TV stars Dianna Agron (of Fox’s Glee) and Sarah Hyland (of ABC’s Modern Family) are teaming up with Nintendo to showcase how games for Nintendo 3DS provide female players with fun, creative ways to challenge themselves and share what makes them unique. Both celebrities participating in the “Play As You Are” campaign will show how games for Nintendo 3DS engage their respective interests and personalities:

* Dianna Agron is not only a music lover like her character on Glee, she is also a dedicated fan, blogger and supporter of visual art. Fittingly, she will be featured in ads for Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone! (Oct. 1). The game lets players of any artistic skill level learn a wide range of painting and drawing techniques that can be applied in real life, from pencils to paints to pastels. She’ll also appear in spots for the puzzle-solving adventure Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (Oct. 28). Dianna is currently in production on the feature film Malavita, directed by Luc Besson and starring opposite Robert DeNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer.

* Sarah Hyland is a budding fashionista with a keen eye for clothing trends. Her role as Haley on TV’s Emmy award-winning Modern Family is a great match for her fashion-forward style off-screen. She’ll be seen in ads for Style Savvy:
Trendsetters (Oct. 22), which lets players use thousands of items and accessories to create fabulous looks and manage their own customized clothing boutiques. Hyland also will star in a Nintendo 3DS holiday ad featuring Sparkle Snapshots 3D (Oct. 18), an application that lets users take 2D pictures, decorate them with 3D accents and share them with friends.

“These women are all amazing role models with their own unique tastes and talents,” said Ron Bertram, Nintendo of Canada’s vice-president and general manager. “They know firsthand how Nintendo 3DS can keep them entertained and engaged wherever they go. We think young girls and women of all ages will enjoy hearing what they have to say about their favourite games and activities on Nintendo 3DS.” From puzzle games to role-playing adventures and everything in-between, more than 126 software titles are currently available for Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL, with more downloadable content added to the online Nintendo eShop every week. In addition to games, consumers can use the system’s built-in 3D camera and applications like Swapnote to connect with friends in creative ways. Nintendo 3DS users can also instantly watch thousands of TV shows and movies on Nintendo 3DS with a Netflix unlimited streaming membership and broadband Internet connection. Since launching in 2011, the original Nintendo 3DS system has sold more than 19 million units worldwide. Nintendo 3DS XL, which launched on Aug. 19, 2012, has 90 percent larger screens than the original Nintendo 3DS, allowing users to immerse themselves even more deeply into their games and entertainment. Both versions of the system include built-in wireless features such as StreetPass and SpotPass, built-in cameras and the ability to enjoy games, movies and video content in 3D without the need for special glasses. Remember that Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL feature parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/3ds.

About Nintendo: The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii(tm) home console, Nintendo 3DS(tm) and Nintendo DS(tm) family of portable systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System(tm), Nintendo has sold more than 3.9 billion video games and more than 630 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi(tm) and Nintendo DSi XL(tm), as well as the Game Boy(tm), Game Boy Advance, Super NES(tm), Nintendo 64(tm) and Nintendo GameCube(tm) systems. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario(tm), Donkey Kong(tm), Metroid(tm), Zelda(tm) and Pokémon(tm). A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, please visit the company’s website at http://www.nintendo.ca.

Two of Nintendo’s top-selling video game systems are getting attractive new prices. Effective May 20, the suggested retail price for the larger Nintendo DSi XL will be $129.99 and the suggested retail price for Nintendo DSi will be $99.99.

Both the Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DSi XL systems come pre-loaded with a variety of fun software, including Flipnote Studio, Nintendo DSi Camera and Nintendo DSi Sound. Nintendo DSi XL comes with additional pre-installed games and applications, including Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters, Brain Age Express: Math and Photo Clock.

The Nintendo DS family has more than 2,000 different packaged and downloadable games for veteran and new players of all tastes. These include timeless Mario games like New Super Mario Bros. and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!, puzzling adventures like Professor Layton and the Last Specter and Dr. Mario Express, fun software like Photo Dojo and Shantae: Risky’s Revenge, the gray matter-stimulating Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!and Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day! and upcoming games like Pokémon Conquest, which is available June 18.

The new suggested retail prices provide an even greater incentive to pick up the systems, and provide an easy option for parents who want to introduce younger kids to their first portable games.

With graduations looming, Father’s Day approaching and the start of the summer travel season imminent, the new suggested retail prices appeal to all kinds of shoppers.

For more information about Nintendo DSi or Nintendo DSi XL, visit http://www.nintendo.com/ds.

From Nintendo:

Nintendo invites everyone to party with Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom friends like never before. Mario Party 9 is now available exclusively for the Wii console, loaded with scores of fun minigames, unlockable extras and new elements that add some unexpected twists to the fan-favourite Mario Party franchise. With a unique mix of competitive and cooperative challenges that up to four players can enjoy together, this super-charged game delivers classic characters, boundless replay value and nonstop smiles for everyone in the household.

In Mario Party 9, players vie to become the Superstar as they make their way through adventurous new stages, overcoming obstacles and collecting Mini Stars. For the first time, players also travel across each stage together in vehicles and join forces in boss battles to defeat a common enemy. This means they must work together to beat classic villains like Bowser and King Boo while still giving their individual scores a boost. Throughout the stages, players take turns acting as Captain of the vehicle, hitting Dice Blocks to move the party toward the goal. As they progress, players may encounter 80 new minigames that might have them making pizzas, escaping haunted houses, bowling shells at Goombas and more.

“There’s no party like a Mario party,” said Ron Bertram, Nintendo of Canada’s vice-president and general manager. “The lineup of classic Mushroom Kingdom characters in Mario Party 9 will have longtime series fans feeling right at home, while new elements like cooperative boss battles and vehicles really ratchet up the excitement.”

Each stage in Mario Party 9 has its own progression from a starting point to a destination and contains multiple paths for players to choose. In addition to collecting Mini Stars, players also earn Party Points that can be taken to the in-game Museum to unlock a variety of extras, such as character constellations, additional vehicles, a Donkey Kong-themed stage and more. There are also new minigame modes that let players compete in shorter amounts of time, plus a Free Play mode for practicing individual minigames and a fun Extras mode. Additional Wii Remote controllers are required for all multiplayer modes and are sold separately.

Mario Party 9 is the first new Mario Party game since 2007. To date, more than 32 million console and hand-held games in the Mario Party series have been sold worldwide.

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/wii.

For more information about Mario Party 9, visit http://marioparty9.nintendo.com.