This isn’t a news blog – Vagrant Rant exists primarily as an outlet for my own opinions on entertainment media, as well as my compulsive need to order things into top ten lists. But today, I’m making an exception, because something pretty cool happened on the iOS App Store today and not nearly enough people will be aware of it.

Former Nintendo DS game Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, known to its fans as simply 999, was released on the App Store today in “novel” form (a.k.a. with all the puzzles taken out), carrying the Australian price tag of $5.49. The critically acclaimed original version of the game was never released in Australia and only ever printed in limited numbers in the US, but has amassed a pretty vocal following worldwide since its 2010 release. It’s the prequel to Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, a deviously clever 3DS/PS Vita game that I reviewed on this blog in the middle of last year (I’ve gone back and upgraded that review to reflect this new release).

Without any of its former puzzles the experience takes on a kind of choose-your own-adventure novel structure, with the added bonus of slightly animated visuals (now in HD!), comic book style dialogue and a brand new “flowchart” feature that allows you to rewind the story at a moment’s notice to retry any of the game’s major choices. Being a Japanese game that wasn’t expected to make a big splash in the West, things do get weird throughout the narrative, which can best be described as a thriller/sci-fi mash-up with some heavy themes and a few lashings of oddball comedy. I won’t say anything more about the story, but suffice to say it’s a twisty tale that sticks with you and I highly recommend it.

Unfortunately, there is no Android version of the novel at the moment, which makes me sad. Hopefully there will be one soon.

So by all means, get out your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad and happy reading!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is it! Vagrant Rant’s first ever

GUEST

WRITER

WEEK!

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For the next seven days this site will be hosting some out-of-the-ordinary content covering some entertainment media I’m not exactly qualified to cover. And it’s all Aussie, all the time.

Enjoy!

Because sometimes, you just need a little help.

Yes, that was an April Fool’s post yesterday. I don’t really hate Bioshock Infinite. In fact I’m about eight hours into the game and it’s really, really good. Not 5/5 good, as it has some padding issues and I found a few bugs on the PS3 version, but it’s a fantastically well-made game that is a blast to play.

Especially when fighting these guys.

With the foolish stuff out of the way, I’m excited to announce that I”ll be featuring a handful of guest writers this month on Vagrant Rant for the first time ever, just to change things up a bit. A week of guest posts will start mid-month and range from instructive to critical to bitter and beyond! Aside from that April is traditionally a pretty quiet month when it comes to entertainment media, the highlight of which for me is the (way late) release of Fire Emblem: Awakening on 3DS. Speaking of 3DS, I’ll also be posting a 3DS vs PS Vita comparison piece this month as well. Keep it here.

So, somehow, it has already been a month since Christmas. 2013 is already tearing past us.

I’ve had a surprisingly rejuvenating month, though it hasn’t been nearly as quiet as some past Januarys. Fans of movies, music and videogames have already been treated to a slew of high-profile and exciting announcements, with a smattering of quality releases to go along with them. Once February hits, both Oscar season and the looming promise of enigmatic new game consoles will ensure entertainment media of all kinds rolls along with rapidly increasing momentum. It’s going to be plenty crazy and I’m terribly excited to write about it all.

Thanks to all you wonderful Vagrant Rant subscribers for your support!

Not a bad way to start the year at all.

That didn’t really work out too magnificently.

Turns out I tempted fate a bit too cockily and my week did fill up. After that happened there was no way I could pull off a seven-dayer, unfortunately.

Still, I have a handful of posts that I’m working on at the moment (when I can), including a review of a movie from my top ten most anticipated for the year, two portable game reviews, a list retrospective and another Rant Chaser.

So stay tuned to Vagrant Rant!

This is coming.