Enter Sakata Gintoki, a samurai who carries a sword and engages in all manner of freelance missions. Sakata is joined by an apprentice named Shimura and an alien girl named Kagura who has a pet named Sadaharu. Together, they are known as the Gin-Chan Freelancers. The Nintendo DS Gintama game features the escapades of the Freelancers as they work all manner of odd jobs to repay a ¥1,000,000 debt.

All preorders shipping today will include a bonus Gintama cellphone strap. While supplies last, we will also include the bonus strap for orders shipping henceforth.

Jan Code: 4582224491230

View the back cover and screenshots on the main NCSX website.

» The first scene of the game shows all four heroes (Sadaharu is a hero too) seated inside their office. Sakata's behind the desk near a phone while Shimura and Kagura are seated on opposing sofas. A hysterical older woman enters the room and demands payment for the group's outstanding bills. Since the quartet are able bodied and somewhat worthy, they decide to help her out... eventually.

» Once outside the office, the three are standing in old Edo which is viewed from a side perspective. Tap the stylus to the left or right of them and they'll move and follow the tapped location. Tap the stylus on the edge of the screen to make them run. As the Gin-Chan Freelancers walk on the touch screen, the top NDS screen shows two Amanto ships in the sky which drift along slowly. Walk to the right until you come upon a dark haired guy in yankii outfit. Enter the decrepit building and clear it of slime creatures and collect coins. To move around, tap the screen with stylus and to attack, double tap on the slime. Jumping to collect coins is also performed by double tapping. There are a couple of chasms to leap across inside the building - to do this, double tap the stylus on the farthest point (opposite side of the chasm) and Sakata will leap across like Captain America.

» The game is played entirely through the stylus. The D-pad and face buttons don't even register in the game.

» There's a point in the game where the trio enter a restaurant and choose their food from among 8 choices. For Kagura, we ordered the bowl of rice with the sunny-side-up egg on top. Every meal will however add to the outstanding debt that the Freelancers owe.

» At the supermarket, Sakata may walk past the shelves and cold containers full of food and the available goods will pop up with prices and descriptions as he motors along. Soy sauce costs JPY400, milk costs JPY100, a girly magazine costs JPY900 and so on and so forth. Items may be purchased by tapping on them and then dragging to the shopping basket. Again, every purchase adds to the outstanding debt of the party which shows up on the top NDS screen.

» There's an exercise where Sadaharu runs across town marking various areas (designed by the white circular object on the floor) with its urine. While the urine is not seen jetting out, Sadaharu may be seen lifting its hind leg in convincing fashion...

» In the first episode of the Gintama animation series, Sakata Gintoki faces off against a quartet of samurai and makes like he's going to destroy them all with mighty sword skills. He angles his sword up and just as the moment is about to arrive when he expertly kills everything that moves... he turns and runs for the hills. The samurai give chase but they're no match for the fleet footed Sakata who thinks to himself that it's ridiculous to unsheath your sword and fight when there's a ban of swords in effect. As he runs, he meets up with Shimura Shinpachi and the two banter as they run. Later, they face off against their pursuers when Kagura arrives just in time atop her beastly steed known as Sadaharu and knocks the entire row of samurai the chuck out. They continue to run again and the three head right into a dead end. The samurai crowd behind them stop and ask them what they are. The three heroes then go off on a theatrical banter where they explain their penchant for doing odd jobs, retrieval missions, and anything else to bring in the dosh. They also proclaim themselves the Gin-Chan Freelancers. The backdrop of the first episode mentions that 20 years ago, the Amanto aliens arrived and banned the sword which led to the near extinction of the samurai class. The Amanto look like dogs with wrap-around visors and their ships crowd the skies with their slow-motion passage.

» Sakata's special qualities include a natural perm for his blue hair and a sweet tooth. His friend is Shimura Shinpachi who is trying to become a samurai and works for Gintoki to help his cause. Although everyone dresses in traditional samurai garb of Edo era Japan, the streets occasionally feature alien motor vehicles, Sakata's motorbike, and other modern contrivances.

» Based on the popular manga and television animal series, the Nintendo DS game features stylus tapping action in the alien-invaded land of old Edo. The aim of the game is to repay a debt of 1,000,000 yen within the span of 1 month by performing various tasks and jobs that are required of the player including farming, manual labor, fishing, and even putting tiles on a roof. All activities and actions are performed by way of stylus manipulation and tapping.

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