Mrs. Bashcraft took the kid to see this summer’s Pokémon movie, Giratina to Sora no Hanataba: Sheimi. Every summer, a new one is churned out like clockwork. Last year, we all went to go see Dialga VS Palkia VS Darkrai, which actually made Mini-Bash cry. While watching a particularly moving scene in Sheimi, my wife said she started to hand Mini-Bash a tissue. To which he replied: “This is really sad, but I’m not crying”.

Check out the loot he got for going to the movie: Stickers, a card and a puck for the Pokémon kiddy arcade game.

What you missed last night
You Will Never, Ever Game On A Rig This Expensive
Soulcalibur IV, Over 2 Million Copies Sold Worldwide
Loads Of New Square Enix Screens (FFXIII, Kingdom Hearts, etc)
Microsoft Clarifies Final Fantasy XIII Asia Version “Announcement”
Braid Priced High To Prevent “The Space Giraffe Problem”
Konami Pulls In $US 655 Million In Q1 With A Little Help From Snake
Kratos, Nariko Come To LittleBigPlanet Pre-orderers

The New Xbox Experience: Just The Facts (And Maybe Some Conjecture)
Interview: Catching Up On Microsoft’s Big Announcements
Microsoft Releasing LE Red, Green 360 Controllers
Final Fantasy XIII: The E3 Trailer
Final Fantasy XIII Coming To Xbox 360
Liveblogging Microsoft e3 2008 Press Conference

Tonight’s Night Note is kinda long, so I put it after the jump.

What you missed last night
What Are The Top Selling Games Of 2008 So Far?
Fallout 3 Refused Classification In Australia
Patapon 2 Announced, Let’s Look At It
Mega Man 9: Cheap As $US 10 Chips
Cliff Bleszinski Wants Fewer Buttons
This Wii Hard Drive Is So Damn Phony (And Funny)
Does This Banjo Kazooie Video Confirm An Xbox 360 Motion Controller?

Man, it’s Monday! And a pretty quiet Monday, post holiday. Went to my kid’s soccer practice, where another little kid crapped in his pants and had to be taken off the field by the coach. Ah, yes, youth.

Been listening to a lot of Bowie recently, a lot — well, up to Scary Monsters, after which he seemed to lose the plot for a while (warm fuzzy Labyrinth soundtrack memories aside). Heroes just might be in my top five albums of all time…

I always seem to go in phases where I begin listening to one artist or genre, listen to that to death and then move on……….

What’s on your playlist? Gonna need some Tunes to listen to on the plane.

What you missed last night
2.40 Fix Coming “Midweek”
David Hayter Begged Konami To Change MGS4 Stuff
Let’s Watch The First Mega Man 9 Footage
New Prince Of Persia Screens
Japan Presents Foreign Dignitaries With…A DS Lite

Actually, kinda miss the 4th. Well, the way it’s done in America. People pretty much set off fireworks all summer here — like you can buy them at your local 7-11. So, they’re more of a summer thing, which is nice. Not sure about the laws regarding them, but people tend to go down by a river and shoot ‘em off at all hours of the night with no problems from the police.

We planned on shooting off fireworks tonight, but ran out of him. The afternoon was spent at the doctors. Going into this, Mini-Bash wanted a girl, but after a ding-dong popped up on the ultrasound, it looks like we’ll be adding yet another young lad to the Ashcraft clan. Afterwards, he remarked: When the baby boy is a baby, it’ll be cute. But when it grows up, it won’t be cute anymore. Valid point.

Now, we just have to think of a name……. And a name that “works” in both English and Japanese and has Japanese kanji. Tricky!

What you missed last night:
Five Games That Matter In Kojima’s Life
New Halo Game For E3 (Master Chief Not Included)
Dyack vs. NeoGAF, Part II
360 Rock Band Guitars Work With GH: Aerosmith [Update]
DualShock 3 And Xbox 360 Frankencontrollers
64 Percent of Those Polled Gave Up Wii Fit
Led Zeppelin Uncomfortable With Licensing Songs To Rock Band, Guitar Hero

Sounds like you had a nice vacation! And I dig the cufflinks. (And the brilliant reader Photoshops in the comments.)

Earlier this evening we went up to Mini Bash’s school for the Star Festival. Next week is the Tanabata, which you can read about it here if yer interested. Anyhoo, Mini Bash and all the other kids in his class told the teacher want they wanted to be when they grew up. The teacher then wrote these wishes on slips on paper which we attached to bamboo leaves. Mini-Bash’s read:

When I grow up, I want to be Squirtle from Pokémon.

Yep, we’re pretty proud. o_0

What you missed last night
Yakuza 3 Announced (No, Not Again, A New Yakuza 3)
Is This Official Chrono Trigger DS Confirmation?
Is Chrono Trigger DS Coming To America?
Minority Report Designer Behind New, Motion-Controlled 360 GUI?
An Elegant Stylus For A More Civilised Age
Namco Bandai Says Soulcalibur IV Install Size “Significantly Overblown”
Rock Band 2 Preview Shows Journey, Foo Fighters, Motorhead And More

So, yeah, everyday I’ve been playing soccer when the kid. When I was younger, I played soccer for a few years, but later, got more interested in baseball. The kid really likes soccer, and man, I’m quite enjoying it! Don’t remember liking soccer this much. It’s really a great game — love the passing, love it.

What you missed last night
Two New Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Characters Revealed!
Sony Files Multi-Touch Portable Patent
Microsoft: If We Launch A Game On 360 & PC Simultaneously, We Shoot Ourselves In The Foot
Too Human: “This Has To Be The Worst Game I’ve Played In The Last 5 Years”
Let’s Dress Up Chun-Li
Rock Band 2’s Guitar Is Easy On The Eye”
Too Human Hands-On: Six Hours In And Half-Way Home