Say hello to a new article featured on Fridays, "What Are You Playing This Weekend?" In this portion, us members of staff let you know exactly what we'll personally be playing this weekend, to show you guys that we do, in fact, get our game on. Every week, one staff member will give a much more in-depth detail on their game, while the others keep their details minimal. The staff of Friendcodes hope you enjoy our first "What Are You Playing This Weekend?" article!

So I know I'm a little late, but I finally picked up The World Ends With You. Don't get me wrong, I love Kingdom Hearts, and once I found out this was by the same designing team, I couldn't stop smiling. I didn't keep heavy track of everything about the game, but fell in love with the art style, and the overall urban feel to the game. I totally kept saying "man, I have to pick up It's a Wonderful World (the Japanese name) when it gets localized.

And, I did! I went to a few different forums, read people's reviews, and once I saw that it's currently the top DS game of 2008, and number 7 of top 10 best DS games ever (behind Mario Kart, Meteos, and Elite Beat Agents, mind you!), I finally went out and got this game. And seriously? Once it got in my DS, I fell in love. The game takes place in section of Tokyo called Shibuya, which Wikipedia claims "is known as one of the fashion centers of Japan, particularly for young people, and as a major nightlife area."

I'm not going to be spoiling any of the storyline or anything, but so far, the battle system is really innovative. Basically, you can control how hard or easy things are. There are multiple difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Ultimate, and you unlock the difficulties as you progress. With each difficulty, enemies drop different items. Thinking in Final Fantasy terms, let's say an enemy normally drops a Potion. However, on Ultimate, that Potion would probably be a Max Potion. You can also choose even further how hard or easy you want the game to be. By adjusting your HP, you can change how often enemies drop items, referred to as Bling. It's sort of a complex system to explain, sadly. Your current level becomes the denominator of a fraction, while what level you want your HP set at becomes the numerator. For example, if you want your enemies to rarely drop items, but have your full HP, you'd be, say, 24/24. However, if you want tons of item drops but no HP, you'd be 1/24.

The characters in the game are very lovable. A main enemy refers to everything as though it's food, while another is a total math-nut. The other characters are very developed, as well. Such as our protagonist, who despises people and claims to have no friends, though his partners slowly grow on him.

This isn't any Final Fantasy adventure, though. Your 'armor' comes in the style of shoes, shirts, pants, and other accessories, but all by different fashion designers. This is another one of those complex but simplistic points in the game. Every area has it's own top fashion, and if you wear it, you get various perks in battle- wearing something that's the current trend can double your attack power. However, if you wear something that's completely not hip, your attack power gets reduced by half. However, you can twist trends in your own favor, by wearing whatever you want. Eventually- it becomes popular.

It's without a doubt that The World Ends With You is what I'll be playing this weekend, because it's just THAT hard to put down. I'll even be writing a larger-scale review on this game once I complete it, stressing points much more in-depth.

Enough about me, here are what other staff members will be playing this weekend:

Coolza - I'll be playing Guitar Hero 3, I've been addicted to it for the past few weeks. I might put GH3 down to play some Mario Kart Wii, but I doubt it, haha.

Naruto26 - Heh, basically just Mario Kart Wii and Brawl every now and then.

Bloodytl - Grand Theft Auto 4 (360) - I can't stay away from Liberty City no matter how hard I try. I'll also be playing Call Of Duty 3 and 4.

Jub - Mario Kart Wii. BEAT mah Daisy!

Cosgrove - I will be playing Boom Blox for the Nintendo Wii this weekend. I actually bought this game yesterday, and it's a true masterpiece. If you don't know what Boom Blox is, it's a party game made by movie Director Steven Spielberg where your main objective is to knock down a pile of bricks stacked upon each other, upon three-hundred levels! To do this, you would use a throwing motion from the Wii remote. This causes a baseball to be thrown at the blocks. The really cool part about this is that the Wii remote picks up how hard you throw the ball. I haven't played the multiplayer feature yet. The longest period of time I've been playing it for is five hours straight. It's a really addictive game. As of now, I would recommend anyone to pick up this game. Later on, I will be writing up a review on Boom Blox. So stay tuned for that!

Mr. Person - Probably Mario Kart Wii, if I play any game at all.

Sockpuppet - I'll be playing Smash Bros Brawl with friends maybe, or else the new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

Dragonpike - Just playing Pokemon, 'sall I got.

Nin10doGC - I'll be playing Mario Kart Wii. Trying to unlock the last of the characters I need.