Grab Your Free Afrika Animated XMB Theme Now!
It's free, and way better than the LittleBigPlanet one.Published 01/09/2009 at 8:15 by nofi
It’s true, I might not like most of the changes to the XMB since the latest firmware, but animated XMB themes could be a huge plus point for me. I don’t really like the LittleBigPlanet theme, and as an introduction it really should have been free, but thankfully Sony have seen sense and given us a stunning Afrika one for absolutely nothing. Yes, you’ll need a Japanese PSN account, but who doesn’t have one of those these days?
So, anyway, just log on to the Japanese PSN Store and it should be right there under “what’s new”. It’s completely free and only 5MB, so grab it and then head back to your normal PSN account, unless of course you’re Japanese in which case you can skip that step and feel particularly smug with yourself. If you don’t have a Japanese PSN account then you can try to follow the instructions in this blog from IGN, but it’s really quite straight forward.
Go to the Theme options under “Settings” on the XMB, and scroll down to the new Afrika one, and apply. Yes, the icons are white and get lost a little bit amongst the zebras, but you can use the Background settings to dial down the brightness a notch to make things easier to read. It’s really, really impressive – the zebras are nicely animated, the grass moves in the wind, it’s like having a real life safari park right inside your PS3. Well, it’s not, but it’s certainly cooler than Sackboy running ad infinitum on a little globe.
Let us know if you find any other cool stuff like this, especially if it’s free.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
a inferior race | 01/09/2009 08:35
I'm special
2010 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
What do the zebras do?
bunimomike | 01/09/2009 08:36
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If you press up, up, left, down, right, right, they poop a little.
omega | 01/09/2009 11:07
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I thought you were joking… After three or five attempts one of zebras on the left lifted it’s tail up and really did it 0_o
tinytim01 | 01/09/2009 12:36
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if you push left down down left right r2, a lion comes on screen and the zebras run
bunimomike | 01/09/2009 08:35
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4792 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
Thanks for the blog link. Just had a look and whoosh!… Quite the sea of non-english there. Will definitely grab the Afrika them as even your grab above looks gorgeous.
Amphlett | 01/09/2009 08:39
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1248 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
Ha ha. The Devs must have spent hours making that Theme and then go and screw it up with white text. [walks away tutting and shaking head]
rht992 | 01/09/2009 11:12
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2860 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
its the third or forth theme i’ve seen thats messed up by having white invisible text
iNsAnE_gAmInG | 01/09/2009 19:28
* Banned *
-1930 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
But I guess those grey boxes on the friends list are good for something then, as previously the text that told you whose online would have been near-invisible like the rest is on the Afrika theme, but with these horrible grey boxes the text becomes visible so you can see what your friends are playing with ease.
That shutup all you ‘grey box critics’ LOL.
webby_15-0 | 01/09/2009 08:46
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174 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
just found another update with 3.0. there is a new signup form for playstation network. this might be a shock but after having a ps3 for nearly 3 years im only jus creating a japanese account. unfortuanetly this means because the sign up form has changed its impossible to tell what its asking you to write. please could someone help me cos i really want this theme.
webby_15-0 | 01/09/2009 08:49
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174 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
nevermind im bein stupid. its not a new sign up form
spooferbarnabas | 01/09/2009 08:54
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1606 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
Unfortunately this is nowhere to be seen on my japanese psn store, i am very comfused.
nofi | 01/09/2009 08:56
Wants a custom tag.
4307 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Really? That’s odd.
paxpacis | 01/09/2009 09:38
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561 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I do not have the FW3.x yet, so I’m just gonna ask.. Do you have 5 new/unread messages in the above screen-shot?
nofi | 01/09/2009 09:56
Wants a custom tag.
4307 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
No, that’s 5 friends online.
paxpacis | 01/09/2009 11:35
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thanks..
gazo69 | 01/09/2009 09:14
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Are you sure don’t just have the HK store
Erroneus | 01/09/2009 21:31
Wanted "Trophy Hunter" but was too late.
2981 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Yeah it’s not on the HK store, i made the same mistake.
webby_15-0 | 01/09/2009 09:01
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now im jus gonna wait for a tiger to come and devour them all.
Commando101st | 01/09/2009 13:50
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Tigers don’t live in Africa bro. Sorry.
B1GbOnG | 01/09/2009 09:09
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lol the zebra look a lil chunky and the white icons do ruin it shame u cant alter icon colour.
B1GbOnG | 01/09/2009 09:33
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143 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
Stick the Brightness on -3 and all is good
ok now dont look so sunny in Africa but hey i can see my icons and text 
Snebjnr | 01/09/2009 09:11
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1612 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
Its a nice theme, but Im not getting a Japanese account for it. I’ll wait lol
…I like Zebras
gazo69 | 01/09/2009 09:15
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Just installed it, it looks really good, very impressed.
G_The_Enemy14 | 01/09/2009 09:18
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I haven’t got a japanese account! Need to make one
LycanGav | 01/09/2009 09:41
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Thanks for the heads up, grabbed it.
BoyDay | 01/09/2009 09:42
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902 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Wow, it looks really impressive. I thought they just stood there and moved their heads and tails, then a zebra walked onto the screen from the front as if it had walked past me – scared the shit out of me!!!
Amphlett | 01/09/2009 17:21
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“scared the shit out of me!!!”
You big baby!
ShovellyJoe | 01/09/2009 09:48
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I’m not prepared to mess around with my settings for the sake of some zebras… I think I’ll wait for some better themes to crop up on the EU Store.
nofi | 01/09/2009 09:56
Wants a custom tag.
4307 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Well, there’s a huge chance this won’t show up on the EU store at all. There’s also no messing around with settings, just creating a new account as normal.
G_The_Enemy14 | 01/09/2009 16:51
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783 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
I tried to make a japanese account but on the address page, it no longer accepts just a zip code
SpikeyMikey23 | 01/09/2009 18:17
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i pasted a link on this article and in the forum so you can get one
Hodgi92 | 01/09/2009 10:03
The Thumb
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Sweet, gunna get this.
It’ll probably annoy me though.
captainhaz | 01/09/2009 10:23
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I’m suprised that they can do full 3d themes I thought it would be more basic like the shown LBP one but I guess its just the style. I wonder if devs have a size limit?
illogicology | 01/09/2009 12:05
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857 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2009
It won’t be full 3d, I imagine they’re just high res pictures with a degree of interactivity. Very possibly flash based or something similar.