Friday, September 29, 2006


Gitaroo Man Lives - Not Completed

This game sounded like a bundle of fun. In fact when I saw it was released in English I was actually got excited and instantly found means to acquire the game. When I got it in my hot little hands and started it I was instantly amazed. The graphical quality was amazing and the use of bright colors had me in awe.

So I load up the first level, which of course is training and prepare for the onslaught of gitaroo action. The game is a pattern game, where you press certain buttons in order as they appear on the screen. My trusty dog decided he is going to school me in the ways of gitaroo. The first segment of any altercation requires the charge mode, you point the analog stick in the direction of this blue line and press anyone of the four buttons when a cord needs to be played. This was pretty sweet but my timing is a little off so I miss a few cords. The second segment is battle, this is where you are attacked. A cross appears on your screen and symbols matching your buttons come from the direction of the button lay out. This is a little hard to explain but a good example is the "X" button. One the PSP the "X" button is on the bottom so when its symbol comes it fly’s up from the bottom. The "O" symbol is on the right, so its fly’s in from the right side. Not that confusing on the screen yet difficult to explain. Now while you are blocking these attacks you intermittently have to play guitar cords to attack. With no real pause in-between attacking and defending I usually ended up missing the first cord. On to the final part of the battle, which is where you opponent is on the run and you attack mercilessly to drain there power and win. Sounds like fun don’t it?

I am suddenly thrust into my first battle and the flurry of bright colors and sound I am pretty enthusiastic. I start my battle and notice the level in which things are happening seem to be much faster then the training. I am able to defeat this little devil girl on my first attempt with quite a bit of power left. The second attacker I was not so lucky with. Everything seemed fine and dandy during the charge phase and then came the battle. While attacking did not seem to be to difficult the defense was completely unreasonable. The buttons were flying in at a in which only soulless Japanese children could maintain. I thought to myself this is only the second level, what do they really expect from my fat American fingers (Imagine Stadlbauer playing this!). I fail miserable and it was only from my defense. I didn’t even get to the final segment of the battle. Not to be discouraged by this game I have looked so forward to I gave it another go. When the battle phase came I reverted to my mortal komabt days and mashed this living shit out of the buttons. In the end I walked away with barely any power left and was able to defeat my foe. Not this was the second level. At this point I am fed up because game play sucks, it is to hard and call me what you want. But what kind of idiot developer makes a game that is near impossible for a hardcore gamer. Even Athena was looking forward to this game and I don’t even want to put her through the experience.

Give it 3 out of 10, the game seriously pisses me off.

Thursday, September 28, 2006


La Manquina de Bailar - Completed

Last night I sat down at my computer and watched this movie. Roughly translated means "The Dance Machine", the movie was done in Spain and was completely in Spanish. After watching countless kung fu movies and the three weeks I spent in France it no longer bothers me to watch movies I cannot understand.

The plot or near as I can tell is the classic story of someone needing money for something. The cast consists of your classic characters:

Young man who is repressed, Best friend of young man who isn’t repressed, Old guy who had something tragic happen to him and can teach him the way, Girl who’s bubbly and the Object of main characters affection, other guy who likes DDR and is the token gay fellow, The teenage boy who looks up to the main character, Mobster who’s a dick and has way to much money, DDR champion of Japan and his two monks

Something kind of funny I think they actually call them shaolin monks, which last time I checked we only in china and the DDR champ is from the land of the rising sun.

Here is a quick break down of the plot. Old guy needs money, man character and friends decide to enter a Konami DDR tournament to win him the money, Old guy sends them to dance school to hone skills, Best friend turns on main character, teenage boy fills best friends spot on team, the totally school the other dance teams, mobster pays of judges to force the main character against Japanese guy and as not to ruin the movie for Blanco because I know he is going to watch it, I will say no more.

As cheese as the movie can be it is still better then any Uwe Boll movie. In fact I was more interested watching this movie completely in Spanish with no nudity, then house of the dead.

Should you watch this movie? If you want to and speak Spanish then go for it. Maybe the DVD will have English subtitles.


Puyo Pop Fever - Not Completed

Tetris stormed the world at one time and I am not sure the Japanese were thrilled this game didn’t come from them. So they made Puyo Pop Fever, the game essential is a Tetris clone with game play changes. The blobs you are given can come in sets of two, three, and four. One of the largest differences is that you’re matching colors and not trying to just get a line across. This makes for interesting game play and allows you to create chains. Four of this color is removed and the blobs drop and make another four to create a chain. Which I found to be challenging and entertaining.

The single player mode is always against a computer opponent. When you clear so many blobs it drops them on your opponents stack as white blobs. These blobs are removed when a set of four is cleared above or around them. The end of the game is when your blobs get so congested they reach the top of the screen.

This game is colorful and has solid game play. For an on the go puzzler I think I enjoyed this more then lumines. The music selection lacks a little bit and I did not explore all of the available play modes, so it did seem to lack a bit of content. They extra play modes might add ten times the entertainment value.

Game is definitely 7 out of 10. Good game and solid game play, however it just didn’t hold my attention and have me coming back for more.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006


Smart Bomb - Not Completed

There are few things in games that absolutely drive me insane. One of them is puzzle games that rely on timers to gauge the difficulty of the game. Another little attribute games have I don’t care for is having a high difficulty and no save points forcing you to redo certain areas you have already completed over and over again.

With hat said this game is based on both of these features per say. The bombs have multiple switches that you have to solve in order to switch it off. After completing five out of six sequences you’re suddenly stumped on the last sequence and run out of time. Boom you’re done and well you get to start over again. Now you can start out with any part of the bomb, and work on that multiple times until you get it. But after every failure you get the luxury of watching yourself be blow to pieces. Now don’t forget this is all happening as you hear siren type sounds as your count down timer clicks away.

This game for me was not enjoyable at all. I have enjoyed puzzle games in the past. But this one was just a total let down.

Give it 4 out of 10. The game looks nice and is a great concept for a puzzle game. But the playability is so low it’s not even worth renting.

Monday, September 25, 2006


Nintendo McDonalds toys - Completed

McDonalds for the past few weeks had Nintendo toys and I couldn’t resist trying to catch them all! Many thanks to Mike T for letting me know this was happening.

Now I was able to get the entire collection, this required me to eat way too many happy meals. To be honest I am not sure I would have even got half of them if Athena hadn’t helped me out. She’s endured happy after happy meal just for me. I have some extras, doubt I will do much with them, but having them satisfied the little collector inside me.

While the Mario ball is certainly the coolest of them all followed closely by the inflatable hammer, I must give major props to the Donkey Kong helicopter thing. You can fire those blades across the entire room with little effort. I think I could actually hurt someone with this thing, perhaps I will take one to work!


Bounty Hounds - Not Completed


WARNING: This game was played less then two hours. My comments are all based off of these two hours and should only be taken with that in mind.

Here we go on another magic journey to the land of hack and slash games. The game play is solely based on waves of enemies spawning from thin air and attacking you. Your camera angle is 3rd person, but it is not set. You have to constantly click the left shoulder button in order to reset the camera to its default position behind your character. This got annoying very fast with enemies pouring from all sides.

The tutorial was brief and not very helpful. I stood over a few corpses that contained items just wondering how to pick them up until I had pressed every button. Once I received the phat loots it appeared I could not use them. Why I don’t know that’s just how the game plays.

On a positive note the game looks really good. The weapons have some great affects when used and it looked stellar. The sound quality was regular and nothing to impressive.

One annoy thing about the game were the cut scenes. Which were very well drawn in a comic style single panel delivery. However all the text was in bubbles. This is the PSP why cant you have voice over’s? I know translations can be expensive, but I am way lazy and don’t think I should have to read my way through a game. If that is what I wanted I would have bought a book!!!

This game will not receiving a rating since it did not feel I got a full perspective of what it has to offer.


Bust a Move Deluxe - Not Completed


Once upon a time I was reading Little gamers and they referenced a game called "Bust a Move". Now I was a die hard N64 fan which saw very little on play station. My only real exposure with was from hanging at Matt and Joel’s place. So I missed out on allot and it appears that this game was one of those gems you regret missing out on.

The game is simple, match three or more colors together and they disappear. The stages become more complex and have different specialty bubbles that react different ways when they are used. Being as I played a game similar once upon a time on a my Linux machine it was easy to pick up and play.

For a puzzler I don’t think you can get much better (perhaps Tetris) then this game. The two hours after loading the game into my PSP just flew by. The next day continuing where I had left off I put another two hours into the game. At sometimes I will admit I was frustrated, but it passed very quickly.

This game will probably be that one game I keep around to play in air ports or on car rides. Since the time constraints are very minimal and the fun value is very high.

If you have a PSP and enjoyed any of the previous bust a moves or frozen bubbles, then this is a must.
I give the game 9 out of 10. In the genre of puzzle games, I think this blows Lumines and Loco Roco out of the water.


Racing Genre: It sucks

Here is my conversation with video game aficionado John Blanco:

Blanco: there is no game genre I hate more than car racing games
Blanco: There are so many series...they all look UBER sexy
Blanco: And they all play like shit :-)
Blanco: I'm glad Nintendo has none...I'd take Mario Kart anytime
Blanco: And that's my rant.
Mobat555: I concur, Grand Turismo is fun for 30 minutes, and Mario kart is fun for weeks
Mobat555: in normal racers you hit a wall and bounce
Mobat555: Mario kart you hit a wall and expect to bounce.
Mobat555: if it’s going to be beautiful and realistic then why don’t they take damage?
Blanco: EXACTLY!
Mobat555: it’s like playing god mode in a FPS, you still have to make all the complicated jumps, but not worry about dieing
Blanco: it's a bull genre
Mobat555: I concur

Are we the only ones who feel this way? Honestly what do these games give us other then going fast in a car we could never own? Is it a refresher from killing aliens, Nazi’s, etc? Mario Kart gives us a video game environment, a place you expect un-realistic things to happen, like in most Nintendo games. The leaders in racing games focus on realism of graphics and handling rather then how realistic the game play is. Would people play these games if there card exploded after nailing the wall once?

One of the best driving games that I have ever played was “Driver”. If your car got destroyed you were done and it forced you to focus on driving well rather then just fast. If there were more games like this then I might be able to call myself a fan.


Wipe Out Pure - Not Completed

After a quick discussion with Zablanc, I have come to the conclusion that the racing genre is flawed. Perhaps I can convince him to do a post on why we feel this way. So from now on please take this into account when you see me give less then stellar reviews to any game other then Mario Kart.

Wipe out to me is F-Zero on the psp. The other racers seem unreasonably fast and can always catch you. Falling behind is not something you see them do, but of course you as the player are very capable of getting lapped. The steering requires a combination of the directional pad and the shoulder buttons which are the equivalent of an emergency brake. This makes maneuvering at high speeds through the courses a huge task. The boosts and weapons while adding to an aspect to the racer did not seem to help me that much.

The graphics are good and I was impressed knowing this was a launch game. In fact this is the game I saw on Moose's PSP when he got it that set the seed in my mind that I wanted one.

This game will not receive a rating, the time spent playing does not qualify for a proper evaluation. It did not hole my interest for more then an hour.

Thursday, September 21, 2006


The Godfather - Completed

To start off I am not exactly a fan of the god father series. The movie wasn’t bad and I enjoyed watching it, but doubt I will ever find the need to see it again. From what I recall of the movie the storyline inter mingles well with the movie. I cannot say for sure if the character you play is in the movie or not. Either way you know the story line is good since it is based off the movie and the cut scenes/missions coincide really well from what I see.

The game play consists of two different paths. The first is story mode which follows the movie and has missions. The missions are essential scenes from the movie where you play and assist the main characters. Then there is the "Mob Wars" mode. Breaking down New York to look like you are playing risk. With in the sections you will find people to extort and business to take over. When you are ready to move onto other territories you select who you want to attack and it brings up a mission. Unlike risk where your armies battle it out via a dice roll, in mob wars you get to do your own fighting. There is also a card element to mob wars. Cards that help you with your heat level (cops), to entice truces, and even directly steal money from the other families. You must destroy the other 3 family’s compounds in order to take over all of New York. The bottom line of the game is to be the Don of New York. In order to do this you have to complete story mode and mob wars. Which took me around six hours, with at least an hour of the re-playing levels because I couldn’t find the best method to pass a certain point and would die.

I was impressed by the fighting in the game, the down and dirty punch them in the gut. The options you have to beat people allowed for some creativity. Sadly the second mission you receive a gun and rarely revert back to your fists. When it comes to the gun play I was a little let down. You press a shoulder button to auto lock on an enemy and fire away. This is all good and dandy if you can see the enemy. There is an option to put your self flush against the wall and peek around corners and shoot. But this doesn’t help when you are going down stairs or the wall layout does not allow you to see anything. In these instances you would walk blindly into a room while you’re being shot at. Press the auto lock mode and because you cannot see the enemy it won’t lock on and if you fire your gun, it shoots straight down. Who in hell thought it would be a good idea for you to shoot straight down with a Thompson machine gun? If anything have him shoot from the hip randomly into the walls and give the chance to hit an enemy.

The missions all consist of the same thing, run down the street, go into a building, either kill everyone or extort the shop owner, and well sometimes you plant a bomb. They only thing that saves you from the repetitive nature of the game is being in the movie sequences. Helping Michael protect his father in the hospital and so on gave the game some spark and pushed me to keep playing. I did not touch mob wars until I had finished with story mode and this made mob wars a breeze. With upgraded weapons and skills I destroyed the other families in less then an hour.

When leveling through the game you are given skill points. These are used to upgrade your abilities (fighting, shooting, health, etc). In the end I had upgraded nearly all my skills to the max and strangely enough after raising a skill it was hard to recognize its affect. Health increase and how much you can carry were easy to spot. But the weapon increases and accuracy were not that apparent.

The graphics of this game are great, better in my opinion then GTA:LCS. The cut scenes are very well animated and higher end for what I have seen on the PSP.
I give the game 7 out of 10. If it had a little more content and some better shooting mechanisms they game would have been much better.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006


Loco Roco - Completed

What I think was one of the most hyped up games of this year. Which seems to be some what of a flop in Japan despite the inventive game play and its off the wall artistic style.

The game play is quite different from most games I have played. In fact I cannot really propose a game that resembles this one.

The game play is quite easy the majority of the time. Essential there are three types of input, tilt left, tilt right, and jump. Completely regulated by the shoulder buttons on the PSP. Sounds a bit odd does it not? Once in the game it makes perfect sense. You are a little blob, the rolls right or left and collect what looks like orange roses in order to get more blobs. These blobs can join together to make a larger blob. At times through out the levels you need to separate into little blobs to move forward. Which instills some tactics into the game.

Levels in the game are unique and very colorful. Tilting the world left and right hoping too and fro attempting to eat bugs and find all the orange roses. Each level felt different as I passed through them, even the smallest change made enough of a difference to keep the game from being repetitive.

One major complaint I have see is the music and honestly I cannot oppose these accusations. The music is something from a children’s special in the middle of the day. It does fit the format of the game, but in some respects I think classical music or even techno would have given the game a better sound element. After the first level I muted my PSP to save myself. The music has no significant value in the game. So I would suggest loading up some of your own tunes to have in the background while you play.

I happily give them game 8 out of 10. Short yet solid game play with plenty of content. Though the music left something to be desired it is better then nothing.


Exit - Not Completed

This is strange little game where all you really try and do is exit. This game gained my attention for maybe an hour. I enjoyed the cell shad-ish type graphics that would be the only real positive point about the game. The controls feel like you are steering a large truck and don’t seem all the responsive. When the jumps have to be precisely timed and climbing down objects has to be fairly accurate so you don’t fall ten feet to your death, you would anticipate precision input.

This game really in a way seems like a rip off of lemmings. Granted there are drastic differences in game play and look and feel. But the game qualifies for that type of puzzler, where as you use specific objects to get past obstacles and with out proper planning you fail. This does not hold much appeal for me.

I give this game 4 out of 10. No real depth to hold your attention, some nice looking graphics and controls that are not all the controllable.

Monday, September 18, 2006


DDR night round III

The most gracious hosts John and Michele Blanco invited me and a guest to there home for there infamous DDR nights. This one was not done in a tournament style and was more free play. With out the structure of the tournament some people felt obligated to play less then others. Which is ok, I fully understand that dancing and bronco games are not activates for pregnant women to attend.

It was a great time and of course being the nerds we are, we all came equipped with our Nintendo DS's. This made for some wild Mario kart fun. Hopefully the next activity night will include some Tetris also.

Thanks for the great evening and the fresh cookies. Was great to talk shop with Sean again, and total props to Kelly for being the newbie and sticking with it.

Blankmans blog of the party:
http://zablanc.blogspot.com/2006/09/ddr-night-iii.html

Sunday, September 17, 2006


Bionic Commando Arcade - Completed

Forgive the not so flattering picture of me. It was after a long night of DDR and Mario Kart at the Blanco’s. Today I picked up my cocktail version of Bionic Commando. This is what I plan to use as my kitchen table in the future. The machine works quite well, yet I would like to get the joysticks out and clean them. There not always registering the movement when going left. The game itself is fun, I was a little disappointed that it was not the original NES game. The game has more SNES type graphics and five or 6 levels of game play. I wasn’t exactly counting as I was trying to beat the game. It turned out to be quite easy to beat, but yet still enjoyable. Be sure to give it a try the next time you come to my place. Hopefully by then I will have it wired so an external button supply credits to the player.


Lego Starwars 2: Original Trilogy - Completed

At first you think star wars and legos, could there be a game that is more nostalgic and fun? Yes there could be a great deal of games that are more fun. When a person spends more then five minutes in an area that should take them less then thirty seconds to complete, something is wrong. There were at least four instances through out all three parts of the game that I got stuck. When I say stuck this means I could not even find a walkthrough to get me past this point and I am ready to chuck my PSP. The frustration I felt was intense enough to give me a head ache and ask for help from a friend. While my friend (Mike T) said he would look into it, I gave the game another go and found the simplistic yet obscure way to continue past the instance of my frustration. My feelings for this game were greatly dampened by this type of level design.

Playing through the three movies took me around six hours. Now here is a perk about the game. After completing all three episodes your only 35% complete with the game. It appears there is that much content in this game, though I will not continue with it for the sake of my sanity.

Some of the really great things about this game are the controls and the graphics. This game is very clean visually, giving life to movies which I have seen so many times Legos were a welcome and refreshing change. The animation while being simple still gave the characters depth. Showing emotions with smirks or frantic gestures. It at times was very amusing. The control of the game involved a party of characters the majority of the time. Allowing for some puzzle type scenarios, keeping the game from being a hack and slash. Using the force was fun but lacked a real ability to manipulate your environment. Everything was very linier when it came to using the force. I was disappointed with the fact I could almost blow anything up with a blaster, yes I can’t pick up and drop a flower pot with the force to break it. Alas this is not Jedi academy, it is Lego star wars and I guess my expectations my have been too high.

The game gets 7 out of 10. Looks great plays well, just call me if you get stuck on a level and I may be able to save you some frustration.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006


Fired Up - Not Completed

Remember the old days of Carmagheddon and Interstate 76? I sure do and love the concept of cars with guns shooting other cars with guns. While allot of this love can be attributed to see road warrior at a very young age, the games still had influence on me.

This is a pure combat game with menial mission to transport things here and there and item collecting. Starting off with the combat, I found it quite enjoyable. The weapons on the vehicle are very easy to use. You have your primary cannon which has some assisted targeting, this eliminates allot of the frustration I normally endure in car combat. A good example is side missions in Mario kart, you have turtle shells and need to hit the goomba and have to be directed just right in order to hit it which sucks. The secondary weapons consist of things like missiles, grenades, energy weapons, etc. Homing missiles have a little ridicule that appears on the target and locks on and will seek the target to a point. If you’re facing the wrong way it won’t go blue turtle shell for you so it takes some skill. The challenge while fighting mostly stems from being faced the correct direction and the amount of enemy’s attacking. You are fully capable of out running enemies and hiding your vehicle. Being able to get out of a situation takes away the stress of the fire fights and who wants to be stressed while relaxing with a game. Another aspect of combat is the man able turrets through out the city. You can exit your car into the turret and fire limitless grenades into the enemy’s. This was used in a mission, but can also be occupied for good clean destruction.

The graphics are not ground breaking by any means, but there good and clean. The city’s you trudge through are well planned and designed giving the user a sandbox type feel. Through out the rubble of roads and buildings you will find strategically placed ramps and jumps. They are constantly used through out missions.

The story for this type of game can be fairly shallow and yet rewarding. I was actually impressed by the basis of the story and why the player is doing missions giving the player a feel for the post-apocalyptic destruction that has occurred.
This game gets 8 out of 10, there is just not enough to keep me playing (epically with Lego star wars loaded). It has a lot of the essentials for a fun game and I may complete it in the future

Tuesday, September 12, 2006


WTF Video Story Contest - Not won

Today is with out a doubt not my day. This is the second contest I entered and lost.

Here is the story that won:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/wtf/wtf-video-story-winner-200142.php


Most Impressive Gaming Rig Contest - Not won

Joystiq asked in a post last week for pictures of how you have all your systems set up and connected to your TV. I sent in the same picture as I did for the Ultimate Ghosts and Goblins contest. Admittedly the picture was not the best representation of my gaming collection and setup and I did not have high hopes of winning.

However they announced the winner today. Sure he got happy with labels and this must have been what the editors wanted. But it appears that they did not pick this picture based on how it was connected to the TV. In fact in the picture I do not see any representation of all the systems connected to the TV. This disappointed me, not so much that I did not win. But that Joystiq selected one that does not appear to fit the criteria of the contest.

This is the post of the winner:
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/11/joyswag-most-impressive-console-setup/

This is the post for the contest:
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/04/gamer-culture-can-i-get-an-adaptor-please/

Any thoughts or am I just being a whiner?

Monday, September 11, 2006





Crazy 360 Video Impromptu Contest

Kotaku posted this crazy Xbox 360 video that seems to be an audition for the banned train station commercial from the UK. Brian Cercente is running an impromptu contest for a copy of Loco Roco and a Loco Roco Kitchen timer. The contest is to submit a short funny story explaining the commercial. Below was my entry. Wish me luck on winning!

Here is the post:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/clips/wtf-crazy-360-video-199750.php

Here is the video:
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE BEFORE YOU READ ON

"This is the Microsoft effort to assist in the medical treatment of people who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. The woman you see in the video is former KGB agent Ula Yokhfov who suffered through many horrific endeavors during the Russian Afghan war. The video game system can help re-create some of the most traumatic events that Ula had witnessed. Once recreated and Ula has been exposed to the traumatizing events, the emotion will fester into her mind and cause an episode.

What is witnessed in the video is the break through in Ula's treatment. The initial shock of the treatment may in fact contribute to the healing process and provide a way of achieving mastery over the event. For most people, these symptoms usually become less severe and gradually disappear over time. For others, the symptoms persist and become chronic which is why this treatment is getting so much appraise. This could lead doctors down a new path for those who suffer PTSS that were deemed to be untreatable. Ula's son Vladimir assisted in the process buy acting out as one of Ula's fellow agents adding familiarity to the situation and giving a loving presence of her son to help deal with her trauma.

This effort was made possible by Microsoft helping to further technology and how it can assist in the medical field, also thanks to the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and there work exploring Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and possible solutions."

Sunday, September 10, 2006


Cars - Not Completed

This is a cute little game with what I consider very good graphics. The game play is decent as a racer but does not seem to have a good balance. When I first loaded the game my assumption was that it was going to be a game geared for kids and would be a breeze for me. I have beaten the last three Mario karts and have done fairly decent with most racing games. But this one well stumped me. Its fairly hard and seems to lack the controls needed for a good racer. In most racing games you feel some sense of control when using a hand brake. With this game it really felt hit or miss and was not consistent at all.

After figuring out I wasn’t to hot at turning, I did realize that I could spin the other cars with ease and pull ahead. One of the tracks seemed to belong to a certain character, I spun said character out and looked at my map only to realize the game re-spawned this car directly behind me. Forcing me to lose the great lead I had in the race. I know this is an animated car racing game but why take away little advantage I was able to get?

The entire experience of the game was played in story mode. Story mode to me would be telling a story. Not just starting a different track with a header like "Farmer blah blah doesn’t like people in his field" and some where on the track the farmer pops out. There was a complete lack of plot and very little cut scenes. What cut scenes there were did no coincide with the game play. I have not seen the movie and I think it would be the only way to understand if there is even a story that is being followed in the game.

This game gets 5 out of 10. Graphics are great and the sound quality is decent. When it comes to game play the game is to hard and could prove frustrating for kids or people who are not proficient at racing games other then Mario kart. No story to be found in the game and the un-lockables just didn’t seem worth while.


On most days beating Super Mario Bros. just isn’t a big deal. We have all done it at least once or twice in our life. Some can do it level 1-1 straight through to the end in under 10 minutes. But for me I always feel giddy inside when I see that I have saved the princess and she is actually in that castle. Tonight I beat SMB for the very first time on my Nintendo Play choice arcade machine. The controllers are in likeness to the NES advantage yet still awkward having to stand the entire time. But great fun none the less and small milestone in my gaming life.

Also something must have shifted during the move, or perhaps the planets are just aligned correctly… But Excite Bike started to work on my play choice. I was quite excited since it was one of the main games I wanted, yet when I got the PCB it didn’t work and I hadn’t seen one on eBay after that for quite some time.

Thursday, September 07, 2006


Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade - Not Completed

This to me is a decent title for the PSP. Essential a Diablo style RPG that you hack and slash your weigh through numerous dungeons. Though sometimes it felt off when trying to position your character to fight, doing a series of swings the wrong way.

One of the great aspects of this game is modifying weapons and adding effects. Back in my EQ days getting a weapon with any effect would make me giggle all happy like. Rich gave Drakonion a screaming mace or something the first day I logged in and it was the coolest. So this feature made me very happy.

Class selection was not something I played with too much. Picked a berserker to play and stuck with it. This may be an added point to the game that I am over looking that you might want to keep in mind.

This game scored 8 out of 10, pretty basic story with very repetitive game play. Allowing you to port back to the city and sell then return to the point you ported from was a really good feature and the graphics looked very well done to me.

This game was not completed because I formatted my memory stick while um ya know trying to brick my psp.


People really don't need to fight over controllers at my house...

Unpacking everything I decided to lay it all out on the table pretty much everything console hardware related that I could. This in my opinion will be one of the most complete pictures of my systems I will ever have.

Over 400 games
32 consoles (including portable devices)
62 controllers

I need to have a garage sale or something.

A fun fact for you, the NES with the fox sticker on it, is the one I original bought when I was 12. Thanks Toth for hanging on to it for me.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006


Karaoke Revolution - Unlocked all venues

This game is a kick in the pants. All it requires is for you to make the correct tone at a certain point in a song. If you sing the words it helps allot but it’s not required. Its DDR for your mouth (doesn’t that sound bad ha-ha). The selection of music was a good mixture of classic hits and newer top 100 songs. Since I am not very good at holding a tune the only songs I was decent at were the ones I already knew the words too.

This is a great party game that’s easily learned and played. For the record Brian flat out spanked me at this game. Not sure thats a good thing for him.

Give it 8 out of 10, I wish it had more songs.

Sunday, September 03, 2006


Sifting through blogs on Friday I found a link to IGN where Mike Bozon was raffling off extra copies of “Ultimate Ghosts and Goblins” for the PSP. Basically you send in pictures of you with Ghosts and Goblins stuff and or your classic gaming collection. Since I just got done moving in and was prepping my living room to be flooded by games I thought I would have a little fun. That’s over 200 games and 12 consoles. One power glove a Mario striker’s jersey and Nintendo baseball cap, and yes I am sitting on a power pad! Hope you all like it.

Heres a link to the giveaway: http://blogs.ign.com/Bozon-IGN/2006/08/31/29656/p2


brooklyn naval shipyard