1. Batman Buyers: Beware of Budget Batarangs – $40 more for a cheap plastic Batarang and a few other goodies? Pass.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Personally speaking, the Wii has me more than covered for my gaming needs. I have quite a few games I’ve yet to complete, with many more I’ve yet to even purchase. That said, I still manage to go for stuff on Xbox 360, DS, and occasionally the PSP as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Aaaaaand, look who’s back! SummerFestSlam was a blast, and the upcoming WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 looks to be incredibly awesome. I’ll be writing about that for Kombo soon, and will link to it from here once that’s done. Of course, it will have to be done around my regular news chores; I figure I’ll have it done this weekend, if not before (I hope).

And now, the news:

1. Design Travis Touchdown’s T-Shirt for No More Heroes 2 – Pretty much just what the title says. Anyone here got the chops to make it happen?

Read the rest of this entry »

1. I love Back to the Future. The man behind Back to the Future loves Nintendo, or at least he did 20 years ago. It’s like magic.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. The big story of the day? Why, that could only be one thing: the PlayStation 3 is now affordable! That is, assuming you haven’t already blown all your money on an Xbox 360, a Wii, a DS, maybe a PSP, and games for them all.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. I’m no Football video game player, but I never get tired of this play. Now, I’m just waiting for someone to wise up and clobber the guy trying to pull it off.
2. Aging gamers seems to be a recurring topic as of late. GameDaily has taken the cue, and assembled a “Retro Rewind” which looks at the difference between Then and Now: Playing Games as Kids and Adults.
3. Also from GameDaily comes a look at Enjoying Life: The Shigeru Miyamoto Way. I’m pretty sure they’re being facetious, but there are probably some good core lessons beneath.

   Well, except number eight. I think he apologized for that one. Incidentally, it was nice of them to pick a rather bad pic of the game.

4. Product placement and advertising are everywhere. As long as it’s done tactfully, I don’t really mind.

   TheShiznit.co.uk has an interesting feature (with some blinding titles) on the Top 10 Worst Movies for Product Placement. Personally, I liked how it was used in Demoition Man and Back to the Future; it’s easier to actually feel and understand how things have changed over the years if it’s something you actually know, rather than Cola brand cola or something.

5. There have been a lot of video game consoles made over the years, and with them have come a lot of mistakes. Technologizer takes a look at the fifteen greatest, or worst, depending on how you look at it.

–LBD “Nytetrayn”

Okay, since no one objected (and I received one vote of active encouragement), here are the stories I posted over at Kombo today.

1. UDON Announces the Art Archive Anthology from Ace Attorney – First, UDON brings us Street Fighter, then Mega Man Zero, and now they’re hitting us with three months of artsy Capcom goodness with Mega Man: Official Complete Works in September, The Art of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in October, and Mega Man X: Official Complete Works in November.

   Read the rest of this entry »

I usually mention that I do most of my posting over at Kombo.com, for reasons I won’t go into here but which I’m sure most anyone can understand. That said, as I mentioned yesterday, I’m usually a bit gun-shy about linking to my stuff there. So here’s a question for you guys: would you like me to start?

Of course, I wouldn’t be posting just that stuff, but maybe throwing in the odd story here and there, or more, if people desired. Should I do it? Or would that seem too self-serving? I’d love to know your thoughts.

On with Points of Interest!

1. The Mushroom Kingdom, and the world of Mario at large, is filled with numerous characters. And many don’t seem to get their due time in the spotlight.

   It is these characters which Official Nintendo Magazine has chosen to pay tribute to in their feature, “Unsung Mario Heroes.” Number one seems like he gets around a bit, but personally, I can’t believe that the second one has yet to return.

   Three I think has mostly been replaced by Lakitu (though there are more reappearances than one might think), and four should have been in Super Mario Galaxy. There remains time to make it right with Galaxy 2, but I don’t see that happening.

   Number seven’s entry has given me a completely new look at the character, in light of the mention of “reaching the goal.” If that was Nintendo’s intent… well played. Very, very well played.

2. Nintendo recently held the conference call for their latest financial quarter. If that kind of stuff interests you, you can find the Q&A (in English) here. It is kind of neat, in that it’s not just a bunch of numbers, as one might expect. It can instead actually give you a better idea of the mindset and workings of the company, though.
3. The Adventures of Batman and Robin for the Super NES, based on what many may better know as Batman: The Animated Series (or just Batman: The Series if you watched its brief prime-time stint), was a very, very cool game which really seemed to live up to its inspiration. The animation and art were gorgeous, and the soundtrack felt like it was pulled right from the show. And a lot of the stages and other elements were.

   It was also hard as nails, and I never beat it. Somehow, I didn’t mind though. It was just that cool.

   Lens of Truth takes a look back at this classic, one which really should be released on Virtual Console.

4. I love video game commercials.

   Well, allow me to correct that: I love classic video game commercials. I don’t know if I’ve just gotten older and more cynical (and nostalgic), or if the newer ads are actually, in fact, just that bad. I know that it seems like fewer ads are capable of making me want the newest game advertised, that’s for sure.

   Of course, the awesome Punch-Out!! ads for Nintendo’s recent Wii release are an exception. Pity they shelved some of them.

   I digress, however. Among the early memorable ads I can remember are those belonging to the first three entries of Nintendo’s Metroid series, and 4 color rebellion has taken an analytical look at not only these commercials, but how they fare against their Japanese counterparts as well.

   Japan? Now they can do commercials.

   Interesting thing, though. While in retrospect, I think the Japanese Super Metroid commercial is the more favorable of the two, I think Nintendo more or less had to use what they did, given the rivalry they were facing from SEGA at the time.

   It was time to fight back, and Nintendo was ready to have the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy knocking at SEGA’s door.

5. Speaking of advertising, a lot of companies have changed their corporate branding over the years, introducing and utilizing new logos to varying degrees of success.

   Yahoo! Finance takes a look back at several such companies and whose changes worked, and whose didn’t, as well as why.

–LBD “Nytetrayn”

Ugh, I meant to have more updates for you guys, but then someone had to throw a link to TV Tropes in my way. And then the rest of the night just went all to Hell.

Still, not without an update; below, you’ll find my remembrances of the SEGA Genesis (which I will add pictures to later). And here, I don’t normally pimp my own work on-site, but it’s late and just more convenient this way.

SEGA America Blog has spent the past week looking back at the Genesis, and I link to all of their posts in this article on Kombo. What’s more, the 10th anniversary of the Dreamcast is coming soon, and courtesy of Kotaku, we find out what SEGA has in mind for it. Sort of.

I’ll try to bring more links and fun stuff tonight, but for now, enjoy this, and feel free to leave your SEGA Genesis memories in the comments here, or in the story below.

–LBD “Nytetrayn”

I’ve been doing the video game thing for quite a while, and as I do so, it has not escaped my attention that I’m really not getting any younger. In addition to not having as much time to play games, it also sometimes seems as though games don’t have as much time for me, either.

Over on GameSpite, Michael Ayles has written an interesting article about the “Aging Gamer,” which takes a look at gaming then and gaming now, and makes a few interesting suggestions as to how developers and publishers might better appeal to the “older gamer,” rather than continue to include enormous cutscenes that touch upon “deep” issues.

Read the rest of this entry »