Actraiser Godliness and this weeks arcade action

Actraiser is one of my all time favorites, and one of the first Super NES games I ever played. In fact I played it on a Super Famicom before they came out here.

Actraiser sort of rang in a new generation for me for the first time. The games on display for my pleasure to show off the Super new console were Sim City, Actraiser, and Gradius III. All three have become favorites, anbd all three available now for ther wii. Sim City remains the only one of the trio I haven't picked up.

It hasn't aged at all. I still adore it. The music alone brings back memories, and I stayed up and beat the firt town of the game last night. Games like this is why the VC is such a big deal for gamers like me.

Meanwhile this week marks the return of the single game release on XBLA. I haven't even downloaded a trial since the release of EETs, and Pinball. I might have to try this game out. Mad Tracks brings back memories of Micro Machines, I rather have Micro Machines though. My interest level for these games seems to have dropped off, although I hope Ikaruga comes out soon. Right now I am really busy embracing all this Nintendo goodness in the form of Pokemon Addictions, Zelda, Mario and the classic VC games. Oh and Gunstar Heroes is still amazing as well.

Oh, apparently the Pokemon addiction is spreading. The Penny arcade chaps seem to be infected. Another fantastic Pokemon comic.

VG Cats PKMN style.

So very Hillarious.
It's obvious this was written by a fan. It is perfectly on the mark.

Check the link for the full comic.
I finished migrating all my pkmn from Ruby finally. Took weeks with the 6 at a time limit. I also have all the started from the R/S LG/FR games.

Meanwhile my PKMN addiction has been taken over by my new wii. Already spent about 8000 points on VC games, and Zelda is really great. It might just be my favorite 3D Zelda.

thy curious wii

Well I picked up my first set of Virtual Console games today. Punch Out!! was a must have, followed by Super Mario World, and the original Zelda. SMW is easily one of my all time favs as well. Sadly it is basically unplayable with the retarded giant A button on the Cube remote, and I haven't yet picked up my classic controller.

So far I am enjoying ZELDA:TP a whole lot. The wii-mote does add something to the experince. After a few short moments of wii sports I started to worry that this whole motion thing was going to fail me dramatically. I seriously just hated wii sports, in fact it made me worry about picking up Wario, and that rabbits game.

The wii-mote however has added new life into the projectile weapons of Zelda, and the whole mapping set up of the controller really works well. Although I find Link likes to draw out his sword if I twitch or scratch myself.

Paper Mario is also fun so-far, but is probably far too retro for its own good. It probably would have been better down the road when the interest in wii-gimmicks die off alittle. I also like the older Paper Mario RPG games a tad better.

As for the console itself.. everything seems a generation behind in user friendliness, and I find myself using the internet to go to xbox.com to access my 360 friends list for messages. I feel dirty.

Oh, and I am still playing Pokemon. More on that eventually. :P

I found my wii, and other things..

Blah!!.

Along with my current crippling pokemon addiction, and the new Halo 3 beta being out.. I now have a brand spanking new wii to add to my time sucking gamer hobbies.

I picked up Zelda and Paper Mario, and hooked it up to wireless. Sent out a message to my friends via the 360's much more robust and user friendly communication software with my wii console number..

Oh, but at least I can check the weather?

I love Nintendo, but sometimes you just gotta hate them. I mean this thing was way too hard to find for MAY.

Meanwhile 28 weeks later was kinda dissapointing. It contain more deja vu moments than the movie.. Deja vu.
I also picked up Pan's Labrynth on DVD. I think my expectations were too high, but it wasn't what I was expecting. Still good, but not mind blowing good.

In typical fashion.....

Well.. The dashboard update has it's problems, but nothing that causes any new problems..

Microsoft forgot to mention, or decided not to mention that the age restrictions would dramatically effect the new IM feature. Basically there has been this long running retarded issue with age restricted accounts that causes issues for anybody who started with an under 18 account, and later grows up. I hear that happends often?

Problem number 1 is.. your account doesn't turn into an adult account when you become an adult...

Problem number 2 is.. there is no way to enable kids to use the IM feature, and the age restriction is pretty high. (18?!)

The first issue should have been delt with a long long time ago. Meanwhile the fact that the didn't warn people of the issue ahead of time is why they get such drastic backlash.

Basically kids woke up without a new feature, but they were told about the new feature and hyped up for it ahead of time.

Another stupid move Ms.

EDIT: Update .. apparently the fix is in the works for the fall update....

Expect the swamp to be flooded with crying till then.

Update: Still addicted to Pokemon...

Yup...

I am working, and playing PKMN: Diamond.

I am also saving up cash for a wii, and hopefully I will be able to find one soon after I am done.

I didn't really see much going on, since last time..

Oh and Hot Fuzz was awesome.. and Smoking Aces is recommended on DVD.

Later.

Thought Crimes in Fort Bend Texas

Outrageous.

Chinese high school student in Fort Bend Texas is arrested and then forced to attend an alternative education center when parents discover he has created a Counterstrike level based off of Clements High School for he and his friends to play on. The student had his home searched for weapons, was detained until it was determined no charges could be filed, and is now unable to graduate with his peers

This is an unacceptable reaction.

I like Year Zero, and some other tid bits.

Ok, so I was really dissapointed with "With Teeth". Basically the only NIN album with songs I hate. I pretty much only "loved" Right Where it Belongs.

So basically I went into Year Zero with lowered expectations, and I actually really like this album. There isn't a min of this album I "dislike", and there is quite a bit of it I enjoy.

All in all this album seems very detached from other NIN albums, with only a few key sounds that remind me of earlier 90's stuff Trent worked on.

Oh, and the USBM warning on the back, and the color changing disc are nice touches to an already odd collection of viral marketing sites and other material used to enhance this album as an abstract expereince. Is Trent still sober?



Via Amazon ..
From the Artist
This record began as an experiment with noise on a laptop in a bus on tour somewhere. That sound led to a daydream about the end of the world. That daydream stuck with me and over time revealed itself to be much more. I believe sometimes you have a choice in what inspiration you choose to follow and other times you really don't. This record is the latter. Once I tuned into it, everything fell into place... as if it were meant to be. With a framework established, the songs were very easy to write. Things started happening in my "real" life that blurred the lines of what was fiction and what wasn't. The record turned out to be more than a just a record in scale, as you will see over time.
Part one is year zero. Concept record. Sixteen tracks. All written and performed by me, produced / programmed by me and Atticus Ross, mixed by Alan Moulder, mastered by Brian "Big Bass" Gardner. Release date: April 17, 2007.

What's it about? Well, it takes place about fifteen years in the future. Things are not good. If you imagine a world where greed and power continue to run their likely course, you'll have an idea of the backdrop. The world has reached the breaking point - politically, spiritually and ecologically. Written from various perspectives of people in this world, "year zero" examines various viewpoints set against an impending moment of truth. How does it sound? You will hear for yourself soon enough, but given the point of this document is to provide information...

This record is much more of a "sound collage" than recent efforts from me.

A lot of it was improvised. It is very tedious describing your own music. It's not just music. It's probably too long, but it felt like the right thing to do to paint the complete picture. It will sound different after a few listens. You can think about it and it will reveal more than you were expecting. You can dance to a lot of it. You can f*** to a lot of it (maybe all of it depending on what you're into).

The Color Changing Disc. Entertains me every time I take it out of my CD player.

Beside You In Time

This marks the third official "Live" Video from Nine Inch Nails, and in my opinion the second best.

Sadly the fantastic but stuck on VHS "Closure" video from the Downward Spiral Era is just so much better overall. Although they was alot more than just straight up concert footage.

The "All that could have been" DVD was great, but something about the overly processed spliced together footage drives me nuts, because it isn't "real". Trent and company took lots of footages and edited it up across many concerts and basically manufactured this giant DVD video of "what it was like"

Meanwhile.. this either isn't the case, or they just did a better job on this one.

Odd I should like this one better, since many of the "With Teeth" songs I basically hate. Making parts of the DVD not so hot.

Meanwhile, this review is pointless. The NIN fans should buy this, and should know what to expect.

3 games for XBLA this week... sorta

This weeks Arcade Action .. via Gamerscoreblog

Alright.. They are delivering at least 2 seperate games, so I will let the B.S. on this slide a little.

Not to mention they did sell Mr. & Ms. PAC-MAN seperately, so I guess they could have gotten away with trying to sell Centipede & Millipede seperately

Meanwhile these games aren't full screen, and they only come with one set of achievements. So F that.. Seriously F those games. I call B.S. Boooo!!
Meanwhile I don't know jack about Catan, except it is a Board game, and could be really great.

Oh I am addicted to Pokemon Diamond. More on that eventually.