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This Day in Gaming, January 11th
2005: Capcom releases Resident Evil 4 for Gamecube in the US. It's a game that redefines the platform and the series. Jason Chen from Gizmodo said: "I wouldn't know because I only played it for 30 minutes before puking". I guess it made him dizzy. 2006: Capcom releases Mega Man X Collection for PS2 and GameCube. It's all the Mega Man X titles in one convenient package. I didn't buy this reiteration, but I was excited to pick up the Anniversary Collection to rock it on my Xbox.On this day in gaming, I was pleased to have all of my MMX games in one place. Of course, it just shows what I tool I am because I own X1-X3 on SNES and X4-X6 on the PSX...but that's far beside the point. Plus I got to play the racing title that only wishes it had been co-programmed by Nintendo.
Women's Health Suggests Couple's Gaming
If you're a guy and have a girlfriend who you're trying to get into gaming, I'd highly recommend picking up a copy of the January/February Women's Health magazine. Inside you'll find an article entitled "Grab the Joystick: Toy with your man in the virtual world", which you can leave sitting around somewhere (not the bathroom, that's our place) where she'll find it. The message couldn't be any clearer."So, anyone else wondering how much Sony paid for this article?
Clip: Bust a Move Wii
Some sweet Bust a Move action ala Wii. Not sure how necessary it is to have Wiimotion control for this game, but I suppose it could be fun. Come on Nintendo, where's the substance, I want substance. Brian CrecenteOn another note, with 8-player play, I can see this becoming an easy pick for a drunken party game.
Game like this should be required to offer two control styles: Wiimote-based or Nunchuck-based. Everyone would be happy that way, right?
Sponsor Pulls Out Of Slamdance
USC's Tracy Fullerton addresses the snowballing controversy surrounding Slamdance's decisioon to drop Super Columbine Massacre RPG from their list of finalists and announced that the USC Interactive Media Division will no longer be sponsoring the event.Yeah, they flat out screwed up. If it's an indy game fest, let people have their freedom. You can't stop the signal.
LttP Remade As Zelda: Parallel Worlds
Not that Link to the Past had anything wrong with it, but it's always nice to see an old game spruced up. The team behind this conversion have taken the basic building blocks of the SNES classic and built what's basically an all-new game out of them. Called "Parallel Worlds", it features new art, a new overworld, new enemies, a new story, new dungeons and even a new screen and item layout. Ignore the awful story and the whole project looks mighty promising.blacksamurai, not every Zelda made is a success. Let's not ever forget The Faces of Evil, The Wand of Gamelon, and Zelda's Adventure. Always, always remember the black sheep.
As for this hack, I'm just not interested. Sounds like Link to the Past remixed + heavily spammed enemies. That doesn't sound creative or interesting at all.
Hands On: Castlevania Symphony of the Night For XBLA
The PlayStation and Saturn classic may be an unexpected choice for the Xbox Live Arcade platform, but it's not unwelcome. The already classic Metroid-vania adventure really should be played by everyone, so we're thankful that Digital Eclipse is bringing it to Live. I spent some time with the port of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night today and came away very pleased. The game plays nearly identical to the original, with almost nothing to distinguish it negatively from the 32-bit original.Is it blasphemous to say that this game was overrated? That's what I'd like to say. I mean, it was OK when I played a friend's copy in college, but it didn't seem all that great to me. The game is basically over when you get the Shield Rod and the Alucard Shield. Granted, if I ever played again, I wouldn't use them quite as frequently, but such overpowered weapons take away from gameplay in my view. Funny thing is, up until that point, I was complaining about having to level just to face a boss or two, so my complaint is either about being underpowered or overpowered. Never quite seemed right either way...
The Hottest Chun-Li in Ohio
Sure, CES is going full steam as I write this, but there were other conventions this weekend that were just as important. For instance, Ohayocon, the largest anime convention in Ohio! That's right, out of all the anime conventions in Ohio, I'm 75% sure this is the biggest one. I'm also willing to bet was the only place in Ohio this past weekend where you could find randomly hot Chun-Li cosplayer, complete with too-small thighs and authentic Asian heritage!Desi, you're my hero.
This Week's VC Goodies
Nintendo has announced this weeks VC games, which should be live on the Wii Shop Channel as you read this. We get a dungeon crawler in the TurboGrafx game Dungeon Explorer and two space shooters, the horizontal Gradius and the vertical Soldier Blade. Gradius (NES): One of the original shmups, the Gradius series is know for its power meter, shooting the core, Moai statues as enemies, and the Vic Viper space ship.I weep at world in which people complain about a VC release week despite its inclusion of Gradius. I mean, it's Gradius! Don't "Destroy the core!", the Konami code, multiples/options, and gameplay so tough that you literally stress out over it mean anything to people anymore?
Clips: Link Guests On Powerpuff Girls
Craig McCracken is a genius as far as I am concerned. The creator of the Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends always manages to create that perfect blend of humor for kids, sly asides for adults and great pop culture references in all of his work. See a PPG episode called "The Beat Alls" for a perfect example of this. Not to mention his great visual style on both of those shows, Foster's in particular.Jonn, the controller looks like a simplified N64 controller. Either that or a blend between the N64 and Dreamcast controllers.