Games Played 09/08/2008

Cho Aniki - Wii
Final Soldier - Wii
Ikaruga - X-Box 360
Super Dragon Ball Z - PlayStation 2
My Aquarium - Wii
Too Human - X-Box 360
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Open Beta - PC

RANDOM GAME OF THE DAY:


Wario World (2003)
Developer: Treasure
Platform: Nintendo GameCube
Purchase Date: 06/24/2003


Leave it to Treasure to create some crazy looking enemies.

With the exception of Sin and Punishment, Treasure's efforts on Nintendo's platforms always ended up being rather mediocre. Their take on the Wario series is true to the spirit of the character and features some quirky gameplay mechanics that they are normally known for but I wonder how much better it could have been if Treasure were to make it a 2D game. Oh well, at least there are some great boss battles in the game.

LIBRARY STATUS: 3 out of 5

Censored Statham III: Regression of a Transporter

I stumbled upon the movie poster for Transporter 3 in the theater over the weekend. Since the dashing Jason Statham is the star of the film, as expected, his bald-ing head was ridiculously cropped off again on it. It was just recently that I realize that the movie poster designers like to abuse him, thus I immediately started looking for the posters of the first two movies and here is what I found:

Phase I: Why we do get stuck with a bald-ing guy? Now we can't
make his hair flow dangerously in the wind. Let's crop him here
on the side so that people can see a hint of healthy hair on his head.


Phase II: What? We ran out stock profile photo of Statham? Darn it,
now we have to move his bald-ing head higher and crop it there.


Phase III: Why do they keep hiring this guy? I mean he's bald-ing!
Alright, a little bit higher this time around, the last one
we did for number 2 was not very successful.


And yes, the French have problems with his bald-ing head too...

Apparently, our society's phobia of the smooth looking scalp has gotten worse by the year! But let's end this on a lighter note, shall we?

Looks like you are their latest victim Mr. Cage!

Games Played 09/07/2008

Tales of Vesperia - X-Box 360
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Open Beta - PC

RANDOM GAME OF THE DAY:


Super Dragon Ball Z (2006)
Developer: Namco Bandai Games Inc.
Platform: PlayStation 2
Purchase Date: 07/24/2006


No split screen this time around.

Though not the best Dragon Ball Z fighting game, Super Dragon Ball Z is still way better than those galaxy-awful 16-bit ones on the Genesis and the Super Nintendo. The problem with this game is that it feels more Street Fighter lite than Dragon Ball and with the Budokai Tenkaichi series perfectly capturing the true essence of the action-packed battles found in the anime, SDZ is a huge step backwards. Having more characters would have helped the game too especially the fact that BT contains quite a huge roster.

LIBRARY STATUS: 3 out of 5

Nintendo: Repent Before Repeat?

I was shocked to see that Nintendo released Cho Aniki and Final Soldier, both TurboGrafx-16 classics, on the Virtual Console today. Two great shooters in one day? Can it be true? After looking at numerous videos of the Wii versions and originals, I decided to download both of them and I soon confirmed that these games are safe from the troubling hit-flash-disease that plagued the recent releases of shooters on the console. I think there may be some minute alterations done on the flashes in Final Soldier but since I really can't tell the difference, it's either the changes were very subtle or none were made whatsoever. At least these releases make me feel better about things - perhaps it's a way for Nintendo to say that they are not going to have hit-flashes censored again - but I would like to see them properly re-release the impacted games I mentioned in my previous article to call it even.

There is still no re-release of Star Parodier and Ninja Commando
so the future is still uncertain: Will the next batch of shooters be as lucky?

Games Played 09/06/2008

Ikaruga - X-Box 360
My Aquarium - Wii
Space Channel 5 - Dreamcast
Tales of Vesperia - X-Box 360
Too Human - X-Box 360