Metroid
Metroid is the reason I love gaming. I am not exaggerating, I am not being sarcastic, the very first video game I ever owned, the first one that I ever played in my own home, with my own system, with my own time, was the original Metroid on Gameboy. I’d played games at the arcade, my grandad took me there when we went to the mall, and I’d played game at friend’s houses, but that was the first one that was mine. Unreality Magazine led me to a post on UpRoxx about the frustrating nature of Nintendo, how while they refuse to make any new titles that might bring them out of this tailspin, they also ignore core franchises that made them what they are. Metroid is their prime example. I’m not going to recap the article, go read it if you want to know why Metroid would be a smarter decision…
Godzilla Trailer
I am cautiously optimistic about this. Bryan Cranston is a great actor, though I’m worried this will be WB just plugging him into a major franchise for the star power, wasting his talent in a blah character with weak writing. That’s really what Need for Speed looks like it’s doing with Aaron Paul. There’s a big aspect of the trailer that I want to discuss. There’s a very clear sense of drama. This doesn’t look like Pacific Rim, in tone or visuals. There doesn’t look like a lot of fun. Not that giant monster cagematch kinda fun anyway. I know people who’ve really criticized Superman and Star Trek for being too dark, too edgy, with too much destruction porn. While I didn’t love the movies, I don’t think those elements were the fatal blows. Here though, I can’t help but worry they’re going to make this really, really serious. Of…
Twitch Plays Pokemon (or, in case you were wondering, the origin of Bird Jesus and All Praise the Helix Fossil)
My, that was definitely the longest title I’ve ever had. Joystiq has the best summary of what all this involves, but I am so damn proud that I couldn’t help but write my own post on this. A few weeks back, a single live edition of Pokemon Red hit the net. It is part of Twitch Channel (which I have no idea what is) but the idea is that it’s whoever is on giving commands to Red and driving him through the game. Imagine, 70,000-120,000 players all trying to play a game at once. Yep. But what has developed is one of the most surreal, and frankly, awe-inspiring moments in internet, gaming, and Pokemon. What is so fascinating is the forces at play here. Bird Jesus and Omanyte vs Flareon, Anarchy vs Democracy, the “death” (really the release, but pretty much the same thing) of cherished Pokemon such as Charmander….
The Walking Dead: Claimed
This week’s episode was very similar to Cleared, in both theme and quality. Once again, Michonne really proves to be a great character the more she’s fleshed out. My familiarity with the comic ended around the beginning of the prison so I don’t really know what is the show vs the comic, but either way I’ve really enjoyed furthering her back story. Getting her back with Rick and Carl was a great move, especially as her and Grimes the Younger cleared the house. The moment where she walked into the pink room was a special kind of Walking Dead moment, the kind that shows you of the world that was lost. Carl really gets the benefit of these story lines. I remember thinking at the end of last season that they were going to take him down the sociopath route, making him into the next Shane, but he’s really gone…
Chrono Cross: Revisiting a Classic (Part I)
This could be really fun or really embarrassing. This is the first multi-part post I’ve tried to do and it’s about a video game near and dear to my heart. I wanted to wait until I was done with it, but as I’ve stated before, I tend to not finish video games. If that happens here, I want to at least get a bit out. So, if this is it, take it as it is. If I finish I’ll put up a part II. So here it goes. One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about my android phone are emulators and roms. I started playing Pokemon FireRed a while back (probably need to write something on that all by itself) and that was a ton of fun. Eventually, I got bored with it but started thinking of some of the games that meant the most to me and how…