Mashing buttons since 1984
Because, apparently, if you bought EA’s NCAA 2007 for the PSP that’s exactly what you’re getting. (Via Breaking Windows)
How on earth can IGN give this game a “passable” rating?! The game is completely broken. There is no way this can be redeemed. EA should just give everyone their money back and bury all the discs out in the desert. Terrible.
This month’s Round Table Discussion is a trip down memory lane — “A moment when you knew that games were to be a part of your life…” As soon as Corvus announced the topic I immediately knew what moment that would be for me. The moment is crystal clear. It happened one Saturday morning on my way to Boy Scouts.
I was twelve years old at the time (1987), and on Saturday mornings I attended our weekly Boy Scout meeting at my friend’s house. His dad was the Scoutmaster and I’d get a ride to the meeting with another buddy of mine. This particular Saturday (it was late October, if memory serves me) my friend handed me the manual to his new Nintendo game, Kung Fu.
I had already been playing video games for a couple years on my trusty Atari 2600, but that was the extent of my playing. I didn’t play it very often, just a game of Combat or Pitfall when I was bored. I was more into my G.I. Joe Headquarters than any video game. My friend had an ColecoVision and I knew what the new Nintendo system looked like, but I had never played it. Leafing through the pages of the Kung Fu manual that chilly morning, I was immediately sucked in. “Look at those graphics!” Amazing! “Oooh, I bet the Mr. X is tough to beat!” I had to play this game. All during the meeting, all I could think about was saving the girl and kicking butt, Kung Fu style! After the meeting, I called my mom and begged her to let me go over Lance’s house. That afternoon we played Kung Fu and Super Mario Brothers for hours. I don’t know if you can get Nintendo thumb from just a few hours of playing, but I’m pretty sure I did. Kung Fu was one of my favorite games on the NES and that single day cemented my love for video games.
Of course I set about making sure Santa knew that all I wanted for Christmas that year was a Nintendo Entertainment System. No G.I. Joe, no Transformers. Just Mario, Luigi, and any other 8-bit creations I could play. Santa came through, as he always does, and I haven’t stopped playing since.
If you’re interested, you can download the Kung Fu manual here, from replacementdocs (which is where I got the image above).
So I finally, after months of off-and-on playing, finished Metroid Fusion. Even though it was actually easier than I thought it would be, it was a fun game. It didn’t knock my socks off like Metroid Prime did, but it was an enjoyable game. Playing it on the DS was a treat. It looked so beautiful on the bright DS Lite screen. So pretty.
Anyway, now that I’ve finished it, I’ve decided to go back and play through the original Metroid again (prompted in no small part by this post by Jeremy Parish). The question is which “version” of the game should I play? I still have my old-school NES hooked up in the basement, complete with a copy of Metroid. The main thing that stops me from taking the retro route are the codes that would have to be entered in time and time again. So it comes down to the Metroid Classic or Zero Mission (on the GBA, of course). I’d also like to grab a copy of Metroid II for the Game Boy and of course Super Metroid. Super Metroid may prove more difficult but I never finished it back in the day. But those are topics for another post.
So, any suggestions? Right now I’m leaning toward picking up a copy of Zero Mission. I like the idea of an updated version of the classic game. I finished the original game years ago but still have the Metroid bug. Going back through it should be a fun trip down memory lane.
… in 25 notes. Or more.
If you want to show off your gaming knowledge, check out the Video Game Music Quiz and find out just how much you know. You have to register for an account, but it gives you access to hundreds of gaming tunes for you to listen to and guess. You can read the full instructions here.
So far I’ve listened to 20+ tracks and I’ve recognized one. I’ve scored a whopping 3 points!
Unfortunately, they haven’t actually made me smart.
This should come as no surprise to people that know me and my wife personally, but she’s, like, way smarter than me. She’s been kicking my butt in Brain Age and she constantly reminds me of it. I need to test my brain age again, because the ridicule and teasing is starting to hurt my feelings.
Proof:
If you’ve been reading buttonmashing.com for longer than a few months, you’ll know that I’m a big sports fan. “Big” is actually an understatement. I love sports. Interspersed between my incoherent rants and ramblings about video games you’ve probably noticed mention of the “Men of the Scarlet and Gray”. Men of the Scarlet and Gray (as praised in the OSU Fight song, the Buckeye Battle Cry) are, of course, members of the many Ohio State University sports teams. My love for all things Buckeyes runs deep. Possibly even deeper than my love of video games. I’ve blogged about their exploits in great detail over the past couple years. It’s been a lot of fun but I never saw sports as a topic people came to buttonmashing.com for.
So with that in mind, I have launched a new sports blog named “Men of the Scarlet and Gray” (MotSaG for short) with some blog buddies (including the Monkey and the Conservative Buckeye). From now on, you’ll find my “Buckeye Blogging” over there, along with other musings on the state of sports in Ohio. While Ohio State football will be the primary focus, we’ll also be discussing things such as the Indians, Browns and Bengals, Cavs and anything else along the I-71 corridor. (I’m “el Kaiser” at MotSaG)
So those of you that ignored my sports posts in the past can rest assured that they’ll only get a passing mention here, and those of you who enjoy talking about sports and video games are more than welcome to add MotSaG to your reading list, whether you’re a fan of the Buckeyes or not. We’re all sports fans, and that makes us equals.
Unless, of course, you root for the Wolverines.
A day early but not a dollar short, The Carnival of Gamers rolled in Grumpy Gamer’s backyard and isn’t leaving. Grab your cotton candy and check it out!
A big thanks to Ron, who’s been rather busy lately, for hosting the Carnival.
Don’t forget that July’s Carnival of Gamers will be held at Ron Gilbert’s blog, Grumpy Gamer. There’s less than a week to go, so get your submissions in soon! Hit up the Carnival HQ for submission information if you’re new to the Carnival.
I am this close to declaring the DS Lite the perfect gaming machine, ever made. The DS as a console was really coming into its own, with a ginormous library of Game Boy Advance games right out of the box and a steady stream of DS games that were simply success after success. Then they gave us the Lite and its sexy, svelte look and bright, beautiful screens and Nintendo had achieved handheld perfection.
I’m trying to find a flaw, I really am, but I just can’t do it. Everything about it is screaming perfection and I am hearing it, loud and clear.
Remember the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Belloq, dressed up in biblical clothing, begins the ritual to open the ark? Where he does some Hebraic incantations, waves his staff around some, and then opens the ark? Nothing happens at first, but eventually angels and spirits emerge, to which Belloq declares,
“They’re beautiful!”
Then they turn into lion-headed destroying angels and they melt Toht’s face off. Remember that part?
Well, my DS Lite arrived today. When I took it out of the box, it was pretty much the same scene, minus the biblical clothes and the waving of the staff. Its brightness pretty much burned my face off.
“It’s beaut… Ahhhhhhhhh it’s too bright!”