Proof: D-Pad Hero. Just watch the video. (via waxy)
Archives for 2009
In [Nat’s] Hands: Ultimate Shooting Collection
I’ve been on a little bit of a shmup kick lately (which you might be hearing more about soon), and I fogot I had ordered this game back in October or November of last year. Ultimate Shooting Collection is a compilation of three shmup games on one Wii disc. Two of the games have never before been released in the States. My initial impressions is that the first game, Karous, has got a unique, cell-shaded style.
Three shmup games for $30 and it’s not too bad of a deal if you are a fan of the genre.
My ultimate collection would have Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun, and any of the 19XX games.
February Releases
It’s the monthly releases, yay hurray! The past few months haven’t been that great, but I thought now was as good as any time to bring back the monthly releases. As I started doing late last year, I’m just linking games I think the Buttonmashing readers will be interested in. No more Imagine Babyz High Fashion Designer 3!
Week of February 2nd
World In Conflict
Week of February 9th
Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection – How many times are they going to go to the Retro Well?
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin – Looking interesting. I need to play the demo, but I’m intrigued.
Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers – Two things geeks (and men) love: Bikinis and Zombies. What could be better?
X-Blades
Week of February 16th
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and the Damned – Yeah, this is going to be an awesome month.
Street Fighter IV
Week of February 23rd
The Godfather II (Xbox 360) – We should be reviewing this one in the near future. The Godfather II has been delayed. Still looking forward to it!
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand – Why not?
Week of February 2nd
Tenchu: Shadow Assassins
RYGAR: The Battle of Argus – I love, love, loved the original Rygar. I think adding Wiimote controls to the game could be interesting.
Week of February 9th
House of the Dead: Overkill
Onechanbara – Again, with the bikinis.
Deadly Creatures – I don’t know why, but I’m intrigued by the idea of playing as a tarantula, attacking humans.
Week of February 23rd
Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop – Will Nat pick it up? Will he (us) be soul-crushingly disappointed? I hear Otis coming through on the walkie-talkie: “Don’t do it, man. Do not open that door.” We know how well things turned out last time we didn’t listen to him.
Week of February 2nd
I refuse to link to “My Drivers Ed” or “Petz Horseshoe Ranch” or “Jojo’s Fashion Show.” I’m not going to do it.
Week of February 9th
Retro Game Challenge
My DoItAll – Now they’re just getting lazy. No “My French Coach” or “My Drivers Ed.” Now it’s just “My DoItAll.” I’m in the wrong business
Week of February 16th
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon – Alright, now we’re talking, Nintendo. I am anxiously awaiting new Fire Emblem goodness.
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride – Very nice! Two solid JRPG franchises in one month. This is more like it.
My Personal Diary – Oh, never mind. Why do I even try?
Week of February 23rd
Legacy of Ys: Books I & II
Puzzle Quest Galactrix – I’ve always meant to play Puzzle Quest, but never really got around to it. One of the days…
Blue Dragon Plus
Week of February 2nd
Burnout Paradise
Week of February 9th
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
Galactic Civilizations II Ultimate Edition
Week of February 16th
The Sims 3 – Virtual avatar torture! Woohoo! Sims 3 has been delayed until June 2.
Street Fighter IV
Warhammer Dawn of War II – I think this one is going to get some playtime around the Buttonmashing HQ.
Week of February 23rd
The Godfather II
Shellshock 2
Armed Forces Corp.
Week of February 2nd
World In Conflict
Fatal Inertia for PlayStation 3
Week of February 9th
Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
X-Blades
Week of February 16th
Street Fighter IV
SkiDoo Snowmobile Challenge
Week of February 23rd
Killzone 2
The Godfather II – The Godfather II has been delayed.
Shellshock 2
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
Week of February 9th
LocoRoco 2
Week of February 16th
Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? – I do love me some Prinnies.
February looks to be a solid month for new games. What’s on your wishlist?
Proud Dad
I just have to take a moment to say that, as a gamer dad, I am a proud dad.
A while ago, I posted the video of the live-action Super Mario Bros. My oldest son has watched that video a hundred times. He loves it. Recently, he’s been loving New Super Mario Brothers and has even tried his hand at Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. He doesn’t get far, but he loves every minute of it.
But he really made me proud when my wife asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday (he’s turning four). When he said he wanted a “Mario Cake.” I couldn’t be prouder.
So, to help out the wife and set expectations unreasonably high, I used PicLens to search Flickr for some “examples.” (This one makes me mad) The quality of the cakes range from “so-so” to “no way I’m making that” (both direct quotes from the wife):
And the one I’m voting for:
My daughter, not to be outdone, asked for a Princess Peach cake. Good luck with that, mom!
Monster Trucks Nitro – PC GOTY 2009?
UPDATE: I correct myself. There are no achievements or online leaderboards. This is sort of confusing because it’s one of the things that makes Trials2 great. I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens though. Redlynx has been giving Trials2 some excellent support. Is Monster Trucks Nitro worth $20? No. But I do believe it–in it’s current state to be worth $10.
I came came very close to considering last year’s game by Redlynx, Trials2, to be my pick for 2008 Fun Game of the Year. I did mention that a I had a little bit of a renaissance with PC gaming, and I’ve also become a little bit of a Steam zealot.
To explain, here’s a conversation I had with Brock today via Google Talk:
Let me just begin by saying it was the quickest demo-to-purchase time I’ve ever had. I don’t even think it was thirty seconds. One race and I was sold. Bonus: You can get it right now on Steam for 50% off.
It’s simplistic, runs on just about anything, and is pure racing fun. It appears to follow the same format as Trials2 (but with a little more forgiveness), but also adds a boost option in Nitro. The goal of the game is to get through tracks as quick as possible–jumping over buses, cars, barrels, and all other sorts of smashing goodness. Yes, there are explosions.
Leaderboards, achievements, a great introductory price, and fun, fun, fun.
Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!
Mount & Blade on ‘Da Cheap
Sandbox RPG Mount & Blade is on Steam this weekend for 75% off. That brings the price to $7.50. Yep, I’ve heard good things and I’ll try it for that.
I seriously love Steam.
Changing lives, one Wii at a time.
Two articles posted without comment:
The Dawn of Weight Training on the Wii
‘Wii Fit helped me to walk again’
Any buttonmashers out there have Wii Fit?
In my hands
LittleBigFrustration
Back in October I was looking forward to flying through LittleBigPlanet in order to do a 2 Minute Review of it. I got sidetracked. By the game. My son and I have basically spent the last two months playing nothing but user-created levels. Some have been excellent (search for Little Dead Space by darknessbear), but most are downright atrocious.
While I think this game is great, I feel that is does have some flaws. Many of them are minor and not deal breakers, but allow me to let you in on my frustration.
HEARTS
- Do you know how to find all the levels you’ve hearted so you can play them again? I didn’t know myself, and a quick search online showed that most other casual players didn’t either. Try the info world on the left, select My Levels, and then use a combination of shoulder presses to bring them up. Wouldn’t it be easier to put a “view hearted” option in the search menu?
- Are there some levels in your “hearted world” that you cannot play or unheart? I’ve got three. They are user-created levels that the user has deleted. Yep, it’s a glitch. Media Molecule has known about it since the beta. By golly, we have our weekly DLC though.
- There are also times where levels you’ve hearted don’t show up in the list. Hopefully you remember the title and user. Oh, wait, they don’t show up when you search for them most of the time either.
- All the “plz heart my crap lvl” SPAM. Puh-lease. Make a good level. It’s Media Molecule’s fault on this one. There never should have been a trophy for hearting user-created content.
INCLUDED LEVELS
- The initial game levels are amazing, somewhat challenging, and fun. They soon turn into an exercise in frustration. We’re talking thumb-fu difficulty. I saw you could leave comments on the Media Molecule levels. I was curious to see what people said about them. Yep. “Plz heart my crap”
- The developer who came up with the Asian themed level with the spinning wheels can fall off a building and catch their eyelids on a flagpole for all I care. I honestly think you can twist a PS3 controller in two.
- It would be neat if these levels could be star rated. I’d be curious to see what people thought of the Media Molecule levels.
USER-CREATED CONTENT
- Some people are so ingenious with the level design that they should be professionally hired. All the crap though? Geesh. I wish I could just list the levels by star or heart. Instead we get a “cool level” option. Sadly, what’s “cool” is levels of music, cheating, and costumes. Yeah, do nothing levels, get trophy levels, and levels that fill up my content slots when my son plays them.
- We can take pictures and do what with them? Make a sticker? It would be awesome if the pictures were stored in a folder on the PS3 hard drive, then you could, oh, I don’t know, post them on a blog? Oh, and if the stickers were a little better in quality? Maybe? It would also be great is you could use pics off your hard drive as stickers. (This set of gripes actually may be addressed already, but I’m not seeing a plethora of images on the web. Are you?)
- That promised youtube “functionality” would be great. I can see why there’s a delay though. I really don’t want 1,000,000 videos of “get easy trophy levels”
It’s not much, but these are the frustrations I’ve faced. I’ve not created my own yet and I understand that towing the line is necessary in order not to face heavy moderation.
It looks like the next patch won’t be until mid-February and none of these appear to be addressed.
If anybody here has answers, I’m all ears..er, eyes.
What Are You Doing Tonight?
I don’t know about you, but I am enjoying the best show on television right now with my new sub $1000 47″ 1080p HDTV.
I love the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl (cheap TVs), All those stories you’re hearing of Circuit City liquidating stuff fast? Yeah, 10% off right now, and it’s still expensive. Pass.
I love Sam’s Club.