Mix it Up on Monday With IndieGala!

Posted on March 9, 2015 by geelw

While I rest up my golden throat and silver eyeballs for tomorrow’s meeting with 505 Games, you can go buy some cool indie games over at the IndieGala Every Monday Sale. This week’s bundle features eight games for $2.49, and a nice mix of titles at that. Adventure games, a digital board game for up to four players, classic arcade shooting and more, all for a song. Thankfully, you don’t need to sing in order to get this deal. On the other hand, for that little money you may just be singing so happily that the neighbors will think something’s wrong with you.

Okay, stop it with all that wide-grinning and humming too loud and go play some games, I say.

Retro Sunday: The Maze of Galious

Posted on March 8, 2015 by geelw

So, I’m soaking in La-Mulana EX on the Vita (or, it’s kicking my butt six ways ’til Sunday and today’s Sunday!) and I finally realized one game that was a huge influence on it is still out there and free for anyone to try. The Maze of Galious is an excellent fan-made remake of Konami’s 1987 MSX classic Knightmare II: The Maze of Galious.

Anyway, if you’re up to the challenge of a game made to test your skill while showing off some cool features implemented by the team who remade it, go grab this now and take it for a spin. You’ll get two playable characters, a HUGE map to explore in any order you wish and ten bosses to face off against. It’s “pay attention!” gaming at its finest, as while you can go anywhere you like, death awaits at the slightest mistake on your part. Have you got what it takes to get Popolon and Aphrodite to the end of their journey? I can very safely say that this game sure doesn’t think so because it tries its hardest to stop you from succeeding.

The Witcher 3 PAX East Gameplay Trailer: The Cure for Everything, In Seven Minutes Plus

Posted on March 7, 2015 by geelw

So, I’m home today and feeling lousy as I deal with this evil throat, which seems to be clearing up a bit more, but not before giving me some guff and beige-green colored stuff to cough up. Yuck. Anyway, this PAX trailer for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt made me feel better as I watched it, but I’m not quite ready to go monster hunting just yet. I’m trying to figure out which body part to sell so I can play this game when it comes out, but that’s another story for another time. Anyway, let me get back to my recuperation, as I’m way behind on a lot of stuff and can’t get much done if I’m sick as a dog. *Woof!*

La-Mulana EX Vita Code: We Have A Winner!

Posted on March 7, 2015 by geelw

As my scratchy throat woke me up to get it some more tea with honey, and I kicked and almost tripped over the box I put the names in when I got up (Memo to self: next time, make sure the box in on a table and not the floor!), I’ve decided to pick a winner for the La-Mulana EX Vita code. The funny thing is, one of the names I wrote popped out of the box when I kicked it and I was going to declare that person the winner (hey, I was kind of half asleep!). But I decided to redraw the winner just to be fair… and actually picked the same name again. Not easy to do when you pick facing away from the box the names are in while in a dark room with your eyes shut. Anyway, congratulations go out to:

Nate V.! (applause)

Check your email, mister!

As for you non-winners, listen up (and put down those torches!). Stick around if you happen to:

a) likes indie games and could use an instant mini-backlog
b) are a Star Wars fan who likes oddball collectibles

I have a couple of interesting giveaways in the works soon you may want to be a part of. No spoilers here, but it’ll be fun to see what happens…

Random Art: “I Coulda Had A Hirschfeld!”

Posted on March 6, 2015 by geelw

Art copyright Don Orehek

So, if you’re old enough and happened to be a New Yorker (or in NYC) during the 1970’s and into the 80’s, there was a chance you could walk into a certain place at a certain time of the year and have a caricature drawn by a world famous (or nearly world famous) cartoonist for FREE. Yes, that’s right. Before the days of “Pay me!” comic convention art, ebay, and heck, the internet, a lucky few locals and tourists smart enough to find out about the event could queue up at The Manhattan Savings Bank for it’s yearly (National) Cartoonist’s Show.

I’d heard about this back in the early 80’s and wanted to go, but never could find time to get downtown until 1987 when I was working in Manhattan. If I’m not mistaken, a friend of mine had gone either the previous year or the year before and lucked out big time, getting Al Hirschfeld to draw him. Who wouldn’t want a Hirschfeld for nothing? I recall not knowing who was going to be at the 1987 event, and with only an hour for lunch, I figured (correctly) that the more popular cartoonists would get the longest lines. I don’t remember every artist at the event (there were no cell phone cameras back then and I didn’t think to pack a camera with me on a warm summer day to record history), but I eventually made it in front of three of them and the results you’re seeing below the jump…
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Random Art: Unfinished Business- Incomplete With Too Much Heat

Posted on March 6, 2015 by geelw

Thankfully, other than a few more days next week of colder temperatures, it would seem that this stupid winter has run its course*. I generally don’t get too ill during the season (or I don’t get sick at all), but the last couple of weeks have been rough thanks to wide temperature variations from day to day and the dopey new boiler put into the building about a year or so ago that works all too well. Hey, some like it hot, but I think constant indoor temperatures in the early summer numbers haven’t been the best thing for me. Of course, in a city where too many people don’t have proper heat, complaining about it being too warm in the apartment is a bit odd. On the other hand, one result of all that heat has been my wretched throat condition over the past week or so. It’s clearing up okay, but I certainly didn’t get much sleep last night thanks to all that water and tea with honey I’d sucked down to sooth my fur throat. I guess the good thin is I got more exercise running back and forth to the bathroom than I got walking through the freshly fallen snow yesterday. Ah-ha-ha.

Eh, have a very incomplete tree sketch. I may as well post something more interesting than this post.

*Of course, watch me be totally wrong if we get hit with a last gasp snow blitz right before spring hits. I’ll be the one screaming so loudly your windows shake no matter where you are when that happens.

It’s All Black & White in This Humble Weekly Bundle Must-Buy

Posted on March 5, 2015 by geelw

They may look kind of “vintage” to some of you, but that’s how these indie games roll in this week’s Humble Weekly Bundle. It’s all about black and white games (with splashes of color in a few cases) and some interesting genre choices that run the gamut from claymation adventure to an intentionally seriously disturbing look at mental illness. Seven games for a ten dollar minimum is dirt cheap, particularly for the creativity and passion that went into all these titles. I’ll say no more save for your purchase helps support charity and it’s a given that you’ll enjoy everything here if you’re the open-minded gamer who likes to mix things up a bit. Forget about Fifty Shades of Whatever, folks- sometimes, back to basics are what works the best.

Final Symphony: TBT Classics to Some, Totally New Favorites for Others

Posted on March 5, 2015 by geelw

(thanks, IGN!)

It’s been out for a few weeks now, but Final Symphony, featuring music from Final Fantasy VI, VII, and X performed by the London Symphony Orchestra is sitting in the #4 spot on the Billboard Classical Chart. Nobuo Uematsu‘s timeless music from the Final Fantasy series gets new arrangements from the master himself and is powerfully played by one of the most famous orchestras on the planet.

If you’re new to the game soundtrack thing, this digital LP may not make you want to pick up a controller and go seek out those older games (that requires a bit of work non-gamers may not want to tackle). But your ears will thank you for exposing them to something different whether it’s inside or outside of your comfort zone. Get it on iTunes (link above), Google Play or Amazon for somewhere between eight and ten dollars.

Best of Toy Fair 2015, Newbies Edition: Life Is Wabi-Sabi

Posted on March 5, 2015 by geelw

Note to new trade show exhibitioners: Outside of appointments where I walk away with something to review on the site or someone promises to shoot over samples later, the best way to get me to stop at your booth is to jump out in front of me and say “Hi!”. If that fails (and it usually doesn’t), feel free to use a tripwire or other handy item that gets me to stop, look and smile. Whenever that’s happened at Toy Fair, I’ve always seen stuff that makes me want to write cool things about. Here are a few of this year’s products and people that reached out at the right moment:

Meeting the Life is Wabi-Sabi crew was a highlight of the show because Aaron Castillo Jr. and Marilyn bought that Big Island spirit from Hawaii all the way to NYC, braving the record-breaking cold weather to introduce their SUPER cute line of buttons, magnets and plush kitties. Seeing that big-eyed imperfect cat stopped me in my tracks and made me smile for a few reasons. There’s just something wonderfully zen about that cat that makes you want to pick it up and stare back for a spell.
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Mezco’s Talking Mega Scale 15″ Chucky: “Best Friends Forever”… But Not One of the Good Guys

Posted on March 5, 2015 by geelw

Well, now. Chucky’s back in action, this time in a new Mezco Toyz figure bound to scare up some sure sales among collectors when it ships out this September. Be very polite and don’t forget to wave and smile back, now. You really wouldn’t want to get Chucky angry with you, not even a little bit.

Mezco’s latest take on the classic horror villain from the Child’s Play and Chucky films stands 15″ tall and features real cloth Good Guys clothing, 11 points of articulation, a plastic knife and his trademark flaming orange hair. Did I mention he also talks, saying seven phrases from the movies? Well, he does. Nope, “I Can Talk” isn’t from any of the films, but seeing that in the image below made me immediately chuckle and think “Well, I can run away while you talk!” as well as “Exit, Stage Left!”

Anyway, you can pre-order the Talking Mega Scale 15″ Chucky by clicking away on that handy link I’ve provided. It’s $94 worth of scares coming your way, but you knew that from the moment you laid eyes on him. Make some room for him, or he’ll be pretty upset when he arrives and has to lurk about in his shipping box while you clear out that space you should have beforehand. If he starts yapping away in that box before you get to opening it, that’s not a good sign at all…