This Week’s Fan Events: The Dark Knight Manual Signing, Kingdom Hearts 3D Launch

Posted on July 25, 2012 by geelw

Hey! If you’re in the NYC area, have some spending money ready for a couple of cool new items and don’t mind a bit of queuing up, well, here you go: two events worth getting up early for (or skipping work for if you’re employed and can actually get away for a bit without getting caught by the boss). The first is at Midtown Comics’ downtown location this Thursday where author Brandon T. Snider will be signing copies of the just released (and pretty sweet goodie-packed collectible) Insight Publications book, The Dark Knight Manual.

The second event is this Saturday at the Nintendo World Store where Square Enix will unveil the newest in the popular Kingdom Hearts series of games, KINGDOM HEARTS 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. Both events should be pretty hectic, but I’d say Nintendo has the edge here, as every event I’ve ever been to at the store has been packed with freebie-loving fanboys and girls ready for their close-ups. Anyway, get to both early and enjoy the day if you’re headed to either.

Video Game Appreciation 101: Wii Library Update (New Additions)

Posted on July 23, 2012 by geelw

A few new (and used) titles for the collection, mostly thanks to some trades and a few others snapped up at really cheap prices. of course, I haven’t even finished all of these (my time machine is still busted), but have played enough of each to offer buy or bust recommendations. Then again, something I don’t like might be something you may fall over backwards over – that’s one of the more interesting things about gaming for you, right?
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Video Game Appreciation 101: Nintendo DS (New Additions)

Posted on July 20, 2012 by geelw

I need to do this on a more regular basis like some of my other fellow game bloggers (you know who you are, but I need to list you guys on my sidebar at some point today), so here you go, six new DS games added, all picked up quite cheap.

Aliens: Infestation is a pretty challenging side-scrolling shooter/adventure from WayForward Technologies (makers of some of the best “retro” style games out there) and Gearbox Software. Hop aboard an alien packed Sulaco as a squad of Marines as you search for survivors in this sort-of sequel/side-story to Aliens. With a limited number of squad members available (one they’re dead, they’re gone for good), some mean bosses that take a bit of work to put down and a decent amount of replay value, it’s not a bad game at all if you’re a fan of this sort of game.

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Thundercats DS Says To Consoles: “How Ya Like Me Now?”

Posted on July 18, 2012 by geelw

Well, now… color me intrigued. I happen to still like my Nintendo DS quite a lot, so yes, I’ll absolutely be bugging Namco Bandai for a reviewable of this game. Hey, for me, it’ll be the 16-bit game I never got to play back on the SNES and Genesis and as you’ll see from the gallery I’ll post later tonight, the game actually looks pretty impressive. Which of course means that I need to practice my Lion-O yell to get even more psyched for the game’s September 25, 2012 release. Er, you may want to stand back a few feet, kids (and get the family pet into a closet nearby – you’ve been warned): *Ahem* Thundercats, HOO*cough!*ooooo….*ack*oooo!!!!…

Hmmmm. Clearly, practice is needed there, as I just broke my throat and a window here. Back with more later. Er, more screen shots, that is (and a lot of them)…

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power Of Two Opening Cinema: The Mouse, The Rabbit And The Really Odd Place

Posted on July 15, 2012 by geelw

OK, I’m no Carl Barks, but I figured I may as well try and make up a title that’s not quite as necessarily unwieldy (or even more, depending on your tastes) as the one the game has that more or less explains as much as possible while not giving anything away. Yeah, I left out the musical aspects, the new game camera, drop in/drop-out co-op play, the lovely visual upgrades across the board and the still innovative Paint & Thinner gameplay choices players can make. In fact, my hands-on preview was better! Ah well..

Hey, YOU try and describe all of that in a title without burning up a few brain cells. Yeah, see? Told you so. Anyway, November 18th is the big day, so get yourself prepared…

Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d you steal our garbage?! Trailer: Um, Because It Was Free?

Posted on July 14, 2012 by geelw

OK, so I’m hot “hip” like the rest of you kids, as I’ve NEVER seen an episode of Adventure Time. But, I do like funky games like this, so yeah, I’ll play it when it comes out. That said, the answer to that wacky title SHOULD be something like “Because We have a much cooler game on the way!” as in, I hope to hell you’re going to announce that Earth Defense Force 3 IS indeed Vita-bound in the U.S. of A., D3! It’s looking spectacular and could be one of the biggest games on Sony’s handheld in terms of sheer replay value. So, yeah – let’s hear some BIG news around this year’s TGS about giant bugs, spaceships and robots – you’ll make a lot of EDF maniacs like me really, really happy…

The Last Story To Be Told On A Wii Near You Next Month

Posted on July 13, 2012 by geelw

August 14, 2012, to be more precise. And yes, there’s a gorgeous 44-page art book included in all first edition copies of the game. if you get that pre-order in, you get a nice bonus in the form of a 7-track music CD. All for a mere $49.99. The nice thing is this isn’t a GameStop exclusive, so Amazon, Newegg, GameStop and other online or offline shops should be well stocked (well, for a Wii game, that is). Xseed isn’t yet selling this in their small online store just yet, but I’m hoping they decide to stock a few copies, as that’s where I’d prefer to spend my money – give it right to the publisher and cut out the middleman entirely. Eh, I’ll bug them later about it and see what the deal is on why they’re not carrying the game.

Review: Brave The Video Game (NDS)

Posted on July 2, 2012 by geelw

Platform: Nintendo DS/DSi

Developer: Behaviour Interactive, Inc.

Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios

# of Players: 1

ESRB Rating: E 10+ (Everyone 10+)

Official Site

Score: B- (75%)

While not perfect, with Brave: The Video Game for the Nintendo DS, Behaviour Interactive has managed to bring the familiar fun of plenty of great action platform games from the past. While the portable version is skewed a bit more to younger gamers than the console ones are (don’t let that E 10+ rating fool you), there’s a decent amount of fun to be had with all the sword swinging, bow shooting, platforming and super to mildly simple puzzle solving. If you’re able to get over the otherwise fine PSOne-era visuals, occasional AI silliness and some jumping issues a better camera angle would have helped fix, you’ll find this to be a nice (albeit brief) diversion if you’ve got a few hours to kill.

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Nintendo 3DS XL: It’s Definitely Much Larger (And New Users Need To Buy A Charger)…

Posted on June 22, 2012 by geelw

Update: Well, oops: it looks as if the XL will indeed ship with that Adapter.Charger after all. Thanks to Destructoid for confirming this. Now, good night!

How very, very funny. I was going to buy my own 3DS a few weeks back (I’d been borrowing a friend’s system from time to time, as he doesn’t use it much), but something kept holding me back. It looks as if this was what I was waiting for, so good for me, I suppose. Those larger screens are a blessing my my ancient eyeballs and while the unit doesn’t have a second analog disc (there’s now room for it, but hell, you’d have to have EVERY game that could use a second stick be reprogrammed to take advantage of it), it’s not going to stop many core users from upgrading (after some complaints, especially if they recently bought a 3DS). That said, Nintendo gets a kick in the shins for keeping the price “below” $200 by dropping the AC Adapter/battery charger from the new handheld’s packaging, forcing new users to shell out for one. If you’re trading up, the old 3DS Adapter will work just fine, so at least they got THAT right (Apple, take notes, at least on this part).

As usual, you can’t make EVERYONE happy, but you can at least make sure they can see and play your games, so kudos to Nintendo on that front. Oh yeah, here’s the rest of the Nintendo Direct video so you can check out what else is coming for the platform from the house that Mario built…

“Retro” Review: Data East Arcade Classics

Posted on June 17, 2012 by geelw

Platform: Nintendo Wii

Developer: G1M2

Publisher: Majesco

# of Players: 1 – 2

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Official Site

Score: B+

The word “retro” is in quoted in the title above for two reasons, one being the Wii isn’t exactly a dead system (well, depending on who you ask) and two, I didn’t get the chance to review this collection at all when it was first released back in 2010. It’s getting a good look now because a friend who got a Wii for his kids a while back but has never played anything on it himself saw this in a closeout bin and as he’s an ancient fan of arcade games, he practically ran over some slow shoppers poking around in that bin to grab a copy. Anyway, no one was injured in that incident, so it’s all good. However, I also grabbed a copy and ended up getting some cramped fingers and sore thumbs from spending too much time reliving some great memories. Data East Arcade Classics packs in 15 games from the now defunct coin-op company that range from great to so-so and while some key titles that probably should have been on this disc are missing, it’s clear that this was supposed to be the first in an ongoing series. While the lack of certain key titles from the era and any sort of difficulty adjustment keep this from being flawless, it’s still recommended as a trip down memory lane or as an introduction to some really fun games for the kids.

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