03/15/2006

Drink The Milk

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

Christ, what a crazy past couple of days.

So I was up for about 29 hours this past weekend, from 9 am Saturday to 2 pm Sunday (I should also mention that I got only about 6 hours of sleep the night prior because of the stupid dog). Then I passed out for 14 hours, and woke up at 4 am, which felt pretty damn good. Went to work that Monday morning feeling completely refreshed, which lasted the entire day, despite the fact that everyone was sick and therefore I had to cover multiple bases. Afterwards I went back to Parsons for the award ceremony to learn about the winners of the mobile game mosh and wrap up my the piece for Gama.

One of the guys from Parsons asked me “Hey, did you loose your notebook? We found a Nintendo DS one and we think its yoursa” and when I checked by bookbag, which I really hadn’t done since the mosh, I was shocked to discover that it was indeed missing (I’m super careful about such things, I never loose ANYTHING). My name and contact info is not written anywhere (which he pointed out, and suggested I fix that, and he was totally correct), plus aside from all my extensive notes from the mosh, there’s a ton of other valuable info, mostly related to the book, so thank God (and the fine folks at Parsons) for recovering it for me. And when Katie Salen asked me if I got her email about it, which made me realize that I had neglected to check my email that entire afternoon, only then was it apparent that I hadn’t fully recovered.

Again, I won’t go into the details of the event (that’ll have to wait for the article), but I will say that Steve from MTV News totally pulled through by bringing his DS with the English version of Brain Training as promised. And as expected, it was a lot of fun (especially for something that asks you to do math), despite not doing so hot. I did horrible actually; won’t say what my estimated “brain age” is, though I would like to think my suckiness was because of the fatigue.

Once my business was done there, I jetted off to the Union Square Barnes & Noble where I met up with Katie Skelly, who’s spending her spring break in NYC. Took her to this awesome el-cheapo Mexican joint nearby on 3rd Ave, and we ate burritos while people watching (and made “witty” comments the entire time, of course). Then it was off to Revival for some drinks, which is when Robin joined us.

Now, as anyone who knows me can attest to, it takes next to nothing to get me drunk (cuz I’m Asian and all). In fact, two beers can get me fairly buzzed, but given how exhausted I already was, the effect of just a couple of drinks were even stronger. So feeling a bit tired, I suggested that we head to my place in Brooklyn. And once at my humble abode, I treat both Katie and Robin to a bunch of wacky films, including…

- Spider Man vs. Captain America vs. Santos (you know, the Mexican wrestling legend)
Its from Turkey, and Spider Man is the main bad guy. The best part is the costume: just image what you’re used to seeing, except the blue parts is green and instead of the white parts of the mask, the dude’s eyes are visible, with his incredibly bushy eyebrows sticking out. I only showed them the opening, where Spider Man has his goons bury some poor woman in the sand up to her neck and back a motor boot propeller to her face, ripping it off, but it got the point across.

- Indian Superman
Basically, a Bollywood version of Superman which shamelessly rips off the Hollywood original by stealing scenes, mostly the special effects shots. The rest is a bizarre mixture of action, comedy, and musical numbers (of course). I showed them the best part, which was when Indian Perry White gets diarrhea on a passenger plane, and everyone else on boards laughs at his discomfort of having to wait for the bathroom. Then some terrorists come on board and hijack the plane, but Superman comes saves the day, with the help of his dead father (Indian Jor-El), in some of the awesomest bad special effects this side of an Ed Wood flick.

- Hey Mikey
The same preview DVD I picked up at the New York Comic Con a few weeks back. Had no idea how it was going to fly, but Katie “got it” almost immediately, and Robin warmed up eventually. They both seemed to really dig the episode in which Mikey’s parents trick their son intro drinking milk by set up a fake hostage scenario.

- Jake “The Snake” Roberts: Pick Your Poison
Also showed them a few minutes from the DVD that chronicles the life and career of the pro wrestler known as Jack “the Snake” Roberts. In particular, highlights from Jake’s fued with the Macho Man Randy Savage in which he ties up Savage in middle of the ring with the ring ropes and has a real-life cobra bite him in the arm, which doesn’t let go after a few seconds as planned. So you have a guy named the “Macho Man” who has a snake biting a huge chunk out of his arm, with the other guy trying to pull it off, and on live television, with plenty of close ups of kids’ reactions in the audience. Again, why did I love pro wrestling as a child?

- Karate Ruler
Very few people know about Karate Ruler. It simply defies description, but try to imagine this: a film conceived, written, produced, directed, and starring people who are developmentally disabled. Oh, and its a science fiction odyessy. I got ahold of a copy of this unknown, and impossible to find gem a few years back from an acquaintance who’s friend handled submissions for a film festival and, breaking one of the most important rules, made a copy of it for himself to pass along to his friend, who in turn made me a copy and simply echoed the friend’s sentiment of “Dude…. you HAVE to fucking see this movie.” I’ve shown the film to various friends over the years, and it has pretty much blown every single person’s mind. Given the description, many might think that it sounds like Crispin Glover’s recent cinema foray, What Is It, but to be totally honest, I found that film less scary, as well as less exciting. Yeah, Nazi imagery and snails being salted to death is cool and all, but that doesn’t hold a candle to an intergalactic power struggle, brilliant use of the Windows start up chime, a guy named J J Hoodini and his mentor Doobie Do, wrestling entrance music, and a table that will haunt you forever in your nightmares.

- Taste of Bread
To end the night, and because they wanted to see it, I showed Katie and Robin the film Dave and I made many years back, when we were young and bored in Long Island. Basically, its about monsters going around a small sleepy town and eating everyone. Dave, myself, and Dave’s cousin Dan shared monster duties, which were basically black trash bags, which were extremely comfortable during the shoot, which was during a hot summer weekend, but I also played the hunter who has to rid the town of the menace. I had a gun, a little hat, and a small stuffed bunny companion. Man, those were fun times.

… I ended up giving Robin and Katie the boot around 1, and I got to bed around 2, which meant I had been up for 22 hours. So because I had to get up at 7 for work, I was pretty much a zombie the entire time, and once again, nobody was there due to some bug I guess. Plus, thanks to some bad hot dogs I believe, I began developing some stomach issues in the afternoon. All I wanted by the end of the day was go home and rest, but I had previously rescheduled the “conversation” with my coworker Mark for that evening, which was postponed from a few weeks back. And since I didn’t want to push it back any further, I decided to go on with it, and I’m glad I did, because it turned out to be a fairly awesome thing. Basically, I just sat there and talked about anything I wanted while Mark responded, not with words, but by creating artwork, mostly applying (or throwing) paint at the canvas next to me, or gluing cut outs of people and things from magazines. There’s also a performance element involved, such as how he created makeshift genitals, I suppose in reaction to a sex story from college that I had recounted, or how he started spritzing me with water when I talked about Seattle. The whole thing was filmed, and once Mark is done with the editing, I’ll might try to pass the video of it along here.

Since the session had felt so invigorating, I met up with Katie afterwards in Brooklyn for dinner, some drinks, and Mystery Science Theater 3000. But my stomach problems came back with a vengeance (I think its mostly because I’m exhausted, my body is just not handling things as well as it could), so I didn’t end up really sleeping till around 4. So this time I called out sick from work, but I still managed to make it to the city….

… To pick up my copy of Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence Limited Edition at the EB I pre-ordered from, which is due to today. But I was told that it hadn’t arrived yet, and since it was 11 in the morning, the excuse seemed plausible. When I asked about the bonus DVD and if it had already there, or perhaps the day before, the guy I spoke with said it should arrive with the game, but when I brought up how stores all over Manhattan have already received the disc, he made some calls to other EBs and found out that one hadn’t received theirs while another did two weeks ago. So the guy was confused as to what the situation is… perhaps it got delayed or even lost in the mail? Well it is UPS, thought that means info is easy to find out. I’m afraid that its just jackass store employee that took the entire supply when it arrived and put that shit on eBay, which has been running rampant across the country for the past few weeks. Fuck.

I’ve been told to call later in the afternoon to see if they’ve arrived, and if there’s a problem, I bringing Job along with me, who will have with him a video camera, so he can film me going nuts and literally kicking a magazine rack over.*

* That’s a Gaming Age in-joke btw.

1 comment

03/13/2006

So Close

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

It’s around 4 right now (at least as of the writing of this sentence), and its been a little less than an hour since I’ve gotten up from my 14 hours nap, which was the result of staying up for 24+ hours to cover the Parsons 24 hour mobile game mosh.

So how was it? Well, I had (relatively) no problems spending my entire Saturday evening in a lab filled with people trying to their best to create a cell phone game in only one day’s time (and the place grew a tad bit pungent as the entire proceeding commenced), which also rang with the sounds of both We Love Katamari and Guitar Heroes by folks who needed to take a break from the action, along with about eight cans of Red Bull that was needed to keep myself awake (others injected much, much more). I dare say I enjoyed myself actually.

As for the specifics, that will have to wait till later this week, when my full report is published in Gamasutra. Though I will say that there was some super impressive work produced, and I’m eager to see who will what at the award ceremony later this evening. Also got to meet a few cool folks, including Stephen Totilo, the guy behind the video game coverage for MTV News, and the pair covering the event for EGM.

Anyway, since I don’t have to leave for work till 8-ish….

- Wednesday was movie night, of course, and the main feature was the Steve McQueen classic, Bullit. That film, along with the game Crazy Taxi is precisely why I’ve long wanted to visit San Fransico (that and I hear you can find some killer burritos). We also watched an episode of Monty Python (the Spam episode, which MK had never seen… crazy, eh?) along with some Buster Keaton shorts, which really makes you take notice of where Jackie Chan got all his moves (well, the kung fu superstar has noted numerous times that the silent film legend was his greatest inspiration).

May as well pass along the stupid sight I caught beforehand while killing time at Best Buy. Here’s a question: ever wonder why the hell movie studios still make fullscreen versions of DVDs? There was this woman who was literally flipping out because they were out of the fullscreen version of the new Harry Potter flick. She spent a full five minutes going totally bat-shit insane and was screaming at any sale associate she came across, who near the end were all scurrying away from her (gotta admit, that part was funny). And there were at least three other groups of people who were not with her in any way that were also super pissed that there was only widescreen versions available. I mean, don’t folks know better by now about the loss of information and all that jazz?

I guess I should also bring up the fact that I spent a good deal of my time debating if I should picked up Rumble Roses (that god-awful female wrestling game) which they had for just $10. I know it sucks and all, but its Konami, and its $10! Though in the end, I’m passing because I hear the mud wrestling part is pretty poor. Oh, and for those wondering, I do already have the Dead or Alive volleyball game, and even had the guts to buy it in-front of MK, but the original plan was to sell it on eBay, till I realized that it wasn’t worth the hassle (that was around the time I got into a huge, stupid ordeal with some jackass who sold me a shoddy iPod cable). Plus, and I’m not bullshitting here, but I’m a huge video game volleyball fan, so there ya go. That part of the game sucks, btw.

- Had dinner with Job and Jeremiah (a.k.a. nullsleep) on Thursday night. Got to hear about the upcoming chiptunes world tour he’s organizing along with Joshua (a.k.a. Bit Shifter), as well as the full story behind his confrontation with the angry Magic: The Gathering referee at his New York Comic Con performance. Afterwards we went to Forbidden Planet to look at books and check out the last remnants of the video game section, which has been slowly fading away for a while now. Job managed to grab Sonic Rush for just $20 brand new, and I was somewhat jealous till I realized that I have a copy waiting for me at the Nick Mag office. But then he spotted the Tiger Woods DS game for $6 used and fought with temptation to pick it up, and lost in a span about two minutes, despite Jeremiah and I asking if he really needed it, and this was after Job had been lamenting over the number of games that he has at home which has remained untouched during dinner.

Its something that all three of us suffer from: we all go nuts over certain games, and go out of our way to grab them, despite the fact that most of us barley have any free time, so they usually get tossed in the corner, let along how some of us are dirt poor and living paycheck to paycheck (such as myself, but hey, its all for the purpose of research, and I get the money back during tax time).

I also relayed the story about the greatest regret in my life, which I’ve told to numerous friends, which was how back when I was a teenager in Washington, I witnessed some poor kid who returning a day late copy of Life Force, the reaction of which from both the child and mother from learning how there was a $1.25 penalty was as if they were going to have to obtain from eating from the next week or so (they both looked dirty poor, almost to a cartoony degree, like that impoverished family from Night Court, though that could be just my memory filling in the blanks), and the guilt I’ve felt ever since for not stepping in and paying the, at least to myself, very minor fee. And among all the folks I’ve told this to, Job and Jeremiah are the only ones who at least don’t think I’m nuts for feeling such a way (at least I don’t think). I also mentioned the regret of having to sell both my SNES, along with a shitload of awesome first part games, including Super Metroid, Earthbound and Super Mario RPG, all in immaculate condition for just $80 fucking dollars, as well as Radiant Silvergun for only $200 (this was back in 2002 when I was unemployed most of the year, and the economy, in particular NYC’s, was shit due to 9/11).

Jeremiah in particular was very sympathetic over that last one, simply because he’s a hardcore shmups person, and passed along how pissed he was when he had to pass up on Recca, which isthe holy grail for any diehard shooter enthusiast, as well as Judgement Silversword, the Wonderswan’s best, and hardest to get, game, which also goes for $300 on eBay. Though I was able to refer to him a Japanese site that’s still selling the game for just 7,140 yen, which is $60.50 American. For those of you wondering what the fuss is about, you can check out videos at this site which Jeremiah passed along.

Speaking if vids, and back to Radiant Silvergun, before parting ways, I at least got the chance to play the game to death (again I was unemployed, so all I did at the time was get up at 1 in the afternoon, play video games, watch digital cable, flirt with girls via AIM, and eat fried chicken till 5 in the morning ever single morning), to the point that I got damn good at it, So I recoded myself playing the whole way through, and on just one credit! Mind you, the difficulty was set at normal, and this was only on arcade mode (and not the much longer, and trickier Saturn mode), but still. And both guys want to come over to my place to check it out, as well as play all the ultra obscure PSOne games that I have, including Love Love 2. But on the train ride home, I realized that I had accidentally erased that tape a few months later, when I was recording The Adventures of Pete & Pete off of Noggin/The N for Dave. But I at least have another tape of me playing RS, which was a practice tape that I used to study for me big run-through (which also contains Saturn mode footage).

- And back shmups in general, I also informed Jeremiah of the tragic, far too brief appearance of Senko No Ronde at the Chinatown arcade, which got him just pissed as I was when I first heard about it. Basically, it was recently reported on Insert Credit (which is where I also got the link to the great deal on Judgment Silversword, of course) that the shooter/fighter hybrid from G-Rev was brought to the Chinatown arcade, but no one would bothered to play the thing. Once possible reason might be for the fact that no one could understand how to play it; since it was never picked up by any American distributors, it was all in Japanese, and since it has unique play mechanics, it was hard to pick up. But the main reason is no one gave it a chance, so it was quickly got rid of in favor for another stupid Street Fighter Third Strike machine. Basically, the dumbass arcade rats who frequent the place wouldn’t give something new a chance. Because God forbid they actually play a game they don’t know anything about, and therefore risk the possibility of loosing, which in their eyes is “embarrassing” or some other nonsense. Hence why no one, even folks who enjoy video games, bother with that shit hole. I myself would go more often, since they have Super GT (Scud Race), but I’m tired of asking people who sit in the seats just to wait for their next turn in SNK vs Capcom to please step aside.

- Got Friday off from work, but I didn’t do much aside from do some research for the book, go grocery shopping, and read some comics, including the Crisis on Infinite Earth collection which I had picked up the day prior. Its a bit of a tough read, since I’m not that familiar with the DC Universe, though I did recognize Sgt. Rock during the WWII sequence, since I read a few issues back in the day, when I spent my entire summer afternoons hanging out in the a drug store reading all their comics. But the real reason I’m reading Crisis is that I’ve been long fascinated with the concept of characters who have been around a long while, enough to have developed different iterations over the course of many years, due to times as well as the various people that have written and drawn them, and the idea of having a story that acknowledges all these variations, which then tried to unify, or “clean”, everything up.

- Here’s something different: I’ve got a MySpace story to share. Actually two.

But yeah, I’m on MySpace, which I know is regarded as stupid to many folks, and it is, but its also harmless fun (despite being a vast wasteland of dumb emo kids and their shitty bands, along with horrid HTML). I’m also on Friendster, have been for a while actually, and joined right when it was first getting super popular, so I too got caught up in collecting “friends”, mostly people who I didn’t know, but pretending to be things that reflected stuff that I liked. So my Friendster friends included pizza and Scrooge McDuck, despite the fact that I know that Scrooge really isn’t the richest duck in Duckburg, but probably some 13 year old kid in Portland Oregon that I have never met, nor will I ever, but whatever.

Anyway, when I got on MySpace, the collecting part had grown old, so I decided to just associated with folks that I actually knew in real life. So when people pass along requests, and its someone I don’t know (generally either some sketch comedy group that don’t look remotely funny, or an emo band that of course doesn’t sound good, or some homey-g princess, and I have no fucking clue how she came across me, and I’m fairly certain she wouldn’t want to associated with a person like myself in real life), I pass. I don’t mean to be a dick, but I’m also certain that someone with 14,000 friends wouldn’t even notice.

Except for one guy. One person, whom I won’t name her because I just know he will find out via a Google search or something and it’ll just add fire to his rage, had sent me about 5 invites over the past couple of weeks, I haven’t done anything about it. They just sit there in my request box where I don’t touch them. But on Friday he sent me a personal message…

“What’s the problem? Why don’t want to be friends??”

And to that, I responded with, “But I don’t know you. Sorry, but I choose to only have actual friends on my profile. Thanks anyway.”

Which in just a few minutes netted the response of “Too bad son. You could use friends. I could have even taught you some things.”

Seriously, what-in-the-fuck?! This guy, btw, looks much younger than me.

Another interesting exchange is from a girl a few weeks past. She had apparently been in a few of my classes at SVA and had found me of interest, at least enough to want to get contact me after all these years. And don’t get me wrong, I have a girlfriend and all, but every guy is at least flattered when a girl says hello in such a manner, especially when its legit; she did prove herself the real deal, at least by naming specific things and places and events. But I looked at her pic, I didn’t recognize her, but I did notice “something”, so I went to investigate, and soon came across here homepage, and after poking around, I learned that she was a he. And the funny part was, given are shared common interests of video games, toys, and wrestling, an if not for the fact that I have somebody, and this girl is in fact a dude (the final cut has yet to be made, if you catch my drift) there would be a possibility.

Again, why bother with MySpace? Again, it?s harmless fun. One key feature, like Friendster before it, is the ability to pass along some nice, funny, or flattering words about the other person, and MySpace goes one step by passing along pictures. Here’s what Ed had to “say” about me recently….

And here’s what I had in response…


________________________________________________________________________________

Oh, some quick game related news and junk from the web:

- Check out another way to play Pong.

- I know its been reposted by Game Set Watch and Lost Levels, but for those who’ve missed out, here’s info on the long lost Penn & Teller Sega CD game.

- Captain N is coming to DVD? Sweet.

- Here’s something insanely awesome that I found on the GAF late last week: an online repository that has high quality scans of Sendai’s old all Sega magazine, Mega Play. Its sure to warm the hearts of any Genesis fanboy from back in the day.

- And from Insert Credit, here’s info on a huge ass controller for one of the worst games of all time.

- Plus, also via IC, here’s Famitsu dissing the Atari Jaguar.

- I forget if I’ve mentioned this before, but the latest Bomberman game for the Xbox 360 is taking a cue from Shadow the Hedgehog. Take a look at the site, along with the boxart…

I have more to pass along, but now I have to get ready for work.

4 comments

03/07/2006

“We love the cute!”

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

Its that time again, where I unload another monster assortment of video game related info and junk. Why? Because my teaching duties are winding down, I’m looking towards freelance writing once again, hence the need to catch up on stuff that I may have missed over the past few weeks. And I figured that I’d pass along stuff that was found along the way, at least for those who aren’t part of the Gaming Age and Insert Credit set. So I know some of it is “old” but I’m certain there’s at least something new for everybody…

- First off, and as mentioned last time, I unfortunately won’t be at the Game Developers Conference later this month, to witness all the speeches and presentations from the industry’s very finest. But at least I have this clip of Will Wright from last year explaining his God game to end all God games, Spore.

- Here’s something else for the academics out there: an interesting piece that examines the role of music in games.

- So Snoop Dogg is now the commissioner of the Hip-Hop Gaming League. What the hell is the Hip-Hop Gaming League exactly? A venue for actors, rappers, and athletes to face off against each other via games. Awesome. Cuz that’s what people want to watch: celebs playing video games. Hey, it worked for G4TV, right?

- Meanwhile on the other side of the musical spectrum, one of the vets of the synthpop scene, Depeche Mode has just produced a version of their latest song redone in “Simlish”, the made up nonsense language in the Sims.

- Sticking with music, here’s a vid of Toshio Iwai, the creator of Seam and most recently Electroplankton, demonstrating another music producing invention of his.

- Fans of Konami’s Contra Shattered Soldier may or may not already know about this: an alternate ending of the game that guest starts forgotten 16-bit mascot, Sparkster, from Rocket Knight Adventure.

- Here’s another vid via YouTube: its a fan produced recreation of the Sonic 2 ending, but in 3D. Its fairly decent, but I was hoping to see bits and pieces of all the other zones, just like in the original ending.

- And every time there’s an article in a magazine or online about Sonic the Hedgehog, there’s always a rundown of all the other games in which Sonic has made a guest appearance (on a side-note, Gamepro recently ran such a piece for the new next-gen Sonic game, and the writer decided to note Crusader of Centy, an action RPG for the Genesis which was Sonic’s first cameo appearance, as a shameless Zelda rip-off, which is such a huge load of horseshit… to think I’ve defended Gamepro in the past). Well one game which never seems to get mentioned, and which I must admit I’ve never heard of before, is Sonic Eraser.

- Meanwhile, unlike GamePro, Sega-16 is able to give respect where its due with this nice retrospective on the Thunder Force series, which includes info on the lost Thunder Force 6. I happen to have the Broken Thunder and its pretty good stuff.

- Via IGN, and for the Star Wars fans out there who may have missed them: screenshots from the new Star Wars Lego game, featuring the original trilogy!

- Some may already know that more Phoenix Wright is heading out way, and on cell phones. Here’s an interview with Capcom with the details.

Plus for those of you who haven’t seen it, here’s the special promo case as seen at the last Tokyo Game Show.

- Capcom’s also re-releasing the Power Stone games for the PSP. Not a bad idea really, since not nearly enough people got to enjoy the games the first time around. And hopefully, this will lead to other old Dreamcast games to return from the grave, such as Project Justice and Tech Romancer.

- Though on property which Capcom has no problems milking is Mega Man, as everyone already knows. Here’s some scans via JeuxFrance, first for Mega Man ZX, which is looking fucking-phenomenal.

Next is some shots of Man Man Powered Up, featuring Mega Man’s sister Roll as a playable character (wielding a broom).

- Any Digimon fans out there? Well anyone who considers themselves a Digimon-diehard is sure to be excited by these screenshots from the upcoming DS game.

- I guess that its fairly obvious by now that, my favorite system at the moment is the DS. Like many, I simply cannot wait for the New Super Mario Bros (here’s some scans btw). But I’ll also dying to get my hands on Tetris DS. While the use of classic Nintendo characters and motifs may seem a bit shameless, the new game mechanics seem nothing short of genius, and all the Nintendo bells and whistles are nothing more than icing on the cake

- Another game I’ve long been had my eye on is Brain Training, which as described before is something to help sharpen one’s the mental faculties. Seems to be fairly effective, since now hospitals are using it in for old people.

- It was also revealed this past Friday that Atlus, the folks who published Trauma Center, the DS title I’m currently addicted to at the moment, will be publishing Contact in the US (the new adventure title from Grasshopper Manufacture, the folks behind Killer 7, and which many people mistook for Mother 3 when it first appeared).

- Also from Grasshopper is that Samuri Champloo game, which as described before, mixes both fighting and music. Here’s some footage.

- For all the Dead or Alive fans out there, as well as video game pervs in general, here’s a helpful resource that has tons of panties shots of all your favorite DOA ladies.

- Any fans of Disaster Report out there? Here’s the trailer to sequel which will hopefully come out here in America.

- Every game which has its legion of fans, no matter how obscure ends up producing fan art (which Life Meter proves on occasion). And the indie sensation Cave Story is no exception to that. I’m rather fond of this Katamari-esque piece myself…

- Remember The Zombie vs. The Ambulance? Well National Console Support has provided some information on the game. I was going to get the game already, but this one line has officially sealed the deal: “The hordes of zombies are formidable and they’ll try their damndest to rock the ambulance off the road. Grit your teeth (clench them if necessary) and roll the ambulance through zombies and create a storm of what looks like chunky tomato sauce.

- And while I’m at it, I may as well get the next game in the Simple 2000 line, simply called The Pirate, which looks to be a Dynasty Warriors clone… but with pirates!!!

- Time for some posts over at Joystiq. First up, here’s one about Korean MMO players that have been ganging up and killing Chinese players due to poor manners.

- And here’s a real life performance of Parappa the Rapper.

- Onto 4 Color Rebellion, which pointed out this awesome vid featuring two people racing against each other via Super Mario Bros. You wouldn’t believe how intense it is, and the live audience makes it even all the more thrilling, though I could have done without the music.

- And here’s a couple of interesting news posts courtesy of GameSpot, including a recent games conference in which many wondered what the future holds for single player experiences. My favorite comment has to be: “Linear entertainment in single-player is to media what masturbation is to sex… It’ll always be there, but it is not the real experience.”

- GameSpot also highlighted David Jaffe’s appearance at DICE last month in which he equated the video game industry to porn, “… sort of.”

- And finally, its been reported that the Movies have been canned for the consoles. Damn.

- Onto Gaming Age and couple of interesting threads, including this one which reveals some never before seen images of the cancelled Dreamcast shooter Geist Force.

- Then there’s this stunning news of how Hiroki Kikuta, who was responsible for one of the most beloved soundtracks from the Super Nintendo era (Secret of Mana) is now doing music of hentai games. So sad.

- So it would seemed that the now dead Gizmondo had at least one neat trick up its sleeve.

- Time for some pictures, including the boxart from some Japanese DS game which I have no clue about, but which I really dig, since I love the cute as well…

- Here’s a picture of a prototype GameCube controller circa 2000, 2001 from E3 of Tokyo Game Show. Aside from having three hot dog buttons, there’s no digital pad. Interesting…. I believe the actual thing was eventually stolen.

- Another tradeshow pic, this time from the recent Toy Fare here in NYC, for some Doom plushies?

- And a screenshot from the upcoming Namco Musuem Vol. 2 for the PSP. Included is a Xevious port that’s almost too arcade perfect…

- But let’s not forget the little guys, the ones who are also moving and shaking the game space, just as much, sometime even more so than the big guys.

For example, thanks to GameQuest Direct, people are finally getting the chance to play classics that were once unattainable due to low print runs, poor circulation, and asshole collectors on eBay, such as Rez and Guitaroo Man (and trust me when I say that those eBay douchebags fucking loathe GQD with a fiery passion).

Anyway, one game that keeps getting thrown as something which deserves a reprint is Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Sega Saturn (and easily the best RPG I’ve ever played, IMHO). And one person decided to bring the issue up with them directly. And there’s quite a few other interesting tidbits as well.

- Here’s an interview, with Stephen Cakebread, the creator or the Xbox 60 Live Arcade smash hit, Geometry Wars.

- Then there’s this feature with my good friend John and his most excellent Nearly Departed.

- Unfortunately its not all good news: Squashy Software, aka Anthony Flack, has been forced to halt development on Platypus.

- Let’s turn to some wacky import titles that have zero chances of making it to our shores. First up, Kaitou Rousseau from Namco, which has been described as a “digital comic” in which the player draws the hero’s face according to the situation. Well here’s some videos of the premise in action.

Actually, I am holding out hope that Kaitou Rousseau does manage to come out here, since Namco did release Katamari Stateside as well, which I certainly did not expect…

- I believe I’ve already mentioned Cooking Mama, the new food preparation simulator for the DS. Well here’s the official homepage.

- Quick question for everyone out there reading this: have any of you played this particular PSP game? I hear its basically Sony’s answer to Animal Crossing. Just curious if its any good or not, and how import friendly it is.

- And here’s the homepage for a new PSP game called BaitoHell Master, and I have absolutely no fucking idea what it’s about.

- Since at this point, everyone is pretty sick and tired of hearing about the jackass, and he doesn’t deserve any more attention than he’s already gotten, so I’ll just say that if you want to play a video game starring a jack-assed lawyer who hates video games, know yourself out.

- Hey does anyone remember the old arcade laser disc game Space Pirates? Yeah, I’m glad I don’t either.

- Yet another blast from the past: an old Toys R Us commercial featuring a father a son running around in various Nintendo games. Yeah, I wish game commercials these days were at least half as awesome as these. And I fucking want that Samus suit.

- Time for more “wacky” video game Photoshops, this one from Fark. Its your typical, Something Awful-esque fare, but this one particular I feel is pretty neat…

- A fan of cute web games? Then you’ll either dig War Bears, or my Super Monkey Poop Fight, which may have the greatest title in the history of all video games.

- Leave it up to the fine folks who dwell at the Insert Credit boards to dig this one up: G-Type, a combination of Gradius and R-Type.

- Also learned about this one from IC: a fan made game starring Mortal Kombat’s Sub Zero and Reptile and a light-hearted adventure. Looks very cute!

- And here’s something which, I don’t know why, but I just find so goddamn awesome.

- Remember those insanely creepy renditions of Mega Man and Bomberman? Well here’s the man behind the magic: his name is Handr? and he’s got quite a few more. My favorite has to be his rendition of Dig Dug…

There’s even an interview with the guy at Game Set Watch.

- Game Set Watch also recently popped the lid on the sequel to Guitar Heroes.

… And that’s pretty much it! Is anyone still reading at this point? Anyway, this is going to be my last update, at least for the next few days, at least till around, after, or maybe even during the 24 hour game design competition later this weekend.

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