- Not too much to report from this past weekend; in Jersey MK & I did some light shopping, went bowling (I think each of us played our best games ever), cooked on the grill, and watched the very awesome Office Space on DVD (MK is now adamant about watching her big backlog of movies before going out and buying anymore…. something which I should seriously do the same with in regards to games). I would have probably enjoyed myself a whole lot more if not for the monster stomach ache I myself created with I foolishly ordered a huge of nachos plus a chocolate milkshake 2 in the morning at a diner.
Also the night before I had this totally awesome dream where I some show that was basically that crappy Ashton Kutcher show Punk’d but with Sylvester Stallone as the host. Plus all the victims were celebrity puppets like Alf and Yoda. One segment had Yoda going to auto shop to get this car looked at, but he was set up with a real idiot car mechanic, so when Yoda got frustrated and went underneath to take a look at the problem himself, the car lowered and he got pinned. And since all that moving with your mind Jedi-mindtrick stuff is all movie magical, Yoda was totally stuck and seriously pissed, and just the sight of that plus Sly jumping up and down in the background while laughing hysterically was pretty damn awesome.
- MK was also just pissed as I was by Fox’s recent decision to crap the original design for the Simpsons season 6 box which was going to look like all the other editions and instead go with this monstrosity:
Fox insists that it will fit alongside the other sets with no problems, but what about the huge stupid top of Homer’s head? And what the fuck are they going to do with the rest of the seasons? After Bart, Lisa, and the rest of the family, then what? I know Apu has his fans but… And why couldn’t they wait to do this type of gimmicking around season 9 or 10 when the show started to go downhill. Fuck.
But hey, at least there has some good DVD news in the past week: there’s going to be a Director’s Label series 2! This time around the featured video directors is Anton Corbin, Jonathan Glazer, Mark Romanek, and Stephane Sednaoui. Fuckin’ A! I’m especially excited about the Corbin collection, but I’ll be getting them all of course. And hopefully we’ll see even more collections later down the road, such as for Matt Mahurin, Josh Taft, and Peter Care.
Plus I also recently found out that Hey Mikey is getting a domestic release! So now everyone in America can enjoy the adventures of Mikey Fuccon, who besides being a total wiener, also happens to be a mannequin.
- I also picked up a game while in Jersey (of course). I managed to snag Shadow of Destiny, an extremely rare first-gen game for the PS2 from Konami. You play some guy who’s murdered and you have to go back in time over and over again to find out who did it, why, and to stop it from happening.
The best part about game shopping in Jersey is that there’s tons of ultra rare, hard to find games to be found all over the place. This time it was a Kay Bees Toy near MK’s house. There was actually multiple copies, but I figured I’d be a nice guy and tell the really cool kid working there that he should buy the guy since it goes for almost a hundred dollars on eBay. Some teenager working at a toy store could certainly use the money more than me.
- Also, right before I headed for Jersey, my copies of Sega Classics Collection and Border Down arrived in the mail. Played a bit of both last night… and it sure is nice to finally play a near arcade quality port of Virtau Racing at home (and about damn time). Though now that I’ve played it, I can see why there’s so much confusion as to what it’s based upon, the arcade or the 32X version; its a weird amalgamation of both. Plus, I love finally hearing original arcade music, the sound of the tires skidding is a bit excessive in my opinion (though perhaps true to its arcade roots, I’m not certain). Anyway, its the best home conversion of the game, besides the still brilliant Genesis version.
And Border Down is pretty cool thus far. I’ve been on a real shooter quick as of late, hence why I’m also looking at picking up Chaos Field (I was going to wait for the GameCube port but I found a not so expensive copy for the Dreamcast that’s tempting). I should ask Brian if Senko no Ronde is still on track for a DC release.
I also wonder if Brian caught the news on insert credit regarding the homemade Ikaruga shirts, which was announced over a year ago I think, but despite my best efforts, I was not able to get ahold of one (I honestly didn’t think they even came out since info was so scarce). Well, they will finally be made available via pre-order.
- Well I guess I’m finally caught up with all the gaming news that I’ve missed over the past few weeks. Perhaps the most interesting under the radar, at least for me, is the news that Nana On Sha, the studio helmed by Masaya Matsura and which is behind such games as PaRappa the Rapper and Vib Ribbon, is doing the DS Tamagotchi game. Many don’t know this yet, but Tamagochis is enjoying a massive resurgence in popularity right now, and many have predicted that such a game will give Nintendo the definitive lead over Sony’s PSP in their homeland (where both is pretty much in a neck-and-neck race).
BTW, hope no one minds the plug, but I suggest for any PaRappa fans out there to check out my interview with Rodney Greenblat on Gamasutra which (finally) came out last week.
- So here’s another reason why I’m glad I don’t have cable right now: that crappy music vids with game characters show, Video Mods, is back on the air with a second season. Here’s a few pics from a recent episode with the guys from Episode 3 game “rocking out”. Great. A shitty characters from a shitty game based on a shitty movie in a shitty show performing (presumably) shitty music.
- Here’s another old random pic, this one from the World Hobby Fair. I want that statue of the King of Cosmos in my house.
- And here’s the PS2 version of the chain-saw controller for the PS2 version of Resident Evil 4.
- Just found out that the DS version of Animal Crossing won’t have old NES games as unlockables. What? I was actually hoping that old Game Boy games would be the thing this time around; makes sense if you think about it, especially since you can’t play old GB games on the DS.
- And here’s another DS game to keep an eye out for: its Ouendan and its by the makers of Gitaroo Man. Basically, you’re part of a support group that goes out looking for folks in trouble, then cheer them on to help them overcome their obstacles. Yup, it’s a cheerleading game. You can check out the trailer here, plus check out scans from the latest Famitu here and here.
- This one if for Jason: crappy movies based on games isn’t exactly unique these days, but here one that’s not from Uwe Bolle. It’s a flick from last year called Gamebox and it stars the girl formerly known as Topanga from Boy Meets World. Plus it has a cameo by… Yakov Smirnoff? Cue obligatory “”In Soviet Russia, game plays you!” quote.
- Remember those Mario bottle-caps from Pepsi? Well now you can own everyone of them.
- Oh and here’s a really dumb music video featuring remixed Super Mario music.
Hey at least its better than that gay as hell video featuring those dumb white kids doing accapella version of old Nintendo tunes from a short whiles back that everyone went gay over; if you want to see for yourself, go find it yourself, I find it that stupid. Maybe a seeing two Korean salsa dancers dressed as Street Fighter characters might make you happy
- Here’s something much better: someone made a totally awesome remix from an old Sesame Street game for the NES, and here it is via web-cartoon form. Apologies in advance for getting the song stuck in your head for the next week or so.
- And for anyone familiar with SNL, this needs no explanation.
- Finally, remember how Steve Flack said that Entertainment Weekly was lifting content from my site? Well another person has said the same thing, but in regards to FHM. Well once again, its obviously because they have someone on staff who spends as much time looking for crap online as I do. Plus the idea of someone on their mag reading my site is not too far-fetched this time around so I do know a guy who works on the magazine (the same dude that’s hooked me up with the complimentary subscription that I currently enjoy… this month’s story on how to deal with a robot uprising is pretty neat btw). Though I have noticed a the curious use of the world “firecrotch” in the latest EGM as well. Hmmm…
