Sometime last week while I was bed ridden and sick to my stomach, I found myself on an extremely high level of nerdiness. I found myself playing Earthbound on my Macbook Air using a PS3 controller. If you’re keeping score, that’s a Nintendo game on an Apple laptop using a Sony controller. What’s even geekier is that I had the presence of mind to realize that at that very moment, I was the antithesis of Microsoft. The only thing that was left is if the foot massager I was using ran some obscure version of Linux.
Honestly don’t give a crap about that sort of thing. I don’t care if people use Macs or PC’s or play games on their 360 or PS3′s or Wii’s, I just don’t give two shits. But a snap shot picture of me in my room that day, all evidence pointed to me as a Microsoft hater which I am not. Seriously though, I don’t care what kind of operating system someones toaster oven uses and if I heard two people arguing about why brand x is better than brand y I know I would come close to stabbing both idiots in the throat to prevent their fanboy genes from spreading to infect future generations. I’m completely indifferent to Microsoft.
The only thing about them that I hate is Steve Ballmer. Man, what an asshole douche.
This picture makes me cry tears of pure uncut joy. I’m at a loss for words, so read up about it on Kotaku or wherever you choose to get your video gaming news from. I think only 200 are to be made available through the Capcom online store. So if you are one of the few to be lucky enough to snag one, just know you’ll be a marked man among retro gamers worldwide. I just can’t type right now from all the wiping away of happy tears. *sniff*
Side Note: The NES Cart is just a replica and doesn’t really work in your Nintendo system.
“Metroidvania” is a term I feel more gamers should be aware of. Here Jeremy Parish, Scott Sharkey and Chris Kohler of 1up and Retronauts fame discuss a sub genre that is pretty much obsolete in our current state of gaming. “Metroidvania” is basically a free roaming, back tracking 2D game where your exploration relied on obtaining certain items which allowed you to continue to unlock and explore new areas. What’s funny is that the first Castlevania had definite level divisions with no back tracking whatsoever. That’s easily overlooked considering Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is probably THE pinnacle of all 2D “Metroidvania” games. It’s the gold standard in which all other games in this odd sub genre are compared to.
A totally interesting yet completely hilarious podcast. It made me realize how important and revolutionary both the Metroid and Castlevania series are and have a new found appreciation for them.
Wow, look at these screens. Street Fighter II in HD is so so pretty. Since this is online, there’s sure to be some lag but besides that, it looks as if the animation runs smooth as silk. I totally prefer this graphic style over the new SF IV style. This title is for the Xbox 360 Live service which sucks for me since I don’t plan on getting one. I’m crossing my fingers for this to make its way onto the Playstation Network.
Head over to Kotaku for more info and a bunch more screens
For the holidays a friend of mine knew that I had recently bought up some old video game consoles but didn’t have any games for them. So she got me like a bunch of random games just so I had something to play. To my surprise, among them was a copy of Fatal Fury.
Now I remember as a kid renting this several times, playing and loving the hell out of it. I was expecting the same rush of excitement when I fired this game up, sadly it’s another game that doesn’t hold up well against time. I remember being pretty good at it but now I can’t even get past the second fucking fighter! It’s no where near the level of difficulty as Art of Fighting(no other fighting game in history is) but still when I play this, it’s as if it laughs at me while it hands me my ass with ease.
Man, I hope World Heroes and Samurai Showdown haven’t aged so horribly like AoF and Fatal Fury has. Maybe I shouldn’t even revisit them again, so I can preserve my fond SNK fighting game childhood memories.
Gamecrazy had some more Snes games out for sale and among the multiple copies of Madden, NBA Live and other generic sports games of the 16-bit era, I found a decent game in Art of Fighting. Now back in the day SNK made and published some awesome fighting games like Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, King of Monsters, World Heroes and my personal favorite, Samurai Showdown. Art of Fighting was the worst of the bunch. Why? Cause it’s so fucking tough!
Why is this game so hard? I have no idea, but this is quite possibly the hardest fighting game ever created. I can’t even get past the first stage! It doesn’t matter who my opponent is, they fight like it was M. Bison in Street Fighter II on Level 7 difficulty, but HARDER! Ugh. I think a long time ago I once made it to the second fighter and it was the happiest moment of my life. I think the arcade machine had a glitch or something cause normally the chances of me getting to the second fighter in Art of Fighting is like winning a progressive slot machine in Vegas. I bow to anyone who has mastered this game.
Ahhhhh gotta love 16-bit gaming. 2D top down/side scrolling shooters are easily one of my favorite video game genres. There’s something about side scrolling shooters that make me happy. It’s incredibly hard as I can barely get past four areas in the game. Picked this Capcom gem up for $4.00 in a used Snes bin at Gamecrazy a few weeks ago. It is for the most part based on the anime Area 88 as it has the same characters and locations but the original story is pretty much thrown out the window.
