Dare to Play the Game

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I’m your host that found a little black chair of happiness this weekend. I picked up a video rocker from Target. It cost $100 ($38 after gift card) but was well worth it. It is very nice faux leather, extremely sturdy, and you can plug it in for the speakers…and subwoofer within the chair. The only problem I have with it is the weight, it really is quite heavy. So its great if you keep it to one spot, but if you have to move it, its a little bit of pain. But I like it, a lot. I also got the replacement part to fix my SNES and a barely used Genesis (Style 2) console. I will probably have to take a picture but basically I have five systems (4 hooked up to a/v, 1 to component) hooked up to my tv. NEX(Messiah NES Clone), SNES (the older model), Genesis Style 2, Sega Saturn, and of course my PS2 (slimline). It looks real nice and they all work great. BTW, I will be selling my misc videogame stuff starting on September 1st (this friday) on Ebay. So bid high and bid often (actually if you could just bid that would be great). It will probably take me until the end of September to get it all out there. Items for auction by Kedrix – starting Friday – Sept 1st, 2006.

More butterfly action this week, I found this interesting picture of a makeup girl tending to Morgan on set of G4. She really is so pretty, and Morgan ain’t bad either (such the easy setup). Seriously though, I wish I could tend to Morgan; course I’m not a female and my hair isn’t pretty but I make it up in wit & charm. Mmmmm, Morgan.

Those following videogame legislation may remember that Louisiana passed regulation last May which would impose a fine on retailers who sell Mature-rated games to minors. Federal District Court Judge James J. Brady blocked the law in June, and it has been drifting in limbo until now.

Yesterday Brady approved the videogame industry’s request for a preliminary injunction to keep the law from taking effect. This means the Judge believes the industry is likely to win the case; the injunction represents a dismissal of the law’s legality.

According to Brady’s ruling “the State’s argument overlooks a line of cases holding that videogames are protected free speech…,” which is an oversight apparently common to game-phobic politicians, as virtually all attempts have been shot down on similar ground.

Good, good. Remind me to treat James Brady to dinner someday. Yes I have the gaul to bash Louisiana on Katrina 1 year removed week, but they really have no clue to think they can impose such a law. (and I would love for the press to actually mention Mississippi when they mention all of this Katrina rememberance…they suffered a whole lot more, but Mississippi’s not cool enough I guess). Anyhow, I never agreed with the idea of fining retailers who sell Mature related games to Minors, they aren’t policemen, and heck most of them make mininum wage. It isn’t their job, its the parents jobs to at least look over the fact that their kid is playing GTA or any other objectionable game. Also, what is good for one kid might not be good for another. I was very grown-up for my age; I saw and understood R rated movies when I was 10; but knew right from wrong. Unfortunatley a lot of kids these days do not.

Rayman Exclusive to Wii Until May 2007?
Other consoles may have to wait a bit for those Raving Rabbids.

While Rayman Raving Rabbids is slated to arrive on the Wii, PS2, PC, Xbox, and Xbox 360 this holiday season, Ubisoft has been quite open in saying that the title is being designed from the ground up for the Wii. Now comes news from Spanish gaming site MeriStation that Rayman’s party game will be exclusive to Nintendo’s new console until May 2007.

The site claims to have confirmed the news with Ubisoft at the Leipzig Games Convention last week. Ubisoft would only tell us that the title is currently scheduled for current and next-gen release holiday 2006. But the fact that development has been focused on the Wii version could mean a timely port would be difficult, if not impossible.

Now while Rayman is nothing to jump at (I played the first couple of Rayman games and they are standard platform fare), it does mark something significant. That somebody is producing a game primarily for the WII. People like the innovation, people like the difference. I started looking at my collection and found something interesting. I have a NES and SNES,so that’s 8/16 bit. My Sega primary stuff is the Genesis/Saturn (I do have a SMS, but I hardly mess with it). So that’s 16/32 bit. And my Sony is PS1/PS2. (32 bit/current gen). If you follow that schematic, that means I’m due to change. To X-Box 360 or WII, I don’t know but unless PS3 comes down about $200 from what I’m hearing, it definantely won’t be Sony.

Beat em up, beat em up…this series next to the Double Dragons had to be my favorite beat em up series of all time. This was the billed rival to Final Fight, but was more complex and controversial by the end of its trilogy run. The series featured Axel, Adam, Blaze, Max, Eddie & Dr. Zan among several other secret characters (from Streets of Rage 3) fighting off various minions of Mr. X, including himself. It had many innovate and cool attacks along with interesting special moves to delight its fans. It was controversial in a few ways, the first being the differences between Streets of Rage 3 and its japanese counterpart (Bare Knuckle III). The playable characters were in different gender neutral colors in the American version while they were more stereotypical gender specific colors for the Megadrive version. Also one playable character and mini-boss, Ash (a very stereotypical homosexual character) was removed from the US version. (Though according to counts, he is still accesible via Game Genie code). However, when SOR3 includes a Kangaroo, Mr X’s(the main villian) right-hand man (Shiva), and a doctor cyborg as playable characters, a openly gay biker isn’t exactly out of place. As a result, this trio of games won’t be in the upcoming Sega Genesis collection for PS2/PSP. I think its honestly a shame, but makes those carts all that more appealing. (I really need a copy of 3 (jap or american) and no I don’t want a rom! :))

The retro game this week is tied to a tiny story. This game has been on just about every system, primarily in the 8 and 16 bit family. It is a cute shooter, with a very weird ship that blasts even weirder and vibrant enemies. This game was significant in that you could shoot or fly in either left or right direction, something that past shooters to this point had a habit of being either just vertical pointing north or horizontal towards the right. The colorful time-waster was actually rather addicitive and if nothing more just fun to look at for all ages. Ahh, the story (more info in mutterings), I was at a Gamestop this weekend buying a few games. I picked up Fantasy Zone (nes version), and purchased that along with 5 others. The guy looked at that game (uncultured gaming hacks), and said “What kinda game is that?” (in a tone best described as a sneer) To which I just replied, “its an old shooter”. I wanted to give him a history lesson but I didn’t. I also wanted to do more research and knew this would be good for the column. A remastered version of Fantasy Zone is also available in the Sega Classics collection for PS2.

PS2

Dance Factory
Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories
One Piece Grand Adventure
World Championship Poker: All in
Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra
Pro Stroke Golf: World Tour 2007

PSP

50 Cent: Bulletproof
Super Monkey Ball Adventure (holdover from previous week)
Ultimate Ghosts n Goblins
World Championship Poker: All in
Rapala Trophies (holdover from previous week)

XBOX 360

Bomberman Act: Zero
Enchanted Arms

XBox

Pro Stroke Golf: World Tour 2007

Gamecube

One Piece Grand Adventure

DS

Star Fox Command
Madagascar / Shrek Superslam Bundle

GBA

Harlem Globetrotters World Tour
Shrek 2 / Madagascar Operation Penguin Bundle
Yu-Gi-Oh! Double Pack 2 (holdover from previous week)
Rock’em Sock’em Robots

Fairly solid release week especially if you own something from Sony. Dance Factory is a DDR clone with a twist, apparently it will setup a dance routine based on any audio cd. So now you can dance to any cd by Prince, Michael Bolton, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, etc. World Championship Poker gets its third title with the cute saying of “All In” as the subtitle. (4th game will probably be “On the River”). We need a poker game based off the current PPT (I like the whole quarter idea) and have 50+ real pros, then I’d pick that up in a heartbeat. I find it interesting that One Piece Grand Adventure comes out the week after I bought the original PS title at our local Gamestop (One Piece Mansion). I would say hold off on Ultimate Ghosts n Goblins for PSP even if you love retro gaming until it gets a few reviews. Outside of that, the X-Box 360 titles should be also fairly interesting as Enchanted Arms is solid RPG fare and I haven’t seen a Bomberman game that I don’t like. (though the ones on Turbo Graphix are still the best).

Well, as alluded to in the Fantasy Zone retroness this week, I visited our local gamestop this weekend. I walked out with 6 games for under $15. 4 NES games, 1 PS1 game, and 1 GB Original title. All NES games were 75% off which made them all a dollar or two. I grabbed Fantasy Zone, Willow, Faxanadu, & Maniac Mansion. The PS1 game was One Piece Mansion in perfect condition, and the GB game was Castlevania: Adventure; a fine game in its own right. I even was able to use my EB Gamers Edge card and get 10% additional off. They honestly had a few rare NES games as well, but it was like the weird Blackjack and Mission Impossible II game nobody saw (or wanted to play). I have also started playing Wild Arms 4, which is pretty fun so far and should see a full review in a week or two. Tata for now, and enjoy life.

As Always,
Kedrix of Aldrianian
(*The Forgotten One*)