AndrewTS

Yeah, it's good, but it's not fantastic like Mario platformers usually are. I think the 1up review was most accurate about it. EDIT: YEAH! Just got World 4. Loving it so far, although I disagree with the "game doesn't really get harder" thing. Maybe it isn't a major increase in difficulty, but I had some rather annoying sections to deal with later in the game--like the final castle on World 3 (the rising platform, spiked balls dropping in), and any of the snow/ice levels until you get the level memorized. Digging the wall kick--has saved my bacon a few times.

Very cool little secrets/easter eggs. Thanks. And yeah, I noticed on the map where the path led, but wasn't sure how I'd unlock it. Which bosses is it you have to beat with mini mario?

No, but you can always knock Lakitu off of his cloud and take control of it in certain levels. Loving this game so far. I didn't realize it had transports to other levels (i.e. the pipes in SMB or the Magic Flute in SMB3) until I unlocked one of the Cannon Stages and it shot me all the way to Level 5. Does anything care for the blue tutle shell? So far I've mostly run into into it on water levels, where it's friggin useless except for an extra hit. Which world are you up to? Cause I've been to World 3 and I found a perfect use for the Blue Shell in Underwater Levels. It allows you to swim underwater faster which is perfect for some of the higher pressure underwater siuations. Really, the Blue Turtle Shell in Theory is a powerful weapon, as it allows you to be a rolling weapon throughout a whole stage in theory. However if you're not able to control such a force, you're better off not using it. I can access world 1,2,3 and 5. I didn't really find any significant speed advantage to using the blue turtle shell underwater--at least not one worth giving up Fire Mario. However, I've had it maybe a total of 2 minutes, since I've mostly run into it underwater anyway.

PS2? LoL no. It's not on Xbox, so no. The PS2 never had and never will have a good online fighter.

Nearly everyone else it at the Acceptance stage. You will be sooner or later too, Deon.

You still can. Go to apple.com/store, and Apple Refurbished under Hot Deals. They come with a 1 year factory warranty still (with the option for the APP if you want, as usual).

What is the Brotherhood actually called in here? Aside from "Brotherhood of Mutants," most of the variations sound pretty stupid. Like, "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants." The old cartoon that never went beyond the pilot (with Kitty and the Aussie Wolverine) called them the "Brotherhood of Mutant Terrorists," which I thought was kind of funny. It's pretty bad overall.

Nope. You're thinking of the older iMacs. Apple doesn't even sell any models with CRT monitors anymore (of course you could use one on a Power Mac or Mac Mini if you wished). The intels aren't going to be all they're cracked up to be for a while, because most mac software (and 3rd party software especially) isn't yet switched over to be universal binaries yet. For now, most major PowerPC-only apps will run, but only in an emulation environment called Rosetta. Rosetta sucks. Like, almost Virtual PC sucks. And since the architecture is new and unrefined as of yet, there's a large possibility of HW issues cropping up on it until the bugs are all worked out.

No, but you can always knock Lakitu off of his cloud and take control of it in certain levels. Loving this game so far. I didn't realize it had transports to other levels (i.e. the pipes in SMB or the Magic Flute in SMB3) until I unlocked one of the Cannon Stages and it shot me all the way to Level 5. It's not quite flight either, but what about the boost flowers? Hey, I found the cannon to 5, too! Yeah, to uncover parts of the map, you must find alternate goals. IIRC, to get to that cannon, you had to use the flower launchpad to twirl high up into air, land on that koopa at the edge of the lake, and use the boost to reach that pipe tucked up over the "regular" pipe to the exit flag. I'm somewhat disappointed and surprised at the lack of "classic" tunes, especially since I've heard about a billion versions of "Vampire Killer" in Konami's more recent CV games. I think the love of flying in the Mario games is universal. The combination of wing cap + cannon in SM64 is one of the greatest gaming moments of all time, since you can literally dive down at insane angles, practically landing on goombas heads, and then pull up, shooting back up in the sky. "YAHOO!" Does anything care for the blue tutle shell? So far I've mostly run into into it on water levels, where it's friggin useless except for an extra hit. I hate the shark. They move too swiftly for me to effectively combat in water, and they don't even look to be in the right game. They don't fit the art style at all.

"The PS2 sucks and can't do 2D fighters well" is not preference. "I prefer playing (x and y fighters) on Saturn/Dreamcast" is. To me, the Saturn control pad (the smaller, later version, not the beastly thing that shipped with the US one originally) is just better for 2D fighters than the Saturn pad, because the solid thumbpad, 6 button layout, etc. Hardcore fighting gamers would tell me "OMG y, use a joystick!," but I'm terrible with a joystick. Doing those motions by rolling my thumb on a pad? AOK. Twirling a stick around and trying to slap the appropriate buttons? You may as well put me in a pair of boxing gloves. I just suck with them.

Let's hear it for the... "Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaaunt ennn-emm-y craaaaaaab..."

Yeah, both versions of SFAnnivCollection are that way, but it's more noticeable and annoying on Hyper.

Yeah, I learned too late about the CC price, but ah well, I got it. I got it at my EB. They asked me if I had preordered it and I was like "no...I didn't think I'd have to." Nearly all their copies were for preorders, but they did have extras, thankfully.

The real winner in this will be IBM. PS3 and Wii are both PowerPC based. So they may have lost Apple, but between Sony and Nintendo, that's a helluva lot of money to be made.

It's out, I've got it, it's really, really damn good. What not to expect: The Feather, Tanooki Suit, Hammer Suit, and any other powerups introduced in SMB3 and onward. We've got the red mushroom, 1up mushroom, tiny mushroom, giant mushroom, fire flower, invincibility star, and blue shell (gives you a shell that allows you to attack by running, ducking and spinning like a koopa). What to expect: SMB/3 play mechanics (with a SMB3-ish overworld), 3 coins to collect per level (which can unlock other paths on the overworld), and basically getting your BUTT to the end and grabbing the flag before time runs out. There are midpoint flags, though. You can save every now and then, ie after using your coins on an obstacle or beating a boss. I just completed World 1, where King Koopa stomped out in all his glory--and went down in a similar method as in SMB1--hit a switch and the bridge collapses, dropping him in lava. A side effect of this game's release is that the NES Classics version of SMB is *gone* from retail stores, including Gamestops and EBs everywhere that I've seen. Since the NES Classics came out, nearly all of them have dropped down to $9.99 and probably plenty of people snatched it up to practice.

Source: the horse's mouth. Weird that Nintendo is going with PowerPC, especially since even Apple has switched to Intel. No matter... Oh, and found this on Gamers Daily. It's old, but it is their "confirmed" list of games that are in development for Wii: Most of these were confirmed at E3, but...Kid Icarus? Hm...well, he was in SSBB....

"being based on history,the stages of the game will also be based on famous battles that actually took place in japan. So here's this enemy crab..." "RIIIIIIIIIDGE RAAAAAAACER!!"

Considering that Sony is going to be in the hole with every PS3 they sell, and each Wii is going to turn a profit--your math is a little off.

That's very true. I played strangers at an arcade outside of town on SC2, and just basic use of 8WR and GIs were freaking this one guy out. I barely play any new fighters, but it was really sad. And I admit I know jack crap about most of the new fighters released in the last 4 years. Like, double perfect with Seung Mina (I think) and I can barely remember most of her moves.

This isn't official confirmation, though, just speculation. Obvious speculation, at that. I'm surprised there's not a 2nd sku bundled with a game, though. For those wondering, that $200 will be for the system, 1 wiimote, and the nunchuku attachment.

No idea. That only happens with me if it is the last copy of something, and typically I don't care in that case. The guys at my local EB are very cool. I get free stuff all the time from them, they're very helpful, and only try to sell you extra crap if you're interested. Like, they'll ask people that clearly haven't been there before, and if they don't bite, they'll shut up. If a magazine is so-and-so old, they can't actually sell it at either EB or Gamestop. This is an easy way to gauge if the store is run by pricks: try to buy it. At my local EB, and a few fairly close Gamestops, they gave it to me and gave a mag to a friend, since they're technically supposed to throw it out.One Gamestop jerk fed my friend some thing about "having to send it back" to the the publisher. What? The issue in question was the Nintendo Power with Resident Evil DS on the cover. My friend got it for free last week, and I just nabbed one at another Gamestop. From the good Gamestops/EBs, a friend and I nabbed several old mags, some game boxes for older games they had to throw out otherwise, and the pride of my friend's gaming swag--the Kingdom Hearts 2 display standee. He has it in his basement now next to his huge-ass TV.

In short, the Powerbook is the 'professional' model, geared more towards business users, while the iBook is the 'consumer' model, geared more towards regular users. Specs for comparison here: http://support.apple.com/specs/ MacBook Pro is the intel-based replacement for Powerbook, while the iBook will eventually be replaced with, well, MacBook I guess.

Good--they went Batman TAS style on them with 4 1-sided discs. The half-ass approach with S:TAS (where one disc is double-sided and ridiculously prone to scratches) annoyed me. EDIT: Season 2? Nuts. I guess I need to find Season 1 then. I didn't know it was out.

Sony's spokesman for PS4: There are plenty of science-y folk who could probably explain what the hell Sony intends, but it doesn't really fit in with Neo Geo at all, from what I can tell. Here's a wiki on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_dimension The 4th dimension in that sense is apparently supposed to refer to the spacial 4th, Tetraspace, and not Time. Although plenty of games which play with that element rawk (neo POPs, for instance).

OTOH--PS3 price announcement? Shocked silence. BTW... http://www.buyawhiteguyasubscriptiontoebony.org/media.jpg Making dinner analogies...4D...where have I heard that before?