AndrewTS

Chuck Norris does not bleed red, because red is the color of communism. Chuck Norris has had only one failure in his entire life: trying to teach Bizarre of D-12 how to rap. "Roundhouse Kick" is the currency Chuck Norris uses when he needs to buy shit. Chuck Norris once shaved his beard with a rusty butterknife just to prove how much of a man he is. Nobody has seen him beardless however because it immediately grew back in. From the beard hairs spawned wolverines. G.I. Joe was originally titled: G.I. Chuck Norris, but Hasbro thought that the doll was too manly and would scare small children. They kept the Kung-fu grip.

That is a "cheap" one. I'd go for a used one on Half.com, myself.

Since nearly everything else has been mentioned, I'll throw in: Pikmin 1 & 2 Ultimate Muscle (the one on PS2 sucks)--I had way more fun with UM than either Def Jam. Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (decent 1P, fabulous if you have more) Billy Hatcher was definitely worth the 8 bucks I paid for it.

Depends on the brand and the cartridge, but I've used a couple for my Compaq and they worked well if you're careful.

Ape Escape 3 is coming to the US at last! ... I think so, at least. Gamestop has some dummy boxes for AE3, listed with SCEA as an apparent publisher and 2006 apparent for release, but none of the GS clerks I asked in any stores have found a release date in the computer, and I haven't seen an official announcement for its release. However, dummy box still listed PS2 for the system to be released and only PS2, so doesn't seem to be a port to PSP.

http://www.classicgaming.com/castlevania/storyline.html That's about as good as you'll get. Iga has struck Circle of the Moon, Legends, and both N64 games from canon, contributing to the opinion among many of his detractors that he's an arrogant ass. I have a couple friends that really liked Lament, despite its flaws, and they say it's no contest--this one is way better. The only thing I feel may be inferior is the camera due to occasional bugs with using the lock on (Z-targeting it ain't). Hector's way more versatile than Leon was. You also get to play as Trevor after beating the game (and he has unique cutscenes too!). However, its up against some stiff competition in the genre already, like God of War.

Cliffs I wasn't as annoyed with because I'd seem those before (the GG Sonics had its share of areas like that), but the impossible-to-avoid enemies and spikes was the bigger gripe with the previous Advance titles.

Oh, wanted to bring special attention to this part: Anybody who has ever played one of the Advance games knows *exactly* what they mean--as those levels seemed riddled with areas like that which were annoying as heck.

A major video game franchise gets a portable game released close to a 3D console version, and the portable one outclasses it? Crazy! (And yes, I'm assuming Shadow will be junk). However, looks like finally somebody got around to making a 2D Sonic game that *feels* right, like the Genesis ones: Full text here

My first CV was Bloodlines, so that probably has something to do with my liking it so much, but it's still a great game. SCV4 is very cool as well, though. It added a lot to the series, with the multi-direction whipping, great graphics, special effects like the mode 7, swinging from platform to platform with the whip, and it wasn't as crazy hard as CV1 or as tedious as 2. I bought Curse of Darkness and it's really growing on me. Its flaws are many and are well documented, but so far I've been building up a nice little arsenal of weapons, have a few Innocent Devil companies that are fun to use, hacked a bunch of enemies up (and robbed them, stocking up for gold), and fought...Wyvern... Only one chance to steal from it (to get a relatively worthless item, but hey, I got it!)--when its head gets stuck on the ground, you get a chanch to jump on its back...when you do it, flies hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh up into the air, and have to wait for the proper chance to strike. Lots of hacking, skillful dodging of tail swipes and flame spews, and help from my molten rock ID (who I named Metlar) later, and I managed to cut him down permanently. I still haven't fought Trevor, either, so looking forward to that as well. It's a step in the right direction, but the decision to replace a well-placed fixed camera (a la DMC) with a problematic 3rd person camera is a bit annoying. Main gripe is that its still very weak on platforming at this point. If you're a total CV geek--buy it, you'll love it. If not, rent first. I got a sampler CD too with it! Oh, have I adequately pounded it into people's heads that LEGACY OF DARKNESS ON N64 IS ACTUALLY A GOOD GAME?! GIVE IT A CHANCE!!

Silly, Donkey Kong Country 2 (GBA I'm assuming) is out already.

I was joking, since, you know, it's a bad port of a decent game and is two buttons shy. However, it would be funny to see a Capcom 2D fighter win it--but not as funny if they nominated CFE and it won.

Show over. This piece of Garbage is worthless. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Everybody vote for Darkstalkers Chronicles!

What was worse than that was announcing it at the top of the show. It's very possible casuals who own a PS2 for Madden and GTA would vote it over everything else. However, you don't announce GotY at the beginning of the show. You don't watch the Oscars and then, 2 seconds into the show, see some moronic guest speaker yell "BEST PICTURE IS RAAAAAAAY!!! JAMIE FOXX YOU MAH NIGGAH!" I still don't know what "most addictive game fueled by Dew" is supposed to mean.

Thanks Matt Barron <{POST_SNAPBACK}> What's with pop stars and spelling their names wrong?

I have a friend who owns Crimson Sea 1 and 2. Never really recommended them to me, but know he likes them. I'll probably pick up Otogi and put them away in my cabinet for when I actually get an X-Box (which will either be the 1st one if the price drops a little more, or a 360 if/when they making it 100% backward compatible). I think you may find Prime more exceptional, however.

Otogi looks like one of those games people should have been recommending to me when I asked for good X-Box games, instead of overrated junk that everyone mentions. The flow is pretty good in the Primes, but for obvious reasons, when facing multiple enemies you often need to face them in a larger/round battleground.

It's that time yet again, when the self-proclaimed "first network for men" pieces together their farce of an awards show. You can go to the main page of http://www.spiketv.com and then temporarily allow popups to bring up their utter nightmare of a voting page. KISS applies, guys. Nominees for Game of the Year are FEAR, World of Warcraft (which came out in late 2004...but that was right about the time the last show was out anyway), Resident Evil 4, God of War and Call of Duty 2. Yes, no Madden. I'm shocked too. 50 cent's game is nominated for best Action game. WTF?! There's now individual and team sports categories...and Winning Eleven is nominated for team sports. Hm... Guitar Hero is up for Best Soundtrack. We Love Katamari up for Best Original Score. Shaolin Monks nominated for "Best Fighting Game?" Fight Night R2 is there too. Perfect Dark Zero up for best FPS...even though no one owns a full version now. Best Heldheld game is missing Dawn of Sorrow. GTA is included because it's GTA, not because it's any good. Best PC game gets its own category, but two of the nominees are up for GotY. Best RPG includes only Western made games.

Well, how do you mean "flow?"

Extremely well. I generally hate FPSers. Aiming is usually a pain, and I rarely find it intriguing to view the world through the eyes of some poor stiff who is going to get jumped by 5+ guys and gunned down like a pig. In the Primes, it's not really a FPSer at all. It's a bonafide Metroid--a platformer where you happen to shoot stuff. There are plenty of baddies and bosses, but exploration and platform jumping are focused heavily upon. You have an excellent targeting system (featuring an auto-aiming reticle that's easy to switch to other enemies), a variety of beams/missiles, visors, the double-jump for navigating rougher terrain, and a well-designed map system that lets you easily tell what areas need explored and which areas need visited (you get hints at the next area you need to check out, usually by alerting you of a boss waiting for you). The pacing and level design are very well done, so that even if you never played a FPS before, you should pick everything up with ease. In fact, one criticism is that it's so user-friendly that people accustomed to traditional FPSers may not like the controls, but I've not met anyone who felt that way. Graphics are steller, the music is a fantastic mix of new and old, controls are intuitive and responsive, and Prime 1 (which is like 5 bucks these days) has one of the greatest end boss fights ever. I can't really recommend it highly enough. Prime 2 is a great game although some people aren't as thrilled with it since it isn't such a big jump over Prime 1, but it's still a great game. It directly follows up Prime 1, though, so maybe you want to pick up Prime first, then decide from there. However, just to be fair--the gripes: Backtracking can sometimes be tedious (but it is a Metroid--and you travel pretty quickly for a 3D game, though. Plus there's elevators and such). Getting the better secrets requires you to scan darn near everything. If you love exploring and taking your time, it's not such a big deal, but it hurts anyone who wants to try to rush through the game with a good time, and can get a little tedious.

Metroid Prime 2 is now 20 bucks at Wal-Mart. And it also supports prog scan.

I don't see a positive there.

Yeah, you can see the prog scan logo on the BACK OF THE BOX of Metroid Prime, etc. Get a clue, Matt.

A rather in-depth preview here: http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3145525&did=1

My fave is VI. I didn't play I, 2, or 3. IV was good, VII is fine but I couldn't care less about it now. VIII, X, and X-2 I played enough to realize I felt "meh" about it. I like FFIX but the PlayOnline crap was annoying. FFXI doesn't really count as mentioned, but I never played it anyway. Tactics Advance is one of the worst games I've ever played. V is a footnote and little more. I played maybe 30 hours of it before my memory card accidentally was wiped out, and I can't remember anything about the game except for the job system.