AndrewTS

I'm sorry, Spike fans - but the guy shouldn't legitimately be put over anyone. ANYONE. He's probably the one male wrestler in the company who I wouldn't have a problem with them having job to Jacqueline. I wouldn't have minded Spike beating Zack Gowen.

I'm right there with you. I want to see Kenzo's match, just for my own curiosity. But then I'm changing the channel. Yeah. The match will hopefully either be surprisingly good or laughably bad. Plus, I wonder what sort of gimmick, if any, they'll give him. Probably in 6 months he'll be in OVW and his wife will be having PPV bra and panties matches with Torrie. *remembers it's Smackdown* Oh, in 4 months he'll be in the main event challenging for Eddy's title while his wife is having PPV bra and panties matches with Torrie. Welcome to Smackdown, where, with one notable exception, we push all the wrong people! It's very telling that I'm begging for Big Show to come back and be pushed back into the main event ASAP.

It's hard to take a hippie tough guy seriously, but in Sonic Adventure they were trying to push new stars, and he didn't get any bigger a push than anyone else. Plus the gem-hunting storyline wasn't very intriguing. Thankfully they buried Big The Cat for a while after his ill-fated SA push, but when SA2 came out, they were more concerned about the new talent Shadow than utilizing mainstays like Knuckles. Plus, it doesn't help his case that Rogue has the same basic talents, but also has gignormous breasts. =P It would have been fine if she had stayed heel, but she's really a face. Knuckles has had way too many heel turns already, so he couldn't take over that role. Getting "tricked" so many times just has made him look like a big fat idiot. Unfortunately, I think they haven't been pushing Sonic hard enough lately, and now the roster is just swelling to overflowing. Why'd they bother re-signing the Chaotix crew? I haven't heard much about the N-Gage indy, although it seems they're desperately trying to sign any hasbeens they can to try to draw interest. They've tried some re-setting and repackaging, but new word on actual "new" talent.

I thought it was decent enough, but the "fake" Samus stuff killed it for me. They must have been desperate for storylines if they needed to rip off ideas from WCW circa 1996. I actually didn't have a problem with that. I thought that was a well-built feud, and it let the heel look strong before the blow-off finally occurred. Yeah, up until then Samus would confront SA-X, fight a little, and then run away, but when they finally had their big match, it was a quality bout. WCW 1996 didn't originate it, though. It's been in games at least since the 16 bit era and probably earlier. Plus, when the character is played right, a fake/evil twin can be awesome. For example: Wario. He's always been much more of a hoss than Mario, but check out his GB and GBA work. It's some great stuff, all around, especially Wario Land II. While Wario Ware basically has his name on it and just a few clips from his classics, it's excellent. Dr. Wario was a rather unforunate reminder of him living in Mario's shadow, but he mimics Mario very well. I wouldn't really recomment Wario World, though. It's not bad, just a bit repetitive, and we've come to expect more from the man. Nintendo did a great job, IMO, pushing him carefully on the handhelds, but if he's going to make another splash on the console scene, he's going to have to do a little better than Wario World. Sega really bungled Knuckles, though. He could have been their next big star, but they stuck him on the B-console, the 32X, and the rest of the cast was unmemorable. He had to carry Chaotix but wasn't up to the task yet, and he got blamed for it?

"Yeah, I was just trying to say acting like Unger is what gets you banned." Was he banned?

How bad is SD when I just want to tune in to see how horrid Kenzo's match is, then I'm shutting it off?

Meh, I'm not surprised, nor do I care. At least he kept his word (said he'd celebrate when Reagan died). Thing is, he got an audience by getting onto his soapbox, but Scooter did it for some other reason... *shrug* Periods, Scooter: use 'em. He can't really argue with the results, it's he *idea* he's protesting, though. The Cold War may have certainly been expensive and the prospects frightening, it ended without any direct acts of war or violence. Although Reagan's lucky that there were no situations (to my knowledge) like the Cuban missile crisis. Then things would have been far more difficult to handle. If it's the only thing that keeps the peace, thank God for the bomb. I'm sure that plenty of politicians like Reagan even if they didn't like his politics. If Kerry/Bush had disagreements about certain policies, so be it. That's to be expected. If they aren't personal remarks, why would it matter? Yeah. If you're not going to go to 411, it should be because most of their writers are talentless hacks. Not because of one of them typing something that got under your skin. Well, the TV stations are doing their part to piss him off, so no further work is required.

I've heard the screen in DX is horribly cropped. In SMB you really NEED to see as much of the screen as possible, so it can ramp up the difficulty if nothing else changed. The same problem screwed Rayman Advance and Megaman and Bass on GBA. If you're the sort who eats the Mega Man Zero games for lunch, by all means go with DX. However, the screen is proportioned correctly in the NES Classic release. Again, just going from the experiences of others, not personal experience. Personally, I'd wait until Super Mario All Stars comes out on GBA. (No, I haven't heard about Nintendo doing it, but it wouldn't surprise me).

Samus brings the Joshi goodness its a must have game. It has been said that the greatest wrestler in the world was a woman from Japan well the same thing can be said about Samus. Zero Mission is a greatest match highlight film if you will. And with a bonus stealth mission that makes Lara Croft look like a disney property. Using the classic Super Metroid as a *****, what would you rank ZM? Personally, I'd say: Metroid: ***1/2 (the old school pacing and lack of map knocks it down a bit, rating today. An easy ****+ back in the day, though.) Metroid II: ** (Not her best work. It was way too slow, suffered from lack of variety and direction) Metroid Fusion: *** (WAY TOO SCRIPTED!! It's hard to get into a game so heavily choreographed). Metroid Prime: **** Just my opinion on those ratings, of course. Speaking of Lara, even though I couldn't stand her overpush, I don't know whether to laugh or feel sad for her now. She was pushed to the moon, had several big hit games (even if they were all the same) had the movie and the nude pix all around.... Then came Angel of Darkness and the horrid second movie. Last I heard she put on 30 pounds, and was working in some poor-ass indy game to chants of "SHOW YOUR T*TS!" and "SHE'S A CRACKWH*RE!!"

Um... Andrew, you do realize that this is her first match, that basically was a superb (apparently, I haven't seen it yet) dark match that is just now seeing the light of day to us tape traders. I believe it was just a marketing ploy to respark interest, and it was actually just recently. After all, she uses a ton of signature moves in ZM she didn't seem to use until after Metroid and Super Metroid. I don't think they could "remaster" that well, either.

Overrated. Ratchet and Clank are way cooler. However, I guess people think a robot that acts reasonably like a robot isn't good enough; they must want him to drink booze, swear, and steal things. Kid Icarus and Wonderboy: why did these guys not get the major pushes they deserved? It actually is that roided-up ape Donkey Kong's fault. Remember that his big comeback overshadowed anything else on SNES, so being incredible and innovative mattered little if you didn't have that look. Mario = Ric Flair of video games. Yeah, he's had some setbacks lately, making it seem like he's lost the magic (Sunshine, the new Mario Party), but then we get a peek of him seemingly from just before he hit his glory days (Mario vs. Donkey Kong). I think he's going to appear in another classic soon. I haven't actually checked out Metroid: Zero Mission yet. Even though it's the same basic thing Samus was doing well over 10 years ago, is the new tricks she learned worth it?

Victoria?! Take a look at her on the Summerslam 2000 PPV. She was only a short-term valet until she had been signed to the developmentals and began to be trained to wrestle. She didn't even have nearly as much muscle mass on her arms back then. She actually had very little training before they threw her on TV, because she was progressing very quickly. I think that, like Trish, she was a fitness model prior to doing anything with WWE. Trish?! Trish was a fitness model before signing, and worked as a valet/non-wrestling character until they began to train her for the ring. Ever since about 2001 WWE had tried to get most of the women to have at least minimal wrestling training, for stuff like bra and panties matches.

Because nobody calls anything else a "FPA!"! The whole "FPA" thing was invented by Nintendo to hardsell Metroid as a FPS to skeptical fans. What do you call Jumping Flash? Funny thing, it isn't like I was following Nintendo's coverage so faithfully that I buy into anything they say. Some one mentioned it in passing in a convo one time, and it kinda stuck. Either it's a FPA, or an Action/Adventure game, that just happens to be in the first person perspective. If the gaming press calls it that, it wouldn't be the first time they're wrong. If Ain't-It-Cool-News makes a spinoff site for video games, I hereby nominate you to write for them. I liked the previews I saw, but that title is on PS2 and Gamecube too, BTW. I've theorized that a) Anyanka likes her digi-tits, or b) she's parodying all of the goofy press that praised DOA3's gameplay. Because when you want a game recommendation, you turn to Newsweek, don't you? I grow more and more convinced she doesn't actually believe half the crap she says, she's just goofing around.

Not really telling you to avoid a bad game, but maybe save cash: Check out dollar stores. I managed to get several Nuby Dreamcast controllers for a buck each, and they also had some other game accessories, like GBA link cables, lights, some GBC/GBP accessories, Sega NFL 2K... A Kay Bee had a big box going for $4.99 that had a Gamecube controller, carrying case, and RF connector. In general, I usually find 3rd party controllers a better deal, usually because of better configurations, layout, design, feel, and special features. There are some poorly-designed 3rd party controllers out there, though, so try to hold them before you decide to buy them.

Ew... It wouldn't surprise me at all if there's a porn parody out there somewhere.

I got the same thing Friday. Trying to get the damn flute in Level 5 of Zelda is hard. How did I do this when I Was 10?! It's amazing how much harder games are now. Heck, I can't beat Super Mario World in the GBA --- while I OWNED that mutha on the SNES. -=Mike Even with the "save anytime" function you can't beat it? Even with The extra hit awarded when you've got the feather/fire flower you can't beat it? You've gotta be kidding me. I recently picked up the Super Mario World + All Stars cart. I know there's a route I need to unlock to progress, but I have to comb an FAQ for it. Right now I'm at a dead end with no where else to go. I beat the GBA version in less than a week. Flutter-jump Luigi is mighty cool.

This is probably just going to be your typical PPV-buildup show. I'll probably have to pass on it on that basis. Pre-PPV shows almost always suck.

"People don't get yelled and screamed at and beaten up in theatre school or acting school to teach them how to work under the pressure. " That's a very poor comparison, however. Neither involve people beating the crap out of each other or throwing people around a ring. The extent to which this is isn't quite clear. If it is minor stuff, that's nothing to worry about. It if is crap like what Holly was doing, that's another thing entirely. Also, if the trainers are teaching about trust then stiffing them without good reason, yeah that's bull.

"It is quite clear that the laughter is from Red XIII's kids that you see in the ending, looking out at Midgar." Lion-like creatures make human-sounding laughs? I don't know about that. An adult's would be a lot deeper I'd imagine, while the younger ones would probably be a lot more squeaky. Of course, without human-like jaws, tongues, and lips, I doubt they could replicate human speech at all, so maybe I'm putting too much faith in Square. It did cross my mind that maybe Red's descendants would inherit the earth, but the first Advent Children news kind of obliterated that theory, as far as I was concerned. Nothing says that they can't still be prominent, though.

"For those questioning Ivory's and Jackie's pedigree to train others - you really don't have a clue about pro wrestling." In response to that--I give you the Tough Enough graduates. I know you don't have to be a great worker to teach the basics, however I question the quality of training those two got in the first place. I'd already heard that Ivory was given next to no training and thrown in the ring, learning as she went, and Jackie I'm not sure about, but she hasn't exactly taken many or great-looking bumps, let alone had really any decent offense. Of course, all of the "divas" moves tend to look like crap anyway.

Why is DOAX any good? I'm dying to know some justification for that opinion. Oh, and when genres evolve, so must terminology. Do we call Tekken 5 a 'beat 'em up' because that was what we usually called the walk-and-punch side-scrollers ten years ago? Are Contra and Earthworm Jim in the same genre? While, by and large, First Person games have moved beyond simply shooting lots of stuff up and hitting occasional switches, "true" FPSers are still being made--like Painkiller and Doom 3. If you can more accurately and precisely describe a game's gameplay in nearly the same amount of words, why not? Should we lump Wind Waker, Everquest, and FFX all together under "RPG?" They're usually commonly referred to as "action RPG," "MMORPG," and "console RPG." In Jumping Flash, you play in a first-person perspective and you have guns. Is it a First Person Shooter?

"And I wrestled before on WOW, so it's not like I am a 'typical Playboy model'." Yeah, because WOW was just brimming over with joshi-caliber workers, wasn't it? Why the **** is Black Jackie and Ivory being trusted to train any wrestlers, again?

No, I haven't played it, nor will I ever. It's not Nintendo's buzzwords. The emphasis are on exploration, uncovering secrets, platform-jumping, scanning, backtracking, the occasional puzzle-solving--where's that in Halo? It was programmed to try to translate the Metroid gameplay into a first-person experience. None of the Metroid games play like Halo, Doom, etc., extra dimension or different perspective be damned.

.... *ahem* Whatever. Also, Metroid Prime isn't even a First Person Shooter. It's a First Person Adventure.

"DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball." The hell?! "Metroid Prime's controls were a pain because of it." I find MP's controls to be practically flawless. It's just when guys teleport all over the room you're in and you have to shoot at them that it is a pain. I don't think dual analog would make that any easier.