CLiX Games

Hmm. The Boston Red Sox lost.  But thats not the only thing that happened today (well technically it happened really late last night but it was close enough to call it monday.)  Today one game was released on the Virtual Console.  That game was one that has not been seen in America except for a collection game for the PSP.  Gradius 2:  Gofer no Yabo.  Its another side-scrolling shooting game just like the first game of the series.  It basically is the same thing, just with some upgraded weapons and a new concept in some levels.  The new concept is a level that is dedicated to bosses.  Throughout the level you face many bosses and hope to survive.  Well this game is for the TurboGrafx-16 and is 900 Wii points.  Other than that game, nothing else came out on the VC today.

 In other news, on the WiiWare.  The Incredible Maze, and Tetris Party hit up the WiiWare this week.  Hmm, I’m seeing that the Wiiware so far is mostly for puzzle games, I mean, I could be wrong.  They have released at least two or three games that weren’t puzzle games.  The original Tetris was probably one of the most played games in the world, My mother still loves this game.  I really hope that Tetris Party delivers the quality that has been known for most of the Tetris series.  The Incredible Maze, hmm this game better be pretty good, or else the name might fall into false advertising.

 So yet again we have more puzzle games.  Don’t get me wrong, puzzle games are fun, when they are good.  Its just, honestly don’t you think we have enough so far?  I mean are people really buying so many puzzle games for WiiWare that they need to keep pumping them out?  If people are, then I’m sorry for criticizing, I just find it hard to believe.  This has been one puzzling Virtual Monday.

Can you find your way through these puzzling games?

Well like almost every other Saturday today is Saturday.  The day that I chose to celebrate the classics.  Todays classic is none other than the amazingly classic Super Mario Bros. 3.  This, in hindsight, is almost definitely my favorite video game of all time.  Its just an instant classic due mainly to its unbelievable replay value.  Its also just an excellent game because its lots of fun and its got just the right difficulty level.  There are some levels that are outrageously difficult, while there are other levels are way too easy.  Take for example, the level right before Bowsers Castle in world 8, the level seems way too easy to be the last level of the game.  On the other end all of world 7 is pretty hard, and toward the end of world 6 its a bit tough.  My absolute favorite level to play in the game is the first airship, I like dodging all the bullets and cannon balls.  I don’t know why it just seems more fun to me than any of the other levels.  My least favorite level is most definitely 3-3.  First of all, most water levels creep me out.  But on top of 3-3 being a water level, it has a creepy fish that jumps out of the water and eats you whole.  This game brings back good memories.  Remember that night we stayed up and beat Super Mario Bros. 3?  Just Remember?  So yeah, SMB 3, the best game so far.  I wonder if there will ever be a game created that will be as famous as Mario games?  Think about it, what would you consider is the most famous game franchise?  Mario, right?  Maybe not, its might be a topic open for debate if someone is actually willing to argue against it.  Now that I think about it, I’m willing to say that the video game that I’ve played the most would have to be Super Mario Bros. 3.  This truly is an epic game, maybe you’ve heard that a lot but personally I don’t think it can be said enough.  

Today’s release on the Virtual Console is an excellent game that will have many gamers excited and 8 dollars poorer.  Secret of Mana for the SNES.  An awesome RPG that is a definite must play for anyone who is a RPG fan.  Also released was Super Street Fighter II:  Special Champion Edition, for the Sega Genisis.  I’m kinda confused why the keep releasing all these different kinds of Street Fighter 2.  I mean I understand releasing the original and Turbo, just because Turbo was dramatically improved.  But the only difference in Special Champion Edition is the mode, it seems to me that thats not enough to buy a whole new game.  But then again how much can you change in a fighting game other than the mode?  For the WiiWare came another puzzle game, World of Goo.  In this game you use goo to build structures and make it to the end of the level with as many “goo balls” as the level requires.  The other WiiWare game is a puzzle game, I guess its the same as the other WiiWare game that came out that has the same name, Art Style:  Cubello.  YES, we get it Nintendo, lots of puzzle games.  Anyway this has been Monday.  

Well in honor of the wonderful month of October I will bring up one of my favorite baseball video games.  If you were confused about how October relates to baseball, its because of the playoffs.  Bases Loaded 3 was one good fun game for the NES.  Bases Loaded 3 was released in 1991 in the US.  This was also a big family game in my house when I was younger.  My father was a big sports man so we would play a lot of this and Blades of Steel.  Bases Loaded 3 was an interesting game, yes, there was the basic baseball two teams and you get hits and score runs.  But at the end of the game you were graded like an English Research paper.  The grade is based off of how you played during the game, things like how well you hit, if you had errors, and diving or jumping catches.  The game wasn’t sponsored by MLB so there were no teams that you would know, however the game was endorsed by Ryne Sandberg (one of the best 2nd basemen to play the game) of the Chicago Cubs.  I remember feeling good whenever I hit a home-run because it would focus on the center fielder and behind him would be the word “Home-Run” lit up in lights.  Also you would see the center fielder pouting and kicking the ground, it was a pretty encouraging little cut scene.  I always thought it was frustrating when fielding because if you moved the first baseman to far to the right to make the catch and missed, the right fielder would be too far to the right to make it, because if you moved one player all the players in the field would move.  But it was a fun game to play with friends and family.  So this being the end of my tribute to baseball I would just like to mention that I would like to see the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers make it to the World Series.  Its not looking too good for the Dodgers but I still think its funny that the Yankees didn’t make it this year (the first year they didn’t have Joe Torre) and the Dodgers are doing pretty good with him as Coach.  

Halo 3 rocks my XBOX Live socks.  Just the other day I got XBOX Live for my wonderful XBOX 360.  So I’ve been on Live for a good chunk of time since then.  My favorite ranked game to play is Squad Battle, it’s a bunch of fun specially when you have good team.  Team Slayer is also a lot of fun, its cool to talk to your teammates and find out what the bad guys are up to.  Lone Wolf really isn’t my style, but its good for a quick game and its pretty heart racing too.  When I first started out on Halo 3 in Live it started me out in Basic Training against all the new Halo players.  The only thing is that I’m not new to Halo, I’ve played it a lot and the players that Matchmaker pit me against didn’t even pose as a challenge.  Now that I’m into the Ranked playlists the players are more of a challenge and I’m not as invincible as I seemed in basic training.  All in All, Halo 3 is awesome on XBOX Live.  

Monday, Monday, Monday!  Virtual Console releases on Monday!  Today on the Virtual Console Mario Golf for the N64 came out for 1000 Wii points.  This is the first N64 game to come out since Pokemon Puzzle League came out in the beginning of May.  Personally I enjoy the Nintendo 64, a lot.  It makes me sad to see so few N64 games available but if Nintendo keeps giving us sweet remakes like Chrono Trigger for the DS then I might just be quite about the lack of N64 games on the VC.  Next on the VC is the sequel to the best RPG that I have downloaded on the VC,  Shining Force II:  Ancient Sealing.  The sequel, ironically doesn’t have much to do with the story line of the first Shining Force.  Although there was a Japanese Game Gear game called Shining Force Gaiden:  Final Conflict that connects the dots between the two games stories.  Games on the WiiWare were Midnight Bowling and a game called Madstone.  Now, Midnight Bowling was a cellphone game that now has upgraded graphics and utilizes the Wiimote for bowling motions.  But Madstone, I had never heard of.  Its a puzzle game.  You have to break up blocks in order to get gems to fall to the bottom of the screen.  This game uses shaking the WIimote in order to cause earthquakes so the blocks will break.  This has been another day that some games came out on the Virtual Console and WiiWare.  Nothing really good, but who knows, maybe next week.  

2 days ago in a press conference in Japan, Nintendo released information about the next Nintendo DS.  They call it the DSi.  There are a couple of updates from the DS lite.  First of all they made it a little bit thinner but its a little wider due to the fact that the screens are 3.25 inches instead of the 3.0 inches of the DS lite.  Next is the DSi has dual digital cameras.  Also it comes with a built in browser and a slot for a SD card so you can play back music.  They have also added an extra brightness setting to make the screen brighter.  Nintendo will probably create DSi games that are exclusive to the DSi.  There are some down falls of the DSi that could be upsetting to some gamers out there.  First, which actually made me slightly disappointed is that they removed the GBA slot.  Next bad part is that the battery life is shorter by about 5 hours, on the lowest brightness setting the DSi can run for 9 to 14 hours, on the highest it may run from 3 to 4 hours on a full charge.  Right now the DSi will only be coming out in Japan, Nintendo has said that sometime in 2009 possible for the DSi in America.  

Another Monday has apparently past by which usually happens at least once a week.  The one released game on the Virtual Console this week was Super Turrican 2 for the Super Nintendo.  Like almost all of the other Super Nintendo games on the VC Super Turrican 2 costs 800 Wii points.  This is your basic side scrolling super Nintendo action game.  Its a good game and if your into action games, which it seems that there is a whole lot of them available on the VC, this would be a good game for your collection.  The two games on the WiiWare were Bomberman Blast and Art Style:  Orbient.  Bomberman is a fun multi-player game that has entertained me and some friends for hours on end.  Bomberman Blast is more focused on the multi-player instead of single player, meaning that there are some cool weapon upgrades.  Next, a game that sounds really interesting, specially to the artsy type of people, Art Style:  Orbient.  This game looks incredible fun and new.  You control a planet.  Yes, and you go around using your gravitational pulls and pushes to orbit other planets and suns and stars.  This looks like a really cool game, and relaxing because it only uses two buttons, one to pull and one to push.  I’m pretty excited about this game.  So, thats Monday September 29th’s release on the Nintendo Wii.