The big budget triple A games can be fantastic. They have huge teams backing them, allowing for the use of the latest and greatest tech. Graphics are slick and always pushing to look better than everyone else. Plus, you know everybody who’s anybody is going to be talking about them in your circle of gaming friends/podcasts/blogs/forums.

Often when I sit down to play one, I will end up spending several hours in front of my TV or computer working my way through it. Sometimes, this can lead to a strange mental block right before I get started. Since I know I will inevitably spend a lot of time playing one of these games once I start, it can be a little intimidating.

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“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

Soul Blazer is a member of the prestigious Quintet Quintet, five cult games created by Japanese studio Quintet and published by Pre-Squared Enix. Around the era of Final Fantasy VI, Secret of Mana, and WingDamage’s beloved Chrono Trigger, Quintet was slaving away at creating some of the most creative games of the SNES era.

In a time where Publishers were the face of gaming, Quintet stood out as one of the few developers who had complete control over their body of work.

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Much like Dragon Quest, the Monster Hunter series is one of the biggest names in gaming in Japan and almost unheard of in North America. Most people over here just don’t “get it”, and many of them don’t want to put forth the effort required in order to really understand what the game is all about. After all, even with more accessible entries in the series such as Monster Hunter Tri, there is still a very steep learning curve to overcome.

Originally I wanted to write a review of Monster Hunter Tri in order to spread the word. However, after over 100 hours of playing the game, I still haven’t experienced all it has to offer. I’ve come to realize, it’s not a traditional review that’s going to spark interest. My hopes are that by sharing the reasons that the series is so engaging (many of which are not immediately obvious to the new player), it will help more people realize the joys that can be found from becoming a Monster Hunter.
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On a very special seventy-sixth episode of Barrel Roll! A Video Game podcast, we hold an intervention for Adam’s newfound addiction to Xbox Points.

Sure, he claims that he can quit anytime he wants. But looking at his Xbox Gamecard Scores, we see that he got all the points. ALL OF THEM.

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After surviving the giant traffic jam that is Seattle, I arrive at the Triple Door, ready to get my Bejeweled on. I’ve been practicing at home and I can almost get to about half of my wife’s high score, so confidence is high as I wait for the tourney to start.

I stretch out and do mental wind sprints to prepare my mind and my brain for some jewel matching frenzy.

I am wearing a suit in order to intimidate my opponents. They pretend not to notice or care, but I can tell that they are secretly terrified.

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"This is your Daddy's Crack Down"

“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

In the days when our household only had a Genesis, we almost exclusively rented our video games. There were several we would see in magazines that we thought looked interesting, or would see the cover art in stores, but could never find to rent.

This is not one of those games. Until recently, I didn’t even realize there had been a Genesis game that shared the Crack Down name. I found it purely by accident when searching for information on the first Xbox 360 game, Crackdown. Had I seen any version of the game’s box art, I would have more likely pointed to laugh at the monocled baddie on the Mega Drive cover, or the fake Stormtrooper on the US version.

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When Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies came out a few weekends ago, everyone in my household played their respective copies non-stop for the first two days. Everything was going great at first, but then I started to get a horrible headache.

I started to notice that my hands were killing me. I realized that I was squinting the entire time I was playing, and the small size of the console was increasingly uncomfortable in my hands.

It was time to give in, admit that I am an old man, and grab a Nintendo DSi XL.

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"A new song, every day... that I feel like it."

People that know me well know that I can’t shut up about videogame music. I love the stuff. I listen to it all the time. I remix it. Yet, I don’t always feel like writing a full, long-form piece on it which is why my music posts here on WingDamage don’t happen that often.

For this reason, I’ve created an outlet for myself where I can share a few words about my game music passion each day. Main Finger’s Videogame “Jam a Day” Blog is a place where you can hear a videogame song hand picked by me every day (barring unforeseen circumstance) and read my very brief thoughts on it.

Sometimes it will be directly from a soundtrack, sometimes it will be a remix. There aren’t any strict rules here. However, my goal is to introduce people to new music they might not otherwise hear from a variety of genres and artists. Because of this, you might not always see me pick the most well known tunes (though I’m sure classics will appear from time to time).

So head on over to mainfinger.tumblr.com and see for yourself the songs I love. And if you like the blog, be sure to recommend it in the gaming and/or music directory of tumblr and spread the word to your friends. Hope you enjoy!

Crackdown 2 is one of the most brutal punishments one can inflict on a critic. There is nothing to say about Crackdown 2. At best, you can spin a handful of disappointments into a competent, but bland review. Once the review is over, that same critic will then place Crackdown 2 on a shelf, where it will sit for months. Later, he will realize it’s utter worthlessness, and eventually trade it in to some form of used game service. Its worth will be approximately seven dollars, and that man will look at himself and wonder, “Did this game really deserve this kind of time and effort?”

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"Accomplishes it's purpose and works exactly how it sounds."

Although this review is about the Wii2HDMI adapter, I’ve also been using the VD-W3 Wii HDMI Upscaler Processor quite heavily the past few weeks. In this review I will be comparing the two devices.

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