I’m of the opinion that kids games shouldn’t be garbage.

Just because a game is licensed or made for kids, this should not be used as an excuse to shove shoddy, unfinished games out the door. More often than not, short development cycles thwart any attempt to make a licensed game good, because much of the sales come from hitting the shelves at the same time as the movie a game is based off of.

That’s why I was happy to see that Toy Story 3 felt like a real game.

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When I first heard of Monday Night Combat, I awaited its release cautiously. I’m not saying that the game looked bad when it first came to my attention, but I wasn’t sure I could trust the folks at Uber Entertainment to deliver on such a bizarre concept.

As some one who has a difficult time playing a Call of Duty match type any more complicated then “SHOOT ALL THE DUDES”, I approached the supposed “Tower Defense Shooter” with cautious optimism.

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When I was perusing the intertron tubes I came across a mention of a game that revolved around unlocking achievements. I clicked on the link so fast my quad core processor groaned in protest.

For those of you that don’t know me, I have been in treatment for months now for my Xbox Live achievement addiction. Everyday is a struggle but the key is taking it one day at a time. But when a game comes out that is based entirely around unlocking achievements, it is virtually impossible for me to resist.

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Scott Pilgrim is having a bit of a media explosion at the moment. It’s gone from an independent comic (started in 2004) that I had only heard about in passing, to a franchise that the entire internet seems to be talking about (both positively and negatively) with a movie and a videogame released last week.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is an old-school brawler through and through. You and up to three local friends (sorry, no online multiplayer) play as either Scott, Ramona, Kim, or Stills and get to punching and kicking your way through each of the game’s stages.

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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.

Back in 1992, id Software set the world (of PC gaming nerds) on fire by making the first in a new genre called “First Person Shooters”. The best part: Wolfenstein 3D was shareware, so it was not only legal, but encouraged that you give the first episode of the game to your friends.

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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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"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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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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“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.

I have never been a PC gamer. When Half-Life came out for the PC, I was still rocking my Commodore 64 (which was just a teensy bit short in the RAM department). Besides I was too busy with my PS1 to worry about insanely awesome FPS games with pitch perfect atmosphere; I had some Battle Arena Toshinden to conquer.

In all seriousness Half-Life dropped with the force of a judo throw from Segata Sanshiro (which is equivalent to 10 megaton bombs.) It completely revolutionized the FPS genre. Everything from the graphics to the story to the puzzles to the combat pushed the genre in fantastic new directions. Even dedicated non-PC guys like myself stared enviously at our buddy’s copy and hoped for a console port.

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