Well, just to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
2007 was a great gaming year, and I hope everyone will be playing some great game at home. Me? I'll be playing Super Mario Galaxy, Dementium: The Ward andRE: The Umbrella Chronicles. I hope you're enjoying other great games :D
This is the first real editorial I write, and it was inspired by my recent gaming. Once, a friend of mine was checking out my library of games and he told me "Man, haven't you noticed? Most of your games are violent and rated M!" and I was like "Whoa, I hadn't noticed that, but I'm kinda blood-thirsty" :D. I won't lie, I really enjoy violent games, such as Doom, Ninja Gaiden or Resident Evil, personally I enjoyed the decapitations found in RE4 and felt a satisfying chill through my body. But I'm also a Nintendo fanboy, I have to admit, andsome people find it weird that I enjoy playing Mario Kart next to those games.
This generation of gaming, I haven't seen much that attracts me. Honestly, I haven't jumped on the 360/PS3 bandwagon, and I got a Wii despite the lack of games just to get the new Smash Bros. Why haven't I? Well... besides RE5, there aren't many games that I want. I may get flamed for this, of course there's Manhunt 2, Mass Effect, Halo 3 and all of those games, but it all seems the same to me, like the formula's getting tiringly repeated. But well, that was until I played Super Mario Galaxy.
Last time I went shopping, I got Super Mario Galaxy and RE: The Umbrella Chronicles - I know, an odd pair - and I must say, although I knew Mario Galaxy was good, I wasn't looking to it as I was to RE, but I was VERY mistaken.
Let's get something straight. Mario Galaxy kinda annoyed me the first time I played it. Mario's voice sounds more cutesy than usual and the whole environment looks very kiddy-friendly, and well, I got kinda disappointed, but I heard reviews were good so I decided to kinda fake that wasn't there, but after a couple of hours, OMG! Not because of the graphics (which are good) nor music (which is even better), but because I'VE NEVER HAD SO MUCH FUN PLAYING IN YEARS! I felt like a six-year-old again, like when playing Mario 3 in those summers years ago. I remember having read somewhere that Miyamoto said his idea was that Mario was actually having fun while on his quest, and it's really reflected in the game: Mario "Yahoo!"s across the game, running and jumping, going through fun and delicious galaxies.
Did Mario need to steal cars, behead zombies or go on a killing spree in the shadows? Nope. All he's doing is trying to rescue a princess that has a gift for him and is in need for his help, and he's having a blast! I must admit, I had a couple of tears on my eyes while playing this, it overwhelmed me, the powerfulness of a concept so simple yet so inventive (yet, with no blood whatsoever): it's like a virtual fairy tale, the awesome music that is both sweet and charming yet very melodic (and even more excitement when I heard Mario 3 music).
Where do I want to get with all of this? Well, maybe I'm getting my point mistaken, by no means am I trying to say violent games aren't good. As I said, I love violent games, but somewhere along the road some developers and publishers (I'm looking at you, Rockstar) seem to be just trying to push the boundaries of violence without pushing boundaries in gameplay or in finding ways to makeA FUN GAME. As you can see, I'm talking a lot about this game so I'll review it soon, but the editorial isn't to brag about Mario, just to brag about having seen that a game can be pure fun, just that developers need to work hard on it. I hope Mario Galaxy gives an example to other developers, that a game doesn't need to be ultraviolent to be fun and really touch your heart.
Well, I was a little bummed up that RE4 Wii Edition already got a banner, as I was making one for it (you can check it out in my Images section), so I was gonna use it for my Profile as my own banner but I was browsing my other RE4 images and I liked this one very much, so I chose to use it to make a new banner instead. I think it looks nice and it fits my Blog banner, too.
BTW, keep playing RE4. I'm doing so on the PC, and hopefully on the Wii as soon as I can get/find one :S
Well, yesterday I saw this movie, 28 Weeks Later, and it was very, very fun, I really enjoyed it. I generally don't like zombie flicks, but this movie (and its predecessor, 28 Days Later) have a different feeling, sort of an "indie" atmosphere that makes it different from Hollywood zombie flicks. This movie follows the events of the previous movie in the only possible way, the virus is supposedly erradicated but, as you expect, when everything is calm, disaster strikes again, and even harder than before. Only the intro scene is so suspense/action packed, it really amazes me how this movie manages to have a simple plot but its execution is so well done that the simple plot is taken to another dimension entirely by the excellent directing and acting. All actors do a pretty good job and, although the story is a little predictable, it does some things that only a very few movies dare to do (I won't spoil anything).
The first time I heard the premise of the last movie, 28 Days Later, I thought immediately "RE ripoff!!" but when I saw it, I realized it was a ripoff, but a very good one (in fact, the original name of the movie was "Biohazard" but I guess there were legal issues against Capcom Japan hehe), and when I saw the Resident Evil movies, the real deal, I must say I was disappointed and well, if Danny Boyle had been the one that adapted RE to the big screen, it would really had been something great, especially when having such a big franchise.
I highly recommend both movies, 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later.
I'm a huge RE fan, and I loved RE4, I have it on the GameCube and I'm playing it on the PC as well to get the PS2 extra-content, but the game's coming to Wii, and I think I'll get it, even if I don't have a Wii. Will you get it? Vote about it now on my poll here.
If you check the SSBB website, http://www.smashbros.com in the English section, you'll find it updated quite recently. It features a little of explanation of SB rules, some info on the "Battlefield" level, which I must say features a cool feature: since the level is very simple, you'll see it change from dusk 'til dawn literally.
But the "Musicians" new entry is what intrigued me the most. It says that a lot of famous musicians are lending their work to the game as new arrangements, not only Nintendo composers but other famous composers as well. I think this is a hint... and it started by saying the game features composers from games such as Metal Gear Solid, so we may see characters from other series such as Pikmin, Romancing Saga, Wild Arms, Golden Sun, Kingdom Hearts, NiGHTS, Magical Starsign and even Streets of Rage!!
But well, this is just speculation. Check the link to check it out.
I now got Mario Kart DS, and although it isn't my first time with online gaming - being my first with Jedi Knight using the MSN Gaming Zone - I must say I was impressed with the Wi-Fi Connection. Although it doesn't have many advanced features and finding friends is not very easy, it's quite simple to just enter a quick match with random players, and that's something to applaud. The game runs seamlessly with no lag and it's really lots of fun, definately the best part of this new Mario Kart.
By the way, since I'm new to this game I don't have any friends whatsoever, so if anyone wants to play against me you can post your friend code so I can add you :D.
My Mario Kart DS Friend Code is:
137536-789810
BR
Albert
I was reading an article in IGN and, after having used the DS, I think it would really enrich the Wii experience by adding more connectivity features than in the GCN/GBA era. Yeah, it would be really cool to have a DS channel on the Wii to download demos directly to your DS without having to go to a store, and many users already have a DS. Also, it'd be good to have Wii games that work like Final Fantasy CC or Zelda FS did on the GCN, but the DS's capabilities would take gaming beyond, and no need to buy accesories such as cables. Also I think Nintendo could take advantage of the Virtual Console's capabilities to load VC games into the DS, I mean, the DS can play NES, SNES and N64 software, it does have the power, or maybe try a different approach. If you notice, there aren't any Game Boy games in the VC library ;) So this could be a great opportunity to start adding Game Boy games to the VC, and you could be playing games such as Super Mario Land, Metroid II or Zelda: Link's Awakening on your DS.
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