Well...I finally caved. I looked at my huge stack of PS games. I looked at my huge stack of PS2 games. I saw that Oblivion and Armored Core 4 came out....and I totally caved in and bought one. It's pretty cool actually. I was a bit worried by the comments given about the PS3 vs the Xbox and Wii thing, but I got it and I had no problem with it. Backwards compatibility works great by the way and so far the game I got for it, "Armored Core 4", is pretty sweet. I haven't signed up for the the online options yet, except for updates, but I'll get around to it sometime.

Okay...a lot's happened and where do I start...

Okay, I guess, first of all I hope everyone had a great stretch of holidays. You know visiting family, playing music, pulling death defying stunts on the roof putting up lights, staying up late, engorging yourselves with food and drink unitl you  feel sick and all that.

Which reminds me, I got a DS. This year was odd to begin with because it was almost nothing but videogames this year, which is nice but I've always like to be surprised more than anything with a little of everything, and one top of it all was a load of DS games.

Out of all the systems, I've never even thought about getting a DS unitl it was in my hands. A PSP maybe, but not a DS. Even more surprizingly, I kept it. I guess I was, like, why not? It came with three other games and I could play my old SP games on it. One of the games I manage to finish while I was on vacation during the new year, Mega Man ZX, I reviewed already. On top of those I still got Sonic DS, Kirby Squeak Squad, and FF3 to go through. So...yeah...fun stuff. We'll see how that goes eh?

I want a PS3. I REALLY want a PS3. But...I've been getting mixed messages about it. The bad ones are mostly from Xbox fanatics I know...but still...I'm unsure. What really makes me hesitate is the fear that SONY will repeat the mistake they made with the PS2 (or PS2s, depending on how you look at it) in that they've just thrown out junk to make sales then surprise everyone with the real thing later. I hated that. My PS2 broke down soon after the thin (actual) PS2s came out and I was MAD. I had been dupped. Stomped on as a customer. But I owned a ton of PS1 AND PS2 games that I still want to play and my PS2 is dead.

So should I or shouldn't I by a PS3? Will it be worth it?

On one hand, if I buy the PS3 I will be able to play my old games and the new ones. On the other hand, I might be getting played again, this time for 600 bucks, and the whole backwards compatibility and other features might not be as awsome if they don't make good games for it (in which case I just might as well buy another PS2).  So...I'm stuck. I don't know what to do.

If you've already read my review, you may already have a vague picture of what this random thought entry is about. 

Recently I've rented the game "Sonic the Hedgehog" for the Xbox. I the past I didn't used to need to do that but lately I've fallen into the habit of renting any Sega game. Only Sega. Can you guess why?

Well, if you are a Sonic fan or in any way knowledgeable of the classics you can probably see why by looking back and comparing your experiences with the company. If not it is because, at least in my opinion, Sega games have begun to stink.

Not ALL Sega games mind you. And I'm not saying this because I'm older ether, because god knows I have played and still do play every game, reguardless of age rating, under the sun. No, I'm saying this because I still have every Sega game I've bought since I was in elementry school and if you pick a serise ANY serise and follow it through any sequels all the way to today you can actually watch and feel the decline in quality and effort placed there. You don't have to look to hard through as you can even see it in the most popular Sega game of them all.

Sonic the hedgehog started out as a side scrolling, ice breaking sensation. This was the character who could go toe to toe with Mario during the dawn of videogames and stay afloat for years to come. Sonic was and, in lesser ways, still is Sega's saving grace. However, once the Square was added to the playing feild and Sonic finally hit the 3D market on the Dreamcast, Sega hit some company snags and was eventually dragged down from a consule supplier to mearly another game developer.

Of course, Sega's transition, while still a bit of a downer, was far from a total loss. After all, the company did stay afloat and Sega fans still got thier fill of Sega's game cross consule. You think that it would be kind of a bit of a relief in a way, now that they no longer had to worry about hardware they could now focus more on the outstanding games that they have been making.

Shockingly this wasn't really the case. In fact, the death of the Dreamcast seemed to mark a steady decline in good choices and quality games. Take Sonic for example: when Sega decided to stick with 3D Sonic gets shafted, again and again and again, with glitches galore and lackluster gameplay.

Fans in the begining thought it was a slump, still bought the games, and made thier opinions and suggestions heared. They knew Sega had it in them to do better. The fans believe in Sega. They've PLAYED the past games and the fans have SEEN that sega could do better. On top of that, Sega had now the same opportunities, time frame, and the evergrowing technology that any other game developer had not to mention a good record and steady talent.

So what does Sega do? They make another Sonic game in 3D and once again, glitches prevail. Not any glitches, the SAME glitches. Oh, they did throw in some new characters into the mix and added to what little story there already was in every game, but the new characters were pretty much playing like clones of the origanals and the additions to the story were not much deeper than the rest of Dr. Eggman's attempts to rule the world via Emeralds of some kind. The fans who saw through this just looked at each other in surprise. Why? Sega took it's time, new music had been written, new characters drawn out, the plot thickened (sort of), but where was the GAME. You know, the fun part. The sense of speeding through new levels fighting challenging bosses.

Apparently, some fans where upset enough to cause Sega to feel bad enough to return to there roots and create some fairly successful (though a bit short) side scoller that brought Sonic back along with some of his origanal crew to do what the did best: run insanely fast and fight baddies. They did add ANOTHER new character as well: Cream (aka: the girl version of Tails). Fans where relieved.

Then Sega decided to try 3D again. Sonic Heroes was the title and it was different at least. The story was different (actually different), there was new gameplay, and Sega resisted the urge to add more usless characters to the growing collection, instead bringing back old ones. But, again, it was so easy that the game was effortless to complete, all the previous 3D glitches were STILL there (bad camera, bad controlls, falling through wall and floor), the levels were limited (not to mention bland) and each "team" of characters basicly played the same ( with the exception of Espio, Vector and Charmy of Team Chaotix and even then they were toned down to get VERY close).

But it was a decent success and Sega had certianly looked like they tried (again, sort of. They still didn't get to patching up those glitches). Surely Sega would learn from this success and improve upon there games in the future right? They would surely spend more time fixing the glitches and where heading in the direction of making the games more thrilling, right?

Wrong.

Next game: Shadow the hedgehog. It could have been good but wasn't. It was darker, with two endings, vehicles and everything...good ideas, interesting changes,....and Sega smashed it to tiny peices by making it as unenjoyable to play as possible by churning it out to the public with some bad cliches and more glitches than should be legal. At this point I have no idea what fans were thinking, but I rented it and I'm surprized that my Xbox didn't blow up and kill me whenever I tried to play it.

And finally all these adds appear of the next, the 3rd gen, Sonic the Hedgehog. It was going to be the prime example of what Sega could do. It was in production forever and the screenshots looked amazing. I was getting hyped up for a great next gen plateformer along with the fans. Hardcore fans smile smuggly and nooded to just rest of us: "See we told you unbelievers that Sega would pull through." It finally comes out, I rent it and......*sigh*.... well, read my review.

The game was bad. Very bad.

So in conclusion, I don't understand it. I gave up. Sega has repeatedly stepped on every fan who has tried to help and support them and annoyed the heck out of every gamer who has tried to take them seriously. It has to be more than bad buisness at this point. They've had a long time. A VERY long time to redeem, fire, rehire, rewrite, reinvent, fix up, shine and get back thier old track record in gameing. And...nothing happened. One cannot help but begin to suspect nothing will happen. All signs point to the image that Sega will continue to think that making bad games and adding new playable clones will fix everything until they run Sonic and his fans are ran into the ground along with, eventually, themselves.

I hate to say it and I think it's very sad, but if Sega can't clean up they're act Sonic the hedgehog may be left behind. 

                            

Ogre Battle was one of my favorite classics of all time. I love all the titles relating to it and I can't for the life of me understand why there haven't been more. Here I am again replaying the old ones (I just finish the SNES one again, I'm currently into Ogre Battle 64) over again and I just relieze just how much I've memorized them and reliezing how much I want a sequel.

Hawkmen, Pumpkin Heads, Werewolves, Golems, Mermaids, Angels, Skeletons, Dragons,Hellhounds, Cockatrice, Griffins, Imps, Angels, Giants, Wyverns, Vampires, Kraken, Lizardmen...

I miss recruiting them. They're all way over due for a comeback. Classics are great and I'll keep playing them, but the serise needs an update very badly. I can't help but worry about some of the other Classicsgetting left behind as well with the next gen already underway. I know they're doing there best to preserve them in collection CDs, but there a lot of good games without updates. At the very least I would like to see a Collector edtion CDwith all the games from the Ogre Battle serise...but a new game wouldn't hurt ether.

Which kinda begs the question on why more half hashed ideas that have shown nothing but signs of failer have been churnned out more and faster than those collection CDs? Why haven't I seen a complete Secret ofMana Collection? A new sequel to Secret of Evermore...or how about Chrono Trigger?

Old desires? Yes. Are those old desiresgoing away? No. That in itself says something to me. I don't want any game that comes my way. I want more good games! I want more of those "I'll still be comeing back to this in fifty years." games. Sure there a couple of new dimonds in the rough, but if more effort was spent churring out more dimonds at the expense of rough, I'd have no problem with that.

Well, I have some ideas I want to keep recorded for modifications to the SSB serise:

KEEP:
Mario
Luigi
Yoshi
Peach
Bowser
Samus
Link (adult)
Pikachu
Fox
DK
Ness
Mew-Two
Mr. Game & Watch
Roy
Ice Climbers
Kirby

LOSE:
Jigglypuff
Pichu
Marth
Young Link
Falco
Zelda
Dr. Mario

Falco, Pichu, Young Link, and Dr. Mario- These guys should have never made it to the line up, unlockable or not. They are all just a waste of space as "clones" or off shot copys of already existing characters and don't really make a difference.

Jigglypuff - I never understood why he was ever selected as a fighter. I never think of him when I think Pokemon and I never use him. I just don't know why he's there at all. I would rather them put in Red (Pokemon's famous trainer) than Jigglypuff.

Zelda - True, the game is named after her, but in all my years of playing Legend of Zelda games I've never seen her so much as slap somebody. Now, she's this super fighter that can transform into Sheik (who by the way also never so much as slapped anybody and has only been in one game). I just don't understand the thinking behind it. There are so many characters that have actually done stuff, why neglect them for Zelda?

CHANGES:
C. Falcon
Ganondorf

C. Falcon- He's a good fighter, don't get me wrong, I just don't like the fact that none of his moves has anything to do with F-ZERO.

Ganondorf- Ganondorf shocked me when his moves were to similar to C. Falcon's. Like most of the ones I've put in my lose list he was an unnessesary "clone" or a mear shell of another fighter. However I got the idea that he actually could be totally redone so he could fill in for Zelda who I elected to lose simply because she hasn't ever actually fought anyone in any game, not to mention sheik was seen only once in the serise. Her fighting situation, though, did make sence for Ganondorf. I was thinking that Ganondorf should be given the ability to swap between Ganon and himself. Ganon would be a slow but powerfully strong fighter while Ganondorf used his sword and magic at a fast pace. Whether or not they actually replace Zelda with him is a choice I think Nintendo should at least consider. But the fact remains: Ganondorf needs his own moves. 

ADDITIONS:

Toad
Red
Ray 01
Lyn or Ayra
Little Mac
Wario
King DeDeDe

1)Toad (Mario Kart Version) - I thought about this a while back. Because I can't see Toad as a very defined character that can hold up is own in a line up that Nintendo currently has without becoming a "clone" or another shell of a previous fighter, I thoughts the best way for him to make an appearence would be as a representitive of the Mart Kart serise. He would drive around in his little kart and you moves like wheelies, doughnuts, fish tailing as basic moves and as a special pull out a random Kart weapon to use in battle. Press special once to begin the slot machine process of the Kart moves (like in Mario Kart 1) and Press again to select the move, press a third to to actually use the weapon (green shell, red shell, banana peel ect.)

2) Red (Poke'mon Trainer) - Now before you continue because you think Red doesn't have any potential stop a second and think: Jigglypuff is a fighter but not the famous trainer of the serise? True, Red doesn't fight. A he shouldn't in SSB ether. All his moves should involve breifly whiping out 6 pokemon to do it for him. Combos and such who be accomplish with basic Pokemon using mostly basic attacks like tackle, slash, tail whip, surf, fly, cut, ect. Instead of keeping Jigglypuff as a individual fighter Red could actually whip out Jigglypuff to do it's special as one of Red's moves.

3)Ray 01 - That's right the first Custom Robo robot you get. While it may not seem like it, Custom Robo had most of it's good run in Japan. Adding the Ray 01 in the line would not only be a good way to pump new awareness into Custom Robo while pleaseing fans, but who could say no to the potential of moves the Ray 01 could dish out?

4)Lyn or Ayra - Pick one, Ether Ayra, the popular first female swordfight in Fire Emblem or Lyn, the more recent but first main character female. Ether way they are both popular additions to Fire Emblem that show promise as fighters in SSB. The line up could use ether of these two as speedy fighters.

5)Little Mac - What better entry than the green haired boxer of the long running Punch Out serise. Heck, he should have been c.Falcon's replacement at the very begining.

6)Wario - I'm not a huge fan of Wario, but you got to admitt the greedy, hulking anti-mario has had a good run and gain a huge fan base. I am concerned about moves though. Wario would have to be a headbutting powerhouse type character because Luigi is already as close to another Mario as anyone should allow.

7)King DeDeDe - He's Kirby's arch nemisis, he weilds a huge hammer and tosses around large glowing stars. Obviously he has potential as well.