Being myself an avid GameCube fan, I, among others, am rejoicing at the glorious games coming to an EB near me throughout Q1 and Q2 of '05. However, aside from the Star Fox: Assault's, Advance Wars: Under Fire's, Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat's and yes, even Fire Emblem's, there's a little game that could, or rather, a little game that can (and hopefully will) that's all ready made it's way to the top of my obese wishlist. This game, this innovative, tentative masterpiece is none other than Yoot Saito's Odama.

Sure, Fire Emblem and the gang are great, but I haven't seen such an innovative console game, with such an amazing premise in years. Hell, I think I've only owned one pinball game in my day, but Yoot Saito's Odama just looks so damn interesting that I simply must get my grubby little paws on it!!!! *foams at mouth*

Why, you may ask, do I want a simple military-themed pinball game over an epic RPG like Fire Emblem, or even the likely masterpiece of The Legend of Zelda? No, not just because it's innovative (actually, I think innovation is grossly overrated) but because it's just such a simple, fun-sounding, and interesting premise. And it's pinball!!! I love pinball, but never since the originals has there been a remake or alteration that's piqued my interest, or at least not enough to consider a purchase. But Yoot Saito's Odama fulfills this wish, and more! And that's not all! The gameplay videos make it look even better than I could have imagined, with sharp visuals (even for a demo) and fast-paced action.

Well, there you have it. I've come out and said it! You can herd me in with the cows in your slaughterhouse for all I care (as long as it's a cyber slaughterhouse) I will get my Odama, and I enjoy it more than any other game in 2005!!!! :twisted:

I don't want to come off as a whiner, as in my last entry I commented on the slight degradation of the Virtual Underground, but the GameCube forum is an absolute wreck! If it wasn't for GodsGroovyGamer's recent reincarnation of the GameCube Recommendation Thread (and a good one at that), and the occasional Everything Resident Evil, or Off-Topic Lounge, then I think I would proclaim it virtually dead. While most of the users are kind, nice people, among all the jambles of incoherent topic titles, the only words you can make out are "Nintendo", "Dead", "Kiddy", "Revolution", "Mario Rehashed", or other words to that affect. I don't even know why I bother (occasionally) posting there anymore. Aside from a few users who are generally great (The previously mentioned GodsGroovyGamer being one), all I come across are whiners, depressed people, arrogant fanboys, or System Wars users throwing a few insults here or there.

I'm not saying I have a major life (I mean I DO post on GameSpot after all ;) ), but I don't come on here to ask people what colour their GameCube is. I come for quality topics, and good discussions. So many of the posts are downright ridiculous, and the most popular thread lately is "Should Nintendo Quit", or "Is Nintendo Too Kiddy". Throw in some misspelled words, major grammar mishaps and a few very questionable uses of slightly intelligible words, and you've got the latest version of the GameCube forum! VVelcom. wer eeven qualitier than b4!!11 HUZAH!

Lately I've been noticing that many posters in the Virtual Underground are acting very indifferent. It is no longer a friendly place, and lately when people voice an opinion, they're either teased, or given one of these: :| I hate those things! They're very unfriendly, and lately everyone's been sarcastic, angry, or insulting. To be very honest, I'm considering packing up and leaving, and finding a new UCB to call home. I don't know why, but ever since the *incident*, it just hasn't felt like the friendly Virtual Underground that I know, with friendly people making jokes or positive suggestions. These last few days, all I've seen is insulting and indifference (I feel like I'm repeating myself.... I feel like I'm repeating myself). Well, I guess I'll just hang out at Robbie's place for a while. Hopefully things will start to patch up, but I'm sort of doubting it, not to be a pessimist.

And, something that has never happened before is starting to happen. I used to freely post there, saying what was on my mind (as long as it was generally appropriate, of course) and having a great time. Now, though, I find myself refraining from posting, as I know that I'll just get a whole bunch of :| *shudders* The posters, even old time greats, are acting like total jerks, generally, and it's really seeming more and more like a mix of System Wars and GGG, with all of the hate and anger. I don't feel happy to post some joke or some such, anymore. I know it's stupid to be worried about such things, but I shouldn't have to be!

Maybe I've just had some bad luck with posts, but I'm not so sure. I'm giving the Virtual Underground one last chance, but I just don't enjoy myself anymore. It's not a fun, little place like when I joined. Sure, I joined like 2, 2 and a half months ago, but it's still changed drastically since then. Maybe I should make a UCB of my own. Wait... then I'd have to get Complete *sulks*

Want to know why I am, in fact, superior to you? (When I say you I mean everyone reading this, especially Mark :twisted: )Tomorrow may, and likely will, turn out to be my best day of 2005. Well, not so much on a personal level, but in a gaming sense. I am likely getting a Super Nintendo Entertainment System!!!!!!!! YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! WOOOOOOOT! Yeah! All right! Mmmmhmmm! Okay... now that I've settled down we can move on. I've made the deal, but it just has to be delivered! I'm going to have to throw a bash! Forget New Years, Dave's New SNES Day will officially be the greatest holiday between Christmas and... uh... the following Christmas! :P

With this SNES soon to be in my grasp, I can only sit back and think of the overflowing of games, the 2D wonders of perhaps Nintendo's best system, and the intense care that will be taken to preserve this precious commodity. Hell, I may as well start on the air-tight seal! :P

However, all of this insane joy has only finally begun to subside, so I'm only now considering which games to purchase. I'm thinking of:

• Secret of Mana
• Axelay
• Final Fantasy 6
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Earthbound
• Chrono Trigger (Or Cross, whichever one is on SNES)
• Super Metroid

That should do for some beginning purchases (don't worry, Donkey Kong Country 2, I believe, and one of the Mario World's are included, so I do have the flagship SNES games already waiting). I was wondering if some game advice could be plausible, as I'm a little clueless with SNES. I owned one a while back! A long while, but it's long gone. Back in those days I bought games purely on impulse with cool sounding names, but now that I'm educated with the facts, I must scour eBay and old, dusty shelves for the best games before they're entirely wiped out!

Well, have a happy Dave's New SNES Day, everybody!

Well, happy New Year! Go 2005! The year of champions... namely me! I'm sure you noticed that I didn't make a Christmas post, but I don't really like to do that sort of stuff. People can have their merry Christmas (whether they celebrate it or not) and I don't need to congratulate them on their commercial exchanges on a holiday which now has little or no religious meaning, as it was originally intended as the celebration of life and the birth of Jesus, not a gift exchange. On that note, I got a lot of awesome stuff for Christmas!!! >_>

Hehehhe! Being a hypocrite can be fun!!! Anyways, in December (using gift certificates, Christmas money, and Christmas gifts) I got six games:

• Viewtiful Joe
• Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
• Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II
• Star Wars Rebel Strike: Rogue Squadron III
• Metroid Prime

Having just beat Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy a few hours ago I have a lot of gaming to look forward to in this new year, nevermind all the 2005 titles I'll be getting!

Well, to ring off the new year I saw a movie with some friends. House of Flying Daggers, to be exact. To be honest I was a little disappointed, but it was still a very good movie. It's a very well told story, although it can be a little strange and far-fetched at times. Still, I quite liked it.

Well, I'm not up to much, hence this random entry. Oh, except there was one rather (un?)pleasant happening. I had to have Christmas dinner with my family, which I have no problem with. However, my stupid, snobby cousins had to come too. So, I was in a not-so-good mood at the dinner table (at least for Christmas), and the snobbiest of them all asked me to pull her Christmas cracker for her. So I yanked it and the prize inside, a toenail clipper (all of the prizes were really weird and random) flew out with a lot of force and hit her right in the face!!!! Tee hee!!!! She has a little cut, but it won't scar. I'd feel a little guilty if it did.

Well, I suppose I may as well come out and say it, to avoid a whole list of pointless moral ramblings. Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year!!!! *grumbles* We all knew I'd have to say it some time, and I'm hungry so I'd rather not sit around for too long trying to make a stupid argument. >_>

End.

But are these absolutely photorealistic graphics truly necessary. Does the game really need to look like we're playing a movie? I think eventually it might get a little weird, especially with games containing excessive violence, blood, and/or *ahem* riske behaviour and outfits. To be honest, I don't want graphics to eventually get (nearly) perfectly realistic, and I hope that never happens, although it appears it is approaching rapidly. Do we need these? Don't get me wrong, great graphics in a game are nice, but complete realism... that not so much. Nintendo has proved with Paper Mario that "bad" graphics, or an unrealistic art style can actually enhance the game, and I think the industry may be getting too continually caught up with the latest cutting-edge graphics.

Also, this might make you think, where is the industry going to evolve past the latest graphical upgrades. Apart from the DS and, if you still remember it, Virtual Boy, no console or handheld has really been anything revolutionary or out of the ordinary since the original NES, Gameboy, or even Atari days. Do you think that graphics will just continually improve, of do you think companies will actually try to innovate the industry, perhaps at a slight risk of photorealism?

Pictures can be seen here.

I posted this in the Virtual Underground earlier, too, if you wish to see some responses, or just reply to my entry,

This is kind of a pointless, random entry, but while Christmas shopping I saw Viewtiful Joe and I bought it! Finally the massive voids in my collection are being filled. More specifically the old games that I missed are being purchased, as that void is the thing that's been bothering me the most! It was $20, good price, and it seemed like a very good game. I have played it a little bit and am pretty impressed. While currently I don't know if it's quite deserved of a 9.2, I am very amused and it seems quite interesting. We'll see if the game picks up from here. If it does, then I'm in for a treat!

However, I scoured my EB and no sign of Eternal Darkness. This is getting on my nerves!!! But, now that I have Viewtiful Joe to tide me down for a while, I suppose I can wait. But, I fear that it will just get rarer and rarer with time, so I hope to pick it up as soon as possible. As much as I hate Ebay, I may have to use that as a final resort.

Ciao.

I must say, I'm rather impressed with myself lately. Normally I leave all of my Christmas shopping to a short window between the 20-24 of December. However, I have almost all of my shopping done already, and nearly all of my Christmas decorations up! Kudos to me! While I can't get too cocky, because I'm sure I've forgotten something, I'm just glad that I'll have some stress and weight off my shoulders so that I can actually enjoy the days leading up to Christmas and Christmas Eve, instead of spending every waking minute scattering around trying to mend, buy, make, decorate, and such and such. Still, I bet there'll be some Christmas hazard like there always seems to be. Like last year, when the Christmas tree fell over on the dog, or two years previous when my father fell off the roof when fixing a few bulbs on the roof on Christmas Eve. I just hope this year can be as normal as possible... well, at least for my family! =p

However, on the note of having things finished I've finally finished Starfox Adventures! The game took me extra long because I encountered a glitch and had to restart, but now everything is said and done. I must say, it's quite an amusing game, and I was impressed by it. It was far better than what many people say, as it appears to have churned out quite a negative and nit-picky fanbase, but I thought it was good, despite some plain combat which got pretty stale after a while. You can expect a review up soon, but I'm not in the mood right now. ^.^

Now, I shall be moving on to Tales of Symphonia. I had it, and lost if for quite a while. I didn't want to get a new copy, because I knew that the minute that I got home I'd see it in some stupid, obvious place and just get mad at myself. But, I found it half way through Starfox Adventures, and I shall being playing it soon. Not tonight though, I have plans. All is well and good. Except for that dishwasher of mine. It's having some pretty serious malfunctions. Occasionally spurting out random water, not turning off, getting jammed, the whole shibang. I think it's about time to say goodbye to the old bird, and go for a model that isn't slightly dated. Oh, if only Santa were real... Well, apart from that little defect, everything's wrapping up nicely.

A few years ago I barely listened to any music at all. I would occasionally flip on the car radio and look around, trying to find a good song, but I had lost my interest for listening to music. However, about a year ago I started regularly listening to the radio, and began listening to music again. I don't know why I lost interest, but I think it was because all the music I had was just shallow, meaningless noise. It was fun to listen to, but it just lost its flare. For about a two year period I hadn't listened to a single CD. Now, I'm rediscovering my love for music. After listening to a whole bunch of radio stations, I finally went into a nearby music store and bought a few CDs. One CD which I stumbled upon, was The Beatles (By The Beatles, obviously), often known as The White Album. This CD absolutely blew me away, and since I have been discovering the true magnificence of The Beatles.

When I was younger I always thought of The Beatles as some lame pop band with Yellow Submarine, and Octopuses Garden (believe it or not, the only two Beatles songs I'd heard). I was a faithful listener to such groups as Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Aerosmith, etc. I was all about my hard rock, and dismissed all else as garbage. As I matured I branched out, but music kind of lost me, hence my two-year music drought. Now, however, my music-listening career has begun anew, this time as a faithful listener to The Beatles, or at least music with meaning. Not only are the Beatles fantastic instrumentally and lyrically, but they also send out a message. They believed in a peace, a brighter tomorrow and they had ideals which they expressed through their art. Some of their songs are just great to listen to, like Glass Onion, but so many of their songs send a message, speak to someone, or at least have some purpose, not a mindless blur of swears, and deafening guitar.

The early Beatles were a bit pop-ish. In fact, they were even considered a pop group back in the early sixties, and most of their songs were kind of boring, typical, shallow love songs. However, at about the release of Help, the Beatles finally broke through into more meaningful music. There were biographical cries for help (Help, Nowhere Man), cries for love lost (Julia, Yesterday), songs for togetherness and unity (Come Together, Let It Be) songs of personal pain (Yer Blues, You've Got To Hid Your Love Away), cries for not biographical help, but the aiding of others (Hey Jude, Dear Prudence), songs of disgust (Sexy Sadie, Revolution) and many incredible songs in between (Strawberry Fields Forever, I Am The Walrus, Across The Universe) which have some deep meaning that nobody but John, Paul, George and Ringo know. For this, and the fact that nearly every Beatles song is remarkable, the original "Fab Four" are now easily my favourite artists, that's right, artists! Their work is phenomenal, and unforgettable. While a few songs are very poor (Revolution 9, Wild Honey Pie) there are just too many fantastic, meaningful songs that stand out too much to be left out.

There are other artists which capture the imagination, and try to promote a good message, but The Beatles were genuinely fantastic people, and their music is amazing. If anybody has yet to hear them, I highly recommend you purchase a Beatles CD; that is if you like rock, or pop music. They are the reason why I once again listen to music, and I just wish their career wasn't so short lived.

On a side note, I just finished my review on Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Feel free to read it, as always.

Never in many, many years have I had so much fun as I had today, in a sports video game. I played for at least 4 hours straight (excluding washroom breaks), and had to peel myself away from my GameCube, as I had to eat something. Of course, I'm referring to Mario Power Tennis. I rented it earlier today, more as an experiment than anything else. I wanted to test it out, see what all the fuss was about, and maybe have a good time. Well, it would just so happen that the latter would turn out incredibly so! All I have to say is that if you own a GameCube, go get this game, NOW! It is one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had lately in a video game, and easily one of my favourite sports video games of all time. It's funny, inventive, has a great presentation, and is just fun to the core! The power moves are stunning, funny, and make the game fresh and so incredibly fun!!!

I'm not going to bore you with details, but this game is a must-have, and is easily working it's way to the top of my wish list. I have yet to play multiplayer, as I just rented it today, but the single-player is amazing. It's difficult (well, depending on which difficulty you're playing on) and fun in every aspect. Even when you play doubles with a CPU as a partner, the AI is very impressive, and you will definitely not feel like you have to cover the whole court in case your partner slips up. I just can't wait to get back to my TV to start playing it some more. I'm incredibly impressed with this game. Camelot is turning out to be a very useful company towards Nintendo, and I think Nintendo should go out on a limb, and get Camelot to produce a larger title, like an Earthbound game, instead of just using them to make Mario's sports adventures. They have proved themselves as a developer, and this is easily their best game yet! Kudos to you Camelot, and Nintendo as well. If Mario spin-off games continue to be this fun, and of this high quality, all I have to say is: Keep 'em coming!