I was playing Super Mario Bros. again today, trying once more to reach the end of the game. I was unable to do so, depite my use of the warp pipes accessed in world 4-2 that brought me directly to world 8-1. I'll tell you, that last world is a nightmare even greater than I expected. I managed to get to 8-3, but even then I was thwarted. Memorization seems to be the key.

It got me thinking about the beginnings of video gaming. Super Mario Bros. is a world famous game, but it is by no means easy. Many have had fun playing it, but how may can really say that they've gotten to the last level, beaten Bowser, and saved the princess? Maybe they achieved it through the use of warp pipes, or even used the hold A + press start ability to start where you left off. Consider, however, that when Super Mario Bros. was released for the first time, in Japan, there were no such shortcuts. Despite SMB popularity, it proves that it is truly a hard-core game that takes a great deal of time to master.

Flash foreward to today and think about the difficulty and structure of today's typical console games. We have the luxury of save points, hint-dropping NPCs, continue screens, multiple difficulty levels, et cetera. Today's games are clearly meant to be beaten by even the least experienced gamer. Many of these modern games like No More Heroes, Resident Evil 4, Metal Gear Solid, Halo, The Legend of Zelda, are all fun games, perhaps even icons of their time. However, they do demonstrate a major shift in video game difficulty. Instead of continuous stretches of successful progress, games now stress cumulative progression and frequent breaks in game-play.

This trend has begun to change as well with the advent of mini-game collections such as Warioware, or pseudo-games like Endless Ocean where even goals have become nebulous entities. As gaming reaches out to more and more different types of people, popular games will begin to reflect the overall likes of the whole, hence common denominators will pop up that will begin to eschew difficulty for less frustrating, shorter experiences that may (or may not) lack substance. For example, after examining top-ten list of the best selling games in the last year, one is likely to find Wii Play is frequently (if not always) ranked therein.

I'm not saying that gaming as we know it will come to an end. Hopefully, software companies will continue to recognize the value of challenging game-play coupled with involving story-lines. Besides, I think the Warioware games are pretty good, clearly exercising creativity within very short time spans. It's also worth mentioning that very difficult games are frustrating to most people, even experienced gamers. Do I need to remind people of Ghosts n' Goblins?

All I'm saying is that the way games are designed and what we as gamers expect from our games has evolved. Technology has given us some great gifts to play with over the past 20 years, and whether you are a hard-core or soft-core gamer, we all have something to enjoy. So look back at the classics every once and a while and think about how far we've come.

Just thought that I should disseminate some relevant info. Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which was released in Japan about two weeks ago, has already sold more than one million copies. In addition, notoriously tough gaming magazine Famitsu gave the game a perfect 40/40 score. It seems like we here have much to look foward to in March.

If anyone here has been monitoring the Smash Dojo site, you can see that this game is absolutely packed with content. Rather than list all of it, I'll just post the link right here: http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/index.html

Just to give you an idea of how much content I mean however, I will cite on notable example. Over the last few months, several characters have been announced, bring the total number of fighters to 24, with half of those being totally new to the franchise. Reading the latest post on the Dojo site, I found that these are only the announced characters, meaning that there are even more characters which can be unlocked!

This game is going to be dense for certain, and I am really starting to believe it will become the best game out on the Wii for a long time.

I just finished playing No More Heroes for the first time today. The first thing I would like to say is that it's really satisfying to have an quality action game come out on the Wii instead of increasing the ever-growing flood of minigame collections available. Second, I know that the game isn't perfect. There are a few issues I think could be improved, but the game's strong points, the visual style, the story, the pitch-perfect voice acting, the characters, and the satisfying combat, greatly outweigh its flaws. If a sequel is made (and God-willing, there will be a sequel), the flaws leave an excellent opportunity for an even better game to be created. Third, what No More Heroes has going for it most of all is style and vision. The twisted plot and 8-bit inspired touches really make this game stand out not just among Wii games but among games in general. It's just different, and even though there are a lot of really good games out there, I'm glad that some developers are creating some very unique games. It's like a breath of fresh air, in some cases.

What I hope for is that this title helps to clear a path for similar games on all the consoles. What I really, really want though, is for more substantial, action type games to be developed for the Wii by third parties so that the Wii owners can get a wider selection of titles for their console.

Yesterday I set out to go buy No More Heroes at the local Toys R' Us down the road from where I live. I went in, expecting to find it with all of the other Wii games. When I wasn't able to find it, however, I asked the guy behind the counter if they actually had it (perhaps the expected delivery hadn't come through yet). He said that they didn't have it, mentioning that the possible reason for this was Toys R' Us' apparent reluctance to stock Mature rated games on their shelves. Thanking the gentleman for his help, I went elsewhere for my game.

Eventually I did get No More Heroes (after visiting five more stores), but the Toys R' Us situation has me a bit concerned.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is nowhere near coming out, but that doesn't stop people from discussing it. If I were to choose one Disney related world to be included in the game, I would choose Nutziland from the 1943 cartoon, Der Fuehrer's Face. It just seems like that cartoon has enough depth to become a fully-realized world. With Disney running out of resource material, I figure they'll have to dig deep to be ready for the series' next installment anyway. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check this link here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZiRiIpZVF4

For the record, I have never beaten Super Mario Bros. This seminal masterpiece of video gaming, which came out only a year before my birth, is something which I have yet to conquer. This fact is not a really big deal since it doesn'tkeep me awake at night, haunt me inmy dreams, or anything of that nature. However, I do feel that as a gamer and a Nintendo fan, this is something I must do before I die. Today I came serveral steps closer to beating the game. On an old NES I bought at a flea market I started playing Super Mario Bros.today. Usually I die in World 5, but today I reached as far as World 7-2. I've never gone this far before. Maybe I can beats this sooner than I thought.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

2. Golden Eye

3. Super Mario 64

4. Super Smash Brothers

5. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

6. Star Fox 64

7. Mario Party 2

8. Perfect Dark

9. Mario Kart 64

10. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

I played the first Age of Empires sometime around 2000, and now that we've progressed to the third game in the series, I want to reflect on how far the series has progressed. In terms of gameplay, Age of Empires has grown increasingly refined over the last seven years. In terms of subject matter, the story has progressed from the stone age to the Age of Steam. It's impressive to think about. It would be awesome, I think, if the entire series was remade into one tremendous game where one could play a game hours long, stretching across every age in the series. It's not realisitic, I know, but it's something that would be awesome.

There are few games I've actually felt compelled to buy as soon as they came out. I'm rather cautious when it comes to buying games. I usually wait until I hear that a game is really good or until it becomes cheap enough to take a look at. There's only one that I can think of that I've actually anticipated and bought as soon as I could, and that was Kingdom Hearts II.