With the announcement of a new Mario Kart title coming to the Wii U console in the future (no surprise), I would like to discuss the cheap items that this popular racing series posses in past titles. So here we go.

The Mario Kart series is known to have a few items that felt rather cheap to the opponent, trying to get pass them on the track. Items such as the spiny shell (blue shell) and bullet bill are the most unfair items that appeared in most of the racing titles.

The blue spiky shell appeared in every installment of the series except for the original on the Super Nintendo system. The blue shell would usually be given to the racer who isn't racing too well on the current track. This spiny shell strikes the opponent who is in first place, and maybe even racers who were right in back of them. That is just so cheap in my opinion. You are familiar with the current track and you are drifting as well as using every item to your advantage. Then you get struck by that spiky shell, by a opponent that has no chance of passing you. Very unfair.

Mario disapproves that spiny shell, you can see it in his eyes.

Another item in this racing series that is rather cheap is the Bullet Bill. This item was only in Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart Wii, and Mario Kart 7 for the Nintendo 3DS handheld. Bullet Bill is also given to a racer who is probably last when they hit a item box. This item controls your kart through the track for a good five seconds, passes up to four racers maybe. Why not just give them golden mushroom instead. That would pass quite a few opponents, but you still have control of how you are doing such thing.

Other items that I find cheap in the Mario Kart series are the Thunder Cloud that only appeared in Mario Kart Wii (very glad it wasn't in Mario Kart 7) and Lucky 7 that appeared in the recent installment of the series, Mario Kart 7. Lucky 7 gives the racer seven items at one time. Items such as a star and bob-omb.

This seems a little too lucky..

The Mario Kart series certainly isn't broken with these unfair items, but hopefully the new installment for Wii U gets rid of them (spiny shell for sure). Maybe replacing them with similar function items, but more fair for the opponents.

Well that is all for now. What items in this racing series do you find cheap? Thank you for reading and please feel free to leave a comment below. Have a good day tomorrow.

(This was originally posted as a rant at the Mushroom Kingdom Union)

Art has been a part of my life for several years now, learning new mediums throughout high school. I've took classes on drawing, paintings, ceramics, digital art, and even photography over the four years, but simply drawing is what I do best. Doodling (fun word to say) is quite relaxing to me, where as painting can get stressful. Here are a pieces of artwork that I drawn recently.

This is Shredder from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. I first drew it out, then went over with ink. Used the scribbled line technique, which I use quite often. I ripped it up to give it some irony.. :P

Yoda, I am. I recently starting drawing with a colored pencil, and really enjoy how it feels. Took about a half hour with this sketch, wanting it to turn out well.

I hardly ever color a whole drawing since it takes too long and shading doesn't show as well compared to just black and white. I took tons of time (about five hours) with this drawing because I'm going to enter it into my anime club's art contest this month.

Wolverine. I actually drew this late last night. Where is his trademark claws might you ask? My reference had the claws by his face, so I left them out. I added the yellow later, making it pop more. I only spent 20 minutes drawing this.

Well, that is all for now. Question, do you have a hobby that deals with art? I was very glad that the Baltimore Raven won Super Bowl XLVII last weekend, hanging on to the lead after a power outage. Thanks for reading this blog post and leave free to leave a comment below. Have a great day tomorrow.

Hello to my fellow gaming friends and welcome to another blog post of mine. I haven't had the time to post a blog in over a month and tons of things happen during that time. So let's get right to it. Here we go (I must use this phrase).

Black Friday of last year (about two months ago) was quite crazy for my family and I. We actually went to Wal-Mart on Thursday night, seeing the God of War Saga in their ad for only $15 dollars. Good thing I wanted PlayStation 3 games, rather then XBOX 360 because that line was messy. It wasn't really a line though. They had their game in this square box and customers just surrounded it before it was opened by a employee. Customers by the XBOX 360 game box was pushing and shoving, where as PlayStation fans were not as bad. I was able to get the God of War Saga that I wanted and NBA 2K13 for just $25. My brother picked up Batman Arkham City GOTY Edition the next day for only $15 dollars as well.

I only played a tad bit of Chains of Olympus, enjoying it. Looking forward to started the original title in the near future.

Many of you know that I'm a big fan basketball and I haven't played a 2K title since 2006. Really enjoying it with friends.

I adored Batman Arkham Asylum and I've been waiting for the GOTY edition of Arkham City to come on sale.

My famiy and I seen The Hobbit: An Expected Journey about a month ago and I thought it was truly amazing. The action and the light hearted scenes tied in rather well. I first seen the Lord of the Rings Trilogy at a young age, had a hard time understanding what so going on. I wanted to re watch the trilogy in anticipation for The Hobbit, and I was blown away by how great it is. I now adore the series, having so many memorable characters.

My Christmas this year was filled with Legos. I first purchased the Lego Lord of the Rings game for the PS3, adoring every minute of seeing Gandalf in Lego form. On Christmas morning, I opened two Lego LotR sets. The first one was from the Hobbit (seen in the image above) and the second set is from a scene in the Return of the King. The Hobbit set took me several hours to complete, listening to Shire music in that time. I also received a gift to Amazon and some money that I have yet to spend.

I haven't played too many titles that were released in 2012, since I bought a PS3 in late 2011. I played games from Uncharted series as well as the InFamous titles. There are a few 2012 games though that I did play and enjoy. Here is my top five favorite games of 2012.

5. Kid Icarus Uprising
4. New Super Mario Brothers 2
3. Playstation All Star Battle Royale
2. Lego Lord of the Rings
1. Pokemon White Version 2

Speaking of Pokemon White Version 2, I've been playing it for weeks nonstop. A team tournament at my local library coming up so I'm training some legendary Pokemon for that. If you would like to battle me, send me a personal message. I won't use legendaries for our battle.

Anime Club at my local library comes once (wish it was twice) a month, and this month is having a Pokemon team tourament which I recently mentioned. It's more like video game club since we usually just play Brawl the whole time. They also have a art contest each month that I partake it in. This drawing of Goku came in second place last month.

The Mushroom Kingdom Union that I originally created is going strong, but needs some new active members to keep in full swing. If you are a fan of the Super Mario series, I would appreciate if you check it out here.

Well that is all for this rather long update. I will never put several subjects into one blog again lol. The Super Bowl is almost here yet again, hoping the Ravens win tonight against the Pats. Ray Lewis deserves another championship ring before retiring. Thanks for reading this and please feel free to leave a comment below. Have a good day tomorrow.

Hello to my fellow gaming friends and welcome to yet another exciting blog post of mine. Lately I have been drawing quite a bit, exploring with pen and ink. I might post some of my pieces next week if anyone wants to see them. Also, the huge college football rivalry is happening this weekend. The Michigan Wolverines are facing the Ohio State Buckeyes to end the season as usual. Michigan won last year, ending the Buckeye's eight win (I believe) streak against the Wolverines. Ohio State's football team is undefeated this year, but hopefully Blue can surprise us all. Anyways, on the main topic of this blog. Here we go.

Must own for fans of the fighting genre.

This past Saturday (the 17th) was my 20th birthday. You are probably wondering if I received the Wii U system since it released the next day, and the answer is no. I rarely purchase a new console on release since they often update just a year out on the market. The gifts I got from my birthday were just money. I purchased PlayStation All Stars Royale with the money, enjoying it too much already. Many feel that it's just a Super Smash Brothers rip off, but its really not. It feels much different. The object of the game is not to throw your opponent off the screen and it has much more unique attacks per characters and options galore. If you grew up with a original PlayStation, you may be disappointed that there is no Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. But Parappa The Rappa is playable, which I use him often. I plan to purchase many titles on Black Friday including God Of War Saga for only $15 dollars and Batman Arkham City for $10.

Well that all is all for now. Thanksgiving is tomorrow and will diffidently be watching Lions football. What are your plans for tomorrow? Thanks for reading this blog post and feel free to leave a comment below. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Hello to my fellow gaming friends and welcome to a blog post of mine. I haven't been able post here in over month since I have been busy with a variety of things. Last Friday was a meeting at anime club at my local library. I dressed up as Super Mario for the meeting, sort of regreting it since the mustache kept on falling off and the costume was choking me most of the time. Anywho, on to the main topic of the blog now. This may contain some SPOILERS, so read at your own risk. Here we go.

Yesterday was my mother's birthday and the whole family wanted to see Wreck-It Raplh eventually, since my mother really enjoys the casual Pac-Man now and again. So we went to see it at your local theater, looking forward to the release of the film for months. It first started with a short film called Paperboy, I believe. That was quite charming and I wanted to see more of it. The video game based film finally started and my eyes were glued to the screen the whole time. The references to game characters were a blast and somewhat noglastic. Ralph, himself was a very likable character and grew throughout the film. The story was delightful, tieing everything together in the end very impressively. I will definintlly be purchasing this film on DVD when its released, so much fun to watch.

Well, that is all for now. This film made me miss arcades very much, as well making me wonder why that there are hardly any running any more. Have you seen this game changing film yet? You certainly should ASAP. Thanks for reading this and please feel free to leave a comment below. Have a good day tomorrow.

Hello to my fellow gaming friends and I welcome you to yet another blog post of mine. I signed up Playstation Plus again the other day since they are many titles I wanted to give a try and are now free for plus members. Titles include Scott Pilgrim versus the World and the original Borderlands. I already finished the main story of Scott Pilgrim and I enjoy it quite a bit with the download being a side scroller, packed with action. For Borderlands, the sequel was just released and heard that the original was great. Controls for this first person shooter are tight and rather responsive. Anyways, on to the main reason of this blog, so here we go.

The Avengers was released yesterday and I already planned to wait to purchase this action packed film during the holiday season, get it for a cheap price. I was shopping with my mother yesterday, seeing it was now for sale. I went to the rather large stand that was holding the cases of the films, wanting to check out the back of one of cases. I looked at for just a second, when my mom asked if I wanted it. I was shopping with her for shoes the whole day and she felt that I deserved something and it was on sale already. For the DVD only, $17 dollars at my local Meijer store. I was shocked to see it was on sale, being released that day. We went go purchase it but I wanted to see the other combos of it. The DVD and Blu-Ray combo was also on sale for $20 dollars, originally costing $27. I asked if could that instead since it has deleted scenes and the first gag reel for a Marvel film (I really enjoy those). I popped it in last night, but watched only the menu screen which was pretty awesome in itself. I seen this film in theaters in early May, but felt like it was so action packed that it was tough to soak it all in. I wanted to own so I could enjoy every scene, including Hulk being so darn humorous.

Well that is all for this blog post. Do you plan to pick up phenomenal superhero film eventually and which avenger is your favorite (you can choose one that wasn't in the film if you want)? Mine is certainly the super soilder, Captain America. Thank you for reading this very blog and please feel free to leave a comment below. Have great weekend coming up.

Hello to my fellow gaming friends and I welcome to yet another blog post of mine. So the season of college football started yesterday and I was looking forward to matchup between Michigan Wolverines and the Alabama Crimson at Cowboys stadium. Bama scored 21 points in the first quarter whereas Michigan was scoreless. I turned it off after that, not wanting to see them score again. Hopefully they do much better against evenly matched teams this season. Anywho, now to the main topic of this blog, college life has begun for me. Here we go.

I looked for a college related meme and they were all junk.. :P

The past few weeks I have been looking forward to college to start, beginning a new chapter in my life. Classes started just few days ago and I had two classes that day in the evening. The classes are both core classes, english and math. My english will be focused on writing which is good for me, but math is a different story. I'm okay in the subject, but it don't find it interesting what so ever. Though I received a Notebook PC on the first day of math class, which will come in handy for english as well. I stlll have two classes that didn't start yet. Those are Introduction to Design/Construction and Materials of Construction. They are needed for the field I'm going into which is Construction Management Technology. It deals with the work before a building is built, including architectural drafting. Looking forward to those classes this Wedsday.

Well that is all. This is probably be my last blog post for a while since I will be writing tons for english class. Thanks for reading this and feel free to leave a comment below. Enjoy Labor Day friends.

Hello to my fellow gaming friends and I welcome you to another exciting blog post of mine. My college life will begin at the end of this very month, but I am looking forward to the next step in my life. I have been driving my first car all around the town and really enjoy it already. Now on to the main topics of this blog, so here we go.

Its Bronco time.

I had an idea for a union in early July of this year and pleaded for help shortly after that. After I found the charter members that were willing to help me out with the sports related union, it was finally created. SportsSpot is now in business and doing rather well so far, having over 30 members join in less than three weeks. This union is very laid back compared to the sports game forum and other sport related unions, not focusing on the stats at all. If you enjoy at least one sport, feel free to join it please.

After spending hours and hours with Tetris Axis for the Nintendo 3DS handheld, I found the time to give it a review. Every installment of this long running series has been quite addicting and has some extra content to make it worth while, but Tetris Axis went the extra mile with content. They are many of new modes to choose from. You can read the review right here. Feel free to give it a thumbs up.

Well that is all for now. I am looking forward to this season of the NFL, hoping to see the Detroit Lions in the Super Bowl for the first time ever. Thank you for reading this blog post and feel free to leave a comment below. Enjoy the rest of you summer.

Hello to my fellow gaming friends and I welcome you to yet another blog post of mine. Summer is really flying by now, having only a few weeks left until college starts. I am trying to enjoy every last day since I will be rather busy in the fall. Now on to the main topic of this blog, I will be discussing forgiveness of a certain franchise for this new feature on this site called Chalk Talk. The franchise that I forgive is the Pokemon franchise, for numerous reasons. Here we go.

Oh those pocket monsters..

The Pokemon series has been around for quite a long time now, releasing tons of titles that includes spinoffs and remakes, having numerous animated series over the years, and making fans want to collect trading cards of the pocket monsters. Some of these items were great fun at first, but then went completely downhill, whereas main entries to the RPG series still shine.

They convinced the world of gamers that you could catch all the Pokemon in the first generation. There are now over 600 pocket monsters throughout the series and they still try to use the same catchy slogan. I forgive them for that because I gave up on that dream a long time ago. Playing Pokemon titles for hundreds of hours has made me finally realize just that.

This series has included many spin offs on many platforms throughout the years. Catching pocket monsters with a pinball machine to just snapping a picture of them while riding a hovercraft has been just a few titles to their spin off collection. The Nintendo DS handheld included many of the spinoffs with both Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Pokemon Ranger releasing many entries for the system. Few of these spin offs were very delightful which includes Pokemon Snap (mentioned before) and recently released Pokemon Conquest. Pokemon Snap was surprisingly fun, taking photographs of Pokemon while using items to make them do certain things. Pokemon Conquest crossed with the Nobunagas Ambition formula to use the pocket monsters with strategic gameplay. Many of these titles may be enjoyable for long time fans as to others making them a waste of time and money. I forgive you for some of the boring spin offs (including the Rumble series) since there were a few titles that were worth a play through.

Early entries of this series have seen remakes for the current handhelds at the time. The first entries to the series had remakes for the Game Boy Advance as did the second generation for the DS handheld. Fans are expecting remakes of the third generation for the 3DS handheld in the future. Were these really necessary? Probably not, but huge fans did played them for the nostalgia. I forgive for these remakes because FireRed version is oh so fun.

Pokemon has seen its fair share of animated series as well. They have made quite a few series based on each generation of Pokemon. After the shows that used the second generation, it fell apart in my opinion. New voice actor for Ash as well as no more Misty. The first season was full of greatness, which had quite the catchy theme song. My parents bought me the soundtrack for Christmas a long time ago and I still listen to it here and there. The first few films released that were based on the series were very enjoyable. I remember going to see the first movie in theater with my father and brother. We were the only people who were watching it. I adored the film so much that still own a VHS tape of it somewhere. I forgive for the current episodes and films since the originals were great.

Pokemon trading cards started coming out shortly after the release of the first titles for the series. The cards had (and still have) amazing artwork. My brother and I used to buy packs and decks like it was going out of the style. We had hundreds of cards, boxes full of them. My brother still purchases a pack once and while just to see the artwork. When I was in elementary school, all of my friends had them. We would often trade and have battles during recess, not really knowing how to play. I remember we were playing during class time and we had a substitute that day. She took my deck of cards, including my brothers Chrizard card. She never gave them back to me and my brother is still upset about the situation. I will forgive you for the times that I bought a pack that had all the cards that I already owned because those days during elementary school were wonderful times.

Even though the Pokemon franchise had its ups and downs, it will always be a part of my life. I plan to introduce my children (long time from now) to the series. They will probably call it super lame or something in that matter. I love the Pokemon franchise and I always will.

Well that is all of this very long blog post. Do you forgive something that video game related? I thank you very much for reading this and please feel free to leave a comment below. Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Hello to my fellow gaming friends and welcome to another blog post of mine. I finally found my first vehicle a few days and I adore it quite a bit already. It has leather seating which is annoying at times, but I will get used to them eventually. Now on to the main topic of this blog. Here we go.

Now that its summer and have some free time, so would like to assemble a delightful union. That union I am speaking of is called SportsSpot, a union based upon all sports. We can discuss a certain sport or even the sports genre in gaming. The sports game forum here is not too organized and I want to have more with it, having off topic thread and game threads. I would like some help with this union, meaning charter members (about 5 of them) that will contribute as much as possible.

1. JBL_Fan7
2. Sockeymonkey
3. Tazzman1000
4. GamerofMario1
5. personyperson
6. tmaclabi

That all is all for today. I am in the middle of writing a review of Tetris Axis so look forward to that. Thank you very much for reading this and please comment on this blog post if you are interested. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.