If anyone tracks my comments and blogs (i doubt it), they probably realize my biggest complaint about the game industry is its constant rehashing and lack of innovation.

That said, sometimes all I want to do is step outside, raise my hands to the sky, and scream up to the heavens "I WANT THE NEXT TEKKEN!!!!"

Seriously, seems like it's been forever since we've had a new Tekken installment. I can vaguely recall reading some kind of news about it way back when, but the last one I can remember really enjoying was Tag Tournament. Pretty fond memories of passing those boring days at the dorm with my buddies Freshman year, or playing it while we pregamed for some big party. Good stuff.

Yeah, there was another one after that, right? 4 or something... but it just didn't live up. My point is, I guess, industry stagnation is a bad thing, but man I love when games throw all the characters from their universe into one big mega roster! The last great Mortal Kombat was Trilogy, the best Tekken was Tag, and I have always, always wanted a Super Robot Taisen (means 'big war' in Japanese) game. If you haven't heard of those little gems, they're basically role playing games where all the giant robots from more or less every Japanese anime and TV show and game are thrown into one collosal RPG.

Of course copyright issues prevent them from being released in the states (i think they released one with a bunch of the character names changed and slight graphical tweaks to make them legally distinct, but come on, isn't that a giant copout?). I had the opportunity to buy the latest and greatest one while I was back in Japan the last time, but I was saving my money for Izakaya (japanese pubs), cigarettes, and my eventual flight home, so I took a pass.

Speaking of Japanese, anyone studying it out there will want to buy the DS 'game', "Kanji Sono Mama" (no, it's not about anyone's mom. It literally translates as something like, 'Kanji the way it is"). Best kanji dictionary i've ever had the pleasure of seeing. The DS Stylus lets you draw the kanji out so you just have to look at a kanji, and do your best artist impression on the DS screen and it will give you the meaning. Plus, when you type in Nintendo in Japanese characters, it gives you the Mario coin chime and a brief history of the company. Ha! Most paper kanji dictionaries are hopelessly confusing to use, and other electronic ones cost upwards of 300 American dollars, so it makes more sense to buy a 120 dollar DS plus the software. Note to college kids in Japanese classes: This is an excellent write-off to convince your parents to give you money for a DS.

Saw they finally recently released a Gundam RPG stateside. Got real pumped. Then realized it was from the "Chibi Gundam" (SD) series... come on... Huge, melodramatic space opera and Chibi robots? They just don't go together. It may be cool, but I don't know if I could take it seriously enough to play through it all.

Speaking of recently released RPGs, just blew some money on Persona 3 FES. So far so good, gameplay-wise. First game I've bought in god knows how long. I just don't have the money or the time to be buying stale rehashes or FPS' with poor AI because the developer focused entirely on online content (don't have the money to take my consoles online),. After I bought it, I saw that crazy PS2 Alchemy RPG came out as well and regretted not buying it instead. I love the idea of Alchemy in games. I love exploring in games, and gathering alchemy components is a perfect motivator for aimless wandering.

But the Gamespot review of the game gripes about its graphics. Hey guys, can we make a policy to eliminate graphics as a factor in reviewing last-gen games? Honestly. Plus, this Alchemy game (forget the full, weird name) has pretty stylized graphics, so can't we forgive it for a 'dated' look? There's a reason DS sells the best out of all systems on the market. People don't care about graphics!! now more than ever.

Besides (and here's one for the conspiracy theorists), rumor has it that in both the PS3 and XBox360, certain 'liberties' have been taken with other components of the system so that the graphics can be juiced up. Cracked.com reported that enemy AI is actually getting STUPIDER in next gen systems because the power for the system to make really smart AI is being rerouted into the graphics. So we're doomed to more stupid FPS AI for at least another 6 to 10 years. Great. sometimes I fear that by the time games start being innovative and forward-thinking again, I will be old and have crippling arthritis.