So recently I got into playing this title I downloaded on my 3DS:

This is a title that often gets overlooked in the Zelda series and it's a shame because honestly this is one of the best ones I've played, up there with the criminally underated Minish Cap.

So for those who don't know the story. According the official Nintendo Zelda timeline this occurs in the "Defeated Link" timeline where he lost to Ganon in Ocarina of Time. Originally it was the direct sequel to A Link to the Past but actually now follows the 2 Oracle games (which as of now are the only 2 Zelda games I haven't played. Hoping to change that.) Fearful that Ganon might rise to power again, Link sets off to sea on a sort of spirtual quest to prepare himself for future battles. He gets caught in a storm, and gets shipwrecked on an island where he learns that if he wants to leave he has to collect 8 magic instruments to wake a magic whale who sleeps in a giant egg on a mountain top. Makes perfect sense.

Actually the story does make Link to the Past somewhat unique much like Majora's Mask. There's no Zelda, no Ganon and no Triforce and unlike MM there isn't even some looming threat of total annihlation. At one point the game hints that "if the Wind Fish sleeps too long, the hero's life is gone" but no giant threat of someone destroying the world.

Probably even more interesting about this game is the number of Mario cameos almost making this a Zelda/Mario crossover. Tarin most notably, a mustachioed man who's hunting mushrooms but several Mario baddies lurk in dungeons as well as Wart, the main baddie of SMB2 makes an appearance as the Frog King. Even Kirby and Dr. Wright from the SNES Sim City come along. Also early in the game you can get a Yoshi doll to trade later on.

Even more interesting about Link's Awakening is a lot of elements here would later show up for the next game Ocarina of Time. Such as the Ocarina itself. Now of course the original game had the magic whistle that warped you around the map but here, Link gets an ocarina and then has to seek out characters to teach him 3 different songs. One of which is taught by old Wart here.

Another element of this is the Trading Sequence. Everyone knows of the long tedious quest to get the Biggoron Sword in OoT but LA has it's own rather long series of trading items for something else eventually getting you the boomerang which in this title is insanely powerful so it's actually worth it. You also have the shell collecting where 20 shells upgrades your sword which isn't nearly as tedious as the Golden Skulltulas. The DX version has a "Color Dungeon" which was an optional bonus area where completing it allowed you to upgrade attack or defense.

If I had any complaints with this Zelda title it's that bosses are a bit easy. I fought a giant angler fish boss and killed him in a matter of seconds before he even really attacked as well as the boss of the face shrine can be killed easily with bombs. Also there's a fair amount of backtracking and though Kolohint Island is smaller than other Zelda worlds, it's not the easiest to navigate.

I'll save the rest for my review but this could end up being one of my all time favorite Zelda games.

So I finally beat Skylander Giants. No I didn't buy every figure out there. I will say while I did set it on hard mode, the game actually gets tough especiallly in the later half though some of the enemies are a bit on the cheap side and like with a lot of games, there's a lot of side stuff I can go back and do like finish heroic challenges or battle arenas or go find all the hats and treasure chests.

But that's not what I was going to talk about.

In Skylanders you can find hats for your characters that increase various stats and I honestly think the devs went out of their way to make some of the silliest hats around that have the best stat enhancers. One is a pair of heart print boxers, one's a traffic cone, there's a pimp hat, an atom, a bowling pin and so on but on the last level there is a tweed looking sideways ball cap that looks all too familiar.

Yep Scumbag Steve's hat is a hat you can equip in Skylanders. I hunted around to see if I could find a decent screenshot of it. I put it on Prism Break, a rock creature that lights up and shoots beams.

So just imagine scumbag Steve's hat on him with in game graphics.

Anyway I always find it funny when stuff like that pops up in games. Sadly no signs of Bad Luck Brian, Ermegerd or Grumpy Cat.

So by now we all know about the disaster that was the launch of the newest Sim City game. EA ever vigilant in trying to stop piracy and used games from hurting their bottom line continuing to punish honest consumers with on disc DLC, online passes and now making a game that requires you to be online all the time. Now mind you Sim City is not an MMO, it's a simulator where you build a city so there was no reason for them to make a simulator that required you to be online all the time. What made this worse is honest paying customers installed the game, booted it up and were met with server crashes, busy servers, long queues etc. for what? So EA's bottom line looks good.

Ever notice that all the companies doing the most scumbag of business practices are the big ones that make tons of money anyway like Activision, EA, Sony, etc. I also like to point out that you don't see Nintendo forcing you to pay for online passes or requiring you to be online all the time or charging you for on disc DLC but don't worry I'm sure we can find other ways to demonize them. We always do.

But Sim City is a cautionary tale for companies and how their paranoia of used games and piracy is leading to practices that do nothing but hurt honest gamers who pay for games fairly. My husband makes this argument that gun laws doesn't keep guns out of the hands of criminals, just punishes honest citizens but I'm not getting into that. For the last few years now companies like EA have been on a witch hunt of used games and piracy and the idea of making you be online all the time to play a game that you don't need to be online for is just another thing they're trying. And it blew up in their face. Meanwhile gamers who bought the game legally either through an online service like Steam or at a store are stuck not be able to play a game you bought because EA set up a system that doesn't work. We all remember that when it came out Smash Bros. Brawl had online issues of too many people wanting to play at the same time and while SSBB's online has always been messy at least you could still play offline and not be barred from playing it at all.

More importantly this should be a lesson to all game publishers that forcing people to be online a play a game like this just to prevent piracy is not the way to go. It's not fair to those who are honest in their purchase and those who didn't buy the game at launch day are going to read about these issues and say "screw that" and find something else. I saw that Steam actually had a sale of City Sims that didn't require you to be online like Tropico. And I'd say if you were going to buy the new Sim City but saw all this crap going on, I'd definintely at least hold off until this gets fixed or save your money for something else.

Also with rumors abound that the next Xbox wants to require you to be connected to the internet at all times, this may be a red flag for them. Imagine wanting to play the next gen Halo single player campagin and not being able to do that because of crowded servers. Especially if Xbox wants to charge for their online service again, something like this happening would really hurt them.

So by now everyone knows that the six Generation of Pokemon has begun with Pokemon X/Y and the WiiU's Pokemon Scramble. Now this is not going to be about if Pokemon is overmilked or if it keeps doing the same thing over and over again or why there's never been a proper console game. All those dead horses have been beaten repeatedly.

I was talking with someone on a forum about how I never really got into Pokemon which they seemed shocked. Though I am not alone both the Game Overthinker and Andre the Black Nerd aren't much of Pokemon fans either.

Black Nerd: http://www.screwattack.com/shows/black-nerd-rants/black-nerd-hates-pokemon

Game Overthinker: http://www.screwattack.com/shows/partners/game-overthinker/tgo-special-memories

Now Bob, Andre and I are all in our early 30s where most of you reading this probably skew about 5 to 10 years younger...most of you. And we are sort of First Generation Nintendo fans, weaned on the NES, who grew up with Mario, Zelda and Metroid and we stood by Nintendo through Sega and Sonic and even when we were being mocked for liking Nintendo and their "baby" console. And then Pokemon came out and it was everywhere. On TV, entire aisles in stores devoted to Pokemon toys. Nintendo made a new IP and it was massive hit....aaaaannnd us long time fans were not happy about that. We didn't like the idea of these little pocket monsters eclipsing Mario and Link. It's hard to imagine this and remember at the time the internet was in its infancy so you didn't have a ton of websites complaining about how this new IP that was getting youngsters all excited and helping keep Nintendo afloat while getting beat up by the PS1.

Hmmm. A new IP at the time.

Being super popular.

Bringing in a new audience of youngsters.

Making older gamers upset.

What does that sound like?

And thus brings us to the title. Nintendo fans are a funny bunch. We sit and scream and cry about not having new IPs but every now and then a new IP does come along that is suddenly REALLY popular and we get all mad about it. Because while we want new IPs, they can't be more popular than Mario or Zelda. Imagine if the WiiU introduce some new title that was an action FPS that was more amazing than any other FPS out there and this skyrocketed WiiU sales and became a massive hit. How many of you Nintendo die hards would get mad and feel like "Nintendo sold out?" and jumped on the grim and gritty bandwagon despite that this new game brought in new audiences? See what I'm getting at. And don't give me that "Pokemon's a real game! It's totally different" crap. That means you're totally missing the point.

This brings me back to Pokemon. I do recall some animosity of older Nintendo fans towards Pokemon at least at the beginning because it was annoying to see stores full of Pokemon toys and the anime running on TV all the time yet nowhere could you find Mario cartoons or toys (at least now we have the old shows on DVD and there's no shortage of Mario swag for sale). Pokemon for a while was like on the cover of every other Nintendo Power (RIP) issue. It was odd that despite it's massive populairity Nintendo has yet to make a proper console game version and maybe if there had been a Pokemon 64 maybe some of the older Nintendo crowd might have tried it. Really Pokemon didn't get fully accepted by Nintendo fans until Smash Bros. when Pikachu and Jigglypuff were on the roster.

I am not going to say I hate Pokemon. I have no reason to hate it. I never played a Pokemon game other than Pokemon Snap. Maybe I'd actually like it. I even asked my buddy Cloud that if I decided to give it a try which one I should cut my teeth on and he was quite helpful in suggesting titles. Maybe I'll give it a try. Either pick up an older one I can play on my 3DS or wait for X/Y.

In the end, the Earth didn't open up. Pokemon is still around but so are Mario and Link and Kirby and the rest of the Nintendo crew so when the whole "casual Wii game" thing started and people started crying that it was going to destroy gaming, I just rolled my eyes, had a good laugh because I lived through the last "end of gaming."

So Sony's announcement showed us a bunch of stuff everyone's talked about. So far the only thing that interested me was Knack (see previous blog) but most of us wonder about cost and it's lack of backward comptablility and all that.

More I see is Sony's whole "social intergration" thing. Honestly I'm not a fan. Remember this is the same folks who had that giant failed experiment called Home. Yeah remember how that was going to be so huge? Who wouldn't want to spend real money to buy virtual clothes and furniture in a Second Life knockoff?

But now I hear about how people can jump into your game and "help you" which I see being clogged up with the "stop having fun guys." For those who don't know who "stop having fun guys" are. Most commonly they're the ones playing SSBB who constantly go the "NO ITEMS! FINAL DESTINATION!!" But they manifest in other ways. When I would play World of Warcraft I often ran into players who would look at my gear or stats and say "wow your DPS sucks! Why don't you get better gear? You need to do this this this" And I often had to tell people that this was my first time playing and I was learning as I went and I didn't have another high level toon that could send me endless amounts of gold to buy up all the best gear at the auction house. Now in fairness my fellow guild members were polite about helping me out mainly so I could go on raids. Because the Catch 22 of WoW is you need good gear to raid but can't get good gear unless you raid. But I digress.

More and more gaming is trying to be this big social network where everyone knows what you're playing, when you're playing it, how you're progressing and this is of course reflecting back on our society where everyone wants to share everything all the time. Take a picture on your phone and a minute later it's on Facebook for the world to see. Heck my PS3 let's me post my trophies and any new PS Store purchases to Facebook. We may feel more connected but at times all this socializing gets on my nerves. I already expressed my annoyances with Facebook and how the wall is clogged up more with everyone posting random pictures or using it to shove their political/relgious beliefs down my throat.

For example my friend who is also a PS3 user is on all the time because he doesn't have cable and doesn't have a job and watches Netfilx all day long. It's either him or his daughter watching cartoons. And all too often I'll be playing a game and of course he can see what game I'm playing only to have him bug me later about what I was playing or why I was playing this instead of that. And since more and more games are wanting you to be online all the time, it's not like you can just sign off to get some privacy.

I'm not all that big on online gaming. I don't like FPSes and most of my experiences online haven't been enjoyable. Too many cheaters, trolls, and people telling me how to play. One of the reasons my husband and I got rid of our Xbox 360 was neither of us played enough online to justify that yearly fee. I've been in the camp of I don't think every game needs to shorehorn in multiplayer and sometimes you want to sit alone and just enjoy a single player adventure. I hate that single player modes are being ruined by forced Co-op with the AI partner being braindead (Epic Mickey 2) and I hate seeing a single player mode be gimped because the devs felt like the HAD to put a half assed multiplayer in there. I get annoyed in Little Big Planet 2 when I want to play a stage by myself and it's constantly saying "someone wants to join! Someone wants to join" and constantly telling it no. I like seeing people's creations but I don't want that experience ruined because some idiot 12 year old felt the need to butt in and constantly racing ahead of me making me die.

The worst part of this is more and more it seems like wanting to enjoy a solo experience makes you some anti social weirdo. I'm not. I like spending time with friends and family IN PERSON. I like playing stuff like Mario Kart and Smash Bros. with people in the same room so I can throw things at them if they start being dicks. lol And that's the thing, while all this online social networking might be nice, I'm sorry it is not a replacement for real human interaction.

And sometimes you'd like to be left alone.

Thanks for reading and if you want...

3DS Code: 2277-7938-7796

PSN ID: Slashingkatie

So Sony's big PS4 announcement. Yadda yadda yadda. Has a controller that reminds me of the Dreamcast controller with its little screen. Fancy specs, Cloud crap and all this social intergration I don't care about. Scanning through announcements...

And then I....

http://www.gamespot.com/news/knack-announced-for-the-playstation-4-6404208

Do my eyes deceive me?

A 3D platformer?

Cute cartoony visuals?

A new IP and not an indie thing like a full AAA game?

It's like a dream. The last thing I expected to see out of any next gen console was a cute, colorful new IP. Wouldn't it be wonderful if this game was a big hit and cartoony platformers dominated gaming once more killing all the grim and gritty shooters.

Ahh I can dream.

My last blog got the most response so far though you gotta love the number of comments from people who simply read the title and didn't bother reading the actual blog and instead assumed it was just another "why PC's are superior to consoles" blog. Seriously users, people take time and write thoughful and insightful blogs, I know some of you have ADD and reading more than a paragraph is hard because you get distracted by shiny objects but don't comment on something you didn't actually read especially when said comments are addressed in the blog.

It's been a while but I sat down and got several reviews written. Feel free to check it out.

• Super Mario 3D Land
• Little Big Planet Karting
• Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed
• Playstation All Stars Battle Royale

That is all.

So now rumors keep abounding about the next Playstation and Xbox. It's a safe bet that at E3 they'll show off their next consoles. We all know this. It's just a matter of wondering what the hell they're going to do and what games we'll see.

But let's talk about at least what's rumored right now because frankly I don't like it.

It's already rumored now that Sony patented some sort of tech that will make the console block used games from being played in it and that it's controller will have a touch screen in it.

But as for the Xbox "Durango" as it's code name is. Well here's this. http://gengame.net/2013/02/rumor-next-xbox-will-universally-include-kinect-require-mandatory-game-installs/

So let me get this straight, the next Xbox will require you to install all games, will not let you play used games on it, will require you to be connected to the internet at all time and multitask?

Congratulations Microsoft you made a PC...again.

Now before all you elitist PC gamers start bragging about how PC gaming is not dead and how superior it is and staring down from your ivory computer towers, let me explain something about us console gamers. The reason console gamers play consoles is so we don't have to deal with the annoying crap PC gamers seem fine dealing with.

I don't like the idea of having to tinker with my computer tower constantly replacing memory cards and graphics cards. I like being able to sit on my couch and play a game instead of hunched over my PC all the time. I do that all day at work. I like LOCAL MULTIPLAYER. Don't see a lot of PC games supporting that. Not even LAN support hardly anymore. I like console games because I have the freedom to trade in games I either don't like or don't want to hang onto. And over the years the nice thing about consoles was NOT having to deal with the headaches of constant patching, updating, and being able to trade in old games.

But during this last gen we've seen the consoles slowly trying to be more like computers. For a while games were leaving out local multiplayer which as shocking as this sounds, not all gamers are friendless losers. A lot of us like to have actual human interaction. Also we see more and more consoles needed to be updated and console games needing patched and more and more it seems as though the line distinguishing PCs from consoles is getting more and more nebulous.

This brings me back to my argument. Why should I bother with a PS4 or 360 when I have a perfectly good PC? You see while I don't consider myself a "PC Gamer" I do spend more time with my consoles, my husband is more of a PC gamer. When we first met, he loved playing PC games but money was tight for us and instead of putting hundreds of dollars into a suped-up gaming computer, it was more economical at the time for him to get an (original) Xbox. But now we have better jobs and more disposable income and thanks to sites like Tiger Direct and New Egg, he can get good deals on parts to build one. The PC we're currently using is a beast with six fans and even with the PS3, my husband found himself spending more time on his PC. While it's not my primary gaming platform I've spent a fair amount of time gaming on it as well. Do you really want to hear about the 3 years of my life spend in Azeroth? And I do agree that Steam is a great service that almost makes up for the inability to trade in old PC games.

When I told my husband about the rumored "abilities" of the PS4 and Xbox 720 or "Durango" or whatever. He agreed that what was the point of buying consoles that wouldn't let us play used or borrowed or rented games and if it's going to make us do all the crap we already do with our PC, what's the advantage? Kinect? Hahahahahaaha!! Exclusives? At least in terms of the next Xbox, what exclusives? I don't like shooters. Maybe with the few Sony exclusives I like but I'll see. And if my husband and I want to play stuff together, I still plan to get a WiiU because I like Mario and Zelda and that's the only way I'll get to play Mario and Zelda and it's not doing that used game blocking tech. But it appears for the forseeable future we'll be a WiiU/PC house.

You never know, E3 could roll around and Sony and Microsoft could say "hey you know those ideas we had to make our consoles not play used games and forcing you to be online all the time? Yeah we decided to think of the consumer first and not be greedy jerks on a witch hunt to stop used games." Yeah and monkeys could fly out of my ass.

So by now it's known that Rayman Legends is no longer a WiiU exclusive as well as it's going to delayed again until Sept. now. Now first of all while I am a Nintendo fan, I have no problem with this going multiplatform. 3rd party exclusives are becoming a thing of the past. We saw this last gen when once exclusive Sony titles like Final Fantasy and Devil May Cry jumped to the 360. Companies need to make money and to do that you want to get the title on as many platforms as you can leaving first party exclusives to push consoles.

I loved Rayman Origins. Easily my favorite game of 2011. After years of being upstaged by the Rabbids and being another obscure platforming star, Rayman returned in a 2D sidescroller that put all the others including Mario to shame. Amazing visuals, excellent controls and challenging without feeling cheap and thank God Ubisoft didn't do the stupid "downloadable episode" crap like Sega did with Sonic 4. I was psyched to play it especially after playing the WiiU demo. Mind you the only actual playable demo on the WiiU kiosks. Legends was going to be multiplatform but then was announced as a WiiU exclusive that gamers didn't have a hissy fit over now going back to multiplatform. Geez Ubisoft make up your minds.

What upsets me is well this... http://www.gamespot.com/news/rayman-legends-developer-attacks-shiy-industry-for-wii-u-delay-6403650

I simpathize with these devs. Imagine you work you tail off for months, spending time away from your family, working hard to meet the deadline then less than a month before release the suits come in and say "whoops, we're going multiplatform now and it's not going to be out until Sept. so you can do this." I'd be pissed off too.

Also supposedly the WiiU version of the game is nearly done? Why make this version sit on the sidelines just so the 360 and PS3 ports can get made and all be released at once? Release the WiiU version on it's set date, then release the other two in September. Everyone wins. WiiU owners get to play a title they've eagerly awaited. 360/PS3 owners who wanted to play it will get to. Everyone wins.

What most have said is even more disappointing about this push back to Sept. is that it's the same month GTAV as well as the HD WW remake are coming out. March saw no huge releases for Legends to have to compete with especially not on the WiiU. Poor Origins came out the SAME DAY as Modern Warfare 3 and thankfully managed to get an audience. Why would Ubisoft want to make such changes this close to launch? Then again this is Ubisoft and it wouldn't be the first dumb thing they did.

Still want to play Rayman Legends one way or another.

Thank you all for your patience. I know it took a while but things came up but here it is, I had to do some serious research to find the worst games that dared tried to copy the MK formula and there are some stinkers on here.

#5 Pocket Bike Racer

It's probably not fair to put this one on the list becauase most of us got it free from Burger King and it's like complaining about a crummy Iphone game that was free but still, Burger King and MS collaborated to make what is essentially a commerical. Though most people I know who got this one said it wasn't awful and was the best of the 3 BK games but still, I was amazed BK had enough mascots to make a racing game.

#4 Kinect Joy Ride

I have to take a moment to go piss on Kinect once more. Here's a brilliant idea, make a racing game with an invisible steering wheel. And since MS doesn't have cuddly mascots of it's own, you get to use your Mii....er Avatars and it's probably not right to lump it in with MK clones because it has a lot of other modes besides standard racing but it is another reminder of how poorly any Kinect game not called Dance Central fails. I had found a video of a guy playing this where he basically sits there and barely moves and gets third place.

#3 Wacky Races: Crash and Dash

You'd think this classic Hannah Barbera cartoon would make for an excellent kart racing experience and from what I've heard, other illeterations of this are pretty good but this one for the Wii which my nephews owned is abyssmal. There's no acceleration button, the items are useless, the controls suck and the races are boring. It has very little challenge or excitement as you don't accelerate or break, just steer through an autoscrolling stage until you finish.

#2 Sonic Drift

I had to put the first Sonic Drift on the list especially since I gave Sonic's most recent racing game the #1 slot. This came out not long after Super Mario Kart and it's easy to see this was Sega trying to quickly cash in on Sonic's sudden populairity as well as the populairty of Mario's kart racer. But it was only on the Game Gear, a handheld that sucked up batteries like Honey Boo Boo sucks up spagetti. The first one wasn't even released in the US and if you played it, it was probably unlocked on Sonic Adventure DX. You get a whopping four racers to pick from, Sonic, Tails, Robotnick and Amy. The screen is so small, it's hard to see and it's cut in half with a map taking up the top part, also due to the hardware, the draw distance is pitful. Sonic Drift 2 slightly improved it, adding Knuckles, Fang and Metal Sonic and having slightly better track design but overall, one of those games that not even the most idiotically devoted fans will defend. "Why am I in a car? And that's why Sonic Drift sucks!" -Sonic Shorts

#1 M&M's Kart Racing

Talk about a shameless tie in. I like the M&M's characters in the commercials. They made one of the more memorable Christmas ones with a fainting Santa and who doesn't love M&M's but of all the shamless ways to make a buck. One of many games out there that's just a commercial tie in and hopes to make a few quick bucks off unsuspecting kids and casual gamers. Awful controls, bad graphics. Even got Gamespots Dubious Honor of 2008.

So there's the worst MK clones around. It was hard to find worth contenders as many either had no reviewes to read or weren't as bad as I thought because when it comes to bad kart racers, we tend to avoid them so if you don't like my picks or think something was left out, go write you're own list.