Wow — it’s been about a half a week and no new posts? Where is everybody? O_o

…just saying. *smirk* I’ll have some stuff to discuss in our latest edition of GotGame slated to appear tomorrow afternoon as we say good-bye to another “exciting” month and prepare for a surge of awesome pre-holiday goodies. And if I have enough energy, perhaps I’ll drop on here and pick a random gaming topic or two to discuss.

In other news, did anyone catch the season premiere of Smallville? Man, I thought it kicked ass, although I wasn’t expecting Clark to return from the Phantom Zone so quickly. Michael Rosenbaum did an awesome job portraying Zod who possessed his body. Lana once again found herself in the middle of another horrible crisis. I tell ya — that chick has the worst luck out of all the women on that show. She’s been stabbed, hit by a bus, possessed, and heartbroken on several ocassions. Chloe didn’t get too much screen time in this episode but we can count on seeing more of her in this season now that Jimmy Olsen (played by that kid who portrayed Iceman in the X-men flicks) is back at the Daily Planet. (Can you say love in in the air?) It’s too bad Clark and Chloe won’t be hooking up, I mean — it’s so obvious that they want to (I may never see you again — *smooch*) And then, Jimmy steps in and they act like they’re just friends. Boooo! Sorry, it’s so easy to get caught up with the show. If you haven’t been watching it by now… check out the “usual online sources” or better yet, help support the show by running out and picking up the DVD sets. Season 5 is now available too for those of you who want to catch up on some key events that will make a LOT more sense — trust me. Anyways, it’s late and the demo for Lego Star Wars II has finished downloading. I’m outta here.

My opinion on the PS3 is completely turned around. Kenny K totally fumbled the ball at the Sony press conference, but what they had on display on the show floor was jaw-droppingly stunning. Virtua Fighter 5 (looks to be arcade perfect, OMG), Lair (wow), and even Devil May Cry 4 (which doesn’t really switch up the gameplay at all) astounded graphically, and the ways in which MGS4 will use the tilt functionality of the PS3 controller look great. Also, let us not forget White Knight Story, from Level 5. Any doubts I had about the PS3 were erased by this TGS. Maybe Sony just decided rush their shitty keynote and let the show floor speak for itself. Plus, HDMI will now be in the 20 GB console! There is now no need to go for the $600 model.

As for the Xbox 360, MS actually provided a decent showing for the Japanese crowd. Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and Trusty Bell all look fantastic, and at least I know I’ll be buying them when they hit the U.S. Really though, they’re just holding out on their big guns (literally– all the stuff that will appeal to Western audiences) until X06.

Nintendo already held their event in Japan a week or so ago, and by now everyone knows about the American, European, and Japanese pricing schemes. Personally, I’m super excited… for Zelda. Now that Wii Sports will be packed in for “free,” I can only see myself getting Twilight Princess and the component cables at launch. Screw getting an extra controller for now, I gotta get a PS3 (somehow… it will happen)!

(Yes this blog title is an indirect knock on Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back” song… which I’m almost ashamed to admit that I actually like now. Oh noes.)

Now that I’m starting to settle back in a “normal” groove, it should be noted that my interest in drawing has not been neglected. It’s been great to hear from a few people that have been keeping an eye on me (you know who you are!) The latest feedback comes from my newly added DA buddy, Hypes whose support has been particularly encouraging. I’m going to have to think up something special or something to do for him as he’s pointed out that much of my stuff has a unique cuteness to it! ^^;

Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to get back into my gaming sessions on a regular basis. Yesterday I spent time with Test Drive Unlimited, a new game published by Atari. It’s pretty cool for those of you who dig RPG-style elements in racing games. It didn’t do much for me although the customization options and ability to get behind the wheel of real-life vehicles is a great touch. I took the new Saturn Sky for a test-drive and think I’ve found my new dream car for when I grow old and retire. I joked the other day with my fiance that the only cons to the car is apparently, it’s not a convertible and it can only seats two ppl. That means we could never give our friends any rides, unless they sat inside the trunk. *L*

So here’s a somewhat silly question — but who’s looking forward to the Wii? No really? I mean, the buzz is pretty high from what I can gather. Nintendo has really played their strategy out well and I’m just counting the days (Nov. 19 still seems so far away). I’m eager to get my hands on Super Mario Galaxy, Excitetruck and Metroid Prime 3. WiiSports also looks nice, if only for the fact that it will make for an awesome party game with friends and family. And I can’t forget to give a nod to Zelda: The Twilight Princess in spite of the fact that we may well not end up seeing it this year. I ain’t trying to jinx things — but we all know how Nintendo has been with their “unexpected” delays. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

In other news, I’m supposed to get back my car sometime next week. Its absence is… so painfully apparent whenever I take the Dodge Stratus (the rental) out on the road for my weekly commute. Ugh… MUST. GET. BACK. CAR! I’ve finally got over the fact that in a matter of days, I’ll be forking over a nice chunk of cash just to get it out of the shop. I was especially grateful to have some support from a very good friend — a miracle that I never saw coming. Really put a smile on my face. And speaking of smiles… I’m rather curious to see what MS has loaded on the Marketplace. Right now, they’ve got a “Bringing it Home” campaign dedicated to the Tokyo Game Show and X06. At the time I posted an article and went online– there wasn’t too much available, making me wonder what was taking so long for them to present the “exclusive content”. If I recall correctly, the press release proudly spoke of getting access to content before it was posted anywhere else. Hmm… I must of missed it. :p

My guess is that it’s all going to be time-released over the course of the next several days. So yeah, while the stuff we’ll be getting IS free — we’re still better off going to the usual sources for in-depth impressions.

I downloaded NBA 2K7 last night and man, this game is making me love video game b-ball all over again. Last year’s version was awesome, but 2K is taking the visuals and gameplay to a whole new level. My impressions wouldn’t really do it justice, so drop over to IGN or 1up as I’m sure they’ve got some extensive reports… or if you’re lucky — perhaps one of our guys will show some editorial love and bang out a review when the game makes its retail release.

Wow — amazing how much you can start writing once you get going. It’s nearly 11 p.m. and I’ve still gotta tend to my laundry and use the last hour to get in a quick gaming session on 360. Till next time!

Is Metal Slug SNK’s most beloved series? It is in my eyes. It stands above the fighters and other 2D masterpieces as one of the few 2D series that I will be able to play for the rest of my life. Of course there’s the oddities, such as Slug 3D, and the weaker sequels such as 4 and 5, but overall, there’s nearly unlimited replayability across the many entries that span the Saturn, Neo Geo, Neo Geo Pocket, GBA, PSX, PS2, and soon to be Wii (did I miss any systems?).

Though I didn’t get to spend too much time with the latest in the series: Metal Slug 6 (recently released on the import PS2), what I did experience was good old Slug action; crisp, clean graphics; and tight controls. There’s 6 selectable characters this time around, 2 popping in from SNK’s old school Ikari Warriors, and each character has stats that better suit them say for straight up power or taking out slugs, among others. I didn’t yet get to test out the various characters in depth and simply played a bit with Fio.

Some surface things I noticed: you now can hold 2 weapons and can switch between them on the fly AND when you die (notice I didn’t say if!), you save the weapon that wasn’t being used. As for difficulty, there’s easy and hard. Good old Japan, never one to hand us the ending. I forsee a lot of work to master this on hard, and of course no one would dare play this on easy. At least they wouldn’t admit it in a blog

There’s also a new power meter that builds as you take out bad guys. Once it reaches max, you get a couple seconds of beastly firepower before it resets. I didn’t explore the other game mechanics in my brief time last night, so I’m excited to see what else SNK has up its sleeves.

The missions themselves branch very nicely and contain a lot of detail in the foreground and background as is usual for the series. There’s a polish here though that I didn’t notice with earlier entries, no doubt attributed to the new system the game runs on. Early reports suggest that the port is faithful and honestly, even though the game is still low res and looks only slightly better on an HD set than its predecessors, it shines in good old low res RGB or heck, in s-video/interlaced component as well–one of the many reasons to still hold on to those old Commodore monitors and interlaced sets.

I know these impressions are pretty barebones, but as I play it more through the weekend, I plan to post more thoughts to see how it stacks up to my favorites: 1, X, and 3.

-Andrew

This game was always under my radar, I would pick it up and look at box each time I perused the GBA/DS aisle at Gamestop. After awhile it became a bit hard to come by so I ended up renting it from Gamefly. If you are looking for an excellent and cute RPG for your GBA, then look no further!

The story is nothing new, you have your plucky hero Ein, who just happens to be an angel of death with amnesia. You have his plucky female companions, the cutesy Lina, serious Fia, mischievous Serene, and Cierra the crimson witch. Basically Ein was sent to destroy Riviera but he ends up helping the sprites that inhabit the land. The narration of the story is actually handled quite well as your party members are very chatty with their own distinct personalities. They often have witty things to say about each situation and really fill in the back story. There is also an affection meter with each chick in your harem and what girl you end up with is determined by your actions.

What makes this game different from standard RPGs is how game progression is handled. The game is divided into seven levels with six to seven sub-levels contained in each one. There is also a bonus eighth level that can be unlocked by acquiring an in-game item. After each level you return to the home town and can talk to villagers and possibly upgrade your weapons/items. Exploration in the game definitely takes getting used to. You get “Trigger Points” by fighting battles (by the way, there are no random battles; we will get to that in a sec), and have to use those points to explore the levels. Want to look at a chest? You will need to use TP for that. Don’t have any? Well, tough luck no chest for you. This will drive people who want to explore every nook and cranny in a game nuts.

The way to get around that is do well in battle. You get a grade after each battle, the better the grade, the more TP you get. All the battles in this game are scripted. You will meet the same enemies at the same point every time you play. The battle system is pretty standard turn based stuff. Your heroes have an overdrive meter that fills up as they fight for more powerful “Breakout” attacks, and your enemies have something similar called the “Rage” meter. This game also has an odd way to level up. There are no levels per say, you gain stat boosts by using weapons a certain amount of times. The weapons do break and have limited amount of uses. You can also only choose four weapons/items to take with you into battle which adds a good bit of strategy. The weapon breaking thing isn’t all bad because you can go into practice mode to level up your weapons. In practice mode your weapons do not get used up and it can be quite addicting. As soon as I got a new weapon I always went straight into practice mode to level up all my characters with it.

This game has lots of mini-games to determine if you can open a chest or dodge an arrow somebody shoots at you. They are random and usually consist of pressing certain buttons in a certain amount of time. Sometimes they pop up un expectantly and that can cause you to fail and miss out on a cool event. That is what replays are for, I guess.

This game looks like a SNES game with more fluid character animations. The colors are very vibrant, but the backgrounds in some of the levels can get a bit repetitive. Each character has a well drawn portrait that pops up when they talk. The music is very good, especially for a GBA game. There are even some voice samples when characters do their special attacks! If you don’t dig 2D then you might not like the style of this game.

It took me about 22 hours to beat the game including the bonus level. There are tons of unlockables and due to the random nature of the game you won’t see the same thing twice. There are also multiple endings based upon which girl you hook up with at the end. The game has save points galore and you can also suspend play if you need to turn it off for some reason, which I think is an important feature in portable games. I really enjoyed this game, and I am glad I gave it a chance.