_Entertainment Central_

College Dayz

2007-09-04T23:40:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking about going back to school and major in english (and a minor in technology). Why those two? Well there are quite a few things that I could do with them (especially for my video game career as a Designer). It's been way too long since I've been in school...and the hardest part about it is: If I was still in school, I would have been done by next year. So that's 3 years wasted. God I hate myself sometimes.

My IQ is 118, and according to this website where I took an IQ test from Tickle.com people that fall in the 111 to 120 category where they are in college or heading towards their Master's Degree Level. Plus the sites said that "Your Intellectual Type is Precision Processor. This means you're exceptionally good at discovering quick solutions to problems, especially ones that involve math or logic. You're also resourceful and able to think on your feet. And that's just some of what we know about you from your test results." and because of this, I'd be a great manager, teacher, or accountant.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, your IQ = 100(Mental Age/Chronological Age). So since I'm 21, I did the math (118/100=1.18 and 1.18 X 21 = 24.78) so that means my mental age is of a 24 year old. I guess I'm more mature than I thought ^_^ This test really gave me some confidence in going back to college.

What you just read above is an old post draft I created over five months ago and I wanted to reflect on how I view things now. Today (as I'm typing this) is my first day of college in three years (what a hiatus, eh?). Do I still want to be an English Major? No. Now I've thought about doing Web Design, and I hope that my college will support that small dream of mine. What am I expecting out of life? Not much really. As long as I don't expect much, I will be surprised when it comes. Will I continuously type new articles from now on? I have my doubts. This is just out of whim, you could say. I haven't been contacting my friends that much, I only have one. Recently I've moved to a new appartment, my sister has gotten married, and I have found myself liking this new beard that's grown on my face (previously I was into goatees, but as you can see in my updated photo, it's grown). Job? Not yet. Right now I'm just taking things one day at a time, and hopefully that will be enough. What I've found in my life is this; I have no big ambition, just miniature materialistic ones. I've decided to "quit" (more like a small hiatus...I wonder if anyone will notice that I'm gone)one of my favorite web forums for a while until I have two strong feet in my educational feild (I swear, I'm one of the biggest procrastinators), and I no longer have internet access at my appartment, so the only places to actually work is at public libraries where time online is somewhat limited.

Well good day to you all, and I hope everyone will have a splendid night.

-Marco (aka: BGS to some of you)

"What if..." we live in the Marble Theory?

2007-09-04T17:53:00.000-04:00

What's the Marble Theory you ask? Well the Marble Theory was brought up in the 70's where people thought "What if there's a universe inside a universe". For example, take the children's toy glass marble...what if in a microscopic level that we haven't even imagined to reach there's a universe inside that chunk of glass? Of course the same thing can be said about our very own universe...what if our universe is a part of an even larger universe? This has already been shown in some movies. In Men In Black, Agents J and K had to protect a galaxy that was held on a cat's collar (or "belt" as they called it), and at the end of the movie they showed a larger view scale of the universe, and it actually shows our universe inside a marble (hence the Marble theory).

Another example of the marble theory would be in two stories of Dr. Seuss. There's "The Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Horton Hears a Who". How are they related to the theory? Well where are the Whos located? In "The Grinch Stole Christmas" they were located on a snowflake and in "Horton Hears a Who" they were on a flower.

So simply put, do you find this theory plausible?

"What if..." we truly are alone.

2007-09-04T05:54:00.000-04:00

What if we truly are alone in the universe, then what true purpose do all the other solar systems and galaxies hold? Is it just for our mere entertainment because of our own expansive mind and curiosity? If in the future we reached beyond our expectations in space travel and technology and found out that there wasn't anything out there, isn't that too much of a disappointment? What's the point?

Of course I believe in other intelligent beings in the universe, but it's sorta like waking up and noticing that you're the only person alive, you see ghostly figures, and you'll continue to search the globe all your life to find out that there isn't a single soul out there. It's just too much of a depressing thought. Tell me what you think. Is it possible that we're alone? Do you believe we are? I honestly never thought so...

I'm slightly back

2007-06-19T19:50:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the two month hiatus people. My life has been somewhat hectic. Helping with a wedding, playing video games, helping with moving, my last grandparent passing away, me trying to get into college, looking for jobs, and just your mundane everyday boredom. I suppose after I got the upgrade on the blog, I haven't been all that active or even interested in posting. I can be like that sometimes. Just don't expect a lot from me. When it comes to blog work, I have slightly updated my "favorites lists" on webcomics, websites, favorite blogs, and video game sites. And I've been working on a few articles that I may throw out now and then. I just want my blog layout back how it was (unlike this white board monstrosity).

"What if"...I died

2007-04-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

I've talked about changing the past, not having a past, now I want to talk about: How would things turn out if I had no future. Talk about family, friends, that weird dream I have, and possibly where I predict where I would go (and why).

Just like not having a past, I think my family would be a little bit richer. My financial things aside, I honestly don't think my family will hold my dieing wish: I want my funeral to be a nice party, not a gloom-fest. They wouldn't allow that since it's not exactly traditional, I understand.

I've had dreams about this very thing. I call them dreams and not nightmares, because they are quite possible. In my dreams the variation of how many people attend to my funeral changes every time. Sometimes it's my immediate family, whole family, family and friends, whole family and friends, whole family & friends & online friends, whole family & friends & online friends & some people I've never seen before, and sometimes not a soul...not even the father to say h

The sad thing is, I think I would die in my sleep, and the worse thing about it, nobody would know until it's waaaay to late. My sisters usually leave the house at 8 and 9:30 am, and I usually get up around 10. So, if I had a heart attack or something, then they would find my cold dead body around 7pm when it's too late.

Plus they say there are five stages of death (for the person dying and also, for a griever): Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

Denial: I'm not having a heart attack/I'm not going to die/I'm too young to die?
Anger: Why the hell am I taken when others bigger than me are still living?
Bargaining: If you save my life, I'll promise to eat healthier and go to church every Sunday.
Depression: I haven't done everything I wanted in my life!
Acceptance: If it's my time, it's my time. Take me lord!

Sins & Confessions

2007-04-08T19:48:00.000-04:00

April eigth, Easter. To commemorate this day, I'm going to do something that I haven't done in many years, and it's something that may bite my ass later on in the future. I'm going to confess to all my sins. Why online and not with a priest or my family? Because I'm a coward. A coward that still can't face his consequences for his actions. For the time being I'd rather confess to the anonymous faces of strangers in the internet rather than face the people I already know. How would this bite me in the ass (in the future)? Well, there's a slight chance that somebody I do know may come across this blog of mine and read all my confessions/secrets like what you are doing right now. For the time being, I hope that doesn't happen. But why am I doing this now? I have a heavy heart, and my conscience is full. I need to vent some way so I wouldn't be holding such a great burden.

Right now I'm going to confess all my sins, (since the last time I've had a confession, and that was during my First Communion) and at the end of each confession, I'm going to place in bold how that relates to one of the Deadly Sins and or one of the 10 Commandments (future notice: All confessions deal with "honor your parents" so I want to note that now instead of repeating myself later). We aren't perfect, and God knows that, but I just want to say this either way.

1: I've had sex with one person, and nobody else. How many times? To many to count. Did we use protection? Yes, however 100% of the time would be a lie, we used it more like 90% of the time. Has she ever had to take the "morning after pill"? Once when she honestly thought she was going to be pregnant (it's best to be more safe than sorry). I've lied countless times about my virginity and that has cost me even more lies to cover up ones I've already made. Lust, Adultery, and Lie

2: After I was booted out of college, I've returned many times to see my girl and my other friends. However, I've told my family that I was at her family's house in a different town, but instead I always (98% of the time) went to her apartment in the college I once attended. This confession is easily tied with the sex one above considering that's what we did whenever I arrived...that and drinking. Lust, Adultery, and Lie

3: As we all know, alcohol usually ties into sex, so this is no acception. When I was in college, I usually drunk with my friends (never heavily) and would have sex afterwards with my girl. Then after I was kicked out, I stole a bottle of rum from my parent's cabinet and brought it up. They had my future Brother-In-Law drive me back home (I was sorta nervous). After he dropped me off and left, I placed a new bottle in the cabinet and thought I was in the clear. However, it seems that my parents knew and that's why they sent him over. After that we had a "Familly Convention" about my stealing, drinking, and banishment from that college. I stopped stealing and didn't drink for well over nine months but I still continued to go up to see my girl behind my parents' backs. Lie, Greed, and Steal

4: After being kicked out, I knew I wasn't ready for college, however my parents wouldn't hear of this. So they enlisted me into the local Community College. The first few weeks I did attend class, but afterward, I just skipped class all together and spent time in the library (online) and watching TV until my parents picked me up. I felt horrible to have them drive back and forth all the time at night. Lie, and Sloth

5: I haven't (continuously) gone to church since I was 16 years old. Since then academy life has always been in the way, but of course that's my most used excuse. My other excuse would be pretending to sleep, be sick, or a combination of the two. When did I start being soo self centered that 1.5 hours of the week be spent on my God? I suppose I just wanted to be like everybody else and not go anywhere on Sunday. Even today I still don't go to church, though it is walking distance.Keep the Sabbath Holy, Lie, and Envy

6: What started off as a few nickels and dimes soon turned into quarters and dollars. When I first started stealing it was from a charity basket my mother had to save up for donation to give to some children in the D.R. What did I buy with that money? Junk food. Something to feed on my selfish gluttony and greed. So I stole from kids that had a less successful life than what I had. From quarters I started moving onto dollar bills from my father's wallet and my mother's purse. They work, and I am a sloth... I never deserved this money. Though I can't be proud of it, the most I've stolen at one given time was $20, and I've also stolen a few dollars from outside the family. And it's not only money, but food as well. I'd sneak in the middle of the night and eat food from the pantry that didn't belong to just me, but to the whole family. This has lead me to my overweight body that I have right now. But I can honestly say that I don't steal (food or money) from anybody anymore...I've been clean and on a diet for well over a year now.Steal, Lie, Gluttony, Greed,

7: Now here is something that I've been caught a few times well I wouldn't say "caught" but almost. Let's see there was the time I ordered pornography from our cable network and other times I bought a DVD, magazines, and watched online. When I should be doing something more important, I'm usually watching porn. I've learned my mistakes and now I delete my history. Yes, I still watch porn to this day. Lust and Lie

It seems to me that from the 7 Deadly Sins and the 10 commandments (17), there are only six things I haven't done. Wrath, Pride, Worship any other God, Make any Idols, Murder, and Covet. Or maybe I have done some wrath and pride but don't realize it. What exactly does Wrath and Pride mean?

While searching online to remind me what the 10 Commandments and 7 Deadly Sins are, I came upon this: The Seven Heavenly Virtues (I've never heard of this). They are as follows.
•Prudence
•Temperance
•Fortitude
•Justice
•Faith
•Hope
•Charity

And then I began to think to myself, if I've done an example of these virtues at least once in my life.
Prudence: Well I was a virgin for 18 years of my life...
Temperance: Long fuse, small bomb. I usually don't get angry at people.
Fortitude: Take a look at my confessions...I'm quite weak.
Justice: Hard to make justice when I had commit the crime. I suppose saying your confession and taking the consequence head on is justice.
Faith: I still have faith, I just question some part of it with science...
Hope: I have plenty of hope...and more faith if my hopes came true.
Charity: I donate used clothes and money to the needy every year.

The last thing I want to talk about is rather interesting. While searching online, I also found this trailer for a new movie called "The Reaping" which is about a town in the south that is experiencing all the 10 Plagues of God. For those of you who need a little reminder, the 10 plagues are:

1. Water turns into blood
2. Frogs fall from the sky
3. Lice
4. Wild animals
5. Diseased on livestock
6. Unhealable boils
7. Hail mixed with fire
8. Locusts block out the sun
9. Darkness
10. Death of the firstborn

So I began to think...this isn't the first time they've incorporated something from the bible into a movie. Just take a look at The Matrix, Children of Men, Day After Tommarow, and humorously Dogma. And when that thought came, I also came to think about "What if God were to update his plagues of wrath? How would they differ from the one held in Egypt?". So I've created an updated "Plagues of God" of my own.

1. Water into Dead Sea. All bodies of water will become severely salted like the Dead Sea. Not only will this kill all aquatic life forms, but their blood will emerge (so it would sorta be like "Water turns into Blood"), but it will also not make water drinkable.

2. Snakes fall from the Sky. Who's afraid of frogs? What can frogs do? Snakes have been portraited in the Bible a few times, so why not bring them back into play (plus people are more afraid of them than frogs).

3. Lice/Black Plague. I want the lice to stay, however have them be infected with the Bubonic Plague.

4. Wild Animals. I also want them to stay, however all animals (trained, domestic, and wild animals) will run rampant in human territory and attack all humans a like. For centuries now animals have been "below the food chain" of humans, so why not have them show are truly are the top of the food chain.

5. Mad Cow/ Bird Flu/ Mercury Poisoning. This is the replacement to the Diseased animals. I suppose I really didn't change it, just updated it with diseases that we're dealing with today.

6. HIV/ AIDs/ Cancer: Unhealable boils and leopardsy(sp?) are things of the past, why not give people the new "IT" thing?

7. Meteorites. The Bible said "Hail mixed with fire"...doesn't that sorta sound like meteorites to you? Upon going through the Earth's atmosphere the meteorites burn up, and when it hits the ground after a while it cools down. So it's quite possible that people thought the Fire engulfed hail were meteorites but I just wanted to make sure either way.

8. Large Heatwave. The "old" plague had locusts that would eat away crops. Well with the water turned into blood, why not give the humans an even harder time to survive by making the sun way too hot to withstand. This would also destroy crops...

9. Technology Bust. All technology stops working. Cities won't have power, and hospitals (where most people who have been injured the past few days) will be a place of death.

10. Death of all newborns. Any child that's suppose to be born on this day will die. If the plagues lasted longer than a day each, I'd probably suggest that all women would be infertile for awhile (got the idea from the movie Children of Men).

If you want to leave a comment, please do not comment on the sins I've commited, but feel free to comment (or even confess) on anything else.

Wow, my conscience feels a little bit better already.

Blog Update

2007-03-29T14:15:00.000-04:00

Over the past few days I've been lurking around other blogs (and commenting of course) and have found a few things that I'd like to see in my own blog. So I've been teaching myself (through trial and error) on how to do such things. I'd like to mention the things that are new/have changed/been updated (because who doesn't like a little recognition from time to time, eh?). I'll start off with the minor things, and work my way up:

-My profile, and boy did it need it. There were a few songs, and movies that I just had to get rid of.

-New webcomics that I've found recently, and I'm thinking of doing a "Webcomic Collection 2" in the future (when the comics have developed more plot to the story if they have any).

-New blogs to my "favorite blogs". While surfing through the blogs, I've found a few that were quite interesting. Some people I've made friends with, and others that I've lost contact for awhile (and brought them back up).

-New section; the Favorite Deviant Artists. Recently I've found myself browsing through Deviant Art for the longest times, and there are a few artists out there that I think that deserved some extra attention. So not only did I pick out my favorite artists, I also pointed out my favorite piece of art that they have created.

-New Title. I thought "Video Games, Anime, and much more..." was too long of a title. At first it was something to place until I could think of something better, and now I have (for the moment). Yes, I know Entertainment Central is a T.V. broadcasting corporation, but I honestly don't care.

-New Member Profile. This sorta goes along with the "My profile" bit, but I wanted it separate simply because I figured out how to be restrained by what blogger.com gave me, and just hold onto a larger version of the picture I had (plus, you no longer see the introduction of my profile. If you want to know a little bit about me, just click on the link).

-Music: If you haven't noticed (because you have no speakers/headphones, ears, or you're deaf) I've placed a song to play while you read my blog. I found this very nice free music site called IMEEM, and I've already started making a collection. Earlier I did have a larger playlist, but that was too much for my blog I suppose.

-New color text: White...simply white..it goes well to contrast with the new background, something I'll be talking about next.

-New background layout: The most obvious change I've made. I wish I could take credit for the picture, but I got it from the Prince of Persia website. Now as for how did I make the picture "float" while you scroll down? Well I found another blog that had the same thing, looked at their page source, and after about a half an hour I've figured out how to do it on my own. It's something I'm quite proud of at the moment.

If you ever need any assistance in making your blog stand out a little bit, don't be afraid to ask. But of course, it's more gratifying when you figure it out on your own :D

"What if..." I won the lottery?

2007-03-28T22:33:00.000-04:00

Now I know this isn't a spiritual or controversial discussion, but you have to admit that the question has come up before many times in the past. Well earlier I was watching a T.V. show talking about the "Curse of the Lottery" and how money corrupts people. So I began to think "What would I do if I won the lottery?". Well after watching the show, I noticed three things that occurred a lot in each story: Gambling, Drugs, and Spending Sprees. I have never done drugs (and afraid of doing them...heck, I'm afraid of the drugs doctors would give me for surgery), and I'm not much of a gambling man (the most I've spent on gambling would be two scratching tickets that cost $5 each). Spending sprees won't be a problem since there really isn't much that I really want (I'm quite a simple person, and because of that, I'm quite a cautious person as well). So I've created a list of what I'd do with my lottery winnings:

1. Pay off all family debts: When I mean family, I mean immediate family (meaning no extended family members like cousins, in-laws, and friends), and what debts that need to be paid off? Student loans, bank loans, credit card bills, mortgage, my sister's wedding and any other things we'd need to pay off (maybe like hiring/paying lawyers).

2. Build an apartment in the D.R.: My parents have started building an apartment so with my money I could finish their project. All I'd have to do is pay the contractors and have one of my parents watch over them until the job is done. You know, this little chunk of change would keep my parents happy when they retire.

3. Buy ZeldaUniverse.net: Now why would I want to buy an online community? Well for a few reasons. I've been a part of that community for the longest time now, and a lot could be done if an actual ZU member became full owner (and I'd become Webmaster). Plus I want to give something back and make it even more successful. What would I do? Pretty simple. Buy a new server for it, hire Scott & James as part-time employees of ZU (to get the ball really rolling), and sell ZU memorabilia like T-shirts, Hooded Sweaters, and treasure chests full of rupees.

4. Hired Help
work-out-trainer/dietitian: Well to be honest, I'm afraid of going under the scalpel, so I'd rather lose my weight the old fashioned way. Not much said about this one...I just want to live a healthy life. Sure it's possible by myself, but I don't have that kind of will-power plus I'd need somebody watching over my back every single day (since I won't be working).

Chef: I want a part-time chef who will work with my work-out-trainer/dietitian so I'll have a healthy appetite as well as a healthy body.

Security: Now I don't know how far the security would have to go, but hopefully it will only have to be one body guard. And I'd want my body guard to be somebody I can easily be friends with (same goes with dietitian and chef)

Secretary: I have one of the worst memory in the world, and I'd like a secretary who follows me wherever I go to remind me of some important tasks and names of people.

5. Buy Condos in Boston and Hawaii: Why condos? Because I honestly don't need soo much room to live in (I honestly don't see the point in mansions). Why those locations? Because I love Boston (live in it right now) and I've always wanted a summer house in a tropical island. Sure I could have said the D.R. (my homeland), but I wanted a place where I could get away from it all.

6. Save money in Swedish Bank Account: Pretty much self explanatory. I want to save money for my future kids and/or if for some reason money gets into a tight spot.

7. Buy Condos/Apartments/Houses, renovate them, and sell/rent them: With all the spending I've been doing, I need to make money so I would never go bankrupt. I sorta got this idea from two things: my parent's apartment business and my sister's love for all those renovation T.V. shows she watches (I'd make her my interior designer). So pretty simple, buy multiple houses throughout the U.S., hire contractors and interior designers to renovate them, and then sell/rent them. Who knows, if this goes well, I may even start a business from this and go world wide.

8. Buy a Yacht and Jet Plane: Now I'm not big on buying a mansion or cars, but I am interested in having my own transportation (it would help me going from different house to house to see the progression on my renovation business). Plus I'd want to have a party on said Yacht and invite some family members, friends, ZU members, and celebrities.

9. Start Video Game Company: They say if you do what you love in life, you'll never have to work a single day. Well with this, I love video games, and I would start up a video game company. Sure it would be stressful at first, but hopefully it will work out in the end (this is the only thing I'm really taking a chance in).

10. Charity: After all is said and done, I'd donate some money to various charities throughout the world.

It looks like in the long run I'd like to be a Real Estate Mogul, Internet Webmaster, and Company President. My mother/sisters would really be helpful in the real estate department, my internet friends would be great about my webmaster business, and my personal friends and I can take a hold of the company.

So, I ask you my faithful readers, what would you spend on if you won the lottery.

Mario Kart Wii

2007-03-26T02:46:00.000-04:00

Not much of a real post, I just wanted to guess how many players will be on the Wii version (and possibly who), how many tracks would there be (and possibly which versions), what multiplayer games would there be, and would it have two characters per cart (ala Double Dash)?

Well I did a little research and what I've found out was this:
-The Average amount of players is roughly 10 (Double Dash, there were 10 pairs of 20 characters)
-Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Yoshi, Toad, Donkey Kong, and Wario have all at least been in 6 out of the 7 Kart games.
Ammount in games:
-Circuits, Beaches, Public Roads, Deserts, Jungles, Haunted Tracks, Stadiums, Bowser's Castle, Ice Tracks, and Rainbow road have been the reoccurring theme for the majority of the tracks throughout the series

Reoccurring Items:
Diversions: Blooper
Regular Hit: Green Shells, Triple Green Shells, Fireballs
Heat Seeking Missiles: Red Shells, Egg, Triple Red Shells,
Large Explosives: Bo-omb, Bowser's Shell, Spikey Shells
Increased Speed: Mushrooms, Triple Mushrooms, Super Mushrooms
Roadside Obstacles: Fake Item Box, Banana, Triple Bananas, Giant Banana
Effects All (but the user): Thunderbolt
Power House: Stars, Bullet Bill, Chain Chomp
Other: Hearts, Boo hoo

It's obvious that Feathers and Coins won't be introduced in the MKWii because they've only been used 1-2 times before in the past (and didn't come up with the most satisfying results, so that's why I didn't even bother to place them in the list). Blooper is a new-comer from the DS, so who knows if that would be in play for the Wii. Boo-hoo, Shells, Mushrooms, Bananas, Thunderbolt, and Stars have been there since the beginning so there's no use to take them out. Bo-ombs have appeared in the most popular recent games so I wouldn't be surprised to see him again. Bullet Bill (DS) and Chain Chomp (GC) are both the exact same thing. If the babies make a return, I predict that so will the Chain Chomp.

Now the special items are the ones that are questionable: Like the fireballs, eggs, hearts, chain chomp, Bowser Shell, and Giant Banana. Will it really have a purpose for the Wii installment?

Let's take a look at the occurring theme of the Karts used in each game.

SNES: Karts
N64: Karts
GC: Doonbugie
GBA: Karts
DS: Racecars

Is it just me, or are the karts improving? First they looked like regular carts, then they started to look like Doonbugies, and in the DS installment, some of them look like Drag Raceing/Street Racing cars. Now with the Wii graphics, is it possible that Mario Kart may turn a little bit more serious (have my highest doubts)? Will they look like advanced versions of the DS cars? Will the game finally implement flying and boating (or will that be too similar to Diddie Kong Racing?)

Just imagine if you will...have a few carts that can go in multiple places: There's on land, in the sky, on the water, and in the water. I say that some karts should be that way (with the combination of land of course).

Land/Sky: An Airplane. Bowser already has one.
Land/On Water: A Hovercraft or boat/car
Land/Under Water: Submarine/Car.

One thing that's for sure (or should I say obvious) the game will be (or really should be) Wifi accessible. Why? Well not only because Mario Kart DS was online, just imagine if MKWii had two characters per kart (just like in Dash), then players throughout the whole entire world would have to pay a little bit more attention to their carts, other than just relying on one person to do all the heavy lifting. And who knows, maybe some microphone communication could be at hand (for the driver to tell the thrower who to throw to, and the thrower to tell the driver where to go); If not as an extra assembly for the Wii, then via the Wifi communication through the DS (and headset that's only been used for Metroid Prime: Hunters).

Tales of Symphonia OVA

2007-03-24T21:51:00.000-04:00

On June 20, 2006, Namco announced an official OVA (anime) for Tales of Symphonia, divided into four episodes. The first episode is planned to come out in stores in Japan on June 8, 2007, the second on August 10; the release dates of the third and fourth episodes have yet to be announced. It will be directed by Haruo Tonosaki (director of 2x2=Shinobuden) and feature character designs by Akira Matsushima (Rurouni Kenshin OVAs.)

OVA Stands for Original Video Animation and it is sometimes used, perhaps inappropriately, to refer to any extremely short anime series or special regardless of its release format. So this would explain the Ultimate Hellsing OVAs and the four episodes of ToS (how long are these episodes? I hope one hour each).

I do wonder if the original director and artist who did the video game intro will have any part in the four episodes. I'll be honest, when I first played that game, I thought that all the cutscenes were going to be in anime...but sadly I only ended up with 2-3 pure anime cutscenes (the rest were CGI). So without any further adieu, here's the first trailer to Tales of Symphonia OVA

Now after doing a little snooping around on their official website, I've found out something: The cast only consists five out of the original nine characters. It seems that only Lloyd, Collet, Genius, Raine, and Kratos will be the main cast. Any news about the remaining four characters (Sheena, Zelos, Presea, Regal) being a part of the anime have yet to be said, but I think everyone would appreciate it if they made at least one small cameo. If you truly think about it, in the game, the remaining four really didn't make a big difference the the game's storyline after all. Sheena was an antagonist in the beginning and near the end she was the one who made a pact with the spirits. Zelos was the Chosen One from Tethe'alla, so he's somewhat important, but if the anime decides Kratos to be a good guy to the very end (and have Zelos be the one who double crosses the team) then there really won't be a problem, but just strong chances of seeing a cameo. Presea and Regal are side quest storyline characters really and weren't really necessary in the very end.

Can any one of you people think of how not introducing any one of those characters truly change the storyline? Of course we have to take into account that they've only introduced those five characters because those are the only ones going to be shown in the first two episodes. The third and fourth? Who knows what happens. But considering they are calling these four entries as episodes and not movies, all we can really can expect/assume is have them be 60 minutes or less. But I also have to think "How can they cram a video game that took dozens of hours to complete down to four?" I think it's quite obvious that some characters and storylines will be lost in the way (there will be a lot of fast forwards like "3 weeks later"). Of course, that may be the case unless the company is secretly making an actual Tales of Symphonia OVA series that takes place after the four episodes/movies (that is if these four videos don't explain everything that happens in the game). I think that would be an excellent idea indeed!

One more question to pose to all of you ToS fans: Are there certain scenes that you'd love to see in the videos? Give me your ideas, thoughts, and opinions on the whole matter. Speaking of scenes, please enjoy this pictures from scenes taken from the trailer.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

2007-03-22T11:03:00.000-04:00

The synopsis seems quite simple; "After the defeat of their old arch nemesis, The Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart as a family. Struggling to keep them together, their rat sensei, Splinter, becomes worried when strange things begin to brew in New York City. Tech-industrialist Maximillian J. Winters is raising up an army of ancient monsters, and only one super-ninja fighting team can stop them -- Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael!

With the help of old allies April O'Neil and Casey Jones, the Turtles are in for the fight of their lives as they once again must face the mysterious Foot Clan, who have put their own ninja skills behind Winters' endeavors."

From the synopsis, it sorta reminded me of the online manga Mutant Ninja Turtles Gaiden in the way that after a death, the family grew apart. Now I don't know if it's just a good coincidence or if the manga writer is just well in tune with his ninjas, but it seems to me that both are similar. In the manga, Raphael goes solo but it seems to me that he's still training (in the movie it's the same but more with his motorcycle), Donatello stays secluded in his own sewer apartment doing scientific research (in the movie he's seen in front of his super computer), and Mikey was shown wearing a "turtle mask" and fake zipper in order to entertain children for cash in the movie (and in the manga he became a famous author...who wore a mask...to earn some cash. Now as for Leonardo and Splinter, my best bet is they stayed together (well he's the best pupil and he's the master) because in the movie it was shown that Raph and Leo was about to fight...my guess this was Leo's way to recruit Raph back to the family from what dark energy their Master feels happening in New York City. As for what happened to those two in the manga, well I won't spoil it, because you'll have to read it for yourself.

Now back to the movie, at first I honestly thought that the movie was going to revamp the TMNT movie series (just like Batman Begins), but I was wrong when I read "After the defeat of their old arch nemesis, The Shredder...", so it's a sequel...with no subtitle (no "IV" or anything). But as TMNT fans have learned, the Shredder is never dead for long, he'll always make a return. But there is one thing that has happened in the manga (and on a live action TV show) but not in the movie series: Introduction of a fifth turtle. In the Manga we have Renoir, and in the TV show we had Venus. Who's to say that a fifth will never be introduced? Who knows? Maybe there will be a slight hint at it in the end of the movie (or even a sequel revolving around the return of Shredder). As for how Shredder could return? I have an idea. In the comics (and the recent cartoon), it's been said that Shredder is actually an alien (Utram) inside a mechanical body. Well, in the movie aliens are introduced, so does this mean that the Utrams will also be introduced in the TMNT movie universe?

50+ Free Online Movies

2007-03-20T10:35:00.000-04:00

I've recently added a new link to my collection that gives any online user free access to online movies at Daily Motion Movie Vids. Though they show many movies in their list, I took the time to go through every single one, and found out these are the only ones that are working so far...

* 13 Going On 30
* 6 Days 7 Nights
* Big Daddy
* Boondock Saints
* Brothers Grimm
* Bruce Almighty
* CKY 3K
* CKY 4K
* Cowboy Bebop
* Crank
* Death Of A President
* Demetri Martin. Person
* Employee of the Month
* Friday
* Friday After Next
* G.I. Joe The Movie
* Hercules: Amazon Woman
* Hercules: The Lost Kingdom
* Hercules: The Circle of Fire
* Hercules: The Underworld
* Hollow Man 2
* Hoodwinked
* I, Robot
* Inside the Chicken Man
* Juice
* Kangaroo Jack
* Kids
* Kung Pow
* Lee Evans XI Tour
* Longest Yard
* Miami Vice
* MST3K: The Touch of Satan
* MST3K: The Movie
* Red Eye
* Santa Fe Trail (1940)
* Season 8
* Shadow Of The Sword
* Slaves To The Underground
* Talladega Knights
* The Art of Seduction
* The Black Arrow
* The Butterfly Effect
* The Covenant
* The Last of the Mohicans
* The Road To Guantanamo
* The Transformers
* The Wonderland Experience
* Trainspotting
* White Chicks
* Why Me, Sweetie?!
* Withnail & I

So please, feel free to use that site and watch some free online movies, and give me your opinions on them.

Code Lyoko

2007-03-17T06:46:00.000-04:00

There are a few cool things about this Wii/DS game, it's going to start off in the new fourth season, and not start from the beginning like other video games based off of another source. Well, I've said this once, and I'll say it again, Code Lyoko is a kid friendly/watered down version of The Matrix, does anybody else agree? Well in the TV show, we constantly see the game go from 2D anime action to 3D computer animated action. Just like in the show, the same thing will be shown in the game. I'm just curious how the control mechanics work out for each character (the Wii version seems quite obvious, but it's the DS version I'm curious about). But what interests me the most about this fourth season fiasco is the introduction to the newest character William Dunbar. In the anime, he became the newest Lyoko Warrior but was soon taken over control by Xana and destroyed Lyoko's core. So what does this mean for the warriors, the future of Lyoko, and William? Well I honestly don't know, well nobody does but we all still have our speculations. The only speculation I have is William Dunbar will be a Xana Warrior (and creating mischief and hinder the Lyoko Warriors from completing any more missions) until Jeremie can solve this problem. The only other real question I have is: Will the game answer these questions before the new season comes out?

Well here are some things we do know about the Wii game:
• Battle through the 2D real world, and 3D world.
• Interact with their favourite characters – Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, Aelita and Jeremy
• Explore 40+ different locations with a storyline based on the fourth season of the popular animated series
• Battle using a range of skills including shooting, fighting, puzzle solving and exploration.
• Delve into the digital sea with the new season 4 vehicle, in search of the mysterious creature which infected their world
• Discover a new 3D territory
• Fight new bosses

Hmmm the warriors will be able to go underwater with new vehicles (my guess is via submarine-like vehicles) and discover a new territory. Well let's see, there's already the mountain, forest, ice, desert, and carthage sectors, what else could be new?

And when it comes to the DS, I have some photos that you can see here and there.

Tell me what do you think (about the game or even about the anime).

**Update**
I have found a game-play video of the DS game, and might I say, I'm quite impressed.

Spectrobes

2007-03-14T20:55:00.000-04:00

Now here's a video game that I just learned about (though it's been announced for quite a few months), and it really caught my attention in quite a few ways. Now at first glance it sorta reminded me of an updated version of Monster Rancher. How so? Well throughout the game you'll need to excavate, raise, train, evolve, and battle with these monsters called Spectrobes. Excavating is a big part of the game (created by Disney and Buena Vista). You'll have many tools to use (along with the microphone...possibly to blow away any dust), however, if you damage the fossil too much, there won't be a Spectrobe to revive. What's another reason that it caught my attention? It's an action RPG game...and not many of those come by...the last time I saw/played on was for Tales of Symphonia (correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't most Tales of... games action RPG?).

What's the plot of the game? Well here's what the Wikipedia article had to say about it:
"Out on a routine mission, Planetary Patrol Officers Rallen and Jeena respond to a strange distress signal and discover the wreckage of an escape capsule in which an old man has been in a cryogenic sleep for decades. Once conscious, the man, whose name is Aldous, relays an unbelievable tale of the attack on his home planet by a vicious horde of creatures known as the Krawl. As a scientist, he was able to identify an extinct species of creatures called Spectrobes as the natural enemy of the Krawl, and developed a device based on the technology of the Ancients that could harness the power of the Spectrobes. Armed with this knowledge and the device he calls a Prizmod, Aldous sets out to gather as many Spectrobes as he can to stop the Krawl from destroying the universe.

Fearing the Krawl will soon migrate to their galaxy, Rallen and Jeena join forces with Aldous to seek out the Spectrobes and defeat the Krawl."

One cool thing about this (from what I've observed) is you get to control the Spectobes via voice control such as "Go!" and "Attack" as you are fighting as the main protagonist, Rallen with a sword that's quite reminiscent to the one Megaman uses. I know that a few other games have done this, but I have a feeling that this game will have more controls than a few.

There are quite a few cool Webisodes of the plot I talked about above (I've heard it just may be downloadable onto your DS...more on that later), trailers, and the intro.
You can view the six webisodes at the Spectrobes Mainsite.

Ok, so I've covered excavating and how the microphone would be used. Ah, yes, online play! Each game will come with four code input cards. With these cards (and inputing the data into the game at the right moment) you'll be able to unlock additional things such as more videos, creatures, custom parts, and minerals. As expected from a company, you'll be able to purchase more code input cards later on after the game has been released (which was yesterday by the way, and I'm thinking about picking it up).

Online you'll be able to download additional content and fight others online (but I do wonder if you'll be able to fight with others online. Unlike most online DS games, the player will be given a "Personal Planetary Patrol Badge Number" in order for you to access your stats, game results, armor, weapons, and players' profiles will include information about their Spectrobe monsters (hmmm...learn a little bit about your opponent before fighting. Smart move) all on the Spectrobes website. In addition, a leader board on the web site will track the top scores from several special sequence battles in the game, allowing players to show their success to a global audience. Here's another thing that really surprised me: You can organize a wifi worldwide tournament that can support up to 16 players! Who wouldn't want to get a piece of that action!

Like most DS games, this will be sold for $29.99 (USD)

Frank Miller's 300

2007-03-13T02:13:00.000-04:00

Believe it or not, but this movie is actually based off of historical events...well to be more precise this movie is based off of a comic book, that was based off of a movie, that was based off of historical events. Does that make sense? I hope it does, because I'm not explaining it...well I suppose I'll have to or I won't have much of an article here:P Well the movie takes place in 480 B.C.E. during the Battle of Thermopylae and the events leading up to that moment. The protagonist of the movie is Leonidas the First, king of Sparta, who leads an army of 300 Spartans and 7,000 Greek Soldiers to fight up against 250,000 Persians under the command of King Xerxes (who thinks of hismelf as a God). Now that's all I can say about the movie, I don't want to ruin it for you all to watch it (I recommend it, I give it an 10 out of 10). If you don't take my word for it, maybe a glimpses from the movie (trailer) will convince you.

Last word about 300: From all the Blue/Green Screen movies there are out there (all three of them...the other two being Sin City and Sky Captain and the World of Tommarow), this one deffinentally is the best. The lighting, the script (the one liners), and the actors were all amazing. I'm amazed how much bad reviews it got from movie critics, but I found it up to par with the movie Braveheart (granted that Braveheart had more character developement, but the two are quite essentially the same). However, I've read that there were some controversy to this movie. Throughout the whole movie, the villains (Persian) were minorities (namely black), handicapped (there was one hunchback), and gay (there was a reference to the Athens' Philosophers being boy-lovers and a part of the movie where female belly dancers kissed...that's it).

I honestly think that people should loosen up. If all future movies were conscience about all the discriminatory remarks, then there won't be any true-to-life historical movies.

Anyways, that's the last of that. Now as for Frank Miller, I honestly hope that the next project he works on (other than sequels) would be a movie rendition of his comic Ronin. Simply put, Ronin is about a samurai who was sent to avenge the death of his master (with a magical bloodthirsty sword) from the demon that killed him; Agat. In their final battle, Agat sealed the souls of himself and the Samurai into a magical sword. Then later in the not so distant future (of our present), the seal is broken and Agat has escaped, while the samurai's soul gets reincarnated into the body of Billy, a boy with telekinetic abilities. Now the samurai fights in this new future and continues to avenge the death....

For some reason the premise of Ronin reminds me of Cartoon Network's Samurai Jack. There's a demon, a samurai, a magical sword, and a distant future involve. See the connection? But of course, Samurai Jack was created years after Ronin, so it's a possibility that it was based of of Frank Miller's piece.

"What if"...I was never born

2007-03-12T02:52:00.000-04:00

Here's a question that has appeared in my mind more than once before, but fear not, it's nothing that you should ever worry about, it's just a good self reflecting excersize that makes you think about the other people who have been in your life.

Well here's one thing I can clearly say: My family would be more rich (come on, any family would be richer with one less kid...unless that kid comes with some inheritance money or became famous). No money wasted on partial high school/college education, medicine, rent, extra food, clothes, etc...(other excessories like toys, games, computers, haircuts, and other little things).

My sisters wouldn't have somebody to hang out with...but they're sisters, they have each other, they don't need a younger brother (the only good thing I've done was give them advice from a male's point of view).

My friends wouldn't have the "experience" to have an ethnic friend (considering my sisters and I were the only minorities through Grade School). But that's horrible to say...I guess a few of my friends would have never met because of me...

I'm sure I've broughten some laughs, but I just wanted to make this post to reflect, and for others to do the same. Believe me, these "What if..." questions aren't thoughts of suicide or something drastic like that, it's just a way to self reflect and make one feel insignificant compared to the whole universe. Maybe that should be one of my next questions

"What if...our universe is similar to the "Marble theory"? or "What if we truely are alone in the universe (this question could only be helpful if we've never had Alien/UFO sightings).

Turning 21

2007-03-08T23:00:00.000-05:00

Today I turn the big TWO-ONE, and to commemorate this occasion I've shaven my head bald (sorry, don't have a picture of myself bald yet), but I don't feel any different than how I felt a few days ago (other than a colder chill). What am I doing for my birthday? Seriously, nothing exciting...apparently things have already been planned out:
Tonight My sisters bought me Pizza, cake, soda, wine and beer (Corona all the way baby!) and gave me $55 combined (sweet!). My Parents are coming down this weekend to celebrate my birthday (we'll probably go out for dinner) and give me a gift (my best bet it will be a stereo along with a few dollars), and my father will give me his infamous speech his been giving me for the past five years: "You're getting older, and you're becoming a man. You'll need to take in more responsibilities and one day stand on your own two feet".

Oh no, my birthday doesn't end there. My sister and her fiance, Jamon, are taking me out to see the movie 300 at an I-Max theater (so expect to see a review on it later on during the week) and my sister wants to buy something/do something a little extra afterwards. She didn't know what to buy for me, so she feels bad, my best bet is we're going to go out to a bar.

Now what would surprise me is if my family members bought me the following: Digital Camera, MP3 Player, or Nintendo Wii

Added Thoughts on Phantom Hourglass

2007-03-08T02:08:00.000-05:00

If you haven't taken the time to read my first & second installments in Phantom Hourglass updates, then I'd suggest you please do so before reading onward keep yourself up with the news. There's much to be said about PH news, so listen up: Back in the day it was rumored to have been a Four Sword game and released in December 2006, then it was said to be a game called "Phantom Hourglass" and the date pushed back to March 2007, then finally it was said to be pushed back sometime in the Summer of 2007 (nobody complained considering everybody understands that Twilight Princess needed more time to be in it's own spotlight). Now (according to The Hylia.com) it is said that the date is undecided but rumors are stating an October 15th release date...does this sound like the workings of a second overhaul to you people? Of course, in the past, TP has extended it's deadline and it certainly didn't get an overhaul...well that is left to the matter than nobody outside of Nintendo had played both versions of the game.

Well today, we've received even more tidbits about PH. Apparently at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), a revised demo version of PH was playable to the public, but this time, it was the multiplayer mini-game that had the spotlight, not the main quest (where we saw Link going through the dungeon and fight that Wind Octorok). When it comes to the public, apparently it's quite obvious what has been revised would be how the game was controlled.

It has been announced that the multiplayer Pac-man esque Minigame will not be playable with one player (so one can not go up against the CPU), but it would have to be against another person. Nothing has been said about single cartridge or Wifi use when it comes to mulitplayer games, but so far, it's quite safe to say that only friends nearby can play. "There's a surprising amount of strategy involved in this mode. For example, the "Guard" player can always see Link on the map, but Link cannot see the guards on the map until he picks up a Triforce. The downside to carrying a Triforce is that it weighs Link down, and moreso as the Triforce pick-ups increase in size. Some Triforces are tiny and worth fewer points, but only slow down Link's movements a little bit. Huge Triforce pickups are worth more points but slow Link down to a crawl.

Almost as if the designers took a cue from Pac-Man, Link can hit escape tunnels at the top and bottom of the map, which are also surrounded by a "safe zone." While in these zones, Link cannot be touched by guards since the guards can't wander into them. Link also disappears from the guard player's map while in these zones...but if Link's carrying a Triforce, the Guard player can still see that Triforce move...giving away Link's location.

On top of all this, there will be power-ups scattered throughout the dungeon. Red power-ups can only be used by the red player, blue pick-ups by the blue player. Red players can run over blue power-ups to destroy them and take them out of play. Power ups include giving Link or the guards an extra boost in speed, or allowing Link to take a hit from the guard. Guards can activate power-ups that turn blowers on within the dungeon that will block Link's path with enormous gusts of wind.

At the end of three Link and three Guard turns for each of the competitors, the game calculates how many Triforce points each player earned within the battle and decides the winner...and in the demo it's a very uneventful "Win" or "Lose" screen."-IGN.com

There are a few things I have noticed...it seems that Link has the same items that he had in tWW. All of them? Who knows? Does he start off with all of them? Well that certainly would be something original (when it comes to a LoZ game...but not necessarily a Metroid game, which isn't the case here), but I wouldn't be surprised considering he's still the Hero of Winds (and with the power of the Microphone, I'm sure the player could to blow into the mic to make wind, while Link jumps off a ledge and uses his Deku Leaf, you see, there's an example, and it's not an original one considering in the upcoming Wario game for the DS, he has a similar item/suite that permits him to fly however long the player blows into the mic).

**UPDATE** New Trailer!

My new observations?
-Though it's very hard to tell, it seems like there's a new kind of enemy. It's sorta large (maybe a bit taller than the average Moblin), wears a mask, and uses something that looks somewhat like a hammer as a weapon.
-Fire keese make a return and shooting torches make a return from the Oracle games...
-Seagulls are still around (will they provide any use?)
-While on the ship, your stylus will act as the cannon's cursor to shoot at enemies.
-I can't tell but I'm either looking at a large Deku Baba or a large Octorok...
-The Telescope makes a return...I don't know if it will have any practical uses, or if it was just used for that cinematic sequence.
-We see a ship that has a "woman" on the bow, and butterfly wings on the sail of the boat (making it look like the woman has wings).
-We see Link going blade to blade against (what looks to be) a girl. Could this be a Gerudo?
-We see our second Boss Battle, and it seems to be a gigantic Hermit Crab. Now I'm starting to believe that all the bosses will be sea/sky based. I mean, we already have a Octopus and a Hermit Crab, what else do we need? A Seagull, a turtle, and a Barracuda? Well to make note of the Hermit Crab, it grabs Link and shakes him (sorta like how Ghoma grabs a hold of Link and injures him in OoS), and with that huge red shell, I think it's easy to assume that we must either flip the boss onto it's back, or blast that shell off of him to expose his weak point.
-We finally meet a few new characters. One is an old man carrying a red cane...my guess is he's possibly the captain of the steam boat you're riding on. And another man who if I had to judge by his clothing and his facial expression, I'd say he's some rich snob (main antagonist of the game? I don't think so. It's too early to note). And the rich snob (Who I shall call him "Count" for now on) shakes Link...for what reason, I haven't the faintest clue, but it seems that Navi put a stop to that.

Now, just like what I've done before in the past, I'm going to analyze all the new photos that have come into fray:

Beetle's Back!: It seems that our favorite sea-faring merchant has made a return in the second installment of tWW. We've seen Link pick up arrows and bombs (they are, nor they will ever be limitless), so it's quite possible that is one of the few things he will sell. What else? My guess is as good as yours. A few other things to note down are the camera, natural borders, and islands. On the top screen there's a yellow marker near the boat indicating which direction the camera is facing. Very nice and clever, and since the Beetle icon is to the right of it, it's off camera. Unlike in tWW, it seems that Link has a limited amount of places to dock his boat, so that just may mean that if Link ever needs to get off the island, he needs to backtrack his way to the dock instead of anchoring it wherever he may please (I am curious about that very large crane that is seen in the camera's point of view...does that crane pick up Link's boat?). And finally about the natural borders. In tWW, there weren't any real borders. Mother/Child Island and the Lost Forrest (or whatever it was called) had natural borders from being very tall, but when it comes to overall boarders throughout the whole map, there weren't any. Apparently in PH, there are rocks that can be in the way. Will Link receive an item that can blast them all away? Who knows? Maybe.

Dungeon Map#1: One thing that's innovative about the stylus/touch screen that makes sense in the world of LoZ that didn't before would be the compass. In previous games, the compass located the whereabouts of all the keys, treasures, and boss rooms. Now it's up for the player to jot down that kind of important info like placing a "K" for key, "C" for Chest, "B" for Boss, "MB" for mini-boss, and other codes to not fill up the whole space.

Dungeon Map#2: Not much is said about this picture...maybe Keys appear on your map the moment you see one in the room (and an icon is automatically shown), unlike the past where one would have to write the note down. Plus, red chu-chus are back...

Outside World: Nothing special here, it just seems to me that Link is doing a little bit of bush whacking to make his way up to what seems would be the dungeon of the Island...speaking of Island, I wonder how many (main ones) are there?

Boomerang Target: This is the same map as the Dungeon Map#1 I showed earlier, and it's quite obvious it shows two things: The order in which Link had to have hit each crystal switch, and that the boomerang can hit at least 4 targets at the same time (will it still have the "7" limit it had before?).

De-neh!!: Miniblins are back. The previous dungeon seemed to be a fire dungeon (the flames and lava hinted at that) and now at the top of this screen we see a blue dungeon...could this mean it's a water dungeon? Will Link actually swim? Heck, is Link able to swim outside his boat? But what is that red block to the left? When you look to the map it looks like it's being represented by a black dot, and there's another one South East of the dungeon, so probably those two things are important.

Pegasus Boots: Hmmm Pegasus Boots make a return. They weren't shown in tWW, but certainly in the FS Saga. One thing to not in the FS Saga (most notably FS and FSA) is this; items are being used as temporary things now. Take a look at the Bombos/Ether medalions. You could only use them once. I truly hope this isn't something to look forward to for future LoZ installments in the series for Link to have limited space as to what he carries.

Safe Zone: Ah, so we see the safe zone for Link. But here's a question that comes to mind when I saw this picture: Ok, we see that the Darknuts are making their path/attacks, however, what indicates how far/long can they walk? In Star Fox Command there was a "Fuel Bar" to indicate how far one ship can fly, but not here.

Blue Link: Nothing special here...just that we see Blue Link. In FS and FSA games, we had different colored Links to make it easy for players to identify themselves...now what's the reason for this blue Link? There certainly aren't more than one Link on the field, so it could mean a variety of things:
-There will be Tunic upgrades (maybe blue is for swimming)
-There will be multiplayer via Wifi (to see which Link received the most points at the end)
-The player can choose the color of his tunic for no real purpose at all.

Time is of the essence!: This game is called "Phantom Hourglass", and we haven't seen anything that's "Phantom" about anything (well I suppose that Ghost Ship Tetra gets lost in has something to do with it). As for Hourglass, we have our second viewing. At first we saw Link draw an hourglass on a door to make it open (maybe that's what those red things were from a few pictures back), and now we see the hourglass represent how much time he has in order to collect as many points as possible...)

In the end, if it does become, something has come to my attention for many years; every Hero goes through two adventures. The only heroes that have not gone through a second adventure would be tMC Link, TP Link, and tWW Link (PH would be his second adventure, but now I'm beginning to doubt myself). If you read the FS or FSA prologue it tells of a tale when a hero comes out and saves maidens from Vaati. I believe that hero is talking about tMC Link's second adventure (maybe that's what the overhaul will be on...who knows). I do have my highest doubts that the first Zelda DS game will be TP Link's second adventure considering word has already gone out about the second Zelda Wii game has already been in development for over a year now (though that doesn't confirm it's TP Link's second adventure, I think everybody would agree it would be a stupid idea if Nintendo didn't do that). Before it was confirmed that the "new zelda for ds" was PH, it was going to be a Four Swords game (created by the same development team who created FS, FSA, and tMC if my memory is correct), so I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the game makes some kind of timeline connection between tWW and the FS Saga.

When it comes to the villain of the story, here's what I'm thinking: Many people believe that PH will take place between tWW and tMC. So, if Vaati was introduced in tMC, the villain of PH can't be him (though it would be interesting to see the "Sorcerer of Winds" fight against the "Hero of Winds".). And since Ganondorf is stone cold underneath the Great Sea, he won't be making a return, so there are only three options: A completely new villain, the return of Zant, or the return of an old villain (that is neither Ganondorf or Zant and just may alter people's thought on the timeline.)

-Marco

PS: Credit of the picture goes to souldreamx of DeviantArt.com

2008, the year of the Prince

2007-03-03T16:04:00.000-05:00

Today certainly is a great day if you are a Prince of Persia fan, like myself. Not only did we receive tid-bits of news and official art from the upcoming Prince of Persia game, but we've also got news, rumors, and official concept art for the Prince of Persia movie!

The Good: According to my sources at JimHillMedia.com & QJ.net, it seems that Walt Disney Studios and Jerry Bruckheimer will take on in creating the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time trilogy movies, starting with the first one which has been said to come out in the summer of 2008. Although the pictures in this part of the article are official concept art-pieces from Disney, it has been said that they may not be seen in the final adaptations of the films (meaning, don't feel too attached to them).

The Bad: There have been a few rumors flying around saying that the movie will not have the same storyline as the video games. What makes the rumors bad is this: It seems that this is true; "after much digging around for more news on this rumor, we found a lot of claims, and Jerry Bruckheimer says that the game story is a no-go...but will emphasize on creating a starting point where new stories can be told. ". As they say, "Every cloud as it's silver lining", and I can see it in this news as well. With the video game storyline being scrapped this will leave Disney to choose a different way so that it won't be similar to Aladdin (another one of their characters that shockingly have a close background story. Not about time, but about a boy, a princess, and an evil man with a ceptar), as well as have their own version of a video game that's based off of the movie (which is based off of a video game. Seriously, if that happened, it would be the first time to my knowledge).

The Ugly:I'm surprised and yet, not surprised at the same time. Why I'm surprised is because of the whole Prince of Persia attribute...it sorta reminds me of Aladdin (another one of Disney's characters). How so, you may ask? Well in Aladdin, he's "Prince Ali" who tries to win over the Princess' heart before it's too late while the Suntan's adviser Jafar uses his dark magic to make himself powerful. In PoP we have a Prince who has one hour to escape from the dungeon before it's too late to save the Princess and defeat the wizard Jafar (yes, same name, however I'd like to add that the PoP franchise was created before the Disney Movie ever came out...so who is copying whom?).

But of course, that's the original PoP I was talking about. The PoP that Disney has their eye on is the slightly updated version that talks about the Sands of Time Saga. And according to my source, Disney plans to make this film into a full-fledged franchise of it's own...I do wonder how people will try to differentiate between the Prince of Persia and the Prince of Agrababa?

Ok so we have most of the little facts down, however, the most anticipated question is: Who is going to play the Prince? "Well that has been debated a lot. Apparently, even after they searched for a relatively unknown Persian actor to play the part, they settled with Aussie TV actor Charlie Clausen (of "Mcleod's Daughters" and "Blue Heels" fame). We're not sure if he could pull some serious moves on the temple pillars, but as long as Bruckheimer calls the shots, there's a big chance he'd have to take some trapeze lessons."-QJ.net

Now that we have that taken care of, why don't we talk a little bit about video games, eh? According to my sources at QJ.net , it seems that Ubisoft will once again take up the crown of the PoP series again and start a new chapter in the Prince's life. Not much of the storyline is known, heck, we don't even know what the subtitle of the game will be. All we know is this: "it seems that the prince will have a new love interest in the new game. OK, that and a magic gauntlet. It is yet unclear how this magic gauntlet will be used, but it will most likely have something to do with the weapon system of the game (for example, having different weapon configurations).". As for what I think the gauntlet controls...maybe it can control elements. I mean, the essence of time has been used in pretty much every game nowadays, and so has elements (like earth, wind, water, and fire) however it hasn't been used in PoP yet.

It has been said that the game will be released for the PS3 and the 360, however, no word about the Wii. I honestly think it would be a dumb move not to place it in all three systems, but that's just me. For now, you can enjoy the official art and please give me your two cents on what you think about the recent movie and game news...

**Update**
It's been said that the full title of the video game is Prince of Persia: Ghost of the Past. Well it seems to me that "Ghost of the Past", may not have something to do with time travel, but it will have something to do with the Prince's life before the effects of Sands of Time.

"Number 23" Review

2007-03-02T13:32:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday I saw Jim Carrey's latest movie, "Number 23". Ever since 1997, Jim Carrey has been heading towards the more serious route to movies (1997 being the last time I considered him being in a funny movie: Liar Liar), as well as a few children's movies. But when it comes to pure comedy, the only ones he's done would be Me, Myself & Irene, Bruce Almighty, and Fun with Dick & Jane (and the only actual funny one from those three would be Bruce Almighty, and even that had a semi-serious tone in it). When push comes to shove, this would have to be one of my favorite "serious Carrey roles", and the movie was done pretty well. I know this isn't much of a review, however, if you're into thriller movies that keep you guessing until the very end (where the director gives you flashbacks of previous events and new information so all will make sense ala any M.Night movie, "The Illusionist", and "Inside Man", which are other movies I'd like to recommend if you haven't seen them already), then I'd recommend this one as well. I can't give away the ending (ok, I suppose I could considering this is my blog, but that wouldn't be nice to my reader(s)), but I will say this: Just think of the 6th Sense, and you may figure out everything before the credits roll...

Webcomic Collection

2007-02-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

For the longest time, I've had this nice collection of webcomics at my blog, and I don't believe I've ever talked about them. So that's what I'm going to do today. Now I have a wide range of humor, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you have the same range/taste. Now I've separated the comics into a few categories; Video Game, Spin Off, Realistic, Adult Oriented, Dark/Twisted, and Manga.

Video Game Comics

They are exactly what the title implies. They are comics that are highly based off of video games.

VGCats has to be one of my top five favorite webcomics I have in my collection. It has a cartoony flavor to it, with a hint of adult humor in some parts. The great thing, it doesn't only stick to one system, it broadens to all of them. There isn't a plot to the comic, but just Aeris and Leo (two cats) and a few other assorted characters giving their views on certain Video Game related subjects (and often times jump into the world of said video game and become the main protagonist(s)).

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Besides the fact that Ctrl+Alt+Del is a heavy X-box & PC favored comic (though the mainsite does have videos and articles consisting of all the current and previous gen game consoles), this is actually a fun comic. The characters consist of Ethan, Lucas, Lilah, Zeke, Scott, and Ted. Ethan is the main protagonist who is juggling his personal life, carrer life, video game addiction, and his recent proposal to his fiance Lilah.

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Ahh yes, Dueling Analogs is certainly one comic that favors into the Nintendo (my kind of comic) that is, until that gnome character was introduced (but he's funny nonetheless. We need more gnome characters nowadays. All we have are Expedia's Traveling Gnome and David the Gnome of yesteryear). Like most of these comics, there really isn't any plot into it, but that's not I was looking for in the first place, I was looking for laughter, and that's what anybody would find in this comic.

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AwkwardZombie.com: It's very observant that the artist is a big Nintendo fan considering that's what all the comics are based upon. The most frequent characters used in his series of comics are from the Mario Multiplayer games (like Super Smash Brothers, Golf, Kart, etc..) but most presumably he uses the characters Link, Marth, and a third character I can't identify...

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I believe the creator of F@NBOY$ said it best "is a comic that's mainly about three gaming fanboys (one being a girl) that live together and how they interact. You can imagine that they don't get along very well and that's where the comedy begins". What he means by this is, each character is a fan of one of the three gaming conglomerates, so most comics it's pretty much a console war. Like VGCats, not all the comics center around the main characters, but characters from other video games.

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God Mode I just picked this comic up a few days ago, and to be quite honest, it's not that funny, but it has it's moments. Basically the plot of the story is: a game critique company that's run by a bitchy boss, her son, a sultry booth-babe-esque girl, and two other employee. As it's painly obvious, I haven't gotten the time to get to know the characters (even though I did take the time to read every comic...).

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Are you a fan of alternate dimentions, Ultima Online, Mechs, World of Warcraft, evil layer space stations, and secret portal doors? Well then Real Life Comics may be what you're looking for. In the beginning it seemed to me that the comic was far from real life, but as the story developed, it seems that the main plot started to become the newlyweds of the two main characters (who are avatars of the actual main characters). There is one thing that has happened in this comic that I haven't seen in any other: Totally breaking the fourth wall (such as the artist making appearances in his own world, and visa versa).

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I've found two last minute entries (I just love comics ^_^), and I haven't had the time to make a decent enough review on the two of them. First would be I AM A GEEK & DAK Studioz. Both are equally as funny as the ones I've placed above and I think that they deserved to be part of my little comic family. "I am a Geek" is about an author named Ian Powell's and his best friend/roommate Hannah's (the one that drew him into geek-dom) inner minds of being a geek, and the funny thing about it is, I've often found myself doing the same thing. One moment they'd be talking with their boss, but in their mind, they're receiving an order from a higher power from Star Wars.

As for DAK Studioz...I haven't read through their archive just yet, but from the few comics I have read, it seems to be quite promising.

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Spin Off

Now Spin Off comics are comics that are actually based off of a previous existing non-fictionous story that was already created. Granted that this isn't used many time throughout the comic community, I think it deserved it's own category.

I've been a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ever since I was a little kid of the 80's. And to find such a well drawn and well written web comic like Mutant Ninja Turtles Gaiden just caught me by a pleasant surprise. The main plot of the story is this: In the past (the past we all know and love) Splinter sacrificed his own life in order to save the lives of his sons. In the process, Leonardo became very distraught and decided to go to Japan. Since the death of their master and the departure of their brother and leader, Donatello, Raphael, and Michaelangelo all went on their separate ways. Then the story takes place 17 years later where we find older versions of the three heroes. Mikey lives at the home of April and Casey Jones (married) along with their daughter, Shadow, being a famous writer. Donatello and Raphael still live in the sewers (in separate appartments). Don becomes a "homebody", constantly locking himself in his lab, rarely going to the surface only to collect food and equiptment, and Raph becomes an alcoholic who's still haunted from his past and trains everyday to become a better ninja. The story really start to unfurl when the trio is introduced to a new mutant turtle, one that likes to call himself "Augustus".

Coincidentally, in the past, there once was a TMNT show called "The Next Mutation" that introduced a fifth Ninja Turtle named Venus (yes female, and her head band was light blue) after the famous artwork, Venus de Milo. In this comic, Augustus was given the name "Renoir" after the famous artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It's an ongoing gag that the turtles be named after famous artists, and the writer/illustrator of this Gaiden believes to think so too (plus it's also coincidental that both Venus and Renoir were given Tonfas as their weapon of choice).

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Oh wow, what can I say? I'm a fan of Bleedman's work, and I'd like to talk about two of his works right now. Firstly, his most updated work would have to be Grim Tales From Down Below which takes place roughly 20 years into the future of Power Puff Girls Doujinshi (another work of his). "GT" (as I like to call it) is the future of Grim and Mandy (from the TV animated show, The Grim Tales of Billy & Mandy) after they have married and had 2 children: Grim Jr and Mini-Mandy (the two main protagonists of the story). The story opens up on Grim Jr telling a flashback tale of what has happened in the past three days and what made his sister look like in the state she is in now.

"PPGD" is the story of the Power Puff Girls and when they move into a the new city of Megaville (I do wonder how Townsville will survive all the powerful villains, gigantic monsters, and petty crooks without their three lovable heroines). Well that certainly isn't all what it's about, it also talks about how the adapt into their new town, starting anew and Dexter trying to revive the dead as his arch-nemesis tries to strike revenge for what he has done in the past...

In classic Bleedman storytelling, there are at often times cameos from other cartoon/comics/fictional pieces. So far in GT, I've witnessed cameos from Spawn, Grim Tales of Billy & Mandy (that's obvious), his spin off of Power Puff Girls Doujinishi, and Nightmare Before Christmas. And in PPGD, I've seen characters from the PPGs, Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Time Squad, My Life As A Teenage Robot, Fairly Odd Parents, Johnny Bravo, Invader Zim, Ed Edd & Eddy, Justice Friends, MegaBee-Battle, Megas XLR, Xiaolin Showdown, Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, Cow & Chicken, Atomic Betty, Justice League Unlimited, Robotboy, and a few others. It's not only the cameos that are exciting, it's also the artwork. It's quite obvious in his work how much time and effort he took in creating each page, and his audience surely appreciates it, and I think you all will too.

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Realistic

It doesn't necessarily mean that the comics look realistic, it just simply means that the plot, storyline, characters, and overall daily drama/life seem soo ordinary it seems plausible to be considered real life, rather than something you'd only see in a saturday morning cartoon.

I honestly have no clue why it's called Questionable Content. I don't see anything questionable about it, to be quite frank. The comic has some dry witted & sophisticated sarcasm to it's jokes, something that I haven't seen or heard in quite awhile (and it's something I dearly appreciate). The borderline plot of the story is this; Marten Reed's life is surrounded by women who are full of drama, and he somehow is involved in every one of their lives. There's love, sex, beer, and curious robots, everything a comic could ask for;)

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I find it funny why it's called Mega Tokyo. Is it "Mega" because of all the drama Piro (the main protagonist) goes through, or all the action/adventures his friend Largo goes through? Or is it both? One thing that should be highly noted about this web comic is this: It's been published and manufactured into Manga books and posters. I was quite amazed, but it seems that this web comic has caught onto such a large fan-base. I've seen the manga & posters be sold at Borders stores throughout Massachusetts, and even a Mega Tokyo Posters at the children section of my parent's town library reminding kids it's important to read. Now I've seen other webcomics sell posters and T-shirts (as does M.Tokyo), but never Manga books. Kudos to them!

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Now that I'm thinking...maybe "Realistic" was the wrong section to place The Surf Shack in. Now I'm not a surfer (snowboarder, or a skate boarder) myself...heck I don't do any "extreme sports", but I still find this comic mildly amusing. It takes the lives of two New Jersey (I believe) surfers who first take care of college life and then sail around the world competing in competitions to win for an underground league of the "best of the best" surfers around the globe. With their friends and girls by their side, and competitors trying to attack from behind, you can see where all the drama lies.

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Adult Oriented

This just means that it's something you'd probably see in an R rated movie...usually sex related.

Chugworth Academy is more of a "stupid funny" than anything else. Long ago I started reading the comic, and I have no idea why I continue to read it (I guess it's because after all that time and effort to read all the previous comics, I might as well read the rest of them).

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Least I Could Do: The title says it all, and yet, I have no clue what it's suppose to mean (though the used condom over the "I" may give a suddle hint). The story revolves around the life of Rayne, a buisman who is nothing short of a playboy with the imagination of a kid (thinking of Transformers and Lord of the Rings) and the personality of a young Hugh Hefner. Throughout the series (which has been revamped two different times) you'll see Rayne's crazy antics of going from all the women he's been with, and all the friends that surround his life. Just like I said about Mega Tokyo having it's own published/manufactured Manga, Least I Could Do has it's own online Flash Animated Series. I haven't seen any of the episodes (considering you have to purchase to view them online), however, I'm sure they are just as funny (if not more so) than the comic itself.

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Dark/Twisted Humor

Be warned: If you do not have a large range of humor or find crude/disgusting humor ill fated, then please do not read the following comics.

The Perry Bible Fellowship is something that I've been following on and off again from time to time. What made me go back to it is when I realized they had moved to a different site when I saw one of their comics published in a Maxim magazine. The comics are full of sex, drugs, alcohol, death and violence related humor, so like I said at the "Dark/Twisted Humor" title, enter at your own risk.

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If you want to talk about some vulgar actions, look no further than in Cyanide & Happiness. Granted at the sidebar of my blog I like to call the comic "Explosm", but that doesn't really matter, as long as people know what I'm talking about. These comics can push some controversial topics and take them beyond that line that not many comic creators would like to cross. Though some (heck, I should say very few) comics are PG rated, the majority run in the rated R section for sex and violent content. As far as twisted humor goes, it can also be found in here. Need an example? Well I can't think of one at this very moment, however, enter at your own risk.

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Gone with the Blastwave is a comic I recently discovered from a suggestion in the Bit Blot forum. This is the only Dark humored comic that has a plot. War can be an ugly place to be in, but according to this comic, it can be a hilarious place as well. If you can't find any humor of a tank falling on top of enemy troops, or a sniper cutting off the air supply of a distant enemy for sheer entertainment, then don't click on the link.

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Don't let the smiles fool you, Smileville can sometimes get as dirty as a cute puppy smothered in fresh cow shit (well...maybe not Rated R dirty, but dirty enough that I couldn't find a category to place it under other than this one:P)...plus nobody said my analogies had to make sense to the readers, just myself.

To my long time readers (all one of you), you probably have noticed that this comic was once part of my favorite's collection, but sadly when it went on hiatus, I left it up for a little while, but ultimately took it down...that is, until I read at Snafu-Comics Forums from the creator himself (Vis) that he's brought the comic out of hiatus.

Now let me try and introduce the cast of Smileville: Reject is the "crash dummy" of the cast. Everybody ridicules him and endangers his health for their own entertainment and self benefit. What can I say? He's a regular punching bag. Blue and Vis (who is the author's avatar of himself...we've seen this done before in Real Life Comics) are quite essentially the "normal" ones in the group (and I use that word quite strongly when it comes to this comic). Kat is a fine female feline smilie that upholds all the stereotypes of a vicious house-cat along with the adoration of cookies that only Seasame Street's Cookie Monster could only uphold. Bubble (may he/she/it/ rest in pieces)...well to be quite honest, I didn't like this character very much, so I was actually relieved that it died. At least it went out with a bang[/obvious joke]. Fwee and the Devil are the essential forms of good versus evil...or should I say cruel versus evil? Though Vis is the avatar of the author, it is Fwee who has the powers. The Devil? From what I can remember, he's not that half bad...at least, that could be said to anybody compared to the Fwee. EVERYBODY MUST OBEY THE FWEE!!

There really isn't a plot to the story, nor is there an actual setting (unless you count white space that a setting...considering Fwee and the Devil are there, I sorta think of the place as Vis' drawing landscape or I could go deeper and think of it as Limbo...but then again that wouldn't explain Bubble's death considering Limbo is an afterlife...and yet we "saw" that Bubble still blew a bubble in the grave. I guess this is a question that only the creator can answer), but it's funny nonetheless, and I'd recommend it to add it onto your webcomic collection.

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So please feel free to give me your opinions on these webcomics, and tell me about the webcomics that you read (preferably ones that haven't been shown on this list and that you honestly think that I would uphold some sort of interest after seeing my humor range...yes I'm a self centered little bastard).

Goodbye GameCube

2007-02-26T15:56:00.001-05:00

According to GameDaily.com, they say that Nintendo has stopped production of Gamecubes and Gamecube games (making Lara Croft: Legends, Twilight Princess, and Baten Kaitos: Origins the last games for the system)...well I honestly don't believe all of that. Why you may ask? Well when a new system comes out, there is a possibility that a game comes out that the previous system could have played. For example, the upcoming Super Smash Brothers Brawl game will be using the Gamecube controller (as well as the new Ninja Turtles game). So other than the updated graphics, couldn't you (sorta) consider this a Gamecube game? I honestly don't think this will be the only time it will happen. There are some upcoming games that will give the player the option to play it with the Wiimote, VC Controller, or GC Controller (such as the upcoming Mortal Kombat game).

I say a completely new game for the Wii can only be played using the Wiimote; that's the definition of a true Wii game. Heck, just take a look at the PS3. It's a PS2 controller with Sixaxis motion sensors. Other than a few mini-games and Race-car games, don't you think that the PS3 games will just be updated graphics of the PS2?

It seems to me that the "Old Gen" is still living today. Even though motion sensing has been introduced, it doesn't mean that it's been taken over. The SNES had two extra buttons and introduced the shoulder pads. Graphics aside (always aside) don't you think that companies will always take baby steps to the future with their consumers comfortable where they are?

If they always give gamers the option of playing with the previous gen console control, then how exactly are we going to move forward? It seems to me that we need another big jump (just like the big jump we had during the transition of the SNES to the N64...now that was revolutionary).

Blue Angels

2007-02-26T15:53:00.000-05:00

At first I found it cool how YouTube made people send in their own pieces of work for all to see, especially when it's people video taping themselves (as silly as it can be at times). Well at some moments it was funny, and others it was stupid, that is until you get to see somebody you actually know on that infamous website.

I'd like to introduce to you all, my Unlce Pat. He's not a blood relative, but he's been an old and close family friend, that my sisters and I have considered him part of our family throughout the years; and in the end, that's all that really matters (what the heart counts as family, not the genes). I was looking at my high school website, I saw a little news report on my uncle (he used to be a teacher at the high school), apparently he was able to be in the passenger side of a Blue Angel Jet. Though the video may be long (14 minutes) it is funny to see him pass out, throw up, and use the breathing technique. Believe me, I was worried when I saw the clip, but laughing at the same time (if you knew this man, you'd be laughing too since he's just the kind of person to do this kind of stunt...I guess it comes with his job being a photographer)

Aquaria

2007-02-24T20:03:00.000-05:00

Now - what with the New-Gen consoles and the new standard of games, I was pleasently surprised when Marco intriduced the game "Aquaria" to me.
At first glance, it reminiscent on the Mega Drive/Genesis days of old, but apparantly, this game is indeed an up and coming release.

The game itself is created by the independant company Bit Blot, a company comprising of two people (Alec Holowka and Derek Yu; the programmer and illustrator respectively).
While the company express wishes to have "the game in a box at some point, also. Hopefully with a nice instruction manual," the current idea is is to start with a paid download."

But enough of context, let's talk about the game itself.
As said before, the game reminded me of the glory days of the Mega Drive. This is due to the 2D side-scrolling nature of the game.

The game itself seems to concern a single person who awakens all alone, and who, presumabley, embarks on a quest to find the rest of her race, in a fashion similar to the Ecco series from SEGA.

Well, I don't know about you, but I personally was thrilled to see such a simplistic, yet enticing game.
The backrounds in gameplay are full and vibrant and the scale of the game seems gigantic, and with the small figure of the protagonist, the environments seem hauntingly, yet beautiful.

The character has (an expectedly) marine-like appearence, and her character swims with a grace, and moves with an effortless fluidity that reminds me of NiGHTS from the NiGHTS into Dreams series (in fact, this game practically screams SEGA to me).
However, that's not to say that this game is a soft, slow adventure, parts of the game seem very frantic, and with some huge enemies, such as Angler fish, the games takes on a very forboding and dark atmosphere, again, another commen feature with the Ecco games.

In addition, the character seems to possess an arsenal of magical abilities, with a circular selection menu being utilized to select attacks.
In a sneaky twist, it also is alluded to that the protagonist herself has a darker alter ego - she can be seen as points in the video transforming into a dark-clad creature which supposedly will add a new dimension and intrigue into the game, as well as possibly allow for unique oppertunities to be undertaken.
It has been mentioned that she uses her voice too, as a means of attack.

The music (once again) is very much like Ecco II : Tides of TIme.
In fact, I'd go far to say that Ecco the dolphin was a great source of inspiration for Aquaria.
The music is very sombre with an unspoken, serene quality in it that reflects the ambivilance of the environment, as well as reflect emotional states of situations.

I have to admit, I am looking forward to this game by far more than any other game on any other console this year - it seems with all the shiny new hardware and such, people forget that some simply magical games do not necessarily need blinding 3D articulated visuals (I think the 2D side scrolling appearance is charming personally) and that this game has the potential to be great.

Hopefully, I would love to see this on a handheld console, like the PSP, though ideally the DS, for the sheer reason that with a touch-pad and microphone, I can see some very innovative features that can be taken advantage of - such as using the stylus to complete ancient drawings on tablets to open up new areas in the game, or blowing into the microphone to create a wall of bubbles onscreen to act as a protective barrier for the protagonist, etc.

-SD

How is an idea created?

2007-02-19T13:46:00.000-05:00

How is an idea created? Believe it or not, but I have wondered about this. There are a few things science doesn't know the full knowledge about, and that's the human brain, outer space, our very own oceans, and possibly a few that have escaped my thoughts for the very moment.

Well the question is there, and I'm curious what's your take on it? You can go into it by explaining what exactly is memory, and how we store it into our brains, but could someone honestly explain how an idea is created? How did the great minds of science, inventors, artists, etc..., think the way they do. I've heard two sayings "Great minds think a like" and "Great minds think differently". Of course depending on how you look at things, you could go with either one, but an idea must have been there before anything else.

I don't care how ideas and science are related (for example, somebody taking on old invention and making it better), I want to know how is an idea created through thought...does it have something to do with the images he/she saw throughout his/her lifetime to create such an idea? Tell me

Grey's Death???

2007-02-16T15:07:00.001-05:00

What has happened to me? At one time I was never into drama shows, and now it seems that those are the only big things I watch. Grey's Anatomy, Prison Break, House, Scrubs, Smallville, and American Idol are all my guilty pleasures. But I don't have the time to talk about all of them, so let's just go with Grey's Anatomy for now.

So one day I was watching Grey's Anatomy and started getting bored...so I decided to make a little diagram of all the relationships & sex-capades all the main characters have had. Other than being born, I also wanted to see what "loose ends" that the show hasn't really made a big focus on. So let me explain the diagram (a little warning: whenever you see a triangle, that means the couple conceived a child).

If you've been watching the show, the diagram would make sense, however if you haven't I may explain later and hopefully it's self explanatory. The only things I want to really talk about are the "loose ends". Why? Because they may come up later on in the series.

Let's start with Meredith. Not much to say about her; she dated Finn for awhile but then decided to be with Derek. Just because she chose him (and the dog is dead) doesn't mean he will never make a return (this is a drama/soap opera-ish kind of show you know).

Izzy has a child that she gave up for adoption when she was in high school. Now there are two characters that can be flying by: Her daughter, and her High School Boyfriend (HS BF). Though she never had sex with Denny, I still noted the two because they had a strong relationship.

Recently we were given the reason of why Addison left Mark in New York...because he had a fling with a girl named Charline. There we go, yet another name to add onto the list of loose ends.

Now let's go to the older folks of the show, let's start with Meredith's Father. After getting the divorce with Ellis, he married again to a woman named Susan (I believe that's her name). With Susan, he had two daughters: One is at Harvard studying medicine and the other married a man and conceived his first grand daughter. So there we go, five characters to add onto the list: Susan, Harvard Daughter, Married Daughter, Son In-Law, and the Grand Daughter.

The other "main" loose end to think of:
-Adele and the Mystery Man. After Richard was hard pressed on his work, she left him, and is now in the arms of another man. Who knows, we just may see him later on
-Christina and Preston. Sure they are a happy couple, but no big drama (other than the arm spasms) has happened to their lives.
-Miranda Baily and Husband.
-Joe & Walter...minor characters but I still think they needed to be noticed.
-Erica Hahn she's the only "single gal" out there...and I predict that she will intertwine in the Christina/Preston relationship (sometimes opposites attract).

Ok, that's enough of analyzing, now let's talk about some recent events. Last week, this week (yesterday), and next week are a special three-part episode that is said to change the story (good or bad). There were a lot of rumors heading around the net the other day such as:
1. Two main characters are going to die in the second and third episode.
2. Sometime this season the character Denny Duquette will return for at least two episodes. Not as a dream or flashback, so I'm guessing as a Ghost or Angel.
3. These three episodes will either make the show better or worse (no in between).

Last week (long story short) one of the fairies' boilers' exploded and many people needed to be hospitalized. Merideth, Baily, Izzy, Alex, and George went to the scene of the accident first, while the rest of the cast stayed at the hospital. George found an injured woman, brought her to the hospital and went on a frantic search to find her 7 year old boy (she wouldn't agree to start the surgery until she knew he was ok). Alex fished unburied a pregnant woman from heavy rubble and went back to the hospital with her. Izzy went onto the automobile loading section of the fairy where a man trapped under a car needed attention. Baily (I think) attended to some people (nobody important) and headed back to the hospital while Derek arrived at the scene. Merideth found a lost girl (she wouldn't speak from all the shock) and tried to find her mother. Along the way she found a man that needed attention near the docks. While tending to his wounds he accidentally knocked her over and she fell into the water.

Everybody else in the hospital (Mark, Addison, Christina, Preston, Richard, and Callie) were doing minor jobs like stitches (and whatnot), gathering/updating information, and trying to make everybody calm throughout all the chaos of the worried family and friends.

Yesterday night's episode was pretty interesting (of course I'll try to make it as short as possible). At the scene, Izzy had to drill a few holes into her patient's head to relieve some of the pressure to his brain (all the while receiving instructions how to do so over the phone by Richard and Mark). Derek found Meredith's pale body and did CPR on her throughout the whole ambulance ride...

At the hospital, George lied to the woman saying that he has found her son (when in fact he doesn't know if he's alive or not, nor does he know where he is). Baily (doing operation on that woman) said that you must find that boy before her operation is over. Alex was being bombarded by questions from the angry mob of people waiting for a new list of casualty names. His information is always outdated so the mob grew more frustrated. That's when he got the idea of taking a polaroid camera and taking pictures of everybody and separating them into three groups: Just came in, In Operation, & Dead and asked everybody to please identify as many as these people as possible. George continues his search and finds out that Callie is doing an operation on a 7 year old boy. He checks up on her, and thankfully that boy was one and the same. That's when everybody's beepers when off...Meredith has arrived to the hospital. All the main residencial doctors arrived to help Meredith's case while her friends, Derek, and Mark all wait in the hallway.

Doing everything they could, Meredith flatlined and the whole screen went white. Then we see a rosy-cheeked Meredith wake up from the table. She looks to her left and finds the Bomb Squad member that died from the explosion and said "Am I dead?", and then behind her Denny Duquette said "You go that right sweetie". Then we get a glimps of all three in the room. End.

So I suppose the rumors were true and I was right about Denny Duquette. A main character did (technically) die, and Denny Duquette was on this episode. So there's not much to say that next week's episode, Meredith will be revived (come on, she can't permanentally die, she's the main protagonist), and some other character will die (according to the rumor). Of course Denny (or the Bomb Squad guy) will say something like "it's not your time yet". But there are two questions still up in the air:
1. If Denny and the Bomb Squad guy was there, why wasn't George's father there too? I asked this question to my sister and she said it was because she wasn't as close to his father than she was with those two. I suppose that's a good enough answer, but I still think he should appear (maybe he will in the third installment).
2. If the rumors are true, who's the second death? None of the other doctors are in great danger, so my only guess is somebody returns to the scene and something horrible happens to them. Which doctor though? I have no idea. Which doctor would I like to see go? Mark Sloan.

Discuss!

S.A.D.

2007-02-13T10:06:00.000-05:00

I know very well that I can't be the only single person out there (though I'm sure we have all felt that way at least once in our life), so this post is just out there to talk about S.A.D. (which is for us single's holiday meaning: Single's Awareness Day). It's quite sad, I know, but we've all been here for this overly commercialized "holiday". Thank you flower shops, card (ignore the LoZ card to the left), stuffed animals, balloon, and chocolate companies for making me feel a whole lot better on this day.

If you're a tight-wad, then I suppose V-day isn't that bad if you're single (hell if you aren't), but if you are a romantic at heard (such as myself;)) then this day can be quite lonely. Not only is it very very very cliche to give/receive candies, flowers, cards, stuffed animals, and/or marriage proposals it just shows how much corporate America has us around their little finger (that a Black Friday).

So feel free to tell me about your good Valentine's stories, or great S.A.D stories (it's all prospective on who you are). Good doesn't necessarily mean "romantic", I'm a comedy guy myself, so it could be the most interesting/funny story you have to say (just keep it PG-13, who knows who may be reading this).

"What if...." I could change something from my past

2007-02-12T13:39:00.000-05:00

Now here's one of my personal favorite series of questions I like to give out that not only reflects upon yourself, but also about the people around your life and how things would change:

I was reading a Spider-man comic a few weeks ago, and there was one moment where Peter Parker (the main protagonist, if you've never heard of the science fictional character) went back to his old high school's track & field and had a vivid day dream of himself when he was younger. At one moment, his younger self went up to Peter and asked things like "Will it ever get any easier from here?"...he was asking his future self for advice.

And that got me thinking, if I could have a five minute conversation with my younger self, what would I talk about? Specifically, what advice would I give him to make his life a little bit easier.

Now I don't want to hear answers like "The Winning Lotto numbers for next week is...", because that's just utter selfish, and that's not what I'm looking for in this discussion. What I'm looking for is, what advice (personal, not financial) would you give to your younger self? Though it was shown in a comic-book, I thought of it as a nice little self-reflecting exercise. Now many of you are still young and may not have any regrets or enough life experience to actually have something worth to talk about, that's ok. But I am curious anyways.

What would I personally talk about? Three things really: Not being a coward, stop procrastinating (and study!), and say "DROP THE FORK!!!!" lol I'd love to laugh at myself since he'd see what I'd look like.

Now what time period would I talk to? Preferably myself when I was in High School. Why then? Because I had soo many opportunities that I was too afraid to take. I could have gone a Semester out in Spain, but I didn't. I could have spent a Semester out west camping, but I didn't. I could have been a serious part of the Football team (but I only played during my senior year). Heck, I could have been a smarter person (maybe) if I had stayed at the Ivy League Bording High School I went to (and my father taught there), rather than the Bording High School I left from (I honestly wouldn't have missed much if I didn't return). I've always been overweight all my life, so that's something I could have dealt with in the past (I can now, but it was easier back then), but it's never too late.

"Marco, take advantage of the opportunities you'll be given. It's not everyday that you have the opportunity to go outside of New England to study...take that chance. Study your ass off because where you're going isn't the best route. Treat your sisters and especially Mami and Papi well because you don't know how much suffering they are willing to do just to make you have a comfortable life. If you want to stop being treated like the baby of the family, then start taking charge of your life. Don't wait for someone else to do it for you.

Never lose contact with your friends. Though after high school they may be going back to their own separate parts of the world, it doesn't mean that your friendships should end there.

Oh and one more thing, watch out for something called "Forums" and "Blogs". I know you're into IMing right now, but don't let the internet distract your social life too much."

Regrets? I've had some...but here's your chance to reflect and say what you'd have changed in your past, if you could give advice.

So now I would like you all to tell me what things in your life would you have changed, and (if you have the time) guess as to how that would change you today.

Wiimprovements

2007-02-04T21:03:00.000-05:00

Ok, so lately I've been having a lot of ideas (hence why I've been making quite a few posts lately), but primerally about Nintendo's Present & Future state for their systems.

We've all seen how well the Nintendo Wii can do for first person shooters, sword adventures, and racing games, but that simply can't be all our imaginations are limited to, is it? Well what I've concocted are ways how the Nintendo Wii can do well against Flight Simulated games (Star Fox), as well as fighting games (Dragon Ball Z), and Mystery games (Myst).

For the flight simulated games, the control mechanics would be soo easy. With the nunchuck, the player would treat that as the joystick of the plane: Pulling it back will make the plane go up (and visa versa) and moving it to the sides will work correspondingly.

Analog Stick? Easy, that will control the camera. Z & C buttons? Well initially I was thinking about Starfox to use these buttons for pulling breaks and make a loop in the sky respectively. However, for a normal flight simulated game these two buttons could be used to release missiles and bombs!

The Wiimote? The gunman's cursor of course. You point and shoot just like any other standard first-person shooter game for the Wii (target with the motion-sensing, shoot with the B-button, and lock-on by holding down the A-button. What about Barrel Rolls? Tap the A-button and turn the wiimote like a doorknob. Forward boost? Down on the D-pad. Eject/Retract wheels for landing? Up on the D-pad. I honestly think that covers just about everything when it comes to air-flight control.

Soon after I thought about Star Fox, I was then thinking about Mario Kart (this one is simple). Analog Stick for steering, Z-button as "Shoulder button" to hop, and C-button for gas. Wiimote will be used to point & shoot/drop/or throw an item. B-button is for "firing" the item, and the A-button (when held down) will be used for reverse. When it is simply tapped that will switch drivers if the Mario Kart Wii games will be like Double Dash.

Now the Nintendo Wii has motion sensing...why don't we take full advantage of that for fighting games? There are just two more things needed for this to happen:

1 The nunchuck to be wireless
2 For there to be gloves and ankle-bands placed on your hands and feet for motion (you'll need two Wiimotes and two nunchucks to play this).

Simple punching, kicking, blocking, and movements will all be easy to execute by using motion sensing instead of analog sticks and buttons. I can see this happening very soon (especially for online play. The only thing holding it back would be the accidents that would happen in the household around it. People had enough trouble with just swinging the Wiimote, what makes you think they won't have one with this idea?).

Now, what about Mystery games like Myst, Sadness, or Trace? How would these games work out? Even easier than the other games I've listed. This is what you'd do: The wiimote and nunchucks acts as your hands (so you can hold two items out at the same time...possibly putting together broken pieces of an item to solve), you'd use the Z & B buttons to grab things (the motion sensors to point from the wall and whatnot), the C-button to zoom in, the analog stick to move about the room, and the A-button (when held down) to move the camera.

Well those are the main four ideas I had for the Nintendo Wii...now to talk about what may happen for future Nintendo consoles: The "Wii2" and "DS2". Now as for the future of the Wii & DS we have to take into thought that Nintendo will continue using Motion Sensing and Touch Screen for the future so it will be somewhat difficult.

The problem about thinking of what will be on the Wii2 is that there hasn't been any previous system from Nintendo with motion sensors...wait, I take that back, Nintendo did have the Power Glove so I suppose they could come out with an enhanced version of it with finger tip motion sensing aswell. Above I drew a picture of what the "enhanced Power Glove" for the Wii2 could look like. You'd insert your hands through the band and then insert each finger in each ring (this way, the glove would sorta be "one size fits all"). The "blue plastic bulbs" are the motion sensors for each individual finger. Now, I've also thought about how the we'd use the star menu and whatnot. On the left "glove" there's the Start and Select buttons, and on the right we have a D-pad and the A and B buttons. Why? Who knows, there just may be a game that they may be of some use (shoot a small laser from your wrist?). The only problem I see about my little idea is this: How exactly can a person wear this thing without getting damaged from a battery from over heating? I wouldn't want somebody to get their wrists burned...Oh, and if you're curious where I got the idea of this design...I got it from the movie Children of Men.

Nintendo hasn't experiment much with microphone for a voice command/chat. They had it in Metroid Prime: Hunters, Odami, Pheonix Wright, and some mini games in Mario Party (so I've heard). Well along with the motion sensing of my Wii glove idea, why not put some attention for some voice activated games. How could this make Nintendo even more revolutionary (other than having some co-op communication)? Well how about "talking on the phone", commanding your army, voice-activated passwords, etc...Is this absolutely necessary? No, but it would make the player even more involved.

How would the controls handle for the VC? I suppose they'll just have to enhance the VC Controller aswell (speaking of the VC, Nintendo should consider placing GB & GBC games as being downloadable aswell).

Now as for the future for the Nintendo DS, it has had some history to it. The GBC had the controls and graphics of the NES, the GBA had the controls and graphics of the SNES, and the DS had the controls of the SNES, the graphics of the N64, and the looks of the retro Game & Watch. So what can we say about the next installment for the portable system? I'm predicting that it will have backwards compatibility with the DS, graphics of the Gamecube, still have Wi-fi and touch screen. However when it comes to the looks and controls of the system, that's what has me stumped. Will it continue to have two screens? Will both be touch sensitive? Will we return to having just one screen (maybe have one big screen)? If it has two touch screens, then I predict that thumb styluses will be needed for the touch screen.

Why two screens? Because with just one screen it will just look like a standard Blackberry or even the new iPhone. Other than looks, what other improvements could be made for the DS2? Have Wi-fi (Voice) Chat (seriously, they should have had that since the beginning), a place to keep memos, more memory to save downloaded games via the Wi-fi Download Station or Wii (this would be great to play GB, GBC, and possibly GBA games. Hey, if the PS3 can do it for the PSP for PS1 games, then this shouldn't be a problem). Since Opera made it possible to surf the web via Wi-fi on the DS (with a special GBA cartridge and DS chip), why not have that same program already installed in the upcoming DS2? Well going along with that added space idea, why not make the DS2 "homepage" more like the Wii's "homepage"? Have options to play DS2 game, DS game, downloaded game, Wi-fi chat, and Opera Internet.

Have any opinions? Ideas? Thoughts? Please feel free and comment on them.

Naruto Bash!

2007-02-03T00:38:00.000-05:00

You wouldn't believe how long it took me to create this blog entry. More than few hours let's just say that, so I hope you all appreciate it (I think this is the largest entry I've ever made);) What is this entry about? Pretty much everything that has to do about Naruto and cutting all the fat (episodes, movies, and, manga). What do I mean by that? Exactly what the saying means: Getting rid of the useless parts.

Let's start things off chronologically. Not only will I be talking about the fillers, but also about the Manga, and the movies (where they fit more or less, and what they are about). To put it simply, this is what Snow Princess' Book of Ninja Arts is all about (without spoiling too much):
Team 7 is sent on an A-ranked mission to become body guards for the actress Fujikaze Yukie (who plays as "Princess Fuun" in a series of movies), as the cast and crew head towards the Snow Country, where ninjas await them to retrieve a key to an ultimate weapon...

Now people have wondered "Where does this movie take place in the timeline?". Many have answered that it must take place right after episode 98 because Sasuke is still part of the team, Tsunade has become Hokage and has healed Kakashi.

Now there is something that surprised me in this film: The technology that took place in the Naruto world. In the show, we've seen lamps (so they have electricity), medical/chemistry equipment, photo-cameras, and (in the Manga) walkie-talkies. However, in this movie, it totally shattered what I thought the time era of the show would be. It had skyscrapers in the city, trains, trucks, cars, a zeppelin, and possibly a few other things that have escaped my memory (which isn't something new). Yes the anime had few technological things (as listed above), but I thought the world was as low tech as possible (so chakra would be used more). I guess I was wrong...

As we all know, there have been many many "Filler" episodes (they started on episode 137 and continue on to 219+), and people are just getting sick of them. Well after viewing all of them, I've picked out what I believe are the best/most interesting stories from all the Filler episodes and collected them here for all to see. What makes an episode interesting, you may ask? Well it has to do with character development, as well as the main plot that has to deal with Orochimaru and Sasuke. So let's get this started!

Find the Phantom Bikou Insect
Don't Bugs All Look the Same?
Cheated, Deceived, Cheat!
Blazing Byakugan!

First off are these episodes (148-151) that involve Team 8 (Shino, Kiba, & Hinata) along with Naruto (of course) to go on a mission to find the legendary bug: The Phantom Bikou. What's so special about this bug? Well upon it's birth, it is said to track down the very thing of the scent is smells. So with Sasuke's headband, they plan on tracking this bug in a vast forest for it to smell it to help them on their way to retrieving Sasuke from Orochimaru. However, along the way, there are other ninjas who are also trying to find the same bug (in order to find their leader of the clan who has gone missing).

So not only does this episode involves the plot of Sasuke, it also has some character development in Shino and Hinata. Shino (the bug expert) becomes the leader of the mission and tries to retrieve this legendary bug (maybe even add it to his collection when the missions are over), while Hinata learns a new attack that hasn't been seen before. There is one more thing that I liked about these episodes. There aren't many times throughout the series where the fighting gets really fast-passed. We've seen it in the Rock-Lee vs Gaara, Sarutobi vs Orochimaru, and the Naruto vs Sasuke fights. Well in one of these episodes (I won't say which one) we'll see another fast-passed fight that involves Hinata;)

Remembrance, The Lost Page
Impact, The Closed Door
Sneaking, The Planned Trap
Dispair, The Broken Heart
Sea Battle, The Released Power

Now here's something that the fans have been waiting for a very long time: Episodes that we actually see/hear Orochimaru & Sasuke, as well as another fight that involves Naruto's Fox Demon (something we haven't seen since the fight with Sasuke). What are these episodes (169-173) about? It involves Naruto, Ino, Shino, and Mitarashi Anko (Jonin Leader) mission to go to an island in the Ocean Country to aid on the mysterious attacks on a "sea monster". Now we haven't really seen Anko since the beginning of the Chunin Exams, but she's back for more action. Back then, we realized that she too had the same cursed mark that Sasuke has on the base of his neck. Well these episodes not only explain how she got it (from her involvement with Orochimaru), but also where she came from and why Orochimaru didn't kill her in the past. I know, I know, a lot of questions were answered, but not exactly what everybody was looking for. Don't feel disappointed, you at least get another glimps of Sasuke, right?

The Konoha 11 All Assemble
Naruto's Recollection
Missing the Mark, The Invisible Target
The Strongest Helper
Countdown to Collapse

Ahhhh, these were some interesting episodes. What makes these episodes stand out from the rest of the fillers? Not only does it involve the Konoha 11, but it also involves yet another planned attempt to destroy the town (and this time, not by Orochimaru). Who's pulling the strings? I'm not saying, you'll just have to watch and see for yourself, however I will say this: It really shows how dedicated some ninjas take on their missions, even if it takes their whole life to pull it off...

The Targeted Shukaku
The Konoha Shinobi
Tiger's Counterattack
The Ultimate Weapon
Heading Out

It's been awhile since we've seen the Wind Village Chunins hasn't it? Well that's why I brought the attention to these episodes. What's it about? These mysterious ninjas kidnapped one of Gaara's students and said "If you don't hand over your ultimate weapon [Gaara] we will kill off one of your own people every day", so they started with someone that was rather close to him (why not one of his siblings? I forgot). Since the Wind Village are now seen as allies to the Leaf Village (ever since Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari aided on another attack against the Leaf Village), they deployed for help. This would be the opportune time for the Konoha Chunins to repay the favor of saving their lives last time. We get to see Gaara's ugly side again, but it seems that he's been able to control it (glad to see he's been doing some sort of training). Well the great news about this episode is: It's the end of the fillers and the end of the episode imitates the same way the last saga of the Naruto Chapters.

**I'd like to mention that some of the titles to the episodes where shortened so I could fit it onto one line. That is all**

Now that I've gotten all the cool fillers out of the way, why don't we get back in the subject of movies? In total, there have been two movies that have been released (the third is being made as we speak), and both have been subtitled in english. Now this second movie takes place somewhere in the Fillers, but we have no idea exactly where. The second movie is called "Great Clash! The Illusionary Ruins at the Depth of the Earth"

What's the movie about, you ask? Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sakura are executing their mission of delivering a lost pet to a certain village. However, right in the midst of things, troops led by the mysterious knight, Temujin, attack them. In the violent battle, the three become separated. Now the three must fight their way to find eachother all the while trying to figure out the mysteries of a giant moving fortress, and the secrets that hold within...

But for now, I'll just move on to briefly talk about the third movie...

The movie's name: The Animal Riot of Crescent Moon Island (the link is the trailer of the movie, not the movie itself. From the best of my knowledge, nobody knows when it will be subtitled, so keep tight and watch for updates on my blog). What it's about? I personally can't give a synopsis of my own, but this is what Wikipedia had to say: "Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, and Rock Lee are assigned to protect the prince of the Land of the Moon during his world trip. The Land of the Moon is a very wealthy nation, so the prince tends to buy whatever he wants, and isn't too quick to follow the directions of his escorts. When the group happens to come across a circus with a rare sabertoothed tiger, he ends up purchasing not only it, but the rest of the animals as well. Now the team has to look over both the spoiled prince and his newly-acquired pets. On top of that, three powerful ninja are hunting them."

As for when the movie takes place, once again, it takes place during the filler episodes, but there are two small hints as to where it belongs when it comes to the episodes: Sakura has amazing strength (through training with the Fifth Hokage) and Rock Lee now uses nunchucks (which is something Guy uses in the future story-arc). I'll probably make me theory as to where exactly this happens later on (in some future post entry, or I'll just edit this baby)

Now here's a question that pops into everybody's mind once in awhile. When will the Fillers stop, and the second arc (where it takes place 2.5 years into the future) begin? The first two episodes will air February 15th, 2007 on a one hour special; so when it gets subtitled, make sure to come over here to read my article about it. Do we need to watch the Fillers or movies to understand the "Grown up" episodes? Heck no. You could have stopped back in episode #136 and you wouldn't have missed any important information when that comes out. Why are Fillers created? Mostly just to buy some time for the Manga to get ahead.

Speaking about the Manga, why don't we get started talking about the new story arc (aka: Naruto II, Naruto 2, Naruto: Shippūden, and Naruto: Hurricane Chronicles)? So far it is set two and a half years later after the present timeline in Part I, and revolves mainly around Naruto's and Sakura's new adventures and their search for Sasuke Uchiha after he left Konoha to gain Orochimaru's power. The plot also shows a more active Akatsuki in their quest for obtaining all the tailed beasts.

You want to read ahead? Go to Naruto Manga Returns. The link will lead you to the chapter where the saga begins: Chapter 245. Oh! And one more thing. Have you ever wondered how Kakashi got his Sharingan without being a member of the Uchiha clan? How he got that scar? Or even why he's always late all the time? Well all of those can be answered and more when you read the Kakashi Gaiden Special!

So there you have it. I've cut down your viewing time well over 75% so you don't have to watch all those boring ass episodes, and I've updated you to the first chapter of Naruto II.

Edit: The first hour special of Naruto Shippuden arrived last week, and you can watch it here

To the people who have been following up with the Manga, I've made some calculations....

First 1 hour special of Naruto Shippuden covered Chapters 245 through Chapter 247 page 16.

Currently there are 342 Chapters, and the Shippuden saga begins at 245. 342-245= 97 chapters.
If each chapter has 19 pages then that means there have been 1843 pages (97*19).
The first 1 hour special covered 35 pages (which is equivalent to 2 episodes).
1843/35= 52.657 hours = 105 (half hour) episodes.

My guess is that the chapters that are out now (the 97) will cover about 105 half hour episodes (on average).

105 episodes, and have 1 episode shown every week (just imagine there aren't going to be any breaks), then that would cover a little over two years of anime (52 weeks in a year. 105 weeks/52 weeks=2.02).

So I suppose those two years of filler episodes were good for the manga writers/artists to get another headstart (I just pray that they don't do this again).

Keep on talkin'...

2007-02-01T14:11:00.000-05:00

I guess I'm in a pretty talkative mood today. Why's that? Well I'm trying not to be waaay to addicted to ZeldaUniverse.net so I'm trying to focus my time on other things I do throughout the day and my life. Yes, blog entries are just as time consuming as forum posts, but I'm a procrastinator at heart, so don't judge me. Plus it's been a long time since I've made a few entries on here...I guess this is my way to repay myself. It's good to have some kind of self reflection, and the blog does just that. There really is only two more things I wanted to talk about: Treasure Chests and Children of Men. I'll start with the children...

I give horrible reviews at times, and today's no different. Children of Men was actually a great movie. Granted that my English symbolism skills can't give me rest while I analyze everything on the screen with the bible. How so? Let me count the ways (if you're planing on watching the movie, I'd highly recommend to stop reading this post...but feel free to read my previous ones I made today):

Okay, so most of the things based on the bible was from Noah. In the time of Noah everybody in the world was sinning so chaos abrupted. God told Noah to build an Ark, put 2 of each animal inside as well as your family to start again in the "new world", after God kills pretty much all of humanity with a flood. Well in the movie, women have been infertile for about two decades now, and nobody knows exactly why (smart God. Instead of killing of flooding the world again, he just took away the precious gift of birth. No birth, no future, no existence for the human race). Well Clive Owen's character (Theo) had to escort a pregnant African woman (Kee) to a boat called "Tommarow" which would bring her to a facility that would give her upmost care for breeding and studying. That's the whole movie in a bottle. The destruction of the world, a boat, and hope for the future. Sounds like Noah, doesn't it? Well there's more. Throughout the movie you'll see animals. At times it's very random, but it just gave me that inkling feeling that it's pointing towards the symbolism of Noah: I've seen Pigs, camels, zebras, horses, dogs, cats, birds, sheep, goats, and cows. Now of course those aren't all the animals of the world, but it you think about it, they sorta represent the animals that weren't shown as well as the animals one might see on a daily basis. Pigs, cows, goats, and sheep for farmland animals. The camel for desert animals. Zebra for the safari animals. Horses for the hardship animals. And dogs, cats, and birds for the known domestic animals and their extended family branches (like the wolf, lion, and parot).

Maybe on a later day I'll talk about my treasure chest idea/dream, and give an actual review (and not an analyzation) of the movie Children of Men, and The Illusionist (a movie that I saw long ago, but watched it again when it went on DVD). Till next time readers.

-Marco Abreu

Mushroom Kingdom

2007-02-01T13:34:00.000-05:00

So what's "The Mushroom Kingdom" going to be about? Pretty much just that: Mushroom Kingdom. I'll be talking about Mario Kart, the upcoming Super Smash Brothers Brawl game, Pokemon Colosseum, and probably any other thing that pops into my head..

I have no idea why, but I've started to become a Mario Kart addict again (FYI: If you want to race me my code is 004-385-957-469). I had triple stars on all the cups, and had at least two stars on all the missions. I just decided to erase all my data so I can start new again (it's more fun that way). However, there are a few ways I think Nintendo could have improved on this game: Have the Balloon Battle and Shine Runners be playable on Wifi. I think it's quite clear that everybody has a higher chance of playing this game online than being right next to your friends. Which, by the way, how do you play Balloon Battle? I head that involves the player blowing into the mic? I have no idea what to do (it's nothing like the balloon battle they had in the SNES game). Have multiple Emblems. I have made quite a few cool emblems, but I wish Nintendo gave us the option of letting us keep at least 3 in storage. I had one with the Goron Symbol, another with my BGS initials, and a third of Spider-man. I just hated the fact that in order to get a new one, I had to delete my old one first. Save people, please save! I don't know if this request would be too much, but is it possible for the DS chips (or cartridges, whatever you want to call them) to have some empty disk space? Why? I had the brilliant idea that at a download station (or on your Wii) you could download a new race track or character for the game. Wouldn't that make the game a little bit more interesting?
So to put it frank:
1. Have the "Battles" be an online feature too
2. Have save files for multiple emblems
3. Have empty disk space for downloadable new characters/karts/tracks.
Is that too much to ask?

Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Not much to be said about this game. The only new news about it is Star Fox has been confirmed to reappear in this next sequel...that's pretty much it. As for other characters, feel free to give me your two cents on who do you think will be in the game. I'd personally want someone from Golden Sun, Megaman, and Sonic to be in the game. Who to take out? Mr.Game&Watch, Piccu, and Mewtwo. Who could replace them? The only one that comes to mind would be Deoxys, Lucario, and some third retro person.

Pokemon Colosseum: Not much to say about this either. It's going to be the very first online game for the Nintendo Wii, so that's an added plus. But from what I've heard online play will be a little sluggish, the pokemon you can rent are rubbish (just forcing you to buy the GBA/DS games), and the password system is one step harder: Not only would you have to get a friend's Wii friend code, you also need their DS' friend code aswell to have a match with them. Will I be playing Colosseum? Heck no. Will I play the upcoming Diamond or Pearl game? Possibly (while hiding in the closet to not let anyone see me).

Other: The Nintendo Wii. I haven't purchased it yet, and won't until both libraries have gotten bigger. What am I waiting for? Well on the VC I'm waiting for all Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy gamesm, other classics like Golden Axe, and possibly some Gameboy & Gameboy Color games to come out (it would be a very dumb move for Nintendo not to do this considering those games aren't playable on any recent system and they pretty much have the graphics of an NES system). On the Wii I'm waiting for Day of Crisis, Sadness, Super Smash Brothers Melee, the upcoming Kart game, Golden Sun game, and Star Fox game.

Boston's Dynamic Trio

2007-02-01T13:16:00.001-05:00

Now there's something that needed to be said two weeks ago about Boston (and some current related news). Two weeks ago today, me and two of my online friends from ZeldaUniverse.net (whom I've never met) decided we should meet up together and have some fun. To save myself some time (and possibly writer's block which could lead to a headache), I'll just type down what I've written down in my journal about the day.

Today is a day I want to never forget (hence I'm writing it in my journal & blog for fear of getting Alzheimer's when I grow up so I can read this in the future). Today I met Andrea (andi) and James (Lozzie) from ZU! It's my very first internet meet relationship and it was a blast! It was fun learning and getting to know people on ZU but it's even better (it felt like re0uniting with old friends from high-school). Last Thursday (1/18) andi had the great idea of meeting in Boston so she asked who lived around the area to hang out. Lozzie and I agreed to go. We planned it out to meet at 3pm at the Borders of the Cambridge Side Galleria. Loz got herevia driving from his house to the train station, rode the train, got picked up by andi (who drove from home) and met me at the mall (I got there via bus). We met at 2:45pm and I knew that the movie started at 3:10, so we had exactly 25 minutes to make it there. The great news is, we made it just in time (and missed very few previews). The movie was "Children of Men" [but I'll talk more about it in a later blog post, so I'm going to skip that part of the journal entry]. After the movie the three of us just chatted the day away while taking photos (to upload later for the rest of ZU to see).and heading over to get a bite to eat at a place called "The Corner" at Downtown Crossing. I had Cajun food, andi had Indian, and James had subway (Italian?). After that we headed off to Harvard in hopes to go inside Tokyo Kid (located in "The Garage"). However, we were 15 minutes too late (it closed at 6pm on Sundays). Oh well... so we decided to roam about in Newburry Comics to kill some time. After a bit, we went downstairs in the face section and played a little bit of poker, blackjack, and karaoke (I sang "It's a whole new world" :P). Once we had our fun, we headed on the train to Alewife to drop andi & James off at her car. She offered a ride to bring me to my place (I took the offer. Hey, it's a few more moments to spend with my online friends) and that's when we parted with a big honk as they whizzed by.

-Marco "BGS" Abreu.

Yes I know that my writing is horrible, but I wanted to catch the excitement I had while writing all of that down after meeting with them. Now there's another thing I can talk about: Future meetings and projects I'm thinking of working on (like the treasure chests).

Camelot

2007-02-01T12:52:00.000-05:00

There's quite a few things I want to talk about today, three little posts than one big one. The title talks about three things: Camelot, Boston, & the Mushroom Kingdom...all three are location of places...or so it may seem. The Camelot I'm talking about does not involve Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, it involves with a game developing company that works under Nintendo creating games for them. Camelot has made all the Mario Tennis games, and I believe they also worked on Golf and the most recent Soccer. I'm not here to talk about Mario (well, not just yet), I'm here to talk about a game series that Camelot came up by themselves and it has become such a great game that fans rejoice once the news of a second sequel comes out. Of course, I'm talking about Golden Sun.

Now why would I bother talking about Golden Sun after all this time? Well when I was on IGN.com today, I noticed an article (that branched off to older articles) that focused on games that were planned but never came up on the Gamecube. Well the only good news that I've received about a possible Golden Sun sequel is this: Two years ago (I know that's a long time when concerning about video games) Famitsu had a help wanted ad,placed by Camelot, that was looking for programmers to work on an RPG for a "next-generation system.". Golden Sun is the only RPG game that Camelot came up with, so it's bound to have people jump for joy.

What can I (or anybody) do next? Wait...just wait for more information. Ever since E3 has announced that they will be very low key last year, many gaming expos have popped up throughout the globe. Of course E3 and the Tokyo Game Show will have the most attention, but I still have to look out for the other expos that just may reveal information on my favorite RPG (right next to Tales of... and Baten Kaitos).

One more small thing. Camelot is associated with England, correct? Well I recently saw the movie "Children of Men" that takes place in England, so now I have even more material to talk about later^_^

Blah!

2007-01-12T13:22:00.000-05:00

I have no idea what this blog is going to be about anymore. I guess I'll just use it for the links and to purge out anything that's in my mind that I feel like discussing. So what has happened these past few months? Ha, not much really. The only real exciting things that are happen/about to happen is my siter's wedding. She was proposed in August, and I've been keeping that secret from her (and my other sister, who would be harder to keep said secret) ever since June I think.

I first met her fiance...in my junior or senior year of high school. So that means that they have been dating for over five years now (that's one thing my family really likes about him: He's the old fashioned type). Speaking of old fashioned, he asked for my father's permission before actually asking my sister.

So pretty much one day he called the house, and told me the secret. I had to keep it away from everybody. Then when he came over to my house (my sisters weren't there at the time...I've moved to different houses in the past few months....it's a long story, so I may tell it to you viewers (if I have any anymore) later on) and asked my father for his daughter's hand (what's the formal word for that?). He accepted (no big surprise). Then August, him, his brother Bob, and my two sisters went on a vacation to the Dominican Republic. Of course I wasn't there (not enough moolah), but I heard he proposed to her on the beach (yes he got down on one knee) of the hotel resort.

Let's see...what else am I interested in? Twilight Princess finally came out, and I still don't own it, nor the Nintendo Wii. I've sold all my games (at one moment I thought that would make me more mature to let go of all my "immature" belongings...I was wrong because I'm still the same way I was before) and systems so the only thing I kept was my nintendo DS.

TV? Naruto is my number one anime, however, I started watching the English Subtitled ones on YouTube, and when I hit the end mark (at about episode 216 I think), I read the Manga where he grows up (by 2 and a half years). So now I just "have to" read all the manga of when he was young (where I left off at the Episode mark), until the end of the young saga.

If there are any Naruto fans out there, come and leave a message. Even if you aren't one, leave one anyways.

Re-new

2007-01-07T23:50:00.000-05:00

Six months ago I was talking about commitment. Well it's a new year, and I have done diddly squat on my blog since then. My New Year's Resolutions? Well I have many. Keep a constant blog, keep in touch with old friends, lose some weight before my sister's wedding, get a job, get my own studio apartment, and go back to school. You wouldn't believe how hard those resolutions are to me...especially the losing weight since that's a cliche one, but people don't last a month before they quit.

So, what's my blog going to be about? Who freakin' knows. One day it could be about my personal life, the next day about interesting news, the next about comedians, anime, video games, and back to my personal life.

Well I have (sorta) been keeping a journal since my departure from here (I've still visited my own blog, however, I only used it to keep the links I had), so who knows, this place may become my new journal (my life isn't interesting, but if there's people to read it, then I'll have an audience.

Till next time,
-Marco

Commitment

2006-06-27T11:04:00.000-04:00

Commitment, something that all of us guys are afraid of (good thing for me my "girlfriend" doesn't want a commited relationship right now. We're still together, but we both share all of the benefits together:D). I can't even keep my blog updated regularly for over two months, while I see others doing it for years to come (yes, I can see into the future)! Well I'm just here to say a little update that I will come back soon (with an article discussing about the bad/addicting things about video games...HA!). I'll keep posting, just as long as I get more comments (it's what keeps me going)

10/10/06....*sigh* so much for commitment. Three months later and still nothing new. I guess I've just lost that inspiration. All my time and effort is focusing around finding a college, finding a job, and waiting for the Nintendo Wii & Twilight Princess(sad, I know). Right now I'm just using my blog as a "Favorites List" for all of my most visited web comics.

Lost Magic - New DS game with Wii-Fi Connectivity!

2006-06-10T15:48:00.000-04:00

Despite some great innovative features - the game, Lost Magic, hasn't seemed to have any real Hype behind it at all, so here I am to big-it-up!

Lost Magic is a top-down, Point and Click, roleplaying adventure where players cast Magical spells, casting them with your wand/Stylus by drawing them on your Touch-Screen, and battling evil monsters!
Published by Ubi-Soft, creators of the Rayman series.

The Story goes like this - A new Big Bad has arrived to threaten the Peace of the world - so enter the wizard Isaac and the seven magic wands left behind by 'the creator'.
As far as Stories go - this sounds a little cliché, when evil arrises, [Hero's Name] has to use the Power of [a certain number of Magical Items].

As playing as Issac, the player will use the stylus to unleash magic spells and command your own army of creatures to attack.
In battle, you cast your magic by inputting characters called "runes" using the Stylus with over 350 "double rune" spells that are formed by mixing runes together.

The game also is stated as to have the Nintendo Wii-Fi Connection: Create new characters and challenge friends over Nintendo Wii-Fi Connection - which is simply an awesome feature to have!

The Game is out now!

Go Play! :)

Red Sox vs. Texas Rangers

2006-06-07T23:20:00.000-04:00

Hello everybody. This will be the first "personal" post I've made in awhile (I honestly don't like talking about myself. That's why the "diary" idea died last year). Well I'm just here to say (and gloat) that I don't think I'll be making any updates or posts this weekend because I'll be at Boston watching the Red Sox versus the Texas Rangers! Who are the Texas Rangers? I have no clue, and that's just enough reason for wanting the Sox to beat the heck out of them.

How did I get the ticket? Well earlier today, my sister's boyfriend called and asked me if I'd join him (and my sisters) to watch Friday's game. Before I said yes, the first thing that popped out of my mouth was "How the hell did you get tickets!!". Before he could even mutter a word, I tried to answer with "Did someone die and leave it in their Will for you?". Jamon (my sister's boyfriend) is a big BIG Red Sox fan, and I felt honored that he thought of me to come along (I'm sure my sister forced him if he didn't think that....but he's a really nice guy, but I honestly would have expected him to pick one of his close RS friends).

N-E-who...Jamon got the tickets from a co-worker; who's husband has connections from a friend that has season tickets that he shares with his company, and for some reason none of them could have made it. The seats are suppose to be really nice. Not "booth" nice, but close up there and pretty much three people had to be knocked off from the top for me to get this free ticket. Now the Texas Rangers game isn't a thing to boast about (but the tickets are) considering tonights game against our rivals (New York Yankees to all of your non-baseball fans) was postponed because of rain (it will give our boys some time to rest up considering that we lost Monday's and Tuesday's games).

See you Monday (possibly Sunday), and SuperDecimal, take care of my blog.

X-Men: The Last Stand - Review.

2006-05-30T15:26:00.000-04:00

Well, after seeing it three times, I think I can actually write a decent review without getting overly fanboy/girl/hermaphrodite-ish.

I shall try and keep this as spoiler free as possible, for those who've not yet sen the movie. ;)

Characters.

Well, for the most part, due to the sheer fact that the film was soo short - the character do not seem to be very well developed.

Surely, with Jean as the emotional core of the movie, more time should have been devoted to her character development, especially since we see a brand new side to her personality - the 'Phoenix'.
In fact, she makes a big scene (quite literally) with Charles Xavier, before dissapearing from the movie, as Magneto's lackey until the closing scenes of the film.
She's portrayed very much like the evil big-bad and any essences of Jean Grey were very supressed, which made her final scene's revelation less powerful than it could have been.
That said - Famke Janssen's portrayal was powerful, intriguing, and quite simply, the awesomness!

Wolverine and Storm seemed very static, and both delivered cheesey lines.
Both had the most screentime, and the most prominent roles - but this has only achieved to make the characters seem somewhat cliched.
It is Logan in the end, that manages to subdue Jean's out of control power, by stabbing her, which not only makes him sem like the tragic hero, but also seems disrespectful to Jean Grey herself, since it was her desicion to kill herself rather that give ito her destructive side.
Logan's over use steals this struggle from Jean.

Despite the gross publicity for characters Angel and Beast, bother were seldom used - Angel's scenes in the movie can be seen in all entirety in the TV Spots, he jumps through a Window after resisting the cure...and that's it.

The Characters of Colossus and Kitty Pryde are also very underdevelopped, with no clear introduction, and no real help to the story - Colossus himself has one line, "She took off."

What is astounding, is the Scott's death, while looks great, visually, isn't even shown on-screen, but the scene is cut to the X-Mansion, where the residents 'feel' the Phoenix's power reverberate.
In addition, Cyclop's death is never mourned, Xavier casually calls to Phoenix, "You killed the man you love," and Logan exclaims "...I think she killed Scott" but other than that, (save his tombstone at the end) he has no mention in the movie - another of the many character development issues here.

Rogue, who Zak Penn assured was 'the emotional core of the movie' never had a prominent role, and accepted the cure, only to return to the Mansion to hold Bobby's hand...
For a character that embodied the story of the cure - she was severly underused.
Dissapointing, considering Anna Paquin's amaxing acting in both X1 and X2.

Similarly, Mystique had about one scene to shine before she was cured invoulntarily - and is then rejected by Magneto in a very abrupt fasion.
She the later helps the Government find Magneto...but why would you take the greatest femme fatale of the X-Movie minutiae, and make her redundant?

Vinnie Jones was an...intesresting Juggernaught, who please everyone in the cinema with his line: "I'm the Juggernaught, Bitch!!"
The whole cinema roared with cheers of "Fuck yeah!" which was a classic moment.
My only real complaint about him is his unrealistic costume.

...similarly, why were the Morlocks depicted as Leather-wearing Goths?

The effects themselves were pulled off very well, despite the slightly 'borrowed' ashing effect from the Blade movies.
All of Phoenix's scenes are filled with some truely impressive feats, although the lack of the 'Phoenix Effect' which was so nicely alluded to in X2 never showed up. >_<

What really confuses me, is that half the photos and scens from trailers were never used in the movie, such as Storm's Tidal wave, or her hugging Kitty, and the whole "Magneto's got an army - you might not come home - she might not come home" speech by Logan arguing with Iceman is replaced with Iceman's single line "There's only six of us."
The Hell?

The Soundtrack lacks the subtlety of X2, with it's prominent, melodramatic, over-the-top 'action-movie' themes which were edited so loudly in scenes, that the OST actually felt too instusive, and thus, made you somewhat detatched from the actual footage, as the music clouds, and seems to block everything else.
The OST does have it's moments, though limited, with the themes for Phoenix being wonderfully utilized to show and reflect the character herslef, as well as allude to slight Egyption motifs, since the Phoenix was a prominent part of Egyption Mythology.
I personally adore 'Whirlpool of Love,' 'Phoenix Rises' and the 'Last Stand,' but, this is mainly because they have the Phoenix theme inside them.
I really wanted to hear the theme, 'Jean and Logan' a lot more, as the mystical, brooding, and subtle theme was perfect to sum up the uncertainty to hther Jean was Jean, or the Phoenix.
It was only used in one scene, then forgotten. Shame.

Samples of the OST are found here

To conclude - this is far from a bad movie, with some decent emotional scenes, and someintense action and effects, however, the sheer short timing of the movie is it's undoing.
No time is taken to explore characterisation, or to allow the audience to 'take a breather' after large action scenes.

I'd give this Film a good 6.5 out of 10.

-SuperDecimal

Phantom Hourglass Update.

2006-05-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

Nintendo Power recently has sent out their August Issue, and it has some tidbit new information on the upcoming Zelda DS game: The Phantom Hourglass. The Hylia has been able to scan the article for your reading joy, however, I'm here to talk about some major quotes I took from it to share with you all on in the new information.

"The good old Control Pad won't be completely neglected though; it may act as a shortcut or a quick-select mechanism of some sort": From a close internet friend of mine that went to E3, he found this oddly annoying (not being able to control Link with the D-pad and buttons). I'm sure the "quick-select" could be used for bringing up maps and whatnot. Items? I don't think so, just take a look at our next quote.

"By tapping an onscreen tab or holding down the L or R Button (Phantom Hourglass is lefty-friendly), you can switch from the sword to an alternate item, then touch the screen as needed to activate the item....Other familiar implements, such as the bow, a Hookshot-like tool, and some form of musical instrument will return with new play mechanics, but details on how they'll work are still under wraps.": The "switching your item with the L or R button" kind of reminds me of what was used in Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. To me, it was annoying, but to others, I'm sure it was innovative. Two other things that this quote intreagues me with are the items listed: "a Hookshot-like tool, and some form of musical instrument". In the latest TP video we see Link use a hookshot-like item that now has been confirmed to be called the "Clawshot". I wonder if the same item will be used in this game. You can see pictures of this Clawshot here & there.

"Additionally, Link will rescue multiple fairies throughout his adventure, and each will change Link's actions in different-and as-yet-unrevealed-ways.": Ah, and now we finally know who the protagonist of the story is going to rescue. Every Zelda game, we have Link rescuing someone/thing. We've had Wisdom Triforce pieces, jewels, instruments, essences, maidens, pendants, sages, etc... and now we have fairies (sorta again). If you don't recall, in FSA Link rescues Maidens, but after they give you the message, they turn themselves into fairies and teleport you off to the next section of Hyrule to conquer. In FSA, the blue fairy was Princess Zelda I believe...so could it be possible that Tetra was turned into the fairy used as your guide? Well that's my hypothesis for now.

"'It's up to the attacker to guide Link through a mazelike arena to grab Force Gems and bring them safely back to his base...'": Force Gems, yet another reference to FSA. The article did go on saying "The development team (which had worked on FSA) was originally experimenting with a Four Swords game for DS; however, after they discovered how well toon-shaded 3-D visuals worked on DS, they were inspired to make a sequel to Wind Waker instead", so I'm getting a very good feeling that the development team still wanted some FS attributes to this game. PH may very be the first game to transition into the Four Sword Saga (if you recall the hero spoken in the begining of tMC, tWW Link may be one and the same...eventhough the two may look differently). And as you all know, every Zelda game has a "sword upgrade" in it. With the Master Sword imbedded in Ganondorf's skull, what other sword can Link use?

"One enemy not likely to appear is the dreaded Ganondorf. After being defeated by Link and Zelda at the end of The Wind Waker, Ganondorf himself no longer a thread, but according to Aonuma, his evil influence spread across the Great Sea before his demise. Exactly how Ganondorf's dark legacy plays out in Phantom Hourglass has yet to be revealed.": Once again, yet another reference to tMC (which is connected to the Four Sword Saga), just take a look at tMC's prologue:

"A long, long time ago...
When the world was on the verge of being swallowed by shadow...
The tiny Picori appeared from the sky, bringing the hero of men a sword and a golden light.
With wisdom and courage, the hero drove out the darkness.
When peace had been restored, the people enshrined that blade with care."

It's quite obvious that the "verge of being swallowed by shadow" is in reference to Ganondorf's influence. "Wish wisdome and courage, the hero drove out the darkness" is referenced to how Link and Zelda (possibly the fairy) both helped eachother in defeating the main villain of the game that has some connection to Ganondorf. And with that prologue, it seems like the Minish (aka: Picori) will be introduced in this game.

"As for the titular Phantom Hourglass? "Of course, the 'Hourglass' in the title somehow relates to an important game mechanic," teases Aonuma. "I cannot talk about than that at this point, but something like the time manipulation in Majora's Mask is not a bad guess": Hmm it seems like 'Time' is yet again the essence on this Zelda game too (no surprize). Though time is a curious thing, having it used many times will have it's drawbacks. Ninty has used time in OoT, MM, OoA, and now PH (tWW could change the days, but that doesn't count since time wasn't the essence of the game, wind was). I think it's time for them to use something more original.

"Instead of relying on a sailboat (the King of Red Lions is absent this time), Link gets to travel by paddle streamer, which comes complete with a roguish, sometimes comedic, captain. "He has kind of a similar purpose as Han Solo did for Luke Skywalker," Aonuma notes.": Hmmm it seems like recent Zelda games, Link has more resources for information, and PH is no different. Just like KoRL was well informed about the neighboring islands of Hyrule, this captain may be well informed about the islands in this game (presumably the area where it was once unreachable in tWW outside the map boundaries).

"Although Link's ultimate goal (other than reuniting with his allies) in Phantom Hourglass is still a mystery, Aonuma has revealed that the game structure has changed a bit relative to previous Zeldas': The game features a single, primary dungeon that Link must overcome to reach his objective. However, the dungeon will become impassible at certain points, requiring Link to venture into separate dungeons throughout the world. Only by conquering the smaller dungeons will he be able to advance through the main one.": This surprized me a bit...but it's nothing new. If anyone has played a password-linked version of either Oracle game, you will notice that the "Hero's Cave" has changed: It has many many rooms. With each new item Link has in his inventory, the further he can travel into the cave. It seems like they took the exact same concept, but put it on a larger scale. Instead of making it into a sidequest like the Hero's Cave, they are making it into the ultimate goal for the game as the last dungeon.

"Many of Phantom Hourglass' secrets remain under wraps, including how the microphone will be utilized, and how prominently drawing symbols will factor into the gameplay. (The drawing of the hourglass symbol to unlock a door, as seen in the game trailer, was implemented specifically for demo purposes,)": Hmmmm the microphone, it can be used for some things in mind. Imagine if you will, the magical instrument Link will get is a flute. You must blow into the microphone long enough to press on the touch-tone pad which notes to play for the song you want to do.

Another idea? Well this still is the "Hero of Winds", so why not use that? What if Link has an item that is "wind powered". Maybe something like the Gust Jar perhaps?

Now as for drawing, so far we've seen it being used to draw on maps, and to open doors. What else could it be used for? Well I don't have any ideas at the moment, but I'll make sure to get back to you guys on this one.

Mutants, Magic, and Mayhem

2006-05-25T23:48:00.000-04:00

Well tommarow (which starts in 13 minutes) is the opening day of X-men: The Last Stand. As you may know, some theaters are showing it at midnight, while others will just go for their regular scedual, and maybe even cut into a matinee for people to watch before the young kids get out of school (I'm watching it at 3:15, so I'm hoping the rugrats won't get out early to catch a movie). Tommarow I'll give my personal review of the movie (beware of spoilers. At least I'm warning you now), and if I see any/many connections to the video game, I'll place that in too.

Other things to look forward for this weekend? Overlooked video games (A lot of people overlooked many games that were about to debut because of E3, so I thought I'd give them a fighting chance). The three that I have in mind are called "Brave Story", "Lost Magic", and "Drawn to Life" (all Nintendo titles).

Wii Price

2006-05-25T21:13:00.000-04:00

Not only do I have SuperDecimal on my team, I also have a freelance writer that will send me articles that tickle his interest. Without further adue, I'd like to introduce you all to Mr. Wonderful and his first article on the Wii Price.

Earlier today, Nintendo released their first official price point on the Wii, less than $250. Not that shocking really. I for one expected as much. With inflation, that’s around the same we payed for a Gamecube at launch. I can’t help but wonder if that range includes $249.99 though.

In all honesty, I think we’ll see something around $229, which is a nice in between price. Anything below $200, which isn’t likely, since they just announced the $250 mark, would really make me skeptical about how good the hardware is. We know the speed of the processor, which is something around the clock speed of the original Xbox’s, but numbers only go so far, in the fact that the Xbox’s technology is 5 or so years old and based on a Pentium III, while Nintendo’s Broadway or Hollywood or whachamicallit is a brand spanking newly developed piece of hardware that most likely can run circles around an Xbox. No worries there.

Discussing this news over in the ZU Forums though, a couple of members quickly started praising Nintendo’s decision to forget about HD and saving the consumer money.

“Lets Face it, A lot of people don’t at this stage. I mean Out of everyone i know...One Person has...and he brought it last week. I’m not dissing HD just saying. “

The problem is, that's quickly going to change. We've already passed the date where all TVs 26-Some inches and larger have to have a built in ATSC tuner in the US. (Check ads on the weekend. It's true. All TVs will mention either a built in ATSC tuner or being "Digital") And in 2009, normal TVs will stop working completely without a external box. Because of this, many people will be going out to pick up a new TV. The majority of which will end up picking up a HD set when they make that purchase as well. Add to the fact that according to Panasonic and other experts, that 50% of homes will have HD sets by the end of 2008, quickly quickly quickly falling HD prices, and the general shift from normal to HD broadcasting, and you've got a HD future, my friend.

Below is a situation that could very well play out if Nintendo doesn’t play it’s cards right.

But as you can point out, and as he pointed out, ("Yay for Nintendo's non-HD decision!") only a fraction of homes own a High Definition capable set (20%, I believe?). But what about down the line? Sony and Microsoft made their consoles with the idea in mind that they'll have well over a 5 year life span, in a sort of a future proof. And even Nintendo, at it’s own press conferences and it’s e3 booth this year, had all Wii demos displayed on HD plasma panels. Because of this, the Wii is going to be dated fantastically. In three year's time, most people will have a HDTV, and everyone is going to want to be taking advantage of their new investment. The Wii won't be able to do that though. Instead, all Wii games played on their new TVs will have to be upscaled and redrawn to fit the TV's native resolution. It's at this point where the only slightly better graphics will have a real trouble holding out against competition. The competitors' prices will both be lower to an actually affordable amount, and will also be a lot closer to that of the Wii's. Three years later, and the controller is no longer so freshly innovative. New and fun games are still going to be released, but the initial impact will have settled. Side by side, these Wii games next to the by-then-development-mastered systems of the 360 and PS3 will look absolutely terrible, and not even come close to being able to hold their own. I can almost guarantee as fact that the Wii’s life, because of hardware, will be shorter than the others’. And look at that. You’ll be dishing out your money again on a whole other console before you were supposed to. Would that be saving money in the long run? No. At this point, I really wouldn't be surprised to see a Wii 2.0-long before a console's life time should come to an end. And guess what? I’m willing to bet it’ll support HD.

An alternative solution? Make an expansion port on the Wii. A huge fricking expansion port. (For Wii enlargement!) Remember what Nintendo did with the expansion pack for the N64? Do that again. Except make it actually make a huge difference. (The N64 expansion pack added ...4MB of RAM...) Snap this thing in a couple years down the road, and the console will now be HD ready. Now that the prices for hardware are a little more affordable, it can be up to par with the competition. Now you can have the cake and eat it too. Of course, who buys accessories? Isn't that the whole reason Nintendo is releasing the Wii instead of just releasing the controller for the Gamecube?

You cheer for the no HD decision now, but down the line, you might end up realizing that you should have been singing a different tune.

And on a positive note for this whole HD subject, we’ve all seen that Nintendo isn’t content leaving all of us HDTV owners out in the dust. Since the Wii controller is synced to the screen, stretching the image to widescreen through your TV would throw of the whole controlling process. Luckily for us, Nintendo’s thrown in Widescreen support for all their games so that they’ll be compatible with 16:9 displays. Combined with the Wii’s 480p support, who knows! Perhaps the extra resolution from being widescreen coupled with progressive scan will be enough for another generation, or at least enough to get by. I think what this is all going to come down to is how powerful the GPU and Hardware of the Wii really is. How do we know that those were finished Wii’s we were seeing at e3? There’s some rumors that they were just modified Gamecubes! Either way though, we shouldn’t pass judgment until the whole story is revealed. And that goes for both of the two unreleased consoles.

-Mr.Wonderful

Random Fun stuff.

2006-05-24T17:03:00.000-04:00

Caption This:

Something shown on Cartoon Network's "The Powerpuff Girls" that was soon taken off because Nintendo warned them about it resembling Link too much. I say that Ninty should have loosened up a bit. They weren't making fun, there must have been some Ninty fans in the art room....plus everyone has thought about killing Navi once in awhile.

What all Sony fans think of the PS3:

Random News

2006-05-24T16:30:00.000-04:00

Hello readers, sorry I haven't been updating in the past week, I've been packing and packing some more for moving this summer. Well I have some news to bring to you all, this post is more of an update on things, rather than it being an article.

First and foremost, I have a new writer to join me on my blog. I found him at my favorite forum Zelda Universe.net, and I asked him to do the honors of making his first article on the upcoming X-men: The Last Stand movie (coming out to theaters this Friday). His screenname is Superdecimal, and I hope he'll be around with us for quite awhile. I'm considering adding more people who are interested in writing for this blog aswell, but for now, let's welcom "SD" to Video Games, Comics, & Comedians (working title).

Wii Updates:
According to Jump Magazine, there's going to be a DBZ game released (I think I've mentioned this while ago) this year (in Japan) and it is said to feature over 50 fighters!

In other Anime/Wii gaming news, Jump also featured a small article on a new One Piece video game. It's supposibly an adventure game. I say this is deffinentlly good news, especially since that fighting game didn't go off that well-_-;;;

One of my favorite animes (which hasn't aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami in quite awhile), Yu-Yu-Hakushu will have yet another fighting game coming out. Which system? None!!
....
Wait...none?!
Yeah, I was surprized as you were. This game will first be featured as a video arcade game. Hopefully they will transfer that onto the regular systems. I guess they are making a new move just like Nintendo did with that Mario Kart Arcade game (The only thing special about it was it had Packman as a playable driver, different tracks, and a camera to use your face as an avatar).

This month's issue of EGM showed us wonderful pictures of Twilight Princess (which I've already shown you all), however, it is said that next month's will feature the explanation of how the Wifi and Virtual Console of the Wii will work. I can't wait to read it and tell it to all of you. Speaking of Wii, there are many many rumors on the net on when it will be released. So far, the rumors are mostly pointing towards an October release. Could I be more specific? Sorta. It has been said that the best date to release it would be on the 24th of October. Why? Because Nintendo wants to reach the finishline before Sony does, so who knows, maybe it will be released before that date.

Well that's it for now readers. I was thinking of creating a X-men: The Video Game article thinking that it was connected to the upcoming movie (I heard that it's suppose to be like an X-men 2.5 It explains why Nightcrawler isn't there and stuff). I may, I may not. Heck, I may even put my own two cents in on X3 (before or after it's released friday, who knows, but be prepared for some spoilers folks). Till next time readers;)

X-Men: The Last Stand.

2006-05-19T18:24:00.000-04:00

After yet another three years of nothingness comes the next part of the X-Men Movies!

For those still unsure what the hell this one's about, here's a quick head's up: A Company has discovered a way produce a mutant anti-body to shut down and supress the mutant 'X' gene - a cure.
So naturally, the movie will be about our Heroes' reaction to the cure, and the newly re-formed Brotherhood under Magneto.
And then, in the thick of this, comes the spectacular return of Jean Grey, as the character, 'Phoenix,' who becomes a temporary member of Magneto's Brotherhood - however, as one scene shows, Jean has no intention of being nice to Magneto...like threatening to stab him in the face with four needles.

X-Men: The Last Stand also introduces fan favourites, Beast, Angel and Juggernaught - Beast seems to have a nice role to play, but Angel seems to be reserved somewhat - given the fact we've only really seen him in the Clinic awaiting the Cure, then freeing himself and taking flight.

Meh.

The Movie story seems much less complex than that of its two sister movies, with a much more, if anything, slightly cliché idea of 'the Mysterious Blue liquid that'll change the world forever,' it might play directly into the stories for the mutants themselves, but it does seem a little basic to me.

Of course, lots of clips have been posted - near-on fourteen TV Spots, a few Character Trailers, and many, many clips from interviews etc.

I have to say, that despite my concerns about Ratner's directing, the clips shown so far look amazing - and a few nice features from the comics have been included, like Iceman 'Icing-Up' and Storm (now sporting a hairstyle from the Ultimate X-Men Comics) seems to use her powers much more in this one - I still think Halle looks to sweet and demure to play Storm, but this movie looks like she'll get a chance to shine.

And then there were a few things that were...neglected from the movies.
Rumour has it that Phoenix will not eminate the 'Phoenix effect' which is pretty pathetic, but rather, will sport all-black eyes, just like every other generic badd-ass character from any generic show we've seen before -

Think Dark Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

A little dissapointing, especially since the Phoenix effect was so awesomely alluded to in X2.
Hopefully, it could be added in at the last minute as a surprise, similar to how it was a last minute descision to kill Jean off in X2.

I think it's fair to say that it's very likely that Cyclops dies - according to a clip of Jean staring at Cyclops' glasses, being asked by Logan "Where's Scott?" .

McCloud is back and ready for action!

2006-05-19T18:04:00.000-04:00

Starfox McCloud is back bitches and he's ready to roll some barrels! After seeing some screenshots and videos, the only thing that I can absolutely say that doesn't appeal to me is how McCloud himself doesn't look that all impressive on the DS (just take a look at the picture to the left) just because I've seen what he can look like in detailed work, and now it's all reverted back to this. But thankfully, we won't be seeing his face all that much in the game (other than to plan battles and for dialogue), but he will be in the cockpit for us to do sweet mauevers with.

QJ.net- "Star Fox DS will take gamers back to the series' roots of space shooting in the Lylat System. The 3D game will allow you to go through branching paths like in past Star Fox classics. Nintendo has a great use for the touchscreen too.

"Star Fox DS brings a whole new strategic element to the series with a commander’s view of the mission. Using the touch screen, players can draw the routes they and their teammates will take, then battle the enemies they encounter as they take over bases and strategically advance across the map."

Not only that, the game will feature 8 player dogfights using the wireless multiplayer - both Multi Card and Download Play. You can even use the Nintendo WiFi Connection for four player fights. After the bad taste the last few games left in gamers' mouths, this title just might be what people have been asking for."

Very small TP update

2006-05-15T01:17:00.000-04:00

We have recieved new official art pictures from the latest EGM magazine. Of course this issue of EGM has been out for awhile, but there haven't been any good photos of the Official Art out recently...until now. Here I go showing and analysing the four pictures:

Here's my observation. This is clearly the boss of the Goron Iron Mines. If you look at the TP videos shown at E3, there was one or two scenes showing Link hurling a large boulder-like boss. At first I didn't want to admit it was a Goron (I love them...and I still will even if they do turn bad), but now there isn't much to say. Take a look at what is on this Goron's feet. Red and black metal...the battle is taken place inside a iron mine, correct? So those "shoes" have to be it's version of his own "Magnetic boots". And with all of those strips of metal screwed into his body, I wouldn't be surprized if we will have to dodge from this levetating juggernaught as he crashes from above, or even fight him an the ceiling.

Now seeing this Boss Goron, the "Boxing Goron" from the second trailer of TP come into play, and Miyamoto stating along the lines of "Gorons won't be viewed as the same way they did in the past", it makes it a little hard to believe that my favorite race of Hyrule is turning bad. If they do turn "evil", I do hope that it's because of something else (the Twilight Realm perhaps?) and not because they have joined Ganon's army.

A Hylian Knight. I hope they play a larger role in this game. They make better bowling pins than Princess Protectors.----->

<---Hmmm one is short, and the other is tall. Will this be TP's version of Talon & Ingo (Mario & Luigi)?

Hi-Ho-Silver! Awaaaaaaaaaaaay!->

And now for something completely different!

2006-05-14T14:50:00.000-04:00

SNK baby!

2006-05-14T13:48:00.000-04:00

This is great news everybody, read what I found at QJ.net, they said it perfectly, I couldn't have said it better myself!

"Ben Herman of SNK had an interview with Advanced Media Network, and he talked about every system on the market and in the upcoming market! The interview had a strong Nintendo focus and it's obvious that he believes that much of his company's revenue will be coming from Nintendo. Why? Well, it looks like he's tired of the cold shoulder Sony gives to most 2D games. The HD-era poses the same problem the 3D-era did. With the PlayStation, Sony was reluctant to allow 2D games to be on the system. Now, with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, both Sony and Microsoft require games to be in high-definition. This means that SNK can no longer port their arcade series, Metal Slug, onto these systems. On the other hand, he praised Nintendo for allowing so much creative freedom with the Wii. What does that mean? It's time that Wii enjoyed the spotlight with SNK.

Not only that, but some huge announcements were made.Metal Slug Anthology for the Wii and SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters DS will both use the Nintendo WiFi Connection! Online Metal Slug and SvC Card Fighters! The PSP and Wii versions of Metal Slug Anthology will be identical with changes in the bonus material. Another huge difference will be the control scheme. The Wii version will allow you to use the controller features while the PSP version obviously won't. Whether or not the PSP version will be online was not discussed. The anthology will not feature Metal Slug 6 because it only hit arcades this past February. The Wii version has been in development for three months now.

Herman also expressed a large amount of interest in bringing old SNK games for the Nintendo Virtual Console. He would have liked to do it for the Xbox Live Arcade as well, but he is put off by the fact that some systems cannot use it because they don't have a hard drive. Every Wii comes with a 512 MB internal flash drive built-in. If Nintendo gets SNK on board, they could add the Neo Geo system to their list of growing consoles supported."

Now I like the Metal Slug series (like, not love), but I'am loving the idea of them coming over to Nintendo, especially since the "Plaigerize Station" doesn't want to take in 2D games anymore. Hey more for us! Sure 3D games are the wave of the present (and future), but that doesn't mean you can't have fun with 2D games. For example, I've had more fun playing SNK vs Capcom than playing Soul Calibur 2. Like the article stated, I hope Nintendo will recieve downloadable games from the New Geo System, and I hope (since Ninty and Capcom are pretty good friends) we get great fighting games like SNK vs Capcom, King of Fighters, Capcom vs Marvel, etc...)

Super Smash Brothers: Brawl

2006-05-11T00:39:00.000-04:00

HOLY SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. HOLY HOLY HOLY SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!! (hey this is my blog and I can say whatever I want)
Can't talk, must watch video continuously. It hasn't been uploaded onto youtube.com yet, but they have it at IGN. Enjoy: http://media.revolution.ign.com/media/748/748545/vids_1.html

Which characters are shown in the video you say?
-Mario: Denim overalls looks even more realistic
-Link: It's TP Link, not OoT Now. TP Link is fighting with the Master Sword, and he has a sweet Triforce Attack (It traps the foe in a Triangular Prism so he Link can freely attack)
-Kirby
-Pikachu
-Metaknight (from the Kirby games)
-Pit (from the Kid Icaris Game. Since he's appearing in SSB:B, we can only guess he's finally going to appear in another game of his own): He uses his wings to fly, his bow/arrows and he has a sword...correction TWO swords.
-Zero Suite Samus Aran: Yep, that's right, it's Samus without her very big protective gear to cover her body (sexy body might I add). So you ask "Without her bombs, blaster, and missiles, what does she use?" Well not much is shown in the trailer, but she does use this lightsabre/laser gun tool as her main weopon.
-Wario:....he used his atomic fart as a weopon...*embarassed*
-Snake: From METAL FREAKIN' GEAR SOLID!!! Yeah that was a funny/surprizing ending.

As for the areas, you'd have to see the video for yourself. I can't be specific, because I don't recognize any of them...but I'll try to explain:

-Floating piece of land in the sky: Yoshi Story???
-A castle under attack by catapults throwing flaming boulders- Fire Emblem?? Twilight Princess??
-Inside of the castle
-On the ground and sky of Metaknight's Ship.
-A desert

"I'm totally freakin' out man!!!"

Other little things you may like to know:
-It won't be available at launch (it will be released sometime in 2007)
-It will be online via Wifi connection (of course. Wii. Wifi. The names are a match made in heaven)
-Instead of using the Wii-mote, you'll need to use the shell or a Gamecube controller.

EVEN MORE INFO HAS BEEN RELEASED!!!! Here's what they had to say:
-Nobuo Uematsu (a man that has composed the whole Final Fantasy Series) will be Composing with a full orchestra for Super Smash Brothers: Brawl. You can download the SSBB theme music right here: Download

"When asked about other third party characters, Shigeru Miyamoto said, "There are probably possibilities for other third parties as well, and it maybe that even know there are corporate discussions going on about including some of these other characters." So don't count Sonic out just yet.

"We thought a lot about what to do with Snake and his moves in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. As you all know Snake walks around with a gun, but with Super Smash Bros. I didn't want to bring in a lot of real weapons. So that was a real challenge. But conversely, if we could use things like rocket launchers and other explosives, not only would that be fitting for Snake, but it would work for the other characters. But who knows. Maybe Snake will exclusively use explosives throughout the game.""

So my wonderful readers. Tell me what you think of all of this, and who else (classic, or new) would you like to see in SSBB?

A Wii update

2006-05-10T21:46:00.000-04:00

All this time I thought that the picture to the left, was going to be the shell used for Gamecube games, downloaded games, aswell as anyone that still doesn't feel superior to the new Wii-mote for it's games. Well I was wrong (I guess that was just a photoshop...damn you convincing art). Well it was released today that the controller to the right will actually be the replacement. Sure you will still be able to play downloaded games with the original Wii-mote, but this is for people whom aren't that comfortable with it just yet (or ever). At first glance it looks like an SNES controller with two analog sticks...and that's precisely it. With that much function, the "Classic Controller" will be able to play with the downloaded NES, SNES, and N64 games.

Speaking of shells, I'd like to introduce to everyone the actual first new shell that will be released with the Wii (sold seprately of course):

A lot of my online friends keep saying "Think of the possibilities you can do with this thing"...and honestly, it doesn't seem like I have much of a vibrant imagination as they do. I see a large hand gun (with an analog stick), and that's all I can see (Since Lara Croft: Legend is coming out on the Cube this summer, it would be a very smart idea to make a version for it on Wii so we can use two of these bad babies!! That's exactly what the Resident Evil titles are doing;) ). Now unless my friends were talking about "Think of the Shell possibilities Nintendo can create" then I could see at their eye level (aswell as all the money swiming in Nintendo's pocket).

Speaking of the Light Gun Shell, it was modeled after the Gun Controller used for the NES. Now can anyone remember what is the most famous NES game that featured the NES Gun? That's right, Duck Hunt! And if you click on that link, it will bring you to a small article at IGN stating that Nintendo is finally making a sequel to that game for Wii, and it is said it will be displayed on the showfloor during this year's E3, so stay tuned at my blog to see any upcoming pictures of the game.

There's one last thing that I need to talk about that's Wii related...and it's a little program that's installed in the controller called "WiiConnect24", meaning "The Wii controller is connected to the internet 24/7 constantly learning and upgrading itself". So when you're asleep, it's working on itself. Now, that doesn't mean you'll be wasting a whole lot of electricity to keep your Wii up, instead of it being powered by the fan, it will be powered by lights (sorta like the old fashioned computers).

Now all Nintendo has to do is explain how the downloading system will work (you know, downloading old Nintendo games), and I think I'm all set.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87zKLaHJUNo

Phantom Hourglass info

2006-05-10T01:22:00.000-04:00

Wow, gone for a few hours, and Nintendo drops some big ones on me. Well Zelda is my favorite series, so any news on them, sorta deserves it's own post. Here's what Nintendo/GCCafe had to say/show us:

The epic story of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker continues as Link finds himself lost and alone in unknown seas in a new adventure. Featuring intuitive touch-screen controls and innovative puzzles, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass offers new challenges for fans of the series and an easy-to-grasp introduction for gamers new to The Legend of Zelda. But time grows short, and only the Phantom Hourglass can buy Link the minutes he’ll need to survive.

FEATURES

The stylus makes controlling Link easier than ever. Tap on the screen to make Link move, or sweep the stylus around him to swing the sword. Players can even draw a path for his boomerang and send it flying into hard-to-reach targets.

Players can stash the map on the top screen for quick reference or drop it to the touch screen to make notes, study enemies, or chart a path for their boat to follow while they man the cannons.

Compete with a friend over a local wireless connection: Guide Link through special dungeons to capture the Triforce or command the forces that oppose him.

Many months have passed since the events of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Link, Tetra and Tetra’s band of pirates have set sail in search of new lands. They come across a patch of ocean covered in a dense fog, in which they discover an abandoned ship. Tetra falls into danger when she explores the ship alone, and Link falls into the ocean when he attempts to rescue her. When he washes up unconscious on the shores of a mysterious island, he is awakened by the sound of a fairy’s voice. With the aid of this fairy, he sets off to find Tetra – and his way back to the seas he once knew.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is controlled almost entirely by the stylus. Using the touch screen, players direct Link’s movements and attacks: A sweeping motion triggers Link’s spin attack and tapping characters makes Link speak with them. The stylus controls offer a more intuitive means of playing the game and open up new possibilities for puzzle solving.

The game action takes place primarily on the touch screen, with a map on the top screen. However, the player can inspect the map on the touch screen and make notes using the stylus. The notes on these maps are saved for review on the top screen during game play. Players use the map to chart courses for their ships, too. Using the stylus to draw a path through the islands, players set their ships’ courses. Then, as the ships automatically follow the paths drawn, players can control their ships’ cannons to target oncoming enemies.

In dungeons, players can use the touch screen to draw paths for boomerangs, sending them flying around corners or into otherwise unreachable areas. The stylus-driven game play is the most compelling new feature of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Players use the stylus to control Link, chart courses for their ships, mark notes on maps and solve puzzles in both the overworld and dungeons. A two-player wireless battle mode pits one player, as Link, against another player who controls the enemies pursuing him. Link must collect enough Force Gems before the enemies close in.

Images:
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Artwork
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Logo

Boulder Puzzle: With that boulder in front of Link, the ones on the southern part of the screen, all the bombs on the ground, a treasure chest around the corner, and that mouse scurrying about, I think this is a boulder puzzle. What's the object of this puzzle? To move the boulders to access the treasure chest, and without disturbing any of those bomb-flowers. What's there to distract you? The mouse of course. Either try to kill it before attempting this puzzle, or kill it without accidentally attacking a bomb (maybe with that handy-dandy Bow/Arrow you have there)

Lady in Blue: The good news is, she doesn't remind me of anyone we knew from tWW (I hope they don't reuse too many characters). (This may be a stretch but...) On the map above, I notice a dock near the four houses on the south-eastern part of the island...maybe this island is shown on a larger map (if only there was an icon for Link's ship).

Land Octork: I wonder, why is it that we only see these creatures in portable Zelda games? Who knows, but at least we know that they are back and ready to spit. Hmmm I wonder where that cave leads too...maybe to that light blue square. Other than the writing, there's something else that has appeared on this map, that wasn't shown on the previous one: A blue treasure chest? Take a look, it's near that light blue square on the northern part of the island. What's in there? My guess? A map of inside the dungeon. Why do I think it's a dungeon? Well, I'll explain myself in the next picture...

Dungeon: Not much logic went into this one. The ouline of this dungeon is square, and so is the outside from that light blue box in the previous picture. Could this dungeon be connected to the one shown in the trailer? Highly possible.

Dungeon Basement: Well, at least I think it's one floor lower than the one above (considering there's only one flight of stairs). What is this picture telling me? That arrow next to the block Link is pushing. That is either [A]. A button the player can touch (on screen) to indicate which direction he/she wants Link to push said block. [b] Indicating to the player that he/she can move the block by simply pressing that direction on the D-pad.

As for those three levers, what do they do? Well I see three levers, and three closed doors. My guess is, that each lever opens a new door. But since both doors leading into that room are closed, how do we get into that space? How about falling from above? That's why I think the blue spots in the "Dungeon" picture are actually holes that one can fall through.

Boss Fight: This fight has already been shown in the one and only HP trailer that has been released. It's pretty much like the same battle style Link would kill Vaati (from FS/FSA, not tMC). Smash a pot, collect bombs, throw bombs into the cyclone (timing it right of course), hit the giant octork with it, and when it falls to the ground, slash away (repeat).

Steamboat Linky: Huh, we can see Link riding on his boat (and we can clearly see, that this boat is bigger than the KoRL). Let's see, what else do I see? Well there's that island in the back that Link seems to be leaving...oh yes, it's the exact same island shown in the trailer. So I must be right about that "dock" idea I had earlier. Hmmm and once again we see the boat's health meter shown on the upper right-hand corner. Now let's take a look at the world map above. I can't find an answer, but, why is there a dash-drawn upside-down triagle that connects the island? What's with the "X" in the middle"? And why did the player draw a dark circle on the lower left hand side of the screen (That's where it seems the boat is heading towards)?

Giant Ladybug?In the trailer, we saw Link's ship trying to shoot something off from the distance, but it was unclear to see what exactly was he shooting at (other than it being red). Well, here's a closer observation of what that red creature is....a giant ladybug? You tell me what it is, that was my best guess. There's one more thing this picture is showing me: There's another ship in the distance! Is it friend or foe though?

Well that's all for now, I may analyze the latest TP screenshots from the trailer later on, but for now, this will do.

Confirmed Link Items: Sword, Sheild, Boomerang, Bombs/Cannon, Ship, Bow/Arrow, and possibly the Phantom Hourglass.

So tell me folks, what do you think? Since May 9th isn't technically when E3 starts, I'm sure Nintendo made a smart move reveiling the top three things everybody was waiting for: New TP video/official art, New HP info, New info on Wii. Now that that's out of the way, gamers can concentrate more on the other things for the next three days. Who knows, maybe we will get more information on TP, but at least it won't be as shocking as it was today. Nintendo + Timing = Good

All Nintendo Games info

2006-05-10T01:10:00.000-04:00

Click on the game to get more information on it. Of course, this isn't all of the games, only the games that have been shown thus far. If you want a complete list, here they are categorized by what Nintendo system they belong in: GBA, DS, and GC (I got all of the information from QJ.net and GCCafe.com ).

Game Boy Advance
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (September 2006)

Gamecube
Baten Kaitos Origins (September 25, 2006)
DK Bongo Blast (Q4 2006)
Super Paper Mario (Q4 2006)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Q4 2006)

Nintendo DS
Big Brain Academy (June 5, 2006)
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day
Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol (TBA)
Children of Mana (Q4 2006)
Clubhouse Games (Q4 2006)
Custom Robo Arena (Q4 2006)
Diddy Kong Racing DS (Q4 2006)
DK: King of Swing DS (temporary name) (TBA)
DS Air (temporary name) (TBA)
Elite Beat Agents (Q4 2006)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (Q4 2006)
Kirby (temporary name) (TBA)
Magical Vacation (temporary name) (Q4 2006)
Magnetica (June 5, 2006)
Mario Hoops 3-on-3 (September 11, 2006)
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (September 25, 2006)
New Super Mario Bros. (May 15, 2006)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team (September 18, 2006)
Pokemon Ranger (Q4 2006)
Star Fox DS (temporary name) (September 25, 2006)
Sudoku Gridmaster (June 26, 2006)
Tenchu: Dark Secret August 21, 2006
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Q4 2006)
Yoshi's Island 2 (temporary name) (Q4 2006)

Wii
Disaster: Day of Crisis
Excite Truck
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Project H.A.M.M.E.R.
Super Mario Galaxy
WarioWare: Smooth Moves
Wii Sports

E3 has begun!!!!

2006-05-09T16:00:00.000-04:00

New Twilight Princess Video: And yes, that's Link with a Master Sword. And it has been said that OoT Link is in the Game. This may be a quick rumor, but I'll try to confirm it.
Final Fantasy III DS Screenshots
Children of Mana DS Screenshots
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption video
Super Mario Galaxy

-The Analog stick part of the wii controller also has motion sensor!

I have no time to talk, must find a source to watch the videos (gamespot is very busy so it seems).

Thanks to my ZU member Bengan, he has uploaded the video to youtube for all to see. And I'm deffinentally uploading it here at my blog. Everyone enjoy!!!!

Now that we have the video, let's analyze it second by second:
1-2: Link dodges a galloping horse
3: We see a glowing green man of some sort
5: We see Link walking through a market place
6: Wolf Link walking around in the dark
7: A Twilight creature (shown falling from the sky in the past trailers) howling
8: A Flying Twilight creature
9-13: A very large worm...I can't tell if it's flying or if it's swimming.
14: A new boss...looks rock-like. Please don't tell me Gorons are enemies (they are my favorite race. If they are enemies, they are still my favorite).
15-16: Part of the ceiling drops into a lava-pit
17-23: Wolf Link is right in front of a boss emerging from the darkness (sorta looks like a giant wolf...what are other people's perspective?)
24-28: Link's friends are terrified as Boar-riders are charging towards them
29-30: Link and Epona ride in the feild
31: Link following a monkey in the forrest holding a light.
32-33: Link fights a Big Deku Baba and pulls out a new weopon (but it sorta looks like a hookshot or a seedshooter from one of the Oracle games)
34: Link shoots a "dragon" with an arrow.
35: Link fights an enemy that has been seen in the Forrest Dungeon (not a Lizardfos)
36: Midna is riding on Wolf Link
37-38: Link is shown throwing the curled up Rock-boss (My guess, Link has a Power Glove)
39-41: Wolf Link dematerializing into dark matter and is lifted into the sky by many pieces (this must be how Link travels by using those portals)
42-49: Shot of the night sky with a full moon and the "Twilight Princess" Title screen coming into view.

Nintendo has said that there will actually be two versions of TP. One for the GC, and another for Wii. The Wii version will have Navi (yes, she's back), a different layout for the Wii-mote (the D-pad will be used like the C-stick), and possible online play for minigames (don't quote me, that last part is speculation).

If you go to this link to IGN.com it will lead you to a 5:32 minute video from the Nintendo Wii Conference. They show how the Wii-mote can be used in new ways, and in old(like they showed in the first Wii trailer). Well what really got my attention was the last 1:15 minutes of the film: It had Twilight Princess photage. Let's analyze what is show in it:

-Player is shown pointing the hookshot at a targetable place to hook onto (Navi is shown)
-Link climbs up ladder
-Fights some goons
-Showing same scenario as above, but instead of fighting them blade-on-blade, Link stays below and kills the enemies via Bow/Arrows.
-Link fights an extinguished "Bolrog" boss, and slashing his head repeatedly
-Link fishing (quite realistic)

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!! Here's some screenshots from Electronic Gaming Monthly that I found at LandoftheLegend.net. The scans look rather normal...

Picture #1
Picture #2:Hmmmm is that a pyramid in the horizon? Dungeon perhaps?
Picture #3
Picture #4: In the latest trailer, it shows Link equipted with boots...but it didn't show the function of them. Now in this picture, we know. They are magnetic boots.
Picture #5: In the "Rogues Gallery" we see the Rock Boss. The Scan is too blury to tell if it's a Goron or not. I'll buy it, get better scans, and show/tell to all what it is

Since the text is hard to make out, here's what LandoftheLegend.net had to say to sum up the article:

"Along with the -very interesting- screenshots, some extra information has been disclosed in the article:
* Zelda is 80% complete, delay was for graphic tweaks, wii functions and because they want the game to be measured on a scale of 1 to 120 instead of 1 to 100.
* NO SWINGING THE CONTROLLER for the sword, you just press a button. There are some cases where you will swing though. Reason = you'll get tired too fast
* Controller does sound effects
* Widescreen on the REV only
* A fairy (possibly Navi) is only when you play on the REV
* Something with online is planned but no battle mode
* Re-confirmation of more items and dungeons then ever before"

Nintendo has said a long time ago that this game will be better than OoT. I agree with them fullheartidly, and I just got a great idea for how to make it better:

When the SNES came out, Japan made a version of it that was connected to a satelite so people could download games, and extra levels (this version of the SNES wasn't shipped outside of the island). So they made an ALttP game, but every week, there would be a new dungeon/mission that the player could download, and would have a limited amount of time to beat.

I was just thinking, since the Wii has downloading capabilities, I'm sure that if Nintendo did the exact same thing with this game, the game will truely be endless (as long as there are programmers that wouldn't mind making level, after dungeon, after minigames, after missions.). What do you think of that idea? Downloading extra features on the game?

(I've done about 5-6 updates today)

Ninty: Mooooooom! Sony is doin' it agaaaaaaaaain!

2006-05-09T08:54:00.000-04:00

It's moments like these, I hate Sony and their "Plagiarize Station 3*" (sorry to all of my Sony reader fans). Sorry, this post is more for venting (as a gaming geek) than anything else (and most of this article will be quoted from QJ.net...a lot of copy and pasting really. Sorry, no creativity is found at the momenet). First Sony stole the analog stick from Nintendo. Then the rumble-pack. And now this: PS3 Exclusive Controller Announced

QJ.net seems to back up the Sony, so I'll post what they had to say about it:
"The PS3 controller senses tilting.
The Wii controller senses motion...

This means that although you can swing a sword (Dragon Quest Swords), aim a gun (Red Steel), throw a ball (Madden Wii), or swing a racket (Tennis Wii) with the WiiMote, you cannot do the same with the Dual Shock 3. What can the DS3 do? It can do little functions like acting like a fishing rod, as a steering wheel for racing games."

Plus it's wireless...now I'm not saying the PS3 stole that idea too (especially since wireless has been a bout for a little while, and the 360 has it), but it does seem rather suspicious that they made that function along with the tilting senses.

Now, onto some other news:

Wiimote to include speaker: When I got word of this, I was very certain that the DS will sooner or later be confirmed to have some attachment with Wii. Since your TV/surround system already comes with speakers, "Why would the Wii-mote need one" I asked myself. Well, it's so you can hear detailed sounds. For example, Twilight Princess will be playable on Wii, and Link will be able to draw an arrow with his bow. So, depending on how far back you "pull" the string, it will make a "twang" noise to indicate how much strength is going behind the arrow before it is flung. That's the only example I can think of the speaker. Now if the Wii-mote came with a microphone (maybe it will be an attachment later on, like the analog stick), then DDR, Singing games, Wario Ware, Odama, etc... will be blessed to have it.

Twilight Princess Wii details emerge "Details regarding the use of the Wii controller for Zelda: Twilight Princess have been emerging on several fan forums in the last couple of days, and although Nintendo is not commenting on this "rumor" it definitely looks like a plausible control scheme. As you can see, the "Wii-wand" will be used for camera control, and pressing 'a' will control your actions. Pressing the larger 'A' will be used for lock-on targeting, and from this point you will be able to swing your remote like a sword, or even perform various other actions for a bow or hookshot. The D-pad will essentially act as the C-buttons that we all grew up to love, allowing you to browse through your inventory with ease. In addition, the "nun-chuck" add-on will be used for steering Link while the two buttons act like 'A' and 'B' did on the GameCube.

We really can't say for sure if this is what Nintendo will eventually choose for Twilight Princess, but we really don't have any other reason to believe otherwise. It seems like an effective control scheme that wouldn't take a whole lot of time to get used to, but we'll probably have to wait until E3 before we can get an official look at this revolutionary control system."

Oh, and not to forget, new pictures of in-game-play from Tony Hawk Downhill Jam Wii

Other than Tony Hawk, Activision will release two other games for Wii at launch: Call of Duty and Spider-man. They also have other games in store for 2007, such as Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3, Transformers, Bee Movie, as well as more X-Men.

Square-Enix will release two Wii games and a DS game for Nintendo. What are they? None other than "Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers" and "Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen at the Tower of Mirrors", both coming out for the Wii launch. As for that DS game, it will be a port of the GC game Crystal Chronicles. No word, as of yet, has been said if there will be any connectivity between both games.

Well that's all for now, I'm sure to be back in a few hours. By this time this week, I'll recap everything that happened at E3 (that has some of my interest).

Sidenote: Last night I was thinking of more "Wii" puns, and thought of two great ones for a Nintendo Advertisement: Just use the songs "We are the Champions" and "We will rock you"

*quoted from VGCats.com

Update:
I've been thinking, I sorta need a scedual, and this is what I've come up with:
From May 9th - May 15th: E3 articles/discussions
From May 16th - May 22nd: Summer Movies
May 22nd - May 28th: Online comics

And if there isn't enough on the subject, then I just may add a little more info of games/TV/anime and whatnot (but games are my main focus).

Less X, and more E3!

2006-05-08T02:52:00.000-04:00

To all of my Marvel fans, there are somethings that came up, and I won't be able to send out that X-men: The Last Stand Article you've been waiting for all weekend. What were those "somethings" you ask?

-Visited my friend's house, and no internet access
-Didn't have much material to make up an article
-E3 is this week! (If I have time today, I'll work on the article some more before any major gaming news arrives the airwaves)

That's right ladies and gentlemen! E3 is happening throughout this week, and it's starting out with Nintendo's conference that starts out tomarrow(9th) 9:30 am at the Kodak Theatre, so be prepared for many many many updates on games and systems soon to come. From the time that I was away this weekend, let me just blurt out what you may have missed:

-WarioWare Wii game is being developed
-Some new Tennis Wii game is being developed
-Twilight Princess Wii functions reveiled (such as sword swinging, etc...)
-"First 4 Figures" has announced they are creating statues from the Metroid and Zelda series.
-Sega came out with their E3 lineup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cCMPDRJQLk

I'm sure there is more, I just can't think of them right now. Expect a few dozen updates, pictures, videos, and websites this week. Keep your eyes peeled for info, and don't be a stranger at sharing some info here.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

2006-05-04T18:29:00.000-04:00

Sixteen hints on what the next article will be about...

No, really. Take a guess.

Comment on what you know about the movie thus far, the video game, and/or who's your favorite character in the X-Universe (it doesn't have to be a character that has been shown in the movies).

I'm going to be away this weekend, so I may be able to slip in this article by the end of tonight, or before I leave tommarow. If I can't, then expect an article by Monday.

Xiaolin Showdown

2006-05-03T00:17:00.000-04:00

"Gon Ye Tempai!" fellow readers, and welcome to my first TV show article, and I've decided to place the spotlight on my favorite Saturday Morning Cartoon: Xiaolin Showdown! What's the premiss of the show? Good (Xiaolin) versus Evil (Heylin) of course, what else would it be? This show is about four young friends whom have joined together to train under Master Fung in his temple to beat the villains in a world wide race to find the ancient powerful relics called Shen-Gong-Wu. There are supposibly thousands of these Shen-Gong-Wu relics hidden throughout the world. Each "Wu" is different from the next by the powers they give their users; they range from teleporting, shrinking, stretching, multiplying, flying, flipping, and much much more. How about we start talking about the main characters?

Raimundo "Dragon of Wind" Pedrosa is from Toberejo, Brazil. "Rai" sometimes has an 'in your face' additude, but overall he's a cool guy. He has gone to the dark side (Heylin), but came back with experience to make him Shako Warrior (aka: Leader) of the group.
Most Used Attack: Typhoon Boom
Signature Wu: Sword of the Storm
Wudai Weopon: Blade of the Nebula
Elemental Wu: Crest Of The Condor

Kimiko "Dragon of Fire" Tohomiko is a cute Japanese girl who is always up to date on fashion, hair styles, and portable electronics. Her element tends to compliment her temper and personality. She's the heiress of a video game company that's famous for such games as "Goo Zombies".
Most Used Attack: Judallet Flip
Signature Wu: Star Hanabi
Wudai Weopon: Arrow Sparrow
Elemental Wu: Cat's Eye Draco

Clay "Dragon of Earth" Bailey is an all American boy from the heart of Texas, where he used to work at his father's cattle ranch. Clay may be the largest member of the team, but never count him out when in a tight spot (especially when his lasso is involved). One thing you do have to love about this character, are his constant cowboy metaphors he throws in from time to time. It almost rivals Fung's "Confucius metaphors" and Omi's lack of success at correctly saying one.
Most Used Attack: Seismic Kick
Signature Wu: Fist of Tebigong
Wudai Weopon: Bigband Meteorang
Elemental Wu: Longhorn Taurus

Omi "Dragon of Water" is an orphaned monk who has lived in the Xiaolin Temple all of his life. He had been taken care of the monks who reside there, and trains day and night, yerning to become the next "Grand Master".
Most Used Attack: Tornado Strike
Signature Wu: Orb of Tornami
Wudai Weopon: Shimo Staff
Elemental Wu: Kaijn Charm

Dojo Kanojo Cho is a fire-breathing dragon who has been Guardian of the Scroll of the Shen Gong Wu for over a millenia. "He was a friend and assistant from Grand Master Dashi, he also helped hide the Shen Gong Wu 1,500 years ago. Dojo has the ability to shape-shift, which he has used to assist the young Dragons in training by assuming the form of transportation vehicles such as a boat or a subway train."

Master Fung is the Master of the Xiaolin Temple and father figure to Omi. The "Fung-miester" (as Rai likes to put it) puts the heros through training tasts to help them work together and get to know eachother a little more as a team. Most times, if he cannot teach his underlings with training, some "Confucius-esque metaphors" can help the motivation of letting the students teach themselves.

Master Monk Guan is master of his own temple, role-model to the Dragons, and ex-partner of the double crossing Chase Young. With his legendary weopon the Spear of Guan, he has been able to face any enemy without fear.

Chase Young is a true essence of heylin who was once partners with Guan in the Xiaolin side a long time ago. Like most evil people, all he wants is to put the universe into darkness and rule it with an iron fist.

Jack "Evil boy Genius" Spicer is a rich sissy boy, with a lot of robots to boot. Jack is more of an annoyance than anything else. Sure he's beaten the Dragons a few times, but not enough to match to their scoreboard. At tight spots he will side with the Dragons, but will turn on them the very second the opportunity arrives (he's more of a double crosser than a "Evil boy Genius". All he wants to do, is be on the most powerful side and have respect). He doesn't fight much (only knows very basic fighting moves) so he let's his (very weak) robots do the fighting for him. Though he may be a coward at times, he is pretty good with his tools and scraps of metal.
Favorite Wu: Monkey Staff (it's been awhile since anyone else has had it)

Wuya is a powerful witch who was cast into a puzzle box after being defeated by the Great Master Dashi over a millenia ago. In the present, she has been released from her prison, only to find herself powerless in a ghastly form. Since her release, she aids Jack Spicer in the attempt to find all the Wu before the Dragons do.

Xiaolin Showdown, what else is there to say? Sure I could go on and on about the characters, but I think I'd lose more readers that way. If you are interested in watching it, tune into:

Cartoon Network Mon-Fri 6pm and 9:30pm (EST), Saturday 5pm-6pm (EST), and Sunday 11am and 5:30pm (EST). All are re-runs

Kids WB Saturday at 9am (brand spanking new).

Note to readers, these images are fan-art, none of them are from the actual show (though I do wish the picture in the begining of the article was the art style they used)
Sources:

Wikipedia: Characters

Wikipedia: Techniques

Charizard93

Bleedman

The Bros Are Back In Town!

2006-05-02T23:47:00.000-04:00

The plummers are back, Bowser has kidnapped the Princess...yet again (there goes the little respect I gave Peach from her first solo game), and everyone is ready for some action! Now how can we talk about Super Princess Peach without talking about the imfamous Mario Brothers soon afterwards? We can't! It's been over twenty years(that's as old as me!) since Nintendo has created a side-scrolling platform featuring our two favorite plummers. The "New Super Mario Brothers" game will give you classic features from the games of yore, as well as some new-to-date features to make the game feel fresh (mmmm who doesn't love the smell of nostalgia in the morning?). Mario & Luigi have gone a long way since their block smashing, goomba squishing moves; let's take a look at what else is under their overalls: Adopted from Super Mario World, the bros will be able to do an attack that I like to call "the cork-screw". It's when they jump in the air spinning and destroy anything that's beneithe them (blocks and all). Next is something that' was first shown in Yoshi's Island (one of my all time favorite Mario games) and then onto the first 3D Mushroom Kingdom world of Mario 64. What move is it? It's the "butt-slam" (also seen in the Super Smash Brothers games). The move is pretty much identicle to the "cork-screw" however only some enemies, blocks, etc.. are effected by it, and not the other. There are two more moves that are quite simple to explain (since they have been shown countless times in previous games). One is "wall jumping" (ala Megaman) and "Multiple air jumps" (ala Mario 64).

Now that you've got all the moves down, how about we look at the items? Sure we've got the classic mushroom, fire flower, and power star, but you must be thinking "What else?". Well there's the Super Mushroom. What does it do? Just take a look at the picture to your right. It pretty much gives the plummer invincibility for a time being. Problem? Yes, there are three that come to mind when I first saw the photage:

Mario & Luigi aren't the only ones who can become titans. Any enemy (as shown) that reaches to the Super Mushroom first will become just as large.

This got me thinking; if enemies can get the super mushroom for their own advantage, could the same thing work for other items?

When a plummer recieves the Super Mushroom an energy gauge pops on the top part of the screen (not shown for some reason). When the gauge is finished, so is the titan's rampage.

Boy::Girl:Big::¿¿what?? Answer: Small. Not only is there a Super Mushroom, but there's also an Alice in WOnderland tribute: The tiny mushroom. After the Super Mushroom discussion, do any of you possibly think it's neccessary to explain this one? Other than the obvious disadvantage, Mario and Luigi will be able to creep into small holes and corridors for shortcuts and such. I'm not surprized with this move, especially since it isn't the first time Miyamoto has used it. Mario became small in Super Mario Land II and Link became small in Four Sword & The Minish Cap. Seems to me that "small" is the next big thing (pun intended). That's all for now readers, until next time!

The Legend of Lara Croft

2006-05-01T23:57:00.000-04:00

That's right ladies and gents, the voluptuous archeologist is back! She has slipped underneith her "Angels of Darkness" game (forgiven, but not forgoten) shadow, and into the light of her seventh game in the series: Legend. Before I move onto Legend, let's talk about her "not so glorious" role in Angels of Darkness. The storyline of the game was ok, but the two things that really detracted gamers were this: The controls, and especially the real time physics. We gamers always want our heros to be full of energy 24/7, but that wasn't the case for AoD. In Lara's sixth game, she had to gain strength, agility, speed, etc.. the hard way. And by building her stats, she could do more and better things such as hang on a cliff a little while longer. Sure it seems realistic (I'm sure that's what Edios was thinking at the time), but it's annoying to the player. Ok, enough about AoD, let's get back to what's in store for us with Legend.

This is how the story goes: "Lara Croft's search for a South American relic changes course dramatically when she meets a dangerous figure from her past, and she finds herself in a race to recover one of history's most famous artifacts"- TombRaider.com. This time around, Lara won't be designed by her creator Core, but actually by Crystal Dynamics (the same company that made the "Legacy of Kaine" and "Gex" game series). One of the most famous features in the Tomb Raider series would be the locations Lara goes to, and Legends is no exception. Lara will be scurrying in an ancient tomb in Peru, climbing cliffs to the ruins of Bolivia, sneaking into a secret Soviet Labratory in Kazakhstan, returning to the Himalayan mountains of Nepal, and sashay in an evening in Japan (plus more locations, I'm sure). Throughout the game Lara will be changing her outfit to her appropriate surroundings. She'll be wearing anything between a winter jacket for cold climates to a cocktail dress at a party.

Now don't get me wrong, we always see Lara as a loner, but she isn't that at all. With all that money, power, and resources, she has a team of experts and friends to help her along the way. We have Winston (the Croft family's butler for many years), Zip (He's constantly in contact with the hero via radio headset for logistical and technical support), and Alister, Lara's research assistant (as they say, "Two brains are better than one", and this case it is true when it comes to sharing historical information between the two of them).

The game has been released for about three weeks now, but it's never too late to pick it up. It's been released for the PC, PS2, PSP, X-box, and the X360. Don't feel bad Gamecube owners, we will have our due soon. According to my sources (GCCafe.com & Crystal Dynamics.com) it has been stated that Eidos will release the game for the Gamecube sometime during the summer. What's so special about this? It's been three years since Eidos stated they would never support the Nintendo Gamecube ever again, but I guess with a game like Angel of Darkness, they need as much publicity as possible (they are even creating DS and GBA versions of the game). If you would like to see some teasers, trailers, cutscenes, guides, and reviews on the game, I'd recommend going to GameTrailers.com for all your watching needs.

Princesses rule, plummers drool

2006-04-30T22:17:00.001-04:00

Move over Samus Aran and Lara Croft, there's a new heroine in town. Who is she you ask? She's been ruling over her kingdom for nearly twenty years, and has been kidnapped countless times. No it is not Princess Zelda, but take another guess (look at the picture for a hint, lol). If you said Princess Peach, congratulations, you are correct! This time around, the Princess will star in her very first game. Sure she's been playable in some other Mario games (such as the many sport games, Super Mario Brothers 2, Super Smash Brothers, and the many Mario Parties) but this is the first time the spotlight is on her. What's the plot of the game? Pretty much like the plot of all the previous Mario games, but turned around. Instead of the Princess being kidnapped by Bowser, it's her italian plummer boyfriend who needs the rescueing. The Princess stars in her very first DS game called "Super Princess Peach", of course (don't let the title fool you. It's not all about tea and crumpets, this game is quite fun). The ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom isn't alone on this quest. She's accompanied by a magic parasol named Kassaa. Ok, so you may be thinking: Mario has stars, fire power, capes, mushrooms, etc... to help him in the past, will the Princess have the same equiptment? Hmmm, not really. There are some simularities though. Just like Mario, the Princess gets to stop on enemies, smash blocks, and collect coins. Now how about that parasol she has at her hands, what does that do? I sort of found it familiar to Mario's Yoshi. Kassaa helps the princess whack enemies, float in the air, pick up enemies and throw them away, and even eat certain enemies (when it comes to the Mushroom Kingdom, you shouldn't be surprized. We have plummers as heros, a princess that is the only human (so it seems) in her whole kingdom, walking mushroom-people (Toads), and dragons that take on different personalities depending on what it eats).

Now of course this is a DS game, when is the stylus/touch screen involved? Well it all has to do with the Princess' "Vibe Power". Everytime Kassaa eats an enemy, her vibe power grows. There are different kinds of vibes the Princess can use (this is where it gets emotional/girly...no offence to my female readers):

When the Princess is happy, she creates a gust that can blow away enemies aswell as float her up to the sky. When she's pissed off, she bursts in flame and burns most things in her sight (this is sorta like Mario's star-power). And then there's when she's crying...it really puts Justin Timberlake's song "Cry me a river" into retrospective because that's basically what she does. What does her tears do? It can do things like help grow flowers so she can reach higher places.

I say this is a perfect game to pick up if you are a hardcore Mario fan (if you own the "Where's Mario" game starring Luigi, you truely are hardcore), a regular fan, a newcomer to the DS, or just want to find something new. If you don't want to take my word for it, pick it up, and see for yourself.

How Wii work it

2006-04-29T15:39:00.000-04:00

I just realized something...not everybody knows about the Nintendo Wii, how it works, and how it can be used. So if you just stopped by my blog, you're just in luck, you're about to get a small lesson in one of the hottest electronics Nintendo has ever made (since E3 is coming, I thought it would be best for all my readers to know what I'm talking about). Now the controller (as pictured) has two parts. The main part is the remote control, the second one is a detachable part (rumored to be the first of many detachable parts Nintendo may create in the future for other games). For the time being, I'll call the main controller "MC" and the detachable part "DP". Let me tell you what Nintendo's reason for making the controller look this way. Ninty wanted to make something so that everyone wouldn't feel intimidated to pick it up and use it. Be realistic, take a look at the controllers we have now, they have D-pads, analog sticks, shoulder buttons, and at least four main buttons. That's pretty intimidating for a newcomer to the gaming world. So if you've played the NES, it was easy for you to pick up the SNES. The N64 controller was new, but once the GC controller came out, it was easy to adapt into it. Now, Nintendo wanted to make everyone "start from the begining". So an experienced gamer, as well as a "newbie" will both be at the same starting line.

Now, what does the MC have? Looks pretty simple on the outside, but it's what's on the inside that matters. The outside has simple buttons: A D-pad, a Start button, Select button, a Power button, an "A" button, a "B" button, an "a" button, and a "b" button. Simple? It is. Ok, so it has four buttons, what's so amazing about that? Well there isn't really, until we get to know what's inside. The MC (and the Wii tower) can determine distance, force, and depth. So it calculates the moves you make. You point the MC to the left part of the screen, (let's say it's Mario. He's very easy to easy to deal with) Mario walks to the left part of the screen. You flip the MC up (like you're flipping a pancake), Mario jumps. You press the "B" button, Mario shoots a fire ball. Now that's an easy example for a 2D world, but how about a 3D one?

Imagine swinging a sword, a baseball bat, a tennis racket, a golf club? Throwing it like a football? How about whacking the controller like a drumstick? Chopping with it like a knife? Swishing it like a paintbrush? Piloting an airplane with it? Steer a race car with it? All of this (and many more) can be possible with Wii. The possibilities are endless. The harder you swing, throw, whack, chop, swish, steer, it will react to the game. Let's take a look at a sword (my personal interest). If you flick your wrist at an enemy, the sword will swing, but the enemy may easily block it, or recieve minimal damage. Now let's say you swung that "sword" with your arm and body (put more effort into it), the sword will give even more damage to the enemy. Everything is calculated on how you use the controller. And this is just the MC. (Long story short, it's highly motion sensative)

The DP isn't as impressive, but it's needed for some accounts. It has an analog stick along with the "Z1" and "Z2" buttons. The analog stick can be used for aiming at an enemy, or even as simple as simple as moving the camera. Not much is known about the DP...it is rumored to also be motion sensative, but we will all know in due time.

After all of this, do you still need a visual aid? Look no further, here's the first trailer Nintendo released on how some of the ways the Wii could be used. Enjoy the video:

Now if you're looking for stats on the Wii, you won't find it here. Personally, I'm not interested in stats/realistic graphics. I'm interested in having a good time when I play. here's a small list of Official, work-in-progress, and rumored games for the Wii (some rumored games are just too obvious for Nintendo to pass up, but I'd rather list them as rumored than work-in-progress until we hear official word from them)

Official Wii Games coming out:
Sadness
Raid Over the River
Red Steel
Edit: Some racing game that Reggie has confirmed will be shown at E3 (my guess, Mario Kart. There always has to be 1-2 Mario games for the first release of a new system)

Work-in-Progress:
Thorn
Orb
Darkness
Vampire Rain
Cry On
Madden Football
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai

Rumored:
Mario
Metroid Prime
Mario Kart
Mario Party
The Legend of Zelda
Night
Donkey Konga
Tetris

Nintendo did say that they would have many games at launch (I forgot what was the estimated amount), so I'm sure they'll have more than those three listed.

Now let's see...what else am I missing about the Wii? Ah yes, a few more simple things. Wii will be backwards compatible with the Gamecube Disks (it will also provide you a slot for your memory cards, so no worries about that). Now you may ask: Am I going to be able to play GC games with the MC? Not exactly... There will be a "shell" that will look like the GC controller, and you'll have to connect it in (I'll show a picture once I can find it).

Ah, two more things (one big, and one little). The Wii will be able to play DVDs (little), and it will also be able to download NES, SNES, and N64 games onto it. Yes, that's right. You'll be able to download old games of yore. Nostalgia anyone? You could play the old games with the "shell" or without it. Play an old game, but in a new way by using the MC. Clever, eh? Ooops, there's sorta one more thing to say (but it's sorta already been said). Wii will be able to play online with it (sorry...get used to all the "Wii" puns because they'll keep coming until it gets old). I don't think there's anything else to be said. If you read this whole article, that tells me two things: you had a lot of time in your hands (but not as much as the author), and you just learned something new (hopefully). If you need any further explanation on it, feel free to send an e-mail to BigGoronSword@hotmail.com

2006-04-27T18:50:00.000-04:00

What's up with Nintendo today? First it's Wii, and now this! If you haven't heard (you came to the right place), http://www.jeux-france.com/news15500_zelda-phantom-hourglass-scanne.html has released new Phantom Hourglass scans from the latest Famitsu issue. Just by looking at the eight new scans, there are a few things I can already speculate.

This game may tie in with tWW and the FS Saga
Multiplayer may be involve. (We see seven Links: Green, Red, 2 Blues, Violet, Orange, and Yellow)
Salvatore (from tWW of course) has a Tetra "mask". It looks to me that Tetra's Trackers may be available in this game. Good thing. Since FSA was only limited to four players, maybe this mini-game can be used via wifi.
Tingle is back -_-;;;

It's moments like these I wish I knew how to read japanese (and french in this case), so I would know why they placed a OoT, tWW, and ALttP pictures in there. When it comes to OoT, my guess is they are talking about Navi and/or further explaining that this is a sequal to tWW. But as for ALttP, that's an obscure referance...

(Three posts in one day?! If you think this is a lot, just wait till E3 comes around. I'll be posting by the hour. I guess I'm just making up for yesterday)

Introducing Sigh Nintendo Wii

2006-04-27T13:49:00.000-04:00

This is a Nintendo (Codenamed) "Revolution" update. Why did I put "Revolution" in quotations? Because that's not the name for Nintendo's upcoming console. The official name? Wii (as in "we" or "whee"). The news came out this morning by Nintendo stating that the former codename "Revolution" is now called "Nintendo Wii". Here's what Nintendo had to say:

"Introducing... Wii.
As in "we."

While the code-name Revolution expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that seperates videogame players from everybody else. Wii will put people more in touch with their games... and each other. But you're probably asking: What does the name mean?

Wii sounds like "we," which emphasizes the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.

Wii has a distinctive "ii" spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people playing it. And Wii, as a name and a console, brings something revolutionary to the world of videogames that sets it apart from the crowd.
So that's Wii. But now Nintendo needs you. Because it's really not about you or me. It's about Wii. And together, Wii will change everything.

Click here for the official website for Wii. "

Source: http://revolution.ign.com/articles/703/703502p1.html

What's my personal take on this new name? It's...cute, but not exactly up to par with "Revolution". The word "Revolution" indicates that the console will change the world of gaming and how it's perceived. "Wii" just gives me the image of a younger me going down a slide or playing on the swing. It sounds...childish to be quite honest. At least this title isn't as bad as the rumored title "Go" which means "five" in Japan (since this would be Nintendo's fifth console). Will it grow on me? Sure. Will it be made fun of? Count on it. But I've already created an idea for it. If the Revo....sorry. If the Wii will act like a Wifi port (so it can be compatible with the Nintendo DS), one of the first commercials for it could show the trademark symbol Wii turn into Wifi. Clever? Not so much, but it's something to add into the fire. Well people, give me your thoughts on this. Like the name? Dislike it? Don't care?

2006-04-27T00:20:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to say thank you to two people that have helped me with my blog. The first person I'd like to thank is a cool guy named Scott, who's one of the webmasters at the ZeldaUniverse.net Forums where I've been a mod for nearly two years (I believe). He helped me with how to use pictures as hyperlinks using the html code here as well as telling me how to place that awesome banner above the Intro header. Speaking of the awesome banner, I'd like to thank my second person, the artist who created said banner: Cass (also a member of ZU Forums). I'll have more banners created by Cass in the future (update: Just refresh the page to see them), so you know where all the credit goes to.

As for the awesome Grim Jr. in the banner, that would be one of the main characters from the webcomic "Grim Tales From Down Below, one of the many webcomics I'll be reviewing on. The artist of the Grim Jr is named Bleedman who is parters with two other artists that work at http://www.snafu-comics.com/. Get used to that website's name, because you'll be hearing a lot of it once I start reviewing their comics.

2006-04-25T11:12:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first installment of my many articles that will revolve around the imfamous expo, E3! For this first article, I'll be showing everyone what the gaming companies have confirmed they are going to display at this year's convention. I got all of this information from GCCafe.com and IGN.com (both very reliable sources). Now, of course I'm a major Big N fan, but that doesn't mean I won't tell everyone what else we have in store for E3 (I just won't give reviews on them, unless they are games that I'm very interested in such as last year's "Shadow of the Collosus". So without any further adu, let me show everyone what has been confirmed:

2K Sports
College Hoops 2K7 (PS2, Xbox, X360)
NBA 2K7 (PS2, Xbox, X360)
NHL 2K7 (PS2, Xbox, X360)

10Tacle Studios
Elveon (PC, X360)
GTR 2 - FIA GT Racing (PC)

Ankama Studio
DOFUS: Riders of the Dragoturkey (PC)
Dofus-Arena (PC)
WAKFU (PC)

Ascaron Entertainment
Tortuga - Two Treasures (PC)

Atlus Software
Contact (DS)
Steambot Chronicles (GBA)
Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation (GBA)

Auran
Fury (PC)

Bethesda Softworks
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow (PC, PS2)
Star Trek: Legacy (PC, X360)
Star Trek: Tactical Assault (DS, PSP)

Blizzard
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)

Buena Vista Games
Desperate Housewives (PC)
Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (PS3, X360)
Turok (PS3, X360)

BUKA Entertainment
Aggression: Europe 1914 (PC)
Dusk-12 (PC)
Hard Truck Apocalypse: Rise of the Clans (PC)
Pacific Storm: Allies (PC)

Capcom Entertainment
Capcom Puzzle World (PSP)
Dead Rising (X360)
Lost Planet (X360)
Mega Man Battle Network 6: Cybeast Falzar (GBA)
Mega Man Battle Network 6: Cybeast Gregar (GBA)
Monster Hunter Freedom (PSP)
OKAMI (PS2)
Power Stone Collection (PSP)
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (PS2)
Ultimate Ghosts 'N Goblins (PSP)

Crave Entertainment
Dave Mirra BMX Challenge (PSP)
Hard Rock Casino (PS2, PSP)
LarryBoy and the Bad Apple (GBA, PS2)
World Championship Poker: Featuring Howard Lederer "All In" (PS2, PSP, X360)

D3 Publisher of America
Dark Sector (PS3, X360)
DreamWorks & Aardman's Flushed Away (Cube, DS, GBA, PS2)
Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2 (Cube)
Naruto: Ninja Council (GBA)
Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: The Genie and the Amp (DS)

DreamCatcher Games
Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express (PC)
Dead Reefs (PC)
Evidence (PC)
First Battalion (PC)
Genesis Rising: The First Crusade (PC)
Painkiller (PS2, PSP)
Painkiller: Hell Wars (Xbox)
The Sacred Rings (Xbox)
Safecracker (Xbox)

Eidos Interactive
Hitman: Blood Money (PC, PS2, Xbox, X360)
Just Cause (PC, PS2, Xbox, X360)
Rogue Trooper (PC, PS2, Xbox)
Urban Chaos: Riot Response (PS2, Xbox)

ESTsoft
Cabal Online (PC)

Eutechnyx
E-Racing (PC)

Freeze Interactive
FieldOps (PC)

GAMESweet Software
Fury (PC)

KOEI
Fatal Inertia (PS3)

LucasArts
Indiana Jones (Platforms TBD)
LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (Platforms TBD)

Microsoft
Crackdown (X360)
Gears of War (X360)
Mass Effect (X360)
N3: Ninety-Nine Nights (X360)
Too Human (X360)
Viva Piñata (X360)

Midway Games
The Ant Bully (GBA, PC, PS2)
The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (GBA, PC, PS2)
Happy Feet (GBA, PC, PS2)
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (PC)
MLB SlugFest 2006 (PS2, Xbox)
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (PS2, Xbox)
Mortal Kombat: Unchained (PSP)
NBA Ballers: Phenom (PS2, Xbox)
NBA Ballers: Rebound (PSP)
Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War (PSP)
Rush (PSP)
SpyHunter: Nowhere to Run (PS2, Xbox)
Stranglehold (PS3, X360)
Unreal Tournament 2007 (PC, PS3)

Nintendo
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Cube)
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)

RedOctane
Guitar Hero II (PS2)

Reef Entertainment
Liquidator (PC)
Utopia City (PC)
World War Zero (PC)

SEGA
Chrome Hounds (X360)
Phantasy Star Universe (PC, PS2)
Sonic the Hedgehog (PS3, X360)
Super Monkey Ball Adventure (Cube, PS2, PSP)

Shantz International
The Shadow of Aten - The Egyptian Chronicles of Allen Scott (PC, X360)

SNK Playmore
King of Fighters 2006 (PS2)
Metal Slug (GBA)
Metal Slug Collection (PSP)

Sony Online Entertainment
Field Commander (PSP)
Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising (PC)
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom (PS3)

Square Enix
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
Final Fantasy III (DS)
Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA)
Final Fantasy VI Advance (GBA)
Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (DS)
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PSP)
Children of Mana (DS)
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (PS2)
Dawn of Mana (PS2)

Tri Synergy
Origin of the Species (PC)
TerraWars: New York Invasion (PC)
UFO: Extraterrestrials (PC)

Ubisoft
Red Steel (Rev)

Vivendi
Scarface: The World is Yours (PC, PS2, Xbox)

Warner Bros. Interactive
Justice League Heroes (PS2, PSP, Xbox)

(Data will be updated in the future when new information has been released)
And from all of those, I'm only really interested in five, possibly six games (I'm keeping an eye on both Zelda games, Red Steel, Final Fantasy III, Children of Mana, and I'm sort of interested in Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2)

A teenie bit more ground work

2006-04-23T15:26:00.000-04:00

Hmmm let's see. Video Games, check. Comedians, check. Comics....not checked. Well it's quite obvious I'm going to talk briefly on comics today. This would involve actual comics that I collect, as well as online comics (aka: web comics) that I read weekly. Now you may be wondering to yourself (if I have any readers out there), what's with all of these ground work posts? Well I want to put down my ideas for what I'm going to do with my blog, so I can have inspiration of picking it back up again (and not letting it drop). My ultimate goal is to create (at least)three reviews a week. One on a Video Game that I've played/interested in (maybe even give helpful hints/walkthroughs), another on a comics I read (maybe give some backround information), and lastly, one on a certain comedian and his/her preformances/my favorite skits/jokes from them (possibly give a small biography on their past). And maybe even after awhile of getting used to managing a blog, I'll add on more topics such as upcoming movies (and movies in my "favorites list"), anime, and possibly manga. But for now, here are some web-comics I follow every week:

http://vgcats.com/
http://www.pressstarttoplay.net/comic.php
http://grim.snafu-comics.com/
http://blueandblond.com/
http://ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php
http://chugworth.com/comic.php
http://www.megatokyo.com/
http://duelinganalogs.com/
http://cubetoons.com/index.php

Now, the two main paperback comics I like to follow are X-men, and Batman. I've been collecting both of them for three years, and then I went into a hiatus (girlfriend). Now that she's gone, I can bring back my hobbie. I once collected New X-men, New X-men: Academy X, Soulfire, New Marvel Mangaverse, Mythos: X-men, Spider-man: The Other, X-men Unlimited, Powerless, and a few more (those are the ones I remembered from the of my head. I should check my trunk to double check). Since the majority of those comics are "old", I may just review the up-to-date ones.

As you can see, I have more comedians in their list than I do for Video Games and and comics. This means I could easily add more onto my list, aswell as give less reviews throughout the week. Now I won't have specific days for updates, my life isn't that stable to scedual in something that routinely. I'll do the best I can to place websites in when I can.

More Ground Work

2006-04-20T10:11:00.000-04:00

Let's see, I've covered Video Games, placed the webcomics in the Sidebar (I'll review them later), next will be the comedians. Since I want to be a little more serious for this blog (hey, it's on the things I love), I thought I might post all the ground work and build from that. Here's a "small" list of my favorite comedians alphabetically (the ones with "*"s are my all time favorites):

Carlos Alazraqui
Dave Attel
Mike Birbiglia
Bruce Bruce
Lewis Black*
Greg Behrendt
Bruce Bruce
Frank Caliendo**
Dave Chappelle*
Dane Cook*
Tom Cotter*
Mark Currey
Jeff Dunham**
Earthquake*
Bill Engvall
Adam Ferrara
Pablo Francisco**
Zach Galifianakis
Greg Giraldo
Godfrey
Eddie Gossling
Judy Gold
Darrell Hammond**
Jeremy Hotz*
Gabriel Iglesias**
Dom Irrera
Richard Jeni
The Amazing Johnothan
Cory Kahaney
Joey Kola
Larry the Cableguy
Stephen Lynch*
Vince Morris**
Retta*
Ray Romano
John Stewart
Wanda Sykes
Tess
Ron White*

Through time, I will add onto the list. Another all time dream of mine is, to become wealthy enough to host a charity event and have all of my favorite comedians entertaining the sponsors.

Let's look at that revamp...

2006-04-19T19:32:00.000-04:00

Ok, let's look at that revamp I talked about earlier and what you people have in store for discussion.

The Legend of Zelda Series
-The Prince of Persia Series
-Golden Sun series
-"Tales of..." series for Nintendo
-Baten Kaitos series
-Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles
-Beyond Good & Evil
-Skies of Arcadia
and many more... (Sword of Mana & Fire Emblem)

Let's see, I'm going to rule out Beyond Good & Evil, and Skies of Arcadia because I have neither played/owned the game and it doesn't seem like they are coming out with any sequels. Final Fantasy: CC....Never got around to it. Sure I picked it up, but I hate the controlling (especially switching from regular attack to spell casting). They need to work on that for it to be attracted to me (and the storyline). So let's see, that leaves us with:

The Legend of Zelda Series
-Twilight Princess
-Phantom Hourglass
-Future Installments (most likely another DS game and Rev games since Nintendo likes to have two Zelda games for each system...Regular Gameboy, Super Nintendo, and Virtual Boy are the only acceptions. Plus VB wasn't a big hit so not many people would even consider it part of Nintendo's console collection).

The Prince of Persia Series
-Warrior Within (still haven't played it. But I've played Sands of Time)
-Two Thrones (playing it...but it's on hiatus)
-Battles of Prince of Persia (Didn't know it existed until about a month ago)
-Sands of Time for GBA (Why play the 2D version when you have the 3D one? I may pick it up)

Golden Sun series
-Already played/beaten both games. I'm just wishing that Camelot will hurry up and start making a 3D version of the game for the Revolution (it's too late for a Gamecube game to come out)

"Tales of..." series for Nintendo
-Symphonia (Playing it along with Baten Kaitos. But right now BK has most of my attention, ToS is a close second. But not when it comes to favorites)..
-Phantasia (Just recently made a port to the GBA. May pick it up considering it's suppose to be the sequel to Symphonia)
-Tempest (DS) (Now this is one I'm deffinentally going to pick up)

Baten Kaitos series
-Eternal Wings & the Lost Ocean: Currently playing
-Wings of the Beginning and the Heir to the Gods: It is said to come out this month. I'm sure we'll get more info on it during E3.

Sword of Mana series
-#1. Beat it and played it
-Secret of Mana (DS): Not much word of it. It's a port of the original SoM, plus extra features that

Fire Emblem
-Fire Emblem: Have to buy it.
-The Sacred Stones: On hiatus (I picked up the sequel, before playing the first one. I honestly thought this one the name of the first one)
-Path of Radiance: I think I owe it to FE to buy the first two games, become a good player, then buy the third game. Yes, I'm sorta weird like that...having respect for games.

Games to look out for:

Lara Croft: Legend (GC, DS, & GBA) You may be thinking to yourself "Wait, didn't Eidos say they 'would never support the Nintendo GameCube ever again'"-GCCafe.com Ok, maybe only the game freaks would know that, but it's true, Ms. Croft is coming onto the GameCube. Sure it's already been released for all the other consoles, but expect to see something during E3.

Lost Magic: Now here's a game I've been keeping my eye on. It's called Lost Magic, and it's a game that uses the touch screen/stylus to cast spells and magic. The more accurate you draw the Spell binding cirle, the higher the damage and accuracy the hit will be. Last week I went to EBgames and found a game very simular to this one. A rip off maybe? How could that be when this game hasn't been released (other than the fact that the company could have stolen the idea before-hand)? I'll give you more information later on.

Final Fantasy DS: Not much news about this game. All I've seen are pictures. There are three rumors about it.
1. It's a Crystal Chronicles port to the DS
2. It's a new FF game, using the CC engine.
2. It's an old FF game, ported onto the DS, using the CC engine.

Four months later, and still nothing...

2006-04-19T12:06:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's been four months after the "revamp" and I've done diddly squat on my own blog. At first I thought I would easily get into blogging since it's been the "it thing" to do online for the past decade, but I guess I was wrong. What have I learned from this? I can't keep a journal, and I can't hold promises (online). For the most part, I don't know what this blog will be about now. I'll just make it nice and random (Like me). At times I'll probably give gaming/websites/movie reviews, other times it will be news around the world, or just about me and what's happening so far.

I've noticed that less than 100 people have seen my blog (so that could be anywhere between 0-99...but it's 96), and the only critizism I got were from people/bots that we advertising...how pathetic. What I need is a better layout and such...if only I had the know how.

---------------------------
What's been going on in my life:

The Good:
-I got contacted by an old best friend of mine, one of which I haven't seen in nearly two years (At my high school graduation, and before that, another two years).

-Celebrated my 20th birthday last month. One more year until drinking is legal...and that will take out all the fun from it...

-Playing Baten Kaitos and Tales of Symphonia. Both great games. I'm just waiting for E3 to come out so we can get more info on the sequel of Baten Kaitos (which is suppose to come out this month), Twilight Princess, Phantom Hourglass (the first Zelda game for the DS), The Nintendo "Revolution" (I sure do hope they keep that code name), and any other future games I may be of interest.

The Bad:
-Got fired
-Living with my parents again...
-Oldest sister going to get fired (temp job)
-Father going to get fired at the end of this school year (didn't get a tenure)
-Mom will quit soon (wherever dad goes, mom follows).

The Ugly:
-Packing up and getting to move yet again (this would be my 12th move I've had to do in my life. 11 different houses/appartments. 6 different cities/towns. 2 countries. 2 states. Beat that)
-Frantically tring to find another job (the sooner I get one, the sooner I'm out of here).
-Loans/rent/bills...enough said

Oh and here's an old picture of me smiling. I thought it would last longer this way (you won't see one of those for awhile).

Revamp!!

2005-12-27T23:43:00.000-05:00

Ok, so it's been a few *cough cough* months since I've made a new reply. So, I've decided to do something about it, I've decided to revamp this blog and make it more interesting (believe me, my life isn't interesting...ok, it can be at times, but nothing I'd like the whole net to know). What's the interesting thing? Video Games of course. Hey, if I'm going to spend some valued time on this blog, I might as well do it about the games I've loved. Just for a little look out of the games I'll be covering...

-The Legend of Zelda Series
-The Prince of Persia Series
-Golden Sun series
-"Tales of..." series for Nintendo
-Baten Kaitos series
-Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles
-Beyond Good & Evil
-Skies of Arcadia
and many more...

If you take a look at that list of games, you'll understand what kind of games I like. Action/Adventure/Fantasy/RPG

"Sure it's a big job; but I don't know anyone who can do it better than I can" -JFK

2005-08-29T15:44:00.000-04:00

(Short Post)

I don't have much to say other than this: about six hours ago, I got a call from the company I got a callback, and now I'm employed! Woot! Step 1: Get an appartment...complete. Step 2: Get a job...complete. And now for step 3: Keep job, pay for rent, get a cellphone, buy more stuff, and actually start a new life in Boston. Ok step 3 may take longer than the other two, but it's well worth the wait.

-Marco Antonio

"The tougher the job, the greater the reward"

2005-08-24T12:09:00.000-04:00

w00t! w00t! I got a callback for a job interview! I'm just one step closer! God I'm soo excited. My interview is tomarrow morning (which is great, I'm a morning person myself) at 9:30.

Oh yeah...sorry I haven't been keeping up to date on things...I would be lying if I said I was busy...so I'll just say that I had many little things to do. This past weekend I had to go back to my New Hampshire hometown (with my sister) for a check-up at the doctor's however, when I arrived at North Station, the person behind the counter wouldn't let me buy a ticket because I didn't have government official I.D. (meaning Driver's Lisence(sp?) or a Passport on hand).

Yes, that's true folks, I do not have a Driver's Lisence...and I'm 19. I guess I really never got around to it. I always thought " I rarely want to go places, I don't have any money to buy a car, price for gass just goes up continuously, and I'm going to be living in the city...which is even more expensive to own/use a car". So pretty much for the past three years I've been building up excuses to never get my driver's lisence and buy a car of my own. Both of my sisters have one...however, they never drive (sorta afraid...considering one is afraid of merging lanes, and another is afraid of accidents since she was in one last summer....but she wasn't driving mind you. But it still makes an effect on her mind). Right now having a driver's lisence would only show two things usefull for me: To show I have more independancy (from my family and public transportation systems) and that I'm 19 and can buy cigars, lottery tickets, and go into 21 and under clubs (as if I don't look like I'm in my 20's already). Anywho...back to my story...

So what I did was talk to someone above the clerk, yeah, that's right, a conductor of the train. I slipped him a $10, and he gave me this whatchamacallit...I guess you could call it a receit.

Long story short, I'm trying to get across the point of, why do they need something official? Why's the train so important? It's not like an airplane ride...it's more like traveling on buss. I wonder if they stated this thing ever since the train thing in Europe, since 9/11, or has this always been around?

-Marco Antonio

"If you find a job you love to do, you'll never have to work a day in your life"

2005-08-16T14:30:00.000-04:00

Well let's see...what have I been doing for the past couple of days? Applications, applications, applications, applications! Yes, I'm still job searching, however, Boston is a big city (including all the suburbs) and there's bound to have a job with my name on it. I've applied for a movie rental store, a deli market, a Dunkin' Donuts shop, and today I've applied for a dishwasher possition at a college cafeteria (won't say which one....that would be too much information for my case).

Hmmm ok enough of work...why not talk about one of my personal favorite things: The Legend of Zelda. Yes, that's right, I'm a Zelda fan. To those who don't know what Zelda is, it's a video game. Long story short, you are a green-clad hero (named Link) who tries to save the Kingdom of Hyrule and it's Princess (Zelda) from the main villain who spreads darkness throughout the land (Ganon). Well the latest information on the upcoming video game called "The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess" says that the game will be delayed (sources from IGN.com) until early next year. I'm sure many Zelda fans are distressed about this information, however, if more time they need to make it perfect, the more time I'll wait for it. I'd rather have it be a perfect game and wait awhile, than have a mediocre game and have it come out soon.

Here's a link to the latest pictures of Twilight Princess.

As I've said in my first post, one of my internet nicknames is "BGS" which stands for "BigGoronSword". I am a Super Moderator at (my opinion of course) the best Zelda website/forum called ZeldaUniverse Forums . Please feel free to visit and/or join there. I've been a member for nearly two years and have been a moderator for nearly four months...I think.

Well I hope everyone else had a great weekend. I'll come back for a new post and to read your comments in a few more days.

-Marco Antonio

"Happy Birthday Taylor"

2005-08-14T01:49:00.000-04:00

Well today (ok, technically, yesterday) was my sister's birthday, and she turned 23. I guess every year you get older you start to realize what you've done in your life, and what's ahead of you. I'm 19,...shouldn't I start thinking like that when I'm 40?...or is this the right time? Well not much to post. For shitz 'n' giggles I made another account at http://www.idogblog.com/BigGoronSword/ specifically for dog lovers. Every entry or so, I'll enter in a new story of the memories I've shared with my dog...ooo exillerating.

Oh yes, and without further adu, here's (a few) pictures of my appartment.

The kitchen
The Living Room

It may not look much now (all you saw was the kitchen/dinning room and living room), but I'll try to fit in some "After pics" later....if I have the chancel.

-Marco Antonio

"There's a Judas amongst us..."

2005-08-12T12:28:00.001-04:00

Sorry guys, no pics of the appartment just yet (camera still on the fritz). Believe it or not, I've been taken in on the "Reality TV Show" hype that's been happening for the past...what? Half a decade or so? Well for your information the only RTV show I watch is Big Brother...and I've been watching it ever since it came from across the big pond and over here to the states. Well last week my favorite character, Kaysar, was nominated out of the house. One week later, he had a chance of getting back on if the majority of America voted for him. With an astonishing landslide of 82% of the winning vote, Kaysar is back in the house to stir up more trouble.

To anyone that has been following this show as closely as I have, you know that people's word doesn't mean squat in the house. Kaysar, Janelle, James, and Howie are all on a team. However, ever since Kaysar left, it seems as if that alliance slowly deteriorated. James became a double crosser (just trying to save his own hide...but I guess that's what everyone is essentially trying to do) with lieing so many times, and Howie went over to the other side (how Darth Vader/jedi of him....FYI he has announced that he was practicing to become a Jedi Knight. But once he learned that JKs can't have sex, I think that turned things around for him haha).

Now that Kaysar is back in the house, will Howie and James put their tails between their legs and have him control things once more? Or will they stand on their own? It seems to me that Janelle is the only one that has been loyal to him...eventhough she preferred to have Michael to come back to be used as a "Teddy Bear" pretty much.

So tell me, what do you guys and gals think is going to happen now on the show?

-Marco Antonío

"This has been ABC News....goodnight"

2005-08-08T23:46:00.000-04:00

Could everyone please give a momment of silence for an astonishing man that has been with us, broadcasting the news throughout the world for many decades .............................................................................
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Thank you.

Rest in peace, Peter Jennings

"The beaner is in town!"- Myself

2005-08-08T14:40:00.000-04:00

I'd first like to say thanks to my fans (yes that's all...one...two...three..four of you) that have commented. Sorry I haven't posted in a bit, with unpacking and all that jazz, I didn't have time to go online (nor did I have access...but now I do). My camera is on the fritz so I won't be able to give you some pictures, however, I'll still try to send in some pictures sometime by this weekend (I hope..*crosses fingers*). When it comes to my appartment, I'd have to say everything is under order...the only thing we have to work on is the living room. The neighborhood is a nice one, a "family neighborhood" (aka: many screaming children/babies...nearly got a migrane from a birthday party happening next door. I guess this is what they meant by karmah going around...), and a neighbor of mine that lives above my appartment is fiiine! (I hope she doesn't have a boyfriend. Well she hasn't made any noise so I hope that's a good sign). Yeah bean-town is deffinentally different from NH.

In the town I grew up in NH, my family was 50% of the diversity, so that made me 10%...how sad. Here at Boston, there are hundreds, most likely thousands of other Dominicans (just shows you how much I don't know of the city. Oh I know the history and the other cultures...but not an estimate of how many Dominican brothers and sisters...). Don't take this the wrong way white people....but for once I don't feel soo alone, and the only other time I haven't felt that way was when I went back to the D.R. and that one time I visited NYC.

I don't have much time on the comp at the moment, but I'd like to point out these minor things:

Job: Still searching
Girls: Still hunting
School: ...I'll get back to you on that.

-Marco Antonío

"A house is a machine for living in."

2005-08-02T14:24:00.000-04:00

Well I haven't moved into my new appartment just yet, however, the movers took all the stuff away and are probably at the place where my sisters will be unpacking it all day long. And must I say, damn, those movers can...well move quickly. They were done with our stuff in a little over an hour, and there were only two of them!

My house seems quite bare...it makes the rooms larger than what it seemed before, but it also brings back some memories. I'm not much of a sentimental guy when it comes to houses and whatnot, but I do believe the memories I keep are important. Oh don't get me wrong, this isn't my first time moving. I've moved in a total amount of eleven times in two different countries, three states, and five towns/cities. Yeah, I think you can say I'm quite used to moving by now...heck, I've been used to it since I was twelve (sometimes I think I live in a military family, being stationed from place to place, but far from it). The longest I've ever stayed in one house was three years I believe, and the shortest, a month.

To any of my readers out there (HA! Like I have any...but it would be much appreciated) I hope you are wondering about the title of my posts. Well I search online for an appropriate quote that goes along with what I'm going to say. The first one is the imfamous one from Neil Armstrong and this one from some Swiss Architect named Le Corbusier. Every post (at least I hope) will have a quote from somebody (not all of them will be famous...heck I may throw in a quote that I've said before).

If you're all good, I'll possibly throw in some pictures of my appartment...before and after pics, so that may take a bit.

-Marco Antonío

"That's one small step for man..."

2005-07-31T23:30:00.000-04:00

Well here I am. This is my first blog, and hope it will make somewhat of a success, if not, "try try again" as they say. The name is Marco Antonío, but you can just call me Marco, Mark, or in some places on the net people know me as BGS (more about that later). I'm going to be moving from a little town in New Hampshire to a suburb of Boston in the next few days with my two older sisters. Yeah, that's right, my sisters...now stop laughing, I think it's important for family to stick together. I'm not much of a talker (at least I don't think I am), but I'm hoping that making a blog may change that.

-Marco Antonío