I was playing Mario Kart Wii the other day and I was considering all the characters that Nintendo has added to their franchises over the years. While contemplating the characters I was hard pressed to find a more useless character than Waluigi. I mean what value does he add to these games? I would say that some of the Bounty Hunters in line with Boba Fett during Empire Strikes Back are more or at least equally useless but writers have gone on to give them their own adventures, which is more than I can say for Waluigi.
For those of you who don’t know, Waluigi is supposed to be one of the Mario Bros evil ‘cousins”, and a direct rival of Luigi; thus his name. Now his name doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. From my understanding the “wa-” syllable in japanese means bad so he is essentially bad Luigi, but it’s not like his brother’s name is Wamario he’s just Wario, which at least sounds like it could be a name albeit an awful one at that. Also check out his character design, from the moment I laid eyes on him I had a feeling of familiarality. It wasn’t until I got to play with him in Mario Kart Double Dash that I put it together. He is the spitting image of Dick Dastardly. Their hooked features, lanky body types, purple clothing and sinister mustaches are all undeniably similar. Which on one hand is kind of fun because it makes me feel like I’m racing in one of the Hanna-Barbera Wacky Races cartoons that I grew up watching, but talk about a lack of ingenuity.
Unfortunately for Waluigi he has never really been given a chance to win gamers over. When I heard Nintendo was making Super Mario Bros. Wii, which allows 4 players to be on screen at the same time. I assumed that Wario and Waluigi were finally going to be given a chance to have an adventure along side of there more benevolent counterparts. But instead the 3rd and 4th characters are given to two Toad characters, Nintendo claimed that although the Wario and Waluigi were a consideration due to their appearances, they opted against using them because they didn’t think a team up between them all would be believable.
I’m not surprised that Nintendo would continue to shaft Waluigi since they have shafted Luigi so many times before, not featuring the less famous plumber until Gamecube’s Luigi’s Mansion. Poor Waluigi was even left out as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
In your opinion what other characters classify as useless?
In these modern times, it’s tough to stumble upon a game that doesn’t involve some type of aggression. Whether you’re dog fighting against enemy pilots, dealing with a serial killer, fighting off waves of ninjas (more like nonjas…), or slaying the undead – most games deal with a conflict of some sort that can only be decided through battle. It’s not exactly surprising; part of the reason we play video games is to do exactly what we can’t (or wouldn’t) in real life. Who doesn’t fantasize about using their super powers to save the day, or high-level military training to stop the bad guys? Personally, I start to look for variety very quickly. I find myself to be in the mood to play a game, but not necessarily in the mood to kill something. Enter games like Rock Band. Here, we have a game where we get to be a rock star! You’re not killing anything at all. No, no, “slaying the crowd” is just a saying (you big silly)! Also, there exists a plethora of puzzle games with which to curb our violent rage. There is something missing here – all we’ve got is one extreme and a neutral “gray” area. Where’s the other extreme in this mix?
Games that appeal to our peaceful urges often get ignored because of their lack of interesting content. Casual gamers usually get the most out of these games. In the absence of twitch gameplay, we’d explore a bit of our creativity. Some of the best examples are the following:
The Sims – in which you manage and plan out the lives of characters who each have different personality types and life goals. You advance by meeting these goals.
Harvest Moon – where you maintain a farm and sell your crops to advance.
Animal Crossing – where you advance by becoming an active part of a society of an ever-changing and personality driven cast.
My personal favorite peaceful game is Harvest Moon. There’s nothing better than planning out a farm layout, and then watching my crops grow into some serious dough! Plus, it’s a lot of fun raising chickens so I can sell their eggs. What drives you to play a peaceful video game? Share your favorites down below.
Well, it’s that time again. Time for RPG gamers to forget about making any social plans for the next few months, time for the casual gamer to become a little more than casual; it’s time for the release of Final Fantasy XIII. The game is finally being released in the US on Tuesday, March 9th. It has been a while, hasn’t it? Coveted as the most anticipated Final Fantasy to date, this one in particular is going to be very important for the series as a whole. This is the first full installment of a Final Fantasy game in this generation of major consoles. The last (numbered) Final Fantasy was on the PS2. In this absence, many RPGs have come up and really kept us busy. Games like the Mass Effect series, Dragon Age: Origins, Valkyria Chronicles, and even the Mario & Luigi RPGs on the DS have each picked up the slack while FFXIII was being developed.
However, Final Fantasy had been starting to lose its luster by the time FFXII came out. People seemed to become less enthusiastic about the games as the series kept adding installments. Most gamers would consider Final Fantasy X-2 to be the low point of the entire Final Fantasy franchise. While I do know people who enjoy the game; it just doesn’t feel like a Final Fantasy; it feels closer to a Hannah Montana RPG with the pop singing spells. Square Enix brought it back to good by using the world of Final Fantasy Tactics as the setting for FFXII, but there was still something missing. Gamers are looking for the next Final Fantasy VII. We need to be able to stop looking back 12 years for what most consider to be the best Final Fantasy game ever! It’s time for Square Enix to blow away the competition and retake their throne as the best RPG developers around. Do you think Final Fantasy XIII is going to live up to the hype and impress us like Final Fantasy VII did? Better yet, are you ready to let go of the past and embrace what could be the best Final Fantasy to date?
Recently, Mashable did an article which detailed 6 free Android apps that will make you get rid of your iPhone. Check it out, here.
Android is designed by Google is a very smart OS. It supports many cellphones and carriers. The Android OS which is open source (meaning anyone can make a build for it) has many features the iPhone does not have at this time. Since Android apps are Java based, there are already many more developers who will create apps for it over the iPhone (which is written in the less-popular Objective C language). Android utilizes your Google account and will instantly and sync all of your existing data. It allows the user be in control of everything from home screens, minor tweaks, icons and fonts. Some more features that the Android OS supports: multi tasking, multi-touch, and multiple formats of media support. The app approval process itself is pretty laid back; mostly just pornographic apps get denied. That being said, the turn around time to have an app approved to 1 to 2 days. Overall the Android OS is a great and allows a lot of user customization.
The iPhone OS designed by Apple is a simple OS, which only supports AT&T. The iPhone OS is pretty locked down. The user must abide by Apple’s rules and OS features, and can not change certain features. That being said, I can’t imagine anyone complaining about the simplicity here. It’s a pickup and go device. The rate of iPhone developers is growing everyday; more and more people are wrapping their hands around this booming device. For the most part, the device is simple but does not easily open itself up to other features. Currently the iPhone device can only run one (yes I said one) app at a time. That means you cannot play music and be certain apps at the same time. A lot of users are upset about this since the Android does this and the iPhone does not. Being an iPhone developer, I can speak from experience when I say that Apple runs a tight ship when approving an app for the App Store. The process takes 4 to 7 days and is passed to 2 developers before it hits the Store. The registration fee is $100 yearly; compared to Google’s $25 lifetime fee.
Both of these beefy mobile OS’s have their pros and cons, but the mobile community is torn heavily in either direction. I know I’m asking for trouble here, but what’s your take on the subject? Are you an iPhone, an Android..or neither?
Being in its last season Lost is coming to a close and promises to tie up most loose ends that have been the staple of the show. Here are some of the theories that I have about some of the leftover questions that Lost has presented us with.
Lack of Babies
One thing that we learn relatively early in this show is that women who get pregnant on the island die during pregnancy. It seems that if you are pregnant before hand, which is the case with Claire and Rosseau, you are capable of having a baby. However there remains this strange obsession/mysticism about these children that has yet to be explained. One theory that I have involves the four-toed statue that has been destroyed in the current timeline. This statue has been revealed to be of Taweret. In Egyptian history Taweret was known as a deity of protection in pregnancy and childbirth, thus I believe the statue’s destruction marked the beginning of the times where babies could not be produced on the island. (Also, I think that the weird doll/creature in the Claire’s baby crib was a mini-representative of Taweret).
Backgammon
The importance of Backgammon is easy to overlook. However I think it is no coincidence that Backgammon has been brought up at least 4 times over these 6 seasons. Including once in the pilot episode where Locke describes it as “Two players. Two sides. One is light, one is dark”. I had no idea how to even play backgammon but here are some interesting facts.
1. Backgammon is one of the oldest board games between two players known to man.
2. Backgammon is a stakes game, as in it must be played for something.
3. The way you win in Backgammon is to get all your pieces home, and then bear them off until you have no more pieces on the board.
4. There is a rule known as the Jacoby Rule, which comes into play if no one has doubled the stake.
My theory here is that the island is the board on which Backgammon is played, and Jacob and the smoke monster are the players in which they are trying to claim their pieces and then remove them from the island. The pieces are the people who have been “called” to the island.
Why Jacob only appears to Hurley
Some people believe that the fact that Jacob speaks to Hurley when it has been previously stated that only the leader may speak with Jacob, means that Hurley is now the leader. Sound logic, but I believe it is too obvious to be the case. Instead I believe that Jacob appears to Hurley because he’s dead, and Hurley has always been able to speak to dead people which is why he was often seen speaking to Charlie after his death.
Ending
I believe that the reason for showing us the alternate timeline where the bomb successfully stopped the plane from ever crashing on the island is because the writers want us to become accustomed to this reality. Had they ended the show with everyone landing safely in LA with all of the relationships that we witnessed being built lost, we would be left with an empty feeling inside. Questions would have been asked: wouldn’t Kate have been happier if she ended up with Jack? Will Sawyer remain a con-man? People have grown and changed from their experiences on the island and it would be a shame to throw all of that out of the window. Perhaps, in the end a character like Jack will have to choose for everyone which reality they want, or perhaps they still need to make the alternate reality happen but they’re starting to show it to us now because of its potential. I think the former is more likely though I’m not really sure if I’m happy with either. I’m sure that the answers are coming but will they be ones that all of the fans will be happy with, only time will tell.
One question I have been wondering lately is whether or not this show will be fun to watch once everything is understood? I am sure that they will leave some things open for discussion so that way the can cause discussions forever, but finding the right balance of that can be tricky. What are your theories about where the writers are going with Lost?
It seems that two of the most popular superheroes are getting something of a fresh start in their next cinematic outings. Both Spider-Man and Superman are officially getting new movies. However, neither movie will be directly related to their previous installments.
It has been recently announced that Spider-Man’s next movie will be a reboot, bringing Peter Parker back to his high school days – a retelling of his origin story. This isn’t exactly surprising given the scorn that Spider-Man 3 received. Many people (yours truly included) felt that the storyline was over-saturated. Comparing to the feel of Spider-Man 1 and 2, Spider-Man 3’s villains didn’t hold the same ’super villain-ey’ intrigue. The Green Goblin and Doc Ock just felt more threatening on their own. Also, I don’t recall the black suit making Peter Parker prance through the streets like a Backstreet Boy in the comics.
The new Superman movie is going to be made with Chris Nolan (insert schoolgirl squealing here) overlooking the process. It also will not be an origin story; we’re getting a straight up Superman flick, featuring Brainiac and Lex Luthor as our public enemies. Superman Returns was something of an epilogue to Christoper Reeve’s interpretation of the DC icon. The casting was based more around the looks of today’s actors to be similar to those who had parts in the previous Superman movies. That being said, I think Kevin Spacey did a great job as Lex Luthor. Actors aside, this sequel was also part origin story. It’s subtle, but it’s there; the flashback Clark has while hanging out at his home in Smallville is your clearest evidence.
Is it a huge cop-out that these stories are getting reboots so soon? Did the old storylines really deserve to get ditched on the curb?
4chan founder Christopher Poole made an extremely rare public appearance at this years’ TED (technology, entertainment, design) expo. Some background: 4chan is a website where users can post anything they want anonymously. Content posted ranges from pornography to Rick Rolling. It is the birthplace of many internet jokes and gags. If you’re online more than the average person, you know about 4chan.
Until recently, Poole went by nothing more than his alias, ‘moot’. Taking into consideration the fact that he created a website based on anonymous posting, it isn’t at all surprising that it took him 7 years to decide he should make his true identity as founder of 4chan publicly known. In an interview with CNN, Poole went on to discuss how most people’s online presence is now no different than their real life identity. Everyone shares a wealth of information on multiple social networking websites these days, leaving many intimate details out in the open. While this is not new, it is more widespread than ever. Chris Poole refers to it as a “persistent user identity.”
Poole’s biggest concern? Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) has recently stated that user privacy is becoming less of a priority moving forward. Imagine Facebook being programmed to exploit even more of your information. Granted, this information would have to be provided by the user in the first place; but I know more people who post everything on Facebook than people who keep most of it (if not all) under wraps. Moot went on to state that the idea of being anonymous is dying off on the internet. I always considered anonymity to be a staple that the internet should never forfeit, but it looks like we aren’t going to have much say in how things go. Do you think this is the direction the web should go in? Is a more public internet a good idea?
Time travel is used in many of our favorite stories. Classics such as Back To The Future, leading right up to modern hits such as the new Star Trek movie all include time travel as huge parts of the story. With this, temporal displacement is not far from the comic book realm either. Everyone from Bishop to the Time Trapper have jumped backwards and forwards through history.
**Minor spoilers ahead if you haven’t read Marvel’s “Captain America: Reborn” arc. The Batman stuff is still in the works, not released.**
The concern here is not time travel, but how it is being used in some recent and huge story arcs in both Marvel and DC’s universes. Batman and Captain America (Steve Rogers, duh) have met their demise. These heroes finally met their matches in their own respective ways, and their allies had no choice but to watch in horror as it all happened. Captain America’s death even made page 1 of New York newspapers (yes, real ones) – it caused quite a buzz. Batman’s death sparked a new story arc that helped decide who’d wear his cowl moving forward. I’d be foolish to let myself believe that these guys would stay dead forever; they make too much money for their respective owners. However, I do expect some kind of creativity for their revival. Not one, but both of these characters’ revival involves some weird inconsistency with time travel. As if there was a glitch in the time stream? I don’t want to think about it too much, it gives me a headache. Did Marvel and DC jump the shark here? How do you feel about how Marvel and DC’s heavy-hitters have been revived?
I finally played the demo for the highly anticipated Interactive Drama game Heavy Rain. What separates Heavy Rain from other video games is that you’re not stuck doing the same thing that everyone has to do in order to advance the story. Therefore every gamer’s playthrough may tell a different story. Having the player deal with the consequences of their decisions results in a greater sense of pathos and responsibility between the characters and the player. To put this in perspective, imagine playing Final Fantasy VII and Aeris’s death wasn’t fully scripted, instead her death was the result of the conversations and actions that you decided on when you didn’t think they were important. How much more would you feel the anguish that went along with her death when you realize that it was a direct result of your choices?
The first thing that struck me about this game was the control scheme. It seems like Quantic Dream did everything they could to take you out of your comfort zone with these controls. How different are these controls? You have to press down “R2″ to walk forward. The last time I had such anxiety over a game’s movement control was when I first played Resident Evil. In both cases I believe the change in this basic mechanic has not only to do with the fact that both games employ stationary cameras with different angles, creating the scenario where walking off-screen to the right doesn’t always mean that you’ll start on the left when the camera changes, but also the effect it has on the user. Anyway, my point is that by straying from the classic controls of similar games, you increase the weight of the the decisions of the user on the most basic of levels.
I plan on enjoying this adult modern point-and-click adventure (without having any pointing or clicking), and look forward to watching others play this game as well. The desire to be a spectator to your friends’ initial decisions seems almost as exciting as making the decisions yourself. As long as the story and branching are as great as promised I believe that this game, will be quite a conversation piece. As gamers grow up and start developing games themselves they often add elements that they believe were missing in the industry. Do you believe that the industry has a place for more games where this choose your own adventure approach is employed?
Prequels are everywhere these days. For example, the Star Wars prequels, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Hobbit movie, Halo Reach… it just seems that every good story is being told from before the beginning more often. One prequel that I am excited for in 2010 is “Year of the Black Rainbow” by Coheed and Cambria. As many as may or may not know, Coheed and Cambria’s albums are each part of a science fiction story; a type of concept album which has caught the attention of sci-fi fans and rock listeners alike. “The Year of the Black Rainbow” is their prequel to this epic story.
The newest single released on February 2, 2010 titled “The Broken”. Give it a listen below!
Do you think this prequel will befall the fate of so many sci-fi prequels before it? Does the fact that this story is represented through music change the stereotype that prequels don’t usually rock (pun intended)?
